Hilariously Strange 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Cosplay Hoodie Goes Viral

Yu-Gi-Oh! is still one of the most popular franchises today despite beginning over 20 years ago, [...]

By Nick Valdez

Yu-Gi-Oh! is still one of the most popular franchises today despite beginning over 20 years ago, and much of its popularity has been fueled by the merchandise spawned from the various iterations of the anime and manga series. But sometimes that merchandise goes a stranger route than fans would ever suspect, and one particular bit of merchandise has gotten tons of attention for all the wrong reasons.

Cosplay hoodies are a fun way for fans to celebrate their favorite series' characters, but one has gone too far in its representation of Yu-Gi-Oh's Marik Ishtar and accidentally created an anomaly. Check it out below.

As spotted by Dawn M. Bennett, who you can currently hear as the voice of Kale in Dragon Ball Super, this strange cosplay hoodie of Marik Ishtar is a bit...off. Not only is there a huge hole where Marik's face should be, but the odd skin tone of its hood completely strips him bald. What makes matters even stranger is the fact that Marik already wears a crop top hooded sweater in the series. But rather than mimic that, it mimics his entire image.

So there ends up being a photo of a hoodie pasted onto a hoodie, and it even has two "hoods." It's a deeply disturbing, yet enticing bit of merchandise. Thankfully, this hooded sweatshirt is an unlicensed bit of merchandise for the franchise. So this is not an official take on what a Marik Ishtar cosplay hoodie would look like, but given that it's the one we have now? Maybe an official release should not be in the cards.

Yu-Gi-Oh! was originally created by Kazuki Takahashi for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and ran from September 1996 to March 2004. The series follows Yugi Mutou, a young boy who solves an ancient puzzle and is possessed by the spirit of the Egyptian pharoah. Being skilled at deadly games, the Pharoah goes on to create and solve problems for Yugi based on deadly games of chance.

Two anime adaptations were created for the series, but the one most fans will recognize is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Duel Monsters was the first arc in the story to focus on the "Duel Monsters" card game and was the first season licensed for an English language release by 4Kids Entertainment. The first season of the series, which fans often dub as "Season 0," has such deadly games of chance with horrible consequences that fans could not believe it was a part of this series at first.

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