Yu-Gi-Oh Crosses New Sales Milestone After Creator's Death
The original series creator behind Yu-Gi-Oh unfortunately passed away recently, and as a result the sales of the manga have reached a major new milestone. It was announced a few days ago that series creator Kazuki Takahashi had passed away at the age of 60 after being found off the shore of Okinawa, and fans all over have been paying their respects to the creator and the franchise he had birthed. Not only did his original manga series find its own success with anime, video game, and even trading card game adaptations, but inspired several major sequels and spin-offs that continue to dominate to this day.
Just celebrating its 25th Anniversary of the original launch with Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine last year, Yu-Gi-Oh's manga is one of the biggest successes to ever come from the publisher to date. This was true before Takahashi's passing, and after a report from @MangaMoguraRE on Twitter has listed the sales of the manga's franchise with 40 million copies (including digital) across the manga's original 38 volume series. It's clear that the creator had a huge impact on fans to this day, and will continue to do so from now on.
Viz Media (the English publisher behind Shueisha's Shonen Jump magazine offerings) released the following statement on Takahashi's passing, "It has been our privilege to be Kazuki Takahashi Sensei's publisher for 20 years. We and his many fans are deeply saddened by the news and will miss his indomitable spirit, energy, and commitment to storytelling. His Yu-Gi-Oh! legacy and impact will forever endure." Yu-Gi-Oh's trajectory is completely wild in retrospect too considering how dark of a premise it had began with.
While this original version of the series did get its own anime adaptation, Yu-Gi-Oh became an entirely different series (with a worldwide level of recognition) when Takahashi steered more into the card game aspect of it all and formed the rest of the series around it. It's from that point on that the series sparked the massive franchise it is today, and will likely continue to inspire future generations of the anime, card games, and more as the years continue.
How do you feel about Yu-Gi-Oh's manga and anime over the years? What has been your favorite version of the series so far? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!