Magic & Wizards 29th Anniversary

I tried to make the template for these as close to the original in-manga Japanese cards as possible in terms of layout. (The card faces from Viz's translation were slightly changed to resemble the official cards).

(Decks pictured above: left, Yugi's original deck from "The Cards with Teeth" parts 1 and 2; right, Yugi's Grandpa's deck from the "Death-T" arc.)

All card names were re-translated to be as accurate to the original names as I could make them.

Similarly, the card text is altered to make it so that they actually reflect how the cards were used in duels, as the original text was sometimes not really reflective of how the cards worked, and some cards had no text at all.

(Decks pictured above: the"Duelist Kingdom" arc deck; the "Battle City" arc deck; and the two decks from the final duel, combined into one image for formatting purposes).

While there were a few obscure cards that were impossible to replicate, I'm proud of the work I was able to do with these.

It took me two years to make these cards, and I had a lot of help along the way. The biggest contributors were Alaz, Meow, and Icycatelf. Other contributors and referenced resource creators include Bustedsides, Shadow Force, Bog, and the Yugipedia admin team- Deltaneos, Cheesedude, and so many others.

And, of course, the art and original look and text of the cards is all from the mind/hands of Kazuki Takahashi. I consider this project to be a tribute to him and a mark of the influence his works left on the world.

By the way, I've taken more shots than what you see here. So if you have a favorite card that Yugi used in the manga that you want to see, let me know and I'll post a pic of it on this blog!

As I did for a few other cards, I admit I localized this card's name in a slightly unusual way.

Its name in English in the Konami game and in the manga is "Gold Sarcophagus". I'm not sure if it was Konami's translators who decided on that or Ms. Anita Sengupta, who did the translation for Viz's translation of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World", but for the context of the story I find their version of the name brilliant. To draw a point of comparison between this card's illustration and the Millennium Puzzle's box, to call that box a 'sarcophagus', to have it be the means by which the Pharaoh's soul returns to the afterlife...simply incredible. Bravo.

But I have a different aim. In my project, I had several goals. My card names and text needed to be accurate; their effects should reflect their usage, so that they could, in theory, be treated as usable game pieces; and they should do all of this as something that could plausibly exist 'in-universe' in the Yu-Gi-Oh! story.

That last goal influenced how I dealt with this card's name. "Gold Sarcophagus" makes the most sense as a story element, because out-of-universe the 'sarcophagus' part reflects an aspect of the story. But in-universe, there is no reason this would be a sarcophagus; that connection only exists for the sake of the manga's reader.

So I looked at the Japanese name, 「封印の黄金櫃」. 黄金 is 'gold', very straightforward. 櫃 is 'chest', as in the storage container. You could leave this as it is and have the name be accurate enough. But you have to take the visual context of the card's illustration into account here.

See, the chest in the illustration is a cross between the Millennium Puzzle's box and the design of the Ark of the Covenant specifically as it's seen in the George Lucas/Steven Spielburg 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now, in some languages there's a separate word specifically for 'ark'. But in a lot of other languages, the word for 'chest' gets substituted for 'ark'. As far as I can tell, Japanese is one of the languages that doesn't have a specific word for 'ark' in this sense, so a substitute word like 櫃 or phrase like 聖櫃 is used. Therefore, I believe it is valid in this context to interpret 櫃 as 'ark'. (Especially given that Takahashi is a noted fan of the Indiana Jones series- the Pharaoh's Memories arc even begins with a chapter that's an extended homage to it!)

封印, as always, gave me trouble. It's clear that this is in the sense of 'something that's sealed away'. Basically, the idea behind this is that you can seal things away in the depicted gold ark using this card. But what's the best way to fit that into a sensible and compact card title? I couldn't find a worthwhile version of this that was closer to the original phrasing, so I considered: what other ways are there to say that something is locked away or separated? I came up with a few ideas, but of them 'isolate' seemed to fit best. Hence, my finished name of this card is "Gold Ark of Isolation", different from the "Gold Chest of Sealing" solution seen on many fan sites.

I did end up giving this card a revision, as the second image near the top of this post indicates. When I created my first version of this card, I wasn't quite sure where Yugi was pulling his copy of "Resurrection of the Dead" from to use as part of this card's effect, so I covered my bases by considering every possible location it could have been pulled from. On later re-reads, I scrutinized the last few chapters again and finally discerned that he was, in fact, pulling it from his field. So functionally speaking I'm left to assume the card you 'seal away' in the ark must be taken from your side of the field.

I also rendered the 'isolating a card' part of this as a 'put aside the field'-style effect. It's originally unclear what you're supposed to do with the card you 'put away' (since in the manga, everything is handled by hologram graphics), so I decided that the best equivalent was putting the card aside, where it could still be referenced and theoretically affected. A Gandora-style 'remove-from-game' effect is too permanent to be suitable, and anything else wouldn't give the effect its proper degree-of-separation. (Note that here, the implication of being 'put aside face-down' is separate from what it would be in Konami's game- face-down cards are considered to be fully property-less in theirs, but in my interpretation of the Magic & Wizards ruleset it seems that face-down put-aside cards can still have their properties be referenced, in the same was you can search a deck for a card of a specific name or type/attribute.)

Otherwise, since this card's text mentioned 'magical effects' I updated it so that it now says the same thing other 'magical effect' cards in my project say, instead of the overly-broad 'card effects' I used before out of an abundance of caution.

Lastly: we never see this card's face in color in the manga, but we do see its on-field hologram form:

Excerpt from a color page from chapter 343, "Game King (Yugi-Oh)". Scan taken from the December 2007 issue of the English edition of Shonen Jump, #12. Originally seen in Weekly Shonen Jump, #15, released in Japan on 8 March 2004.

The 2016 color bunkobon illustration's colors are a very close match for the ones seen in the chapter's original release. For their part, Konami stuck pretty close to this depiction too.

This might seem counterintuitive, but we will once again start our journey with an image linked to the manga.

I said in my first post that the colorscheme you see there was the first palette that the card face had, which is indisputably true. But did you know that "Black Magician" was actually seen in color before then, and that this set of colors predates even Toei's animated adaption?

Excerpt from page 28 of "Weekly Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary of the Magazine's First Issue Exhibit, Vol. 2: 1990s, an Incredible 6.53 Million Copies In Circulation!". Given out at an exhibit held at the Mori Arts Center Gallery from 19 March 2018 to 17 June 2018. Image was originally the color title page for chapter 71, "Terror of the Sea", released in Weekly Shonen Jump, #14, on 2 March 1998.

That's right! This color page predates every other color appearance of "Black Magician". And here, he's green. Or...is he?

This same image showed up in several other books in the late '90s/early '00s time period, and checking the exhibit's showing against these sources reveals a startling difference.

Excerpt from the title page of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master Book", released 21 December 1998.

Excerpt from the title page of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master Book Volume 2", released January 1999.

Excerpt from a cover of the V-Jump, #4, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters/Final Fantasy VIII Dual Guides Supplementary Appendix, released April 1999.

Excerpt from page 101 of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 4", released on 25 January 2002.

To my eyes these images have a good deal more blue in them than the exhibit scan would suggest. Seems these blue/green issues plague our favorite Magician no matter what colors he wears, sadly.

Having only learned about the exhibit this year, I'm afraid it's not possible for me to check out the original art board for myself. But I can give you links to reports from Tokyo Otaku Mode and Road of the King, two sites that covered the event. Both feature (small) images of this color page, and...they still feature a Magician with a look that might be either green or blue. Alas.

Truth is, though, I'm not entirely sure the monster colorschemes in this image are meant to be seen as canon (save for "Summon Demon"'s, of course). It's pretty common for Shonen Jump authors to experiment with colorschemes or just change their minds about things, especially early on in a series's run.

Takahashi briefly indicates his view on "Black Magician"'s early colorscheme in a short passage at the back of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Art":

Scan from "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Art", courtesy of @pharaoh-doll. The image is free to use and cropped here for presentation.

Nevertheless, it does seem like this green(-ish) coloring might have had an influence on future depictions. Let's take a quick little jaunt through the Door to Darkness and see what Toei got up to in April of 1998.

Still frame from Yu-Gi-Oh!, the 1998 animated series produced by Toei Animation. This is from episode 1, "A Violent Battle- the Dark Game". Originally aired 4 April 1998 on All-Nippon News Network's TV Asashi. Directed by Hiroyuki Kakudo. Taken from a video uploaded to Youtube on the channel Magic and Wizards.

Behold, "Black Magician"'s first animated appearance. These colors are, well, a little hard to make out, but the following frames make it a little more clear.

Still frame from Yu-Gi-Oh!, the 1998 animated series produced by Toei Animation. This is from episode 1, "A Violent Battle- the Dark Game". Originally aired 4 April 1998 on All-Nippon News Network's TV Asashi. Directed by Hiroyuki Kakudo. Taken from a video uploaded to Youtube on the channel Magic and Wizards.

So the trim here is green- a color that might be the main focus of the 2 March 1998 color page- and the robe/armor itself is basically purple/blue.

But hold on a second.

Still frame from Yu-Gi-Oh!, the 1998 animated series produced by Toei Animation. This is from episode 3, "Clash! The Strongest Monster". Originally aired 18 April 1998 on All-Nippon News Network's TV Asashi. Directed by Yoshikata Nitta. Taken from a video uploaded to Youtube on the channel Magic and Wizards.

Seems this card is not 「ブラック・マジシャン」 or "Black Magician", but instead 「ダーク・ウィザード」, or "Dark Wizard"! Isn't that strange.

In this, the only significant focus, ahem, "Dark Wizard" gets during Toei's main animated series, this card has many differences from its manga counterpart. Aside from the name, its attack power is presumably 2000, its defense power is presumably 1800, and it has 7 level stars.

(Toei fan continuity fiends will mention that, in-universe, this is technically not Yugi's copy of the card, and thus his could be different. But I think it's pretty clear that this is a slip-up of some kind on behalf of the showrunners.)

Now, Toei corrects all of this when "Black Magician" appears in the 1999 short film Yu-Gi-Oh!. There, "Black Magician"'s card face isn't shown, but it at least is called by its true name and appears to have its proper 2500 attack.

But one aspect of this card persists.

Bandai was Toei's main merchandising partner in crime back in the late 20th century. A list of all the unique product lines that they pioneered would be enormous. But I think the most relevant one here is their Carddass card vending machine series, which revolutionized the way trading cards were distributed in Japan in the late '80s through the '90s.

Given that Bandai was already associated with Toei, it's no wonder they got first dibs on the rights for Yu-Gi-Oh!-related cards- distributed through their insanely popular Carddass machines, no less!

And this was their first attempt at making a "Black Magician" card.

"Black Magician", card face from Bandai's Carddass Yu-Gi-Oh! First Generation, distributed via Carddass vending machines starting from September 1998 in Japan. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see it in its original context.

So this card calls it "Black Magician", and it does have 2500 attack power. But it only has 2000 defense, and it has 7 level stars.

I can only assume that was intentional, because from this point forward every card featuring "Black Magician" will have 7 level stars from here on out.

Other than that, this card is a decent replica of what Toei depicted on their show. The purple robe coloring is even more obvious. About the only difference is that the Magician's staff is blue with yellow trim rather than black or brown with yellow trim.

To be frank, between late 1998 and early 1999 Bandai effectively flooded the market with Yu-Gi-Oh! merchandise. They slapped their art (or Toei's art) on Carddass Sealdass cards (big card-shaped stickers distributed via Carddass machines), packaged cards with chewing gum, and even released their own version of the manga's Capsule Monsters, distributed via regular Bandai gashapon machines. (A company even made Toei-themed western-style playing cards using their art. "Black Magician" was featured on the King of Spades card!) Allegedly, none of it did well even though the manga itself was extremely popular.

While Bandai was busy falling flat on its face, Konami was already working hard to undermine their role in the market. You see, before Bandai had released any cards, Konami beat them to the punch by adding special manga-like cards to their game Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule Breed and Battle way back on 23 July 1998. Though the deal between Shuheisa and Bandai for cards was already in place, Konami undercut them and released their own cards into the market two months before Bandai did, under the pretense that these were effectively 'game accessories' and thus not direct competition with Bandai's share of the market.

So when they released a game specifically based on the manga's Magic & Wizards card game, Konami already had a set of physical manga-esque cards to go with it.

"Black Magician", one of ten possible cards that might come in the box with Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters for Game Boy, released in Japan on 16 December 1998. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see it in its original context.

This is the art most are familiar with! I consider it a variant of the one Toei/Bandai used. The colors from their take are switched around; now, the trim is a lighter purple. Instead of being blue, black or brown, the staff is completely green, even the gem (which was typically red before). The magic circle in the background takes clear inspiration from Toei's take, and has nothing to do with the manga's red coloring. It also keeps the 7 level stars from Toei's version.

About the only new aspects here are that the Magician now has a more naturalistic skin tone, and a decidedly less naturalistic hair color.

And so, when Konami stepped in to capture the squandered market based on an actually functional Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, they simply threw their already-existing Toei-like art onto the new card face they produced.

"Black Magician", from "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Official Card Game Vol. 1". Released in Japan on 4 February 1999. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see it in its original context.

This is the start of "Dark Magician" as you've likely come to expect him.

The cards were absolutely popular all by themselves, but a new series seemed in order now that Toei was out of the picture. Shuheisa and Konami found willing partners in Nihon Ad Systems and Studio Gallop, and so on 18 April 2000 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was born. It prominently featured Konami's take on "Black Magician", and this series eventually cemented their design as its default for millions of fans the world over.

Knowing what I know now, it's a little bittersweet, I think. Without Konami's cards and series, Yu-Gi-Oh! wouldn't be half as well-known as it is now. Truly, it wouldn't be the titan it is today without them.

And yet, I feel as if they've sort of displaced the original story a little. To so many, Konami's version is Yu-Gi-Oh!, full stop. Most out there look at the manga as this strange curiosity, something that's not the real Yu-Gi-Oh!, to the point such a person might theoretically take a casual look at the image at the top of this post and say, "wow, why would someone put a weird-looking bootleg proxy of Dark Magician next to the actual card like that?" I look at the general fan response to Konami's newest 'manga-style' cards, and I can't help but shake my head.

I think the manga is worth appreciating on its own merits. Not just the cards my project is focused on; the work as a whole. In fact, I think the Yu-Gi-Oh! series has a lot of facets that go underappreciated by most.

If just one of my posts has caused you to go look at Kazuki Takahashi's original manga, or the Toei series, or even one of the many spinoffs, with new eyes and enjoy it again, maybe take something out of it you never noticed before...then that's all I could have hoped for. You can get a lot out of a few simple stories, a few silly little cards.

Let's start with the very first time this colorscheme appeared.

Image from the back cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 20. Originally appeared as the title color page for chapter 148, "The Card as Fierce as a God", in Weekly Shonen Jump, #47, released 18 October 1999.

Here we see "Black Magician" debut its new colorscheme. So far, so good. Note that its skin here is distinctly a light shade of blue. I've taken a detail photo from a different, high-quality source to verify this.

Detail from page 115 of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 4", originally released in Japan on 25 January 2002.

This isn't manga art, but I'm putting it here as a reference for the next few images:

A card illustration for "Black Magician". First released in EX Starter Box on 16 December 1999. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see original context.

Notice that, unlike the manga, the robes/armor are definitely purple; the skin is green-ish; and the staff is also green, as it is in Konami's original art. Only the red trim is retained from the manga.

Unfortunately, I don't have a personal scan of this full two-page spread, so I'll borrow Yugipedia's version first:

Color title page, as a two-page spread, for chapter 170, "Closer to God!!", originally seen in Weekly Shonen Jump, #19, released 10 April 2000. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see original context.

Since I have this issue, here's a detail shot from my copy.

Excerpt from my copy of Weekly Shonen Jump, #19, released 10 April 2000.

You'll notice that the colors here are really weird. "Black Magician"'s robes/armor look very purple, though from color picking I can determine that they're just about this side of actually being blue.

More to the point: the skin color here looks extremely green, as in Konami's art! Doing some color picking, it looks more like the tone is a sort of aqua or light turquoise, with a few parts being closer to cyan.

Was this the intended color for this art? I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, I haven't found another high-quality source for this art in its original colors. The color art page immediately before this is seen again, though, so let's compare that.

Here's that art as it appears in Weekly Shonen Jump #19:

You'll notice the sky here is very green.

Now here's that same panel as it appears in "The Valuable Book 4":

The sky is much bluer now!

Based on this, I can only surmise that Takahashi's original source art was given a sort of yellow-ish/green-ish tinge while it was processed to appear in the magazine, and that this tinge was corrected when that image appeared in "The Valuable Book 4".

That's the only thing that makes sense to me, at least. Consider this art here, originally published on 20 April 2000:

Illustration from page 67 of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 4", originally released in Japan on 25 January 2002. Originally, this was the cover illustration for "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 2", originally released in Japan on 20 April 2000.

These colors match the original 18 October 1999 color page better, don't they?

This book also featured another illustration that depicted "Black Magician"'s new colorscheme:

Illustration from page 55 of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 4", originally released in Japan on 25 January 2002. Originally, this was an illustration inside "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 2", originally released in Japan on 20 April 2000.

A tougher case; lots of this is a little closer to green, but many parts of it pick as blue as well. Bizarre, since this and the previous image debuted in the same book! (On a side note, when I first say this image, I was pretty confused: the image seems to depict a scene from Duelist Kingdom, but "Black Magician" uses his Battle City colors, and "Dark Knight Gaia" uses his Konami colors, which were never seen in the manga proper! I'm still not 100% sure whether this is indicative of possible canon Duelist Kingdom-era monster colors, given its release date and provenance.)

Check out this, from about a week later:

Detail from the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 11. Originally seen on the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" volume 18, released in Japan on 28 April 2000. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see original context.

The above is also more consistent with the 18 October 1999 color page. As is the next volume cover:

(Please try your hardest to look past the Dark Yugi taking up all of the foreground.) Detail from the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 12. Originally seen on the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" volume 19, released in Japan on 4 July 2000. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see original context.

One more image from the very end of 2000 to check out here.

Image from the back cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 16. Originally seen as the color title page for chapter 200, "The Courage to See", released in Weekly Shonen Jump, #1, on 4 December 2000.

So by all accounts, the April 2000 color page is a fluke. The in-manga "Black Magician" has bluish-colored skin in most appearances. At best, you might say that, from an art materials perspective, Takahashi sometimes shades it with green.

But to this day, in Konami's game a good portion of illustrations new and old depict it with distinctly green-ish tinged skin.

Ultimately, it seems that Takahashi was fine with the greener tone. He must have signed off on all of the various Konami illustrations featuring it, after all. But as far as his own depictions go, "Black Magician" has a bluish tone. And this seemed to be true for him up until possibly 2008. (But I'll get into that in the next post.)

Just to be thorough, let's also check out what Mahad, the original ancient Egyptian High Priest/spirit predecessor of the "Black Magician" card, looks like on the cover of the volume 35 tankobon:

Detail from the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World", volume 4. Originally seen on the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" volume 35, released in Japan on 4 September 2003. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see original context.

Now this one's pretty ambiguous when you take both covers into account. But as far as I can tell, they're both slightly different shades of blue.

So it's settled. In the manga, the Battle City-era "Black Magician" colorscheme had bluish skin, just like you see on my card at the top of this post, and just like you see in the 2016 color bunkobon release during the Death-T arc.

But that's not all, folks! There are other colorschemes to cover here. Come back tomorrow as I document the possible origins of the "Black Magician" card's last major colorscheme, and account for a few other odds and ends as well. It's gonna be one wild journey, going into the Toei/Bandai/Konami illustration situation, Takahashi's later depictions of Dark Yugi's iconic monster, and possibly more! Don't miss it!

Before I start: it's important to know that all of the basic details about this card are tied to its first appearance in chapter 38. As I said, originally Takahashi didn't have any big plans for this card. So he shaped it to perfectly fit its role in that exact story.

Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't make some interesting choices along the way! So let's begin with the card's name.

I. The name, "Black Magician"

In Japan, this card's name is 「ブラック・マジシャン」. This is, as you can figure, a fairly close rendition of the English words 'black magician'.

Now, historically, a 'black magician' was thought of as a magician who practiced black magic.

The 'magician' part is fairly straightforward. Magic-users of all sorts have been a staple of fiction for perhaps thousands of years. Doubtless everyone reading this is familiar with the likes of mages, wizards, sorcerers, witches, and so on.

I've tried my best to come to an understanding of black magic from a historical perspective, but all my research has left me, well, befuddled more than anything else. There is quite a bit of nuance and disagreement on what the specific practices of black magic entails.

My understanding is that, in western societies (largely European ones, taking slight influence from West Asia and/or Africa; Mesopotamian roots are at play here as well), black magic was popularly regarded as supernatural acts brought about by the power of demons (or other supernatural beings) to achieve selfish, often harmful acts.

As I said, though, there's no exact definition here. Historically, many famous occultists and practitioners of magic through the ages- let's again take the likes of Alestair Crowley and A.E. Waite into account, though there were many others- sought to create a dividing line on what was and was not black magic, to differentiate it from their own particular practices.

Nevertheless, the idea of 'black magic is evil magic' persists in the minds of many older folks to this day.

I think the more relevant factor here, though, is magic as it's understood in popular fantasy tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. See also early attempts to make digital versions of tabletop RPGs, like Wizardry and Ultima- two series that were very popular in Japan back in the '80s.

Black magic in and of itself doesn't factor into these games. But the idea of powerful wizards and magicians who can effortlessly perform incredible feats of magic power was very much influenced by games like these; they likely shaped the idea of what such fictional characters could do.

Sticking with this video game track, let me show you two Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System games that mentioned a 'black magician' specifically by that name.

In the game Kung-Fu Master for the NES (originally an arcade game), there's a late-game boss called the 'Black Magician'. See it here on page 5 of that game's instruction manual.

In Japan, that game was called Spartan X; the boss mentioned above is seen on page 5 of that game's instruction manual, though here he's called 妖術使い, which doesn't seem to have as strong an association with black magic as his English name implies.

(Incidentally, Spartan X/Kung-Fu Master is a loose adaption of the action-comedy martial arts film called Wheels on Meals in English (its original title in Hong Kong was 快餐車). The original film contains no equivalent character to the Black Magician present in its video game adaptions.)

Next, let's look at the original Final Fantasy for the Famicom/NES.

Take a look at page 35 of the English instruction manual. Here, you can see that the player has the option to make one of their four playable characters a Black Mage, called a 'Bl. Mage' in-game thanks to technological limitations of the era. The description here, which states that "This character is skilled with Black Magic -- very powerful spells used to attack the enemy", is perhaps the closest yet to the "Black Magician" that is the subject of this post.

Indeed, on page 8 of the Japanese version's instruction manual, this character is called a 黒魔術師, which is a match to the name 'Black Magician'. The description of it, though, isn't quite as direct a match as the one above.

Now, black magic is also mentioned in at least some other NES games of the era (take a look at the English manual for the original Super Mario Bros., which mentions that the Koopa tribe uses black magic right on page 2!), but my point is this: despite the negative associations present in older generations in the west, the younger game-playing audience, both in Japan and across the world, was more familiar with 'black magicians' as merely strong magic-users who can be either allies or enemies.

Takahashi was himself a big fan of role-playing games of all kinds, and was known to play video games (he even worked in the field for a short while before he became a manga author/artist), so he would have been aware of this on a sort of general level.

But the biggest influence of them all is likely this right here.

Page 16 of the rulebook for Magic: the Gathering Revised Edition. Originally released 11 April 1994. The contents of this rulebook are an update of the rulebook seen with Magic: the Gathering's first release, Limited Edition, on 5 August 1993.

It's Magic: the Gathering, of course. Now, Magic was only officially released in Japan starting in 1995, but English-language cards had made their way into the country even in 1994, via specialty import shops. Takahashi may have seen cards in English (or other foreign-to-him languages) before they were released in Japan.

Moreover, Japanese versions of this rulebook (and its next revision) were available starting with the official 1995 release of the game. It's possible Takahashi had a copy of that rulebook, or even the English version, and liked the phrase when he saw it there.

And so, when he needed a name for a strong-sounding card for his main character to use, one that covered a dark wizard archetype to complement the previous demon and dark knight archetypes he'd used, he turned to the phrase ブラック・マジシャン for that card's name. And it all took off from there.

Now, Konami international called their version the "Dark Magician". No official rationale has been given, but players across the world often theorize that the name was changed for the U.S. release because the word 'black' in the name could be taken as a slight against Black Americans, which is certainly possible.

Personally, I think the change was done more to avoid the terms 'black magic' and 'black magician', which would have sounded alarming to older folks that were still prone to the influence of the 'Satanic Panic' scares that were still in vogue at the time of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s international launch (many U.S. fans of the Pokémon or Harry Potter series in the late '90s can attest to this, I'm afraid).

"Dark Magican" was also probably a more trademark-able name than "Black Magician" owing to its uniqueness back then.

It's hard to imagine now, in a time where the phrase 'dark magic' has largely superceded 'black magic', but the phrases 'dark magic' and by extension 'dark magician' simply weren't as widespread as their older counterparts back in the late '90s and early '00s. So it was much safer for Konami and 4Kids international to call their hero's card "Dark Magician" even though the terms were very similar, in the same way that they called Demon-types Fiend-types; there really isn't much difference between the two, but one would cause a cultural panic and the other, for some reason, wouldn't.

Despite all of that, some instances of "Black Magician" did slip through the cracks back in the day regardless! Check out page 7 and page 26 of the instruction manual for the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. Page 28 of the English instruction manual for Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories also refers to "Dark Magician" as "B. Magician", too.

Now, the games themselves still refer to it as "Dark Magician" (or "D. Magician" in the case of the latter, due to technical limitations), but it's funny to think that some fans were still exposed to the original name in spite of everything.

Still, the archetypal significance of the character shines through in either form of its name. After all, the game is called Magic & Wizards; it makes sense that a magic-using wizard, of sorts, would play into it somehow, doesn't it?

II. 6 Level Stars

This one's pretty simple in comparison to "Black Magician"'s name.

In chapters 9 and 10, "The Cards with Teeth", "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"'s 8 level stars are established as the highest-possible amount of stars a card can have. This means that it's the rarest and strongest card. Thus, all other cards fall somewhere below that in rarity and toughness.

In chapter 10, we see that "Summon Demon" is a level 7 card with 2500 ATK, a step below Blue-Eyes. Kaiba specifically calls it out as a strong/rare card. This makes it the ceiling for all other rare cards at this point. Most other, weaker cards hover around the 4-5 level star area.

Now, in the Death-T arc, "Dark Knight Gaia" is said to be "the strongest Magical Knight-type monster" in the manga. It's shown to be a 6 level star monster with 2300 ATK. Already, we've established a range: cards that are very strong but don't quite reach Blue-Eyes's level hover around 6 or 7 stars.

When writing chapter 38, Takahashi knew that, in the next chapter, he'd put "Sealed One Exodia" at 7 level stars. And that's supposed to be the big finisher monster of this story. So none of Dark Yugi's other cards can be at that level, or else it'd dampen Exodia's impact.

Thus, it's only natural that a card like "Black Magician", which is strong but not as strong as "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" (8 stars) or Exodia (7 stars) would be on the level of "Dark Knight Gaia", with only 6 level stars. After all, it's definitely not a weaker monster like "Fortress Guardian Wyvern" (5 stars) or "Louise" (4 stars)!

There's also a common misconception that, after Konami's game came out, Takahashi changed the amount of "Black Magician"'s level stars to match Konami's version of the card.

This is patently untrue. Through the entire original weekly run of Yu-Gi-Oh!, "Black Magician" was always depicted with 6 level stars on its face. The tankobons show this as well, and all English language versions of the series, which are derived from the tankobon release, always show it as having 6 level stars.

(Now, the bunkobon release is a different story. But I'll get to that in a future part.)

III. Illustration/Monster Design

Excerpt from the color title page to chapter 95, "Terror of the Dungeon". (Note that the above image has undergone minimal restoration work.)

It's hard for fans like us to properly assess this now, because we're so used to seeing "Black Magician"'s design, and so much of the series has built upon it as standardized iconography. But taken with fresh eyes, I think "Black Magician" has a really interesting visual look.

"Black Magician"'s card illustration is, itself, just taken directly from the panel where it attacks "Judge Man".

Excerpt from chapter 38, "The Terror of Blue-Eyes!!", as seen in the 2016 color bunkobon edition. I've provided the image both in its original inverted colors as well as an altered 'normal colors' version for the sake of clarity.

It's an odd choice, but it definitely works- the pose is pretty cool, after all.

The design of the monster is where things get more interesting.

There are several elements that call back to common western wizard/magician motifs. For instance, "Black Magician"'s hat is a combination of a typical wizard's slouched, pointed hat and a hood. It's wearing robes typical of both of those archetypes, but with slits on the sides to give it a little distinction. The staff is a standard wizard accessory; the inset gem at the top of the staff is a slightly more modern touch than the typical wood-only staffs traditional wizards were seen to use.

I strongly suspect that the biggest influence on Takahashi's design for this monster was the High Elf shaman-fighter Deedlit, from Group SNE's Record of Lodoss War.

Deedlit, as seen in Ryo Mizuno's Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch. Novel released 10 April 1988, an adaption of a magazine serialization that ran in Comptiq from September 1986 to April 1987. (Link to an English fan translation of those original stories here.) Illustration by Yutaka Izubuchi.

Deedlit, as seen on the cover of Ryo Mizuno's Record of Lodoss War 2: The Fire Demon. Novel released on 7 February 1989. Illustration by Yutaka Izubuchi.

Immediately, we see several similarities- a combination of armor and robes, with differentiated trim; absolutely massive shoulder pauldrons; and a notable spiral motif. Takahashi's design may well be a take on Deedlit's design as it was known back then.

The only elements I haven't been able to find an exact inspiration for are the Magician's back 'triangular collar' design and the front scoop. And both of those really aren't far out of place from typical fantasy armor designs seen in Japanese media in the late '80s and early-to-mid '90s.

All in all, "Black Magician"'s design is striking and distinctive. It really gives the viewer a good impression, both about the Magician's design itself and about the general style of the visuals of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

IV. Attack and Defense Values

Again, this card's ATK and DEF are solely related to what's happening in Death-T.

Consider that, before "Black Magician" is summoned, Kaiba has just summoned "Judge Man", a monster with 2200 ATK and 1500 DEF, and is using it to wreck havoc on Dark Yugi's weaker monsters while his own two on-field "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"s are incapacitated for two more turns thanks to "Protective Light Swords".

"Black Magician" is shown to have 2500 ATK and 2100 DEF. Takahashi gave it that defense value just so that it'd make natural sense for his character to play it in attack mode against a monster that has 2200 ATK like "Judge Man". After all, it'd be foolish if Dark Yugi played it in defense just for it to die immediately, right?

Similarly, its ATK value is dictated by the circumstances as well. "Black Magician"'s 2500 ATK is made to be higher than "Judge Man"'s 2200 ATK, of course. So the reader gets a small cathartic moment when Kaiba's monster is destroyed by "Black Magician".

But the very next page, Kaiba draws his third "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and uses it to destroy Dark Yugi's "Black Magician".

This leaves him with only 200 Life Points- an obviously dangerously low amount for him to have. Which is perfect as set up for the next chapter. Now things have changed- this is Dark Yugi's most desperate hour, and he needs to draw the last piece of Exodia or else it's all over for him, his friends, and his Grandpa.

In short, "Black Magician"'s stats in this chapter are just part of Takahashi's set up for the lastest and most thrilling moment in the series to that point. The numbers are the way they are for functional reasons, without regard for the past or the future.

V. Everything Else

And really, that's everything we can see on the card face. "Black Magician", as I said, had a very cut-and-dry role to play in his chapter 38 debut.

Personally, I like to think that "Black Magician"'s use in this chapter represents Dark Yugi's determination in the face of impossible odds. He functions as a statement of righteous defiance against the overwhelming might of a mad opponent, reflecting Dark Yugi's characterization up to that point.

Of course, that's not exclusive to the Magician, as "Dark Knight Gaia" in the previous chapter functions in the same way. Despite the fact that this deck is owned by Grandpa in-universe, Takahashi made sure that every monster in it fits Dark Yugi's character perfectly.

Now, starting in the Duelist Kingdom arc, "Black Magician" gains much more substance. Even in chapter 61 and 62, it starts mirroring Dark Yugi more directly, even if it's not the finisher in that particular duel.

And throughout Duelist Kingdom, "Black Magician" becomes one of Dark Yugi's most reliable cards. He draws it in nearly every duel, it's a key part of most of his strategies, and it has a lot of dedicated card support in Dark Yugi's deck. Indeed, in the arc's final duel, it very much earns its place as Yugi's top card after its use together with "Chaos: Black Magic Ritual".

"Black Magician" becomes increasingly tied to Dark Yugi's history later in the series. But that's a story for a future part.

So, why did Takakashi make this card Yugi's ace? Is it because he felt the Magician didn't get his due in his first appearance? Did he think that the Magician was a little more relatable to his audience than the monstrous "Summon Demon"? Is it because the "Black Magician" forms a rather obvious parallel with the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"? Is it because "Dark Knight Gaia" and his horse would have been too difficult to draw repeatedly? Or perhaps it's just because Takahashi simply likes "Black Magician"; perhaps it called to him in a way that the other options just didn't.

As I said, we can never know for sure. But Takahashi clearly made the most out of this character as time went on. The author put a lot of effort into sculpting "Black Magician" into an important character in its own right, and because of his care for that character the fans have taken him and turned him into a true icon of the series in his own right.

About the card text. In Japan, it's 「このカードに攻撃を加えた者ば六芒星の呪いを受ける」; from what I can tell, the original text on this card might read something like "Whosoever attacks this card shall be cursed by the hexagram".

In a vacuum, I like it! Very evocative and flavorful. But it doesn't really tell us how the card works from a game-centric perspective.

My goal, of course, is to make a game-functional card, so I disregarded that and derived my card's text from what this card is shown to do on-panel. In every appearance starting from chapter 72, it:

-stops an attack from occurring -makes it so that the monster that attempted to attack is no longer able to attack -disallows the player controlling that card from moving it -and lowers the attacking monster's ATK value by 700 points.

Then there's the matter of how this card is triggered.

Throughout the Duelist Kingdom arc, it's very clear that for this card to work, the opponent has to 'declare an attack on this card', as seen in chapters 72 and 82- or, at least, launch an attack in this card's direction, as we see in chapter 126.

But this aspect changes in the Battle City arc. Come "Binding Hexgram Curse"'s appearances in chapters 174 and 260 from the Battle City arc, it's now able to trigger whenever the opponent declares an attack on a monster a player controls.

There are a few other cases of cards that are slightly different between appearances (look at how Exodia works in Death-T vs. Battle City, for instance), and in cases like that I always go with the way the card functioned in its most recent appearance.

With the rest of the card accounted for, I'll spend a little time talking about my understanding of why Kazuki Takahashi adopted use of a hexagram for his cards.

I'll be upfront: this won't be a thorough historical accounting of the hexagram and every meaning the symbol took on over the course of its history. My humble aim is solely to determine the possible reasons why the author decided to include it in his story.

At its roots, the hexagram is a simple shape, commonly composed of two overlapping triangles. Due to this factor, it's understood that it showed up in the records (or what we have of them, at least) of lots of early civilizations all over the world, but not for any special reason; the symbol was simply something that may have been easy for early people to create and replicate.

But I'll start, as many do, at what is called the cradle of civilization: ancient Mesopotamia. The hexagram is said to have been first used in this area, likely for early astrology practices ('astrology' in this case meaning an old proto-religion involving worshiping the stars and celestial bodies, which eventually evolved into more formal religions and/or cults of the area as we know them).

Turning our attention to a neighboring area, the hexagram also arose as a noteworthy symbol in what is now India, as well. The most relevant version of it is probably a concept seen in certain traditions of Hindu: the Shatkona, which from there may have spread around Asia over the next 1000 or so years.

My understanding of the topic is fuzzy, but I gather that some portion of the usages of the six-pointed star in many parts of Asia roots to the Shatkona.

To narrow my focus once again, I'd like to bring the topic to Japan, and through it Korea and Shintoism/Buddhsim. The Kagome mon, a similar six-pointed star (though it has also been an eight-pointed star) is said to have been a symbol of the Hata clan (themselves likely originating in Korea); they had a wide influence in a formative time in Japan's history, and may have been key figures in the construction of many Shinto/Buddhist shrines and temples, such as the Fushimi Inari-taisha. The six-pointed star symbol is a motif common to shrines/temples that date to the time period in which the Hata clan had influence. So the presence of hexagrams of some kind in Japan could be said to date to anywhere between roughly the 1st and 6th centuries.

(As I said, my knowledge regarding that era of Japanese/Asain history is pretty fuzzy, so if anyone has more knowledge about that time period and the symbols that arose during that time, please contact me!)

To refocus.

That's all to say that the hexagram, be it through comparatively local cultures or otherwise, would have been a familiar symbol to anyone living in Japan in the 20th century. It's easily possible Yu-Gi-Oh! author Kazuki Takahashi grew up with at least a vague familiarity with it.

As I've said before, though, I think the real influence here is Group SNE. Takahashi was a noted fan of their works, such as Record of Lodoss War and Sword World RPG, and was, as I said in my post on "Chaos: Black Magic Ritual", likely very aware of their late '90s card game, Monster Collection.

To reiterate, a hexagram is one of the most prominent symbols associated with that game:

An example of the Monster Collection card back. Image sourced from the Monster Collection TCG wiki.

Frame from an early commercial for the Monster Collection Trading Card Game. Taken from Touya/LostWorld's coverage of Monster Collection, as seen in this video.

It's very possible that Takahashi was a fan of this game and simply adopted the symbol for his own. After all, he likely viewed it as a generic symbol with a vague connection to the occult and magical practices, especially given his research on Egyptology and the life of Aleister Crowley.

And use it he did. Though "Binding Hexagram Curse" was the first place it appeared, he soon used it in other cards like "Trap Displacement", "Magic-Negating Barrier", "Chaos: Black Magic Ritual", "Black Magician Girl", "Devil's Sanctuary", "Magician's Circle", "Magician's Cross", and so much more.

Of course, most are aware that the symbol has, in the past about 5-600 years or so, become a symbol associated with Judaism. I cannot personally speak to the grander conversations regarding its history there; I leave that to those who are far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am.

As far as I can tell, though, Takahashi's usage of the hexagram has nothing to do with that particular branch of the symbol's evolution. So it's a shame that Konami and Shueisha have taken to removing or censoring the symbol from wherever it originally was.

But hey: so it goes. Ultimately, even if the original version of this card is never seen again, I'm glad Takahashi got the chance to use it in his story as an effective means for drama in the way he did.

Dark Yugi counters Yugi's Trap Card with a little magic of his own: "Magician's Cross"! With one card, he's able to get both of his magicians, his long-time friends, onto the battlefield and ready to fight!

This is the last "Magician"-related card used in the manga, the end point of a long line of cards that started all the way back in the Duelist Kingdom arc with "Magical Silk Hats".

As you can guess, I've printed a minor revision of this card correcting the word Magicians in its text to "Magicians".

This card's name is a little unusual. The Japanese version of it is 「マジシャンズ・クロス」, which is indeed a close rendering of the English words 'magician(')s cross'. Just by looking at the visuals, anyone can see that this refers to the fact that the two figures in this card's artworks are crossing their staffs together, making this card's name a sort of literal interpretation of its illustration.

(As a side note, Takahashi does a similar thing with Kaiba's card "Cross Soul", called "Soul Exchange" in the international version of Konami's game. The crossing motif shows up a few times in the manga, though it's a pretty inconsequential aspect all in all.)

Part of me worries that I may have been too literal with this card's name. Should I maybe have added a clarifying word here, turning the name into something like "Magician's Crossing Motion" or "Magician Staff Cross"? Then again, maybe adding a word would be too fiddly. "Magician's Cross" is a unique and easy-to-scan name with an illustration that goes a long way in clarifying its meaning. In the end, "Magician's Cross" is indeed a little funky as a name, but it suits the card just fine as it is.

Konami international's name for this card, "Magicians Unite", skips all of this and simply opts to center the name of the card on the attack combination aspect instead- though, in their game, the combination aspect/flavoring is stripped out to make the card fit in better with that game's mechanics.

And yes- this card seems to exist just to allow Yugi to face off against a version of the "Black Magician"/"Black Magician Girl" combo attack used on Dark Malik and his god Ra at the end of the Battle City arc. (Hilariously, the two-part "Magician's Circle"/"Magician's Cross" combo acts as a sort of less-elegant fracturing of "Dimension Magic"'s effect, without the steep sacrifice cost that card has.)

Notable also is that this card specifies that the combined attack has an assigned ATK point value of 3000, unlike "Dimension Magic" which is much more vague and just says that it 'destroys' an enemy monster as part of its text. That alone, I think, signposts the fact that "Dimension Magic" isn't meant to be part of a Battle Phase, in contrast to what this card implies by explicitly mentioning a specific value.

Of course, in the story, Yugi is able to counter Dark Yugi's counter with his "Treasure from Heaven" card, which boosts his "Silent Magician" enough to overcome both of the formidable Magicians! Their long-standing show is finally over, and a new Magician takes the stage.

With that move, Yugi proves that he can overcome almost anything Dark Yugi throws at him. Of course, Dark Yugi has one last play in mind: one Magic Card and one monster (or, rather, 'monster') that are each in some ways connected to him thematically more than any of the other cards in his deck. In the end, it will all come down to one last card.

Small general update. We're closer to the end of my "Yugi's Manga Decks Project" card coverage than ever before.

There are three unique cards from Yugi's decks left for me to show at this point. All three will require lengthy posts with a very sizable amount of information covering them! I give my all to be thorough in my coverage, as you know.

As such, I will take a (hopefully) brief hiatus from posting new cards while I ensure that the posts centered on those cards are the best I can make them.

That doesn't mean you'll be empty-handed, though. Look forward to a few fun side diversions while I get the endgame to this blog set up!

When Yugi's "Silent Magician" needs a boost, she looks to the skies. A foolish move, some might think, but not when you're guaranteed a little "Treasure from Heaven"!

Yugi uses this as a sort of de-facto ATK power-up for his "Silent Magician" card, which gains 500 ATK for every card your opponent draws. It's a pretty clever maneuver against Dark Yugi's late-game Magician attack sequence!

Interestingly enough, this was a card that only Dark Malik used during the Battle City arc. In fact, he used it twice, once against Dark Bakura and once in his tournament finals duel against Dark Yugi. Strange to think that Yugi would end up adopting a card which, narrative-wise, is associated with one of his biggest enemies!

This card's manga effect is really strong. A free draw effect that will often on average net you somewhere in the realm of 2-4 cards? That's incredible even if your opponent gets a chance to refresh their hand as well.

This is probably why Konami nerfed their version so hard, although I'm of the opinion that they went a little overboard trying to balance it. As it stands, their version is better for getting rid of your cards (i.e., for setups that necessitate you have banished cards) than it is for gaining advantage via cards in hand.

"Bonds of the Brethren" is here to serve as proof of "Green Gadget"'s close connections to its fellow Gadget-types!

This is how Yugi gets "Yellow Gadget" and "Red Gadget" out of his deck to enable "Mobile Fortress Stronghold"'s special attack boost. It's got an expensive cost (1000 Life Points is 1/4 of a player's starting total in the manga!), but at this point in the story Yugi is a pretty calculating player, so he makes it worthwhile.

In fact, thanks to the ATK boost enabled by this card, the only answer Dark Yugi has to a powered-up "Mobile Fortress Stronghold" is his god card Obelisk! And in turn, Yugi has an answer for that too. It's a thrilling spectacle of a duel, absolutely a show of force for Takahashi's talent in writing dense, exciting fights.

Another minor fun fact: this card is largely similar to its Konami counterpart (released in November 2015, less than a month before "Rebellion"'s counterpart), though there are some differences in the coloring of the armor and faces. In this case, I suspect those differences are due more to oversight or preference and not because Takahashi didn't have any version of their art to reference, as the anime's art for this card looks just like the released card.

Behold the mighty combining guardian "Mobile Fortress Stronghold"! With all three Gadget-type monsters placed together into its chest, this card can even stand up to a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"! (If only it could stand up to a certain blue god as well...)

(Quick note: this card has a minor revision with some text clean-up, including correcting the manga-inaccurate term "Effect Monster" with a more appropriate phrase.)

In the Japanese version of the manga, this card has a very unusual typeline. There, it's stated to be a "(Trap Field Monster)".

Now, Trap Monsters exist as a specific class in the manga. They're Trap Cards that become Monster Cards once their activation condition is met. Konami's game has a similar concept, but their version isn't formally acknowledged as its own subtype, for some reason. There are many Trap Monster Cards in the manga; they're present in both the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs.

Field Magic Cards also exist in the manga. This card type originated in Konami's game and was brought over into the series during the Battle City arc. Kazuki Takahashi tried to put his own spin on the Field Magic Card concept: there are cards like "Black Magic Curtain" ("Dark Magic Curtain"), which have effects that both players can use, and "Slime-Generating Machine" ("Jam Breeding Machine"), with an effect that seems to provide "Slime" tokens at the cost of 'blocking' The Doll's field, in a sense (since it leaves him unable to summon more monsters).

But a Trap Field Monster Card? That debuted with this card. "Mobile Fortress Stronghold" is the only card of its type, likely due to its late debut in the series.

This typeline left me in a bit of a bind. I've said before I tried to make my cards both original manga-accurate and function accurate, and that sometimes those two aims contradict each other. This is a similar case, because when writing this card's function, I had to ask myself: how is this card a "Field" subtype card?

The "Trap Monster" functionality is clear; it Special Summons itself when its activation condition is met, just like all other Trap Monster Cards. But what part of its functionality is its "Field" aspect?

I can only assume it might have to do with the fact that it can combine with the three Gadget-types. But that's pretty iffy; there are other monsters that can combine and re-combine (think of the "Magnet Warriors", or Kaiba's "X-Y-Z" monsters), but those have different terms attached to them. If my assumption is right, I struggle to see how this relates to the field.

In the end, I decided that the "Field" aspect is pretty extraneous, so I cut it out.

Also, I couldn't fit one aspect of this card's effect into the text space: if "Mobile Fortress Stronghold" is destroyed while "Green Gadget", "Yellow Gadget", and "Red Gadget" are on-field with it ('combined' with it), all 'attached' Gadget-type monsters are destroyed as well.

There's simply too much text on this card as it is. But who knows? Maybe I'll figure out a way to squeeze it in some other day.