Here's another big card associated with Dark Yugi. "Summoned Skull"- in my project, "Summon Demon"!
As you can tell, originally I set this card's name as "Summoned Demon". I later changed it to "Summon Demon" for reasons you'll soon learn.
It's fairly common knowledge among hardcore fans now, but: when "Summon Demon" debuted, it initially had a much different color scheme, something much pinker and fleshier. This is because Kazuki Takahashi took heavy inspiration for this card from the Magic: the Gathering card Lord of the Pit, coming from its debut set in 1993's "Limited Edition".
Image from Yugipedia; click here for original source. Check scryfall.com for a little more info on this card's Japanese debut.
Above is Lord of the Pit as it looked when it was first released in Japan. It's very likely that Takahashi was familiar with card face before he wrote and illustrated the November 1996 chapter "The Cards with Teeth, Part 1", where Magic & Wizards debuted.
More on the "Summon Demon"/Lord of the Pit connection under the cut, including full-color pics of the history of "Summon Demon"'s early appearances.
Similarities include:
-"Summon Demon"'s level stars number 7, which is the same number as Lord of the Pit's mana cost (the circled number and skull symbols on the top-right of the card) when you add it up. (This sum total is what Magic: the Gathering fans call its 'converted mana cost').
-Lord of the Pit's type line, デーモンの召喚, is exactly the same as "Summon Demon"'s Japanese name, 「デーモンの召喚」, which is why I ultimately rendered its name as you see in the second image from the top.
-And its appearance, obviously. This was something that stayed consistent even early in the manga, as you'll see in these color pages:
Detail from the color title page for Yu-Gi-Oh! chapter 71, "Terror of the Sea", released 2 March 1998.
Detail from the color title page for Yu-Gi-Oh! chapter 96, "The Terror of the Dungeon", released 31 August 1998.
Even later on, Takakashi retained "Summon Demon"'s Lord of the Pit-esque general appearance and color scheme when creating his illustration for the card in the December 2008 Shonen Jump "Anniversary Pack":
Image from Yugipedia; click here for original source.
Fun fact! Lord of the Pit itself is based on the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings. Ancestral has an article showing off the playtest cards for the initial release of Magic: the Gathering, and below is what Lord of the Pit looked like during the later days of that game's development process.
Image from ancestralmtg.com, linked above.
As for why Takahashi would choose this card to serve as the model for Dark Yugi's main representative monster in "The Cards with Teeth, Parts 1 and 2" back in 1996?
I suspect it was simply a play on words! After all, early on in the manga's run Dark Yugi wasn't even called Dark Yugi yet. In very early descriptions and promo materials, the character was most often called 遊戯王 (King of Games), as in the title of the manga, 遊☆戯☆王.
And as you can see above, Lord of the Pit's Japanese name is 奈落の王 (King of Hell)! Takahashi probably couldn't pass up an opportunity to have the main character's big monster reflect its owner's name in some small symbolic way.
And that's all for today. Once again, thank you for reading. As always: if there are any Yugi manga cards you'd like to see, just ask and I'll be glad to post it here!
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Duel Links KC Cup had started! As well as my humble art booth.
I will trade decent to scribble quality artworks for exposure and deck advices. You may send your deck advice with your deck screenshot and explaination how to use it and your current KC Cup rank.
You can ask me to draw anything, not necessary Yu-Gi-Oh related, but I am more keen to draw animals. I can try to create human artworks, but it will be a scribble.
As it is possible there will be great influx of requests, I must apologize in advance, I will only draw good quality art of simpler designs, unless I greatly appreciate your choice of monsters/characters.
I am greatly looking forward to start profiting from my artworks, but prefer to simply test my exposure first. If you are interested and think my artworks indeed worth to be paid, please contact me.
Extra: @the-one-random-internet-kid and I are preparing to launch a project which we draw Yu-Gi-Oh! human charecters as Pokemon. Please stay tuned for us to create a side blog.
