Your Move.
Two words that signal an end, and a beginning. Two words inextricably linked to the act of playing a game, even ones with dire consequences. Two words that any kid in the early 2000s would know comes with the promise of lots of posturing, a sick Duel Disk System (TM), and a dark rock anthem (at least here in the US) that was a quintessential staple of the Saturday morning cartoon blocks, even as it gave way to chilling out in the school yard and card games on motorcycles.
I was one of those kids, watching every week to see what new card BS would save Yugi or finally let Téa win a battle. How would the tides turn? Would Seto Kaiba actually let himself lose a battle? Would there be a reappearance of the terrifying Joey Chin?
It wasn’t until many years later that I would go back and read the original manga, learning along the way that guns existed, the shadow realm was fake, Téa was actually named Anzu and that it was impossible not to absolutely fall in love with Kazuki Takhashi’s eclectic and mesmerizing story about this ultra-serious children’s card game.
Takhashi had a way of making even the most ridiculous concept work. Want your villain to be a multi-billionaire teen head of a mega-corporation that constructs an elaborate death theme park JUST to kill these dweebs he doesn’t like at school? I got good news for you. Want said villain’s little brother to then play a game of Wheel of Fortune/Russian Roulette with poisoned food in a revenge scheme? No one will bat an eye. Want that teen to eventually take over an entire town to run his elaborate card game tournament so he can prove he’s the best and also steal some powerful mystical cards? Of course you do.
It was also a comic about fighting for the downtrodden, the bullied, and the lost, and about believing in yourself to beat back the darkness. It was a comic full of self-sacrifice alongside shonen exclamations about the heart of the cards and the power of friendship.
Takahashi did not produce many comics, mainly because he did not need to, though he did have a few one-shots, the limited series “The Comiq,” and a Marvel comic “Marvel’s Secret Reverse,” which was about, you guessed it, games. The success of “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and his subsequent role as overseer of the franchise, likely kept him busy enough and financially stable enough not to need to make anything else. It was a series with a profound impact on the course of his life and on many others as well.
And the same is true of his death.
On July 4, 2022, there was a terrible rip current off of the popular snorkeling spot Mermaid’s Grotto in Okinawa. Stuck in it was a young girl and her mother’s boyfriend. A rescue had begun by a professional diver and two others, though it was delayed; the divers needed their equipment due to the severity of the current. Takahashi was also at the scene and, upon hearing the cries for help, swam out to assist. He was successful in making contact and helped the girl, at least a bit, before reaching out to help the man. While doing so, he was pushed beneath the sea by the waves and was lost to sight.
He never resurfaced.
For a while, when the news broke, no one knew this story. It was only a few weeks later that we learned these details, so it remained a sudden tragedy. I was crushed to know that the creator of this work that had a profound impact on me as a child and an adult was suddenly gone. However, when we finally got the whole story, there was a strange comfort in it. Because Takahashi went out living like his characters.
It didn’t matter how dangerous it was. He was going to help. He was going to play the game.
It was his move.
Kazuki Takahashi: 1961 – 2022
