Manic Marketing

[NightWing]

The best part about Duelist Kingdom is how well it ages. Because they put out rules that were supposed to be the in universe ones the characters would have known about and followed. Those rules basically boil down to they're playing D&D and monsters have effects if you could reasonably argue them, like baby dragon not being destroyed by time wizards because dragons live for a long time.

But the opponent has no say in this which means you're arguing with the machine running the game if you're roleplaying right. The ancient Egyptian pharaoh is just a really cheeky and creative roleplayer and the machine running everything is picking favorites and going "Sure, I buy that."

[Luxfirion]

Something else of note about Yu-Gi-Oh is that the creator of the manga series that the TV show was based on Kazuki Takahashi, sacrificed his life to save a drowning kid. Like in real life, thats how he died. He was a real legend.

[cempionu_aisbergai]

Yea but yu gi oh only became a card thing later, it was a horror manga first. It's just that the card thing is what got it to explode in popularity.

[ShineyCrow]

It always ruffles my feathers when someone say Yu-Gi-Oh! was made to sell a product when … it’s absolutely not the case.
The story came first and was so popular that kids went "how can I play the game ?!", which led to the game being actually made.

[AshOfCenturies]

My Little Pony. Specifically Friendship is Magic from 2010. Mlp was originally a show designed to sell toys but each iteration was short lived and had a typical production to every other kids show. But for whatever reason, Hasbro went all out with FiM, they brought in the best showrunners, writers, artists, animators, and voice actors. They got Tara Strong for crying out loud, she is THE voice of 90's and 2000's cartoons. FiM didnt just deal with sappy moral "be kind to everyone" messages either. They added actual depth and nuance to everything. When bronies started gaining traction on sites like 4chan and Reddit, they noticed and engaged with both child and adult fans.

At the end of the day, it was still meant to sell products but it didn't really feel that way with how incredibly good every aspect of gen 4 MLP was.

[TheComradeBritish]

Man, the Yu Gi Oh card thing was real. I remember the Card Mafia, kids shifting and stealing cards, people paying for bodyguarding on their cards with sweets at lunch. Absolutely mental.

[haikyuutrash]

Don't forget Bakugan. Loved that show growing up, collected them, had the three nintendo games they made, and even had an arena for it. Didn't translate to that great of an irl game tho. But those three Nintendo games slapped for kid me.

[Herr_Gamer]

The thing you have to understand is that, particularly with older anime, the writer and investor were often in conflict about what they were actually making. The investor wanted a toy commercial, while the writer wanted to create a gripping story. Sometimes this works out despite the investor demands forcing fundamental changes that stem from clearly not knowing what they were actually funding (the toddler characters and one off slapstick moments in the original Gundam show which jarringly appear while the writing tries to portray the horrors of war make for a great example) and sometimes it is so completely at odds it ruins the show part and commercial part (there is a reason pokemon came before and has outlasted both byakugan and beyblade).

Gundam is also an example where the two sides eventually came together, mostly because it finally became clear the series wasn’t popular with the expected target audience of children (might have something to do with the writer making it a space opera tragedy with lofty philosophical hypothetics and realistic treatment of ideological warfare). With the exception of the third series’ first half and certain parts in the later timeline, the series got to take itself as seriously as the writing warranted. As a result, merch sales have steadily skyrocketed, spinoff series and sequels are ever more popular and I have a gunpla backlog worth more than several months’ rent

[Dinosaurman]

Transformers is a big one too.

Came from Japan to America as transforming robot toys but no one wanted them, so they teamed up to make a show and give children a reason to want them.

I like Soundwave, never had a toy of him but even at 26 I really want a Soundwave toy.

[ellenjeane]

Same as the 80's, every cartoon was just to sell toys haha. Heman, transformers, TMNT, GI Joe, rainbow bright...fun times hahaha

[komradekevinthekommuneistd]

On the subject of banned card games;

At my primary school Disney cards were banned because of a playground fight during pickup…


BETWEEN THE PARENTS!

[Daemonik]

I grew up in the 80s with MotU, GI Joe etc - now those were literal adverts. They'd make a toy, create stock, release an episode to introduce it and put it on the shelves, they just sold themselves.
Started getting a little abstract in the 90s with YGO, Pokemon etc, frol what i observed. Though to be fair the adverts just sold the concept. "Gotta get them all" for a *COLLECTABLE* card game? Frickin' genius.

[Connor-fs]

S1 YGO was basically D&D; if you could hand wave the bs you were trying to pull (like, say, attacking the moon), it worked

[AggroCrow]

Transformers is still my jam to this day, and the figures keep getting better!

[Tinyflypie]

Marketing teaches you that lies are cool and dishonesty is clever. Explains a lot about our world.

[BrigidtheMechLady]

*coughs in 80s kid* GI Joe, TMNT, Transformers, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite. I could go on.

[jamesstevenson]

Now I'm trying to figure out what Slugterra was trying to sell

[rightwingsafetysquad]

Transformers was an ad. And it went so hard. You Got the Touch 👌

[lesbianspacecadet]

it didnt stop in the 2000s, theres ever after high, monster high, ninjago..

[soldiersPL]

Meantime, Gundam
Toys be like "LOOK, A BIG SAMURAI MECH WITH LIGHTSABERS AND A LASER GUN"
And show be like "A teen ends up thrust in to middle of a morally grey conflict where his friends are killed off one by one through the series, with ever increasing PTSD he forces himself to kill nice people we were introduced to just moments ago, war is hell and only ones profiting are rich and powerful"