July 31-August 6, 2003

mixpicks

Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game Mall Tour

by Andrew Parks

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. American company co-opts a Japanese phenomenon involving cutesy monsters and trading cards. Hype is generated. Kids snatch starter decks and booster packs faster than Beanie Babies, circa 1996. Parents groan as they wonder what Slifer the Sky Dragon is and why he, she or it costs $50. Phenomenon morphs into a movie deal, clothing line and ubiquitous stuffed animals. Phenomenon withers from overexposure, like a pack of Furbies shot execution style.

Pokémon and every fading fad before it has taken a similar plunge from the American consciousness. The latest to flood the market is that other Japanese cartoon/card game, Yu-Gi-Oh. "It is a trading card game like Pokémon, but the cards are different, the graphics are different and we’re dealing with spells, magic, monsters and whatnot," says Claudine Ricanor of Upper Deck, the game’s exclusive North American distributor. "It’s also more strategic and a little bit more advanced than your average Pokemon audience."

Advanced doesn’t necessarily mean mature. Ricanor was recently schooled in the ways of Yu-Gi-Oh by a 10-year-old in Detroit.

"It was a little hard because it was noisy, but I had a great time trying to get to know the power of the cards and slipping into the shoes of these kids," Ricanor says.

Now, if the suits behind Yu-Gi-Oh can resist licensing its characters to bed sheets and boxer shorts, the game’s appeal may last longer than Tickle Me Elmo.

Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game Mall Tour, Sat.-Sun., Aug. 2-3, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., free, Montgomery Mall, North Wales, 215-855-3403.