Thread: Who's making Magic & Wizard/Duel Monsters cards in the YGOverse?

It's implied Edo's manager company (Senrigan) requested the creation of Dragoon D-END for whatever reason, IIRC.

With the Earthbound Immortals and the Aesir, I assume that's more "Gods can do whatever they want, like put themselves in cardboard." Because. Gods. I think that's something we should just glaze our eyes over without too much questioning.

I think the vast vast majority of cards are I2 (or whoever took over in 5D's, if anyone did). It's just the oddball cases like the Earthbound Immortals, the shenanigans with Super Fusion, the Aesir, the Meklords, etc. Are the results of preternatural forces.

Originally Posted by NeoArkadia

It's implied Edo's manager company (Senrigan) requested the creation of Dragoon D-END for whatever reason, IIRC.

With the Earthbound Immortals and the Aesir, I assume that's more "Gods can do whatever they want, like put themselves in cardboard." Because. Gods. I think that's something we should just glaze our eyes over without too much questioning.

I think the vast vast majority of cards are I2 (or whoever took over in 5D's, if anyone did). It's just the oddball cases like the Earthbound Immortals, the shenanigans with Super Fusion, the Aesir, the Meklords, etc. Are the results of preternatural forces.

If that was the case with gods, then why didn't the Egyptian Gods / Phantom Beasts create themselves too? Because Kazuki Takahashi didn't want that nonsense, having a mortal make them, being Pegasus.

Short answer:

It's best if you don't think about it too much. Seriously, the concept is so mucked by the time of 5D's it's better if you just let it be and spare yourself of the headaches. Sad, but true.

Long answer:

Before I begin, this is bound to contain spoilers if you aren't up to date with 5D's. Just sayin'.

DM is pretty straightforward. Pegasus is the CEO of Industrial Illusions, and Duel Monsters was created by him. I2 started out as a smaller game company, but then it became a giant with the game becoming popular, and collaborating with Kaiba Corporation made it even bigger.

The Egyptian God Cards were made by Pegasus himself, no questions here. Pegasus was chosen by the Millennium Eye, which then brainwashed him into creating the card game and the God Cards. Pegasus went ahead with the God Cards' creation, despite Shadi's warning, because he had to resurrect the ancient practices at all costs (due to being brainwashed by the Eye), or else Atem would never make it back into the Afterlife and his tale would never play out, nor the Millennium Items would be assembled in one place. While Pegasus did get punished by the Gods themselves (getting a nice blast in the face), he possibly survived due to being the holder of a Millennium Item, since his assistants were all killed or driven to suicide. Then his role would be finished after the creation of the game, as well as uniting Kaiba and Yugi more or less, then he was killed by Dark Bakura and had his Eye taken.

The Ghouls are capable of creating counterfeit cards through unknown(?) means, see the Ghoul with the Exodia Deck or the fake Ra card Rishid used on the Battle Ship.

It's starting to get confusing by Doma. As Ark would put it, Dartz uses the "Oreichalcos Printing Press" to get his cards done. (Don't take that one seriously, by the way.) How the Musketeers and Dartz acquired their card is up to anyone's guess. Except Raphael, who got his cards as a gift... supposedly before Duel Monsters may have been created. Whoops!

Pegasus found the lithographs of the Legendary Knights sealed in their dragon forms in Egypt, and painted their portraits in the same manner he did for the Egyptian God Cards. He also created the Legend of Heart for them, allowing the Legendary Dragons to take their true form.

Then again, Doma was the arc which broke the manga canon with the nature of the card game. (Although you could argue that Doma was made before the manga explained the game's origins precisely. But. Yeah. B| )

And like you said, Pegasus resurrected Reshef by offering the 3 God Cards as a sacrifice, as well as his own sanity, getting brainwashed by the entity and all. However, Reshef wasn't made into an actual card in the game itself, and his resurrection ritual was never completed, ultimately being sealed away once more, alongside with Pegasus.

In Pyramid of Light, Pegasus designed the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, while it was Anubis who put Pyramid of Light into Pegasus' collection of cards via supernatural means. Anubis seemed to conjure up his Sphinx cards.

In YGO R, the concept of the Wicked Gods were made by Pegasus, but he didn't carry through the creation. Yakou picked the project up during his Mystic Science Research and finished the creation of the Wicked Gods, with the Devil's Avatar brainwashing Yakou. By the end of R, the Wicked Gods were destroyed and torn in half, and we can assume that the Tenma twins took over I2 as Pegasus' heirs.

GX follows DM in terms of card creation for the most part. Pegasus and I2 are still around, and we see them very well involved with the plot. GX shows us that it's not Pegasus exclusively creating cards anymore, but he has his team of card designers. He also accepts talented students from the Duel Academia in his ranks to have cards designed, or use their ideas for card designs. (See: Hayato.) Pegasus was also against cards solely relying on power, such as when he rejected Frantz's card designs.

GX also introduced the replica card of Ra, which was originally kept at I2 for research.

Pegasus has found all the Gem Beasts from various parts of the world, which were unsealed in the presence of Johan. He also created Rainbow Dragon from the lithograph with his awesome painting set.

And if you think about it, Pegasus may have created Yubel as well, since Judai owned the card as a kid. Which is kinda neat.

Edo's father was responsible for the creation of D-Hero Bloo-D and the rest of the D-Heroes.

The Sangenma are pretty cloudy. Kagemaru claims he obtained the cards years ago, yet their tablets also exist, which were supposedly discovered by Daitokuji. Their exact origins are never stated. My theory is that they resemble the Egyptian God Cards due to syncretism, similarly to how the Romans based their Gods on the Greeks'.

Judai created his Neo Spacians himself, which were made into real cards thanks to Kaiba Corporation's contest.

The other half of GX is somewhat murky, when the supernatural events come in. The Duel Spirits playing Duel Monster cards in the Dimension World... yeeah, let's not go there. Judai's Super Fusion card was supposed to be made by Wicked Doctrine by Brron, but because Sho wasn't sacrificed for it, it needed all the other sacrifices which Judai offered as the Supreme King.

Darkness conjured up his cards... from DARKNESS.

As far as I know, the GX manga follows the DM Manga's concepts much more closely. Pegasus created Winged Kuriboh, for instance. Buuuut I'm not too familiar with the GX/5D's mangas, so I'll leave elaboration on them to someone else. c.c;

Aaaand, 5D's, which goes even more out there than GX did. There is no mention of I2 ever, although Pegasus' name pops up a few times (such as in the Memorial Foundation, or the tournament names in the original timeline). Dr. Fudo was the one responsible for the creation of the Signer Dragons, who was affiliated with Kaiba Corporation, specifically, M.I.D.S., which could imply that I2 and Kaiba Corporation sorta kinda merged, or Kaiba Corporation took over the card creation duties from I2.

If Yanagi is to be believed, the Signer Dragons do take up a form most appropriate for the age they appear in. In this case, Duel Monster cards.

The Earthbound Gods came into existence when the Zero Reverse occurred, and them turning into cards could be chalked up to "matching the weapon of the enemy", and the computer in Episode 149 states that the Signers/Dark Signers waged using Duel Monsters as their medium for their battle.

The Meklords were possibly created by the Momentum Network due to the wicked hearts of the humans resonating with Momentum. How they were made into usable cards, it was probably through the efforts of Zone, Paradox, and maybe Antinomy, but we don't know anything on this.

The Aesirs... grew on trees and RIPENED ON THEM. But like Ark said, Norse Gods. It's best if you just stop questioning the circumstances of their creation as cards and move on, but not before bowing before Thor's mighty crotch. And hammer. It beckons. So does Odin's beard. But seriously, it's probably the same reason as the Earthbounds and the Signer Dragons. Duel Monsters is the medium for battle, let's take the most acceptable form for fighting. Namely, cardboard.

Shooting Star Dragon and Scar-Red Nova Dragon could be summed up as supernatural shenanigans. Shooting Star Dragon was probably created by Yusei in the original timeline, through Accel Synchro and Clear Mind, which Zone later adopted when he took up Yusei's looks and personality. Scar-Red Nova Dragon was created from Scar-Red Nova/Crimson Devil's and Red Demon's Dragon's fusion, during Red Demon's Double Tuning. Best if you chalk it up to Jack being JACK ATLAS and his BURNING SOUL.

The Savior Dragons, namely Savior Star Dragon and Savior Demon's Dragon are the Signer Dragons powered up by the avatar of the Crimson Dragon, known as Savior Dragon.

5D's briefly featured the Cards of Darkness, namely Blood Mephist and Hidden Knight Hook. Hook was never given a clear explanation, but was possibly created by the Tenor Trio, as we see Placido giving the card to Team Catastrophe, and the card's effect is specifically about locking D-Wheels. Blood Mephist and the rest of the series was made at a time when these kinds of cards were developed. However, they were inflicting real damage on people, and thus were hunted down by Security and their development was discontinued.

The Tenor Trio was shown to be capable of creating cards themselves during the Jackbot incident. Lucciano was responsible for copying Jack's deck, as well as making copies of Red Demon's Dragon. However, he noted that copying Jack's cards were a trouble.

Paradox has been shown to steal monster spirits from cards, such as when he sealed Stardust Dragon in a blank card. There has been no clear explanation given on the creation of the Sin Cards, but the Animation Book notes they are endowed with the power of "Sin". In the Japanese version of the movie, Yugi asks if a Sin Monster is "an Energy of Darkness" (as in the attribute/element, not the GX character).

Zone and his Jikaishin originate from the tablets surrounding him in the heart of the Ark Cradle. The whole tablet concept in 5D's could be chalked up as an odd throwback to DM's tablets.

Laconic Version:

The creation of the card game, as well as majority of the cards, can be attributed to Pegasus, his designers, and I2. The novelization of Pyramid of Light states that only I2 can manufacture official Duel Monsters cards, due to the IC chip's secrets being known by Pegasus only. Kaiba Corporation being responsible for scanning the image information on the chip, as the company is permitted to that division. Going by the above, you see why I noted why the spinoffs are problematic from this standpoint.

Some of the cards are created by other characters in the story, while some cards are created by supernatural means. And few of them are the representation of real Gods or more important entities appearing in cardboard form.

Lastly, a few links:

Not sure if you know of them, Amana, but we have discussed related and similar topics in the following threads, and thus may be relevant to your interests.

(Please note that these topics may be somewhat old, so be wary of the necroposting rule!)

http://www.janime.eu/threads/47946-T...-Duel-Monsters
http://www.janime.eu/threads/53209-S...ards-come-from
http://www.janime.eu/threads/25020-F...vel-quot-Cards (The Sangenma were sorta kinda discussed here.)

Originally Posted by NeoArkadia

With the Earthbound Immortals and the Aesir, I assume that's more "Gods can do whatever they want, like put themselves in cardboard." Because. Gods. I think that's something we should just glaze our eyes over without too much questioning.

LIES! Cards in the YGO! Anime are made from a Metallic Super-alloy combining every single metal known to man! Or Orichalcum.

I always saw the Doma cards as both super-natural (in the case of the Seal) and real (in the case of everything else, I just assumed that nce Doma took over I2 and Kaiba Corp, they had all they needed to make whatever they wanted). GX seems a little weird, because while cards are designed, Judai seems to be stated to be able to create Fusions, especially during his duel with Anemal. (sp?) Finally, in 5D's, every ace seems to be created, the Savior Dragons, Scar-Red/Shooting Star, etc. As for Z-one and such, it's harder to say, since they have giant stone tablets. I think Arynis' explaination described most of it best.

Wow, thanks Arynis and everybody for the answer.

Finally, the moral of the story is that spin-offs f*cked up all the consistency of Duel Monsters creation.
Kazuki Takahashi, you REALLY have to feel guilty dude.

Since Pegasus have failed against Dartz, he finally seems to have progressively lost the control over Magic & Wizard creation, between some other guys and some less humans. And since he's dead, he's even kind of plagiarized by some gods or aliens.
Awww Pegi', I really feel bad for you. Your life really sucks.
But the good thing in this story, it's that if you were real, you actually should have a movie like this guy who made facebook. But you're not, real.
So you're life still sucks.

Pegasus and the story of a children card game: THIS deserves a movie.

Arynis said all in her post. Thanks to you for this resume, I learnt some things I didn't know about creation cards. When the cards are originally created rationally by humans, more especially Pegasus, cards started after to be created by supernatural powers. I think nothing could beat Nordics Gods in terms of creation surnatural.

I'm a little off topic to ask the question, but In my volume 20, (originally released the 9/4/2000 in Japan) Takahashi mentions in his afterword he decided how the manga will end. Doma had been released at TV in 2003. At this time, Takahashi communicated with the studio like he did for GX, 5d's and Zexal?

No problem! I'm happy that it helped.

However, I wouldn't say it's Takahashi's fault. He only came up with the core concepts and the main character designs for the spinoffs. By core concepts, I mean things like the story setting and concept arts, but nothing major. The blame would have to fall on the anime staff, and to an extent, Executive Meddling perhaps, that such decisions were made. But let's see, what may have caused these changes, the straying away from the original card creation concept?

First of all, Pegasus is dead in the original manga after the Duelist Kingdom arc, while he was kept alive in the anime. This leaves a lot of potential to the writers to work with, be it good effort or wasted potential. How should they use Pegasus? What about his copany? (See: Doma Arc for an example.)

Pegasus obviously doesn't live forever, and with him staying alive, he gets no heirs to follow in his steps ala R. However, tournaments and organizations being named after him show he's still respected and remembered, such as the Memorial Foundation. Or, you could say that whoever took over after Pegasus wasn't as talented at holding Pegasus' former position. Alternately, Kaiba Corporation absorbed I2's facilities into itself, if 5D's is any possible indication, but that has not been confirmed, of course.

From a meta standpoint, I could see the card creation's consistency being disregarded over time, due to time constraints and such. (See: Bellisario's Maxim) Perhaps there was not enough time to elaborate on every card's proper origins. Or there was no way to fit the details in due to the plot or the duels taking up bigger importance. Or lastly, they just did not care about ensuring consistency [with such detail], or it would have got in the way with the plot/decisions/there was absolutely no way to add it in.

I mean, even if GX didn't fully follow it, we were still shown Judai creating his cards for Kaiba Corporation's contest, or Pegasus creating Rainbow Dragon. Doma still showed us Pegasus elaborating on his creation of the Legendary Dragons. The closest we got to 5D's was Dr. Fudo possessing the Signer Dragons, stating that he has created them as the control cards for each Momentum Reactor.

I wouldn't say Pegasus failed against Dartz. Sure, I2 was taken over and his soul got sealed away, but the issues seem to have been fixed up afterwards, if DM's anime ending and GX are any indications. Pegasus was shown to have made a business deal with Siegfried, and he made frequent appearances in GX. Heck, even the 10th Anniversary Movie places great importance on his existence, his role as the creator of the card game.

If anything, I think it's more about Pegasus expanding the role to other people. In DM, we could assume that it was only him at first designing and creating cards. But the card game got more and more popular, and so did his company expand on the way. He got more people to work with, more employees. In R, he was training his adopted orphans to become card designers and such, and picked the Tenma brothers as his heirs. With his business growing, he wouldn't be able to handle every role, he'd still need to be there as I2's CEO, Duel Monster's Creator, and a mentor figure to the students of the Duel Academia.

But as DM already showed us, the card game does have its shady side. Kaiba was willing to threaten and get people killed/go bankrupt in order to obtain his Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards, people took part in various tournaments for fame and money, some of them being more dangerous, like Bandit Keith. Or there's Malik and his Ghouls, who created copies of Duel Monster cards and used them for their own ends.

GX showed us a glimpse of trouble in I2; Frantz stole the Ra replica card and based cards around it because Pegasus did not accept his card designs. Frantz was acting quite psychotic, at least until his defeat. Edo's father was killed by DD for his Bloo-D card.

5D's showed us the Cards of Darkness, which was designed in a way it could inflict real damage on people. We don't know if the design was accidental or intentional, but it is fact that their development were discontinued and the existing cards were confiscated.

What does this mean? It shows us that no matter how much order Pegasus wanted to keep by overseeing the card designs by his employees or taking matters into his own hands, he wouldn't be able to prevent shady acts or accidents. Especially with Duel Monsters taking up a great part of humanity's life as the franchise progresses, which would make it an even bigger target for shady activities. Then there are supernatural occurrences (e.g., Darkness, Earthbound Gods) which make things even more complicated and harder to control.

But like I mentioned earlier, Pegasus still has a great importance, even decades after his death. With Synchro Monsters and Momentum bringing the world down on the path of ruin, someone would inevitably want to weed him out, or at least kill the card game's chances at becoming popular. Enter Paradox and the 10th Anniversary Movie. With Paradox killing Pegasus and destroying Domino City with Duel Monsters, I2 would fall into chaos with its CEO dying, and with Domino City being known for Battle City and Duel Monsters, such an event would likely destroy the game's popularity.

Originally Posted by Allana

Arynis said all in her post. Thanks to you for this resume, I learnt some things I didn't know about creation cards. When the cards are originally created rationally by humans, more especially Pegasus, cards started after to be created by supernatural powers. I think nothing could beat Nordics Gods in terms of creation surnatural.

I'm a little off topic to ask the question, but In my volume 20, (originally released the 9/4/2000 in Japan) Takahashi mentions in his afterword he decided how the manga will end. Doma had been released at TV in 2003. At this time, Takahashi communicated with the studio like he did for GX, 5d's and Zexal?

I'm glad you found it helpful!

Isn't it mostly the other way around, with NAS/Anime Production Staff contacting Takahashi, such as when they would like to launch a new series or need his concept art on something? I believe it has been mentioned that Takahashi himself does not have much input regarding the way the anime series is handled, and he stated in the bunkobans he would rather leave the anime's handling to the writers, so he can be surprised every week.

Originally Posted by cashman_11

I always saw the Doma cards as both super-natural (in the case of the Seal) and real (in the case of everything else, I just assumed that nce Doma took over I2 and Kaiba Corp, they had all they needed to make whatever they wanted). GX seems a little weird, because while cards are designed, Judai seems to be stated to be able to create Fusions, especially during his duel with Anemal. (sp?) Finally, in 5D's, every ace seems to be created, the Savior Dragons, Scar-Red/Shooting Star, etc. As for Z-one and such, it's harder to say, since they have giant stone tablets. I think Arynis' explaination described most of it best.

What do you mean, Judai can create fusions? You can make that assumption for things involving Super Fusion, like Rainbow Neos and God Neos (and indeed, that actually makes more sense than the cards existing already), but for Elixier/Electrum against Amnael? Huh?

I can elaborate on the GX manga a bit. Mr. Phoenix was also a card designer in the manga. Tragoedia possessed him and used him to create his own cards, the Planet Series. Presumbly his ultra-broken Egyptian mythology deck was also created the same way. Then he killed Phoenix and possessed MacKenzie for the next stage of his plan.

I remember in another afterword Takahashi said the anime studio contacted him in 2006 to do a new series, which will become later 5d's.

In GX manga, Kageyama's afterwords mentions the studio Dice Team and Anime Team (he quote Katsumi Ono like being 5d's director who is present) are meet each other and once when they went spent holidays together. I guess they are connected together about the anime and his working at least to 5d's. I guess Takahashi must know what will happens in anime for the central plot. But not for dialogues, scenes... A such collaboration had it existed to DM?

I could've sworn a thread like this existed elsewhere in the exact same section here.. I replied to it too.

Originally Posted by cheesedude

What do you mean, Judai can create fusions? You can make that assumption for things involving Super Fusion, like Rainbow Neos and God Neos (and indeed, that actually makes more sense than the cards existing already), but for Elixier/Electrum against Amnael? Huh?

I can elaborate on the GX manga a bit. Mr. Phoenix was also a card designer in the manga. Tragoedia possessed him and used him to create his own cards, the Planet Series. Presumbly his ultra-broken Egyptian mythology deck was also created the same way. Then he killed Phoenix and possessed MacKenzie for the next stage of his plan.

Hmmm, maybe I miss-remembered what Daitokuji said... I thought he said something about Judai being an alchemist because he could create fusions to suit his situation out of weak monsters, but I guess it's open to translation and interpretation, whether he means literally, or figuratively. But yes, as for Super Fusion, I guess Judai can create fusions. (Which really doesn't explain WHERE they come from)

I thought that Daitokuji simply drew parallels between fusion and alchemy. If he did say that Judai could create fusions, I think it was probably meant to be figurative.