It’s Yu-Gi-Oh’s world, and we’re stuck living in it

polygon.com:

The world is dedicated to franchising, and every day it seems like a popular new game sweeps through the cultural landscape. Major brands exist not so much to create consumers as to consume audiences. Tech billionaires and acclaimed “geniuses” have become a new breed of celebrity and influence everything from entertainment to politics. The things they produce can often blur the lines of reality as they attempt to re-create it in interactive 3D online forms. Those who participate in the new reality can assume whole new lives for themselves, with their options being seemingly limitless.

I’m talking about Yu-Gi-Oh!, by the way.

Created in 1996 by Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh!began as a manga in the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump, the famous anthology that’s also been home to series like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Demon Slayer. From there, Yu-Gi-Oh! blossomed and expanded into a ludicrously popular trading card game, an anime series that was treated in America for a time as Pokémon’s heir apparent, and all manner of merchandising. To this day, new sequel series are rolling out, and the recently released Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel was downloaded over 10 million times within a little over two weeks of release.

However, it’s the original story that most resembles modern life. The world Takahashi invented was definitely reflective of the late 1990s tidal wave of new toys and branding — one chapter takes place in a mega fast food chain, while another centers on the lust for a new pair of sneakers. There are also ones that focus on Tamagotchi-esque digital pets, superhero comics, a monster-based board game, and so on. Considering the plot typically dealt with young student Yugi Muto becoming “Yami Yugi” thanks to the Millennium Puzzle