Why Let It Die?
Ever since the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime ended in Japan, I've watched the interest in it sharply decline, both on the Internet and in real life. People have stopped tuning into the episodes each week, and even the WB! has stopped carrying it on its weekday afternoon programming. Less people are playing the trading card game; people are closing their Yu-Gi-Oh! fansites left and right.
Now I could understand if maybe the show wasn't all that great and there wasn't much to build a site around. I could even understand if the game wasn't that fun to begin with. But neither of those things is true--people have built huge sites based on the game, the anime, and the manga, and the game is apparently still as fun as ever, since I still play it. This strange, sudden lack of interest from previously-diehard fans makes me ask the question:
"What the hell has happened to this fandom?"
I'm sure it happens to all entertainment eventually, but for Pegasus' sake, even Pokemon still has a freakin' fandom. Why can't we show our love for Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore? Is it just "old news" because the whole story has been told? And if you think the anime is "old news" because the manga ended, how the hell can you ever claim to have been a fan if you just liked it because of its novelty?
It absolutely disgusts me. I know, I know, people move on from things and replace older interests with new ones. But to see so many sites close and disappear is very disheartening. It's almost like we're divorcing ourselves from the anime, like it's not worth our attention anymore because the whole story's been told and there's no more mystery to it. But why let it die?
That's right. I just asked you why we should let the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom just die like this. Sure, there's YGO! R and YGO! GX, but to me, nothing will ever be as wonderful and as profound as the original. I was the same way when Pokemon: Advanced started--I didn't like the format, didn't enjoy the presence of the new characters, and frankly, I thought they should give a revamp to the storylines instead of revamping the characters. It's the same principle with Yu-Gi-Oh!--couldn't they have at least shown the original characters 10 years later, so us fans could at least feel some continuity?
Aah, that's another subject, I suppose. But I still think Yu-Gi-Oh! has a lot of value, even if all its manga has been published. So what? We can still be fans-it's not like we have to go along with the stupid MTV crowd that loses interest after 30 seconds. Sure, we can let interests fade as we grow up, but that doesn't mean shutting down your site 30 minutes after you read the last manga. That's not growing up--that's getting bored.
Still...I'm happy to see that some sites have decided to remain static, like my friend and affiliate Annie did with her site, Strawberree Fantasy. Hers was and still is a site so influential to the fandom, and I'm glad she kept all the information up. Truth is, there was a time when I considered doing the same thing for Transcendence, and for a few months there, with my sparse updating and lack of new content, my little site almost died as well. But thankfully, it's been "reborn," pun intended. And one thing I can definitely tell you about me, and about this site: you will never see Transcendence go down, not without me being put in the hospital indefinitely, LOL. This site will be up as long as a breath of Yu-Gi-Oh! fan lives in my lungs. I want to keep my part of the fandom alive, and if that means being the only remaining Yu-Gi-Oh! site of this size, then I'll gladly do that. I'm damn proud of this site, and still a fan of the show, so I will not close it. I won't let it die.