as a pink lover. The ""universal""" hatred of the color pink by young girls is due to the heavy expectation of femininity forced on them. It is an expression of frustration at gender roles. It is not internalized misogyny. No you will not inevitably start liking pink as an adult and if you do that is not healing your inner divine feminine or whatever we're saying now. Its a color. šš
Indisputably THE most iconic Magic & Wizards card. This is the original version of what is likely the most well-known card in the entire overall Yu-Gi-Oh! series.
Nonetheless, I still struggled with whether or not to include it in my project. After all, every copy we know of belongs to either Grandpa Sugoroku Mutou or Seto Kaiba, not Yugi.
By the way- the left card in the second image shows what the layout of the original chapter 9 ("The Cards with Teeth, Part 1") version of this card looks like. You can think of it as Grandpa's card, if you'd like.
Neither of them represent Kaiba's cards. The three below are his:
These cards have the very first, original colorscheme for 'ol Blue-Eyes (no not Frank Sinatra) as it was seen throughout the entire Weekly Shonen Jump run of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The other, bluer colorscheme is taken from the 2016 color bunkobon edition, where the illustration was recolored to match the first art given to it by Konami. I'll give you an in-depth visual history regarding that under the cut.
So why add Blue-Eyes to my project? Well, Dark Yugi used this card at least 2 times:
-In chapter 10, "The Cards with Teeth, Part 2", Dark Yugi takes control of Kaiba's stolen Blue-Eyes with "Resurrection of the Dead", uses it to defeat Kaiba, and holds onto it until he's able to give the stolen card back to Yugi's Grandpa the next day.
-In chapter 74, "Messenger from Hell", Seto Kaiba's deck has been stolen by Industrial Illusion goons and given to a player killer called the Ventriloquist of the Dead. The Ventriloquist is subsequently sent to duel Yugi and knock him out of the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
At the climax of that duel in chapter 76, "The Legendary Dragon!!", Dark Yugi once again brings a dead Blue-Eyes back via "Resurrection of the Dead", bolsters its attack with "Holy Elf"'s special ability, and uses it to defeat the Ventriloquist.
Yugi then goes on to hold on to Kaiba's stolen deck (including all of his Blue-Eyes cards) until later that night, when Kaiba shows up; pretty much the first thing Yugi does is give Kaiba his deck back.
So Yugi does take possession of all four different copies of this card, although not for more than roughly 8-12 hours each time it happens.
Ultimately, I decided that given this card's iconic status, it was worth including in my project. Though it's never directly part of any of Yugi's decks, Blue-Eyes is such a vital part of the series' identity that I felt I'd be remiss not to include it.
There's a lot more to say about Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most famous card. Check out this card's color artwork history, ancient past, and possible original Magic: the Gathering inspiration under the cut!
Among manga fans, it's pretty well-known that Kaiba got his own three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" by downright criminal means.
Panel sequence from chapter 27, "Project Start!!".
This reflects Kaiba's villainous characterization at the time of this arc. A big step up from his original appearance as a mere greedy and underhanded student!
(By the way, this aspect of the cards is still actively referred to during the Duelist Kingdom arc, where one of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes cards is shown bearing English text in the Japanese version: )
From chapter 103, "Hang in There!!".
From chapter 103, "Hang in There!!".
From Chapter 75, "The Cards Bare Their Teeth".
In contrast, Grandpa got his copy because of his close bonds with an unnamed American friend. Really puts Kaiba's actions into perspective, doesn't it.
In an interview at the end of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Character Guidebook: The Gospel of Truth", author Kazkui Takahashi heavily implies that Grandpa's American friend got his copy of Blue-Eyes thanks to his connection with Magic & Wizards creator Pegasus J. Crawford! An absolutely wild lore nugget I wish he'd been able to sneak into the series proper.
Like all other Magic & Wizards cards, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" is secretly descended from ancient stone tablets imbued with Ka (soul power) extracted from magically-capable humans. The original version of Blue-Eyes, specifically, is Kisara's Ka/Ba. In this series, Ka is thought of as a spiritual representation of a person's soul essence and Ba is their life force. (This a very fictionalized and very fanciful take on real ancient Egyptian beliefs about the concept of a 'soul'.)
Two-page spread from chapter 310, "Awakening of the White Dragon!!".
Kisara was notable because her Ka and Ba were intertwined in a very unusual way. The result of this was that her Ka was the most powerful of them all; but the cost was that her Ka could only be unleashed when Kisara was unconscious.
Kisara's latent powers were desired by the dark god Zorc Necrophades and his disciple Akhenaden. Only Akhenaden's son, High Priest Set, stood in their way, as he'd fallen in love with the mortal Kisasa.
Unfortunately, a Zorc-possessed Akenaden murdered Kisara in an attempt to steal her power.
With her dying breath, Kisara dedicated her spirit power to protect Set for all of time.
Panel sequence from chapter 334, "The Survivors!!".
In fact, there are many moments in the series that suggest that Kisara's spirit, through the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card, still acts as a sort of guide and guardian for Set's descendant Kaiba. This is true even in the Takahashi-authored post-manga two-parter Transcend Game.
But let's shift our attention back to the card now.
Time to show off visuals of this card's original color scheme. During the manga's weekly run, this card showed up in color an amazing six times- that's three more times than the next most seen color card!- and it stayed pretty consistent throughout.
Promotional image for Yu-Gi-Oh!, date unknown. Scan taken from the back of "Yu-Gi-Oh! 3-in-1 Volumes 1-2-3".
This promo image has been associated with the series for quite some time. I couldn't track down an exact debut date on this one, but the oldest usage of it I can find has it appearing in the 24 June 1997 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, #30. And its appearance there seems to indicate that it might predate that issue- meaning that "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" likely had an official card colorscheme established before the debut of "Black Magician"!
Scan of the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 3; originally seen on "Yu-Gi-Oh!" volume 10, released 2 October 1998. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see it in its original context.
As of the Duelist Kingdom arc, we see that the card is pretty close to its first color appearance.
Image from chapter 104, "Crisis!!", originally released 2 November 1998 in Weekly Shonen Jump #49.
The above image is a low-resolution placeholder. I'll replace it with a better quality image once my personal copy of this issue arrives. My apologies!
That said, while this image isn't great you can still tell that things haven't changed.
Scan from "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Official Card Game: Official Card Catalog: The Valuable Book 4", released 25 January 2002. Original version of this image was released on 18 October 1999 in Weeky Shonen Jump, #47.
This was the first color page seen for the Battle City arc, and you'll notice that the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card's gotten a slight update here. Its illustration border is now yellowish-orange instead of an uncolored white!
Scan from the back of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 19. Originally appeared on the cover of Weekly Shonen Jump #41, released 11 September 2000.
Sadly, Viz's touchup of this version of the art made it fairly washed out. So note that in the original Weekly Shonen Jump version of this image, the Blue-Eyes illustration has blue-toned shading just like all other depictions of this card.
Scan from the cover of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist", volume 14; originally seen in "Yu-Gi-Oh!" volume 21, released 2 November 2000. Image sourced from Yugipedia; click here to see it in its original context.
A bigger view of the card (or rather the hologram form thereof). The Blue-Eyes card illustration is pretty much settled by this point.
As you can see, Takahashi stuck to his vision of what he wanted the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card to look like throughout the entire run. The only small changes made between its first appearance and its last appearance are the color and size of its illustration's frame!
About this card's inspiration.
For a long time, despite being one of the first few Magic & Wizards cards to show up in the manga, I wasn't sure if this card had an original Magic: the Gathering card inspiration.
In fact, I was almost content to believe that the card was wholly original. Then I found out about the card below thanks to a random Reddit comment, believe it or not! Check it out:
Chromium, from Magic: the Gathering Legends, released on 1 June 1994. Image sourced from scrycall.com.
Now you know the secret origins of this absolute titan of the series!
Come back tomorrow for the start of my coverage of the cards introduced in the Pharaoh's Memories arc! 'Til then!
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