If I recall correctly, Konami has had strict NDAs like this for 40+ years. In the 80s, they did this so other companies couldn't snatch up their programmers that worked on Castlevania and things like that. I guess they just carried that over to the card game because they thought other companies would offer their artists a competitive wage. There was a huge explosion of Japanese TCGs around the time Yugioh came out such as Monster Collection, Digimon, Duel Masters, et cetera, so I could see other companies offering to hire the Yugioh artists.
It might be partially true, but ironically Konami is seemingly the one paying the competitive wage. It seems that with Yu-Gi-Oh!, Konami appears to hires full-time artists for the game (indicated by job listings). There is a possibility that the majority (though not all) of the artwork for the game is done by a handful of the same in-house artists. I think it kind of makes sense since even though there are thousands of YGO cards, there have only been a handful of cards ever to be suspected to be drawn by a well known artist. It's a fairly unusual practice though, as in the TCG industry, art is near universally commissioned by freelance artists, and due to the lack of exclusivity contracts, many TCGs share the same artists. Ironically since they are employees Konami likely pays them better than the average Japanese TCG company does.
@@ChiffonaiseThat's a very good point. I imagine that many wouldn't put up with Konami's policies if the payment wasn't good, but I actually had no idea that the duties were so different for that company over others. Or at least, I knew that people like Naoki Saito were allowed to work on multiple different games at once, but I had just assumed it was something like them not having exclusive contracts if they worked for a specific company rather than it really just being freelance work.
@@Baron_of_Wastes Yeah, it's a different situation from talent poaching. Other TCGs already share many of the same artists who not only work on competing TCGs, but other mediums entirely from book covers to gacha games. When Magic started hiring Japanese artists for their anime-style cards they contacted artists who worked on other Japanese TCGs and it wasn't a problem.
“Magic the gathering goes to Egypt and then goes to hell” YES!!!! Thank you for his description. That is exactly why I love and prefer the old school yugioh sets art 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I admire whoever drew Harpy Ladies and Summoned Skull. It's this crazy, dark, semi-digital that's really missing from the gane today. Very unique to a time and place.
It truly is unfortunate that we won't ever know who many of these artists were. It would be nice to be able to thank them for their efforts and their contribution to our love and enjoyment of Yu-Gi-Oh!
This is absolutely one aspect in which Yu-Gi-Oh loses out to Magic and Pokemon, Konami doesn't value their artists no matter how much work they give to the company. The big coffee table artbook, Art of the Cards, doesn't even have high-res artwork for the cards since they're both bad at archiving and didn't reach out to the artists for the better versions they'd keep with them. Not even for the mascot cards like Pot of Greed and Blue-Eyes, the artists of which would no doubt get big followings from series fans.
Ik for most modern art, the OCG got a Card Game Art Works book but the art is accredited to the names of studios doing the design. So rip those whose contribution is nameless.
I wonder who the artist(s) were for the very early series 1 cards. There's a distinctive art style present throughout every card of the early era that's so distinct from what came after it, that no matter how hard you try to separate your mind from it, you can just glance at a card and say "That'd old Yu-Gi-Oh!" I wonder who they were...
If I remember right, Masahiro Hikokubo drew up most of the designs for cards introduced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Manga. He wrote about how bummed he was that some of the Monsters he designed were only seen in Card Form, in Volume 2.
It's always been one of my biggest gripes with YuGiOh without getting into the intricacies of the modern game. I've always loved being able to look at Magic cards and being able to go enjoy their other art
Taro WAS released in the TCG in the 10th anniversary pack. But that was its ONLY printing here. I ran 2 in my deck around Edison format as extra Marshmallons.
I have one lead on the artist who did the ELEMENT monsters (Dinosaur, Valkyrie, Magician, etc). They might have worked on a series that came out around that time called Demon King Enma (an OVA series based on a Nagai Go manga). I can't confirm it, but some of the art/timeline adds up to when those cards were released. So it could be they moved over from Konami to work on other things revolving around Nagai Go - but I'm not certain who on staff it might have been. They could've been an intern or a director for all I know
I've been reading the Yu-Gi-Oh mangas and one of my favorite things to do is to find the source for some of the card art. It's pretty sad that's the closest you can get to attribution though.
Yea my main complaint with todays card art is it has to much going on in the background and to much dynamic clothing and armor it makes it hard to know what youre looking and appreciate the monster itself. And alot of the cards use the same artstlye and artwork alot of lolita and dragon looking cards.
It's really crazy that you can't find the artists names anywhere in any Konami product. Really the only way to know any is if you happen to recognize the art, or follow them in social media and they mention it. I had no idea about the crazy Konami NDAs. Yet another reason to hate that company.
It's sad that artists won't be able to display their yugioh illustration in their professional portfolios. Not that card art is likely to be their best work, but I imagine it's a significant part of many of the artist's lives.
Thank you for the video. I always thought about this "Who make the art of this card?!" Is a no answered question that makes me sad. Likes many cards are obviously make it by the same artist ,, but I would never know who's that artist. Like I wanted to know The responsible for the art of the madolche card, The Heavenly Prison z how many artist were involve in the creation of the dogmatica/branded/Bystial cards and their similars
I’ve always thought the monster cards looked better back in the day, but I’m definitely biased 😅 It’s too bad the old/new artists don’t get credit. They deserve it & I’m sure designing for Yugioh isn’t easy.
I'm so sad that I can't know who drew the card I know and love. Plus it would be good for Konami because it would make people buy the card drawn from their favorite artists, so in a way this wouldn't be bad for sales
The real reason why Air Ness is not reprinted is probably because of the existence of a real airline called Neos Air which has a red/white color scheme like Air Hummingbird and Neos. Not a card I need to see reprinted anyways lol
Até hoje não sabemos o porque do O Air Neos ser tão colocado de lado é bem triste. Gosto desse argumento ou teoria que houve algum problema com o artista da carta. 😃
As Rank10YGO said, they probably aren't crediting artists so they avoid harassment and doxxing. Our community sucks and WOULD do this, so Konami is honestly probably right to.
I want to imagine that’s the reason but I don’t believe Konami’s that altruistic. Considering some of the shit I’ve seen people say about Traptrix, I’m surprised no one’s gone after the artist if Konami thinks it’s that likely.
Interested in buying cards on Whatnot? Use my link and first time purchases will get $15 to use! > whatnot.com/invite/janjozone
was there no credits text written at the start or end of the new CARD GAME ART WORKS book?
Nothing :(@@raseruuu3742
It's so sad that konami never really gave us the artists names, they clearly deserve to be known for their work
1000%!
It should at least be possible to find out which artworks belong together and are probably drawn by one artist.
Leave the greedy multimillion company alone@@JanjoZone
Agreed
They should do it like how Pokemon cards have the Illustrator’s name on the card.
If I recall correctly, Konami has had strict NDAs like this for 40+ years. In the 80s, they did this so other companies couldn't snatch up their programmers that worked on Castlevania and things like that. I guess they just carried that over to the card game because they thought other companies would offer their artists a competitive wage. There was a huge explosion of Japanese TCGs around the time Yugioh came out such as Monster Collection, Digimon, Duel Masters, et cetera, so I could see other companies offering to hire the Yugioh artists.
Makes sense!
It might be partially true, but ironically Konami is seemingly the one paying the competitive wage. It seems that with Yu-Gi-Oh!, Konami appears to hires full-time artists for the game (indicated by job listings). There is a possibility that the majority (though not all) of the artwork for the game is done by a handful of the same in-house artists. I think it kind of makes sense since even though there are thousands of YGO cards, there have only been a handful of cards ever to be suspected to be drawn by a well known artist.
It's a fairly unusual practice though, as in the TCG industry, art is near universally commissioned by freelance artists, and due to the lack of exclusivity contracts, many TCGs share the same artists. Ironically since they are employees Konami likely pays them better than the average Japanese TCG company does.
@@ChiffonaiseThat's a very good point. I imagine that many wouldn't put up with Konami's policies if the payment wasn't good, but I actually had no idea that the duties were so different for that company over others. Or at least, I knew that people like Naoki Saito were allowed to work on multiple different games at once, but I had just assumed it was something like them not having exclusive contracts if they worked for a specific company rather than it really just being freelance work.
@@Baron_of_Wastes Yeah, it's a different situation from talent poaching. Other TCGs already share many of the same artists who not only work on competing TCGs, but other mediums entirely from book covers to gacha games. When Magic started hiring Japanese artists for their anime-style cards they contacted artists who worked on other Japanese TCGs and it wasn't a problem.
“Magic the gathering goes to Egypt and then goes to hell”
YES!!!!
Thank you for his description. That is exactly why I love and prefer the old school yugioh sets art 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I admire whoever drew Harpy Ladies and Summoned Skull. It's this crazy, dark, semi-digital that's really missing from the gane today. Very unique to a time and place.
Kazuki Takahashi
Anna bell peaks
It truly is unfortunate that we won't ever know who many of these artists were. It would be nice to be able to thank them for their efforts and their contribution to our love and enjoyment of Yu-Gi-Oh!
I would hope they all know all the people that appreciate their work!
This is absolutely one aspect in which Yu-Gi-Oh loses out to Magic and Pokemon, Konami doesn't value their artists no matter how much work they give to the company. The big coffee table artbook, Art of the Cards, doesn't even have high-res artwork for the cards since they're both bad at archiving and didn't reach out to the artists for the better versions they'd keep with them. Not even for the mascot cards like Pot of Greed and Blue-Eyes, the artists of which would no doubt get big followings from series fans.
Absolutely!
I will not rest until i figure out who drew the Live Twins and whether or not they also designed Dr. Mad Love.
Dope idea and I haven't seen anyone really talk about this but the early artwork is wat drew me to the game and anime 20 plus years ago!
That's why I wanted to talk about it!
Shame you didnt mention that Ito went on to create the original manga for Cardfight Vanguard. Dude’s got a lot of card game art credits under his belt
Shame on Konami for not crediting the artists. Its such a shame that the artists don't get the recognition they deserve.
Absolutely!
Ik for most modern art, the OCG got a Card Game Art Works book but the art is accredited to the names of studios doing the design. So rip those whose contribution is nameless.
The GX manga artist is a yugiboomer?!
pretty based if you ask me.
Well at least Konami is paying their artists well! Still would be cool to see more recognition to the artists names! Nice Vid man, you earned a sub
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! Hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel!
I really do like the yugioh artists back in the day. The artist behind the charmer cards are my favorites.
A lot of great art!
I wonder who the artist(s) were for the very early series 1 cards. There's a distinctive art style present throughout every card of the early era that's so distinct from what came after it, that no matter how hard you try to separate your mind from it, you can just glance at a card and say "That'd old Yu-Gi-Oh!"
I wonder who they were...
If I remember right, Masahiro Hikokubo drew up most of the designs for cards introduced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Manga. He wrote about how bummed he was that some of the Monsters he designed were only seen in Card Form, in Volume 2.
It's always been one of my biggest gripes with YuGiOh without getting into the intricacies of the modern game. I've always loved being able to look at Magic cards and being able to go enjoy their other art
I just wish I could meet the artist behind twin long rods number 1 and 2. Such amazing cards..
Such cards
Taro WAS released in the TCG in the 10th anniversary pack. But that was its ONLY printing here. I ran 2 in my deck around Edison format as extra Marshmallons.
Yeah some of the examples were TCG released cards. I meant more as in releasing ALL of them
I feel the same way, I would love to know who designed some of my favorite cards, it's a shame we may never know.
Dude, I love your content and the pure respect on the franchise and not just the game.
Thanks! Nothing but respect!
I have one lead on the artist who did the ELEMENT monsters (Dinosaur, Valkyrie, Magician, etc). They might have worked on a series that came out around that time called Demon King Enma (an OVA series based on a Nagai Go manga). I can't confirm it, but some of the art/timeline adds up to when those cards were released. So it could be they moved over from Konami to work on other things revolving around Nagai Go - but I'm not certain who on staff it might have been. They could've been an intern or a director for all I know
Fascinating! Definitely worth looking into!
I've been reading the Yu-Gi-Oh mangas and one of my favorite things to do is to find the source for some of the card art. It's pretty sad that's the closest you can get to attribution though.
It's at least something!
Can someone write down the names of the Yugioh artists because they weren't listed in the video nor its description
Kazuki Takahashi, Akina Fujiwara, Akira Ito, Naoyuki Kageyama, GENZOMAN
Yea my main complaint with todays card art is it has to much going on in the background and to much dynamic clothing and armor it makes it hard to know what youre looking and appreciate the monster itself. And alot of the cards use the same artstlye and artwork alot of lolita and dragon looking cards.
I love the Yugioh R cards! I have a binder with all them in it.
Oh that's awesome! Should share it in my Discord!
It's really crazy that you can't find the artists names anywhere in any Konami product. Really the only way to know any is if you happen to recognize the art, or follow them in social media and they mention it.
I had no idea about the crazy Konami NDAs. Yet another reason to hate that company.
Yeah at this point it's just unfortunate
It's sad that artists won't be able to display their yugioh illustration in their professional portfolios. Not that card art is likely to be their best work, but I imagine it's a significant part of many of the artist's lives.
True true
Damn, this is quality content 👌
It's all I give!
Great video! Keep up the excellent tcg content 👏
Thank you! I'll try my best!
Thank you for the video. I always thought about this "Who make the art of this card?!" Is a no answered question that makes me sad. Likes many cards are obviously make it by the same artist ,, but I would never know who's that artist. Like I wanted to know The responsible for the art of the madolche card, The Heavenly Prison z how many artist were involve in the creation of the dogmatica/branded/Bystial cards and their similars
A lot are unaccounted for!
Best content channel
Thanks! I try!
I need to know who drew the burning abyss cards they look sick
Those were Genzoman.
I’ve always thought the monster cards looked better back in the day, but I’m definitely biased 😅 It’s too bad the old/new artists don’t get credit. They deserve it & I’m sure designing for Yugioh isn’t easy.
I'm so sad that I can't know who drew the card I know and love. Plus it would be good for Konami because it would make people buy the card drawn from their favorite artists, so in a way this wouldn't be bad for sales
It would be nice!
Believe in the art of the cards
For sure!
Technically the publisher of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga owns the property
The real reason why Air Ness is not reprinted is probably because of the existence of a real airline called Neos Air which has a red/white color scheme like Air Hummingbird and Neos.
Not a card I need to see reprinted anyways lol
No one knows the real reason. All speculation
Interesting stuff
Sure is!
Até hoje não sabemos o porque do O Air Neos ser tão colocado de lado é bem triste. Gosto desse argumento ou teoria que houve algum problema com o artista da carta. 😃
The old Yugioh cards look way better than the modern furry, anime girl, weird modern shit.
anime girls and weird furries have always existed since the beginning of the game dude
@@Nqsmn but it was minor compared to now. Earlier there was more emphasis on monsters and warriors.
As Rank10YGO said, they probably aren't crediting artists so they avoid harassment and doxxing. Our community sucks and WOULD do this, so Konami is honestly probably right to.
I want to imagine that’s the reason but I don’t believe Konami’s that altruistic. Considering some of the shit I’ve seen people say about Traptrix, I’m surprised no one’s gone after the artist if Konami thinks it’s that likely.