The Great Debate: The Dark Magician

Over the years I’ve beheld a lot of interesting arguments, well just recently a new one caught my attention. The subject matter is very near and dear to my heart you see. It’s in regards to Kotobukiya’s choice for the paint job for the oh so famous Dark Magician of Yu-Gi-Oh fame.

Now most fans know the Dark Magician to be this guy. We all know the purple outfit, the green staff, his attack and defence points, and even how much Yami loves hiding him with the Magical Hats card. If you ever watched the Yu-Gi-Oh TV series as brought to us in America by 4kids entertainment then you know the Dark Magician…..or do you?

Toei Animation keeping it real!

Back when Yu-Gi-Oh was first published our beloved Dark Magician actually looked a lot more like this. Blue green skin, dark blue robes, blond hair, and lower stats…he’s nothing at all like the one from the show we all watched as kids. Does that make this version wrong? Apparently the answer to that is in fact ‘yes’ according to a lot of people.

The real paint job…no it’s not a hoax…

So today I stand here in the minority, yeah that’s right I think it looks way cool. I think anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while now would know that I was already head over heels for the sculpt, but the gorgeous paint job only delights me further. I love the shine to it and the skin tone makes him stand out as a ‘Duel Monster’.

ooh soooo serious!

His face is dead set with a serious expression that’s all too fitting of our beloved Mahaado. I also appreciate that down under his collar you can see his hair extends down further. Just like in his original design. I’m seriously loving this.

This one is the hoax 😉

So a few people have gone into photoshop and done repaint of how it’s ‘supposed’ to look. For the first time ever I noticed how horribly his staff actually clashes with the rest of him. Not to say I wouldn’t have bought this product, but I don’t think it comes off anywhere near as interesting looking as the Kotobukiya paint job.

This fundamentally how the original designs went. Scans are from a Takahashi artbook that I personally regretfully do not own.  However as you can see here the Dark Magician was never truly meant to look one hundred percent human.

Together I think this makes Yami look totally boss.

The chosen design also compliments Yami’s colors rather nicely. Who would have ever thought that dark blue and dark blue could compliment each other so well?

This sight is going to make my Kaiba cry….

At first I wasn’t too keen on how The Dark Magician’s Apprentice Mana looked with the two. I realized however that being the only female in the group it made sense for her colors to be lighter. It makes her stand out, but as the only female and the only kneeling figure she would have stood out anyway. All in all I think the look really cool together.

Now onto something completely different!

Now anyone remember this guy? Of course you do, he’s Yami no Yuugi, the nameless Pharoah, Atemu, and so many other names I could eclipse a thousand words just typing them. Well funny thing here, everyone’s throwing a fit about the Dark Magician not being the anime version but… what’s this?

You see that lightning bolt cutting across Yami’s hair, well what about the blatantly violet eyes? Taking all that in scroll down to the next picture and take a peek at those two areas…

Wait…what?

No distinctive lightning bolt…red eyes…meine gott, the Yami isn’t the anime version either! It’s not Toei either though. The outfits all wrong and he’s way too in proportion so where could this look have come from?

I’m sensing a trend here….

Yep that’s Yami on the left side, complete with lightning bolt and red eyes…well it’s a step closer anyway at least we know where the eye color came from now….

Then there’s this guy, Mr. Blue eyes himself, Seto Kaiba. I’ll say it right here and right now to anyone who’s complaining about the Dark Magician at least Koto didn’t throw us this:

Oh for the love of….That’s not Kaiba!

Yeah, if that doesn’t make you happy nothing will.

The last thing I’m going to say on the matter is personally I would have preferred this version, but since you can’t always get what you want, I preordered the other one anyway.