October 6th, 2008
Lil Formers #117: Afternoon Anime
Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakugan, Bedaman, Duel Masters, Dinosaur King, Chaotix (though I guess that one is not anime…heh). I’m sure there are many more. Always been bothered by these shows where all the kids do is play the game. And the more accurately they play it to the real game, the more disturbing it is…
At least on the Pokemon show they don’t sit around playing Gameboy all day 
October 6th, 2008 at 2:46 am
That’s true - the Pokemon anime shows a surprising “real-world” depth relative to the video games.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:30 am
There is something seriously wrong when one commercial gets sponsors from OTHER commercials and they call it children’s programming.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Isn’t that what Transformers cartoons do to?
But they are way beter 
October 6th, 2008 at 5:17 am
–There is something seriously wrong when one commercial gets sponsors from OTHER commercials and they call it children’s programming.–
isn’t this what they said about our beloved transformers and he-man?
i really cant stand those gaming shows (ok season one of duel masters was very funny) but this is nothing new.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:50 am
No matter how bad these anime card game shows get, they’ll never be as bad as the tv show version of Cluedo that aired on uk tv in the early 90s…
October 6th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Well cartoon derived from toys and games are quite common since 1980(and earlier), hell once they made a cartoon based on rubik cube go figure. Is how they realize it that make the difference. Transformers, G.I.Joe, Dungeons an Dragons heck even the recent Pokemon and Digimon(is like pokemon only better) do try to use the toy as inspiration and basis for creating a world setting for adventures of heroes(imagine how would be cool a cartoon based on the setting of Magic: the gathering). On the other hand we got cartoons who are too closely based on games(expecially card games), who make for some really boring shows(as i read elsewhere, the action is more yelle than done ) ridiculous in most ways (beyblade…I can stop laughing at that show…)
October 6th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Ha ha. Yes much of the kid anime really annoys me because its all copying from the Pokemon idea which was it’s own when it came out.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Back when Magic: The Gathering came out, I watched two people play as they explained exactly what they were doing as they played it. It was very dull (note: actually PLAYING the game might have been nice, but watching with exposition? nah).
Now, we have cartoons that are basically a play-by-play of some overdramatic characters playing a card game. Major yawn.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Don’t forget Yu-Gi-Oh!!
October 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am
-Back when Magic: The Gathering came out, I watched two people play as they explained exactly what they were doing as they played it. It was very dull (note: actually PLAYING the game might have been nice, but watching with exposition? nah).
Now, we have cartoons that are basically a play-by-play of some overdramatic characters playing a card game. Major yawn.-
And yet there are grown adults who watch others play poker on TV.
Not saying its any more fun for MOST of us to watch, just pointing out that there seems to be a market for this “entertainment” (and I use the term loosely).
October 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I am sorry to say this, but I just have not laughed at the last 10 to 15 of your pages, and I usually love your work. I am not saying “bring back the bots”, but you seemed to have better jokes back then. lately your jokes are more or less common sense, not funny. “bring back the humor”.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Beyblade was fun to watch. *still has all her Dranzers* But yeah, ARGH 2000 LIFE POINTS is old.
I watch YGO for the voice actors now. And the abriged series on Youtube. Yu-Gi-Ohs….apparently they’re Yugilicious. XDD.
~*KA*~
October 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
i remember… first Yu gi oh season they allways repeated the same sentance at least three times first: character “a” thinks about what to do, second: Character “b” thinks about what character “a” might just think, third: Character “a” anounces wich card he will play… well there are variations: charcter “c” (bystander and friend of yugi) says character “a” (from the example above) could now do the following…-repeating the thoughts off “a” one more time.. it has one plus you do not have to watch the show.. simple listening would do the job because you hear what they are doing ^^ … but i have to admit i liked it somehow…
October 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
What gets me is I can’t figure out how some of the stuff would actually work, thanks to all the holographic (or sometimes real) monsters battling “for real”. Plus how can so many trading card/toy games be connected to a battle to save the world–or sometimes two worlds? Why not just have it be about a tournament, like the first US-aired Zoids cartoon? I actually liked G-Gundam until they dropped the tourney in favor of a save-the-world plot involving the Dark Gundam and playing card superheroes.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
bah all those new shows based off card games are just knockoffs of knockoffs…
and the dubbed versions…. god my ears feel like their bleeding every time i hear the dubbed voices….
love the comic, its only gotten better since the change, i miss the bots (of course) but i’ll live :p
October 6th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I just hate Pokemon… But the other anime aren’t so bad. Except Yu-Gi-Oh. I liked it better when it wasn’t about card games, and was about the “Shadow Games”. The Yu-Gi-Oh we know that started the card game thing is Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters. Find the manga with only “Yu-Gi-Oh” on the cover with no secondary title. It’s way better.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
i don’t watch anime but this is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 6th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Eventually those shows will devolve into animated versions of the World Series of Poker.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
It’s a trap!
October 6th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
curiously I have pkmn and yugioh and hate both the cartoon shows XD
….(xcept for the original yugioh saga), any other game/show just ain’t worth the time….beyblade anyone?,
October 7th, 2008 at 12:13 am
I know what you mean, I just felt wierd watching it. I guess that’s why I fell out of watching them so much, besides I still have tons more of violent anime to watch like transformers!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:02 am
All these things are totally retarded…….and the kids that watch them become retarded too (aside from having an irresistible urge to drain their parent’s wallets). …….My (then 4yr old) niece used to yell like crazy: “I CHOOSE YOU! BROCCOLI!!!!!”, then stab the poor veggie with the fork so hard it almost tipped the plate over, munch it, and then go “I CHOOSE YOU! CARROT!!!!” and so on with CAULIFLOWER!!! and “LETTUCE!!!” and stuff……a total pain to listen to. My sister was (at the time) very proud of the trick she came up with so the kid would eat her vegetables, but regretted it a hundred million times since……………..
October 7th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I’m glad that the only show really like this that made it here is Yu-Gi-Oh! And Duel Masters, which took the piss out of the genre anyway.
Well, then there was Beyblade and Crush Gear Turbo. But those were hilariously ridiculous.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am
because pokemon was the most original, everything atfer that is pretty much crap
October 7th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Actually, I did sort of like Yu-Gi-Oh. XD Oh well.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Ha ha, so true. A kid I was babysitting asked me to play Yu-Gi-Oh once, I thought that we would be outside running around and being active, but no! We just pretended to throw cards at eachother, or something. Laaaaame!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Actually i enjoyed the first Yugioh anime. I am an avid cardgame player. And have played a variety of systems over the years. Magic, Yugioh, Star Wars, L5R…
To each his own.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
do a Sailor Moon lil’ formers
October 10th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
kiselkupus, I’ve got some bad news for you. There was anime that aired on Fox where people would make a meal that turned into monsters that battle each other. “Food Fighters” was as bad as it sounds.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I’m so glad they didn’t pull this stuff back when Dungeons and Dragons came out as a cartoon; imagine if they had the characters sitting around a table rolling dice for a half hour….
Dungeon Master, “…Now Children, you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a cave surrounded by Kobolds! Make saving rolls Now! Oh-oh, it appears that Uni the Unicorn has already used her once a day teleport skill. ”
Bobby the Barbarian, ” Oh No! UNI !!!…”
October 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
ShadowWing, A) it’s “Fighting Foodons”, B) I have no life, and C) Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace, the cartoons, followed their arcade counterparts damn near perfectly.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Remember, Yugioh may have been based on Magic the Gathering, but the story originally wasn’t about the card game. Read the manga! It’s good! It isn’t crap.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I adore card battle anime, but this is so true.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:57 am
The guy on the left looks like one of the Street Jammers from the new TMNT cartoon, and the guy on the right looks like Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Hehe… I’d love to see you render the cast of Gurren Lagann in the Super Deformed style.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Shadow wing is right “fighting foodons” was the name, not heavy on “makes sense kind of show” but hte humor was so better than duel master, I guess some show are for just kicks, but I enjoyed so much the kitchen jokes, well at least it wasn’t yugi with black hair crappy jokes and horrible story line….btw matt “bring back the bots” or a card game might come out of the transformers….I wonder why hasbro hasn’t done it?….
October 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hey I have a great idea, make a show about emo kids that have supernatural powers, all of them orphans, and with “nobody likes me complex”, and make about 4 years worth of filler…o wait that’s Naruto.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
okay thats just weired man and creepy yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Huh?
November 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
it’s a mix of yu-gi-oh and bakugan…
November 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Agreed completely.
….and Pokemon rocks, btw. 13 years I’ve been watching, and still a fan of the yellow, electric rat.