>>102346202>>102345477Wizards of the Coast (WotC), makers of Magic the Gathering (the first TCG) wanted to expand more into Japan, but MtG wasn't selling well enough there. They made a MtG manga called Duel Masters, which they later retooled and used to spawn an entirely unique TCG just for the Japanese market: Duel Masters TCG. It got HUGE in Japan, even momentary beating out Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and every other card game there. It's receded back a few ranks since then, but it's still very much a popular and successful TCG in Japan. MtG itself has also been gaining more traction in Japan nowadays thanks to aggressive promotional marketing, so WotC currently has TWO card games in the upper chart rankings for Japan.
Since it was doing so well in Japan, WotC tried to make an english version of the game for North American markets. It quickly failed, ironically partially because people saw it as a knock off of Yu-Gi-Oh: some Japanese card game with an anime attached to it. Yu-Gi-Oh's "Duel Monsters" game started in its manga as a parody of MtG.
1993 - MtG releases
1997 - Yu-Gi-Oh manga begins. It initially isn't about a TCG at all, just various games and challenges. It soon starts to focus on "Magic & Wizards", later changed to "Duel Monsters", an in-universe card game loosely based on MtG.
1999 - Yu-Gi-Oh's TCG releases in Japan.
1999 - The Duel Masters manga begins
2002 - The Duel Masters TCG releases in Japan.
