And we all thought Toei was lazy with Kai...

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

I'll never understand the popularity of a show like Yu-Gi-Oh!.. it's whole purpose was to sell cards..

It has great characters, good story, nice music and fun action?

Agreed. The Duel Monsters portion of the series was said by Takahashi to try and show values he believed in and lessons he wanted to share with readers. I read that back as a kid so I'll probably never find it now, but in general he cared for Yugioh. After it ended, GX and the rest are only here for the cards. And season 0 was pretty good, I think. It was interesting. Shame it didn't catch on.

[funrush]

I'll never understand the popularity of a show like Yu-Gi-Oh!.. it's whole purpose was to sell cards..

I wouldn't say whole purpose. The first chunk of the series that never left Japan because violence and was like 7 volumes of manga was Yami defeating criminals and evil people by playing various basic (not card, except for Kaiba's only appearance) games based around the criminal's sins.

[Super Sayian Prime]

This is a significantly worse product than Kai, but I'd say it's less of a letdown. The Yu-Gi-Oh! 20th Anniversary Remaster appears to just be a refresher course in preparation for the new movie. There is no home video release announced (yet) and it's only highlighting specific duels. It hasn't been marketed as the next big thing, as it's just a supplement to Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V. So even though it's cropped and looks kind of ugly (can't be helped for a SD digital production), Kai is a bigger bummer. It was the first Dragon Ball TV series in more than a decade and was marketed as the new big thing. Instead we got a mess.

I'll never understand the popularity of a show like Yu-Gi-Oh!.. it's whole purpose was to sell cards..

I wouldn't say whole purpose. The first chunk of the series that never left Japan because violence and was like 7 volumes of manga was Yami defeating criminals and evil people by playing various basic (not card, except for Kaiba's only appearance) games based around the criminal's sins.

That's not true.

I'm going to assume you mean the Toei anime series. That never left Japan because it wasn't successful over there, nor is it in continuity with the latter adaptation. Even in Japan Toei's show has kind of been erased from history, as the only home video release it has are the rental VHS tapes that accompanied its broadcast.

[Mewzard]

Even if it's not in continuity with the later anime adaptations, it is based on the manga, which only had two cardgames in the first 7 volumes of the manga. Only with volume 8 did we get to Duelist Kingdom, where it was cardgames forever, since the kids got really into that game more than the others.

Still waiting for that Dungeon Dice Monsters series...

Even if this one off thing is lazier than Kai, don't forget that Toei's lazy over a long period and over many series, so it adds up.