This is my first piece of many to come for my "Pamster's Piece of Mind" area here on cyber-soup so I hope you enjoy it. Anyone who knows me online pretty much understands that I have a seven year old who I enjoy watching television with. We watch all kinds of things, but my personal favorite is Yu-Gi-Oh! because I really enjoy the story. I have gotten all four starter decks and miscellaneous other Yu-Gi-Oh! related stuff. As a parent I want to know what is on the shows my son watches and even though there are monsters and mild violence on this show, the good points outweigh the negative.
You have a group of friends who care about each other deeply and work together to help each other when one of them is in trouble. And even though there is a big emphasis on Yugi's character, I find that the other characters are just as interesting to watch. I like Seto Kaiba because he is very smart and protective over his little brother. He can't always keep him safe but he would give his life up to save him, which you can see in the Duelist Kingdom arc where he duels Yugi to earn the right to go against Pegasus.
I think it is important to be involved in what your kids are watching or listening to musically. Now my son isn't into hard rock or pop rock, he is a bit young to be really interested in particular bands. However he likes most of the music I like and we like singing along with the lyrics to all kinds of songs. You are probably wondering why I am talking about this here on my Yugi's Lair area on cyber-soup site and it's because I have checked out a lot of sites on the web and many have what is known as 'manga' scans' of Yugioh that were originally printed in Japanese, but fans translated into English and scanned for use on their fan sites.
I have absolutely no problem with those sites at all. My hat is off to them and you'll see some linked here on the side bar. However I want to point out a few things as a parent that I think are important. We all know that violence is everywhere-you cannot turn on the news without hearing about suicide bombers, maniacs snapping and killing their families or other such horrifying events happening around the globe. In the 80's when I was in high school I had only ever heard of a kid bringing a gun and shooting a principal one time-meaning that was a isolated event and violence in schools in my area was mild compared to what kids are having to deal with today.
If you are worried about exposing your children to violence of any sort, be it animated 'dueling monsters' or 'power puff girls' then you might not want your children to get into Yugioh. I don't mind it personally as a fan, but then I am in my 30's and have always been into comics. Manga actually means comics so that is the origins of Yugioh, from black and white 'comics' that dealt with all kinds of issues. It was more aimed at a teen audience in my opinion because it was set in a high school and Yugi gets bullied frequently. It reminds me of the original TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) where the story was much darker and aimed at a more mature audience then what it was when it hit the small screen.
TMNT was big in the 90's and I recall hearing incidents where kids were hurting each other pretending to be the characters. The same goes for the Power Rangers show. The 4Kids version is violent when it comes to the duels between the monsters, and later in the Battle City arc it has some violent content, but I think that there is reasons for it to move the story along. Senseless violence for the sheer sake of shock value is gratuitous and I don't feel that there is any of that in Yugioh or I would have a problem watching it with my son. If you have open lines of communication between you and your kids then you can help them interpret what they are seeing on television or the world around them.
That is the most important thing in my mind when I think about kids coming to my board or the site here. That their parents realize what they are doing, even if they aren't sitting there over their shoulders the entire time. The parents realize they are into the show and that they are on a board somewhere chatting about it with friends. There are a lot of older fans like myself, but every fan is different and you can run into a lot of 'character bashing' where people either on boards or chat rooms are bashing some of the characters of the show. I see more people bashing Tea' then any other character. I don't allow that kind of thing on my board and I have no problem with someone having an opinion on something, but it's all in how you voice it that matters as to whether you are listened to and taken seriously.
On the net there are all kinds of people and websites. I created cyber-soup five years ago because I wanted my own place on the web where I could share my feelings about all kinds of things, from being an amputee and living with disability to sharing my poetry and fiction. With so much 'darkness' out here online, in a way there really is a shadow realm and cyber-soup was my way to help fight that darkness. I feel really strongly about freedom on the net, that if you are under 18 however you really should have the guidance and support of your family so you don't get hurt. People can be really cold when hiding behind the anonymity of an online alias. It is easy to get caught up in the world online and forget the real world outside.
One thing that might not be something people acknowledge is that you do effect other people in how you act towards them on boards and chat rooms. If you knew you were arguing with a 13-year-old kid about something to do with Yugioh, say they were bashing Tea or something along those lines. If they are not presenting any 'evidence' to back up why they have a particular opinion, then it isn't really right to bash them back. One thing I hate to see is people flaming others over fictitious characters on shows they claim to enjoy. Yugi's Lair won't have that kind of thing because I am involved and we have really great members who enjoy chatting with each other. We have had 'trolls' hit the board before but once exposed as 'pot stirrers' then it is easily dealt with.
I am planning on having other 'Pamster's Piece of Mind' articles and I welcome any feedback or comments at my email or on the board itself. I appreciate that you read this and I hope that you enjoyed sharing one parent's point of view and feelings about Yugioh. In case you can't guess, anyone flaming my opinions for the sheer sake of stirring up trouble on the board won't be around for long if they are unable to argue a point intelligently. Our board is moderated and we have no tolerance for flamers. We welcome debates and sharing dueling stories. If you decide to check out the board you will need to register to post anything, but the Best Board's Network (the message board host Yugi's Lair uses) is a really wonderful place to meet people and have some fun.
