Its always fun being well versed in anime and science fiction, as they are both great venues to express ideas and bring entertainment to millions of people every year. These two industries rarely share major similarities with one another. Just recently I was rereading Ender’s Game, arguably the best science fiction novel ever, and watching Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Now I know what you are going to say, that is a weird combination to compare and contrast with one another, yet they are similar in more than one way. You can purchase Ender’s Game here.
Both Ender’s Game and Yu-Gi-Oh GX are stories about an underdog in a school setting. These stories focus on the same thing, a student who is an unexpected hero and becomes the school’s best asset. Furthermore, as the story progresses in Yu-Gi-Oh GX the main character, Jaden, is failing all his classes yet the main story is about playing a children’s card game, he wins his duels against older students and is allowed to stay. Comparing this to Ender’s Game, he is a student brought to a space station and is given command to a newly created army in this special school. As a result he keeps winning battles and choses not to go to class, as the battles are more important. Since Ender, much like Jaden, keeps winning their fights they are allowed to stay in this special school.
The stories are structured very differently as one takes place at an academy on earth and the other is in space. Despite the difference of location the stakes in both works are similar. In the beginning of Yu-Gi-Oh GX Jaden is faced with a test to be allowed to enter the Duel Academy. This test is a preliminary duel followed up by another duel with a professor at the Duel Academy. He successfully wins both duels. Ender is in a similar situation and at the beginning of the novel. He is tested twice, once when he is in an earth school and wins his first fistfight, and secondly he wins a fight while on the space shuttle up to battle school. Both Ender and Jaden have different types of tests that they must address but those fight have the same basis and ideas behind them.
The stories continue to share similar ideas as the stakes increase. In Yu-Gi-Oh GX the stakes are raised continuously as the duels, which are equivalent to the battle’s Ender faces, are increased. These duels introduce a concept called the shadow games, where the duelist feels physical pain from the attacks. Furthermore, if a duelist loses in a shadow game they lose their life, yet Jaden participates knowing that if he does not win these duels the world is in danger. Ender is in a similar situation as the battles, that his newly formed team are subjected to, are increased from one a day to two a day. As these battles are won Ender is transferred to a video game simulation battle that allows him to issue commands to his fellow students. These games are viewed as simulations, but are encouraged for Ender to participate in, as if they are real. Ender is given the fate of the world after he has won the last simulator battle he is told that he was issuing real commands to real soldiers and that he had just saved humanity from an alien species. Jaden and Ender share the same responsibilities of having to save the world but the difference is one is consciously doing it while the other is not.
