Memories Come with a Hefty Price Tag

　Let me tell you about the moment in life when I feel the happiest—when I'm truly at peace.

　It's when I'm looking at old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards or figures that I loved as a kid. They're so shiny. Just looking at them makes my heart race. Even catching one in the corner of my eye brightens my day, so I keep them scattered around my room. Crawling Dragon isn't one of my favorites, by the way—it was just the card a shopkeeper used as a protective backing so my rare card wouldn't get damaged.

　When I was a kid, some middle-aged guy—I never knew who he was (maybe a friend's dad?)—came over to our house and opened a binder filled with rare Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

　It completely blew my mind. Page after page was packed with Ultra Rares and Parallel Rares. Back then, just owning a single Parallel Rare made an elementary school kid feel like the richest person in the world, so seeing an entire binder full of them was like staring at a treasure vault. Even the Ultra Rare Toon monsters—which were completely useless in actual duels—looked so amazing that I desperately wanted them just for the artwork. Needless to say, even back then I still didn't care about Crawling Dragon.

　I was so jealous. More than that—who was this guy? Why was a grown man taking a children's card game more seriously than anyone else? Was he Kaiba or something?

He was at least thirty years older than us. And that was...the coolest thing ever.

　Of course, someone like that wouldn't stop at trading cards. "I painted my MG Freedom Gundam." "You know, that rare Super Famicom Dragon Ball game is actually incredible." He just kept showing us one dream after another. For a kid growing up in a poor household in Okinawa, an MG Gunpla wasn't something you casually bought. It was the kind of thing you might get once a year—if you were lucky enough to convince your parents at Christmas. I remember pleading until I finally got to build Wing Gundam Zero Custom and Sazabi. Zero Custom was elegant no matter how you looked at it, thanks to those magnificent wings. Sazabi, on the other hand... I remember thinking, "Huh. It doesn't really move much. It looks a little awkward as a model."

　Caught somewhere between confusion, envy, and frustration, I distinctly remember thinking: "I want to grow up to be this kind of old guy." It gave me hope that there were adults who became parents without abandoning their childhood. There was also a high school student in my neighborhood who skipped school to play visual novels all day. (I'd skip school too and hang out at his place.) Seeing people like that gave me tremendous peace of mind. "Maybe people like this can exist." They became models for the kind of future I could imagine for myself.

　Maybe the fact that I'm still obsessed with shiny cards and soft vinyl figures is giving younger followers that same kind of hope. You really can grow up and keep loving this stuff.

　Honestly, all those businessmen who act serious and only ever talk about investing or politics are lying to themselves. Deep down, they'd much rather be admiring Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Black Luster Soldier. They want to let Beyblades rip and summon the Four Sacred Beasts. They want to fire marbles so hard they bury themselves in walls. They want to shave a single gram off their Mini 4WD just to make it faster. I bet they'd love spending all day hunting shiny Pokémon, too. They're just pretending to be respectable while lying to themselves. Madmen. They probably don't care about Crawling Dragon, though.

　As for me, I've spent the last twenty years watching Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Pretty Cure. At this point, I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. If you're sitting there worried, "Do I have to throw away my Rider Belt once I become a working adult...?" Be careful. Premium Bandai is waiting to ambush you with expensive, adult-oriented Rider Belts. The moment you finally start earning a salary, all those memories from twenty years ago come back to attack your wallet.

　We'll always be kids dancing to the tune of KONAMI, Bandai, and Takara Tomy.