Last week while taking the train home, I saw a kid with his head buried in some kind of Bakugan guide, and it got me thinking. The first thing was that it reminded me of when I used to sit on the same train with a printed Pokemon pokedex, poring over move lists and trying to imagine new movesets and strategies. It filled me with a sense of nostalgia. The second thing was that it got me thinking about the future of anime.
Bakugan, one of those collecting and battling game franchises designed to separate kids from their money, has an anime to act as a half-hour commercial for the product. It’s one of the latest in a long line of merchandising engines, from Pokemon to Digimon to Yugioh to Beyblade and so on. The shows can still be pretty decent; there’s no illusion about their true purpose, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be entertaining.
That said, what if someone made a collecting and battling anime that wasn’t there primarily to push a product? “Impossible!” you might say. And to some extent you’d be right. Shows are made because they have some kind of chance at making money. But my response is, give it a decade.
In those ten years, the kids who grew up with those trading card games and battle tops will be getting older and older. They’ll be adults working full-time jobs and looking back fondly on their childhoods. It would mirror the progression mecha anime has had, with shows now being made for adults and having more advanced and mature concepts. In this situation, a collecting and battling anime which really takes an artistic and philosophical look at the nature of collecting and battling anime would be perfect.
It could look at the nature of probability and psychology. Perhaps it would ask what it means to play a game where you must collect to improve your chances of winning. There could be legitimately well-written characters and a skeptical eye, but still a love letter to the genres of TCGs and monster battles. It would really master and perfect the sense of timing and tension that would make the heroes’ actions seem all the more worthwhile. Actual rules to the game are optional.
It would be the Gurren-Lagann of collecting and battling anime.
OGIUE MANIAX 
Out of the franchises you’ve mentioned, I feel that the Digimon series are more than just commercials for their products; they really have complex, well-written stories with great character development. Though I like both Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, I definitely get the feeling that their anime is more about promoting their products than trying to tell an engaging stories using the characters. I never had the urge to buy anything for Digimon when I used to watch it on TV (I did with Pokemon and YGO though). I’ve never seen Bakugan so I couldn’t say (though the kids I work with love it).
An anime like you described would be great. Hope it actually comes about.
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Oh, and I forgot to mention that the feeling of nostalgia you experienced seeing the boy with the Bakugan guide wouldn’t have been nostalgic for me because 10+ years later I’m still doing that with Pokemon XD
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If you think about it, Yu-Gi-Oh! is just CalvinBall acted out through cards. When one character is at a disadvantage, the other character picks a card & aplies a certain attribute to get out of it.
“Hah! I just cast Magnesium X on your furry creature! His polarity is all reversed and no longer follows your orders!”
“I saw that coming. I already put the zone of absolute zero in play. He can’t move, and neither can you.”
“Oh – oh yeah?! Well, I just summoned the aroma of attraction to distract your rider from crossing my field. So there!”
“But you neglected to factor in the reverse Schrodinger factorial quotent. You owe me Q billion points.”
Or something along those lines.
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