History SeriousBusiness / AnimeAndManga

** Even by the series' standards, [[Characters/YuGiOhSetoKaiba Seto Kaiba]] is ''by far'' the most extreme example, as he doesn't even care about the mystical stuff behind the games, and is even called out on it by the other characters. He just wants to prove he is the best. And he ''really'' enjoys crushing his opponents. Unlike the other characters, who actually just want to have ''fun'' while playing games but end up getting roped into life-or-death situations against their will, Kaiba was taught from a very young age that losing a game may as well be equal to death itself, hence the idea behind the Death-T amusement park and him willing to gamble his own life against Yugi in the Duelist Kingdom in order to win, he was ready to die had Yugi not thrown in the towel, and while he gets somewhat better, later on, he still takes Duel Monsters very seriously and is more than willing to accept life-or-death stakes when it comes to duels. As if that wasn't enough, the fact that human society in the [[Franchise/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh]] verse runs on card games (especially in the later series), can largely be traced back to Kaiba's continuous efforts to make it so, including ''sending cards into space to teach alien life how to duel.''

** Even by the series' standards, [[Characters/YuGiOhSetoKaiba Seto Kaiba]] is ''by far'' the most extreme example, as he doesn't even care about the mystical stuff behind the games, and is even called out on it by the other characters. He just wants to prove he is the best. And he ''really'' enjoys crushing his opponents. Unlike the other characters, who actually just want to have ''fun'' while playing games but end up getting roped into life-or-death situations against their will, Kaiba was taught from a very young age that losing a game may as well be equal to death itself, hence the idea behind the Death-T amusement park and him willing to gamble his own life against Yugi in the Duelist Kingdom in order to win, he was ready to die had Yugi not thrown in the towel, and while he gets somewhat better, later on, he still takes Duel Monsters very seriously and is more than willing to accept life-or-death stakes when it comes to duels. As if that wasn't enough, the fact that human society in the YuGiOh verse runs on card games (especially in the later series), can largely be traced back to Kaiba's continuous efforts to make it so, including ''sending cards into space to teach alien life how to duel.''

** Even by the series' standards, [[Characters/YuGiOhSetoKaiba Seto Kaiba]] is by far the most extreme example, as he doesn't even care about the mystical stuff behind the games, and is even called out on it by the other characters. He just wants to prove he is the best. And he ''really'' enjoys crushing his opponents. Unlike the other characters, who actually just want to have ''fun'' while playing games but end up getting roped into life-or-death situations against their will, Kaiba was taught from a very young age that losing a game may as well be equal to death itself, hence the idea behind the Death-T amusement park and him willing to gamble his own life against Yugi in the Duelist Kingdom in order to win, he was ready to die had Yugi not thrown in the towel, and while he gets somewhat better, later on, he still takes Duel Monsters very seriously.

** In the [[Manga/YuGiOh original manga]], Yugi oftentimes will find a game he's interested in, only for the bad guy of the chapter to cheat or taking it too far in whatever game's he's interested at the time. Then Yami Yugi will up the ante by turning said game into a Shadow Game by staking his and his opponents' lives on the line. Even the rules of the Shadow Games will penalize the cheater for breaking said rules with a Penalty Game.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'' has the aptly named Serious Group, who go well above and beyond with the products and services they sell, often causing problems for people unaware of their practices.

** ''GX's'' protagonist Judai attempts time and again to convince his opponents that their reasons for getting into the game are wrong, and need to remember that the main point of the game is to have fun. Pretty amusing when you consider that ''these people go to a prestigious boarding school for the sole purpose of learning how to play it better''. Judai [[DeconstructorFleet eventually stops enjoying the game]] in Season 4 after spending most of Season 3 playing with his and/or other's lives at stake. The two-part finale, after all the villains have been defeated, consists of him regaining the sense of fun he'd lost...[[spoiler: by going ''back in time'' to duel Yugi]]. After all the life and death battles in the previous two seasons fought using Duel Monsters, Judai plays with [[spoiler:Yugi]] with nothing at stake -- the victor of the duel wasn't shown, but it's clear that what mattered was that Judai had a good time, and had a burden lifted off his shoulders as a result.

** It helps that both Duel Masters and Yugioh started off as parodying TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering, which has its own fair share of serious business (but sadly, the latter is a real life phenomenon).