This might be slightly off current discussion, but I've wondering about this for the last few minutes, and I thought I would ask everyone else as to what they think—would any of us like it if they were to give their anime series a relaunch, somehow?
Just curious... by "relaunch," do you mean making a new series with the old characters or simply re-airing all of the old episodes?
Currently, they don't seem to be generating as much viewers as they used to, statistically, so if they were to go back into their original state, I believe it would be more advantageous for them; they would have chance to win back the fans that they might have lost throughout last ten to fifteen years.
Hmm... not too sure about that one. I won't argue that the show has less viewers than before, but every franchise has its group of fans that drop it after the original (or after they grow up), though the fans that are still remaining usually stick to the show, and we also get a significant number of new fans, even if there aren't as many. Making a new series with the original characters won't attract as many old fans as you think; I mean, sure, SOME will return, but others will be like "Oh, that's awesome" and then completely forget about it. I think that if they want to stay strong, they would need the ability to keep generating new fans, and bringing back the old cast wouldn't be of much help in that regard.
More importantly, in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, card sales are just as important as viewers, if not more important. Many of the fans who truly loved the original series and played the card game for years are still playing the game today, and they are still buying new cards to remain competitive, regardless of whether or not they dropped the anime after the original. Not to mention, Konami often releases "fanservice" sets that feature stuff like new Dark Magician/Blue-Eyes support just so that their old fans would keep buying cards, which usually works in their favor. In fact, I don't think the card game
ever struggled in terms of sales, as Konami really knows what they're doing when it comes to generating profit.
Personally, I would love it; I was very addicted to their show when they had initially kicked off, and would kill to see all their old characters back. If they do go through with this, I feel it'd be best if they were to keep their primary characters (Yugi, Joey, Kiba, and so forth) throughout each and every season, like how it's done in Pokémon. To prevent things from getting stale, perhaps they might be able to alter their personalities and looks as time goes on?
To be honest, I don't think it would be the best idea to keep the same characters in every single new series. As someone who has watched the entirety of DM*, GX, 5D's, and Zexal, as well as what we have so far in ARC-V, I feel that the charm of Yu-Gi-Oh is that we actually get a strong plot that
resolves, where every character has their own goal and develops by the end of the series, as well as the fact that we are given a proper, touching conclusion each time. Don't get me wrong, I love the original as well, but the ending would be infinitely less meaningful if Atem came back for some random new adventure. Heck, that's pretty much the reason why Jaden/Judai had to
time travel to duel him, because Atem is just... gone.
Also, the old characters ARE in fact coming back -- in the new 2016 movie (minus Atem, of course). No, it's not gonna be another Bonds Beyond Time; it actually takes place after the end of DM featuring an older Yugi, who is likely trying to grow stronger on his own now. Even though DM had no loose ends in the first place, this movie will ultimately cover everything that we would ever need to give the characters a proper sendoff.
That, and ARC-V is heavily implied to be a crossover series, but there is so far no confirmation of any of the old characters returning yet. =/
***By the way, "DM" literally refers to the "original series," in case I confused you. ^^ ...Also, sorry for the ridiculously long reply; I guess I got pretty passionate when I was typing this up, haha.
