In all seriousness, though, this is a really positive message to send readers. I'm enjoying the insight into Yuugi's essentially positive outlook, and the underlying encouragement to the audience to embrace positive thinking in their own lives.
The bus is crowded when Yuugi boards, and he can't find a seat. He sees a fellow classmate, Hanasaki, whom he didn't even realize took the same route as him. Yuugi calls out to Hanasaki, and is hurt when Hanasaki looks around at him and immediately turns away again without a word of greeting. Why you gotta be so rude?
Yuugi rationalizes this by thinking about how they hadn't really talked before anyway, and Hanasaki is always really quiet and doesn't socialize much. He doesn't seem to note that Hanasaki actually looked a little scared for the moment we saw his face.
Maybe he just bounced off of another person and... no, no, everyone is LEANING in the direction he fell! This doesn't make sense!!
Okay... Not going to obsess over this. Yuugi looks around and notices that the very back of the bus is empty except for a boombox, a pair of legs and a very awful noise.
Souzouji has a reputation for being a terrible singer, and other people Yuugi has spoken with have literally been made sick by the guy's voice. Yuugi doesn't have a chance to turn down the invite, because Souzouji hands him some tickets to sell to girls. If he doesn't... Surprise, Souzouji is going to use his fists on Yuugi.
I'm beginning to think Kazuki Takahashi had some serious issues in school. Serious. Issues.
Yuugi is depressed by the time he gets to school, thinking that some other day will have to be a good one. He's greeted by a chipper Jonouchi, who picks up on the fact that Yuugi is not in a very good mood right away. When Yuugi denies anything is wrong, Jonouchi launches into a speech about how, though he has FINALLY realized there's no idol in the school, he'll shift his efforts to BECOMING an idol for Domino High. Yuugi isn't listening.
Yuugi insists there's nothing wrong and Jonouchi decides that he's convinced by this second denial. He wanders off to sexually harass Anzu and catch her fist with his face while Yuugi thinks about how he can't tell his friends about what happened on the bus. If Jonouchi knew, he would get into a fight with Souzouji, and if Anzu knew, she would just have to listen to Souzouji's awful voice.
Although, given how specific Souzouji was about Yuugi inviting girls, I'm not certain she wouldn't have cause to punch him too.
Yuugi goes the whole day without even revealing he has the tickets, let alone selling them, when he comes across Hanasaki again in the hall. He calls out to him, preparing to make a pitch, but stops himself. Even though Hanasaki isn't his friend, he can't bring himself to indirectly cause his eardrums to burst. Yuugi covers for himself by saying goodbye, but Hanasaki has more to say than during their meeting on the bus.
I'm... actually moved by this. Yuugi is genuinely kind, and that's more than you can say for about 90% of the Shounen heroes I've read about. Good on you, kid. You're alright.
Yuugi doesn't sell a single ticket by the time the "concert" comes around, so he heads there all by himself with bells on. Literally. Souzouji isn't impressed.
Souzouji demands Yuugi use headphones to listen to him sing, which he plugs in and turns all the way up to eleven. When he begins his favorite song, it looks like Yuugi is riding on a jackhammer.
Souzouji decides to take a break from his karaoke nightmare and introduce his "special guest," who happens to be Hanasaki, bruised and glasses broken. Wait, did Souzouji jump Hanasaki TWO DAYS AGO and keep him there this whole time?? That is cruel and unusual punishment just for giving those tickets to Yuugi, dude. I feel seriously bad for this kid.
I feel even worse when Yuugi kneels next to Hanasaki, lamenting he made things even worse, and Hanasaki says it was just his "divine punishment" for trying to trick Yuugi into buying a ticket. Both of you are just too nice.
Yami Yuugi unplugs his headphones with dramatic flair and is wearing an uncharacteristic frown. Isn't he always grinning like the murderous maniac he is?
Souzouji notes that Yuugi's eyes are no longer those of someone who is taking his bullshit, and assumes he wants to fight. Yami asks Souzouji, in turn, if he's a coward. If he's not maybe he'll play a game with Yami.
This game is basically the same one you played in the car on a road trip when your parents were done listening to you and your siblings bickering in the backseat. Yami is essentially calling our antagonist a shrieking child here, and I think that's not a bad comparison.
Souzouji confirms the stakes: if Yami loses, he loses his life; if Souzouji loses, he gets a penalty game. If I were him, I would be asking what the hell a penalty game is, but I guess no one cares that this term doesn't actually explain anything concrete. He, and every other villain in this manga so far, has essentially agreed to play without any idea what he's betting.
Yami and Souzouji sit on opposite ends of the coffee table in the room, completely silent. Souzouji is thinking about how stupid it is that a karaoke room should be silent, but he's ready to start belting it out again once he wins in a "one-hundred-song medly of death." I guess he really is aware of how bad his singing is, if he thinks he can kill someone with it.
The creepy clown doll in front of him starts dancing, signaling his defeat, but Souzouji can't figure out what's making it move, since the jack hasn't fallen yet. Turns out, his heartbeat, and the mic, were so loud that the speakers were picking it up. Yami announces that because Souzouji refused to put his microphone down, he lost, and therefore it's time for his penalty game.
Souzouji's heartbeat is so loud now, even without the microphone, that it's booming in his ears. Yami helps the limping Hanasaki out of the karaoke place with some more misplaced wisdom about how Souzouji has become a human drum set. How many times do I have to say that I don't think the antagonist is listening??? Especially not this one! His heartbeat is too loud, because of you, Yami!
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I thought it was much better than the last. No unnecessary panels, the game's result didn't seem like cheating, and I really loved the deeper look into our protagonist and what makes him unique among other protagonists in other series. I really enjoyed how selfless he tried to be, even with someone he hadn't ever talked to before, and his general policy to be as positive as possible. It was a breath of fresh air.
It just makes me dislike the previous chapter that much more, though. It didn't have any of these qualities, when it needed them that much more. These first few chapters should be chock full of this kind of information and character development, and the closer to the first chapter they are, the more they should have. Chapter 2 would have been better off being Chapter 10, because of its lack of anything significant added to the characterization of the main characters.
Since my faith has been restored in this series, I'll press on to the next chapter with a more positive outlook. Thanks for the advice, Yu-Gi-Oh.
My headcanon about Yugi Muto :
ReplyDeleteI think Yugi had low self esteem because of two major things : his relationship with parents , and bullying
For the parent part , even when we don't see his parents ( except his mother for two times ) It is safe to assume that his parents are helicopter/ tiger parents because many of people who grow up with those parents usually suffer from low self confidence because no matter how they do and achieve, it is not " good enough " as well as they tend to be timid , introvert and maybe socially awkward and many of them secretive and tend to hide things that annoy them so that will not make their parents angry and don't forget that they see themselves a burden on other people .
All of this symptoms exist in Yugi so it is likely that he have a tiger mom and we all know that his dad is absent.
Secondly, maybe people bully Yugi because of his looks , he is short ,slim and has a childish voice , he seems that if he didn't hit puberty at all and in the first few manga chapters we see that some bullies or antagonists emasculate him so that made Yugi ashamed of his body and himself as a whole .
Poor Yugi , I don't like that Yami was perceived as the " perfect , masculine , interesting" version of Yugi by many fans and even some Yu-Gi-Oh characters, Yugi is good when he being himself and people who really like him like him for him , he doesn't need to be aggressive and arrogant to be accepted . The problem is that his best friends thought that especially Anzu and surprisingly Katsuya was the least judgemental of them after the first chapter .
There's a suggestion that Yami manifested almost as Yuugi's "idealized" self, something he WISHED he could be, at least when it comes to this early in the manga. It makes some sense to me that he would want characteristics that he sees as popular and masculine - we all feel the pressure to conform to gendered expectations to some degree. But I agree that it's a shame that there are so many who perceive Yuugi as inferior to Yami in these ways, especially when the whole point of the conclusion was to emphasize how Yuugi is a valuable and awesome person in his own right and he is able to be strong by being his naturally kind and generous self. Feels like the climax of the story kind of sailed over a lot of heads.
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