Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 010 The Fanged Cards, Part 2

Double digits! That's a milestone, I suppose, but not as impressive as the ones the last chapter marked. In Chapter 9, we had the beginning of the first story spanning multiple chapters and the introduction of Duel Monsters and pivotal character Kaiba. It was the most engaging chapter since the first. That means this chapter is going to have to work HARD to keep up the momentum, so let's get a look at how it does.

Is it just me, or has Yami lost the murder grin he wore in the beginning? He looks cuter and far less threatening now, which, I have to admit, is somewhat disappointing to me. And he only says the penalty game is "similar" to death, which seems like a step backward. Maybe my analysis of Chapter 6 is an anomaly...

Let's just say that Kaiba's maniacal grin makes up for Yami's kitten face here, because his reaction to Yami's rules is a resounding "crazy." He claims an ultimate duel to the death will be fun, which is 110% nuts. Yami reminds him it's his turn to draw a card and Kaiba complies, describing the card Minotaurus once he pulls it from the top of his deck. When it's on the table he commands it to materialize, I guess because the smoke effects aren't working fast enough for his battle boner.

He's gone off his rocker in 2.2 seconds.

Yami looks worried at the bull dressed in armor while Kaiba explains that his card is superior and it's fruitless for the dragon Yami played to struggle. He orders his Minotaurus to draw and quarter the dragon, but judging by the axe it's holding, that's not how he does the killing. Or, I guess the axe is for blocking the dragon's fire breath? That's what Kaiba yells in his insanity, anyway, along with a comment about how Yami can't even make the Minotaurus flinch.

The dragon is beheaded and diced, against Kaiba's original command, though he's happy enough to shout at the dragon to disappear either way. Dude, they do that on their own, you don't have to keep telling them to. Yami looks shocked as the magic smoke takes away his dragon and Kaiba does the quick math of what that should cost him in life points.

Stop talking, Kaiba. I liked you in the last chapter, but if you keep going the "useless monologue" route that all the other villains have, I might take back my initial approval. Don't test me.

The Holy Elf is the next card Yami plays, and he demonstrates the defense position as he does this, because, as he explains, The Holy Elf has defense points higher than the Minotaurus's attack points. Kaiba concedes that if Minotaurus attacked The Holy Elf, he would lose life points, so he puts Minotaurus in a defense position as well. Isn't this educational? I don't feel like all of this dialogue is for the sole purpose of speaking to me as an audience that has no idea how this game works in spite of how the rules were written out at the top of the page at ALL. AT ALL.

Kaiba keeps the blabber going with a declaration that it's a stalemate, and he'll just have to keep drawing cards until he can beat all of Yami's monsters. He accomplishes this on his next draw, and places the mystery card face down on the table, with a comment that it'll liven up the next round. Yami postulates that the magic card is probably there to make Minotaurus stronger as he announces his turn and draws his next card. The card is called Wight, and won't be of use to him due to its low stats.

It turns out that Yami was correct, because at the beginning of Kaiba's turn, he says the card he placed face-down will power up his Minotaurus.

The biggified Minotaurus chops off The Holy Elf's head at Kaiba's command to make it a blood offering. To what, Kaiba? You going to summon C'thulu or something? Given your mental state right now, I wouldn't be surprised, honestly.

So, Kaiba commands his Minotaurus to go after the Wight next - wait, I didn't realize Yami actually summoned that one. I thought he just kept it in his hand. That could have used some clarification. Anyway, Kaiba is laughing harder than he should be about how the new improved Minotaurus can kick all of the asses of all of the monsters in Yami's deck. He proceeds to do just that. As Yami's turns go by, his cards disappear and his life points go down.

Why wouldn't he just put those monsters in a defense position to keep from losing life points? Does he keep stupidly laying cards out in an attack position, though he knows the points are lower than those of Minotaurus? Is he just losing life points to make the win more dramatic when he pulls it out of his ass?

Don't obsess, Writch, don't do it... Kaiba tells Yami to give it up, because he's cut down everything Yami has offered so far. Yami is down to 500 life points.

That thing is terrifying, but it's appearance isn't what has got Kaiba shocked. Since it's one of the monsters in the game with the highest stats, Kaiba can't wrap his brain around how Yami has it. Maybe it's because his grandfather owns a game shop and has higher access to random booster packs? Possibility?

Yami calls an attack on Minotaurus, but he's not overly dramatic like Kaiba. The Daemon's lightning fries Minotaurus, and Kaiba is devastated at the loss of his cool bull warrior. Though it was just his turn, Yami says it's his turn. Maybe he means that the tables have turned, because the Daemon can beat all of Kaiba's cards now, but it came across a little odd.

Well, Yami, Kaiba's in a little bit of a pickle, though he's unlikely to tell YOU that. He thinks that he might have a card in his deck that will be able to beat Daemon, but he doesn't like his chances of actually drawing it. He has another, stolen card in his pocket that would make victory certain for him, so with a crooked smile, he decides he's going to try and be sneaky again.

You remember how that went last time, right, Kaiba? Right?

You are the literal worst at this.

Kaiba plays the card after his miserable performance of actually drawing it from his deck and Yami actually looks shocked. Why? He was so OBVIOUS. Kaiba is urging on the the magic smoke again, his impatience overshadowed by his grin of pure unadulterated insanity. Of course, it doesn't quite come close to his next expressions:

The dragon/xenomorph you have there may be beautiful, but YOU sure as hell are not, Kaiba. And if you wanted it to appear like it was your card, you wouldn't have forgotten to put it in your deck like a moron, either. Oh well, I suppose that makes it easy for the audience to see he's cheating. I mean, how could we possibly have known that it was really Grandpa's card if Kaiba weren't as blatant and careless with his theft and cheating as possible??

Kaiba does his super smart maths again and determines that because the difference in attack points between the Blue Eyes White Dragon and Daemon is 500 points, an attack should wipe out Yami's remaining points and win him the game. Yami can only look on in horror as Kaiba commands the Blue Eyes White Dragon to attack.

Uh-oh, looks like the Blue Eyes White Dragon thinks Kaiba's an asshole and doesn't wanna do what he says. Kaiba doesn't understand what's happening, or rather what's NOT happening, so Yami explains that Kaiba doesn't understand how the game works. The dragon won't attack because it doesn't have Kaiba's heart in it. Kaiba is flabbergasted once again.

Yami is hallucinating that he sees his grandfather's heart in the Blue Eyes White Dragon in front of him before it starts to disappear. Kaiba's mouth is agape in disbelief as it does so. As the smoke dissipates, Yami mockingly asks if the Blue Eyes White Dragon managed to forget how loyal it was to his grandfather and attack him. Kaiba calls Yami an idiot, because cards don't have loyalties, as they're just cards.

I was going to complain here about how convenient it seems that the card that could have made Yami lose the game has loyalties and therefore refuses, agreeing with Kaiba. But, then I remembered that this was actually an excellently set up victory. At the beginning of the last chapter, Grandpa told Kaiba that he values his Blue Eyes White Dragon card because it has special meaning to him outside of just the game. It's obvious that Kaiba only wants it because it's a strong card and he wants to win with it. In fact, that's why he has ALL his cards, and aside from their stats, they're interchangeable to him, which was the point of trading them. The Blue Eyes White Dragon, therefore, was only useful to Kaiba in how he could use it to win.

Now, as it disappears, Yami tells Kaiba that he doesn't understand "this game." At first, I thought he meant Duel Monsters in general, but it occurs to me that he might have been talking about this specific duel. It's a shadow game that makes the monsters materialize out of their cardstock bounds, and I thought it was just there to make the card game a little more interesting visually, which was why I made fun of Yami when he said it was an entirely different game. After some thought, though, I realized there's another purpose to it, which was also the reason why the pictures on the cards were disappearing as they went out of play.

This shadow game appears to actually give monsters AGENCY, which WOULD change the rules of the game dramatically if any monster can refuse to obey at any time, for any reason. It also provides a very apt contrast to how Kaiba not only views cards, but EVERYTHING in life. He sees everything as a tool to win, including other people, and he doesn't care about their autonomy. He manipulates where needed in order to get what he wants, and when it doesn't work, he gets angry and violent - exactly how he treated Yuugi just a few hours before.

I was almost convinced that Takahashi wasn't nuanced enough of a writer for this, because of all the blatantly flat writing he had done earlier. I mean, I was impressed with the little hint he gave in Chapter 6 regarding Yami's sense of justice and how it may not be as flawless and wise as the inscription on the Millennium Puzzle's box suggested, but that was the most I had seen of the elusive skill until now. Well done, sir, you have made me reconsider my initial assessments yet again.

Anyway, unfunny analysis aside, Yami is ready to carry on the game. He tells Kaiba it's his turn now and draws his attention to the magic card he laid down before. Kaiba apparently hadn't been paying attention and wonders when Yami laid it down and what it does. That doesn't seem like a tournament winner's focus, Kaiba. Get your head in the game.

Whoops, too late.

Waaaaaaaaay too late. The shadow game that allowed Yami to take the monsters out of their card cages and into the real world where they had agency also allows him to do the reverse to Kaiba. Being sealed in a card requires Kaiba to face all of the monsters he disrespected in the duel. They don't look too happy with him.

Yami describes this punishment as an experience similar to death, but it's only a temporary illusion. He also says that if Kaiba gets to know the cards, maybe that will help him understand the real heart of the game and he can learn from a real master like his grandfather. The whole "similar to death" thing here is up for interpretation, but I do think it supports my thoughts above of the entire point here being that the monsters are not autonomous inside the cards, and they're generally viewed as objects and means to winning. By giving Kaiba the same treatment, he gets to know exactly what it's like being trapped somewhere and not having any power to get out. This is further elaborated by Yami's comment that he could "get to know" the monsters in their situation and environment.

But, hey, for all I know, he could mean that the monsters are really meant to tear Kaiba apart, and feast on his entrails. Either way, Yami leaves Kaiba to return his grandfather's card to its rightful place.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, hardly anything substantive can be said about it without referring to the previous one, which I've already demonstrated. I realize I'm going to have this problem in bigger and bigger ways the further I go in the manga. Whether it will be an actual PROBLEM in the future as opposed to just an inevitability will depend entirely on whether Takahashi keeps the multiple chapter card games engaging enough to keep references short and to the point.

As for this one, I thought it followed up the last chapter well. The pacing was good again, especially with the fact that it skipped over Yami just losing his life points again and again. It was one panel of explanation, with a suitable visual, and that's all that was needed. Obviously, I've already pontificated on what I think the underlying point to the game and how it worked was, so I won't repeat that. All I'll say was that it was a deeper meaning than I was anticipating, and that just makes my conclusion about the last chapter that much stronger. These two chapters introduced a much more nuanced villain than the ones preceding it, and that's why Kaiba came back. He's interesting and his defeat was a good fit not only because it was a pun on the wrong he had done, but also because it gave greater meaning to his complexities as a regular person, without the villain angle attached.

There are things to dislike about the chapter, given how it's obvious Yami was only losing life points to make his victory all the more dramatic. Kaiba didn't put the Blue Eyes White Dragon in his deck before the duel because Takahashi clearly wanted to make his cheating more blatant, even though that was a pretty superfluous path to take. There was also a piece of obscure dialogue or two in there, but that may have just been the translation, no idea. It was a strong second part, though, and it doesn't peter out in comparison to the previous one, which I was very grateful for, because that was actually what I was expecting to complain about in this one.

I can't wait for Kaiba's return. He's a hoot and a holler, and he made me appreciate a semi-well-written villain all the more. Bless you, sir.