Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga: 221 Releasing God!!

I'd like to know who locked the guy up. Hell, I'm impressed whomever it is managed to confine regular old monsters in cards, let alone gods. No doubt this person has access to the ancient methods of those who imprisoned the Pokemon and Magic characters. I'd love to have a look into the grimoire detailing that process, but I somehow doubt we're going to get any kind of creative description of it. Chances are, when the time comes for an explanation of monster card origins, it'll be glossed over in favor of a flashy light and glitter show.

Another day, another translator. Who knew that there were going to be so many people passing this common, low-quality, sepia-toned raw between them only to abandon it a few chapters later? It's like a literal hot potato that NO ONE wants to hold onto.

Continuing the recap, Mai holds up Ra triumphantly, yet still says she "wants" it like it's not already in her hand? I don't know. Marik threatens to make her death all the more painful for her theft. She says she's not joking (who suggested you were???) and that she'll make HIM suffer before he ever gets murder her. While Jonouchi cheers Mai's good work, Anzu states that Mai began the duel with a card targeting Marik's god card, even though this isn't really the start of the duel. There's just so much weird dialogue here that I'm getting a little dizzy. Someone start making sense, please!

Lucky for me, Yami is plain in his approval of Mai's move, because he thinks that Marik can be easily defeated without his god card. Marik doesn't seem as insecure as he would have to be for this to be true, though, because he's chuckling. He's not convinced Mai should be so sure she can control Ra. He's probably comparing her to Rishid right now, again refusing to distinguish between his real and fake cards.

Kaiba's pretty intent upon the duel, noting that the god card has moved. What an observation. Then again, from the way Mokuba appears to be running and Kaiba walking onto the scene, perhaps he only just showed up. It's not the clearest thing. Mokuba also points out that Mai got the god card, and says that this might make it hard to determine who's going to win this one. Kaiba recalls how Marik said that only people connected to the Millennium Items can control god cards, but Kaiba characterizes this as some sort of joke. He's still willing to wait and see if Mai's got what it takes. Why can't he ALWAYS be this gracious?

Mai announces the start of her turn and draws a card. She needs three sacrifices to summon her brand new acquisition, but she's got no monsters for that purpose, while Marik has two. She has another completely out-of-place thought about attacking her opponent that seems to have no connection to her new goal of gathering three monsters on the field. Has her brain been mildly fried by this weird hallucination game or something? It seems to be misfiring an awful lot.

Marik invites her to show him her skills, as she continues to get cheers from Jonouchi, who's sure she'll win if she can summon Ra. Yami silently urges her not to be nervous, and Kaiba sends his own encouragement for her to simply show HIM the god card in action. I should have known that's the only possible reason he would ever believe in someone else's abilities - for his own benefit.

Mai starts by putting two cards face down, then she summons another Amazoness, commanding it to attack one of Marik's monsters. Marik looks unimpressed by this, probably because the monster doesn't actually attack? She's now eager for Marik to attack HER because she's got a trap with his name on it as repayment for all his goodwill. Seriously, I'm not sure what to make of all her contradictory and nonsensical bubbles. This is just bizarre.

She ends her turn, and Marik announces his, drawing a card. Yami recalls how Marik discarded his whole hand for a magic card - which I'm glad he mentioned, because my memory of his plays has been completely overtaken by his little headless trick. Still, Yami wonders what Marik is up to now, because he only had ONE god card. One REAL one at least. Yami forgets that this guy's whole schtick is copying cards and disseminating them among his special organization.

Marik places a trap card, which seems to have Mai a little taken aback. Whether it's because he's playing one to begin with or because he's specifying a trap over a magic card is not mentioned. Marik ignores Mai in favor of commanding an attack on her Amazoness instead, with a slash from one of his monsters. It pulls its fist and leaps toward the Amazoness, who also has her dukes up and at the ready. Mai thinks that Marik has played right into her hands, and activates her trap card, Amazon Curse Wizard. It's a headdressed and many-braceleted shamaness that has its head bowed in concentration, to magically swap the attack points of the Amazoness and Marik's monster. At least according to the currently unreliable and babbling Mai.

This statement turns out to be accurate, though, because the two monsters face off, their attack points suddenly switched as they're surrounded by spectral fire. Marik, again, looks unimpressed, even though shit is actually happening now.

Sooooo, getting bad haircuts turn you on, huh Marik? He certainly has to tell everyone about how good he feels in the next panel, which makes ME feel like I'm getting unwanted attention from some scrub in a bar. Can't even IMAGINE how Mai feels. He makes it even worse when he blurts that it's because his opponent stepped into his trap, and laughs. Mai is flabbergasted, and when Marik reveals HIS trap, Last Will, I am too. It's less insidious than he made it seem - he gets to draw five new cards when his monster's attack is zero. Uhhhhh... good for you? Yami is pretty serious about Marik's apparent intention to rearrange his hand, though. He's got his "uh-oh" face on.

After Marik draws his five cards, he makes a sinister appeal to his monster's special ability, giving him the right to play a trap card straight from his hand. This is making Mai nervous, because she had intended to end the match quickly when Marik didn't have any cards left in his hand. Marik makes another TMI comment about how the pain feels super duper good, then plays his trap, Torturing Wheel. Mai is shocked by its appearance.

As she should be.

Yami and Jonouchi look distressed, calling out to her, while Marik gives her a smug silence. But when she snags a panel of her own, she's looking just as smug, thanking him for the trap. Wha-wha-WHAAAAAA? Her horror did not last long this time AT ALL. She flips her other face down card to reveal the trap Rescuing Hand. Three guesses as to what that does.

Surprise! It really returns an opponent's trap card their hand, allowing them to summon a monster in its place. Marik sees right through this, guessing that she's planning to summon Ra to the field. Oh well-done on that deduction, sir. You're sooooo clever. Guess who's ACTUALLY clever, though? Mai says that she learned from Jonouchi's duel that Ra's attack comes from the attack of the sacrifices, and if she used the method Marik was implying, Ra's attack would be zero. Marik praises her on how smart she is, though he's smirking at her still. Mai informs him that she DOES have a plan, and will have Ra on the field with her on her next turn. Marik makes a condescending noise at her, and Jonouchi wonders aloud with worry how she's going to assemble three monsters by her next turn.

Mai promises to show her method, the first step of which is returning her Amazoness to her hand now that it separates from the Torture Wheel. Once she's put the card back in her hand, she chooses another to slap on her Duel Disk: good ol' Harpy Lady. Jonouchi grins and cheers at Mai's favorite card, and Yami begins to recall Mai's signature combo. It HAS been a long while since she's whipped it out, so that's understandable.

She informs Marik that the Amazons she's been throwing at him were just decoys; Harpy Lady is her most powerful card. Also, it's her turn now, so she can play a little multiplicity move.

Jonouchi is in awe, singing the praises of Mai and her badassery, but she's not done yet. Mai uses her three Harpies as her sacrifices immediately, in order to bring about her call to a certain god. Right before she sets her card and commands Ra to come out, lightning forks across the sky again. The last time this happened hasn't even had time to fade from my memory. I'm getting super nervous for Mai here.

All the onlookers are paying the utmost attention now, most looking concerned or uncertain, one guy in particular wearing an excited smile. I'm sure you can guess who. There's one question that all of them share: will the god actually come out this time? Marik is outwardly amused by the breathless spectacle, chuckling as he asks Mai if she thinks she can control it. He tells her that, in case she hasn't noticed, the god is in fact watching her. Mai gasps in shock and bewilderment when she looks up.

Is getting crushed by a giant golden sphere better than being shocked by divine lightning? Which way would YOU rather die?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I can't say I'm particularly happy with this new translator. No doubt you noticed how eager "Clairleader" was to alert everyone to the fact that they were the one doing the translating, and I honestly don't know why. As petty and mean as I'm about to sound, I feel it must be said regardless -  this isn't the level of work that I would personally take a lot of pride in. Other recent translators haven't done a much better job, but more often than not, I could eke out meaning in most of the more obscure quotes. However, in this chapter, Mai's dialogue was all kind of confusing, to the point where I was discounting a LOT of lines as mere nonsense. It didn't in any way fit in with what was happening. I assume whoever "Clairleader" is, they were translating as literally as possible in a lot of cases, not paying any attention to the context that might make a phrase incomprehensible for someone like me, who's not familiar with Japanese idioms.

Also, I'm automatically a little ruffled by people who insist on plastering their name all over things. It's obnoxious, smacks of insecurity and entitlement, and reminds me of someone specific that I would rather not spend more brain power thinking about than I absolutely must.

As for the actual content (or that of which I could make some sense), I was really impressed with how Mai managed to dodge Marik's continued attempts at torture, and STILL get Ra's card on the field. I can recall a lot of "clever moves" in this story that felt stilted and forced, and like KT was trying to convince me the character was smart when the only reason they turned the tables is because he made up a card that would work for the very specific current situation. This was not one of those. The cards that WERE introduced in this chapter didn't come across as unbalanced power moves for either side, and the one that returned the advantage to Mai had a benefit for her opponent as well, a kind of trade-off. Otherwise, when it came to Mai's strategy for summoning Ra, KT used her established repertoire and used it in a new way, which I thought was genuinely clever.

Not that there wasn't that ever-present hint of slightly overblown luck that always overshadows our heroes' actions. It was just less noticeable here.