Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 037 Deathmatch!! Deathmatch!!

I heard you the first time, chapter, sheesh. I do wonder how to interpret that word, though. Is Kaiba planning on just giving Yami the "sensation of death" thing, or is he planning on actually killing him for real? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the former and the latter consecutively, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to clarify this a little. After all, the first three stages of Death-T were fairly obvious in how they murdered their victims. How would the death happen after losing Capsule Monster Chess or Duel Monsters, though?

Firing squad? Drowning? Watching a slideshow of Kaiba's vacation shadowing a chess grand master? Or would Kaiba just leave Yami in the death simulation until his actual screaming death? I have to admit, I have a burning curiosity that I suspect isn't going to be sated here.

The audience acknowledges that Yami won the first set, but someone also points out that Kaiba now has the chance to get him back. Kaiba actually "let" Yami win the first set, according to his thoughts, but he's still got his Blue Eyes White Dragons, so he thinks his meager two-hundred point loss won't have any impact on the outcome of the match. Yami is just as confident that he'll win with Sugoroku's cards.

Who is shouting that in the top right corner, and WHY? The crowd of kids don't need to know, because they're familiar enough with the game that they came to see the match in the first place. Yami and Kaiba don't need to know because they're PLAYING. I guess it was for the benefit of readers who just stepped in, like the box down there explaining the rules. But why wouldn't that top right part be in the box too? It's just clunky and conspicuous where it is.

Kaiba looks at the card he's drawn with a neutral expression as Yami glares at him from across the table. Then Kaiba opens his big mouth to taunt Yami, saying that he can hear Yami's heart hammering every time he draws. Kaiba tells him that he'll be as good as dead when a certain special dragon is drawn. Yami looks on with concern as Kaiba reveals that the card he drew this turn was actually a Degenerating Worm Beast. In spite of its name, it's not degenerating, and has higher stats than Fortress Guardian Dinosaur. Kaiba calls for the monsters to battle, and Yami says he's cool with it.

Kaiba narrates his Worm Beast's attack, the poison spray that melts its enemies. But Fortress Guardian has a special ability much like the monsters in Yami's game with Mokuba. "Aviation" gives it a 35% chance of dodging the attack. That was enough, because the winged dinosaur (ahem, pterosaur) escapes, causing Kaiba to growl in irritation. Yami commands his "dragon" to attack too, and I'm wondering just what the hell this thing is, anyway. The Worm Beast is destroyed by fiery balls from the dragon's mouth as Yami calls it a dinosaur once again. Which is it?

And that's the least of my confusion in this scene, because Kaiba says that the attack points of the monsters were the same, so he doesn't lose life points. But he said a couple pages back that his Worm Beast had HIGHER attack points. Even if they have the same attack points, both monsters should be destroyed in an attack, right? I mean, it doesn't say so in the rules up there, but I could have sworn there was a rule about that. Am I remembering incorrectly?

Maybe, but more importantly, I'm obsessing again. Meanwhile, in the crowd, some kid is upset that Kaiba was hurt again when he actually wasn't? Goodness, does anyone actually know what's happening here?? I thank Anzu and Jonouchi for not adding to my confusion, because they're congratulating Yami in a very non-specific way.

Kaiba says he doesn't want to end his turn with no monster, so he makes a big deal about choosing a card and putting it on the table in defense position. He pontificates about how the monster has high defense, so it makes a good wall monster. Is he lecturing a class or playing a game? No wonder he ends up founding a Duel Monsters college in another series. *eyeroll*

Yami announces that it's his turn and his draw. Looks like he's getting into the teaching and posturing spirit as well. He ponders the monster hunched over in defense on Kaiba's side of the table, not knowing what its defense points even are. Can you not read the card from where you're sitting, Yami? Instead of risking attacking, Yami puts a monster in defense on his side too, and tells Kaiba it's his turn.

Kaiba thinks he understands Yami's strategy is to use monsters as "meat shields" to protect himself against the Blue Eyes White Dragon if he draws it. They're not meat shields if they're made of cardstock or holograms, though, so there's that. Kaiba declares that he doesn't need the Blue Eyes White Dragon to beat Yami, though, and he'll prove it. He puts his wall monster into attack mode on the table.

Well, so much for Sugoroku's assessment that Kaiba has trouble using magic cards. Kaiba calls the "Dark Glide" attack on Yami's dinosaur/pterosaur/dragon, with its attack power of 400 points lower. Yami is somehow shocked that the monster is gone now as his life points go down to 1600. The creepy Dark Clown giggles, and Kaiba reiterates needlessly that the Fortress Guardian is history. He praises his combination attack.

Yami growls, thinking he's going to need some strong cards to beat Kaiba, who has a pretty good grasp on how to combine monster and magic cards. He also seems to be only just figuring out that this is a good strategy, despite the fact that he should know this very well by now. Just like he should know that Kaiba is a tournament champion and it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that he's good at this game.

I guess Yami responds to his own ponderings out loud, saying he has Sugoroku's deck to help him. He knows that there's some way to beat Kaiba in those cards.

Who hacked up this guy and put all his pieces in cards? Kaiba??

Yami knows he can't use a leg to beat Sagi even if he used it as a bludgeon. So, instead, he plays Critter in defense and waits for Kaiba to attack. Kaiba is happy to crush all of his defense monsters, calling out Dark Glide again. I guess this really does defeat both of Yami's defense monsters at once, because he doesn't appear to have anything in front of him anymore as he curses Kaiba's attack. I thought you could only attack one monster at a time...?

Stop obsessing Writch! Kaiba chuckles while Yami checks his hand for something that will help him, but he can't beat Sagi's improved attack. The crowd cheers Kaiba calling him amazing and generally kissing his ass. Jonouchi and Anzu both call out to Yami, Anzu pleading with him in her head to just think of Sugoroku, and Jonouchi just asking him not to lose.

It appears Yami put another defense monster down, because Kaiba calls out Sagi's attack again, and Yami flinches as holographic smoke rolls past him. Kaiba tells Yami he's disappointed that he might not even get to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon in this game. Yami has nothing to say to this, so Kaiba begins taunting Yami about how he's using the cards of a "half-dead old man," and he can hear the cards themselves echoing Sugoroku's desperate gasps for breath. Great, now Kaiba is hearing things from the cards too. Those things are TALKATIVE.

Yami grits his teeth at the insult to Sugoroku and his cards, thinking back to earlier in the day when he asked Yuugi to beat Kaiba with his cards. He doesn't hear the same thing as Kaiba; he hears the trust Sugoroku put in him through the heartbeat in the cards. He asks Kaiba if he believes in his cards, a question by which Kaiba's confused. Yami tells Kaiba that he believes in Sugoroku's cards before he draws one of them.

Is "Dark Knight" really a class? I'm getting closer and closer to going and studying the actual damn game so I can know what the balls these characters are talking about.

Gaia pulls a spiral attack on the clown with his double lances, and it is sliced into bits. Not really how lances work, but okay manga. Yami declares the monster defeated and the crowd goes wild at how the scores are just about even now. Jonouchi thinks at Yami to believe in the cards. Kaiba just mutters something about a trump card while Yami tells him that he still doesn't understand and won't until the very end of the game. Kaiba warns Yami not to be too arrogant, because the duel already belongs to him. That's not hypocritical at ALL, Kaiba.

Kaiba announces that it's his turn and draws a card. He grins.

Don't be unfair, Kaiba, Yami's Gaia was worth at least a few hundred of your life points, wasn't it?

Kaiba calls out the Blue Eyes White Dragon's attack on Gaia, and it takes down the knight in a burst of energy. Kaiba laughs, reminding Yami he still has two more dragons in his deck, so the assumption is he's going to die. Jonouchi and Anzu call out to Yami, but I don't think he hears them. He sits there in shock, with only 700 points left to his name.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I guess I was a little caught up in the rules that I thought were already in place. I can't say I know a ton about how this game works, but I know contradictions when I see them, and especially in the beginning, there was a lot of that going on. I may actually take a look at the rules for the real game, just so I have more to snark about, because I know that these early duels don't have concrete rules to them quite yet.

Otherwise, there isn't much to say about this chapter. There wasn't anything character-related to analyze, just attacks and counter-attacks. The only thing I found interesting is that Kaiba mentioned hearing something from Sugoroku's cards as well. No, I don't really think that he hears the cards like Yuugi/Yami do. He was obviously being a sarcastic shit. However, it's still very evocative of the last time Kaiba and Yuugi saw Sugoroku, which is a very different interpretation of the events earlier. Kaiba sees Sugoroku's loss and collapse as part of the same weakness - clinging to sentimentality (as he said in his first appearance) and cards that don't do anything for him but make him feel good. It is this very sentimentality that Yami is relying on, however, because it's reflective of how much life and the game mean to Sugoroku on a personal level. Yami and Sugoroku aim to show Kaiba that there's value in that sentimental side he's tried so hard to shed.

Emotions and sentimentality are important tools in games and life, because winning isn't just about being the strongest. It's about being the wisest and most intuitive, empathetic with your opponents, and understanding of how other people react in certain ways. In discarding that, Kaiba has given himself a distinct disadvantage, and as Yami has said, he has yet to figure that out.

To be fair, though, that's a lesson that's kind of obscured by his winning right now.