Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 039 End of the Deathmatch!!

Looks like this manga has had enough of beating around the bush! As much as Kaiba seems to have every possible advantage in this game - powerful monsters, championship pedigree, unlimited resources, and no law enforcement agency that is willing to even be mentioned in his presence - it is time for him to lose. No one is fooled by the added drama of Yami going up against this powerhouse; it's all about HOW he manages to pull off his victory in every other case anyway.

For me, though, there is the added element of this loss compared with Kaiba's previous one. He and Yami were isolated in a school at night last time, but this time he's going to be defeated in a VERY public setting. I'm curious as to how he'll handle it, as well as to how Yami will handle the penalty game this time around. Yami has so far not alluded to the fact that Kaiba is so much worse than the last time they played Duel Monsters, nor has he considered that this could perhaps be his fault. I'm looking forward to finding out how these two come to terms after the bullet hits the bone.

On with the finale!

Jonouchi and Anzu are still calling out to Yami helplessly and the crowd in the arena has the winner of this one staked. Yami looks down at Sugoroku's deck of cards in front of him, and it looks like he's really dreading this next draw with the sweat pouring down his face. Kaiba points at him and reminds him that on his next turn, all three of the Blue Eyes White Dragons will attack, so Yami has already lost.

Yami is still staring down at the deck in the next two panels, but he shifts his gaze back to his hand to note that he has four of the five cards he needs, the arms and legs of Exodia. If he can draw the fifth part of the creature, he'll be able to summon it. However, he doesn't like his chances of actually drawing the card. He thinks the odds of drawing it on the last turn are close to, if not, zero. His understanding of probabilities isn't all that great, though, since it would actually be greater than 1 in 40, and not all that bad.

He wonders if he's lost, but he'll never know if he doesn't take the plunge. Jonouchi and Anzu are still calling his name, begging him silently not to give up. Since he's not reading their thoughts, he's STILL STARING at that damn deck, six pages in. I'm starting to sympathize with Kaiba here; DRAW A DAMN CARD!

Of course, just when I start to sympathize with him, he changes his mind and thinks that Yami can take his sweet time. Of course.

Yami reaches out his hand and hovers it over the deck. Kaiba thinks about the relief Yami will feel once he draws the card, and once he's trapped in the darkness of death for eternity. I'm not certain what this means, but my guess is that this is a comment about Yami being much better off accepting his defeat. If only SOMEONE else had done that, this wouldn't be happening right now. Kaiba's a hypocrite.

Meanwhile, Yami is still hesitating. He feels like the cards are getting further away from him, but realizes rather that he's getting further away from them. He admits that his fear is distancing him from the cards, and he's terrified of drawing that last card as the reminder of what will happen if he doesn't draw the one he needs roars across the table.

Remember what you've said before, Yami: you're not actually alone.

His mind!friends say they're right there, and Yami grins at them, moved by their mind!devotion. He holds up his hand with the quarter smiley mark and then holds in out into his imaginary huddle. While he smiles at the fading mind!friends, he reminds himself that they're with him regardless. He actually places his hand on the deck this time, thanking his friends for giving him the support he needed to no longer be afraid.

I mean, that was your imagination, but whatever works, bro.

Kaiba sees that Yami's expression has changed again, and wonders if that's a desperate and hopeless smile he's seeing. I actually don't blame him for thinking this, because by all accounts he's winning here. But, Yami tells him that he's wrong, and he's actually FOUND hope. Wait, did Kaiba say all that out loud? But it was in a bubble that generally denotes thoughts instead of speech.

But look here, Yami finally drew a card! And it is...

Look at that bastard! So BOSS! I want one! Not the card, mind you, like a pet/bodyguard. I would love it and pet it and call it George.

Yami calls out the attack: "Raging Hellfire: Exode Flame." Well, isn't that a mouthful? Anyway, it destroys all three Blue Eyes White Dragons at once, because it has INFINITE attack points. Takahashi realizes that infinity isn't actually a number, right?

ROFL! Look at that! No, not Kaiba, because I'm used to his faces by now. Yami's reaction, though, with his hand hovering over the table like that... The expression is so, "Bro, you cool?" LMAO!

Kaiba laments how his dragons were destroyed. Yami lectures at him that any individual piece of Exodia could have been taken out by the Blue Eyes White Dragons, but together the pieces formed a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. Kaiba can only sputter in rage and disbelief as Yami announces that he's won.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, I was hoping that it would contain more, that's for sure. After a while, Yami's hesitation to draw that last card seemed like padding to draw out the chapter. The result is an entire CHAPTER that took place over just one turn. That's not suspenseful, it's just wasted space. I'm sure in the next chapter we'll actually get to the part I was really looking forward to in this one, which is Yami and Kaiba actually confronting how bad Kaiba has gotten, and Yami's role in it.

The theme of this chapter is one that has been reiterated from past arcs that did it better. In the Shadi arc, there was no wasted momentum, the kids worked together in a way that showed their greater potential because it didn't seem as staged as Death-T, and the puzzle analogy served the greater purpose of revealing that mysterious power of the Millennium Puzzle. Here, however, everything had to slow down to a crawl in order to show what we were already aware of: even when Yuugi/Yami's friends aren't physically with him, they are a powerful unit. This is because said friends weren't actually DOING anything in the chapter. It's not their fault, obviously, but it obviously interrupts the flow when we can't show them being active in the plot while Yami is making a huge, tough decision.

Also, in the Shadi arc, I felt Yami's fear a lot more potently than in this chapter. The situation seemed more dire, though there's a lot more at stake in this arc. I'm not entirely sure why, but my instinct is to blame the tone. Yami's playing a card game here with no visible signs of danger. In the Shadi arc, we constantly saw Anzu on the plank, or Yami with his head in the jaws of a crocodile demon... We were reminded of the stakes all the time. In this one, Yami's playing cards and there's nothing inherently dangerous about that. Jonouchi occasionally is shown with a gun to the back of his head, but after he snatched his captor's cellphone a few chapters ago, I had a hard time picturing him in any real danger.

The long of the short of it is that this chapter didn't make me feel what it was supposed to, because it was just a drawn-out move in a larger game. There was too much air in the package and not enough snackage, if you get my drift. I'm looking forward to more substantial content in the next chapter.