Now, when I went looking for this chapter translated in English on the good old net, I was reminded immediately of what I said way back at the beginning of my first review on this blog. Gracious, there isn't a copy of this chapter that isn't a hot mess out there. The quality of all the manga websites' collections is SO POOR, I can barely see what's going on in them. Seriously, I thought one of the panels contained a giraffe's portrait done by Picasso.
So, I headed on over to a blog I'm following that's been around a while called simply Yu-Gi-Oh! Blog. Click the link and pay this person a visit, as they're not only phenomenal enough to provide downloads for the English translations for the manga in their YGO Media section, they also have some pretty good reviews going volume by volume themselves. Credit where credit is due; the below images come from their downloads, so head on over and say hi!
Now that that's out of the way, here we are, starting off with a reminder of what Duel Monsters is and what it's all about.
Yuugi is sitting watching a match while thinking about how everyone here in his school plays this game during recess. Kids, for the love of everything good, go outside and play for once. A few others are standing around watching as well, as Jonouchi laughs and lays down a card called "Rock Ogre Grotto #1", telling his opponent, Anzu, to marvel at how strong it is while he attacks with it. Anzu doesn't seem too concerned with this, perusing her cards for her next move. She uses the magic card "Wind of the Gods" to turn his rock creature to dust and blow that dust away, and this is her winning move.
Jonouchi tosses his cards in the air like a gigantic toddler, complaining about how he lost again. Anzu sniggers and calls Jonouchi lame. Jonouchi turns to Yuugi and shakes him by the shoulders, asking why he hasn't been able to win while Yuugi sweatdrops at the rough treatment. Once Jonouchi is done freaking out and rattling Yuugi, Yuugi asks to see his deck and Jonouchi hands it over. Yuugi is shocked to see that all 40 cards in the deck are monsters.
Jonouchi confirms this, saying he stuffed that deck to the gills with the most powerful monsters he could find, but Yuugi informs him that this isn't a good thing. He explains that strategy in the game depends on combining spell and monster cards, and it's easy to dodge the attacks of a guy who only puts monsters forth. Jonouchi hums with a glare, which I assume is his thinking face.
His thought process is limited, because he grabs Yuugi again and demands that he teach him how to play the game better. Yuugi invites Jonouchi over to his place later for some training, and to watch the finals of the tournament being televised which Jonouchi so wisely asked to train on the same day as. Anzu asks if that's so, and Jonouchi suggests they all watch it together.
Later that afternoon, Sugoroku is just turning the sign in the shop window from open to closed when Yuugi and pals walk up. He welcomes Yuugi home, and invites everyone else in as well. Jonouchi asks why Sugoroku closed the store so early, and learns that Sugoroku was looking forward to watching the Duel Monsters finals tonight, too, and can't be bothered to watch the shop at the same time. What if some pesky customer walks in while he's trying to discern the complicated moves of some child playing with trading cards on TV? What a disaster THAT would be!
When they enter the shop, Sugoroku lets Yuugi know that a package came for him earlier as he pulls it out from behind the counter. Yuugi wonders who it could be from, but there's no name on the return address. He then wonders what could be inside, but apparently doesn't care too much, because it doesn't look like he bothered to open it before a little cartoon alarm clock shows what I assume to be a much later time.
While munching on a snack, Jonouchi asks Yuugi why he didn't enter the tournament, since he could have stomped the competition. No kidding, that boy has beaten greater odds just showing up for school in the morning. Yuugi agrees, which is super humble by the way, but says that he's not entering a tournament unless it's to duel HIM. Anzu looks at him questioningly, but don't let her quizzical expression fool you, we ALL know who HIM is.
Anzu says that she heard Kaiba's still... locked up inside his own skull putting together his shattered heart again, I'm sure. Yuugi tells her that that's correct, since he went to visit him in the hospital the day before and there was still no change in his condition. Jonouchi starts with a quiet mumble, but suddenly bursts into a tirade about how he'd never trust Kaiba if he came back. That's probably very wise, Jonouchi. Yuugi looks at him like he's crazy, though, which seems a tad backwards to me.
Sugoroku changes the subject abruptly by telling them that the finale is starting.
The announcer says that thousands of Duel Monsters fans across Japan have been waiting for this moment, the final round of the tournament starting in just a moment. Thousands doesn't sound like enough to gain a Coca Cola sponsorship, but if I'm wrong about this, hit me up in the comments. According to the announcer, there were over 200 duelists that made it to regionals, but there can be only one winner.
Each of them holds up their respective decks while the announcer calls out the start of the game. The next panel shows them sitting opposite each other in the same duel dome structure that Kaiba developed to duel Yuugi in for his final stage of Death-T, but the announcer says that it was developed by the card creator company of Industrial Illusions in COOPERATION with Kaiba Corp. Hmmm, somehow I doubt the company that created Duel Monsters offered to help Kaiba develop a box in which he could fuck with his personal enemies. Something's awfully fishy here...
The announcer states that both competitors are sitting in the box, and I don't know why he bothered. Everyone can see that, dude. Haga says that he can hear Ryuzaki's cards trembling, and instead of telling him to stuff it, Ryuzaki fires back at him that his dinosaur deck will crush him like the ants he so admires. Someone shouts "DUEL" and both kids draw their cards.
From the other side of the screen, Jonouchi asks who Yuugi thinks is going to win. Yuugi launches into a long-winded explanation about the strengths and weaknesses of each player, talking about insect monsters being enhanced by armor and magic, and dinosaurs just overwhelming the competition with their high stats. FASCINATING, Yuugi, but are you going to answer the question? Jonouchi thinks he knows how HE would bet, based on how dinosaurs are bound to just stomp on insects. Well, let me ask you this, Jonouchi: which of the two still exist; dinosaurs or insects? I rest my case.
Yuugi asks Jonouchi if he's sure about his assessment, before drawing his attention to the duel happening on the TV. The announcer says that the monster Ryuzaki just summoned by slapping the card on the table aggressively is called Two-Headed King Rex, which looks exactly how it sounds. Haga looks cool as a cucumber when he summons the Basic Insect in response. Jonouchi wonders just what Haga was thinking when he used such a weak card, and thinks Ryuzaki's got this game in the bag already.
But Yuugi thinks that Haga is setting up a trap. Ryuzaki tells his mutant dinosaur to attack the insect on the field, and Haga laughs while he points and makes fun of Ryuzaki for saying attack. Wow, the more I'm reading of this manga, the more I'm finding that Little Kuriboh's characterization in his abridged series is SPOT ON. Ryuzaki is confused, so Haga explains that his attack triggers the card he had face down on the table. Ryuzaki is shocked that this was a trap card, and is he REALLY a finalist? Seems like someone who doesn't even consider that possibility wouldn't make it through all the way through a tournament.
Haga turns over the card and describes the effects of its Infinite Dismissal, which summons a tornado of time that Rex gets swept up and frozen in for eternity. Who names these cards? While Ryuzaki is mourning his dinosaur's immovable state, Haga announces that it's his turn, and slaps a great big gun on his Basic Insect with a level 5 armor card. He calls out his attack, and the defenseless dinosaur is destroyed by a measly grasshopper. Ryuzaki is now shocked that he lost, but the only thing anyone else is shocked about is how FAST he lost. Sheesh, shouldn't a finalist have put up more of a fight?
Not that I'm not grateful this game didn't drag itself out as long as possible. I'll get enough of that later on, I'm sure.
The announcer says that Haga is the winner through one move as Haga waves to the cheering masses in the stands. This chapter is trying SO HARD to convince me this game is super popular. Jonouchi doesn't look as happy as the announcer when he repeats that the bug dude won. The announcer, meanwhile, states that a special guest is here to give Haga his trophy,
Neither Max nor the announcer elaborate on this new tournament, as the announcer says that it's time for the network to sign off now. He reminds everyone to buy Duel Monsters cards before the broadcast ends. Sugoroku says he's not really surprised that Haga won, and Yuugi agrees, but he was pretty stoked with the great duel regardless. Yuugi's definition of "great" and mine are TOTALLY different. He says that watching it got him all in the mood... to duel. Jonouchi says he understands now what Yuugi was telling him about combos being a good strategy, and insists once more that Yuugi train him. Yuugi says he's all for it.
Sugoroku tells him that he's curious to know what's in the package before he runs off to play cards, and Yuugi admits that he forgot. What kind of child IS Yuugi, anyway, not tearing open a package immediately? Sugoroku pushes the box over to him and he pulls the tape off the top, promising Jonouchi that they can play after he deals with the BORING task of opening his mysterious package. He seems pretty interested when he looks inside, though.
Yuugi sticks the tape into the player and everyone watches static pop up on the television screen. Yuugi and Jonouchi look shocked as an image appears.
Jonouchi and Yuugi recognize him instantly as the dude who was just on TV giving out that trophy, specifying that he's American for some reason. Who gives a crap? What does that have to do with the fact that he's sent you a tape? Max holds up his hands and begs him not to be surprised, saying that he really just wanted to send his video letter to the REAL champion of Duel Monsters today. That doesn't explain the OTHER stuff in the box, but whatevz. Yuugi is still surprised, no matter what the man on TV tells him to be. Good for you, Yuugi, you do you, man!
Max says that Yuugi has to be really good at his game, given he beat Kaiba, and calls his victory wonderful with an emphasis on the first syllable. Weird. Yuugi looks shocked that he's being praised for that win, and it's probably because Max just triggered his PTSD around the event.
And no, I'm not going to ask how a duel over video recording would work, because I know it'll just be some weird ancient Egyptian magic or something. Besides, Sugoroku asks that very question anyway, so I don't need to. Sugoroku says that there's no way Maxy-boy can know what cards Yuugi would play, so it's impossible. Maxy-boy says that Yuugi should build his deck in front of the screen and their duel will start in five minutes.
Yuugi strikes a pose, saying that he'll take any challenge, and Jonouchi seems a little astounded as he asks if he's really going to do it. As Yuugi sits on the floor sorting through his cards, he thinks about how dueling against the creator of the game is his dream. Yuugi still has the worst dreams ever. He says that his deck is ready after a time, and Maxy-boy announces that their duel begins after confirming that Yuugi is done with the task.
Yuugi starts by summoning a Koumori - or Devil - Dragon. Maxy-boy guesses from his pre-recording on screen that Yuugi summoned it, and Yuugi looks like he's about to shit his pants as he thinks about how Max correctly, impossibly, guessed the card he played. Sugoroku is in utter disbelief as Jonouchi asks how Max could possibly have guessed that from across the screen. Max tells Yuugi that he knows what card he played, and even knows what's in his hand, and can predict every move he'll make. He demonstrates this by correctly surmising that Yuugi is about to combine his dragon with a Dragon Knight in order to increase its attack points.
Gaping, Yuugi thinks Max can read his mind, and Max neither confirms nor denies this. Instead, he chuckles, saying that he's going to remove Yuugi's dragon with a Dragon Capture Jar to ensure that the plan is thwarted.
Yuugi narrates what just happened in his head while he watches the smoke from the card get sucked into the screen. Yuugi realizes that this is a shadow game, and that's Yami's cue to come out and declare that Max's opponent is really him. He warns Maxy-boy not to mess with him, though in his mind he's admitting that this won't be easy, because he's now fighting the creator of the game. Said creator chuckles evilly.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's not much to say right now, given this is the beginning of a LOOOOOOOONG arc and there's not a lot of information on who Pegasus is at this point. We know he has long shiny hair and is American, as well as an inexplicable tendency to stick the word "boy" on the ends of names. That's about it, though.
I mean, other than the fact that he is somehow able to duel people in shadow games through pre-recorded video tapes. This seems like a pretty specific power, and the nature of it probably won't be revealed for quite a while. He's going to be with us for a while, so I'm not concerned with not having the deets quite yet.
What I am concerned with is how conveniently this chapter laid everything out. Jonouchi not only asked to be trained on the day the finals for the tournament aired, but those finals demonstrated to him EXACTLY the point that Yuugi was telling him earlier about the combination of magic and monster cards? If they were watching kids dueling at the BEGINNING of a tournament and Yuugi was pointing out the kids who lost because they weren't using proper strategy, this would have been so much more acceptable to me. But finalists should already know how to use combos and be seasoned in using them as well, so this just came across as a really clumsy way of getting Yuugi's point across, because he's the center of the universe, doncha know?
I mean, yes, Yuugi IS the center of his own universe. Stories are, after all, just universes that revolve around a central character/s that acts and is acted upon by their environment. But it helps if it's not SO OBVIOUS.
Oh boy, it's time for the best Yu-Gi-Oh villain: Pegasus J. Crawford! No idea why his name was changed in English considering it was already American, but whatever.
ReplyDeleteAlso, between Ryuuzaki and Haga, the former is less of a jerk than the latter!
Pegasus IS a pretty outlandish name for somebody, to be fair. Or, WAS outlandish before all the celebrities started naming their kids stupid, outlandish shit. I wouldn't be surprised in there was an honest-to-goodness Pegasus out there now, with the horrible naming conventions these days.
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