Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 067 The Ultimate Great Moth

I don't know, KT. Can this moth be any greater or more ultimate than the monster we've come to know and love from various kaiju movies?

Seriously, there's no way. I'm not buying it. This "ultimate" great moth is really going to have to work HARD to beat out Mothra. I admit I may have a bias toward the giant moth above, given it's already given me hours of entertainment, so that makes this an even TOUGHER contest for our new competitor. Let's see if it can beat that damn near impossible curve.

But first, I guess Yami has to try and make his opponent cry or something. Jonouchi and Honda are both participating in the smack-talking, asking if now Haga understands that he's no match for Yami. Honda even gives him a thumbs-down gesture to really drive home the idea that Haga is a loser. Guys, don't you think you're going a little overboard here? Well, maybe not, considering the little puke DID throw Yuugi's cards in the ocean...

Bakura decides to go on a different track, complimenting Yami's amazing ability to set up a counter-trap to his opponent's trap. Anzu has nothing to say either way, except exclaim Yuugi's name in admiration.

A buxom visitor has arrived, saying that Yami's move was smooth but only gave him a small lead. Jonouchi and Honda immediately begin ogling Mai Kujaku, calling her a babe and whatnot. You know, totally hetero. Mai ignores this, saying that it's too early to celebrate Yami's victory when a duelist could go from victor to loser in no time.

Anzu is indignant that Mai should butt into their conversation like that and asks her who she thinks she is by tacking a "chan" onto the end of Yuugi's name like he's a child. To be fair, everyone here is a child to Mai. Mai tells Anzu that Haga is the Japanese champion, and as such, he's a master planner with various strategies. She says that the real duel is only beginning at this point as Anzu fumes. When Jonouchi and Honda say that they agree with Mai, with heavy blushes, Anzu asks them what their problem is. Hormones, girl. Seriously.

Jonouchi says that even though Yami's going to win this duel, it doesn't mean he can let down his guard. Preach it, man. Anzu glares at Mai, knowing Yami is going to duel her at some point too. Mai has her eyes on the dueling booth, watching for Yami to show her all of his moves. When Anzu turns her eyes back to the duel, she shouts at Yami to beat Haga as quick as possible. Jonouchi cheers for Yami to go for it.

Oooooooooh, guys he's MAAAAAAAAAAD.

Yami tells Haga that talk is cheap, and what he should really be doing is expressing his frustration through the cards so that Yami can redirect it right back at him. Haga, hunched and clenching his fists, thinks that it's Yami who talks too big. He still has an ultimate weapon in his deck, and if he can play that, Yami can't escape his death. Haga grows an evil grin. Is it just me, or is this kid a little too eager to murder this other kid if he wins? Chill, small one.

Yami reminds Haga of how empty his side of the field is and tells him smugly it might be a good idea to play some monsters. Haga snaps that he KNOWS, okay? He's practically spitting as he says he'll play the Larvae Moth, Level 2 card, which he slaps down in defense mode. Yami immediately notes the strangeness of Haga's choice in plays, because the monster he played is weak in stats. He assumes that Haga has to be planning to attack with a combo. Meanwhile, Haga is smiling deviously as he urges Yami to attack him in his head.

Not falling for it, Yami notices that Haga's trap card is still active on the field, and thinks that if he attacks, his monsters could be destroyed. Losing them would make him vulnerable and lose most of his life points. He decides he has to get rid of Haga's trap, while announcing he's laying a card down called "Monster Recovery". Yami commands his monsters to return to their cards, and they sink back down into their cardstock prisons.

Haga grinds his teeth, thinking Yami is pretty smart to avoid his trap like that. Yami narrates returning the cards he recalled to his deck, shuffling his deck and drawing a brand new hand of five cards. Then he tells Haga he's going to sacrifice his weakest monster to set off the trap, Kuriboh! Kuriboh charges forward with a command from Yami and explodes in response to whatever card Haga used as a trap. Guess we'll never know what that is and how to use it, huh?

Yami brags that Haga's trap was destroyed at minimal cost to him. What happened to Yami's compassion for his monsters that was so prominent in the Monster Fighter chapters? He's smirking like he didn't just commit a cardinal sin according to his own sensibilities. Haga is grinding his teeth.

Yami plays Louise the Beaver Warrior and ends his uncommonly long turn. Haga begins to chuckle and then full-on loses his shit laughing, and Yami is surprised by this change of face. Haga points at Yami, claiming that he's a fool who did exactly what his opponent wanted. Yami's eyes widen as he asks what Haga's talking about, and Haga pulls a card from his hand, saying it's his trump card.

NOOOOOOO! He leveled up his Pokemon!!! Or, at least, he WILL. Yami notes that the Larvae Moth has been enveloped in a gigantic cocoon, one that Haga explains will nurture his larvae for the next five turns and burst forth as the invulnerable Ultimate Great Moth. Yami's mouth hangs open as he repeats the name of the monster in his head. I hope you have the Godzilla card, Yami!

Now THAT'S my kind of card!

Haga tells Yami that the power of the forest around them increases the cocoon's defense to 2000, so Yami is unable to blast it with the cards he has now. Haga compares Yami's fate in five turns to that of an old moth-eaten coat. Yami doesn't want to be an old coat, and he also really wants to win, which can't happen if the moth hatches. He knows he has to destroy the cocoon before it gets that far. Well, kid, you have five turns. Show us what you've got!

Not bad! Although the next page says that Gaia's attack is just 2000... Is that an effect of the forest field? I didn't think it brought DOWN a monster's points, just brought UP the points of the monsters that had an affinity for it. Seems like a typo or inconsistency...

Anyway, Haga says the attack is no use with a huge smirk as Yami yells out the assault's name, "Spiral Saber". That's... Not a saber. It's a lance. And it doesn't do any good either way, because it just bounces right off the cocoon anyway. Gaia returns to Yami, unsuccessful, and somehow Yami has lost life points because he couldn't get rid of the cocoon? But, the attack of Gaia and the defense of the cocoon are the same. How does he lose points, and how are how many points he loses determined if there's no difference? This makes no SENSE!!

Yami thinks this is just the result of the field powering up the cocoon too high, and worries about lost life points if he attacks carelessly. Anzu is devastated that Yami hasn't defeated the cocoon, while Jonouchi appears to be annoyed and asking if he hasn't gotten shit done yet. Mai is just quietly watching while she thinks that the Cocoon of Evolution hasn't ever been beaten and wonders what Yami will do.

Haga thinks Yami should just give up, because he thinks none of his cards can come close to beating his cocoon. Yami's own mind is going a mile a minute, admitting that none of his monsters have the forest advantage, and even with combos he can't surpass the power of the cocoon. Haga tells Yami that he's not able to play any more cards while the cocoon is on the field, so his turn is over, but he says the moth is already growing inside. The cocoon pulses like a beating heart. Ew.

Yami sweats about how he's wasting his turns by not coming up with a solution to his cocoon problem. We are apparently not seeing any of these turns, because after a shot of the surrounding trees, Haga gloats in his head about how in two turns, the Moth will be born and he'll win. Yami gulps, and his friends encourage him not to give up and hang in there. Jonouchi goes right up and presses his hands to the glass of the booth, reminding Yami that they came out there to win the honors of the Duelist King, and he can't lose here. Yami looks at him with one of those exclamation marks over his head, but not looking particularly surprised. I don't know WHAT it's supposed to mean anymore.

Jonouchi tells Yami that if he has to burn down the forest to get rid of the cocoon, he should just do it already. NOW Yami looks surprised, like he's having an epiphany. Mai begins to mock Yami's friends, calling them amateurs and telling them they talk too damn much. She says a real duelist only relies on themselves in a match, and wouldn't even pay attention to cheering from the sidelines. Anzu insists with indignation that he WILL listen and hear their feelings, and he'll win too, so Mai should just shut up and watch. Mai silently calls her a softie, but when she looks back at the duel, she's shocked.

Yami is giving his pals a thumbs-up. Jonouchi interprets this as a sign that Yami's spirits have been successfully lifted, and Anzu calls out to him in admiration again. Mai wonders if this means he's figured out a way to beat Haga's so far unbeatable combo. Let's see, shall we?

Well, what do you know, Jonouchi really DID have a smashing idea, didn't he? Haga thinks it's stupid at first, berating Yami for trying to attack with a monster that is 600 points weaker than the cocoon's defense. But when Yami chuckles, it's Haga's cue to wonder what he's laughing about now with shock, like always. Yami condescendingly asks who said he was attacking the cocoon, because seems to him that was a snap judgement on Haga's part. He says what he was attacking is the forest itself, and a view of the field below shows a great strip of forest burned away to reveal the ground beneath.

Wait, is this even possible if the table is supposed to reflect the forest outside the booth? If the environment on the table is supposed to be dependent on the environment outside of it, as has been implied, Yami shouldn't be able to actually burn away a strip of the table without ACTUALLY burning the forest.

Of course, Haga could have been wrong, and the table is just pre-programmed with that environment in it and it is totally independent of the world around it. I propose an experiment, guys. Jonouchi, you pick up one end, Honda, you pick up the other; we're going to move this sucker a few kilometers over and see if the environment on the table changes due to geographical location!

Or, I could just accept this was the only way KT could think of to let Yami win after he wrote himself into a corner. That's cool too.

Haga is appalled by the forest having been burned away by Yami's combo, a move that Yami informs him makes the cocoon lose its field power source and thereby lowers its defense. Haga makes a strangled noise as Yami calls out to his Gaia knight to use its not-saber to rip open the cocoon. Jonouchi cheers that the cocoon is done for, but before the attack lands the cocoon bursts open all by itself. Bakura, shocked, stutters out a question about what all those legs emerging out of the cocoon could be. I'll give you three guesses, Bakura.

Dammit, now I'm just imagining Yami with a raging boner beneath the table. I did NOT need that image. EVER.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It looks like I'll have to save my comparisons to Mothra for the next chapter. That doesn't save this chapter a lambasting though, because as I said above, the information we got at the beginning of the duel should not have allowed for Yami to pull the fire move in this part of the duel. You can't say that the tabletop environment is dependent on what is outside it in one part, and then turn around and say it's INDEPENDENT in another part. You can't have it both ways KT.

There is a chance that the information before was mistranslated, and gave off the wrong message. I want to say that the issue with Gaia's attack points being 2300 in one panel and 2000 in another is indicative of a translation problem all the way around, but when I think about it, completely different translators had the same discontinuity problem. Remember the beginning of Death T-5, when Kaiba said that his monster had higher attack point's than Yami's on one page, and then said the attack points were equal on another? I'm thinking this issue is down to the bare bones of lack of planning on KT's part than a simple mistranslation, since these two similar issues happened between two different translators.

In the comments below, Tim made a good point that the 2000 attack points thing is probably just a small typo, since the card has always had 2300 attack points as far as he knows, and it's fixed by the next mention. Also, I've been forgetting about the boosts in this chapter as well as the chapter beginning Death T-5, so the difference in those attack points are a bit more justified. Regardless of whether the table is supposed to be a recreation of the surrounding landscape or just an approximation that can be changed on the board, those little boosts are factoring into the numbers and I haven't been paying proper attention to that part.

I did enjoy the beginning of the chapter, when Mai came in all cocky, or breasty, or something. Jonouchi and Honda drooling over her didn't need to happen (we get it, you guys, you're totally straight), but Jonouchi's agreement with her with a little twist on the end was nice. He understands how the game works, but is willing to keep cautious optimism anyway.

Meanwhile, Mai declaring that the only person a duelist can rely on is themselves is very indicative of a serious character flaw on her part. She's sociable enough that she could have all the friends she wants, and it's clear she likes to talk and be admired. However, she's isolated herself on purpose, putting herself above others in order to distinguish herself. Whether this is out of fear or arrogance or some combination of the two is still unclear. I look forward to getting a good look at why her disposition doesn't allow her to be friends with anyone.