Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 090 Call of the Grave

Ooooh, spooky! And rightly so, considering we've been in the thick of Halloween season for a couple of weeks by this point. Ah, autumn and gourds and all those spooky traditions that come with them just chills my little Writch heart, so this arc is hitting just the right spot. That, along with all those horror movies I have organized in a pile away from the rest of my collection. I'm gonna marathon those babies like I did this freakin' manga.

But poor Jonouchi, who is not a horror fan like me, is not having a good time at ALL. It's probably not helping his mood that Kozuka is explaining how his monsters came back from the dead with his Call of the Haunted card. I'm pretty sure he's well aware by now what that damn card does.

Kozuka continues to gloat, saying that Jonouchi and the world can't stand up to their unbeatable power. Jonouchi wonders how he can kill what's already dead, while he silently sweats at how creepy the undead monsters on Kozuka's side are. He's even more distressed by the fact that the field powers them up, meaning that this duel is going to be a tough one. Kozuka reminds Jonouchi that it's his turn, asking if he's scared and warning him not to pass out again among laughter from his friends.

Jonouchi is offended by the insinuation that he's scared, asserting that real duelists like him don't run from dumb zombies, and he'll make them pass out instead.

Jonouchi commands the Garoozis to do its Five Point Slash on its target, and the clown ends up in pieces. Jonouchi's premature celebration is ended when Kozuka points out that his Call of the Haunted card is active as long as it's on the table, so though the clown died, he commands it to rise from its grave. It pulls itself back together and is alive again, much to Jonouchi's disbelief. Kozuka further elaborates that once a monster comes back, its power increased by 10%, and this makes Jonouchi sweat even more.

The now undead clown is ordered to attack Garoozis with its acrobatics and knives of hell, since its pumped-up attack points exceed its opponent's now. Garoozis dies, and Jonouchi's life points lower to 1530 as he stares in open-mouthed shock. He realizes that every time he takes down a monster that it will just come back stronger, and that must be the power of this undead strategy. Jonouchi contemplates how he can fight, automatically considering that this means he can't win. Stop that right now, Jonouchi! You've thought the same freakin' thing twice already and it's turned out to be true exactly ZERO times.

Kozuka is playing into this negative self-sabotage, though, giggling at him and telling him he can't win. Jonouchi looks devastated, knowing that if he loses his star chips now, he's out of the game for good. He wonders if he's going to lose everything, and his mental Kaiba comes into his head once more, calling him a scared loser again. Shit, Kaiba is like Jonouchi's mentally abusive DAD or something. But Jonouchi pushes back those nasty thoughts with an internal declaration that he can't give up, and he can't lose, thinking of Shizuka instead.

He draws a card, thinking that he has to believe in himself and win, otherwise he won't be able to face Yuugi ever again. Woah there buddy, I don't think it's fair to assume you can't face Yuugi if you LOSE. If you run away, sure, but LOSE? He vows to stake his life on this next card as he looks at it.

It turns out to be the Time Wizard, and he's stoked enough to think that he can do it now. He doesn't think he can beat the zombies with his Flame Swordsman, but he might be able to throw them into a time warp with the Time Wizard instead.

Oh, looks like this card makes Keith a tad nervous. His expectation was that Jonouchi wouldn't have it, but silently acknowledges that the time magic could kill the zombies. The time roulette wand's needle starts spinning, and I notice that the little weird symbol that I couldn't identify the last time it was used has been replaced with at "WIN" instead. Maybe no one could figure it out and it was confusing so the translators replaced it?

Anyway, Jonouchi begs the wizard not to let him down while everyone watches the needle nervously. Jonouchi notes its slowing as it approaches a "WIN" verdict. But...

MOTHER FUCKING BALLS!!!

Apparently, the magic failing means that the Time Wizard self destructs and takes the Flame Swordsman with it into its vortex. Jonouchi reaches out, begging his cards not to leave, but it's too late, and half the dead monsters' attack points are subtracted from Jonouchi's life points, bringing him down to 630 points.

Kozuka and team laugh at how Jonouchi killed his own monster but left the zombies unharmed. Jonouchi hangs his head. Tough break, dude. Kozuka tells Jonouchi that it's now time for him to play another monster, that will likely end up a nice meal for his zombies anyway. Jonouchi gurgles, wondering what he can do now as he stares at his hand. He plays a Demon Hunter Kojikocy in defense.

Kozuka prepares to tell his zombie dragon to kill the demon hunter, but Keith tells him to stop again. Keith says that since Jonouchi's monster is in defense, it won't do any damage to attack it, so suggests he draw a new card and beef up the zombie army instead. Jonouchi gets fucking pissed and asks who the fuck this know-it-all blabbermouth is anyway. Keith replies that he doesn't expect people in Japan to know him, but he drops his name anyway, along with the info that he's a prize-hunter in the United States.

Jonouchi DOES recognize the name, however, and after a moment of reminiscence, he blurts that he heard about Bandit Keith going up against Pegasus from Kaiba. He also remembers that Pegasus was the only one to ever beat the "Card Professor". That title... Jonouchi thinks that if Keith is helping these guys, he never had a chance of winning.

Keith tells Jonouchi to give up, because he's teaching these guys all the winning strategies, and it was just Jonouchi's bad luck that he had to go up against them. Uh, no, it was the fact that you kidnapped him right after he took a piss, you asshole. Frankenstein's Monster says that after Jonouchi loses, he can tell Yuugi that Keith and his stooges are going to the castle instead of them.

Jonouchi grits his teeth, sweating. Keith goes on to say that when he beats people, they get such severe PTSD around cards that they can't even look at a regular playing card again without their whole body freezing up. Listen pal, you don't KNOW PTSD until you've lived through a theme park that was built specifically to murder your face. You shut your goddamn mouth, Keith.

But no one does what I say, do they? Kozuka claims to also be capable of making Jonouchi say goodbye to cards forever, and then takes Keith's order to play the "ghost king". He slaps the card he just drew onto the table, and a great shadowed cyclops-looking thing rises behind his already undead monsters. Jonouchi wonders what in the world that is.

That... is the best thing I have ever seen. I love it so much.

Jonouchi is floored by the fact that this thing feeds the zombies pumpkin zombie pie every turn. Kozuka orders just that, telling his pumpking to pump the zombies full of power, which brings all of their attack points up into the 2000's. After this, he commands the zombie dragon to breathe its rancid breath all over Kojikocy, killing it. Jonouchi throws another card down in defense, sweating and panicked.

Kozuka announces his turn and gleefully says that this means the attack of his monsters goes up yet again with a giggle. The dragon's attack alone is at 2400 points and it sprays its nasty breath all over Jonouchi's new defense monster. Jonouchi gulps while Kozuka tells Keith that his strategy really IS perfect. He recounts that this strategy allows him to turn all dead monsters into zombies and raise their power infinitely. No, wrong. It raises their power INDEFINITELY, not INFINITELY. There's a difference.

If I had a quarter for every time this manga MISUSES the term "infinity", I'd be as rich as KAIBA.

Jonouchi throws down another defense monster, and Keith tells Kozuka that the strategy isn't perfected until he draws the Stop Defense card from the deck. Yeah, that'll do it alright. Jonouchi's monster is again destroyed, and Jonouchi begins to believe that it's useless.

Yuugi turns into Yami as his other friends are talking about how Jonouchi isn't anywhere they've looked in increased panic. Yami holds the Millennium Puzzle in his hands and closes his eyes, much like Yuugi did back when they were looking for Jonouchi and his cruel gang. The vision of a cave appears to Yami, and then more specifically a booth within that cave. His eyes snap open, because he's found Jonouchi and starts running, telling the others to follow. He mentally begs Jonouchi not to give up, because there's always a way to win, no matter how bad it looks.

But back in the cave with Jonouchi, he's not looking so sure.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It has really rekindled my interest in the outcome of this match. I mean, Jonouchi's duels have always been of more interest to me than Yami's, because when it comes down to it, Yami doesn't have more than a split second's problem reformulating his strategy. He may ask himself how he's going to win, but I never really take that question seriously at this point because we all know he's going to pull through, and he has virtually NO CHANCE of not coming up with something on the spot. I just don't BELIEVE his struggle anymore, or at the very least I don't believe his struggle is as great as Jonouchi's. Yami's individual duels aren't as interesting because I'm watching him to see the ultimate payoff as getting his grandfather's soul back where it belongs; his skills are already developed.

Jonouchi, on the other hand, has a greater immediate struggle because of his lower skill and confidence level, and that makes EVERY SINGLE DUEL that much more intense because he's constantly reminded of the fact that he is not as good as Yami at the game yet. He's always in Yami's shadow, he's especially susceptible to trash-talk because of it, and he hasn't yet understood that the key to this game is being able to adjust and adapt to whatever crazy situation is thrown at you.

Which is why every duel with Jonouchi holds my interest so well, and this one especially. Every single duel he's in pushes his comfort zone a little further, pushes him to adapt more and more. This one took out the Time Wizard, because he relied on it to win the last couple of tournament duels. He needs to start looking at other cards as potential trump cards as well, and learn to adapt by thinking creatively in the moment. He's already GREAT at adaptation to most physical situations, as demonstrated when he got on the ship and started getting into the group trading of the other passengers. He just needs to translate that to his game and he's all set.