Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 096 The Deadly Guardian!

This title takes on a double meaning knowing that if Jonouchi and Yami can't manage to win against the guardian, they're stuck in the caves and probably as good as dead. Not that I believe there's a chance of that happening. There have been an awful lot of threats regarding child death in this tournament so far, some of which have been issued by Yami against himself mind you, that have never come to fruition. I'm grateful for this, obviously, but also find myself rolling my eyes when the kids are yet again threatened with death. It doesn't help that the threat is always SO overblown in the context of a card tournament...

Looks like some sort of weird steampunk robot or something.

Turns out that EACH of the three parts have their own attack points, from the top down: 2600, 2400 and 2500. Balls that's a lot of power. The third page shows yet another shot of the huge three-part monster from the level of the table. Jonouchi is fixated on the size of the monster while Yami acknowledges they're have to get past it in order to win.

Jonouchi clenches his teeth, saying he should have known because dungeons always have boss characters. Too true, boy. Yami has his smirk back on when he tells Jonouchi it's time to get to it. All of their monsters are at different points in the labyrinth, while the guardian and beast tamer sit at the end with the doors. The ceiling Yami cited as the reason Jonouchi couldn't play his Red Eyes Black Dragon must be WAY higher at the end to accommodate that monstrosity.

The Meikyu Brothers laugh at the fatal mistake Yami and Jonouchi made to allow them to play the gate guardian, though there was nothing they could do to stop it anyway. Which is it, guys? Did Yami and Jonouchi ALLOW it to happen or was it inevitable? Anzu says Yami and Jonouchi's names in worry as Honda talks about how tough that three-tiered monster looks. Kyu shouts that it's Yami and Jonouchi's destiny to be destroyed by the guardian at the very threshold of the doors.

Jonouchi scoffs and tells the bald men that they may have card combos, but Yami and he are going to show them the power of a combo of teamwork. The brothers invite them to try, wanting to see this teamwork they obviously think is insufficient at work. I kind of want to see it too, because that means there's less meaningless CHATTER.

Kyu tells Yami that his turn is done with the summoning of the guardian, so it's on to him now. Yami draws a card and reviews the state of his and Jonouchi's monsters. He counts two monsters in the top hats, though Jonouchi's Flame Swordsman jumped out of his earlier, so Yami is already off to a terrible start on observation grounds alone. He is right about one thing, though; the monsters will have to move closer to the guardian in order to actually attack. Yami glances at the imposing guardian, noting that it's a bit too risky to just go charging out. He settles on playing two cards face down before ending his turn.

Mei says it's his turn again, so commands the guardian to lay some hurt on the Flame Swordsman. This is the first time Yami is wise to the apparent fact that the guardian can attack ANYWHERE in the maze, and frets that there's nowhere for the swordsman to hide.

As the blast comes at the swordsman, Jonouchi is agape that it's dead because Sanga is stronger. The shot strikes and Mei thinks that another monster has bitten the dust, but a chuckling Yami has other plans, turning over one of those face-down cards. Mei's eyes widen.

A rushing wind twists around the guardian and stops the shot from getting through, which Yami calls an airtight magnetic field that double-deflected the hit. Okay sweetie. Mei says that the reflection activates the moment an enemy attacks, leaving the guardian impervious to harm. So... why did you have to command Kazejin to do it, then? Or did you just want to shout for no reason?

Yami chuckles again, talking about what a shame it is that Mei's other monster isn't safe. The tamer was electrocuted in the reflected blast, which Mei apparently didn't expect. He growls when the tamer dies and he's left with just 900 life points. Jonouchi breathes a sigh of relief at his monster's narrow escape, thanking Yami for saving him yet again.

Glaring, Yami thinks he's figured out from the previous attack that the guardian is really just three different monsters stacked on top of each other, so if they attack one piece at a time they should be able to get rid of it. Something tells me it's not going to be that easy, though. Jonouchi declares that it's payback time, and orders his reprieved swordsman to attack the guardian with Salamandra. It's repelled, though, confusing Jonouchi.

This time, a wall of water stands between the attack and the guardian, named by one of the brothers. Yami is shocked that another defensive wall was able to keep back the flames. Kyu asks if they understand now that the guardians triple form of the forces of wind, water and lightning make it unbeatable. It's his turn now, and he shouts at the water part of the guardian to make the boys pay for their insolence with the Aqua Wave.

The flood rips down all the tunnels of the labyrinth over the hats and toward the Flame Swordsman. Yami thinks that his magician should be fine in his airtight hat, but Jonouchi's monster will suffer a 300-point damage to its attack from a water-based blow. Then he says it's going to die. Can ANYONE in this chapter make up their minds about what's going to happen?? Kyu orders the swordsman to drown, and Jonouchi is devastated that they managed to get his monster, points going down to 1300. Guess that point reduction was enough to take Flame Swordsman out.

Kyu chuckles, and Jonouchi curses at the fact he lost the Flame Swordsman just when they were about to get to the doors. He moans at the prospect of having to walk the labyrinth all over again. Yami says that it's his turn with a familiar smirk, putting down the awesome Summoned Skull to retrace Jonouchi's steps.

The brothers don't look too stoked about this play, but they acknowledge that it's all the way at the beginning of the maze and it's attack won't reach the guardian. Somehow I think all the water flooding the maze is kind of making that a moot point. Yami clarifies that he's following the swordsman's footsteps through the maze, and this brings Kyu the realization that I already came to.

The lightning attack heads straight for Suijin, and Jonouchi cheers that they did it, but Kyu thinks he's can reflect with Kazejin's wind powers. He commands this thing that he said should be done automatically, but nothing seems to happen, making him grind his teeth in bewildered frustration. Yami asks if Kyu is surprised, and gives him the clue that his wave passed over the top hats. Kyu is flabbergasted, so Yami explains that this set off Yami's trap of the Hexagram, which was attached to the Dark Magician the whole time. Kyu looks horrified when Yami's hexagram activates for Kazejin and Suijin eats lightning. It's destroyed with a huge explosion.

Kyu grits his teeth, life points reduced to 780, pissed that his opponents managed to destroy one of the guardians. Jonouchi yells that they'll knock all of the pieces out from the bottom up like a game of Daruma Otoshi. Actually, that kind of reminded me of that particular game too. All that's needed is a little mallet. From the sidelines, Anzu shouts about how easy that boss enemy seems to be while Bakura gives them a generic cheer. I wouldn't be judging how easy a monster is to defeat unless you're actually sitting there in the duel, girl.

Mei nervously begins his turn, knowing it should definitely be used to remove the hexagram from the guardian to allow it movement again, and slaps down the De-Spell card to undo its magic. The guardian is freed, and Mei shouts that it's the opposition's turn once again, cocky again that they won't be able to defeat what's left of the guardian even if they make it through the maze. While the guardian and the demon face each other from their opposite sides of the table, Jonouchi takes the cue to draw his next card and glance at it.

Uhhh, didn't Yami say that Jonouchi SHOULDN'T play that card? Although, he doesn't seem to be upset at all when Jonouchi does, just rolling with it. What's his plan for getting through that maze with this thing?

I guess we'll have to find out in the next installment, then. I don't have any ideas, but I'll be damned if that thing doesn't look like a badass mofo.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This is the first time in a while that I thought there was a bit too much recap at the beginning of the chapter. I think that could have been condensed down to so much less than the four pages it took up. I understand that KT wanted to show off this monster design here, but at one full-page spread and another two huge panels featuring nothing but it just standing there, I think that was just more space that he could have used spreading out the density of the chapter's dialogue.

Other than that, I enjoyed watching Yami taking advantage of the environment created by the Meikyu Brothers. I've finally gotten past the "that sounds fake, but okay" phase of my viewing of these kinds of environmental rules around the game. The rules have been presented as consistent enough that I've begun to look beyond how the holograms make them visible to an extension of those elemental advantages that Sugoroku explained at the beginning of the arc. Don't get me wrong, I still think the mechanics are too heavily reliant on the holograms, but at least now I can see how the new environmental rules of this tournament are building off the regular rules of the game rather than being made up out of whole cloth.

Now all I need is a feasible reason why these cards would be microchipped before the technology to use those chips was even conceived of and I'll be all good on this manga's believeability. No? Okay.