Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 136 D.D.D.!!

After seeing the stupid tricks Ryoji pulled in the previous chapters, I have a not-so-nice idea of what the name of this game means. I'm pretty sure my guess isn't anywhere CLOSE to reality, because I highly doubt that KT would name one of his games Dumb Double Doofus, but I'm tempted to disregard the real name altogether in favor of it. It would provide me a little more entertainment while I inevitably perform a string of facepalms on my way through this coming chapter.

Is Yuugi surprised that the other people in this world where GAMES RESOLVE EVERYTHING are interested in gaming? Because it seems to me that anyone who isn't interested in gaming is probably dead from someone killing them in a game by now.

Yuugi observes that's what everyone is here to buy, forming a line really early in the morning and everything. Anzu is amazed that people want it despite them not knowing a single thing about what it involves, but she shouldn't be. Waiting in line to buy something you know absolutely nothing about is what being a Dumb Double Doofus is all about. Yuugi checks his watch, which reads 10:30, and... hold up. 10:30 is really early in the morning to this boy? Seriously?

Anyway, Yuugi complains that Jonouchi is super late to the party, there being only a half-hour until the grand opening. Yuugi is worried that he doesn't have enough pocket money to by the game for Jonouchi too, seeing as Sugoroku's bad mood apparently caused him to reduce Yuugi's pocket money. Are you sure it's not because the game store you live in has been losing money because of the CAUSE of your grandfather's mood, Yuugi? Or was Sugoroku just being an asshole for no particular reason?

Bakura says that the limited amount of the new game they're selling today means that they'll only be selling a few copies per person. That's a good, solid number, Bakura. Glad to see you're still being the most approximate friend ever, as usual. Anzu snobbily says that if that's the case, they don't need to buy it for Jonouchi, because it's his own fault he's late.

Just then, Jonouchi comes flailing down the sidewalk, waving and making a scene while calling out a greeting to Yuugi. Yuugi excitedly says that Jonouchi is coming, despite the fact that it's unlikely there's a person for several blocks that didn't hear him. If you're wondering why Sugoroku is fuming when you get back home despite your super stealth plans to buy the new competitor game behind his back, that's why.

Jonouchi huffs and puffs out an apology that he's late and Anzu raises a finger to point to the trailing line, insisting he go to the back of it, nose raised and eyes closed. Jonouchi tells her not to be so serious, while Yuugi is just happy that he managed to catch up with them. Rubbing his jawline diabolically, Jonouchi is already planning to get a limited edition of the game and resell it for a profit. Anzu sweatdrops, muttering that this is clearly his REAL reason for coming, and Yuugi mirrors her expression.

Yuugi catches sight of his own house, looking deserted and like a ghost town despite the clamor across the road. He feels kind of bad admitting it, though. Yuugi asks his friends not to tell his grandfather that he came to buy the game today, because the Black Crown is their sworn enemy, missing completely the distressed looks they're casting over his shoulder at someone who just showed up behind him. It's Sugoroku, of course, sporting leaking eyes while Yuugi banters on oblivious about how he will always buy a new game, enemies notwithstanding. Yuugi leans in to tell his friends shaking their heads and mumbling for him to stop talking a secret: his grandfather is too old-fashioned, and that's why business has been so slow. Finally, Yuugi notices the looks he's getting and asks what's wrong.

I told you he heard Jonouchi carrying on, loud and obnoxious.

Woah. Looks like clown!dad's hidden face has less to do with humiliation and more with disfigurement. Shit, Sugoroku, what did you DO to this man???

Anyway, that sound he reacts to in the last panel there? Ryoji walking in on him and turning away to apologize once he notices that his clown!dad's mask is off. Clown!dad says it's alright as he hurriedly puts on the mask, urging Ryoji to come in. With some hesitation, Ryoji agrees, though standing well back when he tells clown!dad that everything's been set up and all they're waiting for is the opening. Chuckling, clown!dad enthuses about his revenge plan finally coming to fruition, Ryoji looking a lot sadder than this happy occasion calls for.

He hesitates to tell clown!dad what happened the day before, claiming that he threw a trap at Yuugi to test his strength, and smirking as he says Yuugi isn't as simple as he appears. Clown!dad hangs his head for a moment, then whips around to ask if Ryoji lost to Yuugi. Ryoji is speechless, then stuttering, clown!dad coming closer all the while. Turns out clown!dad has a small whip in his hand and WHIPS RYOJI ACROSS THE FACE, crying in disbelief that Ryoji lost.

Well shit.

Ryoji grunts in pain, opening his eyes to find that clown!dad is demanding to know how he can lose to Sugoroku's grandson, ranting that it's unforgivable. Ryoji tries to apologize again, but clown!dad has just gone off the rails. Clown!dad rips the mask off his face with a scream, and though the audience can't see his face clearly, Ryoji is disturbed as he's restrained by his shoulders and commanded by his father to look. Gesticulating and waving his mask, clown!dad raves that his face has been disfigured horribly, and it's all because of Yuugi's grandfather. Ryoji assures clown!dad that he knows because his father has told him the story hundreds of times before, begging him to put back on the mask.

And just like that, clown!dad jams the mask back on his head before apologizing for the whipping he gave Ryoji before. He asks if it hurts, acting all caring now, and I want to further disfigure this fucker's face my shoving my fist in it. Ryoji doesn't have the same impulse, assuring his father that it's okay, and a tear escapes clown!dad's mask hole as he tells Ryoji he's the only one trustworthy. Ryoji says he understands clown!dad's pain and hatred, so he asks him to watch him take that revenge for him.

He says Yuugi and Sugoroku's names with a cold glare as the announcement is made that it's 11:00. Time for those doors to swing open!!

Oh PLEASE, cop-man. You're not going to be anywhere to be found when real shit starts to go down, so don't even TRY to make it seem like you're bringing order to this overcrowded public train store.

The kids lucky enough to get to the counter first demand D.D.D. from the store clerk without a please or anything, one of them shouting that he wants 30 of them. The clerk apologizes that they're limiting sales to six per person. Yuugi is caught some ways away being squished by several people on all sides, nervous for how many people there are in such a small space. He complains that he's been pushed so far back that he's lost Jonouchi in the crowd.

Elsewhere, Jonouchi is celebrating a purchase of D.D.D. by holding one of the little foil baggies up triumphantly. Sugoroku cradles the bags in his hand, having bought it too. Who's the traitor now, you hypocrite? Jonouchi urges Sugoroku to open them to see what's inside, ripping open one of his bags as well.

You could hang those suckers from your rear-view mirror too!

Bakura observes that all the symbols on the sides are different while Jonouchi squints at his die and wonders aloud how you're supposed to play with them. Sugoroku suggests excitedly that they should all go over to his house to learn it together and Jonouchi agrees emphatically. Sugoroku, how old ARE you?

Anzu is the only one thinking of poor Yuugi in all this, looking back at the store again with the comment that he's awfully slow. Inside the store, Yuugi is still adrift in the sea of children, sighing that he doesn't know how much longer he has to wait and assuming that all the rest of his friends have gotten their game already. He sees clown!dad coming through the crowd, pointing at him with hearts over his head. He's clearly silent and wearing his mak, but expressing affection for Yuugi at the same time? How does that work?

Yuugi identifies the clown with a little confusion while clown!dad makes his way to him, putting a hand on his arm and gesturing with the other one. Flabbergasted that the clown is actually singling him out, he doesn't notice clown!dad slipping several bags of D.D.D. into his pocket and giving one of the store security members a significant look.

Clown!dad leads Yuugi a bit further into the store so he's much nearer the counter, which Yuugi squeals is awfully lucky. Two security members put a hand either of his arms and ask him to come with them, prompting Yuugi's confusion to kick back into gear. He asks why, but they don't answer, picking him up under his arms and taking him away as he asks them what they're doing and demands they let him go.

In a room in the back of the store, appearing as a sort of interrogation room rather than the office I think it's supposed to be, Yuugi is appalled by the accusation of the security members that he stole something. One of them states they're going to search him for the stolen items now while Yuugi protests that he would never do such a thing. The other security member yanks at Yuugi's arms demanding that he take off his jacket. When Yuugi's jacket is removed, the first security member snatches the Millennium Puzzle off Yuugi's neck to keep as collateral, grinning sadistically. Yuugi snatches for it, shouting that they should give it back, it being a super important item. The security member promises to give it back if Yuugi can prove his innocence.

My American brain is spinning right now.

It's totally possible to set your naive ass up, boy.

Someone says that their brain has been damaged by the customer's heinous actions, revealed to be clown!dad holding the Millennium Puzzle by its chain in the next panel. Don't put yourself in the same category as people with brain damage you excuseless fuck. Clown!dad pretends to be shocked (shocked I say!) to see that someone with such an innocent face could have a nature so ugly. I'm shocked that he's not bleeding right now, because that self-inflicted irony is SHARP.

Yuugi identifies clown!dad as the clown from earlier, and shouts that he didn't steal anything and he wants his puzzle given back now. Clown!dad calls Yuugi a brat who can't admit fault, determining that he needs some punishment. He orders his security members to take Yuugi away, and they do, Yuugi protesting the whole way. Clown!dad holds up the puzzle and glares at it, chuckling internally because he has the Millennium Puzzle now. And I'll be damned, his mask is emoting with a FROWN now! How is it doing that? *shrug*

Thrown into a dark room with only the checkered floor distinguishable, Yuugi shouts in alarm as the door is slammed. He looks around and his eyes widen.

Dramatic irony has caught up with Yuugi, who shouts his not!friend Ryoji's name in surprise. Ryoji asks Yuugi to sit opposite him so they can begin, Yuugi asking why he's here and what kind of place this is. With a smirk, Ryoji explains that the Black Crown is a store owned by his father, and he's about to play the new game D.D.D. with Yuugi as designed by himself. Yuugi gapes, floored by the information that Ryoji invented the new game.

Ryoji begins to explain D.D.D., or Dragon, Dice, and Dungeons, for those who hate acronyms. I'll stick with MY version of the longform, thank you very much. Yuugi repeats the full name of the game while he looks hesitantly down at the fancy looking arcade table he's seated at.

He has dice in a briefcase and a little disk-shaped thing to dispense dice too. Remind you of anyone? *cough*discountKaiba!*cough*

Sorry, I caught the consumption.

Yuugi pulls the briefcase toward him and removes a couple of dice to examine them, dumbfounded. All of the dice have a different color and symbol on each of their surfaces, and Yuugi doesn't know how to choose between them. Seeing that Yuugi is struggling, Ryoji tells him that each die is color-coded to denote what kind of monster type it represents; white for magic, grass for warrior, yellow for undead, green for beast, and red for dragon. Uhhh, is anyone going to tell Ryoji that "grass" is a plant, not a color? There were a ton of other actual colors he could have chosen from, but apparently he thought it would be great to make players confuse the green and grass monsters, huh?

HEY WAIT A MINUTE! Wasn't "grassland" the environment for warrior monsters in Duelist Kingdom?

And beasts are in there too, which are the OTHER green-colored monster dice. Also, I got this diagram from chapter 7 of the Duelist manga, and the current chapter we're covering is chapter 77. Coincidence?? Probably. Regardless, Ryoji is such a little HACK.

You'd think Yuugi would remember all this if this reviewer managed to, but he might be too busy trying to concentrate on learning these hack distinctions rather than analyzing them. Fair, because if he WERE analyzing them, I would be out of a job here. He glares at Ryoji, repeating the word "monsters" in his head, as Ryoji reveals that the black dice have special abilities. So, Yuugi announces that he's choosing the white, grass, and black types, piling them into his hand.

Once Yuugi has grabbed all the dice he needs, Ryoji explains that they're playing the "Dark Arena" stage, supposed to represent the "dark place beneath the dark underground", whatever that means. It's a black table surface covered in evenly spaced white square points, and two trapdoors open in it before Yuugi and Ryoji, much to Yuugi's eternal surprise. Ryoji alerts Yuugi that the game is about to start, instructing him to drop the dice he chose into his trapdoor, doing the same himself to illustrate.

The dice tumble into their compartment and it snaps shut on them, the table making some noise as it performs complicated dice-tumbling actions within. Yuugi stares when the dice he just threw into the compartment reappear to him in the neat line of the dispenser running along his end of the table. Ryoji says that his machine lines up the dice randomly, which is the key to victory or defeat. I guess it was too simple to just draw dice out of a bag or something, huh?

Ryoji instructs Yuugi to take the three dice the dispenser lined up for him.

My face exactly, Yuugi.

His perplexed gaze is drawn to the table when a little puppet sporting a conical hat and cape rises from another compartment right in front of him. Another doll has showed up on the other side of the table in front of Ryoji too, this one shaped like... clown!dad. That's... uncomfortable. The dolls represent the player's life points, three for each one of them represented by the hearts each doll wears on their chests. It's the Dungeon Master, because Ryoji can get around copyright infringement by ripping off other games JUST enough to fly under the radar.

Ryoji says that the person who receives three attacks on their Dungeon Master is the loser, wearing his smirk again. He calls for a start to the game, and Yuugi holds up one of his dice, nervous and sweating. As per usual "game start" is shouted by someone, because that's just how Yu-Gi-Oh do.

I think you mean you've ROLLED two summoning crests, Ryoji. If you're not careful, your flight under the copyright radar will speed right into it.

Ryoji tells Yuugi that rolling two or more of the same symbol on the dice will activate the ability it represents, so I'm sure you can guess what Ryoji is able to do here. Summon a monster! Yuugi sweats all the more at this news, while Ryoji picks up one of his dice and explains that the player can choose one of the dice he's thrown to use, his choice being a dragon die.

Gotta hand it to Ryoji, though. I haven't seen THAT one before.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Holy crap was reviewing this one a LONG process. It wasn't particularly complicated or anything, but there were so many scene changes and so much dialogue that it was difficult to recap ALL of it without spending forever on the task. The sheer number of things going on in this chapter was a tad overwhelming.

As much as I joked about Sugoroku being lured to the store by Jonouchi shouting Yuugi's name down the road, it's pretty obvious that he came there to check out the new game too. He's always been pretty clearly an older version of Yuugi, love of games, childish behavior, and all. Sugoroku's wonder at a new game came at a price in this instance, though, because he's overlooked his priorities. He appears to have lost sight and care of Yuugi, and that might cause some serious issues later on.

It already looks like his actions in the past have now gravely affected the present. What little we got to see of Ryoji's father's face makes it pretty clear that something BAD happened to him while playing a game with Sugoroku. I'm not prepared to believe that Sugoroku directly and with malicious intent caused the malformation of Ryoji's father, because that seems a bit beyond Sugoroku's good-natured personality. Nonetheless, Ryoji's father DEFINITELY believes it, and the only question now is what exactly happened.

And what a wondrous thing this remaining question is! I thought KT's lack of subtlety would have prevented him from simply giving away the past events, but boy was I wrong! I'm happy he's learned the value of withheld information and the nuance of revealing that information NATURALLY through character interactions instead of endless exposition, as well as the value of setting up a mysterious past event. Catching the smallest glimpse of Ryoji's father's face really makes me want to know how Sugoroku could possibly have been involved with that, and Ryoji's abuse and terrorization at the hands of his father provide an element of sympathy for Ryoji in particular that cultivates all the more curiosity for how he found himself tied to his abuser.

I'm also really impressed with how the abuse itself was depicted, with the sudden violence, followed by the apparent remorse by the abuser, is usually how the cycle happens. This is part of the reason why so many victims of abuse end up living years and years under their abuser's thumb, because the abuser is so good at making it look like they're ashamed of their temper, remorseful of their behavior, sorry for their actions. Ryoji's father is exhibiting those very tactics that keep a victim close so that he can continue to exploit Ryoji and the brainwashing that was inflicted upon him, keeping a tight grip on control. Granted, the relationships in this manga have always had very rich distinctions between them, but I didn't know if KT could pull off that same richness with a REALLY negative relationship. I stand corrected, and thankful to boot.

You know what I'm NOT thankful for? The missing creativity in the game. It looks like KT is just mashing together all his game ideas in this one, and it's painful. First Ryoji is a mash-up of Kaiba and Bakura (mostly Kaiba), and now this? The only thing that was at all new about it was the dice opening up to reveal the monster inside, which I don't know how would work anyway. Not hinges, that's for sure, because that hint at the end denoted that you can choose which configuration in which to unfold the die, creating a kind of pathway. Set hinges on the dice wouldn't allow for that. Magnets? Possible, but it didn't look like Ryoji had to pull apart the ends; more like it just fell open in the configuration he HAPPENED to want.

And what's with the table? Is this game even playable without renting a big fancy machine to mix up your dice for you? I remember asking the same question about Duel Monsters, but it was never answered.

KT, creator of the most inconvenient games EVER.