Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 139 Rare VS. Rare

Happy New Year, friends! After 2016, I'm more than ready to start fresh with a new Gregorian cycle that doesn't suck. If I start this one out with a review, maybe it'll be a proper beginning. Nothing like celebrating my husband's return home from deployment by ignoring him to write a few sarcastic words on a Yu-Gi-Oh chapter about one rare game piece going up against another rare game piece, right?

I am the WORST spouse.

Oh yeah, I remember where we left off now! While Yuugi struggles to get back his stolen puzzle, we struggle to parse the confusing translation of the event. We're already thematically in line with our protagonist!

Yuugi and Ryoji glare at each other wordlessly over their special and probably expensive game table, until Ryoji chuckles once more. He's really pleased to see that, as he imagined, Yuugi isn't a cowardly baby and his solving of the Millennium Puzzle wasn't just a lucky accident. Yuugi remains quiet, wondering why Ryoji thinks he even NEEDS the Millennium Puzzle. It's not as though Ryoji NEEDS the puzzle Yuugi, anymore than ANYONE would need any magical amulet that would allow them to dominate in various games. He just WANTS it. REALLY BAD.

Recalling that Ryoji said his father had challenged Sugoroku over the Millennium Puzzle and lost, Yuugi also wonders if this game is supposed to be revenge. Or perhaps it IS said out loud, because Ryoji appears to reply in the next panel where it's written that of COURSE it's revenge, and once again I am confused on when these bubbles are supposed to indicate thought rather than speech. Ryoji confirms that he's enacting revenge against Yuugi for making his father a monster, even though that was Sugoroku and by his own admission was before Yuugi was even born. Having a little difficulty distinguishing the young and old Mutos, dude?

But, there IS more to Ryoji's motivations than simple revenge, of course.

IS it Yuugi's turn? Didn't he just run you over with his giant rolling boulder trap of a monster? Or was he allowed to do that during Ryoji's turn? And if so, how does Yuugi KNOW that without being told??

Yuugi picks up a new die from his dispenser while thinking he won't give up, or maybe he says it, I don't know. He knows that if he keeps Gorugon right where it is now, in front of the closest enemy monster to keep it from advancing, then his dungeon master should be safe from any more immediate attacks. However, he also knows that playing defensively just won't cut it, because he'll have to find a way to get to Ryoji's dungeon master to win. With this in mind, he tosses the dice, and luckily throws two summoning crests and an attack crest.

Triumphantly holding up his fist, Yuugi says he can summon now, and does so. The walls of his chosen die fold out to reveal a humanoid monster in armor and a cape, holding two swords. It's called Duker Twin Swords Level 3, and its ability is that it can "attack continuously following numbers of attack crests". Don't ask me what that means, because I'm scratching my head pretty hard here. Duker can also move forward two spaces when the player rolls a forward crest, which is at least understandable.

And then, I'm thrown right back into confusion again when Yuugi says that Duker will stand by for now, and he'll "remain power course of attack crests into a crest pool".

lol, wut?

Okay, so I'm guessing that he's saying he's going to save that attack crest for later by putting it in a "pool" of unused rolled crests, which Ryoji confirms he can do after the fact. Apparently, players don't have to use crests as they roll them and pull them from the pool whenever they want. Wow, isn't it miraculous that Yuugi just KNEW that intuitively? He didn't even have to ask! What a relief that he didn't have to learn from either watching Ryoji do the same or making a mistake, and he could just be right automatically without any messy repercussions or growth! Wouldn't THAT be a waste of our time?????

It's Ryoji's turn, and he throws the dice, getting the same summoning and attack crests as Yuugi did in his.

So, crest pools are a thing now. Have we mentioned that? We even get handy diagrams to show what crests are in the pools of both players in the next few panels, which suggests that the players have been keeping track this whole time. Or, maybe it's the table that has been showing this information the entire game, and that's why Yuugi knew? At least in that case, the table's existence isn't solely predicated on an elaborate dice shuffling system.

Ryoji tells Yuugi through his smirk that he'll be using the crests in his pool this turn to let his Flame Armor monster attack, and Yuugi glares down at his monster facing it with determination. Or the need to waddle to the bathroom. I'm still not entirely sure. He sweats as he thinks that nothing else can destroy his creature, and it's phrased in such a way that I'm not certain he wants Duker to come out of this battle alive. Maybe he's randomly picked up on another obscure rule that I'll have to scratch my head at again.

Shouting for the activation of his two forward crests and attack crest out of the pool, Ryoji sends his Flame Armor Dragon stomping toward Duker to slash it good. Flame Armor swings down its dragon sword onto Duker's head, but just before it makes contact, Yuugi holds out a staying hand and shouts that he's activating a couple of crests in his own pool. Duker crosses its swords like the two attack crests on either side of the panel.

You sure did, Yuugi! Unfortunately, Ryoji's reaction is a bit of unexpected mirth. Yuugi gapes, so Ryoji explains that Yuugi did well to destroy Flame Armor, he knew all along what crests were in Yuugi's pool and that his dragon would die long beforehand. Still speechless, Yuugi glares in surprise while Ryoji continues to inform him that this game isn't about the attack and defense of creatures. He chuckles again, telling Yuugi to take a look at the table, since he seems to not quite understand what he's talking about yet.

Yuugi curses when he looks down, utterly shocked.

Ryoji confirms Yuugi's upsetting realization that he hardly has any more space to summon anymore, making Yuugi curse again while he squeezes his eyes shut. Speaking of taking up space, Ryoji launches into an explanation about how the six sides of a die can open up in a 3x4 area on the table, and there being 30 possible iterations into which the die can unfold. Knowing which of those to use takes some technique and foresight, and that's a fair assumption, but seeing as how this game only came out today, and no one yet has that technique down except for Ryoji himself... Well, I guess I don't really need to reiterate how unfair this is. We're already familiar with that, I'm sure.

But the chapter assumes we're NOT familiar with a concept that is the dead horse it's not quite done beating yet, Ryoji explaining for the umpteenth time that the dice unfolding create the path and a large army of monsters to reach the opposition's dungeon master, creating higher odds to win. Thanks for the reminder, dude. Yuugi grinds his teeth over the fact that Ryoji's monsters outnumber his and there's no comparison.

Ryoji declares that it's his turn, pulling a die from his dispenser. He smirks when he looks closer at it, because he got the one he wanted. Ryoji holds the die out to Yuugi to look at, identifying it as a rare black die, one that has a special ability indicated by a slight shading of the summoning crest. He also observes that his next die is a rare black die, and I'm not sure how, because the summoning crest is facing away from him. Oh well. Ryoji tells Yuugi that rolling with two rare black dice can activate a special combo, and to wait for a super fun time.

Yuugi doesn't look like he's ready for whatever brand of fun this is supposed to be, sweating as he thinks over Ryoji's forewarning. Ryoji rolls his dice with a declaration, and two summoning crests come up along with a magic crest. He sets up his rare black die where he wants it to unfold, pressing on the top, and a moment later, the die opens up to reveal a pair of black wings. Yuugi is preoccupied with confusion over how Ryoji summoned this creature in his own area, not bothering to set it up to attack.

If that's a warp crest, where's the Starship Enterprise? I call bullshit!

Yuugi must be repeating the warp crest phrase in a questioning way, because Ryoji tells him that this is one of the rare crests on the inside of rare black dice. Apparently, it can be activated when two rare black dice are on the table, where one is the entrance and the other is the exit, making it possible to appear instantaneously across the field by traveling through them. Yuugi rephrases this as though his shock adds anything to the information, then peers at his half of the field to note that there's only space enough for one more summon. Across the table, Ryoji is planning to place his next rare black die in that very spot in order to be able to instantly transfer his monster army into Yuugi's area, certain that he'll win if this scheme works.

Suddenly, Yuugi is smiling a little, telling Ryoji he missed one tiny little thing. Ryoji gapes, asking what Yuugi could possibly mean. Yuugi holds out his palm, revealing that he ALSO has a rare black die. Ryoji looks flabbergasted, though I don't know how he managed to miss that when he's been following all the REST of Yuugi's moves so closely. It's Yuugi's turn, he rolls, and the dice fall onto two summoning crests with an attack crest as well. Yuugi is stoked by his good luck, and places his die in the only place he's allowed anymore to begin its unfolding.

Before we can see what it is, it jumps into its warp crest lightning fast, alarming Ryoji with how quickly it activated that warp. He watches his own monster's warp crest with some surprise.

What else is a ninja for?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall. It's more of the same frustrating crap with Yuugi inexplicably knowing rules that he has no business knowing the way the story has been told so far. Yes, I think it would have been perfectly possible that the table was showing him he had a pool of his unused crests, and that would have tipped him off, but my problem is that we never SAW such a thing. Since we didn't see it, there's no reason we should assume the CHARACTER could see it. In fact, my suspicion is that KT only during this chapter came up with the rule in the game and just SHOVED it into the middle of the chapter in order to introduce some variety into the ways Yuugi was engaging with it. He didn't even bother to TRY to blend it in with the edges or smooth out the bedding before the publishing. This has frantic deadline anxiety written ALL OVER IT.

Not just in that way, either. Ryoji's plans (and past actions) to place his own dice in Yuugi's area were treated as a given, but Yuugi's options were apparently limited to his own area for summoning. Now, I'm GUESSING that this has to do with a new summon needing to connect with your previous summons, but that's not explicitly stated. It may just be the translation, but I feel like the information is jumbled and full of holes. The further we go in this game, the more questions I have about how this crap even WORKS.

This game was very clearly not thought out very well or planned, and it's a pretty painful fact to look at in this one. I mean, Duel Monsters isn't exactly the most developed game, but it looks GLOSSY compared to this. I'm WINCING. Seriously.