I think a poll is in order here...
You know, I just realized that the chapter is probably named thus BY Kaiba, who probably thinks that even the word "tournament" sounds way too chummy. Becoming genuinely close to someone is likely something he has nightmares about. I'm not being facetious, by the way; given his past, it's probably a very scary notion for Kaiba to become attached to people.
He's thinking about that engraved tablet Ishizu showed him, a place where ancient duelists and their cards slumber, as the perfect place to start his little production. He's standing outside his own building when he mentally urges all the current duelists to gather by the gravestone of their ancestors. The forced metaphors are STRONG with this one. Get it? Forced? Strong? I'm going straight to hell.
Meanwhile, Yami is standing right in front of the tablet in the museum glaring up at it. Like it insulted his mom or something.
Anyway, as Yami peers at the carving, he questions if it's Yuugi or not. But the more he looks at it, the more he's convinced this is actually HIM, despite the fact that the carving doesn't have the ONE feature that does distinguish him from Yuugi - the lightning bolt streaks of blond up the dark spikes of hair. Was that just a flub on KT's part?
Anzu gapes, wondering in disbelief how this tablet can picture Yuugi if it's 3,000 years old. She thinks back on what Yami said about the Millennium Puzzle, how it has Yami's mind and soul inside it, and haltingly starts to come to a conclusion about who he must be. This thought is finished by Yami out loud, when he declares that he's the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. The resemblance is uncanny, but you should be a tad more skeptical than THAT, considering this is only the first place you looked for your identity. Are you SURE you want to jump to such conclusions straight out of the starting gate, Yami?
As Anzu hangs her head, Yami chuckles, saying it's no wonder he forgot everything over a whole 3,000 years. Anzu frets about how Yuugi doesn't know this yet, when she SHOULD be fretting about how she and Yami don't know this yet EITHER. Still, Anzu is convinced that Yuugi thinks his other self will always exist in his heart, inseparable from him. If Yami wants to discover where he came from and go to Egypt to look, Anzu wonders if Yuugi would accept that.
Yami continues to stare at the carving, asking himself why his soul was in the puzzle, and why his memories were sealed away in the Millennium Items. He also pays some mind to the duelist opposite the carving that resembles him, the other duelist on it, and decides that it's clearly Kaiba. As much as I think Yami and Anzu are being WAY to hasty in concluding that the pharaoh's carving is definitely him, concluding that the other one is Kaiba is even MORE ludicrous. That could literally be ANYONE, Yami. It has no distinguishing Kaiba-like features. Kaiba doesn't have any distinguishing features himself and looks like 90% of all anime characters ever. He is unremarkable in face, so there's no reason to think that this other person on the tablet would be him.
Making a whole host of other outlandish assumptions, Yami thinks that this means his and Kaiba's current battle (which doesn't actually exist) was predicted by this stone. He wonders what this means, and immediately figures that the answer lies in his lost memories. Man, this guy is making leaps in logic all OVER the fucking place!
A shuffle sounds behind Yami and Anzu, and Yami turns to see what's making it, surprised.
Yami notices the necklace she's wearing and his eyes widen, identifying it as a Millennium Item. Whether it's by interpreting his obvious stare or just reading his mind like everyone else in this series does, Ishizu tells him that her Millennium Tauk allows her to look into the near future and she knew he would be visiting her. She's also seen that a great battle will be waged in Domino very soon, a statement that has Yami gaping at her in shock. Or creaming his pants at the notion that he'll actually have something to DO again.
Ishizu says that Yami came here of his own will, choosing a fate of fighting. As Yami repeats this phrase as a question, Ishizu tells him that in order to regain his memories, he has to gather all of the Millennium Items together. Well, yeah, we already understood that. Does this mean that Ishizu is going to give Yami HER item? Suddenly done being passively shocked by things he should already be aware of by now, Yami points at her and scoffs. Before he skips off to collect the Millennium Items, he wants to know if she's his enemy. She tells him that though some items have an evil intelligence in them, her item isn't an enemy of his.
Yami remains speechless after this confirmation, so Ishizu continues to speak, saying that an actual enemy will appear before him bearing the last Millennium Item. The "last" Millennium Item? I thought they were all created at once? Or are you referring to the last one that will appear in the series? How do you know that we've seen SHADI'S or BAKURA'S items yet, Ishizu? Does your tauk allow you to see that too?
But Yami doesn't ask these questions, intent instead on being a damn parrot.
Cut to the outside of the museum, where Anzu and Yami exit quietly. The once deserted entrance is now crowded with people, but the pair walk in silence for a bit. Until Yami says Anzu's name and reminds her that Yuugi doesn't know he went to the museum today. He asks if she can keep a secret, not wanting her to tell Yuugi about the stone tablet or Ishizu. What are you going to do if she refuses, Yami? She already knows. I guess we'll never know, though, because Anzu agrees before Yami explains that while Yuugi knows what it means if he regains his memory, he doesn't think Yuugi would be able to accept it at this point.
Anzu says that he's right, but says that there will come a time when Yuugi WILL understand, because he's a tough kid. Yami whips out his and Yuugi's deck from the pouch in his belt, peering at the cards. He muses on how he and Yuugi built the deck together and half of it are due to his efforts. Yami now seems reluctant to keep secrets from Yuugi because he thinks the cards won't trust him either if Yuugi stops. Anzu stares at the cards too, exclamation point above her head, possibly to denote how surprised she is about his flip-flopping opinions about how much Yuugi should know about this whole thing. Yami says that when Yuugi knows who his other self is, that's also when their cards will show their true power. Sooooooo... go ahead and tell Yuugi what's going on then? I'm confused. What did you want Anzu to do again? Keep her mouth shut or blab?
Yami just starts to notice as he's looking around the area that a lot of the people congregated there are giving him some strangely hostile looks. He thinks he can almost FEEL their murderous intent. Shit, are you guys going to get shanked, bro?? Nope! Instead, both he and Anzu are hailed by a friendly shout.
Mai opens her arms wide and asks how Anzu and Yami have been in the long while since they've talked, and Anzu answers that they're just fine, asking Mai in turn how she is and complimenting her on how great she looks. Mai hugs Anzu's shoulder and asks in a cheeky sort of way if this little outing with her and Yami is what she thinks it is - a date. Anzu turns red, muttering that it's not like that, but Mai just slaps her on the shoulder, laughing and assuring her that there's nothing to be embarrassed about because it's not like they're not old enough.
Yami seems perfectly undaunted by all of this, changing the subject casually to what Mai is doing there. She cocks his head at him, confused by his ignorance. She asks if he didn't get the info, because it would be super weird if he were here on accident. He repeats the word "info" as a request for elaboration, and Mai is shocked that it really IS just a coincidence that he's in the area right now. She's sure that he must have felt the battle-atmosphere of the square by now, with all the ne'er-do-wells skulking as they are across the panel. Yami confirms that, yes, he has sensed the presence of DUELISTS. Must be some kind of duelist AURA or something.
Mai says that these people are duelists from all over the country, who also happen to have really menacing grins. Looks more like they're planning to drag victims into an alley and shoot them than duel them, but hey, what do I know? Mai explains that over the past few days, some invitation or clue started circulating online and in card magazines, urging people to go to where ancient duelists and their cards slumber in the stones at a certain date and time. Since now is that time, Mai reckons with some excitement that they're supposed to announce the biggest duelist tournament ever in Japan here. Yami smiles at the notion of a duelist gathering.
Mai side-eyes Yami, thinking that his duelist instincts must verge on psychic if he just happened to show up here. In the next panel, those instincts appear to be going haywire as someone walks up a few feet behind him.
Mai murmurs to Yami that word on the street is Kaiba was the one to spread that little clue she was talking about before everywhere. From this small hearsay, Yami is able to deduce that Kaiba is the one hosting this tournament. Never mind that he doesn't know if what Mai heard is at all accurate or not. At least, not until Mokuba starts shouting his head off about how it's just like his big brother planned for a crowd of duelists from all over the country to turn up here. Kaiba then begins addressing said crowd in an authoritative voice, yelling at them to listen up and informing them that the day after tomorrow will see the beginning of a new Duel Monsters tournament.
Tuesday? Really? Don't most of these little bastards have school and such... Oh. Yeah, nevermind. Fuck it.
Ryuzaki shouts that it's on, trying to make his excitement sound like determination. Kaiba explains that there are two conditions to enter this tournament of his, one of which is that contestants must have a 40-card deck with at least one rare card. The second condition is that they must also have one of his (likely exorbitantly expensive) next generation Duel Disk, which he displays for them on his arm. Talk about arm-candy!
Everyone behind Yami oohs and ahhs over the strange piece of machinery, but Yami just crosses his arms to hide his curiosity over the new design. Kaiba says that the winners must get the losers' rarest card in a duel, an ante that Yami is even more intrigued by, as Kaiba explains that this also means the winner of the tournament gets everyone else's rare cards. He's wearing a smarmy smirk as he says so, looking all kinds of smug because he thinks it'll be him. Everyone else in the crowd is convinced that win will be theirs too, shouting and carrying on about how those cards are going to them. Another dude asks where this tournament will be held.
So, what do I think of this chapter overall? I'll start by saying that I think it was a good move making Yami show up to a meeting that he was meant to be at without even realizing it. It's intuitive and shows very well this concept of his fate that he only partly controls. At first I thought Ishizu's comment about Yami choosing his fate was somewhat contradictory, but this incident makes it exude a certain amount of sense. While there's an invisible force pushing him in the a certain direction, he also consciously made the decision to go along with it and work with the current. It's kind of contradictory to Kaiba, who's fighting that current, but is being swept up in it anyway by his own desires to acquire more power (cards) for himself and his self-interested ends.
But, that's the only praise I can really put on the chapter. Every "discovery" that is made by Yami and Anzu is on assumption alone. There is no real logic to it; there are so many gaps between the information they're given and the conclusions they reach that they're better called CANYONS. Even if they SUSPECT that their determination is the correct one, they can't make that claim for sure because there's too much data missing. All they have is resemblance, which means that their conclusions are foregone. Though they're ultimately RIGHT, it doesn't change the fact that they shouldn't be so ready to go with it until they have more of a clear line of reasoning. Since they didn't wait, Yami sounds nothing but arrogant and delusional here.
It's almost like he read the script. Hey, Yami, did you read the script?
In today's chapter, the part of Yami Yugi will be played by Solid Snake.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while I think the manga sets up Duelist Kingdom better, I feel like the anime gives Battle City much more flair. Kaiba shows up at this part in a helicopter and hijacks the television broadcast, which feels more in line with his ostentatious style as opposed to just showing up on foot.
I definitely remember that, and I agree wholeheartedly! It feels less Kaiba to just walk into a crowd and yell at them on equal ground, even if he IS planning on participating in a fairly equal capacity to everyone else.
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