Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 153 Duel of Vengeance!

May as well be called "Duel of Wasting My Time" if you ask me. Why did this need to happen again? Is this necessary for the plot of the story in any way? Jonouchi and Yami are already buds, we don't need more proof of that. The wider narrative is being put on hold for Yami's side-track to get the card back now. This duel basically has no stakes because Jonouchi doesn't NEED to participate like he did back in Duelist Kingdom. Someone give me one good reason as to what relevance this has to ANYTHING going on right now.

Oh boy, Yami is talking to Jonouchi as if he's a child running out into traffic and Jonouchi is talking to Yami like he's the father who won't listen to whatever excuse he had for hitting his sister. Can't possibly see what's wrong with THIS dynamic.

I am going to hate this duel so fucking much.

Yami starts to define the term "Ghoul" as it applies to card counterfeiters and thieves as though the guy he's growling at doesn't already know what he is, and then he drops the fact that Cloak-guy and his friends have chosen Domino as their next target like small-talk. Cloak-guy all but says "duh", pointing out that all Japan's best duelists are gathered in one place and ripe for the picking. His next sentence is NEW information, if you can believe that; he says that Rare Hunters are actually a subset of Ghouls that are sort of like their combat division. His words, not mine. Then he declares that they will be taking this tournament and ALL the rare cards in it.

Livid, Yami calls Cloak-guy scum and shouts that he'll crush every single one of the Rare Hunters, pointing at his first target. Cloak-guy just smiles, wondering if Yami thinks he can beat his ultimate Exodia deck. Jonouchi tries to interject with the fact that, yes, this guy has ALL Exodia pieces in his deck three times, but Yami doesn't want to hear it. Yami just tells Jonouchi to shut up and not worry, because he'll get his Red Eyes Black Dragon back. Ever wondered what it's like to be a woman, Jonouchi? Because you got a real good taste of it just then.

Yami insists that he and Jonouchi are entering the tournament together, which might have been sweet if this shit wasn't so unnecessary. Jonouchi looks touched anyway, though, as well as a little shocked. He slips pretty seamlessly into frustrated anger, though, when he thinks at Yami that this isn't a guy he can beat just like that. The Rare Hunters have decks full to the brim with rare cards, real and fake, so they're the best in the world. Jonouchi insists he HAS to warn Yami about this guy's particular deck, but Yami cuts him off again, holding out his palm, much to Jonouchi's shock. Yami tells Jonouchi that no matter what unfair bullshit Cloak-guy has got up his sleeve, Yami himself has no right to get an unfair advantage of knowing Cloak-guy's strategy. Two wrongs don't make a right, kids!

Cloak-guy does this hilarious thing where he starts to ask Yami if he has a name, but then decides he doesn't care and tells Yami to come at him, bro. I'm not sure if this is actually funny or if I'm just trying to find SOMETHING to like about this chapter already. Regardless, I giggled. Jonouchi tries in vain to get another protest in, but Yami is already pulling his deck from his belt. Why does that sound wrong?

Yami holds it up and declares that it will crush Cloak-guy, not matter what, and Cloak-guy just grins while Jonouchi looks defeated and tired. Cloak-guy says he admires Yami's fighting spirit, but Yami is going to learn that it takes more to win a duel. He adds a mental aside that he'll take Yami's best card in the process. Yami and Cloak-guy turn their backs to one another for some reason while they insert their decks into the machines on their arms, and the plaza clock ticks closer to 9 am. Another duelist kid points out that the first duel of the tournament is already starting by the clock tower and that guy Yuugi is in it. Another kid calls it the first duel of the tournament thoughtfully, and yet another runs to go watch.

At least tournament rules actually apply this time.

As their machines whir to life, I notice that they each start out with 4000 life points, which twice the amount they had in Duelist Kingdom. This is the first rule listed on the LONG list of Battle City rules that I didn't even bother to read all the way through because I am the worst. I'm also having trouble remembering if Kaiba mentioned that during his spiel in the last chapter. Oh well, it says it on their Duel Disks, so I suppose it wasn't the most important of things to mention.

Yami says that he's first, demanding that Cloak-guy draw five cards. He complies and chuckles when he sees his hand.

Sure, yeah, whatever.

Yami glares at his opponent as Jonouchi wonders if he can figure out Cloak-guy's strategy. Well, it's not THAT difficult a strategy to wrap one's brain around. After a moment of letting the wind blow around their feet dramatically, Yami decides to actually start his turn, setting two cards on his Duel Disk. One of them is face down and the other is Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts in attack. When Yami announces he's done, Cloak-guy draws another card and he's pleased to see it's Graceful Charity. He plays it with a flourish, drawing three cards and discarding two, as you do. His hand now has three of the pieces of Exodia instead of just the two. Looks like things are going well for him right off the bat.

Yami peers at Cloak-guy, defining Graceful Charity as a hand exchange card in his head. Wasteful panel is wasteful. Jonouchi prays that Yami manages to beat Cloak-guy before he builds Exodia, but he doesn't have to worry about that just yet. Cloak-guy summons Statue of the Aztecs in defense, which surprises me because it's amazing that he has any cards other than his multiple copies of Exodia and Graceful Charity. Yami classes Cloak-guy as a "turtle" style player, meaning he's got to get through his defenses (2000-defense-point wall monster and all) to hurt him.

Cloak-guy mentally chuckles again, urging Yami to concentrate on fighting the monsters while he collects Exodia's pieces at his leisure. Yami draws a new card after declaring his turn, and does some science all in this game.

Oh snap, that's actually kind of dope.

But Yami totally ruins this moment by referring to "super expert rules" as the reason he can't attack on the same turn his creature has been Frankenseined up. Who in the WORLD thought it would be cool to call these rules "super expert"? Kaiba?

It was Kaiba. I know it.

Yami threatens to destroy Cloak-guy's monster on his NEXT turn, though, who just smiles and silently tells him to keep talking to the wall. It's his turn so he draws a card, and it's another Graceful Charity card, which he uses to draw three cards and discard two. Yami looks somewhat disgruntled that Cloak-guy changed his hand out again, and Cloak-guy is disappointed that he got another right arm of Exodia in his new cards, despite drawing the head as his fourth piece. He pouts, though he knows there's a chance the card will turn up because he has three of each. Cloak-guy perks up though, reminding himself that all he needs now is the left arm and he'll be set.

He looks up at Yami glaring at him and smirks, wondering if a little boy like that really thought he could beat the Rare Hunters. He seems proud of the fact that he's a grown man picking on children as he recounts mentally that they have developed a ton of techniques to pull one over on duelists, like the x-ray contact lenses he's wearing right now that are JUUUUUUST strong enough to see through the back of his next card printed with special ink that can be detected by them. So, he has contact lenses that can detect a special ink on HIS cards, but they can't do shit to detect what's on anyone else's cards, making it so that he just has a slight foreknowledge of what he's going to see on his next turn anyway. Is that about right? Do I have a good grasp of the situation?

You are quite possibly the most pathetically useless person Yami has ever faced, Cloak-guy. And that was a LOOOOOOOOW bar to clear.

Good. Then maybe there will be STAKES to Yami's next duel and I'll actually care again.

Jonouchi nervously assumes that Cloak-guy has to have at least a couple of Exodia pieces by now, silently urging Yami to figure this out and stop Cloak-guy somehow. Cloak-guy drawls that it's his end phase and it's time for him to summon another monster, so he plays Gear Golem the Moving Fortress in defense at 2200 points. Yami gapes at yet another high-defense wall monster, wondering what exactly it is that Cloak guy is trying to do, since he's not trying to attack at all. Since Cloak-guy will never even scratch his life points this way, Yami is confused as to how he plans to do it, thinking back on the hand-shuffling Cloak-guy has been doing thus far.

Yami snaps his fingers when he figures it out, smirking at Cloak-guy. He points and shouts he knows what Cloak-guy is planning, which is met with another smirk, though this one is less confident. Cloak-guy assumes that Yami is bluffing, but Yami tells him that he won't summon Exodia. Cloak-guy is taken-aback that his see-through strategy was so transparent, and Jonouchi cheers.

Great, fantastic. Can we get this over with in SOME fashion? I'd like to get to the real story sometime, please.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I think I may have made that abundantly clear all throughout the recap, but in case you missed all my snide remarks, I thought it was boring as watching paint dry. There's a ticking time bomb here, to be sure, but there's just no suspense attached to it. Partly because we keep getting exclusive knowledge of just what cards the cloaked guy has and when he has them, so we always know exactly what each of his expressions mean when he makes them. If we were left as in the dark as Yami, it might have been a little scary KNOWING the guy would eventually get all the pieces of Exodia, but sitting on the edge of our seat not being able to figure out when.

But even THAT wouldn't have made this chapter good. It would have been BETTER, but not good, because in the end, I have to ask again, WHAT DOES THIS MATTER? If there were even a remote chance of Yami losing, it would be different, because he would end up losing his best card and be worse off for his impulsive move. Since we know he's going to win, though, that tension is just not there. So what happens if he wins? He and his hetero-life-partner get to skip off toward more matches in the tournament? The whole deal is about getting Jonouchi into the tournament, which isn't necessary or important in the first place. They just want to hold hands while they play cards.

I suppose this is what passes for a dramatic start to the tournament for KT, but I'm unimpressed. Tying the characters in knots just to engineer drama isn't clever.