Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 156 Esper Roba

Okay, no lie, I had to look up this term "esper", because it sounded familiar, but was never defined to me. Sure, context clues gave me the idea that it had something to do with being psychic, but I wasn't sure how this synonym was supposed to have indicated a link to the former word. Apparently, I'm not savvy on the fine art of the verbing of acronyms, as I just learned that people who claim to have extrasensory perception, or ESP, are referred to as espers.

I guess it's to make them feel more... active?

Hate to break it to you, Roba, but that schtick doesn't look as good on you as Shawn Spencer, and he came AFTER you. It's probably because he has better hair.

Instead of making a big show of his psychic powers like I thought he was setting up for, Roba suggests that he and Jonouchi confirm what each of them puts up for their ante before they duel. Roba's is his Jinzo the Psycho Shocker that we got a glimpse of at the end of his last duel, plus his little puzzle card. Jonouchi holds up his Time Wizard to show, and affirms that he also has a puzzle card, as though Roba was already questioning his right to hang with the cool kids. Don't rush into it, man, all good things to those who wait.

Just in case you're picking this volume of the manga up in the Barnes and Noble out of curiosity, it decides to reiterate what those puzzle cards are for you. You know, just in case not knowing what the hell a puzzle card is would put you off instead of make you more curious to pick up an earlier chapter to figure it out.

Roba says "roger that" like he's talking over a radio to Jonouchi, which is odd for a psychic, but I'm sure THAT won't come up later. He suggests that they start their duel, and Jonouchi internally freaks about the fact that if he loses his puzzle card, he's out of the competition. From the sidelines, an angry Ryuzaki demands to know what Jonouchi did with his Red Eyes Black Dragon. So he DOES remember that he lost it to Jonouchi! Jonouchi brazenly admits that someone stole it because he fucked up, and Ryuzaki stutters in disbelief and shock. However, Jonouchi continues his story by saying he got the card back, but a friend is holding it for him, or rather his rival. His rival/friend. He has an "it's complicated" status on his Facebook page for sure.

Again, in case you have no sense of curiosity about what that friend/rival deal is about.

Ryuzaki yells at Jonouchi that he can't win against Roba, claiming it was mere luck that Jonouchi won against him in Duelist Kingdom. He also reiterates that Roba can read his opponent's hand. Jonouchi isn't listening, silently asking Yami to wait for him, confident he'll win this duel and get to their friend/rival battle. Confident for now, at least. Jonouchi calls out that he's ready to go and announces their duel in classic Yu-Gi-Oh dramatized fashion.

He declares he's going first as he draws his cards, and looking at them thinks that this is an awfully nice hand he's picked up. He picks one to play and glares up at Roba humming in his direction as he massages his temples. Psychically.

I would say that the cosmos bending the odds of a fucking CARD GAME in his favor seems like an awfully small thing for it to give a shit about, but this IS Yu-Gi-Oh, so...

Jonouchi internally growls, calling Roba a "radio-wave wack job", which is the best insult I have ever seen in this manga next to "baby goth". Jonouchi calls for a halt to this nonsense as he plays his card, Gilta the D. Knight. Roba scoffs, thrusting out his palm, an action which at first seems to dissolve the hologram of Jonouchi's card right in front of him. He starts freaking out about the card he played disappearing on him, wondering if it was ESP. Roba states that this was simply the law of the cosmos, then the audience bursts out laughing. Jonouchi turns to glare at them.

Ryuzaki is able to stop laughing long enough to ask if Jonouchi is braindead, assuring him that this trick wasn't any kind of ESP but the card Jonouchi played. He explains with some cruel relish that Jonouchi isn't able to play a high-level monster right off the bat like that, having to sacrifice a low-level monster in order to do so. These are the new rules of "Super Expert Mode" that Kaiba invented for his tournament, and because Jonouchi hadn't the slightest clue, Ryuzaki asks if this moron knows ANYTHING. Some other guy behind Ryuzaki rubs his chin in disbelief that such a NOOB got into the tournament. And yes, he really does use the word NOOB here.

Wow, 90's insults. That takes me back.

Jonouchi gulps and turns red, having totally "forgot" about the super expert rules. More like you were a bit preoccupied with the prospect of a shiny new tournament to notice that the rules were tweaked, boy. He IS relieved that Roba wasn't using ESP on him, though, and sighs. Roba states that Jonouchi wasted a turn, and while rubbing his temples again, offers to make a suggestion to Jonouchi. After spending a moment wondering how he should put his advice, he tells Jonouchi to play the card on the very left of his hand, Swordsman of Landstar. Jonouchi is blown away by the fact that Swordsman of Landstar is indeed the card to the very left of all the cards in his hand, hitting the nail on the head.

Roba insists that this is telepathy, repeating that his mind is one with the cosmos and he has absolute enlightenment. Smashing choice on what to use that absolute enlightenment on, kiddo. He drones one and on about how his awareness transcends time and space and how he and Jonouchi are made of the same particles, so that makes he, Roba, Jonouchi AND his cards. Jonouchi doesn't get it, but I suppose he doesn't need to, because Roba doesn't bother to elaborate, shouting that it's his turn instead.

He summons Cyber Raider, which he uses to attack Jonouchi directly, since Jonouchi doesn't have any monsters out to beat the snot from.

You, uhhhh, didn't pick up any suspicious brownies for breakfast before you went to get back your stolen card, did you Jonouchi?

Roba ends his turn with a flare of smoke drifting around his feet, and Jonouchi mechanically says that it's his turn now. He thinks on the super expert rule of being able to attack the player in lieu of monsters to bash, and decides to summon a monster fast as he draws a new card. His card is Graceful Dice, which makes two kinds of "dice" spell cards in his hand which he puts right next to one another. Meanwhile, he thinks that his monster card isn't nearly strong enough as is, and decides to gamble on a certain OTHER card.

Opposite him, Roba is rubbing his temples yet AGAIN, making his weird noises and claiming he's "channeling" something. This pisses Jonouchi off to the point of calling him a radio nut job once more as he stamps his feet. Like a computer, Roba states that his channeling is complete, making him aware that Jonouchi drew a second Graceful Dice detected by his telepathy. Jonouchi's teeth are gritted and his eyes wide as Roba asks if this shocks him. Well... duh. He then starts to blabber all over again about how his telepathy is a gift from the cosmos. He's real good pals with the cosmos, you see, and the cosmos gave him telepathy for his birthday.

Roba claims to be in contact with the spirit of Pegasus right now, who was tragically murdered a few months ago. Oh yeah, that guy's dead. Thanks for the reminder, manga. Jonouchi has his incredulous face on, sweatdropping at the assertion that Pegasus's spirit is currently talking to Roba. Roba explains that Pegasus is the master of his game, and that's why Roba knows Jonouchi's cards. Roba, sweetie, I think you left out a few crucial rational steps in your logic there. Jonouchi's teeth grind as he wonders if this child is for real right now. Roba points and shouts that it's Jonouchi's turn, so he should play his next card. Wow, suddenly the placid guy at one with the universe is super impatient.

As Jonouchi stares at Roba and his Cyber Raider, he's not sure if it's ESP or ghosts or something else, but it's a definite thing that Roba knows what cards he has. He asks himself what he should do while he stares at his cards, only to widen his eyes at them. Jonouchi remembers how Roba said the card he drew was his SECOND Graceful Dice card, and continues to stare, though it's not clear what's making him so alarmed at the moment.

But... didn't he ACTUALLY read that before? Did you forget?

Jonouchi picks out his two Dice cards and slaps them on his Duel Disk face down and ends his turn. We hop into Roba's head as he considers these cards, once of which he deduces to be Graceful Dice. His smiles when he figures that Jonouchi's strategy is to activate the card when Roba attacks with Cyber Raider, thereby raising Landstar's attack and destroying Cyber Raider. Roba is downright giddy knowing Jonouchi's plan to thwart his ESP with the roll of a die, because luck is the one thing he can't predict. He's happy to accept such a challenge, of course, smirking at the sweating Jonouchi.

Then he's all business, shouting that he's taking his turn.

Well, Landstar's impressed at any rate. Jonouchi doesn't waver from his resolve, however, activating his Graceful Dice. The top hat on its simplistic little head has wings and I can't even with it. It tosses the die it's holding and while it clatters around the street, Jonouchi does the calculations; Mega-Cyber has 2200 attack points and Landstar has 500, which means he has to get a roll of 5 or 6 to win this one. Roba, on the other hand, thinks that Jonouchi can't JUST win with luck, because a duel is much more than that.

The die shows its 6-face and Jonouchi hopes for it, but the die ultimately makes one final turn to 3 instead. Though Landstar beefs up to 1500 points, Roba rubs it in that this is not enough to beat Mega-Cyber. Jonouchi gulps, but as Roba commands the Mega-Cyber to attack, this worry turns to a confident chuckle. Roba is flabbergasted when Jonouchi reveals his other Dice card, which is Skull Dice, conical hat with bat wings attached and all. I've never wanted to cosplay before, but there's a first time for everything...

Roba doesn't believe the trap can be real, even as it throws its die with a cackle. The die bounces along and lands on a 5, which brings Mega-Cyber's attack right down to 440. Landstar easily disposes of Mega-Cyber after this, slashing it with a sword that looks more like something made of foam from the dollar store. It does the trick, though, and leaves Roba devastated and doing a Home Alone scream when his points have lowered down to 2940.

Jonouchi says that the reason Roba thought he had TWO Graceful Dice instead of the one was because the cards were on top of one another and only the word "Dice" was peeking out from behind the other. He declares that Roba DOESN'T have telepathy.

Uh-oh indeed.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Characters pretending to be psychic come in entirely too often for this comic's good, especially when we have a cast of characters who actually ARE clairvoyant to deal with as well. It muddies the waters when the plot is dismissive of some characters and encouraging of others when it comes to something that isn't easily discernable in any practical way, like ESP. Besides, there's something about the repeated instances of "psychic" characters that strikes me as a let-down because it seems like KT just ran out of ideas of how folks can cheat at his game.

Also, there's no damn way those kids would be able to see so clearly Jonouchi's cards through those cheap-ass binoculars.

This is what makes me so confused about this chapter, because I LOVED it. Despite the recycled plotline of a character getting outed as a fake psychic, or maybe in fact BECAUSE of it, I was kind of impressed with how it played out. Unlike in previous instances of this course of events, we got a really simple, and yet effective and kind of clever setup and payoff. Since the beginning of the chapter, we were getting hints and clues that Roba was using a trick: his comment of "roger that" as a strange radio jargon to use in his situation, the overhyping of his "abilities", and Jonouchi's own insult to him. KT wasn't obvious with it, but he also gave a little bit of information so as to make it possible for someone paying attention to figure it out before Jonouchi.

Which is the other reason why I liked this chapter. Jonouchi has faced someone claiming to be psychic before, and figured it out even faster than back then. It shows just how far he's come since that last incident in Duelist Kingdom that he was not only able to sniff out a rat so quickly this time, but also that he managed to keep his cool during the process, though he made a few mistakes at the beginning. When Jonouchi faced Mai the first time, he was constantly distracted by Mai's trick and his own failures. This time, Jonouchi gets right back up on that horse and doesn't dwell on what he does wrong or his opponent's slight of hand. It's like looking at a before and after photo and really seeing the difference.

Despite how much of a rehash this chapter has been of general cheating plots throughout the manga, it looks like KT isn't going for a whole redo of Jonouchi's Duelist Kingdom development, and that's an even bigger relief than finding out your opponent isn't using ESP against you.