Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 182 A Warrior's Gamble!!

I haven't commented in a while on the excessive use of exclamation points in the titles to this manga, but I feel like I have to bring back some criticism here. Why is there ONE exclamation point on this title, let alone multiples? It seems like a rather somber statement; a warrior doesn't generally gamble, and they probably have to be in dire straights in order to do so. The punctuation just puts an excited note on the end of a end-of-the-rope kind of sentiment.

Of course, Jonouchi himself feels like the personification of excited punctuation on the end of dire sentiments, so I guess it works? Maybe?

Oh good, I was afraid there wasn't a good reason as to why this panther didn't have to follow the regular rules of warriors in this game. Complicated interactions with a gravity that doesn't exist in game is a MUCH better explanation than Panther Warrior being a jaguar specifically, with a built-in love of swimming. The latter would just be stupid.

Ryota is aggravated that Jonouchi's Kunai with Chain was able to accomplish such an acrobatic move, landing with catlike (heh) grace on top of a monster with 50 more attack points than its got. Yet, when he's back in frame, Ryota is scoffing through a big smirk. He reminds Jonouchi that even though the Panther Warrior is on Fortress Whale's back, the sea creature is still stronger. Jonouchi appears to at least have the decency to be nervous about this, sweatdropping and everything. Sugoroku and Anzu are both looking pessimistic as well, Sugoroku pointing out that an attack from Panther Warrior would just end up hurting Jonouchi himself anyway. Anzu speculates that Jonouchi just jumped to show off, if she knows him. Which she does.

Ryota congratulates Jonouchi on figuring out how to "fly", but his beast warrior is still no match for the Fortress Whale. Pretty close though. So close that Jonouchi is now wearing a grin and telling Ryota that it's not over yet. Then he shouts at his Panther Warrior to attack, and it lifts its sword over its head with a roar, preparing to stab down into the whale's brain. Ryota asks in alarm what Jonouchi is doing, and for a split second I think there's actually an answer.

Then I remember it's JONOUCHI we're talking about, and feel foolish for letting myself believe he had a plan.

Ryota brags about how his whale didn't even budge as it continues to hover in the air like a big weird cloud. With guns attached. Now, with the false climax out of the way, Ryota wants to show Jonouchi what else his Fortress Whale can do, commanding it to spin and throw the Panther Warrior off its back. It does just that, spinning like a sideways top, tossing a panther-shaped shadow from its body in doing so, much to Jonouchi's dismay. He's worried for Panther Warrior, which falls back first toward the ground, growling all the way. It is a cat though, after all, and flips to right itself before landing next to Jonouchi, unharmed. Jonouchi breathes a sigh of relief, but I'm just confused. Aren't monsters who attack another stronger than themselves destroyed in this game? Unless that monster attacked is in defense? Which Fortress Whale clearly is not? Am I off my rocker here?

Nope. Ryota cites this rule as well, when he reminds Jonouchi that Panther Warrior will die at the end of this turn, and it'll lose Jonouchi some points as well. He speculates that Panther Warrior has internal injuries due to the spin it just endured, which means its only a matter of time until it succumbs to them. Sure, let's all pretend that virtual monsters can have internal injuries. Then we can get some balloons and go to the puppet show!

Jonouchi sweats some more, as Ryota declares that he'll never let his fortress fall to someone like him.

But again, Jonouchi's expression has turned upside down by the next panel while he chuckles. Ryota can't help but inquire as to what is so funny, and Jonouchi instructs him to look back up at his whale. There he observes that Panther Warrior's sword is still stuck snugly in Fortress Whale's thick skin, and Kunai and Chain is still hanging out, strung between the hilt of the sword and the narwhal tooth at the front of Fortress Whale's head. Ryota's recovered alarm prompts an explanation out of Jonouchi, who says that though Panther Warrior's attack is slightly less than Fortress Whale's there's still one more face down card in front of him that he hasn't used yet.

This is a card that Ryota apparently forgot about, a trump card that Jonouchi politely asks him if he's ready for. It's Lightning Blade, producing a bright light straight above Panther Warrior's sword, and freaking the shit out of Ryota in the meantime. The sword acts as a lightning rod for the bolt aimed at it.

Well, you were wanting to fry up a whale before, Ryota. Dig in.

The Lightning Blade has an added effect that means its shock hits all the other monsters in the water too, luckily. So, Ryota ends up with no monsters, grinding teeth, and a mere 150 points left to his name. Meanwhile, as the Fortress Whale sinks, Panther Warrior grabs hold of a flying Kunai with Chain, pulling it and the sword back to its owner.

Ryota frowns, suggesting to Jonouchi that he let the whale shake Panther Warrior off to avoid being struck by the lightning too. Jonouchi chuckles, thinking that the PW just got thrown off. He's not about to tell RYOTA that, though. Ryota's already preoccupied with what he's going to do with the rest of his turn, though, so he doesn't really notice that Jonouchi hasn't answered. There's one more magic card that Ryota feels he has left to play, Return of the Doomed. One guess as to what it does.

So Ryota puts it out there, still covered by the virtual ocean so Jonouchi can't see what it is, of course. Ryota stares down Jonouchi silently, a hand perched on his hip as if daring Jonouchi to do something about it. Jonouchi is cautious, knowing that Ryota has probably used his card to hide yet another monster in the sea. He asks himself what he should do, since charging in recklessly could lose him more points that he simply doesn't have. Ryota's got a smile back on, just having brought his greatest monster back to life.

Without further ado, Jonouchi shouts that he's taking his turn, and Ryota yells back to bring it on. Jonouchi draws a card and recognizes it with some surprise. Ryota reminds him that the Kunai with Chain is gone now, meaning Panther Warrior can no longer cross the ocean. Jonouchi begs to differ, commanding Panther Warrior to attack. This just seems to infuriate Ryota immediately following his confusion that Jonouchi is attacking at all. He resolves to just snipe the guy from hiding, like before. Ah, so THAT'S the monster you brought back.

Jonouchi apologizes for spoiling Ryota's plans, disingenuously, I might add, revealing that his new card:

What is the card actually called? Who knows, but boy, does it BLOW.

It's Jonouchi's turn to be blown away, though, because what does he see now that the ocean has been cleared but Legendary Fisherman, riding atop its weird shark/killer whale hybrid. Jonouchi questions this decision, given that Fortress Whale is so much stronger, but Ryota just looks agonized when he explains that this is the only card he couldn't bear to see die. The Legendary Fisherman itself looks on, eyes shadowed and expression severe.

Isn't that just a punch in the gut.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall. Seriously, that last part kind of caught me off guard. Here I was thinking that this was just one of those chapters that took forever to cover two lousy turns, and bam! It hits me with emotions at the very end, promising some deep Ryota development in the next installment. I'm a little glad it did, because this chapter wasn't that great standing on its own, and if I weren't committed to writing a post for the next chapter, I would have seriously considered putting down the manga for a while to go read other things.

You see, at this point I'm not sure KT is aware of why a chapter would or would not work slowed down to the level we see here. It didn't work here because there wasn't anything else going on, story or character development wise, in the background. We just had prolonged coverage of one long, protracted turn. It didn't even consist of particularly clever moves, just clear appeals to real physics affecting a bunch of projections that it shouldn't be. We've stepped back into Duelist Kingdom logic, where the cards and their effects rely EXCLUSIVELY on the technology being able to show these things happening in the context of the game. How would any of this work in just playing the game analog style? How could a player claim that their Panther Warrior's sword was still stuck in the whale after being spun away so that Lightning Sword would work? I'd argue that this would end in a fist fight if the holograms weren't there to dictate what was possible.

And yes, I still think that the holograms aren't actually holograms at this point, but the actual monsters summoned by Kaiba's technology. Still, the characters don't know that, or they SHOULDN'T, at least. None of these kids has stopped to really consider how realistically the monsters are acting within their surrounding world, and yet they seem to have accepted this to the point of suggesting they have suffered internal damage from the move of another monster.

I mean, did I miss a chapter somewhere in which the characters all came to the same conclusion I have, and I'm just scratching my head because I haven't seen them do it? Someone point me to where it says here that Jonouchi and Ryota have decided these monsters are the real deal, please and thank you.