At least the image of Jonouchi furiously shuffling "Marik's" cards and jutting his chin aggressively at his opponent is clear all by itself. "Marik" doesn't look intimidated in the slightest, stoic as ever, but Honda is grinning down in the spectator pit. He says it's been a while since he's seen Jonouchi this pissed off, and Jonouchi's anger has never lost him a fight. Yuugi tacks on the qualifier that this has in the past only applied to street fights, though. Mai ignores this talk, encouraging Jonouchi to stay focused.
She notices how unimpressed "Marik's" glare is down at Jonouchi as the latter postures, and judges this sanguine self-security to be genuine. She thinks "Marik" must be very good. Or not swayed by obvious peacocking bullshit. Mai urges Jonouchi not to let his guard down. I don't think he's going to have much of a problem focusing, though, because he's still glaring up at "Marik" as the continues shuffling those cards, even as Moar Cards Guy tells him that's enough and to go back to his side of the field.
While Jonouchi heads to his end of the platform, he grinds his teeth, insisting he has to beat this guy. He turns to face "Marik", still radiating rage. On the other side of the platform, Mokuba asks his big brother for confirmation that this guy "Marik" really has the third god card. Kaiba says that this is what he's heard, but until he sees it for himself, he's not really willing to say either way. Again, he internally characterizes Jonouchi as a lab rat - one that should show some ability to force "Marik" to use his god card. If only Jonouchi knew how generous Kaiba's thoughts about his dueling abilities actually are. But I suppose that's why Kaiba isn't saying any of this out loud.
Jonouchi himself seems to be rather confident, after all. He promises Yuugi to beat this dude and get that god card. Unfortunately, the wind is not on his side, gusting right in his face and whipping his cards from his hand. He looks over his shoulder at the cards blowing out behind him in anxiety, Yuugi and Honda mirroring his expression below. He manages snatch the cards back out of the air, even catching one in his teeth, as he leans precariously over the platform railing. My heart is hammering as hard as his as he thinks about how troublesome and dangerous it would be for his cards to get lost. No shit, son. DO remember that you're on top of a flying BLIMP, please!
Ryoji hangs his head in shame, as do Honda and Yuugi, the former of which mutters that he can't watch this anymore. The ladies on the other side of them are still staring at the scene though, Mai in anger while she barks at Jonouchi to pull himself together, and Shizuka in admiration of her brother's nice catch. The scene just amuses Kaiba, whose entire motivation in placing the arena on top of the blimp is being fulfilled. He reiterates in his head how the enemy is meant to be the wind blowing away one's cards as well as the opponent. What purpose does this serve? To be annoying, of course! Kaiba's specialty!
Yuugi has raised his head again, silently urging Jonouchi to calm his shit. Jonouchi himself bows his head in a moment of meditation I didn't realize he was capable of, trying to recenter and concentrate. When he's done, his first move is to play a card, as one does.
After a moment of looking at his cards and choosing one, "Marik" slaps a continuous magic card on his Duel Disk. Jonouchi reads the name of the card, Shrine of the Pharaoh, with some confusion. As the image of the card on the field starts to smoke in holographic manifestation, Yami and Mai gape at it in disbelief.
... Is there a snake pit?
Yuugi's eyes widen at the big ornate box sitting on the dais in the shrine, the one that's leaking holographic mist. He supposes that there must be something asleep inside being guarded. It IS rather ominous. Jonouchi doesn't notice, though, declaring that he's not going to be cowed that easily with his eyes crossed. He holds his free hand up to his mouth to cover a cheeky giggle, because Jonouchi isn't afraid. No, Jonouchi has no fear, because *giggle* he has Hurricane in his hand, which he can use to return all magic and trap cards to the owner's hands. Can't wait to see how he's completely blindsided by an inability to use this one, folks.
To put him even more out of his area of expertise, he starts presuming he knows what his opponent is thinking. Jonouchi assumes that "Marik" is waiting for him to attack in order to activate his traps, so Jonouchi decides not to attack. He assumes that "Marik" thinks he's going to summon a powerful monster in this turn, but that's not what he's looking to do. Jonouchi's plan is actually to let "Marik" lay down more trap cards, filling up the whole field with them, so then he can play Hurricane to wipe them all out. Only after this power move is he interested in using a monster to attack, a technique Jonouchi is convinced is perfect.
Somehow, I think he might come up against a few roadblocks on this seemingly smooth road to victory. Maybe it's the fact that he's the only one of four duelists so far to have trouble holding onto his cards, maybe it's that Jonouchi's duels never give him a dignified struggle like the other two main duelists, but I've got a definite feeling.
In accordance with his plan, Jonouchi summons Panther Warrior, but ends his turn immediately afterward, not attacking. "Marik" in response lays down two new cards and and ends his turn too. While Yuugi is distressed by "Marik's" strategy to forgo using any monsters in favor of traps and magic, Jonouchi is certain that he was right, and there's a field full of trap cards in front of him. He summons another monster, which I had to confirm with Google is Swordsman of Landstar, because it's not translated in the chapter. He's got a total of 4000 attack points between all of them, just as he was aiming for. He thinks that if he activates Hurricane now, he can beat "Marik".
After a pause, Jonouchi declares that "Marik" fell for his trap. His opponent is still pretty stoic, so it's difficult to see if he has a reaction to this "news" at all.
"Marik" sticks out his arm and introduces the trap that JONOUCHI fell for, a card called Judgment of Anubis. All of Jonouchi's monsters are pierced through by multiple shafts of light.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm a little annoyed by how the trouble duelists should have holding onto their cards is only brought up with Jonouchi. In the last duel, the windy conditions were only posing an issue outwardly for the spectators, and it isn't even mentioned for the duelists themselves. I asked above what the purpose of this mechanic of the tournament is with a bit of sarcasm above, but I really am wondering why KT wrote this in if it's ONLY going to affect ONE character. It seems a wasteful write-in for a lazy joke, its sole purpose being to emphasize how ungraceful Jonouchi is in comparison with the other competitors. It's especially irritating when anyone who's been in a high place (say, the top of Pike's Peak for instance) can tell you that the wind is a huge issue, and it would be an even bigger one if you were moving. The wind shouldn't just be challenging, it should be impossible, but if KT were going to downgrade it to the former, he should have made it so for everyone, and not just for just one as a punchline. DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT WITH YOUR WINDY DUELING PLATFORM, KT.
And who knows, maybe he will. I don't hold out much hope, though maybe I should. After all, Jonouchi has had the confidence of not only Yuugi in this chapter, who also thought that Hurricane was a winning strategy and was just as surprised as Jonouchi that it was thwarted, but KAIBA too. Now, the translation here is obviously not the best, so I can't be CERTAIN that the wording of Kaiba's statement above is accurate to how he views the situation, but it did look a lot like he was suggesting Jonouchi had the skill to force "Marik" to play his god card. It would make sense, too, considering he saw Jonouchi putting up one hell of a fight against Yuugi right before the semi-finals began. Or, parts of it at least. If this interpretation isn't relying too much on faulty information, it's not insignificant. Sure, Kaiba still doesn't consider Jonouchi a rival like Yami is, but he doesn't consider Marik to be a rival worthy of him either. That Kaiba would think Jonouchi is skilled enough to keep the guy with an entire organization for stealing the best and rarest cards for themselves on the ropes instead of just losing instantly, that's not exactly an insult.
Especially when Kaiba has no trouble throwing him direct insults all the time anyway.
The translation here is pretty bad, yes. In the official, Joey is upset at "Marik" for using his friendship with Yugi as a weapon to hurt them both.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Joey trying to use Giant Trunade wasn't a bad idea, but considering how the card only bounces Spells and Traps back to your hand, he could've afforded to feint with a few of his own. It's not like he would've lost them.
Man, I'm glad I stopped being a cheapskate and just bought that damn VIZ subscription later on. I just wish I had done it sooner. Now I'm side-eyeing these older reviews and trying to calculate how much energy it would take to come back and edit them with the VIZ version.
DeleteCan't have Jonouchi being TOO competent, though. He might steal the show from our mains. Except he kinda already does at times, so KT may as well have made him feint, lol.