Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 227 Twilight Cemetery

Awww, it's too bad Bakura's out for the count. It sounds like this chapter would have been right up his dark creepy alley. He's got my kind of luck, poor thing - we get all pumped up over certain subjects, but we're never free for the big events. I'm currently packing for another big move across the United States, RIGHT at the time when I wanted to join my friends in Earth Strike by participating in a corresponding boycott at the end of September. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be much use in a boycott when the moving company through the military is going to be buying up all this oil getting my crap across the country. The date isn't exactly negotiable, so I'm stuck joining in on the consumption on a day I SHOULD be abstaining.

But hey, if anyone reading this can spend September 27th not working or buying anything, I highly encourage it. For the planet. We can't count on the real-life Kaibas of the world to pay much attention if we just keep upholding the status quo, after all. They're WAY too focused on attacking their opponents with Death Gremlins and the god cards sleeping in their hands that will destroy said opponent once the god card wakes up.

At least this specific fictional Kaiba is, and believe him, he KNOWS his sleep and destruction metaphors.

The official translation has left us again, far too soon. This unofficial one doesn't seem unreadable, though, so we're still in pretty good shape, as far as I can tell.

Below the platform, Jonouchi stands with his friends and comments on how Ishizu's and Kaiba's life points are about even, and how Ishizu isn't half bad. Yeah, super surprising that a finalist would be good at the game. Yami says Kaiba's tactic is to destroy the other player's deck and use strong monsters as an offensive force. Same as his mouth. As Yami trails in his statement that Ishizu also has her tactics, Anzu picks up the thread and runs with it, saying that Ishizu's move to make the cards in both her and Kaiba's hand go to the graveyard was thwarted by Kaiba causing her main monsters to join them. The conversation loops back to Jonouchi, who says that Kaiba's been in control of the duel so far, since all the cards Ishizu can use are now in their graves.

At this, Yami appears to have a revelation, and looks below the platform to where Other!Marik is standing on the other side, speechless but smirking. He chews over the fact that he and Ishizu are siblings, which makes her a grave guardian as well, emphasis on the "grave guardian" part. If this is a key point to Ishizu's deck, Yami thinks it might also be a part of her strategy. He's getting awfully close to tying the title in with the events of the chapter.

Ishizu stares across the platform at Kaiba, listless, as Kaiba wears his smug smile, certain that Ishizu's situation is only going to get worse from here. Other!Marik chuckles internally, conversely convinced that Kaiba's digging his own grave, in which he will struggle, painfully. While I wouldn't put it past HIM to bury Kaiba alive, or create an illusion of such, rather, I somehow doubt Ishizu is that sadistic. Maybe when Kaiba loses he's planning on administering a bit of mind magic to him in order to sustain his darkness suffering pleasure or something.

Anyway, Kaiba certainly doesn't LOOK like he's losing, because he's now declaring that Ishizu is about to experience the true horrors of his deck as he activates his face down card, Magic Removal Virus Cannon. It's a strange, spider-like machine with a cone-nosed missile pointing out the top, which Ishizu looks at with brows drawn down, and an exclamation point in a bubble suggesting she's surprised, even though she's supposed to know EVERYTHING. Her expression is milder than Yami and Jonouchi's, though, an almost identical gaping shock at yet ANOTHER virus card. What can Kaiba do? He's just feeling infectious today.

Kaiba laughs that dorky laugh of his and explains that this virus kills magic cards.

Extremely pleased with himself, Kaiba laughs uproariously at Ishizu and states with complete certainty that her deck is already destroyed. With a glare, Ishizu denies this is the case, having foreseen this whole thing. Kaiba returns her glare without comment, but thinks that she's still talking nonsense. She continues by saying that HE'S the one who fell for a trap - the Grave Guard's Trap.

As is to be expected, Kaiba's gritted teeth and alarmed eyes indicate he's about to lose his shit at the mention of the Grave Guard's Trap. Ishizu, kind as she is, offers to let him see it now, and activates her OWN face down card.

His expression somehow grows MORE horrified as he considers the effect of the card; switching the contents of the deck and the graveyard. Ishizu confirms this by placidly explaining that the activation of Reversed Worlds means the cards in his graveyard will become the cards in his deck, and the deck cards will become the cards in his graveyard.

... Ooooh, tough break buddy.

I gotta say, though, he's BLISSFULLY silent in the panel after Ishizu's reveal. The lack of insufferable gloating is beautiful. Ishizu is my hero right now. No one else seems to be as stoked that someone has FINALLY shut Kaiba up, though. Yami in particular characterizes the ends Ishizu wanted as the result of some horrible tactics. Uhhhhh, Yami, I know you weren't asleep for the last duel, which was OBJECTIVELY more horrible in every way than this. Don't be a drama king.

But he's focusing rather hard on the fact that Kaiba's graveyard contained nothing but insignificant cards, while Ishizu's graveyard contained all the many cards Kaiba destroyed. Yami's clenched fist at the end of his Duel Disk is shown as he makes the implications plain - when Reversed Worlds was played, Kaiba's deck died, while Ishizu's was resurrected. And hers isn't even a zombie deck. How funny would that be?

On the other side of the spectator pit, Other!Marik has stolen Kaiba's gloating and is using it to silently brag about how he now knows the one whose deck was destroyed was him. Kaiba still stands in shock at the sudden turn-around, knowing that there were but six cards in his graveyard before this moment. If they become his entire deck, in seven turns he'll have no more cards to draw and lose automatically. Because of his deck destruction combo, Ishizu has PLENTY of cards to draw from, all her main cards. He watches her beginning to make the switch herself, pulling cards from her Duel Disk's graveyard slot, and he holds up his own Duel Disk to stare down at it, concluding that all his tactics are now sealed off. Maybe should have taken a moment to assess Ishizu as an opponent before just injecting her with viruses and declaring yourself the winner, huh? WHOOPS!

Ishizu gives Kaiba a blank look before calmly stating that it's her turn. Meanwhile, her play has left the spectators in almost as complete a shock as Kaiba. Jonouchi says with wide-eyed alarm that Kaiba's done for, since there can't be a way to beat this perfect of a strategy. Anzu is sure now that Ishizu really CAN see the future, and that means Kaiba can't possibly win. Yami just looks up at Kaiba and thinks his name.

While Ishizu places a card face down on her Duel Disk, Kaiba is still reeling with disbelief.

... Or delusional dramatics. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of this panel.

Ishizu summons back her Kelbek and ends her turn, muted as usual. A panel showing the monster of each side facing one another precedes Kaiba's declaration of his turn and the drawing of one of his six cards left, both obnoxious and over-the-top. I guess he's pretending there's nothing wrong now. His Magic Removal Virus Cannon has returned to his hand, but Ishizu is quick to activate reveal her face down card, Negate, much to Kaiba's growing unease. He hadn't even had a chance to play the thing, and now Ishizu is commanding him to discard it again. As he does so, Kaiba contemplates how Ishizu knows the contents of his deck, and has measures to use against his virus cards. The contents of his full deck aren't exactly a secret, though, with or without a devastating reversal between that and the graveyard. Face it, kid, you're as predictable as they come.

Looking forward to the next turn, Ishizu vows not to let Kaiba get his Crush Card. In the present, Kaiba pauses, then announces he's not going to attack and is ending his turn. Jonouchi questions this decision, since the attack power of Kaiba's monster is enough to overwhelm Kelbek. It comes as no surprise to Ishizu, though, who watches Kaiba sweat nervously across from her. She knows the cards he has in his hand right now, one of which is Soul Exchange, and she knows he's waiting for there to be three monsters out and about on the field in order to summon the god card there as well. Its shadow seems to rise up behind Kaiba, like a waiting specter. Ishizu determines that Kaiba hasn't noticed something yet, though. He looks too preoccupied with his own plan. You'd think he would have learned his lesson from the last big fuck-up, but he's still got too narrow a focus. I'd feel bad, but, you know, he's a douchebag, so I don't.

Ishizu summons something called Zolga, which seems to be a visually uninteresting cloaked and shapeless masked thing. She still insists, internally, that Kaiba is losing and it's the will of some god or perhaps a Millennium Item, decided long before this point.

And it's tearing him apart, clearly.

BUT HARK! IS SOMEONE CALLING KAIBA'S NAME BELOW??? It's Yami, saying he can see. Kaiba gives him a somewhat alarmed look, somewhat questioning, so Yami elaborates that there's a road right in front of them that leads to them doing a battle. Kaiba's eyes widen in recognition.

"And bring some snacks, because I forgot mine back home."

There's a reason he's so skinny. He's just been starving this whole time.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall. Man is it good to see Kaiba shut his fat trap for once, even though it didn't last long. My disdain for his superior attitude aside, he really needs this sort of thing as a character. I've talked about this before, but Kaiba's inaccessibility is his default. He started out that way for a reason, but as his role in the story grew, his accessible moments were worked into the narrative. Little bits of vulnerability here and there, but they never last. He's super quick to start acting like he's above everyone and everything, in the most annoying way possible. While this is a very understandable intimidation technique (your opponent's confidence is going to go down by default if your "high and mighty" act is solid enough), it creates a sine wave of likeability, and the peaks aren't exactly high.

But this peak is a bit higher than some. Kaiba's routine habit of underestimating people hasn't had consequences in a while, and this time, his automatic strategy for dealing with everyone who ISN'T Yami was downright shattered because of it. Humanizing moments are so few and far between with this guy that it's difficult not to sympathize with him, because being taken down a peg, or several, is a universal experience. The only thing that's holding me back from the full offering of my heartfelt sympathies here is the inevitable return to "high and mighty".

I loved Yami's reference to Kaiba's own encouragement to him way back when he was facing Slifer. It's part of what drove up the peak in Kaiba's likeability for that moment, since it recalled one of the few times he was approaching nice. Also, it's always good to call back on an oath every once in a while. Their bond is weird, but cool.