Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 244 The Hymn of Hell

Nice alliteration. I'm not being facetious when I say that I did miss the clever little quips a translation can make when it isn't dedicated to one-to-one direct conversion between one language and another. Sometimes the witty bits transfer over well enough, but more often than not, there's just not the same context between literal phrases to make it come out comprehensible, let alone carry the same reactionary chuckle. On the other hand, going too loose with a translation in order to keep a bit of humor can go awry in much the same fashion, making the overall message muddled for the sake of some joke that the foreign audience probably wasn't going to get in any case.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can't be entirely certain I'll be able to trust the official translation with striking that precarious balance much better than the online translators in their sincerity to communicate Yu-Gi-Oh to their fellows. I'll be keeping a close eye out for anything that resembles a hymn in this chapter, because if they've implied gospel music, they better damn well deliver.

And no, I'm not counting the weird bass sound effects.

Dumbfounded, Jonouchi wonders what's going on, his mouth agape at the gathering radial darkness. Yami, Honda and Shizuka have similar unnerved expressions, Honda describing the black clouds starting to overtake the sky. Other!Marik laughs that the shadow game has now begun. He's just having a ball blotting out the sky like this. Ironic, given his particular god card. Jonouchi clenches his teeth and sweats, a level of seriousness that never looks quite right on him. Nevertheless, I'm convinced shit will go down here today, from that alone.

Shizuka calls out her brother's name, thankfully using his given name. We already have ONE weird little Mokuba referring to a sibling by a shared family name, no need for another. Honda's jaw has practically unhinged, his mouth is open so wide, because he's aware of what a shadow game means; Jonouchi will end up like Mai if he loses. And, of course, Anzu has to bookend the commentary by calling out to Jonouchi as Shizuka did, appropriately using "Jonouchi" instead. Yami appears too horrified to get out a single word of his racing thoughts, that Jonouchi took on this duel knowing it would be a shadow game. Looked awfully bewildered for that to be true, but okay chapter. Yami also thinks that Jonouchi knew beating other!Marik was the only way to save Mai, and this much at least appears to be true. He silently encourages Jonouchi to defeat that Buffalo Bill wannabe.

Admit it, you can see the resemblance.

Jonouchi isn't intimidated. He tells other!Marik to bring on the dark, resolving to just kick his ass in the dark then. It sounds so badass... until you consider the fact that you're more likely to fall down a flight of stairs and break your neck than pull off a series of kicks and punches to an enemy in the dark, that is. And Jonouchi is elevated not an insubstantial amount above the roof of a TOWER, no less. I hope one of his buddies can at least throw him a flashlight.

Ugh, if you thought Buffalo Bill's tiny yappy dog was bad, I think other!Marik's got him beat with his Helpoemer pet.

Other!Marik says that now the shadow game has begun, there's no backing out now. He goes on a painfully long monologue about how just like Mai in her duel with him, no one can save Jonouchi either, it's just him and Jonouchi until the bitter end, and he'll be sure to make it super fun up until Jonouchi croaks. Now here's a guy who REALLY likes the sound of his own voice. Or the look of his own print, in this case. Jonouchi has no patience for his long-winded sermon, and tells other!Marik to just shut his face for once. He tells other!Marik to just say he's done with his turn if he's got nothing else to do with it, because SOMEBODY is waiting to beat him into the ground. Other!Marik, remaining relaxed against Jonouchi's demanding tone, says he wants to tell Jonouchi what the penalty game for the loser of this duel will be, before they get into the meat of the duel.

Which is the springboard into ANOTHER soliloquy, this time describing the world of darkness [Jonouchi] will be swallowed by, body and mind. With fake reluctance, he has to compare the experience to that of having one's skin melted by acid, slipping into death and eternal pain so slow so as not to notice it.

And with that internally contradictory weirdness, other!Marik puts on his disturbing grin and asks Jonouchi if he doesn't think that's super exciting. He claims to wish he was in Jonouchi's inevitable loser-shoes, because of all those horrible things he's going to feel. How does someone manage to go from edgy in a eye-roll-worthy way to absolutely insufferable in how hard he tries to freak everyone out?

Jonouchi is no more more impressed with his psychotic rambling than I am, and just growls at him, surrounded by that spectral fire that Yu-Gi-Oh characters seem to like so much. Of course, this doesn't move other!Marik, who recalls that his turn isn't technically over yet. He sets a card face down and FINALLY, BLISSFULLY ends his turn. Jonouchi pauses a moment, as if he's making certain that other!Marik is done fucking talking, then begins to suppose it's his turn.

Until he notices something.

"It's like being at a party with a pinata, except YOU'RE the pinata!"

And at last, other!Marik is willing to let Jonouchi get on with his fucking turn. As long as Jonouchi cuts his monster and feeds him pain. Surprised he's not calling Jonouchi "daddy" right now. Jonouchi growls again and announces his turn as if it hasn't been announced for him already. Shizuka calls out to Jonouchi in distress, while Honda rants about that freak other!Marik, making Jonouchi play the same sadistic game as the last time. Is this really his first time dealing with a stupid child who demands everyone play him at the same game over and over again?

Yami just silently warns Jonouchi to be careful, looking kind of wild-eyed. Jonouchi, however, ain't scared of no shadow game, and draws a card. He notes that other!Marik's Helpoemer has 2000 points, which is the same as his Panther Warrior, therefore attacking would just be mutually destructive. So, he plays Rocket Warrior, commanding the little 1500 point non-intimidating little robot boy to beat up other!Marik. Somehow.

Other!Marik chuckles and thanks Jonouchi, just before he activates his face down card. He might have just allowed Jonouchi's underpowered monster to destroy itself, but okay. Jonouchi is surprised that a trap has been laid, because there's just NO WAY he could have seen that coming. It's a card called "Hidden Soldier" which allows other!Marik to special summon a monster from his hand, and he uses this power for one of the worst callbacks EVER.

Oh FUCK this thing. Yami gets it, recognizing this as the device that tortured Mai. But if he thought this couldn't get worse, he's sorely mistaken. Other!Marik states that any monster summoned by Hidden Soldier gets to use its special ability in the very turn it was put out there, and we all know where this is going, even if Jonouchi exclaims in disbelief. Holding out his arm dramatically, other!Marik orders his Viser Des to latch onto the enemy monster, Panther Warrior.

It wastes no time in screwing into Panther Warrior's kitty head. Other!Marik starts monologuing yet again, explaining with excessive giggling that Panther Warrior loses 500 "life" points in the first turn Viser Des is locked onto it. I think they mean "attack" points, but the two are kind of the same thing in monsters, so I guess it doesn't matter. Other!Marik goes on to say that as the vice tightens around Panther Warrior's head, Jonouchi, its master, will feel the same pain.

And at this moment, Jonouchi clenches his teeth and a horrible pang in his temples.

Just BARELY more torturous than other!Marik's incessant talking. Unfortunately, Jonouchi doesn't get to choose between the two, and instead has to endure both. As Jonouchi grinds his teeth like a jackhammer is rattling against his skull, other!Marik laughs that he can writhe in pain all he wants, but can't grab death with his own hands. He's going to have to get Panther Warrior to rip that thing off its head instead, is the implication. Other!Marik encourages Jonouchi to suffer and hate his torturer, because the more Jonouchi hates, the more the pain of the dark world grows.

As he groans in pain and hunches, clutching his head, he haltingly promises to get other!Marik for this. Other!Marik, desperate for punishment as he is, guffaws that this is good. Jonouchi's fingers stay buried in his hair as he considers poor Mai, knowing that this is the same pain she experienced before other!Marik put her in a magic coma. Jonouchi acknowledges how bad this feels, and recognizes how Mai fought through it until the very end of her duel. He mentally tells Mai to just wait, raising his head to glare daggers at other!Marik. He promises to pay other!Marik back for what he did to Mai. With interest, I hope.

Jonouchi gets back to his feet with a noise of triumph for the effort, and other!Marik seems genuinely surprised that he's able to do it. And that's not all he can do; Jonouchi says that though other!Marik invited a cut unto his person, it won't be enough. Jonouchi is determined instead to punch a hole in other!Marik's gut. With that, he commands little Rocket Warrior to prepare to launch, and it complies by rearranges itself into the rocket it is inside.

Other!Marik produces an exclamation point of alarm as he watches Rocket Warrior complete its metamorphosis, and Jonouchi performs the customary countdown to launch. He looks like murder the whole time.

Somehow I don't think he's the type of bully who talks a big game and starts crying the moment you graze him with your fist. Maybe it's the fact that he's demonstrated he really honestly likes pain a lot by this point, I don't know.

Honda is ecstatic that Jonouchi got a hit in, encouraging him to get that douchebag. Yami stares open-mouthed but silent, not looking nearly as excited. As other!Marik hunches and groans in his pain, Jonouchi prepares for part two of "give him exactly what he asked for". He calls to Panther Warrior to give other!Marik the ol' sword attack, torture apparatus attached to his head and everything. Jonouchi says this one is for Mai, watching Pather Warrior charge Helpoemer sword-first. An obscure slash later, other!Marik is upright again, but looking no better for it, grinding his teeth and clutching at his chest. Helpoemer dissolves midair, his exit announced triumphantly by Jonouchi, and other!Marik doubles over again as his life points reduce to 3000. Jonouchi scoffs, asking how other!Marik liked THAT.

Honda cheers the hell out of other!Marik's loss of a whole 1000 points, even doom-and-gloom Yami cracking a smile at Jonouchi's fine play, though poor Shizuka still looks pretty worried. She must have read the script, or kept a closer eye on other!Marik at the very least. He scoffs, a grin back on his face, though he's still hunched. Jonouchi, Yami and Anzu are all taken-aback by this edgy edge-boy's mirth in the face of getting his ass slashed. As if it wasn't something he requested a couple of pages ago. I swear, these characters have the memories of a school of goldfish.

Other!Marik says it feels good, surprise-surprise. Of course, he adds on that what feels good is when a duel goes exactly as you planned. Jonouchi is ASTONISHED by the insinuation that he played right into other!Marik's hands, because why wouldn't he be? Other!Marik explains that he knew Jonouchi would defeat Helpoemer, something that HAD to happen in order to activate the nightmare's special ability, the existence of which is just unbelievable to Jonouchi, apparently. I guess it really WAS too much to expect Jonouchi to pay any attention to how this guy's cards have mostly worked in his duels so far.

Helpoemer, other!Marik says, haunts the opponent's graveyard when it dies in battle. This information is accompanied by a distinctly human-shaped wisp flying from other!Marik's Duel Disk over to Jonouchi's. Jonouchi responds with confusion as it shoves itself into the device, manifesting into the actual card in there. Neat magic trick, other!Marik. Kudos. It's not over yet, though. Other!Marik asks Jonouchi if he can't hear some song, suggesting they all see what happens.

Sure enough, Jonouchi recoils from a stream of creepy notes issuing from his Duel Disk, wondering what the fuck it is.

Did you steal this shit from asshole!Bakura? His body isn't even cold yet and you're already jacking his theme! Rude.

The ghostly arm snatches a card from Jonouchi's hand, among a protest from Jonouchi, and pulls it back into the dark recesses of the Duel Disk graveyard with it. Jonouchi sums this whole chain of events up in the next panel, because we totally couldn't see it happening. Other!Marik confirms that not only has it just done it, but Helpoemer's ghost fingers will continue to make him discard one card on every turn after every battle. Bummer... not least of all because the ghost arm doesn't seem to think Jonouchi is capable of putting a card in the graveyard himself. That's a new low for how capable anyone thinks Jonouchi is.

Uhhh... what's that about? Is it trying to punch him in the jaw now, or something?

You ever get the strong feeling that something isn't quite right? That you're not getting the whole story here? Well, it was like alarm bells in my head on this image. So, I went to the site I had only recently abandoned for Shonen Jump's paid official translation. Turns out my gut was right on the money.

Makes WAAAAY more sense. And I want to use it as a profile picture somewhere. Because look at that.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? If I'm honest, I am very unimpressed with other!Marik right now. It's not as though he's the only character reusing similar strategies and the same cards in various duels, because all of our main characters managed to do that in novel ways. The problem with other!Marik's reuse of the same shadow game and the same Viser Des card in a similar place at the beginning of his duel with Jonouchi isn't novel. It's a pattern, and patterns can get boring. Sure, I understand that his goal here is to recreate the horrors on Jonouchi that his friend suffered, mess with him by not only inflicting the same pain, but jabbing him in his empathy too. However, I think the lack of variation in the process is a little too convenient, to the point where it comes across as KT not really wanting to make the effort to start other!Marik off with a different hand and show us what he's really capable of. I mean, the ONLY variation that we actually saw in this chapter to his samey process was putting Helpoemer in Jonouchi's graveyard, which was basically just a rip-off of asshole!Bakura's paranormal shtick. It wouldn't have been so glaring if the guy was forced to innovate a little HIMSELF instead of going around copying the past and his ex-buddy.

Although, I cannot criticize how Jonouchi's empathy was pulled off in this chapter. Despite the circumstances under which it was fostered, it had a great message behind it. There are a lot of different ways that characters can show empathy to another, especially when the feeling and situation they share with that other is painful. Sometimes it can really mess them up and freak them out into being frozen and inactive. It's something else altogether, though, when the empathizing character finds downright INSPIRATION from the same suffering he saw the other go through before, knowing now that it's entirely possible to keep going, because someone else fought through it in the past. It's a horrible thing both Mai and now Jonouchi are going through, but that Jonouchi can view Mai as an example of strength and courage because she faced it with dignity first is one of the most noble things I've seen in this manga so far.

As for my trust of amateur vs. official translations, I was completely caught off guard by how an entirely DIFFERENT element was misrepresented than the one I thought would be. It appears that, no matter what, both will have their pros and cons, and there's no version out there that can have readability, cute wordplay, and unedited rude gestures. We really CAN'T have our cake and eat it too.

Oh well. Happy leap year, everyone. And stay healthy and safe please!

Inuyasha Manga: 185 Trample

Figures. What is it about already feeling like a herd of buffalo has run over you in your sleep that inspires more of the same kind of thing? Some people call it the "law of attraction", but I just call it a pain in my ass. I'm tempted to skip the "trampling"... Maybe I should play a game, or make some more bread, or watch a movie. You know, things that DON'T remind me of my aching neck and back.

Oh, who am I kidding? There's no escaping the long haul, and there's certainly no skipping whole legs of the journey when you're the driver.

Doesn't mean I can't feel a little gross for playing tourist to shit like THIS.

Gatenmaru holds his drink as he smirks over at his goo-sack, where he notes that the hanyou inside has gotten pretty weak. Inuyasha curses in response, but he's not the only one looking severely haggard. Miroku is also sweating up a storm as he concentrates on keeping that goo at bay with his barrier. Gatenmaru drawls that they're rather pathetic, especially when you take into account that they burst onto the scene as allies to the humans. Says the guy who rode in with a horde of HUMAN bandits. How much you wanna bet that he has no other options because other youkai think of him as that weird kid who lives down the street and regularly eats glue.

Inuyasha is in too much pain to point out Gatenmaru's hypocrisy, wincing wordlessly. One of Gatenmaru's lackeys kicks another woman toward his boss, who lets out a shriek in protest. Gatenmaru asks this woman if she's scared, and the next panel shows he's grasped her by her shoulders, pulling open her kimono a little suggestively, saying he likes her frightened expression. If I didn't know this chapter wouldn't turn into THAT gratuitous rapey chapter, I might have backed the fuck away at record speed. Being familiar with this story, however, I'm able to hang tight long enough to see the explanation as to why he's so into ladies wearing their fear; they taste better.

Yeeeeeaaaaaah... that's not better than the rapey subtext. Not better at all.

A couple of the human bandits gape at the scene, one of them commenting that Gatenmaru sure is a youkai. Sure is. The other guy's input is a little more valuable, because he claims to have always thought it was a little weird that the boss's women just disappeared all the time. Inuyasha musters the energy to yell haltingly that Gatenmaru is a low-life bastard, only to cough an alarming amount of blood for his exertion. Miroku says Inuyasha's name with concern, but the poor guy is slumped over in half-consciousness once more.

Gatenmaru laughs that the poison has spread throughout Inuyasha's body, grabbing another girl by her hair. He tells Inuyasha to sit and watch each and every one of these young women get eaten until he dies. You're to be congratulated, Gatenmaru; you have officially devised the absolute WORST kind of hell. The only thing missing is the champagne flute full to the brim with Elmer's. Inuyasha looks on with heavy head and eyelids, though the sound effects indicate a pulse of power.

The bandit who weaseled away with Tessaiga hangs back with it raised hovering over his shoulder, a clueless expression on his face. Someone should ask Gatenmaru how delicious that one is, on a scale of one to ten. The old man Inuyasha brought back to the village earlier stares at the sword and the man holding it, then makes a flying leap from the ground to snatch Tessaiga away from the bandit. Its thief makes a noise of confusion at the old man running away with the sword, while Miroku says its name in astonishment. The old man runs for the goo-sack, holding out Tessaiga, begging the guys inside to save the girls with it. Before he can reach Inuyasha and Miroku, a new spear embeds itself in his back, and he goes down again. Miroku and Inuyasha gape in disbelief, Inuyasha cursing in his head as he watches the old man being kicked and beaten by a couple of the bandits. One of them wonders out lout just what the old fart was thinking with that stunt, while the other just asserts that it's the end for him and his would-be saviors.

The boy calls out to the old man, having just arrived to run screaming toward his grandfather, arm outstretched. The bandits just grin down menacingly at him as he throws himself over his elder, crying. Kagome joins him, kneeling next to the old man and calling to him in concern. Gatenmaru declares Kagome a tasty-looking one, and commands his men to get her and her companions.

Come on Sango, is that the best you can do? Seriously...

Kagome turns her attention back to the old man on the ground when he stutters something about the sword. He still clutches Tessaiga, and asks Kagome to give it to "that man". Kagome wastes no time in taking it, worrying over Inuyasha some more, although I'm not sure she's seen the semi-transparent goo-sack yet. If she had, she might be straight-up freaking out, because at this moment, it's starting to collapse around an increasingly desperate Miroku. He's panicking over the barrier being unable to hold any longer, while Inuyasha continues to hang his head uselessly. And yet, the sound effects indicate another pulse of power. Weird, right?

The bandits lunge at Sango, one of whom warns her not to fuck with them. She just grunts in response as she raises Hiraikostu in preparation for the fight. And this is the precise moment when the goo-sack starts expanding like someone somehow fashioned a party balloon from Silly String. The bandits all turn to stare at the phenomenon.

I've heard of strippers popping out of giant cakes, but I've never heard of youkai popping out of balloons. Is there a market for this?

Never mind. Stupid question.

Miroku is discarded on the ground, flinching at all the goo raining down around him, and gaping at Inuyasha's form above. Gatenmaru glares at the hanyou in annoyed disbelief that he managed to break out of his cocoon. Inuyasha, of course, proceeds to swing his arm around and knock off a total of four bandit heads, plus another bandit's arm, with Gatenmaru standing impassive in the background. Now it's raining BLOOD, Sango looking up at the heads and plasma flying with shock. Kagome is aghast at Inuyasha, who grins maliciously around his lengthened fangs, spread wide over the new jagged stripes on his cheeks. The whites of his eyes have turned dark.

Tell me that's not a legit nightmare. I would be pinching myself if I were Kagome. She just says anti-climatically that he's transformed while Shippou does all the trembling and exclaiming about the state of Inuyasha's face. Gatenmaru is downright amused, chuckling at the brat who wasted so many of his men in one fell swoop. He starts to transform too, antenna sprouting from his temples, wings from his back, and his lips thinning and stretching into a smile that puts Inuyasha's nightmare grin to shame. He looks a bit like one of those Canadian characters from South Park.

And then he turns into this:

That's about as intimidating as the TREE youkai. Sorry man, the size is the only thing you have going for you. In fact, Inuyasha is so unimpressed that after a situationally inappropriate "says who?", he proceeds to rip right into Gatenmaru with absolutely no difficulty whatsoever. The guy just shreds like a wad of vaguely threatening tissue paper. Who's pathetic now?

The biggest piece remaining of Gatenmaru, one bulging insect eye, hits the ground at the same time as Inuyasha, the coordination inspiring a cowardly squeal from the remaining bandits. They begin to flee, screaming as they turn tail.

Looks like he's found himself a new lady love: MURDER.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one reminds me of the battle with Kaijinbou - the enemy was so disposable that he was destroyed in the blink of an eye. It would have been just as anticlimactic if we weren't already primed to expect this arc was going to be more about Inuyasha's transformations than an external battle. Gatenmaru, as we've discussed, seems to just be a stand-in for Sesshoumaru's prejudice and general disdain, and as such, also played the role of the model youkai for Inuyasha's insecurity. His struggle is internal, so Gatenmaru as a person or even his level of strength weren't really the points.

That doesn't mean the stark contrast between before and after weren't a bit jarring. What gave regular hanyou Inuyasha so much trouble before was super easy, barely an inconvenience, for transformed Inuyasha. It was like night and day, and I can't help but feel a teensy bit disappointed by the sudden lack of struggle. This is of course before I've remembered that he's STILL dying though. His body is still the same ol' hanyou body it was before, taken over by the euphoria of the intoxicating youkai "blood" of his father. He might not feel it, but he's still melting inside, and that puts the scene of him busting out of the cocoon a whole different context. His helplessness before was a function of his pain, and now that he's taken a giant hit of what is essentially SPEED, he can power through it to fuck up some dudes. So, it doesn't appear to me so much that his transformed body is much stronger than his hanyou form, at least not as much as it seems, but that his transformed body just doesn't FEEL as much, if anything. Like Bokusenou said, he'll just keep going until his body is destroyed, unable to perceive his limits anymore.

Which may be bad news for Inuyasha, but it's GOOD news for this chapter, because I was about to dismiss it as another snap change of tide with a catalyst severely disproportionate to the outcome. Now I can convince myself that it's not a hack-job.

At least until Inuyasha recovers with little to no trouble like he did the last time.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 243 Final Stage!!

Oh thank the dueling GODS. To be perfectly honest, I've kind of had it with Battle City. There, I said it. So far, this tournament has been the longest medium for our themes of cards as friendship and rivalry and revenge and justice, and it's growing a little stale. Not even the change of scenery from the city proper to Kaiba's Daddy Issues Island has freshened it up.

Has the spark died, Yu-Gi-Oh? Have we lost our fire? I swear, sometimes it feels like I need couples counseling for me and a favorite manga...

Disturbing as the counseling image may be, the ABOVE image is a sight for sore eyes. Indeed, I finally took Sebastian's advice, and got myself a subscription to Shonen Jump, and all the free Yu-Gi-Oh chapters therein. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the questionable readability of the fan translations online was what was making the tournament such a chore to recap, and my zeal will be renewed with not having to squint and tilt my head at every other line.

More good news: all FOUR doors for the cars to rise to at the top of the tower open at once now, so that the four competitors will arrive there together, and Jonouchi doesn't have to be alone with other!Marik for one measly second. And also we don't have to sit through another four chapters of Yami and Kaiba creeping slowly to the top of the tower through shaving points off one another. Plenty of time for that later, but this particularly convoluted interlude has now concluded. It's of particular relief to Jonouchi, who is MORE than ready for there to only be two duels left to go in this nightmare tournament. Other!Marik's mind isn't so much on the upcoming duels as it is on hoping Jonouchi enjoys his last look at the sunlight.

Because darkness. Get it?

His are the only thoughts that aren't focused on the upcoming finals, though. I can't tell if Yami is excited or unnerved by his prospects of facing Kaiba again, but it comes out as an exclamation in his head anyway. Kaiba just smugly believes that this is exactly how it SHOULD be; him and his fated rival. If it weren't for Kaiba's thoroughly un-smitten face, I would be convinced he's going to try to make out with Yami in the middle of their duel. I still won't be surprised if it happens, though, because KT's facial expressions can still, even at this late stage, be deceptive.

Moar Cards Guy demands that the pods be raised to the final stage, and that the rockets be launched. Wait, what?

What the FUCK??? Where is the final stage? In mother fucking SPACE? It'll sure be interesting watching these kids trying to play cards with completely compressed spines! Is this another of Kaiba's hare-brained schemes to introduce physical distress into his card tournament to test the contestants' bodily endurance as well as mental? Because if he went too far making everyone duel on top of a flying blimp, he lDEFINITELY went too far with this.

The spectators below are super impressed with this super cool brain-melting stunt, and they all run for an elevator to catch up. Not one of you is worried about how rocketing up a tower might be bad for your friends? Yeah, alright. Go on up, the air's probably fine.

At least the altitude is less intimidating.

Other!Marik's pod zooms through the door in the platform's floor, and he swaggers out of it without the least bit of disorientation. Granted, he was already at the top, so that rocket propelling him up there probably wouldn't telescope him so bad. The others don't have such an advantage, those poor bastards.

Jonouchi's car is the next to dock at the top of the tower. He dismounts with a tad more difficulty, calling out to other!Marik like he's meeting a bro at a bar, and NOT a guy who wants him to go screaming into that good night. I swear, sometimes Jonouchi is a little TOO friendly, which is weird for a guy who spends so much time trying to posture as a tough guy. He even tries to initiate mild small-talk, "so this is the final arena" style. Possible nervous reflex in the midst of clear danger, I'm guessing. He walks around, hand on hip, commenting that this tower-top is a bit drab.

Other!Marik suggests that it might look a bit better decorated with Jonouchi's dismembered corpse, which wouldn't take long to do. This earns him a silent glare from Jonouchi, even though this is the MINIMUM level of aggression he could have expected for as little as a burp in other!Marik's direction. Surely he wasn't hoping for a pleasant conversation? Other!Marik yuks it up and shows Jonouchi his back, the subject of his mirth just glowering away at him.

This is the moment when Yami's car clangs into place at the top of the tower. He hops out of the pod too, not looking at all like an accordion like I expected. I would have accepted him being launched several feet into the air by the sudden stop too. Oh well, Yami's thoughts are not on how he managed to avoid being flattened, but how Jonouchi sacrificed the rest of his life points in the last duel to be matched with other!Marik in the next. Somehow, he wonders WHY. Come on, Yami, if you've thought about this for more than two seconds and can't come up with at least TWO viable reasons, that rocket-ride to the top of the tower must have damaged your cognition after all.

Jonouchi happens to turn his head just enough to spot Yami out of his periphery. Yami takes this opportunity to walk over, commenting that they've both made it to the finals, and telling Jonouchi he has to win this next duel. Jonouchi excitedly agrees, divulging plans to face him in the very final duel, but first to take Ra from other!Marik.

Kaiba, whose arrival was entirely unremarked before this moment, scoffs and says that Jonouchi WISHES he was worthy enough to touch GOD. Like many a priest of many a religion before him, Kaiba has the distinct impression that he's been chosen by the divine to lord over the unwashed masses with his privilege. In fact, he makes an honest-to-goodness EDICT at the frustrated, cursing Jonouchi, declaring (using this EXACT word) that Jonouchi will be killed instantly by other!Marik.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE! DRAMA KING KAIBA HAS SPOKEN! SIR JONOUCHI THE TRASH SHALL BE EXECUTED BY OTHER!MARIK BY ROYAL DECREE!

I cannot roll my eyes at him hard enough right now. He's just so EXTRA.

Jonouchi is falling for it, though, looking ill as he wonders if it really IS that scary. Don't be so gullible, sweetie. Yami comes out and asks Kaiba if HE knows what Ra's power is, and Kaiba confirms that he's almost decoded it. Yami jumps to the conclusion that Kaiba means he's almost completely translated the text on the card, even if he shouldn't be aware that Kaiba has even gotten a glimpse of the face of it, because of COURSE Kaiba is taking pictures of cards with satellites all the time.

Through a smirk, Kaiba says that even YAMI has no chance against other!Marik's Ra deck. Yami glares, and Jonouchi shakes his fist, just beside himself about this ungenerous assessment. Kaiba rambles on through both reactions, stating that Ra's ability far surpasses both Obelisk and Slifer's abilities, but on a slightly hopeful note, he adds that this doesn't mean there's no way to win. He's convinced that if he watches other!Marik duel one more time, Ra included hopefully, he should be more than capable of figuring out a strategy to fight the evil fucker. Kaiba concludes by laughing that Jonouchi turned out to be his bait for drawing out other!Marik.

Understandably, Jonouchi grinds his teeth and spits the half-formed question of why Kaiba has to be such a fill-in-the-blank. Half-formed, but entirely good. Kaiba ignores this entirely good question, addressing Yami with the hypothetical of he and other!Marik facing each other in these here semi-finals. If that had happened, there was a chance that other!Marik could have gotten his hands [back] on Slifer, and Kaiba might have had to face TWO god cards. He would have had to face two god cards no matter WHO would have won in his hypothetical, but since he's the smartest smart boy ever, no one will point this out to him.

While Jonouchi growls with indignation, Yami just smirks and informs Kaiba he made one mistake. Kaiba just smirks right back.

"You might have scraped by on your usefulness to the plot until this point, bucko, but your usefulness has officially run out."

Kaiba turns his back, chuckling, but not refuting the claim that he may have messed up a bit. Granted, there were no consequence-free choices as far as opponents go at this stage, so he was pretty much screwed no matter what. Kaiba says he's looking forward to their fated duel, and finally fucks off to another corner of the roof. He didn't put any doors up here for the sole purpose of making sure no one could tell him not to let them hit him on the way out. That bastard.

Jonouchi seethes there next to an impassive Yami, grumbling silently that Kaiba is just trying to intimidate him before his duel. He scoffs, and though he's sure the god cards are pretty good, he's also confident in all the cards he gathered during his time in Battle City, with the spirits of the duelists who gave them to him. All their images (even that of bug-boy) cluster around him as he poses in typical dramatic fashion. But above all, he's more than aware that he can't save Mai unless he beats other!Marik, who stands across from him again, sneering as if he knows what's on Jonouchi's mind. Come to think of it, it's very possible that he DOES. Regardless, Jonouchi thinks he can't realize his dream date duel with Yami as long as Mai is suffering. He challenges Kaiba to watch him, and yells like a maniac that he WILL WIN.

I guess this is supposed to be a serious moment that warrants no comment from anyone around, because no one so much as gives him a funny look. But it reads as some kind of gag? I don't know, it's confusing.

Moar Cards Guy also announces that Jonouchi is on the other side, to which introduction Jonouchi reacts with more excitement than should be possible at this point. I would probably be grumbling about going around for another lap, but that's why I don't do tournaments. That, and the fact that I'm not good at anything that is competitive. I don't even KNOW how you'd make sewing into a tournament...

Sorry about the tangent. Yami thinks at Jonouchi to defeat that son of a bitch, the kind of wishful thinking that is somewhat unbecoming of a grounded hero. He should be well aware that if Kaiba's narrative function has run out, so has Jonouchi's, so he's not going to be making it to the final duel either. Still, Jonouchi has all of the support, his other friends running past the stoic Yami to shout at him that he can do it, and his sister wishing him luck. All while the ring rises up above the spectators, much like the platform on the blimp. I don't know why this is necessary for every single arena Kaiba commissions, but there you have it.

Both competitors stare down each other seriously as their panels display 4000 points for each of them, and Moar Cards Guy yells at them to duel now with a raised arm. Jonouchi asks if other!Marik is ready, because he's going first. Not that he waits for an answer before drawing a card. Rude. He puts a card face down and summons Panther Warrior in attack, about to state the end of his turn when he trails off in alarm and confusion.

Dark clouds swirl into view overhead, staining the sky an inky hue. Jonouchi is startled by how sudden the darkness came around, and Yami looks downright horrified, gaping at the sky in recognition. We all know what this means. Other!Marik is predictably standing with his arm outstretched in front of him, the Millennium Rod clutched in his fist parallel with the floor.

Do we have to hide from the murderous ghost until 3 am now? Gracious, do I hate these weird spooky party games...

It looks like Jonouchi doesn't much like them either, clenching his teeth in anxiety over this shadow game. Other!Marik is right on the money when he guesses that Jonouchi wants to see Mai again, and magnanimously offers to LET him see her again, in the dark world of death she now inhabits when Jonouchi loses. Jonouchi calls out in disbelief, and other!Marik starts spreading on a thick layer of gross as he describes how he can FEEL it ring through his body, like the sweetest music, the sound of her agonized screams while trapped in that flesh-eating bug infested hourglass. His laugher starts low and threatening, then he amps it up to full-on maniacal.

Jonouchi calls him scum, which is probably the NICEST word for what he is, but other!Marik don't give a shit. He just announces that it's his turn now, on that thoroughly unpleasant note.

Down below, Honda calls to Jonouchi not to let this creep get to him, failing to notice Yami's grinding teeth next to him. He thinks on how other!Marik has turned this into a shadow game, something I was SURE he would have expected after what happened to Mai, but hey, this isn't the first time Yami has had his head stuck firmly up his ass.

Anzu turns to him and apologizes, because Jonouchi made her promise not to tell anyone, but the reason he's fighting other!Marik is to save Mai from his mind prison. Jonouchi said he had to beat other!Marik to keep his promise to Yami as well. Redundant information, but okay. Yami gapes in utter shock, like he's a spelunker surfacing from his deepest exploration of the cavern of his own asshole ever, and discovered that several years have passed in his absence.

Yami stares up at Jonouchi, thinking his name, and Jonouchi seems to respond that this is his battle, asking Yami to wait for him at the end of it. Meanwhile, other!Marik summons one of his mutant beasts, an eyeless man with several other half-formed screaming faces growing out of its chest that he calls the poet of Hell, or Helpoemer. I refer you back to the GIF above for my real reaction. Other!Marik internally enthuses about Jonouchi's upcoming trip into a world of eternal torment. Does he just want to travel to his favorite Hell-destination vicariously through others? Is that what this is about?

I don't know, man, I get the impression that SEEING your buddy enact punishments on other people while you stand by passively and actually being the victim of one are probably two completely different experiences.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The official translation definitely made everything a bit more comprehensible to me, even if Kaiba never really makes much sense in any language, and appears to be making LESS sense as time goes on. He just thinks more on a dramatic level than a logical one, even though he tries to come across as highly rational, and no matter how much I may complain about it, I do find it very entertaining. The lengths he went to in order to make his tournament a thing of awe, a grand and awesome spectacle in an aesthetic sense, is almost comical. Very campy, giving a "pro-wrestling" more style than substance kind of vibe. It goes a long way to explain why everything they do has to be so ridiculously over-complicated too, because Kaiba had to build the practical parts AROUND the aesthetics, and not the other way around. His flashy vision came first, and the mechanics followed. Which makes a certain amount of sense in a visual format such as this. The rockets were a bit much, yet another example of how little KT understands physics, but it was fun to look at.

I do think Kaiba's being a bit more antagonistic toward Jonouchi than he should be at this point, though. I know I mentioned this before, but I find it very strange he acknowledged Jonouchi before they all headed for the location of the blimp, and then started jabbing at him every five seconds again within the last few chapters. Sure, KT could have had Kaiba taking pot-shots at Jonouchi as a person, because it's pretty clear those two are never going to consider each other anything but garbage, but to have Kaiba specifically making derogatory comments about Jonouchi's dueling when it's been clear to him in particular for a long time that Jonouchi deserves to be there seems a bit regressive to me. A few too many steps backward, considering Kaiba even suggested he believed Jonouchi was good ENOUGH that he might be able to force Marik (or the guy they believed to be Marik at the time) to play Ra. Now he's just out-and-out saying Jonouchi's going to eat it immediately. Granted, he knows about the "one turn kill" ability of Ra now where he didn't before, but that doesn't have much to do with JONOUCHI'S skill, since any one of them could end up a victim of it according to Kaiba's dramatized telling. I could understand Kaiba's animosity toward Jonouchi in the previous duel as general trash-talk and an attempt at intimidation without much meaning behind it, but now it's just kind of useless.

Speaking of intimidation, other!Marik is back to his old, scary self again. He's managed to regain a bit of his creep-factor now, with his description of how he views Mai's screams as beautiful music, so I'm beginning to remember why he was frightening before. Referencing when he put Mai in the mind prison before helps, but at this point he's still not back up to the level at which that event happened. To me, he's only back at the mildly perturbing edgy teen obsessed with the great equalizer stage. I might be more freaked out if I were in the same fresh frame of reference as the characters, to whom all of other!Marik's terrible deeds have taken place over the course of a mere two days. As it stands, I'm a busy adult in the real world who has only a scant amount of time in the past TWO YEARS to read over and recap these fictional events. And that makes all the difference.

Hey, did anyone else get the feeling that Yami was especially DENSE in this chapter? I genuinely don't know what to make of him just not DEDUCING Jonouchi's goal of freeing Mai from other!Marik's influence. Is this an indication of Yami being a bit self-centered and selfish, for so long being the very heart of everyone else's motivations that it never even occurred to him that Jonouchi has other friends that he might need to care for above their little bullshit promise? Or was this some weird attempt by KT at somehow renewing the shock-factor on Jonouchi's selfLESS considerations?

Maybe both?

Inuyasha Manga: 184 Cocoon of Poison

Oh, is Inuyasha carelessly spraying RAID in an enclosed space like my BOSS tried to do today? I discovered a mouse scrabbling around in one of my boss's lower deep desk drawers while I was in the office alone. When he came back, I told him about it, as well as the fact that when I jumped back in alarm and kicked the drawer back shut, the mouse darted out the back of it and the desk, high-tailing it under my OTHER boss's desk and out of sight. At first, all my boss said was that it was time to bust out the sticky paper again, which in itself struck me as quite extreme. Then of of our fellow workers came in and I relayed the story to her, at which point she started peeking in my other boss's drawers to see if the mouse had taken refuge in there. It had, had even been building a nest out of chewed office paper, and jumped out at my coworker before running around the desk and scurrying through a hole in the other side of the desk.

That's when my primary boss went and got the mother fucking RAID and prepared to spray it in the hole, to which my coworker and I protested, because not only is that severely inhumane to the mouse, but that's LITERAL POISON in the place we spend eight whole hours every Monday through Friday. No thank you.

Thankfully the can wasn't working. Hopefully it doesn't work for anyone in this chapter either.

What? Dude wants ANOTHER oversized weapon? I guess he feels like his other shoulder isn't getting enough of a workout.

Inuyasha thinks this demand for his sword is absolutely FASCINATING, and says that if this guy really wants Tessaiga, he can just try to take it. Way to reiterate what the nameless youkai bandit already said, Inuyasha. Stellar work. He lunges at the bandit leader with Tessaiga held aloft, no doubt quite the feat with its increased weight, and threatens to expose the youkai for what he really is. Miroku quietly frets over Inuyasha probably not being able to master the heavier sword yet, wondering if it will be alright.

Aaaaand he's jinxed it.

As the blades remain in contact, a skidding sound emits from the razor edges, with some mini-blasts puffing out from the contact area. The youkai bandit watches this with some concern, which was warranted, because Tessaiga ultimately cleaves off that extra long bottom point to the axe and causes the youkai bandit to be blown backward, horse and all. His clueless underlings gape at the scene, calling after their boss and amazed that his giant axe has been sliced. The youkai bandit starts to stand, not looking the least perturbed, but Inuyasha still scoffs at him and says this serves him right. Call me crazy, but I don't think this helping was QUITE big enough to give him what he deserves for his behavior.

The youkai bandit comments on how well Inuyasha's sword can cut, like he's seen a demonstration in a shop window while passing by. Inuyasha raises Tessaiga again and starts for him again, telling him to say his prayers if he can see how well Tessaiga can cut. The youkai bandit smirks into his periphery, where the women of the village sit huddled, and says he needs a shield. You know where this is going. He grabs one of the women by the back of her belt, dragging her toward him despite her grappling to move in the opposite direction.

Inuyasha, still in the middle of his trajectory toward the youkai bandit, finds himself caught between alarm and disbelief.

Hey Inuyasha, this look familiar to you? It should. The only difference here is that when this girl hits Inuyasha, she doesn't knock his ass out cold like he did Kagome. He just kind of groans at the impact with his belly, slightly distracted by their collision. When he looks back up a moment later, the youkai bandit is meeting him at his flank with a burst of some kind of spiral burst from his open mouth. Whatever it is, it sizzles and bubbles on contact with with Inuyasha's skin. He winces, because OW.

The youkai bandit laughs that Inuyasha has been showered in his poison dust. Pretty self-explanatory, so the youkai bandit forgoes the typical manga explanation and just takes a heavy swing at Inuyasha with his newly recovered axe. Blood spurting from his new chest wound, Inuyasha swings down Tessaiga with extra anger, calling the youkai bandit a bastard. Again, what appears to be a smaller version of Kaze no Kizu saws through the ground toward the youkai bandit, much to his surprise. Though he's able to dance out of its way, he gets all pissy and retaliates by vomiting not just DUST, but a whole load of nasty goo. As the goo encircles Inuyasha, knocking Tessaiga out of his hands and sizzling at every point of contact, Miroku lets out an impotent "oh no!" over the unconscious body of the poor woman that was thrown at Inuyasha earlier that he had been tending. And probz groping.

I hope you can do a bit better than "oh no!", Miroku.

Meh. I give it a "C".

Miroku groans in his effort to keep the goo off himself and Inuyasha, though it keeps spiraling around the two of them. Eventually they're encased in the stuff, their gooey prison suspended between tree branches. The youkai bandit chuckles that Inuyasha gave him quite the workout. No doubt the cushy life of leading around bandits and pillaging every village they came across was giving him a bit of a paunch.

Speaking of the underlings he was leading around, they've gathered around the scene, stuttering in disbelief at their boss, whose true nature is obviously a tad unsettling to them. The youkai bandit, the end of his goo-sack still trailing out of his smirking mouth, asks these bastards if they aren't scared knowing he's a youkai now. One of the underlings haltingly says that's not the case at all. Sweat flying off their stiff, grinning expressions, a couple others claim to be excited about their invincibility in having a youkai boss. They promise to follow him like always.

Man, the only thing missing is a chant of "four more years" as their youkai boss spins all his utter complete failures as great victories and uses people as props in his reality show speech.

One of the underlings starts kicking at the goo-sack to own the libs mock the suckers encased inside, and the sole of his foot promptly sizzles and burns. He shrieks comically, rolling around on the ground and holding his ankle in agony. The youkai bandit laughs at him, predictably, informing him a bit too late that he just touched a cocoon of poison, and any more careless pokes and prods will melt him. He's pretty sure that nothing remains of Inuyasha and Miroku on the inside, until he takes a closer look.

Wait, so you can see through your goo-sack? Or can the goo turn transparent at your will? Either way... random.

Miroku asks Inuyasha if he can move, and Inuyasha scoffs that of COURSE he can, reaching out to grab a rope of that goo in front of him and promising to tear apart the whole cocoon. Just then, however, he is struck with a reeling feeling and freezes mid-action. I guess the goo actually turns transparent, because Miroku and Inuyasha can see his foggy image in front of them as it laughs that it seems they can't move about. He's saved the explanation of his poison dust for this moment, when he could tell Inuyasha smugly that it's entered his bloodstream through his actual, honest-to-goodness axe-wound. Inuyasha is dying, little by little.

The youkai bandit demands that one of his underlings fetch the Tessaiga from where it's standing stabbed in the dirt a ways away, reverted back to its less impressive form. As the underling stutters his affirmative and slouches toward the sword, Miroku and Inuyasha gape in horror at Tessaiga being usurped before their very eyes. The underling presents his youkai boss with the sword, and I half expect the youkai bandit to reject it because it wasn't offered on the velvet pillow with the tassels at the corners. He does reach for it, though....

Dude can intimidate and trick a load of drooling morons into following him, but an inanimate object tells him to fuck right off. Awesome.

Miroku notes silently that this was the effect of Tessaiga's anti-youkai warding system. Meanwhile the underling kneeling before his boss asks after the youkai bandit, who examines his smoking hand much like Sesshoumaru did when he touched Tessaiga for the first time. Tessaiga itself stands stuck in the dirt again, because I guess the youkai bandit couldn't have just DROPPED the damn thing? He glares at Inuyasha through his semi-transparent goo-sack, asking what the meaning of this is; why the sword would reject him. He's such a NICE GUY, after all.

Inuyasha answers with a scoff, and the declaration that his Tessaiga chooses its master. It's way out of the league of a low-life youkai like the bandit leader. The youkai bandit hums in momentary contemplation, and gestures to the guy who brought him the sword, who was distinctly NOT burned by touching it. He asks if the sword thought this low-life human bandit was good enough to hold it without consequence then, ignoring the protest of the underling who thinks being called a low-life is quite mean. Do you expect your youkai leader in raping and pillaging to be super polite or something? You should really examine your unrealistic expectations, bro.

Inuyasha doesn't respond to the question, so the youkai bandit draws his own conclusions, which are pretty accurate to be fair; he deduces that Inuyasha is a hanyou. Again, Inuyasha just glares, opting not to respond. The youkai bandit laughs at the fact a mere HANYOU tried to beat him, the great Gatenmaru, in a fight. Oh thank all the gods he has a name. I was getting a tad tired of calling him "the youkai bandit" this whole time. Sounds like it should be on an old west wanted poster.

Miroku sweats about what he can see of Inuyasha's wound over his slouched shoulder, which is still bubbling, and getting wider all the while instead of beginning to heal. Inuyasha is sweating 10 times as much, internally cursing the cut for continuing to bleed because of that poison dust. Miroku frets that keeping up the barrier to keep the cocoon from touching them is taking all he has, and he can't do anything more to help Inuyasha. He wonders just how long he can keep even THAT up.

The underling holds up Tessaiga once again, referring to it in a rather hopeful manner to Gatenmaru. He tells the underling to do whatever with it, because he's not interested in a sword he can't use. The underling stutters his thanks, giggling in glee as he walks away with Tessaiga, right past the old man Inuyasha and company helped back to the village earlier. He's lying bleeding in the dirt, but he knows that some way, somehow, he's GOT to get that sword.

Back in the forest:

They're not the only ones who are too late. Everyone knows that the "if I'm not back in five minutes..." preface should go unspoken in most cases, especially when the one who would be saying it is a half-youkai who should be able to shoo off a mangy band of marauders in less than 30 seconds under normal circumstances. Did you decide to finish a few rounds of poker before you checked on them, or what?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm less inclined to believe that the little mini-Kaze-no-Kizu blasts are a one-off mistake this time, since we got another one here. I suppose they COULD have nothing to do with the signature move too, and just be more of a puff of extra youki released with the swing. But I think it bears repeating that I'm not a fan of things that require a bit of a headcanon roundabout reasoning to hand-wave away. The fact that Inuyasha is still visibly having difficulty handling the sword is great on its own, showing with little dialog that he's still at a disadvantage in a fight. Combined with these little blasts, though, the struggle that he's going through is undermined, because a longer range attack that he's supposed to have to concentrate for is still accessible, even if it's just a little. I suppose I should be grateful that it is JUST a little, though. If RT were anyone else, she might have forgotten her own rules completely and just had him firing off the technique left and right without a second thought. At least with her it's a SUBTLE shift in the rules.

Gatenmaru bears a superficial resemblance to Sesshoumaru in demeanor and the way he reacted to touching Tessaiga; just staring at his burning hand in mild interest for a moment or two. He's also covetous of Inuyasha's sword and enjoys throwing people at other people. I wonder if this is intentional, seeing as how we are fresh from joining Sesshoumaru in his quest to learn why Inuyasha's blood sometimes resembles a full youkai's. While there, he also got a little trivia about how intact his own personality would be under dire circumstances, a personality of cold disconnect and calculating. Gatenmaru looks for all intents and purposes a symbolic stand-in for Sesshoumaru in a more "demonstrative" fight, not just for how Inuyasha's transformations work, but also for the relationship Inuyasha has to Sesshoumaru. In a way, Gatenmaru is an effigy of Sesshoumaru's own ignorance of how Inuyasha, as a hanyou, functions. His is the same flat, shallow level of investment Sesshoumaru had in the beginning, and now that Sesshoumaru is starting to acquire more depth with his understanding of the situation, this superficial part of him can be discarded.

Because Gatenmaru is going down. Make no mistake about that.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 242 A True Duelist

It is my sincerest hope that this title is the heading for a chapter-long definition of the term, because Jonouchi has been working toward this nebulous concept for the entire Battle City arc. At SOME point, he has to figure out what being a true duelist even means, and that may as well be now. It would be nice if this mostly transitional duel could MEAN something to someone. So come on, chapter! You can do it! Become the dictionary of incomprehensible card game linguistics that you were meant to be!

Please tell me he's going to attack himself so he can catch up to his boyfriends. That would be perfect.

Yami draws his card and pauses to recap the situation of his fellow players; Kaiba has a face down card and a monster in attack, Marik just has his monster in attack, and poor Jonouchi has neither monster nor face down card to protect his points. Because he can't be SUBTLE in his endeavor to pull in possible new readers, he feels he has to elaborate that not having monsters or traps is BAD, guys. Didja know that? Didja?

At 2200 attack points, Yami's monster is more powerful than both the monsters currently out there. His eyes shift to the side as he wonders who to attack - his only two considerations being Kaiba and other!Marik. Doesn't want to pick on the guy who has no way to defend himself, I guess. It makes him better than 50% of the duelists here, I guess. He admits to himself that he's a bit wary of Kaiba's face down card, since it could be a trap, and reminds himself that he can't be careless.

So he puts his own card face down and plays Kuriboh in defense, which might be the most careful move in the universe for a guy who continues to be ignored for the promise of a later game. He appears to have chosen his target, though, with a determined clench of his teeth. I still have my fingers crossed that it's himself.

Down on the ground, Yami's friends all look up at him, Anzu saying his name. Honda correctly states that Yami is considering his promise to face Jonouchi in the tournament first and foremost, and will go after other!Marik and Kaiba in order to work towards that goal. But Anzu points out, with a little disclaimer that it may be her imagination, that Jonouchi looks like he's got his sights set on other!Marik. Quite literally Jonouchi is giving other!Marik an atomic glare. Anzu has an epiphany that Jonouchi might be wanting to rescue Mai from the influence of other!Marik, and I must congratulate her on catching up to the rest of the universe.

Bravo.

Yami starts to direct Gilfar to its target, but Jonouchi shouts down at him to wait. Yami looks up at him in alarm, and Jonouchi wears a somewhat morose expression when he asks what a real duelist is.

I mean, I know Jonouchi can be a bit of a blockhead, but this is just... ugh.

Yami stares up at Jonouchi, and the extreme closeup on his face makes it impossible for me to tell if he's astounded, or dumbfounded, or what. Back below, Anzu wonders what it is that Jonouchi is even SAYING, and Honda sweatdrops, being pretty damn sure that a real duelist wouldn't ask a question like that during some other duelist's turn. I agree 100%.

As Yami stares speechless up at Jonouchi, Kaiba just smirks at this trash-boy's sappy speech. You know things are bad when KAIBA bothers to make sense for half a second. Jonouchi tells Yami that no matter what the challenge, he's not going to back down, never giving up no matter the situation and believing in the power of his cards just as Yami taught him. Suddenly, he addresses Honda, shouting down at him that he must trust in power no matter the time, or something. Oh no, he caught the incomprehensibles from Kaiba! I knew we should have quarantined him! Honda responds with appropriate irritated confusion. That's a fucking MOOD, friends.

Jonouchi continues his monologue, this time referencing those who fought against him before, who exposed weaknesses of his that he hadn't noticed before. The next few speech bubbles are cut in half, so I can't be EXACTLY sure what they say, but my educated guess is they're specific quotes from Mai, and Jonouchi is reminiscing about how she in particular influenced his dueling attitude and style.

Gracious do I need to take some good advice I was given on a recent chapter's review and just fork over the two bucks a month for Shonen Jump's version of this comic. I'm sure it won't make THAT much difference in my house savings.

Jonouchi states that only one person can shine in Battle City, a characteristic of ALL tournaments, but that's neither here nor there. He really HAS taken the most Kaiba of perspectives: in the pursuit of the "King" title, EVERYONE else is an enemy. So much for Kaiba not influencing his dueling perspective. That guy is a freaking DISEASE. Yami just keeps on staring in alarm, saying nothing, and the spectators down below look a tad forlorn as they observe Jonouchi's heartfelt speech. Finally, he's arrived at the point - that Yami will attack him, the enemy, if he's a real duelist. Jonouchi doesn't want any special protection just because of their promise to face one another.

Yami just becomes more and more astounded, gaping wordlessly at Jonouchi as he rants about his situation being the worst, which makes him the best target. Jonouchi DEMANDS that Yami follow the rules of dueling and attack him according to his vulnerability in the moment.

"Well geez, Jonouchi, if you wanted to lose that badly, all you had to do was ask."

With a confident thought that he understands Jonouchi (as he SHOULD, given that Jonouchi used the absolute maximum amount of words of the plainest variety toward the end to get his point across), Yami shouts at his Gilfar to attack, and aim it for Jonouchi directly. As the drill-like force rockets up toward Jonouchi, Yami affirms that they'll fight in the finals. Jonouchi groans behind his arms, raised to guard his face from the holographic blast, and his points run all the way down to 400. While the virtual smoke clears, Jonouchi thinks on Mai, promising silently again to save her. And as his pod is running up its track past other!Marik, he glares, shooting him a mental warning to prepare himself, because Jonouchi's going to drag him on this path too. Other!Marik just smirks at him on his way up.

At the bottom of the tower, Anzu calls out Jonouchi's name in concern, but Shizuka just mumbles about her brother's life points dropping. I'm not sure she's as invested in this as Jonouchi thinks she might be. He yells, because how else would anyone hear him from up there, that it's his turn, drawing a card in typical dramatic fashion. In the same moment, he reminisces back to when Mai gave him her qualifying card in Duelist Kingdom when he was freaking out about losing the one Yuugi gave him. She said at the time that she had given Jonouchi's sister a pearl, and she hoped said sister would be able to see the light. Pearls don't give off light, so I'm not sure what the hell she's talking about, but it means a lot to Jonouchi at least. While Shizuka stares up at him from below at this moment, Jonouchi's thoughts are filled with Mai, and his determination to help her to regain her own light and wake up.

Ooooh, SOMEBODY thinks he's got an ace in the hole. Or a trap card in the hole. And all while Yami continues to sit at the bottom down there, forgotten once again not SECONDS after being persuaded to use his turn to push Jonouchi farther away from their promised duel, literally. So sad.

Jonouchi commands his Legendary Fisherman to attack Kaiba, and it lunges for him. Yami worries over Kaiba's trap card as Jonouchi clenches his teeth, looking just as nervous. Did he just make a HORRIBLE mistake? Kaiba seems to think so, at least that's what I gather from his maniacal grin. He activates his trap, revealing it to be Destruction Ring. Not to us, of course, because we have a regrettable amount of access to Kaiba's head, and he's already said that's what it was in there. Now that he has much the same picture that we did ages ago, Yami's mouth gapes in silent horror.

I might be a tad overly-dramatic about how awful it is to go into Kaiba's thoughts. I learned it from him.

The ring of grenades circles around the Legendary Fisherman's neck, and Yami details the effect this trap has - destroying the attached monster and subtracting the monster's attack from the player's life points. Kaiba following up on your crippling blow to Jonouchi's life points is the strangest time to give a card lecture, dude. Kaiba laughs that it's "game over"for Jonouchi, narrating the explosion taking out the Legendary Fisherman, because he's just so excited that something he did actually worked.

Again, Jonouchi holds his arm up to shield his face from the blow, and his friends below are SURE his life points are gone. And that's how you know the twist is coming.

How the fuck do you get a TRAP to swerve??? Kaiba, you fuck-up!

The digital smoke clears once more, to show Jonouchi holding up a card, and wearing a smug little smirk. Other!Marik's eyes bulge at him out of his periphery. You see, Jonouchi secretly played Grave Robber, which grins behind a hand as it holds up the card it stole from other!Marik's graveyard. Jonouchi wears a similar grin as he explains that his little buddy took Curse of Pain, and... well that's it. No further explanation. No agonizing speeches. Just Jonouchi saying goodbye to other!Marik as he rockets up past him to the top of the tower. Painless.

Well, at least until we see other!Marik smiling down at Jonouchi, deciding right then and there to make him "enter darkness" and chuckling about it. Ugh, if that was supposed to be foreboding, other!Marik missed the mark worse than Kaiba down there. Jonouchi ends his turn, satisfied that the first duel of the next stage of finals will be against other!Marik. And here he is with nothing out to defend what's left of his life points, as he had apparently planned all along.

Kaiba says it's his turn, and after drawing his card, he doesn't hesitate to send his Blade Knight to attack Jonouchi. NOW Kaiba can say truthfully that Jonouchi is finished. Blade Knight slashes a flinching Jonouchi, and his life points disappear, but he seems pretty cool about it. At least he's not pitching a weird fit like he usually does. Yami calls his name as he rises to the top of the tower.

At the bottom again, Moar Cards Guy raises his arm, declaring that the duelists have been matched for the following duels. Jonouchi promises to defeat both other!!Marik and Ra, and silently bids Mai to wait for him.

If you're not prepared when you get up there, dude, you may meet Mai again in an entirely DIFFERENT way than is helpful.

Seriously, everyone get your asses up there immediately. Do NOT let Jonouchi be alone with other!Marik for even a second.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I know I nearly ALWAYS lead with pacing these days, but I can't help it if it's been noteworthy lately, and this chapter has been the most noteworthy by far in this area. It started so very slow with Yami's decision, then Jonouchi's long monologue. Then it sped up in a HURRY. And I do mean that it seemed extremely rushed, conspicuous in its lack of all that yakking about technical functions of cards. It's made all the more glaring by the fact that Yami felt the need at a certain point to point out the effect of a card, but no one did it at the end of the chapter at length. KT just seemed extremely rushed at toward the final few pages, and on the whole made the chapter seem a bit poorly-planned.

That being said, I did find Jonouchi's speech satisfying. Yeah, I made fun of it, but that's only because it meandered a bit too much, and its humorous elements were a little strange, likely due to our usual translation issues. But we did indeed finally get Jonouchi to define what he thinks a true duelist is, tying it into all of the experiences he's had during not only Battle City, but also all the way back in Duelist Kingdom. Informed by every duel he's engaged in, he's concluded that being a true duelist is all about having the integrity to give your opponent a fair and honest fight, no matter what reasons you may have for giving them a little break. He's grown to view giving your all in a match as a sign of ultimate respect, and while his language was very KAIBA at a certain point, calling everyone else enemies in a fight for the monarchy of games, he was ultimately trying to get across a measure of the bigger picture. The point of this tournament isn't for Yami and Jonouchi to face each other exclusively, no matter what promises they made. The point of this tournament is to crown the best of them, and Yami can't just ignore that for Jonouchi's benefit. He wants a FAIR fight, not one that fixes things in his favor so he can get what he wants.

Since the very beginning of this story, Jonouchi has been the kind of person who values a good fight, because he doesn't see the categories of friends and opponents as mutually exclusive. He's been in the practice of making friends from supposed "enemies" since the VERY FIRST CHAPTER. Jonouchi encourages Yami to look at him as an enemy here because he knows that this is how Yami will be able to give them both the MOST dignity in the situation, and preserve the integrity of the tournament. Their bond, as has happened in the recent past, will only be stronger the more honest their fight, and that's all that Jonouchi wants out of a battle with Yami anyway. Even if they DON'T fulfill their promise and face each other in a one-on-one within the confines of the tournament.

In fact, as a reader, I am 99% sure that this is the closest they'll ever get to it, and I'm also pretty darn certain that both characters are aware of those slim chances as well. Which of course makes Jonouchi's insistence that Yami give him an honest and fair fight HERE, NOW, all the more understandable. He's not just asking that Yami demonstrate how true of a duelist he is, Jonouchi's asking that Yami demonstrate their friendship's strength with a good battle because there may not be an opportunity beyond this.

You know, it occurs to me that all this time I've been wanting Jonouchi to punch Kaiba over and over, Jonouchi hasn't shown very much interest, choosing instead to get all defensive and flustered for how much Kaiba disrespects him. I'm now inclined to believe that Jonouchi views fighting as a tool of friendship and two equals facing each other honorably, and he doesn't care to engage with Kaiba in that sacred way because he doesn't want to be FRIENDS with Kaiba. Which is entirely fair. Why bother to give the guy so much effort when there's absolutely no chance there's going to be any kind of understanding between you in the end?

So I guess I'll just ask HONDA to do the punching from now on.