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!