Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 051 The Millennium Enemy, Part 2

Two high schoolers, two Millennium Items, two spirits, ONE BATTLE. The Clash of the Millennium is about to commence. On one end of the table, the unsuspecting Yuugi, who should really know by now not to trust people not to try to murder him. On the other end, what seems to be his friend Bakura, but is really the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring who's taken over his body. And we do mean EVIL folks, because as sinister as Yami seemed in the beginning, we learned he was more respectful of his poor host than this asshole is of his.

Let's see what these gods of games can throw at one another!!

Reeeeeaaaaaal subtle, Other Bakura. Really, no one except the reader seems to be able to pick up on your horrifyingly evil sneer, because they're all happy, grinning, and raring to go. Other Bakura stares at Yuugi's puzzle with covetous eyes, vowing that he'll take possession of it when all's said and done. Out loud, he takes the time to explain all the rules.

Little odd that he tells everyone how the dark side wins before how the adventurers can win. Oh well, he goes on to say that the adventurers win by finding and defeating the boss representing the Dark Master. Jonouchi asks if the adventurers are he and his friends, and Other Bakura confirms this. Yuugi explains that the game is like a combination of a board game and an RPG, and the Game Master is Bakura this time around. You wanna explain to us how RPGs work too, Yuugi, or are you just taking up a panel with useless chatter?

Well fuck me.

Other Bakura explains the fairly self-explanatory concept of playing a role in a fantasy world they're all drawn into, essentially an interactive story. Other Bakura says this is what makes the game so interesting as Yuugi again notes how different Bakura is acting than he was the previous day. He doesn't bring this up, however, and Other Bakura proceeds to tell all his visitors that they'll need to create their own character to go into the world. Other Bakura brings out a stack of character charts from... somewhere, and says that once they've decided on what type their character is going to be, they can write down all the stats on their character sheet.

There's a goddamn Satanist class. So, theoretically, I could make a Birdman type who believes that one should not make sexual advances on someone unless they're reciprocated? Or, are we talking a total and complete misunderstanding of Satanism here? My guess is the latter.

Yuugi wonders which race he should pick from the list they were instructed to consult, and Jonouchi notes all the races have the good and bad aspects. Jonouchi then turns to Honda and suggests that he should pick the fairy, and Honda asks why he would want to do that, other than that Mr. Takahashi thinks it would be super funny. He even draws a crude depiction of what that would look like, wings, pointed toes, with Honda's scowling face pasted on the neck and everything.

Newsflash, Takahashi, between the two of them, Jonouchi is by far the better fairy. Just saying.

Yuugi pulls on his ears to give the illusion of them being pointed as he considers choosing a half-elf race. Yeah, KEEBLER ELF. After they're all done, Other Bakura tells them to pick from the class list. PLEASE someone pick Satanist. PLEASE. Jonouchi is quick to pick the warrior, while Honda is drawn to the hunter class. Everyone runs through all the items and characteristics they want, some of them having to be reminded to keep within a set budget, of course. Meanwhile, Other Bakura is bidding them to choose well, because those characters will be their bodies for eternity after he's defeated them.

Yuugi and friends hold up their character charts once they're completed, and Other Bakura looks them over to make sure they've chosen everything they need to. When he's satisfied with what he sees there, he says that it's time to make their profiles. Aren't the charts their profiles?

None of you picked "Satanist"? Seriously, you all need to work harder to sate MY curiosity. It's very important that I know what that term is supposed to mean! For science.

Jonouchi is impressed with how much the little figurines look like them, and Other Bakura just claims to be a perfectionist when it comes to games. Yeah, but how long does it take you to make these? Seems like a lot of detail went into them, and they're not really something you can just whip up on the fly. If he has molds, maybe it can be done, but given all the different things Yuugi and company could have chosen as far as equipment and weapons, there would have to be a lot of different molds there. And the painting of these figures must have been pretty time-consuming...

Even if Other Bakura had started work on these the previous night - which I'm totally convinced he's creepy enough to do - he would still have to know what characters they would choose to pull it off.

Anyway, Other Bakura enters all of their information into a laptop to better help him simulate battles, though most of the calls on them still come down to his judgment. Once that's all done, Other Bakura tells them to go ahead and put their pieces on the starting zone of the board.

Y'all are the most gullible fuckers ever.

Other Bakura declares the start of the game, but all that happens is that Yuugi gives the board a thoughtful hum. Jonouchi is frustrated, because he doesn't see any monsters occupying the field that they can fight. Other Bakura fills him in that the monsters in this game are hidden, and the moves they make determine what monsters there are and where/when they'll appear. Jonouchi leans over to Honda, who asks him if he missed something, or if he too doesn't know anything about this world. Honda replies that they don't even know who the boss is. Anzu points at a collection of buildings on the board next to her, saying that when you're in an RPG and you need information, a village is the best place to poke around. Yuugi agrees, saying they should head to the village.

Other Bakura announces that after five turns (uneventful, I'm sure) the party reaches the village. Then he reaches forward and snaps the village buildings away from the board to reveal a sunken area that is made up to resemble a pub, complete with a tiny bar, dining area, and various other pieces. Yuugi marvels at how the model of the town can reveal some other people beneath it, and the detail of it all to boot. Jonouchi just wants to head to the bar to get their information. And a Guinness to wash it all down.

Jonouchi starts talking to the old bartender in a demeaning way, calling him a bozo and his party superior adventurers who are looking for something profitable. Honda mutters that it's always about money to him. A shot of the bartender comes with at "stare" tag, and Other Bakura reiterates this, as well as a narrative about how he sighs and begins to speak: he says that if his problems could be solved with money, he'd give him all the cash he has, but he doubts Jonouchi would be able to enjoy the spoils. Then Bakura says he moves further into the bar. Jonouchi shouts that the piece to wait, because there's something going on and he and his party want to know. Honda is exasperated with how absorbed Jonouchi has already become in the game.

Other Bakura says that the bartender begins to tell a sad tale, one that starts with peace and quiet until the dictator Zork showed up. Zork killed the king and turned the palace into a place of darkness, and his monsters have been going around killing villagers ever since. Jonouchi calls this unforgivable and promises that he and his fellow adventurers will kill Zork, before he demands that the bartender give him all his money. Anzu and Honda are both disgusted by Jonouchi's behavior, though Honda seems to think it's typical of Jonouchi to be the absolute worst.

Anzu changes track, telling Yuugi that it seemed like the figure was actually speaking to her. Yuugi says that's not possible, because all the NPCs in the game are controlled by the Game Master. Anzu asks if this means Bakura is doing the bartender's voice, and Yuugi says that's probably the case. The next panel shows Other Bakura, with his mouth hidden by a tower in what I'm guessing is the castle.

Other Bakura's bartender tells them that before they hunt for Zork, they should talk to a patron standing in another corner of the pub, because he's the one who should be able to tell them the safest way to go about it. How the fuck would he know? The figure has his back turned when Jonouchi approaches him with his figure, but...

Jonouchi and Honda point and laugh, noting the figure looks exactly like their gym teacher Karita. The figure itself opens its mouth and utters an exclamation. Jonouchi and Honda don't notice, however, until it begins talking off script in his recognition of them. They look at one another, asking if they just heard the figure call their names. Honda asks if Jonouchi is fooling around by giving the character a voice, but he denies it. The Karita piece is way off script when it tells them to help him, because Other Bakura turned him into a pawn. Anzu asks again if the figure just spoke and Jonouchi calls her an idiot, even though he was the one asking if he heard it calling his name earlier. Other Bakura glares down at the rogue piece, who looks over a tiny shoulder at him.

Other Bakura thinks at Karita that he's no longer himself, just a side character in his game. He mentally demands that Karita play his role, Villager D, as Karita stutters out his request for help again. Bakura silently says that the only alternative to accepting his new identity as a nameless villager is death, which seems to do the trick. Karita still stutters as he recites his proper lines, advising the adventurers to head north, but to avoid the forest that contains monsters.

Jonouchi says thanks and takes his piece out of the conversation, declaring that they should head out of the village now. Yuugi isn't so sure that the figure wasn't speaking to them now, though, because it seemed pretty alive to him. What clued you in, Yuugi? The stuttering and begging for help? Other Bakura silently chuckles, thinking that Yuugi will soon be just the same as Karita.

Jonouchi is still enthusiastic as ever, happy to finally know what to do and encouraging his party to come with him to find the castle and Zork. They move forward a few spaces before Other Bakura informs them that they've just entered a zone that contains monsters, and they'll have to decide if they come up against one from now on. He holds up a pair of differently colored ten-sided dice that they'll use to determine if a monster appears. Jonouchi and Honda appear confused, Honda admitting that it's the first time he's seen dice quite like that.

Other Bakura says that they have a 30% chance of meeting up with an enemy monster in the zone they've just entered. The dice are red and white - red representing the tens digit place and the white representing the ones digit place - and if they roll anywhere from 31 to 99 they avoid coming across a monster. Other Bakura throws the dice and the red die lands on a two, while the white lands on a one.

Yeah, you WOULD be stoked to come across a monster that just appears on the board. Still, Yuugi is excited too, saying that without battles, the game would be boring. Did Other Bakura just slam it down on the board and that wasn't shown? Because it just looks like it materialized...

Jonouchi is raring to go as Other Bakura holds out the pair of dice he was using before, telling them that dice also determine the outcomes of battles by percentage. Jonouchi is the first to take a crack at rolling, and the dice turn up a 13%. On his computer, Other Bakura determines that his race, class, and weapon stats all give him a 40% hit rate, and this means that Jonouchi is able to attack with the 13 he rolled. Jonouchi's figure moves to attack the goblin, slashing with its sword while everyone watches this happen and doesn't think it's weird. These figures can't be holograms, since they were being held earlier, so it's not as though they're programed to perform motion. Why the hell aren't these kids questioning what's going on here?

Other Bakura informs the players that the closer they roll to 00, the more damage they'll inflict on the opponent. On the other hand, if they roll a 99, they're subject to a penalty, which is probably what Other Bakura means when he says that they'll all become pawns in the game.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm passingly familiar with Dungeons & Dragons through its anime sibling "BESM". This is only because there were entire weekends during college that I was recruited to play, with ex-friends that didn't treat me very nice after a while. That's why my memories of playing games like this aren't very happy, but I'll try to be as impartial as possible when judging it.

I think I would be less irritated with this if either the pieces didn't move at all, or if it was made clear that the kids' imaginations were the ones imposing movement on the still pieces. Takahashi seems to want to have it both ways; he wants his characters to be skeptical enough not to believe that Other Bakura isn't making the pieces talk, but also not bat an eye when they're moving around freely. If they were supposed to move around on their own, I would have preferred an explanation like the holograms that the Kaiba brothers used to supplement their games, or something. If that were the case, I might have questioned how Bakura managed to get his hands on that kind of technology, but at least I wouldn't be wondering how the characters' minds are managing to accept the movement of the pieces without also accepting and being suspicious of the talking.

How the pieces were made is also a really big flaw in the presentation of this chapter, because they're just too intricate to allow me to accept that Other Bakura just whipped them up on the spot. I understand that there's only so much space in the chapter, but even when your publisher only gives you so much space for a certain chapter, there could have been a better, more economical way of dispensing information to leave room for explaining how these figures were made. If Other Bakura had started on them the night before, or worked on them all day, maybe the explanation could have been that Other Bakura was planting suggestions in all of his players' minds regarding which characteristics they should choose, or maybe that he had read them so well that he knew which characteristics they would be drawn to just by psychology alone. That would only have taken a panel and would have been better than no explanation at all.

Otherwise, the gaming trend in this one is interesting, and I'm really quite surprised it's not going to get more attention over Duel Monsters in the coming chapters. D&D is HUGELY popular, and it was back when this comic was coming out too. Looks like Takahashi was wanting THIS to be the game that was the centerpiece of his manga, but there was already too much hype over Kaiba and the Magic clone he'd created. Too bad, because I think I would have preferred the former over the latter too.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 050 The Millennium Enemy, Part 1

To my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day! To anyone else visiting my blog from anyWHERE else, Happy Monday!! This is also a special day for another reason: this blog starts a new arc today, and not just any arc. Because the title contained the all-important "Millennium" word, I was naughty and looked ahead a tad. This chapter not only marks the beginning of the end of this particular section of Yu-Gi-Oh, sequestered off from the "Duelist" saga by American publishers, it's also the introduction of another very important character in the entire series.

I'm talking, of course, about a new transfer student that a girl runs into the classroom to gossip about with her girlfriends. Said girlfriends are intrigued, wondering what kind of person he is. No one knows much, except that someone has heard he's SUPER cute. Yuugi is sitting at his desk as he overhears the news that he's getting a new classmate and is also interested. When a teacher leads him into the classroom, a couple of girls up front are dazzled by him, so I guess the rumor about him being handsome is true. The teacher introduces him as Ryou Bakura.

Yuugi seems to think he's dreamy too. The teacher wonders where he can seat Bakura and notes that there's room next to Jonouchi. Jonouchi is so enthusiastic about this that he's waving and calling out. Sheesh, Van Halen was right - everybody wants some. But Jonouchi has to shoot a glare at a girl who tells Bakura to watch out, because Jonouchi is known as a bad apple around these parts. Bakura doesn't seem put off in the slightest, sitting down and greeting Jonouchi cordially. Jonouchi grins at Bakura and suggests that they be friends. Bakura just smiles in response.

Some time later, I'm assuming after class, Jonouchi introduces Bakura to Yuugi, Honda and Anzu, who are all excited to meet him. Bakura asks Yuugi about the game shop his family owns, and Yuugi asks Bakura if he likes games. Bakura answers in the affirmative, citing a board game called "Monster World" as his favorite.

Gee, Yuugi, you didn't imagine that Bakura would have liked to explain it, given it's HIS favorite game? No? You're such a know-it-all.

Bakura is not as offended by Yuugi's game-splaining as I am, apparently, and is impressed with his level of knowledge of games. Yuugi just looks embarrassed. Jonouchi says that the game sounds really interesting and suggests they all play tomorrow at Bakura's place, but Bakura only stutters out an agreement. He looks down, and Yuugi makes a mental note that Bakura doesn't seem as enthusiastic about the idea as he should be.

Bakura recovers from his funk fairly quickly, though, as he remembers that he was meaning to ask Yuugi about the giant gaudy puzzle around his neck. Yuugi explains that it's the Millennium Puzzle, found in a Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt. Bakura asks if he can take a look and Yuugi hands it to him to hold. Bakura begins to say that he also has... something, but suddenly stops as he doubles over and clutches his chest. Yuugi asks Bakura what's wrong, but Bakura lies like a rug, denying anything is up as he hands Yuugi his puzzle back. He's not sure what it was, but the unfamiliar feeling in his heart concerns him.

Don't worry, Bakura. Yuugi just does that to people. Then they want him to be around all the time. Just ask Jonouchi.

Is... is creating fan-clubs for classmates a thing in Japan? Because I don't remember anything like that popping up in any of the high schools I went to in the United States, and I went to THREE. Even if I DID see something like that, I'm pretty sure I would be creeped out, because that's some creepy shit. Are they going to be asking for locks of his hair next? Sneaking in his window to watch him sleep?

And all Jonouchi can say is that he's "popular." Yeah, "popular" is not a term I'd use for a victim of stalking. If I wasn't familiar with the role he played in the rest of this series, I would be afraid he'd turn up in a ditch somewhere down the line. Jonouchi doesn't dwell too much on his envy of Bakura's inappropriate attention from the girls, because Yuugi reminds him that he seems like a nice guy. Jonouchi agrees, thinking that they'll all be really good friends. Yuugi asks Bakura, in his head this time, to play "Monster World" with them. This panel is just taking up space, honestly.

Bakura looks listless and bored as the girls surrounding him point out the toilets and the music room. He just affirms that he's listening as he thinks this isn't really interesting to him. Which part? The tour or the girls? The group walks past a shadow in the hall, which turns out to be...

Surprise! Another antagonist teacher! What's wrong, dude? Pissed off that Bakura is shattering your delusion that underage girls are more interested in older authorities than boys their own age? One of the girls even curses the guy, whom she identifies as a gym teacher named Karita. Karita recognizes Bakura as the new student, and says that he heard Bakura was a trouble-maker at his last school. Bakura seems surprised by this assessment, but flinches when Karita pulls on his long, luxurious locks.

Karita is going to take it upon himself to make sure that Bakura follows all school standards, the first of which is a rule against long hair on boys. But Yuugi's liberty spikes are a-ok? The girls wail out Bakura's name as he's being harassed, but can't do much else. Still yanking on Bakura's hair, Karita warns him not to think of himself as special. If he cuts his hair by the next day, Karita will consider him a REAL student of the school. He finally lets go of Bakura's hair and walks away laughing. As one of the girls asks Bakura if he's okay, another calls Karita a piece of trash. Cheers to that, girl.

Bakura tells his fans that he's okay, he just needs a quiet minute alone. In the bathroom, he leans on a sink in front of a mirror, groaning and clutching his chest again. He can't figure out what the pain in his chest is all about, but he knows it started when he touched the Millennium Puzzle. Suddenly, he hears a chuckle behind him and swings around, but no one is there. He wonders if he imagined hearing a voice or is dreaming. Do you think you passed out on the floor or something, kid?

Bakura begins to unbutton his uniform while musing on the fact that Yuugi's puzzle looks an awful lot like...

He must have been pretty jingly when he walked, then.

After school, Yuugi and friends catch up to Bakura at the campus gate. He greets them awkwardly, and Yuugi says that his posse wanted to go over to Bakura's place to play his game tomorrow, but suggests they can play at his own place if Bakura is uncomfortable with them coming over. Bakura looks uncomfortable regardless, and Yuugi notices, asking if Bakura would rather not play at all. Bakura denies this, saying that he really DOES want to play "Monster World" with them, but he still looks a little forlorn. Finally, he says that he has a confession.

At his former school, he had friends whom he played the game with a lot, but these friends ended up in comas lasting to this day after playing with him. Bakura knows it's a little difficult to believe, but he insists that this was the common denominator between all of their conditions. Yuugi is shocked, but doesn't say anything as Bakura goes on to explain that he transferred schools because people started to avoid him when it kept happening. He's living alone, away from even his family now.

OHHHH, that's why he has a fan-club! He's a classic harem protagonist! He has that gig on the side, I'm sure.

Bakura says he really wants to play games and be friends with Yuugi and pals, but he's decided he can't risk playing the games anymore without losing friends, so he has to avoid them. Bakura turns around and runs off the campus, saying goodbye as he does so. Yuugi calls out to him, but he doesn't come back. Yuugi thinks he recognizes the side-effect of falling into a coma after playing games. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Later that night, Bakura is at home, writing a letter to what looks like someone named "Amane," a sibling. Another giggle erupts behind him and he twists in his chair, remembering it from before. The voice asks if Bakura can finally hear him, but Bakura just panics, asking who's there. The voice is jubilant that it can finally communicate with its master. Oh day of days! The voice wants to celebrate, because he's finally found the boy with the Millennium Item after 3,000 years. It speculates that it was because of this boy that it and Bakura are finally able to talk to each other. Meanwhile, Bakura is freaking out, clutching his head, and asking who the voice belongs to and where it's coming from.

The voice finally responds directly to Bakura instead of just talking past him. It says that it's the other Bakura, from inside the Millennium Ring.

OH SHIT! OH SHIT! THAT'S NOT RIGHT! Yami doesn't treat Yuugi like that! The other Bakura is a DICK!

Bakura commands the voice to disappear, but the other Bakura doesn't think that's a very nice way to talk to it. It's not nice to stab peoples' chests with little dangly cones, either, but that didn't stop you, did it, Other Bakura? Apparently, Other Bakura is having fun, and doesn't want to go anywhere. He's also been working to grant all of Bakura's wishes in order to have leverage in their relationship ever since Bakura got the ring. After all, Bakura DID wish to keep playing with his friends in "Monster World" forever, so Other Bakura made that wish come true for him. Bakura wonders what this means, and the Other Bakura says he'll understand one day.

Well, looks like Shadi isn't the only one who wants to invade Yami's mind room. Other Bakura's in such a great mood that he thinks he'll pay his rent once more today, and Bakura asks in a panic what he's planning on doing. Other Bakura's only planning on serving his master, who was humiliated by Karita, and probably doesn't want to be bald. Bakura tries to tell Other Bakura to stop, but with a suggestion that Bakura should get some rest, Other Bakura disregards that particular wish.

Ewwwww, those dangly things are still embedded in his skin...

The audience doesn't get to see the game, but Karita is looking in shock at a pointing Other Bakura as he shouts that it's time for a penalty game. Other Bakura didn't even bother to button back up his shirt before he went to challenge Karita, I guess. Karita screams, and the next panel shows his body lying on the pavement with Other Bakura shadowed and hovering over it. Other Bakura holds up a miniature doll that looks an awful lot like Karita as he laughs, explaining that Karita's soul is now trapped in it. He'll spend the rest of his days as a game piece.

The next day, Yuugi worries about Bakura not coming to school. They're all standing outside an apartment building, the one Jonouchi says that Bakura is supposed to live at. How would he know that? Bakura was only at school for one day, and he wasn't keen enough on anyone coming over to give out his address. Did Jonouchi ask those stalker club members for it, or did he BECOME one of the stalkers?

Jonouchi thinks Bakura is at home being depressed, and Honda agrees. Jonouchi declares that Bakura is their friend, and they need to play the game with him to show him all his friends in comas are just coincidences. Since Jonouchi hasn't been really understanding of the concept of "consent" in the past, it doesn't surprise me that he would essentially suggest overriding Bakura's will on this matter. Someone mentions that Karita is also in the hospital in a coma, but that has to be a coincidence as well. Jonouchi doesn't give a crap about him anyway.

The friends walk up to Bakura's door, a door that it's still suspicious they know the location of, and Yuugi rings the bell. Bakura opens the door just a crack to see who's there, and is greeted by four friendly faces. Bakura's mouth hangs open as he identifies them, and Jonouchi says they're at his apartment to play games and Yuugi follows up with the suggestion that they play Monster World. Bakura is upset, and begins to tell them that they can't do that, but in the blink of an eye, that changes.

Yeah, Yuugi, that must have been your imagination. Just like how it was your friends' imaginations when they saw YOUR face change all those times.

Other Bakura breathes a sigh of relief that he was able to step in before Bakura could drive Yuugi and friends away. He reprimands Bakura for being so rude to guests who come over to play his game, giggling in his head. Other Bakura tells Yuugi and pals that he thought they might show up, because they're such good friends. Jonouchi is just in awe at how nice Bakura's pad is, wishing he lived alone in such a swank place. Bakura tells them he set up the game already and everything, while he leads them into the room where it's standing.

Heeeeeeeeere we go.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Bakura and his relationship with the ring is so DIFFERENT than that of Yami and Yuugi. The Other Bakura calls Bakura his "master," but I'm pretty sure he's being facetious, because he proceeds to subdue Bakura and do what he wants pretty easily. He's definitely taunting Bakura with his new strength in overpowering him.

And this IS new, because in spite of the problems Bakura had before with his friends mysteriously falling into comas, it doesn't look like he had any problem with blacking out or anything like Yuugi's dealt with so far. The only side-effect was his friends collapsing while playing Monster World, so up until this point, Other Bakura was relatively passive. He didn't have the power to take over his host body like Yami has had all along, so I'm guessing Other Bakura is right when he speculates that it was contact with the Millennium Puzzle that allowed him to talk to and possess Bakura.

This gives me the impression that the puzzle might be the centerpiece to all of the items, and able to activate them in some special way. But in thinking that, I'm wondering about Shadi. He seemed to have complete control over his item, which was curious in itself because half the time he didn't even seem to HAVE a body, let alone a host. Do all of the items have spirits sealed in them, with some stronger or weaker than others? Do all of the items need chosen hosts, and are those hosts connected with the spirits in the items in some special way like Yuugi seems to be connected to Yami?

These questions aren't going to have an answer for a long time, I'm sure, so I'm not holding out for one in the next chapter. Still, they're things to think about as I move forward with this project.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 049 Fight With Spirit, Jonouchi!!, Part 2

... Give me an "OUCHI"! Wooooo, leaving Jonouchi's name unfinished in the last chapter's opening was really bugging me. I'm tempted to tack an "E" on the end of that half-name I just typed, though, because it would be strangely appropriate for where we're beginning this chapter. Tomorrow, he's going to be one big bruise, that's for sure.

And the yo-yos are still coming. Jonouchi promises that he'll make Hirutani suffer double for what he made Yuugi go through. Considering how Hirutani's incompetence made Yuugi's suffering kind of avoidable, I feel like Jonouchi's punishment should be light in comparison to his pity. Hirutani is, after all, still convinced his gang's projectile toys are doing far more damage than they are capable of, and he doesn't seem to think Jonouchi has much of a chance against them. This dude's head is so far up his own ass...

Jonouchi doesn't say anything, though he is hilariously told by one of the punks aiming his yo-yo at them that both he and Yuugi are in for a painful death. Not unless you take out an actual weapon, kid. Jonouchi is falling for the rhetoric, though, beginning to believe that he'll only last a couple of minutes more if they keep attacking him with yo-yos. This chapter is trying TOO HARD to convince me that yo-yos are capable of killing someone, I can't even...

Jonouchi wonders what he can do, and Hirutani makes him another offer: he'll let both Jonouchi and Yuugi live if Jonouchi joins the gang. For a moment, Jonouchi and Yuugi stay silent, but Yuugi speaks up and tells Hirutani that his threats aren't going to work, because Jonouchi will never join up with him again. Jonouchi agrees, saying that he has REAL friends that understand him better than Hirutani, the king of apes, will ever be able to do, and that's much more valuable to him than Hirutani's offer. You realize that by calling Hirutani a king of apes that you've raised him up as a king of humans too, right Jonouchi? Humans are great apes, that's scientific fact.

Hirutani pauses before telling the gang outright to kill Jonouchi and Yuugi. The barrage of yo-yos begin to make contact with Jonouchi once more, and Jonouchi commands Yuugi to stay back. As he does so, he catches a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

Jonouchi holds up the puzzle and says it's time to turn the tables. He encourages the gang to come at him again, bro, as he starts to swing the puzzle around in a circle by its string. The gang complies, but one of them does wonder what Jonouchi is doing swinging that pendant around the way he is. Another tells them not to worry about it and just keep up the attack anyway. The yo-yos can't get to Jonouchi through the puzzle's fan-like motion as he calls the gang members morons for thinking he was just swinging it for his health. Apparently these expert yo-yo kids didn't notice that their yo-yo's aren't returning to their hands, and Jonouchi points this out. In fact, their finger's are being tugged by the stuck toys.

Is... is this a rare instance of Takahashi UNDERSTANDING how physics works??

It took quite a while for Takahashi to get a grasp on that, is all. No, that was actually a pretty brilliant idea, which Yuugi also acknowledges with a grin. Jonouchi pulls the puzzle's string from the tangled yo-yos as he suggests that they take those yo-yo's to "new heights." He drags the yo-yos and their owners still attached to those strings to the hook Yuugi was hanging from and loops the tangled toys onto it, then hoists it into the air so all the gang members are hanging by their fingers. Jonouchi has turned them into human yo-yos! Yo-yos that are screaming that their fingers are being torn off.

Well, guys, if you had thought to put slack between Jonouchi's hold on the yo-yos and your fingers, then you would have been able to loosen the slipknot around your fingers and get away before Jonouchi hoisted the chain. Of course, you can't really expect that level of cognitive function from people who think you can kill someone with your yo-yos in the first place...

Hirutani is gaping in shock, apparently not thinking to stop Jonouchi's actions himself either, but again, cognitive function... Jonouchi thanks Yuugi for the use of his puzzle and tosses it back to him. When Yuugi catches it:

So, uh, Yami, where were you when Yuugi was having trouble figuring out how to get out of being strangled by the puzzle?

Jonouchi and Yami begin running away from the gang members that remain free from yo-yo torture, heading for the stairs to the walkway around the walls. Yami suggests that Jonouchi take on Hirutani while he takes on the rest of them. Hirutani, meanwhile, screams at what's left of his supporters not to let them escape, stating that they're taking the stairs. When the gang members reach the walkway, though, both Jonouchi and Yami aren't to be found. Turns out that Yami had crawled through the broken windows to the feeble tin roof outside. They follow him, calling him an idiot for going to the roof where there's no chance of escaping.

Yami doesn't say anything, just displays a yo-yo in his hand. The gang is shocked, and I'm not sure if it's because he had the yo-yo in the first place, or because he starts throwing it around in expert mode. The gang is impressed with how fast he is as he challenges them to a game.

How is that interesting? It's just "try to stay on the roof."

Jonouchi has been leaning on the side of the building behind Hirutani this whole time, apparently, and calls out to him. He says that it's time to settle which one of them is stronger, once and for all. Close up on Hirutani's eyes as he turns to face Jonouchi. He begins to reminisce about how Jonouchi's challenge is just like how they met. Hirutani, give it up, Jonouchi doesn't love you anymore. Now he just wants Yuugi's babies. Hirutani says that during their first meeting, neither of them were stronger than the other, and Jonouchi admits that he was holding back a little during that fight because Hirutani wasn't as much of an asshole as he is now. But he won't make the same mistake twice. Hirutani chuckles as Jonouchi glares at him.

They bolt at each other, fists at the ready. Hirutani throws the first punch, but Jonouchi dodges it and lets out a chuckle at Hirutani's shocked face. Then he pulls back his own fist and thrusts it at Hirutani with a yell.

Meanwhile Yami has yo-yos flying at him from all angles, thrown by chuckling idiots. Yami is just aiming his yo-yo at the tin beneath him. A gang member shouts at Yami to die while he tosses that yo-yo as hard as he can, but Yami runs, bending low to the roof, his yo-yo punching holes in it as he avoids blows from the crowd of kids trying to hit him.

First of all, why is Yami's yo-yo so powerful as to put holes in that roof, but his running over it ISN'T? Second, this all seems awfully familiar. Where have I seen this before?

Oh, yeah, that's what it is! I remember now.

The gang members tell Yami that it doesn't matter how much he dodges them, because they'll catch up to him anyway.

He reaches the edge of the roof and stops, looking a little surprised. The gang steps toward him, laughing that he's been driven to the edge and how they've got him now. Yami glares as they get closer to the holes he made in the roof. Eventually they stand in the center of a ring of holes, still gloating that Yami is trapped and how he doesn't stand a chance against their still totally non-threatening toys. Someone suggests to Yami that he just jump off the roof instead.

Yami chuckles, saying that he's not the one who's trapped. He explains that the roof is old and rusty, so it was easy for him to put holes in it with his yo-yo. He doesn't think the newly holey tin can support their collective weight. The roof begins to wobble and creak beneath them, some of them beginning to realize that was the purpose of his aiming below rather than at them. Yami tells them to remember to keep their yo-yos trained on the ground rather than others from now on, just before...

Well, if they survive, I'm sure they'll take that little lecture to heart, Yami.

Jonouchi's fist connects with Hirutani's face, knocking out a few teeth. Hirutani groans, and Jonouchi taunts him by wondering out loud why he got so weak. He speculates that Hirutani got a tad soft by relegating all the heavy lifting to his underlings. Jonouchi didn't notice the paunch at first because of Hirutani's slimming black shirt, I guess. Hirutani growls in response, before noticing the shattered window behind him. He grabs a large shard from the window, crushes it with his fist, and throws the smaller shards into Jonouchi's eyes.

Jonouchi calls Hirutani a bastard, keeping his complaint about glass in his eyes in his head. Hirutani laughs, asking Jonouchi how he likes his little surprise, then commanding him to die. Hirutani hits Jonouchi and he doubles over, eyes still closed. He rubs at his eyes, which is probably the worst thing he could do with glass in them, cursing the fact that he's blind right now. Hirutani grabs another large shard of glass from the window and plots to sneak up behind Jonouchi to stab him in the neck. Jonouchi squints, unable to tell where Hirutani is.

Hirutani is the worst at sneaking. Even worse than Kaiba.

Hirutani is thrown toward the edge of the roof, where he slides off and barely manages to grab onto the edge. Jonouchi complains that he still can't see anything as he stands. Despite his blindness, he's able to see Hirutani clinging to the edge of the roof, gritting his teeth. I guess he's REALLY gone soft, because he can't even pull himself back up onto the roof.

Jonouchi tells Hirutani that he wants to show him some yo-yo moves to finish up the show. Jonouchi proceeds to drag the yo-yo as he did at the beginning of the last chapter, and "lets the dog out," or walks the dog, as his classmates would have told him. The yo-yo "walks" straight toward Hirutani's clinging fingers. Hirutani can't seem to stand the yo-yo's gentle spin on his fingers and lets go of the roof, falling. Jonouchi admits that "walking the dog" is the only move he can do, and he'll need some practice with other tricks.

This all looks rather final, but I doubt Hirutani is actually dead. After all, he survived the electrocution he and his gang suffered in his last arc. The only question in my mind is if Hirutani will return with even lamer weapons.

Yami approaches Jonouchi after he's done defeating that jerk Hirutani, and it looks like Jonouchi sees Yami, so his eyesight must be back! Better go to the doctor, anyway; glass in the eyes is no joke, unlike most of these past two chapters. Jonouchi asks where Nezumi went, and when Yami answers that he's not sure, Jonouchi declares that he's going to kick Nezumi's rat-ass when he next meets him. Then Jonouchi apologizes for getting Yami involved in this nonsense, and Yami forgives him.

I'm not sure if I forgive Jonouchi, though. Talking of what I thought of the chapter overall, I was just as amused by this one as the last one. The only part of it that I was impressed with was the way Jonouchi used the puzzle to stop the yo-yos coming at him. Though it's important to remember that YO-YOS were the weapons he was up against in the first place. I just keep bumping up against the fact that this whole situation that was supposed to be so deadly was built around a round plastic spinning toy that is far from capable of being a lethal weapon. Both these chapters tried so hard to make me BELIEVE that the yo-yos were capable of causing that much damage too, and it just... failed.

Also, this chapter and its brother didn't really add anything valuable or new to the series. It didn't move the story along. We didn't get any new information that was crucial to our understanding of Yuugi, Yami, or Jonouchi. All in all, I think it was disposable, and would have been forgettable if not for its supremely comical content, that I'm pretty convinced was unintentionally so.

All that aside, I can't bring myself to HATE it, like some other chapters. It was MEH, more than anything else. I'll probably hold this and the previous chapter in my memory for a whole two hours before I forget it exists completely.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 048 Fight With Spirit, Jonouchi!!, Part 1

Give me a "J"! Give me an "O"! Give me an "N"! Give me... Oh, you get the idea. I never WAS a cheerleader when I was in school. Too much effort and talent involved, neither of which I had much of to spare. Plus, those tiny skirts were intimidating to me. I can imagine Yuugi not very much caring about the inhibitions I listed in cheering for Jonouchi though, including the skirt. His enthusiasm for his friend is just that deep.

Who else smells teen spirit in here?

What do yo-yos have to do with fighting with spirit? Is he going to enter a competition? Someone asks if yo-yos are really back in fashion, and Yuugi confirms this, saying that the modern yo-yos have a much better rolling system. Yuugi, do you remember the last time you tried to popularize something? You should; it wasn't all that long ago, and it resulted in a kid stealing and reselling the toys that your other self had to teach a lesson.

Jonouchi is eager to have the spotlight back on him and offers to show the onlookers his skills. He shows them a technique he calls "dragger" that allows it to spin in place for a time when he throws it. Everyone seems pretty impressed with this, so he shows them his trick when he lets it touch the floor, and calls it "let the dog out." Everyone is less impressed with this, letting him know that "walk the dog" isn't any cooler for the new name he gave it. Jonouchi slumps in embarrassment and decides he has to pull out all the stops to please THIS crowd. Always taking it up a notch, that Jonouchi. He chooses a trick he's never been able to do before, but what could go wrong?

Well, that turned out just as well as could be expected. Jonouchi's only accomplishment here is getting wrapped up in his own string and getting yelled at by someone off-panel who tells him to quit acting like a moron. He looks behind him for the source of the voice, a kid whose desk Yuugi is standing next to, whom he identifies as Nezumi. Nezumi has a great bandage on his face and looks a little surly, if not distinctly rat-like.

It's like they're TWINS or something.

Jonouchi asks what kind of horrible defect Nezumi could have that makes him hate yo-yos as Yuugi holds up his yo-yo, encouraging Nezumi to try it just once. Nezumi draws their attention to his bandage and they lean in for a closer look, asking what happened. Nezumi is surprised that they haven't heard about it already, Jonouchi asking to be filled in on the deets. Nezumi tells them that he was a victim of a school gang that extorts students with yo-yos.

... What? Jonouchi and Yuugi are taking this story a lot more seriously than I am, because they look appalled and Yuugi is leading him into elaboration. Nezumi tells them he was walking around at night alone when he was accosted by three members of this gang, demanding all his cash. He tried to run, but they began to assault him with their projectiles on strings, and threw the yo-yos so hard they did some damage. Nezumi ends his tail tale by clenching his fists and grunting, with Jonouchi and Yuugi looking on in indignation.

Jonouchi raises his yo-yo clutching fist as he makes a righteous speech about how yo-yos should not be used to take money from the weak. It's UNFORGIVABLE, I tell you! Honda seems as surprised as I am that a yo-yo can be used as a weapon, but I suppose a hard, round object used as a projectile can be pretty painful and if someone's enough of an asshole they would use it to cause pain. Yuugi is outraged that anyone would pervert the purpose of such a pure toy!

Nezumi asks Jonouchi to make those bullies pay for what they did to him, and even knows where they can be found. Jonouchi agrees without a second thought towards Nezumi's suspicious character design, or the fact that only a moment ago he was yelling at him for being idiotic. Nezumi says the punks are probably in the district in which they assaulted him, and Jonouchi is moved by how brave he is for offering to take them to the place where he was beaten up. Jonouchi promises that he'll get Nezumi revenge, and Honda offers to help. Jonouchi says that's unnecessary, because there's only three dudes and he can take 'em. Nezumi suggests that Yuugi come along, because he'd feel weird if a fight broke out and there wasn't anyone else there as physically unimpressive as him. I'm guessing that's what he meant, because he's kind of vague in what about Yuugi's presence would make him feel better. Yuugi is also not giving his answer much thought, because he agrees on the spot.

Jonouchi is consumed by a fiery passion to teach those yo-yo jerks a lesson, stating that those who abuse people with yo-yos will be punished by them as well. Or something along those lines. Honda is unimpressed with Jonouchi's speech. Nezumi wears a slightly eerie smile.

Later, Nezumi is leading them to the alley he was lurking in the night of his attack. Yuugi worries about how few people there are in the area and what a creepy atmosphere it creates. Jonouchi asks Nezumi for confirmation that they used yo-yos to hurt him, and Nezumi says that their technique is like nothing he's ever seen. They surround their target and when said target doesn't give up the cash, they're attacked from all directions. Jonouchi is more convinced than ever that these cowards need to get beat.

Doesn't it though? I seem to recall this being the setting of a certain game involving tasers...

The kids all walk into the warehouse, glancing around until Yuugi exclaims that he remembers the place now. Jonouchi knows this warehouse was where Hirutani's gang did their killing too, and has a really bad feeling about being there now. The hook that Jonouchi was attached to the last time they were there is still hanging from the ceiling, creaking as it swings gently. Yuugi thinks of Hirutani as an SoB who tried to get Jonouchi back in his gang with a pretty awful scheme. 

Jonouchi notices some movement out of the corner of his eye. He and Yuugi look up at the walkway lining the walls to see a couple of kids holding up yo-yos and doing poor KISS imitations.

The gang members land in front of Jonouchi and begin to advance menacingly. Jonouchi warns Yuugi to stay back, and curses Nezumi's initial estimate of how many guys there were, because there's WAY more than three. They're all slinging their yo-yos around, maintaining those killer grins, one of them ordering the others to surround their victims with their yo-yo hurricane.

The yo-yos are flying fast, but not touching Jonouchi, Yuugi or Nezumi yet. Jonouchi urges Yuugi and Nezumi to leave before they're blocked in, and Nezumi grabs Yuugi to lead him to safety. Yuugi shouts back to Jonouchi, but Nezumi tells him to hurry up, still pulling on his arm. The gang has fully surrounded Jonouchi now, who is beginning to realize that the ambush was so well set up that it's like the gang was told they were coming. Jonouchi groans at the surrounding yo-yo storm as he hears someone outside of it chuckle and compare him to a rat in a trap.

Woah, dude, you got a serious downgrade in weaponry, didn't you? What happened to the TASERS? Hirutani tells Jonouchi that he doesn't give up easily, and he'll force him back into his gang by any means necessary.

Does this make Yuugi Lindsey Lohan? Headcanon?

Jonouchi just groans again, as Hirutani pontificates on how Jonouchi will now be number 2 in the gang and everything will be exactly like it was in the good old days. Jonouchi asks why he would ever want to be part of Hirutani's stupid gang again anyway, and Hirutani implies that he really doesn't want him to be his enemy instead. He draws Jonouchi's attention to another location in the warehouse, where two gang members are holding Yuugi below the hanging hook in a headlock. 

Jonouchi calls out Yuugi's name. Hirutani gives the command for his underlings to do IT, which happens to be looping the Millennium Puzzle's rope on the hook and raising it, with Yuugi's neck caught in between. 

SHIT. Although it looks a little like Yuugi could just look up and fall out of the noose that the Millennium Puzzle has become, so I'm not too worried here. Jonouchi looks about ready call Hirutani every curse in the book, but Hirutani is too busy congratulating Nezumi on his rat-work to notice. Jonouchi and Yuugi both look at Nezumi with plain betrayal (though Yuugi doesn't have the freedom of movement to do more than side-eye Nezumi), and Nezumi actually looks pretty ashamed of himself.

Hirutani gives Jonouchi two choices, since escaping is clearly not an option: he either has to swear fealty to Hirutani's gang, or watch Yuugi be strangled to death by his own puzzle. That second option would be a lot more threatening to me if Yuugi's hands were tied and he was in an actual noose. Jonouchi thinks about Yuugi, but Yuugi is silently begging Jonouchi not to join Hirutani's gang. Shouldn't he be passing out about now? I mean, if he insists on staying up there when it would be exceedingly easy just to turn up his chin and fall out of the necklace, he should be running out of air pretty quick.

Jonouchi glares at Hirutani for a moment before challenging his assertion that there's no other way out of the situation than his stated two options. Hirutani looks shocked as Jonouchi springs into action.

LMFAO! Honey, there is NO WAY Jonouchi is dying from being hit with yo-yos. He'll get a few bruises and wake up hurting tomorrow, but yo-yos are not even KIND OF deadly. Maybe if they were covered in six-inch spikes, and were unable to function like an actual yo-yo...

Jonouchi continues to power through the barrage of yo-yos and mentally begs Yuugi to hang in there while he's rushing to save him. You see, the pun clinches it for me. I can't take anything that's happening seriously. No matter how pained Yuugi's expression, not matter how shocked Hirutani looks, no matter how much Takahashi wants to make me believe this is a life-threatening situation through Nezumi's thought bubble here... what little tension there was to begin with was shattered with that joke.

Jonouchi isn't about to let Yuugi die from his totally avoidable strangulation, so amidst the continuing assault of yo-yos, he runs straight for Yuugi, who stutters out his name, somehow. Jonouchi keeps telling Yuugi to hang in there while he gets him down, and now I'm just full-on laughing. The scanlators must have thought this whole thing was as ridiculous as I do. Jonouchi lifts Yuugi, still being hit by the yo-yos, and urges Yuugi to detach the hook from his puzzle and jump.

Hirutani stands off to the side, damning Jonouchi to hell for withstanding the yo-yo abuse to save his friend, when he should be damning himself for not leaving any of his underlings the task of guarding Yuugi and fending off Jonouchi if he went for him. He continues to make the worst executive decisions as he tells his gang to just hit Jonouchi HARDER so he'll stop. Here's an idea, Hirutani: maybe go over there yourself and knock Jonouchi out? Bring back out the tasers? Don't rely on fucking YO-YOS to do significant damage?

Am I giving a gang-leader advice on how to kill these children more efficiently? Reading this manga has made me HORRIBLE.

Jonouchi, using his body to shield Yuugi from the yo-yos still pelting him, looks over his shoulder at Hirutani and tells him that the pain from the yo-yos isn't nearly as bad as the pain from betraying his friend would be. Hirutani grunts as Jonouchi goes on to say now that Yuugi is safe, he'll retaliate in a big way.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The more Takahashi tried to turn his premise somewhat serious, the more I found myself busting up. yo-yos fit the gaming trend theming that we've seen Takahashi use as bases for his chapters before, and yo-yos are a topic that was going to fit right in. But making them into a weapon was a little bizarre. I could have dealt with it if it remained a non-lethal way to cause pain, but these characters seem to be genuinely convinced that enough hits with yo-yos will outright kill a person.

Maybe if it was an infant you were shooting for, or a 100-year-old man with brittle bones, but a 16-year-old kid? No, not possible.

It wasn't just the yo-yos either; I talked above about how easy it should have been for Yuugi to get out of being strangled. It was a REAL risk that Takahashi just didn't execute correctly. If a panel had shown, say, a gang member looping the rope of the Millennium Puzzle around Yuugi's neck just once more, that would have been enough to convince me that he was really going to die if Jonouchi couldn't get there in time. Really, that's all it would have taken! But since Takahashi doesn't seem to know how things like this work and doesn't bother to try and figure it out through research or whatever, the impact of something that was supposed to be suspenseful and dramatic ended up being frustratingly funny instead.

I don't hold out much hope that the next chapter will bring back up the tension to the levels Takahashi was trying for in this one, but we'll see.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 047 The Evil Dragon Cards, Part 2

As bad as occasionally blacking out as some indescribable entity uses your body to gamble at high stakes with your and your friends' enemies is, having your soul ripped from your body must be billions of times worse. Yuugi is a tough cookie, but there's a point at which he has to think there's got to be some way out of this deal. At the very least, the people around him should be noticing how often these things are happening and try to do something. Maybe start a bake sale for Yuugi's freedom? Raise enough money to smuggle him out of the country and move him someplace that is the OPPOSITE of the malevolent version of Cheers Domino has become for him?

Too bad Patreon wasn't a thing when this was written. I can just imagine the fundraising page description now: Help Yuugi move to a remote island where he doesn't have to be challenged to horrible life/soul threatening games anymore!

Hmmm, that's a cryptic statement. Does Yami mean that his soul would have been stuck in Yuugi's inert body? Or would he have been stuck in the puzzle forever because Yuugi's soul would have been gone and unable to host his anymore? I think it's been established that he can't just possess anyone; there's something extra special about Yuugi and his presence that is crucial for Yami's manifestations. But what is it??

Imori curses, having been so close to winning the title of shepherd of darkness when Yami comes out. Yami tells Imori that this time his soul is on the line in this second challenge. Yami and Yuugi are certainly two separate souls, but then why didn't Yami just possess that Bruce Lee Wannabe when he had the puzzle? Why didn't he possess Imori? There's something about Yuugi that Imori will never be able to replicate, no matter how big his desire to control those dark gaming abilities.

What could it BE??

Imori pauses, staring at Yami a moment before asking if he really needs to beat both Yuugis in order to grab that darkness shepherd title. He then shouts his acceptance of the second match. Yami stares at the jar where the dragons disappeared with Yuugi's soul and hopes he can get HIS soul back. WAIT, so he considers Yuugi's soul HIS as well? They must be separate, or else Yami wouldn't be there, but he doesn't consider them to be separate at all, like they're still part of the same soul. Maybe their soul is split, or maybe they're like different natural parts of one...

Goodness, this is more complicated than I can figure right now. I'm starting to get a headache...

Imori chuckles, taunting Yami by reminding him that his worry is warranted, because the dragon cards' power is devouring Yuugi's soul as they speak. However, he reveals that the jar takes as long as three months to eat a soul in its entirety, so if Yami wins, he'll get Yuugi back. I guess he got that information from his book, but how did the author get that information in the first place? How would one even test something like that?

Once the cards are all back in their neat pile, Imori declares the start of their game. He instructs Yami to draw six cards as he did Yuugi, and they both assemble their hands.

Looks like Yami is starting at a little bit of a disadvantage, but when is he not? The rules are reiterated in the next panel: six cards to start, gathering three of the same card allows a summon, and the resulting dragons fight each other. Imori draws a new card first, and discards one that doesn't suit his purposes, and repeats the process with every turn. Eventually, he gathers two of each a level 5 water card, level 4 fire, and level 5 wood, affirming that on his next turn he should be able to summon a dragon. Unfortunately, Yami is stuck with only two of the level 4 earth cards, with his other cards being miscellaneous. He does have the third level 5 wood card, though, so Imori won't be able to play that one at least.

Yami looks down at the discard pile and contemplates its contents, which had a lot of cards before he even started playing. Woah, hold up there, in one of the previous panels, the discard pile didn't exist anymore, so I assumed Imori put them back into the greater deck. Where was the discard pile for that panel in which they started the game? Ugh... I guess it was magically invisible...

Yami remembers all the cards Yuugi discarded for the previous game, so he knows which cards Imori is trying to collect now. So Yami was aware of the last game, though he couldn't come out, and he specifically remembers the plays that Yuugi made, so he was clearly watching from inside Yuugi rather than the puzzle, and that means... Writch, you're obsessing over answers you're not going to get yet so just STOP.

Imori knows which cards Yami is trying to get too, which is level 5 metal and level 4 earth. He's confident that his water dragon will take out the metal one, though. He also assumes the wood one will take out the earth dragon as well, but as we've already established, he's not going to be able to summon that one, because Yami has the third card. Imori has the level 5 water cards assembled at this point, and Yami goes on to collect the last of the level 4 earth cards with his consecutive draw. He discards the level 5 wood card he had, and Imori... thanks him for it?

Yami seems just as confused as I am, but Imori explains that one can also use a card discarded by an opponent, which is what makes discarding high level cards so risky. Well, isn't that something all of us would have liked to have known when the game started? You know there's such a thing as lying by omission, right Imori? He doesn't seem to care much as he slaps his cards on the table with the declaration that he can summon two dragons now.

Flustered, Yami draws a card, thinking that the longer it takes him to summon his dragons, Imori's dragons get stronger. This is also a rule I never realized existed. Why weren't these included in the recap panel? He draws the last card in another collection, however, and is able to reveal his two dragons as well.

So far things seem to be going exactly how Imori predicted, but Yami was predicting Imori's cards as well, so he was anticipating this as well. All of the dragons sport their names on their foreheads, and resemble their elements as well, so they're easy to identify. Yami and Imori simultaneously shout for the battle to begin.

Imori immediately begins to taunt Yami, asking if he REALLY summoned a metal dragon again, and if he forgot how easily it was defeated by his water dragon last time. Yami looks taken aback, but doesn't say anything. Imori commands his water dragon to destroy the metal one on Yami's side with its Water Drain attack and it proceeds to try and flush away its opponent. However, Yami is smiling as he says that Water Drain will only work once, and calls forth his earth dragon to make an earthquake. Imori can only stare in shock as Yami explains that by breaking up the ground beneath them, the water is rerouted and the metal dragon is safe.

He goes on to say that in the elemental chart, metal is protected and strengthened by the earth, so as long as his earth dragon exists, Imori's water dragon is useless. Imori is impressed with how Yami has finally figured out how the dragon cards work, no thanks to him and his omission of important rules. However, he appears to have a trick up his sleeve as he asks Yami what he thinks of his next move with a huge grin. Yami stares.

Imori tells Yami that his wood dragon is getting bigger and stronger every moment, because the water dragon is feeding it with that lifeblood that all plants crave. No, it's not electrolytes. Yami knows he's going to attack his earth dragon with the wood dragon, and Imori does just that.

Ew, that's unpleasant-looking. Imori delights in reminding Yami that plants get their water out of the ground and that his will suck the earth dragon dry enough to crumble. Yami curses, recognizing that the earth dragon is trapped and will die if he doesn't do something. Because the earth dragon can't protect Yami's metal dragon anymore, Imori decides to attack metal with water again and calls for the water dragon to use it's drain technique again. Yami appears to have an epiphany about the metal dragon just as the attack hits and Imori celebrates his direct hit. A moment later, however, he's baffled.

Imori calls the metal dragon stubborn, but he knows the real reason why the attack didn't kill it. The water dragon gave up its power to the wood dragon to power it up, and in turn, the Water Drain attack was diminished. The metal dragon didn't come out of it unscathed, though, because its feet are a bit rusted. Yami calls to his wobbling metal dragon and asks it to use the rest of its strength. The wobble of its head looks like a nod and Imori stares in shock.

Why is that impossible? These are mythical creatures created by a magical shadow game anyway, and THIS is where Imori calls bullshit? The metal dragon flies right at the wood dragon and Imori narrates this in shock. In a final desperate move, he calls out the Water Drain attack once more, but it's too late. The wood dragon is chopped into tiny bits and defeated, noted by a smiling Yami. The Water Drain attack catches up with the metal dragon, though, and finishes it off. Yami mourns it, wondering if it used the last of its strength to protect the earth dragon.

Of course, there isn't much time to dwell on that when Yami has to announce that the earth dragon has been revived. Imori curses and begs his water dragon to do something. The dragons end up using both their signature moves on each other.

With the water dragon having perished, Imori admits that he lost with his mouth hanging open. Yami reminds him that the penalty game awaits him, and his soul will be offered to the jar this time around. Imori only has a split second to freak out before his soul floats of of his mouth. Did his soul just surrender itself, or were the dragons not up for the violent show they put on with Yuugi's soul? Imori's soul is drawn into the jar and it burps with satisfaction. It also vomits back out Yuugi's soul because, as Yami explains to no one but the audience, it can only hold one in its belly at one time. Yami breathes a sigh of relief when Yuugi's soul floats back into his body's chest. Imori's inert body sits in its chair as Yami reties the string on the jar and declares that the seal should never be broken again.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one continued on in the vein of the last, but went into a lot more detail on the game. I still really like the idea of this game and I'm kind of wondering if Hasbro or someone has managed to produce a non-shadowy version of it. I would play the shit out of it, and my friends would all be sick of me challenging them after a week.

I also continued to really like Imori right up until the end. He worked great as a foil to Yuugi, because he was so relatable in his similarity without the corresponding luck. Who in this world hasn't looked at someone else who comparatively has it ALL and wondered what that person has that you don't? Imori's envy of Yuugi and his powers is so human and raw, and I love the fact that he had such a drive to do something about it because it gave us a question to ponder: who would Yuugi have been if he hadn't assembled the puzzle and gotten those powers? I like to think that his attitude is different enough from Imori's that he wouldn't have ended up as cynical and twisted, but it's still an interesting question.

Speaking of interesting questions, I'm SO confused about how Yuugi and Yami relate to each other! Are they separate souls or two parts of just the one? I know I keep going back to what Shadi has said in his appearance, but he seems like the most reliable source not only because he's the only one who's actually said anything on the matter, but also because he has unique experience in peering into minds and reading them. Not only has he speculated that Yami was a part of Yuugi in some way before the puzzle was assembled, but he's also noted how similar Yami and Yuugi look despite how different they are.

Is Yuugi Yami's reincarnation? Is that why he's uniquely suited to solve the puzzle and bring Yami out? But if that's the case, how was Yami able to act on his own in this chapter while Yuugi was essentially gone? They would have to be separate souls in order to do that, wouldn't they? Unless I'm thinking of souls as units that are necessarily irreducible, and I'm supposed to be considering the possibility that there might be multiple parts...

I never thought I would want to do research to figure out a damn comic book...