Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 229 Blue Memories

Awww, are we having a bitter reminiscence in this one? I have them in spades, everything from lost friends to moments of failure, and my backstory isn't even particularly tragic. Both of our duelists in this mini-arc have revealed or hinted at memories that are better described as black than blue, but what the hell. I could use a milder shock than the ones we've been getting. Maybe it'll help put the heavier stuff into perspective.

Bring on the... mild sadness. I guess.

Looks more like jacked rage from this angle, though. And I do mean JACKED.

Why yes, Obelisk DOES even lift. And it's got itself a not-too-shabby attack strength of 4000 to match its exposed gritting teeth and gums. Other!Marik identifies the god card Kaiba has with awe, which I guess means he never got the chance to try it out before big sister Ishizu swiped it. Jonouchi is in full-blown terror, cold sweat and all, at the incredible appearance of Obelisk. Yami has a less severe expression, which could be because he's questioning if this god's attack will make Ishizu lose. Barely.

Kaiba, with 50 life points less than Ishizu, tells her to prepare herself. No doubt he's convinced this will make up the difference and then some, and he wouldn't be wrong for thinking so. Still, Ishizu doesn't look to be reacting with anything but staunch determination. When Kaiba announces the beginning of his turn, Ishizu silently encourages him to attack her. Her face down bomb might have gone to the graveyard after her turn, but it happens to be an invisible trap now, still attached to one of Kaiba's sacrifices. Its effect was activated when it was put on the field, and that effect transferred from the sacrificed monster to the new one, even though it's this giant hulking column of godliness. Ishizu anticipates that the monster destroyed by this trap will also wipe out Kaiba's life points, sending him sprawled into defeat, and the trap activates the moment Obelisk attacks. She just can't stop restating that Kaiba will lose when all the above comes to pass, just like her Millennium Necklace said. It's almost as if she's trying WAY too hard to convince someone of this, herself or the audience. Why bother? It's not like a big twist is coming up or anything.

Kaiba glares across the platform at Ishizu, noting that she has neither face down card nor monster on her side, so he's bound to win for sure. So he offers Ishizu a last-ditch chance to surrender, because he's not in the habit of going easy on enemies, even if they're women.

Ishizu of course remains silent, because that's probably the dumbest shit she's heard today. Kaiba scoffs, determines he only needs his god card's power, and none of the rest of the stuff in his hand, including his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon. What, Sinatra isn't good enough for you now that you've got your shiny new toy? Fuck you, Kaiba.

He smirks creepily at Ishizu, sweatdrop lingering on his face, assuring her he's coming. Ewwwww. What is it with this guy and TMI?

Anzu looks around at Yami and asks if this means there's no possible way Ishizu can win. He doesn't answer, intent upon spectating, so Anzu reflects upon the obvious fact that Yami wants Kaiba to win and wonders WHY. Fair question, considering what an asshole that guy is. Anzu recalls all the reasons why Ishizu's prediction of Kaiba losing should be taken seriously, from her foretelling Yami's memory quest to a Millennium Item holder coming to fight them to the synchronicity of their visit to the museum and the start of Battle City. She compares Yami's stop in this tournament on his way to uncover his past and Kaiba closing the book on his own past to try and get to his future. Both of them appear to be fighting so desperately to recover things they've lost.

Yami is lost in his own thoughts too, wondering if Obelisk's attack will really beat Ishizu. He's also getting hung up on the fact that Ishizu's necklace said Kaiba would lose. Yami has a bad feeling, and is pretty sure that Kaiba has the same intuition.

What gave it away?

Maybe it's the fact he's just standing there doing nothing except look nervous? I don't know.

On the other side of the platform, we've got to get other!Marik's perspective on this situation too. I'm totally NOT a little tired of all the internal monologues everyone insists on having right now in lieu of plot progression. Nope. Other!Marik characterizes Ishizu as a bit scary with a mental chuckle, knowing that things are going to go "bang" when Kaiba attacks. He says he sees the winner, then turns away from the platform and takes out his Millennium Rod to peer at it oddly. Apparently, the original Marik wants to find out the answers in the Millennium Tablet, and the relationship between Kaiba and said rod. But other!Marik is convinced that these questions will remain unanswered, what with Kaiba going bye-bye in this duel, and he starts to walk away. But he stops when the rod begins to spark and emit a thick aura, looking down at it with an incredulous expression.

Meanwhile, Kaiba seems to have found his gloating voice again, sadly. He gestures out in front of himself and commands his god to go forth and use its massive fists to shatter Ishizu's future. Ishizu doesn't so much as flinch, Yami silently repeats Kaiba's name with uneasiness, and the Millennium Rod continues to freak out. Other!Marik is looking more alarmed than anything now.

Not so fast, Ishizu. Give Kaiba a minute, he's distracted by turning all photo-negative on the next page. Other!Marik is still questioning with increasing horror why his rod is glowing. Either he shouldn't have dropped it in that vat of nuclear waste, or it's trying REALLY hard to say something. Maybe something to do with Obelisk not attacking? Ishizu is experiencing her own horror at this pause in play, as well as Yami, who thinks Kaiba stopped the attack.

I think he might be too busy hallucinating to be the one pulling these strings.

Shit, this trip must be super bad if it includes Ms. Fridge.

Back in reality, Kaiba is doubled over, clutching his head, groaning. He withdraws his shaking hand from his temple slightly as he tries to identify the image that flashed in front of him for a moment, and the overwhelming sadness he now feels in his heart. It's not mild! It's not mild at all! He at least knows that the big-ass tablet up there resembles the Blue Eyes.

Ishizu stands in utter shock at the frozen attack, wondering why. Other!Marik forms a hypothesis as he watches the light from the Millennium Rod die down; could it be that Kaiba's memories are sealed in the rod?

Yami stares at Kaiba with concern as Kaiba looks at his palm and groans some more. He then looks down at his other hand and the cards in it, particularly the Blue Eyes White Dragon sitting at the front. His face is downright agonized at first, then he decides he trusts the light, and the memories that he hallucinated from that big tablet he saw in the museum, which he has claimed as his own now. Wild-eyed and gaping, Kaiba rips a card from his hand and prepares to summon that Blue Eyes.

Ishizu insists that there's absolutely no other option in sweaty disbelief, but Kaiba has re-adopted his cool glare as he assures her that there IS. He activates a magic card from his hand called Silent Rebirth, which brings back one of his monsters, but it's unclear to me which one. I keep track of the appearance of very few of them, and there's no translation of the monster's name. Doesn't matter anyway, because Kaiba states that he needs two sacrifices to summon his Blue Eyes White Dragon, and one of them is undoubtedly the one that was just brought back.

Ishizu thinks that it CAN'T be, but there is only one other monster on the field at the moment, and Kaiba looks like a lunatic as he confirms her impossible suspicions.

I guess we can all get up off our knees now? Good, okay.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The drag, especially in the beginning, was REAL. That we had to know so many different opinions before the plot could move forward was a real time waster, and it showed. It's obvious that KT wanted to end the chapter on the powerful note of Kaiba sacrificing his god card to summon the less-godly Blue Eyes White Dragon, and I understand why, but his methods of stalling for time were also obvious, in a painful way. It couldn't be more clear that he had nothing else to fill the pages with except the peanut gallery commentary, and that's a little disappointing.

Not just because it was clunky from the standpoint of pacing, but also because Kaiba's hesitation is completely understandable in the first half of the chapter. In addition to that vague bad feeling Yami cites, there was also ample reason for Kaiba to be suspicious of Ishizu's lack of reaction to her impending loss. Sure, she's been mostly quiet throughout the duel, but if anything was going to evoke some emotion from her, it would be having the god card summoned in opposition to her. Instead, Kaiba got nothing, and that's worthy of a side-eye.

Kaiba's long hesitation here makes sense, but I can't think of a way to make that interesting and not drag either. The sampling of opinion from spectators may have been the best way to do it, even if it's not very good at all. It's a shame, really, because I thought the fact that we DIDN'T get into Kaiba's head during his pause was actually great. KT let Kaiba's face do pretty much all the talking, and that's all we needed. I kind of wish that would happen more often, and not just with Kaiba. Even if he IS the most obnoxious. AND the one who gets most of the stalling for time because of how dramatic he is.

Perhaps more of the chapter could have been spent on the working of the Millennium Items in play here, or, more specifically, introduced a little interaction between the rod and the necklace. Not only do we learn here that the necklace is fallible, but that the items can have agendas, because they're opposing here. It might have been illuminating (heh, puns) to explore, even a little, what the necklace actually DOES if it can be wrong about "fate" and the future, as well as how deep the manipulations on the two items' subjects go. It seems clear to me at this point that the sibling artifacts are working over everybody involved to impose a result, and it's also been stated before that they all have a certain kind of will, even if it's not a full-blown spirit like in the puzzle or the ring. Is it all to a vague end, or are the items at odds with one another?

We're left with questions here too, one of which is what this recovered memory in Kaiba means. I don't really want to get to that discussion before its time, because we'll cross that bridge when its been built in its full context, but I will say that we've had a backstory lady introduced as dead before, and she didn't get a ton of fleshing out upon her part's debut. I don't hold out a lot of hope that this one will be much different.

The second question is whether that secret bomb trap Ishizu laid in the god card still applies when it's sacrificed as well? Is it still active in the monster summoned with its host as a sacrifice like the first time, or is the trap moot now that it's once removed? I'm guessing the latter, but I don't know why that would be. Other than convenience to the plot, of course.

Inuyasha Manga: 170 Pulverization

Yup, that sure is what's happening to my heart right now. The finale of a new season of another series altogether has well and truly devastated me. I came to the party a little late, as is my way, so the commentariat over the internet at large has already expressed a rainbow of emotion on the subject and I have nothing to add that is articulate, let alone poignant. Still, I'll echo a lot of others in saying that the assassination of an interesting character has me reeling - and this is coming from someone who WASN'T a huge shipper of him with the main.

I guess there are worse ways for a guy to go.

Like the way this one might right now.

Inuyasha struggles to get up as he shouts at Kouga to get out of the way. While Juuroumaru approaches Kouga, he starts drooling at full force again, which can only mean the one thing that Kouga wasn't around to witness the first time. Still, that legendary intuition should be kicking in any time now, right?

Right?

Inuyasha is up and in the air, swinging down his sword once more, and issuing one final warning: out of the way, or he'll slice through Kouga as well. Kouga directs a gape of disbelief to his periphery, beyond which Tessaiga's razor blade is coming down fast toward his back. Kageroumaru bursts from Juuroumaru's slavering mouth.

Best. Desktop. Background. Ever.

Kageroumaru declares that Kouga's realized his mistake too late, brandishing his remaining whole scythe-arm. Inuyasha of course tells the wormy bastard to shut his trap. As Tessaiga comes down like the harbinger of death it is, Kouga darts to the side, leaving the only ones in its path the twins.

And we have a winner!!

Kagome makes a noise of amazement as Shippou describes how the twins have been broken into little bits, and Sango utters the only "gottem" that has been true this whole arc. Know how I'm sure this time? Because Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru are not just in pieces but disintegrating, which is the most definite, never-coming-back-from-that kind of death in Inuyasha. Nothing makes you more certain that a foe is dead. Nothing.

Inuyasha thinks it's over as he hunches in his exhaustion, and says aloud that it took long enough. You're not kidding. I don't know if this technically was the longest fight we've seen thus far, but it sure FELT like an eternity. I feel like Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru should get the posthumous award for being the biggest pains in the ass.

Kouga knocks Inuyasha over the back of his head with a fist, calling him a jerk. When Inuyasha turns to give him a "done with your shit" glare, Kouga accuses him of using that swing to try and kill him too. Inuyasha remains quiet, for once, while Kagome runs over, stuttering at Kouga to wait. She latches protectively onto Inuyasha, putting herself between him and Kouga, while Kouga complains that Inuyasha swung that sword down without the slightest hesitation. She claims it's because Inuyasha knew Kouga's speed would allow him to dodge in time, and Inuyasha holds his head high as he puts Tessaiga back in its sheath. He's still quiet, and I'm beginning to get suspicious here. Too little energy for blustering buddy?

Kagome turns to Inuyasha, asking for confirmation on her little hypothesis, but Inuyasha just closes his eyes and asks what Kouga is whining about. Inuyasha musters enough of a shit to bark at Kouga that if he keeps up the racket, he'll get torn apart for real next time. Kouga lunges forward and says it's fine if Inuyasha still wants a piece of him; he can just fucking try it. Calls him a zombie here too, so he seems aware of how dead-tired Inuyasha is right now.

So, in a perfectly rational move, Kagome shouts at Inuyasha to sit, slamming a guy whose grievous injuries almost killed him a couple of minutes ago into the hard ground. Kouga pauses in a fighting stance, but he's got the "dafuk" face on here as Kagome kneels next to Inuyasha's flattening carcass and tells her wolf-admirer that he should withdraw for today. Inuyasha, rightly, asks why she did that in a less-than-pleased way.

You don't think you squeezed a bit more blood out of him in your alternative solution there, Kagome?

She stands again to clasp her hands in supplication before Kouga, thanking him for what he did to save them today, the perfect generic greeting card grateful. Sango says to Miroku that it seems Kagome's not really being sincere here, and Miroku replies that her fake gratitude might not be enough to make Kouga beat it. Kouga stares at Kagome, saying her name, to which she gives him a questioning noise. He grabs her hands and states she's his woman again, expressing the distaste he has for leaving her with the "Dog-Turd" all the time. She just puts on the most uncomfortable supplicating smile in the world and endures it. C'est la vie.

Veins popping and irate but still stuck in the ground, Inuyasha thinks Kouga just doesn't know when to stop. I'm inclined to agree. Luckily, Kouga DOES stop eventually, raising a hand in farewell while assuring Kagome that he'll always come to save her when she's in trouble. Then he speeds off with the customary tornado at his heels and a goodbye, Kagome waving him off as well. Miroku lets out a sigh, but whether it's from relief or shame that he was wrong, it's impossible to tell. He's wearing a sweatdrop though, Sango next to him narrating Kouga's exit.

Inuyasha pulls himself up out of the dirt, yelling at Kouga to wait, but Kagome orders him back in place with another sit. He mutters that Kagome is a bitch for letting Kouga get away again, and she starts to trot out the same reason she had before; his condition. Inuyasha demands to know if she thinks he would lose to the Wimpy Wolf.

... Well that answer is painfully clear.

She tries to deflect with a friendly offer to look at his wounds, but he insists that he's already said he doesn't need medical attention. Correction, boyo, you said this happens all the time, not that you don't need treatment for it. Just because your injuries could be classified as chronic illness by this point doesn't mean that they don't need attention.

It's Inuyasha's turn to deflect when he asks Kagome what was with her attitude earlier, when she was sucking up to and flirting with a guy like Kouga. Ugh. Men. Can't tell the difference between flirting and diffusing. Kagome's eyes widen is alarm, and Inuyasha keeps shooting off his mouth about how he couldn't watch such shameful behavior. He's about to call her another name when he opens his eyes and is greeted by THIS:

Seems Kouga isn't the only one who doesn't know when to stop, because despite a thumping heart and terrified expression, Inuyasha calls her a bitch again when asking what's with that look. She says simply that she's going. Inuyasha looks at her like she just punched him in the gut, so she shouts in his face that she's going home. He adopts anger again while shouting back at her that she should just go then, he's not stopping her.

It's at this point that they're interrupted by an irritable Miroku and Sango, the former asking if they can go now that the conversation has come to a close, and the latter stating that the priest would like to see his wounds tended. Inuyasha and Kagome appear in utter shock that they're not the only people in the fucking world.

Ahhh, oblivious adolescence. They'll be back to thinking the planet revolves around them in no time.

Elsewhere, at a hut where injured soldiers are milling about in bandages and birds are fluttering about on this fine day, Kikyou is adjusting strips of linen on a clothesline. She perceives a rustle behind her, so she walks to the treeline, asking Naraku what he wants. A not-so-mysterious voice answers with a chuckle and the compliment that her senses are as sharp as ever. Naraku emerges from the trees behind her, baboon disguise slung over his arm. Neither one of them are smiling.

Kikyou says that there's no reason she WOULDN'T notice him, since today isn't the first time she's noticed him skulking around. He does it pretty often, apparently. Naraku scoffs and says he has to be careful about her, so she asks him point blank why he doesn't just kill her. Oooh, she's bringing out the tough questions. Naraku doesn't answer, turning the proposal over in his head. He knows his surveillance would be over if he just murdered her, but he doesn't FEEL like it. He questions why that is. Kikyou hates him after all, and he's allowed this dangerous woman to stay alive far too long, but why?

Speaking of things that take far too long, the occurrence of that inquiry in his brain. Kikyou suggests that there's something inside him that's the culprit.

I hope you have insurance, Naraku, because this little therapy session to your clueless ass is going to cost a FORTUNE.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm glad the battle with the twins ended, because I wasn't kidding above; it was starting to drag. It's a good thing RT had a good pace going with the action, because if she didn't, it might have felt all the longer. But still, the longer the fight went on, the more the cracks were starting to show, as I was pointing out in the analysis of the previous chapter. And as fun as Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru were at first, they weren't INTERESTING enough to sustain a fight and my attention as long as was attempted. With more complicated villains, it might have been fine, but there wasn't enough dimension to the twins for them to remain cool for long.

Besides, they were just set-dressing for the real continuing conflict between Inuyasha and Kouga, and more importantly, the tension in Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship. Inuyasha is right, he can take the physical hits like a champ, and he doesn't need a lot of doting. But when his dense pride is hurt, his hackles immediately go up and he starts lashing out. Kagome isn't much better at taking blows to the ego, so Inuyasha's backlash accusations that she was just flirting with Kouga was an equal jab in the opposite direction. They both know the buttons and the effect pushing them affords, but they are never prepared for the consequences of the MAD-style arguments they get into. Like all teenagers, they haven't quite figured out that the nuclear launch codes are last-resort asshole-material.

Really, the unique teenager-ness in this argument is so perfectly balanced on both ends. As usual, they seem like real people, and I can't help but be impressed by how accessible and relatable it is.

Speaking of relatable, how deep Naraku had to have buried those emotions for them to never even occur to him as an explanation for his behavior.

Boy... been there. 

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 228 Obelisk Destroyed?!

Well why not? I'm sure it's not the first time an obelisk has been destroyed. I can't really find any specific examples, since most research seems to be much more interested in the ones still standing, but researchers do say there were some that are no longer around. Probably due to changes in political power or invasions or carelessness. You know, inevitable nonsense. The ones we still have are recent constructions or painstakingly preserved, so the things seem pretty precarious in their existence. Long-lasting, but not forever, and definitely easy to topple.

I'm just saying it's not as impossible as the title is making it out to be.

... What? What does that even mean? You kids and your ill-defined confused terms...

Ishizu says with a bit more enthusiasm than usual that it's her turn to attack, finally getting into the spirit of the thing. She orders Zolga forward to attack Kaiba's gremlin, calling out the attack Destructive Winds, which looks a lot like some wind blades from another comic altogether that slices that gremlin right up. When the digital dust settles, Kaiba's arm remains defensively raised next to his face, and he's looking a little nauseated at the destruction of his monster. Perhaps this promise of meeting Yami down the road is a little more difficult to keep than he initially thought.

And Ishizu isn't even done. She commands Kelbek to directly attack Kaiba, and just when he's lowered his arm! Kelbek rushes forward, Kaiba leaning away instinctively, but the thing doesn't touch him. It fires a weird beam from its eye - resembling the Millennium Eye closely - straight at his gut. His arm is back up too late, and he lets out a groan, braced on bent knees. He curses his lost points, now that he's down to 1350.

Finally, Ishizu places a face down card and ends her turn on a reserved note. Kaiba speculates that this face down card might be another one that forces him to discard something he just drew, like the previous virus card. How many times can I fit the word "card" into a sentence? I don't know, but I don't really want to find out either. Kaiba tries to steel himself, because even though he knows it's a trap, he has to keep going, if he's going to show Ishizu his true colors with Obelisk later. Honey, I'm pretty sure she's already seen your true colors a million times over. Everyone has. You aren't exactly shy.

Ishizu just stares at him, waiting, so he begins his turn with a declaration, and a draw. The moment he does so, Ishizu reveals that face down card, Negate, yet again. Once more, Kaiba is forced to talk to the hand with the pentacle drawn on its palm and grumble about how he was right. He just HATES being right all the damn time. Jonouchi decides now is the time to recap for the audience the fact that Ishizu switched up Kaiba's graveyard and deck, how she completely controlled what was in that graveyard before it was the deck, and how Kaiba has now fallen into an inescapable trap. I would advise Jonouchi NOT to say this to Kaiba's face, but I'm thoroughly convinced that Jonouchi could knock Kaiba flat on his ass with the barest minimum of effort so, you know, recommendation reversed.

Why do I feel like she's talking about more than Kaiba's prospects in this duel? Must be the forlorn look she's giving him there.

While they both stand silent and pondering, Kaiba considers the Soul Exchange card in his hand that will sacrifice all the monsters on the field when it's activated. He counts the two monsters on either side of her, and plans on the next turn, the moment there are three over there, to summon Obelisk. Ishizu's 1400 life points are shown, but her expression isn't readable here. Kaiba puts his all-important card face down on his Duel Disk.

Ishizu is certain that this must be Soul Exchange, not least of all because she knows EVERYTHING already. No, I am not going to let her live this down. Kaiba gives her his own unreadable expression across the way. She thinks this duel is going to end in the next turn, but not the way he wanted it to. Okay, we get it, you've got mystical magical premonitions on your side. Gracious, do you have to remind us every five seconds?

Kaiba ends his turn, worrying Jonouchi about the lack of monsters protecting him on his side. Jonouchi thinks when Ishizu attacks on the next turn, it's going to be all over for Kaiba. Yami must have had himself a premonition on par with Ishizu's, though, because he also instantly thinks Kaiba's card must be Soul Exchange. He assumes that Ishizu must also know this, without even trying to explain how he came to the conclusion. I choose to think it's because Kaiba is painfully predictable.

Ishizu starts her turn, putting a card of her own face down on her Duel Disk. This must not be the move he thought she would make, because he questions it in his head. Her silent dialog says that this is the last and biggest trap he'll fall into; triggering the face down card Explosive Sacrificial Embrace. Sounds like the kind of intimate that will take your head clean off.

It's a bomb that was planted on one of her monsters the moment she placed it.

That will be one hell of an explosion, with the added bonus that the attack points of the god demolished will be deducted from Kaiba's life points. He'll be in the red, which is somewhere Kaiba with his business acumen should never be. Also, according to the panel in which he's sprawled in defeat, he'll get hit in the gut again with the shrapnel, because he's not abused in his starving stomach nearly enough, apparently. Ishizu anticipates this image becoming reality with a sharp glare forward.

She summons a little eye-thing, which follows the established pattern of looking an awful lot like it belongs with the Millennium Items. No word from the translator on the name of this thing, though. I guess it doesn't matter, because Kaiba is quick to observe she's got three monsters out now. He yells out the activation of his face down card.

Virtual wind spirals around each of Ishizu's monsters as Kaiba helps himself to the use of her monsters, thank you very much. He's wearing his full smug again as he pulls Obelisk from his hand and offers to let Ishizu see god.

Impressive as this big guy is, Ishizu greets it with an inclined head and a soft end to her turn. She thinks that once Obelisk has been activated, Kaiba is finished. Everyone else has... different feelings.

Looks like SOMEONE got back his amusement at the destruction of others. Without intervention of the millennium variety, it might turn into hard irony real fast.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kaiba isn't the best poster boy for perseverance in the face of adversity, I've realized. Sure, like I said, his likability is up when he's low, but his lows are far above most everybody else's. He's just got too much advantage to really be much of an inspiration, even when his deck has been reduced to six mostly useless cards.

I'm far more interested in Ishizu's attitude by this point, because her little show of emotion during the one turn was enough to really contrast how reserved she's really been. Yes, I'm sure some of that is just the dignity of being an older, more mature person than most who are playing in the tournament (everyone in the world if she's serious about how long she personally has been on watch for the Millennium Items). Some of it is also probably having replayed this whole scene in her head countless times and now it's like a movie she's seen a million times, all the surprises gone. Still, some of her expressions in this chapter also suggest an unease at what she's doing. Not only has she been regretful about how she's essentially cheating to get her way here, but she also seems a bit guilty when she thinks all the light has been cut out for Kaiba's prospects. She's not giddy or pleasured by the impossible situation she's put Kaiba into, like other!Marik would be. She feels remorse. She doesn't want to be doing this, and it shows.

Her attitude reflects back on Kaiba in a strange manner. She's aware of his connection to the Millennium Items and his role in this whole weird story, but we as an audience are still not fully savvy to it. She may be feeling more uncomfortable about how she's interrupting this conjunction of magic items and their favorite people, but from this side, for a moment, her expressions almost paint Kaiba as a regular kid trying to have boisterous fun, and she's robbing him of it.

How weird a picture is THAT?

Inuyasha Manga: 169 Underground Enemy

Okay, yeah, but is the GROUND made of enemies as well? Ever since I started packing up all of my shit, I've started thinking of my belongings as adversaries. There's so many of them, gifts and keepsakes and trinkets from trips, and every time I fit one of them into a box, there always seems to be another underneath. It's a deep pile of crap, and I'm already sick of trying to neatly stow it away for transport. There's a bag full of stuff waiting to head for the thrift shop, but I'm far too attached to a majority of my belongings. They've somehow burrowed into my life like a tick and they're having a nice feast on my limited space.

Guess I should be grateful that my flesh isn't on anyone's menu. Unfortunately for you, my friend, that just means more weird metaphors.

Kagome cringes back from the oncoming blur that Kageroumaru has become, Shippou clinging to her arm in weepy terror, while Inuyasha remains limp against the tree stump behind her. Kouga makes a lunge for her, uttering a classic "oh no you don't", but he has to leap off course when Juuroumaru swipes at him from the side. Kageroumaru laughs that Kouga won't make it, smirking over his shoulder at him. Kagome squeezes her eyes shut against the anticipated pain. There's a splatter of blood.

Hey, this is the same trick Kouga pulled a couple of chapters ago! Get your own gimmicks, Inuyasha!

Kageroumaru is in disbelief as the end of his scythe-arm is sliced clean off. Kagome says Inuyasha's name in breathless relief, but he's a bit too busy to respond, swinging his sword down again in a rage at the bastard who threatened to eat her. The whole ground beneath him is shattered into a million pieces by the force of his blow. Sango and Miroku are in awe of this, the former noting that he's wielding Tessaiga with one hand now, and the latter wondering if the sword has gotten lighter for him. They both seem to lean toward the explanation that the blood's gone to his head and he's forgotten the weight, because he's an idiot. I guess they've never heard of the sudden super strength people sometimes get when lifting heavy objects off their loved ones. It's probably not a choice subject for youkai to gossip about.

Upon landing on the ruined ground, Inuyasha glares out of his periphery at Sango and Miroku, asking who they're calling an idiot. Miroku appears quite surprised that he heard them, what with the deafening sound of Tessaiga tilling the soil and everything. Inuyasha shifts his anger to the ground he broke, complaining that Kageroumaru ran away into it yet again. When Kagome latches onto his shoulder, he asks if she's alright, but she says he should be looking over his own grievous injuries instead, since he's covered in blood.

As he's dodging more relentless blows from Juuroumaru, Kouga takes a moment to acknowledge, with disdain, that the Dog-Turd is in fact still alive. Kagome tells Inuyasha that Kouga has had his leg injured, and Inuyasha's response, with Tessaiga slung over his shoulder, is that Kouga isn't any use at all. Says the guy who is constantly getting a new hole ripped in his stomach. By his own admission. Kagome asks with a hand raised her mouth in concern if Inuyasha will be okay, and begs him to be careful. He barks back at her that she should know how tough he is, and not to lump him in with the Wimpy Wolf.

Kouga bristles at how annoying Inuyasha is, still dodging Juuroumaru's blows like a pro. Damn, boy has an attention-span three miles long. He even successfully jumps straight in the air so Juuroumaru's hand goes beneath him and chops down another tree behind him instead. Inuyasha still thinks he can do one better, and shouts at Kouga to get out of the way so he can rip Juuroumaru apart as he starts to run for the fray. The run ends pretty much immediately when Tessaiga's weight pulls him backward and the point sticks in the ground at his heel, bending him awkwardly the wrong way.

Sango asks if Tessaiga got heavy again, but Miroku attributes the sudden lightness to Inuyasha's whole-hearted desire to protect Kagome in the moment it mattered most, and know his super-strength has been sapped. Oh, Miroku HAS heard of those stories! Kouga, on the other hand, thinks it's cowardice that keeps Inuyasha rooted to the ground, and says so as he leaps to the side again. Inuyasha starts out flustered, but tells Kouga to shut up and puts the extra effort into forcing he and his sword forward, claiming he'll slice both Juuroumaru and Kouga together.

It continues as smoothly as this for another page, which is to say, not smooth at all. Juuroumaru jumps back onto a sideways swing of Inuyasha's Tessaiga, again, as Inuyasha calls him scum. Juuroumaru disappears off the sword once it's carved into the ground, and Kageroumaru leaps out of the dirt behind the blade to make a swipe for Inuyasha. He misses, but Juuroumaru is back for a second lunge at Inuyasha's right, which is thwarted by Kouga's kick to his face from a new angle. It is CHAOS, guys.

Juuroumaru lands a short distance away from the two convenient allies. Inuyasha refuses to thank Kouga, even though Kouga is demanding that he be thanked. The usual bullshit. Juuroumaru looks unimpressed as he sits and stares blankly at them. Inuyasha is a little unnerved by how listless Juuroumaru is even though Kouga kicked him.

Sango is convinced that even Inuyasha's body will give out if the battle continues much longer, which Miroku says is due to their inability to predict from where Kageroumaru will strike in the wide expanse of ground. This gives Sango an epiphany - if Kageroumaru can be prevented from going underground, they've got a shot at ending this thing. She asks Miroku for his staff while she lifts one of her shoulder adornments to reveal an honest-to-goodness clam shell stashed underneath. Miroku assumes she has a plan for it, obviously, and she explains as she dips the end of the staff into a sort of gooey paste inside the shell. It's a poison that she says won't last a long time, but at least it'll get Kageroumaru out of the ground.

She throws the staff like a javelin, angled toward the ground and it spears the earth. Kagome and Shippou notice this, the latter stating that a red spot is spreading from the point of the staff's point of piercing.

Prime position and and he didn't manage to get a hit in on either of those guys in passing? That must be SOME poison Sango's got there. While Shippou inserts one of his "gottim"s into the background just so no one forgets he exists on Kagome's perpetually worried shoulder, Sango runs forward to instruct both Inuyasha and Kouga to get Kageroumaru, because his movements should have slowed a bit from the poison. Kageroumaru perches on a branch, complaining that they're all assholes, and I have zero sympathy that everyone's ganging up on him. Boohoo, cry moar.

Kouga zooms up into the tree too, spitting Kageroumaru's name threateningly, and Kageroumaru flees from the tree, casting a nervous glance at Kouga behind him. The moment of distraction causes him some surprise when he finds Inuyasha is waiting for him on the ground, sword at the ready, and vowing he's not going to get away.

He may not be the sharpest tack, but Juuroumaru has one hell of a punch. Two for the price of one.

Inuyasha collapses face-first into the ground, to which he's accustomed by the point, considering how often he's sat. Kouga on the other hand manages a little more dignity in his landing, on both feet, fists clenched, and asking what the stupid jerk Dog-Turd over there thought he was doing. Inuyasha groans in response as his pushes himself out of the ground, and Kouga hums in question, then starts to lecture Inuyasha on how careless he is to be dying at THIS point.

Kagome runs up from behind Kouga, yelling Inuyasha's name, which appears to confuse him at first. Then he assures Kagome she can take it easy; he's got this threat all wrapped up on his own. Yeah, not likely. Inuyasha glares up at Kouga with an affronted look. Careful, kid, for how often you're wearing that expression, your face will get stuck that way. Kouga's already turned to Juuroumaru, though, planning out loud to deal with the dumb one now that Danny DeVito isn't around to meddle.

This gets Inuyasha thinking with worry that he doesn't sense Kageroumaru anymore.

Awww, he cares that Kouga's gonna die. The bromance is real.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Sango coming to the rescue with a creative move involving Miroku's staff was a great way to get the two characters involved again where it was becoming awfully conspicuous how absent they were from the fight. With Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru so free to pick their targets over the past few chapters, I really was starting to wonder why they weren't more involved. Other than the obvious answer that writing more random ambushes on the sidelines would have just dragged on this little arc further than it needed to go, of course. Involving Sango and Miroku in a more active role, even if it was a very small one, helped to tie them realistically back into the action instead of just gaping about.

I got enough of that from Kagome and Shippou, thank you. The latter I can understand, but Miss Kagome had a fairly reliable weapon that I'm a little miffed she's never tried to use this whole fight. What happened to the bow? Because I don't think I've seen it this whole time. At the beginning of the arc, it's clearly visible along with arrows and her big backpack, but all of those seem to have disappeared for no reason. And with their disappearance, our main female character, normally badass, has been reduced to a cringing waif.

At least the other one got a little boost. It was fun learning more about the little things Sango has at her disposal that are more covert weapons. We got a taste of this before, but Sango's other youkai extermination tools are a big part of her cool-factor, and she seems more and more like a movie spy the more she pulls out of her skin-tight black outfit to save the day, as well as how she uses it in novel ways.

I don't know if I buy a poison so thick and gooey would spread through the ground like it did, but that's just a tiny nit. Nothing to see here.

I'm more concerned about whether Kouga is going to forget another part of his character at the beginning of the next chapter. Kouga is the one with the superb intuition, so Inuyasha shouldn't be quicker than him to point out an obscure danger. I hope we haven't ignored yet another of Kouga's key characteristics again. Once an arc is already too much.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 227 Twilight Cemetery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

... Ooooh, tough break buddy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it's tearing him apart, clearly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inuyasha Manga: 168 Two vs. Two

I love tag-teams. The team is always comprised of two guys, or mostly guys due to the level of competitiveness they have to show the whole world, who bicker about literally everything like an old married couple. When they're forced to work together in the story, it always turns out mysteriously like those secret tryst plots in hyper-dramas. You know the ones; two people who normally have nothing but scorn for one another spend a drunken night getting hot and heavy, and then spend the length of a season coming to terms with the developing romance? Tag-teams are like that, except drunken sex is a desperate fight, and developing romance is grudging respect.

You know, people make fun of fangirls for constantly shipping the boys who hate one another, but I feel like there's a significant similarity between the two aforementioned plotlines that people also tend to conveniently ignore.

Don't try to dissuade them from their best shot. I didn't come here to see YOU win, Tiny.

Inuyasha barks at Kouga to hurry up and silence the runt, and Kouga snaps back that Inuyasha should shut up and stop ordering him around. All the same, he leaps from Danny DeVito and claws into the ground where he was sitting, only to look up to find Kageroumaru perched on a tree branch above, mocking him for his poor aim. Seems he's already well on his way down the path to learning he and Inuyasha have much more in common than they thought.

Juuroumaru jumps listlessly at Inuyasha, who grits his teeth, putting considerable strength behind swinging Tessaiga sideways at the oncoming threat. When Juuroumaru effortlessly leaps into the air out of the way, Inuyasha calls him a bastard before he rebounds off a nearby tree to force himself back at Inuyasha. He just barely misses as Inuyasha flinches way back out of the way.

Shippou points out that Inuyasha is hitting nothing but air, while Kagome holds him for emotional support apparently as she states that Tessaiga is heavier and he's wounded as well. Miroku and Sango sit nearby staring at the scene as well. Kagome thinks it must be painful for Inuyasha just to stand. Funny it never occurs to her to conspire with her fellows in the peanut gallery to give him a bit of a hand? Sure, he would no doubt be peeved that they interfered, but that guy is peeved all the time. Not like it'll be much different than the usual.

Despite the pain Kagome assumes, Inuyasha swings his sword with a yell, just barely swiping shy of Juuroumaru's nose. Juuroumaru leans into the motion of the sword.

Damn, that thing is already heavy enough! I'm surprised the thing didn't get ripped right out of Inuyasha's fingers with the extra weight!

Then again, Juuroumaru runs down the blade and grabs onto Inuyasha's shoulders to slam him to the ground so fast that gravity may not have had time to work. Juuroumaru sinks his giant fangs into Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome/Shippou react with a scream of his name. Kouga looks around from the tree branch onto which he had followed Kageroumaru and starts calling him shameful, asking if he can't figure out how to handle the dumb one. Inuyasha rolls Juuroumaru off of him to direct an enraged look and splutter at Kouga, followed by a curse as he shoves Juuroumaru away with a fist to his face.

Instead of making the most of on of the few hits he's managed get in, Inuyasha fires back at Kouga that HE hasn't exactly eliminated his designated target either. Kouga scoffs that it's no comparison, which might not be a bad point, what with Kageroumaru's smaller size and faster moves. Right on time, Kouga just detects something whizzing toward the back of his head and jumps out of the way before the tree he was standing in splinters into a million splinters. Kageroumaru is quite disappointed in missing Kouga, while Kouga is pleased with how he's starting to be able to predict his current enemy's movements.

The next panel is a little weird, because Kouga appears to be shattering the ground with a fist, either to slow his trajectory, or for some other indiscernible reason. Then an annoyed-looking Kageroumaru glares at the debris flying around him out of the corner of his eye. If you ask me, he really should have been looking where he was going.

These two are indispensable.

Kageroumaru extends one of his knife-arms toward Kouga and angrily calls him a brat, but Kouga jumps straight up so Kageroumaru can run himself into the ground instead, literally. Danny DeVito bounces back, as he always does, and loops around Kouga, who does what he does best; kicks as hard as he can. Kageroumaru grunts as he bounces himself back out of the dirt. Again. 

I don't know what Kouga yells at Kageroumaru before he brings his fist down into the ground below where the little guy is resting, because the speech bubble is blank. The Viz version says that he's declaring his final strike, which makes sense in conjunction with Sango's certainty that Kouga got the bastard, but when Kouga looks into the crater he created with his punch there's no sign of a mangled little youkai corpse. Kouga is mystified that Kageroumaru appears to have gotten away, then looks around in alarm at a noise coming from behind him.

Switching partners? That wasn't in the rules!

Kouga looks dumbfounded that Kageroumaru popped up from underground, just as Inuyasha is approached again from the side by Juuroumaru, much to his surprise. Juuroumaru takes a mighty swipe at Inuyasha's already blood-soaked chest and sends him flying, punching a few more holes with his fingers in the process, judging by the blood covering them after the deed. Inuyasha is flung with such force into a tree behind him that the thing snaps right in half. He slides down the stump, groaning, Kagome and Shippou shouting his name in horror.

Calling Kageroumaru a bastard, Kouga charges at the little guy and once again punches the ground where he was sitting. Upon looking at the indent, Kouga finds once more that Kageroumaru has disappeared underground again and curses for it.  He doesn't exactly have the time to spend on pissing and moaning, though.

Welcome to the club.

While Sango and Miroku gape at the oozing new wound on Kouga's leg, he stands anyway to face his giggling foe, even if he is stuttering his curses now. Inuyasha's still slumped against the tree trunk, resting his eyes no doubt, so Kageroumaru laughs and suggests that he should eat Kagome's liver now. She and Shippou stare open-mouthed and terrified at the threat, but Inuyasha isn't beyond his own reaction.

Don't tell me this comes as a surprise, Inuyasha. You had to stop the guy from taking a bite before, didn't you?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It didn't disappoint with the expected bickering, though there was less of it than I've seen in similar subplots in other stories to accommodate for pacing. Good decision, because while Inuyasha and Kouga are chatty, they're not exactly the "banter" types. Their snide remarks are limited to reminding the other of the poor job he's doing, witticisms nonexistent. They're just both men of action, and that works just fine with the very fast flow of the chapter. Much like the last, each panel goes by very fast with little dialogue, so you feel the speed at which they're happening.

It's no surprise that Kageroumaru isn't above abandoning a fight he's losing to take a shot at one he feels is easier. He's got no incentive to follow the dynamic that his enemies have set up when it's not working for him, so going for the dude who's already been thoroughly fucked up is no doubt a much better prospect. Not to mention, the silent Juuroumaru is going to remain fixated on Inuyasha too, unless Kageroumaru tells him otherwise, so he'll get in two hits for the price of one. I love it when bad guys "bad" correctly.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 226 The Chosen One

But, Yami isn't playing in this one, chapter. In fact, the guy who just expressed disdain for the very concept of a predestined winner of the duel is playing in this one. Are you mocking him? I mean, don't get me wrong, I can get behind mocking Kaiba all day every day (or every other day, maybe), but I'd be more inclined to pick on his selective use of the term in his own favor. Making fun of a guy who can't escape his fate no matter how hard he works against the tide - lukewarm comedy in a sea of tragedy. Making fun of a guy who says he's been chosen by a god card to avoid admitting that it was given to him, then rejecting the idea that he can be chosen by anyone or anything in order to insist he does all the choosing himself - much funnier. 

After a reiteration of Vorse Raider slicing through Keldo, and Ishizu flinching through the resulting holographic smoke, Kaiba repeats how laughable he finds it that her millennium trinket can predict his future. He's prepared to teach her that the future obeys him, and not the other way around. He's going to EARN that ending, dammit!

The irony of this being that he's the one who will undoubtedly win the duel because the plot cannot move forward otherwise. The future has indeed dictated this, it just happens to line up with what Kaiba wants. For now.

Kaiba and Ishizu stare each other down, still both at 4000 points each. Jonouchi notes this, but thinks that Kaiba's the one who has the momentum now, because he's bringing the "power deck" with all his toughest monsters. Anzu compares Ishizu's power to Pegasus's, but with a predicted outcome instead of relying on building a strategy around reading Kaiba's mind. She wonders if this means Ishizu already knows who will win, and I would make fun of her for missing the obvious answer... if there WERE an obvious answer, anyway. It's not exactly clear what the Millennium Necklace is telling her, despite the fact that Ishizu herself seems sure that it's the future, so it's still up in the air.

Yami just glares speechlessly up at the platform. Stoic.

Kaiba continues his turn briefly to play a card face down for the anticlimactic conclusion. Ishizu is just as silent as Yami while Kaiba recalls the two cards he's placed face down, Crush Card and Shrink. You'll recall that his plan is to shrink his Vorse Raider's power and subsequently infect Ishizu's deck with a virus that will destroy all her big attack-heavy monsters that he still has no real reason to believe are a large part of her strategy. He's just assuming. Because he's an ass.

Ishizu declares her turn and immediately closes her eyes. No, it's cool, she can totally afford a little nap there in the middle of a match. Her dream-vision shows her Kaiba gloating that he's activating Shrink and Crush Card in order to destroy her deck, while all the monsters she hasn't yet summoned go up in smoke. She opens her eyes again, assuring Kaiba that she can already see that future, even if it's only silently, and thinks that even a duelist of his ilk will be powerless when faced with the power of her Millennium Necklace.

As she summons a buff dude in a golden Egyptian-esque helmet with a cobra's head adorning its front she calls Mudora, she's prepared to show the audience the future she's foretold.

Ohhhhh, maaaaaaan, I wish it would happen...!

I guess it's such a fun image that it's in there twice? I'm guessing that the person uploading this just threw in the conjoined double-page spread, and then the two pages separate for good measure too.

While Kaiba stands there smirking at her from behind his Vorse Raider, Ishizu recalls this very vision is the reason she gave him Obelisk to begin with. Then she asks for Kaiba's forgiveness, silently of course, because normally this kind of predictive power should never be used in a duel, but she's prepared to offer her life to the gods as punishment for being a big cheater. Meh, something tells me that the gods aren't too terribly broken up about it. Maybe it's the lack of weird god lightning striking Ishizu down.

All the same, she thinks she's willing to do anything to save her brother, even for the slightest chance or the slimmest ray of hope. You can't criticize her for that dedication - mad props. Ishizu glares down at Other!Marik, who scoffs up at her in response. She demands that the parasite inside her REAL brother wait for her. Well, it's not like the guy can GO anywhere. You're all flying on a blimp, so....

Those are pretty dope accessories, but they aren't going to help him much, because Kaiba says (as predicted) that the moment she attacks, he's going to activate his Shrink card. He calls this a "trap of hell" and bids she fall into it, even as he shrinks the attack points of his OWN card. It's pretty obvious that there's a tricky reason you're doing this, Kaiba, you don't need to expound upon the fact that it's a trap. Maybe you should keep YOURS shut for once? Just a thought.

Nah, he narrates that Vorse Raider has lost half its attack points, and it issues a weird aura and smoke in response. Yami grits his teeth at the scene above and wonders if Kaiba playing Shrink meant that he was planning on activating Crush Card. Uhhhhhh, DUH? Not sure how much more obvious Kaiba could get here in order for you to waive any doubt, but it's not like the guy is great at subtlety.

Mudora slices Vorse Raider straight down the middle and the very scene that played out in Ishizu's mind a few minutes before happens in real life, with Kaiba's dialogue a little bit different this time. He says that now that Vorse Raider has attack points less than 1000, it has become a carrier of a virus. With a triumphant grin, he says her monsters are dead, both on the field and in her deck. A similar smoke to the one consuming Mudora issues from the seams on Ishizu's Duel Disk. Jonouchi identifies this as the famous deck-destruction combo of Kaiba's, fucking up every monster in Ishizu's possession worth more than 1500 attack points. Yami wonders if she predicted this too. Please, Yami, anyone with EYES could have predicted this. No Millennium Item required.

No complaints from her. You'd think that would be a red flag for twitchy Kaiba, but he's too busy to notice. Too busy contemplating his genius sacrifice of one of his monsters and bringing down his life points to 2950 so all of Ishizu's strongest monsters can be dead. Worth it! And he's not done yet; he thinks his deck-destruction combo is only just beginning because he's got an even more powerful card in his hand right now. He plans to use Virus Cannon to wipe out the spell cards in Ishizu's deck now, likening this one-by-one robbery of her resources to plucking every feather from her wings, like the psychopath that he is. He wears one twisted little grin as he savors the thought of bringing Ishizu down with his power deck.

Again, your boner is quite indecent, Kaiba. Put it AWAY.

Ishizu plays a card face down without fanfare and ends her turn in much the same manner. Other!Marik smirks at her and chuckles internally, thinking that Kaiba is making this far too easy for Ishizu, playing right into her hands. Aside from Kaiba being all too predictable, other!Marik is sure that it's only a matter of time before Ishizu plays a certain card that he's not naming at the moment. He questions if Kaiba's convinced he's destroying Ishizu's deck or his own. Oooooooh, cryptic.

Kaiba appears to be making up for Ishizu's lack of gusto with extra.

... I'm not gonna TOUCH that one.

Reeeeeeaaaaaaally not touching that one. A rich powerful guy's name for his junk is his own business.

Unless you're Mick Fleetwood, apparently.

Ishizu must have noticed that self-satisfied smirk on Kaiba's face and drawn the ONE conclusion there can be from the intensity of it: he has drawn Obelisk. She's fairly certain that Kaiba's got won't be bringing him victory today, and when she wins this duel, that god will come back to HER. Like a lost puppy. That also has omnipotence.

Kaiba is contemplating how he needs three sacrifices to summon Obelisk, which means he needs three more turns to make it happen. He's moving right along with his next play; summoning Des Feral Imp, what he calls a death gremlin. The thing certainly LOOKS like it was fed after midnight. He notes that Ishizu has no monsters and is wide open, so orders his new monster to attack Ishizu herself. She flinches back from the swipe the Imp takes at her, but it still takes her points down to 2400. Kaiba sure did make up the difference from his sacrifice right quick.

Ishizu groans, and Kaiba takes this moment to start pontificating again. He says the future is infinite, the past is just a string of footprints, and it means nothing to him. So does the fact that Ishizu gave him Obelisk.

And how does this square off with your insistence that you're in charge of your own future? Usually the only time that people claim to be chosen by a god is also the time that they're trying to convince everyone that they're destined for greatness. From your previous rants, I'd say that's kind of antithetical to your position of anti-fate in this duel. What gives?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There's not much going on in the mundane. Kaiba is his usual overzealous self, and Ishizu constantly looks like she's trying not to roll her eyes. It's clear she just can't wait to get past this phase in her plan to save her brother, because Kaiba is never NOT insufferable. He's also just a hurdle to her right now, so it's no wonder she's coming off as a little distracted. Of course, she's the same to him, so it's no wonder to me that he hasn't seemed to notice. Already thinking several moves ahead and entirely too excited.

So excited, in fact, that he seems to be all mixed up inside? I know I harped on this all chapter, but there's some serious contradiction going on in Kaiba's philosophy here. I suppose it's POSSIBLE to have both a sense of responsibility for one's own destiny and a belief that there's a greater purpose to it all through a deity's favor, but that's the kind of reconciling of contradictory ideas that people in real life do because there aren't any THEMES surrounding them and their lives. Ishizu stays in a pretty straight line with her philosophy because she's here representing the concept of fate and a certain outcome. She's calm, collected, and composed because nothing can surprise her - she's seen it all before, and she knows exactly what she needs to do to accomplish that all-important goal of exorcising the demon from her poor brother.

Kaiba, on the other hand, SHOULD be representing the opposite view. Yami thought it best when he thought at Kaiba to surpass his fate. In this duel, Kaiba is supposed to be the foil to Ishizu's straight-laced determinism by pushing as hard as he can past her expectations of him and what her Millennium Item tells her. But at the end, he's smarming about how the god card has chosen HIM to give the victory to? Without invoking his own strong desire to prove he's the master of his own destiny? Seems just a tad like a 180 degree turn to me.

I suppose the point of his last word on the matter could have been similar to a divorced parent bragging about their child's decision to stay with them instead of their estranged ex-partner. I could see that being Kaiba's intention, considering his idea of working hard to his ends instead of relying on fate is gathering as many powerful assets as possible in order to make them work in his favor so he doesn't have to do it himself. In that sense, I can still SQUEEZE him into the mold he's meant to be filling this chapter.

Still, KT might want to make that a little clearer if he doesn't want the metaphors to be muddled.