we stopped at some good amount of observation on Jounouchi character development.
Plot Summary:
After school, Yugi arrives home and finds an envelope stuck in the door with cards inside...the gang appears at the entrance and Jounouchi reveals he also received a videotape of 8mm, asks if he can watch at Yugi's home since he doesn't have VCR, Yugi explains news about his situation about 5 cards he received as invitation cards saying the location being on a island called Duelist Kingdom and the meet up being at the Domino Pier to be on a ship, in order to the presented Tournament's location with some basic rules in other cards plus two honor cards (King's left (it's a blank card) and King's right (the prize money)).
After catching up with the recent news about the tournament, they watch Jounouchi's videotape, they were worried that it would be Pegasus but in the end, the person Jounouchi wasn't expecting to appear being his little sister Shizuka, she explains why she sent a video and her time to see his brother coming to a close, Jounouchi is feeling very down with this news and explains their situation, confesses his frustration on thinking he is not a good brother, then Dark Yugi takes over and cheers him up by giving one of the stars that came with glove from the package, so Jounouchi could have a fighting chance to help his little sister.
The day to come to meet at Domino Pier, Yugi and the gang arrive and and see a huge ship that will take them to the island of Duelist Kingdom, they see many contestants including the top and runner up in Japan and meet for the first time a beautiful woman, who is also a contestant and most of the boys (except Ryou Bakura) are amazed by her beauty, she introduces herself as Mai Kujaku and express her interest in seeing Yugi's skills for herself in the tournament...
The whole gang smoothly boards the ship, Yugi gets the chance to talk with the two top contestants from the national championship tournament, Haga and Ryuzaki,Jounouchi complains how everyone has to sleep common room with not even bunk beds, he is not the only one, Mai starts complain about how come there isn't a room for lady at least to take a shower with later revealed that the two top contestants from the national tournament gets suite rooms, so Mai uses her charms by getting closer to Ryuzaki, the runner up and is escorted to his room by Ryuzaki.
As Yugi and Haga continue their conversation then Haga brings his curiousity about Yugi's deck, specifically Exodia The Forbidden one and throws the 5 pieces of Exodia to the ocean and Jounouchi jumps to the ocean in attempt to save Exodia's cards but in vain, Haga leaves laughing claiming that now no one is a threat to him in the competition, Yugi launches lifebuoy to help Jounouchi back to the ship, while with Mai and Ryuzaki, she challenged him to a mini-game to see who could stay in the room and she won, she got his room.
Key Points:
I have to say, why didn't he had given the cards inside the package? It's a bit weird and creepy doing this way, specially seeing a sort of private or spy to leave the envelope and checking if Yugi picks up the cards, let's say is a bit unnecessary 😑, I understand is also a way to show Pegasus pays close attention in not just Dark Yugi but also Yugi.
The envelope given 5 cards, with the information about the tournament (the day, location, prizes), even though one of them is suspicious, such as the "Honor of the King" cards of Right and Left, the "Honor of the King's Right" being the prize money and "The Honor of the King's Left" being empty with "???", it's not difficult to guess what is for and it hints is not something good and shady, but who has saw the animated series and read the manga knows and who doesn't, knows well, what it is...
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When they will put the videotape which Jounouchi has received...
Jounouchi is suspicious that maybe Pegasus is trying to make Yugi's rival in the tournament, he wouldn't be able to even if he wanted to, Yugi from the looks of it all around school is well known to be naturally good and common knowledge that he usually wins at games, he must have participated in small tournaments when he was younger too and the Death-T duel between Dark Yugi and Kaiba was showcased in the media, Jounouchi at this time probably didn't participated in these, so Pegasus wouldn't have enough resources to invite Jounouchi if that would be his intent, you would need to have gained some recognition to be invited to a tournament (registering and being invited are different circumstances).If we look at the panel when they are looking at the TV to see what is the content in Jounouchi's videotape, Jounouchi is the most tense because of his naive theory, the rest of the gang didn't look nervous but curious about it's content thinking to be mostly harmless...
It reveals to be Jounouchi's little sister, Jounouchi's reaction is curious for him to have a negative shock reaction, you would think he would be happier, but it wasn't the case, well Jounouchi has good intuition for these kind of things, but the boys reactions are very amusing though with Honda's shock...
"Jounouchi! Did she say «big brother»? how could Jounouchi have a sister this cute?!!"
Come on, Honda, Jounouchi is actually fairly good looking, aesthetically speaking, so it shouldn't be that surprising, he isn't popular because he is kinda of a "open pervert" and someone like that scares girls or girls don't trust boys who behave like that (if he had more self-control, maybe he would be more approachable, Honda is similar too), Yugi and Anzu were also surprised, but I don't think was really for her being cute but for Jounouchi having a sister...since these two only knew of Jounouchi living with his father.
This is where I was referring to knowing more about Jounouchi, his familial circumstances reveals a bit more and we can figure out about before when he said about himself in Death-T regarding his relation with his family ("living in a stupid society...with stupid parents and my stupid self"), from what we can tell here, Jounouchi has a younger sister, but she is with his mom because their parents split up 6 years ago (Jounouchi had 9 years old so his sister would be around 6 or 7 years old) and also about his father being a kinda violent alchoolic, so we can easily say that his mother left to live very far away and took his sister, leaving her son of 9 years old behind having to have take care of himself and his father by himself, working in many part-time jobs to pay his father's debts and so he can go to school.
We can say like his sister Shizuka said, he is so busy and live so far apart, which means she knows what he goes through (so their mother probably knows Jounouchi hardships and seems to do nothing about it) and asks him to not tell their father about the video (there can be many reasons why she asks to not tell her dad about the video, probably because of the address and content about the video to not make matters worse).
Jounouchi have it really hard, about Jounouchi's mother, I think she was quite irresponsible in her actions, I don't know how is in Japan, under this circumstances, the court could decide to sent their father for rehabilitation, Jounouchi could easily help his mother to take care of his sister, so Jounouchi hardships are very unfair, troubles that Jounouchi wouldn't have to go through caused by their parents irresponsibilities (for Jounouchi stating before "stupid parents", he doesn't excuse the actions of his mother because technically he was abandoned by his mother and leave him to feed himself by himself).
So after Jounouchi reveals about his sister will go soon eventually blind and his friends get worried for Jounouchi about his little sister by asking if there is a way to help his sister and his response is...
And thinking of himself as useless big brother (which isn't true) because he can't get enough money to pay for her surgery (being very expensive), he takes his role and responsibility as a big brother very seriously to the point that he can be at his lowest as much at his strongest when it comes to his sister, the gang seeing Jounouchi like this...
Then Dark Yugi takes over and says "Cheer up, Jounouchi!", I guess this is a response from him to Jounouchi for trying to cheer him up but also shows that he was moved by it and give Jounouchi the chance to participate in the tournament to gain the prize money for his sister, that was very caring and kind of him (even though the kindness we see here from whom he was influenced by...even though he doesn't realize it until much later).
I always find this scene so sweet, when we think about it, Dark Yugi doesn't usually make the "cheer up" and supportive role, the first time was at the end of the episode arc of the Yo-Yos and here is more direct, it's actually rare seeing him doing this and even less with hand on top of the shoulder too, which means he sees Jounouchi as a very important friend.
When the day to board on the the ship to Duelist Kingdom arrives...they notice, recognizable contestants, such Insector Haga (Weevil Underwood dubbed anime version) and Dinosaur Ryuzaki (Rex Raptor dubbed anime version) - champion and runner-up in the japan finals and seems Yugi was busy teaching Jounouchi in getting better and how to use the other cards and curiously enough, he brings his Grandfather's deck and I wonder why not his own...it's probably to honour the rescue of saving his grandpa, and also a introduction of a new character...
Mai Kujaku, from her behaviour and way of talking, we can tell she is an independent and confident woman, her beauty is just a bonus, the boys got easily infatuated except Ryou Bakura (he seems to be immune to pheromones), Yugi kinda shocked and impressed by the fact she is also a duelist and confident one at that.
Yugi's expression when he blushes is so cute except in the first chapter of the series (that wasn't cute since he was having pervy thoughts 😒), here is for being impressed by her beauty and approached by her, how Yugi reacts is very amusing because he is always looking cute and tries to interact normally but end up being shy, Anzu on the other hand, it's pretty hilarious, she gets very jealous, the question is because of Yugi or seeing the "other yugi" and Yugi as one and the same, I think is more towards Yugi, if was Dark Yugi taking over, the interactions would be different and Anzu wouldn't be this angry, just a little irritated, mainly because for the whole gang, including Dark Yugi from how protective they are of him, Yugi is the "cinnamon roll" of the group.
Another extra note, as we progress over the series, it's hinted most people seem to think Yugi is very cute, indirectly from Anzu and Jounouchi (the chapter about the digital pets), if we compare how she interacts with Yugi in comparison to other duelists, how she call Yugi as "little boy", she thinks Yugi is cute too, there is few others too on the way because he looks like an adorable little kid.
Lastly, when she talked to Yugi it was that she was surprised a little kid defeated Kaiba and he is pretty famous, around gamers, Yugi must have attracted some attention from himself being good at games and through Dark Yugi too.
You know, Haga has a pretty interesting point at the tournament from competitive perspective, if the top bests aren't participating, the competition doesn't seem much for whoever wins the tournament, I mean Mai didn't participate in the tournament but was invited to Duelist Kingdom and she seems to be the only adult contestant and seems pretty skilled, so she would be someone with more gaming experience.
Here something amusing Haga tells Yugi:
"By the way, did you hear, Yugi? There will be new rules introduced to Duel Monsters at the tournament in Duelist Kingdom! I don't know the details but...apparently there's more strategy involved than before."
It's amusing for me because it sounds like those expansion packs or updates in games that increases difficulty and diversity in gameplay through a competitive event that is exclusive to invited contestants about "new reveals" and then Ryuzaki mentions is all hype, it does remind me a little what it feels to be in a fandom sometimes, when put it like this, it can actually become relatable even if the reader isn't into to card games.
I'm going to say, Pegasus was a terrible host even from the beginning, as you see there is no beds, not even bunk beds in the common room, talk about being stingy and an awful host, even Yugi is kinda mad about it and of course the top contestants get private rooms (a suite), that's just the worse, they're not the only ones who find this unreasonable.
Yugi meets Insector Haga, who speaks his observations about the advantage of sleeping in a common room instead of private rooms, such trading cards as a chance to improve their decks and have a peek in the opponents cards, which shows good powers of observation, Yugi being impressed, I give credit to Haga at seeing the positive side and giving points to Jounouchi's capacity to adjust to the situation (Yugi is as impressed with Jounouchi quickly adapting to situations), but to not even provide a basic sleeping bag or even bunk beds is still unreasonable.
I do agree with her for the most part, specially the boys, she did find this rather unreasonable (which is true), she might ask a little too much when she came to the shower, the bunk beds or even sleeping bags, I would be more on her side...since she is standing out with the tone and volume of her voice, then Ryuzaki intervenes and she is up to something then when he invites her to go to his room and act all nice to him, Ryuzaki thinks he got the girl...he has no idea how wrong he is, Jounouchi and Honda are envious of him but they don't realise that they're actually safe from her...
I have to say Mai is very good at getting most men distracted by her charms and read the words she chooses, she says what the man and boy wants to hear from beautiful woman as she challenges him to a mini game of cards about guessing cards of her deck without looking against Ryuuzaki and after do it vice versa, Mai seems to know every single of her cards in a orderly fashion as Ryuzaki draws it, make it seems she is a psychic but was already given a clue before when she pass through the gang...when the two boys of the gang smell her perfume...
On the other hand, after some training, Yugi and his friends will go outside to get fresh air and Haga appears and approach Yugi to talk with him, asking if he has exodia in his deck and Yugi answers yes, Haga asks if he can see the exodia cards, it's a interesting mention in this lore that Exodia cards are very rare, which makes sense for someone to need to have 5 pieces of cards of Exodia and to summon them.
Yugi doesn't see the harm in letting him see since he knows the cards and his moves, Yugi can be a little too trusting, specially at the fence of the ship, if was inside the common room, it would be safe to let him see but at the fence, I wouldn't even let my friend see there, it just isn't safe, because of wind or get clumsy and fall from your hands or someone's hands by accident, cards are made of paper, it's easy to lose grip on them specially on a ship.
Jounouchi dives to catch the cards but no luck, since most of them are lost and all being wet (pretty reckless, but that's part of Jounouchi being extremely loyal and reckless), Dark Yugi takes over immediately very angrily just to say that because his sense of justice was triggered, this shows Yugi is very shy and very angry in this moment, so Yugi rarely speaks for himself, it takes time in starting speak of himself (I don't censor him, for someone with social anxiety as myself, it takes courage to speak up), so is Dark Yugi or his friends to do so for him, Haga is extremely confident that he is going to win now Yugi doesn't have Exodia, that's pretty narrow minded and to finish the travel, Mai successfully expel Ryuzaki from his private room and have the room for herself, as a way to show a sign she is very skilled, a duelist to watch out for.
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