Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 8 (Mai & Friendship)

Update (30/07/2018): Once again, no introduction, so I'll create one instead, this one will be a shorter post since is a break from the duels, not much story development but more characters and relationships development.


Plot Summary:

After Jounouchi had his duel is night already and thanks to the awful tournament management by the host, the gang is hungry since there is no food around and it's basically time for dinner, then comes a not exactly surprising meeting, Mai Kujaku eating a chocolate bar, the boys are jealous as they drool over the chocolate she is eating, she teases them a little and offers them food with the condition being the boys do the cooking and gives Anzu a chance to take a shower, from the gang, she is the one most surprised by Mai's generosity, but the person who is more surprised is Mai herself, after they both dinning and talking, Anzu and Mai have ladies talk inside the tent that Mai has brought and reveals she set up Anzu's alone time with Yugi, after Anzu left, a man entered the tent..., Anzu and Yugi during their time alone they talk a bit about their childhood and more...until they hear Mai's scream and both get worried about her safety, when they arrived, Mai just lost a duel against the man who came to her tent and lost all her star chips, she reveals he is a player "killer" (duelist assassin, people who are paid to defeat someone through TCG Magic and Wizards) and he challenges (or should I say he orders Yugi) to have a duel with him, Yugi got angry to Dark Yugi taking over and promising he win the duel and take Mai's star chips back.



Key Points:

  

Once again, we come back to the problem of this tournament...Food and like Anzu stated, a place to take a bath...I agree with you Anzu, this place is awful, no care for the participants well-being, seriously Pegasus, you don't do a good job as a host of this tournament, Jounouchi was willing to eat a mushroom and not knowing if was venomous or not plus seemed to dislike mushroom, the despair to eat something...
While they are complaining because there is no food for them to eat, someone comes from behind and surprise them...It's funny only the boys are drooling about the chocolate she is eating...she teases Jounouchi a little, she can be quite light-hearted (for the most part she is like that but she has her own reasons...

 

Kujaku Mai, starts with teasing Jounouchi in a good way, so she borrow some of her food and equipment for it, rest of it has to be the boys to do it, they were impressed how prepared she was, she pointed out an excellent point "you can't rely on kindness of strangers", because you never know what comes after, you don't know what this stranger may be thinking...so yeah I agree, the others are very impressed in how well prepared Mai was, I also liked that she told them and fairly too, since she was the one who brought the food, the boys do the cooking.



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She is being rather very kind with them, even her finds strange of her seeing herself being kind because she always had always lived alone, from how was expressed, you can interpret as something she got used to be a loner due to probably past experiences.
The reasons why she came to talk to them, she doesn't realize it yet, she feels drawn to them, despite  them being sometimes unintentionally arrogantly righteous, idealistically naive, but honest, essentially always themselves, they are who they are, they do it naturally, they speak out their minds mostly and good-natured, Mai must'n have met people who weren't honest and not themselves, when approaching, patronising (grrr), hypocrisy, etc, let's face it guys, most people are this way, it's no wonder why is so hard to find real friends, real friendship, I consider Yugi and co. very lucky - the same for the Golden Trio from Harry Potter, the team avatar from Avatar The Last Airbender.
Another small notes, Anzu was affected by Mai's words when she said that her duelist makeup doesn't last 24 hours...and kinda mentioned by her, Mai confirming the rumours about Dark Yugi "the other yugi" and Yugi, as you can see they're famous xD, but is interesting to know she heard of "the other yugi", so it's amusing.
Lastly, I find it very funny the contrast between the two pairs of boys, we have Honda and Jounouchi not liking the idea of being the ones doing the cooking and Jounouchi being prideful doesn't like being ordered by Mai, while with Ryou Bakura and Yugi are the ones who are genuinely having fun because it feels like camping with friends and both are cinnamon rolls.

 

Here is a small conversation between, so of a few signs that Mai hasn't realised she feels drawn to them and asks why they are always in little and Anzu explains it's because they're friends, Mai's reaction in her thoughts is prideful while curious at the same and something else... she even borrow her portable shower and a tent, it's very nice of her, it shows she is actually a softie on the inside under that prideful mask, it reminds a certain character despite wanting to ruthless but is a softie in the end, she even looks out for Anzu while she takes a bath to be sure certain pervy boys go to peek.

Anzu starts thinking of the "two Yugis" while she prepares to take a bath, so Anzu has also been developing some romantic feelings for Yugi, since she was with Dark Yugi for so long, that when Yugi came back she did kinda blushed (since she haven't seen him for so long) but also implies other things as to why she at this time think Dark Yugi is genuinely an another side of their Yugi...

 

It's understandable as pointed here and Ryou proclaimed being good at cooking, he seems to like it and was teaching Yugi too around few key points above, it seemed for quite a long time, Ryou lived by himself, so he would get cooking skills, it has also been implied to be someone good with his hands, more of a craft artist, he was the one who made the base figures of the gang in Monster World Arc with Yami Bakura putting the final touches for their chosen classes and these crafting skills of his will be used later towards the end of the manga series...

Regarding

  

Then Mai went into "serious/focused mode", while Anzu tries to chill her out (I agree with her) if we think about it, then she say repeating line of advice from Mai...

"We may be friends right now...but we'll be enemies tomorrow! That's what it means to be a duelist!"

She said the same thing to Jounouchi (except this is what it means to be a duelist, after she said this and after thank them for making dinner and advises Anzu to sleep in the tent too with her (since Anzu is the only girl in this group of boys) while still showing her concern, Jounouchi wonders what is her problem, I think Anzu and Yugi is starting to understand this side of her best, the fact she repeats this line twice, it's also what she says to herself as a way to be focused and not sight of her goal and more...

We could say, Mai starts loosen up with them, she reveals a bit of her past, we can confirm just as I mentioned my suspicions above, she mostly met dishonest people and started disliked people more and more (I know how you feel Miss Mai) as if starting losing hope in people.

And also she answers Anzu's question if she had always been this good, from her explanation working as a Casino dealer in cruise ship, it shows she was always generally good at games, the fact she could make a lot of money out of it and her looks, it means she was an extremely skilled casino dealer (an average casino dealer can't usually pull it off like this) and used aroma-tactics (remember what I mentioned about it in her duel against Jounouchi, she must have an amazing memory and good naturalist intelligence, it's not something look down upon, showcases amazing skill, she could be a very skilled mentalist if she wanted to)

 

She said the real deep reasons why she is participating to recover something she used to cherish (which means is something she longs for...), if we make 2+2, we can understand to some point, when she was very young, she wasn't that much alone and started to live alone after it, deep down she is actually a loner person who had to take care of herself on her own...so this "tough exterior" and "selfish" reasons, they are all walls to shield herself from harming herself by not getting too close to other people, it's defense mechanism (I can fairly to her in these, we all do to some extent and specially how our world works and we do it as means for survival in society).

But I can't help but wonder what it was cherished long time ago, from how the sentence is phrase she must be referring to people in her childhood (possibilities are her family or old friends, but I think is her family, in the anime they added a little more, but I can't be sure if is considered canon or not, but is possible)

Mai is such a teaser, teasing Anzu of having a crush on Yugi, such a peachshipper and she's not the only one, soon enough (if you have already the whole manga and the anime in japanese subbed, you know who am I referring to) and she sets up Yugi and Anzu, what surprises me is she is so surprised, I guess is a normal reaction when someone finds out or picked on your feelings for someone, as I've mentioned before since previous post that she is starting to be conscious of Yugi, I think Anzu hides mostly well, mostly, her reaction to Mai teasing and telling her she set him up with Yugi... 

 

 While Anzu is going to Yugi, she is actually nervous in talking with "her Yugi", childhood, which is a bit strange but also makes sense at the same, because he is the cinnamon roll and much more (I mean she one of the people who least underestimate him together with another character who is introduced between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City...), when Anzu leaves... someone else is approaching...

After Anzu left and before this unknown person barge in, Mai talks to herself and was amused that Anzu got so red and she was only half serious, she is very perceptive, I guess from the way independently being Dark Yugi and Yugi taking over (she has seen both ways and Anzu by his side, she kinda clings to them in a sense), remember during this time she thinks Dark Yugi is Yugi other personality...but there is twinking in her mind that she might want to avoid, even Yugi.

 

Whilst Anzu meets with Yugi, they start to converse (at start she was nervous of what she could talk about with him) and come up about their childhood, what is interesting is about the first time they met, it reveals a lot of Yugi's character, what made her being drawn to Yugi in the first place to becoming childhood friends is very interesting that is wroth to quote the whole thing:

"Do you remember the first time we met, Yugi? We were in Elementary School:::You gave a handheld game...I really got into it...but I played and played and I wasn't getting any betterm so I got mad and hit it...and broke it...but you just laughed...and brought me an easier game the next day..."

Before I get into depth about Anzu and Yugi relationship and them as characters, I want to mention the interesting detail of Yugi have given a handheld game to Anzu, when broke it, he gave her an easier one instead, which gets me thinking, this is in the late 90s, pretty much my whole childhood except my first 3 years and I remember lots of these handheld games, specially Brick Game because they were cheap and my whole family played on them, there was a lots of others kinds, those are the kinds is referring to here, because at first I thought it was some sort of game boy, but then later I thought that couldn't be possible Yugi having more than one game boy and gave another one the next day (those handhelds game consoles were expensive when compared to handheld game Brick Game) which comes to a conclusion it was those "Brick Game" kinds...I didn't realised sooner because when I read it for the first few times I wasn't knowledgeable about games back then, and nowadays just a little, so there.

The way Anzu and Yugi met, it seems they hit it off straight away, Yugi being a very generous person, he has given to Anzu a handheld game, it seems she was enjoying the game but wasn't improving with this she got mad and broke it out (it can happen), instead of Yugi getting mad and stop being friends with her, however what he did was he just laughed and gave her an easier one on the next day, which is impressive, very impressive how kind Yugi is, if it had happened to me I know would be seriously mad...in fact is extremely rare someone to be this kind and generous as Yugi is, he took it so lightheartedly as something amusing too, this explains why she might have feelings for him, maybe she had since this moment, who wouldn't be moved and become attached to the person who displayed such gesture to you? I think what sometimes hold her back is because appearance wise despite being very cute, he looks like an elementary schooler (even confused as such if he isn't wearing his school uniform), she might have been waiting for him to have a growth-spurt and his body mature. 

 

Anzu thinks he is acting strange being quiet, Yugi says that he thinks Anzu is thinking of Dark Yugi (indirectly saying, he suspects the one Anzu likes is the "other Yugi" not the original Yugi, I'm pretty sure it was since the "date" in the amusement park), he says that he will call him, but the way he says it, with kindness and bit self-deprecating,even he doesn't say it, but we can perceive he thinks himself inferior to Dark Yugi, for being overshadowed by him (Oh Yugi, that's not true at all), Anzu was suprised and at the same time, I wouldn't say pity, because she didn't, it was more that was painful to her, I think she perceived the same as us, after all she knows Yugi since his childhood, so she stops him, she kinda admits herself that at start she liked him and kinda says the reason why...because his voice was deeper (also because he is also good-looking/cool-looking, confident), so we could say, Dark Yugi as can be interpreted by Anzu as kinda idealized Yugi, together with Yugi affable personality (we know Dark Yugi isn't affable, he is kinda like Kaiba, hard to approach).

 then Anzu puts her hand over Yugi, Anzu says what she says ( Yugi is fine just the way he is), they have a doki-doki moment and are interrupted, I have always find it cute this scene, even around the time I didn't ship them at all, Anzu is quite sly sometimes, from what we have seen when comes to making "romantic approach" is usually her (even in Dark Side of Dimension) who takes initiative, which I like and the way is done too, as after re-read and re-read, this shipping grown on me, it's still is...

 

What interrupted them y Mai being in danger because of this this clown face guy that Mai warns Yugi as being a "Player Killer" roaming around beating duelists and taking their star chips stars but for now no one knows for what exact purpose, it seems Yugi have realised probably associating with the puppeteer they fought hours ago after the duel against Ryota, that's Yugi's quick thinking for you however shocked that Mai is suddenly out of the tournament for someone who had 8 stars chips...which has to do with what she just warn them, it seems he forced her to duel against her and bet all her star chips...

Also to remind ourselves we have seen Yugi and Anzu (plus most of the gang) call her by name and surname or with "miss" Kujaku (in japanese honorific would be "Kujaku-san") for being older than them...

 

Yugi gets irritated and Dark Yugi gets to play the hero, I find interesting is Dark Yugi chooses to address her by Mai and not surname and no honorofics (there is two  people we have seen him call by surname is Ryou Bakura and Seto Kaiba, one could include Pegasus since in the english translation is treated as surname while in japanese version is really his name...not surname), later in the series is that he usually address others like this, which makes him someone not into formalities. 

I'm also kinda intrigued the way he phrases when telling her he will beat the face clown guy, in not worrying, he took a liking to her just like Anzu and Yugi since that dinning moment they understood her personality much better, he was interested in her as duelist too and he can relate to her in principles... 

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