Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 4 (Jounouchi VS Ryota)

Before getting to the summary, I'd like first for you to know where we are in volumes and it's direction, since the next duel starts at the end of one of the volumes and continues in the next, we are at the end of Volume Duelist 13 to 14 (volume 20 to 21 in Japanese volume), this will happen quite often in the future...
I'll warn you when we're going to the next volume.

Plot Summary:

We left off with Jounouchi challenging Ryota and him accepting it and the encounter between Yami Bakura and Marik.
First the duel, both players bet two puzzle cards and rare cards, Jounouchi already starts making mistakes because he isn't properly focused for trying too hard to look cool (getting carried away with his recent victories) and Ryota is dominating the duel, once Jounouchi starts being more attentive in the duel, it shows these two players/duelists are on equal ground, so there is a lot of back and forth and what marks the difference between them was their experience, Ryota being a more experienced player than Jounouchi, at the end of the duel, Ryota had the option to prolong the match but he chose to stand with his favourite card to the end, with this, the duel is finished with Jounouchi's victory, now he is qualified to the finals.

The meeting between Yami Bakura and Marik, due to the fact they're both millenium items wielders and the subject Yami Bakura wants to talk about is the millenium items, so they have a private conversation about it, it starts studying each other and gather Intel through dialogue, so we get reveals of who knows more about the millenium items, Marik says his objective is to kill Yugi (Dark Yugi and the original Yugi) and offers a proposal whether Yami Bakura is to join him or be killed (but that would result in a millenium duel), Yami Bakura joins Marik but with the main objective to gather more info and Yami Bakura "borrows" his host to Marik...

Key Points:

 

It seems not only are they betting two puzzle cards as also two rare cards, Jounouchi bets on the rare cards he gained in the tournament, he feels hyped for having an audience and we know how he gets in these kind of situations...

I find interesting, Jounouchi became well known between duelists\Magic and Wizards fan community, those more experienced get a little curious about Jounouchi, not bad for Jounouchi as he gained some reputation thanks to Duelist Kingdom ;).

 

Here we are presented Jounouchi's flaws when he gets carried away who tends to try to act cool, but he learns a very important lesson with this duel, it helps him shaping up to not only become a better and experienced player and starts to build his own principles as a player and as a duelist and will affect him as person.


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In these panels, we get to know how Marik gain access to mind control someone through a person touching the millenium rod, as the last panel points out, he is planning to mind control Jounouchi... as one would suspect...

 

Marik was surprised Yami Bakura had a millenium item, so he wants to study him about how much he knows about the millenium items, because the millenium items are magical artifacts and chose it's wielders, Marik prefers to have a discussion about the subject in private to not draw too much attention...

Story development starts taking it's turn with these two villains, Yami Bakura reveals his main objective as also making a mention of the tablet of the pharaoh's memories that we already knew, Marik was surprised he knew about the tablet being a secret of the tomb guardians and reveals to Yami Bakura it takes more than the millenium items and implies Yami Bakura doesn't know all the conditions to open the door of darkness, Yami Bakura was shocked by this small piece of info, indicating to Yami Bakura that Marik knows all the conditions...but how he knows it...

In the scarred Marik's back we have seen before, it holds the missing conditions besides the millenium items, in other words, the god cards, however there was only one person he revealed all the conditions necessary and it was Yugi, the host and container of the pharaoh soul...(in this post ).

 

I find their exchange of dialogues quite interesting, we the readers know Yami Bakura is holding something back in terms of info, there are parts of it Marik doesn't know such as the evil spirit in the millenium Ring is connected to the pharaoh and his past and memories, it seems only Yami Bakura knows about it, which is why he is a bit protective of Yugi and holding back a little, he needs the info about the rest of the conditions but also needs Yugi alive to accomplish part of his duty as the pharaoh soul host to get the back his memories and for himself the power of darkness....

 

Yami Bakura is very hesitant, because he needs Yugi alive,the pharaoh spirit and the puzzle intact plus the info of the rest of the conditions to get the power of darkness, he needs both, so he is in a tough situation, he has to be very cunning to get both for his own purposes, Yami Bakura being the main villain in a very unusual way, when he was first introduced, he was quite bold and manipulative at the same time, after the events of Monster World Arc, he's been more careful, acting more in the shadows, more subtle...
Marik is very overconfident, but he isn't really sharp...

 

I find intriguing Yami Bakura didn't said yes or no he would join forces with him, it sounds he will give help so it can fulfil his own goal in the future...

 

I find impressive in Yami Bakura being a villain knows Yugi's bonds with his friends has it's weakness presented by the previous section of panels as is aware of it's strengths, it's not common villains be aware and wary of it, because most villains we see says always is for weaklings or weak or a weakness, blah blah, but here Yami Bakura admits it has it's strengths.
When Yami Bakura reveals he has a convenient hiding place being his host, Ryou Bakura, Marik's reaction to this reveal is intriguing, you can tell he was surprised but also understanding why he was interested in collecting the millenium items and something else (being an evil spirit residing in the millenium ring which explains how he knew of the secret of tomb guardians).
The reason I don't find Marik really sharp is because he seemed to not have noticed at first when Yami Bakura was taking over one of Yugi's friends he was watching through the Millenium Rod, when Marik understood the host part he was intrigued and interested while realising Yami Bakura case regarding his "host"...he should have realised and noticed sooner the differences and similarities ... (because all the others always noticed with Dark Yugi and Yugi, started to notice with Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura).

 

This scene is a bit violent but I think is very important and very telling of how Yami Bakura sees his host, the relationship between host and spirit (Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura) is drastically different from the one between Dark Yugi and Yugi, right here is disregard and quite vicious to his host well being as long it aids him to accomplish his goals and also sees as his own property and tool for "lending" his host to Marik, there is another thing it implies...Ryou Bakura is a bit weak willed and weak hearted, but Yami Bakura chosen him to be his permanent host as Yami Bakura stated the former section of panels, because he is the most convenient host for him being close to the millenium puzzle wielder and the pharaoh spirit, if we remember when he was introduced, the moment Yami Bakura knew Yugi had the millenium puzzle, he immediately chosen Ryou Bakura as his permanent host, I think it points out the millenium items choses it's wielders by who is the most suitable to fulfil the main purpose of the millenium items.
Despite being quite different from Yugi and Dark Yugi, it still holds some similarities which will be revealed in future posts.

 

The important aspects of the story from the encounter between Yami Bakura and Marik are finished in this post, time for a change of scenery and focus on Jounouchi's character arc, on the chosen section of panels above, as we know Jounouchi is distracted and getting carried away with his recent victories and the audience, so Jounouchi isn't focused on the duel and his opponent, he is making similar mistake as Yami Yugi did against Mai in Duelist Kingdom arc, the difference is Yami Yugi was distracted by Pegasus's pressure and arrogance when it came to his skills and also putting the cart before the horse..., so Ryota response is similar to Mai when she dueled against Yami Yugi, rightfully calling him out on feeling disappointed at Jounouchi and not taking their duel seriously and explains how he applies his principles from fishing into the duel as well, by giving everything you got in a fight.

It's one of the rare times I actually disagree with Anzu, I don't think he was being serious and Ryota is quite right, when you're truly serious, you're focused, Jounouchi wasn't serious or focused for the reasons stated above.

After Ryota call him out on not being serious, Jounouchi realized his mistake and starting to think is too late but then Ryota gives an inspirational speech about he wants to use the prize money to have a boat for his battle with the sea, from this speech made Jounouchi remember about his promise with Dark Yugi, from here on out Jounouchi is back on track.

 

Now Jounouchi has "awoken" from "la-la land", it has also awoken his fighting spirit and his "duelist pride" (*rolls eyes* you know what I feel and think about pride), let's say is from here when the duel truly starts...

Regarding the fighting spirit in this duel, in my view, I disagree with Ryota about who has more fighting spirit because at the end of the duel it reveals who has it more...

He is starting to get properly focused, I think he heard what the kid was saying about the aquarium having 2 killer whales instead of one, in the last panel he is probably thinking about what the kid just said and setting up hints to the readers that there was indeed a monster card hiding somewhere and where it might be...

 

This moment we are seeing Jounouchi thinking through and also seeing him growing as a player/duelist, same for his smarts, though he is more of a street smart person due to his life experiences since childhood, plus thanks for starting to play against different kinds of players, so his wits gets sharper as well...

What I like about the end of this duel, it shows there is victories that you might not feel happy with it's outcomes even if you won fair and square, it can be for a lots of reasons, in this case is because Jounouchi noticed Ryota held back a little of his full strength...

Jounouchi's principles and his own code of honour is starting to give shape, I can understand where it comes from,  he is mostly right, specially when his opponent was wanting him to fight seriously, of course, one would feel a bit hurt, even though I'm not a competitive person but even I would feel a bit hurt and irritated...

 

What Ryota is saying here of why he didn't prolong the match, I have a bit of a problem, I can see where would come from wanting to end the duel with your favourite card, but even so I don't really agree even if it reminds you of someone you care about, for many reasons, I don't like favouritism or special treatment or play favourites, if makes you remember someone you care about...well I still disagree, call me heartless or cold-hearted, but you will be putting that much value of someone you care so much in a card, the card itself loses it's own value for being substituted with other value, I might make it more confusing, it's pretty much treating a card as substitute of someone you deeply care about who might be dead or alive...

 

The other good thing about this duel, even though is more about Jounouchi character arc, but it gives some character development to his opponent, specially when is a character who doesn't appear often, because we readers are familiar with him and we know unlike some duelists we have seen so far, he plays quite fair and square and is a very honourable person and it's an interesting character development.
Hey, Ryota, you build your own principles...(I'm referring of him claiming to be a duelist).
What Jounouchi says, I agree mostly, I wouldn't say just "duelists", every single individual is fighting for something in their hearts or per say most people, like Jounouchi said each one of us has something special (100% agreed), but I wouldn't do the same thing for the reasons stated above.

 

If you notice, Ryota is doing simiilar as Jounouchi did to Dark Yugi, holding his Red Eyes Black Dragon until he becomes a skilled duelist worthy of this card.

 It's also cool Ryota realized the flaw in his skills with this duel, relying too much on his favourite card, yes, playing favourites is a weakness as well, you don't give others and yourself chance to shine or build a connection and let it release the potential they have and you have, you may lose connection with whom you once had, so it's important to be emotionally independent and independent yourself.

In other words (be ready for some cheesiness), as long as he remembers and cares for his father, the connection and bond Ryota shares with his father will always be present, after all everything Ryota knows about fishing was taught by and time spent with his dad.

 

Such good sportmanship...
Now it seems there has been a change of plans with his "new ally" borrowing his host...8I wonder who come come up with the plan...