Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 5 (Battle City Break Part 4)

Yes, there will be a lot of battle city breaks, because there is a lot to observe most of the time and we are still in volume duelist 14 (vol.21 in japanese print version).
The summary will be small and not much to comment, in this post and next one, Kaiba will have a bit more focus than Dark Yugi since Kaiba will be developing himself a bit due to his character arc.

Plot Summary:

We left off at Marik just arriving at the aquarium with Bakura seriously hurt.
Jounouchi and the others (Sugoroku and Anzu) leave the aquarium, they find a stranger (Marik) holding Bakura who is very injured in his left arm to the point he is very weak and about to faint, they get worried and all of a sudden they are ambushed by a gang of a young boy whose duel disk has been stolen by Yami Bakura (poor Bakura...), Marik shields Bakura to protect him and takes the punch instead (takes the chance to gain their trust), Jounouchi gets irritated and being good at fighting, "took care" of them easily.
Sugoroku takes Bakura to the hospital through a taxi cab, while Marik stays with Jounouchi and Anzu, he introduces himself as Namu, Marik starts to prepare to brainwash them...
Kaiba and Dark Yugi are beating a bunch of ghouls on the way as a tag team, ghouls warns Marik that they can't stop them anymore, so Marik calls a special tag team to go after Kaiba and Dark Yugi, self-proclaiming to himself that their decks serves to defeat god cards to buy time to brainwash Jounouchi and Anzu.
The special tag force starts going after them, one of them throws a device at Kaiba's duel disk as it blocks it's function and another one shows up who has the key to unlock the device and blackmailing them, Kaiba and Dark Yugi has no choice but to follow them...
They reach the top of a skyscraper, this special tag force introduce themselves as one being Mask of Darkness(MD) and the other the Mask of Light(ML), the tag duel is about to start...

Key Points:

 

Nice excuse, Marik...I feel so sorry for Ryou to be in this situation, I think it shows the difference between Yugi and Ryou as hosts, Yugi at the beginning of the series like Ryou at this moment, Ryou doesn't remember the times Yami Bakura was taking over, in Yugi's case he didn't remember until the time of Monster World arc, Yugi was able to be more gradually aware what was happening when Dark Yugi took over, it became stronger in the duel against Kaiba, Mai and Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, to a point Yugi could decide whether to watch what was going on or not when he didn't wish to interfere strongly (ex: Anzu and Dark Yugi "date" and other instance), the same is for Dark Yugi (ex: Dark Yugi didn't watch Yugi reading the newspaper about Egypt exhibition and Ishizu, he didn't knew about the newspaper article), but Dark Yugi could do it for much longer time than Yugi due to building the millenium puzzle for 8 years had an influence.

There is another difference between Yugi and Ryou, the strength of heart, specially right now, Yugi is much stronger than Ryou Bakura, Ryou stagnated the moment he let Yami Bakura take over and manipulate him in his development, on the other hand, Yugi just kept evolving and still is, the more aware he becomes,..


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This ambush was probably useful for Marik to gain their trust a bit more easily by taking a blow for Bakura, as much as I hate what he is doing, I'm not going to pretend it wasn't a smart move, because it was, however we see such villain tactic very often...*sigh*

I feel so sorry for Ryou, being used as scapegoat for Yami Bakura (the one who stole the duel disk), he is literally a victim during most of the series, I feel bit irritated by it as well.

I had always found very interesting Jounouchi being very good at fighting, it seems the only person he lost to in a fight was Ushio (it was 2 against 1, together with Honda), while this time he wins just him against 2, but I think after Ushio event (the very first chapter of the manga series), they have gotten stronger, I think they could beat Ushio now, in Death-T they have beaten Mokuba bodyguards.

 

The last two panels displays the moment he starts to make his move to brainwash them, now this plan is too sly and less direct and very manipulative, if we remember Marik tend to be more direct in the way he starts making a move, while Yami Bakura is the sly and cunning one, so I think who come up with the plan in how to make Marik approach Yugi's friends in a nonthreatening way is by gaining their trust and act friendly so they can lower their guard to make it easier to brainwash them was Yami Bakura, because Yami Bakura knows the ins and outs of yugi's friends of how it works better by being around them longer than Marik.

I find Dark Yugi and Kaiba in this panel really amusing, Kaiba body language "want to pick a fight with me?" while Dark Yugi is on guard but letting Kaiba leading the way but on guard, it's not often we see him with his hands in pockets (in the beginning of the series he did a lot, since Death-T, he did less times).

 

It's funny seeing Kaiba being so talkative and hyped and Dark Yugi so quiet and reserved, it shows some characteristic and contrasting traits between Kaiba and Dark Yugi, it displays Kaiba being somewhat ambivert (when he is focused on a project or have his own space to analyse, extrovert when it comes to his competitive trait), Dark Yugi is a bit hard to tell, but you can see he is not into small talk which indicates he is more of an introvert, it also shows his growth, Dark Yugi competitive side is toned down and calmer, being more focused on goal and objective in this current situation for assurance about his friends's safety first.

I think Kaiba can be a bit contradicting sometimes...when he is stating the reasons why he is helping Dark Yugi:

"Rare Card Hunters who step on the hearts of those who love collectible card games...", says the person who ripped a guy's card few chapters ago -.-", but the guy was cheating so I let it slide for a bit, I guess he refers to those who genuinely loves CCG/TCG like himself, I think he also refers the ghouls to a tone of scalpers (they're terrible, people who buy a rare product early and re-sell them at higher price), that's some consideration of others feelings...I think it has to do with his principles as a player and huge fan of TCG, specially Magic and Wizards.

Kaiba, Kaiba, it's not really good to lie...he will be found out in the quarter-finals it was "someone" who given to him to attract the ghouls, even Dark Yugi is a bit suspicious...
Kaiba, your power hunger and overconfidence is very funny, you may think friendship is cheesy, but your arrogance and overconfidence is cheesy as well.

It's nice to know in the manga version Mokuba is safe the whole time, while in the anime is the other way around -.-" (I will add to the list Manga VS Anime series post when I'm done with the manga series).

Little small detail on the first panel from the right, the height differences between Kaiba and Dark Yugi is very funny, Kaiba is insanely tall (taller than Jounouchi and Honda) while Dark Yugi is very short, if we don't count the spiky hair, he doesn't even reach Kaiba's shoulders...(pfft)

 

I'm with Dark Yugi on this one, Dark Yugi won't let it slide anymore with Kaiba insulting Jounouchi, he has seen his growth in Duelist Kingdom after Kaiba defeated him.
Kaiba and his currently ignorant snarky comments...seriously Kaiba, if he was in 2nd place in Duelist Kingdom, it's because he has evolved after you beaten him, for someone who is calling the other brick-head, isn't Kaiba the one being a brick-head for not realising this much? 

2nd place may not be first place, but being at runner-up position can't be gained by just dumb luck (even though I think luck is a very important element in a card game, there is still skill involved such as wits, improvisation, intuition, sense of adaptation to changes and a balanced deck).

 

Kaiba is insinuating he realised he enter the tournament illegally but probably has suspicions of how, Dark Yugi went quiet, because he knows it was through illegal means by the Ghouls to get Jounouchi's Red Eyes Black Dragon (even though Dark Yugi didn't agree Kaiba putting Jounouchi on level 2 duelist, you can see he doesn't agree with Kaiba's judgement on skills most of the time).

Sorry but I have to talk about the manner of speaking differences between Kaiba and Dark Yugi, Kaiba is more blunt (at least he is honest about what he thinks, but not always with how he feels unless it's anger), snarky and always taunting and much more formulated, while Dark Yugi is rough, bit theatrical and dignified manner like ancient times of a noble or royal, you can see the influence and vestiges of his forgotten memories but still lingeringly present in Dark Yugi.

 

Kaiba is so hot headed and prideful (to a fault), probably isn't difficult at all to irritate him, to be that pissed off putting a locking device on his duel disk, but shows he is very sensitive when it comes to his brother and his inventions and beloved Magic and Wizards card game, it's not difficult either to ignite his fighting spirit, a little provocation is enough.

I find their codenames very interesting, Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness as if to represent Light and Darkness are masks that exists in order to confuse and to hide the truth.

"Explosive Tag Team Match of Death", that's a pretty long name and title, it's pretty unnecessary to give a title to begin with to a match, trying too hard to make a cool name.


See ya Next post! (that "got it?" catchprase is so annoying)