Thursday, January 19, 2017

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 8 (B!Jounouchi VS Yugi)

you will notice a slight change in some titles, the number more specifically, including the number of volumes I will be covering, which means I will be covering 7 volumes, and the finals will be 5 volumes, the last volumes duelist.
Now will be making the transition from Volume Duelist 15-16 (in japanese print version is volume 22-23).
Before getting to the summary, you maybe wondering about why I didn't include Dark Yugi in the title when he plays in the beginning and very little, since is mostly Yugi who is dueling, I thought it would be kinda pointlessly long title and Yugi is the main focus and Jounouchi, also the summary will be long,there is a bit of focus on the duel itself since they are very relevant and the post itself will be very long, as this duel is extremely important.
To be able to distinguish between the real Jounouchi and brainwashed Jounouchi, when is brainwashed I'm refering to as b!jounouchi and when is the real one is just his name.

Plot Summary:

The duel starts between b!jounouchi and Dark Yugi, Dark Yugi begins with defensive moves, trying to think of a way to how to free Jounouchi from Marik and get them both to survive from this death match, b!Jounouchi is attacking with banned cards that the ghouls has created and edited Jounouchi's deck being full of them, Dark Yugi tries to talk through, but affects very little and Kaiba is worried about their lives but is in a tight spot as well with Mokuba's life in danger.
Dark Yugi feeling very hurt, he starts listening to Yugi's voice, Yugi and Dark Yugi comments about the situation, Yugi suggests to duel against b!jounouchi, Dark Yugi at first is hesitant in letting him play but tells him if Yugi's life is in danger he will be taking over and they do Mind Shuffle.
As Yugi starts taking over, surprises b!jounouchi and Kaiba, he makes lots of very smart and bold but very risky moves driven by his faith in Jounouchi and their friendship to shake up b!jounouchi to weaken Marik's control and it's effective.
The duel gets more dangerous and Dark Yugi gets worried for Yugi's safety, he tells he will be taking over, Yugi refuses as response and explains his reasons and asks to just watch, removes his millenium puzzle to stop Dark Yugi from taking over.
The scene changes while the duel is happening, in Domino Station, Honda, Ryuji and Shizuka just arrived to where Battle City is happening, they meet Mai and she notices Jounouchi's sister and purposes to Shizuka that she will take her to her brother, so they have a ride on Mai's car to go to the Domino Pier.
The scene changes back to the duel, Marik starts making mistakes that affect strongly and shake up even more b!jounouchi  and weaken his control over Jounouchi, Yugi asks b!jounouchi to take care of the millenium puzzle for him, Yugi puts his millenium puzzle on b!jounouchi and it shake up b!jounouchi again when was about to throw a piece of the millenium puzzle, as the duel goes on, there is some back and forth, as Yugi tries to remind b!jounouchi of events which helps the brainwash gradually wear off.
The back and forth of the duel while is still on, Kaiba gets free from the ghouls and saving Mokuba, but even so is not enough, so Kaiba and Mokuba can only watch the duel.
Marik is having a difficult time to control b!jounouchi, finally Yugi provokes Marik to attack him and he fell for it, Yugi uses his last card to capture Marik's attack putting in a position that he can attack his opponent or himself and with this Jounouchi is fully back and to buy time to say his final words to his friend, Yugi makes himself drop his life points to 0 in effort to save Jounouchi and few seconds later Jounouchi does the same to save Yugi, so Yugi was saved by Jounouchi and Jounouchi by Kaiba, then Jounouchi puts the millenium puzzle on Yugi.

(sorry for being a bit long but it was much longer than this, that's how hugely important this duel is).

Key Points:

image.png 
image.png

Reading what Dark Yugi is saying to b!jounouchi, there are words that doesn't affect him and others that it does, when he says "Don't you feel pain...in your duelist heart?", you see by his expression he is very sad seeing Jounouchi being controlled by Marik and b!jounouchi reaction to it as if mocking it, he feels more hurt so what he says makes it more clearer what he is feeling (it's actually kinda moving):

"The pain in my body...it's not from being burned by your cards...it's the pain of my sadness seeing you lose your heart as duelist!"

This quote, you can actually feel a little bit the pain of Dark Yugi, I don't fully agree when it says duelist heart, because what about the outside of it? so I interpret as the piece of his heart is a duelist, because there is more that defines Jounouchi outside of dueling, and you see these words actually has a small effect on b!jounouchi, since the brainwash of Jounouchi is to focus and prepared only for Dark Yugi, he will have less effect even if their bond is very strong, so it requires the right person to free Jounouchi...

(On a additional note, the art in this duel is quite beautiful, in this section, specially Dark Yugi, you can see Kazuki Takahashi put a lot of effort on this duel)

image.png

You can see in these 3 panels, Yugi still has some difficulties to reach Dark Yugi and Dark Yugi to hear Yugi during duels due to his ego and pride that blocks it, we have to remember even though he is a bit more humble now, it doesn't change his ego is still big, specially his "duelist ego and pride" because outside of duels, Yugi has no difficulty to reach Dark Yugi, this time around Yugi to reach him didn't took as long when it was against Kaiba and Pegasus, you see there is some progress in their connection between spirit and host.


If you want to continue reading this post click "read more" below:


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 7 (Battle City Break Part 5)

We're getting closer to one of the most important duels in the series...but let's focus on the little break first before the duel.
We are still in volume Duelist 15 (volume 22 in japanese print version).

Plot Summary:

In the previous post summary, when Kaiba and Dark Yugi just won the tag-match against the Masked Ghouls, but as soon as the duel ended, Marik mind controlled Mask of Light and started talking to them through him, Kaiba was surprised as he noticed the voice was different and the body language was different and weird.
Dark Yugi informs Kaiba that it's Marik talking through Mask of Light, Leader of the Ghouls and owns the third god card.
Marik tells Dark Yugi that everything is ready for him to try to save his friends or not and to Kaiba claims Ra, the Sun Dragon is a god card more powerful than Obelisk...and leaves Mask of Light body, Kaiba and Dark Yugi discuss about this situation, as Mokuba appears in a helicopter and affirming that Kaiba's company has found Jonouchi and came to pick them up and take them to where Jounouchi is, their conversation prolongs in the helicopter as Kaiba tries to gather more info about Marik.
When they arrive at the location where Jounouchi is, Dark Yugi immediately recognises the place, the pier from when they went to Duelist Kingdom, once Dark Yugi reaches the ground, he sees Jounouchi but he looks different being already brainwashed/mindcontrolled, Dark Yugi isn't shocked but panicked and later is revealed to Dark Yugi that is not just Jounouchi who's been brainwashed, Anzu as well which comes as a big shock to him and feeling more fearful for his friends, Marik blackmails with Anzu's life for Dark Yugi to duel against brainwahsed Jounouchi (b!jounouchi) in a life and death match.
The duel is about to start...

Key Points:

image.png

I agree and disagree with Kaiba here, Kaiba acknowledges teamwork can be important but only when is truly necessary, let's say he will only use it as a last resort and still goes by his loner principles, and also you can only trust yourself and other people get in the way, to me depends, if it's you and the society, yes, it's best trusting yourself only, but if it's you and the people you care about and care for you back, I don't really see a problem, as  I think is important to be independent because you're still an individual, also Kaiba believes he is alone, when he really isn't, he has Mokuba and the current Kaiba Corp employees seem very loyal to him.

image.png image.png

Their conversation gets more interesting from here, Dark Yugi being in a hurry and rightfully so to find his friends as Kaiba presents the place where it will hold the finals to Dark Yugi and Kaiba, Dark Yugi is reminding Kaiba that he should already understand why Dark Yugi is in such hurry, Kaiba knows since he fought to save Mokuba and his company and thinks about what he just said, but Kaiba being naturally inquisitive, he still has some questions about the subject...


If you want to continue reading click "read more" below: