Friday, April 30, 2021

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá One Shot: Transcend Game

Hellos!!

Just recently, I published the last part of Monster World, Transcend Game will be the last post with panels ensembles, it's the prologue to Dark Side of Dimensions.
Honestly speaking of the movie, I don't know if Dark Side of Dimensions will be divided in two parts or not, because it's always in movement, it's trickier, it will be rare using animated gifs since they're kinda heavy on posts to be readable, it will be mostly screenshots, a bulk focusing on the same scene, the duels will be "cut", parts of the duels is when is relevant to character development and to the story to be observed and my own personal thoughts (including scenes I find funny as also finer and amusing details where the characters are at).
It will take longer with Dark Side of Dimensions, possibly by mid-May.
Wish me luck!


Transcend Game || Prologue of Dark Side of Dimensions Movie


Plot Summary:

The one-shot two chapters starts with two paged coloured scene of Kaiba pursuing something...with his Blue-Eyes White Dragon...Pharaoh Atem...
Another colored page is Kaiba talking with his investors and members of the company discussing about a new product by the company...Kaiba passes by the displays of his accomplishments in technology for gaming, specifically Magic&Wizards - his prototype duel disk, the duel disk, and egg-shaped VR headset, he stops there looking as seeing the huge potential yet to be unlocked, then he is escorted with his employees researchers seeing the progress of the research of the egg-shaped VR headset, Kaiba passes by a inner building room bridge over a million of test subjects from all over the world playing Magic&Wizards in VR.
Inside the VR game of Magic&Wizards, the rules are slightly different, it relies on "higher consciousness" level (to me looks like more willpower measurement :p), they formed guilds based on themed decks and archetypes decks, they were challenging one and another...one guild was trying to "take over"...but someone which has a "superior consciousness" defeated them all since the game was getting out of control, Kaiba mentions those "rumoured superior consciousness" that has a level beyond a normal human being call themselves "Plana"/Prana, after an "avatar" player with "superior consciousness defeated the other test subjects, removes the VR set, indicated a little girl in traditional clothes from far away.
Kaiba continues researching on his own at his house in his own laboratory, from behind him as he turns around sensing a presence, the same little girl he saw removed the VR headset was in front of him, they have a discussion about Kaiba making incredible advancements in technology that helps people experience "higher consciousness" and this discussion leads to "netherworld" (the other common name as abode of the dead) and the little girl leaves, but Kaiba immediately go after an unknown consciousness that has been detected...he attempts to do it, the little girl tries to stop him but in vain...Kaiba stubbornly follows through and sees a glimpse of Pharaoh Atem but is then blocked by a "woman figure" in white light to Mokuba sensing danger of his big brother having higher risks of dying, then he turns off the lever to save his big brother, Kaiba comes back with heavy breaths but feels assured that he did saw Pharaoh Atem there.
It ends with the same little girl whose name is Sera reading a book, then a mysterious boy comes closer and comments Kaiba will be difficult to illuminate.



Key Points:

  

This is the beginning of One Shot, in chapter 1, the art style of Takahashi-sensei is gorgeous as always, seeing colored like this, he is an artist, he tried digital colouring, the shading here is quite interesting, it's almost leather, bit rubber with metal yet with a more dark and lighting tone...
Why Kaiba is saying "infinite darkness over there" while the  "there" is light...the universe?....he knows isn't the case but is just him forcing things to the way he wants...like always 😒.
The beginning of this chapter, it's funny that starts with the "ending" of chapter 2 of Transcend Game...but not without some curious inner monologue from his on the Panels Ensemble on the Right:

"The name of the pharaoh showing up in my eyes...Atem!!"

At first in this scene may look like he didn't knew about about his name...but he actually did know or else he wouldn't trouble himself for this anyway, in fact as we knowing later at the end of the post, the world knows now the "nameless pharaoh"'s name that was scratched but not in his tomb and chronology of dynasties documents...regarding his tomb, his name was it's depths of the bridge, no one could cross over to see the name to confirm, I guess today now the pharaoh Atem went to afterlife is accessible to scholars of pharaonic history or Egyptology.
The title of this chapter is very funny though:

"That man still even now, gazes at a single point-!!" 

It's a very accurate description tunnel-vision of Kaiba Seto, he is very narrow, closed minded person to a fault, that sometimes he makes unnecessary decisions, that can be more harmful than helpful...it's important to stay focus on your goal, but is also important to broaden your horizons (Kaiba is a snail when comes to that and personal growth) as much to know when to have fun and relax (he seems to be more of a workaholic...honestly).





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Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Thoughts and Observations of Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Series Masterpost Updated Ver.3

Update 27/04/2021: We almost finished now, only missing Transcend Game and Dark Side of Dimensions Movie (it will be below Memory World once the "masterpost" is "completed" :p).


-------------------------------------



Since there is many posts of my analysis over the course of 5 years and 5 months, I think is around hundreds... I'm starting the process of organization, re-arrangement, reformulation of most posts...

ponybooks.gif

As I re-upload images to the currently image host I'm using in the missing Battle City Arc posts, DDM, then will be Duelist Kingdom and lastly the early which more episodic arcs, as I do this, I will keep post links, including updated ones, but only in this post, you will be able to tell when is new updates...The orders of the links of the posts will start from Memory World Arc and upwards, the new ones will always be above the previous posted links.
You might wonder why I'm troubling myself with this, it's because before I go into analysis of Transcend Game One Shot and Dark Side of Dimensions movie, I want my analysis of the manga to be polished first since my manga analysis posts will be constantly mentioned, specially the movie (so yeah, the Transcend Game and the movie Dark Side of Dimension is literally the expansion of the manga).


Thoughts and Observations of Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Series Links

The Early 7 Volumes:


The Episodic Arcs Part 1
Shadi's Arc
Episodic Arcs Part 2:


(The next update is starting about the early volumes posts, the new extra post for this will be starting consisted of the episodic arcs only before Shadi's character debut arc)


Duelist Kingdom Arc:


↑The Updates are starting↑
(It's worth a re-read for the first post of Duelist Kingdom Arc)
(The next updates will be coming as I complete the "editor cut" and restructure them of Duelist Kingdom Posts then the Early Volumes
Battle City Arc:



Memory World Arc:

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá vol.4-7 Part 8 - Monster World Part 2/2

Sorry for taking so long, scanning vol.1 Duelist took longer than I expected, it will come out Duelist vol.1 for now, hope you don't mind, but next 3 volumes will be coming soon.

Update 23/04/2021:  This is an very old post, it's 8 years old...ha ha ha, this one has some proper key points, some of them I'll keep and of course renew it at the same time with panels ensembles that weren't here and remake some of them, it's mostly new.


Despite all of this, this is the last one about the 38 volumes, the last post of this "remake" of the analysis of the early 7 volumes, which means next up is Transcend Game One Shot (the Dark Side of Dimensions), this one gonna take less time since is two chapters and doesn't have the same number of pages as chapter 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's actually pretty small, the real challenge for me is the movie Dark Side of Dimensions, I have been making of the manga so far, it's a lot easier to refer the quotes, but the movie is everything always in movement...sometimes there will be animated gifs (I will try as little as I can) with screenshots. It will be quite tricky and challenging...




Plot Summary:

As it was left off, Dark Yugi just took over Yugi's body as the game continues and throws the dice making Honda's attack and to be successful at full force attack at Zorc's left hand...as Yami Bakura is assessing the situation about Dark Yugi, Yugi and Dark Yugi talk with each other for the first time, they both discuss in how to defeat Zorc and Yami Bakura...
They go through a lot of challenges, when Yami Bakura believes he has the upper hand, something else other than the gang did got in the way, Ryou Bakura was controlling his own left hand in parallel to Zork's lost left hand as a way to fight against Yami Bakura to attempt to help and protect his friends, for the most part Ryou is successful, which Yami Bakura struggles to keep control of things, since it's shown in his expressions sometimes where Yami Bakura is having problems in remaining calm and trying to block Ryou from interfering in his plans, Yami Bakura takes a drastic measure by impaling the left hand of Ryou's and mentions "Ryou Bakura" name, from this moment the gang realize the "Bakura" in front of them isn't Ryou Bakura, but someone else controlling his body.
After they figure it out, they decide to "brainwash" Zork's left hand to save Ryou's consciousness with Beast Tamer adventurer Yugi, they get the desired result and emerges the White Wizard Bakura who is Lv13 while the others are Lv1 or Lv3, which makes them gain a reliable ally.
Once again they face more challenges in defeating the final boss, the last throw of dice leaves the Ryou Bakura soul to break the dice of Yami Bakura's and sacrifice himself, so his friends would be victorious, they defeated Zork and Yami Bakura with the Millennium Ring fallen from Ryou's neck, however the gang is very saddened by Ryou's self-sacrifice and see it as unfair, the white wizard Bakura reminds them the miniature that represents Ryou soul and there is part of it says that he could use his healing magic to heal Ryou's consciousness and rest of the soul but the white wizard would restart over with his friends at the same level as them...Dark Yugi gives the final throw to get critical to heal Ryou, they felt that it would get critical and save Ryou Bakura with everyone else...
The next day, the gym teacher is back, Ryou Bakura joins the gang and shows them something, a diorama of him and his friends holding Dark Yugi with the dice as a reminder of their adventure. 


Key Points:

 

This part follows the panels where it left in the previous post in the same page, I find amusing that Dark Yugi just continued as if nothing happened but seeing Yami Bakura didn't expected him, he takes the chance with his guard down, gets to have Honda Magic Gunman to shot at Zork's left hand, this is important later because it influences the story and the game a lot, Zorc losing his left hand becomes an important loss later in this arc.




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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá: Vol.4-7 Part 7 - Monster World Part 1/2

 Hellos!!

Finally reaching in updating and expanding the Monster World Arc, technically is called Millennium Enemy, but the name is long and trickier...so I went with a more practical, smaller and quicker to write name.
This part is more Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura focus, with some highlights of character development on Yugi, Anzu and Honda, some that are easier to overlook (Honda's and Anzu's specifically, it's fair since previous post, Jounouchi had a lot of focus).
For reaching the Monster World Arc, it means this project is closer to end, thus meaning by the end of April I might publish Transcend Game One Shot and in mid-May will be Dark Side of Dimensions Movie.



Plot Summary:

A new transfer student coming to Yugi's class, he is named Ryou Bakura with shoulder length hair, who quickly gets girls attention for his pretty looks, Jounouchi is a little envious but also very welcoming to him that he invites him to the seat that is close to his and introduces to his friends who gets to know that Yugi and Ryou have the same hobbies as both being gamers and not in a competitive sense, but most girls of the class wants the new student's attention and touring the school for him, Ryou feels uncomfortable around the girls, the Gym teacher called Mr.Karita (I don't like him, so I'll refer as Karita or gym teacher), scolds Ryou for having too long hair for a boy and tells him to have his hair cut by next day (doing it out of spite for being popular with girls for Ryou having pretty looks), then Ryou asks the girls to let him go to the restroom, he wonders about what he felt when he saw Yugi's pendant and being similar to his own pendant, the millennium Ring and starts hearing a voice...
As Ryou is leaving school, Yugi and the gang approach him ask him if they could play the game Monster World adventure RPG with him, but Ryou is concerned due to strange "rumours" about him, the gang says that they don't give importance to the rumours and want to spend time with him as friends.
Ryou arrives home, writing a letter to his sister (apparently) then starts hearing the same voice, that voice responds to him, having talk and claims he is a soul residing within the millennium Ring and claims he is a thief who robs tombs, Bakura (but is easier to refer and distinguish him as Yami Bakura) and sharing some info about the millennium items, takes over Ryou's body forcefully to "punish" his gym teacher.
The next day, Ryou was absent, the gang concerned about him went to visit his apartment to see what is going on...and go play with him...they arrive, Ryou tries to warn them to not come but is interrupted by Yami Bakura taking over...Yami Bakura invites them over acting as a "Ryou"...Yugi notices the slight difference...
The game starts with like tabletop RPG, the gang create their own characters as adventurers and start playing with "Ryou" as Dark Master (Game Master or Dungeon Master, but main role in this one is to act as an antagonist to the adventurers), strange hints starts to come up, such the figures seem to talk on their own...then to "penalty game" on Anzu becoming a figure, the gang gets worried, this is not normal, to Jounouchi having the same "penalty game" to Honda, Yugi on the other hand asks Yami Bakura before comes his turn to making him become into his own figure with the intent in permitting Dark Yugi to take over and help them to rescue them, Yami Bakura fulfilling his request...to his surprise from the moment Yugi becomes his own figure, Dark Yugi is now taking over Yugi's body.


Key Points:

 

Ryou Bakura's debut appearance and becomes part of the gang, he was a transfer student, this is pretty common in mangas, who very quickly get attention from the girls and think he is very pretty, the fat girl one comments that he is "high level all right", as if they kind of already have one however this "other high level" in terms of looks, it's still growing and is very short 😏 (he is never been "pick on" or bullied by girls, in fact he seems to get along pretty well, Anzu thinks Yugi is very cute, which might be kinda common knowledge, even Jounouchi secretly thinks so, the digital pet episode implies this much plus Yugi knowing Miho's friends), since Ryou Bakura is taller than the girls and is considered pretty good looking, he gets popular with the girls (poor boy, I feel sorry for him in that aspect).





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Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá: Vol.4-7 Part 6 - Episodic Arcs Phase 7

 Hellos!

Another post, this one will be the last about episodic arcs, the last mini-arcs, I like these ones, great characters development on Yugi, Dark Yugi and Jounouchi are the special highlights...
The Panels Ensembles are all done except for the One Shot Prologue of Dark Side of Dimensions - Transcend Game, but the manga overall of the 38 volumes is done now, now is smooth sailing for awhile on the weekends.



Plot Summary:


Chapter 46-47 || The Evil Dragon Cards

At the Kame Game Store present Jounouchi, Anzu and Yugi with his grandfather, Sugoroku provides some educational information about the history of games that dates back since ancient civilizations, the highlight being Ancient Egypt.
A boy enters the store who is at the same class as Yugi and Co., his name is Imori, he brought with him an artifact from Ancient China about a game with a seal, Sugoroku warns Imori as being dangerous and to never break the seal while explaining why.

A few days later, still around the summer, the students have P.E. in the swimming pool, Imori just watches his classmates, then "swimming pool time" is over, Jounouchi and Yugi go to their lockers to change, however Yugi finds his millennium puzzle missing and a message left for him from the "thief" to go meet him and the mentioned meeting place...in the classroom "C" (theirs is "B"), Yugi in a rush went to the meeting place to find Imori waiting for him wearing the millennium puzzle, Imori forces Yugi to challenge him to a game from the game artifact of "Evil Dragons Cards"...
The game consists of decks of cards of Dragons with the 5 elements in Feng Shui in different levels, whoever lost the game, loses the soul and gets inside the "game artifact" jar to be fed to the evil dragons, Imori clearly studied and learned in books, while with Yugi sudden and no time for preparation, Yugi lost the game and just in time, he touches the millennium puzzle Imori was wearing to help Dark Yugi to take over and have more chances to win against Imori.
Dark Yugi took over and challenges Imori to a rematch, Dark Yugi plays better (since he watched the previous match), he ends up winning against Imori who loses the soul, while Dark Yugi recovers Yugi soul back to Yugi's body, Dark Yugi put the seal back to the artifact thinking it should stay at a safe place and hidden.


Chapter 48-49 || Jounouchi! Soul Battle!

Yugi and Jounouchi are showing "Super Yo-Yos", which have new mechanical design to make it easier to use (supposedly), Jounouchi shows an old trick with a slight different name, while his classmates are laughing, Jounouchi getting irritated and uses irresponsibly and dangerously that could hurt others, a classmate of his called Nezumi calls Jounouchi out and expresses how much he hates yo-yos, according to him, some gang cornered him with Yo-yos close to his face to steal from him, Jounouchi offers to help the boy against this gang, Yugi was asked to come along by Nezumi, Honda offered himself but Jounouchi feels confident that won't be necessary...
Nezumi guides Jounouchi and Yugi to an abandoned warehouse, Yugi and Jounouchi immediately recognizes as the "hideout" of Hirutani to realizing it was a trap planned by Hirutani with Nezumi as the "bait", he orders his minions to grab Yugi and "hang" him through the millennium puzzle he is wearing using the lifting hook of the abandoned warehouse, for Hirutani blackmail Jounouchi to join his gang (and something else), Jounouchi refuses and goes to rescue Yugi, with some many yo-yos at them, Jounouchi uses his body to shield Yugi then to ask borrowing Yugi's millennium puzzle as centrifugal force to stop the yo-yos and hang the owners of the yo-yos to the lifting hook, Jounouchi gives back Yugis puzzle and Dark Yugi takes over by splitting it up, Dark Yugi takes care of the minions and Jounouchi VS Hirutani.
Dark Yugi creates a trap of his own around the annex roof of the warehouse, Jounouchi and Hirutani fight in another annex roof...both win their battles and come leaving and asking where Nezumi is...


Key Points:

**Chapter 46-47 || The Evil Dragons Cards**




Starting to quote Sugoroku explanation and the interaction:

Sugoroku: "I'm going to show you something different today! This is an Ancient Egypt game, two players race their pieces around the board shaped like a frog."

Jounouchi: "Ancient Egypt, huh....that sounds familiar...So they even had games way back then..."

Sugoroku: "The history of games goes back 5000 years!"

It's very fascinating when we get these trivia facts about games in this series, too bad later, it started to disappear from the moment the card game took over, it was something very rare.
It's not surprising, look at Go board game it was around 4000 years ago in Ancient China, well they have to find a way to kill time when they had free time, in Ancient Egypt was commonly used as it was mentioned in Vol.1 Chapter 2 "Lying Eyes" by Dark Yugi to Mr.Director saying that they usually invented games to stake their fate, sometimes to even decide the criminal's fate like we saw with Shadi to the former director of Domino Museum, Mr.Kanekura and grave robbers.
And Jounouchi thinking in how it sounds familiar, I guess he subconsciously remembering the Millennium Puzzle.



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Friday, April 2, 2021

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá: Vol.4-7 Part 5 - Episodic Arcs Phase 6

 Hellos!!

I'm getting so much faster, not without going full force sometimes, of course xDD.
I like being on a roll and there is times when I rest, I don't write in full-time, only when I can (I'm still unemployed, it's chores that can keep you busy).

So this post will have Monster Fight mini-arc then the amusement park chapter, not really looking forward to that one for sure, however I will explain what I mean why Anzu besides being attracted and crushing on Dark Yugi mixed with her idealisation of "grown up Yugi", but the main focus is the "idealisation", it's going to be awkward road for quite awhile for her character development from here on out...



Plot Summary:


Chapter 43-44 || Monster Fight!!

Yugi and his grandfather Mutou was introducing to Jounouchi a new "game toy" called "Monster Fighter", using with two monsters fighting one another through mechanical and technological arena that allows you to control the monster, this arena is in half "disc" with the monster, when joining to two monsters, makes a complete arena in form of a disc, so Yugi and Jounouchi show to their classmates at school during recess, the students become interested and buy them, quickly becomes popular at their school, because it became a hit, someone called Koji Nagumo calls Yugi...there is rumours about him that he steals the "monsters" from his opponents...Nagumo challenges Yugi to a "Monster Fight", Yugi was close to win until Nagumo cheated by punching Yugi, almost knocked him out, Nagumo steals Yugi's monster...Yugi went to Jounouchi and asked him to borrow his...Nagumo is "reselling" the monsters from "Monster Fighter" he had stolen, Dark Yugi already took over and challenges him to a Monster Fight...it becomes a shadow game...it's similar, the wielder of the monsters take the damage instead of the monster, but because Nagumo continues cheating...Dark Yugi gets mad and serious that he made the shadow game where Nagumo would be unable to cheat the game, through the illusions of the monsters he stolen, including his own grabbing his legs, the monster Nagumo was using became to have his face....Nagumo loses the game and receiving the penalty game as Dark Yugi leaves taking back Yugi's monster.

Chapter 45 || 13 O'clock Terror!

It starts Anzu and Yugi walking together to an amusement park, but Yugi is distracted reading a newspaper about a bomber who challenges the police through using a playing card deck...(of course, it relates to games), Anzu getting a little irritated Yugi getting easily distracted with games after her effort to make time for only the two of them going together to hang out ("date").
They reach the theme park, going through the entrance, Yugi is mistaken by the receptionist for a child and Yugi refutes that's not the case (pfft, it gets funnier once we get to the scene, honestly is the best scene of this chapter xDD), during all this time is Anzu who is crushing on Dark Yugi to make him appear using different methods to a more drastic and desperate method...putting herself close to the danger, as there was a warning of the Bomber Playing Card is around...Anzu went to the ferris wheel, Yugi trying to find her and noticed where she was, the policeman chief was asking for help if there was a gamer to help them fight the bomber, Dark Yugi takes over and offers to help, the game between Dark Yugi and the bomber starts, to quickly realise there is bombs in the cartwheels of the ferris wheel except one to Anzu's shock to become worried about her safety...Dark Yugi was able to pull it off by reaching the 4 "kings cards", saved Anzu and figure it out where the bomber was and told the police, then Anzu crosses his arm with hers to continue their "date".


Key Points:


**Chapter 43-44 || Monster Fight!!**

  

To explain in more simple manner, it's similar to the game "Rock'Em Sock Em Robots" Boxing Game Toy but a portable version like this with a "collectible" feel to it since there is a 100 kinds of these monsters...interestingly enough there is another reference to these kinds of boxing games toys in a very famous video game franchise, in Kingdom Hearts 3 in Toy Box World. It's pretty cool when Takahashi-sensei makes some references and inspirations on real games toy in real life like the Pop Up Pirate in chapter 1 and Carnival Games (School Festival) chapter, Toys with Sound Sensor (Sound Pierrot), I always find interesting, it's a shame that the series became more revolved around card games than other different kinds of games.



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