Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.33 Part 1/3 (The Quest for the Pharaoh Lost Name)

Now we're entering the 2nd volume part 1 of Memory World, wow,.
For awhile volume 2 and 3 are divided in 3 parts, so it might come a little faster the posts, if my current circumstances allow it...(I just moved recently, not the most basic ideal place of living but I'm hanging there, I don't have much of a choice anyway...).


Plot Summary:

As Dark Yugi is coming back to his throne holding his father's corpse inside his own thoughts, the fight between the priests and thief Bakura continues, they struggle with their spirits Ka against the powerful thief Bakura's evil ka, the priest is almost about to lose the fight when Dark Yugi intervenes to protect the priests and he summons one of his three gods, the Obelisk, they have an important conversation about ideals, morality and truth, then comes the clash between Diabond and Obelisk, the pharaoh and Obelisk practically wins the fight by taking a lot of damage from thief Bakura's Ba, but has enough to run away...

Inside the Millenium Puzzle, the gang struggles to find the right door and they ask Bobasa what is their goal in going into the Memory World, Bobasa reveals the gang mission is to find Dark Yugi's lost name and Yami Bakura's shadow spy listening to their conversation...

Dark Yugi is in the balcony of the palace watching over his country at night, the vizier Siamun and priest Mahado and other private conversation between priest Seto and Priest Akhenaden, they start talking about the recent events, then Dark Yugi looks up to the night sky thinking about his friends and looking at the cartouche as he starts to consider about his lost name.


Key Points:

 

The panels on the left...I really wonder how Takahashi-sensei keeps those details of Dark Yugi's accessories from his pharaoh outfit and does it beautifully...the expressions as well...

On the subject of the scene, as he walks back to the throne to take his father's corpse, he is with an expression of being lost in thoughts, he is wondering about what thief Bakura said about being his father who made them, as you can remember Dark Yugi does have a tendency to doubt a bit easily...but...

 

I love this scene, it shows his character development like this instance of his long and full acknowledgement about the evil within the millenium items and admits being undeniable since Pegasus mentioned the "evil intelligence" inside the millenium items, however it bugs me one thing in what he is thinking, but only a little:

"When I think of everyone who's used the millenium items...Pegasus...Marik...Bakura...There must be an evil power hidden in them...there's no getting around it..."

The line when  he says "everyone" and then refers to his enemies who wielded and wields millenium items, you would think he is excluding himself, Shadi and Ishizu, but the added "there is no getting around it", he is including himself, Shadi and Ishizu, because himself did use violent to slightly violent shadow games, specially in a psychological way, Shadi was quite violent with them, but the most extreme were the three that Dark Yugi mentioned, even Ishizu for him doesn't fully get away with it because she was slightly tempted by the ability of predicting the future from the Millenium Tauk in a attempt to win against Kaiba, she cheated a little, one way or another those who wielded the millenium item were seduced by the darkness within them somehow, even a little (like Ishizu), the moment Pegasus spoke of the "evil intelligence" within them, Dark Yugi stopped using his millenium puzzle to do penalty games and shadow games.

"Father...I want to know the truth...Do you really make them? And if so, why?"

Besides the readers at this point for the first time would suspect what most thief Bakura said is the truth as I mentioned in the previous post , Dark Yugi suspects the same, but is willing to give the benefit of doubt to his father, because he must have wondered did his father, his predecessor personally created them or asked the royal scholars to do without knowing the evil within and being made of black magic? he must have considered possibilities, but since there is yet evidence to say otherwise, because there is the existence of the millenium items to prove that he might have made them or ordered to, even though his time of ruling proven he was a good leader which contradicts for someone creating or ordered to create forbidden magical artefacts with black magic as wondering did his father knew beforehand? so he feels conflicted and can only give the benefit of doubt and wants to know the truth and why, so that then he can make a decision about it...


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.32 Part 4/4 (Bakura, The King of Thieves)

The previous post, I wrote faster than I thought, I'm relieved but this one is longer because the amount of panels ensembles is higher than the previous...


Plot Summary:

The mentioned evil shadow approaching the palace arrives and reaches the throne room where is the six priests, vizier and the pharaoh, revealing he had robbed everything from the former king's tomb (which explains why the previous grave robber they judged didn't find anything inside the tomb he was trying rob...), claiming he is Bakura, the king of thieves and came to get the millenium items from the priests and the pharaoh...

In the Museum, Bobasa with the intention to be cautious, he uses the millenium scale to sense any deception and evil from each member of the the gang, if the scale tilts when checking someone, the person won't be permitted to come along, most of the gang pass, the only one who doesn't is Ryou Bakura for obvious reasons..., Ryou starts leaving the museum, sad he can't come along to help...Bobasa prepares them to enter Yugi's soul by forming a circle and joining hands then use the millenium key.

Inside the World of Memory, the priests starts their judgment and measuring Bakura's evil, reveals to be a powerful evil ka, as the priests struggle fighting Thief Bakura, the vizier Siamun explains more about other millenium items abilities to Dark Yugi, there comes a discussion between the thief and Dark Yugi about the millenium items, thief Bakura presents the mummy of the former pharaoh, pharaoh Akhenamkhanem as Dark Yugi deeply realises being the dead corpse of his own father, few memories comes back to Dark Yugi from when his father was alive and being by his side when he was younger...as Dark Yugi walks through the battle between the priests and the thief, Dark Yugi shoves thief Bakura and picks up his father's corpse while coming back to his throne to put the corpse in a safer place from the battle and tells thief Bakura he will be coming to defeat him...


Key Points:

 

Here is the thief, who stole everything from the former king's tomb, from his behaviour as a thief would be considered a bit strange, when a thief rob a tomb, usually goes to hiding...also another unusual something he robbed, the former king's mummified corpse, normally you would think it would be just gold, silver, valuable metallic artefacts only, in other words, he only did this to come to the throne room to challenge the royal court and the pharaoh for the millenium items...I have to say, I do find quite rude to steal someone's corpse and dragging on the way to the throne room...

Siamun, why so shocked...? if the previous grave robber stated when he reached the tomb that where was nothing there, it would mean someone defiled the tomb before him, here is the person himself, Siamun was a bit overconfident about the design, but since was a prototype for Dark Yugi's tomb, then it isn't that surprising, if the previous grave robber did reached...then this one, Thief Bakura who seems to be a specialised thief to find it easy...

We can confirm in this scene, he was challenging them, for a thief to them and challenge the priests, it can be easily assume he is quite bold and confident by not only in skills but also can take on them...so confident that he self-proclaim himself as king of thieves, but he actually brings up interesting points later in discussions with the pharaoh and the priests.


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.32 Part 3/4 (The Prelude of the World of Memory)

It took so long to write the previous post, 3 weeks to be more precise, which is impressive, with 47 panels ensembles, it kinda is to be expected, also this story arc is heavy plot focused, there is only two duels and it happens in the last two volumes, so yes, it will be a long journey.


Plot Summary:

The moment Dark Yugi present the god cards to the stone slab, a huge light from the symbol of the millenium puzzle engraved in the stone slab shines brightly, as this happens, Dark Yugi as if pushed by an invisible rope to be transported to another dimension, the world of memory...
Yugi felt Dark Yugi being pushed to somewhere else and can't sense his presence inside the millenium puzzle, everyone is quite shocked except Bobasa...

Inside the World of Memory, Dark Yugi successfully enters but is immediately turn asleep in a throne surrounded by six people, himself and these people dressed in tunic and robe...a short old man with his mouth covered calls to Dark Yugi as pharaoh, as he wakes up, Dark Yugi is shocked and questions where he is, the short old man who calls him pharaoh shocked at seeing him asleep in the throne, Dark Yugi confuses the short old man with Yugi's grandfather and calls him granpa, the short old man introduces himself as his vizier (a very important official in Ancient Egypt) called Siamun Muran, as Dark Yugi sinking in and trying to absorb this new situation as Pharaoh and dressed as such, he also notices the six people close to him besides the vizier, they all have millenium items, as Siamun explains who they are as priests and their duties, one of them to punish evil doers, a grave robber happened to be caught, who tried to rob the royal tomb of the former king is judged by the priests who wield the millenium items.

In the museum, as the others are still shocked by Yugi not being able to sense Dark Yugi inside the puzzle and them becoming aware as Bobasa reminds them that he is inside the World of Memory, he explains where, why and what is happening to Dark Yugi and he can help them to take them to him by starting to enter the millenium puzzle...while in the World of Memory, there is a discussion between the priests, Dark Yugi while still sinking in and absorbing all the new information, the priest wielder of millenium tauk warns them of a powerful evil shadow coming closer to the palace for picking up a disturbing future...


Key Points:

 

Okay, this is tough, in this scene it looks like maybe at first when Dark Yugi starts becoming separated from Yugi to up, but is actually the other direction being separated from his partner, it is related to the millenium puzzle, I will go in more detail, as we move to the next key points until what is actually happening explained... (Please don't forget to notice the millenium puzzle symbol in the stone slab shined at the same time as the millenium puzzle itself)

 

When Yugi reveals as shocked and worried that he is gone because he can't sense him:

"He's not in the puzzle...or in my heart...I don't know where he is!"

The shock they received, for each has a different meanings, for two of them is expectation of worst case scenario they might have hold, being Yugi and Anzu, while Honda and Jounouchi probably didn't speculated as much, is more shock as pure shock.

Yugi isn't completely wrong, but he isn't completely right either, it's much more complex than that...


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.32 Part 2/4 (To the Domino Museum)

Sorry for taking so long to come back, I finished editing right at the start of the holidays (Christmas and New Year), I wanted to start in the first week of new year, but then I got a flu (it was the worst), only now I'm finally starting to recover properly enough to start writing this post.
In this post there is a lot of important conversations, expect many "important discussion/conversation" interruptions in the plot summary, since the important discussions/ conversations are focused on the key points.


Plot Summary:

After that important conversation with his grandfather and the next day being the day they will finally go to the museum, Yugi can't help but think and wonder about what his granpa and Yami Bakura said to him before, so feels restless and he is having difficulties to start sleeping, then he sees Dark Yugi sitting on the chair with an expression of contemplation looking into the window, Dark Yugi notices Yugi is still awake, he apologizes and asks if he woke Yugi, Yugi tells him like Dark Yugi, he is too excited to sleep (more like restless), Dark Yugi noticed slightly and in himself, that they both feel restless because of what kind of memories will be shown to him, but these two aren't the only ones feeling restless...followed by an important conversation...

The moment Yugi and Dark Yugi starts to sleep, there is some storm happening, the window is with a hole with few broken pieces over the table where the golden box is with his cards inside, a hand from the window reaches for Yugi's golden box to steal... as Yugi starts waking up because of the sound broken glass and sees the hand reaching for his box, the thief grabs the box and runs away, Yugi goes after him, Dark Yugi asks Yugi to be himself taking care of it, Yugi insists to be himself since he feels is his responsibility as a vessel to protect those cards, when Yugi starts catching up, sees the thief already unconscious on the floor and encounters Yami Bakura, both have a very important discussion...

The next day finally arrives, it starts the usual at school until is noticed Yugi and Ryou both have dark circles under the eyes, the moment the gang reunites inside the classroom before class starting , they start discuss about about the god cards and it's importance being connected to why they are going to the museum, being necessary to Dark Yugi for his quest into recovering his lost memories, Anzu is worried about something and Dark Yugi takes over and gives his reply...
After the school is over, they arrive to the museum with Dark Yugi already taking over, there they encounter someone already waiting for them, a man who is big and fat, who introduces himself as Bobasa, one of the tomb guardians and saves the millenium items in the surface of his belly of his body, with only two millenium items (Millenium Key and Millenium Libra/Scales), but it has other holes for the others, at start they don't fully trust him, however there is another important conversation, so Bobasa accompanies them to the famous and mentioned stone slab, on the way, Anzu ponders about something and goes to a small store inside the museum to buy something for Dark Yugi related to his quest, when they reached the stone slab, most of the gang is shocked, Dark Yugi then presents his three god cards...



Key Points:

 

This is one of my favourite conversations between these two, besides the one before the duel against the silent doll , because it reveals who Dark Yugi feels closest to and by an order of sequence who he met first and spends most time with as well, Yugi coming first, of course, he is the host, following by Jounouchi and Anzu, Honda and then many other friends, in this case is not favouritism, he mentions the four of them in specific and orderly too from closest to least close, because they are his closest friends...
Yugi being to whom Dark Yugi is closest too, it's very clear to all readers, hilarious even sometimes, since they started to be able to talk to each other normally (Pegasus's duel), it became part of their daily routine to a point even Dark Yugi giving fashion advice and rooting for Yugi about Anzu, also subconsciously they know each other longer than they think, specially Dark Yugi like I stated in the previous post.
Next is Jounouchi, it's another person who is closest to him after Yugi for obvious reasons, both of them in terms of games, they're more inclined towards Magic and Wizards/Duel Monsters TCG and very passionately too, both are emotive players and share in common in views and fighting spirit, strong friendship rivalry, also the way of them to communicate with others best is through dueling, and being a friend that he can easily relate to besides Yugi when it comes to games.
Then is Anzu, their close friendship takes a bit longer and is slower to develop, which is why it tends to be easily overlooked by readers, including myself in the past, what truly set it in stone for them  sharing a fairly close bond was the "set up date", it shows when he talked about what he has been feeling and mind after the events of Duelist Kingdom to Anzu and her advice was very valuable and helpful to him and become someone he feels more comfortable to talk to when it comes to his personal thoughts, feelings and problems (I will write in more detail about the development of their friendship more towards the end of this post and close to the end of the series).
Lastly Honda, it's simpler, but can be easily overlooked, Honda is a very good supportive friend, when it comes to understanding and roots for him when it comes to his own decisions and friends, the little scene of Honda before the duel against Kaiba , just this small scene speaks volumes that Dark Yugi is very grateful for this kinds of supportive moments from Honda.

It's curious that he doesn't mentions Ryou Bakura, I guess is because he is very wary of the millenium Ring and the fact Ryou ignores their advice in not bringing and wearing the ring but considers Ryou as a friend, for him to say "lots of other friends", it means in a bigger scale, not just Ryou and Mai, he is including Kaiba, Otogi, Ryota, Rishid, Ishizu and Marik, even though Dark Yugi is a very reserved and awkward person, it still means a great deal for him, or else he wouldn't say:

"Now, I have new memories...the memories of being with my friends. No matter what happens to me, those memories will always be there."

Dark Yugi doesn't often speaks of his feelings about his bonds and memories like this being very dear to him, even more giving this kind of assurance to Yugi and more to himself, it shows that Dark Yugi has been thinking a lot about this quest and speculated of what could happen when the time comes.
Yugi's reaction to Dark Yugi's reflection on the people he met becoming important to him, he was quite touched, even Yugi himself got contemplative when Dark Yugi given assurance to him and noticeably to himself that he wouldn't forget them being his new memories, he doesn't seem worried about it in the quest for his memories, but...

(for a first key point of this post, it's quite huge, well it is a very important scene about Dark Yugi's character and development)


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.32 Part 1/4 (Memory World Prologue)

Back on track, it took me longer than I expected to write this, not because of the number of panels, how the weeks have been going, lots of things have been slowing me down, which happens, many times...After this post, so when I will have time to post the next one (since scanning the pages I want is almost over..., so then I edit), and all I have to do is write.
Plot Summary:

Memory World Arc begins with Sugoroku Mutou (Yugi's grandfather) in his early fourties around the 60s in the Valley of the Kings accompanied by two siblings grave robbers, they speak about a specific tomb where the legendary game called "shadow games" happens, it is a tomb of a nameless pharaoh...
They rest a little for when the night comes, so they won't be seen at night to enter this royal tomb...
When they enter the tomb, in the start, not much happens, until they arrive at the entrance of a labyrinth, one of the grave robbers unlock a hidden trap, the entrance is closed, with spikes and the same for the walls side by side of the entrance and starts moving on it's own, so they're forced to enter the labyrinth with moving statues if you make the wrong move, you die or severely injured, if is the right one, it stays still.

Sugoroku and one grave robber survived, the other was killed by the moving statues for rushing, all that is left is to walk over some stone slabs laid down with sculptings of monsters as a bridge, Sugoroku passes by peacefully, when he is almost reaching the end, the grave robber from far behind who hadn't entered the bridge yet, shot Sugoroku on the shoulder from a gun he was carrying hidden, he entered this bridge and was swallowed by one of the monsters summoned from the stone slabs on it's own, while Sugoroku hanging to his life on the edge of the monsters's stone slabs bridge, when he wonders if this is the end, then an image or spirit of a young man who looked like a pharaoh who called Sugoroku a different name and "help" to get up and he reached the last room with the millenium puzzle inside the golden box...

30 years later or so, Sugoroku thinking about Yugi's fate and role with the millenium puzzle, it's revealed that after school, Yugi is going to the museum, so that Dark Yugi can start his quest to recover his lost memories, as he thinks about this, Yugi's grandfather enters his room and asks to see one more time to see the god cards, so there is a bit of a discussion to an important conversation (which  Sugoroku reveals he knew all along about the pharaoh soul that Yugi is hosting and his grandfather giving a warning and advice to Yugi about his role not only as a vessel of the pharaoh soul but also as the chosen one by the Millenium Puzzle...).


Key Points:

 

This is happening 30 years before the present now, when Sugoroku was in his early forties, this is pretty much about how Sugoroku Mutou got the Millenium Puzzle backstory, I think is a great way to open into the journey to the quest of the lost memories of the nameless pharaoh.

The conversation about the special tomb, the one as referred as that it has "shadow games", the mention of this team of archaeologists that this grave robber spoken about is probably the same one Sugoroku mentions in the beginning of the series, they're going to the Valley of the Kings, the graveyard of pharaohs of Egypt New Kingdom period, the way one of the escorts speaks of the special tomb as "that tomb", it implies the name of the pharaoh of this tomb is unknown, because no archaeologist was able to reach the point of where it reveals his name...

 

I have to say, Sugoroku in his forties was pretty handsome, you can see some similarities to Dark Yugi and Yugi as well, but his expressions is more Dark Yugi's inclined.

These two men escorting Sugoroku are grave robbers, because of the stories of mentioned tomb, no other grave robber ever tried since many have died already, including archaeologists, so they're only going with Sugoroku Mutou to rob the tomb, because Sugoroku being a professional gamer and him being interested in this game called "shadow games" inside this tomb, in order words, he will be the one doing the games leading them to the hidden treasure, you can tell in the panel when he says he is not interested in the treasure, you can tell he is bit suspicious of the grave robbers escorting him...you see the one who have been silent, the one his right side is hiding something prepared for Sugoroku...


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Blog news and suggestions

Blog News:

I am almost finished re-reading for the second time (I said first I would re-read twice), going to re-read the ceremonial duel in a while (in one hour and half or two), then I put bookmarks on the pages I considered most important, scan them, edit them from pages to panels I consider important, I do edit on Photoshop (I use this software a lot not just for this, wallpapers, avatars, etc).
Usually this process takes 1 day and while writing the draft takes longer, but this time will be a little different, since I want to do it justice, the process explained above will be the longer this time, because the format for this arc will be each volume will be divided in 2 or 3 or 4 parts/posts, depending on the intensity and information, it will still have plot summary+key points.


Suggestions about the manga series:

I found something that might be helpful to those who may not have enough money, in case thinking that collecting 38 volumes would take long or don't have enough space for it, I'm sure many of you know about 3 in 1 volumes editions for Yu-Gi-Oh! (it's basically 3 volumes of a manga series in one book), but there is usually the problem about the shipping costs when buying online, so what if I told you I know a online bookstore that sells worldwide with no shipping costs and is usually cheap?

If you're from Europe and the european country currency is → € , then you're in for a treat, each of the 3 in 1 costs around 10-14€ (to give you a scale, but in the website if you use a different currency, you can change without paying) , so far there is 11 volumes of these "3 in 1", volume 12 will come out next month, 7th November 2017, the last one being volume 13 will be out in 10th February 2018.

Book Depository: Yu-Gi-Oh! 3-in-1 Editions

The only one downside from this online bookstore is that sometimes takes a bit of time, the maximum 1 month for the delivery to arrive (I think it happens in special occasions like the holidays and stuff), the fastest has been 1 week and 1 day for me at least, lately it has been 1 week and 2 weeks (the most common time it takes to arrive).

If you intend to buy it from this online bookstore, I have some advices to give you:
- to properly count when it arrives, don't include the business days, you have to pay attention to two emails, "the order confirmation" and "your order is on it's way", is the last one you have to count to 1 week or two onward (do not include weekends since there is countries where mails doesn't come on Saturdays);

- sometimes you pay VAT, but max is 2€ and minimum is less than 1€, but since they give you the price with the VAT before even buying, so do not worry and free shipping...;

-In each envelope they always offer you a bookmark from the website.

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.27-31 Part 12 (Epilogue of Battle City)

Now it has reached the end of Battle City and Duelist Section of the manga series too, next up is...Millenium World.
Speaking of Millenium World Arc, this one will be done in a bit of different progress format since I will be covering 7 volumes and is heavy plot focus, so I intend to re-read twice the last 7 volumes, so it will take while for when the first post about this arc to be published...


Plot Summary:

After being announced Dark Yugi as the victor of the duel, the gang congratulate Dark Yugi, the Ishtar family have an important reunion and conversation about their current situation and future onward, while this happens, Kaiba himself congratulates Dark Yugi too and Mokuba takes the chance to remind them about the ante-rule, Marik gives the Ra god card to Dark Yugi and finally fulfil his last duty as the heir of his clan of the tomb guardians by showing the carvings in his back (the revelation of the location of the pharaoh's memories) and gives his own millenium item (the Rod) and then Bakura's Ring and informs Dark Yugi that his friends who were under his penalty games will come back conscious (Ryou Bakura and Mai) together with the main villain Yami Bakura...After this, Kaiba announces that the Duel Tower will self-destruct in one hour, so they hurry up to the Battle Ship and find Ryou and Mai already awaken (while pulling a little prank on Jounouchi)...
With 20 minutes missing, Kaiba's employees aren't finding the Kaiba brothers while themselves are getting ready to leave but differently from the others, when it misses few minutes, the Battle Ship takes off...while Alcatraz is self-destructing and the Battle Ship already a bit ahead but worried about Kaiba...then islater revealed that they are flying on a fighter plane, surprising almost everyone...while Kaiba brothers are going to America, the others are coming back to Domino City...Battle City ends with Dark Yugi and Jounouchi about to start their duel in the streets of the city...


Key Points:

 

While the gang went to congratulate Dark Yugi, in this scene inside his own thoughts by thanking his friends and his cards, then that he owes to all of them, he is someone who relies on emotional support a little too much, he's not mentioning Yugi here, who he owes the most and Kaiba, but since he already thanked Yugi twice during the duel, there was no need, as for Kaiba...will be approached a little more ahead in this post...

There is other part of this scene I would like to point out is when Dark Yugi asks Anzu if she has her own mind back, this is the first time we see him actually initiate it with Anzu, since in their dynamic is usually vice-versa, I only say this because he never asked when it came to Ryou being controlled by Yami Bakura even though they can tell, but sometimes Yami Bakura can hide it well, what I mean with this is that currently Dark Yugi sees her as a closer friend (before the "date" event, he was a little distant when talking to her) not to the same extent and comfortability he has with Yugi and Jounouchi but is getting there.

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