Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.16-17 Part 1 (Dungeon Dice Monsters Part 1)

Duelist Kingdom ended, starts a small arc serving the purpose to introduce a new character, character development for Yugi will keep going, good challenges to test and explore his strength and potential, the same can be said as person as well...
anyway, we're on volume 16 and 17 already, in western prints is Duelist Volume 9 and 10.
There will be three posts about these 2 volumes, just these 2 volumes, there is a lot to write about, Part 1 will be the prologue of Dungeon Dice Monsters, Part 2 will be the game itself and Part 3 will be the Prologue of Battle City, look forward to it, I will keep doing summaries first so I can touch on the details.

Plot Summary:

After Duelist Kingdom, a few weeks has passed, the volume 16/9 starts with Sugoroku sighing, who seems to look distressed about something, Anzu arrives to pick Yugi up, Sugoroku calls Yugi out for Anzu had come to walk him to school, transitioning to Yugi and Dark Yugi, with these weeks and now the spirit and host being able to talk to each other, it happens often Dark Yugi teases Yugi and give him fashion tips, Yugi's mother even has been noticing something, Yugi's reveals to Anzu his new necklace chain representing the bond between Yugi and spirit of the millenium puzzle.
Before Yugi and Anzu go to school, Sugoroku confesses a new game store just opened, close to put Sugoroku game store out of business, the Black Clown, when they're leaving Yugi curious trying to take a look at the display of the new game store, suddenly a clown appears giving children balloons and trying to give one to Anzu and politely refuses, when they leave, the clown and a young boy appears to his side watching Yugi and Anzu leaving, revealing being father and son, who seem to hold a grudge against Yugi and Sugoroku and wants to revenge Sugoroku through Yugi.
The school is about to start and they are possibly on break of a class, there is a new student(the young boy and son of the clown) and is revealed by Honda they moved to 2nd year of High School, the new student seems to be drawing attention to the girls in their class named Ryuji Otogi, Jounouchi gets jealous of him being popular and then Jounouchi starts boasting about his performance in Duelist Kingdom, catching Otogi attention, he challenges Jounouchi to a game, without Jounouchi knowing being a shell game (a rigged game, basically).
Since it were a rigged games, the four aces plus dice and cup, Jounouchi lost all of them, once the deal of the bet was going too far, Dark Yugi interferes, who challenges Otogi to a bit different game from Four Aces, adding the card Joker, in order to make a fair game becoming it a game of sheer luck, Dark Yugi obviously wins, clearing Jounouchi from the deal of the bet.
The Black Clown grand opening day event, there is a lot of crowd, Yugi gets mixed in the crowd being small and pushed and indirectly kidnapped in being unjustly accused of theft, purposely taking away his millenium puzzle and put him in a dark room, technically this was kidnapping, a very planned one, I must say.


Key Points:

 

I love this scene, it doesn't fail me to make me laugh, Dark Yugi teasing Yugi like a sibling usually does, now they're more conscious of one another as an entity of their own, specially Yugi, Dark Yugi is already fully aware he is an entity of his own, the others not fully (Honda, Jounouchi and Bakura will take longer, much longer), Yugi and Anzu are closest to it.

For Yugi talking to Dark Yugi became part of his daily life, as if Dark Yugi being a new member of the family to Yugi (same applies to Sugoroku), this scene reveals Dark Yugi is quite the peachshipper, he knows Yugi has a crush on Anzu to the point of him giving advices, fashion advices (so funny), Dark Yugi also got used to this rather quickly to tease Yugi and calls Yugi not other self but partner, after all all it is 2 entities sharing the same body.

What I find interesting about this bond of host and spirit of the millenium puzzle, what would you see in other mangas, you would see the main character is the host and evil spirit is an antagonist - it's very common, in this series case, Dark Yugi is to protect his host and friends and has good intentions, he is a spirit of someone who is already deceased, they get along very well, they behave like siblings even in appearance they look like siblings (it's so cute and very funny).

About Yugi's family, I don't usually mention it, but since it's the last time we'll see his mother, and didn't wrote before, this is my chance, from the times we have seen his mother in the manga and Sugoroku, give us the assumption Yugi lives only with his mother and grampa, but where is his father?, in this excerpt of an interview Kazuki Takahashi reveals he is working overseas on business, which make us realize, from this information, Yugi's father is almost always absent but in some other info about it that his father sends him gifts sometimes, besides being an only child with an absent father, mother and grandfather (likely on his father side, from the looks of it, because his mother doesn't have tricolered hair, Sugoroku as we know a bit more about him, he shares the same hairstyle and tricolored hair, we can assume is just the spiky tricolored hair is genetic, we can assume Yugi's father has the same hairstyle...), mostly raised by his mother and grandfather, Yugi grows up not having much who he can look up to and see as a role model he can relate to, Dark Yugi takes this role for Yugi.

Dark Yugi only thing he isn't currently aware of is how much Yugi influences him, there is a reason why Dark Yugi penalty games becomes softer, it's not just Dark Yugi, Jounouchi as well (a very big influence on him), Honda, Mai, Mokuba and very very very slowly Kaiba, the ones who are most aware are Jounouchi and Honda as revealed in Death-T and this post.

If you want to read more, click "read more" below:

The way Yugi phrases and informs the reason of the change of the necklace from rope to chain, and Anzu's thoughts, it means they are subconsciously aware they are two entities of their own, they think about it but not too deeply, but there is hidden and subconscious reasons as to why they don't do it, it will be explored in Part 2 and 3 of these 2 volumes.

It will be a constant thing happening of Yugi and Anzu becoming more and more aware until they're fully aware and learn to accept it, not because they're slow, when they're very smart, it's cause they're very attached and familiar with the spirit of the millenium puzzle, they consider him as their friend as well plays a role.

I think this single panel is interesting because it gives a small info detail on Yugi's family about his grandmother being deceased. this subtle little details, if Sugoroku saw his dead wife on the way back...where would she possibly be? watching over his son or being a near-death experience temporarily outside of his body for few days, but we never get to know Yugi's mother side, only a little of his father side, I would like to know more about it, that's for sure.

Just so you know, the Yugi they're referring to as a super-gamer is the original Yugi, remember Yugi is well-known in his school for being a very good gamer even without Dark Yugi, the clown seeming to know personally Sugoroku and holds a grudge against him from a game they played, the way black clown thinks about Yugi being Sugoroku grandson, he suspects he is very skilled.

How Otogi describes physically Yugi about his elementary school look because of his face and height, whose Yugi is very self-conscious, if isn't for his high school uniform, other people tend to mistake him for a little kid, he is a bit childish in behaviour as well, can easily fool someone and underestimate him.

I do like this kind of moments informing the reader they're already on their 2nd year, from what we can assume, in Duelist Kingdom Yugi and his friends were on their 1st year and their little talk in the beginning in this story arc talk about as if was something recent about few weeks later, one can assume in Duelist Kingdom was close to Spring break (after all in Japan, new school year starts in April) around late March, in this timeline is around beginning of April (it makes the timeline of the movie about to coming out, since is 6 months after the events of the mangas, to be around October, Yugi and the others are on their 2nd term of their 2nd year), I think is important to be aware of the timelines of this series to remember.

A little comment I found intriguing of Honda "There's a lot of new faces since we went up a grade! But there's no end to our sinister team, right, you guys?", it seems they're kinda famous in the school for Honda's claim of "sinister team" about their group, is it because they tend to experience strange events? and "the other yugi" is a bit famous...even Mai heard about it...

 

Some of Jounouchi's biggest flaws are these shown in the panels above, he tends to get easily carried away by his victories, even small ones, it can be quite embarrassing sometimes, Jounouchi has a big mouth, he is boasting for not boasting to his friends, then he is totally bragging to Otogi, I really don't like this part because is very uncomfortable to me, what helps me through are Honda and Anzu comments, helps me laugh a little, being really funny, nothing good happens when you're bragging, then it bites you back, he gets in trouble many times for these two personalities traits.

Again this necessary "skill" to win the game, the object of the game is to "outwit your opponent", I believe I brought up something similar with Bandit Keith with this post , to some range, he is right but depends on the game you're playing, when there is games which depends solely on skills, outwitting your opponent truly plays out are games like chess, checkers, shogi - now when comes to games where it requires skill and luck, "outwitting your opponent" implies something else, something fishy and cheating or not a fair game. In other words, "outwitting your opponent" doesn't apply in every game fully, some even just require plainly on luck.

This time willing it was Yugi who call out for Dark Yugi, as I mentioned in the earlier key points, he is bit famous around gamers from the looks of it and the "sinister team reputation" comes from him, likely, it's amusing, he always call his enemies with no honorific and some close ones like Mai by their names except for Jounouchi, Kaiba and Honda, he prefers dismissing formalities (he must think is a waste of time, I don't censure him), also he speaks high and medium volume of his voice very often, for someone usually calm and composed, he is very eager and fierce, he has a bit of strange temper.

 

Yugi being sharp as he is noticed something was fishy, Dark Yugi's response was of like pride in his partner, the host and also as if he is his pupil, what surprises me about this scene how come Yugi didn't knew about shell game while Dark Yugi did knew, we can only conclude a few things, Sugoroku didn't ever had intentions in teaching Yugi about it, so his grandson wouldn't try it, to play always fair, as for how Dark Yugi did knew and Yugi didn't, I did a little research on Shell Game, I came to know shell games existed since ancient civilizations like greece and egypt, Dark Yugi's knowledge on shell games must come from his subconscious memories.

 

One of the things I like about this scene, even though he is very kind, considerate, friendly, very nice, pacifist, selfless and easy to like, he has his flaws, he can get carried away and a bit selfish when comes to his hobbies and interests, very negative, self-deprecating, self-conscious and inferiority complex and shy, for neutral traits is him being fun-loving (when is excessive sometimes a fun-loving person get carried away).
For Yugi thinking his grampa tastes in games are kinda old-fashioned, it's visible Yugi feel he can't really relate much to his grampa for being much and much older, someone who comes from a different time of games...I do understand a little (I'm not a fan of retro-gaming or it's style), but old games are very interesting as well in my opinion, the problem is having someone to play with :(.

I find funny how his friends doesn't say anything of who is behind him, being his grampa, when Yugi finally realizes his grampa is right behind him and heard everything he just said, Jounouchi's comments "you're on your own", Anzu agrees, they're right, Yugi brought this on himself.

 

Otogi is referring to Dark Yugi this time around, he was deeply impressed by him, now only misses for him to test the original Yugi...

By the way, it will be quite common finding messed up fathers in this manga series, first was alcoholic father of Jounouchi, foster father of Kaiba - Gozaburo and finally this clown who raised his son to be a tool of revenge to avenge Sugoroku from the scars he holds from a game he had with Sugoroku (an extremely dangerous and forbidden as Evil Dragons) and also after something else...

As you see, the father clown wasn't just after Yugi for revenge on Sugoroku but also to steal his millenium puzzle...

The end of this post.

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