Rest In Peace, Kazuki Takahashi...

 How to start...I woke in the morning and the first news on twitter that I got was Kazuki Takahashi passed away at 60 years old...it took time to process still is, the whole day was me digest this terrible news about a terrible loss, that left a legacy and messages in his mangá.

Kazuki Takahashi was a mangaka that loves mangas, making them, loved games very much, so much so that he wrote and draw a story about games, Yu-Gi-Oh! which technically translates King of Games where the main concept of the mangá was about battles through games instead of fighting and physical violence, with it's unique and distinctive art style.

The main story was more than one story...a freshman high school boy named Yugi that looked like a child and avoided in engaging with the class and was shy, whose classmates were Anzu - his childhood friend who dreams to study abroad to become a dancer, Jounouchi and Honda who were initially bullies, Jounouchi was a former delinquent due to his family problems, Honda had his own, became friends with Yugi, he awaken an ancient spirit from completing a ancient puzzle to later be discovered he was a deceased pharaoh who lost his memories to then start a quest to recover his memories, Kaiba Seto and Mokuba lost their parents and sent to an orphanage to later be adopted by an abusive foster father Gozaburo Kaiba, even more came and had their story...Mai, Hanasaki, Ryota, Marik, Ishizu, Pegasus, just to mention a few...

The manga ended with Atem, the deceased pharaoh, who moved forward into afterlife...Yugi moving ahead forging his own future.
The Story ended in Dark Side of Dimensions on similar note.

The legacy we see in spin-offs, the trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh!, that many still play today, part of childhoods, adolescence as well that touched the hearts of many, including mine.

Even after when he was finished, he still made games, wrote and draw "The Comiq", he draw a graphic novel of Spider-Man and Iron Man called "Secret Reverse".

It's pretty obvious that I am a big fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! or else I wouldn't be willing to create this blog to eventually make analysis of the manga, the franchise is my favourite, the manga is my favourite of all time, the anime as well (I got to know through the portuguese dub on a kids show in the beginning of my adolescence, when I was 14), Kazuki Takahashi is my favourite mangaka, artist and storyteller of all time...so... 

Thank You and Rest in Peace, Kazuki Takahashi...

 

  

Thoughts and Observations of Mangá and DSOD Movie - Yu-Gi-Oh!

That's right...however is by giving a link to a "page" of this blog that for some reason isn't appearing in the website?

This "Hidden Page" has all the links to my analysis of the 38 volumes, Transcend Game One Shot (DSOD prologue) and Dark Side of Dimensions.

**Click Here**

Don't worry, there is no ads, except the ones with "widgets" that you can just ignore, there isn't "skips seconds link" either, it's so this post doesn't get too big with the links of analysis, to make it easier.

One Last Thing...the date of this post is 4TH June...so...

🎇🎲Happy Birthday to Yugi Mutou🎲🎇

Thoughts & Observations: Dark Side of Dimensions Movie

Hellos!!

This is the last post of analysis/Thoughts and Observations, I'm not gonna lie, it feels quite weird that is ending, I have been writing it for 8 years with hiatus mid-way through, what I have been writing for so long out of my own enjoyment because I love analyzing and to be about my favourite story of all time, one may think why I did this? At first was to show traits about characters that were overlooked or ignored or underestimated even among the fandom like Yugi's intelligence, the duels that I always thought that was crucial to character's growth, relationships and interesting story details that ended up into make it more thorough, also because I wanted to analyse a story as a stimulating way for me to keep my mind sharp too besides I learned a lot about some historical facts and games as much for my own personal growth, it was a non-profit project with it's own personal and learning benefits.

(warning: the plot summary will be huge)

Plot Summary:

The movie opens with Kaiba looking at a holographic image of the Millennium Puzzle in his "space tower" (satelite-like tower) into an excavation being proceeded in the Shrine of the Former Village of Kul Elna close to or around the Valley of the Kings, to search for the millennium puzzle to be overseen by Mokuba.

Yugi is about to leave his house for school to meet with Anzu, Jounouchi and Honda from a different route goes to school by bicycle and Ryou had arrived already...when they have their lunch together in the rooftop, they discuss about their futures and dreams...

They go back to their classroom and seem to not recognize a classmate of theirs but yet suddenly remembering as being his name "Aigami"...when school was over, they discuss about Atem...then they heard someone needing help about to be bullied by a gang who are considered dangerous, Jounouchi comes to be willing to help the person in question being "Aigami".

In an abandoned building, "Aigami" goes to the meeting place with the Kudaragi's gang, "Aigami" summons a cube that allows him to summon the Prana and making the whole gang disappear to a "lesser dimension"...

As the movie moves along with Kaiba being unsatisfied with the simulation of "Dark Yugi" to feeling the need of the millennium puzzle and getting call that pieces of millennium puzzle was found, as the pieces are being 3D-scanned, learn about "Aigami" true identity as his name being Diva and his cube with dimensional powers, Dimension Cube, Kaiba and Diva have a duel to not being proceeded as Mokuba leaves the shrine with the millennium pieces, but two of them is stolen, which Kaiba later finds out, one of the Prana being Mani finds the Millennium Ring.

Diva observes Yugi and Ryou as he discusses with Mani and later his sister Sera about his revenge on the responsible for someone's death  and eliminate Kaiba and Yugi to stop pharaoh Atem to be revived so they can move to their next dimension.

Diva approaches Yugi and hangs out with him and friends to decide having a small tournament at Yugi's house of Magic&Wizards on Sunday.

The day comes, but his friends haven't arrived yet as he is visited by Sera about himself, Shadi and Atem, during that time, "Aigami" and Ryou with Jounouchi discuss about their own egyptian artifacts, Ryou is hesitant to go further but Diva sends Jounouchi to another dimension, their past is discussed between Ryou and Diva regarding "Shadi's death", Ryou's father and Yami Bakura, Diva starts becoming reluctant to revenge on Ryou.

Mani appears in Diva's and Ryou's dimension to learn Mani is being controlled by the Millennium Ring, who tries to kill Ryou, Diva tries to stop Mani as Mani himself stops himself but gets affected and "disappears" to another dimension and so does Ryou.

Yugi, Honda and Anzu look for Jounouchi and Ryou, Diva appears before them and summons the Prana around them, Jounouchi surviving one of dimensions inside the Dimension Cube to be saved by Atem in going back to the "original dimension" with his friends...Diva disappears to being captured by Kaiba and his Dimension Cube taken.

Diva and Yugi are forced by Kaiba to participate in his selective tournament, Yugi VS Diva first and learning about Diva's harsh childhood, Yugi wins, then Kaiba VS Yugi discussing the truth about the Millennium Puzzle and Atem, Diva in his own dimension finds the millennium ring that was left in the dimension where Mani disappeared, Diva and Dimension Cube gets controlled by the millennium ring.

Kaiba VS Yugi close to end by one turn, gets interrupted by Yami Diva (Zork-Diva), with Dimension Cube being corrupted, people start to disappear including the Prana, Kaiba and Yugi are the only ones still standing tag duel against Zork-Diva, Kaiba loses and starts to disappear and makes Yugi wear the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi tries to stand as he was almost about to lose consciousness, Atem from "netherworld" or "spiritual dimension" to take over through the Millennium Puzzle to save Yugi and everyone involved. including the Prana, Yugi and Atem go separate, say their farewells as the millennium puzzle disappears first and Atem goes back to "Netherworld" or "spiritual dimension".

The Graduation Ceremony comes to an end, the gang and prana go with their life towards their future, Kaiba going to Atem's dimension through the help of "copy" of Diva's Dimension Cube, challenges Atem again to a duel.

Key Points:

That's how kinda gonna look like, but this is a "Vertical Screens Ensemble" (that's the name...instead of Panels, it's Screens with "Vertical" and "Horizontal"), there is Horizontal Screens Ensemble which will be in next key point, I have to say, it was very hard to make these screens ensembles.

This scene is after the opening of the movie, we see them excavating in a shrine where lied the "Tablet of Pharaoh's Memories" and technically was the Tablet of the Millennium Items, where they were forged and happened the Rite of the Duel between Atem and Yugi, this excavation was ordered by Kaiba (of course), even one of his agents is overseeing with a photo of Yugi when he had the millennium puzzle.

What got my most attention from this was the "Door" to the "next world" was still intact, from where Atem left to afterlife, probably won't open again, since "most" of the millennium items are "gone", to be opened again, you need all the millennium items.

If you wish to continue reading, click "Read More" below:

Unboxing : Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimensions DVD (Manga UK)

Sorry for taking so long to show this...it did arrive in 9th June from Amazon...

The quality is ok, from my smartphone, sorry for being, um, stretched...  I have forgotten to point something that I noticed only later after I have done the video, you can actually remove the cover, with the backside having Kaiba and his "alternative Blue Eyes White Dragon" and frontside being the cover and back cover (I'll scan it after I'm done with the Manga and start moving to Dark Side of Dimensions).

 

Before finishing this post, I would like to confirm to you that the subtitles are pretty fine and has with the characters original names and everything (I don't know about the english dub, but because I find it cringy, I didn't go check it. But I really like the cover, it's very nice, I don't about the Obelisk card though, so it will remain inside the DVD, wish would have been "Mahado" card, oh well.

To end this post, "Thoughts and Observations" about Dark Yugi VS Kaiba, will be divided in two posts/parts, take some time to be published, specially Part 1, since I still have visitors at my home.

See Ya Next Post!

My First Impressions of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimesions (SPOILER FREE)

I won't write any details not even what happened in the story, you have the synopsis around the internet, this just what I think about the movie in general and to how much extends to the main story in general of Yu-Gi-Oh!
I watched in japanese with english subtitles, around the internet but I will buy the DVD licensed by Manga UK...
I think the movie was quite amazing but it has it's drawbacks which left me a little disappointed and left a bit more to be desired.
The story was pretty much the best part of the movie, to anyone who have watched the anime japanese version with subtitles will get the gist of the story in general, but the ones who read the manga of the series on the other hand, the experience of the movie will be extended, the movie is definitely is the expansion of the story of the manga as it been advertised, you can really see and feel the vibe that it was Kazuki Takahashi telling the story, it's to be assured is his style as well.

Now the duels, they were great except how they ended...
Character development felt unfinished, specially for Kaiba (his over the top personality is hilarious but his narrow-mindset pisses me off).
The ending was good but...it was what made things feel and left unfinished.

The spoiler version will be in "Thoughts and Observations", since is the expansion of the manga together with the one-shot Transcend Game, It will be then when I go in detail after I'm done with the manga, since I will reference a lot of my posts about the manga in Movie Thoughts and Observations.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimensions News: the release date of the localized version by Manga UK in DVD&Blu-Ray

As you all probably know, the movie was dubbed in english in the theaters around Great Britain (United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales) for a very limited time.
So to anyone who wasn't able to watch it and didn't want to watch with english dub anyway, the localized version by Manga UK will come out in DVD & Blu-Ray in 29th May 2017.

The common worries about it with these is will be only english audio and subtitles, but I confirmed on their Facebook Page, that there will Japanese Audio.

Available for Pre-Order (and if you don't have the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time, there is a double pack version with the two movies)

 However I would be more worried for those who live in North America when it comes to Japanese Audio, because Yu-Gi-Oh! DVD's from NA, it only comes with English Audio and subtitles, while the European Manga UK version comes with Japanese and English Audio and subtitles, I think the fans of the series in America would prefer to have the same options as the European version has.
I tried to find the release date of the DVD and Blu-Ray, but no luck...
Best of luck, America!

The Release Date of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions DVD&Blu-Ray was announced!

I'm a tiny bit late because the news was announced in 24th October in the japanese official website of Yu-Gi-Oh! 20th Anniversary...(the only website in english that was updated on this news is wikipedia, not the fandom wikia)...
The Blu-Ray and DVD of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimension will be released in Japan on 8th March 2017

click this this link for further details if you can read japanese...

There is more details around here if you go after the link, I can't read Japanese so I used the google translate but I got the general idea, it seems is given exclusives if you pre-order for a limited time in certain stores, for example in Amazon of Japan you seem to get one or 3 B2 poster sizes of the characters or one of them (Kaiba, Yugi and Aigami) , one has a T-shirt, but there is a standard in all stores for the pre-order, Transcend Game one-shots (however I'm confused if is a digital version or printed version, but I think it is a digital version).

I'm posting this because it seems many people doesn't seem know...

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:

Final Thoughts&Opinions on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

I have watched all the episodes YGO! GX, it was quite long journey I must say, but enjoyable.

Like I said, I still have to watch YGO Zexal and Arc-V to fully compare them in terms of quality, it could have been better, much better, I think season 3 was the best season for me, NAS could do better job, it could be better than season 3, but it didn't, as YGO series, I think is lacking consistency, wasted potential on characters development, the plot is some parts, specially last season makes it look YGO 5D's last season a bit better, which says a lot, since I'm still angry at NAS about it's last season regarding certain plot holes and certain negligence to certain characters(in GX is bigger because it has so many characters)...NAS writers you're not good at creating completed stories with consistency, at last season is where you usually fail and that gets on my nerves.

Yeah, I didn't like season 4, sure sometimes made me think a little, but the forceful focus on Judai Yuki is a big problem in the series, I understand he is the main character, BUT there is something called balance, you can't focus so much on his character while the others are always in the shadows and play as supporting characters in most episodes instead of secondary characters.

Favourites seasons:
1. Season 3
2. Season 2
3. Season 1
4. Season 4

Top 5 favourite characters:
1. Majoume Thunder
2. Marufuji Ryou
3. Edo Phoenix
4. Marufuji Sho
5. Yuki Judai

These characters had some deeper impression on me.

Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - (Episodes watched: 156)_Thoughts

As you can see from the title I watched 156 episodes, in other words, just finished season 3, soon to start season 4.
What thoughts remain and those changed? hmmm
Some thoughts still remain such YGO GX had a sloppy start, the story development in the first 2 seasons wasn't really good, just feels a bit forceful, specially the fillers, character development was fine though, like I said the strongest point were the characters and still is, but my main complain about the characters remains, too much focus on Judai, I really like the character, but is just a little bit unbalanced with the other characters.
Now let's focus on season 3, I must say the story development is really good, character development is good as well, except maybe for 4 characters whose wasn't as good as the rest, I mean Manjoume Thunder, Tyranno Kenzan, Tenjoin Asuka and her brother Tenjoin Fubuki, but since they were important for Judai Yuki character development, I'll let it slide, best characters development goes to Judai Yuki, Marufuji Shou (though he hadn't any duel, bummer, I really like his dueling style), Marufuji Ryou, Amon Garam, Austin O'Brien and Jim Crocodile.
Even though I get a bit annoyed with Judai having so much focus, I think his character development in season 3 was really interesting, it's not everytime we see the main character becoming a villain, though temporarily, but interesting nonetheless, we see a different contrast on Judai's character, I can even see some similarities with Atem and Yugi and it's closure of his character development in this season was good as well.
The introduction of new characters was good as well, from all the new characters introduced I liked were Johan Andersen, Yubel and Haou Judai (Supreme King Judai) - From Season 2 if interested was Edo Phoenix.
The duels in season 3 was fine, but my favourites were Marufuji Ryou Kaiser VS Yubel "Johan", Amon Garam VS Yubel "Johan" and finally Yubel/"Johan" VS Yuki Judai, basically Yubel duels =D.
I wouldn't say opinion on the series have changed much, but it has definitely evolved, which is kind of a good feeling some way, I'm enjoying the ride way more ;-), now if is the least or weakest of the YGO series, that I don't know yet, I have to finish YGO GX and Zexal (to me they're quite comparable in terms of quality, Arc-V seems close to the level of 5D's and DM).

Once I finish last season (Season 4), I will make maybe my Top 5 or 10 favourites characters of GX.

See ya Next Post!

Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - (Episodes watched: 118)_Thoughts

As you can see from the title, I have gone through half of the series over all, but still missing 62 episodes, since I watch 4 episodes each time, so how I advance is a bit steady at a time I feel comfortable to watch, so it can be sometimes very slow...

 So far from what I have seen, I must say YGO GX is the weakest, I have yet to watch Zexal fully to be sure, it's decent specially now when things are getting interesting, in other words, the series had a sloppy start with some potential, I think is ridiculous it has schools to teach how to duel as one of it's subjects.
As for plot, It's very easy to tell when the plot is moving and when isn't, the episodes that isn't are usually clear that they're fillers and they're terrible episode fillers, they are rarely funny for me and just plain irritating, silly and random...NAS writers keep increasing my hatred for you (I still hold grudge against you with the mess you did in last season of YGO 5D's)

 Another thing, the dialogues, sometimes feels forceful or try too hard to make it interesting, cool and intense, even the plot doesn't runaway from this, yes, the plot, I think it can be forceful at times, but not always.
 The characters are the best part of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, they have a lot of potential, but the potential is wasted many times, focusing too much on Yuki Judai, I mean, Asuka rarely duels, Sho, Kaiser, Fubuki, and many of the duelists that appears, it's later "forgotten", the only that survive, are supportive, secondary and main characters.
I think the animation is a bit lazy, it's very stagnant, it doesn't decrease quality but doesn't increase either.
I may have sounded too harsh on the series, but that's how I view, but HEY, I'm enjoying watching, it's in season 3 that I'm starting to enjoy it more...