Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 10 (Duelist's Pride Pt.1 and Kaiba Arrival)

It is as the title suggests, I will touch upon something that bothers me, it is not the writing, but the subject in itself regarding Duelist's Pride or what it means being a True Duelist, that makes me think and make questions about this, that is discussed a little in the series between the characters, specially those who are regular players.



Plot Summary:

Pegasus and the Big Five just got reported that Kaiba came out of coma and well, charging to Pegasus's island, they are very upset about this news and Pegasus tries to calm them down claiming he has everything prepared...
Dark Yugi left the battle box with the player killer of "darkness" staying still in shock through his penalty game, Dark Yugi tries to give to Mai her star chips, in the beginning she refuses based on her pride and leave the island, the rest of the gang hears their conversation and they try to convince her to accept the star chips while also implying they're friends then Jounouchi in his way of helping in making her accept her star chips back...she was moved by all their gestures and she promises she will get back the star chips she owes to Dark Yugi so she can earn the "right" to duel against him.
A helicopter crossing the ocean with Kaiba inside with a bodyguard and pilot, he discuss about the recent reports and events, feeling extremely determined in saving Mokuba and starts to realise they are going around circles, the "bodyguard" noticing Kaiba knowing there is traitors in the helicopter, he tries to kill Kaiba but in vain, since Kaiba was able to turn his favour with card and pick up the gun and tells them to jump to the sea and goes to Pegasus island.
They try to go to sleep but are interrupted three times, first Honda gets a scare for a vine falling from a tree by confusing with a snake and confessing his fear over snakes, reptiles and anything with a slippery skin, the second time was Ryou's Millennium Ring acting strange which was reacting to the presence of the Millennium Eye in the castle, the boys freak out for knowingly is a very dangerous Millennium item with a evil spirit inside, Ryou Bakura reveals the other reason of why he came along besides supporting and helping his friends and having to do with the millennium items...the last time they are interrupted is Kaiba arriving to the island, there is a conversation between them as Yugi gives Kaiba's deck back, Jounouchi challenges Kaiba to duel, but he accepts under one condition using his prototype duel disk on standard mode, Kaiba wins against Jounouchi with ease, Jounouchi is feeling very depressed as Kaiba insults him, Anzu not taking it anymore speaks her mind then almost followed by Ryou mentioning Jounouchi's sister which stuck in her mind... Yugi calls him out  if Kaiba had changed at all, but then he responds is not that simple for him and brings Pegasus, the duel he watched... a duel he won without fighting against Bandit Keith (a card professor) under conditions being broadcasted on tv and a prize of 1 million dollars, the time came and started with Pegasus teaching kids to play the kid and gives a deck to a kid called Tom, when the duel start, Pegasus made his "mind scan" on Bandit Keith, he wrote instructions in how to beat Keith, he called the kid called Tom and duel for him by following the instructions on the paper he has given to him...the kid wins, Keith is in shock and check the piece of paper with the instructions, after the duel and Pegasus finished talking with Kaiba and came to congratulate the kid as chance to promote his card game.




Key Points:

 

So Pegasus is informed that Kaiba had awaken from coma and is heading to Pegasus's island and video chatting with his associates, "Big Five", from anyone who watched the series whether was subbed or dubbed, knows who they are, they are kinda important but wasn't never mentioned in the manga after the Duelist Kingdom, even though they appeared quite often in the anime with their own story arcs (The virtual RPG game of Duel Monsters and Noa's Virtual World Arc).
Pegasus certainly is insistent with the plan, the question is why? He has plenty of money and still gains a lot from Duel Monsters according to Player Killer of Darkness, so why? It can't be just the money but something else? it will reveal itself as we advance in the story.
But the "Oh No!" and "What a mess!", makes me wonder if is acting or serious, I think it's mostly serious because later just like them, he would prefer Kaiba to be dead, which is insanely disrespectful and even after kidnapping Mokuba.


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 9 ("Dark Yugi" VS Player Killer "Darkness")

Mangá Vol.8-11 (Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist 1-3)

This will focus more on the duel between these 2 bellow, specifically "Dark Yugi".

Update (03/08/2018): for a change, it has finally an introduction, now it seems will be maybe lighter...but due to recent events and I haven't been well focused on these updates as much as I'd wish to...😕


Plot Summary:

Dark Yugi accepts the duel (more like ordered to) by the player killer clown face guy, they sit down and the player killer introduces himself as Player Killer of "Darkness (so lame 😑), explains the whole situation about the tournament, the duel starts, the player killer duelling style he uses the night as where part of the field can be darkness which can favours his monsters cards attribute being of darkness, therefore gets special advantage in hiding in the darkness, player killers is feeling overconfident, Dark Yugi is the same but not to the point of bragging like the player killer does, Dark Yugi is more or less testing the waters first until he figure out in how to beat him and claims he will win in 5 turns, he does achieves it but not just with card skills and confidence like he usually does...




Key Points:

 

As usual "Dark Yugi" accepts the challenge specially against those who cross the line when it comes hurting his friends or whose he does respects, Kujaku Mai.
I know these panels in particular aren't important, but I like the sense of movement in Dark Yugi's bangs when he is taking over from how was drawn, which is something I have always found curious, Yugi grows 1 to 3 cm and more golden hair and the hair gets bigger too, Yugi's eye shape changes a little, we know is the spirit of the millennium puzzle taking over, so these physical changes in Yugi's body when Dark Yugi takes over, obviously is from the magic of the millennium puzzle to emphasise Dark Yugi isn't "other yugi" but someone else entirely (it is obvious).

 

According to the panels of this panels ensembles, it reveals that Pegasus has hired assassin duelists to quickly annihilates the participants to decrease from 80 stars chips to 40, so it can have 4 finalists, this tournament is already rigged, wait there is more...
That is it's true purpose for the tournament being rigged is to force Dark Yugi on an official match with Pegasus so he could win against Dark Yugi and get Kaiba Corp, poor Yugi and "Dark Yugi" forcefully involved in this mess,  and there is still more...

 

That's pretty much it, Pegasus besides being a terrible a tournament host, in fact in how terrible of  tournament host he is in not providing basic needs like food, bunk beds or sleeping bags, the ones who all star ships leaves the island on boat instead of the same ship they came from, he doesn't give the impression he is stingy at all...

Thanks player killer of "Darkness" for being captain obvious, no one realised that at all 😒, as for prize money, like I have said before, this tournament is rigged by the host himself and he is pretty lazy to give the prize and send player killers if they defeat Dark Yugi or Yugi first then is the other contestants so that more skilled players arise...all because so he doesn't have to give the prize money to whoever reaches 1st place even though he can easily give it...




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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...

Blog News: Some Changes in the blog and download links

Hellos!! It has been a long time since last time I have wrote here in this blog...
Busy years, one of them were games investment and small project that didn't work the way I'd wish to, so I wanna take a break on this one from games...

 I'm sorry for being in a hiatus for a long time, so I'll continue where I left off.
This is when I'll announce a few changes on this blog! the download links have been changed, no need to worry about passwords downloads, must have been annoying, right? so you're downloading in cbr files.
Now the scans, it will change, from scanning my print YGO mangas, damaged them a bit, specially volume 8 duelist, so I'll change the platform... they will be digital manga from 9 and to the last volume, I don't know about Yu-Gi-Oh! R...I will see about that...
 another thing, I'm finally watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX but subbed, I finally could find all complete japanese with english subs to download, because it was hard over the years, now I can catch up efficiently... I'm on the 3rd season, almost half way through of the season, now as for my thoughs on it so far will posted next post.

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 8 (Mai & Friendship)

Update (30/07/2018): Once again, no introduction, so I'll create one instead, this one will be a shorter post since is a break from the duels, not much story development but more characters and relationships development.


Plot Summary:

After Jounouchi had his duel is night already and thanks to the awful tournament management by the host, the gang is hungry since there is no food around and it's basically time for dinner, then comes a not exactly surprising meeting, Mai Kujaku eating a chocolate bar, the boys are jealous as they drool over the chocolate she is eating, she teases them a little and offers them food with the condition being the boys do the cooking and gives Anzu a chance to take a shower, from the gang, she is the one most surprised by Mai's generosity, but the person who is more surprised is Mai herself, after they both dinning and talking, Anzu and Mai have ladies talk inside the tent that Mai has brought and reveals she set up Anzu's alone time with Yugi, after Anzu left, a man entered the tent..., Anzu and Yugi during their time alone they talk a bit about their childhood and more...until they hear Mai's scream and both get worried about her safety, when they arrived, Mai just lost a duel against the man who came to her tent and lost all her star chips, she reveals he is a player "killer" (duelist assassin, people who are paid to defeat someone through TCG Magic and Wizards) and he challenges (or should I say he orders Yugi) to have a duel with him, Yugi got angry to Dark Yugi taking over and promising he win the duel and take Mai's star chips back.



Key Points:

  

Once again, we come back to the problem of this tournament...Food and like Anzu stated, a place to take a bath...I agree with you Anzu, this place is awful, no care for the participants well-being, seriously Pegasus, you don't do a good job as a host of this tournament, Jounouchi was willing to eat a mushroom and not knowing if was venomous or not plus seemed to dislike mushroom, the despair to eat something...
While they are complaining because there is no food for them to eat, someone comes from behind and surprise them...It's funny only the boys are drooling about the chocolate she is eating...she teases Jounouchi a little, she can be quite light-hearted (for the most part she is like that but she has her own reasons...

 

Kujaku Mai, starts with teasing Jounouchi in a good way, so she borrow some of her food and equipment for it, rest of it has to be the boys to do it, they were impressed how prepared she was, she pointed out an excellent point "you can't rely on kindness of strangers", because you never know what comes after, you don't know what this stranger may be thinking...so yeah I agree, the others are very impressed in how well prepared Mai was, I also liked that she told them and fairly too, since she was the one who brought the food, the boys do the cooking.



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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 7 (Jounouchi VS Ryuzaki)

Update(25/07/2018): no introduction again...so I'll put with the update, still on the Hogwarts Express hype train due to the trailer from San Diego Comic Con of the 2nd movie of Fantastic Beasts (I'm very excited for this movie 😆).


Plot Summary:

Noticing Mokuba has gone, they're worried and suspect he was taken to Pegasus's castle, they can't do much unless they get more stars, since Dark Yugi has already six stars and Jounouchi only two, the gang try to help Jounouchi find a contestant but goes in vain since he is being accompanied by Dark Yugi, the participants feel intimidated just from seeing him right behind Jounouchi, as this happens, Mai just won the duel fairly easy and feeling bored, she takes a pause thinking for herself about her duel against Jounouchi and the riddle has given her, as she tries to find an answer, her thoughts are interrupted by Ryuzaki who challenges her and claiming he has already four stars then she shows she has 8 stars already, which means if she wins two more star chips and she gets to Pegasus's castle, her last opponent for these stars she wants to duel against Jounouchi but after some thought she asks Ryuzaki to duel against Jounouchi then she will duel against him, he reluctantly agrees with her condition.
As the gang having no success yet to find an opponent for Jounouchi, they meet up with Mai and Ryuzaki offering a willing opponent for Jounouchi, Ryuzaki, both bet two stars Ryuzaki easily takes the lead, eventually Jounouchi turns the tables, his first time taking a lead, it's over until Ryuzaki summons Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Ryuzaki and Mai already suspect Time Wizard is already face down, since it was a card that could beat Mai's deck, Ryuzaki suggests wager not just the star chips but also their cards such if Ryuzaki wins, Jounouchi gives his Time Wizard and if vice-versa, Ryuzaki gives is Red-Eyes to Jounouchi, Mai isn't liking this so Ryuzaki and Mai start discussing over it, Jounouchi surprised that his Time Wizard hold so much value to the point these fight over it, he gambles this card for his victory, it ends with Jounouchi winning the duel together gaining 2 star chips and Red-Eyes Black Dragon.



Key Points:

When the duel of Dark Yugi against the ventriloquist is over, Mokuba and the double agent disappears, they suspect they did go to the Pegasus's castle...I find the last two panels because of the sfx makes it quite funny, Dark Yugi with 6 stars is a "WHOOM" and Jounouchi with only 2 stars is "BOOM" 😀, what a funny transition...

 

The scene changes on focusing Mai duelling other person and win against him, we can see how deeply she was affected by her loss even though she doesn't want to admit it...to the point that she isn't even using her "aroma tactics" anymore and she is so bored (it's quite amusing too), as if she is going through grinding in a JRPG that sometimes happens to anyone who played it, in a way she is, since she is gathering star chips, even though she kept winning her next duels after losing against Jounouchi but also as if she feels something is a miss as shown in the panels ensemble on right thinking about the riddle that Jounouchi has given her, foreshadowing her character development, she can't get the riddle phrase out of her mind...however it will take some time, she will get her own answer, it's still not the right part to explore it...it will come later.

  

Ryuzaki appears to challenge her, but since she had beaten him before, she has no interest, then kinda boasts and reveals his current status being 5 stars chips while Mai of having already 8 stars chips, which is to show her level of skill is pretty much way above Ryuzaki, 3 stars above to be exact, when she fought Jounouchi, from 4 stars to 3 then jumped to five more stars chips, from 3 to 8 in 7 hours since she fought Jounouchi, it's very impressive and won 5 stars by playing half-heartly in a breeze, again is to say her skill is very close to Kaiba, Dark Yugi and Yugi, it's no wonder after the series is over, in spin-offs, movies and videogames, she has "legendary duelist" title like Kaiba, Dark Yugi, Jounouchi and Yugi.

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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.8-11 Part 6 (Dark Yugi VS Player Killer "Puppeteer")

Update: wow no introduction gain, I just plain started the key points...😑, time to fix this...
I'm going to warn you, because I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd and watched the recent trailer of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald from San Diego Comic Con, so is happening as the same as it did with Kingdom Hearts 3 E3 2018 trailers, I am on Hogwarts Express hype train 😜.


Plot Summary:

The gang says farewell to Ryota as they leave and they comment how much they liked the guy, then they hear a kid being forced to leave the island by a guard because he has no star chips since they were stolen, Jounouchi attempts to solve this injustice, before they have the chance to find the thief,the gang sees the kid who he is trying to help is anyway forced to leave the island on a boat (not on a ship and not even the same they came from...😒), so the thief appears and was masked and seemed to be a kid, judging by his clothes and eyes, he looks vaguely familiar, Dark Yugi suspects already who might be and the kid challenged him  and he plays badly because he is using stolen cards and had the confirmation he was the thief (because of the stolen star chips and not wearing the duelist glove), due to not going well for the kid, he tries to steal Dark Yugi's star chips, Dark Yugi grabs the kid's arm and took off his mask revealing to be Mokuba, the gang was surprised and asked what he was doing in the island, so he explains his situation and the true intentions of Pegasus holding this tournament...the guard appears again and captures Mokuba to send him back to the castle when Mokuba was about to give back the two star chips he had stolen from Dark Yugi, on the condition of Dark Yugi retrieving his missing two star chips, he has to play against a special opponent who appears to be a ventriloquist - I'll call him a puppeteer to be faster, who pretends to be controlling a puppet doll possessed by Kaiba spirit and does shows he has Kaiba's deck, so the duel proves very difficult and some strange event happens and helps Dark Yugi winning the duel, Kaiba is recovered from his coma, leaving his mansion to go by helicopter to the island to save Mokuba and his company, but after Dark Yugi won the duel, the guard and Mokuba disappeared...


Key points:

Previously last Thoughts and Observations was about Dark Yugi duel against Ryota Kajiki, it was more of friendly competitive duel, they liked him, so far of the duelists they have met, he was very open and honest, not arrogant and very fair, in another words, he was a good person essentially, they liked him a lot as it shows in the panels ensemble above, I like him too, he is a very likeable character.

  

After some time passing by, Dark Yugi and the gang hears noise close by, it's a kid - duelist - who is being unfairly expelled and out of the competition because someone stole his star chips, Jounouchi intervenes and promises to help him and as a terrible altruist he can be sometimes...a compensation for helping him for 1 or 2 stars...(Jounouchi seems to sometimes have the kind of ethic looking for a reward when he makes a good deed...but he does eventually grow out of it).
The probably thief behind the shadows in hiding watching the gang...

If look closely at the first panel of the panels ensemble above, we can see half of the painting of a woman and painting of Shadi, we can confirm from here he met Shadi and probably responsible for Pegasus having a Millennium Eye, it should be interpreted as the people who marked the most in his life, Shadi and this mysterious woman, who we still don't know her name, the last 3 panels - we can see he likes reading cartoonish comics (probably about slapstick humour, the ones I really hate, I do however relate that I do react like this when I'm reading a book/graphic novel), he is an character with full of eccentricity to hide his secrets under this pompous character he makes himself of? his adoration for these cartoon comics may reveal himself more than it looks...




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