Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 2 (Dark Yugi VS Silent Doll "Marik")

This post will be a brief summary of the duel (not transcription) and the keys points, I want to compensate for these months for not post anything, by becoming more active (since these lasts months has been busy preventing me from being active).

Plot Summary:

As you remember, I left off in the previous post, Silent Doll "Marik" challenging Dark Yugi, who accepts the challenge.
The duel starts as both duelists testing the waters, then Marik makes metaphor of his strength as a duelist as he advances with his strategy and cornering Dark Yugi to the point of facing Slifer The Sky Dragon, Dark Yugi at first feels terrified for some time but tries to fight back, as he is about to lose the will to fight, Kaiba appears (who received info from his company for detecting Slifer The Sky Dragon) and tell him as his rival not to lose to anyone but Kaiba himself, Kaiba notices the difficulty Dark Yugi is facing and gives an interesting advice, Dark Yugi gets back on track...displays a good amount of skill with a very smart move.
The duels ends with Dark Yugi's victory!

Key Points:

 

Both of them have such huge egos, so funny, it's funny and amusing really when Dark Yugi says "You can catch me...but can you beat me?", that's his overconfidence and ego, and cheesy phrases from an overconfident character, then when his opponent praises his skills he goes quiet not of nervosism, just plain serious, usually when someone praises you, you would say thanks, makes me think why he doesn't it? is he acting humble or to not let flattery get to him? or his ego is so big because of something he already knows and thinks he is very skilled himself? we have to remember his pride and confidence mostly bases on his skills...but he is not aware yet of his own weaknesses yet, at least not completely, there is others, we will explore it in this post a little.

I think is more about not getting flattery get to him and at the same time is super confident that his skills are superior than most players, he can be so contradicting sometimes, probably because is uncommon an overconfident person and character with reserved personality without being snotty but generally a good person, strong sense of justice and righteous, he has unusual combination of traits.


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 1 (Battle City Break Part 2)

I finished the first part of Battle City, but this time I will be covering 7 volumes, the duels around this time are longer therefore plenty of duels which starts at the end of a volume, however not making transcriptions of the duels hasn't changed, I will still make a small summary of it and focusing more on the plot and the characters.

In the english licensed version is "Duelist"vol.13-19.
For being a Battle City Break, the main focus will be Yugi and Dark Yugi.

Plot Summary:

We left off with the end of the duel of Jounouchi against Haga, as a result with Jounouchi's victory.
The second part of Battle City starts with Kaiba Corp using their surveillance system to find the god cards around the participants but with no success since the wielder of Slifer The Sky Dragon hasn't dueled yet...then transitions to Marik just arriving to a port close to Domino City (80km of difference), discussing the plans with his subjects, informing he won't be on the sidelines anymore but still in hiding as he rides in his moto getting himself ready for the duel including his "silent doll".
The scene changes again starting to focus on Dark Yugi and Yugi conversations, their conversation will be interrupted by Marik through his "silent doll" and challenges Dark Yugi.

(what a small summary I just wrote...)

Key Points:

 

That's some technology right there, Kaiba! Kaiba's obsession with games is impressive, specially when it comes to Duel Monsters/Magic and Wizards, he can grow a bit impatient...but it shows that even Kaiba without being in the building, the company can work pretty well independently, Kaiba could give himself a vacations once in awhile because sometimes he seems he doesn't take any vacations.

 

Kaiba is quite straight to the point even to his employees, he is quite confident about the technology of his company, he does trust his employees enough to do the job they were hired for (such a practical way of thinking), but Kaiba having plenty of fighting spirit and quite passionate about games makes him the type of leader who goes to the front lines.

We get some info about their technology, the surveillance system being the same as the U.S. military, when Kaiba goes big, he really goes big, at least he doesn't have big delusions of grandeur (only some of it xD).


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.18-19 Part 5 (Jounouchi VS Insector Haga)

This time it will be a bit smaller than the previous, but the summary might be a bit long.


Plot Summary:

We left off with Marik getting closer to Domino City, so the scene changes in focusing Anzu, Sugoroku (Yugi's grandfather) and Ryou Bakura searching for Yugi and Jounouchi and not having much success, comes the time for lunch, Anzu remembers where Jounouchi might be, Beef Burger.
The scene changes to the location of where Jounouchi is as Anzu suspected, Jounouchi eating with his duel disk still on his arm without considering it might be hurting others around him as he eats, a man who he accidentally snapped in the face called him out, Jounouchi feels offended for being called out of not removing his duel disk and the owner of the Beef Burger called him out as well, Jounouchi listen to him because he has given him free pickles (I don't think it's the only reason, I 'll approach this rude behaviour).
After Jounouchi removes his duel disk and put on the table, a kid was passing by and steals Jounouchi's duel disk, Jounouchi notices straight away, leaves his pay and left the restaurant to go after the kid and quickly catches him as his friends caught up with him.
The kid tells a sob story as he lost a duel, he lost his deck and duel disk, Jounouchi buys the story while the others specially Sugoroku is giving the benefit of doubt, suspicious, Jounouchi is decided to duel against this person, they do have an interesting conversation between Jounouchi and Anzu, sharing a tidbit of the current state of Shizuka, even though the surgery was a success but Shizuka is scared to take off the bandages, Anzu to Jounouchi "reporting" Honda went on some trip, Jounouchi knowing full well Honda, he understood straight away where he went...
A scene transition goes to the kid thief talking with another kid, this other kid reveals to be Insector Haga who orchestrated the whole thing to put one of Haga cards, a parasite card in Jounouchi's deck, with the condition of giving a rare card to the thief kid, unsurprisingly Insector Haga given a "common" card (so he lied), the thief kid calls out and Haga attacks him with a bug killer to his eyes and leaves to prepare himself for the duel...
Jounouchi meets Haga and the duel starts, right at the first turn, Jounouchi got his parasite card and was automatically special summoned due to it's effect and activates it's player field effect, from the start Jounouchi is in a corner, as the duel goes on, there plenty transition scenes between this duel and Honda going to the Hospital to pick up Shizuka followed by Otogi Ryuji and convince Shizuka to go with them to give courage to Jounouchi since Jounouchi is dueling to do the same for her.
The duel ends with Jounouchi's victory.



Key Points:

 

I want to mention this titbit scene which talks about their daily life a little bit, Anzu mentions while blushing a little(it could be from feeling tired from walking searching for Yugi and Jounouchi) and expressing her opinion that Yugi should get a cell phone is interesting, indicating Yugi isn't much for technology unless there is games involved...he needs to reorganize his priorities a little...

Honda not telling he is picking up Shizuka just to surprise Jounouchi and them, another cute titbit from Bakura, he participates in campaigns and write the plots for these tabletop RPGs campaigns, which later Anzu reflects on it as "seems like everybody's drifting apart these days...", it's natural, you're all in 2nd year High School, one wonders what's Yugi future...as profession (Jounouchi for me is kinda easy, it's what he always have been doing as part-time jobs, Anzu - we already know to be a dancer, Honda I suppose I can have a guess it will be something similar to Jounouchi or something else, Bakura might be related to RPGs or game designer of RPGs, Otogi Ryuji is easy because he already works as game designer, Kaiba is electronic gaming engineer and president of KaibaCorp, but Yugi is a real mystery for me because he has so much potential and promise yet he always not thought of his future until recently because of the circumstances regarding the spirit of the pharaoh he is hosting made him think about his own future, but what kind? I have a feeling the end of Dark Side of Dimensions movie will give a glimpse).


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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.18-19 Part 4 (Dark Yugi VS Pandora)

This one will be a bit longer than the previous post (a lot of foreshadowing moments, plot focus, points I want to discuss).

Plot Summary:

In the previous post, Dark Yugi had arrived at one of the secret bases of the Rare Hunters Ghouls inside a card store, Pandora The Conjurer challenged Dark Yugi to a duel to test who is the true master of Dark Magician/Black Magician.
Pandora guides Dark Yugi to a duel arena and they start shuffle their own cards and then of each other with some little discussion about how you treat the cards by how you shuffle, Dark Yugi tells Pandora using shotgun shuffle damages the cards, when they put in their positions for the duel, shackles on their feet and a carbide tipped saw blade appears and rolling and advances as you lose life points, if your LP reach 0 then the player who loses the duel has their legs chopped and eventually die if no ambulance comes...
Dark Yugi is deeply affected by this game of death (will be approached in the key points) and the duel starts, it gets more intense, even some unusual events happens, when Pandora activates a spell card affects the whole field (inluding the opponent) is willing to sacrifice his own Dark Magician and other monster card to take away Dark Yugi life points, Dark Yugi could have used on his own Dark Magician, but Dark Yugi's Dark Magician shielded Dark Yugi on his own will, it's an unusual event and as the duel reaches it's end, it comes the debut of an iconic card in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dark Magician Girl/Black Magician Girl leading to victory for Dark Yugi.
Carbide saw blade is getting closer to chop Pandora's legs, Dark Yugi is free from the shackles and gets a puzzle card, Pandora had safeguarded a key copy, he is about to remove from his wrist with the duel disk, then Marik comes to his mind and removes the image of the key and feel of the key in his hand, Yugi takes over of his own body and saves Pandora, Marik introduces himself to Yugi (he is aware of 2 entities) and a very interesting conversation between Marik and Yugi.
After this conversation, Yugi finally reaches a decision...and Marik approaching Domino City on a boat.


Key Points:

 

I was patiently waiting for this chance for this key point to write about, look how Dark Yugi is reacting to this life and death duel, he was someone who mentally scarred others and killed a fugitive from justice (but his life was in danger as well plus the hostages, I'll give legitimate defense, the gun was pointed at him, it was kinda fair) for protection or fear of losing (Kaiba's duel in Duelist Kingdom), when he asks "is this fun for you?" and a little lower in his voice, in the panel hiding his face a little, and asks again in a clearer voice tone "I'm asking you, is it fun? A battle that kills people...", while hiding half of it as in deep thought when asks in the panel, then comes to Dark Yugi saying "Then I'll take you..." as he looks down in deep thoughts "...to the very edge of your life!" to Pandora.
I had to describe this scene in detail, because these panels alone show big character development on Dark Yugi part, the moments when he asks and hides his face and looks down a little, it expresses Dark Yugi may not speak of it or not show his deepest thoughts to the readers but by looking at the early volumes of what he has done to this duel, it reveals duels against Kaiba and Pegasus, specially the information about the millenium items having evil intelligence had a huge impact on him and he feels a lot of guilt and regret because this very duel it is mirrored at him of his shadow games but as he tries maintaining his sense of justice.
Dark Yugi has been realizing and slowly admitting recently since Duelist Kingdom, his sense of justice is flawed and so is his own self but is a big step for him to evolve and expand himself and so is his ethics like his pride evolved into integrity as I explained before in the duel against rare hunter exodia post , he is learning about.his own flaws, but does he hate himself for the things he did in past and had forgiven himself? I don't know, but one thing is clear, recognizing and learning from his mistakes, he tries to be the best of himself and keep his integrity.
I want to feature a post on Tumblr that inspired to write this section like I did about this Dark Yugi/Atem character development tumblr post of this scene.



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Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.18-19 Part 3 (Battle City Break)

This is a little break from Battle City being more plot focus, I think the summary will be small, it might mean a small post like the previous one, just a bit smaller....

Plot Summary:

We left Jounouchi leaving from his first duel ending with his victory, as Jounouchi leaves the scene, the background changes and focus on other part of Domino City,  players discussing about the antes, Koji "spider" Nagumo comes back claiming the card of his opponent ante isn't enough compensate for his rare card and force his opponent to pay (it's ridiculous), Mokuba appears as steering committee chairman of the tournament to stop the current disagreement and evaluate the situation if is fair or not, Mokuba informs the ante rare value are the same, Koji seeing not going his way he threatens Mokuba that he makes his own rules, then Seto Kaiba shows up...
Seto Kaiba claims is shocked Koji demands so much from ante, then Kaiba rips Koji's ante card and challenges him to a duel and to compensate for ripping his ante card, gives his card case full of rare cards and even gives him a chance to using them to improve his deck, Koji being too confident (forgetting Kaiba might have even rarer cards in his deck being Kaiba), Kaiba shows off his God card, Obelisk leaving the Koji's previous opponent and Koji very shocked.
The scene transitions again to another with a Rare Hunter informing Marik they detected who currently has the Obelisk God card (being Kaiba), so it's open some discussion and revealing informition (and misinformation), Marik reveals he goes personally to Domino City to get the God card himself and ask them to keep Yugi (Dark Yugi busy) with Pandora.
Once again the scene changes in focusing on Yugi and Dark Yugi searching for rare hunters and they have an interesting conversation and got an idea where one of the rare hunters might be, the card game store, they arrive, the door was opened and so they enter and Dark Yugi next opponent reveal himself to Dark Yugi being Pandora and like Yugi, an owner of a Black Magigian/Dark Magician, they discuss a little and Dark Yugi accepting Pandora's challenge.


Keys Points:

Look who is back? Koji "spider" Nagumo, now for anyone who have read the first 7 volumes would recognize him, I forgot to mention him when I had the chance around volume 6 (I'll add more details about the Monster Fight arc in the proper post after I finish the whole manga analysis), I think he was a bit important to Yugi's development and also presenting Yugi's current flaws he is currently trying to overcome.
Even after his Penalty Game with Dark Yugi, he hasn't change much or picking on weaker ones and proves that most of Dark Yugi Penalty games aren't permanent like the others (with one exception to the prisoner which was death), sadly for him he will mess with the wrong person again...and some stupid players still with this "I'll beat you so bad you'll never duel again" as something cool and respect...when it's actually the other way around, good grief...

 

I think is very interesting, Mokuba playing a role as referee of the tournament and he is doing a pretty good job as a neutral party (so cute too :3), it shows good character development because he isn't as vicious as he was before or "cheating" like he did with the capsule monsters and russian roulette, it shows the events of Duelist Kingdom had big effect on him and Yugi & Co was a huge influence on him.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Wallpapers I've made...

Resolution base Format is 1920x1080

  

 

 

 

If you want see my other works, here: Viajantedemundos wallpapers (worldstraveller)

Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.18-19 Part 2 (Battle City Begins - Jounouchi VS Espa Roba)

This will be again a post with the same length as the previous one, focusing on key details of the duel, let's get on the summary plot of the post...

Plot Summary:

We left off Jounouchi asking Dark Yugi to hold his Red Eyes Black Dragon to take as opportunities to get strong enough to get it back and to duel against Dark Yugi, a learning experience, Dark Yugi gladly accepts the request and challenge.
Jounouchi and Dark Yugi goes separate ways to find their next opponents, it focus on Jounouchi seeing a crowd of duelists watching a duel between Dino Ryuzaki and Esper Roba, victory going to Esper Roba, Jounouchi challenges Esper Roba.
Esper Roba accepts his challenge and the duel starts, Jounouchi makes a small mistake on forgetting Battle City Tournament requires super expert rules (sacrificing a lower level monster to summon a high level monster - level 5 and over), Roba claims having psychic powers and be able to get what cards Jounouchi has, the duel comes to for a real start.
In the process of the duel, Jounouchi discovers Esper Roba is actually a fake psychic on his own by noticing a small mistake from his opponent or "his psychic powers", the readers get to know who are the "psychic powers" being Esper Roba little brothers... as the duel goes on, during the duel reveals Jounouchi's deck is a Gamble deck, in other words, totally relies mostly on luck.
The duel ends with the victory on Jounouchi's side, we get Esper Roba reaction to his defeat showing some more of his characterization and an interesting discussion between the two players and ending with a strong message.


Key points:

 

Jounouchi sees as steps in becoming a true duelist, according to Jounouchi's steps in becoming a "true duelist", I'll interpret it as becoming active in duelists community, taking initiative by challenging those who are a duelist  in front of you and seem stronger than him, steps in becoming a better and become a more experienced player, Jounouchi is already starting building his own definition of "true duelist", since each individual is different, of course will be different it's definition, Jounouchi own way starts shaping up from here...

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