"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

dizziiedaikon:

blairflannigan:

I found an error! Kagurazaka’s pants go from being the same color as Judai’s to being black and I don’t know how you can mess that up when one scene comes literally right after the other and its supposed to be the protag’s outfit of all people.

blairflannigan:

Kagurazaka is actually a really good character that was done perfectly in a two episode timespan. I would prefer he got a different ending tbh, but I think ep 19’s ending still shows how interesting of a character he is and I’m a big fan of characters that still keep complex flaws and don’t have picture perfect endings.

So, Misawa knows a lot about Kagurazaka and obviously understands Zaka more than Zaka understands himself. Misawa says, and I quote:

“Kagurazaka’s memory is too good, so the decks he builds himself unconsciously start to resemble other people’s decks. People use that against him, which is why he always loses his duels. But mimicking other decks means that he can read the features of someone else’s deck in an instant. He can read even the character of the duelist who created a deck, and then recreate their tactics.”

But another student describes him as such:

“He’s always been all theory, but no actual concrete skill.”

So Kagurazaka is analytical. He has a perfect memory and can read people like a book to the point that he can copy what they do. That’s good. That’s some very good skills that are extremely useful, especially for a duelist. But the problem is that he can’t execute that skill to the best of it’s ability. He only ends up copying the people he analyzes and that allows his opponents to know exactly what his strategy is and how to beat him.

He copies Yugi, Kaiba, Cronos, and Kaiser, but it becomes obvious that even with their strategies, he’s not them. He doesn’t have the same level of inherent talent and natural skill that they do. He can simply never be on their level. And I don’t mean that like he can never be a good duelist, but he can never use their decks with the same proficiency that they do. They’re not the decks he’s practiced with for years to perfect. Just knowing the strategy and how to play the cards isn’t going to make him a duelist that can use those decks under stressful, high leveled situations that the original owners can.

As Judai and Kaiser both said, Kagurazaka needs to have faith in his deck. He just takes the already successful ones, learns how to use them, and believes he’ll always win. The show is obviously different from dueling in real life, so in the show it’s all about having faith in the deck that you built and bonded with with your own two hands. That’s the only true way to succeed with a deck. With one you put genuine tender loving care into.

And Kagurazaka doesn’t have that. The students watching the duel, and Kaiser, even said he used the deck to its fullest potential. He’s that good that he almost beat Judai with the true potential of Yugi Muto’s deck, but he was missing the same bond that Yugi had with the deck. Strategy alone couldn’t beat the bond Judai has with his Heroes.

So Zaka is lacking faith. He’s esentially all strategy, memorization, and analysis. There’s no heart in it and he doesn’t believe in himself to win with a deck he built himself. He’s got a similar skill set to Misawa actually, who analyses his opponent and then builds a deck to counter them. But while Misawa makes his own unique counter decks, Zaka just copies other people. Misawa is what Zaka could be if he put faith and originality into his own ideas. So through Misawa, you can see exactly what Zaka is doing wrong and why they have different outcomes in their strategies.

And that’s only the beginning of Kagurazaka. This is just his skills and what he does right and wrong with them and what he’s missing. Kagurazaka’s fatal flaw is not believing in himself and his own ideas. So once he understands that, what does he do? He doesn’t go on to build his own unique deck and become original. No, he just copies Judai and dresses up exactly like him. Even getting his signature catchphrase wrong.

I know the ending of episode 19 is one big comedic joke. Like ‘haha, Kagurazaka missed the point entirely’, but I think that’s the whole point of it! To repeat myself, Kagurazaka’s fatal flaw is not believing in himself and his own ideas. And he keeps that fatal flaw. And that’s the most interesting thing about him. He missed the point entirely. He doesn’t decide to become original, he decides to become like the person who taught him that. He even says to Judai that he wasn’t taking his impressions seriously enough.

And so it’s different this time. Zaka isn’t doubling down. He isn’t trying to prove that his way is the best way, that he can only win by using the same strategies as others with no heart put into it. I believe he believes his talent is in copying. He believes that’s where his originality is. No one else does that. Zaka is the only one that plays the game like this. He channeled his inner Yugi and saw how close it got him. So if he channels his inner Judai, someone who managed to beat him with the faith he had in his Heroes, and does it even better than before, then maybe he could actually win.

It’s entirely the wrong line of thinking. Kagurazaka really truly did miss the point entirely, but he believes he got it right. He’s even showing a hint of his true self by being goofy while copying Judai. He’s having fun with it now. It’s not 'this is the best way’ anymore. It’s 'this is my way’ now. And he’s still wrong. He got Judai’s point so backwards, but he thinks he’s right. And that shows so much depth to Zaka’s character. There’s so much weight to his fatal flaw and he keeps it. He’s not suddenly a flawless character. He doesn’t change his ways after losing to Judai and having his eyes opened to the truth of the fun of dueling. He thinks he does, but he doesn’t. He’s improved, but he’s still flawed. And that’s what I love about him.

Also please look at how cute he is doing a failed Judai impression.