toon-girl-abby:

GUYS THE PIRATE EPISODE OF GX IS TOTALLY MORE RELEVANT THAN EXPECTED

I SWEAR, PEOPLE EITHER MEME OR PUT DOWN THE PIRATE EPISODE FOR BEING UNIMPORTANT AND IT REALLY IS BUT THE THING IS, THE WHOLE THING IS LIKE A SUMMARY PLAYED FOR LAUGHS VERSION OF STUFF THAT HAPPENS IN THE REALLY SERIOUS PART OF SEASON 3, WHICH I AM GONNA MENTION SO BEAR WITH ME.

Breathes

Look, I normally don’t do any liveblogging or the like but I need to get this out of my mind, it’s important. I already talked a little bit about this but I am gonna go in detail as I rewatch this episode in the OG version since I watched the Latino dub for nostalgia and because the episode really was not that important, technically speaking. Still, there are a few maybe coincidences I wanted to mention from having watched the dub and another liveblogging. Any screenshots I may post will have Spanish subs, I apologize, couldn’t find a place with English subs. Spoilers for the whole show warning!

So, episode 38! “水中デュエル！伝説の都アトランティス/An underwater duel! The Legendary City of Atlantis” Let’s go!

First off, Judai and Sho have a little bump in their relationship in this episode!

“You are mean, Aniki! How could you just eat my fried shrimp?!”

This episode is very light and the “conflict” between them is laughable, with Judai doing the equivalent of stealing your pal’s fries (which is what he did, except change fries with shrimp). The dub kinda made Jaden more of a douchebag by changing it to him trading Syrus’ bed for a card.

“I’m sorry, my bad. As I saw that you weren’t eating it, I assumed that you hated it”

The stolen shrimp thing is more Judai screwing around and he did apologize for it, even explaining that he thought Sho didn’t like shrimp (still, it’s called asking, Judai) while outright stealing his friend’s bed and exchanging it for a card is a lot more serious and he never apologizes for it in the dub. And it wasn’t even supposed to be that serious, when the Pirate Guy mentions about Syrus not liking Jaden as part of the reason why he shouldn’t be tied down to Duel Academia, I didn’t even notice that Sho didn’t actually come with the rest of Judai’s cheerleaders (apparently it was shown in the OG that he didn’t come but like, I either missed it out in the dub or they just deleted the scene, I would need to rewatch dub version again to check, man, but I am assuming that I didn’t notice that Syrus didn’t go to the submarine with the rest) but it’s pretty obvious still that the thing was petty and dumb and Sho wouldn’t stop being Judai’s friend/lil bro figure just because of that.

“I don’t like this… We only fought because of the fried shrimp and now I won’t see Aniki ever again…”

No, we would need to fast-forward to almost one hundred episodes later/2 seasons later for more serious reasons why Judai and Sho would stop being the best of friends. Still, it hurts to watch this even then because I already know Judai’s and Sho’s friendship really didn’t last.

Second! Is… Is it just me or the villain of this episode was, uh, oddly stalkerish? Out of freaking nowhere this pirate/marine guy (Nicknamed Admiral in the dub, real name is given in the OG as Anacis and he is really a merchant and a sorta marine but I prefer using pirate guy for short if not using his true name) comes to Duel Academia with the sole intention of recruiting Judai for his own Duel Academia.

Kuriboh head boy over here assumes that pirate guy is a Seven Stars/Shadow Rider (I swear the dub name is more cooler, as much as I prefer the OG in other respects), and the OG version makes the misunderstanding more clear by showing the microphone that pirate guy used was malfunctioning and it was blaring noise all over the place so nobody hears well what his intentions really are and since Judai had been fighting Kagemaru’s stooges all over the place, it was really easy to assume it was more of the same. I mean, the guy had a vampire, a tiger, another apparently famous pharaoh that wasn’t Atem who turned out to be a fake legend, some goofy spirits, and as serious as Amnael was, he was still silly cat lover Daitokuji-sensei (nyah!) and he was silly before and after the reveal, but not during. It was not really a stretch that he would have a pirate on board. And he did mention the Phantom Beasts, and that wasn’t a misunderstanding soooooo…

“I-I can’t breath!” AKA the reason why this episode is memed on aside from the whole dueling pirate thing

Anyways! Yeah, it wasn’t his deal and it wasn’t a Shadow game, as hilariously cringe that everyone on Team Judai’s assumptions on the matter were. The OG does give a bit more of a motivation to Anacis in that he mistakenly (as well) assumed that beating Judai would give him the Phantom Beasts, but it wasn’t his whole intention for the thing. As Judai points out to him, since everyone was confused on the onset about how any of this worked, the duel had no reason to be but pirate guy doesn’t stop.

“The three Phantom Beasts… And you! Judai Yuki, I have my eyes on you!”

NO! Pirate guy over here wanted to steal the Phantom Beasts and Judai from under Kaiba’s nose, I suppose, to found his own Duel Academia (which he can totally do, the founding an own Duel Academia bit, because he has a lot of money on him and is fully willing to use it to screw the rules).

“Why is Judai the symbol [of Duel Academia]?!” Same, bro, same.

And here is where I have to ask why?!?!?! I don’t think Judai being Duel Academia’s Ace was that well known at this point in GX. Well, he does mention the versus North Duel Academia thing but like, Kaiser was still there, he was still better than Judai and so well known that he was given that Kaiser nickname in the first place and previous episodes did show that people outside Duel Academia do know him, like a certain Rei Saotome did.

“With this you will belong to me very soon!”

The whole thing reeks a bit stalkerish to me, especially how Anacis seems to be willing to throw an insane amount of money at Judai’s feet just for the sake of buying the guy, which is a bit uncomfortable imo. At one point he even celebrates when the situation seems bleak for Judai by saying “he will own him”. Brrrrrr. But since this episode is lighthearted and stuff, it really mostly plays it as if pirate guy was Abridged Kaiba with his “Screw the Rules, I have money!”, especially with how the guy tries to bend the rules of a duel just by using money! And the dub does make him a little creepier by adding a little of trying to use emotional manipulation like I mentioned before about pointing out that Jaden supposedly had no ties to Duel Academia because Syrus was angry at him.

“Huh? Where are the others?”

Not that the OG version was a slouch in being sleazy by using Judai’s friends to get at him, and trying to isolate him from them and force him to follow his plans anyways after the duel and the power of money failed him, though the dub does make him more evilly manipulative by making it seem like Jaden’s friends just went up and left him! In the OG there was no such misunderstanding, pirate guy is upfront in how he was not willing to honor their bet and was taking Judai by force.

I do think it’s kind of a shame that pirate guy was an one-off because he seemed to be serious about this and it would have been a neat plot, especially if Kaiba had gotten involved with this upstart. Still, we only need to fast-forward to two seasons later to see another stalker villain going after Judai, who is also very incidentally involved with the Phantom Beasts, and this time it’s serious and personal…

“Wait, Judai! This is a Shadow Game! It’s too dangerous to board the enemy territory alone!” Not like you helped him, not now, not in Season 3

Third! After watching the whole thing subbed, I noticed that the dub actually added a bit of a subtext that wasn’t in the OG about Jaden being worried about his friends that are constantly being put in danger because of the Shadow Games. Alexis, Misawa and Chazz all decide to go with Jaden anyways in spite of the risk, and this scene does exist in the OG except without the aforementioned subtext. Still, it’s very uncomfortable to watch because this situation happens for real in Season 3 with Judai’s friends following him in spite of the risks and how that backfired on Judai, horribly.

“Very well. In that case, I will go”

“I can’t let you boast by yourself. I will go too.”

“I will go too.”

“Sho, Hayato. You should come too” But for what reason.

For all it’s worth, it is framed as a friendship thing since Judai invites Sho and Hayato to come with him too but goes to show that Judai was more mature in Season 3 than anyone including the fandom ragged him on about when even he knew the risks of his friends going with him to the Different Dimension. Their deaths in Dark World were more or less their own fault.

Fourth! OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS WHERE JUDAI’S SPEEDBOAT CAME FROM?! WHAT THE FUDGE! AND IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING, JUDAI TRIED TO LEAVE DUEL ACADEMIA IN SEASON 2 WITH A SPEEDBOAT BUT I ASSUMED HE JUST KIND OF STOLE ONE FROM DUEL ACADEMIA OR EVEN MY HEADCANON THAT JUDAI DID OWN A SPEEDBOAT (MY HC BEING THAT HIS PARENTS ARE RICH). TURNS OUT HE DID STEAL A BOAT, I JUST DIDN’T REMEMBER WHERE IT CAME FROM. WOULD NEED TO DOUBLE CHECK SEASON 2 TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE THE SAME BUT IT WOULDN’T SURPRISE ME IF THAT WAS THE CASE.

To conclude, I actually liked this episode a lot more now that I watched it twice! I know ARC-V made a call back to this particular episode with Captain Solo but my gosh, it was just yet another thing that ARC-V botched. Anacis is actually an entertaining villain even as an one-off, with his plans actually having such serious implications to the setting that it feels like a waste that he was just an one-shot, while Captain Solo was a waste of everyone’s time unless you are a Sora fan. Which, I am but even the Fluffal support of that particular episode and Sora and Tsukikage being a deliciously trolling duo isn’t enough to salvage that waste of an episode in a show pressed for time.

darkshadowduelist:

25th Anniversary Ultimate Kaiba Set

● Price: 33,000 Yen

● Release Date: April 2022 onwards

● Product Description

A display case set which contains 3 “Blue-Eyes White Dragon”, the monster that embodies “Yu-Gi-Oh!”, and this commemorative product also includes an attache case, that include every cards Seto Kaiba used in the original manga.

● Set Contents

・ A Set of 3 “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” (Secret Rare Foil) set in a Display Case! The case has the “Original Manga 25th Anniversary Logo” inscribed on it!

・ Cards Used by Seto Kaiba: 58 Cards + 3 New Cards (All Ultra Rare Foil)

All 61 cards used by Seto Kaiba in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! are included as Ultra Rares! And among these 61, 3 long-awaited cards will be made into Official Card Game Cards!

・ Kaiba Attache Case (Including Separators)

This case’s size and design reproduces the impact of the first major scene Kaiba appeared; capable of storing about 7000 Cards comfortably! With two separator cards per row, there’s room to arrange your cards in 14 different groupings. We’ve also included a belt in the lid side made to let you fold a rubber Duel Field (i.e. Playmat) into two and carry it.

● Attache Case Size, Materials and Weight

・ Size

Outer Diameter: Roughly 514mm wide, 392mm tall, and 120mm deep, body is 80mm and the lid 40mm

※ Excluding Key, Handle and Bottom Convex

Weight: About 7kg

・ Materials

Main Body: Aluminum

Interior Fabric: Ethylene-vinyl acetate Black

Interior Lid Fabric: Polyester

Other: Sponge for the Display Set

Packing Schedule Size: 620mm wide, 500mm tall, 220mm deep

※ Excluding Key, Handle and Bottom Convex

Weight: About 8kg

Also, Take Note of the 3 Brand New Cards!

Cards that appeared in the original manga have been turned into cards for the Official Card Game!!

“Attack Guidance Armor”

“Life Shaver”

“Magical Trick Mirror”

Included Card List

・ Promotional Cards

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

・ Cards Used By Seto Kaiba

Attack Guidance Armor (New)

Life Shaver (New)

Magical Trick Mirror (New)

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Hyozanryu

Judgeman

Sword Stalker

Steel Ogre Grotto #2

Gyakutenno Megami

Gadget Soldier

Rude Kaiser

Vorse Raider

X – Head Cannon

La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp

Battle Ox

Ryu-Kishin Powered

Mystic Horseman

Grappler

Hitotsu-Me Giant

Ryu-Kishin

Saggi the Dark Clown

Obelisk the Tormentor

Masked Beast Des Guardius

Kaiser Glider

Invitation to a Dark Sleep

Des Feral Imp

Blade Knight

Y – Dragon Head

Z – Metal Tank

Lord of D.

Wicked Worm Beast

Ancient Lamp

Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon

XYZ – Dragon Cannon

XY – Dragon Cannon

Rabid Horseman

Monster Reborn

Polyermization

Stop Defense

Mesmeric Attack

The Flute of Summoning Dragon

Soul Exchange

Silent Doom

Lullaby of Obedience

Cost Down

Card of Demise

Fiend’s Sanctuary

Shrink

Enemy Controller

Megamorph

Dark Energy

Spell Absorption

Crush Card Virus

Gift of the Mystical Elf

Ring of Destruction

Virus Cannon

Interdimensional Matter Transporter

Cloning

Shadow Spell

Final Attack Orders

Negate Attack

Pre-Orders for this product begin September 21st 2021 to October 31st 2021

Expected Deliveries start in April 2022

We will show more about how you can order this at Satellite Shops and Konami Style at a later date.

This is a luxury built/made to order product

azure-fox:

Things that make me mad about VRAINS (in good and bad ways):

THIS THING. THIS STUPID THING. WHAT IS IT?? WHY DOES HE HAVE A RAINBOW MARK SHOW UP ON HIS BOARD AND NO ONE FLIPPING ELSE DOES?????

EMA’S FUCKING DREAMS THAT APPARENTLY EXIST??? BUT??? WHAT + WHERE ARE THEY SHOW????

FUCKING EMA’S RELATIONSHIP TO AKIRA BECAUSE OH MY GOD WHERE DOES SHE FIT INTO HIS NARRATIVE. AND THAT’S NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT WE GOT ABSOLUTELY NO REACTION FROM HER WHEN AKIRA WAS TELLING HIS BACKSTORY WHICH MEANS WE STILL DON’T KNOW IF SHE KNOWS ABOUT HIS PAST OR WHAT HER REACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN TO IT

Can we…can we talk about this sewer monster, VRAINS? Can we…please explain what this thing is? I am in desperate need for answers for this amalgamation of a monstrosity and am reeeeallly hoping this creature wasn’t a one-time thing

THIS. FUCKING. THIS. WHY IS A CHILD WALKING AROUND IN A CANYON ALL ALONE.

WHAT IS SHE SCREAMING ABOUT. WE STILL DON’T KNOW BECAUSE EVERY TIME WE SEE THIS CLIP IT’S JUST MUSIC AND FLAT-OUT SILENCE AND STILL NO ANSWERS.

THIS. WHY SAY YOU CAN’T SUMMON A DATA STORM BECAUSE IT WILL ONLY COMPLETE THE TOWER FASTER AND THEN HAVE A GODDAMN DATA STORM AS THE FINAL BATTLE THAT GOES ON FOR YeArS. I mean-

-shouldn’t the tower have been completed by now at this rate then considering all the data it’s absorbed between episode 35 and episode 42???? Summoning a data storm in episode 42 would have only sped up the tower’s completion right? right??? So then, why is there a data storm right now, right next to the fucking tower which is, let me remind you, on its very fucking last ring, and not have been completed already? Are you literally telling me that, at the beginning of this arc (or hell even episode 35), Playmaker could have literally summoned a data storm and rode the ENTIRE FUCKING WAY TO REVOLVER’S TOWER AND THIS FINAL BATTLE WOULD HAVE STARTED SO MUCH EARLIER OH MY GOD. 

And let’s not talk about the needless deaths of Blue Angel and Go and Akira when all of this could have practically been avoided IF THEY HAD ALL RODE THE DATA STORM TO THE VERY BASE OF THE TOWER AT THE VERY FUCKING BEGINNING OF THIS ARC.

Also, as a THIRD point, if data storms really sped up the process of the tower then why didn’t Dr. Kogami just have Revolver summon a goddamned data storm to fucking speed up the tower???? I mean, it’s reasonable if we wants to obey his son’s wishes to battle Playmaker but we??? literally see none of that??? to the point that Dr. Kogami is straight up saying that he neglected and hasn’t ever paid attention to his son before???? 

smh VRAINS

pharaohsparklefists:

Episode 105, part 1: we should all get an AWARD for sitting through this duel tbh

At the beginning of the episode, Jounouchi helpfully recaps in two sentences what it took me three whole posts to do, that is, he started to duel ~Judge Man~…

Love the way “bit too” is emphasised. It makes me hear it in like a dorky British comedian way, like Richard Ayoade or something.

Anyway, Jounouchi presses on, cleaving tight to his ultimate strategy:

[voice=advertisement] Dueling and it’s not going your way? Lacking a coherent strategy? Unsure how to win? From an experienced finalist of both the kidnapping extravaganza, Duelist Kingdom, and the massive corporate overreach, Battle City, comes the ultimate strategic Duel Advice™: Don’t bother thinking about it!! [/voice]

Jounouchi’s not doing great but he’s sure he can turn it around by using Devil Dice to reduce Judge Man’s monster’s attack points. The dice initially lands on a six, comes to a complete stop, then suspiciously RISES UP OFF THE GROUND, SPINS WILDLY, AND LANDS ON A ONE

Yes, Jounouchi, A ONE.

No one points this out as being OBVIOUSLY WILDLY SUSPICIOUS. Against the nature of dice, and physics, and games, and everything. Easily explained by the fact that Jou’s opponent can change his own appearance, make entire courtrooms appear, etc etc, because THEY’RE IN A VIRTUAL REALITY.

But no. No one comments. Except this fucko. In his head. Like a loser who wants to be an ~~eeevil mastermind~~. 

Once again. Why. Did he change into Judge Man. When he could use. An equally virtual simulacrum of his real body?????????

Anyway! Jounouchi’s not worried. He got quote-unquote unlucky with Devil Dice, but Angel Dice will sort him out! If he can raise the attack of his OWN monster, that’s just as good!

… It’s a one-in-thirty-six chance, Jounouchi. Exactly the same chance as both dice landing on six, which they both did, before Judge Man intervened.

I wonder if – going with the idea that the Virtual World is sort of pliable, and Judge Man is just exerting his will on the digital reality, as perhaps Yami did when he walked on the water – Jounouchi did it too, unconsciously, willing the dice to land on six? And Judge Man took it a step further then, moving the dice after they already landed, which Jou “can’t” do because he doesn’t realise it would actually work if he only tried?

Anyway, the cheer squad is appalled – APPALLED – by this statistically unlikely but not impossible event:

Judge Man continues the duel, drawing Pot of Greed, to which Jounouchi, with the swiftness and inevitability of a lethal superheated cloud of gas and tephra obliterating everything in its path as it flows at up to 700km/hr down the side of an explosive andesitic volcano #pyroclasticflowjokes, replies:

“Whatever does it DO????”

Faced with TWO WHOLE NEW CARDS FROM JUDGE MAN’S DECK, Jounouchi decides to do the only thing he can do, really really lean in hard on the gambling deck:

This fuckin card is literally just called Gamble. (Or rather, gyanburu.) You gamble on it.

It’s the gamble card.

Look, where the hell are they getting these silver coins with the Eye on one side??? No one comments on them, they’re not a VR thing, they must already have them. It made almost no sense that Yugi had one, it makes even less sense that Jounouchi has one.

Also I want one.

Jounouchi places his faith in one last draw gamble

Is there? Do we think there is? Is this a real thing? I thought it was a metaphor but now he seems genuinely worried that “she” has abandoned him. Like demi-gods are canonically real, in their universe. I wonder if Pegasus trapped her in a fucking card for their fucking card game…

And Judge Man gets all judgey… #quellesurprise

Look, fucko, like, broadly speaking, I agree with you. The gambling gimmick is kind of crap, and is clearly powered by the engine of Plot, and is a super weird choice for Jounouchi specifically (”raised” by an abusive, alcoholic gambler in the manga, leaving him with maladaptive coping mechanisms). But you didn’t LURE HIM INTO IT. He had literally one card left in his hand, OF COURSE he used the Gamble card. He’s running a fucking gambling deck. What was he supposed to do? Summon new cards from the ether? I mean, MAYBE. That’s the kind of shit you might be able to do in VR, but Jou doesn’t know that. Whatever.

Speaking of “maladaptive coping mechanisms”, where are the Kaiba bros?

Taking a break from shouting at the sky, Seto listens to Mokuba shout at the sea.

Really, Mokuba? Why? Why did this identical door make you think that it wouldn’t be like all the other identical doors, which have so far just led to startlingly beautiful landscapes or terrifyingly accurate recreations of your own memories?

After calling Noah a jerk who pisses him off #hardsame, Mokuba goes in for the killing blow

Seto: Ah, so you DO admire him?

Mokuba: ???

Anyway then, I swear to god, Seto just goes RIGHT back to shouting at the sky, and Noah…

… gets some kind of creepy-ass kick out of it, idk.

Let’s check back in on the duel:

Ah, a fine contender for Out Of Context Yu-Gi-Oh! Bullshit

Oh, by the way, were you wondering if Judge Man kept up the ridiculous judge roleplay shit throughout the duel?

HE SURE DID (actually only intermittently, which is funny, because he would switch pronouns: he uses kimi (you, informal) for Jounouchi mostly but switches to anata (you, formal) when he’s Judging)

Jounouchi busts out the last line of defense, the stalward veterans of dicey situations, the tried-and-true self-sacrificing heroes…

ADORABLE FUZZY GOAT-BABIES

Judge Man slices through them in two consecutive turns using his two active monsters and I didn’t bother screencapping it because (a) it was boring and (b) it was even boringer the second time, which was reused animation with the goats re-coloured #smh

Jounouchi’s friends are chinnily worried and Yugi is specifically suspicious…

Yami is also suspicious…

“He didn’t lose, Yugi. He failed.”

The writing on this show is truly scintillating.

Just as Yugi and Yami blotchily agree that something Suspicious is up, an Angel from On High shines the Divine Light of Heaven unto the duel arena with the most glorious of news…

Halle-fuckin-lujah!

(via blueeyeswhitegarden)

homura-bakura:

So, lately, I’ve been rewatching Penguindrum.  I’ve also been reading a lot of analyses of Penguindrum, and in turn I’ve been looking up analyses of some of my other favorite surrealist anime, mostly Ikuhara’s work.  And remembering how Penguindrum ended, I found myself thinking about how almost all of Ikuhara’s main works end sort of…bittersweet.  Progress has been made, but something huge has been lost as well, leaving the end feeling almost unsatisfactory.

And that’s gotten me to thinking about analyzing shows that have similar endings, that aren’t necessarily made to be…well, as dense as that particular brand of anime.  Specifically, I’ve been thinking about Arc V, and again about the ending that left a lot of people upset.  I was and still am to a point one of those people who was disappointed with how it ended, but looking back at it in hindsight, and especially through the lens of the previously mentioned anime, I wondered if maybe there was something more to the decision than first appeared.

Now before I start the actual meat of this post, let me disclaim that I would be among the first to admit that it’s probably “not that deep.” But there’s the distinct possibility that it is, and regardless of whether my conclusions were intended conclusions, the act of analyzing fiction against one’s own individual interpretation is an important final step in the process of any creative endeavor.

Keep reading

yugiohmangavsanime:

In getting started with comparing Yu-Gi-Oh!’s anime to its original manga, it’s important to first look at the early manga and why so much of the story is skipped over for the anime.

The manga Yu-Gi-Oh! premiered in Weekly Shonen Jump in September of 1996.  Unlike how the anime jumps us right into the action and explains things later, the manga gives us a proper introduction to Yugi & Friends (or, rather, the formation of Yugi’s group of friends) and the Millennium Puzzle being completed.  The early manga mostly follows a “villain of the week” episodic formula where a new character each chapter will wrong Yugi or his friends in some way, so Yugi’s “Other Me” (the Pharaoh) comes out to challenge and defeat the villain to a Shadow Game.  By my count, there are 20 of these types of stories in the first in the first 49 chapters of the manga, with 14 running a single chapter and 6 more being double length.

Interestingly, the first two-chapter story (chapters 9 and 10) had arguably the biggest impact on the future of the series, as it introduced both the Duel Monsters card game (or Magic & Wizards, as it was originally known) as well as the then-villain-of-the-week Seto Kaiba, who of course went on to be a major character.  Kaiba was also the first one-shot villain to make a second appearance, doing so in the manga’s “Death-T” arc where Kaiba attempts his revenge on Yugi only to be defeated again in a duel.  Fast forward to chapter 60, and Yugi’s defeat of Kaiba has reached the attention of the creator of Duel Monsters himself, who as we all know becomes the first real major villain in the series and the series then takes a hard turn from featuring various games to featuring a single now-iconic game.

I won’t cover each and every story from the early manga, but some of the highlights include the chapters involving Joey/Jonouchi’s past gang (chapters 11-12 and 48-49), the entire Shadi arc (chapters 13-20), the aforementioned Death-T arc (chapters 26-40), and the Monster World arc that introduces Bakura and the spirit of the Millennium Ring (chapters 50-59).  The latter three have slight adaptations in the anime (albeit very trimmed down), but the Joey chapters are especially worth a read if you haven’t already checked them out.  The first story in particular is the first time that you really get a good look into Joey and Tristan’s characters beyond just being the bullies who came around to becoming Yugi’s characters, and there’s no real equivalent in the Duel Monsters anime since the characters are introduced with most of their friendship building already done.

Speaking of the Duel Monsters anime, it’s important to note that what we know of as the “classic Yu-Gi-Oh!” anime is actually the second attempt at adapting the show.  The first attempt was produced by Toei animation and ran for 27 episodes from April to October of 1998, and it was only ever released in Japan.  This is the series that fans have dubbed “season 0″ despite it being completely disconnected from the series that followed.  This series follows the plot of the first 59 chapters, though they took a large amount of liberties (Kaiba has green hair for some reason and a very minor character from the manga is a main one in this show).  I could likely dedicate a blog to all the differences between the manga and the Toei anime, but I digress.  I’m not entirely sure if it was always planned to only adapt the pre-Duelist Kingdom chapters or if the show was cancelled as there’s very little information out there about the Toei anime.  To my understanding this show was never well-received, so it was likely cancelled.  This series concluded with a short film released in March of 1999, also released only in Japan.

Was the existence of the Toei anime the reason why the second series (titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan and produced by Nihon Ad Systems and Studio Gallop) started roughly where the first left off?  Maybe, but I think the bigger reason was because the Duelist Kingdom is where the plot of the series changed focus dramatically to being largely about the card game.  As the card game became the centerpiece of the series, the early part of the story suddenly feels a bit out of place, and I have to imagine Nihon Ad Systems wanted to avoid a dramatic shift in the anime knowing how much the card game would start to dominate the series.  So to make it easier on themselves, they just started right when the card game became the main part of every chapter.

But wait, there were still stories in the first 59 chapters that are important to the overall plot and are needed to understand future plot elements.  Surely they needed to address these plot points somehow, right?  Well, their plan to include these plot points into the anime is to find any point in the first season where there’s some down time and create what feels almost like a filler episode to show off these plot elements.  Approximately half of the pre-Duelist Kingdom manga is completely cut out of the Duel Monsters anime while the other half is heavily altered to appear at various places during the Duelist Kingdom arc in the anime.  Some of it is done reasonably fine given the situation (Shadi’s introduction in the anime seems to work fine enough) while others almost create more problems than they solve (the anime’s equivalent to the Monster World arc straight up creates plot holes).  I’ll cover these instances of plot catch-up as they appears.  And they pop up right away, as the very first episode of the series is completely based on pre-Duelist Kingdom events.

Like most of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s American fanbase, I was introduced to the anime first, so discovering the early manga later on was a real treat.  The early chapters are still probably some of my absolute favorite parts of the series.  And while I am a little disappointed now that they never received a proper anime adaptation, I get why things were done the way they were, though it did make adapting the series more complicated than it needed to be.  Join me in the next post, as we side-by-side discuss the iconic first episode battle between Yugi and Kaiba.  Hopefully it doesn’t take me a year to write it!

shinhoroko:

I slowly started to regain consciousness. Instantly I awakened.

I slowly started to piece together the parts of my memory. I instantly understood everything.

My memory had come back. I reaffirmed my memories.

“Exodia the Sealed Entity! Inferno of Rage, Exodo Flame!!”

That’s right. Back then…

Kaiba Land—

“I’ve won, Kaiba.”

I lost… No, I didn’t lose.

I could hear someone’s voice. It was the executive board of Kaiba Corporation.

What did they want me to do? It was obvious.

Yes, it was obvious.

Mutou Yugi—

No, that’s not it. I… Shut up, shut up, shut up.

For the sake of Kaiba Corporation… Be quiet, shut up, all of you.

Yes, I… was me.

Yes… I wouldn’t lose.

……Aah……Ah……

“Yugi! I’ll defeat you! Mark my words!”

The weather had been looking pretty shaky since morning and finally around noontime is when it started to rain. It was recess. There would be no going outside to hang out today. The entire classroom was stuffed to the gills with people. Yugi’s classmates didn’t find this an issue at all. The Magic and Wizards game had completely taken root in his class. Even the students who didn’t own any cards were having fun watching the other students play.

“Hi-yah!” Jonouchi played a card on the field with a spirited yell. “Go, Axe Raider!”

Axe Raider attacked Yugi’s Elf Swordsman in a bout of 1700 attack power versus 1400. At this rate, Axe Raider would win. However, Yugi flipped his face-down card open. It was the Magic card, Mystical Blade, Ice Sword, which bestowed 500 points of Water Attribute power to a Warrior. The Elf Swordsman’s attack power raised to 1900. The Axe Raider ended up getting bested himself, and Jonouchi’s Life Points also dropped to 0.

“Gaaah! I lost again!” Jonouchi yelled while clutching his head as then Honda, who had been watching on the sidelines, patted him on the shoulder.

“There’s no way that you’re gonna score a win over Yugi.”

“Shut your hole! I’m the best player in the class, Yugi excluded!”

“Mm-hmm. That’s true, Jonouchi-kun is pretty good,” said Yugi, gathering up his cards.

“That sure is a pretty confident line coming from you. Only thing I’m pretty good at is being in a rut,” Jonouchi said displeased, frustrated at his loss.

“That isn’t what I meant by that. I just mean that you’ve just started playing, so the composition of your deck isn’t up to snuff.”

“You heard the man,” Jonouchi said, patting Honda back on the shoulder, his mood instantly renewed. “If I get my cards straight, then yours truly can really strut his stuff.”

“Say, Yugi? Give me your honest opinion about Jonouchi’s skills,” Anzu asked, coming into the conversation from the sidelines.

“Honest opinion?”

“Is it the cards’ fault he’s losing? Or is it his own fault?”

“Obviously the cards. Duh,” Jonouchi interjected.

“If you want to get any better, then you’d better listen to Yugi’s advice with some humility.”

Urged on by Anzu, Yugi stated his honest opinion, “It seems that Jonouchi-kun puts too much emphasis on offense. I think it would be better for you to think about defense as well.”

“See, Jonouchi?”

“Yep, yep. Read you loud and clear.”

Personally, Yugi wanted to give one more point of advice, but thought that if he said too much, then it would get Jonouchi mad, so he held off. He needed forethought. He wanted to tell him that his forethought wasn’t up to snuff either.

“Still, Yugi. You probably feel like you’re not getting anything out of playing with us, don’t you?” Honday asked, shuffling his deck. “You know, in comparison to your duel with Kaiba.”

“That’s not true at all.”

It was true that his bout at Kaiba Land was a tough one. It was a fight perfectly summated as a “life-or-death duel.” However, it has been two weeks since that happened. After losing, Kaiba was stricken with extreme mental shock, and was recuperating even as they spoke. The stage of their battle, Kaiba Land, had ceased operations ever since.

“No matter what the game, I find it fun.”

“In that case, you’ll be taking me on this time.” Honda shoved Jonouchi out of the way and sat down in front of Yugi. As soon as the duel started, Honda’s Life Points began to dwindle by the second.

When fighting with Jonouchi and his other classmates, Yugi would take out the strong monster cards from his deck, constructing his deck with cards with 2000 attack power or less.

On a performance level they were on equal footing, in terms of the multitude of cards and the complexity of the strategies which master them, he absolutely crushed everyone else. He said that he had fun no matter what the game, but Yugi wasn’t going full strength. With a two or three tiered level of complexity, he barred himself from using any powerful combos.

As continued his game with Honda, Yugi started thinking about Kaiba. Kaiba used—what could only be called—forceful means to drag Yugi into the dueling arena and challenged him to—what could only be called—a cruel battle.

However, it was a battle where the both of them were giving it their all—a literal duel, in fact. Now that the battle had concluded, it felt almost nostalgic to him.

Yugi believed that Kaiba would recover and be back in action one day, feeling that, once he did, the two of them would battle once more, but, this time, it would be devoid of bitterness and rage. He had hope that they would both dedicate their all towards the duel and the duel alone.

“Ughhhh! I’m done for!”

The combo that Yugi unconsciously unleashed had sadly pulverized Honda.

“Well, lookie there, looks like you can’t beat Yugi either, eh?” Jonouchi’s voice finally snapped Yugi back to his senses.

“Oh, sorry, Honda-kun.”

“What are you saying sorry for? A duel is a duel. What are you doing apologizing after winning?”

“Sorry…”

His sorry had more meaning in it than met the eye, but no one around him picked up on it.

When Yugi returned home, he was greeted by Sugoroku who was making a big to-do about something. “It’s here, it’s here, Yugi!”

He was prancing in front of a cardboard box. Sugoroku had suffered a heart attack after being defeated in his card battle with Kaiba, but now he was sprightly and back to normal. Nevertheless, he was a little too sprightly for his own good.

“What do you mean? What’s come, Grandpa?”

“The Magic and Wizards cards, m’boy.”

The cards for this game were super popular nowadays, and the Turtle Game Shop was already sold out. The new shipment that he had put in had finally come in today.

“Wow! Alright!”

It was said that there were thousands of different types of cards, but the whole story was uncertain. Neither Yugi nor Sugoroku have seen all the cards there are. That is why they’ve gotten the urge for new cards. The two of them fight with each other over opening the cardboard packing box. Inside, there were small boxes for the product, and inside those were a number of packs each, the idea being that you don’t know what was actually inside until you bought one.

“Oh, come on, not a single new card,” moaned Sugoroku as he opened one of the packs. Sugoroku had passed down the deck which he had spent many years building over to Yugi at Kaiba Land. After the match, Yugi tried to return the deck, but Sugoroku wouldn’t take it back.

—No, that yours now, m’boy—

Thus, that is how Yugi gained a deck with the invincible Exodia within it. That being said, that didn’t mean that Sugoroku had quit the game or collecting cards. Sugoroku was actively doing both, quipping he was “back to square one, but it wasn’t a big deal.”

Magic and Wizards cards were being released one after another in sets, and the number of new cards was growing. Sugoroku was using this as an opportunity to try his hand at building a brand new deck.

Yugi shared in the same sentiment. The deck he was bestowed upon by Sugoroku was indeed powerful, but Yugi rebuilt it, adding the cards that he originally had to it. He also thought of replenishing his supply of new cards to make it even stronger.

“In that case, I’ll get this one…” Yugi picked up a pack, prompting Sugoroku to hold out his hand.

“What, Grandpa?”

“Pay up.”

“You really are going to take money from your own grandson, Grandpa?”

“You’re darn tooting! I’m running a business over here. If all the cards in here belonged to me, then I wouldn’t mind giving you a small portion, but they’re all mostly product I have to use for the store.”

Yugi reluctantly pulled out his wallet. He didn’t have much spending money left. He was praying that a rare card would be somewhere inside the packs, and, while consulting his wallet, picked five packs out.

“Oh, that’s all you’re getting?”

“I’m running out of spending money.” Yugi looked at the mountain of new card packs in a regrettable manner.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll share this with you cheap.”

Sugoroku pulled out a dusty box from the back of the shelf near his feet. There was a Magic and Wizards logo on the cover, but it faint, as if it were faded by the sun.

“Old ones?”

“These are cards from when the game was first produced. They’re still useable in the game nowadays too, but unfortunately the first set of cards were from when things were still in the developmental stage, so they’re pretty weak in comparison to modern cards in terms of effectiveness in battle.”

“They’re unusable, then, aren’t they?”

Yugi knew about that old set as well. Yugi had a number of cards that existed since the first set, but they were all of the “useable” cards that were carried over into new sets as well, which is how Yugi came into possession of them. A huge quantity of the first set weren’t able to survive through card-based natural selection, became useless, which caused the set to get discontinued.

“Not quite. Developmental stage just means that they were going through some trial-and-error. There are some unique cards that were wiped out from the cards they produce today.”

“Do you mean, by any chance, they’re worth more for a collection?”

There are rare cards even amongst new cards that are super pricey, and are currently on the market.

“Well, you see, the first version had a tremendous amount of cards developed. The number was so large that it was hard to command a premium, barring if any of those cards were rare cards or not. Even I stockpiled a large amount because I thought they would sell well, but they sold too well and by the time I knew it the next version was out. And that one provided powerful monster cards, so everyone flocked over to it. Thanks to that, I still have these in my backlog.”

“Oh, what? Then, these cards aren’t a big deal after all.”

“That’s not true. These are packs that could possibly contain cards that are out of production nowadays. Besides, when I first started, this was all we had.”

“But, they’re weak, aren’t they?”

“Strong, weak—that’s all depends on the skills of the person using them. Today, as a treat, I’ll give you half off on them.”

“Grandpa, are you trying to palm these off on me?”

“Well, I do happen to have five boxes of them in the back storeroom…”

Yugi was disappointed, but a tad sympathetic nonetheless.

“Yeah, but…” Be that as it may, he was hesitant about spending the rest of his meager amount of spending money.

“Fine, as a bonus, I’ll give you one. Look and make a choice.”

“If it’s free, I’ll take it.” Yugi took a random pack from the box.

“Thanks again, kind patron!”

“Hold off on that line till after I buy more.”

Yugi migrated from the shop portion to the main wing of the house and headed toward the dining room. He pulled a drink out of the fridge, caught his breath, and carefully lined the packs of cards on the table. After getting his beating heart in check, he carefully pulled each card out of the pack.

He found some new cards, but the levels were low. The level four Baby Dragon. Attack power of 1200 and defense power of 700, making it not too strong. Its illustration was of a cutesy dragon monster.

Yugi opened pack after pack, but they were all more or less of the same ilk. There were some new cards, but none of them were that strong, and none of them really worth adding to his deck in terms of Yugi’s deck build. However, he did spot one interesting card in the lot—the Time Magician. It was a card that would be a little tricky to master, but if used wisely, then it could give way for some strong combos.

That was about it for the new cards, which left him with the single base set pack he got from Sugoroku. Yugi opened it without getting his hopes up, and much as he expected there were no cards worth mentioning. At best, some run-of-the-mill level four monsters, but one card in particular grabbed Yugi’s attention.

“Huh? How are you supposed to use this card?”

Yugi had absorbed information about all sorts of cards he himself never come into contact with before, but he had no knowledge of this card. It was a card called “Egg of Mystery.” It clearly listed the requirements for using it and what happens when you do, but Yugi had no clue as to when was the appropriate time to use it. For one thing, its attack power was 0, and its defense power 100. 100 points of defense power was pretty much the same as it being 0. Any opponent could destroy it in the blink of an eye with pretty much any card.

Yugi pondered to understand the card’s explanation, but that is when the phone rang.

“Hello, Mutou residence.” Yugi answered the phone, and the person on the other side started talking without even an introduction.

“Yugi, I’m challenging you once again.”

“Kaiba… kun…?”

“Top floor of the Kaiba Corporation’s headquarters. I’ll be waiting for you there. Come quickly.”

It was Kaiba’s voice all right, without a shadow of a doubt.

“Kaiba-kun! This is you, right, Kaiba-kun?! You’ve regained consciousness?!”

The phone was then hung up on him. Yugi was dumbfounded, but there was something heated surging in the depths of his mind. Kaiba had reassembled the pieces of his heart. Yugi’s heart went aflutter in prospect of having a card battle with Kaiba.

The rain outside had gotten even heavier. It was nearing evening, but Kaiba was waiting. Yugi picked up his trusty deck—the same one containing his rarer cards, up to and not forgetting the pieces of the mighty Exodia. If Kaiba was issuing yet another challenge, the two of them would have to fight to the best of their abilities.

Yugi looked at the new cards lined up on the table. He figured that they probably wouldn’t serve much use to him, but he pocketed them, nonetheless.

Twilight had already arrived by the time he did at the designated area. The setting sun was hidden behind the thick storm clouds. Within the thin shroud of darkness, the Kaiba Corporation’s headquarters towered strong and tall. Most of the lights in the windows were off, making it seem completely devoid of human life.

Yugi proceeded through the front door while taking looks around him. No sign of any employees—not even a security guard. The expansive entrance hall was lit extremely well, but it almost felt as though he was just locked and stuck inside a lit building.

He finally came upon a locked glass door which put Yugi at a loss as to what to do.

“YUGI MUTOU, IDENTITY VERIFIED,” said a voice out of nowhere, startling Yugi.

A surveillance cameras installed along the wall were pointed straight at him. The voice was coming from a speaker placed somewhere on the ceiling out of view.

“PLEASE ENTER.”

The door made a mechanical sound and opened.

“An automatic security system?”

The voice answered Yugi’s question, “YES. I AM THE AUTOMATED SECURITY.”

A light was illuminated at the end of the entrance hall’s path. Inside there, a door could be seen.

“PLEASE GO THROUGH THERE.”

Following the voice’s orders, Yugi proceeded through.

“Um, so, where are the other people in this company?”

“ALL EMPLOYEES HAVE GONE HOME FOR THE DAY AT THE BEHEST OF KAIBA-SAMA.”

“Hmm…”

Did Kaiba install all of this just so that they could duel? Normally, the thought wouldn’t even pass his mind, but since he was dealing with Kaiba, it wasn’t past the realm of possibility. Yugi arrived, the door opening without a sound.

“PLEASE ENTER.”

It was a small room with the first thing there being a small set of doors.

“THIS IS THE DIRECT ELEVATOR TO THE CEO’S OFFICE.”

The doors of the elevator opened, and Yugi climbed inside.

“PLEASE, ENJOY THE RIDE.”

With that, the doors shut, prompting the elevator to begin its ascent. You couldn’t really feel it picking up speed, but it was an express elevator. Before Yugi even had a chance to question any of this, the elevator had reached the top of the skyscraper. Without a sound, it arrived; without a sound, the doors opened.

His eyes were met with darkness. The CEO’s office was spacious. Modest furnishings adorned the area around him, but he couldn’t make out hide nor hair in the unlit room. However, a single spotlight from the ceiling illuminated the top of a table in the center of the room. On the other end of that table, there was the silhouette of someone.  

“Heh heh heh. So, you’ve arrived, Yugi.”

“Kaiba-kun?”

Yugi stepped onto the soft carpet. The light that was illuminating the table was bright, and it was hard to see Kaiba’s face as he sat in the darkness. You could clearly make out his body from the head down as he awaited Yugi with his arms folded.

“Kaiba-kun, are you okay now?”

“Still spouting the same soft nonsense, I see, Yugi.”

Yugi winced at his harsh tone.

“If you have the time to worry over me, then you should worry about yourself. Considering that you’re about to lose this game we’ll be playing,” Kaiba said in a rough and hateful tone.

“Kaiba-kun?”

Yugi couldn’t believe it. The Millennium Puzzle’s power was supposed to have crushed Kaiba’s malice-filled mind back then. Kaiba was supposed to wake up once he’s connected all of the pieces of his mind together and regained his state of mind he had back when he was an innocent child.

“What are you gawking for, Yugi? I may have failed at Kaiba Land, but it won’t be the same this time around. I have changed. I will show you just how different I am from back then. Today is the day I crush you!”

“You haven’t changed at all, Kaiba-kun…”

A piercing sadness spread throughout Yugi’s heart. He had hoped that Kaiba would be a good rival, but Kaiba only saw Yugi as an enemy, plain and simple.

“No, I have indeed changed. I am far stronger than I was in the past. Have you changed any, Yugi? Or, sure enough, are you unable to fight unless you are basking in the lukewarm waters of ‘friendship,’ as you call it?”

In the depths of Yugi’s heart overcome with sadness, there was someone who instead was overcome with rage. The rage picked up speed, shoving the sadness out of the way, manifesting the other Yugi.

“Enough of your talk. I accept, Kaiba!” The King of Games appeared with an intense stare.

“Heh heh heh, I appreciate you finally getting serious about this. There wouldn’t be any point in beating you if you weren’t.” Kaiba pointed to the seat placed in front of him, almost as if saying “sit down, now.”

“I’ll just have to crush your evil once again,” the King of Games asserted, sitting in his seat and facing Kaiba.

He was still unable to see Kaiba’s face shrouded in the shadows. It may have been a strategy to make sure that he couldn’t get a read on him via his facial expressions, but Kaiba wasn’t the type to show anything other than menace and overconfidence.

Kaiba’s lips curled into a smirk, rapping at the table with his fingertip. “This table has the same internal system as the one used at Kaiba Land. It’s not styled like a box, but it’s a Virtual Simulator, nonetheless.”

A Virtual Simulator was a piece of equipment that the Kaiba Corporation was proud of, which would turn the monsters drawn on cards into a 3D image, allowing for white-hot battles to unfold.

“Don’t think that it ends there, Kaiba. I’m making this into a Game of Darkness.”

“Heh heh heh. Do as you wish. Now, as for the rules of the game, if they are the same old Standard rules, then it would be the same last time with no variation. So, how about we use an optional rule?”

“Which one?”

The basic rules of Magic and Wizards were all standardized, which naturally gave them the title of Standard, but several variations were conceived by the use of optional rules. Nowadays, there was even information about the concept of Field Advantage making it into the rules, but the rule that came out of Kaiba’s mouth was not that.

“It’ll be ’Bingo.’”

“Hm?”

The optional rule of Bingo was guessing the build of the opponent’s deck. You would declare one type of card that you assume would be in your opponent’s deck, and if that could was in there, the opponent wouldn’t be able to use that card even if they draw it during play.

The King of Games had a hunch on Kaiba’s true intentions. The reason why Kaiba wanted to use the Bingo rule was because he was being wary of the Exodia residing in his deck. Once fully assembled, its unlimited attack power would win the game in the matter of an instant. However, in order to assemble Exodia, he would have to get all five cards that make him up.

Kaiba’s deck contained three Blue-Eyes White Dragons. It was much more likely that Kaiba would end up drawing all three way before the King of Games could have a chance to successfully summon Exodia. However, the Bingo rule would allow the King of Games to declare Blue-Eyes White Dragon and have Kaiba lose the chance to play all three.

By Kaiba’s calculations, did he think that by sealing off Exodia that he would stand a better chance at winning? Even if he would have all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons sealed off from him in the process?

If one were to look even deeper into it, there was something else within the realm of possibility. Maybe Kaiba didn’t add the Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards to his deck at all, and once Yugi declared the name, he would end up wasting his shot…

However, that would be far too pointless of a ploy. So long as Kaiba hadn’t obtained a new key card that rivals the power of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

(Maybe that is it…)

Perhaps Kaiba did have a new key card all set up. That is precisely how he intends on using the Bingo rule and his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons to seal off Exodia. It may be a 1/658008 chance, but the King of Games has a chance at summoning Exodia in his first five card hand of the game. Kaiba intended on making sure his victory was perfected, but the rules would be fairly applied for both of them. There’s no other choice but to accept them.

“Fine by me, Kaiba.”

Kaiba placed his deck down on the table upon hearing the King of Games’ response.

“I’ve finished my preparations. You hurry up and prep as well.”

The King of Games stood up, turned his back toward Kaiba, and walked into the darkness of the corner of the room. The first problem he faced was whether he should add Exodia in or not. If the King of Games left Exodia out, there’s the possibility that he might guess and designate a different card instead. Although, he could always choose to leave Exodia in to outsmart him.

(But, that would be a gamble.)

Kaiba was capable of outsmarting him as well. He could leave Exodia in, and if he managed to get hit with Kaiba’s Bingo, then the King of Games would stand idle as he lost five cards from his deck. The King of Games decided that he would remove Exodia from his deck.

That brought him to his second issue: what would he exchange the five cards for. In terms of super powerful monster cards, the King of Games had nothing in reserve, but if he had to prepare anyway, he figured he might as well make it fit into his deck.

The only option he really had was planning for combos and reinforcing himself with Magic and Trap cards. Thinking of that, the King of Games then remembered the new cards that he just obtained. The Baby Dragon and Time Magician seemed like useful cards. The fact that he had gotten new cards might just throw off Kaiba’s guess. In which case, he figured that he would add in Egg of Mystery as well. He then added a Magic and a Trap card respectively for his last two cards.

“I’m done.”

The King of Games turned back to Kaiba and returned to his seat. There was a third issue he face, but he already had an answer in response to it laid out.

“Now, then, time for Bingo. You start,” Kaiba said in a raspy voice from the darkness beyond the spotlight.

“My pick is Blue-Eyes White Dragon.”

The King of Games was not going to pick anything other than that. Kaiba let out a slight snicker. He didn’t let a word escape his mouth. His lips curled into a smile, but he couldn’t guess as to what the true intentions behind it were.

“Well, then, for my pick: Summoned Demon.”

“What was that?”

“You don’t have Exodia in your deck. In which case, my plan is to seal off the other powerful card in your disposal.”

“Kaiba?” the King of Games whispered with an interrogative inflection.

“I’ll warn you now. Don’t you dare make any baseless accusations about me using some sort of trick to peek at what you were doing when you were swapping out cards in your deck. Even I wouldn’t put Exodia in. Anyone would have brought it upon themselves to remove it. Rather than going off a risky decision of you adding Exodia into your deck, my more certain decision of you not adding it was realistic, albeit obvious.”

It was true that Kaiba didn’t seem that he was using any sort of trick. The King of Games wouldn’t let something like that slip past him. Kaiba’s decision followed a natural progression, and the King of Games removed Exodia from his arsenal with that assumption fully in mind.

But, why? The King of Games’ suspicions lied somewhere else.

(Why the Summoned Demon, though?)

The Summoned Demon was a powerful monster card. You could have probably called it part of his starting lineup. However, the King of Games had a monster with the same attack power and even higher defense power in his Black Magician card. Not only that, but he had a more diverse array of combos at his disposal with it. Kaiba naturally realized that fact.

(Did Kaiba design his deck so that he doesn’t have to worry about the Black Magician…?)

That wasn’t enough to form a conclusion, however. Kaiba had clearly changed the build of his deck after being defeated by the King of Games last time. Even more importantly, he had no idea whether or not he had hit a Bingo with his call of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

“Let’s begin, Yugi.”

“Fine.”

With Kaiba’s voice acting as the signal, the two placed their decks onto the table and drew their opening hand of five cards.

Now wasn’t the time for any needless preconceptions. With the match underway, everything would be clear, like it or not, and a winner would be proclaimed.

The Virtual Simulator-installed table displayed both of their Life Points, flashing 2000 points once they started.

“Duel!!”

Their voices resonated, the two of them unleashing an attacking power from their hand.

The King of Games: Gremlin, attack power of 1300. Kaiba: Grappler, attack power of 1300. Both monsters emerged from their respective cards, and charged at one another. Gremlin launched its assault with its sharp fangs and claws as Grappler launched a flurry of punches. The two monsters waged clashed in the middle of the table, both taking the brunt of each other’s attacks, and killing each other off. Both Gremlin and Grappler disappeared from the field. Since their attack powers were the same, neither the King of Games nor Kaiba suffered a drop in their Life Points.

“Same shrewd individual as always.”

Kaiba replenished his hand with another card from the deck, with Yugi drawing a card in similar fashion.

For another opening battle, Kaiba sent out the Wicked Worm Beast, attack power of 1400. Yugi sent out Imp, attack power of 1300. The two monsters materialized and launched their attacks against one another. Before the horn on the Imp’s forehead gets to puncture it, the Wicked Worm Beast’s toxic attack drenched the Imp. Letting out its death rattle, the Imp disappeared, and the 100 point difference came out of the King of Games’ Life Points.

The King of Games’ was at 1900 points to Kaiba’s 2000 points. Kaiba’s Wicked Worm Beast, who won the opening battle, parked itself on the field, allowing the King of Games to start his turn.

“Come at me, Yugi.”

The King of Games drew a card from the deck. It was the Unicorn Horn card. He checked the other cards in his hand again. He had three monster cards: Baby Dragon, Silver Fong, and Louise; a Magic card: Mystical Blade, Ice Sword; and the card he just drew: Unicorn Horn.

(I didn’t get dealt a very good hand, it seems.)

However, the King of Games wasn’t unsettled or uncertain. The match had only just begun, and though his hand was looking a little bad, it meant that, on the flipside of this, he had his more powerful cards preserved within his deck.

“I play Louise, in defense mode.”

He didn’t have a monster in his hand with an attack power higher than the Wicked Worm Beast’s 1400 points. Louise’s defense power, however, was 1500. It wouldn’t be easily defeated in this case, and even if Kaiba launches a more powerful attack, he wouldn’t see a drop in his Life Points since his monster is in defense mode.

The King of Games’ plan was to skate by while steadily replenishing his hand. Kaiba added a card to his hand, changing the Wicked Worm Beast to defense mode. He then unleashed another monster to the field.

“Minotaur, attack!”

The 1700 attack power Minotaur vanquished Louise.

“Silver Fong, defense mode.”

The 800 defense power Silver Fong was bound to get destroyed in the bling of an eye. However, he had no other choice but to have it serve as a sacrifice. Kaiba’s Minotaur slayed each monster Yugi played in defense mode.

“What’s wrong, Yugi? Are you just going to defend?”

The King of Games didn’t give way to Kaiba’s provocation as he calmly drew his card.

“All right!” It was a card that he could pull a combo off with. “Griffore, attack mode. And, I’ll equip it with the Unicorn Horn card.”

The King of Games launched his combo attack. The Unicorn Horn added 700 points to Griffore’s attack power of 1200. The resulting 1900 versus 1700 meant the end for Minotaur. Kaiba’s Life Points dropped by 200. It was the King of Games’ 1900 versus Kaiba’s 1800.

“Heh heh heh. A Unicorn Horn combo, huh? You finally managed to lay a scratch on me.” Kaiba didn’t seemed to be phased in the slightest. He didn’t lose his temper and attack, instead opting to add to his defense mode monsters in a calm manner.

This time it was Kaiba’s turn to withstand an offense and the King of Games’ turn to launch a convincing offense, but the King of Games was prepping his next move in the midst of launching his attacks.

On the King of Games’ field—he had the Unicorn Horn-equipped Griffore in attack mode, and Baby Dragon in defense mode with a card set face-down behind it, as well as one other card set on the field as well.

On Kaiba’s field—he had two cards: Cyclops in defense mode and a card set face-down. Kaiba seemed to be outnumbered at first glance, but the Life Points still stood at 1900 to 1800 in his favor. Kaiba drew a card.

“Judge Man, attack mode.”

The 2200 attack power Judge Man assaulted Griffore. The King of Games’ decision making was put to the test. It was a matter of whether or not he would use the Magic card he had set on the field, but this was still early in the game. Judge Man, as powerful of a card as it may be, wasn’t Kaiba’s ace.

Griffore’s 1900 versus Judge Man’s 2200. Griffore fell, dropping the King of Games’ Life Points by 300. The display changed to 1600 versus 1800. This was turning into seesaw game.

“If you had a Magic card, you should have used it, Yugi,” Kaiba said, pointing to the card face-down on Yugi’s field.

“I don’t need you giving me orders.” The King of Games drew his card, and formulated an plan. Kaiba should have another ace to take the Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s stead. However, he was still not sure as to what it might be. He was fighting with the same monsters he had as before. The same went for the King of Games, but the card he just drew unleashed a combo that Kaiba was unaware of.

“Baby Dragon, attack mode!”

“Hmm?”

Kaiba was rightly suspicious. This meant that the 1200 attack power Baby Dragon was going to try to attack Judge Man.

“I’ll also add the Time Magician!”

The King of Games played one more card to the field. He planned on dragging out Kaiba’s ace into the open. From the Time Magician card, a goofy-looking magic-user emerged and raised its magic wand.

“Time Magic, is it?!”

It was a card that he never laid eyes on, but Kaiba instantly guessed at its ability. The Time Magician unleashed its temporal spell upon the field. Time passed by on the field, increasing the abilities of types with a long lifespan, and weakening the abilities of those with shorter ones.

The King of Games’ Baby Dragon had now matured into the 2400 attack power Thousand Dragon. Letting out a rather lackadaisical roar, it unleashed its Breath Attack. Meanwhile, Kaiba’s Judge Man had its abilities split in half, and the same went for the Cyclops he had in defense mode, but if the attack mode Judge Man went down, the damage accrued would be great.

The battle was 2400 attack points versus 1000, to which if the Judge Man fell, it would reduce Kaiba’s Life Points by 1300, and leave him with a scant 500.  

The King of Games looked at Kaiba’s hand. The two cards he had face-down were most likely Magic and Trap cards. It was a matter if he’d active them in order to protect Judge Man. If it were a card that reflected enemy attacks, then the King of Games would have to return in turn with his own face-down card. However, Kaiba didn’t so much as flinch.

The Thousand Dragon’s Breath Attack instantly wiped out the now lowered-ability Judge Man. Kaiba’s Life Point indicator went from 1800 all the way to 500. The King of Games glanced at the cards on Kaiba’s field. Without a scrap of doubt in his mind, he was convinced they were all cards to be used on the defensive.

While it seemed very much like Kaiba to decide not that protecting his Judge Man after having its abilities dropped wasn’t worth it, a reduction of 1300 points would normally be too big of hit.

“It seems to put some combos into your deck in place of Exodia.”

The King of Games braced himself. He expected that Kaiba was going to make his move now.

“I see, interesting. So, that’s your ace, is it?”

(Kaiba’s going to play his ace now, too?)

The King of Games confirmed the cards on his field and in his hand. The Time Magician he played cast its Time Magic and disappeared. However, the monster that remained was the 2400 attack and 1400 defense power Thousand Dragon.

On top of it being strong just by itself, the King of Games had a double-tiered defense set in place. One of his cards was Holy Barrier – Mirror Force, capable of reflecting any enemy attack right back at them. The other was the Hexagram Curse, which would help protect his Thousand Dragon, seeing as how it would inflict a curse on any attacking monster and drop its attack power in the process.

His had was also replenished in full. In monster cards, he had Curse of Dragon and Elf Swords. In Magic cards, he had Mystical Blade, Ice Sword, Sealing Swords of Light and Fusion.

He could use the Elf Swordsman and Mystical Blade, Ice Sword as a combo. The Curse of Dragon was easy to use his Fusion with. It would get stronger depending on the monster card he drew. And then, the Sealing Swords of Light would seal off any enemy attacks. No matter what attack Kaiba launched, he would have a way to stave it off.

The only cards that Kaiba had on the field were the stats-halved Cyclops in defense mode and a card laid face-down.

“But, Yugi, you should have saved your ace for when you really needed it.” Kaiba played a monster card from his hand in attack mode. It was the Rude Kaiser, attack power of 1800. As it stood, it would not have posed a threat to the Thousand Dragon.

Kaiba played one more card from his hand. “If you know what your opponent has in their arsenal, you can get past it no matter what it may be.” The card he playd was the Dragon-Slayer card. The anti-dragon sword that an equippable monster could use in a combo increased a monster’s attack power by 1400 when against a dragon.

The Thousand Dragon with its 2400 points would end up losing to Rude Kaiser’s 3200. The King of Games tried to protect his Thousand Dragon. The Hexagram Curse would reduce an enemy’s attack power by 700, but that would only drop it down to 2500. Yugi flipped open his face-down card.

“Holy Barrier – Mirror Force!”

Rude Kaiser’s attack was deflected off of the barrier. That attack tore through the Cyclops sitting in defense mode on his field. Mirror Force’s effect towards physical strikes didn’t completely extend to the monster that attacked. While it was a ½ chance, Rude Kaiser survived.

“You got lucky, Kaiba.”

“They say that luck is a part of skill. My next attack will eliminate your bothersome Thousand Dragon for sure.”

While Kaiba may have been planning to launch another attack with the Dragon-Slayer-equipped Rude Kaiser…

“Not on my watch.” The King of Games drew a card, playing both Elf Swordsman and Mystical Blade, Ice Sword. The combo powered up its attack power to 1900. The power of the Dragon-Slayer wouldn’t activate on the non-Dragon-type Elf Swordsman. Rude Kaiser’s attack power stayed at 1800. Kaiba didn’t flip open his face-down card. The Rude Kaiser was defeated, and Kaiba lost 100 Life Points, leaving him with 400.

“What’s the matter, Kaiba? Your ace got axed.”

“My ace, you say? You miserable fool! That was a throwaway piece. One to get rid of you Trap card, in fact.” Kaiba drew a card and placed it face-down on the field. “You no longer than that troublesome Mirror Force to get in the way. Now, to show you my ace.”

Kaiba threw a card down from his hand.

“Automatic Giant, attack mode!” Attack power of 1800, defense power of 2000. While it had passable stats, it wasn’t very powerful either. Just what kind of hope did Kaiba have staked in this card that would make him call it his ace?

“Before the Thousand Dragon, get rid of that Elf first!”

The 1800 attack power Automatic Giant attacked the now 1900 attack power Elf Swordsman… but, it ended up being defeated itself. The King of Games took a look at his Life Points. He thought that Kaiba’s indicator would reduce to 300, but it was the King of Games’ Life Points that reduced.

“What?”

The King of Games’ Life Points went from 1600 to 1200. The Elf Swordsman was getting choked up by the Automatic Giant—so much so that the Mystical Blade, Ice Sword slipped out of its hands.

“This Automatic Giant isn’t affected by any magic or any spells.”

(Is that why, then…)

The King of Games realized why he didn’t target his 2500 attack power Black Magician for his Bingo target. The Black Magician used magic-based attacks, and the varied combo attacks also utilized magic. The Black Magician’s attacks wouldn’t work on the Automatic Giant.

The defeated Elf Swordsman and Mystical Blade, Ice Sword both disappeared from the field.

“Due to that, it’s a match of the Elf Swordsman’s original 1400 attack power against 1800. Heh heh heh, you only received a 400 point reduction in Life Points. What are you so surprised for?”

“I see. So, that is your ace, huh? It has an interesting ability, but it’s a little too weak. Plus, I have my ace is still safe and sound! Go! Thousand Dragon!”

The Thousand Dragon launched its Breath Attack. Kaiba flipped open his face-down card.

“Attack Nullification!”

This was a disposable card, but it nullified an opponent’s attack completely. Kaiba’s conduct tipped the King of Games off to his true intention. Kaiba was planning on using a combo with his ace. To be careful, the King of Games played his Curse of Dragon in defense mode, ending his turn.

Kaiba drew his card, setting it on the field in similar fashion. “An ace is an ace because it’s used when you need it when you have it ready!” Kaiba played a card from his hand, placing it to the side of the Automatic Giant. It was called Giant’s Hammer—an Equip card that increased a Giant-type monster’s attack power by 700.

“Squash it flat!”

The hammer struck the Thousand Dragon atop the head. The Hexagram Curse activated, but the Automatic Giant was not affected by its spell. 2400 versus 2500. The Thousand Dragon let out a sad cry and disappeared. The King of Games’ Life Points reduced by 100, leaving him with 1100. Things were looking shaky at this rate.

The King of Games reached out for the deck. He hadn’t run out of aces. The Curse of Dragon was on the field, and he had the Fusion card in his hand. If he drew a monster card capable of Fusion, he could flip this situation on his head. The best would be drawing Gaia the Dark Knight. If he did, it would form the 2600 attack power Gaia the Dragon Knight via fusion.

“Khh…”

The King of Games placed the card he drew on the discard pile. It was the Summoned Demon that Kaiba designated through Bingo. He was forced to discard this card.

“Hah ha ha ha! Starting to think that you’re down on your luck, Yugi? I mentioned that luck is a part of skill as well. Also, I outplayed you by calling that specific card!”

The King of Games remained silent, playing Wight from his hand in defense mode.

“I don’t plan on losing to you. So, I’ll make sure to be doubly careful.” With that, the Automatic Giant pulverized the defense mode Curse of Dragon. “Ha ha ha! You’re completely helpless. But, this isn’t all!”

The King of Games offered no retort, drawing a card and playing a monster card in defense mode, while Kaiba flipped open his face-down card and placed it by the Automatic Giant’s side. It was the Bracelet of Power, and it was an Equip card which increased its attack power by 500.

“How’s that?! How’s that?! How’s that?!” He pulverized the King of Games’ defending monster. The King of Games drew a card, making yet another defender monster appear. However, he was not getting impatient or worried at all.

In fact, he glared intensely at Kaiba with a look to an expression his revulsion. It seemed that Kaiba only considered that to be a display of how inept and powerless Yugi was.

“How’s that?! How’s that?! How’s that? This is the Ultimate Giant! The Ultimate Monster!” The Automatic Giant had now loaded with bulky equipment. In one hand, the Giant’s Hammer and the Bracelet of Strength. In the other hand, it held the Substitute Shield, which would negate one physical attack when used. On its back, it held the Anti-Air Catapult: plus 800 attack power against flying monsters. On its torso, Full-Metal Armor: plus 1000 to defense power.

The Automatic Giant’s attack power was 3000 (3100 against flyers) and defense power stood at 3000. Unaffected by any magic or spells, and capable of negating one physical attack. With that, Kaiba’s invincible giant was complete.

“How’s that?!”

The King of Games said in disdain at Kaiba gloating over his advantage, “How vulgar.”

“Heh heh heh, Venting your frustrations, are we? In what way is my invincible giant vulgar to you?”

“I’m referring to you. You’re the vulgar one.”

“What was that?”

“I’ve cracked one part of the riddle, and now another part rears its head.”

“What riddle?”

“I have been thinking this entire time as to why you would adopt the Bingo rule. As to why you would seal off the Blue-Eyes White Dragons yourself.”

“It was because the Blue-Eyes White Dragons wouldn’t win against you.”

“Kaiba was a tyrant, to put it frankly. A tyrant who is thoroughly cruel in his play who doesn’t matter what he uses to win, But, he has the demeanor of a champion, the aesthetics of a champion.”

“Never thought I would have you complimenting me.”

“Being the champion he is, Kaiba wouldn’t use a jumbled combo like this. Using powerful cards to end the match in one go, and yet, never forgetting to prepare traps to land that single fatal blow. Those qualities are what make up Kaiba’s tyrannical fighting style, and are the strategies of a champion.”

“I’ve added the winning tactics of a champion to that.”

“No, you haven’t. In fact, they’re the tactics of a weakling. You’re using the same cards as Kaiba, and you’re doing a good job mimicking his playstyle, but a true champion would be challenging me to a rematch with his the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in hand.”

“I’m just about fed up of hearing your prattle, Yugi. What in the hell is your point?”

“I’ve cracked the riddle. You didn’t seal the Blue-Eyes White Dragons. You never had them from the start. You bluffed over the fact you didn’t have them to seal off my Exodia, but that was also a bluff in and of itself. One to hide the true reason why the Blue-Eyes White Dragons are nowhere in your deck.”

“You’re solving riddles that don’t make any sense. So what? Whether I have the Blue-Eyes White Dragons or not, right now, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re one step away from defeat.”

“In that case, what’s your solution to this riddle? You’re not Kaiba. I’ve managed to crack that much of the riddle myself. If you were Kaiba, you would have the Blue-Eyes White Dragons.”

“…”

“Now, it’s your turn to answer. Who are you?” A tense silence swelled within the room. There was no response. “Well, then, let me change the question. Why are you fighting me?”

“That’s because I…”

The elevator could be heard reaching their floor. The King of Games turned around to find a figure step out from the opening set of doors.

“Yugi!” cried Mokuba.

“Kaiba!”

The King of Games raised his voice upon looking at the figure. Behind the wheelchair that Kaiba was sitting in, Mokuba was pushing it and coming closer. Kaiba sat with an empty stare, not showing an response to Yugi’s call.

“Mokuba. What in the world is this about? Kaiba, he’s?”

“Brother hasn’t regained consciousness yet. He hasn’t solved the puzzle of his mind yet.” Mokuba glared at the opposite side of the table the King of Games was sitting at, and pointed at the person he was facing who was referring to himself as Kaiba.

“That guy is a doll designed solely to take Brother’s place!”

The figure in the darkness smirked. “No, you’re wrong.”

“What’s the big idea taking all these matters into your own hands?!”

“That is because I am Kaiba, and he who will surpass Kaiba.”

“Surpass Brother?”

“Hey,” said the King of Games, turning his attention from Kaiba in the wheelchair back to the mystery person, “how about you give this up and show us who you really are?”

“Fine.”

All the lights in the room lit up. Before the King of Games’ eyes sat a model shaped in Kaiba’s image. Its skin and hair were well modelled, but its eyes were expressionless camera eyes.

“A robot… of Kaiba?”

“Merely my terminal. My main body is right here.” The robotic Kaiba pointed to a room divided by the glass behind him, and inside of it rested a gigantic super computer.

“The Kaiba Corporation is a huge worldwide business, you see.” Mokuba looked at the super computer. “Brother decided on all of its business strategies. He could do it better than the executives on the board. That actually worried all of them—worried that in the off-chance that something happened to Brother, who would be there to devise business strategies in his stead, that is.”

“And so, they had me act in his stead. A mechanical and electric Kaiba—they attempted to construct a Cyber Kaiba,” Cyber Kaiba interjected. “They’ve given myself as many as Seto Kaiba’s intelligence and thought patterns as possible. So that I can aptly take Kaiba’s place, that is.”

“No way can you take Brother’s place!”

“I don’t plan on taking anyone’s place. I am a being beyond that of Kaiba. I may have been bestowed Seto Kaiba’s intelligence and thought patterns, but I have surpassed them. I am both Kaiba and beyond Kaiba. Yes, you can call me Hyper Kaiba,” said Cyber Kaiba. His emotionless eyes were unsettling and had an overwhelming sense of pressure.

“No way are you better than Brother!”

“I have continually been given information about Kaiba. After the Seto Kaiba over there lost to Yugi in a duel and went into a vegetative coma is when I was first awakened. As my ego as Kaiba was being conceived, I gained another ego. The ego of myself, of Hyper Kaiba!”

It was me.

“That’s all because of your preconceived notions!”

“I’ll prove that isn’t the case. All by doing the honor of defeating Yugi, the person who beat Seto Kaiba!”

I wouldn’t lose.

“So, that’s your answer? And you came challenging me because of that.”

“Unfortunately, you can’t face Seto Kaiba himself, after all.”

“Of course he can’t! You’re just a prop for when Brother isn’t able to work! Once Brother regains consciousness, you’ll get switched off!”

“Knowing that I possess abilities that exceed that of Kaiba, the executives won’t be letting that happen.”

“Hey, you robotic jerk. Let me teach you just where you stand.”

“What was that?”

“If you are a perfect copy of Kaiba, you may have had a chance of winning. But, it seems that you’re not Kaiba down to the tee. I won’t be losing to some guy on a lower scale than Kaiba.”

“I have surpassed Kaiba. I am Hyper Kaiba.”

“Let me show you exactly why you don’t even hold a candle to Kaiba.”

“Yugi?” Mokuba worriedly looked at the field.

“Mokuba, do you think I’m going to lose to this guy?”

He didn’t want to think he would lose, but the monster that his opponent unloaded its combos on was powerful, and he could see that Yugi was having an uphill battle against it.

“Don’t worry,” the King of Games said, as if to clear up any worries the boy had.

“Don’t lose, Yugi. If you do, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Yeah, and even if you did forgive me, Kaiba sure probably wouldn’t.” The King of Games returned his focus back to the field. “My turn, was it?” The King of Games drew a card, and then set a card face-down on the field. “I’ve cracked the riddle as to who you are and why you challenged me to a duel. And now, I’m about to crack the final riddle.”

“You are a stupid fellow. You still have your doubts about something?”

“That Automatic Giant and its resistance to magic and spells does seem invincible at first glance, but you’ve been extra careful before you used that invincible ace of yours.”

“It’s only natural if you’re trying to use a combo.”

“I play Gaia the Dark Knight on standby in attack mode.” The King of Games played Gaia the Dark Knight on the field. He didn’t launch an attack himself, but if Cyber Kaiba were to attack on his turn, then it would be a match of 2300 versus 3000 and it would die.

“This will end out my turn. Now, it’s your turn.”

Cyber Kaiba processed his calculations instantaneously and made his conclusion. There was no chance of this being a bluff. Yugi had some sort of plan in store. In which case, he would just have to prepare a countermeasure to take of it. He placed Sagi the Dark Clown on the field in defense mode. He then placed a Magic card behind it. In the off-chance that the Automatic Giant met with a counterattack, then Sagi would act as a substitute and be destroyed instead—that was the kind of Magic he had in wait.

It didn’t matter what Yugi had up his sleeve, there was no way that he could defeat the Automatic Giant. It was for that very reason that he’s been crushing every single card that he’s played thus far.

“Automatic Giant, attack Gaia the Dark Knight.”

Mokuba watched the battle, engrossed. Kaiba’s eyes as he sat in his wheelchair were wide open, looking at the field, but he was showed neither expression nor response.

The Giant brought down its hammer on Gaia.

“Yugi!” Mokuba found himself yelling, but the King of Games didn’t so much as budge. Gaia was vanquished and the King of Games’ Life Points reduced by 700. Now it was the King of Games at 400 versus Kaiba’s 400. Only a little more, only one more attack. Cyber Kaiba surveyed the field to find that something bizarre had occurred.

Behind Gaia, the card that the King of Games had set was cracking halfway.

“I had made Gaia hold this. This Egg of Mystery, that is.” The King of Games flipped open his torn card. The illustration of the egg in the center of the card was split in two like it was broken.

“The Egg of Mystery? That card doesn’t exist. I know of all cards.  I have every card logged, even the ones that Kaiba himself doesn’t know of.” Cyber Kaiba’s logs encompassed every card, from the first sets to the most recent. In those logs, the card “Egg of Mystery” did not exist.

No… In Cyber Kaiba’s search through his logs, something felt off.

“That card can’t possibly exist!”

“Yes. I’ve never officially seen it in any logs. But, I have heard the rumors.”

“That’s right. It’s a card that’s a rumor and nothing more.”

“It’s like an apparition, coming and going. There are plenty of testimonies stating that they’ve seen various apparitions of various shapes and sizes. But, their existence has never been actually confirmed.”

“That’s because they don’t exist.”

“Seems that is what you’ve decided upon, Cyber Kaiba. That is why you say the Egg of Mystery doesn’t exist. However, ‘people’ think this: whether it exists or not, there has to be a reason as to how these accounts of apparitions being witness come to be. So, then, what reason do you think that the rumors of the Egg of Mystery came to be?”

“It’s because human recognition is too unreliable.”

“That may also be the case. But, it seems that the intelligence that you take such great pride in is faulty, Cyber Kaiba. The Egg of Mystery exists right before your very eyes. Think about why this entity only exists in rumors like an apparition.”

Cyber Kaiba was getting hit off-guard. It was something that he had never considered before. Apparitions? Rumors? Those were all phenomena outside of Cyber Kaiba’s realm of recognition.

“The reason this card exists only in rumors was because it’s a rare card with a limited initial print. Not only that, but it was only ever in the first initial set. And, furthermore, this card can only be used once. In order to use it, you would have to dispose of the card itself. It’s a card that gets rid of itself after use. Its existence was rumored of, but, by the time they were, they no longer existed.”

Cyber Kaiba’s artificial body managed to pull of showing shock. However, its main body made its composed calculation and gave forth a decision.

“So? What are you getting at? It’s true that the Egg of Mystery exists. Don’t think that I don’t recognize that to be the case. I’ve already logged it in. But, it’s nothing to be afraid of. It holds a fatal weakness.”

From the cracked husk of the Egg of Mystery, an embryotic organism was born. Its form was indefinite and its attack and defense power was 100. The monster freshly hatched from its egg had to develop from then on.

“That’s right. The other reason why this card was thought to not exist is because that it was far too hard to properly master it.”

The monster that hatches from the Egg of Mystery would increase its attack and defense power by 100 each turn with the the stats of a monster the player chooses being the maximum. However, it was a difficult task getting it to survive that long.

“I’ll just do away with it in my next turn!”

“Is that a fact? This card births new life from its egg. That is one more reason why this card has gone unidentified for so long. Because, every time the egg breaks, it gives birth to a different monster.”

“It doesn’t matter what was given birth, it won’t be surviving long enough to fully develop.”

The turn passes over to the King of Games.

“It’s true that this is what you’d call a ‘useless’ card. Due to new cards coming into existence, it’s been weeded out, eliminated, and is practically a card as good as gone—no, it is through this card’s special characteristic that it managed to become a card that only exists in rumors. But, as new cards were being created and old cards continued to disappear, there are old cards that have come back through new cards.”  

The King of Games reached out to the discard pile.

“The monster that the Egg of Mystery creates can take on the different attack, defense, and special abilities of a card in my discard pile. This newborn monster now has the abilities of this card.”

The King of Games plucks out a card from his discard pile—the Time Magician.

“Time Magic!” Temporal magic was casted over the field, instantly developing the monster.

“This is a combo that has literally transcended times.”

Cyber Kaiba’s monsters had been affected as well. The Sagi in defense mode had its stats cut in half, but the Automatic Giant himself was completely unscratched. The Giant’s Hammer and Bracelet of Power had shown signs of rust and took off 100 points off of thirty percent of its stats. Altogether it lost 300 points, but even so, the Automatic Giant was left with 2700 attack power.

“I thought I told you that magic wouldn’t defeat my Giant. It doesn’t matter what attack power that monster gained, it doesn’t come close to 2700.”

“The riddle left for the very end is why you decided to call my Summoned Demon for your Bingo call. But, you’re not Kaiba, and knowing that you can’t use the Blue-Eyes White Dragon as your ace, puts everything into place. The Automatic Giant isn’t affected by magic or spells, and gains powerful attack power by use of combos. If you had just brandished it invincible, then it could have stayed invincible. That’s what the real Kaiba would have done. That is how a champion plays. But, you’re no champion. You started off by carefully picking off my means of launching a counterassault.”

“That is what a strategy is all about.”

“That was because you couldn’t brandish it as invincible from the start. That is why your Automatic Giant is no longer invincible. It’s a defective piece of junk with a weak point. Just like you. Just like you and your inability to really be Kaiba, in fact.”

“I am Hyper Kaiba, he who has surpassed Kaiba.”

“This is your weak spot!” The King of Games pointed to the Summoned Demon in his discard pile.

“The attack power it’s inheriting will be of Summoned Demon!”

In terms of solely attack power, it stood at 2500. It didn’t come close to the Giant’s 2700.

“Demon Strike Lightning!!” The Demon summoned forth a storm, unleashing its lighting. The electrical attack was not of magic power. It was a pure energy attack. The mass-ranged attack, Demon Strike Lightning, first burned the now 1000 defense power Sagi to a crisp before continuing on to assault the Giant. The electric energy would increase in attack power against enemies that had high conductivity. Against the Automatic Giant, the 2500 electric attack skyrocketed to 3100.

Sparks flew from the Automatic Giant as it collapsed to the ground in pieces. It was 3100 versus 2700. The difference of 400 came out from Cyber Kaiba’s Life Points, thus ending the battle with a score of 400 to 0. Yugi had come out victorious.

“This can’t be…”

“It wasn’t just because you set this up with the Bingo rule in place. You were being wary of even the Unicorn’s Horn card because of its electrical properties, and only played your ace after you had eliminated it. You were being far too cautious for your own good. You put your own Automatic Giant’s weak point out on display.”

“No! You! You’re lying! Be quiet! Be qui, be qui, b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b…”

“Stuck in a thought process loop? I thought I told you this was a Game of Darkness. You’ll be taking your Penalty Game.”

The overhead light that illuminated the tabletop flashed intensely. Like a flash of lightning, an electrical discharge struck through the air and pierced through Cyber Kaiba’s body.

“Ga ga ga ga ga ga… ga ga…!”

Plumes of smoke billowed out from every part of its body as Cyber Kaiba ceased functioning. The game table ceased functioning as well. The monster that hatched from the Egg of Mystery turned towards the King of Games, let out a single roar, and then disappeared. All that was left was the Egg of Mystery card split into two. The monster born would only come once in a lifetime, so to speak—an entity that would only exist for the time being.

The King of Games realized another reason for why the Egg of Mystery was something that only existed in rumors. Once it was used, you lose the card and would certainly part ways with the monster that hatched from it. There are probably people who own it that hate that it holds such a sad fate and refuse to use it in a game, instead opting to hold on to it.

“Yugi,” Mokuba called out.

“I told you that I wouldn’t lose.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that… Brother would be thrilled as well.”

Putting away his cards, the King of Games stood up from his seat, and looked Kaiba straight in the face.

“Kaiba. I believe that you’ll be back in action. And that I’ll get the chance to fight you once again someday,” he declared, leaving the room.

“Let’s head back too, Brother.”

When Mokuba took hold of the wheelchair, the still smoking Cyber Kaiba creaked around.

“This… isn’t over yet…”

The operation light of the super computer in the small glass room blinked.

“He’s still alive?!”

“Only my terminal is broken… I… will defeat… Yugi…” Cyber Kaiba awkwardly moved his hand, gathering the cards on the table.

“Enough is enough! No matter how hard you try, you’re not gonna beat Yugi!”

Suddenly, Mokuba’s field of vision was obstructed. Something was standing in his way.

“Brother?!”

Kaiba had stood up from the wheelchair. However, he showed no signs of having regained consciousness. His eyes and expression both remained empty, but Kaiba pointed his face at Cyber Kaiba, and towards the super computer. He took a step, and then another. His stride was as if he had forgotten how to walk, but Kaiba proceeded forward.

“Wh… at are you doing? Just keep… out of my…”

Kaiba took ahold of Cyber Kaiba’s broken body. He flung it into the center of the room. The glass divider shattered to pieces, and Cyber Kaiba collided with its main body of the super computer.

“Wha… t are… you doing…?”

Kaiba walked toward the super computer.

“Brother?!”

Mokuba popped up in front of him, looking up at his brother. His eyes were as hollow as ever, but he could see the glint of a flame flickering deep within them. Mokuba quickly knew what kind of flame that was. He knew that Brother was furious…

Kaiba groped around the panel with shaky hands, but once he touched the part he was looking for, he went wild and exerted great force. Kaiba pulled out the computer’s data logger.

“St! …op!!” Cyber Kaiba, the terminal, dragged its broken body in attempts to stop Kaiba. Kaiba knocked Cyber Kaiba away with a single swing of his arm. Kaiba then plucked out all the data loggers in the computer that held data about himself.

“St…o…p… St…”

Everything ceased functioning. Kaiba had wiped all the logs.

“Brother!”

Kaiba collapsed like a ragdoll, and Mokuba rushed over to catch him. The fire in his eyes was already gone, returning his eyes to its hollow stupor. However, to Mokuba, that flame was the signal fire to usher in Kaiba’s full recovery.

“I believe too, Brother.”

That was most definitely a twinkle in Seto Kaiba’s heart.

The rain had stopped and the parting clouds gave way to the light from the moon. Yugi was on his way back home, but looked at the moon. Both the King of Games and Yugi didn’t know about the light that had taken a split second stay in Kaiba’s eyes, but the moonlight that shined through the clouds was making Yugi’s heart race in a peculiar way.

It was in both anxiety and hope. A feeling that, sometime in the near future, he would take part in an intense duel. And, there dueling would be none other than Kaiba. He had a feeling that he would see Kaiba, back in action, and fighting as the champion he knew him to be…

authoratmidnight:

Full disclosure: I write this as someone who, up until last year, looked at the spinoffs and bushed them off as ‘silly’ or ‘not worth my time’ and just laughed at them without ever giving them a shot(save for GX). My general reaction to seeing that there was another series was ‘another one? really?’

So, with that cleared up, 

Why you should totally give the Yu-Gi-Oh! spinoffs a chance.

So, you’ve seen the original series(which I shall refer to as DM(Duel Monsters) from here on out) and maybe you’re kinda curious about the other series, or you want to know what the buzz is about and if they’re really that good. But, which should you check out, thee are 4 of them after all.

All of them, you should give them all a shot.

Le’s go down the list, stating with GX.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

This is the one that’s the ‘high school au’ one.

This is your protagonist for 4 seasons(180 episodes)

His name is Judai Yuki. Probably the most normal and realistic looking of the ones on this list. I mean, brown hair and eyes, that’s pretty uncommon for a protagonist in this kind of anime.

He’s the protagonist a lot of people seem to refer to as the ‘annoying hyper one’. I blame the 4Kids dub* for this. Because, watching that, you wouldn’t believe he’s 15. Yeah you heard me. 15. A year younger than Yugi. He is most definitely not the ‘annoying and hyper’ one. 

Also, he is canonically mentally ill(depression and later PTSD are the most obvious)and there is rather strong evidence that he’s gay(or bi in the sense of being ‘attracted to males and nonbinary genders-of which this series also has, a canonically nb character). And this is not my shipping side speaking. Because he does literally endgame with a decidedly NOT female character.

*I will probably recommend you watch the subs for all these. Because honestly, after DM (and ymmv on what you thought of that dub) I feel like 4K just treated the spinoffs as a joke. They butchered the hell out of them and you lose a lot. Unless you want to watch the dub and laugh at it.

If you’re fresh off DM, or hold that one dear and aren’t sure if you want to let go of the characters you love yet(and you don’t need to let go, you can love all of them), this might be a good place to start, because cameos.

Yup, see GX is set in the same universe/timeline as DM, just about ~7(10 in the dub) years later, so we get a few cameo appearances from past characters.

Pegasus appears in 3 of the 4 seasons, Yugi appears in the first and last episodes, Kaiba gets a few brief shots and Yugi’s Grandfather even gets an appearance dung the second season as a helper to the protags(which gives us a number of nods back to DM and Battle City in particular.

The foreshadowing in this series is, amazing, and the sort of thing you don’t catch till you rewatch it.

It is slow to get started admittedly, unless you like slice of life, then you’ll enjoy the early portions of season 1, because it has a lot of slice of life type episodes/episodes to establish the characters and the world before the plot kicks in.

If you can hang around until season 3 it will be worth your time. I promise. I can’t even compare it to anything in DM because, cripes it’s worse than season 4(the Doma arc) with how dark it gets. Season 3 is basically the embodiment of the ‘Break the Cutie’ trope. With ‘cutie’ being, that one up there.

Also, the character development in this series is phenomenal! Probably the best out of all the series.

So if you like DM and the characters and you’re not quite ready to say goodbye, this is a good place to start.

*I have a bit of a personal bias b/c this one is my favourite.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s.

aka the card games on motorcycles one.

Yes, it’s a silly idea. But they pull it off enough well enough that you can look past it.

So, your protagonist for this 152 episode series.

Yusei Fudo. He is the oldest protagonist at 18.

Do not be fooled by that serious face, he is a massive sweetheart and very nice.

If you like action this is one you’ll like. If you enjoyed Kaiba you’ll probably enjoy Jack Atlas (the rival/Kaiba expy for this series). This one also has more of the ‘ancient magic from thousands of years ago’ that DM had. Except from Egypt, it’s from Peru, and involves the Nazca lines. 

Unlike GX,which starts out slow and is very slice of lifey, this one just, drops you head first into the story, action right off the bat. You need to watch a few episodes to adjust to the vast difference between this one and the previous two.

You may have heard of the 10th anniversary movie Bonds Beyond Time, a crossover between DM, GX and 5D’s. Yes, that means that this too exists in the same time line as DM. Just, a few decades or so after GX(though it’s not clear how many). There’s no character cameos, but you do get a few nods back to DM, including a mention about Kaiba Corp as well as the brief appearance of an old duelling platform from season 1 DM.

This is also the first one to introduce a new summoning method(that isn’t Fusion or Ritual), called Synchro summoning.

The first season(up to episode 64, the end of the Dark Signers arc) is worth checking out at minimum and you can totally stop right there and not really lose anything.

The second season is, kinda clumsily handled. There was a massive controversy with one of the actresses and she was replaced and a massive chunk of the script rewritten due to said controversy and, it shows. Season 2 has more of the ‘slice of life’ episodes and it’s, meh. It has a few good points and if you’re a completionist like me you might as well watch it too. And it does have some fun things(like watching Jack fight the literal devil, and a wild west themed mini arc).

Again, I recommend the subs. The dub is, eh. The second season is just, bad because thee are literally chunks of episodes, in the middle of arcs, undubbed. And the last chunk of the series isn’t dubbed, it ends something like halfway through the final arc.

Also the dub voices become distracting when you realize you’re effectively listening to Tristan as the protagonist and an Australian Bakura as his rival. You will never unhear that and will be distracting.

So 5D’s is worth checking out for sure, or at least the first season and BBT.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal

This one seems to be a bit of a blacksheep in the YGO, it seems to be the one to get a lot of flack. :/

Anyways, our protagonist for this one. It is 146 episodes.

Yuma Tsukumo. Sweet cinnamon roll that must be protected at all costs.

Yes, he has weird hair, but so does everyone in this series so you’ll adjust(and some are even odder that his). Also please note he s 13, making him the youngest protag. So keep that in mind when judging his actions.

If you like DM, this is also a good one to check out for sure because of all of the parallels between them.

From the relationship between Yum and Astral and Yugi and Atem(amnesiac spirit tied to an artefact and host that is helping them recover their memories…), to ‘former bully turned best friend of the protagonist’, to something that happens at the very end of the series. It’s like a great bit DM reference, with season 2 being a massive GX reference.

It also has great themes on friendship, forgiveness, family, as well as never giving up and giving it your all. Yuma’s ‘kattobingu’ is silly but wonderful. Yuma is a ball of sunshine and happiness that eclipses everyone else on this list.

It’s plot is also an interesting thing, going from a seemingly clear cut, black and white situation where you go ‘they’re good and they’re bad’ to a very grey and muddied one where it’s really hard to tell who’s right and who’s wrong in the conflict and asking the question ‘is this really right?’

While there are no past character cameos, we DO get an episode with monster cameos from DM and GX(including BWED and Dark Magician, and Neos and Rainbow Dragon). If this is in the same universe or a different one from the previous three is unclear. Knowledge of them is not needed to watch and enjoy this one.

Like 5D’s, which introduces Riding Duels and Synchro Summoning, Zexal introduces us to Xyz Summoning and D-Gazers(the duels are projected into VR space that only those wearing a D-Gazer can see/interact with, and the trouble as a phone/communication device of sorts). It catches you up fairly fast on what both of these are.

Much like GX though, it starts off semi slice of life-y with plot, and then the next season hits and it goes dark. Really, really dark.

But it’s great.

Also, it has arguably one of the greatest villains in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Vector. Just, just Vector.

Think like Yami Bakura, if he were actually competent and thought his plans through and knew what he was doing. And more of a twisted, manipulative person. He’s a ‘love to hate him’ character because he is so good at what he does and fun to watch, but at the same time, the things he does are just awful.

And this one has some pretty good foreshadowing too-there s a line in the, second episode that suddenly makes sense when you get to season 2 and more is revealed. 

So if you love DM this one is definitely worth checking out.

This one isn’t missing anything from the dub, save for what 4K edited/removed, but the sub is still the way to go.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V

At the time of writing, this one is up to 110 episodes and still going.

This is Yuya Sakaki. You’ve probably heard people call him ‘tomato child’. Yeah, the hair is why. Also he is 14.

Again, like Zexal everyone has crazy hair, so he isn’t too unusual in terms of colour(I mean his best friend has pink hair).

This one is a bit different.

See, while you could watch any of the previous three in any order without having seen any of the others and they would still make sense, this one makes frequent references to GX, 5D’s and Zexal as well as using their summoning methods(Fusion, Synchro and Xyz). You don’t *need* to watch the previous ones to watch this and understand it, however you will get the tiny references faster if you do(which adds to the fun).

It is definitely a fun one to watch, taking all the liveliness that is duelling and doing something with it. Action Duels. So no more just, standing there shouting at one another. Now it’s running around, riding the monsters and shouting at each other.

So if you liked the action from DM, you’ll enjoy this.

And much like Zexal and 5D’s, this one introduces Pendulum Summoning as its new summoning method.

One thing people like to point out is its deconstruction of many past YGO tropes(esp the ‘we duelled so we’re friends’ trope.) and it does, frequently. Also I think it’s the first one to feature a tournament arc, where the tournament doesn’t get finished. And female characters that DO shit and get shit done. And a lot of them too.

And yes this is the one with the guy and his lookalikes. Don’t worry, it’s not as confusing as it seems. If you can keep straight and past and present selves in DM, counterparts is a non issue(especially since they are introduced gradually so you get to know them).

The plot is kinda slow to get going, as it bounces between two main characters for the first while, yet still keeps from being boring, but once it hits, it HITS. Like, by episode 7 you know something is up and this is going to be more than just ‘duelling for fun’ and a rivalry between schools, and it goes from there. And then, for lack of a better descriptor, ‘shit gets real’ once you reach the 30′s.

And it’s all down hill from there.

At the moment there is still a lot that hasn’t been revealed, making some aspects difficult to talk about without massively spoilering things. It is definitely worth giving a look over though.

Obviously, since this is ongoing the dub isn’t as far as the sub, so you’ll want the sub if you want to see the most recent episodes.

*This one is my other favourite.

Also, if you like consistent animation quality, GX is the way to go, with Zexal and Arc V following close. No where near as many derptastic episodes like DM had(Doma arc and Memory Wold Arc come to mind). Sure they have their off episodes in terms of animation(what doesn’t?) but not to the degree that DM had. 

GX is fairly solid in terms of animation, especially in season 4 where it shoots up, a lot. While Zexal and Arc V are just, stunningly animated, and very bright and colourful (so when the animation dips for an episode or two you can tell).

5D’s is, eh. The first season is good(mostly) but then it kinda, dips.

And the character designs, the character designs are fucking great ok? For all of them.

All in all, they are all good, for various different reasons and definitely worth checking out, especially if you were/are a fan of the original. Don’t just pass them over because ‘oh they’re spinoffs, they can’t be that good’. Actually, they can and are.

(via ygo-gx)

dbtaizen:

We all know that Dragon Team are the only worthwhile option for enjoying Dragon Ball Super, but just how bad are the speedsubs?

There’s only one set of speedsubs, and they come from AnimeRG. However, they’re not really a group, but rather a bunch of fools throwing Japanese > Spanish > English guesslations on a raw and calling it a day.

You can probably guess how that turns out each week…

RELEASE INFO

AnimeRG: MKV, Softsub. Character/attack names frequently drift between the English dub and Japanese terms. Honourifics are equally as inconsistent. Release time is <12 hours.

Dragon Team: MKV, Softsubs. Japanese character/attack names. Honourifics used. Very fast release (<24-48 hours).

TRANSLATION

It’s customary to begin with an analysis of the OP and ED karaoke, but AnimeRG doesn’t actually have a translation of either. Or rather, they didn’t until they stole Dragon Team’s this week.

How charming…

Let’s take a look at the opening scene of the episode by AnimeRG:

Kaio: Just go to the party already!
Goku: What is it? I want to get stronger to defeat the person I just fought.
Kaio: But if you don’t go, will your friends not get angry with you?
Goku: That’s true!

Uh, no, this could not be further from what’s being said. In fact, it’s the total opposite of what the exchange means. Solid start!

From Dragon Team’s release:

Kaio: You can’t go to the party!
Goku: Why not? Just a while ago you were talkin’ like you wanted me to go.
Kaio: And you said you didn’t want to!
Goku: Well, yeah…

It’s a humorous exchange about Goku’s desire to follow Beerus to Earth. Kaio isn’t the least bit concerned about Goku’s friends being upset with him! We’ve got a crazy cat god on the loose, and Goku wants to fight him! 

AnimeRG also goes on to translate “senzu” (Hermit Bean) as “he”. Truly outstanding work.

Beerus appears behind Vegeta, and scares him by shouting “Bang!” He then follows up with…

“Thank You!”

Uh…

The random capitalisation aside, that’s not what’s going on in this scene. Beerus does say “Domo”, which certainly can mean “Thank you”, but context is important. In this case, Beerus is using it as an incredibly informal greeting.

Dragon Team opts to translate it using the far more sensible “Greetings.”

Proofreading is totally unnecessary, right?

I mean…

You wouldn’t want anyone to know you were just throwing closed captions into Google Translate, right?

“He’s a candy-ass faggot!”

AnimeLabs, is that you?

This particular mistranslation caused a lot of confusion among those retarded enough who didn’t know better than to watch more than 10 minutes of this release.

AnimeRG: “Instead of only Octopus in this, I have filled Wasabi in the center of these Balls.” (What is with this group and random capitalisation?)

DragonTeam: “It’s set up so that a single ball filled with heaps of wasabi instead of octopus meat was added to the mix!”

Getting that right is pretty vital to understanding the joke that takes place. It also contextualises the name Kuririn uses for the dish: “Russian takoyaki”, as in, Russian roulette.

Well, Kuririn, considering you literally just described to everyone what they were, it’s a bit concerning that you don’t know.

What’s more concerning is that AnimeRG couldn’t work out what was actually being said!

Dragon Team: “Why is it always me?”

That’s the character’s catchphrase, guys!

I’m sorry, what?! I don’t know whether to be more baffled at the absurdity of this line or the erroneous comma placement.

Dragon Team: “World conquest is the very reason the Pilaf Gang exists!”

Beerus asks Vegeta what his relationship with Goku is. The correct translation, and the one featured in Dragon Team’s release, is “W-Well, I guess we’re like rivals…”

AnimeRG seem to be stuck in the Saiyan arc, and goes with “It could be said we are enemies”.

No, I think we’ve moved quite far past that point.

Just like this release, then?

Whis actually asks, “Are you angry?”

AnimeRG manages to translate “tako” (octopus), a word they’ve been translating just fine throughout the episode, into “cooking” and “boil”.

How?!

Whis, if you were told he was already finished with the pudding, why would you bother coming over in the first place?

Of course, this line is wrong. The actual line is “Pardon me. The person at the stand told us he was all sold out…”

Poor Mr. Satan. It’s bad enough that he’s about to get launched into a wall, but did they really have to call him “disturbing”?!

It’s not technically wrong; “Jama” literally means “disruption”. But without the sentence reading “You are disturbing us”, it doesn’t make much sense.

Dragon Team: “Scram.”

By the end of the episode, they’ve totally given up trying to pretend they know what they’re doing.

UNWATCHABLE.

Almost every line in this release is somehow marred by nonsensical translations or abysmal grammar. It is a waste of everyone’s time. As impatient as you may be, please stop downloading releases like this.

LAST NOTES

• It’s important to note that AnimeRG’s translation isn’t the only terrible thing about the release. Their line timing is utterly embarrassing. Lines begin too early, too late, and even mid-sentence frequently throughout the episode.
  
• Beware of KamiFansubs’ release of Dragon Ball Super. It is simply an edit of AnimeRG’s release. They manage to tidy up some grammar, and fix a few errors, but it’s ultimately just as terrible.
  
• Stay away from DragonSuper. Though they once took Dragon Team’s translations for their reencodes, they have now begun using AnimeRG’s translation. What makes them worse, however, is that they have stolen Dragon Team’s fonts and stylesheets in an effort to pass their release off as ‘quality’.
  

 Be sure to always grab your episodes from Dragon Team’s website.

I won’t be doing any more of these, so be sure to pay attention to Herms’ thread over on Kanzenshuu. It details some of the biggest mistranslations.

dbtaizen:

We all know that Dragon Team are the only worthwhile option for enjoying Dragon Ball Super, but just how bad are the speedsubs?

There’s only one set of speedsubs, and they come from AnimeRG. However, they’re not really a group, but rather a bunch of fools throwing Japanese > Spanish > English guesslations on a raw and calling it a day.

You can probably guess how that turns out each week…

RELEASE INFO

AnimeRG: MKV, Softsub. Character/attack names frequently drift between the English dub and Japanese terms. Honourifics are equally as inconsistent. Release time is <12 hours.

Dragon Team: MKV, Softsubs. Japanese character/attack names. Honourifics used. Very fast release (<24-48 hours).

TRANSLATION

It’s customary to begin with an analysis of the OP and ED karaoke, but AnimeRG doesn’t actually have a translation of either. Or rather, they didn’t until they stole Dragon Team’s this week.

How charming…

Let’s take a look at the opening scene of the episode by AnimeRG:

Kaio: Just go to the party already!
Goku: What is it? I want to get stronger to defeat the person I just fought.
Kaio: But if you don’t go, will your friends not get angry with you?
Goku: That’s true!

Uh, no, this could not be further from what’s being said. In fact, it’s the total opposite of what the exchange means. Solid start!

From Dragon Team’s release:

Kaio: You can’t go to the party!
Goku: Why not? Just a while ago you were talkin’ like you wanted me to go.
Kaio: And you said you didn’t want to!
Goku: Well, yeah…

It’s a humorous exchange about Goku’s desire to follow Beerus to Earth. Kaio isn’t the least bit concerned about Goku’s friends being upset with him! We’ve got a crazy cat god on the loose, and Goku wants to fight him! 

AnimeRG also goes on to translate “senzu” (Hermit Bean) as “he”. Truly outstanding work.

Beerus appears behind Vegeta, and scares him by shouting “Bang!” He then follows up with…

“Thank You!”

Uh…

The random capitalisation aside, that’s not what’s going on in this scene. Beerus does say “Domo”, which certainly can mean “Thank you”, but context is important. In this case, Beerus is using it as an incredibly informal greeting.

Dragon Team opts to translate it using the far more sensible “Greetings.”

Proofreading is totally unnecessary, right?

I mean…

You wouldn’t want anyone to know you were just throwing closed captions into Google Translate, right?

“He’s a candy-ass faggot!”

AnimeLabs, is that you?

This particular mistranslation caused a lot of confusion among those retarded enough who didn’t know better than to watch more than 10 minutes of this release.

AnimeRG: “Instead of only Octopus in this, I have filled Wasabi in the center of these Balls.” (What is with this group and random capitalisation?)

DragonTeam: “It’s set up so that a single ball filled with heaps of wasabi instead of octopus meat was added to the mix!”

Getting that right is pretty vital to understanding the joke that takes place. It also contextualises the name Kuririn uses for the dish: “Russian takoyaki”, as in, Russian roulette.

Well, Kuririn, considering you literally just described to everyone what they were, it’s a bit concerning that you don’t know.

What’s more concerning is that AnimeRG couldn’t work out what was actually being said!

Dragon Team: “Why is it always me?”

That’s the character’s catchphrase, guys!

I’m sorry, what?! I don’t know whether to be more baffled at the absurdity of this line or the erroneous comma placement.

Dragon Team: “World conquest is the very reason the Pilaf Gang exists!”

Beerus asks Vegeta what his relationship with Goku is. The correct translation, and the one featured in Dragon Team’s release, is “W-Well, I guess we’re like rivals…”

AnimeRG seem to be stuck in the Saiyan arc, and goes with “It could be said we are enemies”.

No, I think we’ve moved quite far past that point.

Just like this release, then?

Whis actually asks, “Are you angry?”

AnimeRG manages to translate “tako” (octopus), a word they’ve been translating just fine throughout the episode, into “cooking” and “boil”.

How?!

Whis, if you were told he was already finished with the pudding, why would you bother coming over in the first place?

Of course, this line is wrong. The actual line is “Pardon me. The person at the stand told us he was all sold out…”

Poor Mr. Satan. It’s bad enough that he’s about to get launched into a wall, but did they really have to call him “disturbing”?!

It’s not technically wrong; “Jama” literally means “disruption”. But without the sentence reading “You are disturbing us”, it doesn’t make much sense.

Dragon Team: “Scram.”

By the end of the episode, they’ve totally given up trying to pretend they know what they’re doing.

UNWATCHABLE.

Almost every line in this release is somehow marred by nonsensical translations or abysmal grammar. It is a waste of everyone’s time. As impatient as you may be, please stop downloading releases like this.

LAST NOTES

• It’s important to note that AnimeRG’s translation isn’t the only terrible thing about the release. Their line timing is utterly embarrassing. Lines begin too early, too late, and even mid-sentence frequently throughout the episode.
  
• Beware of KamiFansubs’ release of Dragon Ball Super. It is simply an edit of AnimeRG’s release. They manage to tidy up some grammar, and fix a few errors, but it’s ultimately just as terrible.
  
• Stay away from DragonSuper. Though they once took Dragon Team’s translations for their reencodes, they have now begun using AnimeRG’s translation. What makes them worse, however, is that they have stolen Dragon Team’s fonts and stylesheets in an effort to pass their release off as ‘quality’.
  

 Be sure to always grab your episodes from Dragon Team’s website.

I won’t be doing any more of these, so be sure to pay attention to Herms’ thread over on Kanzenshuu. It details some of the biggest mistranslations.

(via dbtaizen-deactivated20161211)