Sorry for the lack of updates on GX 65! While work has been hectic the past few weeks (lovely when a new system for doing some things gets thrown onto you…), I’d been focusing heavily on trying to knock out the translation edits I wanted to work on, notably the ad for the Shadow of Infinity pack featuring the three Phantasms on the back cover of the magazine that both Judai and Shou look at–and I just finished them up after maybe a week/week-and-a-half of work! Though I’d worked on the edits for the Ryou article and Monkey’s business card first before I felt a second wind to try the ad edits, lol. More details on the process for each of these below the cut, for the curious.
But now that these are all done, and I’ve also already finished the animation/card fixes during the Ryou/Mad Dog duel I’d been working on (save for one, which I’m currently seeing about fixing if possible [though it’s likely I’ll just have to leave it, unless anyone might have some ideas?]), I’m finally ready to get started on the episode proper! Going to start editing the script soon, and pending that last edit, I may be able to have this done by mid-next week. Once I do, I’m planning to add back the fixes I did in episodes 1, 4, 8, and 22 to 66′s flashbacks and try to get that out soon after, since clipshow and all. Stay tuned!
Thanks to @paradoxi-kay’s fantastic work typesetting my translation for this magazine onto the cover, I was able to start working on getting it into the footage; first up was fitting it into the first shot it shows up in as Judai approaches the stack of magazines on the ground, which I managed to do last night.
First I took the translated cover and cropped it out into its own image, then I actually had to go in and remove some of the ghosting that happened as Judai’s shadow crept in by duplicating a few frames here/there. I then Power-Pin’d the translated cover into place in AfterEffects, applying a mask of the original cover on top along Judai’s thumbs and the general border of the cover. After that, I masked in the tied-up string on top, loops and all, and then I keyframed a mask along the shadow of Judai’s hair as it goes over the cover, the keyframes of which I then applied to a new layer of solid gray coloring–this made it so I had the general shape of Judai’s hair shadow there as it moves, which I then tweaked the opacity of, and I topped it off with a new mask on top of that of Judai’s original hair shadow outside the bounds of the cover to make it blend in more. Really like how it came out!
I’ll be getting some more editing done while I wait to hear from another editing helper on how we’ll tackle the back cover with the three Phantasms and the Shadow of Infinity pack ad (we were leaning towards just recreating it, as redrawing the beasts might be a bit hard [and the dub’s inconsistency with their edit made it sorta hard to work with too], and were looking for some help getting a solid render of Uria’s anime card artwork to then extend like a full-art render–if someone may be able to help here, it would definitely be appreciated!); stay tuned!
While I waited for a little more Japanese help in this post, I started working to get this cover page blanked last night and just finished blanking Ryou tonight; my edit is photo #2, while photo #3 is the dub’s effort at blanking the cover (you’ll notice some of their QUALITY choice of edits in some spots, notably on Cyber End Dragon’s wing because they felt the need to wipe out the English title [also in the shot before this they kept the star but removed the 7 #consistency])–I’m using both the Japanese cover and the dub’s blanked cover as reference (I wasn’t able to fully line the dub image up with the original frame, hence why I’m redoing the blanking and hopefully doing it a bit better lol).
Things’ll look a bit more on-point once I apply some blurring to the layers I’m working with, but it’s looking good so far to start, imo (I’ll probably be touching it up some more as I go, too). Blanking the Cyber Dragons is looking a bit daunting, though, but *cracks knuckles* challenge accepted 😤 (actually already started a bit here). I’ll also probably try doing a better color gradient with the red section to Ryou’s right once I get everything else. Stay tuned!
So I’m getting ready to go over my subs for GX 65 and I’d like to try and translate this magazine cover–but I’m having some trouble making out the Japanese on the lower right with the bullet points:
Any chance someone would be able to make out the red Japanese there and transcribe it? I’m assuming it’s meant to be a “Contents” summary, and I can make out the first two bullets as あのデュエリストは今 and プロリーグ[対戦?]データ; for bullet #3, I can make out ベストデュエル and bullet #4 seems to be something about type and deck? I’ve already gotten the “特集 カイザー丸藤亮 サイバードラゴンデッキ徹底解剖” portion. Bonus points if there’s something under the “07″ like an edition marker or something.
I tried to Google some of these to see if a fan had transcribed it already, but no luck. And I hoped the recent raws encoded by “YES” that I found on Nyaa would be of higher quality as they were for 5D’s, but they’re not. Any help would be appreciated!
(EDIT: Thanks to a kind anon, we’ve worked out 99% of bullet #3 to read, “読者が[?]ベストデュエル” (where [?] is a missing kanji, though it looks like there might be a ぶ or something next to it? 🤔), and bullet 4 to read, “タイプ用デッキ攻撃法”; just need the heading and the missing kanji in bullet #3, along with a confirmation that I’m correctly reading “
プロリーグ[対戦?]“ in bullet #2, and I should be good to go. Thanks again!)
SD41-JPP01 Gaikouryuu – Cyber Dark End Dragon / Cyberdark End Dragon
DARK Machine / Fusion / Effect
LV12 5000/3800
“Cyberdark Dragon” + “Cyber End Dragon”
Must be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by Tributing 1 Level 10 or lower “Cyberdark” Fusion Monster equipped with “Cyber End Dragon”.
(1) Unaffected by your opponent’s activated effects.
(2) Once per turn: You can equip 1 monster from either GY to this card.
(3) This card’s maximum number of attacks per Battle Phase equals the number of cards equipped to it.
SD41-JP002 Cyber Dark Chimera / Cyberdark Chimera
DARK Machine / Effect
LV4 800/2100
You can only use this card name’s 1st and 2nd effects once per turn each.
(1) You can discard 1 Spell/Trap; add 1 “Power Bond” from your Deck to your hand, also you cannot use monsters as Fusion Material for the rest of this turn, except Dragon or Machine “Cyber” monsters, and once, if you Fusion Summon this turn, you can also use monsters in your GY as Fusion Material by banishing them.
(2) If this card is sent to the GY: You can send 1 “Cyberdark” monster from your Deck to the GY, with a name different from the cards in your GY.
SD41-JPP03 Cybernetic Horizon
Normal Spell
(This card is also always treated as a “Cyberdark” card.)
You can only activate 1 card with this card’s name per turn. You cannnot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck the turn you activate this card, except Machine monsters.
(1) Send 2 Dragon and/or Machine “Cyber” monsters with different Attributes to the GY (1 from your hand and 1 from your Deck); add 1 Dragon or Machine “Cyber” monster from your Deck to your hand, and if you do, send 1 Machine “Cyber” Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck to the GY.
I could go on about the meaning of powerbond forever for the Marufujis but in this essay i will talk about the use of Judai’s theme for Shou’s comeback vs the psycho style master
I just watched that episode but I’m stupid so i forgot half of it in my excitement but when dragonroid is pulled Shou says the deck finally came through for him and activates a few magic cards in a row each building a foundation for a combo Ryou never even knew existed as a possibility for the cyber dark deck
Shou says Judai told him to ask what the deck wanted and that this is how he will fight to surpass Ryou
Ryou hearing this looks to Judai like what and Judai has never looked prouder. This is the Shou Judai was always encouraging to succeed and shine through the gaps of potential, its always been so amazing that they showed Judai previously telling Shou to move up into Ra Yellow and move forward because he knows he can and to not worry about him staying in Osiris
This is the Shou that Judai saw that Shou himself couldnt see when he still struggled with the meaning of powerbond and its responsibility - the power that Ryou taught him to handle with care and its interesting that the cyberdark deck has such a strong presence that it can even send shockwaves through the user because this is the deck that powerbond was foreshadowing for shou
So when Shou uses kiteroid and dragonroid which are still nods to his vehicroid deck you can tell this is a deck that he thought about because he asked the deck what it wanted and it wasnt just battles it was evolution
And thats when Judai’s theme kicks in for Shou as he summons all three cyberdarks from his graveyard
Because this is Shou’s evolution this is his comeback this is his self assurance and determination spilling out from every pore on his body this is his legacy and Judai’s theme has always been about defeating impossible odds or coming about a miracle
The impossible odds here is Shou overcoming himself and thats why he can use powerbond and he uses it well
The Marufujis are fantastic cast members and their relationship with each other is complex and driving and its awesome to see it come full circle because their arc wasnt just a season thing only it spans more or less the entire ass show and thats what they deserve because theyre the best