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

The One With the Zero Love Life

Manjoume can’t hold back his love for Asuka.  Pushed to it by Fubuki, he steals the seven Spirit Gates’ keys and forces Asuka into a duel.  While Manjoume uses the Love Letter and Hidden Feelings cards, he soon becomes crazed about his love.  He keeps Asuka from summoning Monsters with his Ojama Token and Ojama King and is close to seizing victory, but Asuka seeks to turn things around with her Cyber Angel…

*crashes in months later with Starbucks*

Finally have this completed for you folks! Apologies for the hold-up, it’s been a veery busy month, lol.  So, here we have an iconic episode now finalized: Manjoume VS Asuka, fueled in part by Fubuki’s bad habit of being there for those in love.  It’s entertaining for sure, though it does make clear that Manjoume’s feelings were a bit one-sided… 😅 

Part of the delay with this was working on some of the animation fixes I did here, and doing them for 48-49 too since I want to try and work on them next in quicker succession.  List of 47′s fixes below the cut, as usual.

Enjoy! I’ll be working on 48 next as we get the final villain showdown of Season 1 done in Judai VS Kagemaru, which is a good two-parter; I’ll be trying to do a double-release for them, so stay tuned!

(Update [1/24/21]: Revised to make Asuka’s Chapel of Blessings – Ritual Church Field Magic’s name consistent with episode 60, which was just finalized.)

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The One With the Evil Final Exam - Part 1

Six of the keys to the seven Spirit Gates have been used.  Judai heads to the Abandoned Dorm, where he finds Daitokuji’s mummified corpse.  The last of the Seven Stars, Amnael, shows himself, and a duel between Judai and Amnael begins.  His foe has a deck based around alchemy, and each time Judai attacks with his multi-Attribute E-Heroes, he’s stopped by the Permanent Trap Elemental Absorber.  Monsters also continue to emerge from Alchemic Kettle - Chaos Distill, waging direct attacks on him…

GX Episode 46: An Earth/Water/Fire/Wind Fusion! Elixirer 

(The One With the Evil Final Exam - Part 2)

The duel between Judai and Amnael continues, and it turns out that Amnael is Daitokuji, as is the mummified corpse.  He confesses that his current form is the result of the power of alchemy allowing him to attach his soul to a doll body.  The field of battle changes as he uses his Macrocosmos Permanent Trap and Helios the Primordial Sun and his second Sun, taking them into outer space, where the planets surrounding them have Asuka, Manjoume, and Fubuki locked away.  Judai takes hits from Planet Alignment just as the third Sun shows itself…

Here’re episodes 45 and 46! If you haven’t already seen, I posted 44 yesterday.  Here, we see the Judai/Amnael duel play out, as Judai deals with the issue of Elemental Absorber blocking his attacks, the revelation that Amnael’s the professor they’ve been worried sick about, and their duel reaching new heights–literally–as things burn up in outer space.  It’s a pretty fun duel, Amnael’s Alchemy Beasts are neat, the whole duel is chock-full of alchemy references–for those newer to the fandom, I recommend some of The Mad Poet’s writings on alchemy references in GX from *checks notes* nine years ago whaaat for some fun trivia–right down to the name Judai gives Elixirer’s attack, “Fusionist Magistery” (”Magistery” referencing the Philosopher’s Stone in meaning, and when attached to “Fusionist” completes Daitokuji’s attribution of alchemy to fusion).

The animation work in 46 is also good, and the episode feels like it gets better once they’re in space; things seem pretty well-paced, the music is on-point, and with the lessons Judai’s made to take in from the duel, this duel stands out among those in Season 1.

However, the dub seriously did this series of episodes dirty–most notably in 46.  Where Amnael here is relating alchemy to Judai’s use of Fusion and alluding to his making friends as a form of alchemy, dub!Amnael plants the idea of Jaden’s duels being fixed to get him to this point where his key would be on the line.  It’s a bad writing change because, despite his life being on the line, Daitokuji is still there and is still a Professor to Judai, and he wants to see him do better; 4Kids instead ends up making him look much more antagonistic only to try and undo it towards the end (writing out Daitokuji’s explanation of alchemy’s true use in the process).  I’ll have to get around to a dub/sub comparison for this one…

Some other Translation Notes that aren’t necessary but do enhance the viewing experience:

Amnael’s attack name for Helios Duo Megistus, “Flames of Vulcanus,” refers to Vulcan, “the god of fire (including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking, and the forge) in ancient Roman religion and myth.”

“What lies below is as above, just as what lies above is as below.” was me making a more aesthetically pleasing subtitle out of “as above, so below,” which is a phrase from Hermeticism; “The actual text of that maxim, as translated by Dennis W. Hauck from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, is: “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.” Thus, whatever happens on any level of reality (physical, emotional, or mental) also happens on every other level. This principle, however, is more often used in the sense of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one (usually the microcosm) a person may understand the other.^[36]“

As I said in 44′s post, the animation fixes I was working on for 45 were part of the reason these were delayed (along with SOCIAL ACTIVITY), but it was good to get them done; 45 saw five fixes (three card-related), while 46 had three (one card-related).  List below the cut, as usual. (EDIT, 2021: Two new fixes applied in 46, listed in bold under the cut!)

Enjoy, everyone! Thanks for your patience if you were looking forward to these.  With these done, I’ll start prepping a few things for 47 now, but I’ll actually take a little break to work on the next 5D’s Dub-Uncut for episode 22 (I may squeeze in some scripting here/there tho).  Let’s see how I can improve that mess…

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The One With the Endgame Setup (and Underwear)

With Professor Daitokuji missing, worries amount that he may have lost to the Seven Stars, so Judai and the others head to a dark forest to look for him.  Elsewhere, Asuka pursues a missing Fubuki only to duel a mysterious duelist and the last of the Seven Stars, but their overwhelming power gap leads to her defeat.  Manjoume also pursues clues about Daitokuji only to meet the mysterious duelist; they duel but he loses.  Is Daitokuji safe? And what is the identity of this mysterious duelist?

*crashes in weeks late with Starbucks* WHAT’S HAPPENING Y’ALL

But really, apologies for the delay in getting this finalization done for you all! Truth is, 44 was done a while ago, but because this is leading to one of my top Season 1 duels, I wanted to put it out alongside 45 and 46 for a nice triple-feature… but some animation fixes I worked on for 45, combined with work and SOCIAL ACTIVITY happening IRL, made me take longer than expected to finish it up and then knock out 46, which I just did the other day. 😒

This is a good build-up episode for the main Amnael duel coming up in 45 and 46, though! Detective Thunder reprises his duties and we get some shots of a shadowed Amnael being a silent badass.  Poor Mrs. Tome getting mistaken for evil though; she’s one of the purest in this show.  The animation work is also great this episode.

Enjoy, folks! Check out the post with 45 and 46 here~

The One With the Boi

A young man known as “Boy,” a hit in the world of gambling, has stormed into the Academia, selling himself into being a member of the Seven Stars opposition.  The Boy is challenged by his old friend Asuka to a duel.  The Boy’s tactics revolve around dueling by calling coin flips with his Gambler Deck.  He gets two coin tosses through his Second Chance and always guesses his flips right.  However, Asuka has had her eye on the Boy’s one weakness since childhood…

Here’s finalized!43! A nice bit of development for Asuka is always welcome, as it shows us some more on her dueling philosophy, and it was interesting to see an old classmate of hers in the Boy.  I do like how we see hints of his way of thinking and then Asuka calls it out right towards the end.  Also features one of the few uses of the “A Fresh Morning” tune from GX Sound Duel 1 at the beginning, and it’s a really nice track.

Thankfully, not much in the way of fixes this episode! Though the one fix with Judai’s hair in one shot did bug me a little; I flip-flopped between just painting over the miscolored section or just using the recolor tool in Photoshop, and while I went with the latter and it still kiinda sticks out, I do think using the former would’ve stuck out more lol.  List below the cut~

Enjoy, folks! Think I’ll get to work on dub-uncut!5D’s #21 for a bit, then work on GX 44.  Looking forward to revisiting the Amnael stuff, as it’s some of my favorite Season 1 content!

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The One With the Bullfighters

Asuka continues to nurse her brother, whose memories haven’t returned.  With his memories on the line, Asuka duels Titan.  Titan isn’t the cheating duelist he was before–he’s become a true Dark Duelist.  Titan uses a series of “Daemon Matador” Monsters and Dark Arena, a bullring of darkness, to lead Asuka into the dark and gain the upper hand.  Unable to choose her attack targets, Asuka’s Cyber Blader is destroyed by his Matadors…

Here’s episode 41, folks! This is a great Asuka-focused episode, and one of the few wins for our protagonist team that weren’t earned by Judai.  Asuka’s motivation to regain Fubuki’s memories for him is a good driving force for her, and that reunion at the end hits the feels~ Well, until one fateful callout… We do also get to see Cyber Blader’s other two effects in action here, which is neat.

Just one card-related fix involved with this episode, but the main time-grabber was translating the Cosplay Duel poster that shows up in episode 42 but is included in its preview during episode 41.  Details below the cut. #KeyframingIsFunKids

Enjoy! If you haven’t checked it out yet, I’m also working on some “dub-uncut” episodes of 5D’s where I tweak dialogue and add back the Japanese OST for some fun; I’ll be getting started on episode 26 soon, which I’m excited for thanks to all the new 5D’s Duel Links audio I get to work with–we finally have legit translations of the summoning chants! Well, mostly. Sorry, Crow. Once 26 is done, I’ll get started on GX 42 and the fun poster-translating antics that will ensue. 😅

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The One With the Proposal

The Seven Stars’ next assassin is Abidos III, a boy king known as the “God of Dueling” who boasted a no-loss record in Ancient Egypt.  Judai duels with Abidos III, and Judai keeps up well in their match, asking Abidos, “You’re really bad at this, right?” Abidos experiences his first sense of resistance in a duel, as he gathers three sarcophagi on his field to summon Spirit of the Pharaoh, with four servants to fortify his defense.  But Judai also lays out the groundwork for his counterattack…

It’s episode 40! This episode’s not too bad, and we have another nod to Ancient Egypt with Abidos.  His deck is a bit underwhelming, though, as Judai and co. note, but it does help to set the stage for Judai’s first use of the HERO cards, and while they do go on to get some spread-out use through the rest of the show, I believe this is one of only two times HERO Flash!! gets used with them.  Also, where’s my post-series one-shot with Judai and Abidos guys

Not too much in the way of card fixes, though I did go and fix two card-related animation errors in some quick shots.  Details are in this little preview post I did a few days ago~

Enjoy, folks! Off to work on the next episode for my 5D’s dub-uncut project with episode 25, and then I’ll come back to work on GX 41, which gives us some much-needed Asuka/Fubuki time!

The One Without Christopher Walken

(Because Don Zaloog’s Walken impression was arguably the best thing the dub did)

Judai and the others have their keys to the seven Spirit Gates stolen–and it was the doing of the five Black Scorpion Graverobbers, who’ve hidden themselves at the academy.  Solving the case, Manjoume begins a duel with the Black Scorpions’ leader, Zaloog.  Manjoume closes in by leveling up his Armed Dragon, but the five Black Scorpions seal it away from him.  With the five’s combined attacks stripping him of 2000 LP in one turn–and putting him one attack closer to defeat–Manjoume rides it all on the Ojama Trio.

lol remember when I said I’d have this done three weekends ago

Here’s episode 39! Apologies for the delay on this one; I’d been door-knocking with a crazy congressional campaign every weekend the last few weeks and especially on Primary Day last Tuesday (you may have heard of it by now~  especially if you follow me on Twitter), and between that, working my 8:30-5:30, gym/commute time, and still being terrible with sleep… Had a rougher time squeezing in the work here than I expected… 😅 

But we made it! 39′s a fun episode that plays on Detective Conan a little bit in Manjoume’s detective antics (with… questionable methods), and it’s neat to see the Black Scorpions get a little airtime.  Manjoume also gets a welcome duel, and we get the debut of Ojama King aka best Monster you’re just mean Yuri.  Tune in next time when our protagonist battles an ancient Egyptian pharaoh with an unbeatable streak and… not-too-ridiculous hair? Do those exist??

Nothing in the way of card fixes this episode–yay!–so I just did two quick Quality of Life fixes to the footage; list below the cut.

Enjoy, folks; starting some more work on my 5D’s dub-uncut project with episode 24! Stay tuned for a little peek there.  I’ll start prepping some stuff for GX 40 here/there; will shoot to have it done by mid-to-late next week, hopefully.  That’s enough wiggle room right

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The One With the Fishy Mixup

A multi-millionaire named Anacis arrives at the island for a Duel of Darkness with the three Phantasm cards at stake.  When they declare “Duel!” at the bottom of the sea, Anacis realizes there was a “Duel of Darkness”/”Duel in the Seas” mixup.  Judai and Anacis now have a Duel in the Seas, and with the “Legendary City of Atlantis” Field Magic, Anacis’s Water-Attribute Monsters gain an edge–while Judai suffers as he stares down powerful monsters like “Orca Mega-Fortress of Water” and “Levia Dragon – Daedalus.”

Not as much of a delay with this one, is it? Here’s episode 38! Judai thinks he’s in for a painful duel, until it turns out there was a misunderstanding, so we end up with a duel in the deep blue sea! A fun episode for what it is, even if that’s probably a clever commercial for the Structure Deck that came out around its airdate.  (Also, why did the dub change Shou’s argument from Judai eating his fried shrimp to sell his bed or something again)

Couple of card fixes here, as well; list below the cut.  Some were a bit tougher given the watery background thing going on, and I scrapped one because of it (Judai’s Mirror Gate being sideways heading into the break), but overall, nothing too complex. (EDIT, 2021: One new fix applied that I missed before, listed in bold under the cut!)

Enjoy, folks! Going to start work on 39 by this weekend; I’ll have 38 up on NAC by then, too.

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The One With the Yukey/Tanya Fisticuffs

(My Subbed GX Masterpost)

tfw you finally finish finalizing an episode you wanted to finalize a month ago

Apologies for taking so long on this one, guys! It’s been a hectic month, lol.  In case you need a refresher with 36, check it out here as we continue with the aftermath of Misawa’s loss, where Tanya decides she needs another strong man–enter Judai.  It’s a neat episode thanks to Tanya’s use of Amazoness Death Arena, a Field Magic which lets them scuffle in spirit form and answer the question, “What if a fight broke out in the middle of the duel??” Poor Misawa, though. :’(

Part of the delay was squeezing in some time to work on the few fixes I had for this episode, including yet another strapping issue for our poor Burstlady.  Full list below the cut, per usual.

Enjoy, folks! I’ll finally be posting 36 with 37 on NAC tomorrow–I have to revisit 36 to reencode the preview per renaming the Death Ring to “Death Arena”–and then moving to get started with 38 as we face a freaky fishy guy.  Should be fun!

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The One Where Carnal Rays Are a Thing

The third assassin is an Amazoness named Tanya, and she goes for Misawa, saying that losing will turn him into her husband.  Misawa and Tanya the Amazoness duel, and Misawa uses his thoroughly calculated Science Deck and Plus and Minus-magnetized Monsters to seize the initiative in their battle.  However, Tanya’s Amazoness Deck was a surprisingly well-calculated deck, and Misawa finds himself shaken emotionally by Tanya as she asserts her interest.

Sorry for the slight delay! It would’ve been nice to finish this two Wednesdays ago given what episode this is, but oh well… 😫 Also, I meant to post this on Sunday but got distracted thanks Duel Links! So, we get our third Seven Star in Tanya, who faces a determined Misawa, and it’s not a bad duel; his Science Deck is interesting against Tanya.  I liked him calling out Tanya for being superficial, but then he ends up falling for her later, which is… well.

Only one card fix was done this time! I fixed the scene where Amazoness Holy Warrior/Paladin was summoned while Tanya had a Normal Monster card to show for her and Amazoness Swordswoman on her Disk; I Photoshop’d their proxies and threw them into her hand and her Disk, respectively, in AfterEffects, then keyframed Swordswoman so it pans out with the shot.

Enjoy, folks; working on 37 soon, where we’ll have Judai going mano-a-mano with Tanya and her carnal rays! …uh, what are those, again? 🤔

The One Where They Go Down a Well

Manjoume’s brothers try to buy Duel Academia, and as a condition of their purchase, a duel between Manjoume Thunder and Manjoume’s brother Chousaku begins.  Manjoume has a handicap imposed on him, making it so he can’t use Monsters with 500 or more ATK, and he somehow scrapes together wimpy Monsters to make a deck.  All he can do is stall with his summoned Monsters in Defense Mode, while Chousaku wages an offensive with dragons in the 2500-ATK range.  But when the Ojama Trio are all out together, it marks the beginning of Manjoume Thunder’s counterattack…

i feel like that’s an appropriate screengrab for this episode

Here’s episode 35! Gives us an interesting premise, forcing Manjoume–someone who’s relied on a power deck thus far–to battle with weak Monsters, as his brothers decide to cut the middle man and go right to a certain cocky rich guy to buy the Academia and rule the “card game world” (yes, that is an actual line; neat cameo tho).  Also, the Ojama Trio is finally complete, and that helps Manjoume develop some more through this episode, trying to show his Brothers that he actually has grown.

Had a few card fixes and one typo fix to work in here, and I also recycled the translated “Go, Trio of Avid Bravery” shot of the three Manjoumes from episode 12 for the hardsub (thanks to @enbynoctis again for initially working the text in!); full list below the cut, as usual.

Enjoy, folks! Expect it on NAC by tomorrow.  36′ll get us into the third of our Seven Star encounters, and it’ll be an… interesting one.

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