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Asuka VS Fubuki! The Path to a Sibling Idolatry

Judai was dealt a defeat by Ed, becoming unable to see his cards as anything more than blank paper.  Elsewhere, with Chronos’s plot at stake, Fubuki duels his sister Asuka.  Fubuki wants to persuade Asuka into a debut in show business through forming a sibling duo together.  Fubuki activates his Ultimate Stage Costume Field Magic, raising his Monster’s ATK to 3000, as Asuka uses her Cyber Angel series of Ritual Monsters to face him.

And episode 60′s now finalized! After we see the effects of Saiou’s powers on Judai after his loss to Ed (in a scene that was cut from the dub, by the way), it ends up being a fun episode with more of Fubuki, who we haven’t seen since the end of the Seven Stars arc by now, in his first duel as himself while Chronos’s whole Idol Training Course thing comes back into play, trying to rope Asuka into his plan to take out the Red dorm.  I do love the part where Fubuki’s Stage Costume Field Magic backfires, haha.

In terms of animation fixes, there were some–mainly QOL ones, along with a few card-related ones–that I worked into the episode, and for the hardsub, I translated both the banner that appears as Shou visualizes Fubuki at a concert and Manjoume’s pink robe with Asuka’s name on the back (which he apparently only wears here); list below the cut, as usual.  I also have to go back to 47 and revise the script a bit to fix the name of Asuka’s Chapel of Blessings - Ritual Church/Ritual Sanctuary Field Magic, which I named “Church of Blessings” then (redundancy!), so if you’ve downloaded that from NAC, keep an eye out for the revision. (EDIT, 2021: Came back to apply one more fix, which I’ve included in bold under the cut!)

Enjoy, folks! With this done, I’ll start working on my last 5D’s Dub-Uncut mini-project episode in 5D’s 29, which should be interesting; I’ll sprinkle in some work on GX 61 as I do, as it’s Saiou’s duel with Manjoume which is a really interesting episode.  Stay tuned!

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VS Ed (Part 1) - E-Heroes VS E-Heroes

Out of an attempt to decide which of them is the true Hero user, a duel begins between Judai and Ed.  Judai lands the first strike with Flame Wingman, but Ed immediately summons Phoenixguy from the same Fusion Materials for a draw between them.  The battle heats up further into a battle of high-level E-Hero fusions as Shining Flare Wingman takes on Shining Phoenixguy, all while Ed refuses to approve of how Judai is so nonchalantly inspired by his Heroes.

VS Ed (Part 2) - The D-Heroes of Destiny

Judai’s duel versus Ed continues with Ed activating his Clock Tower of Seclusion Field Magic, which eerily marks the hour of destiny.  He goes on to summon his D-Hero series of Monsters one after the other–a group of Monsters said to freely manipulate time itself with destiny as their guide, and which are more advanced than even the E-Heroes.  Judai suffers by way of a combo which deprives him of his own Heroes as they’re thrown several turns into the future, only to be manipulated into attacking by the enemy upon their return.  And at last, the D-Hero imprisoned within the Clock Tower shows himself…

So, there are several duels I’ve been looking forward to revisiting as I finalize my subs, and these two episodes, which give us the first real match between Judai and Ed, are easily in the top ten.  After I first fansubbed Season 3 in late high school and circled back to Seasons 1 and 2 while I was in college, I eventually burned these episodes onto a DVD and kept flicking them on whenever I was bored–safe to say a lot of the dialogue sounds pretty familiar by now, lol.

That’s how well these episodes hit, though–after he just took out the Kaiser without even lifting a finger (as Venomas6 pointed out on NAC in a great analysis on the episode, Ed literally won without ever inflicting his own damage on him–every single LP the Kaiser lost was his own doing), it’s our first real look at Ed as a character and what drives him beyond just the pro duelist prodigy we’ve been told he is; we dig more into his belief in fate (which we’ll circle back to once we learn more of his dynamic with Saiou), and of course, we touch onto the biggest difference between him and Judai while also planting the seeds for some further development down the line (the “D-Hero imprisoned within the Clock Tower” bit, for example, hinting at the DD duel later on and the assessment he makes about Ed).  Between that, the duel itself being our first look at these new Destiny antiHeroes, Judai’s second loss (😲) which sets up some introspection for a few episodes, 59′s pacing in general, “YEEHAWWW”… What’s not to love about these? (Besides how the dub handled a lot of the dialogue around a “hero’s burden” [which, hello Season 3 foreshadowing] or made Ed’s dad “disappear”–though it’s funny we totally forget about Junko and Momoe in 59 lol)

In terms of animation fixes, 58 saw a couple of little footage fixes that were missed by the animators, but 59 saw a fair amount of that and card fixes–all told, I did 18 different fixes for the latter, which is why these kinda took a while to finish lol.  List below the cut, as usual. (EDIT 10/18/21: I went back and tackled fixing Judai’s Hero Kid being shown as a Normal Monster before it turns white after Judai loses and refinalized 59 accordingly, since I opted to do it for the flashback in 67; fixed it in 59 first, then applied most of the work in 67–I included details on this below.)

Enjoy, folks! With these done, I’ll be getting work started on GX 60 and Fubuki’s antics to try and get that out soon-ish; having already revised the script for GoldenUmi’s release of the Duel Selection episodes (where they remastered fan-favorite episodes from each series) on NAC a while back, it shouldn’t take too long, and then I’ll go and finish up my 5D’s Dub-Uncut mini-project with 5D’s 29.  Stay tuned~

(Check out my handy masterpost with streaming links to my subs here)

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The Kaiser VS Ed! A Battle in the Pro League

Kaiser Ryou and Ed Phoenix are set to duel in the Pro Dueling League.  While Ed’s deck is an E-Hero deck, it contains different cards and strategies than Judai’s, and so he Fusion-Summons “Phoenixguy.” The Kaiser strikes back with his Cyber Dragon cards, and Judai and the others, knowing it’s a deck he’s faced before, assume Ed to be weak.  At last, the Kaiser closes in on him with Cyber End Dragon, strengthened by his Power Bond, but…

And a newly finalized 57 is all done! Only took 2.5 weeks, so not too shabby, lol.  It’s a neat episode, establishes what the Pro League Ryou’s moved onto is like, we get some fated insight into our mysterious new freshman, and… Ryou’s spiral into Hell Kaiser is set into motion.  Also, Judai learns something new about his deck, which… c’mon, ya dork.  Overall, a good episode.

(Also, did want to note that, for Ed’s Heroes, I decided to use “[x]guy” as opposed to “[x] Guy” as I’d done before (ie, “Phoenixguy” vs “Phoenix Guy”); given that it’s a riff off of Judai’s “[x]man/lady” Heroes, and it’s written that way in Japanese without a space between “[x]” and “guy”, I figured it’d make sense.  Means it’ll be “Diamondguy,” “Diehardguy,” etc when we get to Ed’s D-Heroes reveal next time.)

On the fixes/edits side: had a few card fixes to do, but the big ones were adding Burstlady’s oft-forgotten shoulder strap and taking a crack at fixing the signs Ryou walks past in Domino City that were mirrored for some reason, though I’d handled this latter one as I prepared 56.  Details below the cut~

Enjoy, folks! After a little downtime (we do apparently have something happening tomorrow in the US which, however you go about it, you should consider taking part in if you haven’t yet [wake me up when dueling to settle world issues is being debated]), I’ll be looking more into working on 5D’s 28′s Dub-Uncut edit, mixed with preparing for finalizing both GX 58 and 59; as it’s the first real Judai VS Ed duel, and one of my favorites, I’ll be trying to release them together, so stay tuned!

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Shou VS the Bug Girl! Insect Princess (The Gang Witnesses an Evolution (ft. Misawa)

A promotion for Shou to the Yellow dorm has come up, and the condition Chronos has prepared for him is to defeat Ran Kochou, a young woman from the Blue dorm, in a duel.  Shou’s frightened about it, but words from Judai and the others begin to motivate him.  Shou uses his Vehicroid deck to battle, while Ran uses her Insect deck.  Ran spreads ants onto Shou’s field, raising her Insect Princess’s ATK to 2900 by destroying them.  Shou battles on, deliberately not using Power Bond, and combines three of his Vehicroids to summon his Jumbo Drill…

rip misawa

Here’s finalized!56, folks! Overall, one of my favorite episodes because it starts off a thread of character development for Shou that we touch back on here/there in Season 2 (when we don’t meander too far from the plot) but really comes through more in Seasons 3 and 4.  I love how he takes issue with Ran’s calling him just a “flunky” and acknowledges that, yeah, he’s chased after people out of admiration, but as of now he’s choosing to walk with them instead.  It’s a neat moment, and Judai watching his evolution is the cherry on top. i end up having big Shou/Ryou feels by Season 4′s end Also, Manjoume’s new room is finally ready after two episodes, and Asuka’s crashing at Red for now because of Chronos/Napoleon antics.  So, Red’s kind of the place to be, it seems.

The only gripe I have here is that this episode starts off the season’s trend of forgetting about Misawa.  Which, that it happens in-series, is probably the writers acknowledging that they’ve forgotten him, but… no wonder the dude ends up trying to join the Society of Light later.

Thankfully, there weren’t any card fixes to handle here, but I did do some quick quality-of-watching fixes, including one big one at the end that… lifted me off my seat when I saw it, haha.  Also, quick translation note included.  List below the cut, as usual.

Enjoy, folks! I’ll be getting started on prepping for 57 soon to make up a bit for the gap between 55 and 56, with some occasional work on 5D’s “Dub-Uncut” #28 splashed in for variety (I actually managed to whip something up for the beginning Rua/Ruka bit with Turret Warrior, lol).  Once I do 57 and knock out 5D’s 28, I’m thinking I’ll try to handle 58 and 59 together; it’s the first serious duel between Judai and Ed, and it was the first series of episodes from the Japanese version that I ever saw way back when–so, needless to say, they’re some of my favorites.

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Enter Tyranno Kenzan, Saurus! (The Gang Sees the Bedroom Eyes)

Tyranno Kenzan, the best of the Yellow freshman class, challenges Judai to a duel. Originally heading a group of delinquents, Kenzan hopes to defeat Judai and prove himself as an icon at the Academia.  Out of a love of dinosaurs, Kenzan uses a Dinosaur deck.  With his Jurassic World Field Magic, he powers up his Dinosaur-Types and Winged-Beast-Types as Trap effects bounce off of them.  In addition, his Revised Ultra Evolution Pill evolves his Archaopteryx Archeonys into Dark Tyranno (ATK/ 2900), startling Judai…

Heya, took a bit longer than I was planning to once I finished 54 since some things came up, but here’s a finalized 55 for you! This was a fun one to go back to and revisit Kenzan’s backstory as a guy who didn’t know how to captivate the people he’d be a leader to; he sees Judai’s command of an audience and enthusiasm knowing he still has potential to turn things around in the bleakest times, and decides to learn from him and evolve–to Shou’s chagrin.  (A bit of foreshadowing there too, as Johan in Season 3 makes a note of this trait of Judai’s during his duel with O’Brien.)

There were some card fixes I worked on and I re-translated a sign I did in 54 for consistency, but overall the workload was much lower than in 54 after working on that poster, haha.  Breakdown below the cut, as usual.  And since the duel’s finale showed up in 156 which I’ve already revised, it was a bit less work on the script there, too.

Enjoy, folks! With 55 done, I think I’ll be working on both getting 56 ready but also working more on my 5D’s “Dub-Uncut” take on 27, which I’ve already gotten some work done on; I’ve drafted most of the dialogue and recreated the music up to Yusei’s duel with possessed!Dick starting.  The alternate “Dark Signers” track that’s played is interesting to listen to, too… Stay tuned!

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Thunder VS Mr. Elite! Mecha Ojama King Takes Off

Manjoume duels Gokaido, an elite new student who claimed the highest grades of his class at the Academia’s middle school.  The new student calls Manjoume a “slacker,” noting how he once sat at the top of the middle school but has since fallen, now using Ojama Monsters in the Red dorm.  Manjoume uses his XYZ combo for a cool preemptive strike, but finds himself counterattacked by his Warrior-Type deck and his Gilford the Legend.  However, an unperturbed Manjoume, in a show of what he’s learned the past year, uses his Mecha Ojama King…

Two episodes into Season 2, and we have a duel with Manjoume essentially looking at his early-Season 1 self in the mirror! It’s a pretty neat episode, given that–even if there are strong ad vibes for the Warrior Structure Deck that had been about to be released back in 2006, lol.  Though it was neat seeing Ben Kei and the Equip Magic combo in use with Gokaido (that scene as he brings out Gilford is a favorite since it uses “The Rival’s Onslaught” really well), as was Manjoume’s interesting Ojama combo evolution with the Mecha… mechanic, which sadly has yet to be released.  Maybe Duel Links’ll throw us a Mecha Ojama King bone at some point…

So, I’d actually finished editing the script for this episode maybe two weeks ago, but part of the delay in releasing it is that I also wanted to translate the Gokaido/Manjoume poster in Chronos’s flashback–and on that note, I really can’t thank @paradoxi-kay (formerly thepalebride) enough for their time and effort over a few days in wiping the text so that I could slap my translation onto it. 🙏🏽  I’ll elaborate a bit more on that below the cut, as I go into the edits.  There were also two card fixes I applied, Ben Kei related, and I also translated the “Currently Under Construction” sign Manjoume stands in front of at the end.  More details below. (EDIT, 2021: One new fix applied that I missed before, listed in bold under the cut below!)

Enjoy, folks! To make up for a little lost time, I think I’ll actually jump onto 55 next and get that out of the way before I go handle 5D’s Dub-Uncut #27 a little more (I’m also trying to see what can be done on that front with the two unreleased OST pieces that I’d like to keep, but we’ll see); keep an eye out~

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