SSBS – Cardfight!! Vanguard Episode 23: Fateful Encounter Review

Plot: Aichi, Kamui and Misaki (And Morikawa) head to Card Shop Psy and meet the National Champion of Vanguard, Ren. Aichi experiences odd visions when Ren gets a weird glowing look in his eyes. Kourin challenges Ren to a match using identical decks, allowing the others to spectate. Is Ren really as good as his reputation suggests?

Breakdown: Aichi’s getting visions now? Okie dokie.

To my understanding, Ren is meant to be one of the main antagonists of season one, and I’m just not impressed. He’s a cocky guy in a long black coat. There’s just not a lot to him to make him stand out to me. Even the pirate guys had a gimmick to them, but he’s just very typical and bland. Hopefully that will change later when I actually see him fighting with his own deck.

Otherwise, this episode was….a Cardfight. Maybe I’m grumpy because I’m sick as of this writing, but yeah….it was a Cardfight.

I really feel like this show still has a bit of an issue not being easy enough to follow along if you don’t play the game. I know it’s been a while since I last watched the show, but I was still having a bit of trouble fully understanding why certain things were happening. Most notably, I have difficulty understanding guards and why you sometimes need several of them to block an attack. I get that it has something to do with the power discrepancies between attacker and target, but I haven’t quite grasped it yet. I even watched some videos about it, and it still sounds like gibberish to me.

One of the videos I watched showed the rules on screen, and the guard step section was literally over a page long. If someone can simplify it for my little pea brain, I’d appreciate it.

Next time, the team finds out Misaki has a eidetic memory and decide to apply it to Vanguard.

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SSBS – Beyblade Episode 6: Dragoon Storm Review

Plot: Tyson faces off against Ray in the semi-finals. After getting savagely defeated in the first round, Kenny upgrades Tyson’s blade with a new untested defense ring. Can this newly outfitted Dragoon defeat the brutal slashes of Driger?

Bey-Battles

Segmented Battle

Round 1: Tyson (Dragoon S) vs. Ray (Driger S) – Victor: Ray

Round 2: Tyson (Dragoon S) vs. Ray (Driger S) – Victor: Tyson

Round 3: Forfeited by Ray

Overall Winner: Tyson

Breakdown: It’s finally time for Tyson’s match with Ray, and while Tyson is psyched for the match, Ray is being a conceited bored little prick.

Tyson is waiting for Kenny to show up since he was supposed to help trick out his Beyblade before the match, but Kenny is……somewhere doing research and trying to build a Beyblade for Tyson, I guess not realizing what time it is.

I was really confused by this because they made it sound like Kenny had Tyson’s Dragoon, and I was wondering how he’d be able to compete without it. But I guess Kenny’s just making a copy of Dragoon or something?

Max’s dad offers to modify Tyson’s blade, but then after thinking about for a second he rescinds his offer and tells them to go out anyway. Uh thanks for nothing, Mr. Tate.

Before this match, there are graphics showing the details of each Beyblader, which is also kinda cool and realistic (considering this is a televised sporting event), but once again I’m confused as all hell as to the status of Bit Beasts at this point. They not only know both Tyson and Ray’s Bit Beasts, but they also have graphics for both of them and list their special attacks.

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Also, I’m not quite certain the stats are correct. They’re pretty vague star ratings, but Dragoon has max attack and evasion with minimum defense, which I can buy, but Driger has medium attack and evasion with maximum defense. That just doesn’t sound right to me. I’d think the attack would be maxed and evasion and defense would be two stars, but I dunno.

The match starts, and Dragoon immediately vanishes. It reappears above Driger and slams down on it, smacking it away a bit, but it’s not enough to get it out of the stadium. Driger rushes towards Dragoon, and one of the announcers exclaims that Ray made Driger spin counter-clockwise…..as if he just did that now? I don’t think he did that mostly because that’s impossible.

Without summoning Driger, he uses his Tiger Claw attack to carve up Dragoon and send it flying out of the stadium.

Max: “Dad, how did Ray get his Beyblade to disappear?” He didn’t do that. Tyson made his disappear.

Ray wins the first round, but then he starts to walk away. Ray finds no reason to continue because he doesn’t see Tyson as a challenge. It’s weird. I really don’t remember Ray being such a cocky asshat. I remembered him being pretty humble. Maybe he gets better later?

Just so he’s not seen as forfeiting, he also points out that Tyson’s blade is in no condition to battle. If he can’t fix it, he can’t continue anyway.

Tyson is shocked by this, but dude….why? How else do you think you can compete? There are literal claw marks dug into your blade.

What’s more shocking is Tyson reveals he DIDN’T BRING ANY SPARE PARTS…..like a dumbass. Literally every other Beyblader we’ve seen in this tournament was seen holding a tool box with spare parts in it, but Tyson, the best Beyblader in his town, didn’t think to bring any spare parts to this Beyblade tournament. Good job, Tyson.

Luckily, Kenny shows up with a box of spare parts, saving Tyson’s ass. Kenny reveals that he’s been up all night (has it been a night?) coming up with a new “invention” that Dizzi designed. It’s a new defense ring……….Even though Dragoon S doesn’t have a defense ring. The part that Kenny is holding up is an attack ring, hence why it has the big blades on it. A defense ring is kinda similar to a weight ring, only plastic. It has no blades on it.

Kenny: “So in order to properly defend against his extraordinary assaults, I’m going to accelerate your Beyblade’s attack spin in the frontal area.”

Wow, Kenny, that was a bunch of beautiful gibberish. You’re going to defend against attacks by….spinning? What’s a Beyblade’s attack spin? Is there a defense spin? What the hell is the frontal area of a Beyblade? It’s a circle and it’s constantly spinning.

Kenny: “Unless we increase the Dragoon’s power attack, we might as well quit.” Power attack?

When Kenny introduces his new “defense” ring…..

Kenny: “It’s made from a special indestructible alloy…” ….Adamantium? Also, does this mean Kenny literally made this ring? Does he cut metal? This was before 3D printing.

Before he heads out, Kenny warns Tyson that the new ring hasn’t been field tested yet – it’s only been successfully simulation tested. However, Tyson has faith in Kenny’s skills.

I love when Kenny puts Dragoon back together and holds it up. They clearly forgot to add the rest of the detailing to the Beyblade and put a flesh color in the middle, so it just looks like Kenny is holding up the “defense” ring again.

Mr. Dickinson comes into the….locker room? Waiting room? Whatever this is, to have a talk with Ray. He’s still being super cocky and doesn’t even want to continue the tournament because he thinks every competitor is lame and he could beat everyone with his eyes closed. Dickinson tells him to not write off everyone just yet since they could surprise him.

DJ Jazzman: “So, if you two are ready, let’s get it on! I SAID IS EVERYBODY OUT THERE READY?!” You didn’t say that…….Nitpicky but….he didn’t.

DJ Jazzman: “Wow! Tyson has changed his shooting technique, and his Beyblade is just a blur!” Uh….he didn’t change his shooting technique at all. And his Beyblade literally vanished the last time they battled.

While the instability of the new ring is making Tyson’s Beyblade overheat, Ray’s attacks are less effective than they were before. Tyson goes on the offensive and starts making a tornado with Dragoon, which is something Kenny is surprised by even though he’s seen this before.

The tornado surrounds Driger, but Ray isn’t done quite yet. He unleashes Driger…..Forgive me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t that be pronounced like “tiger” not like “trigger”? I mean, saying it like “trigger” sounds better, but if the tiger motif is what they’re going for, you’d think it’d sound like “tiger.”

Anyway, summoning Driger eliminates the tornado, leaving everyone in shock. Kenny wishes Dizzi were there to witness this……why do you not have Dizzi? You carry Dizzi everywhere, and one of your favorite pastimes is recording and analyzing Beybattles with Dizzi.

Ray and Tyson both go on the offensive and match each other head to head for a little bit before Kenny chimes in.

Kenny: “Tyson, there’s something important I forgot to tell you! The defense ring isn’t built for attacking!”

Jesus tap dancing Christ, Kenny.

So, first of all, what you’re saying is you REPLACED his attack ring with a defense ring – not that this is just a secondary ring? You said this defense ring works by increasing his attack power and spin….but it’s not designed for attacking? What the hell is the point of this defense ring, Kenny? Was the plan to just see if Driger would lose spin before Dragoon?

Tyson’s not giving up either way, and…uh…the stadium starts vibrating?

I think if Beyblades spinning within the arena can cause such violent vibration, maybe you need to tighten something.

Tyson calls out Dragoon, which shocks Ray even though I thought Tyson having a Bit Beast was known information if the graphic at the start was any indication. The two clash, Dragoon once again creating a massive tornado, and to everyone’s shock Driger is ejected from the stadium.

Tyson has won round two, and it’s now a tied game.

This is just so weird. Tyson, with his original attack ring, couldn’t so much as graze Driger. He puts on an unbalanced non-attack oriented “defense” ring that actually causes his Beyblade to overheat, and he pulls out a win. Okie dokie. Even Kenny doesn’t understand how that happened.

Max jumps down from his seat, which is like a 15 foot drop, to run to Tyson even though he didn’t win the full match – just that one battle.

Ray: “Why did….you let me…..lose the battle?” Why is…..your dialogue……….so stilted?

I guess one loss humbles the shit out of Ray because he immediately jumps down, congratulates Tyson and compliments his skills. Now they’re good buddies, I suppose. He also forfeits the final battle because he doesn’t think his skills can match Tyson.

That match was way too close for him to flip so hard. I mean, really, what kind of competitor is he if he trounces Tyson in the first battle, basically brushes him off for how easy he declared the battle, and then he quits after losing narrowly in the second battle?

In all honesty, we’ve only got about a minute of runtime left and they didn’t want this to be a two-parter, so off he goes.

Ray meets Dickinson in the hall to talk about it, and he reveals that he wants to join Tyson’s team.

With Ray out of the running, they immediately head off to the finals where Kai waits to face off against Tyson.

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This was a pretty exciting episode, battle-wise. Everything-else-wise was much clunkier. Kenny made a completely nonsensical upgrade to Tyson’s Beyblade that I can only assume made more sense in the original Japanese version, and it still managed to eek out a win for him despite getting squashed before.

Ray’s heel turn also came out of nowhere. He was literally yawning and being completely disrespectful of Tyson beforehand, but he manages to get a win and he not only humbles himself and compliments Tyson, but he also bows out of the final round. At the very least, I’m pretty sure he’ll be much more tolerable to watch from this point on since, again, I didn’t remember him being such an asshat when I first watched this.

Next time, Tyson and Kai meet in the finals to finally have their rematch.

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AniManga Clash! Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero Episode 20 (Placeholder Review)

We’ve finally gotten to the last of Kaiba’s Shitennou – Daimon – and this one’s pretty intriguing. Daimon is basically Kaiba’s surrogate grandfather/mentor, much like Sugoroku is to Yugi. Ever since Kaiba was a child, Daimon taught him everything he knew about games. Back then, Kaiba had a deep and sincere kindness and passion for gaming, but the kindness in his heart vanished over time.

Daimon was very elderly and sick even when Kaiba was a child. You may be wondering how Daimon is Kaiba’s last Shittenou if he was so badly off even back when Kaiba was young. Surely, there’s no way he’s alive now, let alone strong enough to be Kaiba’s Shitennou.

Well, Kaiba loaded him up with cybernetic organs and synthetic….stuff flowing through his veins that allow him to live even though, by Daimon’s own admission, he should have died a long time ago, and is basically a walking corpse. Even a doctor says as much. Daimon has to, for lack of a better word, charge or hibernate in a special pod for most of his day. He can only last about three hours outside of the pod before he is back on death’s door.

Basically, Kaiba turned his mentor into a cybernetic zombie, and that is insane and awesome on levels I can’t even fathom.

Kaiba remains to have a lot of respect for his mentor, enough to do all of this to make him his final Shitennou, but it’s clear his kindness and caring are mostly gone even for someone as important to his past as Daimon.

The only manga note in this episode comes from chapter 40. In the chapter, Mokuba recaps his and Seto’s history, eventually leading up to Kaiba taking over the company behind Gozaburo’s back. In the manga, when he’s faced with this betrayal, Gozaburo commits suicide by smashing himself through the window and falling several stories to his death. He’d rather die on his terms than accept failure. In the anime, we get this scene in real time, not a flashback. However, in this version, Gozaburo is too scared at the concept of dying once he reaches the window and has a heart attack, which seemingly kills him. (Daimon says he wishes to pay his respects to Gozaboro immediately after this happens, so I assume he’s dead.)

Despite the fact that I do like Daimon and really wish he was a character who had been carried over into the 2000 anime, this episode is pretty darn bland. It’s a shame considering it’s the final Shitennou showdown.

A good chunk of the episode is taken up by Daimon and Kaiba’s backstories together. Then Yugi kinda causes Daimon’s car to crash by walking out in the middle of the street to get to a game store.

Daimon’s unconscious when the car crashes and is taken to a hospital. Yugi waits in tormented anguish thinking he’s either badly hurt or killed someone, but the doctor rather non-nonchalantly tells him it’s no big deal because he was already dead before the crash. (By the way, they never say if the driver was okay.) He explains all of the tech and surgeries that are being used to keep him alive long beyond his intended death.

Daimon wakes up and reveals he’s mostly fine. He immediately challenges Yugi to a game of Duel Monsters when he sees the cards in his pocket. Daimon manages to win, but he respects and admires Yugi because he reminds him of Kaiba when he was younger.

Later, Anzu and Yugi go to an amusement park together, and once again Anzu notes that Yugi acts like a little kid and longs to meet “Cool Yugi” once more…..*sigh* Also, she’s a damsel in distress in this episode because why the hell not?

They enter a monster house because Yugi thinks it will scare Anzu and get her cuddling up with him, but he’s disappointed when she starts petting the giant monster animatronics and saying they’re cute.

One of the monster robots grabs Anzu, puts her head in its mouth and she passes out. Kaiba and Daimon reveal themselves in a dome above them, and Kaiba tells Yugi to duel Daimon or else he’ll crush Anzu’s head in the robot’s mouth. Also, the dome somehow reads their minds, and this ability somehow creates perfect holograms of the monsters and everything they’re playing, because I guess that’s literally the only thing they’re thinking about.

Shadow Game (Not Really)

It’s just a simple game of Duel Monsters, so…..yeah none of it makes any sense. They don’t even keep track of the Life Points at all. It’s ridiculous, quite frankly. Out of all the duels so far, this is probably the one with the least amount of explanations outside of that first montage duel Yugi had with the first Shitennou. It’s a little insulting that this episode is all about people who have a great respect and passion for games but then when it comes to depicting one they’re just like “Yeah, just show monsters doing shit. I don’t care.”

Because it takes a staggering 16 minutes before any duel actually happens, they have to slam that gas pedal and rush through this duel. I’m going to try and go through this duel turn by turn to see if I can make actual sense of it.

Daimon sets one card face down (Yes, they finally start using that mechanic, although he doesn’t declare this part of the move.) and then summons Skull Bat with an ATK of 800.

Yugi, now Yami, plays King Rex with an ATK of 1200 and declares an attack.

Daimon states that the attack of the King Rex triggers his trap, Golgotha’s Punishment, which immobilizes King Rex. Also, Skull Bat is able to defeat King Rex now for some reason. I tried to translate the text on the card with Google Translate, but the footage is too low quality, and Daimon’s thumb is covering half of it. The Wiki just says it reduces the enemy’s ATK by “???” I do see an 8 at least, and maybe a 7, but that’s about it.

Either way, they don’t update the Life Point counter, so there’s no way to tell. It has to be more than a 400 point reduction, though, given the ATK point differences between the two at base stats.

Yami plays Big Tree in defense mode with 600 DEF points.

Daimon then summons Bloody Zombie with an ATK of 700 and attacks the Big Tree. Yami activates the trap card he DIDN’T SET FIRST. So glad the continuity is as pristine as ever. The trap is called Miraculous Water, and unlike Golgotha’s Punishment, we actually know what the text on this card says…..and it’s just useless flavor text. “Those who go against its torrents are swallowed up,

and in time give water to the earth.” How the hell does anyone know what traps and magic cards do if they don’t have their effects written on the card?

This is one of the bullshittier cards. Miraculous Water causes a wave to wash over the opposing monster that triggered the trap and destroy them. Not only that, but the water also feeds the tree, prompting it to create and drop seeds. These seeds sprout, and the plant that grows from it destroys the Skull Bat.

Being fair, yeah, that is kinda what the flavor text describes, but if someone did that and pointed to the flavor text as the true explanation, I’d call bullshit. I could believe it destroys the attacking enemy and powers up earth-based creatures, but it doesn’t imply anything about immediately destroying other monsters.

Anyway, again, I can’t determine any Life Point changes here, if there are any.

After this turn, Daimon doubles over in pain. He’s spent too much time outside of his pod and is starting to deteriorate. Kaiba immediately activates a series of tubes that pump Daimon with probably a liter or more of intense painkiller that allows him to continue.

To help him along, Kaiba puts an extremely obvious visor over Daimon’s eyes that allow him to see Yami’s cards. It’s so obvious, in fact, that Kaiba might as well just stand behind Yami and yell out each card he draws. Kaiba, why bother keeping Daimon alive for the express purpose of using his awesome gaming skills to defeat Yugi if you’re just going to encourage him to cheat?

Daimon refuses to use the visor since he’s an honorable duelist who would never resort to cheating.

Daimon plays his…..Isn’t it Yami’s turn?……..Whatever, Daimon plays Golden Pegasus in attack mode with an ATK power of…..uhhh…..Dammit, this series needs to be released in HD.

According to the Wiki….it’s…..000?….Uh….okay…..Why the actual hell would Daimon, this supposed game master, play a monster with no ATK points in ATTACK MODE?

Yami plays Devil Dragon, which, considering it’s just Koumori Dragon, I know has 1500 attack.

The dragon beats the pegasus, so, at the very least, Daimon should be sitting at 500 LP.

Daimon then summons Fairy Ophelia in attack mode with 350 ATK. Devil Dragon defeats it, and Yami wins.

Nevermind. I thought I was watching a duel that followed rules and logic. Silly me.

Daimon then summons Bug Demonmyst with 200 ATK and 400 DEF, but I don’t know what mode it was in.

Devil Dragon also makes quick work of the bug.

Yami wonders what Daimon is doing summoning weak monsters that will obviously fall to his dragon, and Daimon reveals his secret strategy. He summons Zombiemaster, which resurrects all of the fallen monsters over the course of the duel (from the player’s graveyard) and absorbs their power. The Wiki says it gives Zombiemaster “????” amount of ATK points for each monster and allows multiple attacks per monster resurrected. However, if it is as Daimon explained it, that would mean he’d get 350+200+literally zero added onto 500, which is 1050, which isn’t enough to defeat Devil Dragon.

Whatever, he defeats Devil Dragon.

On Yami’s next turn, he summons three monsters in attack mode.

The first is King Beetle with 1400 ATK, the second is Dark Mammoth (I think) with 600 ATK and the final monster is Mushroom Man with 800 ATK.

Daimon defeats all of them in one swoop because, apparently, another effect Zombiemaster has is being able to attack multiple times in a single turn depending on how many monsters he resurrected with it.

Yami uses Revive the Dead on Fairy Ophelia, which….I don’t think he can do because, at the moment, Fairy Ophelia is not dead. It was ‘resurrected’ by Zombiemaster, was it not? I guess the Wiki acts as if the monsters are more representations of Zombiemaster’s acquired power than actually resurrected, and, looking at the field, Daimon only has two cards out, so maybe that is right.

Anyhoo, Yami revives Fairy Ophelia, which reduces Zombiemaster’s power by whatever since it has one less monster in the graveyard to draw power from.

Yami: “If the dead are revived, Zombiemaster loses its power. Its power returns to normal.” Huh….does that mean Zombiemaster needs at least three monsters in the graveyard for its ability to work at all?

Yami uses Flute of Light on his new Fairy Ophelia which lets himmm…..*Translates flavor text* “Sacred timbre becomes light and evokes the true power of fairies.” …..Hmmmm…….pbbbbbttttttttt….He wins okay?

Daimon collapses after the defeat, and Kaiba walks away, seemingly not caring that his once beloved mentor and grandfather figure is on the floor dying. Yami comes up to him, and Daimon takes his hand pleading with Yami to return the kindness that he knows Kaiba still has deep within him. Meanwhile, Kaiba’s outside stepping on some kid’s orange that fell on the ground. Guys, he’s abandoning his dying mentor because he lost a card game. We don’t need bonus proof Kaiba’s a dick.

It’s implied that Daimon dies in Yami’s arms, and Anzu is freed from the robots. She’s been passed out this whole time? Someone get Anzu to a hospital. That’s not normal.

And, uh, that’s it.

Not much else to say, really. Oh, they do tease Kaiba Land, which will be important for the second to last arc, but other than that, that’s it.

Again, it’s a shame they never implemented Daimon into the reboot. There was a good opportunity there for some extra humanity points for Kaiba instead of just relying on his bond with Mokuba.

Poor Daimon all around, really. The guy chooses to live a sad existence spending most of his time in a pod, only being let out when he’s needed to play games or test Kaiba’s new equipment. And all just to do whatever he can to turn Kaiba back to the kind kid he knew before he passes on, which he couldn’t do. It’s really sad.

Next time, Kaiba kidnaps Yugi’s grandpa and starts the events of the final arc, the Death-T trials in Kaiba Land.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 5: Demon Deck of Darkness | Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: As Judai, Shou and Hayato are telling scary stories, Daitokuji tells them a legend about an abandoned dorm on the island where apparently all of the students mysteriously went missing. The rumor was that the students at the dorm were experimenting in Shadow Games that likely caused their vanishings. The boys head out in the night to see the dorm for themselves. They bump into Asuka who knows the legend is real because her brother was one of the students who went missing. She is kidnapped by a self-proclaimed Dark Duelist who challenges Judai to a Shadow Game using the supposed Millennium Puzzle to create it. As he loses life points, Judai will slowly lose more and more of his body. If he loses the game, he will vanish forever.

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Shou is telling the story of the cave like it’s a local legend and his character is merely taking the place of the interchangeable main character in horror stories. The legend is that when the moon hits just the right spot in a cave north of the school, students will see the card they want most in the waters in the cave. When they go to reach for it, an arm grabs them, drags them underwater and supposedly drowns them.

In the dub, Syrus is telling the story like he actually experienced it. I guess he was just wandering around in a cave by himself, because we all know how likely that would be of Syrus. According to him, he randomly saw the Dark Magician card in the water when a monster dragged him under. Ya know, it’s easy to fall for a scary story about some unknown person experiencing that, but when you say Syrus did it’s not scary at all, considering that Syrus is still very much alive. Although, maybe that’s why 4Kids changed that to begin with – so we know the person in the story didn’t actually die?

Possibly because of that slight alteration, the next dialogue is changed. Judai actually gets excited because he wants to go see the cave I guess to either have a chance at getting his most wanted card or to see the monster, and Shou is disappointed that he wasn’t scared by the story. In the dub, Jaden says water’s not scary and Syrus says he’s right. “Only chumps” would be scared of water. Yes, only chumps would be scared of drowning…..

Judai doesn’t wish for a high level card (They’re apparently playing a game where you have to tell scary stories and their level of scariness is based on the level of card. The higher the level, the scarier the story has to be…..It’s stupid, yeah. Why wouldn’t you just share the scariest stories you can? What if you draw a one star card? Do you just tell the mildest scary story you can think of? “She waited all night for Windows to finish updating, but it never did. She was faced with a decision…..force shut down or continue to see if it got about 45%….she turned the computer off……and then back on……and to her horror….the update AUTOMATICALLY RESTARTED! *thunderclap*) he just wonders what his next card will be.

Judai believed that his cards came to life and would have parties while he was sleeping. Jaden only recalls hearing voices that he couldn’t place.

Shou tells Daitokuji to give them his best shot with the level 12 horror story. In the dub, he seems too scared and wants to go to bed.

What the hell was Cronos/Crowler doing outside of their dorm? Daitokuji/Banner being there I understand because he’s their dorm master, but what the hell, Cronos?

Shou doesn’t imply that he knows where the dorm is like Syrus does.

The Dark Duelist, Titan (he doesn’t seem to be given a dub name) talks about his fees in the original when we first see him. Also, how is his fee a flat rate if the criteria is three months of the client’s salary? That must vary from person to person so I don’t see how that’s ‘flat’ per se. Anyway, in the dub, he just talks about how scary he is.

In the original, Judai talks about how surprised he is that they got Hayato to come with them to the abandoned dorm since he’s such a scaredy cat, and even getting him to go to class is a challenge because he sees everything as a hassle. Hayato says it’s not that he likes staying at the dorm or studying, he just doesn’t like classes where the main focus is learning how to win (learning how to lose would take like half a second…) Shou asks him what he means since that’s the whole point of playing, then they bring up talking about Shadow Games in class……Still the main objective in Shadow Games…winning. I mean, if you lose Shadow Games you lose your soul sooo….yeah.

In the dub, this is changed to them talking about being lost, then Chumley says they need to find the dorm quickly or else they might run into some scary swamp water like Syrus talked about in his story. Then Syrus says Chumley was too scared of the water to even take a bath last night. They fight over cleaning the bathtub, and say Chumley should grow up and take showers and whatever.

The sign saying ‘Keep out’ in English is painted to look blank.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Shou yells that the Shadow Games are just superstition whereas Syrus yells at Jaden, who can’t possibly be in his line of sight in this shot, to not stand too close to the carvings.

Written on the photo of Asuka’s brother was ‘Fubuki Tojoin’ (His name is actually Fubuki Tenjoin….I dunno what happened there). In the dub, they obviously paint this off completely instead of just replacing it with his dub name, and they also have to remove the pan back down and zoom in on the words since they erased them.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Hayato says it looks like something was dragged in a certain direction. Chumley says ‘there’s only one way she could’ve gone’. Uh, no. There are plenty of ways out of that room without going through the dark dank tunnel, Chum.

Titan actually introduces himself after Judai asks who he is. Since he’s never given a name in the dub for whatever reason, he just responds to that question with ‘Your worst nightmare come true.’ but at least 4Kids recognizes this dumb line by having Jaden say ‘Gimme a break…’

Eyecatches:

Jaden: “Uh yeah, I already knew that.” That’s nice, Snooty McNoseinair. Seriously, can someone tell me why super sarcastic cocky asshats are so popular as protagonists? Judai just says that Demon decks are powerful, but they come at a high cost.

Titan explains how Terrorking Arch-Fiend can’t be summoned unless another arch-fiend is on the field, but with the Inferno-Queen on the field, he can. In addition, the Terrorking gets the 1000 point bonus for being on the field with Inferno-Queen. In the dub, the first part is omitted, but I actually don’t mind because I find it pointless to yell out a rule like that unless someone is trying to break that rule.

Bursting! Internal Organs! is changed to Locust Storm Barrage.

Roulette of Hell (Sometimes Destiny) is changed to Wheel of Fate.

Shou points out that there’s a 1 in 3 chance that the Roulette would land on 2 or 5, which would destroy Jaden’s trap. In the dub, Chumley states that that odds are way in Jaden’s favor, and Syrus points out that he flunked math. Chumley denies that and says he got a 54. Uh….before I address the obvious, how does Syrus know Chumley flunked math? Do they teach math at this dueling school? But now the obvious, the odds are in Jaden’s favor. Maybe not way in Jaden’s favor, But he has twice as much of a chance as Titan. So I dunno why Syrus decided to say that. Did you flunk math, 4Kids?

They cut the scene of Titan talking about the darkness slightly short so that Jaden can be obnoxious some more. Shame, because I liked the camera effects they had going there.

Anyway, the obnoxious Jaden stuff was to interrupt the Dark Duelist to tell him that he’s not afraid of the dark. In fact, he got blackout curtains for the dorms so he could sleep and he loves the dark.

Judai just says that this situation doesn’t seem right. In order to start a Shadow Game, you need a Millennium Item. Judai asks if he has one, and Titan presents the Millennium Puzzle.

Chumley: “This is totally anti-licious”…..ugh.

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In terms of changes, this episode wasn’t all that bad. In fact, many of my notes probably border on nitpicky. I just really get irritated with Jaden’s little ‘tude. Judai seems to get better and better to watch but Jaden just gets worse.

Well, as you can guess, this is our first two-part episode of GX. Next time, we continue the Shadow Game and Winged Kuriboh may turn out to be Judai’s trump card again.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters | Episode 1: Getting Played Review

Plot: Yugi and Téa are getting into a new game called Capsule Monsters – a spin-off (?) board game of Duel Monsters. Joey wins an all-expense paid trip to India and invites all of his friends to come along, but their plane suddenly crashes on a remote island. While everyone is okay, they’re stuck until help arrives. The group decides to explore the island while they wait, and they quickly stumble upon an unconscious man named Alex Brisbane. According to him, he was exploring a strange Egyptian-esque pyramid on the island with Yugi’s grandpa when he suddenly went missing.

Yugi and the others follow Alex into the pyramid to Solomon’s last location only to see a massive empty room with a strange map covering the floor. As he walks onto it, Joey vanishes in a flash of light. Realizing Yugi’s grandpa likely vanished the same way, Yugi, Téa and Tristan step on the map as well, following Joey and Solomon to find them and bring them home. Little do they realize that they’ve actually become trapped in the world of Capsule Monsters, and they’ll need to play the game in order to leave.

Breakdown: Ever since I did my 4Kids retrospective, I’ve wanted to completely review Capsule Monsters. I won’t be able to do an SDC on it since a Japanese version either doesn’t exist or simply isn’t available, so I thought I’d just do a simple episode-by-episode review on this…spin-off?….Season? Arc? I dunno. Whatever 4Kids intended for this to be.

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The first episode starts with Yugi having a nightmare about Yami, who is clad in gold armor for some reason, fighting a giant shadow creature, who winds up consuming him. Yugi jolts out of bed and reveals that this is a recurring nightmare. He then notices the Puzzle glowing and acting strangely.

Yugi heads out, but then remembers that his grandpa is still gone after suddenly leaving for a ‘secret’ week-long trip. He should have been home that morning, but there’s been no sign of him. Does he not have a phone or anything?

After the theme song, we get such a dramatic reveal of Joey that I really thought this was indeed meant to be a spin-off moment. There’s no reason whatsoever to reveal him so dramatically when nothing is going on. However, no one else gets such a dramatic reveal so I dunno.

Joey partakes in a street contest for a prize of some sort.

Back at school, Téa and Yugi are playing Capsule Monsters, and Téa, being the mostly stereotypical girl character she is, doesn’t bother learning how to play and only wants to play cute monsters like Happy Lover. She duels the same way, basically, but at least she roughly knows how Duel Monsters works and gives a crap about it.

Téa: “I suppose that means your soldier guy is going to fight my flying guy?” Soldier gu—That’s Celtic Guardian. You know Celtic Guardian. You’ve seen that monster tons of times.

Tristan shows up followed soon after by a super excited Joey who explains that he won three tickets for a special trip for all of them…..All four of them. I guess it’s possible that he was showing off the tickets he was offering to the others and withholding his, but why would he do that?

As they walk along, Téa thinks to herself that she has a bad feeling about their trip because whenever they go places terrible and usually supernatural things tend to happen. Well, I mean….yeah, she has a point.

She’s snapped out of her concerns by the voice of Yami, and they oddly note his sudden appearance with a chime like “Oh who cares about all those supernatural threats that tend to follow us? I have my hunky pharaoh now!”

It’s only here, right before they’re about to get on the plane, that we learn this is a six-day trip to India. Before, all he said was they were “tickets to paradise” and literally all the tickets showed were vague images of fields with stone walls with a statue in the foreground.

As they’re flying, the plane starts shaking violently and the first thing Tristan says in response to this is;

“Hey! You messed up my photo, man!”

Either he has nerves of steel, or he’s an idiot.

Their engines fail, and the plane crashes into the water below. We cut to the group, sans the pilots, on shore. Joey complains he lost all of his stuff, but uh…..how? He has a backpack, and it looks like you can still access the plane no problem. Go back and get it? I guess it’s possible that it’s all waterlogged, but if that’s the case then how were all of their backpacks left dry? Why do they even have backpacks? It sounded they were planning on a vacation not a backpacking trip.

Téa says that the pilot, who is never shown again, sent out a distress signal, but it could be hours before they’re rescued. Joey and Tristan immediately decide to leave and wander in the unknown wilderness so their trip won’t be wasted. You guys are going on a six day trip. They said it would take a few hours to get rescued. I’m sure they’d still take you to your destination. Just stay still. But of course they don’t, and I guess it’s made okay because they point out how stupid they’re being.

They stumble upon a man in black robes passed out on the ground. They give him some water and help him out when Yugi notices a black bandanna fall out of his pocket that looks identical to his grandpa’s.

Shocked, the man, Dr. Alex Brisbane, reveals that he was on an expedition with Yugi’s grandpa in the area, but he went missing….I just realized Yugi flippantly went on a six-day trip to India right after he became suspicious because his grandpa hadn’t returned home yet. He DOES have an off-screen mom, and he had to have gone home and packed. Didn’t he learn any more about grandpa’s trip or anything during that time? Was the trip literally immediately after Joey won the tickets?

As they travel with Alex to help find Solomon, Yami tells Yugi that this all seems way too suspicious. They randomly win a trip, they randomly crash, they just so happen to stumble upon the last person to see Solomon before he went missing right in the area they ‘randomly’ crashed in – it’s all too weird. Very good point, Yami. Although it’s so obvious that you really wonder why no one else has gotten suspicious before now. I mean, yeah, weird things do tend to happen to them……I was going to continue, but then I started listing all of the weird things that happen to them in my head, and realized this is probably one of the easier things to accept.

They reach a pyramid, and Alex explains that they were exploring and analyzing this weird Egyptian pyramid that somehow is in India (I assume they’re in India) when Solomon went missing. According to him, this pyramid is the tomb of Alexander the Great who was briefly crowned a pharaoh in Egypt, which is why he supposedly has a pyramid, but the mystery is why the pyramid is in the middle of the jungle instead of in Egypt.

Alexander the Great was indeed a pharaoh, and the Egyptians even named Alexandria after him and hailed him as a god after he died. However, he was mummified and buried in a tomb in Alexandria. No one knows where exactly in Alexandria the tomb is as of now, but they’re fairly certain it’s in Alexandria because several people who claimed to have visited the pyramid in the past stated it was in Alexandria.

There was a recent report in 2021 claiming the tomb had been found in Siwa, Egypt, but it hasn’t been verified, and there hasn’t been any updates on that report as of this writing.

Anyway, is anyone going to ask why two professional archaeologists went in the middle of nowhere to investigate an incredibly fascinating out-of-place pyramid that they’re theorizing is the resting place of one of the most famous historical figures ever whose tomb is so mysterious that people have referred to it as the ‘Holy grail’ of archaeological discoveries, should it be found, and went to this place entirely alone and without proper emergency equipment or communication with emergency services?

No? Okay. Moving on.

Actually, while I’m at it, why did none of them go back to the plane and notify the pilots who have radios and stuff? Yugi’s grandpa is missing and possibly hurt or worse. Can someone please make an intelligent decision?

As they wander the halls of the pyramid, Joey accidentally sets off a spike trap that nearly kills him, and Alex, whose name totally isn’t suspicious, by the way, just ignore that, remembers to mention that there are deadly traps around every corner in this place. To avoid them, they have to hang from ledges 50 feet above more spikes and scoot across the chasm as well as crawl in tunnels.

Téa is only now getting suspicious, but not of anything I’ve mentioned. She gets suspicious because Alex seems to know an awful lot about a pyramid he’s only been in once before. Yes, the one thing that’s not all that suspicious is the thing she gets suspicious about.

They reach a fork in the path – one leading up and one leading down. Alex explains that he and Solomon, being the incredibly dumb people we’ve already established them as being, decided to split up at this point. Alex would explore upstairs while Solomon explored downstairs. It’s stupid enough to split up in an unexplored tomb in the middle of the jungle, but they already knew at this point that the place was covered in lethal traps. Why the hell did they split up?

Alex eventually reached a sealed door, so he went back, but Solomon wasn’t there. He took the path down and reached a dead end where only Solomon’s bandanna lay on the floor.

They’re all adamant that Solomon has to be there somewhere, so they all head downstairs. They reach a massive room with a giant map on the floor – a detail Alex omitted from his story. They all believe, for some reason, that the room is so big that Solomon probably got lost in it, so they head off to find him……*lip smack*….The room isn’t THAT big, guys. Is it big? Yes? Is it so big someone would get lost in it? No. There are no walls, and you can clearly see the other side of the room. It’s about as big as a hockey rink. Even if, for some reason and somehow, Solomon did get lost in this room, you’d be able to see him and vice versa.

Joey rushes off to find him, but the instant his feet hit the map on the floor, it glows and Joey is sucked into it. Yugi, Téa and Tristan run off to investigate what happened, only slightly weirded out by the fact that their friend just vanished in a magical floor. Again, though, given their lives at the moment, it’s understandable that this doesn’t surprise them much. They realize that there’s an odd pattern to the map. It’s a mixture of multiple environments such as mountains, jungles and deserts. Yugi thinks that it looks familiar somehow. Alex mentions that this tomb is also said to house some sort of game. Yugi believes that it now makes perfect sense why his grandpa would come on this trip – he loves games. I think him just being an archaeologist would justify him being here, but okay.

Yugi proclaims that he’s going to enter the floor map and find his grandpa and Joey. Téa and Tristan offer to go as well, but Yugi tries to convince them not to go.

Yugi: “Thanks a lot. But I’ve been leading you guys into danger week after week for way too long.” Haha, it’s funny because Yu-Gi-Oh! used to air weekly.

Also, it’s not really your place to act like this is purely your responsibility anymore, Yugi. Joey’s lost too. Besides, if anything, it’s your grandpa’s fault. He’s a very bad archaeologist.

When they jump into the map, they wind up back in the forest, but now they have weird contraptions on their arms and belts that look like they’re meant to hold things.

They also notice strange stone pods around them, and Yugi tells Yami that he thinks something might be inside.

Before Yugi can investigate further, they’re suddenly attacked by three monsters.

Yugi: “I recognize those things!” Yeah, you should. They’re Gokibore, some of the most common monsters in Duel Mons– “They’re from the Capsule Monsters board game!”

Uh, well…yes, that is accurate, I guess. They are in that game too.

*Kamakiriman appears* “That looks familiar too!”

Yeah, it’s a very basic insect card from Duel Monsters. You know, that game you incessantly play every single day of your life?

….Uhm…anyway, Téa and Tristan wind up getting separated from Yugi. They’re being chased by the Gokibore while Yugi gets chased by Kamakiriman. Téa and Tristan manage to escape the Gokibore by sliding into a very small cave that leads down a deep hole and lands them onto a beach. Behind them, they see that a Happy Lover and Thunder Kid have followed them, but they’re posing no threat. If anything, they seem very friendly to them. Téa recognizes Happy Lover from the Capsule Monsters game. I’ll accept this because, as far as I remember, despite Tea having a fairy themed deck, I’ve never seen her use or witness the use of a Happy Lover card.

Briefly back with Joey, who somehow got to the top of a cliff, he’s suddenly taken away by a giant crow-like monster I can’t really identify because I can’t see it very well.

Back with Yugi, he escapes the Kamakiriman by diving into the water, but it follows him when he reaches shore. Just as he’s about to be attacked, Yami shifts into action and jumps away, accidentally touching one of the weird pods. In response, it glows and reveals Celtic Guardian, who leaps into action against Kamakiriman.

Yami: “Why does this all seem so familiar?” Because it’s Celtic Guardian. He’s been in your Duel Monsters deck for age–

*flashback to Yugi and Téa playing Capsule Monsters*

Uh…..are you guys okay? You all collectively seem to have Duel Monsters amnesia. I mean, I get that he touched the capsule which summoned Celtic Guardian, but that is the only factor that would lead back to the board game. You can’t even argue for the map being strictly Capsule Monsters related because that’s just bumming off of Field Spells from Duel Monsters, particular in season one where Duelist Kingdom pre-made their field spells based off of the environment.

Also, I’d like to point out that this is the exact same shot they used earlier (the one I used as the header image), but the one they used in the flashback has an animation error where the capsule to the far right is on the wrong layer, so it looks like it’s floating beside the desk.

Once Celtic Guardian defeats Kamakiriman, he speaks to Yami, which is trippy as hell, and tells him that, for the duration of the game, he shall protect his new master, Yami/Yugi. In a glow of light, he’s sucked into the device on Yami’s arm, which then ejects a capsule just like the ones from the Capsule Monsters board game. This would have been a much more appropriate time to make that connection. Like, have them think this is all Duel Monsters related like normal but then when they see the capsule that’s when they say “No….this is….Capsule Monsters!” But, hey, I’m not the director.

With his new Capsule in hand, Yami proclaims that they’ve found themselves in the world of Capsule Monsters. Just to really drive it home that it’s Capsule Monsters, when they do a big zoom out, they overlay grid lines and Celtic Guard to make the area look like a game board.

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And that was the first episode of Capsule Monsters…….it was bad.

The animation and art are noticeably jankier than the regular series is, and that’s already not that good. I kept getting distracted by how cheap it all looks. The story, which, again, is something you’d typically give leeway to anyway because it’s Yu-Gi-Oh!, is somehow even sloppier than the writing tends to be. No one is acting or thinking the way I’d think they would be or should be.

Téa is nervous about the trip before they even go, and for no other reason besides terrible shit just seems to follow them, but then she sees absolutely none of the major red flags raised by Alex. The one she does see is barely a red flag. Like “Hm, this archaeologist certainly does know a lot about this place he was researching and has explored before.”

Everyone has Duel Monsters amnesia, which, given how much of their lives revolve around that game, even if half of them don’t really play it, is really, really weird to the point where it’s kinda unsettling. It would be one thing if this was an entirely different game from the ground up. I wouldn’t be as preoccupied wondering why they’re not thinking of Duel Monsters. However, as far as I’ve seen, it’s just Duel Monsters in pods with a weird crystal involved.

In the manga, they had entirely different monsters than the Duel Monsters game so it felt more unique. This just feels like it’s piggy backing off of Duel Monsters.

What’s even worse is that they explain almost nothing about this new game besides you have to play strong monsters and you need to capture your opponent’s symbol thingy, if that ever comes into play. That is a pretty big sin for a gaming anime to commit. You can’t just throw your audience into this completely blind. They don’t even show them playing a full game. They just show Téa gushing about her cute monster while Yugi passively explains two facts about the game.

The only real hook I see from this series is that they have ‘real’ monsters in a ‘real’ environment, but that’s something they’ve already done before several times. Specifically, this feels awfully reminiscent of the Legendary Heroes and the Virtual World (Noah’s) arc. Hell, anytime they have a Shadow Game the monsters are technically real.

But let’s see how the story unfolds further next time.

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SSBS – Beyblade Episode 5: Draciel of Approval Review

Plot: It’s the semi-finals of the regional tournament, and Max is up against Kai! Max has a brand new Beyblade weighted for balance and defense, but Kai has no intentions of losing to Tyson’s new friend. Can Max manage to win a battle without a Bit Beast or will one manage to find him before it’s too late?

Bey-Battles

Segmented Battle

Round 1: Max (Draciel Metal Ball Defenser) vs Kai (Dranzer S) – Victor: Kai

Round 2: Max (Draciel Metal Ball Defenser) vs Kai (Dranzer S) – Victor: Max

Round 3: Max (Draciel Metal Ball Defenser) vs Kai (Dranzer S) – Victor: Kai

Overall Winner: Kai

Breakdown: There are only four participants left in the tournament – Tyson, Max, Kai and the mysterious specially invited guest, Ray. Max is set to go up against Kai while Tyson’s match with Ray will come right after. Before Max’s bout, his father gives him a pendant that was Max’s grandmother’s.

They introduce a new BeyStadium, the first trick BeyStadium we’ve seen in the series – the Saucer Bowl. In this stadium, it’s not the Beyblade that stays spinning the longest that wins – it’s whichever manages to get in the top of the centerpiece and stay there for ten seconds. In this battle, it’s a best of three matchup.

I know I said I’d stop talking about this, and I promise I’m trying, but this is one of those situations where it’s insanely hard to ignore how little the mechanics of this series makes sense. The announcers are all “It takes great skill and concentration to get up there!” but like….from who? They’re literally just standing there watching their Beyblades do stuff.

Anyway, Max reveals his newly altered Beyblade has ball bearings in it to make it heavier and more balanced.

Max manages to get to the center for a while, but Dranzer slams down on his blade, causing it fly out of the arena. Dranzer stays in the center for ten seconds, giving Kai the first round win.

Encouraged by Tyson to face him in the finals, Max trudges on and plots a new strategy for defeating Kai. As they enter round two, Max launches his blade with a reverse pull and immediately shoots up into the center. No one can figure out what Max’s plan is with the reverse launch until Kai does the exact same attack move he did before, landing on Max’s blade with a deafening thud. This time, Max’s blade stays standing, though stops spinning, while Dranzer spins on top of it.

Max launched his blade with a reverse pull to send it spinning in the opposite direction, which would absorb Kai’s attack and leave his blade spinning…….Which…uh…yeah, that’s…no. First of all, I don’t care how many ball bearings you have in that thing, there’s no way it’s balanced enough to stay standing without spinning, especially if a Beyblade just body slammed into it from 30 feet in the air. Second, this plan relied entirely on Dranzer hitting Draciel smack dab in the middle. If it hit even a little bit on either side, it would easily lose balance and fall over.

Also, Draciel stopped spinning…..Doesn’t that mean it should be out of the match? I wasn’t aware that a blade can technically stay in the game if it’s upright but not spinning.

Kai calls for a final attack before the ten seconds is up, but Max reveals the rest of his plan. Absorbing the energy from Dranzer’s spinning, Draciel is able to spin in the other direction, causing Dranzer to stop spinning and be booted out of the arena while the ten seconds is called.

Uhm…..Uh???

Okay, I should specify something here – that explanation I just gave was my interpretation on what happened. Max just says Draciel will start spinning in the opposite direction now. He doesn’t explain how or why this is happening, he just says that it will, like he can call for it by demand or something. It also doesn’t explain why Dranzer would just stop spinning when he does this. You’d think if Draciel started spinning in the same direction it would actually make Dranzer spin more, not stop. And I checked – Draciel is going counter-clockwise when he starts spinning again, and Dranzer is going counter-clockwise when it stops.

I have no clue what happened. I’m so confused.

Anyway, Max wins round two. Draciel’s cracked bit chip (the top part where a Bit Beast goes – it’s just a generic filler piece if there’s no Bit Beast in there.) suddenly shatters after he’s declared winner. This causes the blade to bounce out of control and fly off toward Max, hitting him square in his grandmother’s pendant, which also shatters, much to Max’s complete shock.

Announcer: “Where’s all the king’s horses and all the king’s men when you really need them?” Who cares? They didn’t/couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again, so how would they be helpful here?

Apparently, losing just the bit chip is enough for them to start disqualifying Max if he can’t fix it. Uhm, every single person here has a little case with them that I assume is filled with replacement parts and tools and such. Max’s dad also owns a Beyblade store. How is it possible Max doesn’t have the means of repairing that piece right now? It’s not even an important piece. As I said, without a Bit Beast in it, the bit chip is entirely for aesthetics.

Okay, we had to jump through some hoops to accept the manner in which Tyson got Dragoon. But why did Max’s grandma just randomly have a Bit Beast? And why did she keep it in a pendant?

“Grandma must have meant for me to find this!” You never would have discovered that if your blade didn’t randomly shatter the pendant off your neck. And why wouldn’t she just give it to you instead of hiding it in a pendant?

The final round starts, and both Dranzer and Draciel stay in the center for ten seconds at the same time. As a result, they have to go into overtime, which is just a typical BeyBattle until one or the other falls. Kai actually gives a compliment to Max, telling him he performed well, but he’s ready to end it now. As the blades clash, Max’s Beyblade glows purple and unleashes the power of Draciel.

Draciel manages to knock Dranzer up and away, and it seems like he’s got the win in the bag, but Kai unleashes his own Bit Beast and sends Dranzer after him. With one swift attack, Draciel is knocked out of the arena. At a score of one to two, Kai wins and moves onto the finals while Max concedes defeat.

Backstage, Max congratulates Kai for his victory, which he hesitantly accepts before leaving. Max is bummed about losing, but he has high hopes for next time, and he absolutely adores his new Bit Beast. Tyson and Kenny meet him backstage to raise his spirits after his defeat, declaring him the true champion since he put up such a good fight.

That night, the boys relax in some hot springs when they hear the sounds of a Beyblade over the dividing wall. Peeking over, they see Ray in a cloud of smoke, surrounded by deep cuts in the ground left from practicing with his Beyblade. His and Tyson’s match is up next, and Tyson couldn’t be more excited.

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This was a pretty good episode. I thought the new BeyStadium was simplistic but cool. I like creative BeyStadiums that could actually exist and be used in real life. I thought Max’s strategy, while not really making much sense out of universe, was interesting in the second round. He didn’t really have any strategy for round three outside of using Draciel, and he didn’t even know how to activate him.

I appreciate Kai actually being fairly respectful towards Max during this entire episode. For a guy who thrives on trash talk and has a massive ego, he didn’t really sling any shit towards Max. He even complimented him verbally once and internally a few times.

It was fairly clear that Max was going to lose this bout. Just like it’s pretty clear Tyson is going to win his match with Ray so they can have the finals be the big rematch between Tyson and Kai. However, he did give Kai a pretty good run for his money. He even won one round, which is pretty good. He takes everything in stride, so, while you feel bad for him, you don’t feel too bad. He had fun, so that’s all that matters.

If there’s one big complaint I have about this episode, it’s that it sucks as a debut episode for Draciel. It’s hard to think much of Draciel when it lost in one shot and didn’t even actually do anything on its first time out. Max managed to win one round without Draciel installed, and he loses in one hit with him installed. If anything, it actually makes Max’s blade seem worse now.

Next time, it’s Tyson vs. Ray and the debut of Driger!

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SSBS – Bakugan: Battle Brawlers | Episode 5: Runo Rules Review

Plot: Dan learns that Runo lives in his town after bumping into her while running an errand. After accidentally leaving his BakuPod behind after their meeting, Runo intercepts a challenge message from Masquerade to Dan. Having lost Bakugan to Masquerade, she takes the challenge on herself. Dan rushes to the scene to get his BakuPod back, and they both learn that Masquerade isn’t there. In his place is the local bully, Tatsuya, who is working for Masquerade and was meant to challenge Dan.

Runo asks to take Dan’s place, however, itching for revenge against Masquerade. Dan agrees, and Runo and Tatsuya brawl. With some patience and strategy, Runo is able to defeat the hot-headed Tatsuya.

Breakdown: Alright, Bakugan…..Let’s just dispense with the niceties. Please don’t suck today.

We start with Dan talking with his friends online about him patching things up with Drago until his mom comes upstairs to get him to do an errand.

Dan: “WHAT?! Yeah, but can’t you see I’m busy with my boys right now, mom?”……Three of the four people you’re talking with right now are girls…..

His mom convinces him to do it by explaining she needs him to go to the supermarket since there’s a big sale on loin tips – his favorite dinner.

Meanwhile, at the park, enter asshole kid number, what are we on, six now? Anyway, his name’s Tatsuya. He’s bullying some other Bakugan players, and apparently this little twerp’s so scary that him merely yelling is enough to get all three of these kids to haul ass out of there screaming.

They’re doing some weird distortion thing to Masquerade’s voice this time around. I don’t know why. He challenges Tatsuya to a brawl. I’m not going to bother recapping it because it doesn’t matter.

The point is, Tatsuya….well, I would say ‘loses’ but he only lost two Bakugan, so I guess he conceded.

Meanwhile, Runo’s whining about her job waitressing at her parents’ restaurant, even though there’s literally no one there.

Her mom sends her out on an errand to get some meat for the restaurant. If she goes, she’ll make her favorite dinner – liver kabobs….ew.

Hey, wait. What are the odds that there’s a huge meat sale not going on in the exact place Dan is right now? I smell a mighty big coinky dink.

Runo assumes she’ll bump into Dan at the store. We see that they’re similar doofs because they get excited about their respective meatstuffs and even sing about it incessantly as they head to the store.

Runo: *to Dan* “Do you live around here?!” Why would you assume you’d bump into Dan at the store if you didn’t think he lived around where you live?

Runo challenges Dan to a Bakugan Brawl later in the park, he accepts and they part. Runo discovers that he dropped his watch thing, which we now learn, five friggin’ episodes in, that it’s called a BakuPod. Also, judging from your empty bags, neither of you have been to the store yet, so why are you guys separating right now?

Dan gets a message over it, and Runo, being ever so respectful of the privacy of others, opens it. It’s a challenge from Masquerade, and Runo’s going to take it.

Meanwhile, Dan realizes his BakuPod is gone. I love how they flashback to Dan losing his BakuPod when he bumped into Runo because you can only barely tell it happened. I watched the shot three times – you can only just barely see it on the edge of the screen.

He goes back to where he bumped into Runo, but finds nothing. He rightfully assumes Runo must’ve taken it.

Meanwhile, Runo meets with Tatsuya, who has taken Masquerade’s place in the challenge. I just learned that apparently you can enter the Bakugan dimension, or whatever this is, if you run fast enough to avoid being halted in time. Okie dokie.

Runo complains as she gives Dan’s BakuPod back to him even though she both read/watched his messages and stole his challenge. So when do I get likable characters? Sometime soon, I hope?

I guess, at the very least, Dan’s understanding about the situation, given that Runo has lost Bakugan to Masquerade (but….this isn’t Masquerade, so….) He even cheers her on.

They both throw out their gate cards, and Runo sends out Juggernoid first. Tatsuya sends out a Gargonoid. Being stronger than Juggernoid, Gargonoid attacks. Runo counters with the ability card, Lightning Shield, which lowers Juggernoid’s attack by 100. Despite being only 10gs stronger than Juggernoid, it still gets sent to the Doom Dimension….Still not sure why some attacks are strong enough to destroy other Bakugan but others are only strong enough to….send them back to ball form or whatever. Sure would be helpful if the show told us basically anything about the rules of this game the show is centered on. But I suppose that’s just asking too much.

Help me out – is Bakugan plural on its own? From the way the characters have been talking this whole series, I thought it was Bakugan singular and plural not Bakugans. I looked online, but all I found was an obviously incorrect answer on Answers.com that said it’s Bakugans like how Pokemon plural is Pokemons (it is not)…..I’m 99.99% certain it’s Bakugan, but Runo just said ‘Bakugans.’

I find it funny that Runo said several lines about how everything was riding on Gargonoid at the start, but it’s gone now and she is still brawling.

Runo throws out a Saurus, Tatsuya continues to be annoying and then sends Gargonoid out again. He uses the ability card, Fire Judge (really just adoring this never ending cascade of creative names) which increases its power to 430g.

Runo: “I’m down to my last chance to win!” You’ve been saying that since literally before the match started. You still have one more Bakugan to go and a trump card in Tigrerra. Chill out.

Using an Ability Counter card, she neutralizes Fire Judge’s effects, bringing it back down to 330g, which is still higher than Saurus’ 290g.

Dan: “He’s right, Runo. That wasn’t much of a move. His Gargonoid’s got power. Loads of it.” Not much of a move? She got rid of 100g of his advantage. Now he only has 40g over her. I know I don’t understand this game very well (I wonder why) but that’s not THAT much more powerful. If it was, Tatsuya wouldn’t have felt the need to use Fire Judge in the first place.

Tatsuya attacks, but Runo uses her Gate Card to switch the attack of her Saurus with that of her strongest Bakugan, which is her Tigrerra. At 340g, he beats Gargonoid (I guess? The Wiki counts it as a win, but Gargonoid wasn’t destroyed because it didn’t get sent to the Doom Dimension, and they’re seemingly acting as if a 10g advantage shouldn’t be enough to destroy Bakugan….I dunno. Is it just three victories overall? Because that’s even more confusing.)

Runo sends Saurus back out and Tatsuya calls on a Griffon. He uses Fire Wall to lower Saurus’ attack by 50g, making it 360g vs. 240g. He attacks, but Runo uses her latest Gate Card, Pyrus, which swaps the attacks of each combating creature, giving Saurus the win.

Dan: “That was awesome! How did you figure out that counter move?” Using a card specifically meant to counter attacks by stronger opponents as you’re being attacked by a stronger opponent? Yeah, Runo, how did you come up with that one?

Runo sends out another Gate Card and Saurus again. Tatsuya sends out his last Bakugan, Fear Ripper, and calls for an attack. This guy’s whole strategy is nothing but blindly attacking. He uses ability cards, sure, but he doesn’t counter anything. Meanwhile, Runo’s whole strategy has been built on just waiting for him to attack because she keeps laying traps, which he always falls into because he’s an idiot. He’s terribly boring as an opponent.

Not like we should have expected much of him anyway if he surrendered to Masquerade after losing two Bakugan.

Runo uses some sort of wall card that stops Fear Ripper’s attack. Now she calls upon Tigrerra after she’s been spending the whole match begging to be put in the fight.

Runo: “I figure with your power, we can finish off his Gargonoid and walk away with a win!” Yeah……except you beat Gargonoid two rounds ago and are currently fighting Fear Ripper…..

The wall goes down, and Tatsuya attacks Saurus with Fear Ripper….but it doesn’t defeat it? Then Tigrerra attacks, Fear Ripper counter attacks, but that also doesn’t defeat anyone? Saurus then grapples Fear Ripper, Tigrerra jumps on his back, Runo activates the ability card…or gate card Crystal Fang that….makes Tigrerra’s claws grow?……Fear Ripper is defeated, okay?

We’re robbed of seeing Tatsuya post-loss and instead immediately jump to Dan and Runo talking about it while lying in a field.

Dan: (About Tigrerra reacting to Runo calling her cute) “Hey look, she’s blushing!”

*they all laugh for a few seconds*

Runo: “I’m so funny, ya know?”……….You….didn’t make the joke…..Dan barely made a joke. What are you talking about?

The episode ends with Runo, Dan and their parents having a cookout so they can argue about meat.

———————————

Well, that certainly was a thing I watched. What an utterly pointless episode. Granted, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch someone besides Dan brawl, and Runo’s a pretty good player, even if she, as a character, is annoying as hell. Her relationship with Tigrerra is also much more interesting to watch than Dan and Drago’s.

However, Tatsuya is a really boring and irritating opponent. He’s every little snot-nosed bully brat you’ve ever seen in shounen gaming anime. He laughs at every Bakugan the protagonist throws out and talks so much shit you’d think their mouth was a septic tank.

He’s focused purely on attack power with absolutely no strategy. Even though Runo wins time and again with traps, he just keeps attacking like an idiot.

Plus, it’s not the best writing choice in the world to have the big antagonist of the day get handily defeated in the first five minutes of the episode.

The only thing this episode really served to do was show that Dan and Runo can now hang out in real life, and we got to see Runo actually do things. She’s too annoying for me to really care, however.

Next time, more Runo. Dan and Runo enter the first team up match we’ve seen in the series, so that should at least be interesting.

…..Previous Episode

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AniManga Clash! Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero Episode 16 (Placeholder) Sudden Turnaround! Threat of the Doctor’s Gown Review

Plot: Jonouchi visits his little sister, Shizuka, in the hospital on her birthday. He soon develops a crush on a nurse at the hospital, Miyuki. A slimy and extremely negligent doctor, Gouyuu, harasses Miyuki to try to get her to date him, much to her clear annoyance. When it gets so bad that Gouyuu gets her fired as a punishment for refusing to date him, Jonouchi takes matters into his own hands to protect the newfound target of his affections.

Breakdown: Something we never get in the manga, at least during the original run, is Jonouchi’s sister, Shizuka. Meaning this is technically where Shizuka originated and technically one of few things that originated exclusively from Season Zero and carried over into the 2000 series/Duelist manga. Their backstories are still roughly the same except in Season Zero she had typical girl-in-an-anime syndrome of having some vague weakness/sickness that keeps her in and out of hospitals for most of her life instead of her future ailment of having her vision slowly fail since childhood and requires surgery to fix it.

Jonouchi goes to buy a big pink stuffed bear for Shizuka’s birthday and bumps into Yugi, who had no idea Jonouchi had a sister until now. Yugi accidentally gets some ice cream on an evil thug because this is Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero where everyone’s an evil thug. Jonouchi beats up the thug and his friends to protect Yugi, but the bear gets ruined as a result. He has no more money for a new gift, so he asks Yugi to come with him as he visits Shizuka.

They do a cute little comedy routine when they enter Shizuka’s hospital room as a means of a makeshift gift, which Shizuka enjoys. Soon enough, Jonouchi finds himself quickly infatuated with a kind nurse named Miyuki, who tends to his wounds from the fight.

He must have such a bad hair wound.

A doctor at the hospital, Dr. Gouyuu, is an evil asshole because Season Zero. He has an inordinate amount of patients die in his care because he just doesn’t….well….care. He acts like he does and then later shows that he cares more about his golf game than anything. He can easily walk away from another lost patient and gleefully go on about his golf game, even swinging a golf club around the halls of the hospital almost every time he’s on screen.

If that’s not enough, he also sexually harasses Miyuki and low-key threatens to fire her if she doesn’t quit rejecting him. Lovely.

The next day, Jonouchi arrives at the hospital again to surprise Shizuka, this time with Yugi, Anzu, Miho and Honda in tow as well because Yugi couldn’t help but spill the beans about Shizuka to the others and they wanted to meet her. Soon enough, the others catch onto Jonouchi’s crush on Miyuki and encourage him to go after her.

Honda then does the worst thing I’ve ever seen him do. He offers Jonouchi a bag containing a gift he can give to Miyuki to ‘help her on the night shift.’ I was immediately suspicious, but I had no idea he would do what he was about to do.

Jonouchi gives her the gift, mentioning the part about how it will help her on the night shift, and it turns out to be a frickin’ bra. Miyuki is pissed off, Jonouchi is appalled and all Honda has to say is “Give it up. There’s no chance.”

Honda, what the actual fuck? Jonouchi is visiting his sick sister and has an innocent crush on a nurse and you make him look like a harassing perv to her? Jonouchi did nothing to you. Why are you such an asshole right now?

The pervy doctor skeevs on Miyuki again, though this time Jonouchi confronts him. As he and Gouyuu argue, Miyuki slaps Gouyuu and chews him out for being so disrespectful and uncaring about his patients. She demands he never speak to her ever again and walks away while Jonouchi chases after her.

A woman standing up for herself to an evil incel with power? I only expect positive outcomes from this.

The next day at school, Jonouchi is extremely depressed over Miyuki. His friends are observing him from afar, but for some reason aren’t chastising Honda for clearly being responsible for this mess. Do I believe a nurse probably in her mid twenties at the very least would be interested in a 16-17 year old ex-bully? No. I love ya bunches, Jonouchi, but not only is that unlikely, it’s also pretty inappropriate. But that doesn’t mean he can’t still enjoy her company and have a simple crush – both of which Honda completely destroyed with his moronic prank. She liked Jonouchi just fine before this, and now she thinks he’s a juvenile pervert.

Yugi, being the superior Jonouchi best friend, confronts him and tells him something Jonouchi used to tell him all the time, “You’re not being manly!” Jonouchi laughs and agrees, stating he has a newfound resolve to do his best with Miyuki.

He buys some flowers for her, but when he gets to the hospital Shizuka tells him that Miyuki was fired. From what Gouyuu said, she put a patient in danger by ignoring or forgetting orders that he gave her, but Miyuki doesn’t remember getting the orders, and Shizuka doesn’t believe Miyuki would get such important orders and not fulfill them.

As Jonouchi explores the halls of the hospital, he remembers what happened right after they walked away from Gouyuu. Jonouchi apologized to Miyuki, and she decided to forgive him and change his bandages. As we see Miyuki caring for Jonouchi, we also see Gouyuu outside the door with a smirk.

In present time, Jonouchi confronts Gouyuu, proclaiming that he was with Miyuki when he supposedly gave this order and didn’t hear a thing. He threatens to rat him out, but Gouyuu, being an evil slimeball, counters by saying, if Jonouchi rats him out, he’ll have Shizuka removed from the hospital’s care. The hospital has some of the best treatment in the area and it might be a huge problem if she’s sent away.

Jonouchi begrudgingly agrees to keep his mouth shut, but I don’t quite get why. Sure the hospital may be good, but if he has the power to kick her out, surely he’s her actual doctor, right? Why would Jonouchi want this disgusting negligent homiciding sack of lawsuits caring for his sister at all?

Outside with Yugi, Jonouchi is clearly hurting a lot by this. He has no choice but to protect Shizuka, but it means having to sacrifice saving Miyuki’s job. Seeing Jonouchi’s tears, Yugi immediately summons Yami complete with a foreboding massive shadow on the ground that has the Millennium symbol shining at the top and glowing eyes, which is just the sweetest thing. I know this is a serious and pretty badass moment too, but really the instant he sees Jonouchi crying, Yugi calls Yami out to kick ass in his name. I love these two (or three?) so much.

…..Screw you, Honda.

Yami (and Yugi) are so colossally pissed that we don’t follow Yami through the hospital as he looks for Gouyuu – we follow his pissed off looking glowing eyed and Millennium symbol’d shadow as it rushes around the halls. The effects are, admittedly, kinda janky. They’re pulling some really low-budget old CGI work here or something, but who cares? Yami Yugi is out for blood to protect his baby boy—I mean Jonouchi, and I am HERE for that.

Gouyuu is talking on the phone with someone about putting off another surgery to go golfing (I get the stereotype, but what exactly is Gouyuu’s deal with golf? It’s all he thinks about besides perving on nurses.) and brags to this person about how they had Miyuki fired for turning him down and that’s a ‘natural penalty’ for that. Dude….tone it down. If Captain Planet had villains centered on sexual harassment and malpractice, you’d easily be one.

I really can’t understand how he’s in the position he is, let alone that he might get promoted to head of the hospital. Everyone comments about how he loses a lot of patients, notably way more than other doctors, he’s constantly pushing surgeries back, not caring for patients properly, ignoring them most of the time, harassing the nurses, and he doesn’t seem to be good at keeping his mouth shut about this shit – how is he even employed?

Yami records him saying those things on a tape recorder and plays it back for him in the doorway before challenging him to a game.

Meanwhile, Shizuka tells Jonouchi that Miyuki is leaving the city, presumably to never return, so Shizuka tells him to go to the train station and talk to her. She doesn’t want Jonouchi to have any regrets about her.

Shadow Game

Yami sets up today’s Shadow Game to be Gouyuu’s beloved golf. The twist is that they’re playing in the empty halls of the hospital. The stakes are, if Yami loses, Gouyuu gets the incriminating tape. If Gouyuu loses, Yami keeps the tape and Gouyuu gets a punishment game.

Gouyuu chooses his club and asks what Yami will be using for a club. He grabs Gouyuu’s stethoscope and says he’ll use that. Gouyuu laughs at his choice of a ‘club’ and claims he’s won before the match even starts.

…..Is there no one in this hospital? Why are the halls all empty?

The goal is the Nurse’s Center on the floor directly below them. Gouyuu goes first and manages to cleanly hit the ball down the hall. Yami, using the stethoscope as a slingshot, whacks the ball, causing it to bounce around the walls of the hall before ending up in some room.

With a laugh, Gouyuu goes on ahead while Yami is supposedly left to figure out how to get his ball out of the room and down to the Nurse’s Center.

With a few more strokes, Gouyuu is able to get down to the Nurse’s Center quite easily. As he’s about to hit his ball into the room, Yami’s ball suddenly emerges. He explains that the room he hit his ball into has a neat system – a mail drop. He hit his ball into the chute, and it fell directly into the Nurse’s Center. Hole-in-one.

Uhh…..Is it just me….or does this make no sense? I can understand having a chute system for mail, but why does the mail chute wind up in the Nurse’s Center? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the mail to go to an administration office or, I dunno, a mail room?

Yami smirks and mocks Gouyuu because he knows golf courses very well, but he obviously doesn’t know his own hospital.

Gouyuu tries to attack Yami, causing him to break his precious club and fall over. Yami opens the door to darkness, and Gouyuu is suddenly haunted by the frightening spirits of all the patients that he let die in his care. Yami walks away, leaving a screaming Gouyuu behind.

Meanwhile, Jonouchi finally reaches the train station with the flowers. He gives them to Miyuki only to find that all of the petals fell off as he was running. She smiles and thanks him for them anyway. Jonouchi begs her to come back to the hospital, but Miyuki reveals that she had been planning on leaving for a while. A man approaches, and Miyuki explains that she decided to go to work at a clinic on a small remote island with this man, the doctor who runs the place. It’s implied that they’re interested in each other romantically. She bids Jonouchi farewell, telling him to bring Shizuka by for a visit sometime.

Jonouchi is rightfully shocked and devastated.

The next day, we see Gouyuu on the floor of the hospital surrounded by patients and doctors. He prattles on in a crazy state about how he cares more about golf than his patients while a boom box plays the tape of him confessing to his unethical behavior behind him.

At the hospital, Jonouchi is greeted by his friends who shoot confetti at him and try to make him feel better by openly sharing his pain with them. Honda approaches him and says he understands how he feels, which I thought might lead to a legitimately nice moment and redeem the shit he did earlier a little, because Honda does know how it feels to pine after someone he’ll never have. But no. He goes on telling Jonouchi that he can cry into his chest if he wants, and Jonouchi points out that Honda has a huge grin on his face, seemingly happy that Jonouchi got rejected and is taking delight in his pain.

Again, screw Honda. Please just write him out of this show and take Miho with him.

———————————–

This episode was pretty good. It was adorable seeing Jonouchi have a crush, even if I knew it was going to end in heartbreak. At least Miyuki was fairly nice about it instead of making her the villain or just a jerk or something. I wish we got more focus on Shizuka because, at the end of the day, we learned nothing about her besides she’s nice, loves her brother and is sick. Unlike in the 2000 anime, where we learn she’s……nice…..loves her brother….and is sick….

The Yugi and Jonouchi moments in this episode were sweet as pie, and that scene where Yami charges off in a shadow form to hunt down Gouyuu in vengeance because he saw Jonouchi crying is mwah perfect.

Gouyuu was as over-the-top as any Yu-Gi-Oh! villain, but he was built on a very real type of person. There are more sick misogynist guys in power who are more than willing to fire women for the horrific crime of turning them down for a date than I care to think about.

The one truly bad spot in this episode was Honda. What the heck was up with Honda today? Why was he so cruel to poor Jonouchi all because he had a crush on a nurse? The only good thing he did in this episode was loan Jonouchi the money to get Shizuka a teddy bear, which he didn’t even know was the intention of the money, but screw him entirely otherwise in this episode.

Next time, Kaiba’s third Shitennou shows up – a supermodel who can seemingly predict all of Yami’s moves.

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AniManga Clash! Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero Episode 15: Scary Woman! Can’t Transform! (Placeholder)

Plot: Yugi suddenly finds himself with an admirer when he receives a love letter from a girl named Risa, much to Anzu’s annoyance. While she is a very nice girl, Yugi isn’t interested in her, but he can’t get the nerve to turn her down. When she shows her true colors, Yugi won’t have to worry about turning her down – he’ll be too busy fighting for the Millennium Puzzle.

Breakdown: When I first saw the preview for this episode, I thought it would be boring and annoying because it focused on Anzu being jealous of a girl who was romantically interested in Yugi. And yup, it’s about as boring as this series can manage, and Anzu delivers plenty of annoying.

So…….witches.

Risa and her two triplet sisters are witches…..I…guess? They perform some sort of ritual thing in the start of the episode, and they identify with a trio of witch sister cards, but they never perform any magic….so…I dunno. Risa also has an adverse reaction to touching the Puzzle, but it only happened once. She touches it several times after this and it does nothing.

In a free booster pack she got from Sugoroku, Anzu obtains a very rare Violet Hekate card, which she gives to Yugi because he likes it so much. Overhearing this exchange, Risa decides to pretend to be romantically interested in Yugi so she can get the card from him.

Anzu is not happy about this, especially when Yugi falls ill and Risa takes it upon herself to nurse him back to health. Anzu spends a majority of the episode being a grouch about the whole thing, even prompting him to reject Risa, because she likes Yugi. However, bear in mind, Anzu doesn’t actually like Yugi, at least not in that way – she likes “strong Yugi” and yes that’s the term she used to describe him in this episode. She always sees Yugi as a little kid with toys. She wants her dark mysterious Yugi. So, she’s getting in the way of Yugi’s possible romance just because she’s in love…..with his alter-ego….That sure is fair.

Granted, her concerns are warranted, just not in the ways she first thinks. What I really don’t understand is why Risa and her sisters took the time out to psychologically mess with Anzu for so long. Why bother prompting her to go run errands just to hear that Risa already did them when Anzu returned? Why bother pushing her down the escalator at the mall? They don’t want or need anything from Anzu, and they’re only making her more suspicious by doing these things.

Yugi doesn’t want to give Risa the card because Anzu gave it to him. Frustrated, Risa, or one of her sisters, resorts to trashing his room to steal it……really makes you wonder why they didn’t just do that in the first place.

One of the sisters takes his Puzzle as a hostage for the Violet Hekate card. They’ll duel for it. Whomever wins gets both the card and the Puzzle. Yugi agrees.

Which brings us to the…

Not Shadow Game

Yeah, this isn’t a Shadow Game. The sisters are using a ‘machine’ that is somehow entirely hidden from view to show projections of the cards and their attacks, but that’s about it. It’s a normal duel otherwise.

Yugi defends first with a Sleeping Worm, but they blast it away with one of the three witch cards, Red Hekate.

Yugi then uses the Clocks card, which somehow not only brings the worm back from the dead, but it also EVOLVES IT?! Can someone find a way to wrap my head around that?

Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because the newly evolved form of the worm, Iron Beetle, is no match for their second witch card, Yellow Hekate.

Yugi starts succumbing to his fever again when Kaiba shows up. He explains that the triplets are well known in the world of Duel Monsters for using any means necessary to obtain cards that they desire. Since Yugi is ill, Kaiba offers to sub for him, offering an entire briefcase of cards if he loses. He even offers to let them put the Violet Hekate in their deck.

They agree, and the duel continues. Kaiba starts with a Cyclops card, which is blasted away by the Hekate witches.

Kaiba loses. The end.

What? I know how to do math. They started with 2000 LP. Yugi lost 800 LP when they killed his Iron Beetle (in attack mode) with Yellow Hekate. Then he lost 1300 when Kaiba’s Cyclops (1200 attack) fell to the Hekate sisters (Both were attacking it at the same time, but I’m only counting one because that’s illegal) with 2500 attack.

Kaiba was subbing for Yugi, not starting an entirely new duel. This much is shown when we see that both of the Hekate sisters are still on the field when Kaiba comes in.

Yugi/Kaiba lost. The end.

But, oh, silly me. I can’t math. Nor can I pay attention. I am but a mere viewer of Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero, and apparently the writers can’t dig up an ounce of respect for my intelligence.

The duel continues once more – Kaiba summons a Blue Eyes, because of course he had one immediately, but they counter by summoning Violet Hekate, which is bullshit. Did ‘put Violet Hekate in your deck’ translate to ‘place Violet Hekate on the top of your deck so you can totally cheat’?

Anyhoo, the three Hekate cards automatically merge into Gorgon whose attack strength matches Blue Eyes. However, since it’s on a forest field, where witches thrive apparently (But…Gorgons aren’t witches….???) it won’t be destroyed if it’s in a stalemate attack. For some reason, she doesn’t choose to attack Blue Eyes right then to prove her point, leaving Kaiba open to summon his second Blue Eyes, because of course he got a second Blue Eyes on his third turn. And then, somehow, both Blue Eyes attack Gorgon, which….somehow defeats it? That shouldn’t have happened. They all have 3000 attack power, and the sisters said the Gorgon wouldn’t die in a stalemate while on forest land. Unless they somehow got a power boost from being together or something, there’s no reason this should be working like this.

With Gorgon gone, the sisters…..just….lose I guess.

Kaiba gathers his things and says he’d never let someone like the witch sisters defeat Yugi, especially in such a dishonorable manner. He’ll ensure that he’ll be the only one to defeat Yugi.

…..Then the episode just ends.

What a bunch of malarkey.

Boring plot, boring conflict, boring duel, boring enemies. You introduced witches to Yu-Gi-Oh and you give us nothing but jealous Anzu and a milquetoast duel that makes so little sense that, logically, the good guys should have lost? Also, it’s like they knew the duel was boring because they really shoehorned in that mysterious invisible ‘machine’ that makes holograms….oh excuse me – they call them ‘hallucinations.’ *eyeroll*

Not to mention Yami wasn’t even in this episode. And now I sound like Anzu, and that makes me pissed off. And being pissed off only makes me sound more like Anzu. 😐

Next time, more purely anime stories when we’re introduced to Shizuka, Jonouchi flirts with a nurse and the third Game Shitennou shows up.

…..Previous Episode

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AniManga Clash! Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero Episode 10: The Approaching Beautiful Teacher’s Secret Mask/Manga Chapter 7

(Normally I would custom-make a header image, but this chapter title card was way too cool.)

This is our first instance of a plot revolving around Honda in the anime (and…pretty much ever, manga-wise) and the only instance of Miho existing in the manga. Why she was specifically chosen to be main girl character #2 in the anime is beyond me, but just be thankful she’s not in the 2000 anime.

I suppose it might have simply been because she is really the only other female student that is ever given even a modicum of focus in the manga, which is pathetic to say the least. Usually, the main girl in a group of mostly guys in an anime will have one or two girls who are barely-there side friends just to prove that the girl doesn’t only hang out with guys or something. But nope. Manga!Anzu’s in a sausage fest.

Jonouchi brings Honda to Yugi to help him with a problem – Honda is love sick for a girl named Miho, whom he’s nicknamed Ribbon-chan because she wears a ribbon (the amount of cleverness is high.) He needs advice on a gift to get her attention. Honda doesn’t want Yugi’s help at first and is quite rude and threatening to him about it, even strangling him a few times. However, Yugi, being a precious cupcake, decides to help him anyway. And, again, being Yugi, they go to his grandpa’s game shop to find a present.

Sugoroku hears his plight and grabs a blank puzzle, citing it as the gift he used to woo Yugi’s grandma. It’s weird, I never once thought about Sugoroku’s wife before. I wonder why they never bother talking about her….then again this show really doesn’t like explaining where anyone’s parents are or who they are, so it’s probably asking too much to think they’d include information on grandparents. Though, oddly, the one person on Yugi’s family tree that we do get the most info on is Sugoroku.

Anyhoo, the blank puzzle is used for messages. You write a love note on the puzzle and break it into pieces. Your loved one will complete the puzzle, see the message and, if all goes well, return your feelings. It’s a bit convoluted, especially if the person doesn’t want to do the puzzle or doesn’t return the confessor’s feelings, but it is fairly romantic.

Honda gets Yugi to write the note for him, which takes him all night, and they put the puzzle in Miho’s desk.

You might be wondering why I haven’t so much as mentioned episode ten yet. That’s because the adaptation of this episode had to be drastically changed since Honda and Miho’s dynamic is so different in the anime, and she’s an actual main character there. They could have had an episode like this where Honda decides to confess his love for Miho through a puzzle. It’s not that difficult to change up a few things and make that plotline work.

Maybe if he was actually shot down he’d stop being such a pathetic doofus around her. But why bother trying to think about how you could adapt the story properly and maybe even develop Honda’s character a little when you can pretty much just cheat in a manner we’ll talk about shortly.

The next scene in the manga is basically adapted just fine, though. Chouno-sensei is an incredibly beautiful teacher at their school, fawned over by many of the boys, but she’s also an incredibly strict devil woman. In the anime, she merely takes some girl’s charm off of her bag since it was against the rules, but in the manga she’s known as The Expelling Witch, having expelled 15 students in six months. She’s also very egotistical and wears gobs of makeup. In the anime, she’s so strict that she is trying to coerce (Read: seduce) the vice-principal into banning all personal items from school and increasing penalties for rule breakers.

Can I take the time to point out that the show is trying to torment my eyes again? What the hell is Chouno wearing? For someone who supposedly puts so much time and effort into their appearance, she chose a butt-ugly skirt suit.

The main plot starts here in the anime, and it’s pretty much the same plot as the Honda/Miho plot from the manga with the main difference being that the one with the crush is a completely new girl named Mayumi, who has hair that matches Chouno’s gross green skirt suit, yay. She likes Jonouchi and wants to confess to him. Anzu and Miho recruit Yugi to help her confess to Jonouchi, and he suggests going to the game shop where they get the same type of message puzzle.

There is a small running gag in the anime episode where, whenever someone asks what Jonouchi would like for a gift, they respond by saying he likes lewd videos. I thought that was pretty funny.

Believe it or not, even though they didn’t really have to change this plot so much, the anime’s arrangement makes more sense. At least it’s canon that Jonouchi likes games. Who’s to say Miho would like the puzzle or even try to complete it? This would make the most sense if Yugi was the recipient, but no one his age ever seems to have an actual crush on him – and that includes Anzu….

In the anime, Mayumi is the one who writes on the puzzle, not Yugi. I guess this makes more sense because she barely knows Yugi. (Then again, Honda barely knows him in the manga too…)

In the manga, we only hear about Chouno’s marriage interview when she’s discussing it with the vice principal. She says he didn’t deserve her and walks away.

In the anime, we actually see her marriage interview, and she mostly seems to use it to fish for compliments on her appearance. A little boy is playing around the area where they’re having their interview and accidentally runs into her. Chouno knocks the boy down and chastises him for dirtying her kimono, calling him a brat. He runs off crying, and Chouno laments on how terribly kids are brought up these days. Then her date dumps her after the spectacle – understandably so.

The thing about this change is that it’s not just adding the marriage interview, it’s also changing her character a tiny bit. In the manga, she’s a pure cold-hearted bitch who is toying with men and punishing them for no reason.

In the anime, while she’s still just a bitch, they inadvertently make her a little sympathetic. Fishing for compliments makes her seem like she has severe self-esteem issues, and having her be the one who got dumped leaves the door open for sympathy.

The conversation later when the vice principal asks her how her date went is kept the same as the one at the start of the manga chapter, but it’s made different because they showed the interview. Likewise, the following scene where she smashes the bathroom mirror and goes off about how she was planning on dumping the guy anyway and that she only uses marriage interviews to toy with men is also kept the same, but they add in a slight bit of her being extra insulted because the guy dumped her.

In the manga, for all we know, she did just toy with the guy and dumped his ass like old mop water so she could relish in his humiliation. But in the anime we know she was dumped, and nothing in inner monologue suggested she was going to dump him, though she was obviously using him for an ego boost. Now it just seems like she’s embarrassed and she’s trying to make excuses to save face….hehe, save face…That joke will sense a bit later.

Bear in mind that I’m not saying anything the anime is adding is making her someone to root for or feel sorry for, especially when you consider the later events, but they did add a slight bit more depth to her character by making subtle changes. It’s not big change or anything, but it’s better than just making her fully two-dimensional.

In the manga, Chouno, being pissed off, decides to calm herself by springing a surprise inspection on the class. She wants them to empty their bags and their desks and will be thoroughly punished if she finds anything out of line. Funnily enough, when she’s listing off items that are against the rules, she mentions condoms – and they’re the most prominently displayed word in the text. I never thought I’d ever see the word ‘condoms’ in anything Yu-Gi-Oh related, but here I am.

To make this even funnier, she thinks this with such a creepy look on her face, and she’s yelling it.

Miho brings out the present, and Chouno takes it away, shocking everyone and embarrassing Miho.

In the anime, Chouno just tells them to get out their textbooks. Jonouchi finds the present on accident while trying to get his book.

In both versions, Chouno rips the wrapping paper off of the gift and starts slowly trying to humiliate Miho/Jonouchi by putting the puzzle together and revealing the message.

In the manga, Yugi and Jonouchi stand up and try to claim the puzzle as their own to prevent Honda from being embarrassed or getting punished. Touched by their gesture, Honda decides to take the rap anyway and admits that it was his message and puzzle. Chouno can’t know for certain which boy is actually telling the truth, so she decides to complete the puzzle to see who signed it. She’s very close to revealing the name when Yami emerges and turns the puzzle into a Shadow Game.

In the anime, Anzu decides to take the heat for it, believing she can merely tell Jonouchi it was a prank. She’s told to go to the advisor’s office later. She debates with Chouno on the ethical nature of the strict rules that she loves to enforce, particularly those of ‘distractions’ like a harmless puzzle or a part-time job. She tells Chouno that she believes many other students are on her side on this issue, so Chouno tells her to prove it by gathering the signatures of other students.

As Anzu prepares to do that, Chouno lies to the other teachers acting as if Anzu is a threatening troublemaker who is looking to appeal all the rules in the school.

Anzu starts putting up posters and gathering signatures. She admits that doing this is both for the sake of the students’ happiness and for allowing her to work her part-time jobs without worrying about getting caught.

Apparently, Chouno was able to convince the other teachers of Anzu’s misdeeds, especially with her posters up everywhere, so they start harassing her. Her posters get vandalized, and she starts getting unfairly targeted by her teachers in class. Despite this, Anzu keeps trying her best, though apparently she has zero signatures? I thought Jonouchi was going to sign it, and wouldn’t Miho, Yugi and Mayumi sign it immediately? Maybe Honda wouldn’t because he’s all about school rules, even if he doesn’t support Chouno’s behavior, but he’s pretty loyal to his friends. Surely he’d do it if Miho asked him, anyway.

Miho explains that there’s a rumor going around school that anyone who has signed has been targeted by Chouno and her fellow teacher cronies, which either isn’t true because she has no signatures or isn’t true because it hasn’t happened, as Anzu attests.

Anyway, pre-soft-reboot Yu-Gi-Oh being what it is, of course Anzu and Yugi get bullied. Three assholes mock her and take her sign-up sheets. They push Yugi to the ground and tear up the papers. Jonouchi comes over to confront the guys, one of them ironically calling him a rule-breaker. Jonouchi, unable to stomach this abuse to his friends, tackles the guy to the ground and punches him to face.

Obviously, this a big no-no, so Chouno brings them all to the advisor office for punishment. Anzu tries to take the full blame again, and Chouno threatens her with expulsion. She releases them all, explaining that the staff will decide Anzu’s fate tomorrow. She brings the three assholes into the room for their ‘punishment’ next.

They all leave, barring Yugi, who listens in at the door. Not surprisingly, Chouno was the one pulling the strings behind the three assholes. In exchange for expunging their records, they were told to harass Anzu and Yugi and get them to break the rules.

Shocked at this revelation, Yugi triggers Yami’s emergence.

Shadow Game

So, here’s the deal. In the manga, the Shadow Game really isn’t a Shadow Game so much as Yami utilizing the power of the Puzzle to warp Chouno’s face into a crumbling jigsaw puzzle (Though, oddly, we never get to see her ‘ugly’ face) and never allowing her to complete the puzzle to find out the confessor’s name. Chouno runs off in terror and uh….that’s it. The end. Of the Shadow Game anyway. Chouno is never seen again, either.

In the anime, Yami confronts Chouno in the hall and offers to play a game. If he wins, Anzu and her friends don’t get any punishment. If he loses, he’ll keep quiet about her using the students to further her own twisted plans, and he’ll willingly be her pawn. She accepts.

Yami throws two mirrors up into the air. Each falls on their respective sides of the table and shatter into pieces, which was a really sick move. Yami always knows how to do these games in style. Whomever puts the mirror back together first wins. However, there’s a catch. They each have to be wearing blindfolds.

Chouno accepts, and the game starts. Before they actually get into it, however, Yami offers Chouno a pair of gloves to keep her from getting cut. How kind.

They start putting the mirror back together, but of course Chouno just takes the blindfold off because she knows Yami won’t see her. As they work, Yami reveals that this is actually a Shadow Game – if she cheats, there will be dire consequences. Chouno doesn’t think anything of it, but keeps up her blindness act as they continue to work. He’s halfway done, but she only has one more piece. She completes the puzzle, but Yami knows she has cheated.

He calls her out on her misdeeds and starts her penalty game. Her face turns into a crumbling puzzle, and beneath the pieces lies an old ugly sagging face. Chouno runs off in horror, but that’s, surprisingly, not the full end for her. Later, we see that she’s still preoccupied with her looks and vehemently supports stern rule enforcement, but now, whenever she goes too far with it, she hallucinates her face cracking away and excuses herself. Apparently, she’s even caking on more makeup than usual because she’s trying to cover the cracks and it won’t stick.

Meanwhile, at the end of the manga chapter, Honda formally confesses to Miho and gets shot down. However, Yugi points out that his friendship with Jonouchi and Honda has grown as a result of their ordeal.

At the end of the anime version, Chouno’s plans seemingly fall apart, but it’s very unclear if Anzu got her wish to lighten up the rule on part-time jobs. Jonouchi asks Anzu what was up with the puzzle message, and, like she claimed she’d do earlier, she just says it was a prank and he brushes it off. Miho tells Anzu it’s all okay because, get this, during this whole fiasco, Mayumi fell for an upperclassman and confessed to HIM, so they’re dating now.

……Mayumi, you were barely a character…but FUCK OFF. Anzu, Yugi and Jonouchi went through all of this bullshit because of you, and not only do you not help Anzu with her goal, but in the two days this was all going down you just decide you don’t like Jonouchi anymore, fall for someone else, confess to them and start dating them? What a bitch. The only reason they wrote this in is because they didn’t want this character to return and they were too lazy to write a proper resolution to that plotline.

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The anime definitely has the edge over the manga in pretty much every respect this time. In both scenarios, there’s a one-off character I couldn’t care less about (Though Mayumi is more of a bitch than Manga!Miho. At least she let Honda down gently), but the story is much more fleshed out in the anime version.

By the end, even though they added a layer or two to Chouno’s character, she was still extremely hateable. That guy who dumped her might as well be named Neo because he dodged a bullet.

I like how they showed that, even though she technically escaped the Shadow Game illusion, she’s still trapped seemingly forever, and it’s forcing her to keep changing her ways. It makes me think that this might be the case for everyone else, though considering Manga!Kaiba and Mokuba, probably not.

Having Anzu take the stage with this story was also a lot better than focusing on Honda. She’s a more interesting character, she already has a bone to pick with Chouno in regards to the rules being a hindrance on her, and I felt really bad for her when she was being harassed.

They obviously greatly improved on the manga’s Shadow Game, which wasn’t even really a game. And, like I mentioned, despite the punishment being the same between versions, we never see the ‘ugly’ face everyone, including Chouno, hallucinated at the end. Considering how scary this art can be when it’s just trying to be normal, they could have had a field day trying to make a purposefully ugly face, but Takahashi couldn’t be bothered. I get that there’s a certain advantage in not showing us her face because, like in horror stories, what you imagine tends to be worse than what’s shown to you, making the impact stronger, but I felt like that wasn’t the intention. I could be wrong, though.

The game itself was really cool. Yami even broke the mirrors in a cool way and put on his uniform in that badass manner where he uses his jacket as a cape. The broken mirrors also had symbolism in reflecting her ugly insides and being a sendup to her breaking the mirror earlier.

It’s subtle, but there are some cute little hints of Yugi’s crush on Anzu peppered throughout the episode. This was a good way to keep the theme of romance throughout, even if it was just slightly. However, it does bother me a little because, even in the soft-rebooted series, Anzu is definitely more romantically attracted to Yami than Yugi, if she even has an iota of feelings for Yugi at all. It’s just sad. The only reason they’d ever get together is if she waited about ten years when Yugi magically becomes a carbon copy of Yami, as far as we were able to tell from that one shot in GX anyway.

That’d be an uncomfortable situation. Imagine them in bed and her being like ‘Can I call you Yami or Atem?’

Overall, a decent story on the manga side and a pretty good episode on the anime side.

Winner: Anime

Next time, Miho and Yugi enter the world of Capsule Monsters.

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