Reviews

”Miracles happen! As long as you believe in the Heart of the Cards. I win.”

Volume 5, aka the volume where season 1 of the anime and the manga start to converge.

For all of us who were first introduced to Yu-Gi-Oh! via the 4Kids anime, getting to read the manga version of the Kaiba vs. Yugi match with Exodia probably left you screaming and yelling just like the audience in-universe.

However, unlike in the anime, this duel is the end of an arc, not the pilot of a new show, and so the stakes feel very high. Gone is the goofiness of volume 4 -- this is serious business. This is also where it feels like we actually meet the version of Kaiba that will develop into everyone's favorite anti-hero rather than the version we've been given hitherto who, while entertaining, is ultimately more or less as one-dimensional a villain as those that have come before.

But before we get our re-match, Yugi has to get through Mokuba who's keen on getting in a rematch of his own by trying a second time to beat Yugi in a game of Capsule Monsters.

I get the sense that the fandom is a little bit split on Capsule Monsters, but visually it's undeniably pretty interesting. Sure, the gameplay feels a bit arbitrary, but so what? It's fun to look at, and the basic premise of trying to get monsters of varying levels across a board in a mixture of Stratego and a DnD tabletop game is neat and certainly fits in well with the Duel Monsters aesthetic.

Even Mokuba gets some character development in this volume. We see him and Kaiba behind the scenes, and Mokuba expresses how it hurts that his older brother doesn't think he's good enough to defeat Yugi, and in a truly poignant moment, he adds: “I just thought you'd like me if I beat him." Kaiba scoffs at this and really lets him have it, saying: "There is no such thing as brotherly love in the gaming world! Until you figure that out, you will always be a loser, Mokuba!" (p.13)

Ouch.

This comes back around later, because when Mokuba loses to Yugi, Kaiba is a-ok letting his little brother suffer a 'penalty game' that could leave him dead. Even though it's his brother Mokuba pitifully calls out to for help, it's Yami Yugi who saves him -- a good character moment for Yami Yugi too given that he had been doling out penalty games with just as little remorse as Kaiba displayed. Seems some of the friendship speeches have rubbed off on him by this point.

The duel itself between Yugi and Kaiba is pretty great, and again, there is a lot here for Anime fans to latch onto, but even without that, it's interesting to see what Yu-Gi-Oh! can be without the campy frills it's usually accompanied by. Now, don't get me wrong -- I love the camp and the ridiculously over-the-top dialogue and even more over-the-top and ridiculous scenarios. However, there's something to be said for this duel and how it's the turning point where we get to see the real heart of the series, that heart being the dueling (if I may) belief systems of friendship and collaboration vs. ruthless and competitive individualism.

Stripped down to this question and without the jokes, it's actually pretty gripping, especially since this is the first time we've gotten to see Yami Yugi's humanity, and to see that he's developing past the worldview Kaiba is stuck in. Because, really, up until now, was Yami Yugi really that different from some of the villains he was throwing penalty games at? Well, ok, he was different from some of them, but the only thing separating him from someone like Kaiba was the fact that he was on the 'good' team. Something to think about.

In any event, the climax of this duel is nothing short of iconic. We have the three Blue Eyes White Dragons, we have Exodia, we have our famous 'mind crush'. And that brings us to the end of the 'Death-T' arc.

It's really pretty amazing that the anime gathered the steam it did off of a pilot episode with wildly bad pacing that was mashed together using bits and pieces from volumes 2, 4, and 5 of the original manga. And it's a shame, because the totality of the two Kaiba arcs made for really compelling drama and character development, all of which is lost in the season 1 anime. To be fair, they do try to back-pedal that misplay in the 'Cyber World' filler arc, but man do I wish we would have gotten something closer to the manga storyline to start us off. Ah well.

The Death-T arc was so iconic and intense, it was going to be hard to tack anything on to the end of it, but we got two short 'villain of the week' stories involving our usual adults who live to bully teenagers for no adequately explored reason. They were fun, and back to the classic (at least for 'Season 0) campy style of storytelling, but nothing that stands out or is worth much discussion.

All in all, a fabulous and, yeah ok, nostalgic end to an engrossing, at times silly, at other times harrowing arc.

Definitely gets one hype to dive into the 'Duelist' volumes.

Good luck to Kaiba in the interim trying to piece his soul together after that mind crush!