Where I rewatch Yugioh GX, Episode 105
Oct. 31st, 2010 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2Well, it's the start of the third year, and as Judai eats his precious fried shrimp, he demonstrates his well-established eloquent tongue by try to say "profound" and failing. Also, apparently Takuma and Mizuchi are in a Kaiba Corp affiliated hospital, though for some reason Shou refers to them as "Saiou and Mizuchi", which makes no sense, it would be like saying "Kaiba and Mokuba" when talking about Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, or "Ishtar and Isis" when talking about Malik and Isis Ishtar. You know, because they have the same family name, so referring to only one of them by the family name is kind of rude, insulting, and probably a few other things I'm missing out on owing to my lack of full familiarity with name and honorific etiquette in Japanese culture. Then again, this is the same show where people eat the tail of the shrimp, so it is entirely possible that the writers just aren't thinking. Also, Edo's back to dueling in the pro-leagues, and as usual, Judai is utterly unaffected, unchanged, undeveloped with regards to his character. What do you suppose that Judai will continue to be undeveloped throughout this season too? And then, right in the middle of the conversation with his two closest friends, Winged Kuriboh appears to Judai, squeeks something to him, and then he gets up and leaves without saying a word. And what was so important that it necessitated, nay, demanded this display of epic narcissism? Why, Neos and the rest of the Hippy Space Animal Friend Gang are hanging around on top of the school! He yells to them that he's on his way, and not once does he even bother to look at his friends, acknowledge them in the slightest, clue them in on what he is doing...any sort of action that would indicate that he actually respects them.
Oh hey, new opening, it's about time, I was really getting sick of the last one BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...give me a second GWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...I think that was the last of it ZE HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...Okay, I'm done now. But honestly, five seconds into the opening, and Judai cries a single emo tear. I do not say this lightly, I do not like to use the word "emo", as it is grossly overused by the entitled douchebag fratboy demographic and I refuse to validate them in any way...but this here? Judai crying that single perfect tear as it streams down his cheek? That is the pinnacle of emo. I believe, based solely on this one little bit of the opening, that this season shall be fucking hilarious. Because they couldn't possibly have meant for that to have been taken seriously. They couldn't have. I mean, listen to the rest of the song; in parsing it, the overall implication is that the singer can see Judai's inner pain and wants him to let it all out, and being that this presupposes the existence of inner pain on the part of Judai, someone I can only characterize as two-dimensional if I'm being generous, and again, all I can do is laugh. Also, the opening is just people standing around, and flashbacks to random, uncoordinated points in Judai's life at Duel Academia. Speaking of the people, Rei is in the opening! Yeah, I guess she'll still be in the show, even though she lost to Manjoume. Aside from her, there's a whole bunch of new guys, and not one lady among them. Which should prove business as usual on this show. Oh yeah, and Misawa is officially gone, not even a token nod to his existence. Fuckers.
TITLE SCREEN! START OF THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR! TROUBLESOME PREMONITIONS presumably the premonition is that judai has to start applying himself as a person and stop hiding behind his imaginary friends.
So yeah, the Obelisk White dorm is being painted blue again, because apparently they couldn't take care of that over the break, and because the school is cheap, they're having the students do it. Because that makes sense. And Manjoume, who apparently hasn't taken the less then a second it would take him to switch back to his Obelisk Blue uniform, is barking orders. Asuka walks up, tells him to stop being so bossy, and asks if he'll join in on the painting. Apparently Manjoume is under the impression that winning the Genex Tournament makes him exempt from this sort of thing, Asuka reminds him that the only reason Manjoume got to win was because Judai declared their duel to be a no-count, something Judai didn't with his duel against Asuka because he's a jerk like that, and now poorly timed comedy; someone drops a bucket of paint, Manjoume shoves Asuka out of the way, and he gets soaked. And...for some reason he decides he doesn't want to be in Obelisk Blue anymore. Something about them being too obsessed with the uniform color...what is this show's problem? Why does it think that this is funny, appropriate, or even in character? Asuka, who's getting some really bad animation, lampshades how stupid and pointless this all is. Now we pan over to Principal Samejima's office, where he, Napoleon, and Chronos are recapping events. Wait, Chronos and Napoleon asked a very good question; why was Prince Prince invited to the tournament in the first place, aside from being a lazy plot device to facilitate Saiou's inane scheme? Samejima says he did it because Prince the Artist formerly known as Prince was a big celebrity, but Chronos points out that that doesn't work, Prince Prince wasn't on the list. This forces Samejima to admit that he hired the psychologically fragile royal with sole discretionary control over a laser satellite because Saiou asked him to.
And yes, Samejima, you are an epic idiot of the highest caliber who endangered the safety of countless lives for no good reason, and the fact that both Chronos and Napoleon can legitimately stand in judgment of you is horrifying. Why none of this was brought up at the time, I've no idea. Chronos and Napoleon are thus able to walk away, satisfied that they've found someone even worse then them. Again, horrifying. Back in Samejima's office, more recapping. You know, Revolutionary Girl Utena had lots of recaps, but the plot and characterization and themes and imagery and symbolism were so complex and complicated, that this was necessary. This is not the case here. Blah blah blah, the near destruction of the world is irrelevant in the face of Judai having gotten some good duels to develop his skills on, and speaking of Judai...he's on the roof, talking to all of his imaginary friends, going over all the amazing duels they've been through together. Shou and Kenzan are watching, and because Judai did not bother to fill them in on anything, they've no idea who Judai is talking. And really, from any sort of objective perspective, Judai is mentally ill; he needs medication, therapy, he needs people who will keep him on track, and what he doesn't need is more excuses to escape further and further into his self-indulgent fantasy worlds that prevent him from being able to form valid human connections. And now, because the writers need to stall for more time, a clip extending from the end of Judai's second duel with Edo to him learning of his Hippy-Space destiny. The ludicrously over the top reactions everyone has to Judai losing against Edo will never stop being hilarious, and the expectation that we would take exposition from a Hippy-Space Dolphin seriously will never stop being sad.
Brief pause for Judai to continue his "as you know, bob" storytelling, and Shou and Kenzan are still getting no reason to think that Judai's mental state has deteriorated even more than before, and now a clip of Judai's third duel with Edo. And yep, it is just as boring, trite, and uninteresting as it was before. And now according to Judai, that duel made it so that Edo could accept others. Which would be why he continued to be such a callous, selfish asshole who only cared about Saiou and his daddy issues. Wait...oh, Judai's referring to their Tag Duel together. And Neos and all the Hippy Space Animal Friends just...nod at all this. Because that's why they're there. To validate Judai. Not to introduce new thoughts, or challenge Judai, or anything like that, just to keep reinforcing his neurosis.
EYECATCH!
And straight into the end of the Judai and Edo vs. Mizuchi tag duel. That conclusion continues to be absolute contrived bullshit, and now back to the present, and Judai was so super excited when when all his imaginary friends showed up to help him save the whole universe. Neos bullshits that he couldn't have done it without Kenzan's help, because apparently the GX writers are now taking notes from LaHey and Jenkins of the Left Behind series, retconning events to what they meant to have written, as opposed to having bothered to put in the modicum of effort necessary to have written it that way in the first place. Then Judai yells to Kenzan that his imaginary friend Neos says thanks! Kenzan responds reasonably, acting like the slightest movement could cause Judai to flip out and start killing people. And yes, this is pretty much what's going on, Shou and Kenzan both admit they've no idea what the hell Judai's going on about. Now over to Manjoume, who exposits that he has no respect left for anyone in Obelisk Blue, and if Asuka or Fubuki were to have heard him, he would be in a world of hurt. And now a flashback to the end of the Manjoume vs. Judai duel. That conclusion is still contrived bullshit that only serves to inanely preserve Judai's winning streak against Manjoume, because god forbid that the hero ever lose to the Rival. Back in the present, Manjoume refers to Shou and Kenzan as Judai's goldfish shit. I'm sure there's a cultural aspect to this I'm not getting, but I'm too happy to care about that sort of thing. So yeah, now Manjoume's back in his custom dorm room built just for him, and decides he'll be taking a bath. Dare I hope for hijinks? I shall dare for hijinks!
And hijinks have been achieved! He opens the door, only for a girl to scream and throw a bucket at his head. And the girl is Rei...I've no idea what she's doing here, considering that she lost the duel that would have let her into Osiris Red...oh, right, I do actually know; it's the same reason Rei showed up at the end of Season two, she is by far the most popular of the bit one-shot characters in all of GX, and so in response to fan demand, they've made her into a main character. However, considering this show's track record with Asuka, I wouldn't hold my breath for Rei to do anything at all. And now Manjoume's dressed again, and of course Judai doesn't wonder why Manjoume's back in Osiris Red, and then Rei comes out, and she's so happy to be seeing Judai. Judai is less then pleased, making me hope that there will be many many scenes of Rei inadvertently making Judai miserable, which will lead to inevitable disappointment. Kenzan and Manjoume demand to know why Rei is here, and apparently being Runner-up in Genex was good enough to get into Osiris Red right away, skipping Junior High...and now it really bugs me, because had a Genex medal, but he never lost, so how exactly did Rei become the runner-up? Wait, why am I trying to apply logic? On this show? Against the presence of a female character? The things this show does to its viewers...and apparently Manjuoume's going to have to give up his super huge suite of a room to a girl. Again.
Back at Samejima's office, apparently the "rest of the world"...I'm guessing that means the U.N. or the like, decided that the near destruction of the planet was an accident and Duel Academia will shoulder no blame, which is just typical of this show. Consequences? What are those? We're too busy having FUN and INTERESTING duels! Blah blah blah, Manjuoume and Rei yell at each other, Samejima spews some drivel about Judai's pure heart saving the whole world, and decides that even though Judai has already saved the entire world twice now, Judai could get REALLY good if they brought in the guy who raised West Duel Academia's level in no time, PROFESSOR COBRA! Seriously, you don't even need to see this guy's face to realize that he's pure evil, and that face isn't helping at all. Apparently Samejima learned nothing from the last time he helped the villain out in his scheme for no reason at all. End episode, and we get a new ending sequence, which is definitely welcome. Neither the animation nor the song are all that good, but considering that it doesn't consist almost entirely of Judai running around like a jackass, its still an improvement.
NEXT TIME! Um, apparently Shou is in Obelisk Blue now, champions from the other branches of Duel Academia will be showing up, and oh boy, Johan. Yeah, that's going to be real special. Oh, and Judai thinks that their third year will be so interesting. Like that means anything coming out of his mouth. EPISODE TITLE, JUDAI AND JOHAN OF THE GEM BEAST DECK! card of the week is winged kuriboh, which just feels kind of random.
So...what were the troublesome premonitions mentioned in the title anyway? Did the writers and think that premonitions refer to the past? Hell if I know!
Oh hey, new opening, it's about time, I was really getting sick of the last one BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...give me a second GWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...I think that was the last of it ZE HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...Okay, I'm done now. But honestly, five seconds into the opening, and Judai cries a single emo tear. I do not say this lightly, I do not like to use the word "emo", as it is grossly overused by the entitled douchebag fratboy demographic and I refuse to validate them in any way...but this here? Judai crying that single perfect tear as it streams down his cheek? That is the pinnacle of emo. I believe, based solely on this one little bit of the opening, that this season shall be fucking hilarious. Because they couldn't possibly have meant for that to have been taken seriously. They couldn't have. I mean, listen to the rest of the song; in parsing it, the overall implication is that the singer can see Judai's inner pain and wants him to let it all out, and being that this presupposes the existence of inner pain on the part of Judai, someone I can only characterize as two-dimensional if I'm being generous, and again, all I can do is laugh. Also, the opening is just people standing around, and flashbacks to random, uncoordinated points in Judai's life at Duel Academia. Speaking of the people, Rei is in the opening! Yeah, I guess she'll still be in the show, even though she lost to Manjoume. Aside from her, there's a whole bunch of new guys, and not one lady among them. Which should prove business as usual on this show. Oh yeah, and Misawa is officially gone, not even a token nod to his existence. Fuckers.
TITLE SCREEN! START OF THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR! TROUBLESOME PREMONITIONS presumably the premonition is that judai has to start applying himself as a person and stop hiding behind his imaginary friends.
So yeah, the Obelisk White dorm is being painted blue again, because apparently they couldn't take care of that over the break, and because the school is cheap, they're having the students do it. Because that makes sense. And Manjoume, who apparently hasn't taken the less then a second it would take him to switch back to his Obelisk Blue uniform, is barking orders. Asuka walks up, tells him to stop being so bossy, and asks if he'll join in on the painting. Apparently Manjoume is under the impression that winning the Genex Tournament makes him exempt from this sort of thing, Asuka reminds him that the only reason Manjoume got to win was because Judai declared their duel to be a no-count, something Judai didn't with his duel against Asuka because he's a jerk like that, and now poorly timed comedy; someone drops a bucket of paint, Manjoume shoves Asuka out of the way, and he gets soaked. And...for some reason he decides he doesn't want to be in Obelisk Blue anymore. Something about them being too obsessed with the uniform color...what is this show's problem? Why does it think that this is funny, appropriate, or even in character? Asuka, who's getting some really bad animation, lampshades how stupid and pointless this all is. Now we pan over to Principal Samejima's office, where he, Napoleon, and Chronos are recapping events. Wait, Chronos and Napoleon asked a very good question; why was Prince Prince invited to the tournament in the first place, aside from being a lazy plot device to facilitate Saiou's inane scheme? Samejima says he did it because Prince the Artist formerly known as Prince was a big celebrity, but Chronos points out that that doesn't work, Prince Prince wasn't on the list. This forces Samejima to admit that he hired the psychologically fragile royal with sole discretionary control over a laser satellite because Saiou asked him to.
And yes, Samejima, you are an epic idiot of the highest caliber who endangered the safety of countless lives for no good reason, and the fact that both Chronos and Napoleon can legitimately stand in judgment of you is horrifying. Why none of this was brought up at the time, I've no idea. Chronos and Napoleon are thus able to walk away, satisfied that they've found someone even worse then them. Again, horrifying. Back in Samejima's office, more recapping. You know, Revolutionary Girl Utena had lots of recaps, but the plot and characterization and themes and imagery and symbolism were so complex and complicated, that this was necessary. This is not the case here. Blah blah blah, the near destruction of the world is irrelevant in the face of Judai having gotten some good duels to develop his skills on, and speaking of Judai...he's on the roof, talking to all of his imaginary friends, going over all the amazing duels they've been through together. Shou and Kenzan are watching, and because Judai did not bother to fill them in on anything, they've no idea who Judai is talking. And really, from any sort of objective perspective, Judai is mentally ill; he needs medication, therapy, he needs people who will keep him on track, and what he doesn't need is more excuses to escape further and further into his self-indulgent fantasy worlds that prevent him from being able to form valid human connections. And now, because the writers need to stall for more time, a clip extending from the end of Judai's second duel with Edo to him learning of his Hippy-Space destiny. The ludicrously over the top reactions everyone has to Judai losing against Edo will never stop being hilarious, and the expectation that we would take exposition from a Hippy-Space Dolphin seriously will never stop being sad.
Brief pause for Judai to continue his "as you know, bob" storytelling, and Shou and Kenzan are still getting no reason to think that Judai's mental state has deteriorated even more than before, and now a clip of Judai's third duel with Edo. And yep, it is just as boring, trite, and uninteresting as it was before. And now according to Judai, that duel made it so that Edo could accept others. Which would be why he continued to be such a callous, selfish asshole who only cared about Saiou and his daddy issues. Wait...oh, Judai's referring to their Tag Duel together. And Neos and all the Hippy Space Animal Friends just...nod at all this. Because that's why they're there. To validate Judai. Not to introduce new thoughts, or challenge Judai, or anything like that, just to keep reinforcing his neurosis.
EYECATCH!
And straight into the end of the Judai and Edo vs. Mizuchi tag duel. That conclusion continues to be absolute contrived bullshit, and now back to the present, and Judai was so super excited when when all his imaginary friends showed up to help him save the whole universe. Neos bullshits that he couldn't have done it without Kenzan's help, because apparently the GX writers are now taking notes from LaHey and Jenkins of the Left Behind series, retconning events to what they meant to have written, as opposed to having bothered to put in the modicum of effort necessary to have written it that way in the first place. Then Judai yells to Kenzan that his imaginary friend Neos says thanks! Kenzan responds reasonably, acting like the slightest movement could cause Judai to flip out and start killing people. And yes, this is pretty much what's going on, Shou and Kenzan both admit they've no idea what the hell Judai's going on about. Now over to Manjoume, who exposits that he has no respect left for anyone in Obelisk Blue, and if Asuka or Fubuki were to have heard him, he would be in a world of hurt. And now a flashback to the end of the Manjoume vs. Judai duel. That conclusion is still contrived bullshit that only serves to inanely preserve Judai's winning streak against Manjoume, because god forbid that the hero ever lose to the Rival. Back in the present, Manjoume refers to Shou and Kenzan as Judai's goldfish shit. I'm sure there's a cultural aspect to this I'm not getting, but I'm too happy to care about that sort of thing. So yeah, now Manjoume's back in his custom dorm room built just for him, and decides he'll be taking a bath. Dare I hope for hijinks? I shall dare for hijinks!
And hijinks have been achieved! He opens the door, only for a girl to scream and throw a bucket at his head. And the girl is Rei...I've no idea what she's doing here, considering that she lost the duel that would have let her into Osiris Red...oh, right, I do actually know; it's the same reason Rei showed up at the end of Season two, she is by far the most popular of the bit one-shot characters in all of GX, and so in response to fan demand, they've made her into a main character. However, considering this show's track record with Asuka, I wouldn't hold my breath for Rei to do anything at all. And now Manjoume's dressed again, and of course Judai doesn't wonder why Manjoume's back in Osiris Red, and then Rei comes out, and she's so happy to be seeing Judai. Judai is less then pleased, making me hope that there will be many many scenes of Rei inadvertently making Judai miserable, which will lead to inevitable disappointment. Kenzan and Manjoume demand to know why Rei is here, and apparently being Runner-up in Genex was good enough to get into Osiris Red right away, skipping Junior High...and now it really bugs me, because had a Genex medal, but he never lost, so how exactly did Rei become the runner-up? Wait, why am I trying to apply logic? On this show? Against the presence of a female character? The things this show does to its viewers...and apparently Manjuoume's going to have to give up his super huge suite of a room to a girl. Again.
Back at Samejima's office, apparently the "rest of the world"...I'm guessing that means the U.N. or the like, decided that the near destruction of the planet was an accident and Duel Academia will shoulder no blame, which is just typical of this show. Consequences? What are those? We're too busy having FUN and INTERESTING duels! Blah blah blah, Manjuoume and Rei yell at each other, Samejima spews some drivel about Judai's pure heart saving the whole world, and decides that even though Judai has already saved the entire world twice now, Judai could get REALLY good if they brought in the guy who raised West Duel Academia's level in no time, PROFESSOR COBRA! Seriously, you don't even need to see this guy's face to realize that he's pure evil, and that face isn't helping at all. Apparently Samejima learned nothing from the last time he helped the villain out in his scheme for no reason at all. End episode, and we get a new ending sequence, which is definitely welcome. Neither the animation nor the song are all that good, but considering that it doesn't consist almost entirely of Judai running around like a jackass, its still an improvement.
NEXT TIME! Um, apparently Shou is in Obelisk Blue now, champions from the other branches of Duel Academia will be showing up, and oh boy, Johan. Yeah, that's going to be real special. Oh, and Judai thinks that their third year will be so interesting. Like that means anything coming out of his mouth. EPISODE TITLE, JUDAI AND JOHAN OF THE GEM BEAST DECK! card of the week is winged kuriboh, which just feels kind of random.
So...what were the troublesome premonitions mentioned in the title anyway? Did the writers and think that premonitions refer to the past? Hell if I know!
