Yu-Gi-Oh R! In my hands! Yay!
Oct. 12th, 2009 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2To sum it up simply, Yugioh R is a side story authored by one of Kazuki Takahashi's assistants, Akira Ito, and it takes place after Battle City but before the Memory World arc. So basically, right when DOMA would have taken place if it had happened. Which it did not. Because it does not exist. But, does Yugioh R have anything going for it other than not being DOMA? That, is the 12 million yen question, so let's see what sort of answer volume one has to offer us.
Well, let's see...I'll start off by commenting on the cover; It is not very good. If I were more bold and knowledgeable about art direction, I'd say it was bad. First of all, the use of space isn't very good, and the action is pretty aimless, what with Yami holding up the Sky Dragon of Osiris Card while his face has no expression, and inside of what is supposed to be an interior border is a man with a red coat, a pink shirt, and pale blue hair that makes me think of a cross between Jounouchi and Pegasus. Me are good visual describer! But as they say, let us not judge a book by its cover, even if it technically is a comic book.
Chapter One opens with a very quick recap of Yugi and Yami destroying The Sun Dragon of Ra, which is revealed to be video that a mysterious figure is watching. He then looks down at a card of Pegasus, and swears to his master that he will have his revenge against Yuugi, who took everything from him. Next scene, and we see the Kaiba Corp mainframe being taken over by that same man in the name of the Asia Division of Industrial Illusions. Thus, in one fell swoop the mysterious man has taken over the Solid Vision system that Pegasus sought back in Duelist Kingdom. New scene, over at Domino High, and just as Yuugi and his friends are about to leave a solid vision projection of the man appears through Yuugi's desk and introduces himself as Yakou Tenma of Industrial Illusions. Jounouchi is then briefly turned into a moron to facilitate a recap of what Industrial Illusions is and the fact that no one really knows what happened to Pegasus afterwards. Sigh. Anyway, Yakou challenges Yuugi and then passes through the ceiling. Yuugi and the others follow to the roof, and Yami appears to accept the challenge. Yakou thinks to himself that Yuugi will face divine punishment by a god that even pegasus hesitated to create, The Wicked Avatar. Much of the duel is skipped, going straight to Yuugi summoning The Sky Dragon of Osiris (No way in hell am I calling it Slifer), and then Yakou summons The Wicked Avatar, which first appears as a dark sphere, like the one Ra appears as when it is first summoned to the field. Then it changes into a shadow version of Osiris, which is pretty shocking for Yami. Thus ends chapter one.
Chapter two picks up on the duel in progress, which shows Yakou, who's actual body is seated in some manner of device presumably meant to allow him to project his image. He reflects on how in holding the Wicked God he felt an evil presence mixing with his desire for revenge, blurring the line between him and the Wicked Avatar, and he heard a message from the darkness to destroy the King. We now cut back to the duel, and the Wicked Avatar demonstrates immunity to Osiris's anti-summon effect, which Yakou explains is the product of it sharing the same ranking as Ra, putting it above Osiris. He then has The Wicked Avatar attack Osiris, winning the duel. Yakou then explains to everyone about how while Pegasus designed it, he was the one who went ahead and created it. Yakou then has a flashback to the day before Duelist Kingdom where he meets with Pegasus, where he confirms that Pegasus was going to take over Kaiba Corp for the sake of his beloved Cyndia. Then we cut to after Yami Bakura killed Pegasus, leaving behind a bloody Cyndia card. When Croquet tells Yakou about Yuugi, Yakou loses it and swears his revenge. Returning back to the present, we see Anzu disappear, revealing she was captured and replaced by a solid vision image at some point that day. Yakou declares that Anzu is his and will be sacrificed for Project R.A., and that if Yuugi and the others want to rescue her then they will have to reach the head office of Kaiba Corp, and it would be best if Yuugi defeated every minion along the way so that he could become the Evil Avatar that punishes him, and disappears himself. We get a shot of Anzu inside a capsule similar to the one Yakou was in, and Yuugi and the others arrive at the front steps of Kaiba Corp as chapter 2 closes.
Chapter three, Yami duels against Deschutes Lew, one of the thirteen card professors hired out as mercenaries to defeat Yuugi, with the ante being the card key to get into Kaiba Corp and Anzu's soul card, like with Mokuba and Seto in Duelist Kingdom. Deschutes makes a crack about how Anzu's too cute for shrimp like Yuugi/Yami, Yami beats him, end of chapter. I mean, while from a gameplay perspective the duel is interesting, it's just not particularly important in and of itself, so I'll be skipping that here. Deschutes has a scraggly beard and baggy clothes, and his deck specilizes in turning Yami's monsters against him, but no one can turn Dark Magician against Yami.
Chapter four, Yakou speaks with a shadowy figure just as he's about to touch The Wicked Avatar, they discuss Yuugi's victory, and the shadowy figure asks him just why it is he's going through all this trouble. Yakou wavers for a bit, but firmly comes down that his nature as a duelist tells him that these fights are needed for Project R.A.s success, and the shadowy figure is revealed to be Bandit Keith. We get a scene of Deschutes explaining the security layout, how each Card Professor holds the card key to advance, and departs on amicable terms. Upon entering the group encounters a lady named Tilla Mook, who uses the solid vision system to make the area look like a graveyard. She explains that defeating Yuugi is worth $100,000, while Jounouchi is only rated at ten bucks. She and Yuugi duel, she uses a vampire deck, with her big boss vampire sucking on her blood to come back after being destroyed, and is defeated when Yami turns her strategy against her, attacking directly with Buster Blader. Tilla wears one of those old fashioned dresses like you'd see in gothic fiction, and a corset on the outside.
Chapter five, we get a flashback to the circle of friendship that Anzu drew back at Death-T, Jounouchi falls down a rather obvious pit-trap and Honda follows after him, and ends up dueling Klamath, a card professor who got stuck guarding the basement. Klamath is a short guy whose design strongly resembles a cat, with whisker marks on his face and tufts of hair sticking out at an angle like cat ears. He brags a lot about being really lucky, but Jounouchi's gamble deck is one step ahead of him.
Chapter six, Kirk Dixon reveals himself to Yami, declaring that he was the one who set up the trap to divide Yami from his friends, noting that Yami is inexplicably tougher when his friends are around. Kirk declares Jounouchi and Honda as trash, and Yami defeats his Machiner Soldiers with Dark Magician Girl. Kirk loses, trips one of his own traps, and is dumped down the trash himself. Yuugi then appears to reassure Yami that Jounouchi and Honda will be fine and defeat whoever they have to face. As for Kirk's design, he is dressed like a soldier and wears glasses.
Also, while there have been little art snippets of the various characters in between chapters, this is the first one that amuses me; Klamath and Kirk playing with RC versions of their monsters, with Klamath about to cry as his monster is getting beaten up by Kirk's.
Chapter seven, Jounouchi and Honda make it into a room of jars, which Honda realizes is where Kaiba Corp tests its holo projectors. Pete Coppermine reveals himself after scarring the crap out of Jounouchi, and he's a pretty creepy looking guy, with long scraggly hair, excessive eyeliner to make his eyes look sunken in and deep, and of course a lot of black leather. He makes a crack about how the solid vision system was so advanced that they didn't even realize that Anzu had been replaced, explains that Jounouchi's reward was raised to $100 bucks, and if he can defeat Jounouchi he can go on to face Yuugi. Jounouchi uses a combo to steal one of Pete's cards and then attack twice for the win. It's actually a pretty interesting duel, since Pete reveals what Jounouchi's strategy is early on, so both duelists are maneuvering on an open field so to speak. Then, we get a picture of Pete bending a spoon ala Uri Geller.
Chapter eight, Yuugi encounters an old lady in a wheel chair, a grandmother who regularly plays Duel Monsters with her grandchildren, who notes the difficulty of making sure not to outpace them and meke them cry, to which Yuugi declares "I can imagine". She then reveals herself as Mrs. Maico Kato, the card professor for that block, who plans to use the money to buy toys for her grandchildren. It's a pretty clever duel, with Yami countering a counter to let his Archfiend of Gilfer destroy Maico's field spell card and win. Mrs. Maico Kato then gives Yami the next card key and tells him that her grandchildren will love hearing the story. Yami then sees Yakou standing on the upper level, watching them. We then see a picture of Mrs. Maico with her grandchildren, all of them having a good time.
Chapter Nine, Yakou tells Yami that he now has a new, more perfect deck to summon his evil gods, and then says that if Yami can win, he will be able to see Anzu again. Yami accepts the challenge, Croquet leads the two of them to a mini-theater, and they duel. Yakou mostly makes use of his Seraphim angel cards while Yuugi brings out Valkyrion, but things take a turn for the worse when Yakou summons The Wicked Dreadroot, Obelisk's counterpart, whose effect reduces all monster's attacks and defenses by half. As fear takes root on the field, the chapter ends.
So, what are my overall thoughts on Yugioh R thus far? It's a fun trip to be sure, and certainly far better then a certain arc that never existed...but all the same, I do not approve of turning Anzu into a damsel-in-distress so quickly. Hopefully after this duel with Yakou, this situation will have some turnabout. Still, I'm going to be optimistic and look on hte bright side of life.
P.S. Also, Akira Ito seems to have issues with eyes; very often one eye will be a very different shape from another, and only rarely for thematic reasons.
Well, let's see...I'll start off by commenting on the cover; It is not very good. If I were more bold and knowledgeable about art direction, I'd say it was bad. First of all, the use of space isn't very good, and the action is pretty aimless, what with Yami holding up the Sky Dragon of Osiris Card while his face has no expression, and inside of what is supposed to be an interior border is a man with a red coat, a pink shirt, and pale blue hair that makes me think of a cross between Jounouchi and Pegasus. Me are good visual describer! But as they say, let us not judge a book by its cover, even if it technically is a comic book.
Chapter One opens with a very quick recap of Yugi and Yami destroying The Sun Dragon of Ra, which is revealed to be video that a mysterious figure is watching. He then looks down at a card of Pegasus, and swears to his master that he will have his revenge against Yuugi, who took everything from him. Next scene, and we see the Kaiba Corp mainframe being taken over by that same man in the name of the Asia Division of Industrial Illusions. Thus, in one fell swoop the mysterious man has taken over the Solid Vision system that Pegasus sought back in Duelist Kingdom. New scene, over at Domino High, and just as Yuugi and his friends are about to leave a solid vision projection of the man appears through Yuugi's desk and introduces himself as Yakou Tenma of Industrial Illusions. Jounouchi is then briefly turned into a moron to facilitate a recap of what Industrial Illusions is and the fact that no one really knows what happened to Pegasus afterwards. Sigh. Anyway, Yakou challenges Yuugi and then passes through the ceiling. Yuugi and the others follow to the roof, and Yami appears to accept the challenge. Yakou thinks to himself that Yuugi will face divine punishment by a god that even pegasus hesitated to create, The Wicked Avatar. Much of the duel is skipped, going straight to Yuugi summoning The Sky Dragon of Osiris (No way in hell am I calling it Slifer), and then Yakou summons The Wicked Avatar, which first appears as a dark sphere, like the one Ra appears as when it is first summoned to the field. Then it changes into a shadow version of Osiris, which is pretty shocking for Yami. Thus ends chapter one.
Chapter two picks up on the duel in progress, which shows Yakou, who's actual body is seated in some manner of device presumably meant to allow him to project his image. He reflects on how in holding the Wicked God he felt an evil presence mixing with his desire for revenge, blurring the line between him and the Wicked Avatar, and he heard a message from the darkness to destroy the King. We now cut back to the duel, and the Wicked Avatar demonstrates immunity to Osiris's anti-summon effect, which Yakou explains is the product of it sharing the same ranking as Ra, putting it above Osiris. He then has The Wicked Avatar attack Osiris, winning the duel. Yakou then explains to everyone about how while Pegasus designed it, he was the one who went ahead and created it. Yakou then has a flashback to the day before Duelist Kingdom where he meets with Pegasus, where he confirms that Pegasus was going to take over Kaiba Corp for the sake of his beloved Cyndia. Then we cut to after Yami Bakura killed Pegasus, leaving behind a bloody Cyndia card. When Croquet tells Yakou about Yuugi, Yakou loses it and swears his revenge. Returning back to the present, we see Anzu disappear, revealing she was captured and replaced by a solid vision image at some point that day. Yakou declares that Anzu is his and will be sacrificed for Project R.A., and that if Yuugi and the others want to rescue her then they will have to reach the head office of Kaiba Corp, and it would be best if Yuugi defeated every minion along the way so that he could become the Evil Avatar that punishes him, and disappears himself. We get a shot of Anzu inside a capsule similar to the one Yakou was in, and Yuugi and the others arrive at the front steps of Kaiba Corp as chapter 2 closes.
Chapter three, Yami duels against Deschutes Lew, one of the thirteen card professors hired out as mercenaries to defeat Yuugi, with the ante being the card key to get into Kaiba Corp and Anzu's soul card, like with Mokuba and Seto in Duelist Kingdom. Deschutes makes a crack about how Anzu's too cute for shrimp like Yuugi/Yami, Yami beats him, end of chapter. I mean, while from a gameplay perspective the duel is interesting, it's just not particularly important in and of itself, so I'll be skipping that here. Deschutes has a scraggly beard and baggy clothes, and his deck specilizes in turning Yami's monsters against him, but no one can turn Dark Magician against Yami.
Chapter four, Yakou speaks with a shadowy figure just as he's about to touch The Wicked Avatar, they discuss Yuugi's victory, and the shadowy figure asks him just why it is he's going through all this trouble. Yakou wavers for a bit, but firmly comes down that his nature as a duelist tells him that these fights are needed for Project R.A.s success, and the shadowy figure is revealed to be Bandit Keith. We get a scene of Deschutes explaining the security layout, how each Card Professor holds the card key to advance, and departs on amicable terms. Upon entering the group encounters a lady named Tilla Mook, who uses the solid vision system to make the area look like a graveyard. She explains that defeating Yuugi is worth $100,000, while Jounouchi is only rated at ten bucks. She and Yuugi duel, she uses a vampire deck, with her big boss vampire sucking on her blood to come back after being destroyed, and is defeated when Yami turns her strategy against her, attacking directly with Buster Blader. Tilla wears one of those old fashioned dresses like you'd see in gothic fiction, and a corset on the outside.
Chapter five, we get a flashback to the circle of friendship that Anzu drew back at Death-T, Jounouchi falls down a rather obvious pit-trap and Honda follows after him, and ends up dueling Klamath, a card professor who got stuck guarding the basement. Klamath is a short guy whose design strongly resembles a cat, with whisker marks on his face and tufts of hair sticking out at an angle like cat ears. He brags a lot about being really lucky, but Jounouchi's gamble deck is one step ahead of him.
Chapter six, Kirk Dixon reveals himself to Yami, declaring that he was the one who set up the trap to divide Yami from his friends, noting that Yami is inexplicably tougher when his friends are around. Kirk declares Jounouchi and Honda as trash, and Yami defeats his Machiner Soldiers with Dark Magician Girl. Kirk loses, trips one of his own traps, and is dumped down the trash himself. Yuugi then appears to reassure Yami that Jounouchi and Honda will be fine and defeat whoever they have to face. As for Kirk's design, he is dressed like a soldier and wears glasses.
Also, while there have been little art snippets of the various characters in between chapters, this is the first one that amuses me; Klamath and Kirk playing with RC versions of their monsters, with Klamath about to cry as his monster is getting beaten up by Kirk's.
Chapter seven, Jounouchi and Honda make it into a room of jars, which Honda realizes is where Kaiba Corp tests its holo projectors. Pete Coppermine reveals himself after scarring the crap out of Jounouchi, and he's a pretty creepy looking guy, with long scraggly hair, excessive eyeliner to make his eyes look sunken in and deep, and of course a lot of black leather. He makes a crack about how the solid vision system was so advanced that they didn't even realize that Anzu had been replaced, explains that Jounouchi's reward was raised to $100 bucks, and if he can defeat Jounouchi he can go on to face Yuugi. Jounouchi uses a combo to steal one of Pete's cards and then attack twice for the win. It's actually a pretty interesting duel, since Pete reveals what Jounouchi's strategy is early on, so both duelists are maneuvering on an open field so to speak. Then, we get a picture of Pete bending a spoon ala Uri Geller.
Chapter eight, Yuugi encounters an old lady in a wheel chair, a grandmother who regularly plays Duel Monsters with her grandchildren, who notes the difficulty of making sure not to outpace them and meke them cry, to which Yuugi declares "I can imagine". She then reveals herself as Mrs. Maico Kato, the card professor for that block, who plans to use the money to buy toys for her grandchildren. It's a pretty clever duel, with Yami countering a counter to let his Archfiend of Gilfer destroy Maico's field spell card and win. Mrs. Maico Kato then gives Yami the next card key and tells him that her grandchildren will love hearing the story. Yami then sees Yakou standing on the upper level, watching them. We then see a picture of Mrs. Maico with her grandchildren, all of them having a good time.
Chapter Nine, Yakou tells Yami that he now has a new, more perfect deck to summon his evil gods, and then says that if Yami can win, he will be able to see Anzu again. Yami accepts the challenge, Croquet leads the two of them to a mini-theater, and they duel. Yakou mostly makes use of his Seraphim angel cards while Yuugi brings out Valkyrion, but things take a turn for the worse when Yakou summons The Wicked Dreadroot, Obelisk's counterpart, whose effect reduces all monster's attacks and defenses by half. As fear takes root on the field, the chapter ends.
So, what are my overall thoughts on Yugioh R thus far? It's a fun trip to be sure, and certainly far better then a certain arc that never existed...but all the same, I do not approve of turning Anzu into a damsel-in-distress so quickly. Hopefully after this duel with Yakou, this situation will have some turnabout. Still, I'm going to be optimistic and look on hte bright side of life.
P.S. Also, Akira Ito seems to have issues with eyes; very often one eye will be a very different shape from another, and only rarely for thematic reasons.
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DD5150 from an rp journal
Date: 2009-10-15 01:59 pm (UTC)DiD!Anzu...y-yeah. 9,9 Definitely got a lot of "oh, /that/ convention again, geez" (a kidnapping, taking over KC, villain out for revenge for what Yami did to So-And-So [never mind what So-And-So was up to to begin with], new monster[s] as/more powerful than the God Cards, etc) but . . . yeah, like you said, a fun trip. And seeing the original crew back in action YAYY (admittedly sans Anzu, whom it's probably a good thing they're keeping unconscious cuz otherwise she'd find a way to escape and kick their asses herself).
Re: DD5150 from an rp journal
Date: 2009-10-15 04:06 pm (UTC)I find myself wanting to write two fics now; one would be the circumstances of just how she was kidnapped, and the other being her...well, breaking out on her own. What do you think?
Re: DD5150 from an rp journal
Date: 2009-10-15 05:23 pm (UTC)LOL - considering I was idly toying with the exact same ideas, I'd say GO FOR IT! XD
Re: DD5150 from an rp journal
Date: 2009-10-15 05:34 pm (UTC)Re: DD5150 from an rp journal
Date: 2009-10-15 07:00 pm (UTC)And I LIKE that icon, btw! ~<3
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 07:12 pm (UTC)The whole damsel-in-distress is what made me scared of it in the first place. Even though half the characters in the show get to be damsels in some point, doing that to Anzu gets to me more, probably because it just shoves those times when she did it on purpose all in my face. :| From what I've seen in spoilers, that doesn't get any better.
And be warned, there is going to be a scene so eerily similar to one from a season that never existed... xD
If there's only about five volumes, I think I just might put my money in this!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 10:59 pm (UTC)From the spoilers I've seen, Yugi and Yami are supposed to get a card that lets them talk to Anzu, so that's a little better I suppose.
Plus, it has dueling grandma who's going to use the money to buy toys for her grandkids, so it's not all bad in the end.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:32 am (UTC)I've pretty much spoiled myself for that scene. xD But you have a point! When do you think the next issue will come out?
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 12:35 am (UTC)I think volume two is supposed to come out in December or January.
Incidentally, I think this post will be relevant to your interests.
http://cypsiman2.livejournal.com/31350.html