![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2So chapter 18 begins where chapter 17 ended, with Gekko Tenma declaring that he has no monsters in his hand while staring down Ted Benias's 3100 attack power Assault Lion with an empty field to boot. There's some back-and-forth about whether Yuugi can trust Gekko or if he's throwing the match to help his brother, but Yuugi ultimately declares that the relationship between the Tenma brothers is like the one between him and his other self, so he knows that Gekko is fighting his hardest to return his brother to normal. Gekko then says that he'll end the duel this turn, and activates Armament Reincarnation from his hand to special summon all his equip spells and traps from the grave as monsters, giving him five monsters total. Ted tries to laugh them off, saying that none of them are strong enough and if he tries to put them into defense mode, he'll just activate his Stop Defense card and attack for the win. Than Gekko activates his face-down Power Connection to raise the attack power of all his monsters by 2000 points, giving him well more than enough to win in one massive attack; one can't blame our friend Ted for thinking this the perfect duel. Gekko thanks Yuugi for having believed in him, and then Bandit Keith kicks Ted in the head and declares that his debt to him has just doubled. What a swell guy that Bandit Keith. After saying that he'll take Yuugi, Gekko, and Anzu directly, the scene shifts over to Jounouchi and Honda, who run into a girl at a vending machine with a duel disc on her arm. Presuming her to be their next Duel Professor, Jounouchi challenges her, and she runs off. After catching up to her, she apologizes, saying that duelists scare her, and while she said that she wasn't good enough, the other members of the guild insisted otherwise. Honda asks if she'd be willing to hand over her key card, but she declines, saying that she made a promise that she wouldn't. Jounouchi introduces himself, and the girl identifies herself as Reiko Kitamori, bowing slightly as she asks him to go easy on her.
The inbetween-chapter picture here is of Reiko leaning against a table with a chess-board on it. Chapter 19 itself has the rather notable title, "Jounouchi...Helpless?!", and indeed while Reiko is quite awkward about things, having to take the time to read her own cards and admitting that she's only been dueling for a month, her chess-themed deck proves absolutely devastating; she forces Jounouchi's monsters to battle each other, brings out wall monsters too powerful for him to break through, and with her Battlefield Tragedy card, every time he attacks Jounouchi loses five cards from his deck. Ack! Oh yeah, and then she activates a second copy of the card, just after activating a trap that forces Jounouchi to attack her defense position Puppet Queen. Honda yells at Jounouchi under the false impression that Jounouchi is taking it easy on Reiko, while Jounouchi yells at him to shut up and glares at Reiko determinedly, causing her to shiver in fear. After another turn of staying on the defensive, Jounouchi asks Reiko if she actually has any fun while dueling, saying that a duel where you don't get your heart pumping isn't any fun. After summoning Giltia, Jounouchi tells her that if she only stays on the defensive she'll never face her opponent's soul and that that's why she's afraid of duelists. Jounouchi attacks Puppet Rook and looks cool for a moment, until he's reminded of the effect of both Battlefield Tragedies that are still on the field. Reiko admits that she's never considered playing aggressively before, and has her Puppet Queen destroy Jounouchi's Alligator Swordsman. Jounouchi responds by saying she kicks butt and now the real duel can begin. Honda points out that Jounouchi's been dueling for real the whole time, end chapter.
A picture of Puppet Queen and Puppet King side by side, and onto chapter 20. Honda continues to question whether Jounouchi can even win against Reiko. Jounouchi notes that while their priority is to rescue Anzu, he doesn't want to end this duel before showing Reiko what a real duel is like. Reiko, meanwhile, contemplates on how she could win by staying on the defensive and let Jounouchi run out of cards, she's not sure she wants to win that way. And indeed, just as Jounouchi is thinking that his only chance is for Reiko to become a fighting duelist, Reiko sacrifices Puppet Queen to summon Puppet King. Jounouchi activates fusion to combine Giltia and Gearfried into Gilti-Gearfried, who is still 100 attack points short. Reiko attacks, Jounouchi activates Extra Boost to raise his monster's attack power, Reiko activates Rope of Life to bring back Puppet King, but since Jounouchi did battle damage, he can activates Repeating Attack to pull off a One Turn Kill. Reiko notes that while she did lose, it was very exciting. Honda then points out that Jounouchi only won because he fast-talked Reiko into attacking, and if she'd stayed on the defensive Jounouchi would have easily lost.
Unfortunately, Reiko is forced to admit she doesn't have a key-card and this whole area is just a dead-end. Not more than a second after Jounouchi screams out Tenma's name, Mokuba appears from the otherwise inoperative elevator, revealing that he's been hacking his way through to reach the control room and stop Tenma's mad project. Jounouchi and Honda follow, and we shift to Seto, who is confronting Tenma directly. Tenma mutters something about Pegasus's soul being one with the sea of duel monsters data, and how Pegasus will "illuminate him" when he comes back to life. End chapter.
Chapter 21, Seto Kaiba strikes Tenma across the face with his briefcase, declaring that to be just the beginning. Then Seto notices Anzu hooked up to the Project R.A. equipment, and wonders what the hell that's all about. Tenma then explains how when Pegasus created the duel monsters cards, he put a bit of himself into each and every one of them, and so he's concentrating all that data inside of Anzu to recreate Pegasus's mind and soul. Seto dismisses all this talk of souls as mere superstitious nonsense, but Tenma knows all about Seto's duel with Isis and the other Yuugi at Battle City. Thus, by examining all the cards at once, the soul of their creator can be seen. Furthermore, he knows that this will work because he's already done it! This other person was a duelist whose soul was shattered by Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom in a penalty game, but as the deck is the sword of a duelist's soul, he was able to extract that man's soul from his deck. That man was of course, Bandit Keith. Neatly explaining how and why Bandit Keith is around for these events. Tenma further explains that every duel the souls of the cards resonate and come closer together, and once they become aware, he will have won.
We then shift over to Keith, Gekko, Yuugi, and Anzu, who are confronted by the two remaining Card Professors, Richie Merced and Depres Scott. Like the Tenma brothers, these two were also raised by Pegasus. Richie beats the ever living shit out of Bandit Keith, calling him past his prime and surmising that Keith was trying to use the others to lure out his "special somebody". Richie has a rather interesting look in his eyes as he questions why Gekko is not at his brother's side; Gekko says that Yako's twisted project will ruin Yuugi and Anzu and the Kaiba Corporation, but Richie says that Gekko shouldn't care about them, only Master Pegasus should matter to them. Depres says that the time has come to settle "the bitter legacy of Maximilian J. Pegasus", but Yuugi declares that he won't let them sacrifice his loved ones either. As Bandit Keith staggers off on his own, Richie and Depres lead Yuugi and the others to a stage reminiscent of the Duelist Kingdom finals, ending the chapter.
Chapter 22, Regular Yuugi duels Depres with his own separate deck, a toy deck full of toy monsters. Depres uses a cosmos deck, full of otherworldy monsters and a field spell card that bit by bit drains the life of all monsters on the field. As Yuugi's leveled up Silent Swordsman falls victim to the effect, we get this really cool panel of Depres that Yuugi, who stole Master Pegasus from them, will get nothing from him; no life points, no time to grow, and no chance of victory.
Chapter 23, the duel continues, Yuugi uses Toy Box to protect his Toy monsters, Toy Magician and Toy Tank. Yuugi brings out Toy Tank and sacrifices it to bring out Dark Red Enchanter, but passes up the chance to attack and goes on the defensive. Depres then summons Greed Quasar, who gains the levels of the monsters that it destroys, growing stronger and able to endure the effects of the Cosmic Space field card. Greed Quasar eats Dark Red Enchanter and achieves an attack power of 4200, well in excess of anything that Yuugi could summon. Yuugi despairs that he's ruined everything, and Depres demands that the other Yuugi come out, saying that he's bored of dueling the regular Yuugi. The other Yuugi does appear, but only to say that Yuugi does not need his help to win, so long as he has his other partner...
Chapter 24, Yuugi's confidence is restored, he sets his traps for Depres. Greed Quasar attacks directly for 3600 points of damage, and as Depres attacks with his Eva Epsilon, Yuugi brings out the Toy Magician, whose attack turns the alien monster into a bunch of Lego blocks. Then Yuugi activates his trap card Fit of Rage to raise Toy Magician's attack power by the direct damage he'd just taken, raising it from 1600 to 5200!! However, at the end of the turn, Toy Magician's attack power will drop in half, leaving it weaker than Greed Quasar. So Yuugi activates Strike Back to get an attack of his own, and so Greed Quasar is turned into Lego blocks too. And then Toy Magician attacks directly, turning Depres into Lego blocks...it's kind of a really freaky looking scene, like something out of the first seven volumes. Still awesome though. Then Yakou challenges Seto to a duel, presenting his evil god The Wicked Avatar.
Then we get a special little side story with a cute duel, but it really only exists to advertise a bunch of cards. Not that the whole manga isn't already a vehicle for advertising cards, but this chapter moreso than others.
So yeah, this volume was really good stuff; a lot of fun character moments, the duels were really creative and unique, and regular Yuugi got to really kick ass! Plus we find out more and more of just what is going on, and we get a better understanding and appreciation for how dueling works in the world of Yugioh, on metaphysical level at least. Yeah, I'm definitely really enjoying this, unlike a certain other member of the franchise that I've finally wised up to and stopped watching all together. I'll read the summaries on the Yugioh wikia, but that's it.
Really though, April can't come fast enough for me.
The inbetween-chapter picture here is of Reiko leaning against a table with a chess-board on it. Chapter 19 itself has the rather notable title, "Jounouchi...Helpless?!", and indeed while Reiko is quite awkward about things, having to take the time to read her own cards and admitting that she's only been dueling for a month, her chess-themed deck proves absolutely devastating; she forces Jounouchi's monsters to battle each other, brings out wall monsters too powerful for him to break through, and with her Battlefield Tragedy card, every time he attacks Jounouchi loses five cards from his deck. Ack! Oh yeah, and then she activates a second copy of the card, just after activating a trap that forces Jounouchi to attack her defense position Puppet Queen. Honda yells at Jounouchi under the false impression that Jounouchi is taking it easy on Reiko, while Jounouchi yells at him to shut up and glares at Reiko determinedly, causing her to shiver in fear. After another turn of staying on the defensive, Jounouchi asks Reiko if she actually has any fun while dueling, saying that a duel where you don't get your heart pumping isn't any fun. After summoning Giltia, Jounouchi tells her that if she only stays on the defensive she'll never face her opponent's soul and that that's why she's afraid of duelists. Jounouchi attacks Puppet Rook and looks cool for a moment, until he's reminded of the effect of both Battlefield Tragedies that are still on the field. Reiko admits that she's never considered playing aggressively before, and has her Puppet Queen destroy Jounouchi's Alligator Swordsman. Jounouchi responds by saying she kicks butt and now the real duel can begin. Honda points out that Jounouchi's been dueling for real the whole time, end chapter.
A picture of Puppet Queen and Puppet King side by side, and onto chapter 20. Honda continues to question whether Jounouchi can even win against Reiko. Jounouchi notes that while their priority is to rescue Anzu, he doesn't want to end this duel before showing Reiko what a real duel is like. Reiko, meanwhile, contemplates on how she could win by staying on the defensive and let Jounouchi run out of cards, she's not sure she wants to win that way. And indeed, just as Jounouchi is thinking that his only chance is for Reiko to become a fighting duelist, Reiko sacrifices Puppet Queen to summon Puppet King. Jounouchi activates fusion to combine Giltia and Gearfried into Gilti-Gearfried, who is still 100 attack points short. Reiko attacks, Jounouchi activates Extra Boost to raise his monster's attack power, Reiko activates Rope of Life to bring back Puppet King, but since Jounouchi did battle damage, he can activates Repeating Attack to pull off a One Turn Kill. Reiko notes that while she did lose, it was very exciting. Honda then points out that Jounouchi only won because he fast-talked Reiko into attacking, and if she'd stayed on the defensive Jounouchi would have easily lost.
Unfortunately, Reiko is forced to admit she doesn't have a key-card and this whole area is just a dead-end. Not more than a second after Jounouchi screams out Tenma's name, Mokuba appears from the otherwise inoperative elevator, revealing that he's been hacking his way through to reach the control room and stop Tenma's mad project. Jounouchi and Honda follow, and we shift to Seto, who is confronting Tenma directly. Tenma mutters something about Pegasus's soul being one with the sea of duel monsters data, and how Pegasus will "illuminate him" when he comes back to life. End chapter.
Chapter 21, Seto Kaiba strikes Tenma across the face with his briefcase, declaring that to be just the beginning. Then Seto notices Anzu hooked up to the Project R.A. equipment, and wonders what the hell that's all about. Tenma then explains how when Pegasus created the duel monsters cards, he put a bit of himself into each and every one of them, and so he's concentrating all that data inside of Anzu to recreate Pegasus's mind and soul. Seto dismisses all this talk of souls as mere superstitious nonsense, but Tenma knows all about Seto's duel with Isis and the other Yuugi at Battle City. Thus, by examining all the cards at once, the soul of their creator can be seen. Furthermore, he knows that this will work because he's already done it! This other person was a duelist whose soul was shattered by Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom in a penalty game, but as the deck is the sword of a duelist's soul, he was able to extract that man's soul from his deck. That man was of course, Bandit Keith. Neatly explaining how and why Bandit Keith is around for these events. Tenma further explains that every duel the souls of the cards resonate and come closer together, and once they become aware, he will have won.
We then shift over to Keith, Gekko, Yuugi, and Anzu, who are confronted by the two remaining Card Professors, Richie Merced and Depres Scott. Like the Tenma brothers, these two were also raised by Pegasus. Richie beats the ever living shit out of Bandit Keith, calling him past his prime and surmising that Keith was trying to use the others to lure out his "special somebody". Richie has a rather interesting look in his eyes as he questions why Gekko is not at his brother's side; Gekko says that Yako's twisted project will ruin Yuugi and Anzu and the Kaiba Corporation, but Richie says that Gekko shouldn't care about them, only Master Pegasus should matter to them. Depres says that the time has come to settle "the bitter legacy of Maximilian J. Pegasus", but Yuugi declares that he won't let them sacrifice his loved ones either. As Bandit Keith staggers off on his own, Richie and Depres lead Yuugi and the others to a stage reminiscent of the Duelist Kingdom finals, ending the chapter.
Chapter 22, Regular Yuugi duels Depres with his own separate deck, a toy deck full of toy monsters. Depres uses a cosmos deck, full of otherworldy monsters and a field spell card that bit by bit drains the life of all monsters on the field. As Yuugi's leveled up Silent Swordsman falls victim to the effect, we get this really cool panel of Depres that Yuugi, who stole Master Pegasus from them, will get nothing from him; no life points, no time to grow, and no chance of victory.
Chapter 23, the duel continues, Yuugi uses Toy Box to protect his Toy monsters, Toy Magician and Toy Tank. Yuugi brings out Toy Tank and sacrifices it to bring out Dark Red Enchanter, but passes up the chance to attack and goes on the defensive. Depres then summons Greed Quasar, who gains the levels of the monsters that it destroys, growing stronger and able to endure the effects of the Cosmic Space field card. Greed Quasar eats Dark Red Enchanter and achieves an attack power of 4200, well in excess of anything that Yuugi could summon. Yuugi despairs that he's ruined everything, and Depres demands that the other Yuugi come out, saying that he's bored of dueling the regular Yuugi. The other Yuugi does appear, but only to say that Yuugi does not need his help to win, so long as he has his other partner...
Chapter 24, Yuugi's confidence is restored, he sets his traps for Depres. Greed Quasar attacks directly for 3600 points of damage, and as Depres attacks with his Eva Epsilon, Yuugi brings out the Toy Magician, whose attack turns the alien monster into a bunch of Lego blocks. Then Yuugi activates his trap card Fit of Rage to raise Toy Magician's attack power by the direct damage he'd just taken, raising it from 1600 to 5200!! However, at the end of the turn, Toy Magician's attack power will drop in half, leaving it weaker than Greed Quasar. So Yuugi activates Strike Back to get an attack of his own, and so Greed Quasar is turned into Lego blocks too. And then Toy Magician attacks directly, turning Depres into Lego blocks...it's kind of a really freaky looking scene, like something out of the first seven volumes. Still awesome though. Then Yakou challenges Seto to a duel, presenting his evil god The Wicked Avatar.
Then we get a special little side story with a cute duel, but it really only exists to advertise a bunch of cards. Not that the whole manga isn't already a vehicle for advertising cards, but this chapter moreso than others.
So yeah, this volume was really good stuff; a lot of fun character moments, the duels were really creative and unique, and regular Yuugi got to really kick ass! Plus we find out more and more of just what is going on, and we get a better understanding and appreciation for how dueling works in the world of Yugioh, on metaphysical level at least. Yeah, I'm definitely really enjoying this, unlike a certain other member of the franchise that I've finally wised up to and stopped watching all together. I'll read the summaries on the Yugioh wikia, but that's it.
Really though, April can't come fast enough for me.
