The shocking sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist and prequel to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Millennium World! When the follower of an old enemy returns to take revenge, Yugi Mutou must duel to save a friend's life. But can he overcome the power of the three "Jashin," the terrifying Evil God Cards?
Yugi and his friends battle their way through an army of enemies at KaibaCorp headquarters! Jonouchi faces Reiko, a chess-themed duelist, while Yugi fights Depres in the cosmic duel field of outer space. Can Yugi's earthly cards defeat Depres's deck of alien monsters? Plus a bonus story about Yugi and his grandpa!
Takahashi (高橋和希) started as a mangaka in 1982. His first work was Tokiō no Tsuma (闘輝王の鷹), published in 1990. One of his earliest works was Tennenshokudanji Buray (天然色男児BURAY), which lasted for two volumes and was published from 1991 to 1992. Takahashi did not find success until 1996 when he created Yu-Gi-Oh!
There's a lot of art that doesn't line up and gets extremely lazy. Even on the cover, Yami Yugi has the wrong skin and eye colors. Seto Kaiba's eyes are also drawn wrong - one of the easiest things to do in the world.
A lot of the characters catch phrases and overall words used in the series are entirely wrong. Seriously, the only reason I'm still reading it at this point is because it's 5 volumes total.
First of all, love the slight alterations to Pharaoh's character design on the cover; the green eyes really pop and his skin looks tan, which is more accurate than the anime on that point. Moving on, I did enjoy the story also. I'm a pretty big YGO fangirl, seeing as it was my first introduction to manga and anime; therefore, my opinion is most undoubtedly tainted bias. In any case, it was great to read about what happens after Battle City, but before the Dawn of the Duel arc. Yako and Gekko are interesting characters; they almost remind me of the Ishtar family. I totally appreciated that, despite the fact it isn't Takahashi-sensei creating it, Akira Ito had a hand in the original and therefore knows what he's doing and respects the essence of the characters while adding new layers. I personally had a great time reading the bonus story in the back; short but sweet, reminiscent of Takahashi-sensei's one-shot subplots. A wonderful manga to spend a little time with on a slow day.
You can definitely tell that volume 3 exists purely to get us to volume 4, but that doesn't mean it was completely lacking in charm and/or shenanigans.
In this volume, we get a few more neat deck themes and strategies and add just a little bit more to the lore of this 'season.'
Yugi actually gets to duel this time around against our #3 bad guy, Depres, who came to not only throw cards, but also serve looks, involving a button up shirt with that quinessentially 'Yu-Gi-Oh!-esque' popped collar and with a cutout just for his lower stomach. A true fashion icon.
In this duel we learn that apparently it's pretty obvious when Yugi magical-girl transforms into the Pharaoh, because Depres comments on it right away, though it's unclear if it's obvious because he literally grows or shrinks, or just because of the general vibe. Who knows, who cares; we're here for the duels!
Meanwhile, in the basement, Joey and Tristan bump into yet another 'card professor' who is soundly trouncing Joey with her pure defense strategy when he gets the brillient idea mid-duel to encourage her to abandon that successful strategy so she can experience how exciting it is to play offense, saying: "That's more like it, Reiko! I can feel your duelist vibes from across the room. As a man, I gotta respond to those feelings!" Instead of going 'yuck, barf,' she's like 'yeah, ok!' and then he immidiately defeats her. Even Tristan is like: "Didn't you just fast-talk her into attacking? Isn't that playing kinda dirty?"
Anyway, Reiko tells them that the whole duel was just a distraction and that she doesn't even have the key to get them back upstairs, so now they're locked in the basement. Or are they? Mokuba to the rescue! Why did Mokuba not stick with Kaiba? Who knows, who cares-- he's going to get our heroes out of the basement!
We slide over to Kaiba and Tenma in the Duel Ring Server tower. Kaiba has just done a dramatic kicking down of the door and is clearly not in the mood for Tenma's 'hocus pocus' because the second Tenma turns around, Kaiba clocks him over the head with his briefcase.
But even Kaiba isn't immune to a good, unhinged monologue, because he allows Tenma to go on at length about how Daddy Pegasus literally put a small piece of his soul into each of the cards he designed and that by merging all of that data in Kaiba's server, he can resurrect Pegasus into Tea's body. We kind of got this in volume 2, but Kaiba seems happy enough to use the refresher as an excuse to unload onto Tenma just how much he disbelieves in 'mystic mumbo jumbo.'
"Your data is a collection of zeros and ones on electric circuits! It doesn't have a soul! There's no such thing as souls!"
Tenma gives a little shrug and is like 'agree to disagree?' and Kaiba's like 'whatever, let's just duel; I'm over this entire plot line...'
Finally, we get a little bonus chapter/episode with significantly lower stakes about a little duel mafia in the next town over who go around to game stores and force the owners to pay 'protection' fees, usually resulting in the shop closing down. This leaves only Yugi's grandpa's gameshop left for them to conquer, which...they do not do. So now Yugi's grandpa's shop has a seeming monopoly on all things Duel Monsters in the area, so I guess that's nice for them.
"R" volume three is the haflway point to the series. We get more backstory to Yako and Gakko which is appreciated. The duels last a bit longer than previous volumes allowing for more expansion of their archetypes and strategy. Bandit Keith's inclusion in this series is a strongpoint amidst a series of middling (at best) executions. The art continues to be alright with a few panels that shine; but that's it. If you're this far through "R" and still liking it to whatever degree; I would suggest continuing on.
Still not that great but it still really cool to see Yugi duel instead of Yami before his actual first duel in the Millennium World arc. And while the two decks are not really that similar aside from the use of cards like the Silent stuff. But they do still keep the toy motiff that Yugi would use in his future duels which is nice. Also it is kind of cool to see those random cards that I have seen in the physical game and seeing them being used.
La historia es mega dinámica, con duelos y decks que nunca había visto. Y eso está genial.
Solo que en verdad, Kaiba, Keith y Jonouchi como me cagan. No me interesa nada que tenga que ver con ellos hahah y la historia del morro que quiere a Pegasus de vuelta... mmmm no convence.
Obviamente es un gancho o la necesidad de la trama, y se entiende. Pero tampoco es algo épico. Lo muy pero muy rescatable o mencionable es todos los duelos y decks que conoces aquí, éso está genial.
This is a stronger volume than the previous; it feels a lot more focused and, in spite of even less technically happening, that focus gives the book a bit more backbone.
The bonus story at the back is almost absurd levels of melodramatic and cheesy, but it manages to work in its own favour.
A good volume - with several Yugi duels including one to save grandpas card shop. Good continuation of the series and interesting card combinations used in he duels.
Un segundo. Si Yugi ya tenía la baraja de miniaturas ¿por qué durante el duelo ceremonial Yami dice que esas cartas eran nuevas para él? ¿y qué sentido tenía que Yugi tuviera su propio deck si el que usaba Yami lo crearon juntos? Pero, bueno, al menos Yugi tuvo algo más de participación en este tomo y, si bien eso no compensa los duelos calcados de siempre, es al menos un avance. Supongo.
Sin embargo, lo que más odié fueron sus personalidades y sí, entiendo que se haya hecho mucho después, pero esto no tiene sentido. Primero tenemos a un Yugi lleno de dudas y miedos que ni siquiera parece conseguir valor apoyándose en sus amigos ni luchando por ellos, después tenemos a un Yami demasiado preocupado por Anzu como para recordar que Yugi existe, y al final tenemos a un Jonouchi agresivo. WTF.
Again...nothing too significant in this volume either. Kaiba returns from America to take back Kaiba Corp from Yako. Only to have to hear him monologue about his plans, which have already been revealed two volumes ago. Yugi duels some more underwhelming Card Professors and Yako's twin fights alongside him. Jonouchi and Honda reach a deadend and trick Mokuba into allowing them to tag along as he hacks into the system to access the elevators. Oh yes...and by some unexplained miracle Bandit Kieth shows up and is helping Yako's dastardly plans. Yeah, that same Bandit Kieth that Pegasus tricked into shooting and KILLING himself back in Duelist Kingdom. Instead, we get some long-winded explanation why Anzu's body is being used to revive Pegasus (it doesn't explain why they couldn't have used Honda's...he still fits all the criteria). Oh yeah, and Anzu's ghost...er spirit...follows Yugi too as it's somehow been released.
This is the only book in the series that I own and have read. So, I don't know what happened in the beginning before Volume 3. I want to know what happens to Anzu before and after Volume 3.