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Link to original post: [drupal=1544]Review: Yu-Gi-Oh (Manga)[/drupal]
You know, there seriously needs to be a review of this series so I'm going to write one. When it comes to anime and manga, they're nothing more than simple entertainment for me. Nothing worth throwing into it's own category or anything. I file anime under the same category as Mythbusters or Star Trek, that being "TV entertainment." And manga goes under the same category as Spider-Man or Superman, that being "comics." Although one manga series that I liked and I think is worth pointing out is Yu-Gi-Oh, along with Rave Master and Shaman King but this is about Yu-Gi-Oh.
The story follows a kid named Yugi Mutuo, who is a loser in High School who still has yet to hit puberty. As such, he's picked on a lot and doesn't have very many friends. One day, he solves the ancient Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle. And whoever solves the puzzle is said to receive one wish. Yugi wishes for true friends who will always be there for support and stuff like that. The Puzzle grants his wish in the form of a dark alter ego called Dark Yugi (how inventive) who takes over Yugi's body whenever someone screws with him or his friends in order to play a Shadow Game with them. A dark game in which the looser must be tormented for a bit. Okay, now that I've gotten the plot explanation out of the way I can start the criticisms. I'd like to say that this series has some of the most likable characters I've ever seen. Yeah, Yugi's a wuss, so much to the point where I want to go in there and pick on him a bit. I guess you're supposed to feel sorry for him or something but he's just so much of a wuss that it really doesn't work out that way. Although I'll admit that the times where he shows signs of emotions other than "I'm a nerdy little wuss" are the times that I like, but I think it's all made up for because he has Dark Yugi. And I'd like to say that it's a toss up between this guy and Dark Bakura for my favorite character. Dark Yugi is just such a sadistic ******* that you can't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever he kills someone or puts them through everlasting torment. Dark Yugi basically demonstrates what every good anti-hero should be. A good anti-hero has an ambiguous moral alignment and isn't hesitant to do something that most people wouldn't consider in order to accomplish his goals, just like Dark Yugi. Although it really doesn't help that the only other main character who really maters is Jonouchi, a street fighter and ex-gangster. Honda and Anzu basically do nothing in the entire series and he probably could have had the entire series stay the same only with those two written out and nothing would change.
Yu-Gi-Oh had a really good start. A semi-episodic series with an occasional story arc thrown in. And the story arcs weren't very long either, but that's not really bad thing because they're around long enough to give the series a point and to set up some pretty interesting scenarios but they don't overstay their welcome. And villains in the early series were great. Shadi was a completely unlikable ******* in the story arc named after him, Kaiba was a completely psychotic son of a ***** in the Death-T arc and Dark Bakura was somewhere between that. But there's no guarantee that a series that starts good will stay good. Around the Battle City story arc a number of characters go through a personality shift. Dark Yugi becomes a normal person with a slightly aggressive personality, Yugi also becomes a completely normal person who's interchangeable with just about anyone else. Kaiba goes from the Joker from Batman to Auron to from Final Fantasy X. And Mokuba stops being a screwed up little kid (and this kid is seriously screwed up) and becomes a perfectly normal one. And the later story arcs drag out a hell of a lot longer than the need to be. I never thought I'd see the end of the Battle City, and Duelist Kingdom got boring. Now that I think about it, Duelist Kingdom was a really crappy story arc. And the only good villain from later on is Marik. Pegasus was annoying, and I'm still confused on what his motives were, and Zorc was just your stereotypical evil guy who wants to take over the world. The thing that sets Marik apart from everyone else is his motives. Most bad guys are just trying to do their evil thing (take over the world and stuff like that) and the only reason why they want to heroes dead is because they got in their way. But Marik just want to kill Dark Yugi, preferably in the most violent way he can because he believes that it's his fault that his family is dead and that he was basically turned into a slave in his childhood. And what the hell happened to the whole "games" thing? It used to be a verity of games ranging from games that everyone knows (like the quiet game) to more complex and improvised games (like a knife game). Then you suddenly decided to focus the story around Duel Monsters. Yeah, it was interesting for a little bit but it got old pretty fast.
ViZ, I'm grateful that you translated the series but to be honest, your translations are ****. Seriously, what the hell is up with you and favoring 4kids? In One Piece you cut out a ton of swearing and you changed Zoro to Zolo in order to match 4kids' crap dub. And in Yu-Gi-Oh you change all of the card names to the 4kids versions, changed Malik to Marik to match the 4kids version and you did the same with Pegasus. Plus you also tried to tone down the manga with the intentions of making it kid friendly by censoring all of the swearing which does nothing but make you notice that Jonouchi swears quite a bit. And why did you have to go back and edit volume one and two? Your first releases of them were great! But then you had to go back and tone down the dialog a bit, cut most of the swearing and you even removed the word "condom!"
Now comes down to the recommendation. Well, if you're one of those freaky obsessive fangirls who does nothing but watch anime and read manga 24/7 and has misinterpretations about every last word so that she can pretend in her sick mind that all of the characters are gay then you'd already blown all of you money on all of the volumes, drawn your gay fanart and have written a fanfic in which two male characters do things that I'd rather not describe. But if you're like me and manga falls into the same category as Watchmen or Hellboy (that is comics) then this is one worth checking out, the earlier volumes anyway. If you're someone who doesn't like most manga then I can also recommend this to you, somewhat. The earlier volumes have a somewhat realistic art style and the series has a decent grip on reality if you don't mind supernatural elements permeating the story.
You know, there seriously needs to be a review of this series so I'm going to write one. When it comes to anime and manga, they're nothing more than simple entertainment for me. Nothing worth throwing into it's own category or anything. I file anime under the same category as Mythbusters or Star Trek, that being "TV entertainment." And manga goes under the same category as Spider-Man or Superman, that being "comics." Although one manga series that I liked and I think is worth pointing out is Yu-Gi-Oh, along with Rave Master and Shaman King but this is about Yu-Gi-Oh.
The story follows a kid named Yugi Mutuo, who is a loser in High School who still has yet to hit puberty. As such, he's picked on a lot and doesn't have very many friends. One day, he solves the ancient Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle. And whoever solves the puzzle is said to receive one wish. Yugi wishes for true friends who will always be there for support and stuff like that. The Puzzle grants his wish in the form of a dark alter ego called Dark Yugi (how inventive) who takes over Yugi's body whenever someone screws with him or his friends in order to play a Shadow Game with them. A dark game in which the looser must be tormented for a bit. Okay, now that I've gotten the plot explanation out of the way I can start the criticisms. I'd like to say that this series has some of the most likable characters I've ever seen. Yeah, Yugi's a wuss, so much to the point where I want to go in there and pick on him a bit. I guess you're supposed to feel sorry for him or something but he's just so much of a wuss that it really doesn't work out that way. Although I'll admit that the times where he shows signs of emotions other than "I'm a nerdy little wuss" are the times that I like, but I think it's all made up for because he has Dark Yugi. And I'd like to say that it's a toss up between this guy and Dark Bakura for my favorite character. Dark Yugi is just such a sadistic ******* that you can't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever he kills someone or puts them through everlasting torment. Dark Yugi basically demonstrates what every good anti-hero should be. A good anti-hero has an ambiguous moral alignment and isn't hesitant to do something that most people wouldn't consider in order to accomplish his goals, just like Dark Yugi. Although it really doesn't help that the only other main character who really maters is Jonouchi, a street fighter and ex-gangster. Honda and Anzu basically do nothing in the entire series and he probably could have had the entire series stay the same only with those two written out and nothing would change.
Yu-Gi-Oh had a really good start. A semi-episodic series with an occasional story arc thrown in. And the story arcs weren't very long either, but that's not really bad thing because they're around long enough to give the series a point and to set up some pretty interesting scenarios but they don't overstay their welcome. And villains in the early series were great. Shadi was a completely unlikable ******* in the story arc named after him, Kaiba was a completely psychotic son of a ***** in the Death-T arc and Dark Bakura was somewhere between that. But there's no guarantee that a series that starts good will stay good. Around the Battle City story arc a number of characters go through a personality shift. Dark Yugi becomes a normal person with a slightly aggressive personality, Yugi also becomes a completely normal person who's interchangeable with just about anyone else. Kaiba goes from the Joker from Batman to Auron to from Final Fantasy X. And Mokuba stops being a screwed up little kid (and this kid is seriously screwed up) and becomes a perfectly normal one. And the later story arcs drag out a hell of a lot longer than the need to be. I never thought I'd see the end of the Battle City, and Duelist Kingdom got boring. Now that I think about it, Duelist Kingdom was a really crappy story arc. And the only good villain from later on is Marik. Pegasus was annoying, and I'm still confused on what his motives were, and Zorc was just your stereotypical evil guy who wants to take over the world. The thing that sets Marik apart from everyone else is his motives. Most bad guys are just trying to do their evil thing (take over the world and stuff like that) and the only reason why they want to heroes dead is because they got in their way. But Marik just want to kill Dark Yugi, preferably in the most violent way he can because he believes that it's his fault that his family is dead and that he was basically turned into a slave in his childhood. And what the hell happened to the whole "games" thing? It used to be a verity of games ranging from games that everyone knows (like the quiet game) to more complex and improvised games (like a knife game). Then you suddenly decided to focus the story around Duel Monsters. Yeah, it was interesting for a little bit but it got old pretty fast.
ViZ, I'm grateful that you translated the series but to be honest, your translations are ****. Seriously, what the hell is up with you and favoring 4kids? In One Piece you cut out a ton of swearing and you changed Zoro to Zolo in order to match 4kids' crap dub. And in Yu-Gi-Oh you change all of the card names to the 4kids versions, changed Malik to Marik to match the 4kids version and you did the same with Pegasus. Plus you also tried to tone down the manga with the intentions of making it kid friendly by censoring all of the swearing which does nothing but make you notice that Jonouchi swears quite a bit. And why did you have to go back and edit volume one and two? Your first releases of them were great! But then you had to go back and tone down the dialog a bit, cut most of the swearing and you even removed the word "condom!"
Now comes down to the recommendation. Well, if you're one of those freaky obsessive fangirls who does nothing but watch anime and read manga 24/7 and has misinterpretations about every last word so that she can pretend in her sick mind that all of the characters are gay then you'd already blown all of you money on all of the volumes, drawn your gay fanart and have written a fanfic in which two male characters do things that I'd rather not describe. But if you're like me and manga falls into the same category as Watchmen or Hellboy (that is comics) then this is one worth checking out, the earlier volumes anyway. If you're someone who doesn't like most manga then I can also recommend this to you, somewhat. The earlier volumes have a somewhat realistic art style and the series has a decent grip on reality if you don't mind supernatural elements permeating the story.
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