straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2018-11-28 01:25 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2018-11-28 01:25 pm
195 | all Yu-Gi-Oh, all the time
► This has been such a year for nostalgia canons for me. Most recently, I’ve fallen in love with Yu-Gi-Oh all over again. I started slowly rewatching the Duel Monsters anime back in September, and over the last few months my love for this series (and the card game) has been creeping back to me slowly, but surely. ♥ I originally meant to watch the subbed version, as I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it, but due to a misunderstanding with Crunchyroll*, I ended up going with the dub version in the end.
* They have all of their subbed episodes under “Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 1 (Subbed)”. I thought that meant that they only had Duelist Kingdom subbed and figured that at that point I might as well just watch all of it dubbed—especially since Netflix had the first three seasons (dub only), meaning that if I stuck with the dub all of the way through, I wouldn’t have to deal with ads until I got to the fourth season. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was nearly done with the Battle City Finals. They don’t have the whole series subbed, though— only until a certain point early on in DOMA/Waking the Dragon/Dartz Arc.
(I do genuinely love the dub, though. True, some of the changes made are ridiculous and/or infuriating… but it’s also often hilarious? Dub!Kaiba is a gift to this world, truly. ♥)
I just finished the DOMA/Waking the Dragon/Dartz Arc, which is… definitely not the high point of the series. Just the opposite, really. Especially the last two episodes. Though I will give it this much: some of the ideas had potential, and I did enjoy quite a few individual moments during the episodes. I never actually saw the end to this arc before—that was around the time that I stopped watching Yu-Gi-Oh, though I can’t remember why anymore. (I do know that it wasn’t because of the quality—I remember that as a kid I was actually really into the Orichalcos aesthetic.)
Interestingly, I now ship pretty much none of the pairings I did when I was a kid—in fact, most of them have become closer to NOTPs now, haha. On the other hand, I have so many feelings about Yami/Yuugi that I didn’t have before, and though I was always fascinated by Yami and Kaiba’s relationship, that’s now evolved into actually shipping them. As for what stayed the same over the years—I am still, unsurprisingly, overflowing with feelings about the Ishtar siblings. Also, Mai is still amazing. ♥
I’m thinking about going back and watching the sub once I’m finished with this rewatch. Idk if I actually will, though—especially since I did promise my big brother that I’d get started on watching GX (his favorite YGO series, which I’ve only seen around the first ⅛ of before) once I finished with Duel Monsters.
► More recently, I also went back and started reading the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga! I just finished that up this past Tuesday. I did have prior familiarity with the manga—when we were kids, my big brother owned the first volume + a copy of Shounen Jump that had a few more chapters from a few volumes later (though still safely in the season 0 range—think the Zombire chapters, if you’re familiar with them), and back then I read and reread those over and over. But until now, I’d never read most of it, and though I knew quite a bit about the ending through osmosis, this was the first time that I’d ever actually seen it, in any medium. ...I’m not any happier about how it ended now than I was when I first got spoiled for it as a kid. Granted, back then my reaction was born out of a straightforward “I don’t want one of my favorites to die” feeling, whereas now it’s... more complicated. I do genuinely, really like the Ceremonial Duel showing how Yuugi’s grown strong enough to stand on his own now. That was a nice way to end his character arc. Also, I loved his deck! It suited him very well, and I thought that Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman were the perfect cards for him.
But on the Yami/Atem side of things—that was so extremely painful to read. No one wanted him to die! Not even he wanted to die! “I want to stay with my friends” is literally something that he thought at one point! And—he was so young when he died the first time around. He never even got a chance to live in the first place. And the bit with Monster Reborn being sealed was such a brutal piece of symbolism, holy shit Yuugi.Also, Kaiba arriving after Atem had already moved on to the afterlife. T_T
I do wonder what would have happened if the duel had ended with a draw.
That being said, I am really looking forward to watching the Dark Sides of Dimensions movie. I’ve been rather thoroughly spoiled for it, and it sounds really promising. I’m not sure when I’ll manage watching it, though. I haven’t been able to find any (legal) streams yet… I might ask my family for a copy of it for Christmas and settle things that way.
► Also: perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the above also led to me installing Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links on Steam. I refuse to let it eat my life as much as it’s eaten my brother’s since he installed it on his computer earlier this year, but I am having fun with it, despite my initial “wtf” reaction to the three card limit for monster and spell/trap cards on the field.
* They have all of their subbed episodes under “Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 1 (Subbed)”. I thought that meant that they only had Duelist Kingdom subbed and figured that at that point I might as well just watch all of it dubbed—especially since Netflix had the first three seasons (dub only), meaning that if I stuck with the dub all of the way through, I wouldn’t have to deal with ads until I got to the fourth season. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was nearly done with the Battle City Finals. They don’t have the whole series subbed, though— only until a certain point early on in DOMA/Waking the Dragon/Dartz Arc.
(I do genuinely love the dub, though. True, some of the changes made are ridiculous and/or infuriating… but it’s also often hilarious? Dub!Kaiba is a gift to this world, truly. ♥)
I just finished the DOMA/Waking the Dragon/Dartz Arc, which is… definitely not the high point of the series. Just the opposite, really. Especially the last two episodes. Though I will give it this much: some of the ideas had potential, and I did enjoy quite a few individual moments during the episodes. I never actually saw the end to this arc before—that was around the time that I stopped watching Yu-Gi-Oh, though I can’t remember why anymore. (I do know that it wasn’t because of the quality—I remember that as a kid I was actually really into the Orichalcos aesthetic.)
Interestingly, I now ship pretty much none of the pairings I did when I was a kid—in fact, most of them have become closer to NOTPs now, haha. On the other hand, I have so many feelings about Yami/Yuugi that I didn’t have before, and though I was always fascinated by Yami and Kaiba’s relationship, that’s now evolved into actually shipping them. As for what stayed the same over the years—I am still, unsurprisingly, overflowing with feelings about the Ishtar siblings. Also, Mai is still amazing. ♥
I’m thinking about going back and watching the sub once I’m finished with this rewatch. Idk if I actually will, though—especially since I did promise my big brother that I’d get started on watching GX (his favorite YGO series, which I’ve only seen around the first ⅛ of before) once I finished with Duel Monsters.
► More recently, I also went back and started reading the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga! I just finished that up this past Tuesday. I did have prior familiarity with the manga—when we were kids, my big brother owned the first volume + a copy of Shounen Jump that had a few more chapters from a few volumes later (though still safely in the season 0 range—think the Zombire chapters, if you’re familiar with them), and back then I read and reread those over and over. But until now, I’d never read most of it, and though I knew quite a bit about the ending through osmosis, this was the first time that I’d ever actually seen it, in any medium. ...I’m not any happier about how it ended now than I was when I first got spoiled for it as a kid. Granted, back then my reaction was born out of a straightforward “I don’t want one of my favorites to die” feeling, whereas now it’s... more complicated. I do genuinely, really like the Ceremonial Duel showing how Yuugi’s grown strong enough to stand on his own now. That was a nice way to end his character arc. Also, I loved his deck! It suited him very well, and I thought that Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman were the perfect cards for him.
But on the Yami/Atem side of things—that was so extremely painful to read. No one wanted him to die! Not even he wanted to die! “I want to stay with my friends” is literally something that he thought at one point! And—he was so young when he died the first time around. He never even got a chance to live in the first place. And the bit with Monster Reborn being sealed was such a brutal piece of symbolism, holy shit Yuugi.
That being said, I am really looking forward to watching the Dark Sides of Dimensions movie. I’ve been rather thoroughly spoiled for it, and it sounds really promising. I’m not sure when I’ll manage watching it, though. I haven’t been able to find any (legal) streams yet… I might ask my family for a copy of it for Christmas and settle things that way.
► Also: perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the above also led to me installing Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links on Steam. I refuse to let it eat my life as much as it’s eaten my brother’s since he installed it on his computer earlier this year, but I am having fun with it, despite my initial “wtf” reaction to the three card limit for monster and spell/trap cards on the field.
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