195 | all Yu-Gi-Oh, all the time

[straightforwardly]

► 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.

Comments

[hamimi_fk]

I watched Duel Monsters earlier this year with Mase (on Twitch, lol). Mase is now hooked on YGO and I got to finally watch the last season, which I never had before. I've been thinking about watching GX next too. Especially because I've been ridiculously hooked on Duel Links since last year. ^^;

Interestingly, I now ship pretty much none of the pairings I did when I was a kid

I used to be SUPER into Yami Yugi/Kaiba when I was younger, but after doing the rewatch and playing Duel Links now, I'm now SUPER into Jounouchi/Kaiba. (omg, hateships are just my jam, yum!)

[straightforwardly]

From what I remember of GX, I'd recommend it! It's ridiculous, but in a fun way.

[ikinkuriboh]

GX is great and it's also cool you and your brother can have something in common. Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family that's into anime/manga.

I do prefer all the subs to the dubs when it comes to YGO. Just on principle because 4K is a terrible company and they scrubbed a lot of characterization and context from the dialogue for seemingly no reason. Also, the last season of GX doesn't even have a dub to begin with. Which is definitely something to consider if you haven't started watching it yet. I think 5Ds also is missing sections of episodes too. I'm not a sub elitist in the slightest but when the dub version is missing some scenes, episodes, entire seasons, and you're basically getting a different version of the story...it's a bit irksome. Two people, one watching the dub and one watching the sub should come away having seen the same show but with 4K this isn't the case sadly. Though there is a lot of fun, cheesy dialogues in the dub, I'll give them that. But I will never let anyone forget 4K's sin. Ever.

[straightforwardly]

Ahhh, that’s unfortunate. I share hobbies (anime/manga and video games) with both of my brothers, though when I talk about my “brother” here I’m usually referring to the older one— he was my best friend growing up (my little brother is a lot younger than both of us— he’s barely eighteen now), and we’re still close now. Whenever I get back into one of my nostalgia canons, I’m usually also dragging him back down with me, haha.

I don’t really get too upset over 4kids these days? I know all their sins already, and I did get upset when I was younger (I still remember my reaction to what they did to Tokyo Mew Mew back when I was in middle school, haha), but these days I feel like most people who are into anime know what 4kids are, unless they’re really young, and it’s easier to access the subbed version than it’s ever been (at least in my experience). And with my history with Yu-Gi-Oh in particular, it helps, too, that I’ve been a fan of the manga almost as long as the anime, so even as a kid I always knew about at least the name/characterization changes even before I knew what 4kids was like as a company. I have been looking up what they changed for each episode after watching them, though, so that I’d have an idea of what the original was like— especially for the filler arcs, as the manga (obviously) didn’t cover them. (Some of those changes— like Rishid’s speech to Marik in the Yami Marik v. Yami Yuugi duel, or everything that happened with Shizuka in the Shizuka-Otogi-Honda v. The One Big Five Member Whose Name I Can’t Remember duel in the Virtual World arc— did get my blood boiling, I’ll admit.)

[ikinkuriboh]

Yeah, I've watched the dub and the sub and read the manga. The reason it gets me so upset is there are people out there who can only watch the dub for various reasons and they would have to bend over backward to discover what the source material was actually like. And of course, they'd miss entire seasons and some episodes too. There are lots of things people say doesn't make sense that are like...they do make sense but only in the sub, unfortunately. I've started calling them dubholes. Plotholes that exist only because the dub left out context. I always feel super petty when I complain about the dub but I can't help it especially since a lot of characters I really like are just, stripped down to a few traits and not as nuanced in the dub as they are in the sub. I will take any chance I get to complain about how they were treated ;~;

That being said I do like Yugi and Atem's VA. I think making Atem's voice sound different was a nice touch and helped the audience better differentiate the two during the beginning of the series (I love the way he says "oh no!"). Insector Haga's voice in the dub was a good match too. Annoying and creepy but that's Haga. I'm sure there's more I can't think of at the moment.

[straightforwardly]

I do get that. And that's a good point about people who might only be able to watch a dub— I admit that that particular aspect of the situation hadn't occurred to me, and it would be really nice (albeit very unlikely) if YGO could get a re-dub like One Piece did for their sake, if nothing else. And you're definitely right about how dubs really shouldn't change the actual story or characters— it's meant to be a translation, not an full-fledged adaptation. (Of course, some things always get lost/changed in translation, but that’s a side-effect of the differences in how different languages (and the cultures attached to them) express concepts— there’s a difference between that and “let’s cut out entire scenes and/or change dialogue, etc.)

It’s just that in this particular case, I find the result to be really fun to watch. I do spend a lot of time mentally editing in or away some of my favorite aspects that I know were changed, but in general, I try to take it as though it were just another adaptation, even if that’s not what it should be, if that makes sense.

So... I guess my tl;dr way of summing this up is: I agree that the dub was handled very poorly, and that there are definitely many, many reasons to be upset about that, but I still get enjoyment out of the result.

I do like Yugi and Atem's VA. I think making Atem's voice sound different was a nice touch and helped the audience better differentiate the two during the beginning of the series (I love the way he says "oh no!").

Ahh, same! There were definitely voices that I went “....why” at upon starting this rewatch, but his was not one of them. That "oh no!" is a thing of beauty. ♥ I also really liked Kaiba and Marik’s English VAs. (Especially Marik’s. I like his Japanese voice fine too, but something about the way he cries out his siblings’ names in English is carved out in my brain. I love it. ♥)