Nexus Reviews

Battle City Arc is the third major saga in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. This arc is commonly separated into two sub-arcs: Battle City Preliminaries and Battle City Finals. The entirety of this arc was covered in chapters 146 to 278. In the Western release, this completes the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist manga.

A quick mention: the Battle City arc was preceded by a short arc called Dungeon Dice Monsters, which introduced Ryuji Otogi and the titular game. It was covered in chapters 134 to 145 of the manga, wherein, following Duelist Kingdom, Ryuji, at the behest of his father, sought revenge against Yugi and planned to take away the Millennium Puzzle from him. Ryuji and Yugi battled through the game Dungeon Dice Monsters. This is important to mention because this is a game that also had its own spin-off in real life.

This review (which is divided into 5 parts) will focus on the original source material, which was the manga. And as such, it will not focus on the details surrounding the animé series, although it may mention some important differences.

STORY
Following Yugi’s victory over Pegasus during the events of the Duelist Kingdom, life has returned to normal. Yami Yugi, on the other hand, discovered a stone tablet displayed at a museum depicting what looked like him and Kaiba in ancient Egyptian appearance. Ishizu Ishtar, the one who brought the stone tablet, revealed to him that he may be the Nameless Pharaoh and that they were waiting for 3,000 years; however, to fully serve his purpose, he must recover his lost memories by gathering the three Egyptian God Cards and present them to the stone tablet.

At the time, Kaiba has been granted by Ishizu one of the legendary god cards as was "destined." Kaiba set his eyes on taking all of the God cards and defeating Yugi once and for all. He organized the Battle City Tournament with his goals in mind.

Inevitably, both Yugi and Jonouchi enter the tournament once again with personal goals, respectively, while their friends cheer them on.

The tournament also saw the return of many characters from Duelist Kingdom who participated in very good duels, such as Insector Haga and Mai Kujaku. There were also a lot of many new characters that were introduced who also dueled the protagonists, such as Pandora, and the Rare Card Hunters, who collectively were the antagonists. Speaking of the antagonist, Ryo Bakura makes a strong comeback, looking ever more sinister than before.

The arc’s main antagonist was Marik Ishtar, the brother of Ishizu, who sought revenge against the pharaoh (which was Yami Yugi) for bringing misfortune into their lives. Marik and Ishizu belong to a clan of tomb guardians that guard the pharaoh’s resting place. However, their lives were practically filled with tragedy, leading Marik to harbor such hate against the pharaoh. Marik is also the owner of the millenium rod, while Ishizu held the millenium necklace; both are ancient artifacts similar to the millenium puzzle Yugi held.

However, the antagonist in the arc shifted during the second portion of the arc when Yami Marik (Marik’s dark side) took over. Honestly, Marik is the more interesting and threatening villain because he at least had a motivation brought by his suffering in the past. Yami Marik’s motivation is quite one-dimensional, almost cartoonish, as he only wants to take the entire world into darkness.

One aspect that kept Marik atop was his God card. It was presented with mysterious abilities, which kept the tension in the plot high. Yugi and Kaiba thought of many ways to defeat it. But as much as it carried the tension, it did not elevate Marik, or more specifically, Yami Marik, because there was this duel in the finals that would have seen him beaten not by Yugi, if not only for Jonouchi being able to continue dueling in their shadow game. As cool as Yami Marik looked, he wasn’t that much of a villain, which was unfortunate. The original Marik being sidelined was also a misstep.

As duels in this arc featured a revamped ruleset that closely resembled that of the real-life card game rules, save for some card effects and the life points. The expert rules that this arc had are what the real-life players are mostly familiar with, so it brought more relativity to the game.

The sheer number of characters and duels present made this arc the longest in the series, and mostly it used the same format as Duelist Kingdom in making a buildup towards the climax. The story alternated between the duels Yugi and Jonouchi, and in some cases Kaiba, participated in. It was impressive that the author managed to keep up the pace even though the story followed multiple characters.

There was still an issue in this arc being Yugi’s so-called luck or his “Destiny Draw." It always happens that whenever he was about to lose, he would draw the exact card that he needed to win. It was what some fans called plot armor because in the manga, Yugi technically didn’t lose a duel.

The main focus of the arc was the gathering of the Egyptian God Cards. Yami Yugi had to work his way toward obtaining one of them; essentially, his card was the least formidable in terms of superficial strength. Kaiba’s and especially Marik’s God Cards were presented as something grand with their special abilities. The battles for the God cards made the arc hyped up to the level that exceeded all other games featured in the series.

ART
The artwork in this arc was solid throughout. Kazuki Takahashi handled the presentation so well, especially when he used double-page spreads to show an epic scene. The artwork was animated in its own way. The appearances of Yugi, Kaiba, and the other characters were way better. Their looks were how they were remembered by many fans.

There is also a lot more detail put into the artwork, which made reading the manga more exciting to look at.

OVERALL
Battle City Arc is deemed by many to be the best arc in the whole series because of its scope. It was grand, it was epic, and it was longer than anything else. All the duels were good, some more than others. Kazuki Takahashi managed to elevate the plot every time a duel took place. There were many intense duels that would undoubtedly keep the readers excited for the next chapter.

There was just a questionable choice for the final villain of the arc and how it was resolved at the end. Perhaps if the story stuck with the original villain, then this arc could have cohesion until the end.

Nevertheless, Battle City Arc didn’t skip a beat in showing character development for all the characters, main or supporting. And most importantly, this is the arc that showed the true form of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters that fans and players know today.

Final Rating 9/10

Duelist Kingdom Arc is the second major saga in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. The arc was covered from chapters 60 to 133 published in Weekly Shonen Jump. In the Western release, this started the shift of the series to be under the title of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist.

This review (which is divided into 5 parts) will focus on the original source material, which was the manga. And as such, it will not focus on the details surrounding the animé series, although it may mention some important differences.

From this point in the manga, the main focus shifted from various games to Duel Monsters, a card game wherein players called duelists use a deck of cards to battle. This particular card game was featured in the earlier chapters of the manga, which, according to the author, Kazuki Takahashi, was received well by the readers, prompting him to feature the card game again.

In this arc, Yugi has become a well-known individual in the Duel Monsters community with his victory over Kaiba. Maximillion J. Pegasus organizes a tournament to decide the Duelist King, the best card duelist of all time. He forces Yugi to participate in the tournament by trapping his grandfather’s soul in a camcorder. Kaiba sneaks into participating as well to ensure the stability of his company, KaibaCorp, and save his brother Mokuba from Pegasus. Jonouchi also participates in the tournament to win the cash prize and get his sister Shizuka’s eyes treated.

With many individuals participating in the tournament for their own reasons and goals, Pegasus’ island becomes a battlefield wherein duelists stake their pride and dreams to become the Duelist King. Yugi must overcome the seemingly unbeatable Pegasus, who holds the Millennium Eye, an ancient artifact capable of seeing through the opponents cards, to save his grandfather. But before Yugi can do so, he must defeat the duelists standing in his way to Pegasus.

STORY
Duelist Kingdom is inarguably an iconic arc, thanks largely to the second animé series that adapted it. The second anime skipped the first saga of the series and proceeded to Duelist Kingdom (except in the first episode, where it basically featured a special run of the Death-T arc with Yugi and Kaoba’s duel). However, in any case, the second animé series added a lot of story details and episodes not present in the manga. On the other hand, it also featured less violence than the manga did. There were many scenes that either completely omitted the graphic scenes or tweaked them so that certain story pieces were different in the two versions.

One thing that cannot be denied though was that the manga was superior in many ways.

First, the story was not only well paced in the manga; it was also on point with the goal of the story reflected by the goals of the characters. As the story arc progressed, many characters were also introduced through the duels Yugi and Jonouchi went through. But despite the heavy battle flow, the progress was noticeable, especially since they have an objective of gathering ten star chips to have the right to participate in the finals. The animé added duels that both give additional context and details to the story; however, it also sometimes appeared to be padding the episodes, resulting in a lesser pacing quality.

The duels in the manga were about 3-4 chapters only and focused heavily on Yugi’s and Jonouchi’s duels. The author was able to craft the plot alternating between the two duelists so that the readers will not find monotony in following a sole character. Yugi or Yami Yugi’s duels were serious and tense, while Jonouchi’s duels were more comic yet full of wit.

The duels themselves were like building blocks building towards a much-awaited final. There were many moments in this series that were full of action and emotion, notably the duel between Yugi and Kaiba and the battle between Yugi/Yami Yugi and Pegasus.

However, one aspect of this arc was how some duels were presented as if it were a tabletop role-playing game instead. The author admitted that sometimes the effects of the cards do not reflect the effects in the real-life card game in order to create tension in the story. One of the most popular examples of this was when Yugi destroyed the moon on the field because it caused high tide, enabling the opponent’s monsters to hide in the sea. Yet in the actual game, that scenario would be impossible.

It would be okay if the series did not focus on the card effects, but the way they play the cards sometimes was head scratching because they looked like they were making their own game rules.

Another instance of the story not making sense was how convenient it is for Yugi to win unwinnable duels. This started the actual trend of Yugi doing what fans refer to as “Destiny Draw." This was explained to be one of the abilities of the Millennium Puzzle that Yugi would be able to draw a card at the exact moment he would need it when he is backed to a corner and about to lose. It was one heck of a plot armor, making Yugi technically unbeatable.

ART
Kazuki Takahashi’s artwork from this point on was the look that many fans would be familiar with. The drawing was definitely and significantly better than how it looked before. It would seem that the author at this point in time found his signature art style that would be carried moving forward.

OVERALL
Duelist Kingdom is a must read for Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. While some rules and effects of the cards vary from the real-life card effects, the entirety of the arc is very entertaining. The character complexities, especially on the opponents, set them from those one-dimensional characters. Maximillion J. Pegasus also did a lot of carrying in the story. His backstory was not only nuanced but also emotional.

If only the duels went through a better ruleset than some seemingly made-up card effects, then Duelist Kingdom could have been much more epic in scope.

Final Rating: 7.5/10