Hello everyone! And welcome to my very first edition of Matt’s Manga where this week I will be going over one of my favorite mangas as well as animes I grew up with. Have you ever wondered about playing a card game where so many stakes were on the line? Being able to win the prize money to help your loved one in desperate measures? Or even find a way to cheat your way to victory? Well that all ties into the manga series known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist! This manga is written by Kazuki Takahashi and has made such an impact not only in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Community but also in so many places around the world. This week I’ll be going over, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist: Vol. 4, Dungeon of Doom. This post will contain spoilers for You-Gi-Oh!
Starting with some context, Yugi Muto is a highschool student who learns to play duel monsters, which is a card game composed of monster, spell, and trap cards. He had put together the millennium puzzle that his Grandpa gave to him from his trip to ancient Egypt. Once he assembled it together, a more wiser and older version of himself appeared from the puzzle named Yami. He would be there to protect little Yugi if anything were to happen during their adventure. He then gets an invitation to participate in the Duelist Kingdom tournament and compete against some of the strongest duelists across the country. Both Yugi and his best friend Joey make a vow to go and help save their loved ones from certain doom against the leader of the tournament, Maximillion Pegusus. If you have watched the anime before either subbed or dubbed I’d highly recommend reading the anime because it gives more detail to the characters along with not the added filler that’s in the anime.
Going into this week’s manga, we start with two duels one after another leaving everyone on the edge of their seat till the end leading into the next volume. Joey really wants to duel another person on the island but just can’t find anyone who’s at his level. Then a group of guys led Joey into one of the dueling stations that’s in a cave led by Bandit Keith. He is a notorious cheater and intends to win the tournament without anyone knowing his special card shenanigans. Joey is approached by the smallest person in the group named Bonz. A zombie type duelist who specializes in resurrecting his monsters from the grave with an added bonus for other creatures having a disadvantage. While eventually winning in the end, Joey was so overwhelmed at times worrying if he was gonna lose all his life points or even having all his best monsters destroyed.
Trying to get out of the cave seemed impossible especially since they were trapped in by Bandit Keith and his friends. While screaming to find a way out, Yugi, Joey and their friends find a door leading to another smaller arena. Inside lurks the Paradox Brothers, a sneaky duo that speak in rhyme and use their tag team strategies to overwhelm their opponents. When reading the battle between the Paradox Brothers for the first time it was so amazing because I loved the style like they’re playing a board game within a card game and that had me loving the series even more. But having these new villains into the mix was really interesting to see how the story was going to end for everyone with the tournament coming to a close soon. Having said that, there’s so much to take into account with both Bandit Keith and the Paradox Brothers. First off, they both intend on cheating one way or another to gain the advantage over their opponent, two, they force the duelists hand making them stay in fight or else they can’t leave, and three, they both were hired by Maximillion Pegusus to weed out our heroes as well as other previous players on Duelist Kingdom.
With only needing a few more star chips to enter the castle, both Yugi and Joey decided to take them head on as a team making this the first double duel in the series. The game board is also set up in a maze like “Dungeons and Dragons” and their opponents need to eliminate their monsters as soon as possible. They face so many challenges along the way but it doesn’t get worse until the Paradox Brothers summon their ace monster, The Gate Guardian! This being is composed of the separate monsters that control lightning, wind, and water and are unstoppable since each has their own unique ability. While it seems like all hope is lost, both Yugi and Joey fused their ace monsters together forming the Black Skull Dragon and tend to go head to head. Overall I love this franchise as a whole and I first got introduced to the manga before I started watching the anime. The artstyle Takahasi has done is such a beauty and is appreciated by the fans and players alike. Truly a lot to take in from reading just one volume but it’s a fun adventure to read through and watch and see what happens next for everyone.
Matthew Czaja – Asst. Prose Editor, Asst. Blog Editor & Blogger: Matthew is a Junior at Lewis with a major in English and a concentration in writing. He is a hardworking, determined individual who loves to help others in any way he can. Whenever he is not in school or working, there are various hobbies he likes to partake in such as drawing, listening to music, collecting trading cards, and even reading a lot of Science fiction books. He is a fiction editor as well as a blog editor for Jet Fuel Review.