Franchise Rant: Possibly the worst MANGA anniversary out there (Yuu☆gi☆ou/”Yu-Gi-Oh!” King film)

Best M&W

Recently, there’s been quite a few revivals of my favorite old school weeb Japanese franchises, mostly connected to special anniversaries. To name a few, Cardcaptor Sakura (North American license rescued, new merchandise and artwork celebrating CLAMP’s 25th anniversary), Digimon Adventure (upcoming Digimon Adventure tri.), Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon Crystal), Dragon Ball (30th anniversary = various goodies), etc.

I’m in a pretty happy place right now – most of the anniversaries are proving to be sweet, but there’s one anniversary that I’m particularly dissatisfied with. A shounen gambling manga series called, 遊☆戯☆王 Yuu☆gi☆ou by Takahashi Kazuki, otherwise probably translated as “The☆Game☆King” or “King☆of☆Games” (but nonsensically rendered as “Yu-Gi-Oh!” in the west, which you’re all familiar with for being popular snark bait) is receiving rather shoddy anniversary treatment, at least for the people who have actually… well, read the original manga (all 36 volumes, not just the first seven).

I declare this month “Happy Month”

Image Credit: 咩狼（めい） from Pixiv

Because my birthday was like, two days ago, and the feel of attaining the most possible adult freedoms available in California is awesome (I’m 21 now? Yessir!), I declare this month “Happy Month” in which posts and rants about terrible or mediocre things is kept to a minimum in comparison to things that make me smile. Well, at least posts written by me will be happy this month. I rant about terrible things enough outside of the blog as it is, to the point where you could call me a weeb version of AVGN without a Motherfucking Mike holding me back. I was *this* close to ranting about anime/non-anime fans using certain terms un-ironically, but I’m gonna put that on hold for HAPPY MONTH.

Things that I plan on doing, considering my summer college schedule, is as follows: I’ll also be posting about Cardcaptor Sakura mostly (need to finish those lookback posts!). And then No Game No Life, which was actually pretty good for the most part (it reminded me of the Yuugiou manga). That will all happen once I post up my Kill la Kill final impressions (you must go through Meh Land before you get to Happy Paradise. It will the only time I’ll be sad, I promise).

(And it will keep me occupied until August, when my child arrives. The joys of becoming a father are coming, guys. ;_;)

The Podcast With No Name – Episode 1: Popping the Cherry

On the agenda for our pilot episode, we have the upcoming Little Busters! anime, Spice & Wolf and other light novels, Da Capo III and other untranslated visual novels, Tales of Xillia being localized, and of course, plenty of extra topics because we can’t stop talking.

Intro Music Title: campo de girassol Artist: Shibayan Circle: ShibayanRecords Album: À procura de felicidade

Ending Music Title: グリニッジによる二台のチェロのためのアルマンド Artist: 菊一倖殷×中雑魚酒菜 Circle: 街角麻婆豆 Album: The Catcher in Greenwich

A way for studios to avoid bad fillers

It’s common knowledge within the anime fandom that series based off of on-going manga or light novels resort to producing original episodes, which serve as padding, in order for the anime’s story to maintain a certain distance from the original story.

However, there’s somewhat of an inherent problem with fillers or anime-original episodes. Half of the time they’re bad, sometimes they’re decent, and very rarely are they ever as good as the genuine articles. More on this after the jump.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 01 (Manga Comparison) – INJURED BY A CHILDREN’S CARD GAME LAWL

So, after Toei’s anime was cancelled after adapting the first seven volumes like total spazzes, Konami and Nihon Ad Systems decided to make their own Yu-Gi-Oh! adaptation two years later. Only this adaptation was made to be a pure advertisement for their card game. This was their plan: skip the first seven volumes of the manga, remove everything unrelated to Duel Monsters before and after (or make them related), and go straight to the first story arc where Duel Monsters take center stage as the main game – Duelist Kingdom. King of “Games”, my ass.

Problem is, it doesn’t completely skip the first seven volumes, per se. They decided to mesh up elements from the early manga and re-imagine them in their Duel Monsters-centric anime (such as characters), creating one of the worst introduction sagas in an anime to ever hit television. Ever. To name one, Seto Kaiba, the #1 gamer in Japan and poster boy for Magic & Wizards (as the card game is called in the Japanese manga), had his whole arc rewritten as the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

Basically, the whole first episode is a “kitbash” of his two introduction chapters from the manga and the Death-T saga, a story revolving around his “amusement” park of deadly games – all designed to kill Yuugi and his friends in the name of vengeance. Needless to say, skipping seven volume’s worth of details and rewriting one volume’s worth of events into one anime episode will always result in one thing:

Total. BS.

Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998 Toei Animation) 01 Manga Comparison

This episode was Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s official anime debut, based on chapter one of the manga, “The Puzzle of the Gods.” As you can guess, it shows Yuugi completing the Sennen Puzzle and awakening his other half “Dark Yuugi”, befriending Jonouchi, and starting his spree of mindraping just about anyone that messes with him or his friends/family through Games of Darkness.

Appropriately, the first episode is one of the more faithful episodes of this anime, despite some characterization changes and the Game of Darkness between Yuugi and Ushio (no, not the cute one from CLANNAD xD) being completely different, as well as his Penalty Game.

2012 Summer Blogging List and Rewatch List

Since the start of a few summer anime series have already begun, I guess it’s time to compile a list of the anime that I’m going to (most likely) be blogging about.

I also included a list of anime that I’ll be re-watching and blogging, since the summer season doesn’t seem to be too interesting, in my opinion.

I affirm that Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt’s ending is nothing more than Gainax trolling

Just look for it. You’ll never find it. You’re wasting your time.

In order words, Nichijou, Tottoko Hamtaro Gechu, X-MEN, and Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san are looking pretty good. Hamtaro, why you gotta be so friggin’ CUTE? I’ll be blogging some of them since I’m pretty much done with my senior stuff, and therefore have time to blog again.

Yuu☆gi☆Ou ZEXAL, however, can kiss my balls for further cashing in on one of my favorite shounen manga series. Hurray for 2011! I hope there’s some sad anime out this season, as I enjoyed rewatching Air and finishing up Clannad.

Adaptation Displacement and Decay… a.k.a. Yuu☆gi☆ou