Where I rewatch Yugioh GX, Episode 157
Well, we open with the ending to the previous season, where Judai crashed down from the heavens like a sparkly little metorite angel, then we follow with "peaceful" shots, and then we pan up into the night sky to see lightning flash across the sky, making cracks in it. Wait...and then as the hole has gotten as big as its going to get, we can see the outline of a winged figure against the backdrop of a flash of lightning. And now we get our new opening for the season. The animation features Judai facing the bondage version of Mr. Smith from The Matrix, a guy with seaweed hair, one of the engrish lyrics is misspelled, and a bit involving a Darkness possessed Fubuki where, if you didn't know better, would lead you to believe that Judai was some manner of badass. Of course, we do know better, so it doesn't work. Also, Judai's design has undergone a few tweaks to try and make him look more "mature". This fails by virtue of the fact that he is not mature, just a horrible, horrible person. Also, for the first time ever, we have a straight-up GOOD opening song! Seriously, they wait until season four to bring in the good opening? For the love of...
TITLE SCREEN! A LOOMING THREAT! THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR actual visitor may prove less mysterious and more tedious.
Well, we open to Shou delivering narration to Ryou, his very and totally honestly not coming back dead brother. Hightlights; One month has passed since the end of the previous season, Shou is wearing the Obelisk Blue uniform again, Jim Johan and O'Brien left to go back to their schools, Napoleon and Martin leave to renew their bond and not because everyone hated them and wanted them off the show for being useless wastes of time, Rei is now in Obelisk Blue but is still dressed in Red, Manjoume's finally left Osiris Red and gone back to Obelisk Blue, some real bullshit about Kenzan being the ace of the Ra Yellow dorm, and then Shou says something about how the Yubel incident really helped them all figure out what was important in life. No. That is all I'm going to say to that. Oh, except for one person, gosh, I wonder who it could be...yep, it's Judai, the only Osiris Red duelist in the whole school. Yeah, for...no apparent, everyone else is gone from Osiris Red. I'm sure this is supposed to be symbolic of how unique and isolated Judai is now, but it makes no sense. And now Daitokuji's plot hole ghost is floating over Judai. Blah blah blah, Judai's just sitting around and thinking, and then tells Daitokuji that he really needs to get off his ethereal ass and move on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, Daitokuji finds that being a undead blasphemy against the natural metaphysical order of things suits him just fine. Allow me to repeat what was said in the final episode of the original series. "The spirits of the dead do not belong in the world of the living." Judai then says he's NEVER heard of a ghost who didn't want to pass on, ho ho ho, isn't that amusing? No, no it isn't. Then Daitokuji continues to deliver this show's bullshit about how Judai found his true self in the other dimension, and I roll my eyes, a well practiced motion at this point. Then Pharaoh eats Daitokuji's soul and drops some manner of package into Judai's hand.
Oh hey, it's a cell phone. Judai then pushes a single button, and...I'm not really able to follow the logistics on this. I...guess that Judai just punched speed dial, which was set to whoever sent him the phone...or something? Blah blah blah, we won't find out what that's about until later as we transition elsewhere. In Duel Academia proper, a couple of random nobodies are trying to duel, but for some reason, the Solid Vision system isn't working. The problem is pretty wide spread, and they all go to complain about their defective cards to Ms. Tome. She has no idea what the hell's going on. Now Asuka and Manjoume enter Samejima's office, and according to Asuka, they haven't had any problems with their cards. Manjoume thinks the problem is that the others, unlike him, have been mistreating their cards. The Ojamas are naturally outraged, and Manjoume tells them to shut up. Asuka then wonders maybe the problem is with their duel discs, and since that would be reasonable explanation for this, it will not be the case. Blah blah blah, Industrial Illusions will be sending an engineer to look over the faulty cards, and Samejima wants Asuka and Manjoume to have all the faulty cards gathered up so that the Engineer can do his job as quickly as possible. They agree to do so, and leave. Brief bit of pontification about how reliable and mature Manjoume and Asuka have become with their graduation so near, and now to the gang minus Judai, plus Seaweed Hair. Blah blah, Shou will go with Kenzan to the Ra Yellow dorm to help him pick up faulty cards there, while Manjoume will leave the Obelisk Blue dorm to Asuka and Seaweed Hair, who's actual name is supposed to be Fujiwara, but I will keep calling him Seaweed Hair anyway. Manjoume will go to the Computer Room to check the system there. Then Seaweed Hair says he'll go with Manjoume...and everyone just goes with this. And they don't need to check on the Osiris Red dorm, Judai is literally the only one in it.
See, I wasn't kidding, he really is the only one left. Anyway, Shou and Kenzan are walking along, and Shou asks Kenzan who the heck the new guy with them was anyway. Seaweed Hair? Oh, now Shou remembers who that guy is, sometimes he forgets these things! Hey, hey writers! You know that feeling you get when you think you've come up with something clever? Yeah, it doesn't work, this is just stupid. Read the Fairy Tail manga to see this trope done right. Anyway, Kenzan thinks that Shou's being silly, Seaweed Hair's been with Judai and Shou since they first entered the school. Gosh, that can not be, what a mystery. Meanwhile over with Manjoume and Seaweed Hair, Manjoume asks if he remembered his student ID, Seaweed Hair flusters in the face of this gap in his oh so perfect story, and then it finally occurs to Manjoume to ask who the hell this new guy is anyway. So Seaweed Hair makes his eyes glow, and that settles everything. He then suggest that Manjoume go help Asuka, and Manjoume, in a daze, does so. Seaweed Hair then goes through surveilance, looking for some hint as to the whereabouts of his "master". Yes, that is going to be more and more cringeworthy as time passes. Then he notices the Abandoned Dorm, and this means something to him. Then, apropo of nothing more than convenient dramatic timing, Asuka appears on a video screen to ask Seaweed Hair if he found anything. Blah blah, nothing interesting, and he is called to the conference room, where all the cards have been gathered. And holy moly, that is a lot of cards that don't work. Blah blah blah, the Ojamas appear and make noise, they see something odd about the cards, and engage in unfunny comedy. Then Seaweed Hair enters the room, and is aghast at the sight of the cards, which are covered in dark shadows. Blah blah blah, Seaweed Hair wants the cards disposed of immediately, no wait, he wants to kill them with fire. Everyone is all WTF, Cards are the soul of a duelist don't you know, and no one thinks it would be a good idea to get someone as unhinged as Seaweed Hair out of the room and away from the cards.
EYECATCH!
Now the cards are in cases in a basement, and Seaweed Hair emerges from hiding after Manjoume and Asuka leave. He opens one of the cases, dark fog overflows, and apparently he can magically set things on fire. The fire system goes off, Asuka Shou and Manjoume rush to the room, Kenzan shows up with a Fire Extinguisher, but it is too late, all the cards are ruined. Then dark plumes begin to rise from the cards, and the group is oblivious to this as they wonder how on Earth a fire could have started in a place like this? I mean, it's not like they knew a guy who wanted to burn all the cards into ashes, right? The rolling dark fog is now outside, and the only to notice is Winged Kuriboh, who just to be conveniently flying around away from Judai. And now its going to Judai. Cut to Seaweed Hair who's running through the woods, saying something about how time is running out and he needs to tell "him" right away. The dark fog is in pursuit, Seaweed Hair has reached the abandoned dorm, but oh noes, the darkness has caught up with him, and he has no Magic Missile to shoot it with! Rolling, weaving, dodging, and Seaweed Hair is trapped against a giant rock. But what is this? Judai is here to save the day! I'm not being sarcastic with my excitement at all! Judai tells Winged Kuriboh to stay back, he jumps down, tells Seaweed Hair he'll deal with him later, and then he tells the darkness to show itself so that they can settle this in a duel. The darkness begins to coalesce, saying it never thought it would encounter a human who could sense it, and Judai says he's got mysterious powers too. I hate Judai, have I ever mentioned that? Blah blah blah, the darkness can sense something strange about Judai, and now is as good a time as any to mention; the Duel Discs now have trims on them with colors according to the owner's dorm. It doesn't mean anything, it's just a detail that I felt like pointing out.
Then the darkness takes the form of a man in a PVC leather suit, wearing shades with his hair short and cropped. That's nice. He can tell that Judai isn't on "their" side, Judai says he'd die before working with someone like him...Judai? You fused yourself with a psychotic and obsessive monster who'd tormented and killed countless people, directly or otherwise. This guy? All he's done so far is to keep a bunch of cards from working, and stalking the one guy who could stop him. You are in no fucking position to act like you can be on any sort of moral high ground with regards to anyone, especially this guy. PVC leather man agrees, says he'll kill Judai and any other obstacle in his way, Judai says he'll kill him first, and the duel begins. PVC goes first and summons Dark Archetype, which just looks really weird. Then he sets a card and ends his turn. For some reason Judai feels the need to comment on how he's never seen Dark Archetype before, even though he's run into countless new cards without commentary in the past. What makes this one different? Absolutely nothing, its just pure arbitrariness. Judai goes on about how he'll fight his own way no matter what, and takes his turn. First he sets a card and plays Fusion, sending Bubbleman and Featherman to the grave for Sailorman. Blah blah blah, pontification about duel strategies and the meanings thereof, Judai activates De-Fusion to split Sailorman back into Bubbleman and Featherman, and then he sacrifices them both for Neos. He attacks, and PVC leather man activates his trap card, Zero Gazer; he reduces his monster's attack power to zero when it is attacked, and then draws one card. Judai's all WTF, Dark Archetype is destroyed for 2500 points of damage, and now PVC activates its effect; he gets to special summon a monster from his deck who's attack power equals the damage he took, and then he discards monsters such that their combined levels equals the level of the monster he just summoned. So he sends a level 4 and a level 3 monster to the grave to special summon Reign-Beaux. Hey, it's that one monster that Judai kept wanting to destroy over and over again. I wonder if this will get a reaction out of him...apparently not.
PVC leather man's turn, he equips Reign-Beaux with Axe of Despair to increase its attack power by 1000, PVC thinks that Judai will be helpless if Neos is destroyed, but Judai activates Hero Shield; he equips it to Neos so that it gets destroyed in its place, and then he gets to draw one card for every 1000 points of damage he just took. PVC leather man ends his turn, Judai takes his, blah blah blah, Judai fails at trash talk and activates Neo-Space to increase Neos's attack power by 500, then he quips Neos with Neos Force to raise its attack by an additional 800, it attacks, Neos Force does damage equal to the destroyed monster's attack power, and opening with the season with the hero curbstomping the new villain is not exactly a great way of establishing him as a threat. And look at that, PVC leather man had three more cards in his hand, none of them could have helped him out at all? Anyway, PVC leather man dissolves away, but says this isn't over with, he'll get Judai next time, and now memories of Inspector Gadget dance through my head. That is not a good thing. Seaweed Hair then thanks Judai, Judai demands to know who he is and why he was being chased by a man dressed in a PVC leather outfit, Seaweed Hair tries to pull his routine, but Judai flashes his Yubel eyes, because he has those now, and says that won't work on him. Once again, he demands to know who Seaweed Hair really is, and like every time before, this attempt to make Judai look badass and threatening fails miserably. When I look at him, all I can see is the dolt who sat on his ass while his friends were being brainwashed by an apocalyptic cult, not a care in his empty little skull. End episode, and our new ending sequence. As with the new openeing, it is far superior to what came before, but it's far too late to try and polish this turd.
NEXT TIME! Shou wonders what the heck is going on, Judai looks at a feather, and decides that it is time for him to leave Duel Academia. And of course, Shou has no problem being utterly dependent on Judai for absolutely everything, and since he's the only one ever allowed to do anything, he is right to do so. EPISODE TITLE, FAREWELL DUEL ACADEMIA! THE PATH JUDAI CHOOSES. card of the week is dark archetype.
Well, this episode couldn't help but be an improvement over last season. Unfortunately, it is still quite terrible. Also, funny story; it turns out that it was only this season that Shin Yoshida was responsible. The preceeding shitfest was someone elses ugly and deformed baby. Don't worry though, Yoshida hasn't gotten any better since DOMA and his glorious mangling of the Memory World arc, so there's plenty of fail yet to unfold.
TITLE SCREEN! A LOOMING THREAT! THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR actual visitor may prove less mysterious and more tedious.
Well, we open to Shou delivering narration to Ryou, his very and totally honestly not coming back dead brother. Hightlights; One month has passed since the end of the previous season, Shou is wearing the Obelisk Blue uniform again, Jim Johan and O'Brien left to go back to their schools, Napoleon and Martin leave to renew their bond and not because everyone hated them and wanted them off the show for being useless wastes of time, Rei is now in Obelisk Blue but is still dressed in Red, Manjoume's finally left Osiris Red and gone back to Obelisk Blue, some real bullshit about Kenzan being the ace of the Ra Yellow dorm, and then Shou says something about how the Yubel incident really helped them all figure out what was important in life. No. That is all I'm going to say to that. Oh, except for one person, gosh, I wonder who it could be...yep, it's Judai, the only Osiris Red duelist in the whole school. Yeah, for...no apparent, everyone else is gone from Osiris Red. I'm sure this is supposed to be symbolic of how unique and isolated Judai is now, but it makes no sense. And now Daitokuji's plot hole ghost is floating over Judai. Blah blah blah, Judai's just sitting around and thinking, and then tells Daitokuji that he really needs to get off his ethereal ass and move on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, Daitokuji finds that being a undead blasphemy against the natural metaphysical order of things suits him just fine. Allow me to repeat what was said in the final episode of the original series. "The spirits of the dead do not belong in the world of the living." Judai then says he's NEVER heard of a ghost who didn't want to pass on, ho ho ho, isn't that amusing? No, no it isn't. Then Daitokuji continues to deliver this show's bullshit about how Judai found his true self in the other dimension, and I roll my eyes, a well practiced motion at this point. Then Pharaoh eats Daitokuji's soul and drops some manner of package into Judai's hand.
Oh hey, it's a cell phone. Judai then pushes a single button, and...I'm not really able to follow the logistics on this. I...guess that Judai just punched speed dial, which was set to whoever sent him the phone...or something? Blah blah blah, we won't find out what that's about until later as we transition elsewhere. In Duel Academia proper, a couple of random nobodies are trying to duel, but for some reason, the Solid Vision system isn't working. The problem is pretty wide spread, and they all go to complain about their defective cards to Ms. Tome. She has no idea what the hell's going on. Now Asuka and Manjoume enter Samejima's office, and according to Asuka, they haven't had any problems with their cards. Manjoume thinks the problem is that the others, unlike him, have been mistreating their cards. The Ojamas are naturally outraged, and Manjoume tells them to shut up. Asuka then wonders maybe the problem is with their duel discs, and since that would be reasonable explanation for this, it will not be the case. Blah blah blah, Industrial Illusions will be sending an engineer to look over the faulty cards, and Samejima wants Asuka and Manjoume to have all the faulty cards gathered up so that the Engineer can do his job as quickly as possible. They agree to do so, and leave. Brief bit of pontification about how reliable and mature Manjoume and Asuka have become with their graduation so near, and now to the gang minus Judai, plus Seaweed Hair. Blah blah, Shou will go with Kenzan to the Ra Yellow dorm to help him pick up faulty cards there, while Manjoume will leave the Obelisk Blue dorm to Asuka and Seaweed Hair, who's actual name is supposed to be Fujiwara, but I will keep calling him Seaweed Hair anyway. Manjoume will go to the Computer Room to check the system there. Then Seaweed Hair says he'll go with Manjoume...and everyone just goes with this. And they don't need to check on the Osiris Red dorm, Judai is literally the only one in it.
See, I wasn't kidding, he really is the only one left. Anyway, Shou and Kenzan are walking along, and Shou asks Kenzan who the heck the new guy with them was anyway. Seaweed Hair? Oh, now Shou remembers who that guy is, sometimes he forgets these things! Hey, hey writers! You know that feeling you get when you think you've come up with something clever? Yeah, it doesn't work, this is just stupid. Read the Fairy Tail manga to see this trope done right. Anyway, Kenzan thinks that Shou's being silly, Seaweed Hair's been with Judai and Shou since they first entered the school. Gosh, that can not be, what a mystery. Meanwhile over with Manjoume and Seaweed Hair, Manjoume asks if he remembered his student ID, Seaweed Hair flusters in the face of this gap in his oh so perfect story, and then it finally occurs to Manjoume to ask who the hell this new guy is anyway. So Seaweed Hair makes his eyes glow, and that settles everything. He then suggest that Manjoume go help Asuka, and Manjoume, in a daze, does so. Seaweed Hair then goes through surveilance, looking for some hint as to the whereabouts of his "master". Yes, that is going to be more and more cringeworthy as time passes. Then he notices the Abandoned Dorm, and this means something to him. Then, apropo of nothing more than convenient dramatic timing, Asuka appears on a video screen to ask Seaweed Hair if he found anything. Blah blah, nothing interesting, and he is called to the conference room, where all the cards have been gathered. And holy moly, that is a lot of cards that don't work. Blah blah blah, the Ojamas appear and make noise, they see something odd about the cards, and engage in unfunny comedy. Then Seaweed Hair enters the room, and is aghast at the sight of the cards, which are covered in dark shadows. Blah blah blah, Seaweed Hair wants the cards disposed of immediately, no wait, he wants to kill them with fire. Everyone is all WTF, Cards are the soul of a duelist don't you know, and no one thinks it would be a good idea to get someone as unhinged as Seaweed Hair out of the room and away from the cards.
EYECATCH!
Now the cards are in cases in a basement, and Seaweed Hair emerges from hiding after Manjoume and Asuka leave. He opens one of the cases, dark fog overflows, and apparently he can magically set things on fire. The fire system goes off, Asuka Shou and Manjoume rush to the room, Kenzan shows up with a Fire Extinguisher, but it is too late, all the cards are ruined. Then dark plumes begin to rise from the cards, and the group is oblivious to this as they wonder how on Earth a fire could have started in a place like this? I mean, it's not like they knew a guy who wanted to burn all the cards into ashes, right? The rolling dark fog is now outside, and the only to notice is Winged Kuriboh, who just to be conveniently flying around away from Judai. And now its going to Judai. Cut to Seaweed Hair who's running through the woods, saying something about how time is running out and he needs to tell "him" right away. The dark fog is in pursuit, Seaweed Hair has reached the abandoned dorm, but oh noes, the darkness has caught up with him, and he has no Magic Missile to shoot it with! Rolling, weaving, dodging, and Seaweed Hair is trapped against a giant rock. But what is this? Judai is here to save the day! I'm not being sarcastic with my excitement at all! Judai tells Winged Kuriboh to stay back, he jumps down, tells Seaweed Hair he'll deal with him later, and then he tells the darkness to show itself so that they can settle this in a duel. The darkness begins to coalesce, saying it never thought it would encounter a human who could sense it, and Judai says he's got mysterious powers too. I hate Judai, have I ever mentioned that? Blah blah blah, the darkness can sense something strange about Judai, and now is as good a time as any to mention; the Duel Discs now have trims on them with colors according to the owner's dorm. It doesn't mean anything, it's just a detail that I felt like pointing out.
Then the darkness takes the form of a man in a PVC leather suit, wearing shades with his hair short and cropped. That's nice. He can tell that Judai isn't on "their" side, Judai says he'd die before working with someone like him...Judai? You fused yourself with a psychotic and obsessive monster who'd tormented and killed countless people, directly or otherwise. This guy? All he's done so far is to keep a bunch of cards from working, and stalking the one guy who could stop him. You are in no fucking position to act like you can be on any sort of moral high ground with regards to anyone, especially this guy. PVC leather man agrees, says he'll kill Judai and any other obstacle in his way, Judai says he'll kill him first, and the duel begins. PVC goes first and summons Dark Archetype, which just looks really weird. Then he sets a card and ends his turn. For some reason Judai feels the need to comment on how he's never seen Dark Archetype before, even though he's run into countless new cards without commentary in the past. What makes this one different? Absolutely nothing, its just pure arbitrariness. Judai goes on about how he'll fight his own way no matter what, and takes his turn. First he sets a card and plays Fusion, sending Bubbleman and Featherman to the grave for Sailorman. Blah blah blah, pontification about duel strategies and the meanings thereof, Judai activates De-Fusion to split Sailorman back into Bubbleman and Featherman, and then he sacrifices them both for Neos. He attacks, and PVC leather man activates his trap card, Zero Gazer; he reduces his monster's attack power to zero when it is attacked, and then draws one card. Judai's all WTF, Dark Archetype is destroyed for 2500 points of damage, and now PVC activates its effect; he gets to special summon a monster from his deck who's attack power equals the damage he took, and then he discards monsters such that their combined levels equals the level of the monster he just summoned. So he sends a level 4 and a level 3 monster to the grave to special summon Reign-Beaux. Hey, it's that one monster that Judai kept wanting to destroy over and over again. I wonder if this will get a reaction out of him...apparently not.
PVC leather man's turn, he equips Reign-Beaux with Axe of Despair to increase its attack power by 1000, PVC thinks that Judai will be helpless if Neos is destroyed, but Judai activates Hero Shield; he equips it to Neos so that it gets destroyed in its place, and then he gets to draw one card for every 1000 points of damage he just took. PVC leather man ends his turn, Judai takes his, blah blah blah, Judai fails at trash talk and activates Neo-Space to increase Neos's attack power by 500, then he quips Neos with Neos Force to raise its attack by an additional 800, it attacks, Neos Force does damage equal to the destroyed monster's attack power, and opening with the season with the hero curbstomping the new villain is not exactly a great way of establishing him as a threat. And look at that, PVC leather man had three more cards in his hand, none of them could have helped him out at all? Anyway, PVC leather man dissolves away, but says this isn't over with, he'll get Judai next time, and now memories of Inspector Gadget dance through my head. That is not a good thing. Seaweed Hair then thanks Judai, Judai demands to know who he is and why he was being chased by a man dressed in a PVC leather outfit, Seaweed Hair tries to pull his routine, but Judai flashes his Yubel eyes, because he has those now, and says that won't work on him. Once again, he demands to know who Seaweed Hair really is, and like every time before, this attempt to make Judai look badass and threatening fails miserably. When I look at him, all I can see is the dolt who sat on his ass while his friends were being brainwashed by an apocalyptic cult, not a care in his empty little skull. End episode, and our new ending sequence. As with the new openeing, it is far superior to what came before, but it's far too late to try and polish this turd.
NEXT TIME! Shou wonders what the heck is going on, Judai looks at a feather, and decides that it is time for him to leave Duel Academia. And of course, Shou has no problem being utterly dependent on Judai for absolutely everything, and since he's the only one ever allowed to do anything, he is right to do so. EPISODE TITLE, FAREWELL DUEL ACADEMIA! THE PATH JUDAI CHOOSES. card of the week is dark archetype.
Well, this episode couldn't help but be an improvement over last season. Unfortunately, it is still quite terrible. Also, funny story; it turns out that it was only this season that Shin Yoshida was responsible. The preceeding shitfest was someone elses ugly and deformed baby. Don't worry though, Yoshida hasn't gotten any better since DOMA and his glorious mangling of the Memory World arc, so there's plenty of fail yet to unfold.