A Yu-Gi-Oh Book a Day Keeps the DooDoo Away

[sreddous]

I spent the majority of today in an extraordinarily bad mood because of insurmountable technical difficulties regarding editing the videos that my Yu-Gi-Oh cosplaying friends and I recorded recently; however, my life has this way of, every time, rearranging events so that I never hold too-belligerent a disposition for too long.

I’m still in a tetchy frame of mind even as I type this; however, something amazing happened today, and I figure it best to focus on the positive. At about 3:00p, my brother answered the door and then, loudly proclaimed to the house, “What is this? I can’t read this box.” I remembered suddenly that a few days before International Best Day of the Year Day, I’d ordered a fart-load of Yu-Gi-Oh mangas from Japan (I’m lucky enough to have a friend who’s studying abroad and who can mail stuff to me!). Amazed that the box was now dropped onto the table by my confused sibling, I tore open the box to find 11 volumes of the Yu-Gi-Oh! "Bunkoban" Series. [link]

In my never-ending quest to find supplemental material to accentuate my Japanese classes at school, I researched potential books that I’d love desperately as well as would also help me learn. I ordered the Yu-Gi-Oh 10th Anniversary Animation Book in April (and you can see me reading it in my Megacon News Report at 5:44!
), and I already own the 4th Egypt Arc Yu-Gi-Oh manga in Japanese. Not related to Yu-Gi-Oh, for Christmas,
got me the first volume of X 1999 and then several travel magazines, all in Japanese. These books make learning that much more realistic, and why shouldn’t it- honestly, how many of you have picked up Japanese phrases by watching your favorite shows?

I stumbled upon another website that told me that Kazuki Takahashi had actually re-released the Yu-Gi-Oh series after it was finished in Japan; essentially the same as the other Yu-Gi-Oh mangas otherwise, he fixed some animation errors, re-wrote some dialogue, and even added new scenes here and there. More interestingly, he hand-drew 22 new covers for the books (longer than the original books- he condensed the entire series into 22 books instead of the usual almost-40) and also took “tarot” themes and drew Yu-Gi-Oh -related pictures regarding them. Some of the books have fascinating little inserts that offer more sketches and side notes from Takahashi himself. This series was called the "Bunkoban" series, and I ordered 11 of these books.

After 1.5 years of classes, I can read about a third of the books’ content; as my classes progress, I’ll figure out more vocabulary and recognize more Kanji; but, now, I’m enjoying the books greatly with the extent of my knowledge, particularly enjoying Pegasus’ style of speech (Literally translated, he often says “Haroooo, Kaiba-Boooooy!”). I actually almost entirely forgot about being angry at my camera and technical problems while reading volume 21, because I found that Takahashi had added a scene not found in the other mangas: a scene where Priest Seto hides Kisara elsewhere in the palace so that Akhenaden can’t find her to kill her by taking the Blue-Eyes White Dragon; Akhenaden kills a guard for allowing Seto to do this so secretly. Volume 18 shows a Disney-World-esque park map of Kaiba Land, showing you, with detailed numbered descriptions, all of the amazing attractions that Seto Kaiba built for the kiddies (there is literally a giant statue of Seto Kaiba in the middle of Kaiba Land. I bet kids can take their pictures with it for $50). Unbelievable.

Here are some various pictures of the “Tarot” inserts that come with each book, including the “Strength” theme given to Kaiba: [link] ; the “Judgement” theme given to Atem’s court: [link] ; “The Justice” theme given to Shadi: [link] ; “The Chariot” theme given to Priest Seto and two Blue-Eyes: [link] ; and “The Sun” theme given to Yami Marik, Joey, Yami Yugi and Ra: [link] ;. I’m still sifting through all of the books (they’re so awesome it’s kind of overwhelming ahahahaha!) and will probably post more pictures later; but, I guess this entire journal is about lifting my mood by spreading EXCITABLE OMGZ LOOK AT GREAT YUGIOH STUFF YAAAAAAAAAY joy.