Oh! dear...
Jun. 27th, 2005 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotI don't like card games. Solitaire, go fish, poker, none of that has ever been terribly entertaining to me. This carries over to the fighting card games, excepting a brief flirtation with Magic: The Gathering in high school, and even then it was more for the pretty pictures than the gameplay. Card games bore me. And do you know what's even more boring than playing a card game? Reading about a card game being played!
So why, for the love of little fishes, do I like Yu-Gi-Oh so darn much?
Obviously, because I am weak. I haven't actually seen a single episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, mainly because I do not watch dubs, and I particularly do not watch 4Kids dubs with their extra special brand of spindling and mutilation, even before they dared trespass on those pirates most precious to me. However, for the last year or so I've been getting the translated manga as Viz puts it out, currently up to volume 12.
X-parrot reads the Yu-Gi-Oh manga:
Yeah. That's been the story pretty much every volume.
I like the art well enough, once it settles into itself, nothing spectacularly unique, but it's coolly stylized and appealing. In the usual shounen way, once my brain/hormones have adjusted to the art, the chars sure are pretty. And they've got the usual array of interesting backstories and noble values and absurd ambitions.
In terms of the story itself, when it's not boring me to tears with the cards (I preferred the first few volumes for that, actually; the various not-card games were ridiculous but clever) - it's best described as obvious. From the very first chapter, with Yugi's single desperate wish to have friends he can believe in, who can believe in him, and how he makes that wish come true simply by doing it, it's incredibly cheesy. One Piece has relationships so solid, their foundations so clearly established, that they're rarely if ever stated aloud. In Yu-Gi-Oh they go about declaring their love and friendship and willingness to do anything for each other practically every chapter. It's horribly, tackily, overtly manipulative. Honestly, now, would I fall for such cheap emotional ploys?
Every single damn time.
In fact I go and reread that incredibly cheesy beginning. Because--yeah, it's as artistically subtle as a two-ton mallet. But even in shounen manga there are few stories so completely upfront about doling out the smarm. Jounouchi's absolute loyalty to his friend and to the ideal of friendship, the joy he takes in just being Yugi's friend, in having someone count on him like that--it's irresistible. There's a healthy yaoi following for the series, and I can see where it's coming from, moreso as it goes along, but really I'm not especially interested. The friendships are enough. --Also, while I don't adore any of the female chars as much as others, I don't dislike them, either, and am not opposed to the suggested het pairings. I very much enjoy how Anzu is fully part of the gang. The bit in Death-T when she draws the smiley-face on their hands made me squeal. And as a romantic interest, the little scene on the dueling island where Anzu's talking to Yugi, and he says she really wants Yami and goes to bring him out, and she gets upset - so sweet.
Yugi is such an incredible sweetie all around, I'm terrible fond of him. He's a slight change from the usual shounen hero by being, not actually stupid, but such a total pushover. And his relationship with Yami intrigues; the split personality is a manga staple, but I like how, as with Daisuke and Dark, he's becoming friends with his "other me". Yami calling him "aibou" like I've seen in later chapters, that's just too cute.
Then there's Kaiba Seto. Ahhh, Kaiba. Yeah, I know he's fangirl bait, the obligatory tall dark sonuvabitch. I can't help it. I am a fangirl, and he's too damn cool. With the kicking butt and taking names and not flinching from guns pointed in his face by his backstabbing bodyguards. And he's hot--how the heck did that work? Ugly card-obsessed billionaire loses a game, loses his mind, goes into a coma, wakes up a super bishie with bizarrely sexy fashion sense. Um, okay. Shadow Game penalty game makeover: The next best thing to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. But who am I to argue!
And he loves his little brother--is learning to love him again, after losing his soul for his sake. AWWWW. Kill me by inches, why don't you. The Kaiba brothers are fast sneaking up on my favorite relationship list. This video is unbelievably cute, and this hug? This is one of the cutest hugs ever. If anyone can tell me what episode I need to frantically track down to see it, I would be much obliged. (and where's this one from? Eek! So. Much. Cute.) Mokuba was such a hideous little toad his first appearances, too; when'd he get so downright adorable? (I know, I know, right about the time he put a matching locket around his brother's neck and said, 'I'll wait for you. Forever.' Seriously. KILLING ME.)
The worst part is? I'm starting to give in to the card games. I mean, they're no substitute for fight shounen pseudoscience, with the swords and superspeed and wrestling and all that. But the Black Magician is, umm, remarkably attractive for a holographically embodied playing card. And the Blue Eyes White Dragons are cool. And the shadow games are often mortal fights with lives on the line, so they don't lack in intensity.
Of course, I had to go looking for fic, and ran into the same problems as always--there's oodles of YGO fic out there, and it's all pairings, het or yaoi. Sigh. Through trial and error, Kaiba/Yami is coming out to interest me the most, but really, as usual, what I most crave is the virtually non-existent genfic. Preferably a hurt/comfort epic with the usual Jounouchi-worrying-about-Yugi and Yami-being-protective-of-everybody-especially-Yugi, and lots of Seto worrying his little pointed head about Mokuba and being a cold bastard to everyone else, though not so cold that they can't see the cracks here and there. And NOT one in which Mokuba dies in a car crash or whatever, since from skimming ff.net that seems to be a standard way to break Kaiba, in order for Yami to put him back together. Kaiba can reassemble himself, thank you; he did so once before, and while true, he might not be able to manage it after that trauma--the cute little brother is for hugging. Not killing. Please. --It is, however, perfectly accepted to pretend to kill him and bring him back, with the requisite hugs afterwards. Why are 'presumed dead' fics so rare in anime fandom? They're a staple of Western smarm, and a terrible weakness of mine, I miss them.
I have found a few good stories:
"White Chicken" - Kaiba-sib smarm, it is to squee. Too too cute.
Need to check more of this author out, it's Kaiba/Yami, but there looks to be enough (not dead) Mokuba to make me happy.
"Kite" - this one's simply clever; one hardly needs to know the fandom to get it, just a general familiarity with cliche.
Anyone got more recs? Feed me~~!
So why, for the love of little fishes, do I like Yu-Gi-Oh so darn much?
Obviously, because I am weak. I haven't actually seen a single episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, mainly because I do not watch dubs, and I particularly do not watch 4Kids dubs with their extra special brand of spindling and mutilation, even before they dared trespass on those pirates most precious to me. However, for the last year or so I've been getting the translated manga as Viz puts it out, currently up to volume 12.
X-parrot reads the Yu-Gi-Oh manga:
Hee, Yugi is so adorable! *pats*
Aww, they're such good friends, joking with each other! *coo*
Ah, they're playing cards. *yawn*
Oh, they're still playing cards. Do I need to know the rules? Likely not. *skims*
Eh, they're still playing cards. It's a good thing you're cute, Yami Yugi, or this book would so be dropped by now. Though that's a endearing little furry card monster. *flips page*
Urgh, the cards, they are still being played. *flips faster*
Umm, Kaiba, when the hell did you get to be so HOT? Even if you are playing cards. Forget the cards. Go hug your little brother. Please? *meep*
Annnd, we are back to the cards. 'Bwaha, I have sixty-six billion more points than you and you cannot beat me in a million years, unless you draw your super extra rare kill-everything card! --What's that? You just drew it! Drat!' *sigh*
You know, I should probably just read this in Borders, since I'm really not that into i--WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN IT ENDS THERE? WHY IS THE NEXT VOLUME NOT OUT YET? GIVE ME THE NEXT VOLUME NOW!!!
Yeah. That's been the story pretty much every volume.
I like the art well enough, once it settles into itself, nothing spectacularly unique, but it's coolly stylized and appealing. In the usual shounen way, once my brain/hormones have adjusted to the art, the chars sure are pretty. And they've got the usual array of interesting backstories and noble values and absurd ambitions.
In terms of the story itself, when it's not boring me to tears with the cards (I preferred the first few volumes for that, actually; the various not-card games were ridiculous but clever) - it's best described as obvious. From the very first chapter, with Yugi's single desperate wish to have friends he can believe in, who can believe in him, and how he makes that wish come true simply by doing it, it's incredibly cheesy. One Piece has relationships so solid, their foundations so clearly established, that they're rarely if ever stated aloud. In Yu-Gi-Oh they go about declaring their love and friendship and willingness to do anything for each other practically every chapter. It's horribly, tackily, overtly manipulative. Honestly, now, would I fall for such cheap emotional ploys?
Every single damn time.
In fact I go and reread that incredibly cheesy beginning. Because--yeah, it's as artistically subtle as a two-ton mallet. But even in shounen manga there are few stories so completely upfront about doling out the smarm. Jounouchi's absolute loyalty to his friend and to the ideal of friendship, the joy he takes in just being Yugi's friend, in having someone count on him like that--it's irresistible. There's a healthy yaoi following for the series, and I can see where it's coming from, moreso as it goes along, but really I'm not especially interested. The friendships are enough. --Also, while I don't adore any of the female chars as much as others, I don't dislike them, either, and am not opposed to the suggested het pairings. I very much enjoy how Anzu is fully part of the gang. The bit in Death-T when she draws the smiley-face on their hands made me squeal. And as a romantic interest, the little scene on the dueling island where Anzu's talking to Yugi, and he says she really wants Yami and goes to bring him out, and she gets upset - so sweet.
Yugi is such an incredible sweetie all around, I'm terrible fond of him. He's a slight change from the usual shounen hero by being, not actually stupid, but such a total pushover. And his relationship with Yami intrigues; the split personality is a manga staple, but I like how, as with Daisuke and Dark, he's becoming friends with his "other me". Yami calling him "aibou" like I've seen in later chapters, that's just too cute.
Then there's Kaiba Seto. Ahhh, Kaiba. Yeah, I know he's fangirl bait, the obligatory tall dark sonuvabitch. I can't help it. I am a fangirl, and he's too damn cool. With the kicking butt and taking names and not flinching from guns pointed in his face by his backstabbing bodyguards. And he's hot--how the heck did that work? Ugly card-obsessed billionaire loses a game, loses his mind, goes into a coma, wakes up a super bishie with bizarrely sexy fashion sense. Um, okay. Shadow Game penalty game makeover: The next best thing to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. But who am I to argue!
And he loves his little brother--is learning to love him again, after losing his soul for his sake. AWWWW. Kill me by inches, why don't you. The Kaiba brothers are fast sneaking up on my favorite relationship list. This video is unbelievably cute, and this hug? This is one of the cutest hugs ever. If anyone can tell me what episode I need to frantically track down to see it, I would be much obliged. (and where's this one from? Eek! So. Much. Cute.) Mokuba was such a hideous little toad his first appearances, too; when'd he get so downright adorable? (I know, I know, right about the time he put a matching locket around his brother's neck and said, 'I'll wait for you. Forever.' Seriously. KILLING ME.)
The worst part is? I'm starting to give in to the card games. I mean, they're no substitute for fight shounen pseudoscience, with the swords and superspeed and wrestling and all that. But the Black Magician is, umm, remarkably attractive for a holographically embodied playing card. And the Blue Eyes White Dragons are cool. And the shadow games are often mortal fights with lives on the line, so they don't lack in intensity.
Of course, I had to go looking for fic, and ran into the same problems as always--there's oodles of YGO fic out there, and it's all pairings, het or yaoi. Sigh. Through trial and error, Kaiba/Yami is coming out to interest me the most, but really, as usual, what I most crave is the virtually non-existent genfic. Preferably a hurt/comfort epic with the usual Jounouchi-worrying-about-Yugi and Yami-being-protective-of-everybody-especially-Yugi, and lots of Seto worrying his little pointed head about Mokuba and being a cold bastard to everyone else, though not so cold that they can't see the cracks here and there. And NOT one in which Mokuba dies in a car crash or whatever, since from skimming ff.net that seems to be a standard way to break Kaiba, in order for Yami to put him back together. Kaiba can reassemble himself, thank you; he did so once before, and while true, he might not be able to manage it after that trauma--the cute little brother is for hugging. Not killing. Please. --It is, however, perfectly accepted to pretend to kill him and bring him back, with the requisite hugs afterwards. Why are 'presumed dead' fics so rare in anime fandom? They're a staple of Western smarm, and a terrible weakness of mine, I miss them.
I have found a few good stories:
"White Chicken" - Kaiba-sib smarm, it is to squee. Too too cute.
Need to check more of this author out, it's Kaiba/Yami, but there looks to be enough (not dead) Mokuba to make me happy.
"Kite" - this one's simply clever; one hardly needs to know the fandom to get it, just a general familiarity with cliche.
Anyone got more recs? Feed me~~!
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 05:45 pm (UTC)The manga's up to vol 35 in French. Three guesses how/why I know. (hangs head)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 06:43 am (UTC)Seto obviously hired the same tailor as Legato Bluesummers. All it needs is shoulder spikes and a human skull.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 07:50 pm (UTC)Totally saw this happen before. I always disregarded the stylization as terribly ugly, but after a sadistic friend dragged us all out for the YGO Movie, I came to see the (aesthetic) appeal. Kaiba may be pretty tasteless, but he's .. dammit, he's sexy. And the unrelenting simplicity that is shounen-brand FRIENDSHIP and LOVE and SPEND MORE MONEY is hard to resist, really. This was followed by obssessive card game playing, and the fic search, and the fic writing, and the doujin purchasing. Merciless cycle, merciless cycle, O that you've dragged another one into your murky depths T_T
Half genfic, half yaoi--I'm rather fond of this one: http://adultfan.nexcess.net/aff/story.php?no=544170645
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 06:57 am (UTC)I forgot to mention the mad merchandising! ...I really, truly don't like cardgames. I know the damn game would bore me in practice. I read the manga and start wanting to play it anyway >_<
Actually I must give Takahashi Kazuki credit, the manga doesn't read nearly as much as an extended advertisement as it could - it manages to give more the feeling of being written by a geek who really really likes his cardgames. But good grief. I am so lucky American merchandisers haven't figured out that they can sell stuff to me with appeals to the pure pounding cute of friendshipping.
doujinshi! --no. no, I am strong, and I honestly don't want yaoi, and...and... >_______>
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 08:09 am (UTC)And it is SO disgustingly cute. Dammit. One of my biggest squicks is sibcest (it's a personal thing, I am extremely close to my own two sibs, so the thought of turning that kind of relationship sexual is just *ewwwww*). But the Kaiba bros are making it DIFFICULT. It's not like there's any question of who's the other's "most important person"...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 11:00 pm (UTC)She doesn't write straight YGO, however -- crossovers are her method of choice (unfortunately, perhaps? dunno how you feel about x-overs). Very well-written crossovers, though, and the crosses make sense when read -- in order (it's all one big universe): Foreign xChange (cross w/X-Men), Whistling Past the Graveyard (companion to Fx), and Roll the Bones (sequel, cross w/Sentinel), w/ a couple scattered side stories. ^_^ (also -- don't know how far you've gotten for YGO? just a warning, the fics can be pretty spoilery)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-07 08:27 am (UTC)Come over to the DAAAARK SIIIIIIIDE!
Date: 2005-08-01 02:57 pm (UTC)As I originally did with DBZ, I had dismissed YGO out of hand for a long time. The "subtle-as-a-mallet" opening chapters reluctantly intrigued me (being the total sucker for friendship stories that I am) and each additional WAFF-fest chapter intrigued me a little bit more. I tried checking out the anime, but whereas I can deal with the DBZ dub (and actually, it was the dubbed anime that originally hooked me on the series), the YGO dub is just OMG KILL ME NOW PLEASE kind of bad. ^_^
Anyway, a few months ago I accidentally ran across some scanslations of later chapters of the YGO manga. Now, I should point out that I'm usually REALLY good about avoid fan-trans of licensed series. I even quit downloading Full Metal Alchemist fansubs when it was licensed (with the result that I now have to avoid most anime fan sites because the series and the MASSIVE SPOILERS THEREIN have become so ubiquitous). So I have no idea what made me read some chapters of a manga that I was kinda lukewarm on.
I downloaded and read pretty nearly the whole damn series in about 2 days. This in spite of the fact that the scanslations were very poor quality and intermittently missing chapters. I skipped the Pegasus arc because I wanted to give myself a good incentive to keep buying the official manga, but the rest of it, I practically swallowed whole. I can't believe how much I have come to love this series considering that the card battles bore me to tears, the writing is generally mediocre even when it isn't being mis-translated by someone with only a limited grasp of English grammar, and the plots are trite to the nth degree. I don't care. It's a nonstop wallow in friendship WAFFiness and I adore it. It was a sad, sad day for me when I realized that I was actually beginning to understand the rules of the card game.
Anyway, I'm overjoyed that you're writing fic for the series now, because I had discovered that same dearth of gen fic that you complained about above -- it's pretty damn hard to find ANY well-written fic for this series, slash, gen or otherwise. Mostly what I've been looking for is Jounouchi/Yugi friendship smarm, which is of course completely non-existent. I may have to write my own...
-Layla (Sholio)
Re: Come over to the DAAAARK SIIIIIIIDE!
Date: 2005-08-01 03:33 pm (UTC)I have to ask - is there any chance you still have the scanlations? I have looked everywhere, and cannot find them; the site they were on appears to be down. I'm planning on picking up some of the later volumes in Japanese because I just can't wait for Viz, but would be nice to have them translated (even semi-translated; I did find the Jounouchi-goes-evil chapters, which gives me an idea of the quality of the script...) (if you don't have them anymore or don't feel comfortable sharing a licensed series, I fully understand; I tend to be pretty easy about things that are not actually available for purchase, but know not everyone is, um, so morally flexible. I just have to ask!)
...I also had to see the anime, especially since I couldn't have the manga. And since I have zero dub tolerance anyway, I ended up getting bootlegs of the whole thing. so now I've seen up through Battle City of the anime, and while the manga is definitely superior (not to mention the anime starts with v.8, so it misses so much good stuff!) it's still great fun to watch. And some of the filler is hella cute, too...
And. Eheh. Yes. Fic. Soon to be quite a lot of fic, because the last time I was bitten by this many simultaneous plotbunnies was, hmm, GetBackers, two years ago. Though I'm sorry to say it might not be what you're looking for - it's all gen, but it's also all Kaiba-brothers focused. Not that it won't have the others (and Yugi and Jou are my faves after the Kaibas) but I have sort of fallen completely hopelessly for Seto and Mokuba. (the series may be as cliche as anything, but I maintain Kaiba is a fascinating character for being at first glance a painfully classic stereotypical rival, but then having all sorts of unexpected facets. His undenied and entirely reciprocated devotion to his little brother being one of the big ones. And the element that really tipped me over into fanning...it was the bit with the lockets that did it, in the end.)
That being said...I would looooove Jou-Yugi smarm. I have found, umm, NONE, and not for lack of searching. And you, writing Jou-Yugi smarm *happy shivers* Please, please do? you know you waaaant to!
Re: Come over to the DAAAARK SIIIIIIIDE!
Date: 2005-08-04 04:04 am (UTC)As far as making a copy for you, actually, I have no problem at all with that. In for a dollar, in for a dime. :D It's too big to email, so I'll need to burn a disk. Let me email you privately to work out the details.
Re: Come over to the DAAAARK SIIIIIIIDE!
Date: 2005-08-04 05:40 pm (UTC)