YGO scanspam

[xparrot]

Finished v.16 (Duelist v.9), and couldn't wait until next month, so I picked up my Japanese v.17 - and found I could read it! Admittedly it takes me as long to read a single chapter as it does to read the entire volume in English, and I wasn't looking up words so was missing bits. But a couple hours of Japanese studies a day is paying off! I can read manga intended for 12 year old boys! ...Er. Yeah.

Still! Too cute, the beginning of the volume, with Yugi beating Otogi - "Otogi-kun, I wasn't thinking about inheriting the power of the puzzle; I just wanted to see my other self...that's all I wanted." Seriously. So Canon. And then Jounouchi staying behind and carrying Yugi out of the fire...now that's a friend. Aww.

And now some Japanese manga scans, with my translations below the scans. (And naturally corrections on my translations are greatly appreciated.)

But first a cute Y/Y pic from v.17.


Aww.



Then, several pages from v. 27 concerning Kaiba's reform of KaibaCorp and the Duel Tower on Alcatraz, because I've been wondering what the story is in the manga. (Ack, so much new vocab! Even if they all do talk in nice non-slangy ways.)


Pg.112
A tower rising from the rubble...
Are the finals going to be conducted on top of that tower...?!!

Kaiba: Proceed to the tower, Duelists!

Mokuba: Outa the way~
Make way for Nii-sama!

Pg. 113
Yugi: Kaiba-kun...what the heck are these ruins...!?

Kaiba: Perhaps one should call this tragic wreckage the symbol of the founder of Kaiba Corporation, my adopted father's, remains...

Yugi: ...!
(We'd heard it from Mokuba-kun before...
When the Kaibas were children they were adopted and raised by a man called Kaiba...
And after their adopted father passed away, they took over Kaiba Corporation...)

Kaiba: Ten years past, the high tech of Kaiba Corporation, established by that man (Kaiba Gozaburo), was a leader in fulfilling defense contracts worldwide...
This island Alcatraz was constructed to be the base of such industry...


Pg. 114
Kaiba: Three years ago--the virtual reality system that I developed was also used for a certain country's military simulators, making an enormous profit! [I'm tempted to translate this as "he made a killing", which fits so perfectly in spirit, if not literally accurate...]
He (my adopted father) sold over my soul to the military industry!
He...after he died--I turned Kaiba Corporation's high tech to the game industry and swore to reconstruct it.
And destroying all the industrial establishments he left behind--I founded a new Kaiba Corporation!
These ruins are one such of that.

Yugi: (The Duel Disk developed by Kaiba-kun...
That there is such a reality behind it...)

Jounouchi: Ke'!
(So who's the guy who went and built a theme park of death like Death-T, huh?!)

Pg. 115
Kaiba: In challenge I built the Duel Tower among this rubble!
When the title of Duel King is won on the tower's summit!!
I will have proof that I have surpassed everything of that man!


...Oh, Kaiba-kun. Has it ever occurred to you that therapy would be so much cheaper?



Pg. 116
Kaiba: Yugi! That's when I will defeat you!

Yami: Kaiba!! Damn, you're so hot when you're being all completely fscking crazy! [--What? He's clearly thinking it!]

Jounouchi: Kaibaa!! Pisses me off that you'd forget about me!
I'll kick your ass and show you who's boss of this mountain of rubble after all!

Kaiba: Hmph!
The bonkotsu [mediocre] duelist on the verge of scrap!
That's so you, to be buried even by rubble...

Jounouchi: What...!!
(That...that~~I am so gonna kick his ass!)

Mokuba: Everyone, head for the tower!


No particular reason to include this page, the snarking just amused me.

Has anyone ever noticed that Kaiba speaks in metaphors constantly? He doesn't do it as much in the anime, I don't think, but in the manga he's downright poetical. It's a nice character trait, fits with his bad habit of making every game he plays symbolic of something else. The boy really needs to learn to lighten up. One (or two or three) life-or-death games does not mean they all have to be.
(It also looks to me like Kaiba speaks in written form sometimes - he uses "de aru" and verb stems instead of te form on occasion? Not sure what that indicates, but I suspect it's a fairly formal speech pattern.)

And Mokuba and Seto both call Gozaburo "yatsu" - "that guy" - more than by name. Quite disrespectful; it gives an idea of their feelings for their dear adopted father.


And here in v.31, the end of Battle City, is what I believe to be the last chibi-Kaiba flashback in the manga.


pg.184
Kaiba: Hmph...
The ruins of Kaiba Corporation's defense industry...
This is our last look at it...
The symbol of Kaiba Gozaburo's malice...
All of it will become flotsam in the sea.

Mokuba: Nii-sama...
The inputting's completed!

Kaiba: (Yuugi...
You defeated me on this tower...
At that battle he said...
There is no victory before anger and hatred...
The power of friendship...
Huh...)

Pg. 185
Password confirmed.

Kaiba: (Yuugi...with the millennium item and the people you care about, you came to fight a shadow game to the bitter end...)

Mokuba: Nii-sama, hurry!

Kaiba: (But I also...
Came to fight the malice of Gozaburo haunting my heart.
That too was a shadow game!!
Would it be possible for me to overcome his hatred...
Even if I destroyed this tower...
The road that awaits me from before...)


Pg. 186
Kaiba: (That long ago day...
The dream of the promise made with Mokuba...)

Chibi-Mokuba: The sand amusement park's complete!

Chibi-Seto: Mokuba!
You nii-san's dream...is to make amusement parks all around the world...!

Chibi-M: Wow!!
I'll make them too!

Chibi-S: They won't be parks of sand like this.
They'll be amusement parks where kids without parents, like at this institution, can play for free!

Chibi-M: So then everyone can play!

Chibi-S: Yes!

Pg. 187
Kaiba: (My heart as well...maybe, like this Alcatraz, is buried in the rubble...
Sleeping under the rubble...
My road...) [Bit of Japanese wordplay - the katakana is "road" (the English word) but the reading is given in kanji as "dream."]

Alcatraz detonation--five minutes remaining!!


I don't know, I just find that little flashback almost heart-breaking. I mean, Seto's so happy! Playing in a sandbox in a collared shirt and vest! Oh, Seto, you were such a ten-year-old preppy.

And dreaming about making other kids happy...I'm gonna wind up writing a whole essay on Kaiba sooner or later, but Seto is in some ways the opposite of Jounouchi and Yugi - they started out being people they didn't like being very much - bullies, or cowards - and grow up into stronger and better people; while as Seto started out a wonderful little kid, who was almost destroyed, and is now slowly working back toward what he once was. Which is ironic, given that Seto is the one who proclaims he's only looking to the future while really trying to reclaim his past, and Yugi-tachi are all moving forward while on the search for the Pharaoh's past.

Also, chibi-Seto refers to himself as "nii-san." I'm guessing "nii-sama" was Gozaburo's instruction, since they were upper class kids, but it might've been Mokuba's choice. But in the orphanage it probably was still just nii-san.

And now I have Japanese homework to do. Because sadly this doesn't count as such.

Comments

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

Phallic tower phallic tower phallic tower phallic tower rising rising rising rising ...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

but his purpose is to destroy the tower. Paging Freud...

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

Then that must mean .. he's .. trying to destroy his sex drive! Oh Kaiba, whyyy?? (It's your BROTHER, isn't it, isn't it?? Mustn't soil him, mustn't despoil him ...)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that... XD

[praiseofshadows.livejournal.com]

Also, chibi-Seto refers to himself as "nii-san." I'm guessing "nii-sama" was Gozaburo's instruction, since they were upper class kids, but it might've been Mokuba's choice. But in the orphanage it probably was still just nii-san.


I've always wondered about that myself. I mean, in the anime Mokuba (and Seto in the scene above) consistently refers to Seto as "Nisama" throughout the orphanage period, but I thought perhaps that was just done for the sake of making the anime flashbacks easier to follow. And since now in the manga it is "Nisan" in that scene....I'm very much intrigued as to why they changed it (and consequently when Mokuba made the "switch")

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Does he use "nii-sama" or "nii-san" in the sandbox flashback in the anime? The previous anime flashbacks in Duelist Kingdom make sense, because they're not in the manga, so the anime creators had no authority from Takahashi on what Mokuba used then and would have just gone with the standard. I think this one page is the only other chibi-Kaiba-flashback in the manga, other than the end of Death-T? And since Mokuba isn't the one who says it, it is possible Mokuba was using "nii-sama" even then. Though I think upperclass children are more likely to use such formal forms (Kaiba talks pretty formally, I'm guessing as befits a CEO, though not positive), so it would make sense if the "nii-sama" started after their adoption.

[praiseofshadows.livejournal.com]

In the sandbox scene, Kaiba uses "Nisama" to refer to himself (which I find too cute for words and utterly squeeworthy). Which is why I have to wonder if in the anime they want to suggest that Kaiba & Mokuba were upper-class before (and uber!preppy Kaiba seems to lend to that...haha). Although I've always had this fantasy that Seto & Mokuba were illegitimate children of a yakuza boss and that was why their relatives were so anxious to dump them off at the orphanage...haha

[scriva.livejournal.com]

I never read the YGO manga. I just watched the show in TV, because it was funny crack, but your scans are sort of cute.

Someone mentioned the phallic symbols before, and I just wanted to add, that Seto, though fundamentally asexual, always striked me as someone who sublimed or repressed his sex drive. Just look at his fascination with really Big Monsters, it just screams overcompensating.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The manga is far and away better than the anime (dubbed or original) in my opinion...it still has the endless cardgames, but the chars are sharper and more interesting.

I like writing Kaiba as asexual myself, but agree that he's just as likely to be pretty deeply repressed. And I wouldn't rule out the childhood abuse as contributing to that.
Of course it could also be that he's card-sexual, the way he orgasms when using Obelisk or the Blue Eyes is...uh... ^^;;;

[immicolia.livejournal.com]

Aw! The Y/Y-ness. Dammit. Now I can't wait until next month.... well, okay, I couldn't wait anyway. But now I'm even more in a state of "OMG!" They are so damn cute. And their love issocanon.

Also worth an AWWW! The tiny!Kaibas. Dammit! Why must they be so adorable. And man, it's just struck me that that's one hell of an impressive sand castle amusement park.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't entirely notice the sand park until I was scanning it. Not just a roller coaster but teacup rides, even!
...not to mention the lockets never cease to slay me with squee. Too dang cute.

[jadeprince.livejournal.com]

Wee! Watch me be totally off-topic. I was just wondering if you guys had gotten any farther with that h/c community. Mostly I was just thinking if I could post part 1 of that Sanji-torture fic I'm working on, it's encourage me to actually finish it...

Any word? ^_^

*flits away back to work*

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

My co-conspirators fled their respective countries and are now settling themselves in Japan, one of them only just got back online, so we're running a bit behind schedule - but we are still planning it. and knowing there's fic for it is much incentive, yessss *craves the Sanji-torture* - will try to get it up soon!! ^__^

[zimarra.livejournal.com]

I am so impressed.
Hey, did you have anything goin on this weekend?
There is an "Arts of JApan" Workshop thing at the Johnson musuem this weekend.. 1-4.. Sat.. food, fun.. you are invited.

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

It’s probably not a good sign when your idea of defending a character is saying, ‘No, he’s not heartless, he’s insane!’

Thanks for posting the scans and the translations. Their arrival on Alcatraz is one of my favorite scenes, partly because it’s one of the few times you really hear Kaiba open up a little. I liked Yugi’s observation that he couldn’t believe the duel disk had that kind of a history, because that really applies to Kaiba himself, although I always wish Yami had been there instead…

I had never seen the translations of the scene where they detonate Alcatraz! (And now that Jenniyah’s site seems closed I’m in scanlation withdrawal.) I’ve always thought that Kaiba grew up playing Shadow Games as destructive as any of the ones depicted involving actual Millenium Items, so it was reall cool to see him recognize this… that was probably my favorite part, as well as the line about the road to his heart being buried under the rubble of Alcatraz.

And I agree, btw with Kaiba being incredibly poetic (which is a nice contrast in someone who seems to spend most of his time practicing his maniacal laugh.) So many of the things he says like ‘it’s like asking for luck in a nightmare,’ or ‘what is in the hearts of men can surpass even God. This is my faith and I will hold to it,’ are just so beautiful. He is, even through the bad subtitling) poetic in the anime, too. One thing they do that I like is that his thoughts are often poetic, but when he speaks, what he says is brief, and usually uttered in a bored or derisive tone.

A friend of mine who reads and speaks Japanese also noticed Kaiba’s speech patterns (I’m not sure if she was referring to the manga or anime.) She asked about it, and was told that sometimes he doesn’t use modern Japanese – that his speech patterns mimic that of a feudal war lord or samurai. (Admittedly, I’m not sure if this is a historically accurate speech pattern or if he sounds like a warrior from a samurai flick.) Anyway the war lord idea seems to tie in to KC’s history. Also one of the few things I’ve read that Kazuki Takahashi said about Kaiba was that he saw him as a warrior, and that he thought meeting Yugi freed him to be one – so having him actually talk like a throwback to that age would be a nice touch.

I do think with Yugi though, that he was never a coward, although he certainly saw himself as one. From the start, he is able to complete the puzzle only because he first demonstrates courage by standing up to the hall monitor whose name I’ve forgotten on Jonouchi and Honda’s behalf. He’s afraid, but he does it anyway, which is true courage in my book. I think it’s more that Yugi learns to recognize and value the qualities that are already inside of him.

Anyay, I could probably ramble on, but I’ve hijacked your LJ long enough…

^ _ ^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, I was looking forward to you coming over to ramble! ^^

I confess that I have developed a bizarre taste for Kaiba/Yugi (all immicolia's fault!), so I rather like the rare bits of interaction they have. Though I like Kaiba/Yami bits too (one guess whose fault that is! ^^) so...anyway, I think either/both of them together probably understand Kaiba the best after Mokuba, because they can see what's in him that's to be admired without getting distracted by everything else about him...

And yes, Kaiba's line about his fight against Gozaburo's malice being a shadow game is great. I translated the bit with the tower's end because I loved that episode of the anime...Kaiba really is trying, the way he's attempting to integrate what Yami told him with his own goals, trying to unbury his heart...lovely stuff. I love the little moment he pauses, before he looks at the locket, there's this sense that for that instant he might be considering just staying behind and letting himself be buried - but his 'road' is still waiting for him, and he decides to walk toward it.

Hmmm, very interesting about Kaiba possibly speaking like a warlord. From what I can tell, his patterns aren't too unusual (nothing as extreme as the way Kenshin speaks, for instance) but I had noticed watching the anime that he uses pretty formal forms, none of the guy slang that is common in shounen (such as what Jounouchi uses). Though a lot of the chars speak like that, actually - some of Yami's patterns are fairly similarly, from what I can tell. In Kaiba's case I was thinking it might be because he is a CEO, so he deliberately speaks like an older man, but if he's really sounding more like a high class warrior - well, it fits his duelist (and ancient high priest) personality perfectly! And the poetry of his speech might reflect that as well, since the classic samurai was educated upperclass, often artists and writers. (I might try translating some of his duel with Isis, I'm curious what he actually says there. Even in the anime's mutilated subs his diatribe against destiny was great.)

And Yugi, I don't think he was a coward, exactly, but cowardice is more than anything a state of mind, and he believed he was one, never having had much opportunity to prove himself wrong. He definitely has what it takes; his growth is in learning that he does, gaining confidence in himself. Especially in the manga, he had serious self-esteem problems to start out with, and didn't really like who he was much more than Jounouchi liked himself...I think Yugi might have let (subconsciously) Yami take total control in the beginning because he didn't think there was much reason to defend his own self. And Yami at that point was so confused that he grabbed onto the identity Yugi offered and didn't bother trying to figure out who he was himself (I have this theory that Yami initially believed he was Yugi's dark side/split personality, just as Yugi thought Yami was. Which brings whole new meaning to the idea of dissociative identity disorder, when even the spirit actually possessing your body doesn't know it!)

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

I actually meant warrior not in a duelist, but in a bushido sense. Back when I was taking Judo, I read part of The Book of 5 Rings, which was this kind of bushido philoophy boook (a philosophy that was somewhat in opposition to the ideals of Judo, which was, in part an attempt to create a way of live/art form/sport that would give a more modern expression to traditional philosphies/concepts)

Anyway, before I totally lose the thread of what I was saying (ooops, too late) the one thing that the book said which has stuck in my mind was something like: when given a choice between life and death, choose death. For only in so doing can you truly commit yourself to your ideals and vows. The idea was that you had to live as if your life meant nothing to free yourself to give everything to your goals and obligations.

I'm not sure if that's what Mr. Takahashi meant by referring to Kaiba as a warrior -- but it sure sounds like him, doesn't it?

And I agree -- I believe that at first Yami thought of himself as Yugi's dark side -- when he doesn't give Pegasus a penalty game, Anzu says that it's because he's afraid that would prove that the Sennen Items (and by extention Yami himself) is evil.

I'd love it if you translated Kaiba's speeches in his duel with Isis *puppy dog eyes* I agree -- even in the mangled subtitled form, the beauty and power of the speeches is evident. I have to say I like the anime and the manga equally. Mr. Takahashi once said that his favorite characters were Yugi and Jonouchi nd to him the story was about their friendship (I think he always had a touch of resentment against Kaiba for refusing to be just an extra in 2 episodes and intruding his way so far into the story) so I like the anime because it is more Kaiba and Yami centric -- for example most of the filler arcs deal with their growth more than with Yugi and Jonouchi, who just don't interest me as much.

As you can see given even the least encouragement, just keep rambling... sort of like the warning in Little Shop of Horrors -- don't feed the plant...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I can see Takahashi-sensei's point, Kaiba wasn't meant to be anything special, and then, judging by the significantly increased role the anime gave him, he must have been a favorite character in Japan as well as here. Would be a bit frustrating as a writer, I'd think - the Conan Doyle syndrome!

While I love getting the extra Kaiba stuff in the anime (the flashbacks are great - during the Noa arc, and I also love the little ones in Duelist Kingdom, especially that 30 second bit of him going after the bullies. Silently and straight for the throat... Not to mention - Tsuda's voice!), I prefer the manga to the anime. Some of that could just be because I was exposed to the manga first, and I still haven't quite gotten over the anime cutting out those first 7 volumes - I know they were animated in the first series, but that series is ignored in Duel Monsters, and not having the background of Death-T just loses so much character development.

Then again, I was reading the manga originally for the Yugi-Jounouchi & co friendship stuff (I am a sucker for friendship stories, always have been) - I remember I went on ff.net about a year ago, looking for fic with them, and ended up complaining to my sister that there wasn't any - "It's all stories about that Kaiba guy! I don't know why he's so popular, he's just this annoying minor villain..." *grin* But the manga didn't flip me over to 'obsessed' until Kaiba's return in Duelist Kingdom - and he's now become one of my favorite fictional chars of all time. So I'm in this strange place, that I'm still entertained by the blatant Yugi-tachi friendshipping stuff, but am always wanting more Kaiba (am happy enough they stuck him into the Millennium World in the anime, because I'm going to miss him in the manga. Even if we are getting Set, who's a trip...Kaiba bowing to someone! To Yami, no less! The very idea... ^__^)

And I'll see about putting up some of the manga Isis duel. ^^ There's also a bit with Kaiba working on translating the Ra card at night on the Battleship and Mokuba watching him, and there might be more about Alcatraz there. There's so very little about Kaiba's past in the manga, and I have this tendency to think of manga as the true and most desirable canon, so I want to know all there is...

[hoshi-ryo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't think therapy would be that much cheaper. For starters, it'd not get anywhere until you got him to admit he had a problem.

The inherit problem in this should be rather obvious.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Actually that's what I find so interesting about these pages - Kaiba pretty clearly is aware he's broken and is trying to fix himself. Or unbury himself, whatever. The problem would be in getting Kaiba to admit that the therapist might be right about anything, and that I don't see happening...(really, Yami needs to just stick him back in a coma for another 6 months, it worked wonders before XD)

[hoshi-ryo.livejournal.com]

Yes. Though I suspect Mokuba might actually have the best chance of getting Kaiba to work with a therapist, if he's patient and the therapist is one of those hard-to-find non-fuzzy types... Mokuba would just need to continually hit the "Little Brother Is Worried About You" button on his brother's remote control. ( It's next to the "Little Brother Has Been Kidnapped Yet Again" button and under the broken "Panic" button. )