#and Fubuki and Manjoume trying to help Judai is to try and get through to her frozen self

[kaiowut99]

GX Finalized-Subs!93 & 94 Update

That’s all--you can go back to scrolling now

[kujakumai]

GX keeps doing this weird thing where it'll go out of its way to set up these relationships and dynamics and show again and again that these characters care about each other, deliberately bringing up those relationships and setting up a duel, even designating specific cards as having symbolic significance, and then...not letting that have any effect on the outcome.

Asuka could have been cured of her brainwashing by her older brother, as an act of love, or by Manjoume, as atonement for being the person who did this to her in the first place, and either would've been emotionally impactful. Hell, it was a plot point like four episodes ago that Asuka cares about her two little generic background friends enough to break a little of Saiou's power--you could give one of them an episode in the spotlight and have them free her! Instead, Jaden gets the duel, and Fubuki and Manjoume's attempts to invoke their relationship with her through their cards is actively mocked, and they have zero effect. Jaden and Asuka are friends, but the duel never bothers to draw on that friendship at all. No references or invocations of that first after-hours duel in the girls dorm in season one. Jaden woke her up by, I guess, making her mad? Simply by virtue of winning? It feels paint-by-numbers, obligatory, like a box checked--Judai beat Asuka, so she's fine now! How boring.

Kaiser could've been shaken out of his self-destruction by his little brother's desperate attempts to show him how hard he's been trying to meet standards, to earn and properly use the card he gave him, even through pain. He could've have been smacked out of it by his good friend Fubuki, and his willingness to go into the dark for him. Instead, both lose their duels, the cards and gestures don't even make him blink.

Why are we loading up trading cards with the symbolism of relationship dynamics, of bonds and love and communication, like yugioh always does, and then having them mean nothing? Isn't that a waste of everyone's time?

I know I'm going to sound like an old crank but I feel like this never would have happened in DM. The earnest schmaltz trope of "let's help you free yourself from evil by reminding you of how much I and your other loved ones mean to you by playing this memorable and sentimentally significant trading card, probably with an endearing and unnecessary flashback sequence to all the fun times we've had together" is not something we mock here! This is Yugioh. It's our goddamn bread and butter! What are you doing!

[magpiejay1234]

Anyway, Episode 131.

Status quo is re-establishes with the cast coming back to Real World. Dis-belts attached to them break apart, presumably because Yubel gained enough power.

Samejima reveals Cobra, and Amon did not came back, he doesn't know Cobra is presumed dead (I guess writers were still wondering if they wanted to bring him back for later, if there was a S5, it probably would have happened).

Daichi, and Zweinstein continue their research on the gate.

We get Martin's backstory, with Rei watching him, and Napoleon talk.

There is a brief moment where Manjoume assumes Judai came back, but it is actually Shı, and Kenzan.

Fubuki randomly returns despite not being present in previous 26 episodes, which strongly suggests this is indeed the second production cycle. I don't know what his VA was doing at the time, since he won't be in S3 for long.

We see the flashback of Asuka comforting Judai, but Judai states this is all his fault, referring to Yubel situation, though the cast assume he is referring to Johan.

Samejima comes, and we get Judai's backstory with Yubel. Apparently, Yubel's card was bought by Judai's dad, so he didn't have it through his earlier childhood. Only after obtaining Yubel, and adding them to his Deck, Yubel started to cause people he fought against to experience illness.

Due to Yubel being separated from the Neos, and Neo-Spacian cards, rather than acquiring the power of Gentle Darkness, Yubel acquired the power of Light of Destruction. Though Yubel already had the aura in the flashback, so there is some production wonkiness going on.

Edo reveals his D-HEROes were also meant to take the power of space, and wonders if Yubel is the same. This plotline is not continued upon, as we find out Yubel's backstory.

Kaiser considers Yubel an appropriate opponent, but has a heart spasm.

While the cast is discussing Samejima's narration, Daichi reveals the singularity will come back to Gravekeeper's Tomb from S1.

We get parallel shots of Judai leaving alone to find Johan, and Echo having a monologue about seeing Amon become a king in Duel Monsters Spirit World without the influence of his adoptive brother Cid.

While Judai is travelling alone, Cronos sees him while holding the eggs he got for the day, then later we see Edo, and Kaiser discussing. Kaiser states that Judai isn't not yet aware about being responsible for his actions, Edo states because he knows this, he is trying to save Johan alone (alluding to his own Duel with Light of Destruction's will to save Takuma Saio back in S2). Kaiser chides him being for still being a child, as he states the others will not allow Judai to go alone, with the implication being Kaiser believes Judai will be responsible for his allies' (including his brother's) inevitable defeat, as none of them have the power enough to defeat Yubel alone, and he isn't particularly optimistic about Judai's chances either.

When they confront Judai, Manjoume tries to punch Judai, but Jim stops him. Most of the cast agree to help Judai, even though he doesn't want them to be involved, except for Sho, Daichi, and Fubuki, who try to convince them to remain in Duel Academia.

The cast use their ace monsters' spirits to open the Dimensional Gate, this is technically the first time Volcanic Doomfire is actually Summoned, as the previous time Austin was merely thinking of Summoning it.

After the main group work their way, Sho, Daichi, and Fubuki Summon their ace monsters to help out.

Kaiser, Edo, Echo, and Cronos, who were not involved with this, also get absorbed by the gate.

This episode's card is Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which Judai calls Fubuki's favourite card.

[pridewhatpride]

do you have any gx rivalshipping hcs!! im super curious on your take of them :]

When I saw this ask my immediate reaction was thinking: "Yes, I have an excuse to talk about gx rivalshipping, YES."

So yeah. I love this ship a lot, like a whole damn lot and it's a little hard to explain why, especially when gx has so many open possibilities for romances involving Judai. By which I mean two, really, and Manjoume is not one of them (sadly for me). I am referring to Yubel and Johan, by the way, I refuse to acknowledge Asuka as a love interest.

I'll start off with a bit of fluff headcanons?

Manjoume thinks Winged Kuriboh is really cute and that its friendly and fluffy appearance screams Judai, in a way. But he will never admit it because of what that might imply for him and the Ojamas.

Manjoume is fueled by caffeine and monster, he only really starts to recognise how nice it can be to have a meal because of how much Judai enjoys his food. He tries to sit at the table with him with dumb excuses.

Judai feels a bit guilty for how his actions impacted Manjoume's life, but Manjoume generally tells him that it's fine, it's better this way, that he's never this happy, that the only reason why Judai should maybe feel bad about it is because of his tendency to get overly invested in other people's problems and getting hurt in the process. Judai responds with bear hugs.

Manjoume brags about Judai a lot, actually. "Oh you think that's cool? One time Judai managed to do a backflip, you loser." "Slifer reds suck, but they do have redeeming qualities, by which I mean one of them is actually good."

Judai likes to indulge himself in the thought that he's Manjoume's most trusted, that he's the only one who could ever be allowed to have that many incriminating pictures of him. Because Judai just loves taking candid pictures of Manjoume. He thinks he looks and and cool in every situation, so yeah. A part of him does it because he has an inexplicable fear of forgetting people and the way they look, but he just can't say why that is.

They hang out in silence a lot, but once they start talking they just never stop. You'll find them on the beach at 3 am with a smiling Manjoume listening to Judai go on about how crazy it is that you can fry food in so many different ways and how he once caught a butterfly as a kid and named it Kujaku.

They share their music a lot, so Manjoume's tastes switch from just emo to fast paced rap and the weirdly happy sounding songs about very morbid things Judai listens to (plus emo). Judai starts to enjoy a bit of angry screaming into microphones thanks to Jun. Do they sing along like idiots as they share earphones? Yes. Is Manjoume mesmerised by Judai's singing voice? Also yes.

Judai loves hiking and sometimes invites Manjoume, but because he's a lot weaker and has less stamina, they take it slow. Manjoume keeps cursing himself for being slow and dead weight, but Judai is just happy to have a companion. Admittedly, going slower makes the walks better as he has the time to enjoy the scenery properly. He never teases Jun about his lack of physical training.

Now... I wanted to talk about my general view on the ship, plus headcanons I guess, but this is going to be EVEN LONGER (you are getting more than you asked for, your fault for enabling me, really). For the sake of the sanity of mobile users, I'm adding a cut so nobody has to unwillingly scroll through endless text.

On to the the juice, then. My thoughts on the ship. Manjoume and Judai are, of course, the rivals of the series and, if my thoughts on rivalry weren't clear enough, I am one of those people. It's just really romantic to me. What is very interesting about the two of them specifically is that they are polar opposites in the way the reason why they play, throughout the whole series. Hell, their views end up getting reversed completely: Manjoume goes from "if I don't win I'm gonna have a breakdown breakdown" to "losing is ok, as long as I enjoy the game and am true to myself", while Judai does the 180 from "I really just love playing cards with my friends, who cares about the outcome, it's fun" to "I have card game related trauma, nobody speak to me, games are only an excuse to assert a sort of power scale and honestly fuck that".

Manjoume is sort of the only person in the 'friend group' (he's never actually part of it, sadly, literally only Judai and Fubuki like him) to not idolise Judai, not explicitly. He clearly has an admiration for Judai from the beginning, but he is adamant on expressing it as hatred towards for being better than him. A part of me feels that a lot of his superior act is meant to try and fool himself and Jaden into thinking that he's a worthy rival, because I know for a fact that Manjoume doesn't believe that. He wants it to be true, yes.

What I am trying to get at is that Judai is probably a little confused by the fact that Manjoume doesn't drool all over him like the rest of the school does, but it soon becomes a crutch. Judai is under a lot of pressure because he is the hero who will save everyone and people like to remind him of how much they count on him. Manjoume is in it for Judai. He wants to be acknowledged by him, he wants his recognition and his attention, but he never asks for help or expects Judai to fix his problems for him. Judai is probably thankful for that.

Manjoume is also really scared of being left behind and cast aside as soon as he stops being useful and that's exactly what the writers do to him!!! hooray!, but Judai keeps insisting that he's not a bad guy, that he's fun to be around, that he's competent. Manjoume doesn't really believe all that that much, but Jaden keeps playing him despite his repeated losses and to Jun that's the equivalent of someone kissing his tears away. Manjoume only learns to accept his losses and shortcomings because Judai did it for him first.

So basically Manjoume is the only one who fully sees Judai as a person, while Judai is the only one who is really willing to look past his pretentious facade. I fully believe that Judai was relieved to learn that Manjoume was not just a perfect boy with perfect manners, by the way. They both just love to learn about every imperfection that the other has and silently thinking that they just add to the beauty of the other's character. Will they tease eachother about it? Fuck yes. Do they feel awful when the other tries to fix something about themselves because they pointed it out? Also fuck yes.

They are in a dumb competition against themselves to be better in order to earn the right to be friends with eachother, but because they are fucking dumb they never actually communicate (until they do), so for a long time it's endless pining that is definitely not gay because admittedly Judai just doesn't think that dating is a thing, while Manjoume is straight™, really straight. He has never liked a boy in his life, he's so very fucking straight, I swear.

So Manjoume is a bisexual disaster (and in my headcanon he prefers boys, actually, the Asuka incident is the biggest example of denial™ ever. He prefers Fubuki, fight me over this). The problem is that he never really considered he might be crushing on Judai, but at the same time admitting to maybe liking boys too means that there was more to wanting to stay at DA, to hanging out with Judai's crew despite their mutual dislike, to his continuous playful headlocks and ear pulling. To add onto that, there is probably a certain amount of guilt over having betrayed that bond with Judai by trying to throw away his cards and everything. Judai, on the other hand... is confused at how bothered he is by the public declarations of love, because Manjoume is his rival and rivals are supposed to focus on eachother, not on some girl, no matter how good said girl is at card games.

So maybe they are a bit gay for eachother. And maybe they just want excuses to be together as much as possible. And it's really just the vibe of highschool romance between two people who don't want to admit to caring for one another on a deeper level, but are also weirdly possessive of eachother for no apparent reason. And I think I'll stop here with my gay retelling, but really if you look at the two of them you do see that they do a lot for eachother's characters. It's kind of beautiful, really. They are the two socially inept characters who find comfort in someone being just like them and understanding them as they change and grow up.

I have a lot to say about how that changes once the transfer students come in, but I think I've bored everyone for long enough- as in nobody will read this lol. That's ok. I thank you again for the ask and for allowing me to gush about this ship that is so close to my heart. If anyone ever wants to talk about them, just. Do. Break into my house at night and I still won't mind, I just want to talk about them.

[booksanditsseriesormovies]

GX Month Day 5

September 4th: “Pass The Salt” 

No story is perfect. So what is something you wish you could have seen in the story of GX?

Oh boy where do I start

While I love GX there are quite a few things a would have done differently.

The case of Daichi Misawa

We are all more than familiar with Misawa and his fall from grace, from one of Judai’s potential top rivals, to a recurring joke even for the other characters (”Oh, Misawa, you’re here”). I get it, GX has a HUGE cast, like seriously huge. And we went from having 5 to 7 important characters in DM to around 15 in GX. Not everyone was going to survive the chopping block. Another victim of this was Hayato, but he was gone so soon (and with dignity) I didn’t really mind it. But Misawa’s case in S2 and S3 is just sad. I wish they could have done something better for him. At least he helped everyone get back from the other dimension and got Tanya in the end.

Johan vs Hell Kaiser Ryo

So, I don’t think I am the only one who thinks the duel between Ryo and Yubel (Possessing Johan) is one of the best if not the best in all of GX. It’s absolutely mind blowing. 

But I think that the duel between Ryo and Johan in the first arc of S3 to bring everyone back from the other dimension is one that goes under a lot of people’s radars. Call me biased because Johan is my favorite GX character, but I was really digging that duel. Like even without Rainbow Dragon, Johan was putting up a serious fight against Ryo with the way he used the Crystal Beasts. So I am forever salty that they could never revisit this duel (vs actual Johan, not Yubel). 

I get it, this duel served more as a preview for what was to come when we saw they would duel again. And Johan was barely in S4 and Ryo could hardly duel anymore given his heart condition. But for Ryo to have said that Johan had been the only one besides Judai to make him feel excited in a duel and who could have Judai’s unlimited potential...I think it would have been very very fun and exciting to watch, specially with Rainbow Dragon.

“Everyone’s dead....JUST KIDDING”

I know it’s a kids’ show, and it would have been extremely tough to follow another season without like 3/4 of the cast. But having everyone come back alive from the Hell Dimension felt like a bit of a cheap move that also makes some of Judai’s character development lose some significance. 

So everything he went through from the moment his friend’s died (becoming the Supreme King out of pure helplessness and desire for revenge, then coming back from that with a terrible, terrible case of PTSD basically leaving him unable to duel, coming to terms with everything he had done and learning to use the strength of the Supreme King without letting it overtake him), it was all for nothing? Then all the people the Supreme King killed are alive and well?

It also takes merit from the other characters’ themselves and the circumstances of their deaths. Kenzan, Manjoume, Asuka and Fubuki being sacrificed, victims treated as collateral damage to create a super powerful card, right in front of a collapsing Judai as their hearts were corrupted too. Jim and O’Brien (the two most emotional deaths in S3 for me), who sacrificed themselves to bring Judai back and bury the Supreme King away. Edo, who sacrificed himself to try and save Echo (who gave her life away for someone who took advantage of her feelings), and Ryo, who even though he said was only looking for the ultimate opponent, tried until the last minute in the duel to separate Yubel and Johan. Hell, Ryo basically died twice (because of his heart failure and losing the duel), yet he survived. 

As I said, I know the show would have been extremely hard to keep going. But it took away from the serious, dark story S3 was becoming. It takes away from Judai, and the ones who died because they all came back brand new. 

Reincarnation

It’s not that I didn’t like it, Reincarnation is a trope that I LOVE. But in GX we literally got it dropped on us out of absolutely nowhere. We literally had no clue Judai could have had a past life and that’s where his story with Yubel came from. 

Like idk, maybe some flashbacks or random shots of the Supreme King’s backstory (which wouldn’t make sense until we find out it’s Judai and would have made it pretty cool) would have made it better, IMO. 

PTSD? Only Judai can relate

Another thing that I found weird was how quickly everyone got over what happened in the Hell Dimension except for Judai. We can see he is depressed and dealing with the aftermath of what S3 did to him. But what about everyone else? Weren’t they supposed to be in like a dimension of pain and suffering even if they were alive? I am glad so many main characters got their time to shine in S4, but, as we wrapped each story, a nod to what happened to them in S3 would have been nice. It’s all part of the process of growing up, too, learning to deal and cope with out most painful moments.

S4: “Overseas champions? I don’t know them”

Yeah, so given the HUGE (LIKE REALLY HUGE) role the Overseas Champions played in S3, barely seeing them in S4 was a bit of a whiplash. I am glad we got O’Brien dueling Mr. T and him playing with his mind with false memories was heartbreaking yet super interesting to watch. But we got literally no Jim and Karen, at all. The guy gave his life and his supernatural eye to try to bring Judai back. I had hoped we would have at least seen some of him in S4. We literally have no idea what the hell happened to Amon, my theory is that he stayed in that other dimension to build his perfect world and become its Monarch. But we literally have no clue about what became of him. And did Echo come back, too? Is she with Amon in the other dimension?

And then we have Johan. Considering Judai went to basically Hell to rescue him, I thought we would see a bit more of him in S4. Like at least bidding each other farewell? You know “Thanks for rescuing my soul from my card and saving me from your eternal guardian who was corrupted by evil and almost ended the Universe as we know it”? No? Okay then. I am so so glad we got him in that Battle Royale against Fujiwara tho, that kind of made up for it :)

Edo’s fate

From the start we know Edo is one of those characters that know they are fucking amazing at what they do and make a point of it. He is at the top of the food chain. The young pro duelist, talented beyond his years (for Pegasus to say he was just below Yugi, Kaiba and Joey?!), rich, refined, confident and a bit arrogant. 

Then how is it that the last we see of him is receiving a direct attack from Ojama Yellow straight to the face? I know Manjoume was meant to win this duel, but it would have been great to see him summon Plasma and that Manjoume had summoned Armored Dragon, or maybe using the Ojamas with the Spell Cards to banish monsters from the field or to summon Ojama King. Like Edo didn’t even want to duel, it was all a scam from his former manager and they still made him go out like that :( I wanted a more epic goodbye duel for our Edo tbh.

Then again, I am biased because Edo is my second favorite character in GX.

Season 4 rushing

5D is very cool and all....BUT WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CUT GX SHORT FOR IT. 

S4 is so obviously rushed and for me it Darkness was a bit of an underwhelming villain after the AMAZING villain that Yubel was for S3. Fujiwara just popped out of nowhere and we got no development of him in comparison to Yubel or even Saio (I won’t say that of Mr. Chairman because he literally popped out of nowhere in S1). 

I just wished we had gotten a proper, full S4. More GX to fawn over.

Wow that was a lot of salt now I sound like I hater but I promise I love GX as much as Manjoume loves Asuka (lol).

[ojamayellow]

what are your headcanons for GX characters post-series? day-to-day lives, relationships, jobs, that kind of stuff?

Judai is still venturing out into the world, with Pharaoh, Yubel and Daitokuji. However, when he’s not on an adventure, he helps those who can see spirits and guides them through on how to bond with your aibou! Judai probably gets money from doing odd jobs, despite Manjoume offering him money if he needs it. Speaking of which, after a while of keeping to himself, he finally answers those 700+ unread text messages on his phone, (hey! there was bad reception! and besides, texting costs money) keeping in touch with his old peers. Sometimes he crashes at their place, and like the same ol’ Judai, he’s a mess.

Manjoume is a Pro Duelist, he’s gotten countless sponsors and wins, he’s becoming a nationwide-No. Worldwide celebrity! He absolutely adores his fans, especially those who are young, and never says no to a photo op.Yes, of course he still has the Ojamas! He’s got 2 new ones now, Blue and Red! Annoying as the others, but Manjoume still loves them all the same. Manjoume sometimes visits Asuka (his crush as died down, but he still greatly admires her) while she teaches, and likes to hold parties at his place when he finally has spare time from work. We just don’t talk about that time Judai made out with the Manjoume fountain in the backyard.

Shou also strides through the Pro Dueling district, supporting his brother as they both finalise their ‘Cyber Style’. Shou has become much stronger, he and Manjoume often meet up/have drinks/butt heads at each other. While stronger than before, Shou will still weep tears when he sees Judai, as his absences last what seem a lifetime. 

Ryo. He is still weak from past incidents, but is always recovering. He is under care by Shou but often gets visits from Fubuki (Fubuki we get it. You love giving Ryo loads of presents and bouquets) however the desire to duel still lingers on, so he, along with Shou, Fubuki, and his other past classmates will have small duels (no duel disks, just game mat and table), which is enough to make him smile.

Kenzan (after graduating a year later being younger), hung out with Shou a lot! However, he decided to try and go for a job that’s in a field of something he loves other than Duel Monsters...Of course! Dinosaurs! He’s currently studying palaeontology, and works at the museum as a part time job! He loves hanging out with his buddies, and mocks Shou during parties (”are you even old enough to drink, don?” “I’M OLDER THAN YOU DINO-BREATH”)

Asuka, now a teacher at Duel Academy, adores her job. Seeing herself and her friends in her pupils eyes, she never fails to smile, but is strict when needed. Sometimes, her old classmates pop over to give a demonstration to the current students! Asuka, of course, teaches alongside her friends Momoe and Junko, Sometimes, she worries about her brother...

Fubuki is loving life, going to parties, hanging out with Ryo and Yusuke, always checking up on (TEASING...) is little sister. He is slow to join the competitive dueling side, as after Duel Academy, Fubuki decided to take a huge holiday! He became a charmer around the world, wooing girls with his charm and good looks. However, during his free time, he felt an familiar, sinister presence within his heart...It was only faint, but it shook him to the core, thinking it was all over. While no Darkness has taken over, Fubuki is unsure whether it’s still a part of him, or if his trauma has caused him to believe such a thing.

Rei has become a more expert duelist than before, now gaining a spot in the Pro Leagues. However, this doesn’t stop Rei from falling in love with anyone deemed attractive, god help Rei.

Jim is still with his buddy Karen, and the two like to adventure while not at work as a geologist and palaeontologist. 

O’Brien is currently spending time with his family, but will take any mission if required.

And that’s all I’ve got! Sorry for the wall of text.

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 87 and 88 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 85 and 86 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-87: Fight, Ojama Trio! (Part 1)

Manjoume faces off with a pro duelist, winning overwhelmingly using the White Knight Swordsman he wields as a member of the Society of Light.  Seeing that Judai was watching his duel, Manjoume requests a bout with him, but Judai notices that the Ojama Trio aren’t in Manjoume’s deck.  He tracks down the Ojama Trio’s cards, knowing that Manjoume cared for them, and thinks of using their cards to try and return Manjoume to normal.  And so, with the Ojama Trio in tow, Judai and Manjoume duel at last.

TURN-88: Fight, Ojama Trio! (Part 2)

As a member of the Society of Light, Manjoume uses the White Knight Lord card entrusted to him by Saiou to pummel Judai incessantly.  Meanwhile, Judai fights defensively, using the Ojama Trio cards that Manjoume had cared for.  Despite all the attacks he takes, Judai presses on with the Ojama Trio, who appeal to Manjoume about the fact that they were friends.  And then... seeing the rough state the Ojama Trio have been beaten into, Manjoume at last comes to his senses.

(EDIT, 3/9/23: Re-uploaded 88 to correct a sub typo I missed before Judai uses Mystic Wok, and also updated “Cyber Dark Horn” in the preview to “Cyberdark Horn” to match its use in 89.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New year, new finalized episodes~

My subs for 87 and 88 are now revised and finalized as we get 2023 underway, and it’s a pretty good duo of episodes.  Judai and Manjoume finally have a rematch to settle their score--well, they would if Manjoume remembered what that score was--and in the process, Judai works to snap him out of his Society of Light brainwashing by using the Ojamas.  Of course, he promptly gets thrown under the bus by them once it works, but they did fight hard to save him; Judai even said stuff that was kinda touching! I do still like the bit where Judai tells Manjoume how angry he is with himself that he couldn’t even tell that his friends lost and were in such dire straits that they joined the SoL (a shame the dub wrote that out), and Ojama Yellow--as beat-up as he is--pleading with Manjoume to remember them before he eventually reclaims his sense of self is such a good scene, between Mariko Nagahama’s acting, the music, and the pained “Manjoume...” (ie, “Listen to the guy...”) from Judai in response.  I also do love how Manjoume’s all “If they want to be clean, I’ll be the thorn in their side soiling things a little!” [paraphrasing], as well as the theme of having been through so much of life’s mud that of course no one would come out unstained.  (Also unfortunate that the dub decides to replace his montage of said stains and the Ojamas helping him overcome them with a focus on Society of Light stuff.)

(Also, fun fact: both episodes were screenwritten by Shin Yoshida, who does get some ire in other parts of the franchise, but in GX it’s interesting that he’s actually the screenwriter for a lot of the fan-favorite episodes [he also goes on to write Dark Johan vs Ryou in Season 3, for example]; his writing both helps them feel cohesive. [They had the same Storyboarder in Noriyoshi Nakamura, too.])

Editing-wise, not as many animation/card fixes as I did for 85 and 86, but there were still a fair amount for these two, and 88 did get more in the way of card error fixes.  All told, I fixed up six errors in 87, and eight in 88.  As always, details under the cut below, if curious!

Enjoy! Next up, will be working on 89 and 90, featuring Hell Kaiser Ryou vs Fubuki (which also sets the stage for Shou’s duel against Ryou in the 90s) and getting a little wine-drunk with Sommelier Parker’s duel against Asuka and more GeneX shenanigans.  Have also been looking forward to 90 specifically to re-do one of my earliest on-screen translation edits with the better editing skills I have now, so stay tuned for that. :)

Fixes/Edits! (87)

As Manjoume and Gelgo (the pro duelist) begin their duel at the start of the episode, Manjoume gloats and says he’ll turn Gelgo into one of the “runts”--per Gelgo--whose medals he won, but as they slide in on a split-screen to shout “Duel!” and start, there are a few frames where Manjoume behind the split-screen disappears into purple.  A quick fix in Sony Vegas as I held pre-split Manjoume still over those purple frames, then masked on Manjoume and Gelgo’s sides of the split-screen as they slid onto the screen.

After the OP, as we get an update on Manjoume and Gelgo’s duel and see their current LP count, both their LP counters start to move as if they’re changing a frame just before they leave the screen.  Also quickly fixed in Vegas, as I just masked in their counters from the previous frame over that frame, keeping their LP scores still.

As Manjoume draws for his turn after Gelgo plays Marshmallon, for a quick frame, we see that his Duel Disk wasn’t fully drawn, ending several pixels before the edge of the frame.  As fixed for the hardsub in 86′s preview, I fixed this in Vegas by just cropping the shot slightly to hide the missing part of the frame.

Later, as Judai and Manjoume get their duel underway, Kenzan and a hiding Shou join on a split-screen to hope that Judai does well, but as their split-screen splits to show Judai and Manjoume shout “Duel!”, there’s a quick frame where Shou’s split lacks a border along its edge.  Another quick fix in Vegas as I just masked on a border copied from the one on Kenzan’s split, then duplicated the layer and added a light Gaussian Blur to the layer underneath to give it a light glow along the outer edge.

Immediately after #4, as Manjoume draws to start the duel off, there’s a quick frame as he pulls his hand closer to look at his drawn card where the back of the top card on his deck is miscolored as fully orange.  Fixed in Photoshop by just recoloring it with the darker brown along the inside of the card’s back, then inserting the fixed frame into the video in Vegas.

Near the end of the episode, as Manjoume gloats about White Knight Lord being the strongest card in his deck courtesy of Saiou, we see the Ojamas on Judai’s field, and Ojama Black and Ojama Green have the other’s card under them instead of their own.  Fixed in AfterEffects by applying proxies for their cards under the right one, then masking on Ojama Black and Green over them, while also masking on the original cards’ outlines to help them blend in more.

Fixes/Edits! (88)

In the recap of 87 at the start of the episode, as we see the scene where Judai asks Manjoume about the Ojamas and his reaction in confusion, a weird quirk happens where the last 3-4 frames of the shot has him panning away from the edge of the screen; I think what happened was that the original shot in 87 was 52 frames long and they wanted to extend it by four, but while trying to, their attempt to extend the pan made the footage pan off the film or something? Kind of interesting.  Fixed in Sony Vegas by grabbing the shot from 87, positioning it to work with 88′s audio there, then holding the starting and ending frames for three frames each to make it work; not all too noticeable while watching.

As the recap touches on Manjoume’s “The strongest card in my deck, courtesy of Master Saiou!” line, I recycled the fix made for #6 in 87 with Ojama Black and Green’s cards.

During the OP, as we see the episode’s preview clip featuring Ojama Knight attacking White Knight Lord, two errors happen: 1) There’s a quick frame as his sword starts to break where the unbroken sword is still in the shot, and 2) a couple frames later, Ojama Knight’s body vanishes for a frame, while his arm and the broken sword stay on the screen--these errors also happen in the episode proper.  Fixed in Vegas by 1) holding the previous frame pre-sword-break over the duplicate-sword frame, then 2) taking the frame post-body-vanishing where Ojama Knight’s body comes back and copying it over the frame in which it vanishes.

After the OP, as Judai calls out Manjoume’s talk of “pure-white brilliance” given his history of not washing his jacket, the shot of him doing so with his field visible has the Ojamas’ cards reversed under them (their name boxes should be facing Judai’s right).  Fixed in AfterEffects by first applying the correctly-facing proxies under them, then masking the Ojamas and Judai’s leg over them--after that, I then made masks around all the white zoom lines on the original footage using keyframes, which I then applied to a white-color layer to recreate the white lines over the cards.

A bit later, after White Knight Lord takes out Ojama Black and hits Judai with 300 points of damage, Ojama Green and Yellow look back at him worriedly, but Ojama Green has Ojama Black’s card under him.  Fixed in AfterEffects by taking the last frame of the shot and applying Green’s proxy under him, masking him back on top; I then took that fix into Vegas, where I keyframed and redid the panning shot for the fixed card.

After equipping Shield Attack onto Ojama Knight, Judai has him attack White Knight Lord only for the attack to fail due to its effect, but this is where the two errors in #2 happens in the episode proper; fixed in Vegas the same way.  Right after that, as Judai and Manjoume are on a split-screen in which Manjoume explains that White Knight Lord has several abilities, Manjoume starts to move a frame before their split-screen starts to split, as he goes on to say that Lord can’t be beat in battle.  Fixed in Vegas by holding Manjoume for an extra frame over that so they both move at the same time.

After Judai uses Ojamandala to bring the Ojamas back and Kenzan notes his defensive boost, Manjoume laughs as he starts his turn, but another error occurs with his Disk not being fully drawn, for three movement frames here, as he moves his arm to get ready to draw.  I did think about fixing this by drawing the missing edge of the Disk in using Photoshop in each frame, but opted to just use Vegas to crop the shot a bit so that the edge of his Disk hit the edge of the screen.  I then made the shot zoom back out to where it was as Manjoume moves his arm to activate Hell Gauntlet.

After his unwhitening, Manjoume activates the effect of his Goblin Negotiator Magic Card while Judai attacks his Ojama Green with White Knight Lord to protect him, but Ojama Green and Black’s cards on his Disk are in Attack Mode when they’re actually in Defense Mode (and you can tell they’d intended the cards to be in Defense Mode with how they’re not fully covering the Monster Zones).  Fixed in AfterEffects by placing their proxies in Defense Mode on one of the frames, then used Vegas to redo the zoom that happens.