#time for my monthly ygo art post

[westwing19]

Garden planning

[2ndwind]

World of Memory: A Personal YGO Retrospective

(I don't fancy myself a writer, but these thoughts just poured out of me. This is for me, more than anything. But if anyone reads it, I hope it's amusing enough.)

I must've been in the second grade when Yu-Gi-Oh came to the US.

I remember all the boys in my class trading cards and challenging one another to duels. I remember gazing wistfully at the checkout of every major supermarket chain, pleading with my parents to buy some cards. When they refused, I decided to make my own fantasy trading cards! Using graph paper! But I quickly learned how hard it was not only to create the cards but also to design mechanics that people would actually want to play.

I remember my parents surprising me that fateful Christmas of 2002 with the original Starter Deck Yugi. Even though 90% of the monsters were weak and vanilla, the smell of the freshly unwrapped cards was CRACK. Better yet, I was finally cool enough to hang out with the boys. Well, I didn't actually play the game very much with people other than my sister, and eventually, the school administration banned trading cards altogether. But it was endlessly fun to talk about. I even went to China one year and bought a TON of fake YGO cards to flaunt and trade with the other kids. Yes, we were all kids cheating other kids.

I remember my heart absolutely racing in anticipation of watching the show on Kids WB, and the crushing disappointment of turning on the TV just a moment too late (I'm reminding myself that Netflix didn't exist back then). The visual style was just so striking, so much cooler than Pokémon's. The plot felt so much more serious. And don't even get me started on the characters. I was literally head-over-heels in love with a Nameless Pharaoh. I was a Revolutionshipper before shipping was even a thing. It's pretty obvious from my Tumblr archive lol.

I remember the first fanart I made, which was me trying to copy the cover of the Starter Deck Yugi instruction manual. It was the hardest thing I'd ever drawn up to that point, and I specifically colored Yugi's eyes gray. Because people didn't have purple eyes, of course. I wish I held onto that drawing because it sparked something in me. Maybe it was my obsession with ancient Egypt, which predated my obsession with YGO. Maybe it was my frustration with my drawing skills. Whatever it was, it would stay with me for a long time. Beyond classmates paying me in change to draw their favorite monsters. Even beyond my fairly brief stint posting YGO fanart to DeviantArt (yikes).

I remember finding the original manga at Barnes & Noble and feeling very confused. Why didn't Yugi have a nose? Where was Duel Monsters? Wait, are people actually dying?? These were the questions I asked myself as I learned what manga actually was. Subsequently, I would devour every copy of the manga and even Monthly Shonen Jump that I could get my hands on. In that way, YGO actually became a gateway to several other manga/anime series. It was a gateway to my now lifelong appreciation of Japanese culture as a whole.

20 years! 20 WHOLE YEARS after my first love of YGO, I can look back and laugh at how much money I spent on the TCG and manga. I can cringe at the silly fanficcy stories locked up in my head and the overly sentimental (or just straight-up copying) fanart I drew. I can, as an adult, appreciate the themes, but also be more critical of certain elements (the whole Doma Arc, how the series portrays women, the ancient Egyptians themselves, the clear references to the occult...etc.).

YGO shaped me into who I am right now: a designer who dabbles in fanart, an avid Egyptology nerd, an appreciator of animation and sequential art, and even an aspiring developer of a card-based game (my grad school thesis! For real). And as much as I sometimes weary of this dumpster-fire world, I still thank God that I was born at a time when I could experience the original YGO and grow up alongside it.

With all these fond memories of YGO, you can imagine my utter shock and sadness when I learned of Kazuki Takahashi's passing. It's even more surreal because I'm still following the man, himself, on Instagram. I hope he truly knew the depth of so many people's love for him and his work. And I hope that, one day, as the endless ages roll on, I'll find him and thank him, myself. For now, this rambling and a few pieces of art will have to do. Rest in peace, Sensei.

[ygocollablove]

@augustwritingchallenge‘s 2020 monthly prompts have come to a conclusion, and YGO Collab Love would like to present all its members who participated this year!

Before that, I would like to give thanks/applause to @cieryuu for creating the banner above (and another round to @darkmagiattack/@crshrs for making the template). Look how adorable it is! <3

There are many pieces still in progress even after the challenge’s end day, and we are excited for the day that the fics will all come to completion. Otherwise, please give love and comments and feedback to the pieces listed below!

For Art submissions...

scemo vampire yami Bakura by @crshrs Vampire AU Rating: Teens and Up Blood warning

For General Audiences...

Step One College, Step Two Take Over the World by Souless_Robot ( @soulessrobot ) Status: COMPLETE College AU Characters: Chazz Princeton & Ojama Brothers Summary: “Step one: get into Neo Domino University,” Chazz lifted one finger and waved it in his spirit partners’ faces. “Step two: get a Ph.D. in dueling. Step three: get hired to teach at Duel Academy. Step four: take over the school.”

Dueling Royalty by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Modern AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba will block you on Twitter.

Diagnostic Don’ts by Souless_Robot Status: COMPLETE Hospital AU Characters: Jack Atlas, Seto Kaiba, Alexis Rhodes, Duke Devlin, Atem Summary: Dr. Seto Kaiba very much does not want any fellows in his diagnostic department. Unfortunately the hospital administrator Atem has different ideas. That's how Kaiba ends up with three fellows in his office. It's a good thing Kaiba doesn't plan to keep them for very long. He'll bet Wheeler he can get them to quit by the end of the week.

Mr. Jounouchi Will See You Now by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Role Reversal AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: The CEO of Jounouchi Corp. is known for being charming and lucky—not just a shrewd businessman who bravely took over the company for his alcoholic dad. Seto Kaiba is a bright kid who really needs to pay for his brother’s eye surgery.

Succ's to be You. by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Flower Shop AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba is the worst at office plants.

For Teens and Up...

Cafe Nervosa by Elexica ( @elexica ) Status: COMPLETE Coffee Shop AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Good morning, Domino! Dr. Seto Kaiba runs a call-in psychiatry radio show, and whether he wants to or not, he's listening. His sound engineer, Joey Wheeler, unfortunately has to listen too.

All the King's Men by Souless_Robot Status: COMPLETE Soulmate AU Pairing: Rivalshipping (Chazz Princeton x Jaden Yuki), Spiritshipping (Jesse Anderson x Jaden Yuki), Supreme King x Chazz Princeton Summary: Or Chazz is the Supreme King's soulmate but not Jaden's.

Wasted by Elexica Status: COMPLETE College AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba gets drunk at Mokuba's fraternity initiation party and does the cute orientation leader's calculus homework. He's bad at flirting, but he's good at math.

Blank Slate by KitsunePhantom09 ( @kitsunephantom09 ) Status: COMPLETE Soulmates AU Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: Everyone has a mark signifying their soulmate. Yusei doesn't.

The Voice in My Head by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Soulmates AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: The month leading up to when you meet your soulmate is the only period in your life where you will hear another voice in your head, their thoughts streaming through your mind. For Jounouchi, it's hell.

Demon Days by Souless_Robot Status: COMPLETE Angels & Demons AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Joey never meant to be permanently assigned to earth after the events that take place in the Garden of Eden. Still, now that he is he really wishes he would stop running into his least favorite demon. Unfortunately, it seems the creator has other plans.

Cancelling the Apocalypse by Elexica Status: ONGOING Chapters 1/3 Post-Apocalyptic AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Are Joey and Kaiba drift compatible?

Straight to the Top by Souless_Robot Status: COMPLETE Band AU Characters: Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba, Yuugi Mutou, Chazz Princeton, Jaden Yuki Summary: Joey is a folk singer trying to break into the mainstream with her childhood friend Yugi. Too bad she gets nothing but problems most from the Kaiba corp record label run by the young CEO and music prodigy Seto Kaiba.

A Good Match by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Superheroes/Superpowers AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Or, Kaiba and Jounouchi can't wait for the whistle to start fighting.

Good Eggs by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Farm/Ranch AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba is forced to work as a farmhand the summer before college. Joey doesn't mind the company.

Mercy by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Crime AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba's a bit tied up at the moment.

Who You Gonna Call by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Treasure Hunters AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Ghost hunter Joey and skeptic Kaiba enlist Yugi's help in answering the question: Are ghosts real?

For Mature audiences...

And Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.” by KitsunePhantom09 Status: COMPLETE Vampire AU Characters: Yusei Fudo Summary: Rule #1: Never answer when you hear them knocking.

Dark Web by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Pirates AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: You wouldn't download a car. Kaiba would.

The line that stands between us is 100 lives worth living by SwordsAndSwongs ( @blue-eyed-priest ) Status: ONGOING Chapters 8/32 Pairing: Prideshipping (Seto Kaiba x Atem), Rivalshipping (Kaiba x Yuugi Mutou), Stoicshipping (Kaiba x Priest Set), and Puppyshipping (Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: In a world full of multiverses, who will Kaiba meet? Is it his Pharaoh, his enemies, his few friends? Or is it himself, waiting at the end of every step taken?

Demon in a Bottle by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Angels & Demons AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Kaiba overdoses.

Addicted (You’re My Favorite High) by KitsunePhantom09 Status: COMPLETE Crime AU Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: Yusei has never felt like this before, and he desperately doesn't want it to end.

Netflix and Chill by auroraXborealis ( @xauroraxborealisx ) Status: ONGOING Chapters 11/? Pairing: Puzzleshipping (Yuugi Mutou x Atem) Summary: When the department of Human Resources from Kaiba Corp decides it is in the company’s best interest to send some of its employees on a team-building seminar for a whole weekend, Atem does not think his bonding experience with his colleagues will turn out to be this intense. Especially when he is thrown into a downward spiral of strange events with the one coworker he dislikes the most: Yugi. Now, they must work together to survive and figure out all the clues to make it back home.

Enemy Fire by KitsunePhantom09 Status: ONGOING Chapter 5/? Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: Jack has just escaped a horrible alpha, but is in dire straits – heavily pregnant and out on the streets in the middle of winter does not bode well. But as his darkest hour arrives, so too does his savior.

Catalysts for Kindling by bewdofchaos ( @atems-leather-pants ) Status: ONGOING Chapters 11/? Pairing: Puzzleshipping (Yuugi Mutou x Atem), Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: In the eight months that Yugi and Atem have been roommates, they have formed a fast friendship over their fondness for coffee, late-night study sessions and video games. But recently, something has not been quite right. When Yugi receives a mysterious parcel, he is sent on an unexpected journey where each new step makes him reconsider everything he ever knew to be true… but mostly his relationship with his roommate.

The Dark Woods Circus’ Monster by KitsunePhantom09 Status: COMPLETE Circus AU Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: Once, the circus was meant to wow and inspire its audience with feats of grandeur. Now it horrifies and terrifies them with unholy creatures of man's own design.

Time to fight fears, for once and for AUll by Seiyofira ( @seiyofira-doesntknowshiet ) Status: COMPLETE Chapters 11/11 Summary: These will be some scattered works for AU-gust 2020, which will either revolve around Yu-Gi-Oh! DM or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I will put the used AU prompt as well as either YGO or JJBA at the beginning of each chapter. They do not build a consistent story!

For Explicit audiences...

Forgiveness by KitsunePhantom09 Status: COMPLETE Angels & Demons AU Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: An angel is offered as a sacrifice by a cult to appease their lord.

Scrubs by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Hospital AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: The door to the supply closet doesn't lock, but that doesn't stop Drs. Kaiba and Jounochi from having an intimate moment.

Embrace me, Love. It's been a long day. by Cleopatra ( @writelovetomeempress ) Status: ONGOING Chapters 20/33 Pairing: Flareshipping (Seto Kaiba x Atem x Yuugi Mutou) Summary: Atem is gone, back to the Afterlife when the Ceremonial Duel was complete. A piece of Yuugi's heart went with him. Kaiba, with all his genius and all his tech, has found a way to use the Quantum Cube to claim the victory he was denied. Per a reluctant deal, Kaiba brings Yuugi along. All the bravado in the world couldn't prepare Yuugi for that final goodbye, and with shaky hands, he broke their world completely.

Porcelain Wings and Shattered Dreams by Life_0r_Death ( @life-0r-death ) Status: ONGOING Chapters 11/17 Pairing: Kingcrabshipping (Jack Atlas x Yusei Fudo) Summary: Paradox has come to take his revenge against Yusei Fudo, but a former king will sacrifice himself for the love of the greater good. Too bad sacrificing doesn't mean death, but a perpetual prison of different worlds, different dimensions where Jack gets to witness what could have been.

For fics Not Rated...

Doin’ Time by Elexica Status: COMPLETE Childhood Friends AU Pairing: Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Joey Wheeler) Summary: Joey is trying to get a contraband cell phone in Juvie Hall. Kaiba is a little more ambitious.

A huge round of applause for everyone who participated and who are still fighting the good fight of completing their fics! We hope to join again next year and provide a plethora of amazing YGO-related fics for you all to read! Congratulations everyone!!

[kaiowut99]

The Gang Freaks Out Over a Cell Phone

Judai and the others are now in their second year when a quiet freshman comes to duel Judai.  While the freshman’s deck wasn’t all too powerful, it was also an improvised 40-card deck hastily made beforehand out of eight packs in the store.  But even then, Archangel Zerato gets Judai’s LP down to 1200.  Mid-duel, he speaks with a mysterious man on his cell phone, feeling a lack of interest in this duel due to his prediction.  Shou and the others realize this is the well-known Star Duelist Ed Phoenix...

And after a bit too long, here’s finalized!53! It’s fun to finally be getting back into Season 2, since, later plot pacing issues and... questionable moments aside, there’s quite a bit to like about it.  One such thing being the dynamic between Ed and Saiou that we’re introduced to here (one of my favorites), as the concept of fate/destiny starts to become an ever-present theme.  Also, hearing Takehito Koyasu again for a while will be great now that I’ve actually seen JJBA and heard him as DIO. 😂 The animation/artstyle in this episode is also a nice touch-up from what we’ve been used to, and there were some great shots of Judai and Ed there.

So, part of the delay in getting this going since finishing 52 was getting my usual bells and whistles worked on for the translated hardsub; you’ll notice that the OP is fully translated, and not just with the credits--I wanted to do a thing I originally wanted to do way back when my first go-around but lacked the skills for and translate the character names that slide in! If you check out my “subbing-rambling” tag, you can see some of the work-in-progress posts I made showing it off as I worked on it.  As part of this, I also prepared textless versions of the OP’s V2 shots of Chronos and Ed, as well as made Shou in his Red jacket textless for use here; I’ll be sharing these new textless openings as I go through the season over on NAC. (It’s really a shame that we never got those versions officially released...) The ED credits were pretty much copy/paste from Season 1, with a change in karaoke coloring, since thankfully that stays the same, and I’ll also be translating the “Best Card” shots at the end of each episode (which for some reason I noticed Crunchyroll doesn’t include, despite them being on the DVDs?), though on a static screen with the card spinning into view since that moving background’s hard to get blank, lol.

But once those were all done, there were some 53-specific edits and fixes to work on! For the hardsub, I translated the article we see about Ed so that we can read what was visible in Japanese (ie, Ed making waves in August just before Season 2 at an event Kaiba Corp. sponsored!), while I also made a few card fixes.  Breakdown below the cut, as usual.

(UPDATE [7/9/20]: I reuploaded the episode because I realized I didn��t account for the different cards Shou has in his deck shot in the Opening in 53-56 vs 57-104; Gyroid, Cyclone, and Trap Hole in the former become Submarineroid, Vehicroid Connection Zone, and No Entry in the latter (all used in 56), which is what was used in the textless video I was working with while working on translating his name there.  That’s been corrected, and will be accounted for as I share the textless OPs on NAC.  I’m nothing if not consistency-minded. 💁🏽‍♂️)

Enjoy, folks! With 53 finalized, I’ll be giving my 5D’s Dub-Uncut Ep. 26 a quick lookover to see if I have to tweak anything before I work on making the Dark Signer arc episodes’ dubs more bearable, and then I’ll start working on 54.  It’s been a bit since Manjoume last dueled, and him dueling his mini-me in Gokaido should be fun, haha.

Fixes/Edits!

For the hardsub, as Chronos pulls out his issue of Monthly Duel!, I translated 月編 on it to “October” in Photoshop and spliced it in; this was an edit I’d already done for 52′s hardsub since it shows up in the preview for 53.

For the hardsub, the page Chronos has Napoleon stare at has been translated! The original text was vertical but I thought it’d make more sense to translate it horizontally for us; as such, I moved the text on the right about the “Exclusive” on the “Young Duelist Prodigy” to be above Ed’s photo, which I moved a bit more to the right to compensate.  I also added a little “journalistic” fluff to the translation I’d whipped up to make it fit well both on and off-screen, since I wasn’t going to be filling the whole thing with just “On August 7th, KaibaCorp sponsored a Dueling World League” lol.  But definitely made sure to keep the spirit and keep visible those little tidbits like the KaibaCorp nod and the date telling us when Ed started making waves that were visible in the Japanese text.  I did that editing in Photoshop for both this shot and the later shot with Shou’s copy of the magazine, but I warped the text in this one a little to match the slight page warp that Ed’s photo had going.  After that, I redid the zoom in Sony Vegas.  The text is also slightly blurred here since it was like that for the Japanese text.

Later in the episode, after the commercial break, we come back to a pan/zoom-out from Sanctuary in the Sky to Judai’s field, where we see Clay Guardman has his card facing the wrong way compared to where we see it in every other shot after.  I made a proxy for it, though it was a bit tough since we never get a good look at its card (thankfully, the card artwork was put up on the YGO site).  Though the dubified card confirmed for the Wikia that he has zero ATK and, like with Neo Bubbleman, shared the same Level as Clayman.  So, as I made a proxy, I recreated the Japanese effect text mirroring what Neo Bubbleman’s was and mentioning the burn effect as close to the game terms as possible--getting this in the end! Once I did that, I took a frame and placed it in in AfterEffects, masking in Clay Guardman’s feet over it, then took it into Sony Vegas, where I redid the zoom-out as it came into view.

Later on, after Judai explains Tempester’s effect, his face-down card goes away to activate it, but in that shot, Tempester’s not on Judai’s Disk! I made a new Tempester proxy (since here Tempester’s officially using the OCG art/text at the time), then slapped it on in AfterEffects (taking a cue from the dub about where to place it on his Disk).  Thankfully, since Judai stood still here, that’s all it took, lol.

After the duel, Shou realizes who Ed was all along! He rummages through his bag and pulls out his copy of Monthly Duel! and opens it up; like with Chronos’s, for the hardsub, I took it into Photoshop and recreated the color scheme to blot out 月編 and put “October” over it for the nine frames it moves in, then I just put each frame into the video in Sony Vegas.

As with earlier, for the hardsub, the article Shou shows everyone about Ed is translated, only with no text warp and slightly different rotation, so a little more of the text is visible on the left and bottom.  Recreated the less-rotation/more-zoom zoom-in on Ed’s photo in Sony Vegas.

As Judai thinks that Ed could use some more deck-building skills, Shou’s still holding up the magazine; “October” is there to translate 10月編 again, but because the “Monthly” in that shot of the magazine is inconsistent with its other appearances in the episode (we’ve seen it in black with white bordering, but here it’s just white text, along with the black 10月編  also being in white), I redid that as well in Photoshop so it matched.  I’ll be including just the “Monthly” fix in the Japanese DVDRip I’ll release on NAC.