Guess what I'm wearing

So I've been thinking about clothing.

No, despite my femaleness, that actually is sort of unusual-- I may have a wild assortment of clothing, but it's only because I also have a small assortment of other women who love to buy me clothes. Mostly my mother. Whenever she's at a yard sale and sees a nice dress shirt, a t-shirt she thinks I'll like, or pants that might fit me, she buys 'em (because they're ALWAYS cheap). I have collected more clothes than I'll ever need through the habits of my mother.

But I digress.

What I mean is that I've been thinking about the clothing the Yu-Gi-Oh characters wear (of course I have) throughout the DM anime (and also in some parts of the manga.)

And I have several observations to make (of course I do).

First of all, you can tell a LOT about Kaiba's insecurities through looking at his clothing. In his first manga appearance, his school uniform practically sags around him, only really fitting at the shoulders. I've long suspected that right before he entered high school, the hormones suddenly set in and he shot up from anywhere to a foot taller to two feet taller than he previously was. (I think this is partly because he always looks so SHORT next to Gozaburo in flashbacks.) So Seto hasn't filled out enough to fit in his uniform.

You can tell this is a source of insecurity for him because of his Battle City onwards costumes. All of them have over-wide shoulders, and the white trenchvest is clearly intended to make him look larger. It's like a lion's mane.

As for what he wears in Duelist Kingdom? I'd been looking at how subdued it is compared to his later costume (and even his earlier costume, that white suit with the huge red cape? That thing was so overblown.) And suddenly it struck me.

Those are Kaiba's pajamas and his house coat. Lots of people, Japanese or otherwise, wear shoes inside their homes that technically could be worn outside, but aren't so as to keep the house cleaner. He was essentially vegging out in his house, not bothering to wear dayclothes, while he obsessed over his Duel Disk prototypes and losing to Yugi and being soul-broken. (XD) He left by the window. That blue duster is the shortest of all non-uniform coats he wears in public (Neither of the white suits count, because suits are a kind of uniform). His pants are loose and comfortable looking, much unlike his regular clothes, which are usually sleek and form-fitting. His shirt doesn't cover his neck (Kaiba always covers his neck!) instead lazily drifting away from it and exposing his collarbone for all the world to see. Not only that, but the housecoat doesn't have a collar-- the shirt collar is what produces the effect most of his coats do by themselves. His pants and shirt are the same color, and it's a color that pants don't tend to be. Finally-- he's not wearing any socks.

Which kind of gives a new flavor to Kaiba's part in Duelist Kingdom, if you ask me. Makes it feel even more desperate than before. I like that.

And now you all know what Kaiba wears to bed. :D

Here's another random doozy: Serenity's outfit ethstetic tends to be a feminized, extremely toned-down version of Kaiba's. I do not say this lightly. Certainly, we only really see her spend a lot of time in the Battle City outfit, but that's what both their Battle City outfits ARE-- a high-collared vest over a shirt. It's probably because I'm a silentshipper, but I find this hilarious. Follow that theme for Serenity (feminized and toned-down Seto Kaiba) and you won't go far wrong when it comes to costumes that feel "right" for her to wear.

Of course, she also looks pretty good in a plaid skirt, but then she IS much, much liklier than Kaiba to be running around in a skirt at ALL. (snickers)

Joey, of course, wears whatever didn't smell bad enough that day. He probably bought it off the cheap rack, but since he's scruffy it works for him. Tristan dresses in a similar fashion but it's likelier his mother buys his clothes, because they look to be in better shape and of higher price tag.

Yugi of course is a punk with an Egyptian bent. It's not entirely clear if he only became a punk AFTER he was possessed, but I think he just didn't have the guts to wear his collar to school before (Atem had to have found the thing SOMEWHERE.) He also likes hoodies, although you wouldn't know it if you'd never read the manga. I like Yugi in hoodies, but I also like real-life punks in hoodies, so go figure. The hoodie doesn't detract from a goth/punk ethsetic at all. Atem seems to have at least SOME influence on what he wears, of course-- sure, there's the jewelry choices, but I'm actually thinking more about that uniform. Egyptians were kind of weird about fashion, by our standards, and it may well be that Atem likes that damn uniform because in ancient Egypt everybody dressed pretty similarly. (And yes, I know he's the one putting on the muscle shirt under it. Pharaohs dressed up their uniforms, but they still dressed pretty similarly to everyone else. The muscle shirt may be what he sees as an acceptable way to mark himself as different from Yugi's peers, and since it's like armor, that makes a lot of sense.)

Téa is always up on Japanese "respectable girl" fashion, although I do admit the yellow dress shirt flaring out from under the pink vest in Duelist Kingdom probably wasn't the best choice (I love her boots there, though.) She never vamps it up too high, she never goes too far into any counterculture. In short, she's a bit preppy. That's fine for her; it works with her sensible personality. She also wears shirts with Engrish on them, but that keeps getting dubbed out. Other than the Engrish she looks much like any American high school girl you might see in the mall or walking down the street. (I love the Wavebody shirt.)

Mai's sort of a cross between trashy and classy, and it's a very weird cross that works very well. She doesn't get enough different outfits. Also, she's the only major character to have a color theme that she sticks to faithfully-- that is, purple. Most of the other ones waver between two colors or don't stick to a color at all (Joey and Tristan don't stick to a color, Kaiba vacillates around the cooler colors and black and white, Téa likes pinks and yellows for some unfathomable reason that probably has to do with Takahashi's own weird preferences. Yugi... well, Yugi's usually wearing his uniform, and that doesn't count, especially since it's probably because Atem's all like "Woot! Uniform!" That wacky Egyptian. XD)

Out of the characters, the two who have the most different outfits are Téa and Kaiba (I'm sure you've never heard THAT pulled out as reasoning for azureshipping!). The outfit which potentially says the most about the person wearing it is Mokuba's Battle City outfit, which includes a very ornate cross necklace. (What does it say? That's up to the fanfic author. Takahashi probably just thought it looked cool.) Sexual-orientation-confirmation prize goes to the French maid outfits Zigfried had all his female servants wear. Most iconic is probably either Kaiba's Battle City outfit or Yugi's Battle City outfit (although Yugi's hair carry most of his outfits. You can't get too complex with clothes when someone has hair like that.) My personal favorite outfit is the white vest and black turtleneck Yugi wore during the Dungeon Dice Monsters episodes. It's Just So.

Colors that should be worn more often:
Blue, for Serenity and Mokuba, green, for Téa, and red, for everyone else.

Maybe, after I've finished the next character study, I'll do an essay about how Yugi and company can be adapted or interpreted as a Power Rangers/Super Sentai team. 83 IT'LL BE FUN.

Wacky Dub Moments: The Best and the Worst

Note: This list refers to those moments in the dub that were just so nuts, even the people watching the series for the first time noticed they were kind of off. The "Worst five" list is the "Worst Five" because, even though I'm a dubbie, they interfered with my enjoyment of the episode even the first time around, when I didn't know what had happened in the Japanese. Most of them because they involved dubbing inconsistencies. The "Best" list is the "best" list because all of them made me laugh the first time I encountered them, and still do.

Worst Five:
1. We're all living in America, America is wunderbar...

-In the first episode, Kaiba refers to himself as the Japanese champion. When being welcomed to Domino, Ishizu is told, "Welcome to America!"
What is the Japanese champion doing attending high school in America? Our standard of teaching sucks compared to Japan! (Apparently, Domino City moves between countries, because later they talk about going to America during Waking the Dragons, and it was made quite clear they needed plane tickets to get back home. The only explaination for that, if Domino was still in America, is that it's in Hawaii, and somehow I just don't think it is.)

2. Yugi, let me help you!

-Up to that point, it was pretty clear that Atem was doing the dueling when Yugi's eyes went all slanty. Changing that episode, so that Atem was supposedly being held back, instead of in need of Yugi's skills, threw the entire thing into confusion.

3. The Magic Marker.

-Dubbing out women's chests. I have an entire article about this at my Horakte's Sock Drawer blog. My body is not a corruptive force, and neither is Mai's, no matter how low her neckline is, as long as she's still actually clothed.

4. I miss you, Kaiba.

-(sputter) Mokuba just called Seto by their ADOPTIVE SURNAME! In one of Seto's FLASHBACKS! From BEFORE they were ADOPTED!

5. After our parents died-- I mean disappeared...

-In Duelist Kingdom, Mokuba and Kaiba both clearly say their parents passed away or DIED, respectively. During Noa's storyline, the policy on death had been changed, so Kaiba had to say they had "disappeared," clearly contradicting earlier dialogue. The only way to explain this away is that previously, they'd been talking to themselves, and so apparently Seto and Mokuba don't say the truth of what happened to their parents in front of each other?

Best Five:
1. "You can beg later. When you are punished." "Huh!?"

-Every single time Pegasus suggests locking Croquet away or torturing him, Croquet responds in the most bewildered tone of voice, like he has no idea what the hell Pegasus is talking about. It's hilarious.

2. "No I refuse!"

-Invid and I quote this at each other sometimes.

3. "You'll pay for that stinging jab with your life points!" "DUEL!"

-This too.

4. "When that blade touches your legs, it'll send you straight to the SHADOW REALM!"

-My soul is in my LEGS? Bahahahaha. No, no, what does it really do?

5. Pegasus's favorite fruit juice.

-Oh come on, like little kids don't know grown-ups drink wine. It's better than what Daddy probably drinks. It even has health benefits. And anyway, shouldn't it be GOOD to show the bad guy doing something you don't want little kids to do? He's the BAD GUY.

I find most of the other really weird stuff in the dub fairly easy to ignore, actually. It mainly amounts to looking elsewhere on the screen, or closing your eyes for a few moments and thinking about butterflies. XD

Obviously, this is all a matter of opinions. But it made ME laugh.

Character Study: Joey Wheeler

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Fifteen to seventeen
Character Archetype: The Open-Hearted Hero, twisted into a supporting role.
Probable Element and Alignment: Fire, Chaotic Good
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: Typically, an inner-city sort of accent and rather odd twists on common phrases, like "Smell ya later."

Like most of the main characters, Joey suffers from a lot of mischaracterization and misunderstanding, which could be seen as odd as he's a basically straightforward person. But straightfowardness and simplicity are not the same as being a flat character-- Joey is equally as complex as Yugi or Kaiba (albiet much less fractured than Kaiba). Joey's most common plague is the label of "the dumb one." He's also shown as the "girly one" in a lot of puppyshipping fics, which quite frankly is beyond me, since Joey is also one of the most, if not THE most, masculine characters in the series. (Invid comments, "He is less masculine than Rafael, and... um... and Panik. Maybe Mako.")

What people who label Joey the "dumb one" tend to miss is that he's actually the leader of the group. Yugi is the main character and the Chosen One, certainly, but he's perfectly happy to stand in back and let Joey take point. In group shots, there are always two characters leading the stroll-- Joey with Yugi slightly behind him. Joey almost always enters a room first. Joey usually speaks first. It usually means something is up when anything different happens.

This is because Joey's base character is that of the typical shonen hero: hot-headed, good-hearted, too quick to speak and act. The man always says the first thing that comes into his head (and speaking from experience, that usually ends with you saying many very strange or stupid things.) Compare both Yugi and Joey to the first other shonen heroes that spring into your mind-- Ash Ketchum. Naruto. Goku. Luffy. Who resembles them more? (Hint: It's not the short one.)

This does not mean Joey is stupid. He's merely much, much less reserved. When he does take the necessary time to think things through (and this is difficult for him mainly because he has too much energy and can't calm down enough most of the time) he's easily as strategic as Kaiba. If there's anything "wrong" with Joey per se, it's that he has ADD.

Joey is, in his own way, a crazy sort of ingenius. Because Yugi stands beside him, we tend to overlook his incredible accomplishments. Even with Yugi there, no one else would have had quite the fire and ability to come in second at Duelist Kingdom despite having had no name for himself before (and Joey did give Yugi a run for his money, so to speak.) Yugi doesn't assist him once during Battle City, but once again Joey excells despite occassionally thinking too fast. Pegasus displays genuine admiration for him during the duel with Bandit Keith (and in the dub, tellingly, Joey is never called "Joey-boy" by Pegasus. He gets "Joseph," which for Pegasus is much more respectful.) In the Oreichalchos saga, he finds himself with the most difficult of the three dragons to use (Hermos, who needs not one but two monsters on the field AND you have to figure out what the heck your new toy DOES) and yet uses it skillfully after only one "trial" duel (the one with Mai, interrupted by Valon.) Joey's growth as a duelist is also another sign of the fact that he's a more traditional shonen hero than Yugi is-- Yugi already had his skills, just not the confidence. Joey had more confidence than he had skills in the beginning, but his mastery of those skills is quick and incredible.

Beyond all that, Joey has a very strange collection of skills. Most of these are best on display during the early manga and the anime's Duelist Kingdom, in which Joey avails himself as
1. A carpenter
2. A locksmith (or a lockpick, but they're essentially the same thing)
3. A pickpocket
4. and a cook.
For whatever reason, Téa refuses to eat Joey's cooking during the Oriechalchos saga, but I suspect that either the writers or Téa forgot that, during Duelist Kingdom, he was the only one who bothered making their dinner outside the castle worth eating. (Probably the writers, as Téa is infallible. XD [/joke]) Joey's purpose within the gang, as a team, is to take point and to take care of random needs presented to the group. Because of this he's sort of a Swiss Army knife when it comes to his abillities: they're small, but numerous and practical. (He's a good fighter, but an unskilled one. This is why Kaiba always wins.)

Probably Joey's skills come from his background: he's the son of a divorced alchoholic who essentially grew up on the streets and had to fend for himself. He spent a lot of time in gangs before coming to high school and terrorized a lot of other kids. Before becoming friends with Yugi, his main prospects for the future included armed robbery and carjacking. One wonders how he ended up at Domino High instead of Rintama High-- potential reasons include a falling-out with Hirutani or the realization that this path was no way to keep his promise to his sister (in Japan, remember, students have some choice in what high schools they go to.) My personal favorite theory is that Tristan had something to do with it. Most likely, it was a combination of all three. Joey is one of the only characters whose direct relationship with his father is vital to his character. Though his father's neglect almost ruined Joey's life, Joey actively continues to support him financially throughout the series. (This is probably the real reason he continues to hold a job after getting the Duelist Kingdom money, at least so far as the dub is concerned. If papa knew Joey had money, he might drink it all up.)

Not that I'm sure Joey suffers from active physical abuse from his father. He probably has been hit with the occasional beer bottle, and most certainly has obtained a few bruises over the years, but it occurs to me that Joey might not even realize he's being abused, seeing that he himself is very rough when physically affectionate. If anything, "That's just how Dad is when he's drunk." He does love his father, which the early manga makes clear, and at least at that point, is convinced that just obtaining financial security will "fix" their relationship (he probably already feels otherwise by the end of the series, though. Kaiba is living proof that money does not equal happiness. XD) Being a top duelist makes money less of a worry later on, I imagine, but as part of his early character money is a constant struggle and source of envy for him.

One of his greater accomplishments as a man is proving himself capable of earning, winning and providing for his loved ones, something his father failed to do. The actual most likely source of the family's falling apart, and even the most likely source of his father's alchohilsm, were struggles with Serenity's medical issues. Joey solved the problem. Part of the reason for his success was learning to accept the help of others. Joey's father probably never learned that, and I can imagine him having once been a very proud man.

Another oft-overlooked aspect of Joey is that he is an awesome judge of character, once he's past that first impression. Out of the characters in the series, the ones who understand Kaiba best by the end of it are Mokuba, Yugi and Joey. When Mai needs things said to her, it rarely takes him long to ferret out the best thing to say (even though, as noted before, all the wrong things to say come out first, because he always says the first thing that pops into his head.) He also has slightly better social skills than either Yugi or Kaiba, at least in that he's unafraid to approach people he finds interesting and presents a more approachable manner himself. He's definitely better-adjusted than Kaiba is, although their respective characters share a lot in common. (This isn't surprising given their respective archetypes, which are two sides of the same coin.)

Something that most people DO understand about Joey's character is that he's almost everybody's best buddy, although I don't think most of them quite realize how far the series pushes this. Yes, he's Yugi's best friend, but he's also Tristan's best friend, and he's Bakura's pretty darn good friend, and Téa's best (platonic) friend, and his sister's best friend, and he sure does get along with Duke quite well. Mako likes him, Mokuba likes him, Pegasus respects him, Valon likes him (eventually), Mai falls in love with him. Marik likes him, and he's seen exchanging rough affection with Odion at one point in the manga. And, of course-- Kaiba likes him, too. As I noted in Kaiba's character study, Kaiba picks on Joey because Joey is funny. More importantly, by the end of Battle City, Kaiba even respects Joey, although obviously that doesn't stop him from teasing Joey. Kaiba doesn't have very many friends at all, much less ones he can tease. Joey fulfills an important role for him, and in turn, Kaiba gets Joey mad enough to stand up and excell. If Yugi, Tristan and Téa provide Joey with the support, and Serenity provides the motivation, Kaiba stokes the fire and acts as the grinding stone to sharpen Joey's determination. (wow what a mixed metaphor.) By the end of the series, Joey is one of Kaiba's closest friends, even if Kaiba isn't one of Joey's. (Although I do believe Joey considers Kaiba to be a friend. Just not the kind you borrow money from. XD)

Earlier in the study I commented that Joey is one of the most masculine characters in the series. People familiar with the cross-dressing fiasco from Series 0 may feel otherwise, but one thing to remember about that is that Joey IS Japanese. Before becoming infused with Western culture, the Japanese wore what was essentially unisex clothing, the main differences being in how people tied their kimonos. I tend to think this makes the average Japanese person more comfortable in his or her masculinity or femininity, and Joey is one of the most comfortable people in the whole series-- if he does things like that, it's because he's comfortable enough in his masculinity that it's not a big deal to him. Out of the male characters, Joey's body language is among the most masculine, when he's not effecting someone else's. (He's also got that horribly terrifying "macho" face he and Tristan both do, but I'm not going to go too far into that.) For Joey, much of the series involves his proving himself as a man. The first time I watched the scene where he and Mai part after Battle City, I felt like he had "arrived." The "final duel of Battle City" scene only solidified that. (Invid disagrees: he feels Joey "arrived" during his duel with Yami Marik. I'm cool with that, but his parting with Mai made it feel more sealed and permanent to me.)

Joey is boisterous and immature at the beginning of the series, wandering aimlessly through his life. By the end of it, he's still energetic and boyish in the best ways, but he's also become the man his father never managed to be, with drive, purpose and yes, even dignity.

Final Distillation:
Joey is the leader.
Joey has a lot of crazy skills, many of which wouldn't seem to have anything to do with each other.
He's brilliant when he thinks things through.
But he rarely thinks things through, because he has too much energy on his hands.
He's incredibly masculine, and very comfortable in that.
He always says the first thing he thinks of-- his heart is on his sleeve.
Eventually, everyone likes him.

Fandom Rant: Kaiba, Kisara, and silentshipping

(glances at title) That seems a little off, does it? Well, it's not.

Recently while searching for more stuff to put into YnY's collection of other people's Yu-gi-oh next generation stuff (this doesn't count GX, it's fanmade nexgen of the original cast I look for) I became more aware of the attitude that many Kisara/Kaiba fans have toward other Kaiba pairings.

As one shipper put it: "Seeing Kaiba with anyone but Kisara sickens me." (Emphasis mine.)

Sickens you? Really? That seems a little harsh, for one thing.

I guess I can understand the roots of this rather arrogant, evangelistic attitude about the whole thing. Kaiba/Kisara is considered "canon" by most people. (For the record, I actually like the person who said that, just not what she said. Which is why I'm not pointing out her name, because I don't want any jerks getting the idea that I want her flamed or something.) Some anti-silentshippers, whom I have much experience with (being the stalwart captain of the ship), go so far as to call Kisara "evidence" that Kaiba and Serenity shall "never be." My fellow silentshippers have gone to such extremes in order to "get around the obstacle" of Kisara as claiming that Serenity is Kisara's reincarnation. This is preposterous, and it's kind of disheartening that they feel the need to stretch so far.

Here's what really bothers me about the whole thing, though-- Seto Kaiba and Kisara are not actually a canon couple.

You read right. And I'm not insane. Kisara's in love with Priest Seto, not Seto Kaiba. Kaiba is Priest Seto's reincarnate, sure-- but he's not Priest Seto himself. Are Yugi and Atem the same person? All evidence points to NO. In Yu-Gi-Oh, reincarnation is not resurrection. If Seto Kaiba is fulfilling some destiny, it's because Priest Seto is using him, by proxy, to get the job done. Kisara herself says, "you're like him, but you're NOT him." And even more than that? By the time Priest Seto would have died, he and Kisara were actually a merged soul. THAT soul is the one that would have been reincarnated, which is how Kaiba still had a Blue Eyes as a Ka. (The Shipper's List agrees with me: "blueshipping" is Kaiba/Kisara, "Mizushipping" is Priest Seto/Kisara.)

Which, in a way, makes Kisara Seto Kaiba's mother.

Give me a few moments, I need to get over the squick factor before I can continue.

Kisara has no direct reincarnate counterpart, but Kaiba decorates all his stuff with twisting, twining Blue-Eyes White Dragons. He feels a direct affinity for it. Priest Seto had no relation to the beast until he fell in love with Kisara. You can call that a sign that Kaiba remembers the romance somehow, or you can see it as something deeper-- Kisara living on within Kaiba himself. He's like her child. I, personally, find that a lot sadder and more touching, especially since we have no real hint of what his biological mother might have been like. (There are going to be photographs shown of her in Game of Dreams. I intend to make her look rather like Kisara, for the reasons given.)

Now then-- because Kisara has no direct counterpart, making one for her is essentially creating a fancharacter. I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't care for OC pairings, if I can help it.

So I'm going to stick to silentshipping, thank you.