Invid's Bizarre Card Ramblings #1: Theinen the Great Sphinx

[EDIT: Something rather amusing about this article: Since it was originally published, the wiki's anime effect for this card has been corrected. I guess I did a bit of good.] Hey, people who are mostly from DeviantArt who probably care less about the card game than about how awesome GDG's comic craft is! I'm here to talk about cards!

A long-standing gripe I have with the card game is that they monkey with effects for what often seems like no good reason. Other times, there's clearly a good reason. Meet high-class good reason, Theinen the Great Sphinx (link to a picture)!

Theinen (pronounced "Thin-e-in" for some reason) the Great Sphinx (Japanese name: Sphinx Androgynous)
Light Attribute/Beast Type
Level 10
ATK 3500/DEF 3000

All versions of the card have the above characteristics. Now, let's turn to the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game wiki for the effect of the card in the real life game.

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by paying 500 Life Points when both "Andro Sphinx" and "Sphinx Teleia" (Japanese name: Gynosphinx, hence "Sphinx Androgynous") on your side of the field are destroyed at the same time; then you can Special Summon this monster from your hand or Deck.
When this card is Special Summoned successfully, pay 500 Life Points to increase the ATK of this card by 3000 points until the end of the End Phase.

I recall that this card was touted in promotional materials as "the strongest monster ever made" when the movie came out; I suppose a potential 6500 ATK is pretty impressive.

However, the effect of the card was radically different in The Pyramid of Light. Its ATK rose not to 6500, but to 35,000, which is a rather significant difference. Let's see what the wiki has to say about it:

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. You can Set this card as a Normal Magic/Spell Card. This card cannot be Special Summoned except from your Magic/Spell & Trap Card Zone when both "Andro Sphinx" and "Sphinx Teleia" on your side of the field are destroyed at the same time. When this card is Special Summoned successfully, increase this card's ATK by 30,000 points.

The first part actually makes some sense-Anubis did indeed set the card on the Field, and presumably it was not as a Monster. The part that doesn't: How do you add 30,000 to 3500 to get 35,000? (Another speculative version of the effect mentioned on the wiki involved suggesting that it merely had its ATK multiplied by ten, which would have made sense; more sense than the wrong number, anyway.)

Answer: You don't. They've got it wrong. In fact, it's not even a fixed increase.

How do I know? I checked.

The nice thing about The Pyramid of Light is that the English version is the only English release with readable card text. And while it's a borderline case, I could read it well enough that I can tell you what the effect was (simplified to help the important bits stand out):

When an "Andro Sphinx" and a "Sphinx Teleia" on your Field are destroyed at the same time, pay 1000 Life Points to Special Summon this card. (I don't recall being able to tell if it specified where from.) When this card is Special Summoned, pay 1000 Life Points to increase this card's ATK by the combined ATK of all Monsters in your Graveyard.

Now, it's possible that someone affiliated with the wiki examined the footage and concluded that this couldn't have been the effect. They're wrong, but it's understandable. Why would they have assumed it was incorrect? Because several cards clearly must have had different effects in Pyramid of Light, and they would have assumed they didn't, because that's just how they think over there.

Specifically, in the TCG, Peten the Dark Clown removes itself from the game banishes itself* in order to summon another copy of itself. If it did so in the movie, the total for Theinen's ATK would have been off; however, it matches if Peten's effect was different and simply activated when it was sent to the Graveyard. (There's a similar issue with the other two Sphinxes, as their TCG characteristics would have meant they'd be banished when the Pyramid of Light card is destroyed, but one can easily come to the same conclusion regarding those. Another issue of sorts involves Life Point totals, as Anubis inherited Kaiba's Life Points and the other Sphinxes needed 500 Life Points apiece to be summoned, but one can assume that's another difference. There may be other points of divergence, but I don't recall at the moment.) If Theinen's effect is based on the ATK of Monsters in its Graveyard (which Anubis again inherited from Kaiba), it would also explain the "dead souls set free" remark.

Which makes me wish the animators had cared enough to depict the "dead souls" as the spirits of Kaiba's monsters, so that the audience could more intuitively understand just what Anubis was doing.

So, myth busted mystery solved.

*I'm super happy about this new piece of terminology. It's great that they've simplified an aspect of the game so much with a single piece of changed terminology. I'm sure they more or less ganked the idea from Magic: The Gathering, but that's not really bad...

-Signing off.

Little Voices: Page 38-55

Good GRIEF it's about darn time I did another commentary. And it only took several months and ribbing from Invid, too. We'll only be going to page 55, because going all the way to the end is just too much in one sitting.

So last time we left off, Ryou had discovered the other Bakura was still living in his head, and that Bakura has amnesia. On page 38, we see that he's taken off and Téa has no idea where.

A lot of stuff changed at the last minute in this set of pages. First of all, I was originally going to have some pages involving Kaiba's storyline right after Ryou discovers Yami B is still alive. I decided that would be too confusing and therefore pushed the pages back, instead moving into this scene right away. I mentioned this in the DeviantArt artist's comments. What I didn't mention is that, originally, I had intended to show Ryou and Téa's parting, a short conversation that I've been wrestling with on and off for two years. I had finally come up with a version that I liked, yet ironically, the page count was getting much too high and the story was getting a bit ponderous and bloated.

Furthermore, I wanted very much to show Tristan getting back from Singapore, but every idea I had for a page that did so was bland and not nearly informative enough (After all, we already knew from Duke that he was on vacation.) I am of the opinion that every page should either be interesting, funny, or at least move the plot along. While I wanted Tristan to show up more in the story (I hate it when people forget he exists) the pages I was coming up with just weren't enough of any of those requirements. So I grafted the two scenes together, discarding Ryou's actual departure in favor of showing a homecoming by Tristan instead. The original discussion between Téa and Ryou was two pages, so I cut three pages down to one.

(This is another place where I might consider posting the discarded first drafts someday.)

Tristan knows that Kaiba is sick and that he collapsed at a tournament because it was all over the tabloids. (The Big Eye: "Seto Kaiba at DEATH'S DOOR!?? Tournament Collapse!" There would be a quote right on the cover from Kaiba, too: "I'm not dying!" says CEO.) Also his friends tell him about these things.

I love page 39 for like a gazillion reasons. CX I probably should have done something with Marik's subplot (the Ishtar clan revealing itself to the world and promptly getting into a legal fight with the Egyptian government) during Magic Light, but quite frankly Magic Light didn't have "room" for that part of the story, and anyway I tend to think the reveal happened either before or after Magic Light's time period. I do, however, think that "Marik VS The Supreme Council of Antiquities" makes an awesome title for a story. XD There will be a lot more of that plot to show up, and I plan on doing a short (non full length story, so it doesn't count as one of the seven) set of pages involving the conflict coming to a head in between Little Voices and the next storyline. Marik will have a lot of fun and so will you.

His conflict with the Egyptian government is slightly inspired by the trouble that Native Americans still have dealing with the United States government, incidentally. Ironically, the United States will eventually become one of Marik's better allies in the matter. I don't see any conflict with what would happen in reality at all here: the US loves to make up for its mistakes by helping the wrong people. (Not that I think the US shouldn't help people. We just shouldn't do it for some of the reasons that we do, we should do it because we're nice people.)

Anyway, there's a bit of confusion between whether Ryou just opened the door through brute force or picked the lock. My original intent was that he picked the lock, so automatically that he didn't quite realize he was doing it, but I also don't really see a need to make that clear in the comic. The scene's funny, that's what's important.

I love drawing Marik. I love drawing Marik, and I love fiddling with his jewelry instead of just keeping it to what we see during the series. :) I also love lotus blossoms. 'Nuff said.

I suspect that Marik watches Duel Monster tournaments and has actually noticed Yugi acting like Atem all on his own, but he probably also keeps a certain amount of contact with Yugi, and with the others.

Marik is adorable when he's being socially awkward. XD

Page 40 was originally going to be over hot tea, but it occured to me that Ryou probably came in from at least ninety-degree weather (That's about thirty-two degrees Celsius). So yeah, nix on the hot tea.

Ryou gets a lot of weird flak over the fact that he writes letters to Amane. Personally I think the people who fetishize it have more wrong with them than Ryou does: it would be much creepier if Ryou kept a little RPG style doll of her and talked to it. There are a lot of ways of grieving, and writing letters to the lost is one of the more common ones, both in Japan and America.

On the other hand, a lot of people also feel alone in their grief, and it wouldn't shock me if Ryou does too-- he doesn't seem to me like he took her death well, and it also doesn't seem like he and his father pulled together over the loss of his sister and mother at all. So there's him worrying about whether it makes him crazy.

Again, Marik is uniquely suited to talk to Ryou about that kind of thing; he's not only lost quite a lot more than the average modern teenager, he's from a culture that really valued the importance of communing with the dead as part of dealing with loss, and there's no way an ancient Egyptian would have told Ryou writing letters to a dead person and then offering them up to her was crazy or even remotely creepy.

Panel 1-3 of page 41 is pretty much a recap, but it seemed sort of necessary for the characters to lay out what's on the table, just to lead into the final panel. Naturally, Ryou's a little shocked. Personally I feel he's a little disturbed at the idea of owning someone. There's also just the fact that he's so damn tired of dealing with Yami B at this point.

I think on page 42 what Marik means by "taking him off" Ryou's hands is, quite simply, that Marik's responsibility as a Tombkeeper includes things like Yami Bakura.

There's a certain section of the fandom who insist that Marik is still totally going to be messed up Yami Marik style, even after the series, and that the only thing that will get rid of Yami Marik is years and years of therapy.

No. I have taken a class in psychology and totally understand their reasoning, but that is not what happened at the end of Battle City. Yami Marik may have started as a mental disorder, but he didn't end as one, whatever he was. Because he could strap Marik's soul up in the corner the way he had separated Yugi and Atem to do the same thing, he and Marik are clearly distinct souls. Because Marik could "visit" Odion when his soul had been mostly eaten up, they are clearly distinct souls.

So my post-series Marik is relatively mentally stable and no longer has dissociative personality disorder, regardless of whether or not it makes sense. Magic has been shown in Yugioh to clearly be able to fix brains anyway (Kaiba). Marik probably still needs a bit of therapy, but not so much that he can't help Ryou with his problem now.

I tend to think the reason he knows how Ryou should go about calling Yami B forth has either something to do with my mildly random rant, with the fact that he's been talking to Yugi, or simply with the fact that Marik seems to me to be rather educated, magic-wise. I wouldn't be surprised if the heads of the Ishtar clan classified as being some level of sorcerer.

Ryou goes along with it on page 43 because he doesn't know what else to do more than anything. I like this page because it shows how fully in control Ryou actually is, whether he realizes it or not-- not only is Yami B being very childlike (the way the shadows hide his face was intended to call back to the way his face was mostly hidden by shadows when he witnessed Kul Elna's destruction) but he's also being totally compliant to Ryou's will, despite the fact that it's difficult for him. Ryou doesn't help him for several reasons, one of which being that he's still a little afraid of actually approaching Yami B, but also because he simply wants to make Yami B do things for himself. He's a compassionate guy, but he's not THAT warm toward Yami B yet.

The series had several interesting ways to show one soul switching out for another, usually between Yugi and Atem. The "hands touching" method isn't the most original, but it's also one of my favorites. Go figure.

Marik doesn't expect Yami B to remember him on page 44 (although Yami B himself is frustrated and more than a little upset that he doesn't). Once again I went for "little kid Bakura" faces, because that's what I wanted to show: Everything that made him crazy has been blasted away. A frightened child is all that's left. Obviously he's still himself, which is what I wanted to be seen with the serious face he makes when he calls himself an avenger, but he's also more himself than he's been in several thousand years. (If that makes sense.)

The line "I wanted Ryou safe" is both a self-reassurance that he's not a bad person, despite the fact that he's sure he's done something wrong, and an admonition toward Marik himself. "I wanted Ryou safe, and you wanted to let a big red dragon spit on him!!" Not that Yami B actually remembers this; it's more like he's looking in on things inside Ryou's memories. That's also why he "fled."

I love Roo's face in the second panel of page 45. Also, Marik's not sure how much sense Ryou's explanation actually makes. B[

One of the commentors made the best statement in regards to page 46: that Yami Bakura being human means that he can change. Yes. This is exactly it. The other point of this page was to point out the fact that yes, I DO know that I draw Bakura taller than he was in the series. XD

Ryou develops a slight case of Yami B's eye shadows on page 47. Uh oh. Also I finally stopped copping out and actually tried to draw Odion's facial tat. Booya.

We have another cameo on page 48; Angela the dragon, who belongs to Lady Blackwings of Deviantart. She's a nice lady and does pretty colors. O_O Poor Yami B is basically the kitten in Ryou's basement right now. I also feel that this page shows one of the ways that Ryou IS a good person, despite everything: He doesn't trust the guy and dislikes that he's basically been forced into nursing him, but the sad puppy face Yami B is making still works on him, and he's still being kind to him.

I've always been mildly fascinated with Thief King Bakura's life before he became part of the Yami Bakura entity. Invid and I agree that what happened in the Millenium World arc couldn't have been exactly what truly happened in the past (more like a "summary" of what had happened, altered by the modern elements added to it and by the fact that it was actually a role-playing game), so there's a lot of questions left unanswered. But he was probably the one character who was up to the most interesting mayhem.

On page 49 I chose to add the "meanwhile" note, something I don't normally do, mainly because the Bakura scene set was so long. I have always had it in my head that Bakura's visit to Marik takes place around the same time or slightly after Yugi, Joey, Serenity and Rebecca visit the Kaiba mansion, but I was concerned that chopping the scenes apart would be too confusing, and I really don't like being confusing. :x (I'm aware of the fact that I still am anyway.)

I love that Mokuba screams Yugi, Joey, and Serenity's names in all capital letters, but Rebecca's name is said with normal capitalization like it's just sort of added on. Also, that last panel was one of many panels that was a lot easier to draw because Invid is nice and lets me borrow his portable DVD player: Instead of trying to dig up my manga volumes, which are notoriously insidious to find (I swear they're alive and do it on purpose) I could just grab one of the Duelist Kingdom DVDs and put the DVD player on my desk. XD (This is one of many reasons why I simply find it easier to write a story following mostly anime continuity- that and the fact that parts of the manga send my suspension of disbelief crashing through the floor, and then it drowns in the sea below while flailing around for a tiny key that probably floated a hundred feet away by the time it should have reached my poor, poor suspension of disbelief. >_<)

And since I got a laptop recently, it's going to be even easier than that- Now I can just save screenshots and use those. Yay, technology! XD

I love Roland to pieces. I sort of ad-libbed a lot of the furniture on page 50, but I figure if Kaiba really does have OCD or something, it probably gets moved around enough that it doesn't matter. Kaiba's bed is a totally different one from the one that is briefly shown in Magic Light. I could say something like "Well, this is a fancomic and I was being less careful about references and junk during Magic Light YOU'RE NOT PAYING ME to read this so don't complain," but that's not how I feel about it: The fact that I'm not making any money off this doesn't mean I don't care about it. So my official explanation is actually that Kaiba was sleeping in a guest room that one time, because burning his clothes in a wastebasket filled his room with a smoky smell that he couldn't sleep with. XD (Well sure, it was on a balcony, but he left his door open, so the smell still got in.) (Yes, this is how much of a nerd I am.)

In the original version of the fanfic that became this comic, it was actually going to be Serenity that went in to talk to Kaiba, and worse, she visited him alone. I wrote the original idea several years ago, and that's my only excuse. Past-me mostly cared about her agendas, while Current-me cares more about the fact that Joey knows Kaiba better than Serenity does and is more likely to understand Kaiba's hangups right away, and that Serenity is much more timid than Joey is. This is one of the reasons I'm not bothered by my own writing process taking a long time: Fics end up less stupid because of it. I love page 51 because that maid is totally talking in lolcatspeak, and Kaiba totally just nearly dropped an F-bomb. XD The sketch version of this page featured Kaiba snuggling down further into the bedding contentedly before realizing someone (who wasn't Mokuba) was sitting next to him, but it wasn't particularly clear what was happening-- it looked more like Joey was snuggling into Kaiba. For obvious reasons (this scene is homoerotic enough!) I chose to have him say "Mnf?" instead.

Also, Kaiba hires no maids under the age of 25 in my universe. I just want to make that clear: Women who don't look like they could be Mokuba's mom need not apply. XD I gave her a French Maid style costume anyway, just because it's so very anime for her to be wearing one.

In panel 3 of page 52, Kaiba's muffled words are "Oh Gawd!" If you look closely, you'll see that Joey has chosen to wrap his legs around Kaiba's right arm. Kaiba finds this incredibly disturbing. XD

Some of the way Joey's talking about healing on page 53 caused a reader or two to wonder just how sick Kaiba actually is, since a lot of people don't think of the flu as being a life-threatening illness and it almost sounded as though that's what Joey was saying, that Kaiba was dying or something.

The common flu is one of those funny illnesses that, when a person gets it, can either run its course if the person is getting proper treatment, or can, if the person is NOT getting proper treatment, get worse and worse and worse. Kaiba is essentially prolonging the amount of time that he's sick by being difficult to take care of. XD That's part of what Joey's telling him off for, anyhow.

Another side to it is the fact that Joey knows that Kaiba's still a little out of wack over the car accident. This whole scene became a scene about how Kaiba couldn't even apologize to Joey when he thought Joey was awake, and now is the first time Joey's outright told him that it's okay and they can move on. They're communicating better than they were back at Duelist Kingdom, but it's not the kind of communication you normally see between two healthy people. Page 54 turned out pretty much exactly as I wanted it, and while it's not as heavy impact as a scene about Kaiba standing in the rain so nobody bothers him at his father's grave, I'm still quite pleased with the moment and consider it quite important.

At this point in the story, Joey's opinion about Kaiba has morphed into sadness that Kaiba's so messed up.

And of course, the delectable page 55, which I simply cannot leave out. Look at that Roland! Look at hiiim!! XD Mokuba would seem to have funny ideas about how to get people to relax. Also, as noted in the page comments, Earl Grey is considered by some to be a breakfast tea. I thought it was a bit funnier than coffee.

In this fancomic, as a totally random aside, I chose to have Roland's full name be "Roland Isono," as Isono is his Japanese name. This seemed like a fairly economical solution: His dub name is the only given name I've known the character to have, and his Japanese name is the only family name I've known the character to have. And they sound comfortable when said aloud next to one another.

Next commentary, I'll probably try to plow all the way to the end! Yay! XD

It Only Took 28 Episodes

I have a new probable favorite ZEXAL character.

Anna Kozuki, while she's only appeared once, is my vote for best random character to appear so far.

Now, as I've noted, the younger ages of most of ZEXAL's characters is... a bit uncomfortable for me. They're much closer to actual children than most Yu-Gi-Oh! casts. But they don't really draw Anna here as a child (they even have her Gainaxing, for crying out loud!-also note that, if you don't know what that is, you should be cautious about clicking the link) and I guess that means that it's a bit less problematic for me.

Anyway, there are a lot of things about the character that are pretty great, so I'll list a few:

Her first appearance, mere seconds after the episode opens, involves her standing on a roof and sniping at the main characters.

With a cannon.

A cannon that can transform into a small aircraft.

Aside from the fact that she can and does wield a portable cannon with proficiency, even without that we have evidence of her being very strong-at one point, to punctuate a statement, she swings and misses at Yuma, and makes a small crater in a concrete wall.

And now we come to my favorite part of the character. Here we have a minor character (as opposed to an important villain or something, although the intro suggests that she may become a recurring character) who is a female duelist who does not use a single "girly" card.

Folks, that just hasn't been done before in Yu-Gi-Oh!'s various series.

Further, her few monsters are huge. They have a physical presence that's incredibly dominating, giant trains casually circling like sharks around Yuma and his tiny wimps, a presence greater than that of the vast majority of monsters since the Battle City era. And their statistics-one of them, in fact the first one we see, has 5000 ATK-are ridiculously hyperbolic.

So, in short, I think that this alone is perhaps the best thing about ZEXAL so far-equity in deck types. She's manlier than the guys, for crying out loud!

-Signing off.

Y'know...

...when I said that I wouldn't mind seeing more hot moms in ZEXAL...

...I wasn't expecting the series to take me up on that. (For reference, the lady in the above picture is the mother of Yuma's friend Kotori.)

I also was not expecting more hot older sisters akin to Akari, Yuma's older sister and still my favorite albeit fairly seldom seen character. (The new one is the older sister of Yuma's friend Tetsuo-and look at Tetsuo's portrait picture. Seriously).

But lo, they have provided.

(Screenshots ganked off of a mostly-raw posting of episode 19 from one of the less well-policed video sites, with the labels the posters put on to advertise their subtitled version scratched off. Because seriously, guys, you don't own it any more than I do.)

-Signing off.

After 5D's

Well, a couple of months later, and I still haven't posted my final thoughts on the end of 5D's. And of course, I also ought to remark on the start of Yu-Gi-Oh! "unnecessary letters" ZEXAL.

First up: On the matter of the 5D's finale, I've made my position on it known before the fact, and it's a good darned thing that they delivered on that relationship, because seriously, that would have been the third time a Yu-Gi-Oh! series ended with no emotional resolutions for multiple relationships, and as I've stated in the linked post, I'm rather attached to the Yusei/Aki couple.

And it was satisfying. In fact, even aside from the beautiful visuals and direction of The Moment (TM), that was just about the most romantic thing ever. According to the Yu-Gi-Oh! wiki, Yusei told her she had "the best smile in the world," and she responded that he had put that smile there. Take that, Team Satisfaction orgy shippers. (Yes, they exist.)

On the last bit of the "action" plot, if you were wondering why Yusei and his bike turned gold at the end of episode 150, there is a reason beyond simply imitating series like Dragonball Z.

A musician who performed a huge amount of 5D's music later in the series was Masaaki Endoh. Aside from being guaranteed a spot on any "top ten musicians of all time" list I would ever put together, he's known for performing the opening songs of a number of anime, one of the earliest of which was "King of Braves Gaogaigar" (which I've talked about elsewhere at least a little bit).

In the series, there's a giant robot called Gaogaigar (which roughly translates, by the way, as "growl harm being," i.e. a growling guy that hurts you) who can pick up a hammer called the Goldion Hammer which causes him to turn bright, shiny gold in pretty much exactly the same fashion as Yusei did. If you think that's a coincidence, Endoh also performed the opening theme for another robot-based series called Daigunder, and in the last episode of that the titular robot turned gold for massive damage as the opening song played.

So my conclusion is that Yusei's "Over Top Clear Mind" turned him gold because Masaaki Endoh sang during the series more than once, and apparently that's a law of anime now.

On ZEXAL: It's no 5D's or original series, but it isn't GX yet either.

The emphasis on the new Xyz (pronounced "ex-sieze" for no reason beyond perhaps confusing English speakers) monsters strikes me as a colossal blunder, mostly because they're much lamer than Synchro Monsters. They're simple and easy to summon for the most part, but they generally have pretty limited effects and unpleasant drawbacks which are unnecessary. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if someone figured out how to break the game with the rules weirdness surrounding their non-levels.

So far, it seems to be the Yu-Gi-Oh! series with the smallest amount of ancient civilization references. I can't say I care for most of the characters, although the mystery of Astral is vaguely piquing my interest. (He's a character who literally knows nothing; he wondered why Yuma and his family were eating in one scene.)

My favorite character so far, though, is probably Yuma's older sister, Akari, as she's rather hot and also entertaining.

Of course, she makes relatively infrequent appearances. If this series was about her instead, I'd probably be hooked. As it is, searching for the episodes (since YouTube finally seems to be having some success at keeping users from posting them) feels more like a chore than entertainment.

For that matter, there's just a general lack of attractive female characters in ZEXAL. (Yuma's schoolmates aren't legal.)

Of course, in episodes seven and eight, we get this lady, the mother of the Numbers-possessed duelist of the week...

...and I can't say I minded seeing her. (Incidentally, the wiki doesn't appear to have an article for her yet.)

Of course, seeing her express concern over her son causes Yuma to flash back to a memory of his own hot mom, and while I can't say that I minded seeing the best shot of her that we've gotten so far, it's still a little weird.

Kudos for these being pretty much the least absent of all Yu-Gi-Oh! series' protagonists' parents, as even Dr. Fudo only showed up as a ghost and in a few flashbacks, and it'll at least be possible for Yuma's parents to show up in the series as not-dead people if the information on the wiki is correct.

Also, I think I would watch a show about hot shonen moms.

-Signing off.

Ho Snap

Yusei and Aki Forever Into the Future

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is ending soon, and I'm of mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, 5D's was far better handled than its predecessor (because seriously, GX, what the heck?!), eventually using its own take on the Yu-Gi-Oh! world to create a story that is fairly unique and its own, and also is completely daft in a lovable way.

On the other hand, perhaps it's better that it's being retired while it's going well, because it looks like the developers are having terrible ideas again. (I'll hold judgment on "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal [pronounced 'zeal' for no good reason]" until I actually see for myself that it's completely terrible, but it isn't promising.)

I'll still be sad to see it go.

Actually, there's an undercurrent that's been going on as the series has progressed where it seems that the opening and ending sequences have developed a slight disconnect, wherein it seems that Yusei's and Aki's relationship is developing at a slightly different pace than in the series itself.

I'll note that, while I am a dude and thus not much for "shipping" (unlike about a bazillion percent of this fandom), I totally ship Yusei and Aki like heck. But I'm not going to pretend that their relationship in the series even begins to parallel what we see, in the endings particularly.

And to show that I'm paying more attention to these things than is really sane or healthy, I'm going to go through each of the 5D's Japanese series openings and end credits, and list the correct sequences that the characters appear in, in the name of seeing the development of their relationship via spacial arrangements.

In the first opening, the order is Yusei, Jack, Aki, the twins, and Rex Goodwin. In the corresponding ending, only Yusei and Jack appear.

In the second opening, the order is Yusei, Jack (with Carly briefly), Aki, the twins, Crow, Misty and Carly, Kiryu/Kalin, and then Yusei again. In the corresponding ending, we can see Yusei on what used to be the Junkpile of Solitude in the first opening, now crowded with a huge number of people, the closest of which are Jack and Aki. The character order is Yusei, Jack, the twins, Aki, Crow, and then Jack, Aki, the twins, and Yusei again. There's a second character cluster after this that has Aki and Jack a nearly equal distance from Yusei (though Jack is closer, the image is slightly misleading because the characters are of such disparate heights and standing on different levels).

The third opening plays with Yusei, Jack, and Crow as the Three Musketeers/Caballeros/whatever. Character order is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins (plus a gaggle of those schoolmates who haven't been seen in ages), followed by Dark Glass/Vizor/Bruno and Sherry disguised as a dude (though this was one of the openings that changed over time, and I'm looking at the first version).

Here's where things start getting more interesting. Observe the following screenshot.

Now, what's interesting here is that it looks like Crow is between Yusei and Aki, but he actually isn't-if you look closely, he's actually standing slightly behind both of them.

And here's the last bit of this particular opening sequence:

Aki is wearing skimpier clothes than she does at any point in the series and is looking at either Jack, Yusei, Crow, or the TV Tokyo logo. Since she likes Yusei better than the other two and isn't likely to be breaking the fourth wall, I'd judge she's looking at Yusei particularly.

In the third ending, the first character order is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins. Then comes Jack, the twins, Crow, Aki, and Yusei... and it's in this Brady Bunch style box, with Aki next to Yusei.

There's a third and a fourth sequence mixed in with each other, but the third doesn't have Yusei, while the fourth is Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins again.

Somewhere in there (I think) is this still image-while the focus is on Jack and Crow, look at Yusei and Aki in back there.

There's also an upward-panning shot which shows Yusei at the top, and Aki is the second from the top, and at the end is a rather... peculiar portrait of Yusei, which becomes the frame for a group shot that shows the gang clustered around Yusei... and Aki is once again standing closest to him.

The fourth opening doesn't have any of those slideshows or such weirdness-instead, it has a sequence which pays attention to normal motion and the laws of physics. (Go figure.) It should be noted that Aki's sexy biker suit makes its first appearance in an opening here.

The ending, however, is something of a whirlwind of sequences, featuring Crow, Jack, Yusei, and Aki, then Jack, Crow, Yusei, and Aki, and then Jack, Yusei, Aki, and Crow. (Whew.)

There's also this brief sequence where we see them walking in line, and Aki is standing in front of Yusei.

And there's also the strongest indicator I've yet listed, this still image:

Yes, it would seem that, in ending sequence land at least, the two are dating by the fourth ending sequence.

And here she is, ensuring that Bruno/Dark Glass/Vizor/Antinomymony keeps away from Yusei.

The fifth opening has an order of Crow, Jack, Yusei, Aki, and the twins, and a cluster of Aki, Crow, Yusei, Jack, and the twins.

The fifth ending finally has figured out how to be internally consistent, because it features the same order-Yusei, Jack, Crow, Aki, and the twins-twice... even though this is the "wheeler order" sequence, where it'd have made more sense to have it be Jack, Crow, Yusei, Aki, and the twins.

Then comes this crowning indicator of where their relationship apparently is in ending land:

The "standing in the forest looking in awe at a giant obscured Duel Monster" stage.

It looks like a pretty serious relationship at this point.

Chances are, there won't really be any more new Japanese 5D's openings or endings (unless maybe the final ending is like what they did for the Duel Monsters series), but perhaps it's for the best. Imagine where it would go from here if one takes into account the fact that apparently their relationship moves faster than in the series itself.

Imaginary ending six still, courtesy of GDG (and with a greyscaled screenshot in the background):

Imaginary ending seven still:

(Don't tell me you don't think Yanagi's qualified.)

And the still from an imaginary eighth ending:

By the twelfth, we'd be seeing them in the nursing home.

...

No, now that I think about it, I want to see that after all.

#@%& it, Konami!

-Singning off. (Gack, stupid keyboard. I knew it would happen sooner or later.)