#Out of Ojamas

[kaiowut99]

Finalized!GX 122-123 Update:

Our food's important, so no stealin' allowed! 🍞♥

[femmeroi]

Im making custom Ojama tokens for locals and Woah these guys are fun to draw. Theyre so shape and so little while being so much all at once

[omarwolaeth]

Might be strange sounding, but the card reveals/banlists always come in 2 different perspectives for me, irrelevant of which banlist I'm playing under; because I write fics, I have to contend with the banlist at times (a majority of the time it's based on the sort of half-tcg, half-ocg Master Duel banlist with Anime Specific Additions.)

So when new cards come out I have to judge them not only by what I can figure out from their effects and traits (combined with what's currently meta, and if there's anything that wants to play the new cards, whilst being mindful of banlist differences), I also have the joy of internally discussing the value of a deck when its in a fictional setting.

I don't think anyone normally thinks about if a deck's theme is strong enough to tie a character to it, let alone if a deck's theme is too strong and tying a character to it is like Akihiko Sanada's obsession with protein in anything that isn't mainline persona (Like the Q games.)

Also makes engines less appealing.

[aberooski]

Why does it feel like every time I cap off a scene the last few sentences are the most shit thing I have ever written in my life????

[pikahlua]

I hope this will be short.

I guess this line is the fandom drama of the chapter?

I understand a lot of you are really passionate about the accuracy of the English translation. I just want to encourage you to try to engage with the official translation in good faith.

Ojama shimasu literally means "I am disturbing you/I will get in your way." It's often spoken as a greeting where the "apology" is implied (hence the brackets in my translation), but as usual context is everything in Japanese. Izuku is saying this line in defiance of Tomura's wishes. It basically comes across as Izuku plugging his fingers in his ears.

Me personally? If I were the official translator, I'd have strongly considered translating the line as "I'm coming in whether you like it or not."

The purpose in my pointing out the "common greeting" nature of this line was to demonstrate Izuku's sassiness. This is Izuku doing his "meddling where you don't technically have to" thing. The level of formality in Izuku's speech doesn't necessarily translate to actual politeness (check out @bakuhatsufallinlove's excellent post on that here).

Does "You will let me in," mean the exact same thing? Technically no, but it's the sentiment that counts. From an official translator's point of view, "You will let me in," is shorter, punchier, fits in the speech bubble a lot easier, and still conveys the general idea of what's happening in the scene.

I don't know. I wanted to talk about this because I guess a lot of people are concerned about Izuku's characterization and how it reflects on Japanese culture and how the official translation may be misrepresenting Japanese culture to the English-reading audience, and I just...can I ask that everyone take a step back a minute? Horikoshi isn't writing his story for an English-reading audience. He's not considering at all how any of this sounds to English speakers. That's the translator's job, not just to translate what is said but to translate that into the context of who is reading it. Localization is not a dirty word--it's an important aspect of translation. And the notion that Izuku is being polite and respectful here as a Japanese person is just such a...take. Izuku is being hella rude here lol. Japan itself, not just the MHA Japan but REAL WORLD Japan, notoriously has a bystander problem where people will ignore others who are being harassed because they don't wanna get involved. They won't step in to help nor will they even testify as a witness against others for fear of what it means to speak out and break from the pack. Izuku is quite obviously Horikoshi's direct answer to that phenomenon. He's meant to be an example of the morally correct thing to do, which is to be "rude" in these cases.

So I mean, sure, we can talk about what is lost in translation by the line, "You will let me in." But to me what's lost may just be grammatical and pedantic (like the passive voice that switches the onus of action onto Tomura instead of Izuku and what that may do to the focus on Izuku's rise to action here). In any case, it's not a BAD translation that changes Izuku's perceived politeness, just one that may prompt new discussion--and I don't think that's a bad thing.

[gx-gameon]

I’ve been reading through this au again (boy did auto correct get me in these posts… that’s embarrassing)

I still love this au and I want to work with it again. I need to pick up my Gx rewatch again which I can hopefully start soon (my job is kicking my butt)

But I’ve been thinking about post-canon. Once Jaden’s friends know about his family.

Kaiba is building a new section to his theme park and wants some feedback. Might as well let Jaden and his friends have a free day at the park. And you know the DM cast should go as well because more data. (No it’s totally not an excuse to have Jaden come home and have a reunion with his friends. And it’s most certainly not an excuse to have some family time during work hours. How dare you accuse him of that.)

But before they can truly get started the tech around them gets hacked and they all get sent to the digital plan.

Seto is furious. Someone is messing with his theme park (again) and really!!! They could at least be creative. They’ve already done this song and dance. He almost blows a gasket when the villain brings out the Deck Master style of dueling again. Who do they think they are? Noah? Please this wasn’t a threat to Seto before it isn’t a threat now. (Ignore that he and his brother got turned to stone, not important now)

What he is worried about is all of Jaden’s friends. Luckily not everyone had shown up yet when the tech went crazy. The only people stuck are the DM crew (including Duke, Mokuba, and Serenity) Jaden, Jesse, Chazz, Aster, Jim, Axel, Alexis, Hassleberry, and Atticus. (The Trusdale were running late, as was Blair, Bastion and Chumley. They are working with Mai and Bakura on the outside to get the others back.)

Seto is worried about what Jaden will do is any of his friends get hurt.

Is this just an excuse to have the GX crew to have deck masters? Yes.

Is this also an excuse to pair up the GX cast with the DM cast and see what happens? Also yes

Do I have a villain planned out or actual plot? No

Do I know that Chazz’s Deck Master is Ojama Yellow? Absolutely I do.

[pcturtl]

So back when I played Duel Links, I ran Ojama World Chalice for a bit. Mostly, the game was won using the World Chalice link monsters, but the Ojamas did win a few games on their own merits.

This was around the time that the Relinquished pack came out, and Ojama's were a weirdly strong match-up against them because that deck struggled against normal monsters in general, and Ojamas were too "weak" to make a decent steal target, but could manage to win the duel on their own if left alone. This scene is how I imagined these characters would act during those duels.

[ygoartreviews]

Ojama Yellow

“He’s one of the Ojama Trio. It’s said that he butts in by any means necessary. It’s also said that when the three are together, something happens.”

Of the original Ojama trio, I've always liked Ojama Yellow's design the best. He's always felt like the most iconic Ojama to me, being representative of the whole archetype, evidenced by the fact that he's the only one I actually remember from watching GX as a kid. HOWEVER... I hands down think his actual card art is the most horrifying out of all of them. They really didn’t have to draw his saliva or make it dribble out of his giant mouth like that. His expression mostly just looks unsettling, with his exposed gums and teeth not really registering as the intended smile. Also, his eyestalks clearly being different lengths just to position his eyes like that is really hard to not notice once you’ve seen it. I can't lie though, his snazzy pose saves this art (even if only a little bit).

Rating: 2/10, The original little yellow freak

[redbullgivesyouwingedkuriboh]

The GX Cast and:

Who They’re Kissing On New Year’s

Jaden/Judai: Jesse. As friends. (Right?)

Syrus/Sho: his pillow. or the wall. literally not looking at Jaden OR Alexis.

Chazz/Manjoume: he goes for Alexis but Ojama yellow pops up at the last second and he spends the next hour in the bathroom shoving soap into his mouth

Bastion/Daichi: I will allow the token straight man. Tanya.

Alexis/Asuka: No one. she ducks out of the way of Chazz and immediately slams into her brother, knocking him off balance. results of that are in Zane’s section.

Zane/Ryo: gives Sy a head kiss and gets sent to the floor by Atticus

Atticus/Fubuki: Tried for Zane, but body-slammed him after Alexis knocked him over.

Blair/Rei: Jokingly goes for Chazz (running for the bathroom), then Zane (on the floor after Atticus full body decked him), then Jaden (Jesse’s tongue is down his throat)

Crowler/Cronos: a mirror

Aster/Edo: Jaden’s Neos card. Right on the ass.

Hasselberry/Kenzan: too busy shoving dino nuggies into his mouth

Adrian/Amon: attempts it on Yubel and is found strung up in a tree the next morning

Axel/O’Brien: gives Jim a friendly kiss on the cheek

Jim: turns at the last second and is now apologizing to Axel profusely (they’re cool)

Jesse/Johan: Jaden. Not as friends. They’re gonna have a conversation about this later.

Yubel: do you want to live?

[yugiohcardsdaily]

How would you rate the Dark Magician? (I’d give him a 200 out of 10!)

iconic/10

I'm actually gonna do something similar to the Ojama cards and rank the different arts of Dark Magician from my favorites to my least favorites. Gimme some time to do that XD

[avionvadion]

Now I have to ask, what kinda Yugioh deck would Idia and El use?

Hehehehe

El’s deck is largely based off my irl one- which is a “soul sucker” deck. It has dragons and magicians as the main monsters she uses, but mostly relies on all her spells and trap cards which were chosen specifically to either give herself more life points or to attack the opponent’s life points directly, and some of those cards involve a coin toss to decide whether she’s attacking the opponent’s life point or giving herself more.

It’s gonna piss Idia off, and Azul is gonna hate the coin tosses because of his vendetta against “luck” games.

Because Idia will think he can just make an offensive line of monsters and wipe her out that way since the monsters she has are all pretty weak, but nope, no, she has cards that can wipe clean the WHOLE FIELD so he has to start over from zero. Idia will probably focus more on mechanical monsters (he definitely has that XYZ Dragon- Idia is Seto Kaiba confirmed?) and magical girls (definitely has Dark Magician Girl) but two of El’s monsters are Light Magician Pikeru and Ebon Magician Curran, and while one gives life points to El the other will drain Idia’s life points for EACH MONSTER HE HAS ON THE FIELD. One wouldn’t think it but man do the numbers rack up quick.

(I only have Pikeru lol but darn it El is getting Curran because I say so lol)

When Azul gets a deck…. He is GETTING THE OJAMAS. MWAHAHAHAHA. He probably has Exodia in his deck too just to try and figure out the perfect way to shuffle (because LUCK DOES NOT EXIST damn it) so he can summon Exodia quickly before El and Idia both kick his ass.

Idia and Azul have only beaten El a couple times at Duel Monsters. She has WIPED THE FLOOR with them though.

But it’s okay. Idia kicks El’s ass at chess. El lasts like two hours against Azul, giving him a good run for his money, before he wins, and he and Idia are always 50/50 over who wins chess. Azul wins at Monopoly, Idia ironically wins at LIFE, El wins Chutes and Ladders. They have a little white board to keep track of who’s in the lead of which game while El has a page in her notebook dedicated to how many wins and losses each one of them has.

It’s chaotic. 🤣

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 122-123 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 120-121 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-122: Crisis in the Duel Academia! The Terror of the Zombie Students!

Having found the medicine on the submarine, Judai and his friends hurry towards the Duel Academia. Meanwhile, a suspicious student approaches Manjoume, on guard to protect the academy, and with a "Let's duel...", he requests a duel. Manjoume duels him, but he is then asked for one duel after another... Judai and the others arrive at the academy, and just as they question the lack of students who were supposed to be on guard, students appear out of nowhere, greeting them with a "Let's duel..." Realizing something is off at the academy, Judai and the others...

TURN-123: Operation Rescue Rei! The Elemental Heroes VS the Fallen Angel Nurse

The zombie students within the academy continue to increase. Judai is uneasy, fearing that they will also go on to occupy the Infirmary where the seriously injured Rei is resting. Everyone decides to work together and make their way to the Infirmary. Though they are ambushed by many zombie students along the way, Judai and Johan manage to arrive at the Infirmary. Who they found awaiting them was an already-zombified Professor Ayukawa, who stops them from treating Rei with the medicine. Composing himself, Judai duels with Ayukawa. Professor Ayukawa summons Reficule the Fallen Angel Nurse and intentionally restores Judai's Life, but...

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

🎶'Cause it's a dueling thriller...🎶

Happy new year! Appreciate everyone who's shown support over the past year (and in years past ofc) for my various little YGO projects, be it through likes/reblogs or even words of thanks (which always help to keep me going knowing my work's appreciated and is helping folks enjoy the shows involved more); I'm looking forward to getting more work done on 'em in 2025 (and getting closer to finally fully finalizing my GX work so I can step back after 16+ years and go back to being a fan lmao) 😃 [what is time]

Anywho, delayed a bit longer than I'd hoped (for reasons I'll get into below), 122 and 123 are finally finalized! Shenanigans in this other world pick up a bit as we now have Duel Zombies on our hands, which was an interesting twist but I always liked this little mini-arc for it, especially since it gives Professor Ayukawa--underused for most of the show since the Seven Stars arc, though she gets more screentime as of Season 3--some action in 123, one of my favorites (the animation from Tea Sun In's team, and in particular Gil Bo Noh's scenes during Judai's last turn, goes hard). I also appreciate that the Dis-Belts Cobra established are what play a role in the zombification, along with how it even affects the Ojama Trio when Manjoume becomes one, and I love how the reveal of Shou having become a zombie goes. (Also shoutout to the dub, as it's here that they start to be a bit more faithful dialogue-wise [despite still dubbing it up in spots (and disregarding what they do to most of Shou's character episode in 137)], and the duel gameplay dialogue in particular starts to noticeably improve.)

Also, quick shoutout to Zichs and his GX DVDRip releases over on NAC, which gave me another source for the audio due to some odd timing issues with the Astral_Union rip's audio; I used Sony Vegas to get it re-synced nicely.

Animation error-wise, 123 had the most, though 122 had a fair couple happen--altogether, there were about 20 fixes I worked on, mostly a few quality-of-watching ones around split-screens with a minor card error fix or two, along with a case of Burstlady's missing shoulder strap re-occurring in 123. What did take these a while to get done is that, for the hardsub, I wanted to translate the posters of Mrs. Tome behind Manjoume during his scenes in the Food Storage Facility (which read "Our Food's Important!" and "No Stealin' Allowed ♥")--I started work on them around December 10th and finished up sometime last weekend, I think. I've made a video showing off the edits, as well as a post here, but overall, it took a lot of motion tracking in AfterEffects, masking, and careful editing-in of my translation (since there wasn't a full frontal shot of either poster, I had to work with partial translations that I put into place as best I could [without shrinking Tome's head in spots like the dub did when they edited their blank edits them]) to make them work, and I think they came out pretty well! As usual, edit breakdowns below the cut for the interested!

Quick housekeeping: I applied a consistency update to episode 40, revising "Offering to the Dead" to "Tribute to the Dead" to match that card's use in 122 here and back in 87. I also went re-encoded episode 121's hardsub with a fix to Ayukawa's hair during a clip in the preview that I just worked on for 122 proper. Both episodes' links have been updated in the masterpost (121's in its release post as well), and I'll be re-posting the hardsub/script/MKV for 40 and hardsub for 121 on NAC with 122-123's release.

Anywho, enjoy! With these out of the way, I'll be making up for the delay here by jumping into 124 and 125 next, and then after that, I'll jump back into TFSP to work on re-translating Kite's and Kotori's events for the ZEXAL mode, along with some more work on ARC-V "Dub-Uncut" episode 2 throughout. Stay tuned!

Fixes & Edits! (122)

As mentioned above, throughout the scenes involving Manjoume and the Food Storage Facility, I visually translated the posters with Mrs. Tome on them behind him for the hardsub; see this post for a full showcase (also this video). Given that I edited my partial translation edits into 26 total scenes ("partial" due to the lack of proper frontal shots of either poster, thus working with what was available and manipulating the edits into the scenes), I won't go into a breakdown for each, but as I noted above, a lot of motion tracking use in AfterEffects was involved for most scenes, along with brightness tweaks, careful masking of the translations over the Japanese text and of the Ojamas or other characters in front of them, some manual zoom recreation through keyframes in Sony Vegas, and some additional frame touchups in Sony Vegas to clean up character masks as needed due to some color bleeding from the Japanese poster text. Came out nicely for about 19 days of work as able! (Also, the errors mentioned below were fixed for the translated-poster equivalent scenes, as well.)

Early in the episode proper, as Ayukawa looks at Rei's wound, she thinks about how it's getting worse and wonders if Judai found the medicine they needed, but as she turns her head for the latter bit, an error happens where it seems that the animators duplicated the layer with Ayukawa's bigger hair bang because a second bang moves behind her head in a very similar way (and it's also not fully drawn in the first frame as used here). As detailed/shown here, I quickly fixed this across the five frames as she moves, using Photoshop and a reference frame from the end of the shot to mask in or clone parts of the background as needed to cover up the extra bang, while masking out the smaller bang she has at the back of her head to keep it over the redone background. I then just went and added this fix to the 122 preview in 121, re-uploading the hardsub.

As Manjoume draws for his first turn versus his Duel Zombie opponent, there's a quick movement frame (lasting three frames) at the end of his "I draw!" line where his open mouth randomly jumps to the bottom right of his face. I fixed this in Sony Vegas by masking out his open mouth and lip shadow and moving them into place over an edit I did to remove his error mouth so that it's consistent with the frames prior.

After Manjoume OTKs the Zombie, he taunts him, calling it ridiculous that a duelist of his caliber sought to duel him; he does a "Gotcha!" pose with his right hand as he does so (as called out by Ojama Green) and catches himself doing it, and as he shifts himself into a different pose, there's a quick movement frame (lasting 2-3 frames) where there's a jacket-colored gap between his middle and index fingers--except, given where Manjoume's shoulder is, it wouldn't make sense for his jacket to extend to this gap. I fixed this in AfterEffects, as I worked to add in my poster-translation edit, by applying a negative mask on said gap so that the poster behind him is visible between his fingers.

As a few other Zombies start to close in on Manjoume, as Ojama Yellow notes that they really did come in a group as he'd suggested, we see that, though his Disk is still on, the red orb that should be in the middle isn't filled in. I fixed this first in Photoshop by applying some red coloring there, with a blurred screen-blended layer above it for some light-radiating, then brought the fixed frame into AfterEffects, where I applied the motion tracking I'd done to it to move it along with the shot as it pans leftward.

Later, after Judai and co are back at the academy and they notice more Duel Zombies approaching them in the entrance hall, Johan turns to Judai to say that they should leave, and Judai agrees as the Zombies get closer to them--but Judai's Disk wasn't fully drawn in this shot. I quickly fixed this in Vegas by slightly cropping the shot so that the gap between the edge of Judai's disk and the edge of the video frame wasn't visible. (It would've also been easy to draw in the missing bits in Photoshop, but for the sake of time and all.)

Sometime later, after Judai and co. escape into a locker room to get away from zombie!Manjoume and the rest of his horde, Kenzan can't believe Manjoume also became one, while Asuka notes how awful this is--but as she says that, an error happens after she initially moves in which a streak of white goes across the black pupil in her left eye, connecting the highlights on her eye, which continues for 40-50 frames before she turns to hear Shou crying. Fixed this in Photoshop first, redrawing the black of her pupil and then redrawing the white highlights slightly over it, then bringing the fixed frame into AfterEffects and using motion tracking to re-pan the edit for the shot, tweaking the keyframes it generated as needed for correct positioning.

A bit later, as Judai fuses Featherman with Burstlady to have Flame Wingman blast them away from the Duel Zombies, there's a quick error as Featherman and Burstlady's pre-fusion split-screen splits apart where the border on Burstlady's split is uneven for a frame. Fixed in Vegas by redoing the border on it.

Fixes & Edits! (123)

As Ayukawa stares in shock at the first Duel Zombie she defeated who snuck into the Infirmary through the ceiling, there's a quick movement frame (lasting three frames) as she turns her head downward to look at his deck where part of the outline around the top of her head briefly disappears. Fixed while prepping the "Just After This" clip at the end of 122, I threw this frame into Photoshop and quickly redrew that part of the outline on her head, then mixed the fixed frame into the footage in Vegas.

A bit later, once Judai and Johan get into the Infirmary and are confronted by zombie!Ayukawa and the students in there, there's an overhead shot as Ayukawa tells them that dueling her won't hurt one bit where Judai's foot is visible through the medicine box Johan is holding before he starts to move away. Fixed in Photoshop by filling in the coloring on the box around where his foot's shown, then threw that fixed frame into Vegas, applying a mask to isolate the fix on top of the footage.

A few scenes later, as Judai tells Ayukawa that she's on, Ayukawa slides in on a split-screen to chuckle before it splits apart as they get their duel started--but on slide-out, the border that should be on the edge of Ayukawa's split is instead partway into her split, and stays there throughout her slide-out while also causing her slide-out to be uneven with Judai's. I fixed this in Vegas, first redoing Ayukawa's split's slide-out so that I could layer that over the erroneous border, then re-added a border on the redone split's edge which moved along the same position keyframes, and also redid the border on Judai's a little to match it.

After the eyecatch, and Jim running from his beaten Duel Zombie only to run into more, Ayukawa draws for her turn, but a few things happen: a) there's a blank card where she'll eventually play Reficule, only she hasn't played anything yet, and b) her lip-flaps are more off than they'd likely be for her "I'll start us off" line while she has none for her "I draw!" one as she moves. I fixed both in Vegas, first taking a frame with the blank card into Photoshop and blanking that Monster Zone before then throwing the fixed frame into the footage in Vegas with a mask to isolate the fix, and then by masking out and manipulating a few of her stationary lip-flaps to move along with her as she shouts, "I draw!". (Her lip-flaps are also slightly off as she declares her Reficule summon, but I left those alone as these were more noticeable.)

During Judai's first turn, after he plays Fusion, we see Featherman and Burstlady appear on a split-screen as they then blend together to fuse into Flame Wingman--but during this, we have the return of the missing-Burstlady-shoulder-strap error (the last instance being in 113 or 114, I believe). As I detailed/shown here, I fixed this by using Photoshop to redraw her strap in a frame after she fully appears, then saving the fix itself as a transparent image that I then brightened and moved/faded into the footage as she first appears in Vegas, before then manually editing in the strap during the 42 frames as Burstlady is swirled into Featherman. (Have I mentioned my love for this show is like an Ojama)

After summoning Flame Wingman, Judai attempts to go into an attack, but Ayukawa stops him by activating her Dark Cure Trap--though in the quick zoom-out that happens as she swings her arm around to do so, there are a few frames where the Reficule on her Disk is missing before it ends up staying. I fixed this by applying a proxy during only those error frames, using a little quick motion tracking in AfterEffects as needed during each part of the movement as it zooms out.

As Ayukawa stares in shock at the first Duel Zombie she defeated who snuck into the Infirmary through the ceiling, there's a quick movement frame (lasting three frames) as she turns her head downward to look at his deck where part of the outline around the top of her head briefly disappears. Fixed while prepping the "Just After This" clip at the end of 122, I threw this frame into Photoshop and quickly redrew that part of the outline on her head, then mixed the fixed frame into the footage in Vegas.

A bit later, once Judai and Johan get into the Infirmary and are confronted by zombie!Ayukawa and the students in there, there's an overhead shot as Ayukawa tells them that dueling her won't hurt one bit where Judai's foot is visible through the medicine box Johan is holding before he starts to move away. Fixed in Photoshop by filling in the coloring on the box around where his foot's shown, then threw that fixed frame into Vegas, applying a mask to isolate the fix on top of the footage.

A few scenes later, as Judai tells Ayukawa that she's on, Ayukawa slides in on a split-screen to chuckle before it splits apart as they get their duel started--but on slide-out, the border that should be on the edge of Ayukawa's split is instead partway into her split, and stays there throughout her slide-out while also causing her slide-out to be uneven with Judai's. I fixed this in Vegas, first redoing Ayukawa's split's slide-out so that I could layer that over the erroneous border, then re-added a border on the redone split's edge which moved along the same position keyframes, and also redid the border on Judai's a little to match it.

After the eyecatch, and Jim running from his beaten Duel Zombie only to run into more, Ayukawa draws for her turn, but a few things happen: a) there's a blank card where she'll eventually play Reficule, only she hasn't played anything yet, and b) her lip-flaps are more off than they'd likely be for her "I'll start us off" line while she has none for her "I draw!" one as she moves. I fixed both in Vegas, first taking a frame with the blank card into Photoshop and blanking that Monster Zone before then throwing the fixed frame into the footage in Vegas with a mask to isolate the fix, and then by masking out and manipulating a few of her stationary lip-flaps to move along with her as she shouts, "I draw!". (Her lip-flaps are also slightly off as she declares her Reficule summon, but I left those alone as these were more noticeable.)

During Judai's first turn, after he plays Fusion, we see Featherman and Burstlady appear on a split-screen as they then blend together to fuse into Flame Wingman--but during this, we have the return of the missing-Burstlady-shoulder-strap error (the last instance being in 113 or 114, I believe). As I detailed/shown here, I fixed this by using Photoshop to redraw her strap in a frame after she fully appears, then saving the fix itself as a transparent image that I then brightened and moved/faded into the footage as she first appears in Vegas, before then manually editing in the strap during the 42 frames as Burstlady is swirled into Featherman. (Have I mentioned my love for this show is like an Ojama)

After summoning Flame Wingman, Judai attempts to go into an attack, but Ayukawa stops him by activating her Dark Cure Trap--though in the quick zoom-out that happens as she swings her arm around to do so, there are a few frames where the Reficule on her Disk is missing before it ends up staying. I fixed this by applying a proxy during only those error frames, using a little quick motion tracking in AfterEffects as needed during each part of the movement as it zooms out.

A bit later, after Ayukawa goes on to use her Sadistic Potion to power Reficule up, Judai reacts in shock as Ayukawa then slides in on a split-screen to taunt him by saying that she made sure to immunize herself before being attacked--but Judai starts to move a few frames before Ayukawa starts sliding into view for the split-screen. Fixed in Vegas by redoing Ayukawa's slide-in so that it starts as soon as Judai moves.

During Ayukawa's next turn, as she uses her Bonfire Magic Card, a repeat of 122's #5 happens as the red orb on Ayukawa's active Disk isn't filled in, though part of the outline along the left side of her dress is also missing. Fixed first in Photoshop by coloring it the red orb along with adding back an outline along her dress, then masking both fixes into the footage in Vegas.

A bit later, as Ayukawa explains Burning Algae's Life-restoring effect on a split-screen with Judai, the border on their split is drawn a bit inconsistently and unevenly, such that part of Ayukawa's hair ends up over it, and the slide-out into the shot of Judai with her two Burning Algaes is also uneven as Judai's split takes a frame longer to slide offscreen. Fixed both in Vegas, first redoing the border on Judai's split as it slides in so that, once fully in place, it covers up the previous one, then applying the fixed border to both their sliding-out splits to keep it looking consistent while also ending them at the same time by duplicating the first post-split frame over the one error frame.

A bit after, as Ayukawa has her Burning Algae throw a battle to Flame Wingman to make Judai lose via Reficule's effect, Judai activates Hero Barrier to save himself--but there are a few quick frames during the rapid zoom-out here where the space that should have Flame Wingman's card is transparent, with the flipped table placed to keep the door closed behind him visible. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy, using a little motion tracking as needed.

After the duel, as Judai and Johan react in shock to Ayukawa getting back up and threatening to make them join her, Johan moves to summon Topaz Tiger to help them escape--but for a quick movement frame (lasting three frames), there's a coloring error as the highlight spot on the blue control orb of his Disk accidentally gets colored like the sheet Rei's sleeping in. Fixed in Photoshop by recoloring that spot per a reference frame, then using Vegas to mix the fixed frame into the footage.

A bit later, once everyone regroups and Rei's given the medicine, they resolve to find a way out of this world; they all slide into a split-screen together before it then splits apart to just show Amon, but a few things happen: a) the slide-in of both halves of the split-screen is a bit uneven, b) the border on a few of the splits (notably Kenzan's, Jim's, and Johan's) are slanted, c) the background behind Amon in his split doesn't match the correction to the gym background as the split-screen splits apart to expand on him, and d) both halves slide out unevenly. I fixed these in parts using Vegas, though with little from Johan's split to work with I left his slanted border alone; I redid the slide-in of each half of the split-screen to be even, while also using post-split Amon in his split to keep the background behind him consistent and to cover up parts of the slanted borders on Kenzan and Jim's splits so that the fixed borders on them worked nicely, and then redid each half's slide-out to be more even.

[kujakumai]

Chazz comes out to the Ojamas first on a whim at 3am as like practice and they're all aggressively and enthusiastically supportive as per usual so he just gets embarrassed and has to tell them to violently shut up and after a few minutes of this when he is finally satisfied with himself for completing the treacherous mission of saying words out loud one of them finally asks him what "bisexual" even means

[yu-gi-poll]

ROUND 3D, MATCH 2 OUT OF 2!

Monster Stats & Propaganda Under the Cut:

Rescue Cat is used by Momoe Hamaguichi (Mindy in the English dub). Its stats are the following:

Attribute: EARTH

Level: 4

Type: BEAST / EFFECT

Effect Type: IGNITION / CONDITION

Effect (according to the anime): “By sending this face-up card to the Graveyard, Special Summon 2 Level 3 or lower Beast-Type monsters from your Deck. The monsters Special Summoned this way are destroyed at the end of this turn.”

ATK / DEF: 300 / 100

Propaganda:

BABY MEOW MEOW!!!!

OBJECTIVELY THE BEST BECAUSE LOOK AT IT. This cat saves lives.

Ojama Yellow is used by Jun Manjoume (Chazz Princeton in the English dub). Its stats are the following:

Attribute: LIGHT

Level: 2

Type: BEAST

Description (according to the anime): “He's one of the Ojama Trio. It's said that he butts in by any means necessary. It's also said that when the three are together, something happens.”

ATK / DEF: 0 / 1000

Propaganda:

Submitting him because someone has to be brave

[cyberdragoninfinity]

👀 would you care to talk about the symbolism of the other yugioh rivals

SMILES. i would love to. i cant speak for revolver or the bridge rivals yet and i havent seen enough arc-v to have a solid grasp on declan's symbolism yet but i will talk a little about the spinoff rivals i do know pretty well

as a sidenote, like. ok so Kaiba's main motifs and 'symbolism' is...well. centered around Blue-Eyes and dragons in general mostly, of course. And he kind of has those weird disease/virus and mild clown motifs that show up a little in his cards, and those are all plenty cool and they work for what seto kaiba needs to be! but imo that doesn't really get nearly as expanded upon either in the show itself or otherwise in official yugioh What Have You, compared to the guys who came later. i didnt have a good spot to say this otherwise so it's going here lol of course thats just my opinion on the matter

Chazz: anyway, so something I notice is explored a bit more with the spinoff rivals is that they'll have these motifs that actually get extended into their archetypes in the actual tcg, and it's so SO cool to see. Chazz/Manjoume has his whole iconic thunder motif of course, and he also gets that little s2 stint with the Society of Light giving him a brief Bright Distressing White motif and BOTH OF THOSE. HAVE BEEN INVOKED WITH ARMED DRAGON LV 10 CARDS

i really especially love Armed Dragon Thunder Lv. 10-- its whole effect is the Manjoume Thunder chant!!! IT'S DOING THE POSE. IT'S SO FUN.

and of course also Chazz is a character very tied to the symbolism of "weak" duel monsters, of "weak" decks, one-star monsters and the Ojamas especially, and that in general is such a fun spin on a yugioh rival. we do a complete 180 from Guy Tied Almost Exclusively to Very Powerful Dragon to Guy So Symbolically Correlated With Weak Monsters He Dresses Up as One in His Last (and one of his best) Duels. peace and love on planet finding strength in the unremarkable

Jack: ok so Jack is an interesting one. He's very symbolically tied to being the 'King' and to underworldly draconic hellfire imagery [which in of itself is really cool, and I think there's some very interesting dichotomy in there with how Jack's tied with a fiery hellish dragon motif but Yusei's tied to a cosmic heavenly dragon motif...i really love Jack and Yusei as narrative counterparts.] But the thing is, in the same vein Jack's tied deeply to Burning Soul-- the issue is 5D's also very clearly puts forward that the Burning Soul iconography is also tied (and in large part originated) with the Legendary Signer...who is. an indigenous brown South American guy.

And they. gave it to one of the arguably whitest Yugioh characters. Erm. 🥴 classic yugioh racially questionable moments !This is what I mean when I say the spinoff rivals have far more interesting symbolism to me--sometimes the interest is out of uhhhh not great narrative handling!! Gives even more to chew on.

Shark: yeah Shark is the one that makes me insane. There's no way to talk about him and his symbolism without getting into deep Zexal Spoilers, so. Be mindful of that. I'm gonna talk about him and Kite under the cut

ok so Shark is like the goddamn yugioh rival symbolism rivalry gold rush. You trip into the Reginald Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro Kastle motifs and symbolism well and youre falling for ten thousand years. You cant talk about him without having to get into him also being Nasch, and then you have to talk about the Barian Emperors, and that second you get into that is the second you get sandblasted with some of the most insane symbolism yugioh writers have every cooked up.

There is so much goddamn demonology imagery and motif and symbolism jammed into the Barians I will be here all day getting into it. NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE BUDDHISM INFLUENCE TOO. You cannot convince me that the Barian Emperors aren't supposed to correlate with the Seven Princes of Hell, alongside their deeply implied Seven Deadly Sin symbolism (and the Ursa Major symbolism too of course--it's what they get their names from!) To me I think Nasch is supposed to be tied to Leviathan especially, being an aquatic-based monster, but he could also correlate to Lucifer, playing on the pop cultural idea of Lucifer being the leader of Hell (and in demonology, typically associated with pride...pretty big trait of Shark's!)

That's just me barely scratching the surface with him. He's got the demonology symbolism, and Ursa Major motif, and seven deadly sins symbolism, and the sea predator symbolism and motif, and the royalty symbolism (good god his DUB SURNAME IS FUCKING KASTLE. THE PALER PART OF HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE A CROWN.) And also all the insane numerology symbolism Zexal is leaking out the ears with. he's the fucking best. Why did they make this 14 year old so jampacked with this shit. it RULES.

Kite: it's so neat that Zexal has two rivals effectively. ANYWAY. Kite doesn't have as much 'oh my god it keeps going. it keeps going. oh holy shit' tier symbolism as whatever going on with Shark but he's got some stuff going on; I think it's especially cool that he and Mizar/Mizael have this "light vs. time" motif going on with their dragons, a Galaxy-Eyes arms race based on the speed of light. In general Kite's really associated with light, in the the very scientific sense, be it the way his jacket turns white when he duels, his Photon-filled deck, HELL even literally the way his eyes get damaged and his vision suffers is arguably tied to it, and it rocks. I feel like Kite is (esp since Zexal is supposed to parallel DM in a lot of ways) really the rival meant to parallel Kaiba the most, even down to having a dragon ace monster based around something bright (white dragon, photon dragon,) but I think they really took the time to expand on that inherent symbolism and show it off in even more ways narratively than we see with Kaiba. it's just cool the more i think about it the more i really like what they did with kite.

[merryfortune]

Touch Tag

August 14th: Post-Canon | Games | Horror

Title: Touch Tag

Ship: Boreshipping | Jim/Manjoume

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,264

Tags: Canon Compliant, Sports, Touch Starved

   ���What was he doing?

   Based on his covert observations from up on the second floor of the dorm looking out over the grassy acres it belonged to, Manjoume had concluded that it was clearly Karen’s playtime but he wasn’t actually sure what game was being played. If it was a game at all. It involved a ball but it didn’t look like an actual ball game. Maybe drills? Some kind of practice?

   Bah, it didn’t matter. He had much better things to do with his time than to watch Jim and his dumb crocodile punt a ball between each other. Surely. Yup, surely, he had something better to do. Like rearrange the dust on his windowpane or something. He was on top of his studies, his deck was as peak as it was going to get, he was certain…

    And, yet, there was not much else to occupy Manjoume in his eight by eight room that he would love to claim that he had all to himself but very much didn’t thanks to the three Ojama Brother spirits who cohabited with him. So, mostly against his will, his brain bricked with boredom, Manjoume kept hovering by the windowsill.

   “If ya wanna play, why don’t ya jus’ go down there an’ play, boss?” Ojama Yellow asked.

   “I don’t want to play some dumb game with Jim.” Manjoume huffed, cheeks going red and his body very much going a different direction to what he had said.

   Ojama Yellow snickered with his brethren as they farewelled Manjoume as he marched himself down the wooden steps and right over to where Jim and Karen were situated. He looked down his nose at the pair as they passed the pointed egg shaped ball between each other, Jim using his hand and Karen batting it back with her tail. Manjoume held himself to make himself look intimidating but based on the blank stare that Jim was giving from underneath his Akubra, it wasn’t working.

   “What’s up?” Jim asked.

   “Not much.” Manjoume replied stiffly.

   The breeze swirled between them and the silence. 

   “Did you… need something?”Jim asked.

   “Grawr.” Karen piped up, seemingly annoyed that Jim had halted her very important playtime.

   “Er, just wanted to know what you were up to, I guess.” Manjoume admitted but he sounded like he was pulling teeth.

   “Just… passin’ the footy ‘round. You want in?” Jim asked.

   “The footy?” Manjoume echoed.

   “Yeah, the footy.” Jim replied and he held up the ball a little higher.

   It was branded to a sports team that Manjoume didn’t recognise but even if he was familiar with the intricacies of Australia’s big teams, it was faded as all hell, too. He could barely make out anything beyond vague lettering and what was probably a diamond shape once.

   “You ever played footy before?” Jim asked and he started to get keen a bit, shook out his shoulders and if Manjoume didn’t know any better, he would describe his eyes as having a gleam of national pride.

   “Do Australians call it football or soccer?” Manjoume said.

   “We call it soccer but footy’s different to soccer and different again to football, if you're imagining the American one, anyway, we call that gridiron and don’t play it much. And it's different again to rugby, if that’s what you're familiar with, but we do like a bit of rugby but I like footy best. Or, y’know, Aussie rules, if you know it by that name.”

   “You are not speaking any language I know.” Manjoume replied after Jim’s little spiel on the intricacies of sport down under and elsewhere. 

   “It's easy, promise.” Jim said. “Just don’t let the ball hit the ground, pass from the side, and since it's your first time playing, we won’t be playing tackle. We’ll play touch, instead, its non-contact, instead, you gotta grab at, uh… gimme a second, I’ve got some hankies we can use.”

   Manjoume watched, puzzled, as Jim made the absolute bare minimum and honestly confusing attempt to explain the rules - and prepare him for the game. He tore in half a pair of handkerchiefs that he was carrying around and gave two strips to Manjoume, who accepted very limply, and the other. He hooked them around his belt hooks, not too tight, Manjoume noticed. All he knew was that his ears pricked up at “touch” and “non-contact” for some reason - and good reason, too, as Jim had a bit more to say on the topic.

   “You're a bit… delicate so this’ll work well for ya.” Jim said.

   “Hey.” Manjoume growled. “I’m not delicate. We can play tackle.”

   “Nah, let’s start with tag, I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt, is all.” Jim said.

   Manjoume’s brow furrowed further, “No, I’m tough, I can totally play tackle.”

   “Alright then big guy, bowl me over. Knock me down. Do it.” Jim coaxed Manjoume, cockily tilting his chin up.

   “I will.” Manjoume replied and without warning, he was straight at Jim.

   Jim, however, was practically yawning. He played with a crocodile for Christ’s sake, no way was the living toothpick which was Manjoume going to knock him over but good on him for trying and he was trying hard. He was grunting and groaning, pushing into Jim’s breast as hard as he could, kicking up dirt clouds behind as all he moved was just his breath. Jim, meanwhile, was rock hard and standing still as a statue.

   “Point proven yet or do you need some more time?” Jim asked.

   “Argh, fine.” Manjoume gave up.

   His hackles went up and he folded his arms crossly. He stared intently as he waited for Jim to explain more of the rules to this touch-tag Aussie rules footy thing.

    “So, the goal is to get the footy across the line to score a point and the other goal is to get me out by taking my tags.” Jim said and he placed the ball on the ground. “When you get my tags, or if I get yours, we pause, we go back to where it happened and do one of these ones.”

   Jim demonstrated what he meant by “one of these ones”. He put his foot on top of the ball, very softly kicked it maybe half an inch behind him and then picked it up. He tapped it against his foot, as well. It seemed like a very odd ritual but Manjoume shrugged.

   “Normally, when you have a team, you pass it back and someone’s behind you to pick it up but for us, this’ll do to slow down the pace of the game. Oh, and if it happens three times, ball switches hands.”

   “Right, got it.” Manjoume replied, chewing on it.

   “Clear as mud, yeah?” Jim laughed. “Let’s get into it then, you’ll pick it up better playing.”

   “Okay.” Manjoume replied, still chewing on all his vowels.

   He glanced at Karen who opened her maw at him then closed it noiselessly. She seemed okay with watching them play rather than participating. But Manjoume felt very awkward about playing a sport he’d never played before.

   Still, he and Jim lined each other up and Jim tossed the ball in the air. Whoever got it, got it. It went up, up, up, and Manjoume scrambled to catch it but with his taller stature and longer limbs, and his experience playing the game as well, Jim managed to catch the ball.

   He hooked it under his arm and he took off. It was only then that Manjoume realised he had no idea where the boundaries or how long the field they were playing in was but Jim was booking it - and so he was, too. He scrambled after Jim but it was too late.

   At just the edge of the schoolyard, Jim dunked the ball down and proclaimed he’d scored a point. It pissed Manjoume off,  of course, but at the same time. The red in his cheeks wasn’t just from running full pelt for basically no reason out of nowhere and same for how his heart raced. Jim just looked so effortless playing this sport,  how he grinned, it was absolutely cheeky. The tags hanging off his belt flapped victoriously as he showboated.

   “Let’s try again.” Jim beamed. 

   “Yeah.” Manjoume huffed.

   They both circled back to where they had started the game. Karen, at the sidelines, thrashed her tail around and growled, happy that her friend was in the lead but her guttural cries inspired Manjoume. He had to do better this time. He just had to. And so, he absolutely had a fire in his belly for what follows.

   Jim punted the football upwards into the air again and Manjoume tried his hardest to get it. He brought all his weight down and jumped up as high as he could - and he felt like he could touch the sky. The sun blinding in his eyes, the salty sweat on his brow. His fingers just brushed the texture of the football but Manjoume didn’t bring it home. He just missed.

   “Unlucky.” Jim taunted him as he once again won the one-on-one scrum.

   He was laughing as Manjoume turned around, skidding on his heel. He full-on bolted. All he could see was the white, dangling fabrics of the tags flying off Jim’s belt loops. And so, he went for it.

   Hard.

   Even though they had established before playing that Manjoume was a twig and Jim was basically a brick wall, he went for it. He smashed into Jim from behind, grabbing the tags, practically frothing at the mouth for them as he tried to pull them off.

   It was a glorious few seconds for Manjoume. Blood pounded in his head. He felt the spirit of sportsmanship deep in the bowels of his soul. He was going to win. Or, bare minimum, he was going to make the point score one all. 

    Manjoume’s arms swung wide. He made his stance low and as powerful as he could. He felt like a raging bull, tail swishing and horns glinting all the same as if they had been real. He crash-tackled into Jim and Jim crumpled. Manjoume hugged him tight around his waist, his head butted Jim’s chest and knocked the wind out of him.

   At impact, Jim twisted the wrong way. His eyes opened wide and frantic. He lost footing and went down so, so slowly it felt. Manjoume grappled him wildly. Hands went everywhere in the effort to find the tags which were attached to Jim’s belt loops. Victoriously, at the end of such a crash, Manjoume did it.

   He ripped free the torn in half hankies and it was glorious.

   For all the couple seconds where it mattered before both landed with a thud. 

   Karen lifted her head briefly and blinked. The noise disturbed the grass and caused a dust cloud to bloom up around them. Jim and Manjoume both groaned as dizziness descended upon them, heavy like a cloak.

   Manjoume had Jim pinned underneath him. The position was compromising. Manjoume had one leg in between Jim’s and the other over Jim’s left leg. He’d taken all the fall on his knees and wrists, the jarring sensation wracked all of him, competing - and winning - over the brewing embarrassment as Jim looked up at him. Surprised. Fully aware of everything with a slackened jaw.

   “What the hell…?” Jim exclaimed in disbelief. “Where the devil were you keeping that, boy?”

   Manjoume’s stare turned intense as his eleventh hour determination began to dawn on him. Jim looked so spindly and vulnerable underneath him, long and lanky body with outdoorsy musculature which strained his grass-stain proofed clothes. He swallowed thickly and felt Jim’s eyes watched, a little too carefully, as his larynx bobbed up and down in his throat.

   Manjoume raked his fingers through the dirt. This was… This was a bit much for someone who wasn’t hugged enough as a kid, Manjoume realised.

   “Oh, uh, sorry.” Manjoume stammered and he scrambled off the top of Jim. Heart racing.

   Manjoume was awkward and gawky, trying too hard to be fast and that slowed him down. He got there in the end but pummelled Jim first as Manjoume reefed himself back and sat in the grass. His coat flounced as he stopped.

   “Er, good game, I guess?” Jim offered as he peeled himself off the ground. He didn’t look at Manjoume as he smacked dirt and grass off himself. “You seemed tuckered out.”

   “Yeah, that took everything out of me.” Manjoume replied.

   Jim smirked and then faced Manjoume forward. He offered his hand to shake.

   “Draw?” Jim suggested. “Not a total wooden spooner if we’re evens-Stephens.”

   “Yeah, sure.” Manjoume agreed.

   He resolved to return Jim’s handshake upon the invitation. If a little reluctantly as he had all sorts of feelings about the climax of their match. Endorphins made his teenage angst fuzzy as he took his sweet time to shake Jim’s hand. 

   His blood droned in his ears as he realised, he was back to the start. Watching Jim a little too carefully for it to be platonic interest. Manjoume hurried up. To get it over and done with even though before he even slid his hand against Jim’s palm, he knew he wouldn’t want to let go afterwards.

   Jim didn’t say a word waiting on Manjoume to hurry up before he finally did. Jim’s hand was firm and calloused. Manjoume’s was flimsy by comparison but he did his best to match the energy of well meaning sportsmanship that Jim was offering him.

   They shook on it but both took a little bit too long to let go.