No way. I came here to duel and I'm gonna duel.

Hello and welcome to our weaver there yet in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime millennial.

And I don't know why I'm here. I'm Griffin Puatu.

We are joined by a guest this week. You've heard him in River City, girls. kengan, ashura and Mobile Suit gundam narrative. We're here with Griffin Poatu.

Hello.

Yay. We're trying to stack the deck with any anime professional that will return our call.

Stack generator. That was a good joke if you meant it.

Oh shit.

I didn't. It's already deep in my brain. This show hasn't left my psyche since 2004.

This show I feel like we should at least say what the show is is in the episode title.

But yes, this week we are watching the classic, the inevitable, the ultimate yugio.

I don't think you quite said the title right. I believe it's yuga.

Screamtops.

The rest of the episode is just all of us yelling that for an hour.

We're just going to take griffin's clip and just play it every time we mention the shooting.

Oh God.

Every time we say the word dual, we have to remix it. So it's dual.

That sounds like too much work for the editor.

He's the one doing it however he wants.

That's me. I will punish myself because it's time to do.

This show.

So yeah. Griffin, these nerds have told us their anime history. What's your introduction to anime? How did you get into the genre?

So, definitely as a kid, pokemon and yugio were the two really big shows at the time. But as a kid, I didn't really know what anime was. I didn't know there was a difference between anime and regular cartoons. I kind of watched them and thought they were the same thing. It was only until maybe I was in middle school that I got into anime proper. The first show I watched was a show called gundam Double O. And that's what really got me into anime and into voice acting as well. I started picking up on oh, this character. And this show is the same voice as this character in this show. And then about three years ago, three and a half years ago, I got the opportunity to be in a couple of anime shows. And that sort of started my career in voice acting. So I've been doing all sorts of voice acting, including anime, for the past three years now.

That's cool.

Nice. Yeah. I also similarly had the background of not being able to distinguish just cartoons. And I just always thought of anime as like pointy cartoons since everyone's faces is much more angular sharp. So yeah, just throwing them on back to back going like, yeah, SpongeBob then yugioh, then code name Kids Next Door. It's all the same. Right? Exactly.

Which really stands out is just an abomination amongst them all.

There are some listeners who are going to take umption with that, sir. I am not one of them.

I'm just saying I don't think anime fans are that vocal online anyway, so yeah, yugio. In particular, was this something you watched a lot? Was this a regular show you would watch or just like, whenever it came on?

Oh, yes, it was definitely a regular show. I was a huge yugio fan from the age of, oh, I don't know, five till now. It's gone through phases. But yeah, I watched the original show a ton as a kid. I got back into it during the five ds era and I started actually playing the game competitively. So, yeah, I was super into it. And I also was really into the Bridge series on YouTube. So, yeah, I would say I'm a fairly big yugio fan.

Yeah, if you played the card game beyond like, 2004, yes, I will say you're a fan. Yeah, that's another thing that comes into this, the merchandising of the card game. I was late to this. I finally caved and bought a deck as everyone at my school was like, getting out of it. And I was like, but I want to play. Please just play me real quick before you throw it away.

It's time to duel. Right, right.

Did I miss the time?

Don't leave me.

So yeah, Brendan and dana, were you fans of playing it? Did you just watch it? Where do you stand with this?

So I didn't watch it, but when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a boyfriend who played it. So he made me a deck and he taught me how to play. I think I played once. I liked it, it was fine, but I just never played again.

I was to no one surprised. I was all in on this. I watched it from the beginning, got all the cards. Then then when I had other responsibilities, fell off a little bit. They got real back into it in high school for fucking no reason. There was like just a weird resurgence within a few kids hung out with and we were playing in study hall in high school, and even the teacher made fun of us a little bit.

I mean, good, because it was like.

It was a solid, like eight or nine years after its prime and it just came back up for no reason. We're just like, oh, hey, I found this in my garage. Want to play again? And I quickly found out how absolute trash my deck was. I never won.

Yeah, when I was in college, one of my roommates had a resurgence and just got really into just going online and buying all the cards from his childhood. Regardless of quality of the card.

It's so expensive. It's such a terrible habit. Like, I've talking with some friends. We found out recently all the loot box controversies with games. Like making you buy packs and not knowing what's that's just cards. That's just what card games have been doing forever.

True.

Yeah. Like, regardless of genre, if they're baseball or actual competitive games, it's just well, we're going to give you seven shitty dirt field cards. And here's an okay dragon thing, I guess.

See, that's if you're like a plea, but if you're up in the game oh, man. You know the websites to go to to buy individual cards? You know how to barter for those cards. I remember. And again, my yugio fandom has gone in phases. So I played, like, my first year of high school, like, non stop, and then I just stopped playing. And then my first year of college, I was like, oh, I have money now. Oh, I can spend it on whatever I want.

I'm an adult.

I spent $20 and completely completed my deck. Made it the coolest, most powerful thing I could. And I don't mean to brag, but I still have it to this day, and I still win all the time. And I bought a bunch of rare cards for not even that much. Anyway, sorry. I guess I'm showing my nerdiness a little too much. We should have a card. This is the podcast. If this had visuals, we would have a card joke counter up in the.

Corner.

Just a little ding every time someone makes it. Or like a really bad rim shot.

Oh, God. As I edit it, I'll try to go through and give us a tally at the end.

Perfect.

Great.

You just have a little token sheep pop up. Isn't that a card where it's like five sheep you used as just fodder?

Oh, my gosh, yes. If we want to do this right, we have a token counter, and then we can sacrifice five of the tokens to summon Blue Eyes.

Perfect.

I got so many very specific cards popping into my brain, like, as we talked about it more. I don't know why I remember that one. I didn't even have it, but that pops up. Oh, boy. Let's get into it.

Shall we get into it? We're going to watch the first three episodes of the og yugio.

Yes.

Yay.

It's time to watch. We're back from the banishment to the graveyard. We are here, and we are ready to discuss some bullshit.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I thoroughly enjoyed my my trip down memory lane.

Oh, it it's still excellent, but for a lot of different reasons.

Yeah, I had a great time. This show is good, actually.

Sort of.

There's an idea there. Look, I took notes. I was fully for as you do. Look, school never leaves you or you never leave. School never left me. And I just want to throw out a couple of my favorite notes just real quick. We don't have to go into them. Let's see here. wevil voice WTF.

Followed I have a note of a similar vein.

And then followed quickly by Rex voice WTF. Right after another in that second episode, because I was like, oh, wow. Like, the voice acting is, like, much better than I I would have assumed because this was the four kids era and the voice acting was bad. There was just a specific style of it. But all the main cast, even joey, who has the accent, like, I'm buying it. I'm like, yeah, you know, it's not terrible. And then we get to the battle with weavel, and he's got that voice where it's like, I'm going to treat my trip, guys. I'm like oh, stop. This is going to get old quick.

You can tell I'm a little shit that we'll get into some shenanigans later.

And then I think like, okay, what about this Rex guy? And then he's just like, I'll trade my card. I can't even do it. And I looked up, who is that? It's Sam regal from Critical Role. I was like, oh, my goodness. Next time I see you, I'm bringing this up.

I have not seen the cast yet. I need to pull it up, see who the notable alumni are from this. But yeah, let's get into it, shall we? We'll start right at the top.

Episode one starts right away with the entire backstory, just the big old lord dump right up front because we don't feel like getting into it in the main plot of the show. So long story short, ancient egyptians did some shit. All that evil is contained in millennium puzzles. And now they're back, I guess, for some reason. And boom. yogi finds a puzzle. And now he's possessed by a pharaoh.

Every now and then they share the body. It's a time share.

It's when he needs he taps them out, tag team. And he's like, oh, I can't reach this jar on the top shelf. Let me tag out the pharaoh. He's got like four inches on me.

You know, I will say Yugi is really short. I forgot he's got the stumpy little arms and the big handy.

One of my notes is like, he's tiny. He's wearing all blue because of school uniform, a lot of spiky hair. He's Sonic. We got Sonic on our hands, guys.

We got a sonic boy. It's done.

No.

So then we go into the actual opening and I forgot it's a genuine box. Oh, it's so good. You play that right now, that's some solid edmunds.

You know, my finger was on that volume up rocker when it was playing. Yes.

Oh, hell yeah. That heavy bass.

So good.

So then it opens with Yugi teaching joey how to play dual Monsters, which is the actual name of the game. It's not actually called yugio, so I like how they had to differentiate the names of the game and the show it's based on. And this is also a very convenient way to teach the viewers of how the basic functions of the game work. And for anyone who has not seen it or has not seen the memes or the jokes about yugio, joey's got the thickest Brooklyn accent from this side of Queens, so it's just endlessly entertaining.

When he's, you know, he sounds like joey tribiani from Friends.

I wouldn't be surprised. They've done so many accents of characters or actors and other four kids things. I would not be surprised if they're like, yeah, we can make this kid joey will make it interesting for us.

His name is joey. He's joey.

I will say, though, the accent is thick, but for some reason, I buy it. I've heard some real bad accents with acting in anime that I just like, oh, my gosh, what are they doing? Why did they pick that one? But for some reason, maybe it's my nostalgia goggles, but I'm kind of on board with the accent. Yeah, I don't mind it. I don't either.

It is well executed. It's just a strange choice to go in that direction.

Like, it stands out when everyone else in the gang talks because he's the only one with anything kind of like a recognizable accent versus, like, the sailor Moon. W watch where it's like, oh, there's a few people who just had weirdly Brooklyn accents, but Joey's the only one even in his own family, four kids.

Is very bad about making a character have an accent and then following yeah, the family would also likely have this accent. They're like, no, the kid is from New York. The rest are from the midwest. Sure, okay.

And then we get the gang talking a bit and we hear Yugi say, oh, we can go see my grandpa. He owns a game shop, and I get all my best cards from him. Yugi nepotism is not okay.

Also, they just firmly established in, like, the first 5 seconds of the show, hey, if you want to win at this card game, go buy better cards, kids. And, like, very much just want to sell the game to Americans.

Oh, they slip that in so good. I'm watching the first three episodes, I'm like, oh, wow. They're kind of explaining the rules and they're telling you which cards to buy, which ones not to buy, how to organize your deck. I was like, oh, yeah, good job, konami. Good job.

They could have learned those lessons from when they tried to force the dice. Monster game in later season did not go anywhere. So they go to the card shop, and I love that it's just called the game shop.

Not even the game shop. It's just game shop.

There's a later scene where yogi picks up the phone, it's just like, Game shop. It's like, wow, just you know what?

That's it.

You're right, yugi, you're right.

You're right. That's what it is. And when they were talking about his grandpa owning a car shop, yugi says, like, oh, my grandpa's got this really rare car. And then we see kyva, like, reading a book because he's also in class and he's also a CEO of a company, right?

Yeah.

And we're not even, like, super clear of his middle school or high school. I'm assuming high school, but I don't know if they specifically mention it. So they might just be like, twelve, but look like they're 25, like most anime.

Except for yugi.

Except for yugi. He's clearly seven.

Yeah.

So when they go to the card shop, they're talking to the grandpa. And that's when kaiba kicks open the door. And it's like, I heard there's a special card, and I got my eyes on it without even knowing what it is. And when he walks in, Grandpa's showing the special card. He's showing it to the Yugi and the gang, and it's the blue eyes, white jacket.

Wow. coveted.

The coveted.

So rare.

There's only four in the world, and this is one of them. And Kyva's shocked because that's the card he wants. And he's kind of dismissing, like, Joe and the gang like, Get out of here, you plebs. I'm here to buy cards and make money. I forget exactly what happens. cavus is talking shit in general, and joey gets mad, and he goes he says, maybe you'd like to settle this with fist instead of cards. And that is the only time that is suggested. And it would work every single time. Later.

Kick Kyva's ass.

Later. There's episodes where it's like, the fate of the world testing. It's like hit him. Don't play card. Hit him.

Punch kaiba in the face.

What are your cards there's? Guns.

Oh, I don't think you guys remember. There's a scene where kaiba just, like, flips and kicks and gets on a motorcycle and is driving on a broken down highway. I don't know if it would work. kaiba's got I don't know where he got it from, but he's got mad skills.

It's just always entertainment. We have to settle this through a card. You can just hit them. I don't know. Maybe that's just me.

Just use violence, kids. That's a real lesson.

But it hits the stake of the world anyway. So kaiba sees the blue eyes. He's like, I must have it. I'll trade you all of these cards for it. Grandpa's like, no, I literally run a card shop. I don't need more cards. Why would I want this? I was like, Fine, then I'll pay any price for it. Grab was like, no, it's got sentimental value to me. It was given to me by a friend. It's got a special place in my heart of card. Heart of the cards. wink. Get it?

No, not at all.

So kaiba leaves all pissy because he couldn't get his card, but he'll have it one day. And then we over here before the commercial break, we over here. kaiba talking to someone's goons, saying, like, I want that car, go get it from that old man. So the next day, we see the penguin from Batman show. He's like, Master kaiba, what I could do with you. It's just like, oh, okay. Grandpa went from like, no, I'm not giving you to my car, to rolling up his sleeves like, I'm going to teach this little shit a lesson. Like, I'm ready. So he accepts the dole, and it's like, I'm going to teach kaiba not to mess with the heart of the cards. And he gets a shit kicking head a little. So the gang shows up to the shop and finds Grandpa's not there, and it's empty. And kaiba calls and tells Yugi like, your grandpa came over and not feeling well. You might want to come over and take care of them. And it's so you're in high school. Your classmate who's the CEO of his own company, breaks into your shop, kidnaps your grandpa, and just beats the shit out of him. So it's like Wednesday, the usual stuff. And when the gang gets to kaiba Industries, which I think it's actually called, that kaiba Corporation. caba Corporation. Thank you. They find Grandpa just, like, sprawled out on the floor. Doesn't look physically injured, but he's like, exhausted and pleading. Like, oh, yogi, I got beat so bad.

He was so good. I can't take it.

My old heart, my brittle bones get whipped by his cards.

And I'm just like, what happened? It was a card game, but he looked like he got the shit kicked out of him.

You ever play poker so bad you.

Have to go to the hospital? I bet the house, and I lost.

It all.

Getting into the icu.

So Kyva's gloating thing like, oh, I.

Beat intensive card unit. Sorry. Okay.

Anyways, kiva's pointing out, I beat him in a duel. We bet our most valuable card, and he'd lost. So now I have his most valuable card. Which is the blue eyes, white dragon. Rips it in half, and he's like, now it will never be used against me. And he won it in the duel. It's his now.

Why did he rip it?

Keep it.

Yeah.

Well, if you know the rules to you geo, you're only allowed three copies of a card in your deck.

Oh, man. But still lock it in the vault for the inevitable. Like barbecue sauce spill on one of them.

My cards are all sticky now.

Oh, man, I really goofed this one guy.

So we'll get into the rules because I know we don't want to get too bogged down with them. I do not issue I got at least one issue. I got one issue. We will get to yeah, we got.

To at least get the structure of the game. We don't need to get bogged down with the individual card properties.

Sure.

So after he rips it, still look at it. Yugi's. Grandpa gives Yugi his deck, and he's like, here, take my deck and duel for me. I taught you everything I know about the game, so just establishing it. Grandpa got his ass kicked. He gives yuki his cards he just played with, and also all the information Grandpa knows, just chances are yuki's also going to lose with this knowledge and deck that just lost, so and then the gang offers, like, Yugi, duel them. We'll take your grandpa to the hospital. And taya at this point, which still doesn't like, their names weren't addressed yet, it's like, oh, wait, but before you go, yogi, put your hands in, and just draws a big smiley face on everyone's hands, like, collectively. And it's just like, this will be a reminder of our friendship, and we can overcome anything. And I imagine at this point, Kyva's just poured himself a nice scotch because he just can't handle this shit anymore. Because it's just like, he's a teenager. He's, like, 27.

Let's not pretend he infiltrated the high school to get that blue eyes white dragon.

If they said that, if that was a subplot, I would absolutely believe that more than he's an actual student with.

A the stress of running a major corporation just really ages him.

He sleeps with his face in the pillow, and he smokes a lot. So they're like, all right, we'll do this. And joey, I'd rather note joey points out, like, Yugi, with your deck in that Millennium Puzzle, you can do anything. It's like, do they know what the Millennium Puzzle are? They just casually like, hey, you got that ancient Egyptian relic hanging around your neck all the goddamn time. I don't know. It's weird to me that no one really just addresses you have this just magical artifact.

Yeah. It's never addressed. And no one they don't we'll get the transformation in a sense. No one ever explains it or yeah.

It takes almost a full season for them to be like, hey, you ever notice that Yugi kind of changes when he battles?

He drops, like, eight octaves.

He gets taller.

He gets more like the basketball team aerodynamic.

The yellow in his hair also goes up into the purple into his hair. So we get all the unimportant characters going to the hospital with Grandpa, and they say, like, no, joey, you're a main character. You got to go into the battle and support Yugi. Got it. So tristan and taya go to the hospital. Grandpa, which also hospital tristan tristen, literally does nothing ever. He's the most useful.

He turns into a robot monkey. How dare you?

Excuse me. Stop the podcast.

Season three gets pretty out there. We had a lot of fun. We don't remember most of it, but we had a lot of fun. I can't remember, but yeah, he's a robot monkey.

I don't remember.

You got to get your robot monkey fact straight.

Yes.

Oh, God. So we come back. kyva just is on this pillar and saying, like, oh, yeah, I just built this entire virtual arena to play cards in. It's like, Jesus, we get it. You have money.

While you were saying goodbye to your.

Friends while they say goodbye, he built it immediately. And then when they get up, he's like, oh, this is all holographic. So when we play cards, the monsters will appear in front of us because otherwise the show would be boring. A shit to watch. And he's like, oh, so that's how you beat my grandpa. And I was like, how does holograms clearly show how his grandpa lost? Like, how did the holograms epileptic seizure that'll do it?

You threw a dragon in an 80 year old man's face.

So to begin the dull, Yugi screams out his name, but he just screams yugio. So it's not his name, really? And this is when his magical girl transformation into the ancient pharaoh.

Yes, I was going to say Yugi is just a magical girl. Yeah, this is a magical girl animal.

It's card captor Yugi.

And kaiba reacts to it so he can see that you used. Like it's not just like the viewers see it like kaiba can tell he's different. And so the duel starts. kyba summons, the cyclops appears because of the machines. Sorry, I jumped around my notes a bit. And so joey runs back in and he's just like, oh wow, real monsters.

I believe he was real monsters.

And then kaiba's little brother runs in because he needs someone on his side sharing for him.

Mokuba mokuba.

I was trying to think of it.

He has two lines. We never see him again.

No, weird.

He'll be kidnapped and used as a plot device in later episodes.

Oh, yes, I'm sensing a theme.

So at one point, the monsters fight. kaiba summons and like, clown monster, and it equips them with a magic card that like, powers them up. And Yugi's mind is fucking blowed. He's like, oh, wow, this is going to be difficult. I wasn't expecting him to equip a magic card. And so despite Yugi being a card genius, he's very impressed by literally the most basic moves in the game. He's very astonished that kawa would make such a bold move. That is literally his only option.

Yeah, it's like he used about a third of his deck. What? You can do that.

And so the monsters are fighting out for a little bit, and kyba is crushing them until Yugi summons gaia, the fierce knight, and kind of pushes backs against kaiba. And this forces kaiba to play his hand and play the blue eyes white dragon that he already owns. And this is the first hang up I have with the rules. It requires two so many monsters to summon a monster at that level, that high of a level. And he didn't sacrifice any, and neither did Yugi.

Gaia also requires two monsters to be sacrificed.

Does it? I thought gaia was no seven, maybe one.

He's a level seven.

Level seven. Okay. You're right then. Yeah.

Is it too late to stop talking about.

You?

Also missed earlier. He put sangen down in face in face down defense position.

When he went to the graveyard, he.

Should have added a level four or lower dark type monster with 1500 or less attacks.

So thank you for joining us this week. This is an architect.

So happy graffiti.

Someone has to nitpick for no reason.

Oh, man.

So immediately, first episode, they've already broken the rules of the game they've established. So then we get a random shot of Grandpa, and the hospital would be like, don't give up. yogi and yuki's like, I won't give up. It's like, what is they got some weird psychic connection.

You talk through the cards, hearts of the cards. Speaking of hearts, I think the Grandpa had a heart attack.

So Yugi's losing. He can't get anything good. He's fighting against his blue eyes and can't get it. And he keeps just getting these pieces, cards, which is just like an arm and two legs, and it's just like, I can't do anything with this. And then we get a big flashback sequence of Grandpa telling him as, like, a Force ghost. Like, you got to use these pieces to make this ultimate creature called exodia. He says, no one has ever summoned exodia, ever. I refuse to believe that. It's only five cards. It's not hard.

I watched, like, five kids in fourth grade do this.

It's not difficult. So Yugi keeps playing. He summons Dark magician, which is, like, a very famous card that requires two summons that he didn't use. And then to fight this, cavus summons all three of his blue eyes. And he's just like, I'm going to fuck you up. I own all the blue eyes in the world. And that's when Yugi finally pulls out exodia and plays them and wins instantly because it's a bullshit card set. And we just get, like, a hyper realistic not hyper realistic, but just a very detailed shot of kai Paul being blown away by the energy, and then tosses up some hands and opens kaiba's mind and shatters his evil personality and sends that to the Shadow realm. And then Grandpa, that's what happens.

This is all subtext.

That subtext.

Apparently, the original, like, in the Japanese, the Shadow Room is just showed up like death. So when he sends people to the Shadow Room, he just should have killed.

Them right in this.

Because kai beams like a main character, he sends, like, the evil, corrupt part of kaiba's soul to the shadow.

First of all, they're not playing a shadow game there. It's just a regular game. Unless he's, like, last minute, he throws them in. And then second of all, kyba is still a dick for the rest of the series.

He's still a dick, but not evil. But you see, he goes from the glossy eyes to a detailed eyes, and that's kind. Of like, his clouded mind being I don't know. It's episode one. There's some bullshit in here.

Sins away.

He purifies him. He's called Jesus.

Yeah, he just got baptized.

He's born again. Kaiba.

We get the last shot of the episode of a guy telling Lord pegasus that Kaiba, the ultimate champion of dull monsters, has finally been defeated, and that's where it ends.

Wow. All right, and let's we will pick up in the second episode. There's a lot of bullshit we'll just gloss right through, so this will go pretty quick. But we are at school, we're seeing taya and joey battling, and Joey's like, hey, I got all the tough cards. You see, I stacked my deck with all the coolest raddest monsters. And taya is like, hey, you idiot, actually learn how to play the game and handle. He beats him, like, five times in a row. So he joey's talking with you. He's being like, I I don't know what's going on there's. I have all these cool monsters, yet I keep losing. And yugi's like, yeah, you have to play the game and not just throw some strong looking big, dumb idiot, you fucking hey, let me take you to Grandpa's, and he'll show you what's what. And Grandpa basically signs him up to be in full on yugio card boot camp.

Hell yeah. We've all been through it.

I think he hits on a sword.

He's got a kendo like wooden sword.

Yeah, it's intense for a card game. You play casually between glasses.

Grandpa need an excuse to hit children.

Let them have this. Damn, got to get my rage out. I couldn't hit that other kid because I don't know him. But you, you're my friend. I can wail on you. So we then go to Doug Dimmedome's dual monster. Dual dome.

Yes.

That's what I thought.

We have, like, a grand tournament, which also very much confused me, as this was a very firmly established end of the tournament that everyone is watching, where they have the holographic monsters that Yugi was confused about in the last episode.

Continuity, maybe the first time they used them because it was the finals.

Yeah. But no one was like, holy shit, there's a dragon. Everyone's like, yeah.

Because Yugi took kaiba's evil away, kaiba released his technology to the League.

He does actually do that. Like, it's his company that runs the holographic stuff, and that's where a lot of the money comes from. weirdly.

My brain. I'm so smart.

You did it. You beat you.

I've done it.

I cracked the I fixed yugio. It's fixed, right?

I put all the pieces back together.

So, yeah. This is where we see the fabled Weavel. underwood, the bug brawler and Rex raptor the dino tube.

You've attacked your way into my trap. But then how could your tiny dinosaur brain know when an enemy attacks? My vortex activates.

Oh, no.

It's a trap guard, which totally traps your King Rex in its inescapable embrace.

They have their specialized decks, and we watch the gang watch the tournament. They're all just at home. joey is exhausted from his rigorous training. And Yugi is like, hey, actually watch these people play because they know what they're doing, and you just keep throwing strong monsters out. So we see Rex throws out a big King Rex, two headed dinosaur. And Wevil throws out a bug thing. Joey's like, hey, dinosaur beats the bug any day.

I know physics real quick. Rex points out he brags that the two headed King Rex is his strongest card in his deck. And it's a 1601 200. That card is horseshit. Rex is terrible at this game.

I think they're just starting small scale, so there's room to go for the series finale when it's like a 2 million point monster versus a 2 million point monster.

Even guy in the fierce night was stronger than this.

I don't draft the tournament. So, yeah, the bug has some magic cards that modify it, that make it extra strong, teaching joey the valuable lesson to learn how to play the goddamn game. And he Weavel wins. And the president and the creator of the monster dueling card game, Maximilian pegasus, of course, yes. We have a brilliant, beautiful four kids name.

It is great. I love it.

He presents him the prize and invites him to a special tournament in the duelist kingdom.

I happen to notice weevil is very flushed when talking to pegasus. He's blushing a lot, sweating a lot. He's very into pegasus.

Look, he's a beautiful man.

Look at him.

Have you seen him?

I don't doubt. I don't deny it.

It's just like, beautiful, long, flowing silver hair, red, total asshole.

Just like type 9ft tall.

I feel like this is just the most character development we ever get at Weavel of like, oh, there's someone in there.

No.

Sorry to jump in again, but season four, Rex and Evil are main characters. Oh, yes. They have gone from serious threats to comic foils in a matter of seconds. And now that they're being possessed by darts, the villain of season four, who is trying to take over the world with the seal of ori calcos.

Oh, God.

This shows a lot than I remember.

Saying it out loud.

Anyway, back in episode two, we have a mysterious package delivered by Grandpa to Yugi. He opens it up, and the very timely vhs tape is inside.

Excellent.

They put it in the TV, and they see the man on the TV, maximilian Vegasus. He's talking to me.

He's talking to me. Oh my goodness.

Little ow. Me. I don't battle for real.

Sure not talking to tristan. No one is.

No one. So, yeah, we get a message from Maximilian being like, hey, idiot, you beat the champion. And that's some horseshit. So I'm going to battle you. And this vhs tape is going to transport you into the magical realm of the Shadow realm. So everyone freezes except Yugi. And this image on the TV that is actually Maximilious, it's not very magic. So he's battled to a 15 minutes time limit game, and whoever has the most health points at the end wins. pegasus is like, I'm so skilled and so good that I'm like 18 steps ahead of you at any time. I can see your move before you know what you're going to do. So we get into it, they start playing. They allude to it later on as if it's like a big reveal. But he has one of the Millennium Item relics for an eye piece, so clearly he's seeing through the cards. I don't know why they're being coy about it.

Well, he's not seeing through the cards. He's seeing through yuki's eyes. Who's seeing the cards? So it's not just X ray.

Okay, got you. So even more horseshit. Okay.

Yes.

They'Re doing that. They talk about the Egyptian backstory of the game because everyone thinks Maximilian invented it, but he's like, oh, no, I just harnessed the power of the Egyptian pharaohs game, where they would actually play with real monsters and almost destroyed the world. So they had to lock away all the magic and seal the vault with the Millennium Items. So we get that going on in the background.

And here we get a shot of the dark magician of chaos fighting relinquish, which is a deep tease for much further in the season.

Don't spoil it.

God, it's all gibberish. They've tuned out when I talk.

Yes. I don't listen to him anymore anyway, so they keep fighting. Yugi is always a step behind, but when he realizes that Maximilian can see his cards, he decides, oh, what I'm going to do, so I can trick them, is just play a card directly from the deck that even I am not seeing. So it's a little play to put mystery in the field and at least not get counter moved every time. So we get some dark magician out playing millennium plays, his faceless mage and an illusion card.

That millennium. You called pegasus Millennium.

Maximilian.

I was going to let it slide, Patrick. You said I was so invested in the shit. And the puzzle is the key to unlock the secrets of this.

It's fun to watch. It is so boring to hear talked about.

It's like explaining a dream to someone. Yeah, and then I made out with the thing, and then what happened?

Sure, yeah. I'm doing my taxes in my head. Cool.

Guys, we can't undercut what a podcast is that's what we're doing right now?

Fair shush.

They can't know.

They shouldn't know that this is bad content.

No, stop.

Now. You've said the words, so yeah. Maximilian with the Millennium Item I he's playing the illusion card that captures the dark magician to turn it against Yugi. And just as the match is about to end, yugi has a monster. I forget what it was called summons skull. summons skull.

Yes.

Thank you.

It makes a sound effect of a pissed off cat.

Yes, it is delightful. So, yeah, just as that card is about to attack and make contact and win the game for Yugi, the time limit is reached and everything vanishes. So the win goes to Maximilian and dang. It foiled again by TV, by them monologuing for so goddamn long that Yugi could have easily won if he just played it without being like, I see through your ruse, old man. Let me explain your plan back to you.

That's what I thought. He had 9 seconds, you know, started talking and I was like, Yugi kind.

Of genius of pegasus to explain the whole history of dual monsters or whatever, because it lasts a good two minutes. And yugi's like invested too. He's like, oh, really? I don't believe that. But tell me more. It's like, I will oops, times run.

Out because there's a 15 minutes time limit, but they have maybe a collective like eight turns between the two of them. If that so that wouldn't have taken up 15 minutes.

Yeah, just the last round. Yugi just had to be like, okay, fuck you, I win, and just put the card down. But no, he had to be like, I see through your plan. Oh, you took over my magician. Well, this is how I'm going to counter that. I draw your attention to this diagram I drew. Instead of just playing the card and winning. So Maximilian wins, Yugi loses, and as punishment, the Millennium Eye steals the soul of Grandpa.

Literally awful. That's like an actual bad thing.

Grandpa's dying again. He dies every episode.

It's common, it happens. So the soul of Grandpa is stolen and Maximilian is like, I'm going to get that puzzle box from you too, you idiot, and disappears.

Idiot child.

He just steals a puzzle box instead of his grandpa.

I don't know.

Why does everyone have to hurt yugi's grandpa?

He likes hitting kids. They like hitting him also.

Why can't yeah, he's just passed out on the couch. He's just laying there, but he's not even passed out.

He's dead. Like, his soul has left his body.

Holy gold.

There's no way. The doctor is like, we'll keep him on life support. There's no life to support.

He's dead, he's gone, he's empty.

We see this at least once a week. Just a soulless husk.

Shadow, right?

Shadow gaming. Once a week.

You ran into old peggy.

Not this again.

But yeah, that's where we end episode two.

Great. Episode three is fun because there's no dueling in it. It's just backstory.

One duel in the background of the characters we don't care about. At this point.

There is one duel, but it's not a big dramatic one. And I'm about it. So here we go. We start off and Yugi is doing some dramatic school roof standing.

Got to lean up on the chain link fence and look over the city quick.

Yeah, bingo.

Cart, check. Yugi lives as a grandpa, so assumably dead parents, check. Now his grandpa's gone. So it's a high school or living by himself. inexplicably. Also check.

It's not inexplicable, though, because his grandpa is dead.

I mean, you can tell the cops that my grandpa soul got stolen by this billionaire through it's going to be weird. Officer, please, please arrest this tape.

But so he's just being upset about his grandpa's soul being stolen. And then we see joey at home. And he has also received a videotape, but it's not a sinister because it's from his little sister's Serenity. And she's like, I've missed you since mom took me away from you. And then there's a flashback of them crying and yelling. And then she says she wants to see him one more time. So I'm like, oh, God, this little girl is dying. We find out later that that's not true. But that's true. Yeah, it's for the drama. And then Yugi, he goes home to the game shop and he has an envelope with some cards in it. And the cards, they spell out an invitation and the details of a tournament in the duelist kingdom. So he has to do it so he can rescue his grandpa's soul.

We're on board.

And that's the weird thing. Everyone is playing for grandpa's soul.

Everyone loves grandpa.

Everyone's like, I don't know who this old man is, but I guess I'll play to win.

He needs his soul back. The tournament winner also gets $3 million, apparently.

Hell yeah.

Which is a lot of money. And joey is like, money, make me go see sister. And it was at this point that I was like, wow, I didn't think joey would have some dramatic, sad storyline. He just doesn't seem like the guy.

Yeah, he's the hot headed sidekick. He's not the, like, sympathetic I'm doing this for Family Guy. I said the word family guy. I'm so sorry.

I think we all do it for Family Guy.

Doing it for me, familia in spite.

I do it for Bob belcher and his family. Okay, good family. So Yugi and joey are sitting up on the roof and they're reminiscing about when they met. And Yugi, he had the Millennium Puzzle and he wished for real friends. And then tristan and joey came and they were not friendly.

Only I had some friends. Look, some bullies.

Maybe I can change them, I can use them.

I can fix you, joey.

So they took it from him and were like running away and they were like, hey, shorty, can't get it. And then joey was like, yeah, we were just teasing you. We were preparing you for some real bullies. But the irony is that Yugi had to protect tristan and joey from a bully. A bigger bully.

A Joe just character.

Yeah.

This is a large boy. And he beat up Yugi instead of tristan. And joe?

Well, he had already sort of beating them up. Like he just added him to the list.

Yeah. And because Yugi is obviously a child that got the big bully expelled, this.

Bully is literally like four times the size of yogi.

He's like one of those super seniors. They can't graduate.

He never left.

He's a full adult man.

He doesn't even go there. All of his friends are in high school.

He got a football scholarship. He's going to go play for the NFL next year.

After that happened, joey apologized for being a butthole and then they became bffs and they're like, we have to save grandpa together. And then we jump to the ship that all of the people who are invited to go to the Duelist Kingdom are going to board. And there are some big security men on the ship talking about how they were all picked because they're talented players.

Nothing strange about eccentric millionaire inviting a bunch of kids onto his private ship to go to his private island to play a game he invented. Nothing weird at all.

I don't like that show.

Came out right around the time of the Michael Jackson trials. Not related.

Just saying. Not related.

This is the good world where things didn't go bad, right? Things started getting bad.

I'm just waiting for the documentary leaving Duelist Kingdom.

Wow, does love cartoon character. I'm just saying.

Stop it.

Stop it. So while they're waiting in line to get on the boat, they have like these star chips to prove that they were invited. joey is found trying to sneak on and then Yugi is like, what's going on over there? And then everyone gets distracted. And then we're shown taya and tristan and they're like, now's our chance. And then they sneak on the boat and I guess Yugi has two star chips, so he gives one of his star chips to joey so then they can both get on the boat. hooray.

That's real friendship.

And so each of them only have one. But I wasn't completely clear on what these things do at all.

Yeah, they don't.

Great.

Yeah, isn't it? Basically once they're on the island, they battle for each other's starships and they.

Got to collect a certain amount to make it to the final round. Yeah.

Okay, cool. So there's a pretty blonde lady walking past and she overhears them talking about how they each only have a fully.

Grown adult woman among twelve year olds.

That everyone is instantly horny for.

And she suggests them for their, I don't know, room keys. Yeah.

I love her. So she goes up to them and Joey's like, hi pretty lady. And she pretty much tells Yugi like, I can tell this guy's a chump. You should dump him, just leave him. And she was like, you either win or you get crushed. And then joey says, crush me. And that is ahead of his time. It's totally ahead of its time because my God, incredible. And also completely inappropriate, but also for a child's show.

Yeah. Rated TV y seven. And they're like, Step on my throat, daddy.

Maybe not that far, but ruin me, mommy. Okay?

Her name is My. Did I say that? She introduces herself. Yeah, this is my and then joey, they're like, inside. And Joey's complaining about the rooms. And then Wevil and the Dino boy come in, and they're like, weevil is like, hey, you're Yugi. And weevil wants to beat yugi because yugi beat Kaiba. So that means he's the best. And it was at this point that I wrote this note. We will's. Voice is insufferable. Oh my God.

Once he was established as a real character and not, oh yeah, we're going to watch a bullshit tournament game and never talk about it again, it's like, oh no, you're committing to this.

I think he's just that I will.

Know what you're talking about. I'm going to beat you, yuki.

Yuki, I'm going to beat you with my insect card.

I have a cyther.

For some reason that's not even the right name.

Come caribon. And then they briefly mention more rules that come into effect while they're on the island, and then they don't talk about them. And I was like, honestly, thank goodness. And there are people on the ship, they're like, swapping cards, trading cards, getting stronger decks, but they're also getting an idea of what the competitors decks are like because they get to see some of their cards.

Hold up, here's another complaint I have. Okay, we see his hands, like, as they're trading cards. One of those kids has the fucking right arm of exodia. He's got exodia in his hand.

Listen, the assets were limited. They didn't want to pay for.

Every card that is shown in this show is like it's detailed. They're real cards, and I can appreciate that.

Just put the swing guardian dragon to the fortress or whatever.

Why the heck be so like, you probably have the assets from, like, later episodes. Just show something we haven't seen yet and we'll come into play later.

Imagine if we forgot a blue eyes white dragon.

It's the same level. It's supposed to be super rare. So it's like, why has he got it?

But so then we're shown May complaining to someone about how her room doesn't have a shower, to which I said, wow, maya is such a Karen.

I mean, if I'm on a shift, Rick God knows how long with a bunch of kids, I want to shower.

I guess so. But she was like, Call your supervisor. And I was like, wow. And the dino boy hears her complaining about her room, and he's like, oh, well, pretty woman that is probably as old as my mother. I have a luxury room because I'm a winner. mommy says I'm a winner, and she goes with him. And then tristan and taya are on, oh my gosh, I forgot because nothing comes of this. They're on the deck and they see a kid with white hair come out and they're like, oh, hey, isn't that bakura from school? And then I just realized for the rest of this episode, like, I forgot that this happened because they don't talk about him again.

For now.

For now. Obviously he's important.

Just sowing the seeds for Battle Island.

This is peak riding, guys.

I do like this.

This is how to foreshadow in the.

Previous episodes when they're playing in class. You do see pakora in there. So it's not just like a throwaway. I just like that detail. Yeah.

Everyone knows the rule of checkoff's. Background character.

Then we're in the luxury room and my she's like, wow, nice room, child. I'll tell you what, I'm going to duel you, and if you win, you get a kiss. And she doesn't say this in this scene, but if she wins, she gets the room.

Shitty trade off.

Well, he's a child. He doesn't know any better.

That's all he knows about sex so far.

Just kissing in a room alone with a girl, that's sex. And then joey shows Yugi the cards that he traded for, and Yugi gives him a card also. And then we're shown back in the luxury room, they're using my deck to duel. And after they shuffle it and cut the deck or whatever, she already knows the order of the cards. And it is at that point that dinoboy is like, I made a mistake.

I got hustled.

Yep. And then we'll come out and joins Yugi and joey on the deck. And Wevil is like, I heard you have the exodia. What is it called?

The exodia. The forbidden.

I heard you have the exodia cards. May I see them and hold them in my two hands like ruby little claws? And yugi is like, yeah, sure. Do you?

Of course I don't see.

Them.

Who already threatened to kick my ass through cards?

Of course you can hold my most powerful cards. And he gives them to him. And then we'll walks off to the side of the ship and tosses them into the ocean. Of course.

Who would have suspected that from someone with the name Weavel, which sounds like a combination of weasel and evil.

He's just an evil weeb.

Shit. Am I the Weavel?

You know what, Brendan? I hate to say it.

I mean, you might be if you have to ask.

And I lost my mind at this. joey just jumps off the side of the ship to grab these cards that were thrown into the literal ocean.

It's ridiculous.

And he's pretty much like he's like, I have to get the cards. I have to get them so yogi or me can win and I can see my sister's Serenity.

I also like that, name one kid joey. One kid serenity they knew that she.

Was going to do good things. They looked at joey. As soon as he was born, he opened his mouth and said, hey, Ma. And they said, oh, shit, Joe.

He's destined to work at a delia.

And tristan, luckily, they're still on the deck, and they see what's going on. Oh, Yugi also jumps in the ocean. Just solidarity. I don't know.

He's drowning.

Oh, yeah. Well, he starts drowning after Yugi jumps in.

True. Yeah.

And so they toss down a rope ladder, and then they come up. Thank goodness. And then we see Dino Boy has lost the room because of course he did. And then joey feels bad because all he got was three of the cards. And he gets all dramatic and sad about his sister. And it's at this point we find out that she's not dying. She just has bad eyes. And soon she's going to go completely blind. And he says that there's no more surgeries they can do, but there is one operation that if they do it, it will fix it.

Also, I need to go back to the tape that she sent because she sent a videotape of her saying, so you can see me one last time, which doesn't make sense if she's going blind.

I thought it was so I can see you. Did she say see me so I can see you? I was hoping I could see you one last time.

See her one last time. Because it was just a videotape of her. She would not see him through that.

No, I'm saying I wanted to see you one last time. Come visit me. I thought that's what she said.

We'll have to check.

Yeah. I don't remember specifically. I thought it was just, I see me, like, here's my face before I'm dead. It's like, no, that's not how blindness works.

I don't know why she wouldn't just call him on the telephone.

No, tapes are easier.

Mailing it. But yeah. So he needs the money from the tournament to pay for his sister's operation. And then all of the buds, they're like, we're going to do it together. We're going to win. And that's episode three.

I do want to point out that from the boat deck or like the balcony they're on, it seems like they just threw into the ocean. I was like, oh, no. There are a few people us now in the ocean. And then when they jump, that's like seven stories. They should have died when they hit water.

Oh, yeah. That water is like cement when they hit it.

Yeah, it's way up there. yuki is a small boy.

He got brittle bones. He inherited them from his grandpa.

All right, well, okay, hold on. Wait. Back in the episode, I got to see what she says we're going to find so you don't forget your little sister's face. It seems like I'm running out of time. And then she says, I was hoping to see you one more time. But she does say, don't forget your little sister's face because they haven't seen.

Each other in, like, years, obviously.

Interesting.

Joe is also going blonde.

Obviously.

It's jeanette.

Anyway, thank you for clarifying.

You're welcome. Anything for you. Do get well, I don't know why I said that.

You heard it here, folks.

Anything.

So you're helping me move next week. Already I have the audio recording. It's a verbal contract.

Oh, gosh.

Oh.

Ten years from now.

And hey, I know we haven't spoken since the incident, but I need to bring you in for one last job.

Oh, my goodness.

All right.

For anyone playing along at home with the bingo card, the ribbon quest made, we almost got bingo. We were just missing the gay that would have gone the full webo card.

Dang.

What we need to do, we need to remix that bingo card so we each have a different one so everyone has a different chance at getting bingo.

That's a good idea.

Good idea.

Well, that's the show. How are we all feeling?

I'm just a tiny bit tempted to keep watching. I'm like, look, it's all on Netflix. You've got nothing going on in your life going downhill from here. The world's on fire outside my door.

City is literally on fire.

Might as well go out swinging. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Like thinking retroactively, I was like, it's probably not as good as I remember it, but I was pleasantly surprised that they did a pretty good job. In general, the music and the sound effects are all really striking. I mean, not just the intro music, but a lot of the card game sound effects, like the life point meters and the summoning and all that. It was really well done. I don't know if those are the original sound effects or that's what four kids did with them, but I really enjoyed that. Most of the acting is really good, and all the strange ones are just because the voices are a little out there. Wevil we got a lot of characters.

To fill looking at evil.

But surprisingly, like, for all the monologuing there is in the card fighting, they do keep the pace moving faster than some other long running anime series I've seen. There are just some episodes of, like, naruto or one piece where you're like, God, just please kill me or get on with it. At this point, I don't care.

Honestly, it works really well with this because it is like a turn based card game. Because when they stop the action in people fighting and being super powerful and swinging swords at each other just to be like, so for my next attack, I will do it's like, no, just attack, idiot. But for this, it works to be like, okay, I need to strategize. I'm working through my moves. Let's talk this out. Opponent.

Yeah, they do hit a point where every monster has some sort of effect. Or how they have to explain everything. But once they get enough of the ground rules down, the matches do flow a bit better.

Yeah. You could tell they were still in the tutorial phase of teaching the game to the kids of like, okay, this first one just monster verse monster episode two. We get introduction of trap cards and magic cards and the other modifiers and stuff. So they're still ramping up the teaching aspect.

Didn't even get to field cards or ritual summons or fusions or synchronous so much.

There's so many cards to buy.

Kids buy them all, spend money. dugan, are we there yet?

Yes. So as we're talking about four kids and if I would watch this as a child, I'm already there, baby. I watch so much up as a kid. This is one of the shows I actually remember full episodes of like in the back of my brain. I specifically remember I'm sure between the two of you, the knowledge is in there somewhere. They're like fighting through a cave system with an illusionary opponent or like siblings of illusionary people.

Yeah. At the end where they fight the monks that lie and tell the truth and they have to fight the gate guardian with the labyrinth.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. That's the only full episode I remember of TV that isn't like spongebob or something I watched 10 million times just being like, oh, this stuck in my brain for some reason. So hell yeah. I love it. I honestly forgot it started in everyday world. I just remember when they get to the island, the island and everything has sort of like a wild, not quite post apocalyptic, but like everything's like battle thing set up in nature. I only remember that aspect of it.

Yeah, it gets crazier with other series because it gets into the future. And I think they're playing on motorcycles at one point while riding.

Oh boy.

Just seeing it gets nuts.

Well, this was fun. I had a good time.

This was a blast from the past. I very much need to restrain myself from looking at cards because I know I have the addictive personality that will just fully invest hundreds of dollars into building a deck again. And I will never play.

That's why I left mine at my parent house. I can't have that temptation near me.

You got to know your own control. Well, thank you Griffin, so much for joining us and sharing your yugio knowledge.

Oh, yes, I mean, I was glad I was able to provide all of the info you didn't need to know.

Well, where can people find you online? What new stuff do you have coming out that you can talk about?

Yeah, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at griffin. Puwatu. That's Puatu. G-R-I-F-F-I-N. I'm glad I gave that in reverse. I have two shows streaming right now. You can watch Esakai cheat magician tuesdays at twelve Pacific on crunchy Roll. And you can binge watch all of ultramarine Magmail on Netflix. I'm the lead characters on both those shows. And yeah, nice.

Excellent.

And if you have a show you would like us to watch, including one of those that Griffin stars in, you can send animate recommendations to areweevariat@gmail.com. You can find the show on Twitter and Instagram at areweebear yet you can find me on twitter and Instagram at Mr. Patrick dugan.

You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period weebu and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore weebu art.

You can find me on Twitter at aBTS brendan. It stands for almost better than silence, which is a video game podcast I also do.

And thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for the use of our theme song stories off the album Beats. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to.

Live with anime one more time. It's time to you.