Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, Vol. 11: The Shadow of Marik

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist #11

by Kazuki Takahashi

Mai Kujaku! Dinosaur Ryuzaki! Esper Roba! The world's greatest duelists are in town for the Battle City tournament... but a mysterious group is stalking the tournament to steal the most valuable cards! The Rare Hunters are more than thieves... they're pawns of the mysterious Marik, a deadly duelist from Egypt who already possesses two of the three most powerful cards in the world. And to defeat them, Yugi must find a way to beat Exodia, the world's most unbeatable combo! Rated for children 9-12.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comics, Young Adult, Shonen

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2000

About the author

Takahashi (高橋和希) started as a mangaka in 1982. His first work was Tokiō no Tsuma (闘輝王の鷹), published in 1990. One of his earliest works was Tennenshokudanji Buray (天然色男児BURAY), which lasted for two volumes and was published from 1991 to 1992. Takahashi did not find success until 1996 when he created Yu-Gi-Oh!

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure that these tie into the Vizbig Yu-Gi-Oh editions I was reading. I suppose this is a line of comics dedicated towards the dueling card game, hence the Duelist moniker in the title. All that to say I jumped into volume 11 of Duelist expecting regular Yu-Gi-Oh...


I've watched the anime as a kid so I'm up to speed on what's happened, and it looks to be incredibly similar where the show obviously takes its liberties to protract the duels for entertainment. We get some cool card designs. I like how the last few pages show a catalog of the cards featured with Japanese and English names and the page they are introduced.

Favorite card from this volume: Chain Destruction

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Whaddya mean, destiny?! Is this guy nuts?!"

We have finally arrived at the start of everyone's favourite arc: Battle City!

In the run-up to the tournament, Joey/Jonouchi has lost his Red Eyes Black Dragon to the first of Marik's Ghouls (Rare Hunters in the anime). Though shaken, he's nevertheless ready to take on the tournament Red Eyes-less.

In a divergence from the anime, in the manga Joey/Jonouchi's storyline isn't connected to the subplot from Duelist Kingdom about using the prize money to pay for his sister to have an eye operation (weirdly American healthcare-coded subplot by the way), so in the manga his motivation is purely self-development.

Honestly, I think this works better because it gives at least one of the characters an internal conflict which can then serve one of the series' over-arching themes about the value of competition being its capacity to facilitate self-actualization and how it can be a collaborative force rather than only re-enforcing hyper individualism.

I say this to say that in spite of all the plot-related things going on in this volume, that's the core message, made explicit through Joey/Jonouchi's first tournament duel against Esper Roba.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

All of Domino's finest duelists gather in the town square waiting for their tech oligarch overlord and tournament host, Seto Kaiba, to shoot the tournament starting gun so to speak. Which he does after assuring anyone who might have cared that he spoke with the civic authorities about using the entire city as a tournament 'battleground.' No corruption there, I'm sure. He also announces that he'll be competing in the tournament as well, but there needn't be any concerns about him having an unfair advantage despite it being a tournament that: he's throwing, he created the tech for, he determined the rules to, and, oh yeah he also has access to the data for every duel fought. But don't worry, guys: he also has to ante up his rarest card for each duel. No conflict of interest anywhere to be seen.

This appears to be acceptable to all involved because the tournament begins! Immediately, Yami Yugi gets into a duel with the same Ghoul who won Joey/Jonouchi's Red Eyes card. Even without Joey/Jonouchi tipping him off as to the Ghoul's dueling strategy, Yami Yugi cleverly dispatches him, wins back the Red Eyes card, and triggers a meeting with Marik via the mind-controlled Ghoul.

For some reason, when Yami Yugi asks Marik what his evil plan is, Marik... tells him. And so, Yami Yugi and Joey/Jonouchi learn about the God Cards for the first time. But that's about it. Also, Marik makes the mind-controlled Ghoul do a silly little dance just like in the anime, and I still don't understand why XD

As a side note: I forgot that at this point in the arc the stakes were really low, certainly from Yugi and co's perspective. Marik claims that he who possesses all 3 Egyptian God cards unlocks 'the power of darkness', but they don't know what that means or anything. At this point, Kaiba weirdly knows more than they do. And that actually comes up later, because Marik only references Yugi as an amusement to toy with; he at this point says he's going to Domino in person to duel Kaiba for Obelisk the Tormentor.

Anyway, Yami Yugi gets the Red Eyes card, and then he and Joey/Jonouchi announce their respective tournament goals (Yami Yugi hopes the tournament will give him the opportunity to unlock his lost memories, and Joey/Jonouchi wants to develop enough as a duelist to be worthy of facing Yami Yugi in the finals to earn back his Red Eyes.

The duel itself between Joey/Jonouchi and Esper Roba is kind of lame, largely serving as an info dump about the updated Duel Monsters rules, but nevertheless, the dialogue is rather good, and really let Joey/Jonouchi's character development shine. He's learned since Duelist Kingdom that competing isn't always about winning -- it's about leveling up for your own personal satisfaction, and that getting knocked down or struggling, or stagnating in a hobby doesn't mean there's no value in doing it. It's about being your best, not the best. And that competing against your friends as rivals doesn't make you enemies -- it makes you collaborators in the bigger project of mutual self-development. It's such a wholesome message that reframes the more typical (and toxic) narratives around competition, and something incredibly consistent within the Yugioh-verse.

Love that for us.

(There's also an unintentionally very funny bit of dialogue where Esper Roba says: "I will win this duel! It is Destiny!" to which Joey/Jonouchi replies: "Whaddya mean, destiny?! Is this guy nuts?!" as though that isn't the entire plot of the series.)

But back to the plot.

We cut to Mokuba LARPing at having authority when he comes across a guy threatening to beat up his opponent. Not realizing who Mokuba is, the guy threatens Mokuba too, only for Kaiba to step in and use the situation as an excuse to test out his Obelisk card on a real opponent. His deeply ironic line from the anime about not liking bullies is absent in the manga, which is probably for the best; Kaiba is plenty delulu without the added layer of zero self-awareness.

We finish up with Yami Yugi's realization that the game shop where he and Joey/Jonouchi registered for Battle City was a front for the Ghouls and goes tearing over there... for I don't know exactly what reason. Anyway, he arrives and meets Pandora, Marik's second Rare Hunter, who challenges him to a battle of Dark Magicians. Even though there's not much attempt made to logically set this up, it still makes more sense than the anime version where he follows a clown into a tent that leads to a secret underground bunker, so I'll accept that Yugi had a flash of intuition and we'll let it slide.

On to volume 12!

[Mochacat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I get bored with the duel with jonochi and some random side characters. But that's just my brain being too obsessed with the finals to really care.
this manga to me just translates to- Marik needs to stop trying to "avenge" his trash hole of a nasty scumbag father and go get some mental help. I wanna give him a hug! poor kid...

I feel bad for anyone reading this review who doesn't know Marik's backstory and thinks I am just crushing on a fictional character. hahaha... no.

remember- "there is no such thing as a smart criminal"-one of my teachers

[Joseph B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist's landmark Battle City arc officially kicks off in this collection; delivering duels with fun combos and interesting dynamics as the best of the best duel it out (with cheaters everywhere too!). In volume eleven we see Yugi take on the rare hunter who won Joey's Red-Eyes Black Dragon using an illegal Exodia deck. It is fun to see Yugi take on the very deck he used to defeat Kaiba in the original series. Joey also gets to duel again this volume; taking on a psychic duelist with an ace monster that is devastating to trap cards. This collection also has a strong focus on Marik as the title would imply. We learn more about his backstory and how much power he wields; setting him up as a fearsome villain the gang will have to overcome. One chapter additionally centers on Kaiba using his Egyptian god card, Obelisk, with devastating effect.

YGO:D Vol. 11 offers exciting duels, Egyptian lore, and insight into the primary bad guy of the Battle City arc. Delivering a strong start to this new mega-arc.

[Leandro Escobar-herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

As BDSM/gimp themed cards returns, so does the quality.

The battles in this volume is *chef kiss* excellent. Yugi finally does an actual combo with proper set-up. Overall all the battles have improved a lot, and is actually engaging. Especially Jonouchi's battle show a lot of character growth. As the battles, set-up and character moments takes center stage, the plot takes a backseat. Thank god! Because it is still stupid. The major problem this book has, is that is it unbearably cheesy. Yu-Gi-Oh the manga was never as cheesy as the anime, but now we can see the anime's influence on the books.

Battle city is shaping up to be a great arc! Maybe the best since Death-T

Minor note, a former presumed dead villain returns to show that Yami wasn't that bad in the beginning. While I dislike this retcon, it is fun for him to return just to be tortured again by Kaiba.

[Kassy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Yu-Gi-Oh Manga is amazing. I love the different characters and the duels they participate in. The big Duel City Tournament is insane, and it is so crazy. The Rare thieves or whatever they call themselves are ugly, rude, and mean. Also the so called leader seems awful and the fact he said Yugi killed his father is insane, unless the father is Pegasus maybe. I don't know if Yugi had caused the death of anyone in any of his shadow games. I know there was some comas, did that other Egyptian guy die that I'm forgetting? Shuri or something like that was his name. Anyway I'm gonna start reading the next one now, bye.

[Alex Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Battle City is always going to be what I think of when I think of Yugioh - I made a bunch of wild trades when I was a kid playing the card game just to get all the signature cards of the Battle City duelists (although ironically I had a Jinzo, who's featured in this volume, and traded it for Pegasus's signature Thousand Eyes Restrict - to this day I have no idea if that's a good trade or not but I still have that Thousand Eyes Restrict and it's probably my most loved card so I guess it worked out).

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

LLeva una fluidez increíble, con bastante acción y ya me imagino el revoloteo de ver tantas nuevas cartas y nuevas reglas para jugar. En su momento fue un hitazo.

Por otra parte, la historia va tomando forma y de cierta manera tiene más sentido cómo se resuelven las cosas y cómo otras cambian. El arte y los personajes ni se diga, están geniales.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

And Battle City has begun! Jonouchi was tricked into losing his Red Eyes Black Dragon and Yugi must win it back for him. The two decide Yugi will hold on to the card until Jonouchi is ready to win it back for himself. Yugi also learns that the mysterious Marik is controlling Ghouls who are battling duelists and stealing their rare cards. Jonouchi faces off against a "psychic" duelists and actually proves that he's grown exponentially as a duelist. Other than a brief appearances of familiar Duelist Kingdom faces there wasn't much to this particular volume. I liked the addition of Jinzo and the strides Jonouchi made as this was the first battle he won without his friends there to support him. Looking forward to the next volume!

[Jane Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llegó uno de mis sociópatas con doble personalidad favoritos.

[Roselyn Blonger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encantaron los duelos y todas esas pequeñas pero importantes diferencias con el anime. No sabía que Marik pensaba que Yugi mató a su padre ni que la promesa de Jonouchi era para pelear contra Yugi como un verdadero duelista. Wow, me encantó.

[félon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of overdramatic and really cheesy, but then that's kind of the norm for this series so it's not so bad. (But it really went for it in this volume, wow.)

[Sebastián Ubilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen manga.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always loved yugioh, it was my favorite show as a kid and my first manga! Love all the great characters and the Egypt story line it has😻👌😁❤️

[Inge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the way Yugi fights for Jonuchi but Jonuchi wants to win back his dragon the honorable way...

[Jaden John · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book

[Daniel Pappas · Rating 4 out of 5]

here we go again

It’s not enough that Yugi duels an Exodia deck but also that Joey duels Espa Roba and wins in this manga. Great pacing. I forgot how fun Battle City really is.

[Burberi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yayyyyy Marik is finally here

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the Duel Monsters cards designed, Jinzo may be my favorite. Major Hellraiser vibes. Yu-Gi-Oh's very own cenobite. Clive Barker would be proud.

[Nightshade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume marks the start of the Battle City Tournament. Yugi has the first duel of the tournament and defeats a Ghoul to get Jonouchis Red-eyes Black Dragon back. I liked the scene that follows this duel, where Jonouchi tells Yugi to keep his Red-eyes until the time when he can be considered a proper duelist with the skill to take Yugi on in a fair duel.
Jonouchi then duels Espa Roba and wins, gaining Espa’s Jinzo card from the duel ante. This shows how Jonouchi is becoming a better duelist in his own right as he can now happily fight his duels without the help of Yugi. It is interesting how duels like this one are slightly different from in the anime, but obviously has the same outcome.
This volume was very much a set-up of the tournament and establishing Yugi and Jonouchi’s place within it.

[Sarah Maddaford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed on previous volumes Yu-Gi-Oh! Volumes 1-4 and Duelist Volumes 1-5 as well as the final volume

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Quickie Review

This story arc is right when I got into the anime, so, of course I enjoyed this one. Fans of the series know what to expect, and they'll get just that here.

[Emma L.B.]

- Will re-read before I put a review -

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this cartoon and love the manga that goes with it!