Yu-Gi-Oh! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 2

Yu-Gi-Oh! #2

by Kazuki Takahashi

The manga series that inspired the card game that swept the globe!

Tenth-grader Yugi always had his head in some game—until he solved the Millennium Puzzle, an Egyptian artifact containing the spirit of a master gambler from the age of the pharoahs! Possessed by the puzzle, Yugi becomes Yu-Gi-Oh, the King of Games, and challenges evildoers to the Shadow Games…weird games with high stakes and high risks!

When Yugi beat his classmate Kaiba at a simple game of Duel Monsters, he didn’t realize that Kaiba was Japan’s number-one gamer, heir to the Kaiba Corporation and a vengeful madman! Now Yugi and his friends must survive Kaiba’s “Death-T”! Standing between them and escape are the two Kaiba brothers, who have spent years and millions of dollars building the greatest Duel Monsters deck ever.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Action, Comics Manga, Fiction, Comics, Young Adult

592 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2015

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

[Siona Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Death T arc was a little slow for me, but overall this volume was pretty good. I can’t wait to get to the Duelist Kingdom arc. Once the story becomes more duel monsters focused I think I’ll be more engaged. Bakura’s introduction was cool tho.

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really well plotted. The games eith Kaiba were fun. I just felt like the good guys didnt really struggle all that much, it was way too easy for them to win. Also at times the dialogue was quite childish. I know the characters are in high school but it just felt too childish whilst dealing with some darker themes. Was fun but will probably continue on another manga.

[C.S. O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

You've heard of CARDGAMES ON MOTORCYCLES
But have you heard of...
GANGBANGERS WITH YOYOS

I love it when I see silly shit like this in comics/manga, you can tell the Author's running short on ideas for the Game of the Week format he has in place (50 chapters in by the end of this volume) but you'd almost think that Yugi and Joey were in danger of being beaten to death with baseball bats and crowbars here, not string and plastic.

PS: The Yugi vs Kaiba Exodia duel was the bee knees, I could hear Eric Stuart's and Dan Green's voices emanate from those Black and White pages Kazuki drew all those years ago in the late nineties.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

My situation continues. The written is just as bad, little improvement. The actions of the characters are so dumb and the “villains” are so one dimensional that it makes it kinda of difficult to take any of it seriously. I continue to wait for the switch from every chapter standalone story of a random over explained game to the duel monsters. Legit that duel with Kaiba was one of the best moments so far in the series. Bakuga looks like an interesting villain with his own Millenium item, can’t wait to see more of him. Overall, the series has been laughable and quite cringy, but I stay optimistic that the author would switch to making duel monsters the focus of the series.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Try as I might, I can't help but hear the fucking 4kids dub voices in my head as I read this manga....

The previous omnibus was mostly one-off stories and the occasional two-parters, with the notable exception of the Shadi Arc. This omnibus shows the duration of the Death-T Arc, as well as the very start of Monster World. There are still some shorter stories between arcs.

To be honest, Death-T is kinda fucking r*tarded, and is the real litmus test for whether you'll enjoy the rest of the manga. That is, it's bonkers. I love it, others may not. As a child in an orphanage, Seto cheated at chess so he and Mokuba will be adopted by Kaiba Gozaburo. Excelling at games, Seto inspires the suicide of his adopted father, who jumps out of a window to show Seto how losers should behave. Kaiba Seto then goes on to lose in a children's card game (as we saw in the "Cards With Teeth" story). In revenge against Yugi, Kaiba spends ¥100M to build an amusement park in a skyscraper filled with death-traps to try to kill Yugi and friends... while also having enough holes to allow the heroes a fighting chance. Because the real point is a) to allow a Capsule Monster rematch for Mokuba so Seto can prove that his brother is a double-loser and b) to force a Duel Monsters rematch for Seto to win with his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

With the climax of Death-T, we get another card battle. This whole omnibus, the card game is referred to as "Duel Monsters," rather than the original "Magic and Wizards" name. More cards are introduced, but we get some wacky "rules" that will color the return of the card game a few volumes later. Namely, "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1" has a 35% chance to dodge attacks(!?). No idea how the fuck that's supposed to work in a card game. Yugi uses "Gaia, the Fierce Knight" and "Dark Magician," who will become staples of future decks, the latter card especially. We are introduced as well to "Exodia, the Forbidden One," who will be removed from the manga before Yugi can ever use it again, only to come back in anime filler (used by the ghost of Kaiba's father!).

With Monster World, we are introduced to Bakura, keeper of the Millennium Ring, who also has game-related schizophrenia giving him a Dark personality. Monster World is a tabletop RPG where Dark Bakura acts as game master while Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda play adventurers. Bakura seems to have the ability to turn people into game pieces (seen with the gym teacher), but this hasn't affected our heroes by the point when this volume ends. This arc will be quite important, as Bakura ends up more or less the "final boss" of the manga as a whole, using yet another tabletop RPG after Battle City ends. (Spoiler, btw)

****

By Chapter 25, Jonouchi is somewhat firmly in his main design. Yugi still looks a little... not there yet.

Chapter 25 is also interestingly more about a real-life street fight than any games, though it does start with Yugi and Jonouchi playing arcade games. There's a parallel universe where Yu-Gi-Oh! becomes a run-of-the-mill fighting manga....

By Chapter 26, Dark Yugi looks about how we expect from the future of the series. Regular Yugi isn't there yet. Jonouchi actually backslid into an older version(!?). The Kaiba brothers are still antagonists so Mokuba still looks dysgenic.

Chapter 27 introduces Kaiba's virtual reality, the prototype to the prototype of the Duel Disk.

Honda's nephew trying to get some titty from Anzu.

Jonouchi stomping on the Green Beret's face.

Yugi's romantic rivalry against baby Johji lmao

The spooky ride grabbing Anzu's boob.

Johji shitting on the butler.

Jonouchi murdering Chopman with fire.

*The smiley face on their hands in Chapter 33! Pretty significant through Duelist Kingdom, even if Honda and Anzu stop being too relevant...

"Know this! There is no such thing as brotherly love in the gaming world! Until you figure that out, you will always be a loser, Mokuba!"

"No matter how weak a monster is, if you BELIEVE in each step it takes, it will grow STRONG!!"

Bikini Anzu...!
"Even that bomber wouldn't stand the power of Anzu's dynamite body!!" Poor kid doesn't know Mai exists yet. Or Black Magician Girl...!

Shout-out to Imori and the "Xing Zhen Hu," which is a card I own in real life but don't recall using.
"Normally I try to come up with something original, but..."

"Those who laughed at yo-yos... will cry at yo-yos!"

"Dah ha ha ha ha! 'Human Hanging Yo-yo Tech'!"

"You don't aim yo-yos at people! You aim them at the GROUND! Think about that... I'm the hospital!"
The fuck is my dude even saying anymore...!?

"NO! Get out of... the hall and come on in!"

[L. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second 3-in-1 of the Yu-Gi-Oh series. This manga once again barely has any actual card battles as you see in the show, it only has one that spans around 40 pages. If I read it correctly, the next 3-in-1 will start with Duelist Kingdom, which is the island where the first season of the anime takes place.

I don't mind the lack of card battles though. The manga so far is quite interesting and fun on its own without relying on the popularity of what Yu-Gi-Oh is known for. I like to see what happened before the anime, and this and the first book are basically 6 volumes of pure prequel goodness. Sure, there are some parts that are slower but they never really bothered me.

I like how Honda (Tristan in the anime) plays a bigger role this time around, wherein the first 3-in-1 he was more of a side character. He also has a pervy little kid that he was to watch out for while the Kaiba arc goes on. Once again, the manga is darker than the anime and you can see why it's is mostly for older teens and above while the anime is more for all ages.

Also, this book ends on a cliffhanger and I really want to see how the story unfolds. So I can't wait to read the next omnibus to see the end of that chapter, and the start of the actual Yu-Gi-Oh dueling arc.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still remains astronomically different from the anime. Surprisingly pervy in the same way as Dragon Ball. The emphasis now is on gaming. I’m surprised at the volume and variety of games represented. There’s not enough time to accurately describe and lure the audience into the fold with the any of these games’ brief appearances. Still waiting until Duel Monsters takes off and hones this manga in as its central focus. In the meantime -

PENALTY-GAME

OR

SHADOW DUEL!

“Your soul is mine” ~ Shang Tsung (and/or a bunch of little kids playing deadly card games)

[Ellliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, but after the death T ark, the story, was basically yugi's puzzle gets stolen, or used to do something, that, or a beach day, a yoyo thing, and winning 1,000,000 yen, plus, the other guy, with the other puzzle.

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I want to give this another 4/5 with the terrible fanservice of volume 4 and the continued printing errors I'm giving this a 3.5 rounded up. The printing errors were there in the first 3-in-1 but I hoped it was just a one-off issue they would fix. But this is the second 3-in-1 and my library has the fifth edition printing and pages are still cut off poorly enough that entire letters are cut off. Other times, the pages are centered too closely to spine making it far too hard to read.
Volume 4 covers Kaiba’s revenge on Yugi in the “Death T” project. It’s a fun idea and gets to explore the death game approach Takahashi envisions for Yu-Gi-Oh without relying on shadow games and board games which expands the scope in a good way imo. My favorite stage would have to be Death T-2 aka the Horror Zone with the “bllood” puzzle and the Chopman encounter. The puzzle was neat and the Chopman encounter had some nice horror-inspired art with Chopman’s grotesque design especially with his uneven teeth, the (always excellent from Takahashi) use of screentones on his tongue, and fun translation of Chopman’s manner of speech. Although Death T-3 is also a good second with it’s character bonding moment and the neat idea of surviving a Tetris-like Saw game. However Anzu is heavily sexualized in this arc. She was occasionally sexualized beforehand but it gets far worse here especially with Johji who I already found to be an annoying character.
Volume 5 covers the end of the “Death T” project with the aftermath of the Death T-3 blocks game to Death T-4 and T-5 which are just redo fights of Mokuba and Kaiba albeit with slightly more strategy and detail than the first time Yugi faced them. After the “Death T” project the volumes follows with some one-off chapters.
The same trend continues in volume 6 with more one-off chapters. There are quite a few that continues to focus on Anzu and Yugi as a ship but it’s far less ecchi and creepy thankfully. Near the end though we get the introduction of Bakura with the most neat game yet as Yugi and his friends face-off in a D&D-esque game which I found really fun.

[Bayley Gerhard-Baulch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like the previous collection, this is a great read for fans of Yu-Gi-Oh who want something a bit different than the show. The most interesting part as an anime fan is to see some of the things the show glossed over and condensed into just small single episode stories, giving Kaibas battle with Yugi from the start of the show an entire multi chapter arc that fleshes out the relationships between Yugi and his friends like Tristan who is often overlooked early in the show, as well as Kaiba and Mokuba’s backstories as orphans adopted into the Kaiba family and business, and they’re bond as brothers and how it’s been affected. It also begins the Monster World arc that introduces Bakura much earlier and in much more detail than that of the anime. It also directly addresses one of the biggest questions people have when watching, how the hell does no one notice Yugis sudden change when shifting to Yami? Not only does it address and explain it for the main characters to understand, but even one off side characters and foes mention it showing that it is actually a noticeable and explainable shift in this world which makes it feel a little more believable when it happens. Overall this volume is where it really starts to go deeper into a more arc based overarching story rather than just one off battles and fights, and digs deeper into the things that the show sometimes ignores or pushes through quickly to catch up. Well worth a read.

[Andrea Ambroso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se siete fan nostalgici di Yugi come me vi piacerà molto questo volume infatti introduce personaggi conosciuti nell'anime come Seto Kaiba e suo fratello Mokuba, viene svelata la loro infanzia difficile e come il gioco abbia avuto una componente fondamentale nel loro destino. Ritorna il gioco di carte Magic & Wizards proprio grazie ai fratelli Kaiba. Un altro personaggio fondamentale per la trama orizzontale appare: si tratta di Bakura in possesso di un altro oggetto millenario che invita Yugi e compagni ad un gioco di ruolo da tavolo stile D&D, Monster World. Ovviamente è un gioco delle tenebre poiché l'altra personalità di Bakura è interessata al Puzzle Millenario di Yugi.
Posso affermare che il manga per situazioni e argomenti trattati, come quello del bullismo, lo trovo più maturo rispetto l'anime, non ci si deve lasciare ingannare dal fatto che il tutto si risolve sempre con una sfida basata su un gioco... occhio però perché spesso si giocano l'anima come prezzo da pagare.

[Lara Vehar · Rating 4 out of 5]

- I never expected a pervy toddler who takes a poop in a stranger's lap so he can save the love his life- a grown woman - that part felt like a weird drug trip I swear.

- Yoyo gang battles was such a dope idea- I loved that part.

-Duel vs. Kaiba and Mokuba was amazing and I loved every single moment.

- I loved the dragons game - it was so different and unique.

-I loved the introduction of Bakura and Yami Bakura and their duel. I cannot wait for the second part, especially because Bakura was always one of my favourite characters.

[Asparkofc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still loving this series a lot more than I was expecting. Yugi is adorable and Jonouchi is really starting to become a really love able character to me.

The characters are so fleshed out already and has more depth to them than I was expecting from a children series.

Also I love Kaiba. That’s all.

Ryo seems like an interesting new character and I can’t wait to see how he develops as the series go on.

All in all there was a lot that happened in this volume and I’m onboard for the ride.

[Stephanie L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's kill half the population of Japan with our penalty games and hope no one ever looks for these poor people. Apart from that, Takahashi keeps on focusing on the beauty of games, be it board or cards, and offers a multitude of choices to play. The art is more crisp, more beautiful and, by the end, the story evolves into the Yu-Gi-Oh! we'll come to love.

Duel standby, indeed.

[Chris Whitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating reading this manga and seeing how the series will evolve in the future. Feels like the manga found its feet here and looking forward to following the manga that inspired one my favourite shows.

[Brianna Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite literally, one of my absolute favorite mangas/animes in the entire world. And getting to actually read/learn more about Seto's backgrounds is a big plus in my book.

If you love the original anime, go read the mangas, too. It's so much better and fantastic. :)

[Carolina Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Death T arc was so crazy as I remembered!!!😂 As always this series did not hold back on its twisted story arc and the incredible character development.

It’s both incredibly dark and surprisingly heartwarming at the same time.❤️

[Joseph Ozias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, the manga is outstanding - and, although the anime will always be something I love from childhood, the manga is outshining it every step of the way in every way possible.

[Fabio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alcuni giochi sono bellissimi, altri un po’ meno efficaci. Ma nel complesso molto bello.

[Agnese Rosengren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nei prossimi giorni scriverò una recensione.
Ora necessito di tempo per metabolizzare tutto quanto – sì, ho sclerato e non poco.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great monster designs, still not crazy about the goofy “friendship conquers all” theming. I wonder if they’ll ever explain why Yugi wears an Edward Scissorhands-style leather vest all the time.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a wild series. Glad to see duel monsters finally come back into play.

[Kiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bakura enters the chat!

[Stefan Garland · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Where my Celtic Guardian at?

[Shelly Argeneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich find die ganze Thematik rund um Spiele richtig interessant und spannend 🙈

[Adam Humphreys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could've done without the creepy baby, but still very enjoyable. Conclusion: Less Yo-Yo, more Bakura

[Joe Santoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume starts out really well.. continuing the major plot line from the first 3 volumes, and coming pretty satisfying conclusion... my only complaint would be it was a little too easy for the good guys when it was supposed to be impossible. The ending was shockingly happy and straight forward for manga.

I think I could have been happy with that being the end of the series, though. The next plot features a new Millenium object (when it was previously stated there are only 3), and we have the 'Duelist' part (which seems to mostly just advertise the card came) on the horizon. THe next volume likely will be my last one. THIS one, though was pretty good, I'd deifnitely recommend it (or, through vol. 5 if you're not reading the 3-in-1s)

[MrsChiNanami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es ist einfach schön die Anfänge der Geschichte wieder zu lesen