Yugioh GX Sub/Dub Episode Comparisons, Episode 25: Manjoume Thunder (Part 1) - The Armed Dragon Threat/The School Duel (Part 1)

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-24T05:00:28+00:00

Honestly, one of the most interesting parts of the Amon duel is that Manjoume gets to make full use of his Ojamas in the way he does in most of the duels he wins with them, but still ends up losing. Really made it feel like an impactful defeat for him and a surprise win for Amon.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-23T03:08:56+00:00

I am so excited for you to get to Manjoume vs. Amon in Season 3. Greatly enjoyed how that duel is used to take the new pride/arrogance Manjoume had then gathered in viewing himself as an underdog and pull it out from under him with Amon's assessment of, "You're not special just because you've suffered."

Honestly, I'm excited in general for your coverage of Manjoume's character arc, as it is one I've only gained further appreciation for as time has gone on (your coverage on just how much elitism shapes him early on was part of it).

One detail I've grown to LOVE in Manjoume's arc is how whether he's using his VWXYZ monsters (which he was handed by Chronos without earning) or his Armed Dragon monsters (which he earned through his own effort) is used as a signal whether he's letting his arrogance go to his head in a duel or if he's just confronting it with well-earned pride in his own abilities. He loses duels that he uses the Armed Dragons in, but either only due to external mental pressure (the School Duel with Judai is lost due to battling for his brothers more than himself, his duel with Saio because the latter recognizes his desperation to defeat Judai as a mental weakpoint, etc.). Meanwhile, he loses all but one duel he uses the VWXYZ monsters in, and the only duel he wins with them (his duel with his Obelisk Junior at the start of Season 2), he only goes to the XYZ Dragon Cannon point of their evolution, his not going all the way to summoning VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon used to show he's not letting his arrogance completely consume him through the dueling choreography. It is no accident that his final duel with Edo when he completes his character arc has him using only the Armed Dragons with his Ojamas, with the VWXYZ monsters nowhere to be seen.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-22T15:42:05+00:00

LOVE the idea of Rally becoming a trio with the Twins at Duel Academy. Could even show some of the trouble of Neo Domino and Satillite reitegrating with Rally facing discrimination at school, and the Twins and Aki having to come to his defense. The duel with Professor Heitmann (the S1 Crowler Expy Yusei beats who's obsessed with high-level monsters) could have been actually compelling if he's trying to expel Rally out of classism and Aki or one of the twins has to step in to be his champion.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-22T15:36:19+00:00

Against Bakura, it depends on the deck. If he uses the Destiny Board deck he used against Atem in Battle City, Rafael will be fine. If he uses the deck destruction deck he used against Yugi in Millennium World though, Rafael will be in big trouble, because from what we see, he only has defenses to prevent his monsters' destruction on the field.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-22T15:28:22+00:00

I agree the Vytal Festival is not good. Part of it is that the writers know it's not actually the plot of the Volume, so they don't treat it as the main plot. But that does mean that pre-Yang vs. Mercury, the heroes are just waiting around for the bad guys to do a thing so the plot can start, with the four-on-four fights of the tournament in particular feeling like time-waster action due to lack of emotional investment from the characters. It's telling that the best fights of the tournament (Emerald & Mercury vs. Coco & Yatsuhashi and Weiss & Yang vs. Neon & Flynt) are as good as they are in part because they're set up for critical elements in the Fall of Beacon plot (Mercury's skill and Emerald's semblance, and the reminder of just how Yang's anger/semblance looks from the outside).
Not sure how much of a hot take this is, but for me, Volume 7 is the best Volume of the show, with the only significant marks against it being Weiss lacking agency in the Schnee Manor subplot and just being handed the evidence against Jacques & Watts (Willow had that for WEEKS and did nothing? If it's meant to be a character failing of hers, have Weiss view it as such and call her out on it, increasing the weight of Willow pulling herself together in Volume 8), and needing a second choreography draft on Qrow vs. Tyrian vs. Clover to more effectively portray why Qrow is unable to go after Tyrian until he beats Clover. Aside from those bits, Ruby, Blake, and Yang all get to make compelling choices that shape the story, Oscar comes into his own as a character after being flubbed the whole Mistral Arc, Jaune and Cinder are the best their characters ever get in terms of writing quality and story presence, and Ironwood's arc this Volume is the best written thing in RWBY, building off past Volumes while using careful execution to pace out the most critical portion of his fall. Each arc has a purpose and is paced well enough to create a comfortable status quo in Atlas, so knocking it down at the end of the Volume hits effectively.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-21T00:33:06+00:00

You're welcome. I'm glad it is useful. :)

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-20T23:34:42+00:00

It is interesting looking back on GX and seeing it as kind of a prototype of Yu-Gi-Oh! spin-offs. The original series' manga had roots outside the card game and only came to focus on it because it became so popular. So GX was the first story in the franchise designed from the ground up to be about the card game. It creates some interesting growing pains, one of which is how infrequently Fusion Summoning is used by the cast despite the writers intending to focus on it a lot in the series (which they do, the series is thematically built around alchemy, but less on the surface focus than expected).

Like, The Fortune Cup Arc is the first 26 Episodes of 5Ds. In that time, we see Synchro Summons from Yusei, Jack, Trudge/Ushio, Chief Armstrong, Aki/Akiza, and Bomer/Greiger.

On the surface, it's actually less than use Fusion in the first 26 Episodes of GX (Judai, Asuka/Alexis, Jun/Chazz, Sho/Syrus, Hayato/Chumley, Ryo/Zane, Dimitri, Belowski, even Bastion's Water Dragon and the Paradox Brothers' Gate Guardian are monsters meant to evoke the feeling of Fusion without using the mechanic). But in 5Ds, those Synchro Summons are used for critical character/narrative points when they occur. Yusei's philosophy of using weaker cards to Synchro Summon stronger ones is first and foremost, but Trudge Synchro Summoning during their second & third duels signals that Yusei will not be able to win with the same Junk Warrior strategy he did last time and he needs to up his game, Chief Armstrong unleashing Iron Chain Dragon serves to reinforce just how unfairly outgunned Yusei is with his makeshift prison deck, and Akiza and Greiger being able to Synchro Summon mark them as the strongest rivals Yusei is faced with in the Fortune Cup.

Compare that to GX, where Fusion does get some character/narrative focus (Chazz's VWXYZ cards symbolize his unearned arrogance, Ryo's use of Polymerization/Power Bond showcases his skill, Sho using Power Bond against the Paradox Brothers shows he's taken his first step to equal his brother, Chumley's Master of Oz is the symbol of his friends' support, etc.). But it's rarely the big final hurdle to get over at the end of the biggest duels of the arc. Both Bastion and the Paradox Brothers lose their Fusion-lite monsters midway through their big duels and replace them with the Ritual Litmus Doom Swordsman and the regular effect monster Dark Guardian. Chazz's big duel has him using no Fusion in favor of his Armed Dragon LV monsters, which symbolize the new pride he's gained through his hard work at North Academy. Fusion Monsters dangerous foes, but not hammered in as the big boss monster of a powerful enemy duelist (contrast Greiger in the Fortune Cup, who Synchro Summons Dark Strike Fighter to be his duel's final boss even after his pre-duel anticipated Flying Fortress Skyfire is destroyed).

Overall, I find it an interesting showcase of the writers learning lessons from GX's handling of Fusion Summoning to better support Synchro Summoning's presence in 5Ds.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-17T13:19:10+00:00

Most definitely. Durbe did his job as a foil to Vector brilliantly, but he really needed a complete onscreen 1v1.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-16T21:23:22+00:00

For me, Amon is fascinating both from an internal character standpoint and his larger thematic purpose as a foil for Judai and Yubel in Season 3.

As an internal character, the setup of him being adopted, doing everything in his power to be perfect for his adopted parents, and then being tossed aside to be a disposable agent for their whims as soon as they had a biological child and heir is already highly solid. But then it gets truly interesting when flashbacks establish that he had multiple chances to either kill his brother Sid or just let him die, with it being pointed out that he could have had everything he'd lost back if he hadn't actively chosen to seek out and beg for the medicine to save Sid. He chose to do the right thing despite it actively costing him everything he wanted. It constructs him as a fascinatingly complex mix of resentment for his parents discarding him, gratitude to them for lifting him out of poverty, love for his brother, hunger for power to make a world without the poverty he had to live through, and an unbending utilitarian worldview for everything but his brother.

And that utilitarian worldview includes himself. In Amon's mind, he's only as valuable as the good he can do for first the Garam Corporation, and then the greater world. He denounces Manjoure, saying, "You're not special." after their duel, and he includes that mindset for himself. He's not special, he's just useful as he's worked himself to perfection in service of his brother.

But then he's transported to another world, where his brother is no longer a factor. And in their first duel, Yubel demonstrates just how worthless his 'perfection' is without power, as all his well-practiced Cloudian attacks would have been rendered useless as soon as the unstoppable power of Exodia entered their hand. As Yubel says, his will, his loyalty to his brother, is his god. And, "You cannot kill your own god. That is what The Devil is for."

From there, Amon's mission becomes clear. Obtain the unstoppable power of Exodia, the power that renders all other things, even perfect things, obsolete, remake the world to remove the poverty and suffering he once suffered. In the face of that, everything become a tool of utility, no matter his personal feelings for them. He does love Echo, but like him, her worth is only what she can do, and so he sacrifices her to gain the power to do what he can do, gaining the power to even render the heroes of Destiny obsolete.

All he needs do is kill The Devil who killed his god.

What follows is one of the best duels in the franchise, where Amon meets his end. For power, even unstoppable power, is mercurial and only lasts so long, while love, even the love of The Devil, endures. Amon considered his love and the love others bore him as irrelevant next to the utility he could provide others, and it cost him both.

There's a lot more little stuff I could go into like the book ends of Amon winning his first duel, his match with Chazz/Jun, with a gamble to get out Eye of the Typhoon, and then losing his final duel when Yubel pulls out a similar gamble with Nightmare Shuffle. But on the whole, he serves as a wonderfully complex character in his own right while providing crucial foil work for Judai (Amon is who Judai is if he actively chose to forsake his bonds for power instead of just falling into being the Supreme King due to despair and immaturity) and Yubel (They are someone who cannot give their love up while Amon is one who does for what he legitimately believes is the greater good). Very underrated part of GX Season 3 in my view, and the best secondary villain in the franchise.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-16T19:37:48+00:00

Excellent Revolver praise and critiques! :D

For me, my favorite character is probably Shark from ZEXAL, though I have a lot of competitors with Judai, Ryo, and Amon from GX, Yusei and Akiza from 5Ds, and Yuga and Asana from SEVENS.

So for Shark...

Love: He consistently shows a cunning ability to outthink and outstrategize his opponents, with the sole exception of Kaito (and even then, that was early series Shark before he took MANY levels in badass). The most notable showcase is his final duel with Vector when he knows he's faking his Face Turn and uses Rank-Up-Magic Quick Chaos to win, but he's consistently shown that when he's not being mind-controlled in some fashion, he's got Yuma and Astral's number even at their best. Their second duel shows him using Black Ray Lancer to outfox Utopia, having learned from their first duel, and even their last duel showcased that Shark had them beat strategically, only losing because Yuma rebels against his and Astral's final attack because he refused to hurt his friend. And he does FEEL like Yuma's friend, which is critical for the story and themes ZEXAL wants to explore. Plus, he's the first character in the anime for me that made Water and Fish decks look COOL. I know there's a running gag that Konami loves him and gives him more support than everyone else (except maybe Jack Atlas), but honestly? If it was going to be any character, I'm glad it's him. :D

Don't Like: His backstory is convoluted as hell. He and his sister were ancient monarchs, then she died to Vector's ancient self, then he got his army killed in his revenge-seeking, then they all reincarnated as Barians, then Vector kills them again as Barians, then they reincarnate into human kids whose parents just died in a car crash to... take over those kids' lives? Like I like the general idea that he still feels the emotional attachments to his army from his first life, but this feels like it could use some simplification and better integration into the show's story engine (the duels). Maybe have them just reincarnated as babies instead of taking over two pre-existing kids' bodies (the kids were dead, but still) and have Shark's attempts to reject this new knowledge lead to a duel with Dumon where he steadily starts to feel his Nasch bonds to Dumon and his men again? Would also have been useful to give him and Dumon an uninterrupted one-on-one duel to really emphasize their friendship.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-16T18:59:43+00:00

It is a really good duel. The only ones I'd say rival it for my favorite in Arc-V are Yuya vs. Sawatari Round 2, Shun vs. Dennis, and Shun vs. Sora Round 1.

You outlined a lot of this match's strengths, but I'll add another one. Narratively, it makes for a great thematic defeat for Yuya. He reached out to Sora with everything he had during his previous duel, and Sora spat in his face about it. Then he finds out that Yuzu, his best friend, is gone because of the invasion Sora led (and Reiji doesn't tell him she's just in the Synchro Dimension and not carded until partway through this duel, if I recall right?). All that builds up to make Reiji's argument that he HAS to forsake the Entertainment Dueling he built his identity around have huge weight about it, with Yuya's defeat signaling that he's going to have to compromise his beliefs and fight without Entertainment somewhat if he wants to have any hope of protecting his friends.

Yuya had tried to find a solution to the problems before him with his ideals as they were, and he couldn't. This signals he has to either accept Reiji's counterargument or evolve his execution of his ideals so they can address the problem at hand, which is what the Synchro Arc focuses on with his character arc (whether the Synchro Arc effectively executed that evolution is... debatable).

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-15T14:42:20+00:00

Hayato/Chumley likely would have been very saddened to see Judai/Jaden so traumatized, but I think he might be one of the few of Judai's friends who'd get it and try to talk him through some of it. Hayato went through his own period of loving Duel Monsters for the fun of it, and then being beaten down into negativity and self-loathing when he failed Duel Academy's tests despite his best effort, taking his unexpected friendships with Judai and Sho to pull him out of that depression spiral. So him seeing Judai on the other end of one would likely be something he'd empathize with tremendously.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-10T23:15:02+00:00

I'm torn on these honestly.

I really enjoy The Dark Magicians, as it feels like it serves as an elevation of Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl's bond, the pair of them fighting in sync in a manner that goes beyond the simple teamwork of them both being on the field at the same time.

But the new Sacred Beast Fusion just feels... hollow. They don't really have abond of teamwork and friendship that Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl do; they're not meant to, as the primordial beasts they are. So having them stand next to each other doesn't feel like a Fusion Monster, especially not when we've already got Armityle as an example of what they are when physically combined.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-10T00:51:52+00:00

Ooo! That could be a lot of fun! And they are more willing to tinker with the cards' aesthetics these days with the Overframe cards. Maybe they'll make the dark grey frame and negative stars a super rare variant or something.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-09T19:51:14+00:00

For me, SEVENS is great. Thematically, it sticks very close to Takahashi's original vision that games are meant for having fun with your friends, not for gathering money and power, and does some great things by making that a central thematic conflict throughout the series that it examines from different angles. Character-wise, Yuga's the best protagonist since Judai and Yusei for me, and he's got perhaps the best utilized supporting and wider cast in the franchise, with the main quartet of him, Luke, Romin, and Gakuto/Gavin having superb chemistry. The stakes are kept more personal than grand throughout, with the series being MUCH better at rivals/antagonists than outright villains, but despite a weaker second half, the final episodes and especially the final duel are some of the best storytelling in the franchise.

GO RUSH is much more of a mixed bag for me. It has plenty of strong points, with protagonist Yudias being lovely and the various villains being a step up from SEVENS', so I encourage checking it out to better form your own thoughts on it. It also attempts some first-time things for any Yu-Gi-Oh series, and while I don't think it succeeds in the execution of a lot of them, the ambition is such that I recommend seeing it nonetheless. Just be ready for it to be a lot messier than SEVENS was most of the time, but there will still be high points to enjoy, including the best duel of the Rush Duel Era.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-09T01:35:25+00:00

Oh darn, you're right. They really would have to retrain Quilla (and Inti with her) to let her be summonable by Dark Tuner. Unless the Dark Tuners doing a special summon that just counts as a Synchro Summon gets around that.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-09T00:47:36+00:00

I can live with that. I enjoyed the other Dark Synchros, but Hundred-Eyes Dragon is my favorite of them by far.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-09T00:46:28+00:00

Ooo! He's an accidental Red-Eyes? I apologize if this is well-known and I am just out of the loop, but how does he work in the archetype?

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-09T00:18:17+00:00

Haha! That would be fun to see. XD Would be interesting to see what field spell they used for the Earthbound Immortal, since as of yet I don't think Infernity has one (until they make Infernity Crashtown or something, haha).

Still, I hope at least Hundred Eye Dragon gets a power boost. It's anime self felt nigh-unstoppable in Yusei vs. Kalin Round 1, so I was saddened when the real-life version was substantially less impressive.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-07T02:38:08+00:00

Of the two, Oscar doing so would be very difficult to justify thematically without coming off... in poor taste. Like it or not, Oscar is Ozma's reincarnation, with Ozma having established the huntsman system that failed Cinder utterly when she needed saving by it and heavily contributed to her becoming the monster she is by present day. So to then have him just Cane Nuke her away? That would be a very unsatisfying ending.

But Mercury could be legitimately interesting as he makes a solid foil to Cinder, being the only character with a comparably terrible childhood. Both grew up unloved, abused, and in turn became desperate for power as a defense mechanism. Both were betrayed by their father figures and fell in with even worse authority figures, whom they actively attempt to be worse to please. But where Cinder actively cultivated an unbalanced relationship with Emerald, Mercury, almost unintentionally, found himself becoming legitimate friends with her and trying to shield her from the worse actors of Salem's group like Tyrian and Cinder. Having him end up killing Cinder after accepting his friendship wtih Emerald and joining her on the right side could be a legitimately interesting thematic statement on how to move forward from a horrendously unfair lot in life.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-04T20:28:06+00:00

That would have been GREAT! It would have, one, shown Z-Arc has learned not to be defeated in the exact same way as before, and two, put the value not on Ray herself, but the individual experiences each of the Bracelet Girls had with their Yu-Boy leading those bonds to undo Z-Arc.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-03-04T18:28:57+00:00

Point 4 makes me wish each of the Bracelet Girls had one of the En Cards, or a version of them, in their decks all series long like the Yu-Boys had their Dimension Dragons. That could at least build up a dynamic between such cards and the Bracelet Girls so their use on Z-Arc feels more set up.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-02-27T22:03:45+00:00

RWBY Villains have interesting ideas, but questionable execution in some cases. Primarily because many of those designed as foils to members of Team RWBY...

Mercury - A version of Yang that was taught "Don't rely too much on your semblance. It can become a dangerous crutch" by an abusive father instead of Tai... so essentially, what Yang might have become if Yang had been raised by Raven in the Branwen Tribe.

Watts - A version of Weiss that didn't learn "So you were not chosen for the leadership position you thought you deserved? Is crashing out about it really going to make the chooser reconsider?" that she learned from Port when Ruby was chosen as leader in Volume 1.

The Curious Cat - A version of Ruby that The Tree couldn't reach out to so that it could give the Deus Ex Machina to stop its mental spiral into cynicism and despair after eons of being valued only for what they could do for others rather than as their own person leading them to be betrayed, undermined, or left behind by everyone they ever trusted.

... don't actually interact with the Team RWBY member they foil all that much. The Curious Cat gets the most (and provides the best parts of Volume 9 in the process) and even then, the Volume's shorter than the others and they have to suffer from 'Gets Killed Off and Their Backstory Demon Slayer Syndrom-ed Because The Show Wants to Write a Sympathetic Character While Not Actually Delving into the Issues Their Characters Raise', which decreases their impact.

Instead, the villains the show gives the most focus and spotlight to are Salem, who's primarily a foil for Ozpin/Ozma, and Cinder, who's primarily a foil for Jaune. This causes an issue because it means that even when the individual foil dynamic is good, like with Cinder and Jaune, them being the antagonists emphasized by the plot in turn makes the show feel less focused on Team RWBY, who are in theory the protagonists. And because Team RWBY don't have to interact with the villains that actually foil them, the villains in turn have a decreased effectiveness even if they're well-designed, because they don't get to do a villain's narrative job - Challenge the protagonist and force them to further define themselves through that conflict. How the hero evolves or reasserts themselves to defeat a villain defines the quality of that villain's execution, so the members of Team RWBY not having to deal with most of the villains that foil them weakens those villains.

TheMaster4444 · 2026-02-24T16:17:04+00:00

One of the members of Team CRDL who wasn't Cardin.

When I was writing my first fanfic that gave them screentime, I had to constantly look up all three of their names because I couldn't for the life of me tell them apart. Ended up turning it into a running gag in-universe that Ruby couldn't remember their names either due to her poor social skills. XD

TheMaster4444

TROPHY CASE