Episode 31
Andddddd so much the music practice. Turns out Rook had correctly deduced this was a Rush Duel Tournament to begin with! This is Goha’s 6th Elementary “Dark Rush Duel Tournament”, the Trumpet Duet is a false name to fool the public in attempt to not be caught by the Machine Calvary Club. We learned more about the notorious club’s villainous ways, going as far as robbing the Student Council of their status and even their cards, it just goes to show how nasty they are. And sure enough by the end of the episode, the Calvary Machine Club has come to trample all over their hopes and dreams.
But apart from that, oh gosh, my stomach hurts from laughing so hard, I AM IN TEARS. I gotta hand it to the writers for inserting some self-awareness by poking fun of playing around with puns. It has been something they have been doing a lot of in this series, so that was fun to see! Poor Jango, I feel bad for the bloke, he really does need help. The trauma of losing his cards really did a number on him, but oh my god he is so funny! HE IS AMAZING!
I am excited to see the duel between Yuuga and Asana, as the preview seems to show he doesn’t look too concerned about what might be at stake.
Episode 32
Whelp, this is what happens when you challenge someone without knowing what’s at stake for you when you lose! Yuuga was naive thinking there wouldn’t be any real consequences, and unfortunately he and his friends noticed too late that this whole thing was a trap after Rook finally remembered about the carrier pigeon delivering the invite. This would be the second time he goes into a duel, thinking it’ll just be fun and games, only to get his ass handed to him but none other than Maximum Summon AGAIN. I suppose it worked out a bit better this time since it wasn’t as one-sided with an instant KO like he had experienced against Neil. But it’s pretty funny and ironic in its own way of how this is how he always loses. I hope this will be the last time Maximum Summon catches him off-guard, because it’ll be redundant if he ends up losing because of that a third time.
Bit of a shame considering he was all excited to have this duel, and he was doing a good job of selling it to Asana and surprising her by the joy he had in him. I suppose he lucky though that the condition was a transfer as opposed to being forced to purge the Rush Duel data rules altogether so nobody could use it. Frankly that’s what I expected her to say, so I was taken aback by her demand for transfer. (And sure enough, Ranze and Rinnosuke were also forced to transfer there as well!)
However I am quite excited to see a change of environment. Yuuga and his friends are now on hostile territory and it’s going to be interesting to see how they adapt to the lifestyle of this prestigious academy. Furthermore, I look forward to the kind of friendship that will (inevitably) develop between Yuuga and Asana. I think they have more in common than they realize, namely going back to “Mutsuba-style Mobile Duel” powered by the Mutsuba-style Engine-Driven Mobile Duel Device. As a child, as soon as she learned about it from her grandfather, she has always wanted to see it, but unfortunately the device had gone missing, and it wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Goha Electronic Duel Disk. This is definitely something I can see Yuuga eager to help her make. He has already done some creative things with the duel disks, such as integrating it into Romin’s guitar, so there is a lot of potential and things he could probably do to help bring that vision back to life.
Having learned all of that, this is where it gets interesting. I think most of us (myself included) initially believed that Asana and her lot were loyal to Goha, but as we learned today, that couldn’t be further than the truth. At the very least, Asana is not affiliated to Goha, but rather views them as their enemies. Despite the supposedly friendly history between the Goha and Mutsuba family, Asuna undoubtedly harbors resentment towards Goha. And as the episode goes on, the reason for her disguist towards Intelligent Drones (A.I.) who can speak the Human Language goes beyond her love for the organic sounds of traditional machinary. Based on the flashback, it seems not only was her family’s aspirations of Mutsuba-style Mobile Duels were undermined, but they surely must have lost a lot of their influence in the city because of automation provided by Goha’s drones replacing their heavy machinary.
Additionally, it is clear the relationship between the Goha and Mutsuba families are not the same as they were in the past. Especially not when we are given perhaps the most startling turn of events, revealing the CEO of Goha Corporation is not a Human, but a drone (under the prestense of “assisting them”, which was probably the intention from the start only to backfire) basically takes possession of a Human Host, and they basically serve as the figurehead while the President Drone runs the show by feeding them their “advice”.
Considering how light-hearted this show has been up until now, I was especially taken off-guard when we saw the old man collasped. It left me with the impression that he might be brain-dead or dead altogether. The President Drone said it was because he couldn’t handle the psychological burden of being the president, but seeing how he took possession of Mimi’s body, I beg to differ. If anything it’s being attatched to him for so long that it may have ended up doing neurological damage.
This makes me am worried about Mimi’s greed and ambitions getting the better of her, because this sure feels like a situation where she has made a deal with the devil. Heck I was even more surprised by the fact she was not more concerned about the collasped man and just took the deal on the spot while he was sprawled out in front of her. That’s pretty distrubing, don’t you think?
But now we will have to see how this will affect her life going forward. Will the drone will allow her to take off the helmet to go home, or it’s something she will be forced to wear at all times now? While it wouldn’t necessarily be practical, allowing her to take off the helmet could spell trouble for the Drone’s position of power- unless it were to be able to control her remotely. But if it turns out she can’t, it will certainly become a concern for her son. And now that Yuuga and the others are forced to transfer to different school, it may make it difficult for him to talk about it with them unless the meet outside of school.
Overall this was a really good episode, and I am happy to see we’re starting to see the story starting to get serious in its own way. And although the previous episode did a good job of villainizing the Machine Cavalry Duel Club, it’s pretty clear that they are not the true antagonists we really need to be worried about right now. There is definitely hope, and we saw that with how Asana was having trouble keeping it to herself how much fun she was having playing Rush Duels. However in the mean time, their bullying tactics is something that will need to be dealt with, and it will be interesting to see how Yuuga who won’t stand for their fixiation on tradition and their anti-fun policy will cope and fight back against them.
First of all…I’m so happy and impressed with Asana’s Deck! Unlike the previous female characters, there’s nothing girly in the monsters and in fact her Maximum Summoned monster is very much like the typical dragon-like monsters possessed by male YGO characters in general! So cool! XD
I don’t know if Yuga is being naive or he is being overly optimistic. Still, he must learn from this incident that he should think further first before just challenging his opponent to a Duel. And I’m glad that Ranze and Rinnosuke are okay. Well, maybe not exactly, but at least they’re still in one piece. And yeah, Yuga and Asana has many things in common. It’s just impossible for them staying as enemies. They’ll become friends for sure!
And I also like the change in the OP, showing Roa, Neil, and Asana. I hope they appear again soon. In the meantime, I’m looking forward for Gakuto in action. Finally. It’s been a long time since he duelled.
I too very much welcome Asana’s badass deck! It was a great surprise, and also hilarious how they were like “ITS A DRAGON”, “NO ITS WYRM TYPE”, “What’s the difference?”, “I don’t know.” LMFAOOOOOO!!!
//I don’t know if Yuga is being naive or he is being overly optimistic. //
I would say it is probably a combination of both. We know he can be initiative sometimes, but when it comes to Rush Duels, he is tends to be more excited about the opportunity to share the experience, so he doesn’t stop to think about the potential consequences. Considering he didn’t seem to be too concerned after losing to her afterwards, varying on how he feels about the transfer, we will have to see if it has really sunk in yet. It feels like Yuuga may have to go through facing some real consequences before he learns he sometimes will need to think before he acts.
I love how Asana instantly got hooked in Rush Duel moments after she was all about calling it “a blasphemy to tradition.” Another thing that got me curious is how the other two shushed her to be quiet rather than disagreement. Almost like they themselves aren’t all antagonize Rush Duels but there position of responsibility goes against that or they’re being supervised by someone in power. (That pigeon is sus)
Definitely liked these episodes, especially Asana’s. Lovely to finally see Wyrms take the spotlight (also little Asana is too adorable for words). I haven’t quite fallen into the Asana stan camp yet though, mainly because I’m too busy disliking Galient and the rest of the Heavy Cavalry Club. They can call it tradition all they want, they’re just glorified bullies.
//They can call it tradition all they want, they’re just glorified bullies.//
PREACCCHHHHHHH! SAY IT LOUDER SO THEY CAN HEAR YOU OVER ALL THE MACHINERY.
For those wondering, with the advent of the Wyrms, there are now only four Types* remaining to be focused on: Sea-Serpent, Winged-Beast, Rock, Reptile.
This episode wasn’t the most trippy ever in terms of its aesthetics – draconic beings cloaked in or comprised of a mechanical quiddity are hardly new to this franchise – but dear GODS was it trippy in the amount of plot developments, and unique ones to boot. Whatever the plan is for all this, the transfers, the “Cavalry!!!” club, Asana’s backstory, the mask drone and Mimi’s ascension, the embers of Asana’s interest in Rush, the change to the opening, it is going to be a sublime experience to see unfold.
One minor detail (on par with a nitpick) that only occurred to me today: she’s a female character. With an “A”-name. With coded “interest” in the main character. Just like with what was implied in the first three shows, and even in the fourth show if not with the lead. Just saying.
and Divine-Beast and Creator-God, but we naturally won’t be expecting those
Notice; YGO SEVENS Ep 33 will be released as a double post next week