When you think about superhero comics, does Yu-Gi-Oh! cross your mind. It wouldn’t cross mine, but nevertheless, Yu-Gi-Oh! still seems to follow a similar pattern. The pattern goes like this: an ordinary person gets super powers and uses them to fight criminals, then some of the criminals become super villains in order to stand a better chance of fighting against the hero, and that cycle continues for as long as the comics keep making money. In the hierarchy of antagonists, those directly above a super villain are called a nemesis. These are villains who regularly fight the hero and test the hero’s limits. Among the nemeses, there is usually only one worthy of being called an arch-nemesis. This is a nemesis who is the hero’s equal match and gives them their most frequent and toughest fights ever. For Superman, it’s Lex Luthor. For Batman, it’s the Joker. For Spider-man, there could be a few villains worthy of being called an arch-nemesis, but for now, we’ll just say it’s Venom. And for Yugi Muto, there’s…well, let’s find out now!

The Transfer Student

Yugi arrives at school where a group of girls are talking about the cute transfer student who is joining their class today. The teacher enters the room with the new student following closely behind him.

“My name is Ryo Bakura,” says the student, “Please to meet you.”

The teacher assigns him a seat next to Jonouchi. After class, Jonouchi introduces Bakura to himself, Honda, Anzu, and Yugi. Eventually, the topic of Yugi’s family game store comes up.

“Do you like games, Bakura?” asks Yugi.

“Yes, very much!” he responds, “I especially like board games and tabletop games. My favorite is a game called Monster World. Have you heard of it?

Yugi explains that Monster World is a combination of a board game and a role-playing game. One player plays as the Dark Master and all the monsters. The other players play as a group of adventurers. Together, they act out a story using miniatures on a playing field. The Dark Master wins if he defeats the adventuring party, and the adventurers win if they beat the Dark Master. The board is made of interconnecting blocks that can be arranged in different ways. Thus, you can create a new adventure each time you play it.

“That sounds like fun!” says Jonouchi, “How about we all play Monster World tomorrow?”

Bakura agrees, but looks downward. Yugi notices a change in his appearance and wonders what he is concerned about. Bakura perks back up and asks about Yugi’s pendant.

“Oh this? It’s called the Millennium Puzzle,” explains Yugi, “It came from the tomb of an Egyptian Pharaoh!”

Bakura asks if he can see, so Yugi lets him hold it.

“Actually, I also…,” says Bakura, but before he can finish his sentence, he feels a sharp pain coming from his chest. Yugi asks him what’s wrong. Bakura says it’s nothing and hands the puzzle back to Yugi.

Suddenly, a swarm of girls surround Bakura and drag him off. They begin showing him around the school when and unfriendly voice calls out to them.

“Hey, you! You think you can walk around the halls with a flock of girls?”

The students turn around to see Mr. Karita, the school’s gym teacher.

“I hear you had some problems at your last school,” says Mr. Karita, “However, there’s rules at Domino High, Mister! Like this hair! Long hair for boys is against school rules!”

He pulls on Bakura’s hair to prove his point.

“Listen, Mister Fashionable! Or should I say ‘Little Miss Fashionable’? I want you to have a crew cut by tomorrow! Then I’ll treat you like a student of this school!”

Mr. Karita walks away. The girls ask Bakura if he is alright. He says he’s fine, but asks to be left alone for a while. He enters the bathroom where he wonders why his chest is hurting. He remembers it all started when he touched Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle.

Suddenly, Bakura hears a laugh. He turns around and sees no one there.

“That’s strange, I thought I heard someone. Am I crazy?” thinks Bakura, “that pendant of Yugi’s…it looks similar to my pendant.”

He pulls out of his shirt a pendant of his own. It’s shaped like a ring, with five needle-like appendages on the edge, and a golden eye in the middle – the same eye symbol on Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle.

When school gets out, Yugi and his friends approach Bakura and ask if they can come over and play Monster World. Bakura explains that he wants to play with them, but at his last school, people who played games with him would lose consciousness. They are still in the hospital to this day. For this reason, Bakura warns Yugi and his friends not to get too close to him.

Later that night, Bakura is writing a letter to a friend when he hears that same laugh again – the one he heard in the bathroom at school.

“Who’s there?” calls Bakura.

“So, you can hear my voice now, can you?” says the voice, “I guess from now on, I’ll be able to speak with my host. I’ve finally met him! The other boy with a Millennium Item. After 3,000 years, the Millennium Items must be resonating with each other to produce some kind of field, and that’s why you can hear me now.”

“Who are you? What is this voice inside my head?”

“Who am I? I’ve been with you for a long time, hiding within you, and within the ring of wisdom, the Millennium Ring.”

“Get out of my body!”

“Now, don’t be so cold. Didn’t you think this when you were playing those games? ‘How fun this is, I wish I could play with my friends forever.’ I granted that wish for you! In any case, this is my chance to get my hands on the Millennium Puzzle! If I let this opportunity go by, I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait for another one.”

“What are you up to?”

“Sleep, Ryo Bakura, sleep!”

The scene cuts to Dark Bakura at the school, pointing his finger at Mr. Karita, and shouting, “Penatly Game!” He seals Mr. Karita’s soul inside a miniature for his next campaign world.

Let’s Play Monster World!

The next day, Yugi and his friends notice that Bakura wasn’t at school, so they decide to visit him at his apartment. When they ring the doorbell, Bakura comes to greet them.

Bakura tries to warn them to stay back, but before he can finish his sentance, the evil spirit takes over. He invites them inside and shows them to the Monster World board he has already set up.

Yugi and his friends sit down at the table, then Bakura explains the rules.

“The players are split into groups: the Dark Master on one side, and the adventurers on the other. The Dark Master controls the monsters and evil creatures that lurk throughout Monster World. His role is to stop the adventurers by playing them to the best of his ability. The adventurers work as a team to beat the Dark Master! The Dark Master has to defeat all of the adventurers to win. I’ll be the Dark Master, of course! For the adventurers to win, they have to find the ‘Boss Monster’, then destroy him!”

Before they begin, Bakura hands out a character sheet to each player and instructs them to fill out data about their chosen character. This includes choosing a race and a class. After they have them filled out, Bakura puts the finishing touches on their miniatures.

Their characters are as follows:

Jonouchi points out that the mini figures look just like themselves. Bakura enters their character data into the computer next to him, and then the adventure is ready to begin. Everyone places their miniature on the board. Jonouchi asks where the monsters are. Bakura explains that the monsters will appear depending on a player’s actions or by random enconters.

Jonouchi realizes they don’t know much about this world, and Honda adds that they need to find out who the enemy is and what the point of this game is. Anzu suggests they go to the town to get some information. Yugi agrees. Bakura says it takes them five turns to enter the village. He pops off the village and reveals the interior of the canteen. Jonouchi says they should ask the bar tender for some info.

“Hey you, old man!” calls Jonouchi, “As you can see, we’re highly skilled adventurers. Any way for us to make some dough?”

(Not the best negotiator, is he?)

“If money could solve our problems, I’d give you all I’ve got,” says the old man, “but before you could claim your reward, you’d be dead. Until a few years ago, this village was peaceful, but then the Dark Lord Zorc assassinated the king and changed the castle into a den of evil! After that, monsters began appearing in our peaceful valley. Many of my fellow villagers have fallen prey to them.”

Anzu turns to Yugi and asks if there is a speaker nearby. It sounds to her like the old man is really talking. Yugi thinks Bakura must be throwing his voice.

The old man continues, “Hear me, adventurers! Before you start on your journey, you should talk to that man in the corner. He can tell you the safest route to Zorc Castle!”

The man in the corner turns around. Jonouchi and Honda burst out laughing. The man looks just like Mr. Karita.

“Save me, you guys! He made me into a miniature!” cries Karita.

Bakura telepathically reminds Mr. Karita that he is now an inhabitant of this world and must play the part of Villager D. Karita turns around and sheepishly recites his lines, “Zorc Castle is to the north, outside of the village, but stay out of the forest, it’s full of monsters.”

“Okay, now we know our mission!” cries Jonouchi, “We head for Zorc Castle!”

“All right, you’ve just entered an area where there’s danger of a random encounter,” continues Bakura, “From now on, there’s a judgment roll every turn to determine if monsters will appear! With these 10-sided dice!”

Bakura holds up a pair of pentagonal trapezohedrons (yes, I had to look that up) – one colored white and another colored red.

“I’ve never seen dice like that before,” says Honda. (I guess he touches grass too much.)

Bakura explains that the white die represents the ones column and the red die represents the tens column. The area they are in has a monster encounter rate of 30%. If the roll of the dice is between 21 and 99, then they avoid meeting any monsters.

Bakura throws the dice. He rolls a 12.

“That’s lower than 20, that means a monster appears! A Level 3 Goblin!”

Bakura instructs Jonouchi to take the first shot. Jonouchi rolls the dice and rolls a 13. Bakura calculates the damage on his computer and determines that the goblin dies on a roll of 40 or less. Thus, the goblin is defeated.

“The closer you roll to double-zero, the more damage you do to the enemy!” explains Bakura, “But on the other hand, if you throw a fumble, a 99, you have to take a penalty.”

Then Bakura thinks to himself: “The penalty to become a miniature in my game world for the rest of your lives!”

To Be Continued…

Thoughts

Well, there’s a lot to talk about in these two chapters, but we have the whole arc to cover them. Let’s start with the point I made in the introduction about Yugi meeting his arch nemesis.

Right from the beginning, Bakura is proving himself to be Yugi’s opposite in every way. Just like Yugi wears the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, Bakura wears a Millennium Item of his own around his neck — the Millennium Ring. Also like Yugi, Bakura’s Millennium Item is possessed by a Dark Spirit who defends his host by challenging his enemies to Shadow Games. What makes Yugi and Bakura different is that Bakura’s spirit tries to control him, whereas Yugi’s spirit tries to protect him.

In this way, Yugi’s arch-nemesis is much like Spider-man’s because much like Venom, Bakura seems to be an evil version of the main character. Although, I should specify that Yami-Bakura is the villain, not Bakura.

In addition to introducing Yugi’s arch-nemesis, these chapters also introduce a new kind of game into the Yu-Gi-Oh! world — table top role-playing games. Even though Kazuki Takahashi is best known for creating a trading card game, table-top RPGs are his favorite genre of games. I’m sure most readers will instantly recognize the similarities between Monster World and Dungeons and Dragons, since D&D seems to be the godfather of RPG gaming. I plan to do some more research on the history of RPG gaming and write about my findings in the future. So, if you want to stay up-to-date on all of my latest posts, be sure to follow Mental Labyrinth for manga reviews and more!