Yugioh Season Zero: All Your Friends are Cursed
You know what? Itās been a while, lets revisit Zero.
For those new here, Iāve been also very slowly going through Season Zero alongside the show we are more familiar with, which is not at all the same as the other seasons. If you want to read just the recaps of Zero from the beginning you can do that by clicking on this link right here. I think Iāve only done like 3 or 4 so far.
OK. Itās been...a time since we ventured here to this very weird place, where were we?
So, first off you may have noticed there was a wee gap in updating, this is mostly because I burned up all my backlog when I got sick for two weeks (and Iām still hella tired) so...Iām playing catch up and this is a hobby, so it takes a back seat. But also, itās partially because I was like suuuper conflicted with what I should do about that logo. Like, I did feel like I had to blur it just because I donāt want there to be confusion if the images ever get pulled away from this post, but I was seriously considering just repainting every cap because it sure bothered me a whole lot.
It was Illustrator OCD Problems that in the end donāt matter, but you can see my quandary of the right corner in the rest of these. Anyways, thanks Team Millennium for the fandubs so I donāt have to cap over subs. Yāall did a good job, and I get why they need to watermark since like...itās Youtube so every random bot channel is stealing any other video getting clicks.
Also, this took a while because itās like over 60 caps long. These Season Zero episodes are just...so much content. Theyāre so much. And I thought this one handles some interesting themes, so grab yourself a snack, because this is gonna be a little bit of a marathon. I could split it into two but like...I donāt know where to split it, so enjoy. This post is basically a 2 for 1.
Anyway, Shadiās back. I didnāt really expect for him to be back so soon, but heās here with a vengeance. He spooks up on Grandpaās old Egyptologist friend (whoās name I have forgotten) and this guy kind of already knows whatās next.
In this episode, as you can see from the title, everyone is gonna get cursed. Except Miho, but like, I tend to forget she exists. We start off with Yuugiās Grandfatherās friend getting tossed out a window, which is sort of strange because you figure that this guy wouldnāt let a girl drown down a well for a rare coin (which was the Shadi metric for if you deserve to be eaten by a chair). But apparently we were wrong and Grandpaās friend has actually been a jackass this entire time.
"Your friend has actually been a jackass this entire timeā is another underlying theme of this episode. Whatās wild is that Yuugi and his Grandpa are not at all surprised by this revelation, nor do they seem to mind.
Shadi says something cryptic, decides he wants a rematch with the alter ego of Yuugi Muto, and then has the weirdest plan of how to do it. The rest of this recap is basically all of Shadiās master plan and itās...pretty...something.
(read more under the cut)
Since we havenāt gotten a Miho episode, I havenāt really gotten a chance to learn what she...is. Right now she just seems like a G rated Cheryl Tunt. Which is probably incorrect, I dunno maybe this girl will end up being their savior but for right now she just kind of uses Tristan for favors and enjoys spooky stuff maybe a little too much. Iām not sure sheās even aware what planet sheās on.
Shadiās also looking more and more like a bird this episode with the artistic choice to join the brow to the nose with a deep shadow like this. If thereās deeper historical meaning to that, I have no idea. Went on a little deep dive through Google to see if it matches from art and sarcophagi from Egypt and Greece but like...nah. You do get a strong thin nose on golden sarcophagi that can give it a really cut look since itās usually covered in reflective gold, so that could be it. But overall, joining the nose to brow is something more modern, I think. Just our own touch to make him a spook.
And honestly Yugioh really does enjoy putting a very heavy shadow between the eyebrows, but usually in the form of lots of lines and not a solid black shape.
Youknow weāve never had the chance to enter anyoneās mind space before. I kind of assumed that no one other than Yuugi even had one. So Anzuās mind, shouldnāt be too ba- oh
Just take this whole sequence, put some generic lo-fi on it, and you have yourself a youtube channel. Itās amazing how, since the 90ā²s anime style is back into fashion, this bizarre sequence just hit so many good notes. Those pink and blue flowers matched with a silver metallic tree with weird purple fruit? Not gonna lie, thatās some good inspo material. Maye not the weird bird and terrifying 90ā²s sun--I donāt know why heās here--but everything else? Shoot.
This hasnāt come up before and the only guy with G in his name that I can think of is Gozoboro and he cannot be this guy. Maybe just a reference to some comic book stuff because he does have a Superman shape to that G, but I donāt know comics well enough to know if this was a manga Superman parody.
PS now that we know that Teaās mind is just a lo-fi channel, we now know that Bakura and Marik have just been hanging out next to a weird silver fruit tree, staring at a horrifying green sun and avoiding eye contact with one single green bird for basically this entire Noah arc. Assuming of course that a piece of Bakura is still in there in Teaās mind, which he may have decided to vacate at this point because whatās he supposed to do in there? Do barre?
Maybe they both just do barre workouts in the tea mindfort while a parrot awkwardly watches.
So Shadi has been just hanging out in Teaās head for how long? Like half a day now?
She really has always been the ghost uber. From the very beginning. Wow.
Also, speaking of vaporwave, the pink to yellow tint on the irises? A+. That could be your lo-fi thumbnail, easy.
Anyway we are blessed with another tiny Yuugi this episode. I think Iāve mentioned it before but Iāll mention it again, I love it when artists have to draw their characters as small as ants because then the characters are given their rawest, purest form. Which in his case is just being very squat and having hair with spikes.
And then Anzu somehow hides in this closet and tips over a bunch of beams at him. Are these cross country beams? What are these? I did water polo and swim team so I just have no idea what you land people did.
When beams donāt work out, Shadi sets in play the next step of his super evil and sinister plan. Please remember that this guy is a 5000 year old very scary ghost with crazy OP powers.
So then Shadi starts his third phase. So far weāve had a bunch of poles and a basketball, what will be next? Will Anzu come up with two chalkboard erasers and start pounding them together to make a sick chalk cloud? Will Anzu step on the back of Yuugiās shoe so his foot falls out? Will Anzu unzip his backpack when heās not looking so all his books fall out? What dick move will Anzu do?
SOOOOOO
This is a thing that canonically happened in Yugioh.
Itās like finding out that Big Bird once violently choked out Elmo in Season One but now theyāre good and they donāt want to talk about it.
Like...this is a lot and itās not even discussed in this very episode!
The one time.
The one time they should have just ditched.
This is the one time you should just find a boat/blimp, smuggle yourself on board, and then play cards for a straight week with an evil psychopath. The one time.
No wonder they go out of their way to avoid this school for the rest of this show. They ditch just to survive their 1st year of High School.
So they decided to split up which...theyāve made worse choices, and only Yugi finds Tea. What would Shadiās plan have been if anyone else was up here first?
Reminder that in the second or third episode of Season 1, Joey and Yugi came up here to reminisce the good ol days. I had no idea at the time that the āgood ol daysā involved being dangled on the edge of whatever this weird contraption is called.
Eat your heart out Jeffree Star and Rituel de Fille, Shadi here did black highlighter first. In 1999. And that nose is snatched.
Appropriately, Honda is still embracing his janitorial duties. Maybe thatās why heās not a janitor anymore? Because he was getting tooooo into being a janitor? Like if you go janitor while being a zombie thatās toooooo much janitorial.
Another thing Season Zero does that may either be a limitation of their budget or just a limitation of their experience is that, unlike most foreign films, the pacing of the cuts are really quick. Like REALLY frantic. (And yeah Iām generalizing a lot when I say that Western shows and movies have quicker cuts, but lets just say that itās true about 90% of the time. Not better or worse, just different.)
And like, this was the 90ā²s, a time period I donāt really remember, but back then we were into bizarre editing. It was a very experimental time in film because suddenly there were a lot of computer and filming tools available for a decent price and people kind of lost their minds. They were getting into doing tons of dutch angles and tons of filters and it was just a real...interesting time in film. Itās gauche by our standards but like...art kind of lives in the time period itās from and you shouldnāt pull it out and compare it to our current standards too much because--welcome to 90ā²s Xtreme cuts. Docking something for being too 90ā²s is like saying that medieval art sucks balls because they didnāt want to use perspective and all their cats look weird. This was the time.
Itās just interesting to me that they decided to attempt to copy this frantic editing style into a cartoon when itās normally done splicing together live action shots that were done with three+ different cameras. They planned out each cut in a storyboard and drew every frame. It was a lot of work. And it didnāt age well, which is a shame.
And it could have been that because this is a horror show, they decided to experiment. Itās a pretty edge show based on a pretty intense manga. But, itās...interesting. Canāt exactly cap it, youāll have to watch it for itself but itās...interesting. And overall, I honestly feel like I canāt come to any conclusions about the direction that Season Zero editing has taken since Iāve only seen four episodes, so these are just my five cents, donāt quote me on it. I may take back this opinion a few episodes from now.
Yāall this was never told to us until like Season 2. Season Zero told us this in like episode 4. Would have been really nice to have this information a little earlier.
So then we introduce the mummy mechanic of this āgame.ā Anzuās plank contraption is tied to these baby mummies. Kind of looks like theyāre chocolate mummies you get from the Egyptian museum store. In fact, They might actually be museum gift shop chocolate mummies that Shadi shoplifted up after he killed that fat guy.
Not sure how he set any of this up, especially when he totally botched it with the beams and the basketball and the strangling, but somehow, Shadi got this complicated knot system all ready to go. Weird how Marik was the one on the boat when Shadi has like a degree in knots.
So I said this in the last episode but we get this reoccurring theme in Season Zero where Yugioh is a little boy learning to grow up and be a man, and yet every guy he meets has just a pile of toxic misinformation about how to be a powerful adult. In Shadiās case, he believes that weakness stems from caring about other people and relying on them for support, hallmarks of mortality. Which is easy for Shadi to say because heās some 5000 yo undead (I think?) with no friends, unless you count Chair Barney. But Shadiās pretty sure that attachment to living people will only ultimately hurt you, especially when theyāre complete assholes, which most of Yuugiās friends are. Theyāre good assholes, though.
Itās a pretty common anime trope and Iām surprised it took us this long to get to the power of friendship. Freakin finally. And thereās nothing wrong with tropes. Itās how stories are made.
Anyways, in case you thought this episode would not address the teachers, they actually did for about 3 seconds.
Neat that this is the most unsafe school in all of Japan.
I am a fan of the combo of blue, purple, green, and very large teeth. I will give Chair Barney that much. Anyway, lets see what game Shadi made.
Oh cool, itās the game I made to go in my babysitting kit when I was like 11.
Granted, so were playing cards.
Wow everyone is just assaulting each other this episode, damn!
Back on the roof, Yugi calmly wins the game without ever flipping a tile.
Now for some reason I missed the part where he says ātwo feetā and so I was missing a pair of things and so I listened to this part again and either my sick brain missed it three times (cuz yāall I have had the plague and my recovery has been so sloooow) there were these shapes on the tiles that looked like kidneys and I thought--but itās not two kidneys, right? and I was like what else is a pair and round and lobby shaped? and then I didnāt really want to go there, and assumed--FEET.
Knowing full well feet are not kidney shaped, but Iām gonna assume he said feet. If he actually said weird monster testicles, youāll be sure let me know.
And then this happened and itās pretty legit.
We have never actually addressed the fact that Yuugi forced his friends to like him. Like itās a pretty effed up origin story that Jounouchi was like like āI feel like very strongly I should be his friendā but doesnāt really know itās because he got cursed. Kinda figured the show would just breeze by it, but no, here we are, and Yuugi has to face the fact that maybe the only reason heās not a loner anymore is because he won Jounouchi as a prize for finishing an accessory.
And whether or not Jounouchi would have been his friend no matter what isnāt really whatās being tested, itās whether or not Yuugi believes that this friendship is actually real, or a curse. Like Jounouchi did try to defend Yuugi before Yuugi finished the puzzle, but does Yuugi know that? He was passing out at the time. Itās a real insecure spot for Yuugi since before Jounouchi he was just a little punching bag playing board games alone in the homeroom. Jounouchi was introduced as someone who was legitimately bullying Yuugi and tossing that puzzle out a window. Thereās going to be the underlying fear that Jounouchi would go back.
In the S1 anime, they basically wrote that plot point out of the show or decided that because this was done in Season Zero they donāt need to retread on old territory. Joey, Tristan, and Tea arenāt cursed to be Yugiās friends, as far as I know.
But this test between the friendship of Yugi and Joey is recreated again in S2 with Marik when they were both tied to an anchor and one had to choose to kill the other or live. But thereās some pretty major differences. This time, instead of Joey being possessed by Marik and being forced to kill his friend, heās just Jounouchi sans curse.
Although Jounouchi is still somewhat mind controlled as he is just an illusion. Heās just...not as badly mind controlled as the whole Marik thing. This Jounouchi has more motor control and doesnāt seem to have any inner conflict at all. Because again, this isnāt so much Yuugi vs Jounouchi, this is Yuugi vs Yuugiās fear of being alone again.
Thatās a realllllly different takeaway. And honestly, itās pretty interesting.
Also, instead of Tea with a shipping container over her head, this time Anzu is walking a plank. Really didnāt expect that Shadi would basically turn into Marik but without the cards. And without the underground bunker lifestyle where he kills his own Dad.
The game is kind of hard to show in caps but they have to drop the puzzle in the direction they want the other to walk. Mostly itās just another reason for Jounouchi to steal Yuugiās puzzle again and relive the trauma.
Remember that time that Jounouchi tried to get Yuugi to punch him and Yuugi broke out in tears because he didnāt like violence? I mean honestly, out of everyone Yuugi knows. Jounouchi was probably the nicest bully he had. Doesnāt mean Yuugi isnāt incredibly insecure about it.
Instead of fighting back, Yuugi decides to skip his turn. Itās a contrast to the other Joey/Yugi fight because instead of just throwing a fireball in his own face until Joey snaps out of it, Yuugi has decided to rely on trust.
And, much like Grandpaās Blue Eyed Dragon that would not perform under Kaibaās reign to kill Yuugi, neither would Jounouchi under Shadi. They even disappear into the aether with the same smoke effect.
And what I think is the most interesting part of this is that the question of āso would they have been friends without the puzzle?ā is mostly left open ended.
And if the friendship were solid as a rock, then this whole debate Yuugi has with Shadi wouldnāt even be a debate. Shadi is certain that people will betray you because they can, Yuugi is confident that, even though they do walk you to that ledge, they can change although there is a history of hurt. Shadi was convinced Yuugi couldnāt overcome his lonely past, and Yuugi had to prove that the past canāt hurt him anymore, the past being also his best friend.
Like itās just something never mentioned in the S1-3, that Yuugi has a lot of issues because all of his friends have been his bully at one point. And like, not to get too PSA, but every friendship has to be looked at by a case by case basis. You canāt generalize and say āeveryone who betrays you can change.ā But the message here isnāt about keeping any relationship that is toxic, itās about overcoming the pain of the past.
Also Jounouchi is hella cursed so he wonāt be back to his old ways anytime soon.
Kind of hard to tell, but Honda got covered in a layer of white fire extinguisher juice and itās a look that uhhhh we would never illustrate this way in 2019. Times were more innocent in the 90ā²s.
Just kidding, they absolutely werenāt, I have no idea who allowed Honda to be drawn this way.
Reminder that Kaiba is just sitting pretty in one of these classrooms, maybe watching Joeyās ass scrape up against the window while Honda completely covered in mysterious white stuff screams bloody mercy. As the teacher teaching this particular class ignores all of this, Kaiba would just be thinking to himself āAw. thatās fun.ā
And so ends this really long but honestly, pretty interesting episode. Season Zero has a lot of rough patches, like Iām probably not going to do every episode of it, but when it connects to what weāre watching its neat to compare and contrast the two. Kind of wish we had more of Yugi facing his past in the current anime but instead itās Kaiba facing his past. So we...kind of get it? Just with a different character?
Shadi picks up his key and walks away unscathed. Mostly because Yuugi does not currently know how to mind-wipe. Seems that that is mostly a Pharaoh thing and as far as I can tell Yuugi is still just one person with an alternate personality.
Off he goes, that bastard.
Amazing that everyoneās pretty much on good terms with Shadi by the end of S1. Like heās just kind of a pal that shows up and āaccidentallyā leads you directly to kill your own Dad when in Season Zero he is...really outwardly evil.
Anyway, that was a hellton of content haha, next week itās back to Joey dueling a lawyer while Kaiba gets lost in the woods.
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