A tag-team extravaganza!
Creative Staff
Writer/Author: Naoyuki Kageyama
Translation/English Adaptation: Taylor Engel, Ian Reid
What They Say:
Hero vs. Dragon
James “Crocodile” Cook, one of the four Duelists from America, eagerly challenges Atticus Rhodes to a Duel. Elsewhere, Jaden and Chazz unlock more secrets of their spirit cards, Winged Kuriboh and Light and Darkness Dragon. But their confrontation could lead to a Shadow Game that only one Duelist may survive!
The Review!
After a quick interlude in which Atticus trounces Crocodile, and we learn in turn that Crocodile is an agent to the evil spirit, we get to the meat of the volume. The whole island is abuzz about the American duelists who are at the academy for the exchange duel, including our heroes, who suspect there may be another dangerous possessed duelist amongst their ranks. A quick gag plays out and has Jaden and Syrus meet the bug obsessed American duelist Johann Andersen, finally setting the stage for the exchange duel.
The first set of exchange duels are to be conducted as tag duels, starting with the goofy Johann and overly serious Adrian Gecko versus the team of Alexis and Bastion. This duel plays out rather awkwardly with neither side really managing a consistent strategy. Bastion ends up stepping on Alexis’s toes significantly due to his infatuation, meaning Alexis is fighting both him and the opponents to get her strategy up and running. This allows their opponents to take a lead, but not a strong one as Adrian’s distrust for Johann throws off their synchronicity rather severely. Finally, Alexis manages to win out over Bastion’s stupidity and win the duel with pretty much no help from her partner, causing strange over the top declarations from the crowd of how they make such a great team.
Most of the rest of the volume is spent on the second tag duel, this time being Chazz and Syrus versus Crocodile and Austin O’Brien. This makes for another strange “tag” duel, as everyone essentially once more duels for themselves. For the duel, Chazz and Crocodile seem to primarily take the lead, with the other two playing support, but interestingly Syrus is the one to deal the final blow.
The final part of the volume is spent on the last of this set of exchange duels, this time between Jaden and the professional American duelist Aster Phoenix, who also uses a hero deck. Will Jaden’s new masked heroes be able to topple Aster’s vision heroes?
In Summary:
This volume presents an interesting change of pace, as most of the dueling here is tag duels. Less fortunate, though, is the way they are enacted. Really, each of the duels lack a feeling of teamwork, and any cooperation that arises feels more like pure coincidence than any clever plan. The American duelists also feel a lot less threatening than they were probably meant to, as the volume unintentionally brings them down over and over in favor of our heroes, when this seems to be intended as an introduction to their “great prowess.” Fortunately, it’s not all bad, as we get a new intriguing rival for Jaden, and the big villain of the series seems to be moving closer and closer.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B+
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 2nd, 2011
MSRP: $9.99
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