Can our hero burst through Luna’s dark fairy tale?
Story: Masahiro Hikokubo
Art: Masashi Sato
Translation and English Adaptation: Taylor Engel and Ian Reid, HC Language Solutions
What They Say
The D1 Grand Prix thunders on through the second stage as Yusei fights to save his friend Sect from the clutches of the Skeleton Knight’s curse. But can Yusei’s loyalty overcome Sect’s thirst for power?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the duel between Jack and Kalin continues, it becomes more and more clear just how formidable Kalin’s Infernity deck truly is. However, Jack is able to pull an incredibly specific card (one wonders why exactly he’d put it in his deck) and is able to win the duel. However, as the shadow miasma exits Kalin’s body, Jack is treated to a flashback from his friends past. When Kalin offers Jack the dragon card for beating him, Jack declines and asks him to come up with an even better strategy for their next duel.
The Skeleton Knight then appears before Yusei, taunting him with Sect’s goggles (a treasured present from Yusei himself) and an imposing structure known as Aerial Fortress Seibal, which will be used to resurrect the ultimate god. Jack and Goodwin then gloat about claiming the power of the ultimate god, and we get a quick look at some minor duels. Crow also decides to take the quick way to the end and heads towards the twelfth Zodiac, where he discovers that he must duel himself in order to gain a Duel Dragon.
The rest of the volume is spent on the revenge match between Yusei and the twins. It seems that Goodwin has played around with Luna’s treasured memories, throwing her even further off kilter and de-synching her from her brother. Yusei is able to discover that using his Duel Dragon against others will purify the users, bringing back Leo’s sanity in the process, but Luna’s darkness proves tenacious. Will Yusei be able to drag her back to reality, or will the cyclical loop of Luna’s fairy tales prove too strong?
In Summary
Things seem to be starting to really heat up in this volume, with the big villains showing their hands a little and their endgames becoming clear. The bulk of the book is spent on wrapping up Jack’s duel from the last volume and Yusei’s next big duel. Jack’s duel unfortunately relies a bit too much on an overly specific card near the end, to the degree that one can’t help but wonder why Jack even had it in his deck. However, Yusei’s duel does a pretty good job of pushing him to his limits, and we also get a good look at his past with Sect, giving him at least a little bit more character. Hopefully the next volume will be able to keep up this pace, as this was definitely a solid entry into the series, even if it starts off a little shaky.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: November 5th, 2013
MSRP: $9.99