Kaiba and Bandit Keith have a little back-and-forth in the manga that gets cut from the anime:
It’s the only time the two of them interact, so all you Eliteshippers, go crazy.
(On a very minor note, Bandit Keith presents his chips to enter the Castle *before* Yugi and Kaiba’s duel in the anime, and he does it *after* in the manga.)
I’ll just direct you to what happened in the manga. On the top half next page, Mai says that the Star Chips are a token of her appreciation, and Yugi accepts them. As headlessknight wisely pointed out, this little segment is important because it’s about helping Yugi remember that what he wants and values is important, and he should be willing to do anything to defend them. Pride should not be valued above the things we hold precious.
As for the anime… here’s the thing about the anime: we’re still telling everything from Anzu’s perspective. The narrative of the anime has made the somewhat strange decision to agree with Anzu that she is somehow responsible for Yugi taking back control and losing the duel, as discussed at the end of the previous episode.
This isn’t to say that Yugi doesn’t have any thoughts on the matter:
But these thoughts get crammed aside because this episode is all about what Anzu wants.
This isn’t to say that what Anzu wants is outside the main themes of Yu-Gi-Oh. Her main wish is to defend her friends at all costs – and this is actually the same core issue as the manga’s version of this story segment. And it’s also about her feelings of responsibility – whether or not she’s actually responsible for the events of the previous episode, taking action to solve problems is another core issue of the show.
But we’re not talking about Yugi anymore. We’ve deflected the issues away from the main character – the one who is supposed to be learning it, the one who’s making the plot wait for him. He doesn’t tackle them himself. He stares despondently into space. This is a massive departure from his manga characterization.
We do address some of the Yugi’s fears directly, and… even more oddly, it’s *Mai* who gets through to him on them. Mai, the one who’s been set up as an antagonist in this episode. Anzu, our hero, isn’t the one who snaps him out of it at all.
But we don’t address Yugi’s stated feelings of being an obstacle. In fact… it doesn’t really address what Yugi said at the beginning of the episode at all, so why are these words the ones that break Yugi out of his stupor?
Certainly “dueling with strong will and determination” helps Yugi with his feelings of being useless without his other self, and maybe watching Anzu duel this way inspires him. Maybe Anzu’s strong-hearted defense of their friendship reminds him that he should also strong-heartedly defend what is important to him.
What we’ve lost, though, from the manga is… the characters addressing the issue directly. In the manga, we get to see Yugi state directly what he’s feeling, we get to hear the other characters disagree with his beliefs. It’s one of the few times the other Yugi gets called out for being full of crap – remember, Dark Yugi is not supposed to be held up as a perfect character in the manga. And most importantly, we get to see Yugi change his mind. He’s not obliquely inspired to action – he actively refutes his fears, and doing so is an unrefusable call to action.
YGO Canon Shuffle 