Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Episode 107 – Predictable Plot-twists

Woohoo?

I’ll take the first turn on the revived Whatever Anime Blog. I am Hideyoshi, a new member of the team and will be keeping tabs on the Yu-Gi-Oh! department from now on, as this blog’s highest-hitting topic.

Tired of the usual Yu-Gi-Oh! setting where they just either stand or drive while they play cards in a loud manner? Well, this episode may be the one for you!

It seems henshin sequences may have become the keyword of the day for this lovely episode focusing on Yusei’s Accel Synchro, the identity of Bruno, Yliaster, and the huge monoliths.

Read on and be amazed.

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The madness, so far…

Picking up the ball from when the blog stopped, Team Unicorn faced Team 5D’s at the early part of the tournament. With the best efforts of the whole team, Yusei emerged victorious even with the huge disadvantage, defeating all three members of Team Unicorn. Everyone learns their lessons at the end, that team battles are not your average Riding Duels. Both teams make a promise to meet in the finals once again.

But that did not happen, as Team Catastrophe used the Cards of Darkness to defeat Team Unicorn, which will be Team 5D’s’s next opponent. It seems Placido had a hand in this, and he watched as his boys get beaten up silly by the good guys. Enraged due to his miscalculation, he sends out his Diablo robots and turns the whole city into Battle Royal Mode, where everyone can attack anyone they want. How the turn goes is beyond me.

As expected, the heroes set out to vanquish the evil Diablo fleet. With the help of Sherry Leblanc and Mizoguchi, they were able to defeat most of them, until Placido uses a secret control and makes the Diablo concentrate on one target… that is: Fudo Yusei.

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Episode Details
Episode No.: 107
Episode Title: Wake Up!! Unwavering Standpoint – Clear Mind (覚醒！！ 揺るがなき境地 クリア・マインド)
Opening Song: BELIEVE IN NEXUS – Endou Masaki
Ending Song: Close to you – ALvino
Featured Duel: Placido vs Bruno
Key Card: Buster Shotman

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And so…

Yusei is in a pinch, the Diablo roids, armed with Ally Salvos on their fields, are slowly picking on Yusei’s LP. He has no other choice but to run away from them so their attacks won’t connect. Bruno helplessly watches from afar, and thinks if there is a way that he can help. A voice speaks out, it was the thing they saw back in episode 93. It seems Bruno CAN save Yusei, he just has to remember something.

The Eye... of Doom!

Soon after some weird trippy sequences, Bruno was able to remember and calls upon Delta Eagle… with this, it’s confirmed who he really is, Dark Glass/Shades/whatever guy.

Delta Eagle. Oh hey! It can FLOAT ON WATER.

Yusei is about to be gang-banged by these robots, and suddenly Bruno undergoes a transformation sequence and his voice becomes buff. He goes and enters the Battle Royal mode.

Someone's about to get raped...

Battle Royal Mode - Bruno: 4000 LP
- Main Phase: Equips Buster Shotman to an already summoned monster on his field, Tech Genus Blade Gunner MAXX-10000.
- As part of Buster Shotman's effect, Blade Gunner loses 500 ATK.
- Battle Phase: Blade Gunner attacks one of the Ally Salvos. Through Buster Shotman's effect, when the equipped monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle, all monsters on the opponent's side of the field with the same type is destroyed. When the attack connects, every Ally Salvo on the Diablo's fields are destroyed.

The Key Card of the Week, Buster Shotman: LV 1 Union, 0 ATK / 0 DEF.

Placido decides to act after seeing this and gets a bit of Kamen Rider sequence himself.

Nice hair...

Bruno drives very fast and tells Yusei to exceed the limits of speed. Yusei tailgates Bruno to catch up to his speed. Placido is able to catch up with them quickly. Placido reveals himself as the commander of the Ghost army. He challenges Yusei to a Duel, but with Yusei’s remaining LP, it is a very evident handicap. Bruno slows down and bumps into Placido and tells Yusei to discover Accel Synchro, the only way to defeat the Machine Emperors.

Bruno tells Yusei that Momentum is not merely an energy source for these D-Wheels, but also a living energy that can read a people’s heart. It seems Professor Fudo and Rudger Godwin knew of this. The Momentum was the cause of Rudger’s fall into a Dark Signer as it read his dark heart. The same could have been done to the other Dark Signers and even people with clean hearts such as the Signers.

He then starts talking about Clear Mind. A state in which the heart is able to control the Momentum energy. Yusei accelerates and thinks about how he’s been searching for the Accel Synchro for a long time. He finally understands that the reason why he hasn’t been able to find it is because of his fear of the Machine Emperors. Yusei suddenly disappears and enters a strange realm filled with light.

Folks, this is still Yu-Gi-Oh!

Inside, he finds a large dragon monster covered in bright light. Its form is revealed quickly.

There's the Cover Card for Star Strike Blast.

Then, we get the stock footage of the giant monolith falling from the sky. Placido has no idea what happened. Bruno challenges him to a Duel instead. Placido finally remembers him, as they faced each other before, probably after the events of episode 74, when Dark Glass showed Yusei how to perform an Accel Synchro. They were set to Duel, and Dark Glass/Bruno says that he was created to defeat Yliaster, until a cat showed up in the middle of the road.

"I WAS CREATED TO DEFEAT Y--oh hey a kitty." *Crash!*

Apparently, he wasn’t created to avoid kittens securely, and he crashes. Bruno falls into the sea and now we know the reason why he was found on the beach… very creative.

In the meantime, Yusei ends up in the impact zone of the monolith. He gazes upon the huge rock…

Oh my god, a giant rock!

Jose and Lucciano is aware of this and somehow sees Yusei’s actions from their monitor. Jose claims that it is not his monolith while Envy Lucciano is confused, freaking out at why Yusei is the same as them.

As Yusei touches the stone’s surface, it glows and he gets sucked in. He enters yet another weird realm and finally ends up in the same white space from before, which looks like that time and space thing from Dragonball Z. The strange robot from before greets him, and tells him he has acquired an alternate possibility, and that he can keep the trading card he picked up along the way, his Accel Synchro card.

Before Yusei could ask him any questions, the strange being floats off. Yusei is sent back to the impact zone. The stone is now blank.

Gravekeeper's Stele?

And so, the Duel between Placido and Bruno starts.

Bruno vs Placido

Turn 1 - Placido: 4000 LP, 0 SPC
- Main Phase: Summons Wise Core in Defense Position.
- Sets a card.

Turn 2 - Bruno: 4000 LP, 1 SPC
- Main Phase 1. Special Summons Tech Genus Striker WA-01 through its effect that when there are no monsters on his field while there is one or more in the opponent's, it can be Special Summoned.
- Special Summons Tech Genus Werewolf BW-03 through its effect that when a Level 4 or lower monster on his field is Special Summoned, it can be Special Summoned as well.
- Tunes LV 2 Striker with LV 3 Werewolf in order to Synchro Summon his Tech Genus Power Gladiator WAX-1000.
- Normal Summons his Tech Genus Rush Rhino BE-04.
- Battle Phase. Power Gladiator attacks Wise Core.
- Placido activates a Trap Card, Twin Vortex. The opponent's attacking monster and a monster on his side of the field are destroyed. Wise Core and Power Gladiator are both destroyed.
- Power Gladiator's effect activates. When destroyed, the controller can draw 1 card.
- Placido activates Wise Core's effect and Special Summons five monsters: Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity, Wisel Top, Wisel Attack, Wisel Guard, and Wisel Carrier.
- All five monsters combine into one monster, Machine Emperor Wisel!
- Main Phase 2: Sets 2 cards.

Turn 3 - Placido: 4000 LP, 2 SPC
- Battle Phase: Machine Emperor Wisel attacks Rush Rhino. Bruno takes 900 LP damage (3100 LP).
- Rush Rhino's effect activates and a copy of it is added to Bruno's hand.
- Main Phase 2: Sets 2 cards.

Turn 4 - Bruno: 3100 LP, 3 SPC
- Main Phase 1: Summons Tech Genus Cyber Magician SC-01.
- Uses its effect. The Synchro Material Monster this card uses for the Synchro Summon of a monster can be from the controller's hand.
- Tunes LV 1 Cyber Magician on his field and the LV 4 Rush Rhino from his hand to Synchro Summon his Tech Genus Wonder Magician SCX-1000.
- Then activates a Trap Card, Double Type Rescue. When his field has at least two types of monsters, and the opponent has more monsters, he can Special Summon a monster from his Graveyard.
- Wonder Magician's effect is that it is considered as both a Machine-type and a Spellcaster-type monster.
- Double Type Rescue allows him to Special Summon his Power Gladiator back from the Graveyard.

Placido recognizes this trick before. Two Synchro Monsters on the field means that an Accel Synchro is coming. Before Bruno could declare an Accel Synchro Summon, Ghosts appeared!

Who ya gonna call? Ghost-busters!

Placido reminds him that Battle Royal Mode is still on. The Ghosts interfere in the Duel and they summon Ally Salvos.

Battle Royal Mode - Ghost turn: 4000 LP
- Main Phase 1: Summons Ally Salvo.
- Battle Phase: Ally Salvo attacks Wonder Magician. Wonder Magician has higher ATK and destroys Ally Salvo (Ghost: 2500 LP).
- Ally Salvo's effect activates since Wonder Magician is a LIGHT monster. Two cards on the field are destroyed, namely Power Gladiator and Bruno's remaining set card.

Now, it’s time for Placido to be interrupted this time. Yusei comes rushing in and switches places with Bruno. Bruno allows him and says that he will take care of the henchmen, the Diablo, instead.

Before Placido could engage in the Duel, Jose calls him and tells him to fall back, as Yusei acquired a new kind of power. Placido is angered by this, as his Yliaster brethren are thinking that he is going to lose. He cuts off the connection and stands up, claiming that he will show Yusei his true form.

After a creepy transformation sequence… the result is this…

Now this is just... weird.

And then he claims that there is now no escaping the Duel anymore.

Dun dun dun...?

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Episode comments

I’m starting to like Placido.

Although it comes as no surprise that Yu-Gi-Oh! incorporates over-the-top (albeit, weird) concepts throughout its history, this is yet another one of the weirdest examples. The whole transformation thing is just… totally weird. Placido’s real form is definitely weird.

It’s also not much of a surprise for some people that Bruno and Dark Glass are the same person, as they had the same seiyuu, and features. The whole Tech Genus archetype Deck also kind of gave it away as a hint, as Bruno is some sort of genius about devices (see nerd).

The man in the weird white space seems to be different from the Yliaster members. One thing is the blue-eyes. Placido has red, Lucciano has green, while Jose has a dark yellow-ish color. His goals also seem to be to defeat Yliaster instead, and protect Yusei by creating Bruno. Although his identity hasn’t been discussed yet, I like to think he might as well be Fudo-hakase.

Only just a speculation from me: his blue eyes, his drive to protect Yusei, the manner he spoke to Yusei and the way he floated away kinda reminded me of Fudo-hakase in the Underworld. We all knew what happened to Rudger, but not Fudo-hakase. It could be that Fudo-hakase suffered an opposite fate (as he seems to be one with a clean heart, rather than be affected by Zero Reverse).

But they’re almost baseless facts. I’m expecting this to be totally off.

I hate to admit it, but I guess it’s getting good.

In any case, that’s all for Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s today. See you again next week.

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Next episode preview

Well, it’s time for Placido and Yusei to have a rematch. With Placido entering a new state, and with Yusei getting a new card, things will probably go back and forth, until Shooting Star Dragon pops out and eats Placido. Oh hey, this isn’t the future prediction section. In any case, it’ll be part 1 of the Duel next time. We may see the #3 variation of the Machine Emperor cards (like with Lucciano).

Stay tuned, card game fans. Hideyoshi signing out.