#go rush!!

[ygoartreviews]

Recurring Nightmare

If your recurring nightmare is a shot of Mist Archfiend doing a sick spiral over a shadowed graveyard under a blood red moon, that isn’t so bad, right? It’s not like he’s flying towards you or anything. Just appreciate the nice view until you wake up! Speaking seriously, this art has such excellent usage of shading throughout. Not only that, but the three main areas of this card are finely differentiated by their main color: purple highlights for the lower graveyard scene, a variety of grays for the foreground and focus of the piece (Mist Archfiend and his smoke trail), and strong red for the sinister sky and blood moon. Both of these factors just provide so much definition here that even little details like the purple windows on the building and the heavily cratered surface of the moon are visible. Of course, you can’t forget about the sense of motion that the swirled smoke trail provides (which subtly looks like a rocket takeoff trail, while also looking kind of unnatural and demonic in itself).

Rating: 10/10

[ygoartreviews]

Charis Magic - Elegant Change

She's stunning, she's gorgeous, and most of all, she's elegant! The fantastically beautiful Celeb Rose Magician is focusing all of her power into the magical circle below her to become the most elegant she can possibly be (and the most powerful, too)! Her new accessories (extra spike on her hat, the hair accessory over her bangs, the thorny rose vines on her left sleeve, the scalloped fabric on her upper chest, and the heart shaped addition to her wand) being made out of her pink, rose petal magic is both cute and stunning at the same time. The sparkly, see-through nature of these areas contrasts really well with the darkly outlined, solidly colored areas of her body (the balance prevents one from drowning out the other, too!). The sharp angle Rose Magician is drawn in creates such a sense of dramatic showmanship, even though all she’s really doing is upgrading her outfit.

Rating: 10/10

[ygoartreviews]

Dicemite Gyame Double-Up Chirori

That's one dynamite gamer gal! No, seriously. Watch out. Her huge die is an actual explosive... The style of this whole series just looking like Panty & Stocking is hugely unexpected but super fantastic at the same time??? I'll be honest and admit that I mostly noticed it from the distinct style of their legs lol. Anyway, I love the dice/cube theming that went into these gals. There's the more obvious points, like Chirori's giant dynamite die, the die hanging from her necklace, and the tiny dice attached to her hat decoration, but there's subtle points too, like the inside of her jacket being white with mostly black (2-6 sides) and few red (1 side) dots, and the squares directly behind her form cube nets (pattern of six squares you can fold into a cube). I'm also vaguely realizing at this moment that she's sitting on a giant die too. Love her cute little fancy outfit, her hairstyle, and most importantly, the color choice throughout.

Rating: 9/10

[ygoartreviews]

Blast Examiner

"A specialist in safety assurance. Due to his work, he often finds himself looking down, but his character is positive and kind."

The translator for Ancient Elf strikes again and gives us yet another transman Yugioh monster! Blast Examiner is hard at work… Attacking… Something. Because that’s what safety assurance is all about, surely. At least he’s wearing all the appropriate safety gear for what appears to be his job of searching shipping containers for explosives (although, idk how effective a glass shield would be against an explosion tbh). His work outfit is simple, but I like that he’s dyed his hair red to match his gloves and boots. His backpack appears to be attached to some kind of metal detector, which as I mentioned before, he’s wielding like a weapon, although the actiony pose is fun and makes great use of foreshortening. The shipping yard background is oddly kinda scenic, but that might just be the intense sunset colors transforming everything into shades of yellow and orange.

Rating: 9/10, -transes your translation-

[ygoartreviews]

Tamabot King Golem

Otherwise known as T(amago) K(ake) G(ohan), this robot is here to bring freshly made soy sauce directly to your breakfast plate. I’m not certain how effective it will be, and it’ll certainly be messy, because the soy sauce is stored in its legs for some reason and shot out from its knees. Shooting the soy sauce from its hands would at the very least allow for more accuracy, but I do appreciate the creative silliness of “soy sauce shooter knees.” I also appreciate the simplicity of this robot’s color scheme, as well as the addition of crown shaped, gilded gears that live up to the King in its name. Hey so... If this golem is being piloted by Tamainabot (seen within TKG's crown), and Tamainabot looks like its being piloted by two individual Tamabots... Does that make this monster some sort of odd, robot egg matryoshka? Hmm… -thinking-

Rating: 8/10

[ygoartreviews]

OuTerverSe Anubistar

So, a brief reading about this series tells me that a lot of them are based on parallel universes that made brief appearances in a GO RUSH!! anime episode. This fact being true presents two alternatives for the reality of this card, Anubistar: the Egyptian gods have an incredibly strong presence (sick) OR... This alternate universe has an Earth dominated by intelligent, bipedal dogs. Guess we'll never know for sure though... While I do think this is an interesting take on an Anubis inspired design, I feel like said inspiration is incredibly limited. There's his head area (ears especially of note) and... That's kinda it, unless you really want to count the dog body features (not seen in bipedal depictions of Anubis). Its kind of disappointing to be honest, although I will give credit to the creative body shapes (such as his pointy shoulders and zigzag tail) and the inclusion of the star shape on his chest (however awkward it may look). Actually, those body shapes have me going back and forth on whether this guy is actually a robot or an animal. The odd design of the top of his head and jagged mouth design have me leaning more towards robot, honestly.

Rating: 6/10, angular dog

[ygoartreviews]

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

"This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale."

Here we are. Finally. The legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon! What is there really even to say here about a card so famous even non Yugioh fans have heard of it? You just gotta love this giant, all-powerful dragon. Sporting an iconic White Lightning charge up pose, there's just so much good composition happening here. I love how the watery energy spirals coalescing into the concentrated energy ball match the flow of BEWD's body, from the bent wings to the hunched over body and even the lifted up tail. They really help draw your eye across the whole art! Not to mention, it definitely emphasizes just how powerful this dragon is, when combined with that instantly recognizable fearsome expression.

Rating: 10/10, -Kaiba voice- My Blue-Eyes is better than any other monster!