GX Duel Memorial Album #2

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The many Deck charm of Manjome.

Was Manjome’s Growth As A Person & “Armed Dragon” & Its Level-Up Effect An Intentional Link?

Turn 25 & 26

Manjome’s Deck continues to change. He started with a “Chthonian” Deck that included cards like “Chthonian” Soldier. Then he switched to “VWXYZ”, then a Deck made from the discarded cards of the Northern Branch, and this time around, an “Armed Dragon” Deck.

Of course, the primary reason we kept changing his Deck was to accommodate his character growth, but there were also production side reasons for the anime. Duelists who were watching the show when it originally aired might have noticed. Didn’t you notice the Manjome would mostly use cards that already existed in the “Official Card Game”?

Weekly anime cannot be broadcast unless the production is able to stably release an episode per week. Production happens several months ahead of the broadcast, and several episodes will be produced in parallel.

Due to the nature of the project, this would inevitably lead to a large amount of monsters being design. It ultimately is something you can’t avoid because of, again, the nature of the project, but if we could reduce the stress on the production team even a smidgen… Was our thought process. Personally, I tried to make it possible to regularly use existing cards in Duels (though there is still a hassle with adapting existing cards to the TV show).

This gives rise to Decks like Manjome’s “Hell ” Deck, which didn’t have an actual coherent strategy, but it had a perfect ‘villain’ shaped atmosphere to it, while “VWXYZ” used the Deck’s existing tactics while adding the shocking surprise of using new cards alongside the existing Deck.

This time around, with his “Armed Dragon Deck”, yes, I was thinking “I wonder if “Armed Dragon” which has its Level-Up Effect, could be linked to Manjome completing his warrior training in the wilderness at North School, which made him level up there?”. Personally I was grateful there were cards that could manage to last a two-parter. Though it required some trial and error, I think Manjome’s style of using different cards, one after another, ended up being one of his key charms as a character.

SINCE IT’S AN ANIME, THE VIBES ARE IMPORTANT

TURN 27-TURN 28

Just like “Duel Monsters”, if you Normal Summoned a Defense Monster in “GX”, you could bring it out in face-up Defense Position. I may have been following from the flow set by the original comics, but since it’s an anime, the vibes are important. This is not an arbitrary decision, but one I made on a case-by-case basis with input from the producers.

However, when using “Official Card Game” cards, If you would Normal Summon a monster with a Flip Effect, we would Normal Summon them in face-down Defense Position. In these episodes, “Gravekeeper’s Guard” was one such case. On the other hand, it turns out that it’s a monster with a Flip Effect… Mmm, it’s hard to explain. The specifics of this sort of thing changes little-by-little depending on the series, which is something you can only really see in long running series.

Source: V Jump