Yu-Gi-Oh! Volume 4 by Naoyuki Kageyama and Kazuki Takahashi

Yu-Gi-Oh! Volume 4 by Naoyuki Kageyama and Kazuki Takahashi
Young Adult Graphic Novel
195 pp.
Suitable for 13+

Readers Annotation: The next generation of Duel Academy has a tournament for the best fighter.

Plot Summary: The prestigious Duel Academy has a new generation of fighters: Jaden, Bastion, David, Chazz, among others. Each player draws a card that contains a monster with a special power. Each card costs a certain amount of points that the player has and can eliminate points from their opponents as well. If the player runs out of point, he or she loses. The duel between bad boy David and good guy Chazz in the semi-finals brings out a prestigious card, shadow game. This card doesn't physically hurt the player but they mentally feel pain. This affects Chazz but David eventually loses. This brings a final showdown between Chazz and Jaden. But David's presence is felt in that final showdown. With this being volume 4, the reader can expect a sequel.

Critical Evaluation: Like a traditional Japanese Manga styled-book, this book read from right to left starting in the upper right corner. I've never read a Manga book so I don't know what to compare it to but it was difficult to catch up with the plot and story and numerous fights since this was volume 4. But about a quarter of the way through, I gained a feel for these simple, cartoon-like characters. Two of them were actually friends and believe it or not, a theme of friendship is shown between these two. The dialogue isn't supposed to be great; it's meant to move the story forward and it did a good job of accomplishing that. As the story moved along, the fights got fewer and fewer, but more epic; they meant something. The drawing of the card was both ridiculous and fun; it gave the reader a moment of suspense right before the battle. The idea of the shadow card also got the reader psychologically involved.

Author: Naoyuki Kageyama was born April 12th, 1969 in Tokyo, Japan. Though he has not won the award, he did receive honorable mention for the 1990 Weekly Shonen Jump Hop Step Award. He started drawing the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX for Monthly V Jump in February 2006. Kageyama's hobbies include baseball; his favorite team is the Seibu Lions.

Kazuki Takahashi first tried to break into the manga business in 1982, albeit unsuccessfully. It wasn't until Yu-Gi-Oh! series debuted in a Japanese magazine in 1996. In this series, he brought themes of frienship and fighting. In his spare time, he enjoys video games of all sorts.

Booktalking Ideas:
1) Fighting
2) Frienships
3) Manga
4) Monsters

Challenge Issues: There are no challenge issues present in this book.

Why Included: I have never read a Manga book in my life and I didn't know where to begin. So I picked up a random Manga book and it happened to be this one.