"Hey! Ya old bookworm! Take a bite out of this! My ass!"

We begin volume 3 exactly where we left off in Volume 2. Shadi, in an attempt to bring out the spirit of the Millennium Ring, has turned Grandpa's archaeology friend into a zombie, and now Téa/Anzu too!

I really like the mechanics we establish for the Millennium Key (as wielded by Shadi). The concept of a 'soul room', decorated to represent the personality of the person whose soul room it is, is pretty interesting, and the idea that the Millennium Ring allows the user to enter another person's soul room and then move things around in it to manipulate them is diabolical (in a cool way).

Having finally forced out the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle by endangering Téa/Anzu's life, Shadi subjects Yami Yugi to a 'Shadow Game', the shoe being very much on the other foot in this case.

For really the first time, we see Yami Yugi get rattled, get a little nervous, and it's a very humanizing moment for his character. Indeed, this is the volume where he begins to feel like a real character rather than just a badass entity that kicks butt at games and doles out penalties to the unrighteous.

It's actually a pretty neat preview for the Battle City arc because Shadi's final test pits Yami Yugi against an illusion of evil!Joey/Jonouchi. Rather than playing against his friend (even just the illusion of a friend), Yami Yugi is prepared to risk his own life by refusing to participate. This turns out to be the key to victory, and Shadi decides perhaps Yami Yugi isn't his enemy after all, but, perhaps, the one he's been waiting for...

There are a few more adventures in between, and then we finally get back into longer arcs by having Mokuba and his signature game, Capsule Monsters, introduced. I like that manga Mokuba gets his own game to be an expert at, since in the anime his only talent is cheering on his older brother (not that there's anything wrong with cheerleading being your only talent; it's worked out well for Tristan/Honda).

Aside from Duel Monsters, Capsule Monsters feels the most unique to the Yu-Gi-Oh! world so far, and even though it would be largely impractical if not impossible as a physical board game in our real world, you could tell Takahashi had fun designing it and the different monsters we're introduced to through it.

Mokuba's a real piece of work when we first meet him, and very much not Kaiba's Jiminy Cricket, but you can see where he's coming from, and it's the first time a 'villain of the week' has anything resembling a justifiable motivation i.e. getting revenge on Yugi for his brother. Obviously, the KaiBro bond will be more fully fleshed out when we get to Death-T and beyond, but it was cool to see that groundwork being laid here.

By Volume 3 we've pretty firmly set up the tenants of morality in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world. The only way to win in this world is to stand with and stand up for your friends. If you aren't fighting for the ones you love by working as a team, you will never be rewarded. If you cheat, you will never win. By the end of the Duel Monsters series, these concepts are basically tattooed into everyone consuming Yu-Gi-Oh! media. And honestly, I think that's fine. Sure, it's fun to make fun of the 'friendship speeches', but the way it's built into the worldbuilding is incredibly consistent (at least in terms of outcomes; just look at what happens to Kaiba in Duelist Kingdom...and again in Battle City.) and there are certainly worse messages than 'the power of unity is stronger than the power of being alone even if being a loner is more badass.'