Manga / Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories

Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories is a manga in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise that began serialization in V-JUMP on April 21, 2022. It is written by Shin Yoshida and illustrated by Naohito Miyoshi, who previously worked on the manga adaptations of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL and Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

Based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game, OCG Stories brings to life the myriad storylines featured in the cards as told through artwork and supplementary material.

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Storylines

• Sky Striker (April 2022 - October 2023): In the distant past, the prosperous nation of Kama waged war against the nation of Spectra, resulting in the creation of an AI that wiped out all humans. Centuries later, Raye, the last surviving human, lives amongst an android society on the outskirts of Kama. On the night of her 13th birthday, her peaceful life is upended when Spectra attacks, destroying her home and forcing her friends to the front lines. Desperate to save everything she loves, Raye calls upon humanity's last bastion: "Sky Striker", the Kama-developed secret technology made to turn humans into the ultimate living weapons. This story is now complete at 19 chapters.
• Magistus: (January 2024 - Present): In a world of the mystic arts, four great sages, Crowley, Zoroa, Rilliona, and Endymion, perform a ritual to link time and space, bringing forth mythical deities both good and evil with powers beyond our wildest imagination. By way of contract their powers are bound to the sages, and with their potential now limitless the four sages embark on a journey to shape the future of their world.

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This manga includes examples of:

Sky Striker Arc

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Spectra created an AI to automate its war for them, which ended in it killing off every human on the planet within a few hundred years. As of current, it operates on its last known directive to defeat Kama, meaning it will not stop fighting until every last Kama combatant is dead.
• Adapted Out: Most of the existing "Sky Striker" cards appear in the manga in some fashion, but "Surgical Striker - H.A.M.P." is completely absent. The image of Raye holding Roze in a Bridal Carry from the artwork of "Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage!" is referenced in one panel but is not worked into the plot in a way that matches the apparent original context. Likewise, the events of "Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku"'s alternate artwork are not present in the story.
• Adaptation Expansion: The manga takes the Sky Striker story outline provided by official guides and adds many new story elements, such as backstories for Raye and Kama, an explanation as to why Raye and Roze are the only "Sky Striker Ace" Main Deck cards, and a heroic supporting cast.
• After the End: The story takes place centuries after humanity has gone extinct, leaving machines in their wake to continue the war that they started.
• Androids Are People, Too: When Raye joins the battle, her android caretakers tell her to run because as a living being, she is more important. She says that is wrong because they are alive too and she loves them.
• Actually a Doombot: When Camellia finally gets the upper hand against Cyanos in Chapter 15, she moves in for the kill only to realize that she's fighting a decoy. The real Cyanos then emerges from the rubble and flees, having served her purpose as a distraction to get Raye and Roze to Spectra unimpeded.
• And the Adventure Continues: The story ends with Raye, Roze and Cyanos deciding to go see the beauty and wonder of the world now that they are no longer at war.
• The Bait: To draw out Azalea's countermeasures and avoid detection, Raye and Roze send Cyanos to fight Camellia by luring her to a signal on the surface while they infiltrate Spectra HQ via a secret underground passageway.
• Birthday Beginning: The plot kicks off on Raye's 13th birthday. The plot later skips to her 15th birthday during Chapter 3, but at this point Raye is so focused on defeating Spectra that she declines to celebrate.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The Sky Striker tech is stored in Kama's local museum, as due to the extinction of humanity it cannot be used. When Raye resolves to fight Spectra, she quite literally takes it from the museum.
• Brutal Honesty: When confronted by the threat of Roze, Arcus coldly warns Raye that the most plausible course of action is to kill Roze before Spectra develops further countermeasures against Raye's weaponry. Raye, upset by this dilemma, doesn't take it very well, and resolves to confront Roze instead.
• Clone Angst: Chapter 15 reveals that Azalea's entire motivation revolves around resenting being a clone of Roze and wanting to destroy Ciela, Raye and Roze; the former because she holds the knowledge needed to create a new human life, and the latter two because they're the originals and she desires to be the last one standing so she'll no longer be just a copy. Once she's the last human, she'll rule what's left using an army of her own inferior clones.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Ciela reveals that Surgical Striker - S.P.E.C.T.R.A. was created under the false assumption by Zard that the "human heart" is actually just a fancy interpretation of the human brain. The end result is a mecha that requires the use of a human brain to pilot it but will drive its pilots insane. This eventually causes a Villainous RRoD in the subsequent chapter, as aggressive and extended overuse of the machine causes direct trauma to both Azalea and Camellia's brains, preventing Azalea from finishing off the heroes and ultimately causing their deaths.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Aware that Spectra has brainwashed Roze into a killing machine, Raye is determined to reawaken her humanity.
• Doomed Hometown: On Raye's 13th birthday, Spectra breaks through Kama's line of defense and destroys a significant portion of the city, forcing Raye to take on the mantle of Sky Striker to protect what's left. Later on, Camellia's surprise attack destroys the rest of Kama, with only Aileron and Pylon making it out alive thanks to a hint of generosity from Camellia.
• EMP: After Zard deems the Three Sages dangerous enough threats, he deploys a Magnet Wave, a device that renders machines incapable of movement. Luckily, Arcus and Ciela are rescued by Raye, who jumps in at the nick of time and destroys the Magnet Wave.
• Eviler than Thou: Chapter 12 sees Azalea and Camellia dispatching both the Three Sages and the Three Pillars, having decided not to become slaves to machines and taking what's left of the planet in their place. Azalea then gets the one-up on Camellia by declaring herself absolute ruler of the planet and enslaving Camellia with the nanomachines left in her body.
• Foreshadowing: In Chapter 14, Aileron and Pylon search through the rubble of what's left of Kama in search of the digital photo from Raye's birthday. They accidentally stumble upon a hidden bunker where the Three Sages were conducting research on Sky Striker technology in secret, where they discover a mysterious gigantic machine that strongly resembles Surgical Striker - H.A.M.P.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Himmel warns Raye that by activating the Sky Striker technology, she'll lose her sense of self in the process and become someone (or something) completely different by turning into a living weapon. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Main Deck "Sky Striker Ace" monsters are classified as Warriors, but the Extra Deck monsters (which are Raye and Roze wearing the Sky Striker armor) are classified as Machines and have different names.
  • In the story, Ciela is kidnapped by Spectra, prompting Raye to double down on her efforts to reclaim the planet from Spectra and save her. "Sage of Benevolence - Ciela" allows you to pass control of her over to the opponent to Special Summon a "Sky Striker Ace" monster from your Graveyard, reflecting this plot point.
• Heel–Face Turn: Raye finally convinces Roze to join her side after Azalea and Camellia overthrow the Three Pillars and free her from her metaphysical shackles. As a bonus, a damaged Cyanos shows up en route to Kama, whom the duo takes under their wing now that her masters have been destroyed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Aileron and Pylon sacrifice their conscious bodies to become a singular sentient artificial intelligence to activate the secret Sky Striker weapon Adhilsaber.
• Half the Man He Used to Be:
  • Solferina is bifurcated by Raye in Chapter 3 when she slices her straight down the middle. However, she is still alive enough to attempt a Taking You with Me by latching on to Raye's leg and self-destructing.
  • When Raye and Roze finally find Ciela in Chapter 14, they discover that she's been reduced to a head and a torso strapped to a machine and barely conscious.
• Humans Are Special: Raye, not bound by programming and routines, displays a unique level of combat prowess compared to her classmates due to her ability to use lateral thinking and creative techniques to outwit machines. It's revealed in Chapter 15 that Kama chose to bring humans back in the form of Raye to finally bring an end to the eternal war and create hope for life on the planet, even if it meant the deaths of the machines that were created for the war effort.
• Humongous Mecha: When her initial plan of taking out Raye and Roze separately fails, Azalea calls upon a gigantic robot called Surgical Striker S.P.E.C.T.R.A. that was created by Zard of the Three Pillars specifically to be piloted by Spectra's Sky Strikers.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Sky Striker, in its base form, is shown as a large red katana with Tron Lines.
• Kill Sat: The superweapon that Spectra's AI created takes the form of a massive satellite that wiped out humanity. Ciela mentions in Chapter 4 that Kama took out all of Spectra's satellite weapons shortly after deployment, but doing so created so much space junk that neither side is able to launch any new satellites. The final chapter reveals that there is one satellite still functional, which a defeated Azalea attempts to use to finish off Raye and Roze.
• Meaningful Name: Raye and Roze's ultimate Combination Attack with Adhilsaber, "Engage Zero", is named as such in reference to how both Raye and Roze's names are derived from the word "zero".
• Mythology Gag:
  • The scene where Raye activates the Sky Striker armor for the first time is inspired by the card "Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage!".
  • A scene in Chapter 3 has Raye wielding Shark Cannon against Spectra drones, using the exact same pose and camera angle as the card "Sky Striker Mecha - Shark Cannon".
  • Chapter 4 has Raye using more of her techniques, including "Sky Striker Mecha - Hornet Drones", "Sky Striker Mecha Modules - Multirole", and "Sky Striker Maneuver - Afterburners!".
  • When Raye encounters Roze for the first time, Roze is wearing the basic form of her Sky Striker Ace armor as seen in "Sky Striker Ace - Zeke".
  • After Raye dons the Kagari armor and counterattacks against Roze, she strikes a pose identical to the alternate artwork of "Sky Striker Ace - Kagari".
  • When Roze merges with the Zeke armor in Chapter 11, a full body shot of the armor is shown, with Sky Striker Ace - Zeke copying its stance from its card artwork.
  • Azaela and Camellia both use a variation of Red Arrows during Chapter 15.
  • Raye dons the Kagari armor in Chapter 17 and uses it to activate Sky Striker Maneuver - Afterburners.
• Power Nullifier: In Chapter 8, Raye is lured into a trap where she is surrounded by obelisks that prevent her Sky Striker equipment from working.
• The Power of Friendship: In Chapter 18, Adhilsaber's hidden power activates once the heroes have officially confirmed that Roze is an ally, as it can only be wielded by the power of two Sky Strikers simultaneously. At the end of the chapter, Raye and Roze team up to wield Adhilsaber and transform it into a BFS, bisecting Surgical Striker S.P.E.C.T.R.A. into halves with their ultimate attack "Engage Zero".
• Powered Armor:
  • Roze wields the powerful Zeke armor to gain the advantage against Raye in Chapter 11.
  • In Chapter 15, Azalea unveils her own armor, which uses a much more inhuman design compared to Zeke and wields a massive sword and shield. Said shield also has the ability to sprout mechanical wires, which Azalea uses to capture what's left of Ciela's body and attach her to her shield as a Human Shield.
• Raised by Robots: Raye was cared for by a robot family ever since she was born. Likewise with Roze, and later Azalea and Camellia, by Spectra.
• Ridiculously Human Robots:
  • The androids living in Kama are virtually indistinguishable from real humans, visually. They even behave like humans, although Himmel notes that there are aspects of their design that prevents them from being perfect copies.
  • Spectra's Three Pillars have much more robotic designs, but still express human-like emotion and consciousness.
• Shock Collar: Azalea and Camellia are injected with nanomachines that deliver extremely painful full-body electric shocks on command to lower the odds of them going rogue. Azalea manages to remove the nanomachines from her body so she can overthrow the Three Pillars, but Camellia still has them even after their coup, allowing Azalea to control Camellia instead.
• Shout-Out: For her birthday party, Raye wears a dress identical to Cinderella and is driven to the party in a pumpkin carriage.
• Summon Bigger Fish: When Raye defeats Camellia and Roze disables Azalea's Powered Armor, Azalea decides to step up her game by summoning her own Humongous Mecha, Surgical Striker S.P.E.C.T.R.A., and flies herself and Camellia's disabled body into the cockpit to pilot it.
• Taking You with Me: In the final chapter, a dying Azalea attempts to kill Raye and Roze by activating Spectra's Kill Sat to destroy both them and herself. Raye manages to prevent total annihilation by flying into the stratosphere and using the remainder of her power to nail the satellite with a well-placed Vector Blast before she passes out.
• Tastes Like Friendship: After Raye defeats Roze but spares her life in Chapter 6, she gives Roze an apple. Roze has no idea what it is, but when she is later told it is food, she tries it and likes it.
• Together in Death: After Raye destroys her final resort, Azalea resigns herself to death with Camellia at her side, with the two sharing last tears together as they go out.
• Theme Naming:
  • The Three Sages of Kama are named after words for "sky" in different languages.
  • Aileron and Pylon are named after aircraft components.
• There Is Another: Roze is revealed to be a human and a Sky Striker despite Raye ostensibly being the last human left on Earth. It later turns out that there are more anothers: clones of Roze created by Spectra called "Azalea" and "Camellia".
• Time Skip: In the middle of Chapter 3, we skip ahead two years.
• Twin Telepathy: Azalea reveals that while they were growing in Spectra's tanks, she and Camellia were able to telepathically communicate with each other despite otherwise being in stasis. As they learned the nature of the world from the Three Pillars, they soon began to question their role. The duo ultimately concluded that they would not serve machines and decided to claim what was left with their own hands, starting with subjugating the androids.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once Raye makes her appearance in Chapter 3, the Three Sages realize they are in over their heads and make a break for it alongside the kidnapped Ciela. Unfortunately for them, Raye pursues, forcing Solferina to sacrifice herself to delay Raye and allow her cohorts to escape.
• Villainous RRoD: Azalea's ultimate attack stops dead in its tracks before it can fire when she realizes that she has pushed both her own brain and Camellia's past their physical limits, indicated by a Deadly Nosebleed. Ciela takes the opportunity to command Adhilsaber to join with Raye and Roze and defeat Azalea with The Power of Friendship and a skyscraper-sized BFS.
• Warrior Therapist: The climatic battle between Raye and Roze sees Raye attempting this strategy on Roze, weakening the latter through aggressive combat while trying to form a connection with her to break the hold of Spectra's programming on Roze's mind to hopefully turn her over to the heroes' side.
• We Can Rebuild Him:
  • One aspect of the Kama androids that is brought up by Pylon is the ability for them to be rebuilt from the ground up in the event of catastrophic failure. It is also touched upon that this destroys most of their previous personality, albeit not completely. Pylon is subject to this fate when he is totaled by Spectra's assault during Chapter 2; by the time he is physically restored two years later in Chapter 4, he has barely any emotions.
  • The same is true of Spectra's Three Pillars. So long as they have their data backed up, Zard can rebuild them when they're destroyed. Solferina is destroyed by Raye during the invasion of Kama, and Zard brings her back after the two year time skip with no memory of the event and upgrades to make her stronger.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Camellia kills Aakus and Himmel in cold blood, but when she tracks down Aileron and Pylon she allows them live and simply orders them to flee before Kama is destroyed. This winds up being integral to the heroes' victory, as this allows Aileron and Pylon to awaken the secret Sky Striker weapon Adhilsaber and come to Raye and Roze's aid during the final battle.

Magistus Arc

• Elemental Fusion: In Chapter 23, Endymion gets the idea to use earth magic and fire magic to create a makeshift corridor with an updraft, manufacturing the correct conditions to cast a powerful wind spell and eliminate the influence of evil magic.
• Fantastic Racism: There was a time when Spellcasters were looked upon with suspicion by the people. Zoroa experienced the brunt of this in his childhood due to his amazing magical power.
• Hidden Elf Village: The village of Greybeard serves as a sanctuary for spellcasters otherwise shunned or looked down upon by the rest of the outside world, allowing the residents to practice and study magic to their leisure without the fear of outside interference.
• How We Got Here: Chapter 21 flashes back to one week prior to the events of Chapter 20, detailing the events leading up to Crowley, Endymion and Rilliona being forced to fight their former friend.
• In Medias Res: The story proper begins in the middle of Crowley, Endymion and Rilliona facing down Zoroa, who has unleashed the power of Vahram and intends to prevent the sealing of Theurgy to wipe the world clean. To stop him, the three sages combine their magic to summon Ninaruru, Artemis, and Aiwass and prepare to challenge the empowered Zoroa with their own ultimate power.

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