absolutely obsessed with the way mokuba's voice and face changes when he talks to his brother and the way seto immediately caves to him
I know this is an old post, but I finally got around to this episode on my second rewatch of Yugioh in Japanese and I just gotta scream about how much I adore this moment
I know 4Kids apparently hated Mokuba back in the day, but in the original, Mokuba is one of the most important characters narrative and structure wise and pretty much consistently gets well-written and purposeful characterization that's crucial to the plot and the Kaiba' half of the big picture. Even if it is at times more on the subtle side, pretty much no moment with this boy is wasted (which you sure as hell can't say about some of the other core cast members)
And this moment is one of my absolute favourites. It does so much in such little time.
1. Establishing for good that Mokuba has 3 different voices - His regular voice, his vice president voice, and his little brother voice - and that Mokuba makes active choices when to talk in which voice to get the result he wants.
2. The show is, in my opinion, never holding back on this truth, but I wanna state it here: when he's grown up, Mokuba is absolutely gonna out-businessman Seto. They already run the Kaiba Corporation together with Mokuba being even younger than Seto when he started and yet already in charge of Tournaments, talking people (especially Dualists) into working with them, how to improve their public Image, and even medical emergencies. All fields that fundamentally require a high level of emotional and strategic intelligence and Seto is at all times in this show (from beginning to end) characterized to have 100% trust in Mokuba handling these roles as competently as Seto his' (and thats not even mentioning every other business-related field Mokuba is on-screen shown to be competent and trusted in).
And this moment right here further established HOW Mokuba operates so efficiently as Vice President. Including getting SETO to do what he wants, but doing it in a transparent way that doesn't insult or undermine his big brother.
Cause by all means, on the surface level, Mokuba here is not voicing a logical argument. Of course HE - Kaiba Mokuba, Kaiba Corporation's Vice President and Battle City Commissioner - doesn't fucking need an earned duelist ID card to enter that Battle Ship. He's literally one of the two people whose presence and privileges over everyone else is a given even if he weren't in any special role and just there to watch his brother duel.
Only that this is not an illogical and naive argument in the way Mokuba means it.
What he does is as Vice President sternly questioning why their employees are acting like the Gang (who is close to the Kaiba Brothers and helped and saved them and the Corporation at several occasions) doesn't have special privileges like HIM - not him and Seto, Mokuba is talking for himself and doesn't push Seto's boundaries - in their own rights, something the employees nervously want to question further because SETO constantly goes on about how he doesn't even like these "inferior" people.
So for the employees, both of their equal bosses' (which the Kaiba Brothers are, they are addressed, spoken to, and obeyed with the same level of respect) interests are clashing.
Mokuba says the Gang has upmost special privileges as their trusted friends while Seto always says that they are beneath him and doesn't want them around.
Of course the employees are confused, nervous and wanna question if Mokuba is sure about this because they know that Mokuba will normally not challenge Seto's decisions and personal preferences like that. Especially not in public and in a business related situation.
So Mokuba, like the brilliant cookie he is, turns around to Seto and says with his little brother voice "Right, Nii-sama? :D". Because Mokuba knows that, first of all, Seto absolutely tends to cave at whatever his little brother wants, and second of all, Seto doesn't ever (intentionally) undermine him as Vice President (Seto honestly just 100% believes that he and Mokuba are always on same wavelength due to Mokuba carrying their dynamic's emotional stability, so he sometimes doesn't communicate important information or intentions on HIS side bc he assumes Mokuba already has (or will have) him figured out) and doesn't tolerate Mokuba being undermined in his position by others either.
And THAT is what makes this moment so brilliant for me. Mokuba was written to approach it this way because it ensures Seto that he (Mokuba as Vice President) may be challenging Seto's status quo about how the Gang is treated within their company, but the two of them are still THE team and Seto gets to have the last word and set new boundaries to reestablish his comfort around the gang and not have his his authority as President questioned or undermined in front of everyone.
This moment is so unbelievably good. It's A+ characterization for Mokuba and brilliantly showcases how he develops and operates as Vice President and even challenges Seto's established orders, but does so in a way that makes his intentions and methods transparent to his big brother so Seto is comfortable in letting this change happen because Mokuba ensured that Seto knows that he's still 100% on Seto's side, so no need to lash out in fear or insecurity. Things just needed to start to change and Mokuba will help him do that.
And can I just emphasise once more how much I love how blatantly transparent Mokuba is here in his method to get his way? The way Mokuba talks to the employees in his serious Vice President voice and then turns around to Seto to ask for his okay in a cute little brother voice?
Because the show DOES characterize Mokuba to be VERY good at getting people to do what he wants. Most prominently shown in the Grand Prix arc in season 5 where Mokuba tells Seto to leave convincing the Gang to join the tournament to him, followed up by Mokuba being explicitly written to strategically withhold information in his conversations with the Gang so they can't tell him "No" and only give them said information bit by bit (or not at all because he still needs them clueless to blindside them with something later)
Information including Yugi not being meant to actually participate in the tournament, but being the opponent of the duelist who won against everyone else (meaning it was MOKUBA'S idea to take advantage of Yugi's titel as King of Games to draw a massive amount of public interest)
AND not giving awkward and shy Yugi a heads up about being asked to step in front of the crowd and say some words as King of Games and the Tournament's honoured "End Boss" because again, letting Yugi know would have risked Yugi saying "No" and that's not something the Kaiba Corporation could afford in that moment (don't worry, Mokuba quickly catched on and saved Yugi from being publicly embarrassed because Mokuba is an A+ host, too).
(Let's also quickly acknowledge for a sec that Mokuba just casually used Seto's most bitter rival to the Kaiba Corporation's benefit like it's a regular Tuesday. That kid is scarily competent as business man holy damn lol Mokuba, you can't DO THAT to people omfg xD)
With my point being that this moment right here in Battle City depicts Mokuba as being unwilling to pull any of these manipulation methods on Seto. With Seto, Mokuba is blatantly transparent about his methods' intentions so Seto can be in on it, even it it means that Mokuba's method itself looks more childish and illogical to an outsider. Mokuba doesn't care because for him, him and Seto being a team is more important and Seto shouldn't have to fear that his little brother is going to take advantage of the ocean-deep soft spot he has for him to get his way within the company's hierarchy or for anyone else's sake on Seto's expense.
Catch me crying that this is happening a couple of episodes before the Virtual Arc 🫠
Mokuba really is endlessly clever. I mean he's Seto's brother, what do you expect?
But I really see his cleverness and business sense as a kind of learned survival from the environment he grew up in. I suspect his - and Seto's - adulthood will be spent trying to figure out who they are underneath the skills they've been forced to acquire.
