Neo-New Sawatari-san!

Player Information

Name: Gale

Contact: emexceedschangezearu @ Plurk, PM @ abysmalactor

Age: 26

Other Characters: n/a

Character Information

Name: Shingo Sawatari

Canon: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V

Canon Point: Episode 73, after losing to Yugo

Age: 14

History: wiki link

Personality:

On the surface, Shingo doesn't appear to be a very endearing person. He's prideful, far too self-absorbed to see things rationally, completely and utterly shameless, and apparently all too willing to indulge in each and every one of these negative traits to their extreme. He's the type who would insist on having the best of the best-hell, his very first deck is completely made out of Foil Rare cards (the very first and only time that real life rarity collectibles like Foil Rare cards show up in any of the Yu-Gi-Oh series)-and be utterly obnoxious over anything that would delay or deny his getting such things. And he's the type of person who will almost never shut up: he will talk on and on about himself/his accomplishments/his father/anything that offended him, to the point where he gives away vital information that should really be kept secret at several points during the plot. He's what you would get if you had an antagonist completely and utterly convinced that he is the protagonist of the story despite the universe being constantly out to prove him wrong, and the combination of all these traits makes him come off as an irritating, bumbling twat only around for comic relief.  Yet despite this, he's able to put on a performance that engages and enthralls the audience (both in-universe and out) and make an Entertainment Duel that rivals even the actual protagonist himself.

Throughout the series, Shingo's excessive ego is evident. While he chooses to distract Yuuya with flattery in order to lead him into a trap to steal his Pendulum Cards, the flattery is vague enough that it could refer to anyone. The words he chooses, "that chosen people are the ones who can use rare cards," end up being his own self-flattery when he eventually twists the dialogue to refer to himself rather than Yuuya. His method of getting Yuuya to the location includes him boasting about how he's a top student of LDS and how his father will soon be mayor, and that it's his influence that would help get a more suitable venue for a display of Pendulum Summoning. When he finally does snatch the Pendulum Cards, he decides to keep them himself instead of giving them to Reiji Akaba like he was contracted to, saying that a rare person like himself is the one chosen to use rare cards like the newly-created Pendulum Cards. Even after losing the duel and the Pendulum Cards, his pride has not deflated one whit, and once he's made himself a new deck to combat them he goes straight back to flattering himself as the "perfect duelist." Even when going to another dimension entirely, Shingo is quick to flaunt his father's influence and his own reputation, despite neither actually having any effect whatsoever in the new area.

Shingo is also a fan of theatrics and overly dramatic scenarios (especially if they're centered around him!). Even before he starts to follow Yuuya's idea of Entertainment Dueling, he already adds a narrative to the duels he participates in. When he forces Yuuya into a duel after stealing his Pendulum Cards, he forces Yuzu and the You Show students into danger through a specifically chosen Action Field, designating them the role as damsels in distress that Yuuya has to save. When Yuuto challenges him to another duel in Yuzu's place, Shingo immediately relegates him to the role of a knight coming to save her. After he loses said duel, he exaggerates the severity of his injuries in order to stir up more of a scandal, which garners enough attention for both his father and Himika Akaba to focus directly on Yuuya as a suspect. When he does actively follow his own Entertainment Dueling style, the addition of a narration into his duels continues on and ends up defining said style. His rematch with Yuuya in the Junior Youth Cup starts out with a self-centered narrative of revenge that evolves into a good-natured battle between equals that draws the audience in and leaves everyone cheering at the end. Meanwhile his duel with Yuugo in the Friendship Cup is one of the few first round duels that generates positive reception for the Lancers despite his losing, because his "Sawatari Theater" gimmick ends up creating a story between his and Yuugo's monsters about how his monsters are attempting to flee from and slay the fierce dragon facing them down. Many of his out-of-duel interactions involve Shingo boasting about himself, his ability, or his father in dramatic fashion, and it's admittedly very rare when he's not speaking in some exaggerated manner.

Overall, Shingo's demeanor makes him look like an intolerable idiot to many others of the main cast, when he is anything but (an idiot, that is. he is still rather intolerable). His initial trap for Yuuya was decisively calculated to emotionally compromise him in multiple ways: to make Yuuya more desperate in his attempts to save them, and picking a field that generated Action Traps to disrupt Yuuya's Action Card-reliant style of dueling. When he lost to Pendulum Cards, his new deck was created to help clear out spell cards before they could be used, thereby eliminating them as a threat (unfortunately, Yuto's deck was built specifically to take advantage of destroyed spells and traps which led to yet another overwhelming defeat on his end later). After receiving a (neo) new deck to test out LDS-manufactured Pendulum Cards, one would expect someone like Shingo to overly abuse the new power to the point of impracticality. Instead he plays skillfully, even avoiding Pendulum Summoning at one point despite the audience wanting to see it because a simple normal summon would be tactically better. During the Battle Royale, duel feeds were cut off to hide the fact that Academia was disrupting the tournament. Shingo was sharp enough to not only realize that something was up, but that  Reiji and the other higher ups in LDS knew something, and so he was able to take action (with the help of his father's influence, of course!). On being separated when they travel to the Synchro Dimension, and Serena goes off challenging duelists in the area, Shingo is the one calling her out on dueling so intensely and not actually trying to look out for Yuzu like she claimed. And in his duel against Yuugo in the Friendship Cup, Shingo actually manages to outmaneuver and outplay the other duelist, and it's only Yuuya syncing up with Yuugo to guide him into picking up an Action Card that saves Yuugo from loss.

For all his repetitive idiosyncrasies, Shingo isn't a stagnant character like he appears to be. He is a character that is capable of and has actually experienced growth. Even after his first duel with Yuuya, Shingo already starts unconsciously mimicking some of his mannerisms and catchphrases to the point where even his lackeys comment on it. By the time he actually does get to have a rematch in the Junior Youth Cup, Shingo's able to join in on Yuuya's Entertainment Duel and even set his own pace for it, and by the end of the duel was genuinely having fun standing with him on an equal footing. While he does express frustration at losing the duel, and initially acted like a typical sore loser; he does acknowledge Yuuya's revelation that the audience was cheering for both of them in time to lose with good grace, even to the point where he claimed he'd be happy to have a rematch with Yuuya any time. When Shingo finally manages to force his way back into the plot and even jumps in to save the other characters, he then proceeds to subsequently have his debut play backfire on him. Not only that, but Gongenzaka actually makes a play that forces Shingo to pass his Pendulum Cards to Shun, which would allow the other duelist to make the game-winning play. Instead of getting annoyed or furious about it, Shingo actually goes along with the team play with only a comment on the move. His most recent duel against Yuugo parallels his earlier duel with Yuuya in highlighting his character growth, and how easily Shingo steps into the Entertainment Duel style now. If anything, he does that better than Yuuya's first round performance in the Friendship Cup. The final touch to tie up the parallels is that Shingo realizes he managed to get the audience to cheer for him despite his loss, and he motions for Yuugo to acknowledge that the audience is cheering for both of them, just as Yuuya did for Shingo before. This final gesture before he's carried off to the underground dueling arena perfectly captures just how much he's changed as a duelist.

Even with all these little nuances to show he's more than he appears, however, in the end he really is Neo-New Sawatari Shingo, the greatest wienerlord ever seen this side of Standard. Don't forget it!

(He certainly won't let you.)

Abilities: He's a fairly capable duelist, so he's a decent planner and strategist. As an Action Duelist, he's also somewhat athletic, at least enough to do some acrobatic maneuvers (with or without the aid of his monsters). However, he's not the most athletic of them, as he's shown clearly getting winded by arduous tasks that don't strain others of his caliber nearly as much. Other than that, he's your typical fourteen year old.

Strengths: cunning, theatrical, competitive, analytical, particular

Weaknesses: hotheaded, shameless, materialistic, obsessive, easily surprised/careless

God/Shinki: Shinki

Why?: Because it’d be hilarious to see how Sawatari’s massive ego-complex functions without a memory as to why he’s so great (i.e. mayor dad, impeccable dueling skills, etc) and give him some room for his more serious tendencies to happen as opposed to always making him comic relief fodder.

Top 3 Choices:

God Type:

Cause Of Death: The elevator taking Sawatari down to the Underground ends up failing part of the way down and crashes, leading to his death.

Vessel: “Kamaitachi,” or wind weasel - he’s going to take the form of a tiny humanoid weasel that’s just about big enough to perch on someone’s shoulder. Also he’s dressed in Mabuta no Haha, for some reason.

Name Location: On top of his right eye. He likely has to wear some sort of eyepiece to hide it.

Power: His power is purely analytical - he can read the winds to gauge a situation (whether it’s through scents, or presence, or the like), but because of his melodramatic tendencies his predictions will have a high chance to be a little too overblown and specific, and he won’t react well to any abrupt changes. It fits him because Sawatari has proven on multiple occasions that he can do well in theory, and can easily devise a strategy to counter what his opponent can do as shown by how he creates and adapts to using multiple decks throughout his time in the show. However, again, he doesn’t react well to when his “scenes” are disrupted, so this precognitive sense is one that’s easily taken advantage of.

Writing Sample

Sample: link

Other

Anything Else?: n/a