List of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters

This is a listing of major characters from the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (known outside of Japan as simply Yu-Gi-Oh!) anime series.

The Japanese names in Western order (given name before family name) are listed first and the English anime names are listed second, when applicable.

Yugi Mutou
Yugi Mutou (武藤 遊戯) is the protagonist of the first series. Yugi is especially adept at playing Duel Monsters. He wears the Millennium Puzzle, one of the seven Millennium Items and an ancient Egyptian artifact holding the spirit of the pharaoh around his neck. When Yugi is playing a game or under stress, the spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle surfaces and the 3,000-year-old (5,000 in the English anime) pharaoh, Yami/dark Yugi takes partial or complete control of the body.

Katsuya Jonouchi
Katsuya Jonouchi (城之内 克也) is Yugi's best friend and the deuteragonist of the series. Initially nothing more than a street thug and former bully, Joey is touched by Yugi's behavior towards him and they become loyal friends. Yugi's grandfather tutors him in how to play Duel Monsters, and he is initially rather unskilled at the game, only making his progress through additional help from Yugi, but he gains a knack for it, and eventually goes on to place second in the Duelist Kingdom Tournament in season 1. Joey is shown to have a very kind soul and eager willingness to help those he loves, but he also demonstrates a near lack of modesty and can be rather rash at times, making him a source of comic relief.

Seto Kaiba
Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人) is the tritagonist of the series. He originally appeared as a mysterious man with no specific agenda, but later is seen as somewhat helping them. He believes that he is the best card duelist in the world, and that Yugi is just second rate. He does not believe in the magic of the Millennium Items in the English dub, but is a believer and far more amiable in the Japanese show. Despite his age, he is the president of Kaiba Corporation, the biggest game company in the world and the most influential in the United States.

Anzu Mazaki
Anzu Mazaki (真崎 杏子) is Yugi's childhood friend, an extremely supportive girl with a lot of spirit for her friends. Although her dueling ability is decent and she used to defeat Joey in school (before Solomon Muto tutored Joey), Téa is not a game-player and her ability is well below that of Yugi. She is athletic and secretly works at a fast food restaurant to save money; her dream is to attend dancing school in New York City.

Hiroto Honda
Hiroto Honda (本田 廣戶) who is in class 1-B at Domino High School, is a boy who became a friend of Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, and Téa Gardner. In the manga, Honda starts out as Joey's street thug henchman and also at first has a crush on Melody Nosaka, who, however, rejects him. Tristan is also very intelligent, and a sharpshooter; Tristan says in the manga that when he was a kid, he could shoot a 100-yen piece with a BB gun from 50 feet. In the first series anime, Tristan is the head of the clean-up committee at school and often cites his duty while doing things, which causes him to annoy his friends. Tristan often argues with Joey. In Battle City, Tristan develops a crush on Joey's sister, Serenity Wheeler (Serenity Wheeler), and in the second series anime he fights with Ryuji Otogi (Duke Devlin) over her. Tristan uses a Military Deck, using Warriors and Machines related to the military theme. Prior to the duel with Rex Raptor, Joey discovers Tristan's cards, including a Lava Battleguard. Joey has a card called Swamp Battleguard, which works well with Lava Battleguard. Joey uses them in the duel against Ryuzaki, and they defeat Ryuzaki's second strongest dragon. Tristan uses his own strategy when he dueled against Nessbitt of the Big Five.

Honda is voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu in the first series. In Duel Monsters he is first voiced by Takayuki Kondo, then by Hidehiro Kikuchi from Episode 53 onwards. In the English dub, he is voiced by Sam Regal for the first ten episodes and Frank Frankson from episode 11 onwards.

Ryou Bakura
{{nihongo|Ryou Bakura|獏良 了|Bakura Ryō|extra=Bakura is a transfer student who becomes friends with the main characters (in this case, mainly Yugi). Bakura, the holder of the Millennium Ring, has a dark half dwelling inside of him, much like Dark Yugi/Yami. This dark half Dark Bakura/Bakura intends to collect all of the Millennium items, and quite clearly does not care for anyone who might get in his way. At the end of the story, its revealed that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring is the evil being Zorc.

Marik Ishtar
Marik Ishtar (マリク・イシュタール) in the original Japanese anime and manga, is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the second Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series (known in Asia as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters). The heir to a clan of tombkeepers, Marik's hatred of the nameless Pharaoh compels him to disregard his duties and turn to a life of evil, eventually developing a split personality. He serves as the third antagonist Yugi faces in the manga, and is the core antagonist in the second and third seasons of the anime.

Marik's family had guarded the tomb of the pharaoh for generations. Marik holds the Millennium Rod and with his Ghouls organization (called the Rare Hunters in the English anime), he wished to obtain the three Egyptian God Cards, and with them, unlock their power for himself so he can gain the title of "Pharaoh" and set his family free of their burden. In the Japanese anime, Marik wished to get revenge on the ancient Pharaoh's soul for killing his father, as he was made to believe. Marik's backstory differs between versions, and in the English anime his desire for revenge is replaced by a desire for the pharaoh's power. Marik's mad quest to defeat Dark Yugi made a target out of his friends, and after sending numerous minions to defeat him that each failed, he brainwashed Yugi's friends and turned them against him. When this failed, Marik entered the Battle City finals. During this, his adopted brother Rishid (Odion in the English anime) fell unconscious, and Marik's sadistic alter personality Dark Marik (Yami Marik) took control of his body. The alter ego proceeded to defeat Mai, Bakura and Jonouchi before facing Yugi. In their final match, Yugi and Rishid were able to restore a reformed Marik to his body, leaving Dark Marik to fade away as Marik overcame his hatred for Yugi. Fulfilling his duty as tombkeeper, Marik returned to Egypt with his family to start a new life. Marik appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, along with Yami Marik. Marik first appeared when the player found him in the game, as he named himself "Namu". But later revealed that he is Marik and turn into Yami Marik after defeat Odion. Unlike in the anime, the only way to make Yami Marik fade away is to beat him with the God Cards in the Shadow Game. Yami Marik is the final boss in the game. Marik is voiced by Tetsuya Iwanaga in the original version and by Jonathan Todd Ross in the English adaptation, while Akiko Kimura does his voice in flashbacks.

Ghouls
The Ghouls (グールズ) are a group of card thieves and duelists that serve Marik. By stealing and selling rare cards from duelists worldwide, the Jackals provide Marik with a large supply of minions, rare cards and money. Numerous members of the Ghouls are shown, the Rare Hunter (レアハンター), Pandora (パンドラ), the Pantomimer (パントマイマー), Mask of Light (光の仮面) and Mask of Darkness (闇の仮面), and various other unnamed duelists. Following Marik's defeat they are never mentioned again and are presumably disbanded, though the "lost souls" of two of them (the Rare Hunter and Pandora) are seen in the realm of lost souls when the Pharaoh goes to see Yugi in the Waking the Dragons arc. In the English adaptation they are voiced by David Willis (Rare Hunter), Sam Riegel (Arcana), Jimmy Zoppi (Lumis) and Tony Salerno (Umbra).

Noah Kaiba
Noah Kaiba (海馬 乃亜) is Gozaburo Kaiba's biological son. Noah's role is exclusive to the second series of Yu-Gi-Oh!, specifically of the Virtual World story arc, where he functions as the primary antagonist.

As the heir to Kaiba Corporation, Noah's father makes him study heavily in the arts and academic subjects, but unlike Seto Kaiba, Noah enjoys it and is eager to please his father. When Noah is approximately ten years old, he is in a car accident and is fatally injured. In the hope of saving his son, Gozaburo Kaiba uploads Noah's mind onto a supercomputer just before Seto is adopted.

Gozaburo adopts Seto with the intent of using his body as a replacement for Noah, but eventually Gozaburo realizes Noah's intellectual growth has stagnated, and thus decides to make Seto his heir. When Seto took over Kaiba Corporation, Gozaburo, in frustration and defeat, uploads his own mind into Noah's virtual world. Six years later, Noah takes his revenge on Seto. He kidnaps Seto and his passengers on Seto's Kaiba Craft III during the semi-finals of Battle City, hoping to take one of the passenger's bodies, preferably Seto's. With the help of his father, Noah locks Seto and the others in his virtual world and duels with them for their bodies.

Noah then attempts to eliminate them and takes on Seto himself by dueling him. However, this plan backfires when Seto gains the upper hand, and Noah thus uses Mokuba, who he has brainwashed, as a human shield to block Seto's attack. Noah turns both Mokuba and Seto to stone and claims he has won but an outraged Yami Yugi takes over for Seto and combines their decks to defeat Noah. Also, during Yami Yugi and Noah's duel, for each turn Yami Yugi doesn't wipe out all of Noah's Life Points, one of Yugi's friends get turned to stone although their spirits live on. With Gozaburo's role in the events revealed, Noah scatters the group to the parts of a virtual city and takes Mokuba's body for himself. Noah leaves the virtual world and attempts to blow up the computer mainframe with everyone else's minds connected to it, killing them all. At the very last minute, Noah remembers how Mokuba had called him brother and still loved him even after he tried to kill him and Seto. He redeems himself by reversing the plan, giving Mokuba back his body, getting everyone out of the virtual world to safety, and saving them from being blown up. However, he is unable to stop the explosion from occurring, and Gozaburo's mind is destroyed. In the English dub it was implied during episode 121 that Noah saved his mind to a backup file, but it is possible that his mind was destroyed along with Gozaburo's.

He is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama in the Japanese version and by Andrew Rannells in the American/English dub.

Gozaburo Kaiba
Gozaburo Kaiba (海馬 剛三郎) is a rich, powerful business man who is the adoptive father of Seto and Mokuba Kaiba. Gozaburo is the original founder and CEO of Kaiba Corporation, which initially began as a successful arms manufacturer, and a world famous chess champion. It was this particular skill that Seto appealed to when Gozaburo visited the orphanage where he and Mokuba were living, as he challenged Gozaburo to a game of chess, with the stakes being the adoption of the two brothers. Seto won, and Gozaburo adopted Seto and Mokuba, but proved a cruel father, forcing Seto to spend all his time studying in order to groom him as his new heir. Gozaburo's plans backfired, however, when he gave Seto a 2% share of KaibaCorp stock as a test, challenging him to pay back ten times the amount within a year. Seto managed to acquire the money within a single day, and together with the board of director, secured majority control of the company stocks, overthrowing Gozaburo and installing himself as the new CEO of KaibaCorp.

In the original manga, this was the end of the story for Gozaburo, who committed suicide by defenestration upon being dethroned. The Duel Monsters anime expanded on his story greatly, however, revealing that he had a biological son named Noah, who was fatally wounded in an accident. Although his body was lost, Gozaburo was able to save Noah's mind by digitizing it into virtual reality, and it was revealed that he did the same to himself after being deposed by Seto when Noah, acting under his orders, captured Seto, Mokuba and their friends in the midst of the Battle City tournament. Facing off against Seto in a Duel Monsters match while attempting to regain his power in the real world through manipulation of military satellites, Gozaburo was defeated and ultimately destroyed when Noah betrayed him and orchestrated an explosion that destroyed both them and the virtual world. Gozaburo's most powerful card was "Exodia Necross".

In the Japanese versions, Gozaburo is voiced by Unsho Ishizuka in the Toei anime, and by Tetsuo Komura in Duel Monsters series. In the American English dub of Duel Monsters, he is voiced by David Willis.

Dartz
Dartz (ダーツ) is the former King of Atlantis and the head of the organization Paradius. After being forced to kill his wife who had been turned into a monster by the orichalcos, Dartz was himself corrupted, turning his right eye green. Dartz led the forces of the Orichalcos against his father, daughter and the forces of the Dominion of the Beasts, but was defeated. Dartz then spent the next ten thousand years collecting souls to revive the Leviathan, which he felt could be easily revived using the soul of Pharaoh Atem.

After having his henchmen steal the Egyptian God cards, Dartz has them duel the three duelists chosen to wield the powers of the Knights of Atlantis against him. After their initial failures, Dartz summons an army of Orichalcos Soldiers to steal souls from around the world in a final effort to acquire the energy he needs. When finally confronted by Atem and Seto Kaiba at his temple, Dartz duels them, but is defeated by Atem using the powers of all three of the Knights of Atlantis. However, upon having his soul taken, Dartz's own soul is enough to revive the Leviathan. After a battle between the Leviathan and the forces of the Duel Monster realm, it is killed again and Dartz is released from the influence of the orichalcos, going peacefully to the afterlife with his father and daughter.

Dartz uses an Orichalcos deck, focusing on the Seal of Orichalcos and strengthening it using Orichalcos Deuteros and Orichalcos Tritos. His key monster, Orichalcos Kyutora, absorbs battle damage and transforms into Orichalcos Shunoros, a monster based on the dogū which has ATK equal to the damage that Kyutora absorbs, allowing it to become stronger the longer Kyutora is on the field. Dartz's offense is provided by Mirror Knight Calling and the Mirror Knight Tokens it summons, who have power equal to the power of the monster they battle and are immune to destruction, allowing them to destroy any monster, no matter how powerful.

He is voiced in the English version by Wayne Grayson and in the Japanese original by Yuu Emaou.

The Three Swordsmen
The Three Swordsmen (though this name is not mentioned in the English version) are the three henchmen that serve under Dartz's orders.

Alister
Alister (アメルダ) is Dartz's second henchman. Alister lived in a town in the middle of a war as a child, leading a resistance group with his brother after their parents disappear. When his brother is lost during an attack on the town, Alister blames Kaiba Corporation, who financed the weapons in that attack. (In the Japanese version, both his parents and brother were killed.) In reality, the weapons were funded by Dartz. To this end, Alister targets Seto Kaiba, but when Alister learns of his bond with his own brother Mokuba, he becomes more sympathetic and willingly loses the duel to ensure Mokuba will not have to bear losing his brother as he did. Kaiba, also understanding Alister's grudge towards him now, carries his body to safety after the duel, and Alister is restored when Dartz is defeated.

Alister uses a Toon deck while pretending to be Maximillion Pegasus, relying on the Toon monsters and exploiting their various powers such as direct attacks. When revealed, Alister changes to a Pyro deck relying on Gorlag and its power to revive the monsters it destroys. In his second duel, he uses an Army deck of Machine monsters like KC-1 Krayton and Spell Canceler, highlighted by Air Fortress Ziggurat and the Toy Robot Tokens it spawns, both of which are based on an action figure his brother owned. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Ted Lewis.

Rafael
Rafael (ラフェール) is the strongest of Dartz's henchmen and is the duelist meant to defeat Atem and Yugi Mutou. Rafael once had a family that was killed while on an ocean cruise, leaving him stranded on an island (in the English version, the family was still alive, but have completely forgotten about him). With only his dueling deck to keep him company, Rafael developed a deep bond with them before he was rescued. Bitter at the world, which he now saw as evil and corrupted, Rafael willingly turned to Dartz and joined the organization with the promise of cleansing the world of darkness. Rafael later discovered that Dartz was the captain of the cruise the night his family was killed, and willingly sailed into the storm that wrecked their ship in order to orchestrate Rafael's turn to evil. Rafael is the only duelist to lose a duel without losing his soul to the orichalcos, being able to purify his heart of its influence during the duel and free himself of its hold on him. After confronting Dartz about what he has learned about the orichalcos' powers, he falls victim to him and loses his soul, but is restored when Dartz is defeated.

Rafael uses a Guardian deck, relying on monsters that can only be summoned by having an appropriate Equip card on the field. Because of his bond with them, Rafael cannot bear to have his monsters destroyed and thus utilizes several cards to protect them, often at the cost of his own well-being. His main monster, Guardian Eatos, can be summoned without Tribute with no monsters in his Graveyard, and gains power the more monsters there are in the opponent's Graveyard. Under the dark influence of the orichalcos however, Rafael plays Guardian Dreadscythe, an evil incarnation of Eatos that grows in strength the more monsters Rafael sends to the Graveyard, leading to him sacrificing all of them due to the orichalcos tainting his judgment. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Marc Thompson.

Valon
Valon (ヴァロン) is Dartz's third henchman. Abandoned at a young age, Valon was cared for by a nun at a church and protected him from a local street gang. However, when the nun was killed in a fire and the church burned down, Valon assaulted the gang and was sent to juvenile prison. While there, the headmaster taught him how to duel and had him take the souls of the other inmates. Afterwards, Dartz recruited Valon into his service. What Valon was not told was that the headmaster worked for Dartz, and Dartz was the one who set the fire that killed the nun. The story of the nun and the street gang is cut from the English anime, and Valon's story of being in prison is mentioned to be caused by his penchant for street fights which Dartz had framed him for.

Valon develops feelings for Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku in the Japanese version) when she joins the organization, thus making his grudge with Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jounouchi in the Japanese version of the anime) a personal one because he interprets her feelings towards Joey as romantic, the existence of which go unconfirmed. Mai does not return his feelings as he would have liked and tells him that Joey is to be her opponent, not his. After dueling and losing to Joey, Valon has his soul taken, but his body is recovered by Rafael and taken to safety, and he is restored along with Mai's when Dartz is defeated.

Valon uses an Armor deck, relying on monsters that attach to him as physical pieces of futuristic armor. Although they have limited physical strength, when combined their special abilities gives the appearance of a single, high-powered monster with powers such as immunity to destruction, destroying monsters, and inflicting direct damage. Valon summons his Armor pieces en masse using various Armor Gravitation cards, making the Seal of Orichalcos pivotal to his strategy by allowing him to summon more pieces than normal. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Marc Thompson.

Akhenaden
Akhenaden (アクナディン) was the guardian of the Millennium Eye and the brother of King Ahknemkhanen. As they grew up, he was secretly jealous of his brother's position as pharaoh, considering himself the true power behind the throne. He ordered the massacre at Kul Elna so he could create the Millennium Items to defend his brother's kingdom, keeping the slaughter a secret. To protect his family from anyone seeking revenge, he abandoned his wife and his son, Seto. Seto later entered the pharaoh's court as a priest, but Akhenaden kept their relationship a secret. Seeing how his son had flourished after he abandoned him, his desire became to see Seto achieve power. Despite these aspirations, he is still shown to be kind, as when he opposed Seto's plan to round up and imprison criminals for their Ka.

When Bakura attacked the kingdom and revealed he had escaped the massacre at Kul Elna, Akhenaden was hunted down and eventually cornered in his sanctuary. Bakura used his newly acquired Millennium Ring to influence Akhenaden's mind, and the priest became convinced Seto should overthrow the pharaoh and take control of the kingdom. He told Seto this, but the loyal Seto refused. In preparation for Seto's rise nonetheless, Akhenaden kidnapped a young girl named Kisara, whose spirit contained a powerful White Dragon. Akhenaden later returned the Millennium Items to the Millennium Stone and began Zorc's resurrection. Zorc then used his power to transform Akhenaden into the Great Shadow Magus. Akhenaden continued to try to persuade Seto to rebel and become pharaoh, going as far as to kidnap him so the Pharaoh and the other guardians couldn't interfere. But when Kisara convinced Seto to completely turn his back on him and stay with the Pharaoh, Akhenaden went mad. He attacked the pair, sealed Kisara's spirit in stone with her dragon and entered Seto's body to take control of him. Kisara's spirit protected Seto, however, and Akhenaden was destroyed.

In the original manga, the battle between Atem and Seto was the one in which Atem sealed his soul into the Millennium Puzzle, along with the soul of Akhenaden, which was possessed by Zorc. In the Memory World Dark RPG, Akhenaden's possessed soul aids Bakura in trying to kill Atem and resurrect the full soul of Zorc, most notably by turning back time when Bakura is defeated, and later animating the memory version of the Great Shadow Magus. Akhenaden's mummy is kept at Bakura's side by the RPG table, and it's skull is split open after Zorc's defeat, showing that Zorc's darkness has vanished completely. Akhenaden's purified soul is later seen in the afterlife as Atem walks through the door to it; his appearance being that of how he looked before he created the Millennium Items.

In the English adaptation he is voiced by Pete Zarustica.

Zorc Necrophades
The Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades (大邪神 ゾーク・ネクロファデス) (Zorc the Dark One in the English anime) is a destroyer of worlds that was born when the Millennium Items were originally created (in the English anime, he is the creator of the Shadow Realm, and therefore likely predates the items, though they were made using his power, and in the manga he was said to be born of the darkness in humans' hearts). He is summoned by Akhenaden by the power of the Millennium Items and attacks the kingdom, dispatching Atem's advisers. In the RPG-style game that Dark Bakura has set up based on ancient Egypt, Zorc is the game's final boss, and if he wins in the past, history would effectively be altered so the present never existed. However, with Yugi's help Atem defeats him and stops him from destroying the past. In the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, it is said that Dark Bakura was an entity made of both Zorc and Thief King Bakura's souls.

Mokuba Kaiba
Mokuba Kaiba (海馬 モクバ) is Seto Kaiba's younger brother.

In the manga, Mokuba is characterized as a spoiled brat, always trying to trick Yugi Mutou to get back at him for defeating his older brother. In the first series of the manga Mokuba tries to defeat Yugi before Kaiba has a chance and challenges Katsuya Jonouchi and Yugi to a Roulette of Death and poisons Jonouchi. Yugi eventually wins and saves Jonouchi. Mokuba is another good game player who specializes in video games and Capsule Monster Chess ("Capmon"), but is not as good of a gamer as his brother. He is so committed to avenging his brother's humiliation that he sometimes resorts to extreme measures, such as having his friends brandish an Uzi, a knife, and a stun gun in one manga chapter to coerce Yugi to play "Capmon" with him. In the second series of the anime, Mokuba is eternally devoted to his brother Seto Kaiba and is constantly by his side. He is not as violent as his manga counterpart, and is not committed to avenge Seto's defeat. He befriends Yugi's group after they rescue him, thus making him the warmer, more sociable one of the two brothers.

Mokuba has a long history of being kidnapped and abused. In the anime, at a young age, Mokuba and Seto are orphaned (their actual surnames unknown). Seto's mother dies when Mokuba is born, and their father dies in an accident when Seto is eight. Their relatives use up their inheritance and leave them at the orphanage. When the head of Kaiba Corporation, Gozaburo Kaiba, arrives at the orphanage to perform a publicity stunt, Seto sees the chance to challenge him to a game of chess, with Gozaburo forced to adopt Seto and Mokuba should he win. Mokuba was five at the time, while Seto is ten in the manga and Japanese anime, and twelve in the English anime. Seto wins, and Gozaburo is forced to adopt them. Mokuba plays a vital role in Seto's later bid to take over the company, possessing the vital 2% of the company that Seto uses to vote Gozaburo out of power. In the second series anime, Mokuba is entrusted with Kaiba Corp when Seto goes away on a journey, and is kidnapped by Pegasus as part of a plot to take over the company. Mokuba escapes and briefly attempts to sabotage Yugi's efforts to confront Pegasus in revenge before being recaptured. He is eventually rescued when Yugi defeats Pegasus. Mokuba spends Battle City and the KC Grand Championship as an enforcer of security and rules while Seto is otherwise busy. In the third season, he is kidnapped by Noah, who brainwashes him to hate Seto, and later captures his body for his own uses.

In the Toei anime series, he is voiced by Katsue Miwa. In Duel Monsters, Mokuba is voiced by Junko Takeuchi and by Tara Sands for season one to four then by Carrie Keranen from season five onwards in the English adaptation.

Sugoroku Mutou
Sugoroku Mutou (武藤 双六) is the grandfather of Yugi Mutou, who gave him his famous Millennium Puzzle as a present, which he had recovered from the tomb of the Pharaoh Atem in his youth. He owns the Kame Game shop, where Yugi and his friends get several of the games they play, and he taught Katsuya Jonouchi how to play the Duel Monsters card game. His fondness for games is even evident in his name: "Sugoroku" is a Japanese game similar to Backgammon. Sugoroku is the reincarnation of Ancient Egyptian vizier, Siamun Muran, right hand man to the Pharaoh Atem.

In the original manga, Sugoroku's ownership of the rare Blue Eyes White Dragon card led him to be targeted by Seto Kaiba, who stole the card from him and duelled Yugi with it. Yugi reclaimed the card, but Kaiba, seeking revenge, forced Sugoroku to the dueling stage of his KaibaLand amusement park and defeated him, tearing up his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon card. While simply holding the character hostage in the Toei anime, in the original manga, Kaiba took his revenge even further by subjecting Sugoroku to virtual reality torture in order to force Yugi to enter "Death-T", a series of games and amusement park rides intended to kill him, in exchange for Sugoroku's life. In the end, Yugi defeated Kaiba and Sugoroku was saved. The Duel Monsters anime reimagined and combined these two separate events into one, as Kaiba did not steal the Blue Eyes White Dragon, but kidnapped Sugoroku as his first move and defeated him in a duel, refraining from any further torture.

Things only got worse for Sugoroku when Maximillion Pegasus removed his soul from his body as a means of forcing Yugi into competing in his tournament. The original manga, he trapped Sugoroku's soul in a video camera, while in the Duel Monsters anime, he was imprisoned within a Duel Monsters card. Sugoroku was freed when Yugi defeated Pegasus at the conclusion of the tournament, and continued to dispense support and advice for Yugi in his subsequent battles and duels. The Duel Monsters anime gave Solomon Muto the chance to get back into the action during the KaibaCorp Grand Prix, which he participated in under an alias. In the Japanese version he uses "Mask of Rock", while in the English dub of the series, he uses the alias "Apdnarg Otum", "Grandpa Muto" spelled backwards. He duels Joey using an ancient-themed deck with a lot of rock monsters; Joey defeats him. Sugoroku reappears in episode 75 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where he is kidnapped by Thunder (Ikazuchimaru) and Frost (Kourimaru). He also appears in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters OVA, as a colleague of Alex Brisbane.

Sugoroku is voiced by Takeshi Aono for the Toei anime series, Tadashi Miyazawa for the second series in Japanese, while Maddie Blaustein handled his voice for the English adaptation, with Marc Diraison voicing him for Episode 199. Following Blaustein's death in 2008, Wayne Grayson provided his voice for Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time.

Ishizu Ishtar
Ishizu Ishtar (イシズ・イシュタール) is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Asia). In the English adaptation she is voiced by Karen Niel.

Marik's elder sister, Ishizu became a museum curator in order to lure Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba to her in order to keep Marik from fulfilling his goals. To aid her, she holds the Millennium Tauk (Millennium Necklace in the English anime) that has the power to foresee any future events (but not very well). With her powers of prediction, Ishizu has Seto set up the Battle City tournament to lure out Marik. In hopes of saving her brother, Ishizu enters the semi-finals with the intent to face Marik and stop him herself. However, she is defeated by Kaiba, and accompanies the other remaining finalists to see the events played out, dispensing advice to Yugi when she can and working to undermine Dark Marik's schemes. She is also the reincarnation of Isis, one of Atem's Guardians who held the Millennium Necklace. After the Pharaoh recovers his memories and his name in the Egyptian Arc, Ishizu, Marik and Rishid lead Yugi and his friends to the tomb of the Pharaoh in order for Pharaoh Atem and Yugi to have a final duel in order to determine if the spirit will move on to the afterlife or remain in the present.

Rishid Ishtar
Rishid Ishtar (リシド・イシュタール) is Marik's adoptive brother and the second-in-command of the Ghouls. Abandoned as a child, Rishid was taken in by Marik's mother prior to his birth. However, his father never accepted him as a suitable heir and treated him as a servant rather than a son. When Marik was born, his father told him to take care of his younger brother and Rishid stood by Marik's side, even when he turned to a life of evil. Marik had Rishid pose as him during Battle City, but he fell unconscious. He later awakened during the final battle between Dark Marik and Yugi, and helped Marik overcome his dark alter-ego and take back control of his body. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Michael Alston Bailey.

Maximillion Pegasus
Maximillion J. Pegasus, known in Japanese versions as Pegasus J. Crawford (ペガサス・ジェイ・クロフォード), is the eccentric American Chairman of Industrial Illusions (shortened to I²) and the creator of the game of Duel Monsters (Magic and Wizards in the Japanese manga). As the creator of the card game Duel Monsters and the discoverer of their ancient Egyptian roots, Pegasus often plays a key role throughout the anime due to his extensive knowledge of the game and its mysterious origins. He has a habit of calling Yugi Mutou "Yugi-boy" and Seto Kaiba "Kaiba-boy" in the Japanese and edited English versions of the anime and manga. This trend continues in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, calling Jayden Yuki "Jayden-boy." Interestingly, in Japanese versions of the manga and anime, Pegasus often uses English words interspliced with Japanese, including English words like "goodness gracious!" and "snap!" and using the English pronoun "you" instead of Japanese second-person words. His speech is also unique in terms of pronunciation. In both English and Japanese he tends to elongate vowel sounds, especially near the end of a sentence.

Pegasus quickly establishes himself as the series' first villain in the second episode of the first season, challenging Yugi Mutou to come to his tournament Duelist Kingdom and face him, taking the soul of his grandfather Sugoroku Mutou to ensure this. In the manga, Pegasus locked Yugi's grandfathers soul into a video tape, rather than actually stealing it. Throughout the battles to get to Pegasus's castle, Yugi is seen talking to his grandfather through the use of a camcorder. Pegasus also kidnaps Mokuba Kaiba to convince his brother Seto Kaiba to come as well. Through a series of flashbacks, Pegasus is revealed to have had a lover, Cyndia (Ceceilia in the English anime) who died just after their wedding (details regarding if they were actually married vary from medium to medium). In the manga, she died after her 17th birthday, before they even had a chance to get married. Pegasus desires to acquire Millennium Items, already having the Millennium Eye, and combine them with Kaiba Corporation's virtual technology to bring her back to life. As Yugi owns the Millennium Puzzle, he is Pegasus's primary target. Pegasus also plans to acquire Ryo Bakura's Millennium Ring. {In the manga his motives were slightly different. It is implied that the whole duelist kingdom, in addition to his deal with The Big Five, was to gain Kaiba's duel disk prototype, and create a solid vision hologram, of his lover. Yugi finds out about this as they leave, by one of Pegasus's bodyguards telling them, as he hands back the prototype to Yugi, to give back to Kaiba.}

Also requiring the Kaiba Corp shares that Mokuba owns to make his plans come to fruition, Pegasus uses the Millennium Eye to take his soul, and eventually takes Kaiba's in a preliminary duel in order to demonstrate his power to Yugi. Despite Pegasus's powers, Yugi defeats Pegasus after forcing him to agree to restore all the souls he has taken if he loses; using the power of his Millennium Puzzle, Yugi is able to overcome Pegasus's mind-reading ability initially by switching 'places' with the spirit in the puzzle as they duel, thus preventing Pegasus from working out their strategies as Yugi is technically developing two separate plans of attack at once, switching minds each time he makes a move to catch Pegasus off-guard, although the spirit is later protected by Yugi's friends after the game moves into the Shadow Realm and the weaker Yugi passes out from the strain. Dishearted but still alive, Pegasus keeps his word and restores the Kaibas and Sugoroku, but is approached by Ryo Bakura. Having his own Millennium Item, the Ring, and under its control, Bakura duels Pegasus in a Shadow Game, defeating him easily (although it is implied that this was because Pegasus was weak from dueling Yugi). Pegasus is stripped of his eye and is seen by Yugi being carried away by his bodyguards. In the manga when Yami Bakura strips Pegasus of his Millennium Eye it is implied that he actually dies, which cause the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! R. Afterwards, Yugi and his friends discover Pegasus's diary and his well-meant (if poorly executed) goals. In the manga, Pegasus explains his motives himself, immediately after his duel with Yugi.

Pegasus reappears in the fourth season of the second anime. Knowing the truth behind the Paradias Organization (Doma in the Japanese version), Pegasus attempts to alert Yugi and Kaiba to their evil intentions, but is captured by Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku in the Japanese version), who works for the company. Pegasus then leaves behind a hologram explaining the company's Atlantean origins and their desire to use a mysterious magic called Orichalcos to destroy the world by reviving an ancient Leviathan. He is eventually freed when the Paradias leader Dartz is defeated. Pegasus makes two final appearances in the final episodes of the series, providing narrative commentary on a synopsis of the events of the series. In an extended version of the final credits seen only in the Japanese anime, Pegasus makes a business deal with Zigfried von Schroeder. He also appears later on in Yu-Gi-Oh GX. In Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time, he is killed by Paradox by a bullet through the head in order to prevent the creation of Duel Monsters, but this is averted when Yugi, Jaden Yuki and Yusei Fudo travel back in time to keep him from being killed.

Pegasus is best known for his Toon deck, which includes unique cards that are unavailable to other duelists in the anime. While the effects of Pegasus' Toons vary from duel to duel, in general they are immune to monster attacks other than those of other Toons. He also uses Relinquished, Thousand Eyes Idol and their fusion, Thousand Eyes Restrict, cards he created exclusively for his match with Yugi that have the ability to absorb opposing monsters and reflect their attacks. Beyond this he uses a wide variety of Spell and Traps that disable an opponent's monsters like Gorgon's Eye and Toon Briefcase.

Although the series establishes Pegasus J. Crawford & Maximillion Pegasus as his official name, he has often taken several pseudonyms; most of them being in the video games. In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, the character representing Pegasus within the virtual world of the game is named Pegasus J. Kroitzel. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 8: Reshef of Destruction), Pegasus takes an alias. In the Japanese version, he takes the name Taiyō Tenma (天馬太陽). In the English version, he takes the name Sol Chevalsky.

On the CD, Yu-Gi-Oh! Music to Duel by, he sings "Face Up, Face Down"

Pegasus is voiced by Jiro Takasugi in the original and by Darren Dunstan in the English adaptation.

Mai Kujaku
Mai Kujaku (孔雀 舞) was raised in a wealthy household, but was barely acknowledged by her relatives. While working as a blackjack dealer on a cruise ship, Mai discovered the Duel Monsters card game, and challenged rich men into dueling her. Although a powerful, successful duelist thanks to her Harpie-themed deck, Mai had no true friends, and dueled simply for fame and money. She is very attractive, which she uses to manipulate men. When Mai joined the Duelist Kingdom tournament to seek the three million dollar prize money, she met Yugi Mutou and his friends and steadily forged a true friendship with them after they rescued her Star Chips from the player Panik to help her stay in the tournament. Mai subsequently faced Yugi in the semi-finals, but ultimately chose to surrender to him when she decided she could not win. In Legendary Heroes she appeared as the champion in a town in the virtual world, and she reveals that she was paid by the suits of KaibaCorp (the Big 5). She took away the Niwatori that was the prize of a duel between her and Joey, and eventually joining then on their quest to rescue Kaiba. During the battle with the Big 5 and their F.G.D., her only Dragon-type monster, Harpies Pet Dragon was destroyed and so she lost in that duel. Before all of that, when they heard a girl screaming in the labyrinth of the virtual world, she said that Joey does everything to get a girl's attention and that he finally realized I'm way out of his league, even though this is proven to be her own lie, since she felt something for Joey as well.

Mai returned during the Battle City tournament, where she encountered Shizuka Kawai, Hiroto Honda and Ryuji Otogi fleeing from the villainous Rare Hunters and helped them to safety. Mai also successfully made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament where she faced Yami Marik. While she managed to hold out on her own, while Yami Marik subjected her to a torturous Shadow Game she eventually managed to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra, sadly she couldn't control the card since she lacked the knowledge on how to activate the card which was once more summoned to Yami Marik's side. Although Jonouchi and Yugi were able to save her life, she was still the loser of the duel and as punishment had her mind stolen away by Marik, which would lead to her eventual death. Mai was saved when Yugi defeated Marik in the tournament final, and she departed to find her own way in life.

Although Mai does not appear afterwards in the manga, in the anime she takes part in the Paradias arc. Varon/Valon, a fellow member of Dartz's group is responsible for introducing her to Dartz, and develops feelings for Mai that she slightly reciprocates. Therein, Mai joins Dartz as a duelist, because she has been having nightmares about Marik and believes she must defeat Joey to put her past behind her. Joey however quits the battle to save her and she realizes that was not what she wanted, and rebels against Dartz. She is subsequently defeated by Rafael, and her and Varon's souls, along with all the others who lost their souls to the Orichalcos, are restored when Dartz is defeated.

In the 4Kids version, Mai's past as a blackjack dealer was omitted and both she and her Harpie Ladies' appearance were censored to remove sexual references. Mai is voiced by Haruhi Terada in the Japanese series and originally by Megan Hollingshead, then Bella Hudson (Season 4) for the English adaptation, and finally Alyson Johnson for the 4Kids Uncut adaptation.

Rebecca Hawkins
Rebecca Hawkins (レベッカ・ホプキンス) is the granddaughter of a friend of Solomon Mutou, believing Muto stole a card from him. Dueling Muto's grandson Yugi to get it back, Rebecca and Yugi play a duel identical to the one Muto played with Rebecca's grandfather years ago. After Yugi surrenders, Rebecca's grandfather explains he gave Solomon his card as a gift. Yugi, then hands Rebecca the "Ties of Friendship" card that he won at Duelist Kingdom as a token of his appreciation. Rebecca later returns in the Waking the Dragons arc of the anime (where she develops a crush on Yugi, much to Anzu's dismay) and remains part of the main cast until the end of the KC Grand Championship arc. In her first duel, Rebecca uses a Shadow Ghoul deck focusing on sending monsters to the Graveyard to power up Shadow Ghoul. In the KC Grand Championship she uses a Life Gain/Fire Princess deck focusing on raising her Life Points with Marie the fallen One, Cure Mermaid, and Guardian Angel Joan while damaging her opponents with her Fire Princess all while summoning powerful dragon monsters. Rebecca is voiced by Kaori Takagami in the Japanese version and Kerry Williams in the English adaptation.

Shizuka Kawai
Shizuka Kawai (川井 静香) is the little sister of Katsuya Jonouchi, separated from him when their parents divorced and her mother took custody of her. When Shizuka was diagnosed with the steady onset of blindness, Jonouchi entered the Duelist Kingdom tournament and successfully obtained the prize money to secure the operation that would save her sight. Shizuka underwent the operation in the early days of the Battle City tournament, and was looked after by Hiroto Honda (who developed a crush on her) while Jonouchi dueled. Unfortunately, Jonouchi fell under the mental control of the evil Marik Ishtar and nearly died when he was pulled under the ocean during a deadly duel with Yugi, but was saved when Shizuka removed her bandages and dived into the water to save him. Joining Jonouchi and his friends in the final leg of the tournament, Shizuka became friendly with Mai Kujaku, whom she looked up to, and Ryuji Otogi, who vied with Honda for her affections.

For Shizuka's brief appearance in the Toei anime, she was established as simply being ill, rather than going blind. Her doctor, Kekeru Goyu, slacked off on her care, causing Nurse Miyuki Sakurai to get angry at him. After he fires Miyuki for hitting him, Yami Yugi defeated Dr. Goyu in a Shadow Game.

The Duel Monsters anime gave Shizuka a chance to duel when, in the midst of the Battle City tournament, she and the rest of the cast where trapped in a virtual reality world by Noah Kaiba. Facing off against the fourth member of the Kaiba Corporation's "Big Five" alongside Honda and Ryuji, Shizuka employed a deck consisting of female monsters, such as Saint Joan and the Forgiving Maiden, but proved less than skillful at the game. However, she grew more motivated after Honda forfeited the duel himself to protect her from certain defeat and, with Ryuji's assistance, ultimately defeated their opponent. She is voiced by Michiko Neya in the Toei anime, Mika Sakenobe in the original NAS anime, and by Lisa Ortiz in the English Adaptation.

Ryuji Otogi
Ryuji Otogi (御伽 龍児) is the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters. In the series, Otogi invented the Dungeon Dice Monsters game. Otogi also owns a game shop called "Black Crown" that rivals Solomon's Game Shop. (In the manga, the game shop is owned by Otogi's father, "Mr. Crown".) Otogi challenges Yugi Mutou to a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters despite the fact that Yugi does not know how to play it. In the anime, Otogi does this because Yugi defeated Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese versions), the creator of Duel Monsters, smashing Otogi's dreams of successfully making Dungeon Dice Monsters go worldwide. Otogi believed Yugi cheated, and did not deserve to be the King of Games. After defeating Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) in a duel, Otogi was able to force Yugi to duel for Jonouchi's freedom, under the condition that if he lost, Yugi would have to hand over his title as King Of Games to Duke, and swear never to play Duel Monsters ever again.

Yugi, however, manages to win, using some help from a laptop computer (which Otogi included in all Dungeon Dice Monsters set-ups, supposedly to provide help to new players and give accurate statistics) Otogi realizes that Yugi is not a cheater, and becomes friends with Yugi. Otogi also received information from Pegasus's company that they decided to spread Dungeon Dice Monsters. In the manga, Otogi is forced to have a Dungeon Dice Monsters duel with Yugi by his father, Mr. Crown, who was cursed by an ancient "Reaching the Goal" dice game he once played with Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Moto). Otogi's father wanted revenge on Sugoroku by doing to his grandson what Sugoroku had done to him. He also wants his son Ryuji to become the new owner of the Millennium Puzzle. During the course of the game, Otogi's father smashes the Millennium Puzzle to pieces. Although Yugi succeeds in defeating Otogi, Otogi's father grabs Yugi and the Puzzle and takes it to a secret room where he attempts to piece the Puzzle back together again. However, doing this causes him to hallucinate about being trapped in a maze, and in his confusion he knocks over a candle, setting the building on fire. Yugi is forced to solve the Puzzle on his own in the burning building, and though he does, he faints, but is rescued by Jonouchi. Otogi saves Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler), whom he develops a crush on, and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) from the Ghouls (Rare Hunters) in Battle City. Otogi also seems to think that Mai Kujaku (Mai Valentine) seems hot after meeting her. In the Virtual Realm Arc, Otogi duels against Nesbitt of the Big Five. He helps Jonouchi when he collapses from his duel with Marik Ishtar, and cheers for Yugi. In the anime, he also helps Yugi, Jonouchi, and Seto Kaiba against the Doma Organization in the Waking the Dragons saga and also tags along during the KC Grand Prix and Ceremonial Battle sagas.

Otogi's first deck has no specific strategy, as it contained random cards from the Pharaoh's Servant booster packs. The monsters he had weren't very strong, and there were mostly machines monster cards. However, he used cards like Limiter Removal and Fairy Meteor Crush to enhance his monsters. Otogi's Dungeon Dice Monsters dice are in some way similar to a dueling deck. Otogi's second deck is based around monsters from his Dungeon Dice Monsters game, such as, Battle Ox, Yaranzo, Ryu Kishin, Orgoth the Relentless, and his other Dungeon Dice Monsters, and has other dimension themes along with dice cards (such as Summon Dice, as revealed in episode 165 of the anime), similar to Jonouchi's gamble deck. In Duel Monsters, his Orgoth the Relentless has 2500 ATK, making it one of the strongest monsters in his deck.

He is voiced by Ryo Naito in the original and by Marc Thompson for the English adaptation.

Millenium World
During the Millenium World story arc, Yami Yugi journeys into his lost memories and meets old acquaintances from Ancient Egypt. The Sacred Guardians protect the seven Millennium Items with their lives and have to swear eternal loyalty to the Pharaoh(Atem/Yami Yugi).

Seto
Keeper of the Millenium Rod during Atem's reign. He is a past incarnation of Seto Kaiba and so they look alike. During Battle City, Kaiba has visions of moments of Guardian Seto's life.

Akhenaden
See Akhenaden

Mahado
Mahado or Mahad was the sacred member of Pharaoh Atem's counsel. He bears the Millennium Ring but lost the item to Bakura in a shadow duel. He states that he has been suppressing the evil of the Millennium Ring which it absorbed from the previous priest who wore it. His monster is the Illusion Magician, a monster which looks a lot like the Dark Magician but without a face. The Illusion Magician can cast spells such as spell binding circle. In the manga Mahado binds his 'ba' (soul) and 'ka' (spirit) just before he is killed and becomes the Dark Magician. Saying his soul is the Pharaoh's eternal servant. Later he saves Pharaoh from thief king Bakura and also states that he has learnt the magic of the afterlife giving him many new powers. Thief King Bakura also states that Mahado is a spirit sorcerer while they are fighting.

Shimon
Adivsor to the Pharoh. He resembles Yugi's modern day Grandpa.

Isis
Keeper of the Millenium Necklace during Atem's reign. She resembles modern day Ishizu.

Karim
Keeper of the Millenium Scale during Atem's reign.

Shada
Keeper of the Millennium Key during Atem's reign.

Mana
Atem's childhood friend. Apprentice sorceress to Mahad. She resembles the Dark Magician Girl.

Kisara
Kisara (キサラ) is the keeper of the Blue Eyes White Dragon in the Egyptian Memory arc. Her pale appearance is unusual, and she is mentioned as being from a "foreign country" in the Japanese anime. As children, Priest Seto saved Kisara from slave traders, and she repaid him by unconsciously releasing her dragon after the traders set fire to his village and killed his mother. Years later, Seto again stumbles across Kisara being stoned because of her white skin, blue eyes and white hair. Shada senses the power within her—which he deems "equal to that of the Egyptian gods"--and Seto takes her back to the palace, where he recognizes her as the girl he once saved.

Seto's father, Akhenaden, eventually tries to test Kisara's power by forcing her to fight in a battle with two other spirits (or "Ka"). Kisara, with no conscious awareness of her Ka, prepares herself to die. Although Seto ultimately interferes and saves her, both fall into danger, causing Kisara - out of fear for Seto - to finally release her dragon and save them both.

Later, Akhenaden explains that Kisara's Ka is unique, and that the white dragon - her Ka - has fused with her Ba, or her mind. Extracting her Ka would thus mean her death. However, Akhenaden, possessed by Zorc, encourages Seto to take it out, claiming that the power of the white dragon can surpass the enemy and even the Pharaoh's Three Egyptian Gods (Cards). If Seto can obtain it, Seto can become the new king. By this point, however, Seto has developed strong feelings for the girl, and he refuses. Akhenaden subsequently kidnaps Seto in an attempt to coerce him; Kisara runs to save him, and ultimately manages to break Seto free from Akhenaden's control. In anger, Akhenaden fires a blast of dark energy, and Kisara dies taking the blow meant for Seto. Her Ka is then sealed by Akhenaden into a stone tablet.

Distraught, Seto attempts to kill Akhenaden, only to have Akhenaden/Zorc take over his mind and force him to fight Pharaoh Atem. Kisara saves Seto once more by using her "light" to purge his father from his mind, promising him that her spirit would always guard his soul. Seto weeps in front of BEWD tablet, with Kisara's dead body in his arms; notably, this is the 'vision' that appears to Kaiba during his duel with Ishizu Ishtar.

Kazuki Takahashi has said that he originally planned for the story to have further explored the relationship between Seto and Kisara, but in order to meet a deadline these details had to be cut. According to Takahashi, Priest Seto's feelings for Kisara are the basis behind Kaiba's modern-day obsession with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Ushio
Ushio (牛尾) is a hall monitor at Domino High School who offers a paid bully protection service to Yugi after he is bullied by Jonouchi and Honda. Although Yugi refuses, denying that he has been bullied, Ushio beats up Jonouchi and Honda and demands that Yugi pay him a fee of 20,000 yen(about $230 American currency). With this act, Ushio became the first victim of Yami Yugi, who challenged Ushio to a shadow game. In the manga, Ushio is challenged to stab as many banknotes as he can with a knife, while in the Toei anime, the game involves scaling a building and trying to draw a playing card with a higher number. In both instances, Ushio loses after he tries to cheat, and Yugi subjects him to a penalty game. In the manga, Ushio goes crazy and thinks that a pile of leaves and trash is money. In the anime, Ushio imagines there are monsters coming out of a body of water about to eat him, and he is seen trembling and crying in front of the school, which results in him being taken to the hospital. He is mentioned and briefly seen, but not named, in flashbacks in the Duel Monsters anime, in which he is said to have been expelled after attacking Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Dan Green.

In the Japanese version of ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' anime, Ushio's given name is "Tetsu", as seen in his listing in Austin O'Brien's (Axel Brodie) database of Domino High School students. Another character named "Tetsu Ushio" (牛尾 哲) appears in the spin-off anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, of which his English name is Trudge. In this series, he is an officer for the Security Maintenance Bureau and has a rivalry with the show's lead, Yusei Fudo. This is the same Tetsu that appears in the manga.

Miho Nosaka
Miho Nosaka (野坂 ミホ) is a classmate of Yugi and his friends, the shy student librarian of the school, nicknamed "Ribbon" for the yellow ribbon she wears in her hair. She has only a small role in the original manga, where Hiroto Honda has a crush on her and attempts to pass a love note to her in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is intercepted by the wicked teacher Miss Chono, but her attempts to embarrass Honda are foiled by Yami Yugi. Unfortunately, when Honda asks Miho out directly, she turns him down flat.

Miho's role in the story was greatly expanded for the Toei anime, where she was voiced by Yukana Nogami. Here, she is on the main group of Yugi's friends, and come across as a shallow, somewhat air-headed girl, who nonetheless cares deeply about her friends, and is not afraid to confront people who endanger them. She exploits Honda's crush to get gifts from him, but she ultimately falls for Ryo Bakura. Miho is not part of the "jigsaw puzzle love note" storyline, which is redone to focus on Jonouchi and a girl named Mayumi, but Honda still has a crush on her. Miho was name-checked in episode 168 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where her name appears on the top of a list that Axel Brodie was looking at.

Ryota Kajiki
Ryota Kajiki (梶木 漁太) is an ocean-themed duelist appearing both in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs. Introduced in the Duelist Kingdom arc, he duels Yugi Mutou and is defeated. In Battle City he duels Katsuya Jounouchi, and his backstory is further expanded. It is revealed that Kajiki's father was a great fisherman that was lost at sea. In the English anime, Mako believes his father is alive and duels to raise money to fund a trip to search for him; in the Japanese anime, Kajiki duels in his father's memory. Jounouchi defeats Ryota in their duel. Then Mako gives Joey Wheeler two of his cards, Floating Whale Fortress and The Great Fisherman. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Andrew Rannells.

Bandit Keith Steve Howard
Keith Steve Howard (キース・ハワード), better known as Bandit Keith (バンデット・キース), is a character in the anime and manga series Yu-Gi-Oh!. He is an American Duel Monsters champion. Bandit Keith first appears as one of many entries in Duelist Kingdom arc in the anime. In flashbacks, it is revealed that he was once the champion of Duel Monsters in America, until he dueled Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese anime and manga) at the American Championship tournament. Keith, shocked and humiliated at being defeated, became depressed over the defeat and seeks to defeat Pegasus and reclaim his lost glory. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Ted Lewis.

Along with three duelists (in the Japanese second series anime, they are named Takaido, Satake, and "Ghost" Kozuka; in the English dub, they are named Zygor, Sid, and Bonz, respectively; Takaido and Satake are unnamed in the manga). Keith was responsible for giving Bonz some cards to enhance his zombie deck, but ultimately, Bonz loses to Jonouchi. After sealing Yugi and his friends in a cave following Bonz's loss, Keith turns on his allies and steals their star chips, giving him enough to qualify as a finalist. Keith later duels Jonouchi in the semi-finals of Duelist Kingdom. To ensure that he wins, he sneaks into Jonouchi's room the night before and steals his entry card. Jonouchi is nearly disqualified, but Mai Kujaku lends him her entry card. Although caught off guard by Jonouchi's entrance, Keith duels him, and cheats during the duel by pulling cards from beneath his wristbands. Jonouchi still wins, and afterwards, Keith claims that Jonouchi should be disqualified since the card he used to enter the semi-finals wasn't his. However, this backfires on Keith, as Jonouchi questions how he knew that Jonouchi used someone else's card to enter. Pegasus steps in, explains how Keith stole the card, and also calls Keith out for cheating during play, and has him thrown out by his security guards. In the manga, Keith responds by threatening Pegasus with a knife. Pegasus uses his Millennium Item to "turn" Keith's hand into a gun, and the hand "shoots" Keith. In the anime, Keith holds Pegasus at gunpoint and demands he hand over the tournament's prize money. Pegasus calmly moves his foot to hit a hidden button. The floor around him falls away, and Keith plummets down a tunnel into the ocean.

In the second series anime only, Keith is found afterward by Marik Ishtar and takes control of his mind to force the pharaoh to reveal himself during Yugi's duel with Keith (in the English dub, he needs to beat Yugi in a duel to gain the powers of the Millennium Puzzle) during the duel Keith uses a much more powerful machine deck. However, Yami Bakura breaks Marik's control over "Bandit" Keith using his Millennium Ring. Believing the Millennium Puzzle to be controlling him (in the English dub, Marik briefly controls him), Keith shatters the puzzle. Due to Marik's attempts to control him, Keith goes berserk and accidentally sets fire to the warehouse the duel was located in before fleeing. He is never seen again, though his "lost soul" is seen in the realm of lost souls when the pharaoh goes to see Yugi in the Waking the Dragons arc.

Dinosaur Ryuzaki
Dinosaur Ryuzaki (ダイナソウ竜崎) is the runner-up of the Japanese Duel Monsters tournament, and is good friends with the champion, Insector Haga. His nickname is derived from his fondness for dinosaur-themed deck of cards. In the first season, he is defeated by Jonouchi and has his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, a card that would become a trademark for Jonouchi, taken as a result. In the anime-only "Waking the Dragons" story arc, Ryuzaki and Haga were plotting for revenge against both Yugi and Jonouchi, but their souls were captured by Gurimo. They were restored upon Gurimo's defeat, but after watching Yugi lose to Rafael, they decided to work with Dartz in order to gain the power to defeat their rivals, Yugi and Jonouchi, as well. They lost anyway, and their souls were taken, until Yugi freed them by defeating Dartz. Ryuzaki appears briefly in the 1999 film by Toei Animation, where he is shown being defeated by Seto Kaiba. He is voiced by Kin Fujii, then later by Yuichi Nakamura (Episode 131 onwards) in the original version, and by Sam Regal, then later Sebastian Arcelus (Season 4) for the English adaptation.

Insector Haga
Insector Haga (インセクター羽蛾) is the Japanese champion of Duel Monsters, known for his deck of mainly insect-type monsters and insect-related magic and trap cards. In the English adaptation he is voiced by Jimmy Zoppi.

After defeating his friend Dinosaur Ryuuzaki to claim the championship, Haga was invited by Pegasus J. Crawford to join his Duelist Kingdom tournament. On the boat ride, Haga approached Yugi Mutou and asked to see his Exodia the Forbidden One cards, only to throw them off the boat in order to destroy his major source of competition. Ironically, Yugi was then responsible for Haga's dismissal from the island, after defeating him in the first duel of the tournament. When Haga joined the Battle City tournament, rather than face Yugi again, Haga targeted Katsuya Jonouchi, planting a Parasite Paracide card in Jonouchi's deck in hopes of sabotaging him, only to wind up defeated once more.

Haga did not reappear in the original manga after this, but continued to star in the Duel Monsters anime alongside Ryuzaki. Having lost much of their popularity after the Battle City tournament, the pair wandered Domino City, where they were ambushed by a man wielding the power of the Orichalcos. Although their souls were stolen by this man, Yugi saved them by defeating the villain in a duel, only to have them join up with the master of the Orichalcos, Dartz. Haga proceeded to challenge Yugi to another duel in order to steal his soul with the Seal of Orichalcos, but was again defeated and lost his own soul to the seal. Ryuzaki suffered the same fate, but both were freed when Yugi defeated Dartz. Subsequently, the duo attempted to enter the KaibaCorp Grand Prix tournament, but were defeated by Siegfried Von Schroider. At the end of their rope, the pair's last attempt at revenge saw them try to steal Yugi's Egyptian God cards, but instead, they accidentally stole a bag containing his Millennium Items. As they examined their prizes, they were attacked by Yami Bakura, who stole the Items and regained his Millennium Ring back from them. In the final moments of the last episode (in a scene cut from the English anime), Haga and Ryuzaki are seen duelling one another.

Leon von Schroeder
Leon von Schroeder (レオンハルト・フォン・シュレイダー) is Zigfried von Schroeder's younger brother. While Zigfried ran Schroeder Corporation, Leon took up Duel Monsters and dueled in several tournaments under the alias of Leon Wilson (レオン・ウィルソン) to avoid his family. When Zigfried found out, he entered Leon in the KC Grand Championship alongside himself as a back-up if he should be discovered. After Ziegfried is kicked out of the tournament and Leon duels Yugi Muto, Zigfried tricks him into playing Golden Castle of Stromberg, giving Leon an unfair advantage in the duel and releasing a computer virus into Kaiba Corporation's duel systems. Through the efforts of Kaiba and Yugi however, Leon is defeated and the virus is halted.

Leon uses a Fairy Tale deck of monsters like Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb. His tactics are extremely balanced and diverse, ranging from powering up his monsters to special summoning multiple monsters at once. He is voiced by Seiko Noguchi in the original and by Andrew Rannells in the English adaptation.

Zigfried von Schroeder
Zigfried von Schroeder (ジークフリード・フォン・シュレイダー) is the CEO of Schroeder Corp, a long-time rival to the Kaiba family and Kaiba Corporation. When Zigfried and Seto Kaiba become heads of their respective family companies, both of them attempt to create holographic systems for Duel Monsters. Both succeed, with Zigfried's invention being the Holographic Duel Box Room System (Like the one featured in the manga), but Kaiba markets and patents his first, leaving Zigfried to fall into ruin. In the anime, Zigfried joins the KC Grand Championship to discredit Kaiba and claim revenge. Although Zigfried uses a variety of computer viruses to attempt to destroy Kaiba Corporation's computer systems, Kaiba is able to halt them all and expels Zigfried from the tournament.

Zigfried uses a Valkyrie deck based around Wagner's Ring Cycle. By combining his Goddess cards Urd, Verdande and Skuld with Nibelung's Ring, Zigfried is able to control what cards his opponent draws and destroy any monsters that might be used against him before they are summoned. His signature move is the Ride of the Valkyries card to summon his Valkyrie monster en masse for victory in a single unified strike. He is voiced by Ikue Ohtani and in English localizations by Oliver Wyman.

Kuriboh
Kuriboh is a monster that recurs in the decks of the main characters of most Yugioh series, often acting as a deus ex machina in certain situations.

Anubis
Appearing only in the second film, Anubis (アヌビス) wants revenge on Yami Yugi and awakens after Yugi Mutou solves the Millennium Puzzle. Pharaoh Atem had defeated Anubis a long time ago, yet Anubis re-appears to face Yugi Mutou. Anubis possesses the cards Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia, which can be merged into Theinen the Great Sphinx. In the Japanese version of the movie, Anubis wants revenge by using the King of Light (Kaiba) to defeat the King of Darkness (Dark Yugi) in order to revive Anubis, the King of Destruction, and then use Kaiba to become the new king and rule the world. However his plan is cut short by Yugi and he is finally killed by Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. Since he has never shown in the anime or seen in the Dawn Of The Duel arc, he is considered a non-canon character (Kazuki Takahashi designed Anubis, but never used him in the manga). Anubis is voiced by Scottie Ray, and by Kouji Ishii for the Japanese version.

Paradox
Appearing only in the third film, and the second part of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Season 4 (in a flashback), Paradox (パラドックス) is a Turbo Duelist who travels across time and space to face Yugi Mutou, Jaden Yuki and Yusei Fudo. He appears in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time as the main antagonist who is trying to destroy the history of Duel Monsters in order to save his own time, but ends up causing more damage to the time-line than expected. He starts in Yusei's time, stealing Stardust Dragon and turning it into a Malefic monster. Then, he travels back in time to Jaden's time to steal Cyber End Dragon and Rainbow Dragon, but he is intercepted by Jaden and attacks him with Stardust Dragon. Jaden is almost killed by this attack, before Yusei and the Crimson Dragon appear from Yusei's time to save Jaden. Afterwards, Paradox travels further back, into Yugi's time and attacks Pegasus with Cyber End Dragon, presumably killing Pegasus and Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku Mutou, while managing to steal the Blue Eyes White Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon. However, Yusei, Jaden and Yugi travel back thirty minutes before Paradox's attack and intercept him. Yusei, Jaden, and Yugi try to persuade Paradox to stop, but he refuses. A 3-on-1 duel commences. After Yami, who takes over for Yugi in the duel, rescues Stardust Dragon for Yusei and destroys Malefic Paradox Dragon, Paradox special summon Melefic Truth Dragon and fuses himself with his own monster before, he is defeated by Yusei's Stardust Dragon, thus reversing all the damage he caused to the timeline. Following his defeat, Paradox returns to his own time to ponder all the events he caused, and if it was worth it.

In the duel, Paradox plays a Malefic deck made up of Malefic monsters that must have their corresponding original monster cards removed from the game in order to summon them. His deck also has Malefic World, which allows him to have more than one Malefic monster in play at a time and attack as well, and is supported by many trap cards that help the deck show its power.

Paradox is voiced by Atsushi Tamura and Sean Schemmel in the English dub.