List of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters

Template:Overly detailed

The major characters of the manga in their high school uniforms. Left to right: Hiroto Honda, Katsuya Jonouchi, Yugi Mutou (Dark Yugi), Anzu Mazaki, and Ryo Bakura.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! manga series, the first Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series (known outside of Japan as simply Yu-Gi-Oh!) features an extensive cast of characters created by Kazuki Takahashi. The series takes place in a fictional city in Japan called Domino City, in which most of the characters that appear in the series originate. Many plot elements are also influenced by Egypt and Egyptian mythology, and as such, Egyptian characters also appear within the story.

The original manga of Yu-Gi-Oh! tells the tale of Yugi Mutou, a timid young boy who loves all sorts of games, but is often bullied around. One day, he solves an ancient artifact known as the Millennium Puzzle, causing his body to play host to a mysterious spirit with the personality of a gambler. From that moment onwards, whenever Yugi or one of his friends is threatened by those with darkness in their hearts, this "Dark Yugi" shows himself and challenges them to dangerous "Shadow Games" which reveal the true nature of someone's heart, the losers of these contests often being subjected to a dark punishment called a "Penalty Game". As the series progresses, Yugi and his friends (Jonouchi Katsuya, Anzu Mazaki, Hiroto Honda, Miho Nosaka (in the 1998 Toei Anime), and later Ryo Bakura) learn that this other Yugi inside of his puzzle is actually the spirit of a nameless Pharaoh from Egyptian times who had lost his memories. As Yugi and his companions attempt to help the Pharaoh regain his memories, they find themselves going through many trials as they wager their lives facing off against others that wield the mysterious Millennium Items and the dark power of the Shadow Games.

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

Protagonists

Yugi Mutou

Main article: Yugi Mutou

Yugi Mutou (武藤 遊戯, Mutō Yūgi, Yugi Muto and pronounced "Moto" in the English anime) is the main protagonist of the story. He wears the Millennium Puzzle (千年パズル, Sennen Pazuru), one of the seven Millennium Items and an ancient Egyptian artifact holding the spirit of an ancient gambler. When Yugi is playing a game or under stress, he becomes possessed by the 3,000-year-old (5,000 in the English anime) spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle, known as Dark Yugi, changing his personality to a cold and confident gambler. Initially, Yugi could be described as soft-spoken, timid, meek, and shy, but as the series progresses, his character develops to the point where he has a much bigger presence and becomes more outspoken. He fears the other personality inside him at first, however, as the narrative progresses, he grows a strong bond with his other self and considers his other soul a close and valuable friend. One defining character moment for him was when he defeated an antagonist without Dark Yugi's help, Ryuji Otogi, in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters (DDD in the manga) under bleak circumstances, proving that he is truly worthy of being the Millennium Puzzle's wielder.

Yugi's main defining trait in the manga is that he has an extreme fondness for games of all kinds, willing to support competition to his grandfather's game store in order to buy the latest games (for example, Dungeon Dice Monsters or DDD in the manga). This goes with his name "Yugi", which means game, and the series title, which means "Game King" or "King of Games." In the second series anime, he's shown to be mostly fond of the Duel Monsters (Magic & Wizards in the Japanese manga) card game, being especially adept at playing it.

Living in a game shop, he owns a number of collectible games. In both mediums, he shares a M&W/DM deck with his other half, which focuses on earth and dark monsters with spell and trap cards to enhance them. Notable examples of his early monsters are Dark Magician, Gaia the Fierce Knight, Summoned Skull, Curse of Dragon, and Celtic Guardian. Later, during Battle City, Yugi acquires Dark Magician Girl, as well as his Magnet Warriors, Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, Buster Blader, Big Shield Guardna and Royal Knights, all of which become some of his most commonly played cards. During the Ceremonial Battle, the normal Yugi makes his own deck that is themed with toy monsters and level monsters that gets stronger as the game progresses, symbolizing his character growth throughout the story.

In the first series anime, Yugi is voiced by Megumi Ogata. In the Duel Monsters anime, he is voiced by Shunsuke Kazama. In the English dub, he is voiced by Dan Green.

Yami Yugi

Main article: Yugi Mutou

Dark Yugi (闇遊戯, Yami Yūgi, initially Yami Yugi or The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle in the English anime, later referred to as just The Pharoah) is the second personality inhabiting Yugi's body, a 3,000-year-old gambling spirit of an ancient Pharaoh who resides in the Millennium Puzzle. Like his host, he shares a fondness for games and gaming culture, often referred to in the manga as Game King (遊戯王, Yūgiō, King of Games in most English translations). He appears whenever Yugi's in trouble, challenging bullies and criminals to occult judgment games called Shadow Games (闇のゲーム, Yami no Gēmu) and enforces Penalty Games (罰ゲーム, Batsu Gēmu) to enact ironic justice (the default powers of a Millennium Item wielder). A defining character moment for him is when he decides to stop using them after his battle with Pegasus, who tells him that the Millennium Items contain an evil intelligence. In the second series anime, Dark Yugi comes off as a lot more merciful as a character because this subplot is written out. As the story progresses to the point where he's more than just a split personality, he becomes more and more independent of Yugi and develops a desire to find out who he is and where he came from.

Even compared to Yugi, he seems to have the most knowledge on gaming and gambling culture within the whole cast, noticeably when he explains Ryuji Otogi's bar bet games to the normal Yugi, who noticed that his games didn't feel like they were fair. In addition, the original manga's version of Dark Yugi seems to have somewhat of a dark sense of humor in his dialogue, even after his decision to stop inflicting Penalty Games. This personality trait is an aspect that is retained in his first series anime version. However, in the second series anime, Dark Yugi is somewhat more serious and loses much of the dark sense of humor he originally had in the manga.

Yugi and his friends eventually find out that he is the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh who has long forgotten his name. At the end of the manga, it's revealed that his name as Pharaoh was Atem (アテム, Atemu), who sealed his soul into the Puzzle along with the Great God of Evil, Zorc Necrophades.

In the first series anime, Dark Yugi is voiced by Megumi Ogata. In the Duel Monsters anime, he is voiced by Shunsuke Kazama. In the English dub, he is voiced by Dan Green.

Katsuya Jonouchi

Main article: Katsuya Jonouchi

Katsuya Jonouchi (城之内 克也, Jōnouchi Katsuya, Joey Wheeler in the English anime) is Yugi's best friend. Initially nothing more than a street thug and former bully; throwing Yugi's Millennium Puzzle piece into the swimming pool and disgusted at how unmanly he was. When Ushio decides to be Yugi's self-imposed bodyguard in order to extort money from him, he beats up Jonouchi and Honda, Yugi stands up for them, and it's then that Jonouchi realizes that he was jealous of Yugi's "treasure" all along, and later on that night, he retrieves the Millennium Puzzle piece and brings it back to Yugi's house, where Yugi completes it and challenges Ushio to the first Shadow Game of the series. Jonouchi is touched by Yugi's behavior towards him and they become loyal friends, forming his own "treasure."

Jonouchi is good at fist fighting and is usually able to take on people bigger than him, such as Bandit Keith (in the anime, this quality is underplayed and he gets beaten up by Bandit Keith instead). Though not exactly the best gamer in Domino, he develops a better liking to them thanks to Yugi, and he's managed to use his strong points to help Yugi come through in earlier story lines. Later on, he develops an interest in the Duel Monsters game, the latest fad at the time. Though unskilled at first, with Yugi's help, he trains for the Duelist Kingdom tournament in order to free Sugoroku's soul from the portable TV and save his sister's eyesight; progressively getting better throughout the series to the point where he could be called a match for Dark Yugi. Jonouchi is shown to have a very kind heart, selfless and caring, considerate, and eager willingness to help and save those he deeply cares for and loves, but he also demonstrates a near lack of modesty and can be rather rash at times, making him a source of comic relief. Jonouchi notes that, before he met Yugi, he was never really motivated for anything. As the story progressed, he learned to channel his anger into games instead of his fists.

In the anime, 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, fourth in Battle City, but is eliminated early on in the KC Grand Championship Tournament. In the English version of the anime, he has a Brooklyn accent.

He also appeared to have strong romantic feelings for his dear friend Mai Kujaku, and in the anime, he did everything he could to try to save her from the Seal of Orichalcos' evil in the Doma filler arc.

Anzu Mazaki

Main article: Anzu Mazaki

Anzu Mazaki (真崎 杏子, Mazaki Anzu, Téa Gardner in the English anime dub) is Yugi's childhood friend, an extremely supportive girl with a lot of spirit for her friends, who Yugi has a crush on. Anzu is not an avid game-player and her ability is well below that of Yugi, though she exhibits some knowledge of video game RPGs during the Monster World arc. Her dueling ability is decent and she used to defeat Jonouchi in school before he became a seasoned duelist.

She is athletic, has a strong school spirit, and secretly worked at a fast food restaurant called Burger World to save money; her secret dream is to attend a dancing school abroad in New York. When Yugi and Jonouchi find out about these secrets when they followed her (thinking she's taking part in Enjo Kosai), she gains a new respect for Jonouchi and her childhood friend, who are more than willing to support their dream and keep her secret. Shortly after, she is held hostage by an escaped convict, where she is saved by Dark Yugi challenging him to a Shadow Game involving taking the other person's life with a single finger, ending with the convict being lit on fire, saving Anzu (in the original anime series, the convict cheats and receives a Fire~!!! illusion Penalty Game). Though she was blindfolded the entire time, this moment cements Anzu's series-long crush on Yugi and his alter-ego.

The details of these events are kept mostly the same in the original anime series. In the Duel Monsters/second anime series, this storyline is slightly rewritten in a flashback. After having her secret discovered by Jonouchi and Yugi when they decide to eat at Burger World (in the English anime, this was where Tea first befriends Yugi), she receives a blackmail letter threatening to reveal her secret if she doesn't go to the gym after school. When she arrives, a perverted gym teacher with a camera attacks her. Yugi then arrives, changing into Dark Yugi, and challenges him to a Shadow Game of "Draw the Strongest Duel Monsters Card," giving him a Mind Crush that sends him to the "Dark World" (implied hell) and saving Anzu. In the English version, she receives a note from Yugi and Joey telling her that they find an old warehouse she could use for a dance studio. It turns out to be a mugger who wants her money and he attacks her. Yami Yugi arrives and beats the mugger in a high draw Duel Monsters game, and the mugger receives a Mind Crush. In both versions, after these events, Anzu/Tea starts hanging out with Yugi more.

Anzu is voiced by Yumi Kakazu in the original anime series. In the Duel Monsters anime, she is voiced by Maki Saito. Tea is voiced by Amy Birnbaum in the English dub.

Hiroto Honda

Hiroto Honda (本田 廣戸, Honda Hiroto, Tristan Taylor in the English anime) who is in class 1-B at Domino High School, is a boy who became a friend of Yugi Mutou, Katsuya Jonouchi, and Anzu Mazaki. Later on, he becomes a friend to Ryo Bakura as well. In the manga, Honda starts out as Jonouchi's street thug henchman and also (at first) has a crush on Miho Nosaka. Though he still dislikes Yugi at first, he asks for his help in writing a love letter to her in the form of a puzzle. When the vain teacher Ms. Chono threatened to confiscate the puzzle, threatening to punish Miho Nosaka if the secret admirer doesn't come clean, Yugi and Jonouchi stood up for him. Ms. Chono decides to put together the puzzle to find out who the sender is anyway, and Dark Yugi secretly turns it into a Shadow Game, shattering Ms. Chono's pretty face as the Penalty Game. From then on, Honda becomes good friends with Yugi.

Although, like Yugi and Jonouchi, he doesn't get the best grades, Honda still manages to be somewhat knowledgeable, and a sharpshooter; when he was a kid, he could shoot a 100-yen piece with a BB gun from 50 feet. In the first series anime, Honda 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. He often argues with Jonouchi.

In the manga, Honda doesn't duel, or at least, never shown - though he partakes in some of the early games and the Shadow RPG as an NPC. In the second series anime and filler, Honda uses a military deck, using warriors and machines related to the military theme. Prior to the duel with Dinosaur Ryuzaki, Jonouchi discovers Honda's cards, including a Lava Battleguard. Jonouchi has a card called Swamp Battleguard, which works well with Lava Battleguard and uses them in the duel against Ryuzaki, and they defeat Ryuzaki's second strongest dragon. Honda uses his own strategy when he dueled against Nessbitt of the Big Five.

In the first series anime by Toei, Honda is no longer Jonouchi's right-hand and fellow delinquent, but a custodian obsessed with cleanliness and Miho Nosaka.

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, Tristan is voiced by Sam Regal for the first ten episodes and Greg Abbey from episode 11 onwards.

Ryo Bakura

Main article: Ryo Bakura

Ryo Bakura (獏良 了, Bakura Ryō, simply Bakura in the English anime) is a transfer student (British in the English anime version) who becomes friends with the main group of the story. Like Yugi, he is also interested in games, particularly tabletop role-playing games like Monster World (モンスター・ワールド, Monsutā Wārudo). Bakura, the holder of the Millennium Ring (千年輪, Sennen Ringu), has a dark spirit dwelling inside himself, much like Dark Yugi. Before he is introduced to the story, he was constantly moving schools due to the fact that, every time he played a game with his friends, his friends would end up in a coma. This is revealed to be Dark Bakura inflicting Penalty Games on them, which trapped their souls into RPG miniature figures. Together with Yugi and his friends, they join forces to crush Dark Bakura in a Shadow Game of Monster World. From then on, the normal Bakura joins the main group in many of their conflicts. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime by Toei Animation, the group also included Miho Nosaka, who had a crush on Bakura.

He's mostly interested in TRPGs, but he loves all types of games like Yugi and also plays Duel Monsters. While never shown using it himself, he has an occult deck which focuses on grotesque monsters and ghostly spells. In the manga, he provides a lot of insight to Honda and Anzu whenever Yugi and Jonouchi are dueling, though outside of gaming he is a bit naive and clumsy, although he is shown to be as insightful as the normal Yugi at times. For example, during Battle City, he notices something off about the mime standing still in the park before being pulled off by Anzu, which turns out to be one of Marik's mind dolls, Pantomimer. Despite knowing the danger of the Millennium Ring, Bakura was fond of keeping it close to him and keen on learning the secrets of the Millennium Items. In Duelist Kingdom, when the gang is in danger of being trapped in the underground maze, the spirit tricks him into putting it back on in exchange for helping Dark Yugi win the Meikyuu Brothers' riddle game, convincing him that the evil spirit has turned over a new leaf. From then on, Dark Bakura has on-and-off control of his body.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, his role in the group is greatly reduced compared to the manga, as he is mostly being controlled by Dark Bakura and doesn't accompany Yugi and his friends as much as he did in the manga, and is excluded from filler arcs. In addition, he is introduced in the middle of the Duelist Kingdom story and his love for tabletop role-playing games has been greatly written out.

Bakura is voiced by Tsutomu Kashiwakura in the first series. In Duel Monsters he is first voiced by You Inoue, then by Rica Matsumoto from episode 50 onwards. In the English dub, Bakura is voiced by Ted Lewis.

Antagonists

Shadi

See also: Recurring characters

Seto Kaiba

See also: Recurring characters

Death-T

Death-T (DEATH-T（死のテーマパーク）, Theme Park of Death, known as Doom-T in Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler) is a deranged theme park created by Seto Kaiba in attempt to kill Yugi Mutou using deadly games, and hiring deadly opponents. These events do not happen in the second series anime.

Mokuba Kaiba

See also: Recurring characters

Laser Tag Assassins

The Laser Tag Assassins were three professional mercenaries hired by Kaiba. This team was composed of Johnny Gale (ジョニー・ゲイル, Jonī Geiru, known as Charlie Gale in the English DDM video game), a former Green Beret commander, who specialized in guerrilla warfare, Bob Mcguire (ボブ・マクガイア, Bobu Makugaia, known as Bickford Gage in the English DDM video game), who was a former SWAT team leader and specialized in long distance sniping, and Mysterious Assassin (謎のアサシン, Nazo no Asashin, known as Name unknown in the English manga and Snipes Crosshair in the English DDM video game), who formerly worked as a hitman that succeeded in killing of all his targets when he was hired by KaibaCorp. Being offered ¥10,000 each for killing Yugi and his friends in the Shooting Stardust (シューティング・スターダスト, Shūtingu Sutādasuto) game, they were determined and were equipped with guns that fired real lasers that can cause fatal electric shocks, while Yugi and his friends were given toy guns.

Jonouchi was able to take out Johnny Gale with a lucky surprise attack. After realizing that the game was rigged by Kaiba, Honda retreats from the battlefield for a time-out. After the time out, Honda comes onto the battlefield, offering a surrender. McGuire explains that that won't be happening as they have been paid to kill him. Johji, who was hiding on Honda's back, tosses him Anzu's operational gun, which Honda uses to take-out McGuire and the Mysterious Assassin.

Kaiba's Butler

Kaiba's Butler (海馬邸執事, known as Daimon (大門 ) in the anime series and Hobson in the English dubbed anime) was the guide of the Horror Zone in Death T-2. Before the grand opening of Kaiba Land, he welcomed Yugi Mutou and Katsuya Jonouchi to Kaiba Manor. He, along with other servants, greet them and Mokuba when they arrived. Mokuba got him to prepare six meals, including two poisoned ones for his rigged game of Russian Roulette Dinner with Yugi and Jonouchi. When the game backfired and Mokuba was poisoned, the butler came to his aid.

The butler once worked as a torturer, where he learned to resist torture himself, before being employed by the Kaiba family. The butler, dressed in dark robes, met Yugi and his friends in the Horror Zone of Death T-2, and gave Jonouchi a scare. He was about to lead the group to the Electric Chair Ride (死の電気椅子ライド, Electric Chair Ride of Death), when Yugi recognized him as the butler from Kaiba's mansion. He was hoping that they would not notice, but nevertheless proceeded and took them to a car on a set of rails. Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Anzu took seats on the car and Johji sat on Anzu's lap. Hobson locked them on, by cuffing their hands to the arm rests and had helmets with voice detectors put onto their heads. He explained that they were about to take part on a deadly silence ride, where they must not scream or they would be electrocuted. He too took part in the game, running the risk of being electrocuted. Having designed the ride and knowing how to avoid screaming, he thought he should be fine and could use his torture skills to make the others scream. He subjected the group to scary projections of monsters. Impressed that they managed to avoid screaming, he moved onto the next phase. Mechanical hands came out of the chairs and started to feel and grope the players. Johji worried that Anzu was going to scream, so he got down from her lap and went back to the butler, where he defecated on his lap. Once the butler realized what happened, he screamed out loud and was electrocuted.

In the first series Toei anime, Kaiba's butler is given a more sympathetic story. Daimon was one of Kaiba's Game Masters. He required a life-support capsule to stay alive, but was able to leave the capsule for short periods. He and Kaiba were good friends when Kaiba was a child, with Seto bringing him snacks when Daimon first got sick. Kaiba released Daimon from the capsule so he could be the fourth opponent to challenge Yugi. By staging an accident, Kaiba was able to lure Yugi to duel Daimon. If Yugi refused, Anzu was to be devoured by a mechanical dragon. During this duel, Daimon stated that the reason he fights for Kaiba is that he believes Kaiba's good side will come out again. Kaiba provides Daimon with a device that allowed him to see Yugi's hand, but Daimon refused to use it. After being defeated, Daimon took Yugi aside and asked him to restore Kaiba's lost innocence.

In the second series anime, Kaiba's butler appears in the first episode to kidnap Sugoroku Muto. He also appears during various flashbacks of Seto Kaiba's past. In both the manga and second series anime, Kaiba's butler is revealed to be the reincarnation of Gebelk (ゲベルク , Geberuku), the keeper of the Pharaoh's dungeons who is also a master torturer, torturing prisoners into revealing their Ka. Kaiba's butler is voiced by Ryuji Saikachi in the first series anime and by Ted Lewis in the English dub of the second series anime.

The Chopman

The Chopman (チョップマン, Choppuman) is a serial killer that is in one of the traps at Death-T and is exclusive to the manga, not appearing in either anime series. One summer, at a camp near Domino Lake, Chopman murdered ten boy scouts who had been staying there, in a single night. He chopped their bodies into unrecognizable pieces. The news of the murders had all of Domino City in fear. The suspect came to be known as "The Chopman", but was not captured and remained at large.

KaibaCorp later hired the Chopman for the Horror Zone stage of their Death-T theme park. After Yugi and his friends passed the "bllood" puzzle inside the Murderer's Mansion, a trapdoor to the basement and exit opened, with the Chopman hidden inside. The Chopman reached out and swiped Johji, kidnapping him. Under Kaiba's orders, the Chopman was not to kill Johji yet, as they needed him to lure in Yugi and his friends. Johji was made sit on a podium in the center of a room, with the Chopman hidden in the darkness behind him. Johji unsuccessfully tried to convince the others to come inside, lying that he was alone. When it became clear that the group weren't going to come in, a screen lit-up on the Chopman's torso, with Kaiba on it. Kaiba asked Yugi and his friends to send one of their players inside or the Chopman would kill Johji. Jonouchi stepped inside and went over to collect Johji, but the door slammed shut behind him. However, Johji strapped a handcuff onto Jonouchi, which was connected to a chain strung through the podium and onto the Chopman's wrist. Jonouchi was forced to face the Chopman in a deathmatch, using an array of weapons hanging from the ceiling.

The Chopman climbed on the podium and took the chainsaw. He was able to use his brute force to pull Jonouchi over to him by yanking the chain. The chainsaw got stuck on the podium as the Chopman made a swing at Jonouchi and Johji. As he tried to free it, he didn't pay attention to Jonouchi, who picked and unlocked his end of the handcuff using a candlestick, strapped the chain onto the door and slid the candle inside it. After the Chopman freed the chainsaw, he spotted Jonouchi over by the door. Trying to pull him over again, he yanked the chain, ripping the door out of the wall. Jonouchi escaped and the candle hit the oil-covered floor, incinerating the Chopman. Chopman's backstory is very reminiscent of Jason Voorhees, albeit killing children instead of adults. His mask, is typical of Jason, Michael Myers and Leatherface. The use of his chainsaw is also typical of Leatherface. His wisecracks and calculated insanity seem to stem from Freddy Krueger.

Despite the Death-T storyline being adapted by Toei Animation, The Chopman does not appear in the first series anime, he is replaced with three other "Game Masters" hired by Seto Kaiba, part of the 'Four Heavenly Game Masters (ゲーム四天王, Gēmu Shitennō), which includes Kaiba's butler.

Dark Bakura

Main article: Ryo Bakura

Dark Bakura (闇獏良, Yami Bakura, Yami Bakura in the English anime) is a dark spirit dwelling inside of the Millenium Ring, much like Dark Yugi. This dark half of Ryo Bakura, Dark Bakura, intends to collect all of the Millennium items, and quite clearly does not care for anyone who might get in his way. His goal is to use them to open the Door of Darkness, which grants evil power to the one that opened it. To do so, he takes control over Ryo Bakura's body against Ryo Bakura's will, since he doesn't have a body of his own. In the beginning of the story, he torments Ryo Bakura by taking over his body whenever he played a game with his friends and used Penalty Games to trap their souls into TRPG miniatures for the Monster World game. Yugi and his friends, along with the real Bakura, join forces to crush him and free themselves from the Monster World RPG (in the second series anime, this game is re-imagined as a game of Duel Monsters during Duelist Kingdom). However, during Duelist Kingdom, he uses his voice to trick Bakura into putting the Ring back on in order to save his friends, and tries to convince the group that he has turned good by helping Honda save Mokuba and by helping Yugi get the Puzzle back during his DDD game with Ryuji Otogi. This, of course, is a facade in order to put a Mind Parasite into a piece of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, in order to find the true door within its soul room. During Battle City, his facade was outed when he dueled Yugi on Kaiba's Battle Ship after joining forces with Marik Ishtar.

Like his host, he has a fondness for tabletop role-playing games, the final Shadow Game between him and Dark Yugi being a Shadow RPG (闇のＲ・Ｐ・Ｇ, Yami no Ā Pī Jī) (Memory World) which is a recreation of the battle that took place in the Pharaoh's lost memories 3,000 years ago. He reveals that his first Shadow Game with him, the Monster World RPG, was a warm-up game to the final battle. In the manga, the rules and circumstances for the Shadow RPG are explained in full, while in the anime, details are left vague and presented as if the game takes place in the past, shown on the table's monitor screen (in the manga, it's a diorama, much like Monster World) and focuses more on Duel Monster battles. At the end of the manga's story, it's revealed that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring is a fusion of the soul of Thief King Bakura (盗賊王バクラ, Tōzokuō Bakura) and a fragment of the evil being Zorc (in the anime, it's only Zorc).

During Battle City, he uses Ryo Bakura's occult deck. During the Millennium World story, his Mind Parasite uses the "Undead Lock" deck against Yugi in the Shadow RPG.

Dark Bakura is voiced by Tsutomu Kashiwakura in the first series. In Duel Monsters he is first voiced by You Inoue, then by Rica Matsumoto from episode 50 onwards. In the English dub, Bakura is voiced by Ted Lewis.

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, Pegasasu Jei Kurofōdo), is the eccentric American Chairman of Industrial Illusions (shortened to I²) and the creator of the game Duel Monsters (Magic & Wizards (Ｍ＆Ｗ(マジックアンドウィザーズ), Majikku ando Wizāzu) in the Japanese manga). He is the wielder of the Millennium Eye (千年眼, ミレニアムアイ, Sennen Gan, Mireniamu Ai). In the original manga, it's his story about meeting Shadi and the supposed "evil intelligence" of the Millennium Items that prompts Dark Yugi's search for the answer of who he is and where he came from. During his final Shadow Game with Yugi/Dark Yugi, he tells them of his discovery of an ancient Egyptian Shadow Game during his travels in the Valley of the Kings, which inspired his creation of Duel Monsters and the creation of card games in general, such as tarot cards. In the anime, as the creator of the card game Duel Monsters and the discoverer of their ancient Egyptian roots, Pegasus often plays a key role 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 the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, calling Jaden Yuki "Jaden-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 manga's fourth main antagonist (and the second anime adaptation's first main antagonist), challenging Yugi Mutou to a Shadow Game in order to force him to come to his tournament Duelist Kingdom (決闘者の王国（デュエリストキングダム）, Dyuerisuto Kingudamu) and face him, taking the soul of his grandfather Sugoroku Mutou as a Penalty Game for losing the timed match to ensure this. In the manga, Pegasus locked Yugi's grandfather's 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. In the anime, he traps Sugoroku in a Soul Prison Duel Monsters card. 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 (シンディア, Shindia, Cecelia 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.

In the manga, it is implied that the whole Duelist Kingdom tournament, in addition to his deal with the Big Five after the company was left vulnerable after his lost to Yugi during the Death-T arc, was to gain Kaiba's Duel Disk prototype powered by Solid Vision technology, in order to create a Solid Vision hologram of his dead lover. Yugi finds out about this as they leave, by Crocketts telling them, as he hands back the prototype to Yugi, to give back to Kaiba.

In the English anime, his motives are slightly different. 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.

Requiring the Kaiba Corp shares that Mokuba owns to make his plans come to fruition, Pegasus plays a Shadow Game with Mokuba off-panel and gives him the Penalty Game "Mind Card", trapping his soul in a Soul Prison Card (in the anime, Pegasus breaks the manga's rules and simply gives out a Penalty Game to Mokuba in his cell, without challenging him to a game). Using Mokuba's lifeless body to keep himself from using the Duel Disk system (which Kaiba believes will combat Pegasus' mind reading powers if they are at a distance), he eventually beats Kaiba in a Shadow Game of Duel Mosnters and gives Kaiba a "Mind Card" Penalty Game 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 Dark Yugi (the "Mind Shuffle") 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 becomes a Shadow Game and the weaker Yugi passes out from the strain. Disheartened, but still alive, Pegasus keeps his word and restores the Kaiba brothers and Sugoroku.

In the manga, Pegasus explains his motives himself, immediately after his duel with Yugi, but is approached by Ryo Bakura when they went to go find Seto Kaiba's body. Possessed by Dark Bakura, Ryo strips Pegasus of his Millennium Eye and it is implied that he actually dies, which cause the events of the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga. In the anime, after the game with Pegasus, he retreats to his tower. Having his own Millennium Item, the Ring, and under its control, Bakura challenges Pegasus to a Shadow Game which involved laser beams, 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. Yugi and his friends discover Pegasus's diary and his well-meant (if poorly executed) goals.

Unlike the manga, Pegasus is still alive in the anime adaptation and reappears in the Doma filler arc of the second anime. Knowing the truth behind the Doma Organization, Pegasus attempts to alert Yugi and Kaiba to their evil intentions, but is captured by Mai Kujaku, 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 Doma 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 Spells 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, Tenma Taiyō). In the English version, he takes the name Sol Chevalsky.

On a CD based on the English dub of the anime, 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.

Mr. Crocketts

Mr. Crocketts (Mr.クロケッツ, Misutā Kurokettsu, known as Croquet in the English anime) is the right-hand man and butler of Pegasus. In the manga, he is taken hostage by Seto Kaiba, who punches him and holds Crocketts at gunpoint in the guestroom, threatening to snap Crocketts' neck in his briefcase if Pegasus doesn't show himself. Crocketts is saved from being killed by Kaiba when Pegasus appears on a screen, permitting Kaiba to see him, if he can beat Yugi in a game of Duel Monsters, with Saruwatari giving Kaiba the five Star Chips Mokuba had stolen earlier, Pegasus instructs Kaiba to wager them in a game against Yugi. In the second series anime, Crocketts' duties includes relaying the progress of Pegasus' plans, often unknowingly stating the obvious to his boss (who, with the use of the Millennium Eye and keen intuition, usually predicts the outcome of a situation he's involved with before Crocketts can inform him of it).

In the manga, after the defeat of Pegasus, Crocketts gives Kaiba's Duel Disk system to Dark Yugi to return to Kaiba, who reveals Pegasus' tragic plan to resurrect his dead wife using Kaiba's Solid Vision technology, as well as giving Yugi the prize money. In the second series anime, Yugi and his friends instead learn of Pegasus' tragic plan from Pegasus' diary. In the anime, Crocketts presents Yugi with the Ties of Frienship (友情の絆, Yūjō no Kizuna) card as well as presenting Jonouchi with the prize money. Crocketts is voiced by Yoshikazu Nagano in the Japanese anime and by Ted Lewis in the English adaptation.

Saruwatari

Saruwatari (猿渡, Saruwatari, known as Kemo in the English anime) is a character who is first shown working for the Kaiba Brothers as one of their private bodyguards during the Death-T arc. In actuality, he was working for Industrial Illusions the whole time, gathering information from within KaibaCorp and giving it to Pegasus.

During the Death-T arc, he and other guards hold Jonouchi and Anzu at gunpoint, while Yugi faces Seto Kaiba. However after Honda returns, Honda and Jonouchi start to fight off the guards, who are then told to step down by Mokuba. In the Duelist Kingdom arc, it's revealed that he was a spy working for Pegasus. He apprehends Mokuba Kaiba after his game with Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi then challenges him to a duel for Mokuba's freedom, but since Saruwatari doesn't play games, he arranges an opponent for Dark Yugi. In the manga, he gets the Player Killer, Ventriloquist of the Dead. In the anime, he gets The Death Imitator (Ghost Kaiba in the English anime). Although Yugi wins the Shadow Game and inflicts a Penalty Game on the Player Killer, he still takes Mokuba back to Pegasus during the game.

In the manga, he is confronted by Seto Kaiba, who he believed to be dead from his Penalty Game with Yugi, at Pegasus' castle. He tries to stop Kaiba, but after Kaiba holds a gun to Crocketts' head, Crocketts panics and tells him to obey Kaiba. While Crocketts is taken hostage, Kaiba demands Saruwatari to get Pegasus. Appearing on screen, Pegasus' orders Saruwatari to give Kaiba the five Star Chips that Mokuba had stolen to wager in a duel against Yugi. In the anime, he confronted Kaiba as he entered the island by pointing a gun to his head (which was edited out in the English version), but Kaiba disarms him with a card. He then forces Saruwatari to take him to where Mokuba's cell is and Saruwatari does so. He later acts as the guard at the entrance to Pegasus' castle and attempts to stop the group from entering, since half of them are not official contestants. In the manga, Jonouchi beats him up until he's unconscious. In the anime, Mai Kujaku flirts with him, distracting him long enough for the others to dash in, closing the door behind them.

Saruwatari doesn't appear in the main manga series after this, but makes another reappearance in the anime. During the group's first stay in the Virtual World, Saruwatari attempts to break into the room where their bodies are. Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda put up a desperate defense to stop them using furniture to block the door. When everyone awoke after Yugi and Kaiba's "Dragon Master Knight" defeated the Big Five's "Five-Headed Dragon", Saruwatari fled in order to warn the Big Five members. It is likely that he was fired at that point, as he is not seen in the series again, except in some of the flashbacks of the Kaiba brothers' upbringing during the Virtual World arc.

Saruwatari reappears in the Yu-Gi-Oh! R spin-off manga and makes an appearance in the 1998 Toei movie, where he kidnaps unwilling invitees to Kaiba's tournament. Jonouchi stops him from forcing Shougo Aoyama to enter. In the second series anime, he is voiced by Masahiro Okazaki and is voiced by Eric Stuart in the English adaptation.

Player Killers

In order to ensure that the gamers on his island do not succeed in making it to the finals of Duelist Kingdom, and therefore making Pegasus the number one duelist in the world fit to be KaibaCorp's new CEO, Pegasus hired the Player Killers (プレイヤーキラー, Pureiyā Kirā, known as Eliminators in the English anime) to challenge the contestants to duels and take their Star Chips.

The first Player Killer that Yugi and his friends encounter is the Ventriloquist of the Dead (死者(ししゃ)の腹話術師, Shisha no Fukuwajutsūshi), hired by Saruwatari, whose primary job is to defeat Yugi. He challenges Dark Yugi using a puppet of Seto Kaiba as well as his deck. Dark Yugi saw the puppet as an insult and mockery to Kaiba and was infuriated, turning the game into a Shadow Game. During the Shadow Game, as Dark Yugi was about to be attacked by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Kaiba wakes up from his coma and the dragon refuses to attack Yugi and disappears, since Kaiba's will was inside the card. Reviving it with Monster Reborn, Dark Yugi wins the Shadow Game. Dark Yugi, furious that the ventriloquist stole Kaiba's cards and toyed with his soul using a puppet, inflicted a Penalty Game on him, where he believed a puppet of himself was attacking him.

In the second series anime, the Ventriloquist of the Dead is replaced by an obese shape-shifter called The Death Imitator (死の物真似師(しのものまねし), Shino Mono Maneshi, known as Ghost Kaiba in the English anime). Since Death-T never happened in the anime, instead of Kaiba waking up from his coma, Dark Yugi realizes that Kaiba is still alive after witnessing the Blue-Eyes White Dragon being infected by a virus and suddenly destroyed (Kaiba hacking into the Duel Ring from a remote location). After winning the duel, Dark Yugi destroys the Player Killer with Mind Crush. In the English anime, this imposter was Seto Kaiba's evil half that Yami Yugi had sent to the Shadow Realm in the first episode brought back by Pegasus, and he sends him back to the Shadow Realm once again. He was voiced by Tony Hirota in the Japanese version.

The second Player Killer that the group encounters is the Player Killer of Darkness (「闇」のプレイヤーキラー , "Yami" no Pureiyā Kirā, known as PaniK in the English anime) who steals Mai Kujaku's star chips. Dark Yugi challenges the Player Killer to a Shadow Game in which he wagers his life for Mai's Star Chips. Upon entering the Duel Box, the Player Killer uses a cord from his glove to bind Dark Yugi by his neck to prevent escape and planned to choke him twice when he won. Using a pure defensive strategy and cowering in the darkness, it eventually leads to his downfall as Dark Yugi wins the game after a set amount of turns. Dark Yugi gives him a Penalty Game in which he is hanged, surrounded by the darkness and screaming for his dear life. In the second series anime, the Player Killer is instead a pyromaniac who tries to burn Yugi using flame incinerators installed in the Duel Ring upon losing. Dark Yugi is protected by the Millennium Puzzle and destroys him with Mind Crush. In the English anime, PaniK is presumably sent to the Shadow Realm. He was voiced by Holly Kaneko in the Japanese version.

The last set of Player Killers the group meet is within the underground maze of Duelist Kingdom called the Meikyū Brothers (迷宮兄弟, Meikyū Kyōdai, known as the Paradox Brothers in the English anime), who challenge Yugi and Jonouchi to a tag-battle game, a hybrid of Duel Monsters and a maze game. After losing, the group needed to choose the correct path, or else they would be stuck in the underground labyrinth for eternity. In reality, both doors are correct and the brothers are able to change the correct door at will. Their trickery is outed by Dark Yugi's Labyrinth Coin (迷宮コイン, Meikyū Koin) game, with the aid of Dark Bakura in the manga, and the groups heads on out to the surface. The brothers make a reappearance in the spin-off anime Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Mr. Clown

Mr. Clown (クラウンさん, Clown-san, misspelled as Crown in the Japanese manga), also known as Otogi's father (御伽父, Otogi-chichi) is an antagonist exclusive to the manga. He is the owner of the Black Clown (ブラック・クラウン, Burakku Kuraun) game shop across the street from Sugoroku Mutou's Kame Game shop. Long ago, Mr. Otogi asked Sugoroku Mutou, a master gamer, to take him in as a disciple. After a while, they challenged each other for the ownership of the Millennium Puzzle in a Shadow Game called the Devil's Board Game. Mr. Otogi, who lost, aged 50 years in a single night as a Penalty Game. Since then he desired revenge through his son Ryuji (known as "Duke Devlin" in the English adaptation of the anime version).

On the day of his new store's opening, his son Ryuji informed him that Yugi Mutou, who was Sugoroku's grandson, was an amazing gamer, after he played and lost a game of Four Aces (４枚(まい)の「Ａ(エース)」 , 4-mai no ēsu") to Yugi. Mr. Otogi was furious about this, but Ryuji assured him he'd beat him at his new game; Dungeon Dice Monsters (Dragons, Dice, & Dungeons (D·D·Dドラゴン・ダイス・＆(アンド)ダンジョンズ), Doragon Daisu ando Danjonzu) in the manga). Later, after setting up Yugi and framing him for stealing from his shop, Otogi took away Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and locked him up in a secret game room, where Ryuji played against Yugi in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters for the ownership of the Puzzle. Halfway through, when things were looking bad for Ryuji, Otogi entered the room, and, using his hatred for Sugoroku as fuel for his strength, he managed to break the Puzzle to pieces, all the while ignoring Yugi's pleas.

After Yugi, with some help from Dark Bakura, defeated Ryuji, Ryuji admitted that he could not hate Yugi. Otogi showed remorse, and offered to put the Puzzle's necklace chain around Yugi. However, this was all an act as Otogi immediately tightened the chain around Yugi's neck, threatening to break Yugi's neck unless he complied. Despite Ryuji's protests, Otogi showed immense hatred, and claimed that as Ryuji failed, his life no longer had any value to him. Ignoring his son's further protests, Otogi dragged Yugi into another secret room, and locked the door.

In the secret room, Otogi pinned the Puzzle's chain down to a table, and tried to force Yugi to play the Devil's Board Game in an attempt make Yugi age rapidly, like he did. However, when Otogi tried to rebuild the puzzle for himself, he almost got trapped in an illusory maze due to angering the Puzzle (Dark Yugi), and knocked back a candle, setting his shop on fire. He barely escaped, thanks to Yugi and his friends' help - now showing genuine remorse.

In the English Dungeon Dice Monsters video game, he is given the name Sindin the Clown.

Ryuji Otogi

See also: Recurring characters

Marik Ishtar (Dark Marik)

Marik Ishtar (マリク・イシュタール, Mariku Ishutāru) 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 and the younger brother of Ishizu Ishtar, Marik's hatred of the nameless Pharaoh compels him to disregard his duties and turn to a life of crime, developing a split personality during his childhood after he underwent the tombkeeper's initiation ritual (which burned a key to the Pharaoh's memory on his back with a hot dagger) and was forever destined for a confined life in the darkness. Marik's family had guarded the tomb of the pharaoh for generations. Marik holds the Millennium Rod (千年錫杖, Sennen Roddo, Mireniamu Rod, or Sennen Shakujyō) and is the leader of the Ghouls organization (called the Rare Hunters in the English anime), an organization infamous in the gaming world for stealing cards and making bootlegs for the black market. This organization stole two of the God Cards, the Saint Dragon of Osiris and The Sun Dragon Ra (Slifer the Sky Dragon and Winged Dragon of Ra in the English anime and TCG), but failed to obtain the God of Obelisk (Obelisk the Tormentor in the English anime and TCG) thanks to his sister's intervention.

In the Japanese anime and all versions of the manga, Marik wished to get revenge on the ancient Pharaoh's soul for "willing the death of his father", as he was made to believe by the spirit of Shadi. In actuality, Marik was the one that killed his father as a child when, in a fit of rage, he was taken over by his sadist alternate personality, who in the manga, skinned his father with the knife hidden in the Millennium Rod and threw his father's back on an unconscious Rishid, his adoptive older brother. In the anime, he simply stabs his father, while in the English dub, he is sent to the Shadow Realm. Saved from being killed by their father, Marik's adoptive older brother had tried to keep this alternate personality sealed. 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. 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.

Marik's mad quest to defeat Dark Yugi made a target out of his friends, and after sending numerous minions to defeat him in death games 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 fell unconscious, and Marik's sadistic alternate personality, Dark Marik (闇マリク, Yami Marik , profiled as Yami Marik in the English anime), took control of his body. Before facing Dark Yugi, the spirit of the nameless Pharaoh, he fought Mai, Bakura, and Jonouchi in Shadow Games in which they lost, giving the former two Penalty Games and leaving Jonouchi on the brink of death. In his Shadow Game with Dark Yugi, their other selves' lives were the wager of the game, but since Dark Marik's personality was a personification of the normal Marik's hatred and insanity, he wasn't in any danger of dying, as opposed to Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura, who lived off the lifeline of their "normal personalities" since they're actually separate souls rather than just separate personalities. 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. With Dark Marik dead, his Penalty Games for Mai and Bakura were rendered null. Fulfilling his duty as tombkeeper by showing the memory carving on his back to Yugi and presenting him with the last God Card and his Millennium Item, Marik returned to Egypt with his family to start a new life. He appears again during the final arc, along with Rishid and Ishizu, to escort Yugi and his friends to the shrine of the Ceremonial Battle and witnesses Yugi's final game with Atem, sending him off to the afterlife.

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 he later revealed that he is Marik and turned into Yami Marik after defeating Rishid. 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, Gūruzu, Rare Hunters in the English anime; Jackals in some video games) are a group of card thieves that serve Marik. By stealing and selling rare cards from duelists worldwide, the Ghouls provide Marik with a large supply of minions, rare cards and money. Numerous members of the Ghouls are shown, the unnamed card shop owner, the Rare Hunter (レアハンター, Reahantā, Seeker in the English anime), Pandora (パンドラ, Arcana in the English anime), the Pantomimer (パントマイマー, Pantomaimā, Strings in the English anime), Mask of Light (光の仮面, Hikari no Kamen, Lumis in the English anime) and Mask of Darkness (闇の仮面, Yami no Kamen, Umbra in the English anime), and various other unnamed duelists.

The first Ghoul, 'Seeker , was informed by the card shop owner that gave Jonouchi his Duel Disk that Jonouchi owned the rare Red-Eyes Black Dragon. He was defeated when Dark Yugi demolished his Exodia deck with the Lightforce Sword and Chain Destruction combo, taking back Jonouchi's Red-Eyes; subsequently, the Wadjet Eye swelled on his forehead. At first, Jonouchi thinks Dark Yugi inflicted a Penalty Game on him, but in actuality he was being controlled by Marik. He is rendered unconscious and it's unknown to what happens of him afterward.

The second Ghoul, Pandora, challenged Dark Yugi to a death game, in which their legs are shackled and buzzsaws threaten to saw off the loser's legs once their life points reach 0 (in the English anime, the loser will be sent to the Shadow Realm). In the manga, it was briefly mentioned that Pandora was once a professional stage magician before becoming a Rare Hunter. Pandora acted insanely sadistic throughout the entire game, while rejecting all offers to end the unnecessary gruesomeness by battling more honorably, claiming that this is his great show of "escaping from the jaws of death", much to Dark Yugi's disgust. In the manga and Japanese anime, he also made a reference to Pandora's Box, a nod to his own name, and that the box containing the key to their shackles is one of their hopes of escape. Furthermore, Pandora cut up his cards through the technique of "trimming" to cheat shuffling, and sacrificed his monsters in a cruel way to win, all the while proving that he treated his monsters as dispensable slaves and claiming that ruthlessness to even one's own "slaves" is necessary to victory. This trait ultimately causes him to lose the death game, with Dark Yugi telling him that his last act of cruelty awaits him (the buzzsaw), but as the buzzsaw approach his legs, he reveals a key he had hidden in his sleeve to unlock his shackles. However, using the Millennium Rod, Marik intervenes, altering Pandora's vision as if the key wasn't there. Fortunately, the normal Yugi saves Pandora at the last minute, telling him that "no game's worth dying for." However, Marik ends up giving him a Penalty Game in which he pulls all of the suicidal feelings within Pandora's heart to the surface. In the past, he considered suicide twice: once when his mother died, the second when he lost his lover when a magic show went awry. The anime omits Pandora's mother's death, but elaborates on his lost love. He was once a world-famous professional stage magician and illusionist, originated from France, who had everything: money, fame, and was in love with his lovely assistant, Catherine (in the English dub, Catherine was also his fiancée). In the manga, Pandora becomes unconscious and Marik says that Pandora will most likely commit suicide once he wakes up. In the English anime adaptation, his mind is presumably sent to the Shadow Realm.

The third Ghoul, Pantomimer, first appears before Bakura, Anzu, and Yugi's grandfather standing stationary in the park, and Bakura tries to get his attention, stating in his head that he doesn't feel any life from him, as if he was a doll. In the manga, it was explained that he was a mime that went mad after killing his parents, and sealed his own conscience away out of guilt (this was mentioned in the anime, but omitted in the English dub). Eventually, he came into Marik's mind control, and due to his crushed mind, became very easy for Marik to bend his will. On his motorcycle ride to Domino City, Marik controls the Pantomimer to battle Dark Yugi using his "God Five" combo with the Saint Dragon of Osiris. Marik programmed Pantomimer to kill Yugi at all costs should he win the duel against him. However, Dark Yugi manages to turn Marik's infinite combo against him and claim Osiris through Battle City's ante rule. Marik uses Pantomimer one last time to inform Yugi that his next target is his friends. It is unknown what happened to Pantomimer after this.

The last set of Ghouls are Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness. They challenge Dark Yugi and Kaiba to a tag-team death game where the loser sets off a bomb near their side of the glass ceiling, falling 13 stories to their death. In the manga, they lure Dark Yugi and Kaiba to the roof of the building using the "Duelist's Chastity Belt," locking Kaiba's God Card until he comes to the rooftop where the key awaits. In the anime, they lure them by kidnapping Mokuba. When the Mask of Darkness loses, he uses his parachute to escape his death, leaving Dark Yugi to scoff at their "so-called deathmatch". Mask of Light loses his will to fight and his mind is taken over by Marik, who informs Dark Yugi that he has taken Jonouchi and his other friends hostage. The fate of the two Masks afterwards is left unknown.

Following Marik's defeat, the Ghouls 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 Doma/Waking the Dragons filler arc. In the English adaptation they are voiced by David Willis (Rare Hunter), Sam Riegel (Arcana), Jimmy Zoppi (Lumis) and Tony Salerno (Umbra).

Akhenaden

Priest Akhenaden (神官アクナディン, Shinkan Akunadin) 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. Using the Shadow Alchemy inscribed in the Millennium Tome (千年魔術書, Sennen Majutsu Sho, Millennium Spellbook in the English dubbed anime), he ordered the massacre at the village of Kul Elna, using their blood and melting their corpses into gold so he could create the Millennium Items to defend his brother's kingdom, keeping the slaughter a secret and brainwashing his soldiers in order to keep it that way (in the English adaptation of the anime, he instead needs evil souls to forge the Millennium Items and the village of Kul Elna had been possessed by evil). 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 High Priest of Darkness (闇の神官, Yami no Shinkan). 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 Shadow RPG, a role-playing reenactment that was played in modern times, Akhenaden's possessed soul aids Bakura in trying to kill Dark Yugi's player character (Atem) and resurrect the full soul of Zorc, most notably by turning back time when Bakura is defeated, and later animating the Memory World version of the High Priest of Darkness, allowing Dark Bakura to control his actions as the player. Upon becoming the High Priest of Darkness, he gains the skills of a Black Magician and levels up, doubling his Ba Gauge. Akhenaden's mummy is kept at Dark 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.

He is voiced by Hitoshi Bifu in the Japanese version of the anime. 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, Daijashin Zōku Nekurofadesu) (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 Memory World, a RPG-style Shadow Game that Dark Bakura has set up based on ancient Egypt, Zorc is the game's final boss and has three Ba gauges, and if Dark Yugi loses the Shadow RPG, Dark Bakura would gain the ultimate powers of darkness and Zorc would be effectively be summoned once again. However, with the help of Yugi and his other dear friends, Atem defeats him and stops him from being resurrected, also freeing Ryo Bakura from the Millennium Ring once and for all. In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, it is said that Dark Bakura was an entity made of both Zorc and Thief King Bakura's souls, while in the Duel Monsters anime, it is said that the spirit within the Millennium Ring is entirely Zorc.

Recurring characters

Seto Kaiba

Main article: Seto Kaiba

Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人, Kaiba Seto). In the early manga, Seto discovers that the grandfather of his classmate, Yugi Mutou, owns the rare Blue-Eyes White Dragon card. Kaiba steals the card from Yugi by switching it with a fake copy. Yugi recognizes the card for a fake and duels Kaiba to get it back. Yugi, Honda Hiroto and Katsuya Jonouchi were beaten up by Kaiba's guards until the spirit of the Pharaoh Yami from within Yugi's Millennium Puzzle – beats up the guards and challenges Kaiba to a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters with the card as a prize. Although Kaiba nearly wins, the magical nature of the game prevents the stolen Blue-Eyes from obeying him, and Kaiba is defeated, suffering a temporary Penalty Game—an illusion of being mauled by monsters.

Despite his age, he is the president of Kaiba Corporation (海馬コーポレイション, Kaiba Kōporeishon), the biggest game company in the world and among the most influential in the United States. Begrudged over his loss to Yugi (being titled the number one gamer in Japan and holding that title with pride), as well as having nightmares of Dark Yugi's Penalty Game which lasted for months, Kaiba plots a revenge. He acquires the other three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards through extortion and builds "Death T," a "theme park" made up of many deadly games and challenges designed to end the lives of Yugi and his friends. Yugi and his friends witness a Duel Monsters match between Seto and Yugi's grandfather, who was forced to participate when Kaiba threatens Yugi's life. Kaiba wins and tears up Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes White Dragon and subjects Sugoroku to an artificial Penalty Game (inspired by Dark Yugi's "Experience of Death" Penalty Game), forcing Yugi and his friends to participates in his games in order to avenge his grandfather. After Yugi overcomes these death games, Kaiba then challenges Yugi to a rematch—a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters. Although Kaiba proves formidable with the three Blue-Eyes in his deck, Yugi wins by summoning Exodia. Yugi then uses the power of his Millennium Puzzle to subject Kaiba to a Mind Crush Penalty Game, shattering his mind to pieces and leaving Kaiba in a coma, until he puts together the pieces of his heart back to its original form—before he became a madman and was a loving brother to Mokuba. Kaiba eventually regains consciousness later in the manga during the Duelist Kingdom arc. From then on, after he is saved by Yugi from Pegasus' "Mind Card" Penalty Game and reunited with his little brother, he becomes somewhat of a reluctant ally and rival rather than a villain.

Despite the circumstances of his introduction in the original manga, he does not believe in the magic of the Millennium Items in the English dubbed anime, but is a believer and far more amiable in the Japanese version of the anime. In the anime series, his role is increased, appearing in arcs that he was not present for in the manga and having high prominence in the anime's filler arcs.

In the first series anime, he is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa. In the Duel Monsters anime, he is voiced by Kenjirō Tsuda and Kiyomi Yazaki as a child. In the English dub, Kaiba is voiced by Eric Stuart.

Mokuba Kaiba

Mokuba Kaiba (海馬 モクバ, Kaiba Mokuba) 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 pre-Death-T chapters of the manga, Mokuba tries to defeat Yugi before Kaiba has a chance to and challenges Katsuya Jonouchi and Yugi to a Russian Roulette Dinner (死の料理・ロシアンルーレット, Shi no Ryōri Roshianrūretto) and poisons Jonouchi. Yugi eventually wins and saves Jonouchi. Mokuba is another good game player who specializes in video games (in the first series anime) and Capsule Monster Chess (カプセル・モンスター・チェス, Kapuseru Monsutā Chesu, abbreviated as Capmon (カプモン, Kapumon) occasionally), 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 a rigged game of "Capmon" with him. After he loses to Dark Yugi, Mokuba receives the temporary Capsule of Hell (地獄(じごく)のカプセル, Jigoku no Kapuseru) Penalty Game, thinking he was trapped in a giant Capmon capsule. 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.

During the planning of the theme park Death-T, Mokuba insisted on facing Yugi in one of the stages. Although Seto advised against it, they still went through with it. The two of them also made a bet over which stage Yugi would die in. Mokuba bet Death T-4 (the stage he was in charge of), while Seto bet Death T-5 (his Duel Monsters fight with Dark Yugi). He later confronted Seto about their bet. He pointed out that Seto bet Yugi would die in Death T-5, meaning he bet Yugi would beat Mokuba. Seto stood by this choice, saying that Mokuba cannot beat Yugi and reminded Mokuba of how he tried (and failed, twice) to show him his skill by challenging Yugi to a game before. Mokuba hung his head, saying that he thought Seto would like him if he beat Yugi. Seto yelled at Mokuba that there is no room for "brotherly love" in the world of gaming, and until Mokuba realizes that, he would always be a loser. Mokuba stormed off to face Yugi, eager to prove Seto wrong.

At Death T-4, Mokuba rigged the Capsule Monster dispenser again, but still lost. Seto held no sympathy for his brother and subjected him to the "Experience of Death" Penalty Game, as per Death-T rules. However Dark Yugi returned and saved Mokuba from the grisly punishment. Mokuba was surprised that Yugi saved him and asked why. Yugi replied that he wouldn't have won, if he didn't have his friends supporting him. This caused Mokuba to reflect on his past, and how Seto had changed since the day they left the orphanage. He wondered if Yugi could help Seto when he faced him in the next round. To thank Yugi for saving him, Mokuba rescued Yugi's friend Honda, who had been trapped in the previous stage of Death-T.

In both the manga and anime, at a young age, Mokuba and Seto were 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, through cheating in the manga, and Gozaburo is forced to adopt them. An added detail in the second series anime is that 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. After Seto's defeat and subsequent "Mind Crush" Penalty Game, Mokuba revealed this bit of history to Yugi and his friends. . Dark Yugi told Mokuba that Kaiba would wake up again after he had reassembled the shattered puzzle of his heart and Mokuba vowed to wait as long as it took for his brother to return.

While Kaiba was in a coma after Death-T, Pegasus J. Crawford and The Big Five tried to take over KaibaCorp. The Big Five came to Kaiba Manor one night to steal documents from a safe, but Mokuba swallowed its key in front of them. As a result, Mokuba was kidnapped and brought to the Duelist Kingdom island, where he was kept under watch, particularly when he used the bathroom (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). He overheard that Pegasus would have to beat Yugi in an official game of Duel Monsters to rebuild KaibaCorp's reputation and take over the company. Yugi was also on the island for the Duelist Kingdom tournament, in which Pegasus hoped to defeat Yugi in the finals. Mokuba escaped his captivity to make an attempt to eliminate Yugi from the tournament in order to prevent him and Pegasus having an official duel. Mokuba escapes and briefly attempts to sabotage Yugi's efforts to confront Pegasus. Mokuba proved to be no match for Dark Yugi, so he tried to grab all the Star Chips and run. However Dark Yugi grabbed him by the wrist and removed his disguise. At first, Mokuba refused to return to Star Chips he had managed to grab and told Dark Yugi and his friends about Pegasus' plan to take over KaibaCorp. Dark Yugi promised that he would defeat Pegasus and Anzu convinced Mokuba to trust Dark Yugi. However, Saruwatari stopped him from returning the Star Chips, citing that it was against the rules to exchange Star Chips without dueling, and grabs Mokuba.

During Dark Yugi's Shadow Game with the Ventriloquist of the Dead (The Death Imitator/Ghost Kaiba in the anime), he is recaptured and eventually subjected to a Mind Card Penalty Game by Pegasus off-screen, most likely from challenging Pegasus to a game or vice-versa, to use as a demoralization for Seto Kaiba when he challenges him to a Duel Disk game. In the second series anime, Pegasus appears to do this to Mokuba without playing any sort of game, in order to force Kaiba into dueling Yugi Mutou outside of the castle.

He is eventually rescued when Yugi defeats Pegasus. And once Kaiba and Mokuba were reunited, the pieces of Kaiba's shattered heart from Dark Yugi's Mind Crush were at last rebuilt. Mokuba Kaiba remains a supporting character during Battle City, and after the tournament is over, he and Kaiba travel to America to open up more Kaiba Lands.

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, Mutō Sugoroku, Solomon Mutou in the English anime, Sugoroku Muto in the subtitled English anime and the Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie Animanga) is the grandfather of Yugi Mutou, who gave him his famous Millennium Puzzle as a present, which he had recovered from the tomb of Pharaoh Atem in his youth. He owns the Kame Game shop, where Yugi and his friends get several of the games they play. In the second series anime adaptation, he taught Katsuya Jonouchi how to play the Duel Monsters card game. Similar to his grandson, his fondness for games is evident even 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.

Back in his day, Suguroku was a legendary gambler and master gamer like his grandson, who tried and won all sorts of games all over the world. At the age of 40, he heard the legend spoken of amongst his companions, about the Shrine of the Shadow Games said to be in Egypt. In the 1960s, Suguroku, along with Ahmet and Mushura visited the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Here they entered the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh, finding it laden with the corpses of previous trespassers. Each room inside the tomb was treated like a game. One such room contained statues swinging swords, along a maze over a bottomless pit. Suguroku realized that the statues only moved if the traveler did not show respect, which was shown in ancient Egyptian ways by putting one's left foot forward, as the heart is on the left side of the body. Suguroku led Ahmet and Mushura across the pit, but towards the end, Mushura panicked and ran, causing two of the statues to impale and kill him. With Mushura dead, Ahmet held a gun to Suguroku, intimidating Suguroku to not let that happen to him. In the final room, there was a bridge leading to the Pharaoh's treasure. Suguroku began to cross the bridge first with Ahmet pointing his gun at him. Once Suguroku got to the end, Ahmet fired at him, causing him to fall off the edge. With Suguroku hanging on with one hand, Amhet began crossing the bridge, but was consumed by a monster. The spirit of the Nameless Pharaoh appeared and helped Sugoroku up.

Once he reclaimed his senses, Suguroku collected the treasure, which turned out to be the Millennium Puzzle.

Not long after, Otogi asked Sugoroku to take him in as a disciple gamer. After a while, Otogi challenged Sugoroku to a Shadow Game for the ownership of the Millennium Puzzle, using the Devil's Board Game, where each player was to bet a number of years of their life, each time they moved their piece. Sugoroku won the game, resulting in Otogi aging 50 years in one night as his Penalty Game. Otogi swore revenge on Sugoroku through his son Ryuji, who becomes one of Yugi's many enemies in the present day.

Suguroku got together with his wife, after sending her a love letter in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. He got a son, who married Mrs. Mutou, who together had his grandson, Yugi Mutou.

Suguroku opened a game store, Kame Game, where he lived with Mrs. Muto and Yugi. In the present day, he gives his grandson the Millennium Puzzle, who solves it and unleashes the powers of darkness, the Shadow Games, and Dark Yugi, the nameless Pharaoh.

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. Dark Yugi reclaimed the card and enforced a Penalty Game, but Kaiba, seeking revenge, forced Sugoroku to the dueling stage of his Kaiba Land 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 an artificial Penalty Game 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 (although, for reasons left vague, he still ended up hospitalized).

Things only got worse for Sugoroku when Pegasus J. Crawford removed his soul from his body as a Penalty Game to force 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 games and duels.

The Duel Monsters anime gave Sugoroku Mutou the chance to get back into the action as a gamer during the KaibaCorp Grand Prix filler arc, 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 Jonouchi 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.

Ryuji Otogi

Ryuji Otogi (御伽 龍児, Otogi Ryūji, Duke Devlin in the English anime) is a talented game inventor and is also the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters (Dragons, Dice, & Dungeons (D·D·D(ドラゴン・ダイス・＆(アンド)ダンジョンズ), Doragon Daisu ando Danjonzu) in the manga). According to his father, Mr. Clown, Ryuji was born in order to fulfill his father's revenge on Sugoroku Mutou. Sugoroku had defeated Mr. Otogi in a Shadow Game called the Devil's Board Game, causing him to age 50 years in one night as a Penalty Game. Ryuji was transferred to Domino High School, where Yugi Mutou (Sugoroku's grandson) goes to school. His father used this as an opportunity for Ryuji to defeat Yugi and fulfill the family's revenge.

Ryuji became immediately popular at the school, impressing girls with his dice tricks (in reality, this was used to get Yugi and his friends' attention). Jonouchi grew jealous and confronted Ryuji, who challenged him to a Dice in Cup (ダイスｉｎ(イン)カップ, Daisu no kappu) game and then a card game, Four Aces (４枚(まい)の「Ａ(エース)」 , 4-mai no ēsu"). Dark Yugi recognizes these games as bar bet games and saw how the probability favored Jonouchi losing, despite looking like a 50-50 chance. When Ryuji tells Jonouchi to bark like a dog, throwing his dice at him and knocking him over, Dark Yugi appears and then challenged Ryuji to a slightly altered version of the game, adding a joker to the game, where a player has an even chance of winning or losing. To Ryuji's annoyance, Yugi wins twice in this game.

While Yugi and his friends are browsing the Otogi family shop; the Black Clown, Ryuji's father sneaks some merchandise into Yugi's pocket and accuses him of stealing it. After Yugi is taken away by store security, Mr. Otogi takes his Millennium Puzzle and has him put in a room with Ryuji, where he must face him in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters for the title of "Game King."

Without the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi was unable to change to Dark Yugi, but managed to do alright in his game against Ryuji, despite having never played before. Mr. Otogi became disappointed in Ryuji's performance and smashed the Millennium Puzzle. Disgusted by his father's actions, he helps pick up the Millennium Puzzle pieces for Yugi, and continues the game. When Ryuji fills out the board to the point where there doesn't seem to be any more room for Yugi to place his dice, Dark Bakura appears and insists that Yugi is the one chosen for the Millennium Puzzle, and that Ryuji will lose. Ryuji is amused by this claim, and as he seems to be the winner, he starts putting together the Millennium Puzzle, saying that he's good at puzzle games and that putting it together seems to be a piece of cake. A quarter of the way through, the Millennium Puzzle starts to confuse him, as Dark Bakura insists that only Yugi can solve the puzzle; giving Yugi a crucial hint to win the game.

Yugi is able to dimension the dice onto the playing field, surprising Otogi, prompting him to continue the game. Ryuji gets Yugi in a tight spot again, but Dark Bakura talked Yugi into continuing. Yugi defeated Ryuji, who was moved by the game. Ryuji told his father that he cannot make himself hate Yugi and cannot take revenge on him. Mr. Otogi seized Yugi by the neck, with the chain from the Millennium Puzzle and dragged him into another room to play the Devil's Board Game, telling Ryuji that he failed and no longer has the right to live. After his father's secret room became engulfed in fire, Ryuji took his father out of the way while Yugi re-completed the Millennium Puzzle and then was rescued by Jonouchi. Afterwords, he visits Yugi in the hospital.

Accepting Yugi's friendship, during the Battle City competition, he helps Honda get Shizuka out of the hospital so she can meet her big brother, Jonouchi, who is dueling to give her courage, although he is skeptical about how Jonouchi winning a game (what he considers to be self-fulfilling) would be able to giver her courage. Meeting the group with Honda, Shizuka, and Mai (whom he thinks is hot), he becomes a spectator of Yugi's battle with Marik for the remainder of the arc and accompanies the group on their journey to the Valley of the Kings where he witnesses the Ceremonial Battle between Yugi and Dark Yugi (then Atem).

In the Duel Monsters anime version, Ryuji's background story, personality, and battle with Yugi was altered, as well as his game, which was changed to include some Duel Monsters creatures and removed the manga's concept of the Dungeon Master (which acted as both a movable creature and the player's heart meter). In comparison to the manga where he is serious and somewhat withdrawn, Ryuji in the anime is less serious, more vain and girl-crazy, and a lot more goofy when he forms a comedic duo with Honda to compete with Shizuka's affections, who he doesn't show any interest in the manga. Instead of his father (who was written out of the script), Ryuji owns the Black Crown game shop that rivals Sugoroku's Game Shop. Ryuji 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, having no interest in the Millennium Puzzle, Ryuji 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. Ryuji believed Yugi cheated, and did not deserve to be the King of Duelists. After defeating Katsuya Jonouchi in a Duel Monsters duel and putting him into a dog suit, 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 Duelists to Ryuji, and swear never to play Duel Monsters ever again. Dark Yugi, however, manages to win, using some help from a laptop computer (which Ryujji included in all Dungeon Dice Monsters set-ups, supposedly to provide help to new players and give accurate statistics) Ryuji 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.

During the anime version of Battle City, Ryuji saves Shizuka Kawai, whom he develops a crush on, and Hiroto Honda from the Ghouls (Rare Hunters) in Battle City. Ryuji also seems to think that Mai Kujaku seems hot after meeting her. In the Virtual Realm Arc, Ryuji 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 Doma/Waking the Dragons filler saga and also tags along during the KC Grand Prix and Ceremonial Battle sagas.

In the manga, he is never shown playing the Duel Monsters card game, although he says it's one of his favorite games, so it can be assumed. In the anime, 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 second deck is based around monsters from his Dungeon Dice Monsters game, such as his Orgoth the Relentless his other Dungeon Dice Monsters, as well as Duel Monsters which he included in the game like Battle Ox, Yaranzo, and Ryu Kishin. It 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

In the Japanese versions, his personality change between the manga and anime is apparent in his use of boku (僕, polite male pronounce for I) in the anime as oppose to ore (俺, masculine and boastful pronoun of "I") in the manga.

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

Shadi

Shadi (シャーディー, Shādī) is the first Millennium Item wielder to cause trouble for Yugi and his friends in the story, serving as the main antagonist for the Trial of the Mind arc of the manga. He holds the Millennium Key (千年錠, Sennen Jyō, also known as the Millennium Ankh), which allowed him to peer into the inner souls of humans and gave him the ability to rearrange their personality as he pleased, and the Millennium Scales (千年秤, Sennen Bakari), which had the power to weigh the evil in a person's heart in the same vein as Anubis's "Weighing of the Heart" trials in Egyptian mythology, using the feather of Ma'at. In the second series anime, his ownership of the Scales isn't revealed until the last arc.

Shadi went to Domino Museum to pass judgment on the curator, Professor Kanekura and the archaeologist, Professor Yoshimori, both of whom had entered and taken items from an Egyptian tomb. He first played a Shadow Game, Question of Truth (真実の質問), with Kanekura, in which he performed the Weighing of the Heart, using the Millennium Scales. He placed the Feather of Ma'at in one side of the Scales and as he asked Kanekura a series of questions, his sins would add weight to the other side. He asked a series of questions to test Kanekura's morality. As he lied, the sins side of the Scales gained weight. Before the last question, Shadi used an illusion to transform Kanekura's chair into Ammit. The final question was if Kanekura had defiled the territory of the Gods for money. He begged Shadi to stop, offering to pay any amount of money - this caused the sins side of the scales to hit the table. Shadi then inflicted a Penalty Game, where Ammit was let loose in Kanekura's soul room to devour his soul, killing him.

On leaving the museum, Shadi spotted Yugi Mutou and learned that he was the holder of the Millennium Puzzle. He then used the Millennium Key to enter Yugi's soul room, but found two rooms; one filled with toys belonging to Yugi and a darker one belonging to Dark Yugi. Dark Yugi appeared inside his room and invited Shadi in, if he dared. Shadi introduced himself as an unwanted guest, who had entered to learn the power of the Millennium Puzzle. If the power was needed he would draw it into his bloodline. Not willing to simply show Shadi the power, Dark Yugi proposed a Shadow Game, the Labyrinth Treasure Hunt (迷宮宝探し); somewhere inside the soul, was Dark Yugi's true room and if Shadi could locate it he would find what he's looking for. Shadi accepted the game, but then mentioned that once he entered someone's room, he could redecorate it to control the individual or change their personality. Dark Yugi started the game and the place turned into a maze of doors and staircases. Shadi began searching, but the doors were filled with traps. Eventually Shadi was left dangling above a bottomless pit. Dark Yugi saved him and advised that he leave. Shadi parted, thinking that he had lost the game, but Dark Yugi assured him that it was only the beginning. Shadi spoke with Yugi after leaving his mind and saw that Yugi was completely unaware of the existence of "the other Yugi". As he departed, Shadi told Yugi his name, with that being the first time he had ever disclosed that detail with anyone.

Shadi spared Yoshimori a Shadow Game, as he planned to use him as a test for Yugi. He redecorated Yoshimori's soul room. After Kanekura's death, Yugi, Sugoroku Mutou, Katsuya Jonouchi, and Anzu Mazaki came to Yoshimori's office at Domino University to cheer him up. Possessed by Shadi, Yoshimori knocked out Sugoroku and began strangling Jonouchi, until Anzu walloped him with a globe. Shadi let Yoshimori chase Jonouchi around the building, while he redecorated Anzu's soul to use her as a tool in the Shadow Game. In the first series anime, Shadi instead sends Yoshimori flying out of the museum window and hospitalizes him, using Honda as a pawn in his Shadow Games instead.

With Anzu held hostage, Dark Yugi was forced to meet Shadi on the roof for the game. To win the game, the Trial of the Mind (心理の秤り, Shinri no Hakariri), a player had to make their opponent show weakness in their heart. Anzu was stood on a board suspended over the side of a building by a series of ropes attached to the building by ushabti. Four ushabti represented Yugi's heart, while one represented Shadi's. The ushabti broke up when weakness was detected in its corresponding player's heart. Causing all Dark Yugi's ushabti to break would let Anzu fall and causing Shadi's ushabti to break would let the Millennium Key slide to Anzu's hand and free her from Shadi's possession. Seeing Anzu in danger immediately caused one ushabti to break. Shadi put Dark Yugi through a series of game tests, which he needed to pass without letting his ushabti break. For the first stage, Hell Quiz (地獄クイズ, Jigoku Kuizu), Shadi created illusions of corpses, which crawled on the ground and tried to grab and climb onto Dark Yugi. The only way for Dark Yugi to make the corpses disappear was to determine their true nature, by answering the riddle, "What creeps on the ground and clings to pillars?". The corpses were what crept on the ground and Dark Yugi was the pillar. The answer was one's own shadow, which Dark Yugi managed to figure out.

For the second stage, he got Dark Yugi to solve another riddle, Concentration or Death (死の神経衰弱 ). He showed him nine face-down slabs and had him restrained by an illusion of Ammit, who would devour his soul if he did not answer correctly within five minutes. The slabs were said to reflect Ammit and Dark Yugi had to tell him what was under the middle slab. The nine slabs consisted of eight pairs and an odd one in the middle. Dark Yugi realized that Ammit's mouth was her only feature before the slabs that she did not have two of and correctly guessed that as the middle piece.

Shadi's last test for Dark Yugi, the Game of Death (死のゲーム, Shi no Gēmu), involved an illusion of Jonouchi. The illusion and Dark Yugi had to take turns tossing the Millennium Puzzle to point in the direction their opponent had to walk two floor tile, until one walked off the edge to fall to their death. Jonouchi taunted Yugi just how he did as a bully. Yugi briefly gained control of his body and wept, causing two ushabti to shatter. Unsure if it was the real Jonouchi or an illusion, Dark Yugi refused to take his turns in the game. Shadi was shocked at this decision. Jonouchi forced Dark Yugi to the edge and Dark Yugi refused to take his turn, explaining that he trusted Jonouchi. The illusion then faded away. The last rope supporting Anzu's platform began to break, but the real Jonouchi arrived and held it up. Surprised at how the friends supported each other, Shadi's ushabti shattered and Anzu was restored to normal. Jonouchi struggled to hold up the board as the possessed professor was trying to attack him. Dark Yugi helped Anzu climb back to the building and instructed Jonouchi to touch the professor with the Key. Dark Yugi taught Shadi that unity is the power of the Millennium Puzzle. Shadi was threatened to leave by Yugi's friends. He left beaten, but pleased. He tells Yugi that his bloodline had been searching for someone like Yugi and perhaps he might be able to open "that door", most likely realizing that the other soul within Yugi Mutou was the soul of Pharaoh Atem.

After this, Shadi becomes a recurring enigmatic character in flashbacks. During Duelist Kingdom, Yugi and his friends notice that Pegasus had a painting of Shadi on his wall. When Yugi defeats Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, Yugi finds out that Shadi met Maximillion J. Pegasus in the Valley of the Kings and had him tested to see if he was worthy of the Millennium Eye, gauging out his left eye and replacing it with the Item. Later on, it is revealed that he met Marik Ishtar after the death of his father and credited Marik's misfortune to the will of the Pharaoh.

In the Millennium World arc, Shadi got Bobasa to hold the Key and Scales. When Dark Yugi and his companions went to the Domino City Museum so Dark Yugi could regain his memories, Shadi sent Bobasa to serve as their guide. They were initially uncertain about trusting Bobasa, due to his association with Shadi, who had endangered their lives before. Bobasa tried to defend this, saying that Shadi had been testing to see if Dark Yugi was the Pharaoh they had been waiting for 3000 years. During the Shadow RPG, Shadi appeared as Hasan (ハサン, Hasan) before the Pharaoh, who had fallen into a chasm. After advising the Pharaoh to rest, he introduced himself as the one who watches all memories and warned the Pharaoh that a great battle was about to begin. When the Millennium Items had been placed in the Millennium Stone, Bobasa transformed into Hasan, whom he introduced as his other self and the spirit of the stone tablet. Hasan served as a non-player character in the RPG, whose duty was to reveal the hiding place of the Pharaoh's forgotten name after Zorc Necrophades rises from his slumber. He told Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda that the Pharaoh's name rests in the holy place where his soul sleeps, which Yugi realized was his tomb. Hasan then flew away to protect the Pharaoh. As Zorc attacked the Pharaoh and his priests, whose bodies had been immobilized, Hasan flew in and intercepted the blast.

He explained to the Pharaoh that he was born as the opposing force of light to Zorc's darkness and that he was fulfilling his duty to Akhenamkhanen, the previous Pharaoh and Atem's father, by protecting the Pharaoh until the end. During the final battle with Zorc, Hasan gave his life defending the Pharaoh, Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda from another of Zorc's attacks. His mask cracked in the process, causing them to realize that he was Shadi. Before the start of the series, Shadi pledged to the will of Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen from the afterlife and took it as his duty to protect Akhenamkhanen's son, Atem, the next Pharaoh. At the end of the series, the ghost of Shadi is seen, looking over at Yugi and his friends as they escaped the crumbling temple of the Ceremonial Battle, as he stood inside the underground temple where his spirit and the Millennium Items would be sealed for all eternity.

In the second series Duel Monsters anime, Shadi usually serves as an exposition character. Because the anime skipped over the first seven volumes, they re-introduced Shadi towards the end of the Duelist Kingdom arc, looking for the thief that stole Pegasus' Millennium Eye. Scenes similar to his first appearance are then played, but instead of Dark Yugi saving Shadi from his Shadow Game, it's the normal Yugi, leading them to find tablets of Duel Monsters in one of the Dark Yugi's mind rooms. Shadi is once again saved by Yugi from being killed by the Dark Magician; leading him to realize that Yugi is the current vessel for the nameless Pharaoh, giving his name to Yugi before he disappears. He later appears during the Battle City finals of the anime to explain to Yugi the creation of the God Cards and save Honda and Ryuji from falling from Kaiba's Battle Ship. In the anime, he appears to display the ability to warp from certain places to the next. Rather than accompanying the group in the Millennium Puzzle's maze as Bobasa (who appears as an entirely different character) like he did in the manga, he appears as himself during the Millennium World arc of the second series anime. He stays behind in the Millennium Puzzle to spectate the Shadow RPG and later appears as Hasan when Dark Yugi uses his Master Item.

In the Toei anime, he is voiced by Kaneto Shiozawa. In the Duel Monsters anime, he is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki.

Ishizu Ishtar

Ishizu Ishtar (イシズ・イシュタール, Ishizu Ishutāru) 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).

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 (千年首飾り, Sennen Tauku, known as the Millennium Necklace in the English anime) that has the power to foresee events in the near future. With her physic abilities of prediction, Ishizu manipulates Seto Kaiba into setting up the Battle City tournament in order to lure out her younger brother, Marik Ishtar, the leader of the Ghouls (Rare Hunters in the English anime) organization. In hopes of saving her brother, Ishizu enters the semi-finals with the intent to face Marik and stop him herself. However, her power of foresight was defeated by Kaiba, who saw a vision from the Millennium Rod, and she 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 modern-day reincarnation of Isis, one of Pharaoh Atem's six high priests who originally held the Millennium Tauk. After the Pharaoh recovers his memories and his name in the Shadow RPG story of the Millennium World 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 game in order to determine if the spirit will move on to the afterlife or remain in the present.

Ishizu is a kindhearted character and the only Millennium Item wielder to not initiate Shadow Games or inflict Penalty Games on her opponents at any point of the story.

She is voiced by Sumi Shimamoto in the Japanese version and in the flashbacks she is voiced by Sakura Nogawa. In the English adaptation she is voiced by Karen Neil.

Rishid Ishtar

Rishid Ishtar (リシド・イシュタール, Rishido Ishutāru, Odion Ishtar in the English anime) 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. Despite this, Rishid had always desire to become a true part of the family and an heir to the tombkeeper clan. When Marik was born, his mother 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 and Rishid were close siblings, but Rishid always harbored a resentment for him as the true heir to the tombkeeper's clan and legitimate son of his parents. When Marik was bitten by a cobra and became ill, their father beat Rishid, furious he allowed Marik to be harmed, and ordered that he not leave Marik's bedside until he recovered. Rishid takes a dagger to Marik's room with the intent to kill him in his sleep (this is edited out in the dub, along with Rishid's resentment for Marik). Marik awakens and murmurs "brother", causing Rishid to drop the weapon in shock: Marik sees Rishid as his brother, despite the fact they are not blood related.

During the tombkeeper's initiation ritual, he had failed to convince their father to let him undergo the painful ritual instead of Marik, who feared the hot dagger ritual and what will become of his life thereafter, but was refused. Fearing what might happen to Marik as a result and noticing the seeds of another personality being born in his brother, Rishid performs his own ritual, carving hieroglyphics on his face with a knife as proof that he will stay by Marik's side no matter what. When his adoptive father had found out that Rishid had let Ishizu and Marik into the outside world, he threatens to kill Rishid and starts whipping him. Upon seeing this, Dark Marik appears from Marik's subconscious and kills their adoptive father, skinning him and throwing his tattooed back on Rishid, mocking Rishid's desire to become a true heir to the tombkeeper clan. When it's clear that Rishid was still conscious, Marik's normal personality regained control. With the carving on his face, Rishid made it his duty to keep this other personality sealed.

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. He is voiced by KONTA in the Japanese version. In the flashbacks, he is voiced by Sakura Nogawa.

Mai Kujaku

Mai Kujaku (孔雀 舞, Kujaku Mai, Mai Valentine in the English anime) is an attractive woman who spent most of her life alone. While working as a blackjack dealer on a cruise ship, she developed a cynical attitude towards people and showed no shame in manipulating men, who displayed foolish infatuation towards her and previously used her "Aroma Tactics" to easily beat them in card games. Although she made a lot of money doing this, it caused her to hate people more until she got sick of her job and quit. She became a powerful, successful duelist thanks to her Harpie-themed deck. However, Mai had no true friends, and dueled simply for pride and monetary gain, but also entered the Duelist Kingdom tournament to find the things she used to cherish. When Mai joined the Duelist Kingdom tournament to seek the 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 Killer of Darkness 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, telling him that some losses only serve to make people stronger. In the anime, she was raised in a wealthy household, but was barely acknowledged by her relatives.

In the Legendary Heroes filler arc of the second series anime, she appeared as the champion in a town in the virtual game, 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 Jonouchi, and eventually joins then on their quest to rescue Kaiba. During the battle with the Big 5 and their Five God Dragon, her only Dragon-type monster, Harpies Pet Dragon, was destroyed and she lost.

Mai returned during the Battle City arc of the manga and anime. In the anime, she encountered Shizuka Kawai, Hiroto Honda and Ryuji Otogi fleeing from the villainous Ghouls and helped them to safety, while in the manga, she reappears driving Honda, Ryuji, and Shizuka who she met on the way to the Domino City Pier where Yugi had fought a brainwashed Jonouchi under Marik's control. Mai also successfully made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament where she faced Dark Marik. While she managed to hold out on her own, Dark Marik subjected her to a torturous Shadow Game where the pain inflicted on the monsters is also inflicted on the player (in the anime, instead of this they lose their memories for their loved ones for every monster killed). She eventually managed to summon the Sun Dragon Ra, but sadly she couldn't control the god, since she could not read the chant inscribed on the card, which was once more summoned to Dark Marik's side. Although Jonouchi and Dark Yugi were able to save her life from the god's attack, she was still the loser of the Shadow Game and as a Penalty Game, Dark Marik had her mind sent away to an hourglass, where she believed she was being devoured by flesh-eating scarabs, which would lead to her eventual death (in the anime, she is instead sent to an hourglass where she would lose her memories as time went by, in the English anime, this happens in the Shadow Realm). Mai was saved when Dark Yugi defeated Marik in the tournament final, and she departed to find her own way in life.

Although Mai does not appear afterward in the manga, in the anime she takes part in the Doma (Waking the Dragons) arc. Valon, a fellow member of Dartz's group is responsible for introducing her to Dartz, and develops feelings for Mai. Therein, Mai joins Dartz as a duelist, because she has been having nightmares about Marik and believes she must defeat Jonouchi to put her past behind her. Jonouchi, 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. Throughout the series, Mai developed a close connection to Jonouchi, which may have turned romantic, but was never fully explored.

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.

Shizuka Kawai

Shizuka Kawai (川井 静香, Kawai Shizuka, Shizuka Jounouchi (城之内静香, Jōunouchi Shizuka in the 1st series anime,) Serenity Wheeler in the English anime) 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, Jounouchi entered the Duelist Kingdom tournament and successfully obtained the prize money to secure the operation that would save her eyesight. Shizuka underwent the operation in the early days of the Battle City tournament, and was looked after by Hiroto Honda (who, in the anime only, develops a crush on her), as well as Ryuji Otogi in the manga, while Jonouchi dueled in the competition. 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 (in the manga, Seto Kaiba saved him by dropping the key into the ocean). 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 (anime-only).

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, Dark Yugi challenges and defeats 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.

Rebecca Hopkins

Rebecca Hopkins (レベッカ・ホプキンス, Rebekka Hopukinsu, Rebecca Hawkins in the dub) is a character created exclusively for the second series anime. She is the cute 12-year old granddaughter of a friend of Sugoroku Mutou, believing Sugoroku stole the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card from him. Dueling Sugoroku's grandson Yugi to get it back, Rebecca and Yugi play a game identical to the one Sugoroku 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 Doma 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.

Millenium World

During the Millenium World story arc, Dark Yugi journeys into his lost memories and meets old acquaintances from Ancient Egypt as NPCs (non player characters) within Dark Bakura's ultimate tabletop role-playing game, the Shadow RPG (闇のＲ・Ｐ・Ｇ, Yami no Ā Pī Jī), a campaign based on the past. The Six High Priests (六神官, Roku Shinkan) protect the seven Millennium Items with their lives and have to swear eternal loyalty to the Pharaoh, Atem (serving as the player character of Dark Yugi, Atem's spirit in modern times). In the age where Shadow Games were used to determine a person's fate, these Priests used the Millennium Items and sorcery to pull out and seal human souls (Ka), which take the form of Monsters Spirits, into stone slabs to do battle; usually from criminals and those who pilfer from the tombs of the Pharaohs. Within the RPG, each characters' health and magic were represented by their Ba Gauge.

Seto

Priest Seto (神官セト, Shinkan Seto) is one of the seven High Priests that guard the Millennium Items and is the holder of the Millennium Rod. Priest Seto is named after the god Set and is actually the first cousin of Pharaoh Atem. Seto Kaiba is his reincarnation and thus, resembles him in looks and basic attitude, believing in power and brute strength. However, Priest Seto appears to bear a great loyalty and friendship to Atem, as opposed to Kaiba, who views modern day Yugi Mutou as a lifelong rival as opposed to someone he calls a friend. Before the Battle City arc, a tablet showing Priest Seto fighting Pharaoh Atem was on display at the Domino City Museum, with Blue-Eyes White Dragon fighting against the Pharaoh's Dark Magician. During Battle City, Kaiba continuously has vivid visions of his past life as Seto. Priest Seto appears as an NPC in the Shadow RPG, aligned to Dark Yugi's side of the board.

When Thief King Bakura appears at the royal court with his powerful Ka (Diabound), Seto decides that Bakura needs to be stopped and begins his search for a Ka powerful enough to defeat Diabound. Learning that humans could be tortured into revealing their Ka, he decides to try rounding up and torturing criminals in order to find the most powerful Ka. This plan, he believes, would accomplish two things: both finding a Ka that could destroy Diabound and reducing the number of criminals that incite anarchy in the Pharaoh's kingdom. During his search, he encounters Kisara, who is being stoned because of her unorthodox appearance (snow white hair, pale tan skin, and deep blue eyes). Shada senses the great power within her ("even surpassing that of the gods") and Seto saves her from her abuse (with Yugi and his friends, as unseen NPCs, cheering him on and calling him "Kaiba guy"). When he tells his minions to give her a place to rest in the palace, he mentions the Pharaoh, and Yugi and his friends follow him into the palace.

In the second series anime only, there he remembers the first time they met: as children, Seto had saved Kisara from slave traders, who had kidnapped her from her home country and were planning to sell her for a high price. She repaid him by unconsciously releasing her inner spirit, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, after the traders set fire to his village and killed his mother in retaliation.

The dungeon keeper Gelbelk, later attempts to test Kisara's immeasurable power by forcing her to fight in a battle against two other prisoners. Akhenaden, after being possessed by Zorc, tells Seto that he must allow this in order to become the new vessel for the gods, the new king. Seto steps in and saves her, but the two fall into danger, causing Kisara to release her inner spirit dragon and save them both. During all of this, Seto develops strong feelings for the girl and vice-versa. After the battle with Zorc Necrophades, Kisara is killed by Akhenaden by his lightning blast, who had become the High Priest of Darkness and revealed that he was Seto's father. In the aftermath, Seto holds Kisara's body in front of the BEWD tablet and weeps – notably, this is the "vision" which appears to Kaiba during his duel in the Battle City arc. When the remnants of Akhenaden's soul attempts to influence Seto's mind in order to make him the King of Darkness, Atem battles him in order to restore him to his former self. The spirit of Kisara helps him push away Akhenaden's dark influence and kills Akhenaden once and for all, allowing Dark Yugi to win the RPG against Dark Bakura.

In the Duel Monsters anime, instead of using the Millennium Rod to summon Monster Spirits as in the manga, he wields a DiaDhank which resembles an ancient Duel Disk. In the anime, the above events of the boss battle with Zorc are reversed. After Akhenaden is killed (Kisara had sacrificed her life to save Seto), Priest Seto later assists Atem in the final battle against Zorc Necrophades. Atem says that his reign is over, and names Seto the new pharaoh. When Dark Yugi looks back into the diaorama of the Shadow RPG, Priest Seto is shown to be the new Pharaoh. Priest Seto then creates the famous stone carving of the two of them as a tribute to their friendship. He is later seen welcoming Atem into the afterlife in the last chapter of the series.

Seto is voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda in the Japanese version.

Akhenaden

See also: Antagonists

Mahado

Priest Mahado (神官マハード, Shinkan Mahādo, known as Mahad in the English anime) was a loyal High Priest of Pharaoh Atem's court and appears as an NPC within Dark Bakura's Shadow RPG. He bears the Millennium Ring, but lost the item to Thief King Bakura in a Shadow Game. He states that he had sensed an evil intelligence within the Millennium Ring, which it absorbed from the previous priest who wore it. His Monster Spirit Ka is the Magus of Illusion (幻想の魔術師, Gensō no Majutsushi, known as the Illusion Magician in the English anime), a spellcaster.

In the manga, Mahado binds his Ba (soul) and with Ka (spirit) just before he is killed, and comes back as the Monster Spirit Dark Magician (ブラック・マジシャン, Burakku Majishan, Black Magican in Japanese), his spirit telling Atem from his stone slab that he's Atem's eternal servant, even after death. Later, he saves Atem from Thief King Bakura and also states that he has learned the magic of the afterlife, giving him many new powers. In the manga, the Dark Magician wears a dark blue outfit and has blonde hair and pale skin (as Mahado: tan skin), while in the anime he has a purple outfit and purple hair (as Mahado: brown hair).

In the Duel Monsters anime, instead of using the Millennium Ring to summon Monster Spirits as in the manga, he wields a DiaDhank which resembles an ancient Duel Disk.

Mahado is voiced by Kazunari Kojima in the Japanese version and Michael Sinterniklaas in the English adaptation.

Isis

Priest Isis (神官アイシス, Shinkan Aishisu) is a loyal priestess that serves Pharaoh Atem in Ancient Egypt and wields the Millennium Necklace. Ishizu Ishtar is the reincarnation of Isis. She is named after the Egyptian goddess Isis.

A wise, kind and intelligent woman, she seems to share a close friendship with Mahad in the anime adaptation, as she converses with him before he goes off to fight Bakura for the Pharaoh's sake. She is able to sense his plight during his Shadow Game with Bakura, and utters his name with tears flowing down her cheeks. Isis alone senses Mahad's demise, and cries out his name tearfully, showing that she does care about him. Even three thousand years later, in the Ceremonial Battle with Atem and Yugi, when the Dark Magician makes his appearance, Ishizu notices "a deep pain within her heart". In the anime, she dies while facing Zorc in an attempt to buy Mana enough time to give Atem his Millennium Puzzle.

However, in the manga, she survives the battle with Zorc and goes on to become a Priestess under Pharaoh Seto, still wielding the Millennium Necklace.

Voiced by Sumi Shimamoto in the Japanese version.

Karim

Priest Karim (神官カリム, Shinkan Karimu) is one of the six High Priests that served under Pharaoh Atem in Ancient Egypt 3000 years ago during his reign, and was the owner of the Millennium Scales at the time. He appears as an NPC aligned with Dark Yugi in the Shadow RPG.

A powerful and incredibly loyal man, Karim was dedicated to serving the Pharaoh, going as far as even sacrificing his life for him. A powerful Priest, he seemed to partner up with Seto and often fused their Ka's together into Duos Dragon (デュオス・ドラゴン, Dyuosu Doragon) (a white Monster Spirit in the manga; a black Monster Spirit in the anime). He fought alongside Atem and the others when Thief King Bakura waged war on the kingdom, but ultimately died in the conflict. Heavily wounded, he gives up the last of his Ba to Shada in order to ensure he will continue to protect the Pharaoh.

In the original manga, he used the Millennium Scales to call forth his Monster Spirits. In the anime, he instead uses a device called a DiaDhank, which resembles Kaiba's Duel Disk system.

Voiced by Masahito Kawanago in the Japanese version.

Shada

Priest Shada (神官シャダ, Shinkan Shada) is one of the six priests that guarded Pharaoh Atem 3,000 years ago and appears as an NPC in the Shadow RPG. He is the keeper of the Millennium Key during Atem's reign. He appears to have a friendship with Priest Seto, and although he was relunctant, Shada aided Seto in his criminal hunt for Monster Spirit Ka with his Millennium Key. He later dies after pushing Atem out of the way of a lightning bolt caused by Zorc Necrophades, having his Ba Gauge wiped out (in the English version of the anime, he is sent to the Shadow Realm). After his death, Siamun, his predecessor, took back the Millennium Key in order to called forth Exodia the Sealed One. Although he is the wielder of the Millennium key and has a similar name to Shadi, the two are not related in any way.

In the manga, he used the Millennium Key to call forth his Monster Spirits. In the anime, he instead has a device called a "DiaDhank", which resembled a Duel Disk.

Voiced by Sumi Shimamoto in the Japanese version and Sakura Nogawa when he was young.

Siamun Muran

Siamun Muran (シモン・ムーラン, Shimon Mūran, known as Shimon in the English anime) is a vizier of Pharaoh Atem. He resembles Yugi's modern day grandpa, Sugoroku Mutou. He was originally one of the Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen's original guardians and was the former keeper of the Millenium Key, the predecessor to Shada.

He plays a minor role in the Millennium World arc as exposition at first, where he introduces much of the ancient ways and terminology to Pharaoh Atem, who was being controlled by modern day Dark Yugi as a player character in the Shadow RPG. He was also responsible for constructing Pharaoh Atem's tomb, which he filled with the same Shadow Games his reincarnation (Sugoroku Mutou) had to conquer in order to get the Millennium Puzzle.

When Zorc Necrophades rises and begins to march towards the kingdom, Siamun takes up the Millennium Key that Isis brought back and he summons the sealed Monster Spirit Exodia to combat Zorc. Although Exodia experiences some success, especially after Siamun demonstrates its ability to regenerate after its arm was torn off by Zorc, Zorc overpowers Exodia because its power is based on Siamun's, while Zorc can draw endless power from the darkness. Therefore, Exodia is destroyed and Siamun is killed.

In the Duel Monsters anime, instead of using the Millennium Key to summon his Monster Spirit as in the manga, he uses a DiaDhank, which resembles an ancient Duel Disk.

He was voiced by Tadashi Miyazawa in the Japanese version.

Mana

Mana (マナ, Mana) is a childhood friend of Atem and studies magic under Mahado as his apprentice. She is a light-hearted, open, playful and caring girl, who shares a deep bond between her master and Atem. She appears in the Millennium World arc as an NPC during Dark Bakura's Shadow RPG game.

In the manga, she first appeared before Mahado, after hiding in the pots outside of the palace. Mahado sensed her there and told her to come out. After popping out of the pot, she exclaimed how she'd do her training later and Mahado responded by telling her she'd never become a sorcerer that way. After Mahado's death, she swears to become a great sorcerer and eventually became able to summon her own Monster Spirit Ka, the Dark Magician Girl (ブラック・マジシャン・ガール, Burakku Majishan Gāru, Black Magican Girl), aiding the Pharaoh in fighting Zorc. In the manga, unlike the Magic & Wizards/Duel Monsters card version of her, Dark Magicican Girl in the Shadow RPG had tan skin and had the Eye of Anubis on her chest instead of the pentagram pearl. In the anime, Dark Magician Girl in the Shadow RPG looks exactly as she does in the card game, albeit having the Eye of Anubis on her chest. In addition, Mana herself is blonde in the manga while she has brown hair in the anime.

In the anime version, Yugi's gang discovers her, and Yugi explains about the Duel Monsters card game back home, commenting on her reference to the Dark Magician Girl. Mana later helps them defeat Zorc. She is one of the only two people in the Memory World who could see Yugi and his friends in the anime, though this is never explained.

After Zorc's death, Mana would become a Priest and wielder of the Millennium Ring under the newly crowned Pharaoh: Priest Seto.

Voiced by Yuki Nakao in the Japanese version.

Kisara

Kisara (キサラ, Kisara) is the keeper of the Blue Eyes White Dragon Monster Spirit in the Millennium World arc. Her pale appearance is unusual, and she is mentioned as being from a "foreign country" in the Japanese anime. In the second series anime adaptation, it's stated that as children, Priest Seto saved Kisara from slave traders, and she repaid him by unconsciously releasing her inner dragon spirit after the traders set fire to his village and killed his mother. Years later (their first meeting in the manga), Seto again stumbles across Kisara being stoned because of her pale white skin, deep blue eyes and snow white hair. Shada senses the immeasurably strong strength and power within her — which he deems "equal to that of the Gods" — and Seto takes her back to the palace, where he recognizes her as the girl he once saved some years ago.

In the manga, Kisara is portrayed as nothing less than an enigma. Mysterious and lonely, her nature is a timid one, possibly enforced by the prejudice she suffers at the hands of the townsfolk due to her strange looks. Despite this, she exudes a quiet confidence, born out of gratitude to Seto, and she musters enough courage to thank him for his kindness. When faced with death, she accepts it without a fight; her passive personality is a testament to her weariness of life and the abuse it brings with it. Seto's selfless intervention on her behalf confuses her, but her gratitude increases and so her dragon is summoned from the depths of her sub-conscious.

Seto's father, Akhenaden, and the dungeon keeper Gelbelk eventually try to test Kisara's tremendous strength by forcing her to fight in a battle with two other Monster Spirits. 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's life - to finally release her inner dragon and save them both.

Later, Akhenaden explains that Kisara's spirit is unique, and that the white dragon - her Ka - has fused with her Ba, or her mind/heart. Extracting her spirit dragon would thus mean her death. However, Akhenaden, possessed by Zorc, encourages Seto to take it out, claiming that the immeasurable power of the white dragon can surpass the enemy and even the Pharaoh's Three God Spirits. 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.

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. Her mutually strong romantic love feelings for Seto remained strong and never died, and has had her innermost Blue-Eyes White Dragon self protect and watch over him after her death.

Distraught, Seto attempts to kill Akhenaden, only to have Akhenaden/Zorc take over his body and mind, and force him to fight Pharaoh Atem. Kisara saves Seto once more by using her "purest light" to purge his father from his mind, promising him that her love and 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 vivid "vision" that constantly appears to Kaiba during his duel with Ishizu Ishtar.

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

Kisara is voiced by Rie Nakagawa in the Japanese version.

Bobasa

See also: Shadi

In the manga, Bobasa (ボバサ, Bobasa) is a member of an Egyptian tombkeeper clan that protects the Millennium Items under the command of Shadi. He has Shadi's Millennium Scale as well as his Millennium Key. Bobasa protects the items by placing them on his abnormally-shaped chest and locking his clothes. He then swallows the key, and is able to regurgitate it at will. He accompanied Yugi and his friends into the Millennium Puzzle's maze, a continuation of the Labyrinth Treasure Hunt from the early manga, in order to find the true door to the king's memory. He later enters the Memory World with Yugi and his friends and becomes an NPC in the Shadow RPG. In the manga, it is revealed that he is actually Hasan, which in turn, means that he is actually Shadi.

In the Duel Monsters anime version, his role and character are completely altered. Bobasa appears as a comic relief NPC that inhabits the Shadow RPG. He is a key switch that can lead the player to where the Pharaoh's name is if the player gives him enough food to eat. It is never fully explained to who and what he actually is, but it's implied that he could have been a genie or some other supernatural entity because he said that now that he's full, he can "grant your wish." When he finally took them to the Pharaoh's tomb, he vanished and seemed to know a lot more about the situation then he was first implied to. Unlike the manga, Bobasa is not an alternate identity of Shadi.

Other Characters

Ushio

Ushio (牛尾, Demetrius in the English DDM video game) 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 Dark Yugi, who challenged Ushio to the first Shadow Game of the series. In the manga, Ushio is challenged to a game of Money and Knife (マネーアンドナイフ, Manē ando naifu), stabbing as many banknotes as he can with a knife without stabbing his hand, 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, Dark Yugi uses Greed, causing Ushio to go crazy and think that piles of leaves and trash were money. In the first series 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 first version of the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, he is voiced by Ryuzaburo Otomo. In the second version, he is voiced by Yuji Kishi. In the English adaptation of the second anime, 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. "Tetsu Ushio" (牛尾 哲, Ushio Tetsu) also 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 Ushio that appeared in Yugi's flashback in the original Duel Monsters anime.

ZTV Director

The ZTV Director (ＺＴＶディレクター, Zetto Tī Vi direkutā, known as Director Lucius in the English DDM video game) is a minor villain exclusive to the original manga, appearing in the second chapter.

He works for ZTV and bends the truth in front of cameras in order to improve ratings. The director staged a bullying documentary, Caught on Camera: School Violence, at Domino High School. He got his assistant Fujita to disguise as a student and play the role of a bully by fighting Yugi Mutou on camera. However Jonouchi arrived and broke up the fight. The director intervened and told Fujita he could leave. He explained that Yugi was now the star of the show and will get dozens of letters from people sympathizing with him. Jonouchi tried to attack the director but hesitated after being reminded he was on camera. The director then asked to camera crew to stop filming and then attacked Jonouchi.

Afterwards the director was confronted by Dark Yugi, who challenged him to a Dice Game (サイコロ勝負, Saikoro shōbu, Dice Battle) Shadow Game, where if the director could roll a number lower than or equal to Dark Yugi's, he would win. The director was interested but after Dark Yugi rolled a 6, the director thought he had automatically win. However, Dark Yugi insisted that the game wasn't over until the director rolled. Wanting to shut Dark Yugi up, the director threw the die at Dark Yugi's face. Dark Yugi blocked it by holding up his Millennium Puzzle, causing the die to break and land on both a 1 and a 6, adding up to 7 and causing the director to lose. His Penalty Game, the "Mosaic Illusion", caused his vision to pixelize, like a blur used as a censor on TV.

Tomoya Hanasaki

Tomoya Hanasaki (花咲友也, Hanasaki Tomoya, known as Lint Greendale in the English DDM video game) is a friend of Yugi in the early chapters of the manga, and does not appear in either anime series. He becomes friends with Yugi after Dark Yugi defeated Sozoji, who was bullying him, in a Shadow Game. Tomoya is obsessed with the American superhero, Zombire (ゾンバイア, Zonbaia). Before the start of the series, Hanasaki spent some time in hospital. When his father came to visit, he gave Tomoya a Zombire figure, telling him that this is Zombire and he's the strongest hero in America. Holding the figure, Hanasaki said he felt stronger too. His father was delighted to hear this and promised to bring him more Zombire toys and figures every time he came home from America.

After showing Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda a Zombire comic in school, he invited them over to his house to show them his Zombire collection. During the visit, Hanasaki's father returned home and gave Tomoya a Zombire costume. After his friends left, Hanasaki put on the costume and went outside. His father spotted him and paid some thugs to fake a crime scene and allow Hanasaki to break it up. "Thug A" and "Thug B" pretended to be beating-up "Thug C" in front of Hanasaki. Hanasaki initially considered staying out of it, but thought Zombire would not do such a thing. He approached the attackers and demanded that they leave the victim alone. The two proceed to attack Hanasaki in turn. He flinched each time, but found the two guys fell back as if they had taken a powerful blow each time. The two thugs ran away and Hanasaki called after them, saying that he was Zombire. The next day at school, Hanasaki saw Thugs A and B harassing Yugi. He ordered them to leave Yugi alone, although not wearing his costume. The thugs shrugged and decided to leave. Later Hanasaki received a message from the thugs saying they had kidnapped Yugi, so Hanasaki put on his costume and confronted them. However this time, the thugs demanded more money than Hanasaki's father could afford, so the thugs proceeded to attack Hanasaki and told him they had been paid last time. However Dark Yugi showed up and saved Hanasaki, challenging the thugs to a Maze of Fire (火の迷路, Ho no Meiro) Shadow Game. Seeing Yugi fight for his sake, he refused to run away from the fight with his father. As Dark Yugi escorted Hanasaki away, he told him that he can still be a hero.

After Sugoroku Mutou was hospitalized during Death-T, Hanasaki looked after him at the hospital. Jonouchi called Hanasaki at one point to see that Sugoroku was okay. This was Hanasaki's last appearance in the story.

Sozoji

Sozoji (騒象寺（そうぞうじ）, Sōzōji, known as Fender Shrill in the English DDM video game) is a karaoke player who tries to get people to listen to his horrid singing. He's a minor villain exclusive to the original manga.

Sozoji forced Yugi and Tomoya Hanasaki to sell tickets to his All Night Solo Live Show. When Yugi discovered that Hanasaki was also asked to sell tickets, he offered to take charge of selling all the tickets, so only one of them would have to suffer. Sozoji discovered the exchange and beat-up Hanasaki. Yugi arrived at the show, not having sold any tickets. Sozoji then forced Yugi to listen to his music at a deafening volume and brought out Hanasaki, who was badly beaten, as the audience for the next act. Yugi switched to Dark Yugi, who challenged Sozoji to a Shadow Game for making Yugi and Hanasaki suffer. The Silence Game (沈黙ゲーム, Chinmoku gēmu) consisted of two Sound Pierrot toys, which dance when they detect sound. These were placed at opposite ends of a table in front of each player. The first one to cause their toy to dance loses. Sozoji noticed Dark Yugi's headphone jack balancing on a glass of water, and he excitedly anticipates it to fall and make noise. However, the sound of his increasingly pounding heart was amplified by the microphone in his hand, causing his toy to dance. As his Penalty Game, Beat Festival, he was forced to listen to his deafening heartbeat.

Prisoner Number 777

Prisoner Number 777 (囚人ナンバー777, Shūjin nanbā 777, known as Jackpot in the English DDM game) is a convict who escaped from Domino City Jail with a stolen handgun after killing a guard. In the first series anime, he is called Jiro the Spider (女郎蜘蛛のジロウ, Jorōgumo no Jirō) and is actually the manager of the Burger World restaurant (differing in appearance with his manga counterpart), framing Tetsu Sasaki (ササキテツオ, Sasaki Tetsu), a common thief who resembles the manga's Prisoner Number 777.

He held Anzu Mazaki hostage at Burger World. After blindfolding her, he told Yugi to get him Lucky Stripe cigarettes and vodka. When Anzu realized that Yugi was the one bringing the prisoner cigarettes and vodka, she yelled at Yugi to stay away, telling him it was too dangerous. Angry, the prisoner slammed her down. Yugi's distress at seeing Anzu being treated this way prompted Dark Yugi to emerge where he challenged him to the One Finger BATTLE! (ワンフィンガーバトル！, Wan fingā BATORU!) Shadow Game. The prisoner aimed his gun at Yugi and told him that he will die after he lights his cigarette. While the prisoner was pouring the vodka, Dark Yugi placed the lighter on his hand. Dark Yugi explained that the Russian vodka was 90% alcohol and that pulling the trigger would cause the lighter to fall into the glass. The prisoner was horrified as his vodka overflowed and eventually poured onto him. As Dark Yugi leads Anzu away, he sighs in relief, causing the cigarette to drop from his mouth and ignite the vodka, setting the convict ablaze. As such, Anzu remained unaware that it was Dark Yugi who had saved her, believing to be some random stranger. She fell in love with him as a result.

In the first series anime, the Fire~!!! Penalty Game is changed to an illusion where Jiro the Spider believed he was being set on fire for cheating, after putting his gun down and removing the lighter with his right hand. In the second series anime, Prisoner Number 777 is replaced by an unnamed pervert with a camera in a flashback, who tries to blackmail Anzu into being filmed until Dark Yugi challenges him to a game of "Draw the Strongest Duel Monster card."

Jiro the Spider is voiced by Mahito Ohba. Tetsu Sasaki is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama.

Kokurano

Kokurano (孤蔵野, Kokurano, known as Fortuno in the English DDM video game) is a character that appears in the manga and first series anime. He is a self-proclaimed psychic in Class 1-A of Domino High School. Kokurano predicted a fellow student's house would catch fire. The prediction came true 3 weeks later, causing Kokurano to become famous at school. In actuality, Kokurano himself had set the student's house on fire.

Kokurano set-up a stand in a classroom, aided by a couple of female assistants, who strongly admired his alleged powers. At the stand, he offered predictions to other students. When Anzu came for her prediction, Kokurano made plans to seduce her. He told her that she would see a wonderful man, already close to her, who she will fall so deeply in love with, she will swoon before him. He told Jonouchi that he was having bad luck, but didn't give him any advice on it, which Jonouchi had been hoping for. He got upset when Yugi said he doesn't believe in psychics and told Yugi that countless letters would fall from the heavens and bring disaster upon him. When Yugi went to the library, Kokurano knocked over the book stands in his direction, but Yugi transformed into Dark Yugi and saved himself. Kokurano met Anzu afterwards and knocked her out with chloroform, which he intended to be the swoon before the wonderful man he predicted. Dark Yugi caught up with Kokurano and challenged him to a game.

In the manga, the game was Paper Crash! (ペーパークラッシュ！, Pēpā Kurasshu!) and players had to pull sheets of paper out from under the chloroform bottle, without letting it fall. Kokurano tried to use his powers to levitate the bottle, but wound up knocking himself out with it. In the anime, he lost a different game involving bottles falling from the ceiling.

Kokurano was left lying on the floor with his cloak spread out, showing notes containing various possible future events, which Kokurano would pass off as predictions should they come true. Yugi carried Anzu away, leaving Kokurano to have his powers exposed as fake, before he woke up.

In the first series anime Kokurano has a slight dislike for Miho Nosaka because she won't get a prediction from him, for, in his words, she "mocks life with her complete innocence". He is voiced by Shigeru Chiba.

Goro Inogashira

Goro Inogashira (猪頭吾郎, Inogashira Gorō, known as Kreiger in the English DDM video game) is a minor villain exclusive to the original manga. He was the senior class D festival committee president of Domino City High.

For three years, Inogashira's class cooked Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki for the school festival in the same spot. When the 1st year class B took the spot, he demanded that they hand it over, although Anzu Mazaki protested that they won it fairly in the lottery. Katsuya Jonouchi tried to pick a fight with him but got stuck in his giant Pop-up Pirate barrel. Goro punched Jonouchi hard in the face and ordered the rest of his class to tear up the other class' stand. Yugi Mutou tried to stand in their way, but was knocked down. Dark Yugi called Goro to meet him at the festival spot in the middle of the night. Here Dark Yugi challenged him to a Shadow Game, Griddle Ice Hockey (鉄板アイスホッケー, Tetsu-han Aisu Hokkē). They used the giant iron grill Goro's class were going to use for their cooking as an air hockey table with bricks forming the sides and a block of ice containing a tube of an explosive chemical as a puck. Goro dealt powerful blows to the puck, making it difficult for Dark Yugi to keep up. Dark Yugi, managed to nick the puck with his paddle, which had a sharp end as it was used for making the onmoyaki. This caused the ice to break with Goro's next blow and the chemical hit the hot surface, causing it to explode in front of Goro.

His name is referenced in the Duel Monsters spin-off Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as one of Trueman's victims.

Miho Nosaka

Miho Nosaka (野坂 ミホ, Nosaka Miho, Melody in the English DDM video game) 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. Despite this, Honda becomes friends with Yugi, eventually joining the group.

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 sweet and innocent girl who secretly can be a bit manipulative. She even refers herself in third person and exploits Honda's crush to get gifts from him, but she ultimately falls for Ryo Bakura. Despite this, Miho cares about her friends and isn't afraid to confront people have put her friends in danger. 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.

Ms. Chono

Ms. Chono (蝶野先生, Chōno-sensei, known as Miss Lynn Medusa in the English DDM game) is a villain from the manga and first series anime. She is known as the Lynn, The Expelling Witch (退学魔女リン, Taigaku majo Rin), since she expelled fifteen students over the course of six months, thus earning her the nickname. Her beautiful appearance is due to the immensely thick layer of make-up she wears, which covers her true, ugly face. She also enjoys dating, but the part she likes the best was to dump the men to see them cry and she actually considers it to be a hobby.

Ms. Chono was furious about getting dumped by a man she dated, before she got a chance to do it the other way around, and decided to vent her anger on a class (which happened to be Yugi Mutou's) with a desk check, hoping to see them scared and finding a chance to expel them for finding "cool" things such as cigarettes, lipsticks, and condoms. She found a love jigsaw puzzle on Miho Nosaka's desk, and asked who it belonged to. She claimed that if the sender would confess, she may forgive him, which was a lie-she planned to expel the sender anyway. Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda all stood up, and indicated that the puzzle came from each of them. Not believing them, Chono decided to finish the puzzle to determine who the gift was from. Honda cursed Chono, saying that Ribbon was the one who was being hurt the most.

Dark Yugi emerged from the Puzzle, and Yugi being the one that constructed the message on the jigsaw puzzle, was able to turn the mode of the Love Puzzle into a Shadow Game, Dark Puzzle (濃(こい)いのパズル, Koi no Pazuru), where Chono felt the pain she was inflicting on others as she worked on the puzzle. When she finished the puzzle, her makeup turned into puzzle pieces and fell off, revealing her ugly face beneath. The other students laughed at her, causing her to run out of the room, stating that the class never happened, and that she would get anyone who exposes her secret. Yugi later emerged, unable to remember what had happened and seemed confused that class was over. Although Miho turned Honda down, this formed the basis for his permanent friendship with Yugi.

In the anime, the gift was supposed to be from a girl named Mayumi to Jonouchi, but Anzu Mazaki actually made it as Mayumi didn't know what to give Jonouchi. Chono retains the same personality as in the manga, and is very strict and regularly attempts to get the rules upgraded to stricter terms, which would include the banning of all personal items and an increase in punishment for those who do. When Anzu complained about the strictness of the school, Chono asked Anzu to collect signatures from other students in a petition asking for laxer rules. Unbeknown to her, Chono had recruited some boys to rip up Anzu's signature paper with the exchange that she'd erase their rule-breaking from their permanent records for doing so. After Yugi witnessed the meeting, his other self, Dark Yugi emerged and challenged Chono to a game involving two mirrors and being blindfolded. Realizing that Chono had cheated and used her position to hurt Anzu, Dark Yugi inflicted a Penalty Game, causing her beautiful appearance to fall off like jigsaw pieces whenever she told a lie, while finally revealing her true face which was so dry that it resembled a mummy. She is voiced by Masako Katsuki.

Junky Scorpion Owner

The Junky Scorpion Owner (ジャンキースコーピオンのオーナー, Jankī Sukōpion no Ōnā) was a minor villain exclusive to the manga.

He was a character who tried to con Jonouchi out of a pair of Air Muscle shoes he bought. After Yugi Mutou found out about the owner's con, he changed to Dark Yugi and confronted the owner. The owner did not want Yugi to leave the store, knowing his secret, so he hid his scorpion in one of the shoes as he gave it back, hoping to poison Dark Yugi. However Dark Yugi was not fooled and put coins in the shoe to play a Shadow Game, Coin in Sneaker (スニーカーｉｎ(イン)コイン, Sunīkā in koin). In the Shadow Game, the owner and Yugi took turns grabbing coins out of the shoe, trying to avoid being stung by the scorpion. The winner was the player who got the most coins. The owner also added a rule, where if he wins, Dark Yugi must give him 100,000 yen for each coin he gets. The owner stabbed the toe of the shoe with a knife, in an attempt to kill the scorpion and grab all the coins. However, he missed and got his hand stuck in the shoe, allowing the scorpion to sting him. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, while Yugi took the Air Muscles shoes back to Jonouchi.

Hirutani

Hirutani (蛭谷, Hirutani, known as Diesel Kane in the English DDM video game) is a leader of a gang of extortion committing teenage thugs from Rintama High School and an old associate of Jonouchi. uring middle school, Hirutani hung out with Katsuya Jonouchi as part of a gang, who would spend their time picking fights with gangs from other schools, even high schools. After middle school, Hirutani went to Rintama High School, while Jonouchi went to Domino High School.

Hirutani's gang filled up with Rintama High School students. He began recruiting older members to try expand his turf and asked Jonouchi to rejoin. Jonouchi refused at first, but agreed after Hirutani threatened to beat up everyone in Jonouchi's class. Yugi Mutou, Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda spotted the gang picking a fight outside the American Club and Yugi pleaded with Jonouchi to leave the gang. Hirutani told Jonouchi that he was too nice for letting Domino kids like Yugi follow him around and said he should have come to Rintama. One of the gangsters punched Yugi and the gang proceeded to J'z bar. However, Jonouchi decided he had enough after seeing them hit Yugi and started a fight with the gangster who hit Yugi. Hirutani was glad to see Jonouchi's fighting spirit back, but since it was targeted at them, he ordered the rest of the gang to seize Jonouchi and bring him to their torture chamber. At the torture chamber, Hirutani had the gang tie Jonouchi arms to a hook above his head and attack him with stun guns. He ordered the gang to continue to attack Jonouchi, despite concerns that it could kill him. However, Dark Yugi arrived and interrupted. Dark Yugi let himself be hit by a gangster in order to lure the gang into a puddle and secretly placed a bar under an unconscious member's arm. Dark Yugi challenged the gang to a game, Landmine Search Network (地雷捜查網), warning them that there was a time bomb at their feet that would go off if they couldn't find the switch in time. One of the gangsters thought Dark Yugi was bluffing, but Hirutani pointed out that if they used their stun guns in the rain over the puddle they would get electrocuted themselves. He ordered the gang to attack without using the stun guns. However, they did not find the true switch and the unconscious member woke up as water dripped on his forehead, causing him to drop his stun gun in the puddle, electrocuting the gang.

In a later chapter, Hirutani used Nezumi to lure Yugi and Jonouchi to the torture chamber. He then had his thugs try to get Jonouchi to join by slowly strangling Yugi by pulling a hook upwards to strangle him with his Millennium Puzzle. After saving Yugi, Jonouchi and Hirutani engaged in a fistfight. Jonouchi punched Hirutani in the face, but Hirutani then threw glass in Jonouchi's eyes. Hirutani tried to place a shard of glass in the back of Jonouchi's neck. However Jonouchi detected Hirutani's location as he stepped on broken glass. Jonouchi punched him off the roof. Hirutani grabbed onto a ledge, but Jonouchi used his Super Yo-Yo (スーパヨーヨー, Sūpayōyō) to hit Hirutani's fingers, causing him to fall to the ground. In the first series anime, his introductory appearances and second set of appearances are cut and combined into one episode, with the first set of chapters being mostly replicated up until Jonouchi rebels against Hirutani. After that, the Landmine Search Network is replaced with the Super Yo-Yo battle from the second set of chapters.

Professor Kanekura

Kanekura (金倉, Kanakura, known as Adriel Wainwright in the English DDM video game) was the curator of Domino City Museum, who exhibited the Millennium Puzzle after Yugi Mutou agrees to let him exhibit it for one day.

Despite his successes, Kanekura is a very greedy individual who cares too much for money and his own life, but too little for anything else, and was willing to lie to others to get what he wanted. The puzzle was put on display and Kanekura showed it to a potential buyer, who was impressed and said he was willing to pay any price. Kanekura spotted Yugi coming over to look at the puzzle, so he silenced the buyer, telling him to meet him in his office ten minutes before the museum closed to finalize the deal. He was instead visited by Shadi, who claimed to be a servant of Anubis who had come to put Kanekura on trial for defiling the tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Shadi proceeded to perform the "Weighing of the Heart" Shadow Game on Kanekura. He asked Kanekura a series of questions and used the Millennium Scales and Feather of Ma'at to measure his truthfulness. Shadi warned Kanekura that he would suffer a Penalty Game if the side of the Scales weighing Kanekura's lies hit the table. Kanekura's claim that he would save a girl over stealing her money was interpreted as a lie. Before his final question, he asked what a Penalty Game was, so Shadi used an illusion to transform Kanekura's chair into Ammit and said that this creature would be set free in his soul room. Kanekura begged Shadi to stop and said that he would pay anything that Shadi wanted. The side of lies then hit the table.

In the manga, Kanekura's soul was consumed by Ammit. As Ammit was a mere illusion, Kanekura's physical body was not harmed, and to others, he looked as though he had simply died of a heart attack from extreme fright. In the anime, he is driven insane and injured after failing the weighing. Some time after Kanekura is killed by Shadi in the manga, Ryou Bakura's dad presumably takes over as curator of the Domino Museum as stated in the Millennium World arc in the manga.

In the anime, he is voiced by Shin Aomori.

Professor Yoshimori

Professor Yoshimori (吉森博士, Yoshimori-hakase, known as Professor Jeremy Harrison in the English DDM video game) is a Domino University professor who is into archaeology and a friend of Sugoroku Mutou. Yoshimori has a wife and son, but neglected them in favor of his work.

Yoshimori, alongside Professor Kanekura, entered a tomb in the Valley of the Kings and excavated many artifacts. Yoshimori did not believe in curses, and was not worried when he violated the tomb. Unbeknownst to them, Shadi was watching and planning to punish them. Two months later, Kanekura and Yoshimori put the items that they found in the tomb on display in the Egypt Unearthed Exhibition at Domino City Museum. Being an old friend of Sugoroku Mutou, Yoshimori gave free admission to the exhibition to Sugoroku, Yugi, and their friends. He showed them around the exhibition, telling them about archaeology and explained the Weighing of the Heart ritual, as they admired a sheet of papyrus, depicting the ritual.

Shadi also attended the exhibition that day, hoping to pass judgment of Kanekura and Yoshimori. He secretly killed Kanekura for failing the Weighing of the Heart Shadow Game. Although the death appeared as a heart attack, people suspected that it was the curse of the Pharaoh, and even though Yoshimori did not believe in them, he became worried over this. Shadi went to the university, to pass judgment on Yoshimori. Before doing so, he entered his soul room and found that Yoshimori was expecting his friends, including Yugi to arrive. Eager, to test Dark Yugi in a Shadow Game, Shadi redecorated Yoshimori's soul room, turning him into a mindless "zombie", with the motive to make Yugi's friends suffer, hoping this would draw Dark Yugi out. Yugi, Sugoroku, Jonouchi, and Anzu came to Yoshimori's office for a cheer-up party. However, Shadi got Yoshimori to strangle Jonouchi as to make the Yugi's "other side" come out.

At the climax of Yugi's Shadow Game with Shadi, Jonouchi held up the board to prevent Anzu from falling. However Yoshimori started pulling at his leg. Dark Yugi instructed Jonouchi to make Yoshimori touch the Millennium Key. Jonouchi complied and Yoshimori was returned to normal. After Shadi departed, Yoshimori commented that he had no memory of what happened and Jonouchi tried to blame Anzu for breaking his teeth. He apologized for not being able to offer them anything, but Sugoroku treated them all out to a meal instead.

In the first series anime, he does not take part in Shadi's Shadow Game, and is instead thrown out of the museum window and hospitalized. He was voiced by Akio Nojima.

Kujirada

Kujirada (鯨田, Kujirada, known as Beluga in the English DDM video game) is a snobby classmate of Yugi's at Domino High School in the manga and first series anime. He causes trouble with his aggressive Digital Pet (デジタル・ペット, Dejitaru petto), named Devil Master in the first series anime.

Kujirada's Digital Pet is a Hidden Character. It lived for two months while other pets only live for 21 days. The seemingly sentient Digital Pet, who kept waking his master for food and grew tired of eating digital pet food only, commands Kujirada to link up with other people's devices so it could eat other people's Digital Pets. Jonouchi's pet, and Anzu's pet (Peachy) are eaten. Yugi's pet, U2, fights back and destroys Kujirada's monster. Though somewhat disappointed at the loss of his prized pet, he was happy to finally be able to get some decent sleep.

In the first series anime, Kujirada was bullied and manipulated by Haiyama. After losing to Honda's Digital Pet, Haiyama punishes Kujirada by whipping him. Dark Yugi saves Honda, Miho, and Kujirada by challenging Haiyama to a Digital Pet Shadow Game. Kujirada is voiced by Shouzou Iizuka.

Street Fighter

Street Fighter (ストリートファイター, Sutorītofaitā, known as Feng Long in the English DDM video game and Dragon 1 in the first series anime) was a boy who beat up Yugi over a losing streak of Virtual VS with both of them using the character of Bruce Ryu (based on their favorite martial artist, Bruce Lee), stealing his Millennium Puzzle in both the manga and the first series anime. Jonouchi found out what happened afterwards and chased down the street fighter to get back the Puzzle.

The street fighter set up the Game of Death (死亡遊戯, Shibō Yūgi) where, if Jonouchi won, he could take back the Puzzle. Both players fought with a knife clenched between their teeth. He threaten to smash the Puzzle if Jonouchi refused. The street fighter cheated as he secretly had a trick knife that was capable of sliding into its hilt. That proved irrelevant as Jonouchi told him to take the knife out of his mouth, so he won't have to hold back from punching him in the face. He accepted and Jonouchi kept a knife in his own mouth. Jonouchi teased the street fighter's speed while he dodged all his punches with his hands in his pockets. The street fighter got annoyed and told him to take his hands out of his pockets. Jonouchi left them in saying he had promises to his friend in both pockets and he didn't get to see them until the end of the game. When the street fighter got close to Jonouchi, Jonouchi popped open a can of soda from one pocket, spraying the street fighter in the face - the soda being the first promise he had made to Yugi. Jonouchi then punches him using his fist from his other pocket, saying that was his other promise - to clobber him. Jonouchi returned the Puzzle to Yugi afterwards.

In the anime, the events leading to Dragon 1 and Jonouchi's fight were pretty much the same. However, they fought over a pipe, and Dragon 1 had nunchaku, yet Jonouchi managed to defeat him anyway.

Johji

Johji (ジョージ, Jōji, known as Cedric in the English DDM video game) is a manga-exclusive character, who is Honda's baby nephew, the son of his big sister. A big fan of Seto Kaiba, he forces Honda to take him to the opening of Kaiba, where Honda witnesses Yugi's grandfather being dealt an artificial Penalty Game by Kaiba and decides to accompany Yugi in Kaiba's Death-T challenge. Johji is recognizable for wearing a duck costume. The baby, an admirer of Kaiba, is lecherous towards Anzu and other females which is played for comedy relief, and spews curse words at times. He calls Honda by his given name, Hiroto, and seems to dislike him and his male friends. He accompanies the group during the Death-T arc and actually proves to be somewhat helpful in a couple of Kaiba's deadly attractions, if not a bit treacherous and a burden.

Gozaburo Kaiba

See also: Filler Antagonists

Tsuruoka

Tsuruoka (鶴岡, Tsuruoka, known as Anton Periwig in the English DDM video game) is the guidance counselor of Domino High School and a minor villain exclusive to the manga. He tends to abuse his position as a teacher to be unfair to the students. Tsuruoka mocked the low achievement test grades of Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda to their peers as punishment for playing the Achievement Test Bingo Game while having low test scores. Tsuruoka then snatched the Lovely Two (ラブリー二号, Raburī ni-gō) keychain Anzu had given to Yugi as a gift, from Yugi's pocket, citing that students are not allowed to bring games to school. Jonouchi and Honda protested, ordering Tsuruoka to hand it back and telling him that being a teacher doesn't give him the right to take other people's possessions. However, Tsuruoka retorted that unskilled slackers like them don't have the right to talk back to a teacher. Being a teacher, he claimed that he had the authority to do whatever he wanted to slackers like them, even smash the keychain. As he about to step on it, Dark Yugi emerged and said that they have more skills than he ever will and claimed to have never lost a game. Tsuruoka decided not to smash the keychain and instead use it in a game. He gave Yugi and his friends sixty minutes to find the game in the school. If they found it in time, they would get the keychain back, but if they didn't, they would get expelled and the keychain would be destroyed.

Not being able to find it anywhere on the school grounds, Dark Yugi approached Tsuruoka and deduced that he had the device hidden on him somewhere. Tsuruoka threatened to expel them if they touched him, and laughed at them not being able to prove that he had the keychain without doing that. However, Dark Yugi used Anzu's Lovely Two to test their love compatibility. This caused his own to start ringing, revealing it was somewhere in Tsuruoka's hair. Jonouchi and Honda pulled off Tsuruoka's wig, revealing the keychain with five seconds left to spare. Tsuruoka begged for Yugi and his friends not to reveal that he wears a wig.

ZTV Producer

The ZTV Producer (ZTVプロデューサー, Zetto Tī Vi Purodyūsā) is a selfish corrupt executive of the television studio, ZTV. He takes advantage of underprivileged people to boost ratings and cheats his way out of giving away prize money. He was a producer of the TV game show, The Get the Million Game Show (100万円!!ゲームDEゲット・ショー, 100 Man-en! Gēmu DE Getto shō, Get a Million Yen Show). He was pleased to find out that Katsuya Jonouchi, who was poor and trying to pay off his father's gambling debts, would be on the show. He thought that the audience would love to see a poor person struggling, and would love it even more to see him fail at the last minute. He and a technician tried to rig the final stage of the game, to prevent Jonouchi winning the prize money. This was to be done by pressing a button, which would prevent the wheel in the final game from stopping on the ¥1,000,000 (about $10,000 U.S. at the time) section. The button was colored red to distinguish it from the other buttons on the switchboard.

Yugi Mutou overheard the producer and technician talking about their plans and switched control to Dark Yugi, following them backstage. The producer tried to shoo him away, but Dark Yugi threatened to tell people that they had the game rigged if they didn't play a game with him, the Red Paint Lottery (赤(あか)ペンキくじ引(ひ)き). The producer told the technician to take the rope Dark Yugi wanted them to take for the game. The technician and Dark Yugi each tied a rope to their arm and pulled them, with a 50-50 chance of pulling a bucket of paint on top of themselves. The bucket landed on the technician's head. The producer worried about getting paint on his own suit, rather than his assistant's well being. With no time left, the producer went to press the button on the switchboard, but found the red paint from the bucket had splattered onto it, making the button indistinguishable from the others. Jonouchi went on to win the game show. As the producer lost the game, Dark Yugi placed a Penalty Game, Mind on Air, on the producer, which made him beg on camera. Jonouchi's check turned worthless when the television studio went bankrupt.

The ZTV producer makes a brief appearance in the second episode of the first series anime, although his chapter wasn't adapted into its own episode for the anime.

Koji Nagumo

Koji Nagumo (名蜘蛛コージ, Nagumo Kōji, known as Stringer in the English DDM video game) is a minor villain first appearing in the original manga. In the manga, Nagumo asks Yugi to play Monster Fighter (モンスター・ファイター, Monsutā Faitā) with him while at Domino High School. While playing, Nagumo hits Yugi and takes his gun and monster, Alti. Nagumo tries selling Alti and other Monster Fighter figures and guns he's collected for ¥30,000 each (about $278 USD at the time). Dark Yugi comes into his store and fights Nagumo and his Wild Spider with Katsuya Jonouchi's monster, Killer Emaada (which the normal Yugi had asked to borrow before handing control over to Dark Yugi). As the game was a Shadow Game, Nagumo's face was cracked in the first set, which went to Dark Yugi; the Shadow Game dictated that the players, instead of the monsters, get damaged in the game. In the second set, Nagumo cheats by kicking Dark Yugi in the side. Enraged, Dark Yugi raised the Shadow Game's mode to "level three". When Nagumo tries to cheat again, his legs are held down by all of the monsters, including his own, and Nagumo saw, to his horror, the monster on his field was his own soul, composed of the Wild Spider's body, but his own face. Dark Yugi then dealt the death blow, piercing the representation of Nagumo's soul, purging it of the darkness.

In the manga, he makes a brief reappearance in the Battle City arc. Seemingly recovered from Dark Yugi's Penalty Game and defeated a duelist in the competition, he is unhappy with the card he's won through the ante rule and demands that the loser give something of equal value to his card, "Hyozanryu" or else he'll take ¥100,000 (about $900 US at the time). However, Mokuba appears and calls a foul for changing the ante and wagering money. Koji insults Mokuba, but then Seto Kaiba appears, shocking Koji, and tells Koji off, saying that when he speaks rudely to Mokuba, he dishonors Kaiba and the Battle City tournament. Seto tears up the "Hyozanryu" card, saying Koji was going to lose it anyway. He challenges Koji to a duel, anteing a briefcase of rare cards and "God of Obelisk". He allows Koji to use the cards from the briefcase in the duel, to compensate for "Hyozanryu", but says he will take them after he beats Koji. Koji, overconfident at his newly empowered deck, suffered a devastating defeat as Kaiba unleashed "Obelisk", and takes his Puzzle Cards. Koji is left traumatized by Obelisk's overwhelming power, and ended up screaming in terror as he relived the image of the God crushing him.

This scene was adapted into the second series anime (with Koji demanding two rare cards instead of ¥100,000 and without Kaiba ripping up his Hyozanryu), and Koji has another brief appearance in the second series anime, observing the fight between Yugi and Kaiba from television screen in Domino City, along with other notable duelists that have been eliminated from the tournament. He is also seen in the Pyramid of Light movie, where he is one of the spectators of Jonouchi's duels in front of Domino City High, though appearing with brown hair. Koji is voiced by Shin Tomita in the second series anime and is voiced by Matthew Charles in the English adaptation.

Playing Card Bomber

Playing Card Bomber (トランプ爆弾魔, Toranpu Bakudan Ma, Trump Bomber, known as Tick-Tock in the English DDM video game) is a nickname for a man who sets off a string of bombs in Domino. The bomber's third attack at the Domino Mall kills eight people. His fourth bomb threat puts Anzu's life in danger. In the manga, Dark Yugi saves her life by playing Clock Solitaire (時計（クロック）カード・ゲーム, Kurokku kādo gēmu) without getting four threes. Afterwards, Dark Yugi reveals where the bomber was to the chief of police, leading to his arrest.

In the first series anime, the bomber is instead known as the Continuous Bomber (連続爆弾魔, Renzoku Bakudan Ma), and has a game that involves balloons. When Dark Yugi wins the game, Anzu and the other passengers are spared. When the game mandates that the bomber is supposed to kill himself, he refuses. Yugi places a Penalty Game on him (which is named "unmei no batsu gēmu", which means "The Penalty Game of Fate"), making him go berserk, causing him to fall out of his car; the bomber is therefore arrested by the police. The bomber is voiced by Ryusei Nakao.

Imori Hajime

Imori Hajime (井守はじめ, Hajime Imori, known as Damien Draco in the English DDM video game) is a student at Domino High School. Withdrawn and somewhat shy, Imori is then revealed to be anti-social and selfishly vindicated (akin to being Yugi's own evil counterpart), eventually uncovering the secrets of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. He decides to usurp Yugi Mutou from his position of the "guardian of darkness" by challenging Yugi to a game of Dragon Cards (龍札（ドラゴン・カード, Doragon kādo), a forbidden Chinese Shadow Game, which his grandfather found while in Manchuria in World War II. Imori wins the first game against regular Yugi, causing his soul to go into the soul-eating jar. Regular Yugi's last minute grab for the puzzle causes Dark Yugi's soul to emerge. The second Dragon Cards game ends with Imori losing. In the manga, Imori's soul gets sucked into the soul-eating jar, to be eaten by twenty-five dragons. Yugi's soul comes out and is re-absorbed into his body unharmed.

In the first series anime, Imori played Dragon Blocks (龍牌（ドラゴン・ブロック, Doragon burokku) at his house instead of at school, and only the dark part of Imori's soul was eaten. Imori is voiced by Megumi Urawa in the anime.

Nezumi

Nezumi (根津見, Nezumi, known as Nibbles in the English DDM video game) is a boy with buckteeth that uses a sob story about him getting hit by yo-yos in a robbery to lure Yugi and Jonouchi to Hirutani. Nezumi tells Jonouchi that three gang members ambushed him, beat him up, and stole his yo-yo. Out of anger, Jonouchi asks Nezumi to lead him to the gangsters. Yugi and Jonouchi travel to Hirutani's abandoned warehouse, where scores of gang members ambush the two boys. Nezumi runs away when Yugi and Jonouchi manage to defeat the gang members. He only appears in the manga.

Mr. Karita

Mr. Karita (刈田先生, Karita-sensei, known as Mr. Titus in the English DDM game) is a P.E. teacher who harasses Ryo Bakura on his first day at Domino High School. Karita saw him walking through the hallways with an (unwanted) group of girls. He angrily pulled Bakura aside and recognized him as the new student, who has caused problems in his last school. Insistent on disciplining him, he yelled at Bakura that this school has rules and seized him by the hair, saying that boys with long hair is against the rules. He ordered Bakura to have his hair shaved for the next day if he wants to be treated as a student, and walked off laughing.

Later that day, Bakura switched to Dark Bakura, who went after Karita for revenge. He played a Shadow Game with Karita and trapped his soul in a miniature as a Penalty Game. Karita was added to a collection of miniatures Dark Bakura had made by trapping the souls of Ryo's gaming friends and forced to play the role of Villager D (村人D, Murabito D) in his Monster World RPG. His body was sent to the hospital, where he was said to be in a coma. Dark Bakura played Monster World with Ryo's friends: Yugi Mutou, Anzu Mazaki, Katsuya Jonouchi and Hiroto Honda (and Miho Nosaka in the anime), while pretending to be Ryo himself. He used Karita in the game, placing him inside a tavern as an NPC. Ryo's friends were instructed the speak to "Villager D" to find directions to Zorc Castle. Jonouchi and Honda burst out laughing when they saw how much the miniature resembled Karita. Karita tried pleading with them to save him, explaining that Bakura had trapped him in a miniature. While Ryo's friends tried to figure out if they really heard the miniature talk, Dark Bakura warned Karita not to go out of character again or he would be killed. Karita complied and gave the others the directions to the castle

A few days after Ryo and his friends defeated Dark Bakura in the Shadow Game, Karita and the others trapped in RPG miniatures turned back to normal. Despite their help, Karita seemed to have no recollection of what happened, as he threatened the friends with detention when they were late for school.

Insector Haga

Insector Haga (インセクター羽蛾, Insekutā Haga, Weevil Underwood in the English anime) is the Japanese champion of Duel Monsters (Magic & Wizards in the Japanese manga), known for his deck of mainly insect-type monsters and insect-related magic and trap cards.

After defeating Dinosaur Ryuuzaki to claim the championship, Haga was invited by Pegasus J. Crawford to join his Duelist Kingdom tournament. On the boat ride, Haga befriended and approached Yugi Mutou, asking to see his Exodia card. However, his true nature is revealed when he throws them off the boat in order to destroy his major source of competition. This infuriated Dark Yugi, who vowed to make Haga the first gamer to go down in the tournament, "pulling off his insect legs one by one", and Haga ends up being the first one to leave the island. When Haga joined the Battle City tournament, rather than face Yugi again, Haga targeted Katsuya Jonouchi, who he viewed as a weak target, planting a Parasite Paracide card in Jonouchi's deck in hopes of sabotaging him, only to wind up being 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 Dark 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.

In the English adaptation, he is voiced by Jimmy Zoppi. In the Japanese adaptattion, he is voiced by Takano Urara.

Dinosaur Ryuzaki

Dinosaur Ryuzaki (ダイナソウ竜崎, Dainasō Ryūzaki, Rex Raptor in the English anime) is the runner-up of the Japanese Duel Monsters tournament, and seems to be acquainted with the champion, Insector Haga. His nickname is derived from his fondness for dinosaur-themed deck of cards. However, Ryuzaki is defeated by Jonouchi in the Duelist Kingdom tournament and has his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, a card that would become a trademark for Jonouchi, taken as a result of a gamble. Ryuzaki makes a brief reappearance in the Battle City arc, having been defeated by the pseudo psychic, Esper Roba.

In the anime-only Doma ("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. 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 Dark 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.

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.

Ryota Kajiki

Ryota Kajiki (梶木 漁太, Kajiki Ryōta, Mako Tsunami in the English anime) is an ocean-themed duelist appearing both in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs. Introduced in the Duelist Kingdom arc, he duels Dark Yugi 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. Ryota Kajiki is the first opponent of Dark Yugi in a game to have no ill intentions. In the English anime, Mako Tsunami believes his father is alive and duels to raise money to fund a trip to search for him; in the Japanese anime, Ryota Kajiki duels in his father's memory. Jounouchi defeats Ryota in their duel. Then Ryota gives Jonouchi two of his cards, Floating Whale Fortress and The Legendary Fisherman, a card which resembles his deceased father.

In the English adaptation he is voiced by Andrew Rannells. In the Japanese original version he is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa.

Bandit Keith Howard

Keith Howard (キース・ハワード, Kīsu Hawādo), better known as Bandit Keith (バンデット・キース, Bandetto Kīsu) is a character in the anime and manga series Yu-Gi-Oh!. He is an American Duel Monsters/Magic & Wizards champion and a "Card Professor", hunting big prizes at tournaments. Bandit Keith first appears as one of many entries in the Duelist Kingdom arc of the anime/manga. 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 (taking place some time before the Death-T arc of the manga). Keith, shocked and humiliated at being defeated, became depressed over the defeat and seeks to defeat Pegasus and reclaim his lost glory. It's through Pegasus' match with Keith that Kaiba found out about Pegasus' ability to read minds.

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 Ghost Kozuka some cards to enhance his zombie deck, but ultimately, Ghost Kozuka loses to Jonouchi. After sealing Yugi and his friends in a cave following Ghost Kozuka'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 afterward, 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. Because he lost a game of Duel Monsters to Jonouchi and cheated, Pegasus uses his Millennium Item to give Keith a Hand Gun Penalty Game, turning his hand into a gun, and the hand "shoots" Keith, killing him.

This is altered in the anime, where 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, Dark 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 Dark Yugi goes to see Yugi in the Doma (Waking the Dragons) arc. In the Japanese anime, he is voiced by Hajime Komada, while in the English adaptation he is voiced by Ted Lewis.

Ghost Kozuka

Ghost Kozuka (ゴースト骨塚, Gōsuto Kotsuzuka, known as Bonz in the English anime) was a contestant in Duelist Kingdom who worked for Bandit Keith. Keith was responsible for giving Ghost Kozuka some cards to enhance his zombie deck in order to duel Jonouchi in Duelist Kingdom's caverns, which housed the corpses of World War II troops. Ultimately, Ghost Kozuka loses to Jonouchi. Following this loss, after sealing Yugi and his friends in a cave, he has his Star Chips stolen by Bandit Keith and presumably is sent off the island.

He is briefly seen once more in the Battle City arc, where he is shown losing to Dark Bakura in a Shadow Game, who gives him a Penalty Game that simply kills him on the spot and takes all of his Puzzle Cards. In the second series anime, the Shadow Game duel is expanded and Dark Bakura gives Ghost Kozuka and his friends a Penalty Game that drags them all down to hell (in the English anime, he and his friends are dragged to the Shadow Realm).

Ghost Kozuka is voiced by Masami Suzuki in the Japanese anime and voiced by Amy Birnbaum in the English adaptation.

Step Johnny

Step Johnny (ステップ・ジョニー, Suteppu Jonī, known as Johnny Steps in the English anime and Dreadlock Johnny in the Singaporean dub) is a dancer, who challenged Anzu to a game of Super Dancer (スーパ・ダンサー, Sūpa Dansā), similar to Dance Dance Revolution, during her date with Dark Yugi. In the manga, Johnny challenged Anzu to the dance battle game. Although Dark Yugi told Anzu that this gamer isn't worth her time, she refused to back down from a challenge and went up against Johnny. Johnny said he'd go easy on her because she's hot, and said she'd have to go on a date with him if he loses. Anzu refuses, but plays anyway and defeats him.

In the second series anime, this is expanded through filler and the addition of a Duel Monsters battle. Johnny aspired to be a professional dancer, but gave up the dream after failing an audition. He still played the dance battle game at the arcade, where he achieved the high score. However, despite his air of being popular, he had no real friends. After being beaten in the dance battle game by Anzu, Johnny catches-up to Dark Yugi and Anzu. He demands a rematch, where if he loses, he'll leave her alone, but he wins, Anzu must become his girlfriend. Anzu tells him to "give it up", but Dark Yugi instead challenges Johnny to a game of Duel Monsters. Halfway through the duel, Johnny recognizes Dark Yugi as the King of Duelists and the one who defeated Pegasus and flees, knowing he's up against a powerful opponent. Before he escapes, Anzu confronts him about running away. Anzu asks how many friends he has. Johnny lies that he has one, but Anzu doesn't believe him. She finds out about how he failed an audition and consoles him, saying she's failed over a dozen times and that he shouldn't give-up so easily. She sends him off with more self-confidence than he had before. He is voiced by Hideki Konda in the Japanese version and by Matthew Charles in the English adaptation.

Esper Roba

Esper Roba (エスパー絽場, Esupā Roba, known as Espa Roba in the English anime) is one of the contestants in Battle City who claimed to have ESP. In reality, he is a fraud who uses his younger brothers to spy on and reply back to him the cards in his opponent's hand, thus allowing him to 'predict' the opponent's strategies almost before they perform them. The psychic front was to build an impression of an unbeatable duelist and thus deflect any abuse that was usually heaped upon Espa Roba and his brothers, they were heavily bullied due to being carnival folk before. Despite his cheating ways, he is a strong duelist. However, Jonouchi manages to beat him, receiving his best card as an ante, Artificial Human Psycho Shocker (人造人間－サイコ・ショッカー, Jinzōningen Saiko Shokkā, "Jinzo in the English TCG").

Ahmet

Ahmet (アメット, Ametto) is one of the two men hired to help Sugoroku Mutou through the Pharaoh's tomb, the Shrine of the Shadow Games, back in the early 1960s.

In Egypt, he and his brother Mushara were hired by Sugoroku Mutou to help infiltrate the tomb of the nameless Pharaoh. In the tomb, Sugoroku soon realized that the traps were like a game. Multiple statues armed with swords slide by on the high catwalk. To cross, a person needed to walk across left footed, and if they ran on both legs, the statues would kill them. Unfortunately, the two brothers were right footed. Ahmet makes it to safety, while his brother panicked and started running. The statues soon stabbed his brother with their swords, causing him to fall to his death (in the English dub, he fell into a Shadow Pit and became trapped in the Shadow Realm). Ahmet pulled a gun on Sugoroku, blaming him for his brother's death, and threatened to shoot if they didn't continue. They soon made it to the treasure, where only those of courageous hearts may pass. Ahmet shoots Sugoroku, causing him to fall and grab onto one of the catwalk's ledges. Ahmet walked over to the Millennium Puzzle, but proved to have a heart of a coward, and a monster appeared and devoured him alive as a Penalty Game (in the English adaptation of the anime, he is sent to the Shadow Realm). Soon, the nameless Pharaoh saved Sugoroku.

Mushara

Mushara (マッシャーラー, Musshārā) is one of the two men hired to help Sugoroku Mutou through the Pharaoh's tomb, the Shrine of the Shadow Games, back in the early 1960s.

In the tomb, Sugoroku realized that the traps were like a game. Multiple statues armed with swords slide by on the high catwalk. To cross, a person needed to walk across left footed, and if they if ran on both legs the statues would kill them. Unfortunately, the two brothers are right footed. His brother Ahmet makes it to safety, but Mushara panicked and started running. The statues stabbed Mushara with their swords, causing him to fall to his death. In the English dub, he fell into a Shadow Pit and became trapped in the Shadow Realm.

Shougo Aoyama

Shougo Aoyama (青山翔吾, Aoyama Shōgo) is a character who appears in the 1998 Toei movie as one of the main protagonists. He was a boy who didn't play games with his friends because he was afraid of losing, and was regularly bullied by a group of three boys. One day, at a card shop, he opens a card pack containing the rare "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" card. However, he is too timid to pull a winning streak, and once he gets the Red-Eyes, he resorts to simply intimidating people with it so they won't duel him. He gets an invitation from Seto Kaiba to particitate in a Duel Monsters tournament, however, he decides not to go. The next day, Seto's bodyguard Saruwatari chased after him in order to make him participate, as it was everyone's duty to appear in this tournament. Yugi and Jonouchi save him, but Shougo's card and Yugi's Millennium Puzzle get stolen by one of Kaiba's men. Jonouchi manages to get Red-Eyes back, but Seto still had the Puzzle. Jonouchi tells Shougo to duel, but Shougo doesn't want to. Jonouchi gets irritated and slabs Shougo for not going, and Yugi decides to duel Kaiba instead. However, unknown to Yugi and Shougo, Jonouchi slips the Red-Eyes into Yugi's deck.

Once at the tournament, Kaiba gives Yugi back the Puzzle, having used it as a lure, and Yugi changed to Dark Yugi. Kaiba and Dark Yugi duel. Eventually, Kaiba gets Blue-Eyes White Dragon's 3-Body Connection on the field. Dark Yugi can only win if he uses the Red-Eyes from Shougo's deck. However, he wants to hear Shougo say he's not afraid anymore. Getting over his fear of losing, Shougo summons the Red-Eyes in Yugi's deck. Yugi uses the Red-Eyes, fusing it with Meteor Dragon to form the Meteor B. Dragon to destroy the Blue-Eyes and win the match. After the tournament, Dark Yugi congratulates Shougo on getting over his fear and hands him his Red Eyes back. He is last seen dueling Yugi at the Domino Game arcade with Honda, Anzu, Miho and Jonouchi watching and also becomes friends with his former bullies. Shougo was voiced by Eiko Yamada.

Author Hopkins

Author Hopkins (アーサー・ホプキンス, Āsā Hopukinsu, known as Author Hawkins in the English anime dub) is a character that appears exclusively for the second series anime and the grandfather of Rebecca Hopkins. He appears to be based on Sugoroku's American gaming friend that gave him the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, who only appears in a photo and is unnamed in the original manga.

In the second series adaptation, his first appearance was when he appeared after Yugi's duel with his granddaughter, informing his granddaughter that Sugoroku didn't steal his Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Obsessed with Duel Monsters, he appears to be a very avid believer that the Duel Monsters card game was based on a game in Ancient Egypt, and later in the Doma filler arc, he insists that they originate in Atlantis and inhabit their own world (the basis of many of the spin-off anime series taking place in the second series universe).

Leonhart von Schroeder

Leonhart von Schroeder (レオンハルト・フォン・シュレイダー, Reonharuto fon Shureidā, Leon von Schroeder in the English dub) is a character created exclusively for the KC Grand Champion filler arc of the second series anime. He is Siegfried von Schroeder's younger brother. While Siegfried ran Schroeder Corporation, Leonhart took up Duel Monsters and dueled in several tournaments under the alias of Leon Wilson (レオン・ウィルソン, Reon Wiruson) to avoid his family. When Siegfried found out, he entered Leonhart in the KC Grand Championship alongside himself as a back-up if he should be discovered. After Siegfried is kicked out of the tournament and Leonhart duels Yugi Mutou, Siegfried tricks him into playing Golden Castle of Stromberg, giving Leonhart 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, Leonhart is defeated and the virus is halted.

Leonhart 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.

Filler Antagonists

These characters act as antagonists for anime-exclusive filler arcs that do not happen in the manga.

Noah Kaiba

Noah Kaiba (海馬 乃亜, Kaiba Noa) is Gozaburo Kaiba's biological son, and Seto and Mokuba's stepbrother. Noah does not appear in the manga and his role is exclusive to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series, specifically of the Virtual World story arc.

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 Dark Yugi and Noah's duel, for each turn Dark 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, Kaiba Gōzaburō) is a rich, selfish, cold-hearted, uncaring and power-hungry tyrannical and 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 (in the manga, it is stated that he cheated), 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 altered 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 first series anime, instead of committing suicide as he did in the manga, he instead suffered a heart attack when Kaiba took over KaibaCorp.

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, Dātsu) 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.

Amelda

Amelda (アメルダ, Ameruda), Alister in the English dub,is Dartz's second henchman. Amelda 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, Amelda 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, Amelda 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 Amelda's grudge towards him now, carries his body to safety after the duel, and Amelda is restored when Dartz is defeated.

Amelda 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, Amelda 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. In the Japanese version he is voiced by Yukinara Iemura.

Raphael

Raphael (ラフェール, Rafēru), Rafael in the English dub, is the strongest of Dartz's henchmen and is the duelist meant to defeat Atem and Yugi Mutou. Raphael 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, Raphael developed a deep bond with them before he was rescued. Bitter at the world, which he now saw as evil and corrupted, Raphael willingly turned to Dartz and joined the organization with the promise of cleansing the world of darkness. Raphael 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. Due to both the bond he shares with his cards, and his strength and skill as a duelist, Rafael managed to accomplish two things that no other duelist in the series proved capable. He is the first, and only, duelist to have defeated Atem in a fair duel, using no underhanded means or strategies (such as Seto Kaiba's suicide threat and Pegasus' millennium item); and 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.

Raphael 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, Raphael 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, Raphael plays Guardian Dreadscythe, an evil incarnation of Eatos that grows in strength the more monsters Raphael 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. In the Japanese version he is voiced by Yoshihisa Kawahara.

Valon

Valon (ヴァロン, Varon) 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. Afterward, 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. In the Japanese version he is voiced by Takashi Maeda.

Zigfried von Schroeder

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

Siegfried uses a Valkyrie deck based around Wagner's Ring Cycle. By combining his Goddess cards Urd, Verdande and Skuld with Nibelung's Ring, Siegfried 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 Eisuke Tsuda and in English localizations by Oliver Wyman.

Movie Antagonists

These villains appear exclusively for films set in the anime universe, bearing no relation to the manga universe.

Anubis

Appearing only in the second film, Anubis (アヌビス, Anubisu) 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, Paradokkusu) 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 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. Afterward, 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 Malific Paradox Dragon, Paradox special summon Melific 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 Malific 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 Malific 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.

External links

Japanese

• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters cast (Japanese website) (遊 戯 王 声 優 情 報)