Template:Overly detailed
| Ryou Bakura | |
|---|---|
| Yu-Gi-Oh! character | |
[[ |250px]]Bakura as seen with his 'other self', known as Dark Bakura, Yami Bakura, Thief King, and Zorc | |
| First Appearance | Yu-Gi-Oh! (original and English manga) Volume 6, Duel 50 |
| Creators | Kazuki Takahashi |
| Voiced by | Japanese (1st Series) Tsutomu Kashiwakura Japanese (2nd Series) You Inoue (Episode 12-41), Japanese (2nd Series) Rica Matsumoto (Episode 50 onward) English (U.S.) Ted Lewis |
| Profile | |
| Series | Yu-Gi-Oh! |
| Aliases | Dark Bakura The Thief King Dark Master Bakura White Mage Bakura |
| Relatives | Amane Bakura (Sister) Unnamed Father (mentioned in the manga and has a small appearance in a flashback of the second series anime) Thief King Bakura (past incarnate) |
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| [[|250px]] Bakura as seen with his 'other self', known as Dark Bakura, Yami Bakura, Thief King, and Zorc | |
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Ryo Bakura (獏良 了 Bakura Ryō) is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! created by Kazuki Takahashi. In the English Duel Monsters anime, he is known as simply Bakura, and in the English Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul video game, Bakura's name is given in the traditional Japanese order and is rendered Bakura Ryo.
Introduced as a new exchange student early on in the manga, Bakura befriends Yugi Mutou and his friends and joins the group for the majority of the manga. However, Bakura possesses the Millennium Ring, an ancient Egyptian artifact that, unbeknownst to Bakura himself, houses an evil spirit that plots to steal Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, referred to as Dark Bakura (闇獏良 Yami Bakura, known as Yami Bakura in the English anime) or simply the other Bakura (もう一人の獏良 mō hitori no Bakura). This alter-ego served as the main antagonist during the Monster World arc of the manga, is a secondary antagonist in proceeding chapters, and becomes the main antagonist yet again in the Shadow RPG arc of the Millennium World manga and second series anime, revealed to be the combined souls of Thief King Bakura (盗賊王バクラ Tōzokuō Bakura) and the Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades (大邪神 ゾーク・ネクロファデス Daijashin Zōku Nekurofadesu) (in the anime, he's only Zorc).
In the second series anime, the normal Bakura's role in the cast is greatly reduced compared to the manga, as the soul of the human Bakura is almost entirely suppressed and he is continuously controlled by the spirit, except in rare moments where he is separated from the Ring or able to overpower the spirit. Unlike the manga, he rarely accompanies the main cast and is totally excluded in filler arcs.
Design[]
Duel Art of Ryo Bakura and Dark Bakura in their Monster World RPG game
Bakura's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. In the Duelist Kingdom arc, he wears a white wool jumper and green undershirt. His usual outfit in following arcs consists of a blue opened shirt over a blue and white horizontally striped T-shirt with matching pants. His white hair trails halfway down his back and becomes more erratic as Dark Bakura. In the final story arc of the series, Dark Bakura wears blue jeans and a blue and white striped shirt underneath a long black trenchcoat when not dueling, his trenchcoat not usually shown in his duels on the blimp where the tournament is being held. In the Millennium World arc, Thief Bakura wears a long red robe with white trimmings, a navy blue kilt and golden anklets and armlets. His chest is bare, tan and muscular, and he possesses a pale double-crossed scar under his right eye.
In the first series anime, Bakura's hair is of a light blue color and his eyes are depicted as green, as opposed to his white hair and blue eyes in the manga (although his eye color varies from time to time). In the second series anime, his hair is white as it is in the manga, but his eyes are depicted as brown.
Bakura is polite, and uses honorifics in his speech almost all the time; in the 4Kids English-language dub of the series, he speaks with a British accent to represent this (conversely, the Singaporean English anime gives him a Western/Southern US accent). By contrast, Dark Bakura speaks with no honorifics and refers to himself as "ore-sama" in the Japanese manga and anime, a boastful and prideful way of saying "I". While the English-dubbed Bakura retains his host's accent, his voice is deeper and his speech patterns are still more casual than his good counterpart. In all incarnations, Dark Bakura is able to mimic his host's voice and speech patterns to avoid detection when possessing him so Yugi and the others think they are talking to the good Bakura (Ryo).
Character[]
Bakura is the polite and slightly socially awkward friend of Yugi Mutou. He is interested in gaming, especially tabletop role-playing games and board games, with his favorite being Monster World. His personality is comparable to that of Yugi Mutou: friendly, somewhat more innocent, and initially meek, only wanting to spend his time playing games with his friends. In the manga, the real Bakura seems to take an interest in the macabre and the grotesque, as he tells Jonouchi that he made a cool Duel Monsters deck using the macabre and occult as the theme, saying that he loves gross monsters.[1]
While on a trip in Egypt, Bakura's father purchased an ornamental ring from a street peddler, which he gave to his son. In the anime, it's because it was connected with the Duel Monsters card game, which Bakura was fond of (in the manga, nothing of the sort was said). In truth, this object was the Millennium Ring, one of the seven mystically-empowered Millennium Items. Contained within the Millennium Ring was an evil spirit, which took possession of Bakura, and came to be known as Dark Bakura (Yami Bakura in the English anime). Unlike the similar relationship between Yugi Mutou and the spirit of his Millennium Puzzle, the spirit of the ring is a malevolent entity, and completely suppresses Bakura's soul when it takes over his body. In contrast to Ryo, Bakura's evil alter-ego is sadistic and ruthless, often manipulating the people around him including his host. Like what Yugi's dark alter-ego had done initially in the manga, he challenges his opponents to Shadow Games (闇のゲーム Yami no Gēmu) and enforces Penalty Games (罰ゲーム Batsu Gēmu) whenever he wins, though rather than justice he does it to further his own ends. He shares his host's fondness for tabletop role-playing games, and as a gamemaster, his campaigns are heavily biased towards the players.
Whenever his evil alter-ego takes control and relinquishes it, he experiences the same amnesic reaction as Yugi in the early chapters of the manga after being possessed by Dark Yugi. However, as Ryo Bakura and Dark Bakura don't develop the same bond as Yugi and Dark Yugi, Ryo Bakura never gets over this as Dark Bakura intends to completely suppress his host's personality whenever he takes over. In a way, one could say the relation between the two Bakuras serves as a foil to the two Yugis. Dark Bakura, in his first appearance and one of his rare moments where he converses with his other self, refers to his host as "master" (御主人様 Goshujin-sama) and later in the manga/second series anime as "landlord" or "host" (宿主 Yadonushi). In the Japanese versions, Bakura never really refers to Dark Bakura as anything other than a "voice" (声 Koe).
The actual identity of Dark Bakura is a merge of Thief King Bakura's soul and the essence of Zorc Necrophades. The identity is revealed in the Millennium World arc of the original manga (in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, instead it's revealed that Dark Bakura is Zorc himself).
Bakura had a sister named Amane who died in a car crash, as well as an unnamed father, mentioned to be the curator of the Domino City museum in the manga.
Thief King Bakura[]
Bakura, the King of Thieves, was the sole survivor of the slaughter of the village of Kul Elna perpetrated by Ahkenaden, as part of the ritual to forge the Millennium Items and is Ryo Bakura's past life (moreso implied in the anime since Dark Bakura is Zorc, in the manga Thief King Bakura is implied to also inhabit the Millennium Ring along with Zorc's influence, so whether not Ryo's half a soul reincarnated is left to fan speculation). Seeking revenge on the son of the pharaoh who had ordered this act, Bakura stole the Millennium Ring from the priest Mahado, and was consumed by a portion of the soul of Zorc Necrophades, which the demon had been sealed in the Ring at the moment of its creation. At the urging of Zorc, Bakura (with the help of Ahkenaden, into whose body he transferred another portion of Zorc's soul using the ring) succeeded in stealing all the Millennium Items and resurrecting Zorc.
The ultimate fate of the Thief King was never revealed. When Yugi and his friends witnessed these past events re-told as an interactive RPG-style Shadow Game, the thief's body was shown to turn to sand, but this was a metaphorical representation of Dark Bakura removing his "playing piece" from the "board" after it had served its purpose in the story, and not what truly happened to him. In the anime, Dark Bakura brought the Thief King back briefly in order to occupy the forces of good and stall for time leading up to the moment of Zorc's resurrection, seals him to bring Zorc back to life.
Appearances[]
Monster World[]
Ryo Bakura in the first series anime, with his name in kanji written on the chalkboard
Bakura debuts in volume six of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. A new transfer student to Domino High School, Bakura quickly acquires an array of romantic admirers, and befriends Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto in the English anime), Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler), Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) and Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner), and Miho Nosaka (in the 1998 Toei Anime). Learning that Yugi loves playing games and lives in a game shop, he also shares his love for games, telling them that his favourite game is the RPG "Monster World" (a parody of Dungeons and Dragons). He cautions them, however, that everyone who has ever played him has fallen into coma; this is the reason that he has been continuously transferring schools.
Upon touching Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, Bakura feels a pain. Later that night, as he is writing to his dead younger sister, Amane, a voice in his head announced that he is its new host. The voice is that of the evil spirit of the ring. The magics of the ring have been responsible for sealing the souls of Bakura's former game-players. He emerges and subjects Karita, a gym teacher who bullied Bakura for his long hair, to a Shadow Game and inflicted him with the "Mind Doll" Penalty Game, turning him into a RPG figurine.
Despite cautioning them about the dangers of playing games with him, they decide to come over to his house to cheer him up and play Monster World with him anyway. Subsequently, Dark Bakura sets up the game for Yugi and his friends to play, and seals each of their souls into miniatures after they roll a Critical Failure or break the rules, thinking that he will be able to take the Millennium Puzzle without interference. What he has failed to count upon, however, is "Dark Yugi" - the ancient spirit within the puzzle enters Yugi's soulless body, and challenges Bakura to a game of Monster World. In the midst of the game, the true Bakura's personality partially emerges, taking control of his body's left hand and causing Dark Bakura to fumble several critical dice rolls. Enraged, Dark Bakura impales this hand on a tower spike, made of polyresin on the game board, but Bakura transferred his soul into a pair of dice, which he then destroyed, killing himself and costing Dark Bakura the game. Dark Yugi banishes Dark Bakura in a Penalty Game, and Bakura's Monster World avatar, "White Mage Bakura" or "White Wizard Bakura," uses his powers to bring the real Bakura back to life. When doing this, Dark Bakura is also placed back together with him, though the Millennium Ring was no longer around Ryo's neck.
This storyline was adapted into Toei Animation's Yu-Gi-Oh! anime with some changes. Here, Bakura had already been attending Dominio High School for some time before playing Yugi and his friends, and Miho Nosaka was also present for the Monster World game, having her soul sealed in a miniature as well. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, there is a similar battle to this, albeit played in a game of Duel Monsters.
Duelist Kingdom[]
In the manga, after joining the group of friends, Ryou Bakura accompanies Yugi and his other friends to Duelist Kingdom in order to cheer Yugi and Jonouchi in saving their loved ones (Sugoroku Mutou, who had his soul trapped in a mini TV due to Pegasus' Penalty Game, and Shizuki, Jonouchi's sister who needs an operation to restore her eyesight to full health). Bringing along the Millennium Ring, Dark Bakura's personality re-emerges when the ring detects the presence of another Millennium Item towards the castle of Duelist Kingdom. Yugi and his friends were participating in the Duelist Kingdom tournament on the private island of Duel Monsters creator Maximillion Pegasus (or Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese), himself holder of another Millennium Item, the Millennium Eye. This made him a target for the evil spirit within the ring, who schemed to take the eye for himself. Ryo Bakura remains in control of his body and doesn't put the Millennium Ring around his neck for the first half of this arc.
This story arc was copied over into the second Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, by Studio Gallop and NAS, but as it was independent of the previous series by Toei, it was necessary to re-introduce Bakura into the series in a different way. In this series, compelled by his Millennium Ring to do so, Bakura stowed away on the boat heading for the Duelist Kingdom, where he eventually met with Yugi and his friends. The series proceeded to re-imagine the Monster World encounter from the manga as a game of Duel Monsters, in which Dark Bakura sealed the souls of Yugi and his friends into cards, rather than miniatures. Again, Dark Yugi emerged and played Dark Bakura in the game, winning through the intervention of the true Bakura and banishing the evil spirit. The spirit is later revealed to be alive during filler, somehow returning after being sent to the card graveyard and killed by the Reaper of the Cards.
In the middle of the manga's version of the arc, Ryo and his friends are in danger of being trapped in the underground maze of the kingdom, and the voice of Dark Bakura tricks him into putting on the Ring again in order to save his friends—helping Dark Yugi win the Meikyuu Brother's riddle game.[2] He relinquishes control and Ryo Bakura (as himself) remains a spectator for most of the arc. In Pegasus' castle, everyone sees a painting of Shadi, who the normal Bakura doesn't remember seeing as he wasn't a student at Domino City High during Shadi's "Trial of the Mind" Shadow Games. The group tells him who he is, and later that night, Dark Bakura is seen looking at the portrait, seeming to have encountered him before. This scene is removed from the anime, as Shadi hadn't been introduced yet. Later on, during the first night of the Duelist Kingdom finals, Dark Bakura helps Honda retrieve Mokuba's body, in an attempt to appear as if he had truly turned good.[3] In the anime version, Dark Bakura helps Honda retrieve Mokuba's body during Pegasus's duel with Yugi, only for him to betray Honda halfway through the escape, wanting the key to KaibaCorp's vault (in the English version, he wants Mokuba as a new host). The Millennium Ring exhibits powers not seen in the manga, such as the ability to summon monsters from Duel Monsters cards. When Honda throws the Ring deep into the kingdom's forest, it reappears around Ryo's neck without any explanation.
In the manga, Ryo Bakura is among the friends who block Pegasus' Mind Scan from reading Yugi's heart/mind, helping him win the game.[4] In the anime, he's not present during this scene neither spiritually or physically, as Honda had knocked him unconscious earlier in order to get rid of the Millennium Ring.
At the conclusion of the story arc in both the manga and the anime, Pegasus lost the final duel of the championship to Yugi. Dark Bakura then confronts him and challenged him to a Shadow Game. In the anime, it involved a laser beam battle. Pegasus, already weakened from his duel with Yugi, lost the game, and Bakura tore the Millennium Eye from its socket and took it for his own. In the manga, it's implied that he simply tore it from its socket without playing a Shadow Game, leaving the replica that "Ryo" had requested from Yugi earlier (when the preliminary matches were being decided) on the table.
Dungeon Dice Monsters[]
Dark Bakura (far right) in the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc
In the manga, Ryo Bakura is present during Dark Yugi's Four Aces game with Ryuji Otogi in school. Later, he accompanies Yugi and his other friends to buy the latest game, Dungeon Dice Monsters (DDD in the manga), only for Yugi to disappear. While his other friends go back to Yugi's home to see if he's there and to try out the new game, Bakura feels something bad happening and worries about Yugi.
Returning to the Black Clown game store, Bakura - now completely overtaken by the Spirit of the Ring - was present when Yugi's Millennium Puzzle was shattered (in the manga, by Ryugi Otogi's father). Feigning a new allegiance to Yugi by helping him in his game with Otogi, Dark Bakura stealthily snatched a piece of the puzzle, and used the power of the Millennium Ring to seal a portion of his soul within it using his Mind Parasite magic before returning it to Yugi, thus ensuring that he would have a foothold within the puzzle's soul room, the realm of the pharaoh, searching for the true door within its confines. In his inner monologue, Dark Bakura reveals that he intends to gather the Millennium Items and find out the secrets of the Millennium Puzzle in order to gain the ultimate shadow power. Relinquishing his control back to the normal Bakura, Ryo sees Yugi being taken to Mr. Clown's secret game room in order to play the Devil's Board Game, a Shadow Game using your youth as the wager. With the help of Ryuji Otogi, and his friends who had just arrived, they evacuate everyone from the fire started by one of the candles on the Devil's Board Game. After Jonouchi saves Yugi from the fire, Ryo is relieved to see Yugi safe, and is among his friends when they visit Yugi in the hospital.[5]
In the anime, this event instead happens during Yugi's duel with a possessed Bandit Keith in an abandoned warehouse with a Duel Ring, in which he goes crazy and smashes the Millennium Puzzle, also starting a fire.
Battle City[]
In the anime only, once the tournament had begun, Bakura's Millennium Ring led him to Ishizu Ishtar, holder of the Millennium Necklace, from whom he learned of the prophecy that foretold of a great battle between Yugi and Seto Kaiba. The anime version of Ryo Bakura himself doesn't appear until he's needed in the storyline, though Dark Bakura maintains a presence in the shadows as he tracks down the Millennium Item held by Marik Ishtar, striking a deal with him.
In the manga, Ryo Bakura spends his time with Anzu and Jounouchi during Battle City after being dragged out of bed from an all-nighter writing a TRPG campaign. He spends a good chunk of the arc spectating and commentating on Jonouchi's Duel Monsters battles, only to have his Ring immediately bring him into the presence of Ishizu's brother, Marik Ishtar, holder of the Millennium Rod. In the manga, it's during this time that he procures a Duel Disk in preparation of a Shadow Game with the detected Item Holder. Rather than battle Bakura, Marik made him a deal - if Bakura helped him obtain all three God Cards, Marik would relinquish the Millennium Rod to him. In the manga, he also agrees to reveal the secrets of his back, something which he'll need to decipher if he wants the shadow power that comes with the Millennium Items. Dark Bakura accepted and allowed Marik to brainwash his host. He takes a knife and stabs his own arm to help Marik befriend Bakura's friends, who pretends to save Bakura from mortal danger, in order to brainwash them. Once again relinquishing control to Ryo, confused and in pain, this plans succeeds. He later procures the necessary number of Puzzle Cards by defeating Ghost Kozuka, the zombie duelist (and killing him with a Penalty Game), thereby allowing him to participate in the quarter-finals of the Battle City tournament aboard Kaiba's "Battle Ship". Dark Bakura dueled Yugi in the first match of the finals, and it finally became apparent to all involved that Bakura was under the control of Dark Bakura. In the manga, Dark Bakura, claiming to want to dominate the gaming world by becoming the Duel King, reveals to Yugi that he's after his Saint God Osiris. As Bakura was about to lose, it's revealed to Yugi that Marik had brainwashed Ryo as well, and that the spirit was most likely working for him. Yugi was poised to win the duel, but Marik attempted to stay his hand by instructing the Spirit of the Ring to relinquish control of Bakura's body, thereby making Yugi hold back his attack for fear of injuring his friend. Dark Bakura, however, could not risk the death of his host, and took control of Ryo once more, allowing Yugi to deliver his finishing move with Osiris safely and win the duel. The Millennium Ring was removed from Bakura's unconscious body by Anzu, under the control of Marik, telling Yugi that she'll hold onto it.
As the quarter-finals proceeded, Marik's dissassociative identity disorder erupted and the dark half of his mind took control of his body while his "good" half took refuge in the mind of his puppet, Anzu. Marik petitioned Dark Bakura for help, and both he and the spirit possessed Bakura's body for a duel against "Dark Marik," with Marik's body as the prize. The pair ultimately lost the Shadow Game, and the Spirit of the Ring received a Penalty Game, disappearing into the darkness (he also continued to exist through the fragment of his soul that he had placed within the Millennium Puzzle). After Dark Yugi kills Dark Marik, his Penalty Game is rendered null and Ryo's body resurfaces near the Alcatraz Duel Tower. He appears in the Battle Ship with Mai, who he helps trick Jonouchi into thinking she's dead, leading to a comedy scene. Later on, while helping his friends look for Kaiba before the Duel Tower self-destructs, he finds the Millennium Ring in Yugi's room (which Dark Yugi had tried to hide from him) and happily puts it back on. In the anime, these scenes are left out and Bakura is busy stuffing himself on the Battle Ship.
Millennium World[]
Dark Bakura in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World manga
In the anime, Ryo Bakura is excluded from the filler arcs and neither Bakura makes another notable appearance in the anime until the beginning of the last manga arc (episode 199 of the anime), which reintroduces Bakura as a major character. In the anime, his reemergence into the main storyline is preceded by a brief sequence showing host Bakura being lured by a mysterious voice to an abandoned church, where he is repossessed by the malicious spirit of the Millennium Ring. There is no such scene in the manga series.
Dark Bakura gives Yugi the Millennium Eye and promises to help him reawaken the Pharaoh's memories (in the second series anime, instead of this, for some reason he gives Seto Kaiba the Millennium Eye after a Duel Monsters game, luring him into his plan). However, he sets a trap in the museum so that when Dark Yugi holds the Egyptian God Cards in front of the tablet and reawakens his memories, his soul is transported to a table with a tabletop role-playing game powered by the memories set on top. In the manga, this table is in a secret room inside the museum, using a diorama of the Egyptian Kingdom as the game field, which Dark Bakura manipulated Ryo into making for the museum for his father (the curator). In the anime, instead the table is floating in a dark void in Egypt, and the events of the game are seen within a screen on top of the table. Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura must play the Shadow RPG, Memory World, in order to determine which soul of the Millennium Puzzle, the Pharaoh or Zorc Necrophades, is resurrected (in the manga, the soul in the Puzzle is Akhenaden's, controlled by a part of Zorc's soul that is sealed within it, who along with Dark Bakura wishes to resurrect the full soul of Zorc.)
In the TRPG, Dark Bakura controls Thief King Bakura, while Dark Yugi controls the Pharaoh. Both serve as the player characters of the RPG, while the true Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura serve as the Game Masters. When Thief King Bakura seals his soul inside Akhenaden's Millennium Eye, Dark Bakura takes control of Akhenaden as well (in the manga, the soul of Akhenaden, who inhabits his own deceased corpse that Bakura set up in the room, takes control of it while Dark Bakura serves as the player.) When Thief King Bakura is no longer needed, he is discarded from the game.
In the manga, Zorc is brought to Earth when Akhenaden places the seven Millennium Items in the tablet and Dark Bakura's controlled character is switched to Zorc, with Akhenaden's soul remaining in control of his past life. In the anime, Zorc can not be granted physical form when the Millennium Items are inserted into the tablet. Dark Bakura uses power from Seto Kaiba's soul to revive Thief King Bakura, who sacrifices his soul to give Zorc physical form.
All the while, Yugi and his friends serve as non-player characters in the TRPG (along with the members of the Pharaoh's court), attempting to recover the Pharaoh's lost name. A part of Dark Bakura's soul shadows them throughout their journey. Eventually he shows himself to them and reveals that, like Akhenaden, he too is a part of Zorc through inheriting a portion of Zorc's soul. He attempts to destroy them in a duel, but the Pharaoh's apparent death causes the TRPG to temporarily stop, transporting Yugi and his friends away. When they later enter the Pharaoh's tomb another part of Dark Bakura's soul is waiting for them. Yugi duels and defeats him, sealing him out for good. (The only part of this scene which was retained in the anime is Yugi and Bakura's duel. Instead, Thief King Bakura seals Dark Bakura's other half into Honda's body, allowing Dark Bakura to possess him until the group enters the Pharaoh's tomb.)
In the anime, Dark Bakura reveals to Dark Yugi that he is, in fact, Zorc and the two of them are transported into the RPG itself, inhabiting their respective bodies (this never occurs in the manga). Yugi and his friends arrive and are able to reveal the Pharaoh's true name: Atem. Atem is then able to use the power of his name to summon Horakhti to vanquish Zorc and Dark Bakura once and for all. Atem had used his name as part of the process to seal Zorc in the first place, at the cost of his own and Zorc's memories. Zorc/Dark Bakura eventually recovered his memories, but Atem was unable to until hearing his true name.
In the anime, Dark Bakura, merging with Zorc in the TRPG, dies when Zorc is obliterated. In the original manga, Dark Bakura presumably dies when Zorc and the High Priest of Darkness are killed, losing the Shadow Game.
Gaming Items[]
Notable Dueling Cards[]
In the anime only, Bakura uses a deck for the Duelist Kingdom arc, using monsters that reflect his views on the supernatural. A great deal of his cards cause disruption, or breaking his opponent's strategies through various cards, which range from White Magical Hat to Morphing Jar. His favorite card is Change of Heart, a Spell Card that has the ability to take control of one of his opponent's monster for one turn. In the manga, he isn't shown to have a Duel Monsters deck during Duelist Kingdom.
During the Battle City arc, Ryo Bakura constructs an Occult Deck based on his love for grotesque and creepy monsters (though he's never shown using this deck himself, as Dark Bakura remains dominate all of his duels), focusing on the darker side of the occult by making extensive use of Zombies (Undead) and Fiends (Demons), some of which are based around mythological figures such as the Greek Death god Hades and The Headless Horseman, as well as monsters revolving around controversial occult issues such as death and necromancy. The signature card of this deck is Dark Necrofear, a powerful fiend monster. In the anime only, once destroyed, Bakura can play Dark Sanctuary, a card that lets him have a ghost possess one monster each turn, draining his opponent's Life Points of half that monster's ATK points and refilling his own Life Points by the same amount. In the manga, he instead uses a combo with "Dark Door" and "Dark Spirit of the Silent", restricting his opponent's attacks to one per turn and forcing one of their monsters to be the possessed. This is used to stall while Bakura activates Destiny Board (Ouija Board in the Japanese anime), a card which spells the message "FINAL" (DEATH in the Japanese anime) over five turns, letting Bakura claim an instant victory. These cards were successful in pushing Yugi into a corner during their duel, until Yugi's Saint Dragon of Osiris was revealed to be immune to Dark Sanctuary (in the anime) and was able to attack.
In the anime only, when he confronts Seto Kaiba in order to gain the power of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon for his own purposes, Bakura plays a deck centering around Diabound, the Ka of his ancient self. By using Spirit Illusion, Bakura is able to weaken opposing monsters and destroy them with Diabound while protecting it from counterattack with Spirit Shield. Bakura also plays a number of tablet cards referencing the original monster spirits that were summoned from stone blocks.
In his final Duel Monsters game of the series, Dark Bakura as a Mind Parasite plays an Undead Lock deck against Yugi Mutou, which focuses upon winning the game by having one's opponent running out of cards. He eventually uses The Cursed Twin Dolls to call all monsters that would normally be sent to the Graveyard to his field as "phantoms", and in tandem with Counterbalance, the two are required to discard cards from their decks equal to the number of monsters on the field. (Bakura however is not affected by this due to the effect of Cursed Twin Doll, which prevents the player was utilizing their Graveyard in any way) Bakura further supplements this with Necro monsters that summon multiple copies of themselves for both defense and to add to the cards discarded by Counterbalance.
Monster World RPG[]
During the Monster World RPG, Dark Bakura was the Dark Master. As the DM, he was in control of the boss character, the Dark Master Zorc, a level 15 demon with 500 HP. He was also in control of a few random encounter monsters, one of which changed its character alignment to Yugi's side, and Zorc's Right Arm Dragon, which was also turned into a good monster.
Ryo Bakura himself had part of his essence sealed within Zorc, the White Mage Bakura, who joined Yugi's group of adventurers.
Dungeon Dice Monsters[]
Although not shown playing the actual game itself, in the manga, Ryo Bakura accompanies Yugi and his other friends when they decide to buy the new "DDM" game at the Black Clown game shop (DDD in the Japanese manga, abbreviated as "Dragons, Dice & Dungeons"). When he opened his pack of dice, he commented on the different patterns on the surfaces of each dice. When Yugi Mutou faces Ryuji Otogi in his game of Dungeon Dice Monsters, Dark Bakura emerges and gives Yugi moral support, although he never directly takes part in the game himself.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters video game, based on the manga, Ryo Bakura and his other self are given a Dice Pool that consists of Warriors and Spellcasters, and like the normal Yugi in the game, Ryo focuses on setting up level 1 creatures on the board at a quick pace to get to the player's Dungeon Master.
Shadow RPG Items/Cards[]
In the Shadow RPG campaign, Dark Bakura's main character started out as Thief King Bakura and his other controllable character is High Priest Akhenaden, represented by cards which appear with statistics when Dark Bakura envisions them in his memories. When High Priest Akhenaden resurrects the Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades, the boss character also comes into Dark Bakura's control. His controllable Monster Spirits (Ka) are the five forms of Diabound, Bone Snapper, Illushu, and Winged Sage Falcos. In the anime, he also has the Humanoid Giant.
Dark Bakura starts out with three hourglass items which represents Zorc's special abilities. The first hourglass is used to rewind time, Dark Bakura uses this to resurrect Diabond after Ra destroyed it. The second item pauses time, allowing his High Priest character to steal the Millennium Items and resurrect Zorc into physical form. The third hourglass is Zorc's Natural Catastrophe, which slowly destroyed the entire game board, and thus the Memory World itself. Dark Bakura's strategy in the game revolves around powering his side up by weakening Dark Yugi's side. While he has fewer character cards and Monster Spirits/items, they are afforded special abilities that let him increase their own power and the Pharaoh's pain, fitting Dark Bakura's sadistic nature.
References[]
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duellist. Volume 13, Chapter 119. February 2006. VIZ Media.
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. Volume 5, Chapters 39. May 2005. VIZ Media.
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. Volume 6, Chapters 58. July 2005. VIZ Media.
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. Volume 7, Chapter 71. September 2005. VIZ Media.
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. Volumes 9-10, Chapters 75-86. 2005. VIZ Media
- Kazuki Takahashi (2002). Yu-Gi-Oh! Characters Guide Book - The Gospel of Truth (遊戯王キャラクターズガイドブック―真理の福音―). Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-873363-0
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