Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V The Lancers

Beware of major spoilers, Late Arrival Spoilers and Walking Spoilers!

This is the lists of the Lancers, the heroes from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

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The Lancers (General)

Lancers

The Lancers—also known as the Lance Defense Force—are the brainchild of Reiji Akaba. Their goal is to oppose Duel Academy and protect all dimensions threatened by it. Yusho Sakaki was originally meant to lead the group at Reiji's suggestion, but he declined the offer before his disappearance. Once the group is finalized at the end of the Arc League Championship, Reiji chooses to lead the group personally.

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Tropes associated with the Lancers:

• Any One Can Die: The Lancers are not immune to getting carded. This is first demonstrated with Tsukikage, and then Crow demonstrates that not even legacy characters are saved.
• Badass Biker: Yuya, Gongenzaka, Serena, Sawatari, Kurosaki, Dennis and Tsukikage become D-Wheelers in the Synchro Dimension arc. Many of them pull off cool stunts while riding their D-Wheels.
• Badass Crew: Thanks to them finally coming together, they as a group decimate the Security that came to the Duel Palace. Everyone including Sawatari.
• Big Damn Heroes: Subverted multiple times, during their fight against Zarc, in which new pairs intervene in his Duel to confront him, but are unable to do anything to prevent their allies from being defeated.
  • In Episode 136, Sora and Edo are the first pair to be defeated after Kaito and Kurosaki step in.
  • Then we have Jack and Gongenzaka in Episode 137. At the very least, the latter manages to save Kaito and Kurosaki from a potentially fatal fall.
  • Followed by Crow and Sawatari in Episode 138, who both step in after Gongenzaka loses.
  • In a twist in Episode 139, we have Reiji intervening before Leo's defeat, who stepped in prior to Crow and Sawatari's defeat. Although Reiji manages to save his father from a potentially fatal collision.
  • And finally Episode 140, with Reira intervening and preventing Reiji (with help from a recently uncarded Tsukikage) from sustaining fatal injuries despite failing to prevent his loss.
• Big Good: They as a whole represent this. They are the only force currently going against the Academia with the Resistance all but dead and the City fully ignorant of the threat. Reiji himself is this to the Lancers as their leader but as stated on his page, he's one of the more morally ambiguous characters on the team.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Working with Ray, the Lancers, their allies and Leo are able to defeat Zarc a second time. But each team that faced him was defeated before Ray took center stage possessing Reira.
• Cassandra Truth: In the Synchro Dimension, very few believe that they came from different dimensions and that there are invaders from another dimension coming.
• Catchphrase: "Action cards are how we Lancer's fight."
• Dwindling Party:
  • Once the Synchro Dimension arc starts, Lancer members slowly start dropping off, literally and plot-wise. Reiji is kept in the Council's chambers, effectively making him unusable for the Friendship Cup. Dennis is discovered to be an Academia spy, and is sent back to Academia after Kurosaki crushes him. Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Kurosaki, and Tsukikage all lose and are sent to slavery. Serena is forcefully taken by Barrett back to Academia. Eventually, Reiji takes action and all but Serena and Dennis reunite for the finale of the Synchro arc, but an incident with a wormhole drags Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Yuya, and Kurosaki to the Xyz Dimension, cutting off the rest of the Lancers and forcing them Out of Focus.
  • Later on in the Fusion Dimension arc, Serena is revealed to be Brainwashed and Crazy and has become an enemy, Tsukikage and Crow are carded by BB, Sawatari's Duel Disk is broken and Gongenzaka, Kurosaki and Sora are injured, making the latter four of them unable to duel. Reira is still suffering from several traumata, leaving only Yuya and Reiji to deal with the Professor and Z-Arc. Thanks to Yuri, Reiji, too, is injured and powerless to fight back, effectively leaving a previously restrained Yuya the only Lancer able to fight.
  • Eventually, they regroup (with the exception of Yuya, Tsukikage, and Serena) to combat a newly-revived Zarc. It all goes down the drain once again with Sora and Edo, Kaito and Kurosaki, Gongenzaka and Jack, Crow and Sawatari, and Reiji losing to him.
• A Friend in Need: If Yuya's actions have changed them for the better, then it's their turn to save him from Zarc.
• It's Up to You: At the point of the story when they were created, they were the best Reiji could do. The Xyz Dimension was defeated, the Synchro Dimension was unknown and the members that would be the Lancers were the strongest duelists around due to their mastery of Pendulum Summoning. But it is downplayed as in Standard, LDS is teaching the public to hire more Lancers. In the last parts of the Fusion Arc, the Lancers and their allies are all that stands between Zarc and destroying reality.
• Made a Slave: Several Lancers lose during the Friendship Cup and are sent to the Underground Facility to work as slave workers a la Crash Town style. The losers are Gongenzaka, Tsukikage, Sawatari, Dennis, Kurosaki and Serena. However, Tsukikage lost on purpose and he escapes and returns to the facility whenever he or Reiji wants, Dennis is saved by Sora and he eventually returns to Academia, and Security try to capture Serena before she is sent to the facility, but she is saved by Reira and Tsukikage. In the end, all of them escape from the facility by force.
• No One Gets Left Behind: The Lancers will not abandon a comrade just because it is easier.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of the second season, Yuya, Gongenzaka, Sawatari and Kurosaki are sucked into a wormhole that leads them to Heartland, leaving Reiji, Reira and Tsukikage out of the Xyz plot, while Serena is already separated from all of them. They all return in episode 115 and reunite with Yuya, Gongenzaka with Sawatari, while Kurosaki is hospitalized until episode 117 and Serena is back, but infected by the Doktor's Parasite Fusioner and is on the side of Academia.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: To the extreme, the team is made up of either teenagers or children, with most of them barely even knowing or even liking each other and they're the only ones that can save the multiverse.
• Rotating Protagonist: Sort of, while Yuya is always important, they tend to rotate which Lancers are in use and have importance.
• Sixth Ranger: Yuzu counts as this. While she isn't technically part of the Lancers, she has close ties to Yuya and Gongenzaka, is from Standard, has the same goal as them and Reiji himself says her skill is up to par with the Lancers. The Executive Council at least think she is part of them.
• The Smurfette Principle: Serena is the only female member of the Lancers. Subverted when it is revealed that Reira was a girl all along, but then played straight due to Serena's absence.
• "Super Sentai" Stance: Four of the Lancers and Tokumatsu do this in Episode 96.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: My god. There is plenty of tension in the group due to their different ideals and upbringings. But they are willing to work together.
• True Companions: Subverted. While Yuya sees them as this, most of the members don't agree. Kurosaki and Serena have a tendency of working alone, Sawatari is in his own little world, Dennis is the mole, Reiji, Reira and Tsukikage act their own little group isolated from the rest. Leaving Yuya and Gongenzaka trying to get the rest of the members to work together. Double subverted later on when they actually do start to become one.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The whole group is almost never completely assembled, often winding up in multiple sub-groups and causing the plot to jump between lines repeatedly. Depending on the distribution, this can sometimes go into Three Lines, Some Waiting or, very rarely, Four Lines, All Waiting.
• Worf Effect: Subverted. While Zarc tore through them, it was because of their continued effort that Ray was able to easily fulfill the requirements to activate the four nature cards to defeat Zarc.
• World's Best Warrior: The team is this. Due to their use of Pendulum Summoning, they are currently the strongest Duelists Standard has to offer. Due to the combined efforts, they together with Ray were able to defeat Zarc.

Current Members

The members that Reiji handpicked personally for the skills they demonstrated during the ARC League City Tournament and for repelling the initial invasion of Duel Academy. Reiji himself is the founder and leader of this group.

Yuya Sakaki

Yuya Sakaki

The protagonist of ARC-V and the creator of Pendulum Summoning who aspires to a professional entertainer. Later joins Reiji's Lancers in an effort to save the dimensions threaten by the malignant force known as Academia.

See Yuya and his counterparts for more information.

Reiji Akaba (Declan Akaba)

Reiji Akaba (Declan Akaba)

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (JP), Billy Bob Thompson (EN)

The brilliant 16-year-old CEO of Leo Corporation and leader/founder of the Lancers. He's calm, calculating, and somewhat manipulative, but he still has a softer side. Reiji quickly develops an interest in Yuya's Pendulum Summoning, working on finding out about it from behind the scenes.

Reiji uses a D/D/D^note Standing for Different Dimension Demon Pronounced "double/triple dee" in the dub and not to be confused with D.D. deck themed around famous scientists and conquerers. The D/D cards are main deck monsters that search out component pieces and work as fodder for his summons, while the D/D/Ds are his archetypical boss monsters that he uses to overwhelm his foes. He also runs the Dark Contract line of Spells and Traps that offer him powerful benefits, but drain his life points if he leaves them unchecked. He's also one of the few characters to utilize all three Extra Deck monster types (Fusion, Synchro and Xyz). While he doesn't have one consistent ace monster throughout his duels, supplementary material will often use D/D/D Doom King Armageddon as a stand-in.

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• The Ace: He's a pro and runs the largest gaming business in the world, all at the age of 16. He's also the first duelist to use every Extra Deck summoning method (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Pendulum), something that wasn't accomplished by another character until Yuya gained Enlightenment Paladin in episode 79.
  • Besides Ray, who defeated him with the four cards, Zarc himself praises Reiji for being the most formidable opponent he's faced thus far, meaning that the main villain of ARC-V considers Reiji to be better than Jack, Kaito, and Edo, the strongest of their respective dimensions that isn't one of his own components. It's also shown that Reiji had a legitimate chance to beat Zarc had Zarc not had multiple turns to build his board from the rest of the cast's efforts..
• Achilles in His Tent: He's the leader of the Lancers, but because of his Japanese VA's busy schedule, he doesn't get to say or do much to the point that he only dueled twice in the show's first season.
• Adaptational Badass: Reiji's the one who beats ZARC in Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist thanks to Ray's four En Cards and Smile Universe not existing in real life and the game's format not allowing for a similar relay duel, meaning it's simplified into Zarc defeating everyone else off-camera and Reiji swooping in last second..
• All According to Plan: Says this very casually to "losing" Tsukikage in the Friendship Cup. Reira, and the Executive Council are disturbed.
• Aloof Big Brother: Towards Reira; he may be a little distant with him, but it's clear that he cares for his little brother. He starts out as the only person Reira seems comfortable around.
• Ambiguously Evil:
  • He's initially presented as an antagonist, then turns out to be a respectful and decent guy, then turns out to be engaging in shady activities behind the scenes. By the time of Episode 36 when he true motives are revealed, it's clear he has good intentions, but is willing to do very morally grey things for the greater good.
  • During their duel, Roget attempts to invoke and exploit this, claiming that it's entirely possible that Reiji is in cahoots with his father and that they are both playing Standard and the Lancers for fools, and how they should just abandon him because of it, but right one cue when Reiji points out the flaw in this logic, Yuya goes and declares that they will trust Reiji no matter what, thus calling the bluff.
• Anti-Hero: Of the Pragmatic Hero variety. Everything he does is to stop his father, Leo Akaba who started a war between the Fusion and Xyz dimensions and does seem to honestly care for his town. But he has done a lot of morally gray actions in his quest, from manipulating his students and allies, to lying to his allies so he can experiment on their possibly dead ally's Duel Disk, and willingly using teenagers as soldiers.
• Archnemesis Dad: The MCS is actually a way to distillate the strongest duelists in order to fight his father. He also flat out calls Leo Akaba his enemy.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In their second duel, Reiji asks Yuya if he is fine with leaving the others carded even if Yuzu is all right.
• Awesome by Analysis: He was able to create a Pendulum counter deck based on his knowledge on Yuya's duels.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • While Himika may have only thought of Reira as a soldier, Reiji has shown multiple times that he does care about Reira.
  • Throughout the series, Reiji has only shown hatred and anger towards his father, but when his father was going to fall to his death, Reiji rushed to save him as he called him father again.
• Badass Boast: Gives one to Roget prior to their Duel in Episode 99, and later when he and his Lancers are going to Academia at the end of Episode 115.
• Badass Bookworm: Being a CEO at age 16 and a professional duelist at age 15 certainly qualifies him even before we see what he can do.
  • He proves it even more when he duels, having mastered every form of summoning. He proceeds to show this by summoning a Fusion Monster, a Synchro Monster, AND an Xyz Monster in just two of his turns. He does this again 8 episodes later, but in one turn.
  • It's pretty much explicitly stated that he managed to make his own Pendulum Monsters. Granted, they malfunction at first, but that's still a pretty big achievement.
• Badass Driver: Downplayed, but Reiji knows how to drive a speedboat in Episode 115.
• Bash Brothers: Since both he and Yuya are royally pissed off at Leo's Well-Intentioned Extremist Evil Plan, they joined forces to take him out.
• Batman Gambit: Does this to Yuya in their second Duel.
• Benevolent Boss: Even more so than his mother, despite being a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Though he and his mother ultimately have good intentions, they are still the conflict creators in the earlier arcs before Academia rears its head.
• Big Brother Instinct: The reason why he's trying to make Yuya remember the dimension wars is so Yuya can save Reira who was turned into a baby.
• Big Damn Heroes: Greets Roget by finishing Yuzu's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, followed by demanding him to unhand Yuzu. Roget obviously refuses and opts for giving her to Academia to save his own skin, forcing Reiji to take drastic measures.
• Big Good: In spite of his morally ambiguous ways, he's the closest thing the show has to one early on, as he's dedicated to protecting Maiami from the forces of the other dimensions, and is fundamentally opposing Professor Leo Akaba, who's responsible for the war between Academia and the Resistance. Though others can outrank him as Big Good later on in the show such as Yusho who informs and organizes the remaining duelists to stop Zarc's revival from 130 to 133. And later Ray who revives and defeats Zarc when the Lancers, including Reiji and their allies couldn't touch. During the last arc,141-148, he takes up this position again, planning and setting up Yuya's duels so that he can redeem Zarc's soul inside of Reira.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Shouts at Hokuto and Yaiba to make them stop trash talking Yuya's dad, declaring that he highly respects Yusho for being a pioneer in Action Duels.
• Blatant Lies: He tells Serena that he has no idea about the whereabouts of duelists from the Xyz Dimension, despite his involvement with Kurosaki.
• Breaking Old Trends: He's the first character to homage Seto Kaiba and never wear a white coat, preferring a gray sweater and red scarf.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes this to Yuya for all the stunts he pulled during the MCS arc. Averted as of Episode 99.
• Brutal Honesty: Outright tells Yuya that he can't save Yuzu with his naivety and self-righteousness.
• Character Tics: He adjusts his glasses by the bridge a lot in his duel with Yuya, showing that he has a well thought-out strategy and a few tricks up his sleeve.
• The Chessmaster: He's implied to have spent the last three years preparing for the inevitable inter-dimensional war when it comes to the Standard Dimension, and likes to be aware of everything that happens in the city to make sure it doesn't interfere with his plans. Episode 52 reveals that the Leo Duel Schools that have been set up around the world were a cover; they're actually Duel Monster-type military training camps where duelists learned the skills needed to prepare for the war with Academia, and with said war beginning the schools are opening to the public so everyone can learn to defend themselves in case of a second invasion.
• Chick Magnet: As seen in Episode 27, he has a lot of fangirls. Although none of the female characters are attracted to him.
• Chuunibyou: It bears repeating that he made his archetype from the ground up and filled it with as many stand-ins for famous historical and mythological figures as he could (some of whom, such as Tristan, already had cards named after them). This is in sharp contrast to Yuya's deck which contains many hand-me-downs his father possessed. One piece of D/D/D legacy support especially supports this, Go! - D/D/D Divine Zero King Rage, which resembles Reiji down to the haircut and scarf- meaning Reiji effectively self-inserted himself into his deck.
• Cold Ham: Reiji is eternally calm and collected, but when he duels, especially when he summons his D/D/D monsters, his facial expressions and shouts are as hammy as anyone else. His deep voice effectively makes him this all the time, though in the dub he's more soft spoken.
• Composite Character: A lot of his traits draw on aspects from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! rivals, most notably Seto Kaiba:
  • He's a sixteen year old CEO of a gaming corporation who uses a monster with a 3000 ATK Level 8 monster, which he runs three copies of in his Deck, and they are also the only ones that exist in the world (Though it's not a Dragon-type or something with "dragon" in the name).
  • He also considers his father an enemy (though for different reasons than Kaiba).
  • He does have a little brother, drawing parallels to Kaiba, Kaiser and Kaito.
  • He also channels Jack Atlas, as he mentions kings a lot in his summoning chants, and his monsters are named after famous conquerors. Ironic considering Jack is a character in this series.
  • Moving away from rivals, he also has some similarities to Rex Goodwin, with his morally ambiguous actions for some unstated duel, and keep an eye on duelists to bring out their potential.
  • His playing style is essentially a mix between Atem and Kaiba's playing styles. Like Kaiba, Reiji plays a lot of powerhouses and can defeat the opponent through overwhelming beatdowns, but he has much more varieties and relies a lot on Spell Cards and combos, like Atem. And like Atem, Reiji does not focus on a single ace monster, but has a an entire army of reliable monsters in his arsenal.
• Connected All Along: With the exception of Serena he never interacted with any of the Bracelet Girls beyond some name dropping and that one time he finished Yuzu's call out to Roger, then after The Reveal of Ray's being Leo's daughter thus making her his half-sister, it's however uncertain hwere does this leave him with the Bracelet Girls, given that the matter has yet to be adressed In-Universe
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: As much as he is an Expy for Kaiba, he's also a foil, as his motivations and goals are very different. Kaiba's desire was to prove he was the strongest, and would go to any lengths for this goal (especially in the manga) simply to feed his ego. Reiji doesn't seek personal strength so much as he seeks to strengthen his home and people, exploring various summoning methods so that he can better understand them. Kaiba fought against having his technology weaponized, whereas Reiji is arming and militarizing his entire planet with card games.^note In a combination of both previous points, Kaiba initiates several conflicts due to his desire for personal strength despite resisting weaponization, while Reiji is weaponizing his people and seeking to strengthen his world in response to a conflict started by another. Kaiba rarely teams up with others, whereas Reiji goes out of his way to make as many allies as possible. Additionally, Reiji seems to shift his ace card from Hell Armageddon, the Level 8 3000 ATK beatstick which he runs three copies of it, to the weaker, but more useful Abyss Ragnarok (2200 ATK/3000 DEF). But even that monster does not appear that often during his on-screen duels. The anime shifts towards his elemental trio, but then finally comes back to Hell Armageddon at the end. Generally, his dueling style is very different than Kaiba and any of his expies. While Kaiba, Kaiser, Jack and Kaito mainly focus on their one and only ace monster and their respective power-ups, Reiji's DDD playstyle does not focus on one particular beatstick and is more flexible in comparison. Reiji prefers to swarm the field with several powerful monsters, but none of them steal the spotlights of the others. He rarely relies on one and the same monster at all during his full on-screen duels. His relationship with Yuya is inverted compared to Kaiba and other rivals and their protagonists as they usually have some disdain for the protagonist and thus refuse to work with them at first, Reiji instead fully respects Yuya and is determined to work with him while Yuya was actually disgusted by Reiji for a time and even refused to work with for a time.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His Duel against Roget is basically this. He defeats the first Roget hologram with an OTK, and then he defeats the second one during the hologram's Draw Phase. Reiji would repeat the same combo to all of the next holograms.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Finding out that his father was the head of the Academia and that he intended on fusing dimensions together really messed with Reiji's head. Turning him from a nice guy to what he is today.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In spite of his DARK Fiend-Type deck, Reiji is a polite and reasonable person. He does however have some more morally ambiguous qualities and is definitely a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Deal with the Devil: His deck's playstyle relies on making these for Power at a Price, then destroying the contract before the costs become overwhelming.
• Death or Glory Attack: His standard modus operandi. His Dark Contracts are excellent searching cards that will wreck him if they stay on the field, and his Savant Pendulums have ridiculously good Scales, but degrade quickly and have the potential to wipe out his whole field in the process.
• Different in Every Episode: A non-comedic example. All of Reiji's full on-screen duels are notably different in terms of tactics. Unlike Kaiba, Kaiser, Jack and Kaito, who focus on their powerful beatsticks and use several cards to support their aces, Reiji does not focus on an ace monster. His strategy is to summon different powerful DDD monsters that are suitable to different situations, making his playstyle more flexible in comparison to the others.
  • During his first duel, Reiji demonstrates that he can use four different summoning types, by summoning Temujin, Alexander, Caesar and three Hell Armageddons. The key cards in this duel are his Hell Armageddons that become stronger when one of them is defeated, providing a very powerful wall of defense that Yuya cannot overcome with his combo.
  • In his second duel, Reiji decides the duel with the effects of Tell and d'Arc, both of them having effects that deal with effect damage in different ways.
  • While Reiji does summon Temujin , Alexander and Caesar during his rematch with Yuya, he knows that Yuya would defeat them easily with his new cards. However, Reiji proves how superior he is by summoning Abyss Ragnarok and his two evolutions (Caesar Ragnarok and Kali Yuga), all three of them taking care of each of Yuya's five dragons with ease.
  • In his fourth duel against Roget, his key card for his combos is Chaos Apocalypse, but not as a beatstick. Using it as a Fusion Material and Synchro Material, he dominates the field with Beowulf and Siegfried, and then he uses Chaos Apocalypse's 2000 DEF to inflict damage to his opponent, which can become an infinite loop, since each of Roget's hologram clones take 2000 penalty damage whenever he re-joins the duel.
  • His fifth duel, a two on one against his father, however, is similar as his first one. He summons Temujin, Alexander and Caesar and Hell Armageddon again, but uses a different strategy. The presence of Temujin, Alexander and Caesar are meant to prevent the Professor from Tribute, Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Summoning, but that doesn't work as the Professor is capable of Pendulum Summoning. As Reiji's monsters are incapable of attacking, he has to tribute his two remaining kings to Tribute Summon Hell Armageddon and needs to boost him to attack and win the duel, but even that is countered by his father. This is the only time where Reiji has not summoned a new monster. And he almost loses the duel.
  • In his sixth duel, Reiji uses Temujin and Alexander again, as well as using a card to prevent the opponent from using various Special Summoning methods. But instead of Caesar, Reiji uses Darius to counter his opponent Reira perfectly. This time, he combines his lock strategy with a simple beatdown strategy. As the tables are turned quickly against him, Reiji Special Summons Tomb Conquistador to counterattack and win the duel.
  • In his seventh duel, Reiji uses the High Executive versions of his elemental trio to inflict as much damage on Zarc as possible, while also hindering his opponent to protect himself.
  • In his eighth and final duel, the three Hell Armageddons return and evolve into the three Superdeaths Hell Armageddons. Purplish, Whitest and Darkness not only heavily pressure the opponent with their high ATK and Monster Effects, they also protect themselves and each other, to the point that the are nigh-invincible. The only reason Reiji loses is due to Yuya preventing Reiji from inflicting further damage to him and to keep Reiji from drawing new cards. The Superdeath trio are left undestroyed for the rest of the Duel, but that doesn't stop Yuya to inflict enough Battle Damage on Reiji to defeat him.
• Dub Name Change: Reiji to Declan, and DD to D/D.
• Elemental Powers: Several of his monsters from the Extra Deck, who are each a different attribute.
  • DDD Gust King Alexander, a WIND Synchro Monster and his upgrade, DDD Gust High King Executive Alexander.
  • DDD Boulder King Darius, a Rank 3 EARTH Xyz Monster.
  • DDD Wave King Caesar, a Rank 4 WATER Xyz Monster and his upgrade DDD Wave High King Executive Caesar.
  • DDD Flame King Temujin/Ghengis, a FIRE Fusion Monster and his upgrade DDD Flame High King Executive Temujin.
• Declaration of Protection: Tells Roget that Yuzu and Serena are under the Lancers' custody and they won't let them fall into the hands of the Security and Academia.
• Epic Fail: His first group of Lancers ends up entirely defeated, except for one that runs away.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: How "bad" he is is anyone's guess, but he's on very good terms with his mother Himika, though she's also bad and they're quite formal with one another (likely because of their positions within Leo Corporation, though).
• Everyone Has Standards: Though he is an antagonist at first, he's easily the nicest LDS associate so far, and yelled at Yaiba and Hokuto for badmouthing Yusho Sakaki.
  • Reiji might be a very morally ambiguous character but even he was uncomfortable about using Reira, a very traumatized child, to battle against the Academia. He also seems fine with the idea that Reira is gaining a will unlike Himika.
  • And according to Tsukikage, he won't abandon his comrades, meaning that the loss of his first team of Lancers was likely unintentional.
• Evil Laugh: Delivers one in Episode 13 after he realizes the true potential of Pendulum Monsters.
• Evil Overlord: All of his DDD monsters are demonic and sinister kings.
• Fairytale Motifs: A little bit, what with his deck being based on ancient kings and the image Himika presented of his Lancers having some parallels with knights.
• Family Theme Naming: Reiji, like Reira, Leo, and his elder half sister, Ray, has the the kanji of zero (零) in his name.
• Fatal Flaw: Despite being the current CEO of Leo Corporation and Invincible Hero of the series who uses several elaborately effective tactics, Reiji has a single major weakness: his shortsightedness. Even Leo points out that establishing the Lancers program without any back-up plan is "too immature" for a businessman.
• Final-Exam Boss: During the competition between You Show and LID, while each of his predecessors used a different type of summoning, he not only used all three, but had his own prototypes for Pendulum Summoning.
• Flawed Prototype: Reiji created his own Pendulum Monsters, with just the research he did on Yuya and his own experience with Pendulum Summoning through Sawatari. Still, these copies were not perfect and they sometimes malfunctioned. By the MCS Battle Royal, he finished them.
• Foil: To Yuya, they are both the aces of their schools and are Pendulum users. While Reiji is well respected as the head of the top duel school at the start of the series, Yuya is looked down upon because of his father and is a member of a duel school made up of only 5 people. They both hide their emotions, Yuya using laughter and smiles compared to Reiji's stoicism. Their relationships with their fathers are completely different as well. Yuya's father disappeared but Yuya still thinks very highly of him, while Reiji doubts his father even cares enough about him that he would be a useful hostage. his is furthered in their methods in dealing with the interdimensional war. Yuya attempts to still bring smiles to his opponents, while Reiji is willing to do anything to gain the upper hand against the Academia, even willing to sacrifice his men. Also, Reira also sees both of them as brother figures and both Reiji and Yuya care about him in different ways.
• Frontline General: In spite of having command of an entire corporation, Reiji has a habit of confronting enemy agents in person, doing so with Kurosaki and Serena and Barrett. Later going personally with the Lancers to the Synchro Dimension.
• Full-Name Basis: He and Yuya refer to each other by their full names.
• Fun with Acronyms: His monsters, DD (Different Dimension) and DDD (Different Dimension Demon), which aren't technically named that due to archetype issues (on the actual cards, DD/DDD aren't considered acronyms) but are referred to as such in-universe.
• The Gadfly: A single instance where he does this to Kurosaki when he loads the Heartland Action Field. He claims he did it just to see his reaction. And right before the fight he tries to have Nakajima hand him a single Pendulum Card.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Delivers a rousing speech to Yuya in his Duel against Yuri after the former enters a Heroic BSoD for discarding Smile World, convincing him that he can still win with his own Dueling style; one that doesn't heavily rely on Smile World.
• Gone Horribly Right: During Yuya's duel with Yuri, he advised Yuya to focus solely on winning. He did, and he won, but this allowed Zarc to overcome the last bit of his resistance.
• Good Is Not Nice: Reiji is completely on the side of good but he's shown be rather morally ambiguous in his efforts to protect the dimensions.
• Hates Their Parent: Cares for his mother, but hates his father, Leo Akaba.
• Hero-Worshipper: It's made incredibly clear that Reiji deeply respects Yusho Sakaki as shown in his first duel against Yuya when he exploded when Hokuto and Yaiba mocked Yusho. It's later revealed that Reiji originally wanted Yusho to be the Lancers' leader. It's revealed that Reiji knows that Yusho disappeared by his interdimensional teleported and not out of cowardice, explaining why he doesn't share in Standard's current low view of him. When they meet up in Academia, he's overjoyed to fight with him and listens to his orders without argument.
• Hidden Heartof Gold: Reiji's wasno saint when initially introduced, and was willing to do some shady stuff for his goals but as it turns out, this is not how he actually is, and has a good reason to do what's necessary in order to stop his home to being dragged into a interdimensional war and stop his father of raging war into other dimensions even before this was revealed, there were hints to this as he was against badmouthing the Sakaki family, using Reira as a pawn, and abandoning his comrades.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Pulls this on Yuya during their duel against Leo when Zarc starts to take over him.
• I Let You Win:
  • Gives Yuya the win by surrendering at the end of their first duel.
  • Episode 86 refers to a passive version; he could certainly have annihilated the Security holding him and the Council hostage any moment since they arrived, he simply didn't do so because he was biding his time. The Council calls him out for not rescuing them sooner.
• I Own This Town: Positive example: "This is my city. And I will decide how to protect it."
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: His scarf is just as gravity defying as Yuya's coat cape.
• Improbable Age: In a stunning homage to Kaiba, Reiji is the head of a corporation which practically owns Maiami City at just 16, as well as being a pro duelist at the same time. On top of that, he's basically leading the effort to deal with an interdimensional war.
  • This is deconstructed in the Battle Royal mini-arc. While the Battle Royal plan is sound on paper, in reality it runs into problems. Underestimating how long the invasion would go on, he forces the town to stay in the stadium, causing some to question what is going on. His first bunch of Lancers' decks were mismatched, lowering their efficiency as a team, which leads to their defeat. And his attempt to keep the invasion under wraps puts the MCS duelists in danger. All these problems show that while he's intelligent, he's lacking in experience.
• Invincible Hero: The most competent and ruthless among the Kaiba rival homages. Although he lost to Yuya in his first duel it was only because he forfeited the match; he won every other subsequent duel up until he lost to the Greater-Scope Villain, Zarc. Even then, in Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist, he still wins that one too.
• Kick the Dog: Zigzagged. While he has no problems taunting Yuya in their second Duel and insulting Kurosaki as part of his Batman Gambit, he is understandably pissed off that no one in the Synchro Dimension considers losers of the Friendship Cup being enslaved to be a problem
• The Leader: Of the Lancers. Most of them get captured in three days in the Synchro Dimension when he's not around.
• Leitmotif: "DDD", often used as a Theme Music Power-Up when Reiji's about to beat someone down.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: He has shown himself as this to both his mother and Kurosaki. His mother was perfectly okay with using Reira as a weapon while he was disturbed and was okay with Reira gaining a will. Kurosaki has shown no regret towards his carding of others and if presented with the opportunity, would card again, while Reiji disabled Kurosaki's Duel Disk's ability to do so.
• Long-Lost Relative: Ray is his half-sister.
• The Magic Poker Equation: Reiji's deck usually averts this trope, as many of his cards allow him to tutor from his deck (add specific cards from deck to hand) or draw several cards, which is standard in the current Yu-Gi-Oh! meta. It's only when he draws three of the same 3000 ATK monster and Pendulum Summons them that his draws look a little more than convenient. Fortunately, this has only happened once in his four duels.
• The Man Behind the Man: It's quite clear that he's the one pulling Sawatari's strings.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Oh yeah, Reiji will do almost anything to keep his dimension safe, no matter what others may think.
  • He purposefully chooses a particular Action Field, Future Metropolis Heartland, to watch Kurosaki's reaction to it. And when Kurosaki does react he casually jokes that "He seems to have taken a liking".
  • In his second duel with Yuya, he mocks and angers Yuya for two reasons: to prove to Yuya that he lacks the strength to save Yuzu, forcing him to join the Lancers, and to learn more about Yuya's powers, including his Superpowered Evil Side. He even outright lies to Yuya when he asks if Yuzu is in danger, saying that she is despite fully knowing that she's not.
  • In his Tag Duel event in Duel Links, he'll praise the player for their skills before wishing them well, before it cuts to him afterwards evaluating their prowess, indicating that he was secretly evaluating them for the Lancers.
• Master of All: His deck is based around performing every kind of summoning. So far he's displayed Fusion, Synchro and Xyz, and the elemental theme of his monsters makes it possible he's also got an EARTH Ritual monster we haven't seen yet. Not to mention his Pendulum Monsters.
• Momma's Boy: Seeing Himika upset over Leo's abandonment was what motivated him to confront his father in the Fusion Dimension three years before the start of the series.
• Mr. Exposition: Reiji tends to be this in general, but especially in episode 117, Reiji finally tells the others how he met Serena, and explains the Revival Zero plan in detail, and how he believes it to involve the Four Dragon Users and Four Bracelet Girls.
• My God, What Have I Done?: During his duel with Reira he feels that he has turned his little brother into a monster, which, being a pretty terrible thing to say about Reira, made him realize he still treated Reira like a tool, only being more compassionate than Himika.
• Noble Demon: His DD deck contains Fiend-type monsters, but Reiji is the leader of the heroes and has noble goals.
• Not So Stoic: His Big "SHUT UP!" moment. He exploded. Again in Episode 13, where he performs an Evil Laugh and while his face is covered by his hand, his eyes look crazy. His backstory reveals that he wasn't stoic three years ago.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In a flashback in Episode 86, Reiji takes on every single Security guard holding him and the Council hostage, simultaneously. He beats all of them.
• One-Hit Kill: Of course, The Ace of the Lancers, Reiji is also capable of this. He defeats the Arc Villain Roget in one turn. Furthermore, even after it is revealed that Roget can re-join the duel everytime after losing thanks to his hologram clones, Reiji simply uses an infinite loop combo that defeats every hologram during its Draw Phase.
• Out of Focus: In Season 2. While everyone else is running around the Synchro Dimension dueling and getting Character Development, Reiji has spent most of the season talking to the Executive Council in their chambers, watching the others duel, and very rarely taking some action to further his unrevealed overarcing plans. He does duel the Arc Villain in the end of the season, though.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. His disguise using a hooded sweatshirt is probably more to avert suspicion, as the people he's hiding from don't even know about him.
• Parental Neglect: Not his mother, but he seriously doubts his father, Leo Akaba, values him enough for him to be useful as a hostage.
  • Parental Abandonment: Leo abandoned his family when he got back his memories of the United World all to chase the idea to bring Ray back and the emotional toll this had on both Reiji and his mother is not softened in the slightest.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • Humiliates Roget by breaking his "Eternal Duel" loop in Episode 99.
  • In Episode 128, Reiji tells Leo that once he and Yuya win the Duel, he'll save Yuya by attempting to kill Zarc later.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While Reiji is morally ambiguous, at least he's a Benevolent Boss who has complete faith in Yuya and the Lancers because he knows that they're the ones who will beat the crap out of Security and Academia.
  • Despite his cold exterior, he has shown multiple times that he both trusts and cares about Reira, even if they aren't blood related.
  • When he's asked by Leo to kill Yuya, he tells Leo that Yuya is not an Omnicidal Maniac like Zarc. He even calls Yuya his "comrade", going so far as to declare that he'll get rid of Zarc to save Yuya later.
  • In Duel Links, when meeting Yugo, he promises without any expectation of compensation to protect Rin should she also come to the game.
• Playing Card Motifs: Has a motif based around the Diamond suit. Shown with his monster archetype being DD, wearing a pair of black diamond studded earrings, and the symbol of the Lancers that he formed and lead is shaped like a diamond. Flashbacks to him as a child show him wearing a sweater with diamond patterns on it.
• Power of Trust:
  • Tells the Executive Council that he trusts Yuya because the latter won't be fooled by the likes of Roget. He is right.
  • In Episode 96, Reiji reassures Yuya that Reira can handle the Security despite his current condition. He is right again.
• Princely Young Man: Rich? Check. Heir to a big corporation? Check. Seen as one of the elite and treated with respect? Check. Instant Fanclub? They're apparently enough to fill a full section of the stadium. In a twist even though he's based off Kaiba, and like him he's of the Ice King variety of this trope and the vibe he initially gives, he's not actually a Jerkass, not even shallowly, he's always polite and respectful to others, and as time goes by, his personality is shown to be far less abbrasive and hiding more gentleness than initially showed.
  • Even his Family Theme Naming could be taken as a poke to this trope, since like his father's name, Leo, has the kanjis that translate to "Zero King", his name has kanji that could translate to "Zero Prince" (or child).
• Pun: The kanji in DDD Hell Armageddon's name that makes the "Great Death Lord" part is read as "shi-i-ou," which sounds a lot like "CEO," Reiji's position in the Leo Corporation.
  • DDD Abyss Ragnarok has a similar pun, with the kanji 壊薙王 (destroy, mow down, and king, respectively) being read as "kai-chi-ou," which sounds similar to "kaichou," or "chairman."
• Punch Catch: Counters Yuya's sucker punch with this before admonishing him that a Duelist should resolve their issues with their cards instead of their fists.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Berates the Exective Council for their Dirty Coward attitude, telling them that those who prefer being neutral and sitting on their asses have no right to talk about the future.
  • Gives one to his father upon learning of his true intentions to use the life energy of those who have been carded and unite the dimensions to resurrect his daughter. Correctly pointing out that he's no better than Z-Arc who destroyed the Original Dimension and if he had just let Yuya, Yuzu, and their counterparts live their lives in peace as they were doing beforehand than the problem of Z-Arc being resurrected wouldn't have arisen in the first place.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. While his Duel Disk is red and black, Reiji is morally ambiguous at worst.
• The Rival: To Yuya, despite being a Broken Pedestal to the latter.
• Saying Too Much: Motivating Yuya to get back at Yuri turned out to be a big mistake, as it fuels the revival of Zarc, who takes over Yuya and absorbs a defeated Yuri to become one once more.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Instead of having a Badass Longcoat that defies gravity and has a Dramatic Wind, Reiji has a scarf that does and has all of that. His scarf is more badass when you learn that he's been a duelist with the potential needed to be a pro since he was 15, owns the famous Leo Duel School at 16 and he specializes in all types of summoning.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Sometimes. Usually when he's doing something morally ambiguous.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: He created a Purposely Overpowered archetype from scratch, assembled a paramilitary force of duelists, and staged an interdimensional exodus to defeat his father; Which he fails to do and some very crucial actions on his part wind up making things worse, culminating in him being overshadowed by Leo's favoured child who ultimately saves the day.
• She Is the King: His Fusion Monster "DDD Oracle King d'Arc" is quite obviously based on the very female Joan of Arc.
• Shout-Out: He's a Crazy-Prepared billionaire with a deck filled with demonic conquerors and various technology in his arsenal whose enemy is a clown (Yuya). Are we talking about Batman and Calypso?
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • His response to Roget's offer and cowardice.
  • His response to the Professor asking for his help in killing Yuya to save the worlds is telling the Professor that Yuya has spent his time trying to make every dimension a better place and the Professor is the bigger danger to the four dimensions.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: His attitude towards Yuya's kindness.
• Slasher Smile: He shows off a pretty nasty one in Episode 51 when Yuya summons Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon.
• The Smart Guy: While the Leader of the Lancers, he is also The Strategist and the most intelligent member.
• Smug Smiler: A lot of the smiles he shows in Episode 50 are this. And again when he rejects Roget's offer to rule City together.
• The Stoic: He's usually calm and collected and rarely shows emotions.
• Strong and Skilled: His DD and DDD are capable of being played in many ways, from pure beatdown to control to everywhere in between.
• Supporting Leader: He is the leader of the Lancers and the tritagonist, so he is definitively this.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Reiji is a gentle and good-hearted person underneath his no-nonsense and stoic nature.
• Theme Naming:
  • Reiji's first set of DDD monsters are named after famous conquerors: Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan (by his birth name, Temujin), as well as Kaiser the Conqueror in the manga.^note Unlike the others, though, this one is pretty vague, as there have been many people with the title of "Kaiser". Common guesses as to who this card is modeled after are Charlemagne, the first ruler of the Carolingian Empire, or Otto I, creator and first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. After he masters Pendulum Summoning, his new ones are named after the end of the world scenarios in various religions (Christianity's Armageddon, Norse's Ragnarok, and Hinduism's Kali Yuga).
  • His high-Level DDD Pendulums have titles that are phonetic puns on corporate titles. Shiiou for CEO, Kaichiou for Kaichou (chairman), and Chaos Apocalypse has Kyokuchiou for Kyokucho (bureau director).
  • In the manga, the two Pendulum Monsters he uses for Pendulum Summoning are both "Proud" monsters. In the anime, they are named after astronomers; Galilei and Kepler.
  • His other monsters are named after demons, like Cerberus, Lilith, Baphomet, and Pandora. ^note In some versions, Pandora became a demon after releasing the horrors of the box.
• Took a Level in Badass: Since Reiji was already very skilled since the beginning and he barely duels, he barely grows, but you can see that he has become slightly better at performing different Special Summoning methods at once, but that's very subtle.
  • In his first duel, he Synchro and Xyz Summons in one turn.
  • In his second duel, he combines Pendulum Summoning with Xyz Summoning.
  • In his third duel, he Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Summons in one turn, as well as combining Pendulum and Fusion Summoning and Pendulum and Xyz Summoning in different turns.
  • In his fourth duel, he combines Pendulum Summoning with Fusion and Synchro Summoning in his first turn.
  • In his fifth duel, he combines Pendulum Summoning with Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Summon in one turn.
  • Later on when he faces Zarc, he summons Executive versions of Caesar, Temujin, and Alexander.
  • In his final duel with Yuya, he summons Fusion, Synchro and Xyz versions of Hell Armageddon, which are also Pendulum Monsters, in one turn.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After Yuya calls out for his treatment of Reira during the Synchro arc, and with Reira becoming more outspoken about their wants, Reiji softens up and displays more care for his comrades. He also becomes less morally suspect. Considering how much he's shown to respect Yuya after this, it's likely that Reiji took Yuya's words to heart.
• Tranquil Fury: He's visibly angry when the Executive Council insults Yuya and none of the Synchro Dimension cares about what happens to the losers of the Friendship Cup.
• Tritagonist: After Yuya and Yuzu, he gets the most focus as he tries to builds a defense against the Fusion Dimension. Reiji is also the main character Roget has to struggle with and the only one who plans to confront the Professor.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Downplayed. He's 16, but honestly, his mindset is far more like a hardened veteran than a teenager. He has shown a shocking amount of ruthlessness in his quest to defend his hometown.
• The Ugly Guy's Handsome Son: Reiji really took after his mom if you compare him with his dad.
• The Unreveal: We still don't know what Reiji's last card was in his duel with Yuya. In Episode 21, he's seen testing his cards, using the same hand from that time, and just when he's about to use the same last card, he's called out of the test for an news update.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Episode 41 showed him as a nice guy three years ago who would willingly rescue a girl he didn't know. In the present, while he still has good intentions, he is a rather gray character.
• The Watcher: After his duel with Yuya he has done little in the way of getting directly involved with the plot. Mostly observing Duels from his private room and having Nakajima run errands for him, such as giving Kurosaki a Pendulum Card and having him take Yuto's Duel Disk. This is justified since he's running the tournament and creating an army to defend against the Fusion Dimension. He's finally got another duel as of episode 40 with Barrett from Academia and another one against Yuya in Episode 50. He returns to this role during the Friendship Cup until its final moments.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As stated in Anti-Hero, he just wants to protect his dimension but he has done some really dark things in his quest.
• When He Smiles: Lets out one of these after Reira hugs him in Episode 95.
• Wise Beyond His Years: Much like Kaiba, he's a teenager who already has the wealth and influence of a major corporation, just without the obsession.
• The Worf Effect: While he doesn't lose the duel, all of his combos don't work on the Professor. In fact, it is only Yuya/Zarc who (almost) defeats the Professor, while Reiji doesn't contribute anything for the (almost) victory. This makes sense, as Reiji barely evolved throughout the series.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Yuya one and doesn't even consider that he is the perpetrator attacking LDS students.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Zig-zagged. Reiji is right that he's in a Darker and Edgier anime but he's not savvy enough to know that it's a Psychological Horror story instead of a Genius Thriller Seinen anime.
• Younger Than They Look: For a 16 year-old, he appears more like 18 or 19. The demeanor and voice might have something to do with it.

Noboru Gongenzaka (Gong Strong)

Noboru Gongaenzaka (Gong Strong)

Voiced by: Yohei Obayashi (JP), Billy Bob Thompson (EN)

One of Yuya's friends; he isn't actually a You Show student due to being the heir to his family's dojo, but tends to hang around there a lot. He's an advocate of a method of Dueling he calls "Steadfast Dueling", which is taught by his family's dojo; basically the exact opposite of Action Dueling, it discourages unnecessary movement (and thus the use of Action Cards).

Gongenzaka uses a Superheavy Samurai deck with no Spell or Trap cards at all, and many of his monster effects can only be activated when he has no Spells or Traps in his Graveyard. Superheavy Samurai can also attack while in defense position, using their DEF points for damage calculation. Under the tutelage of Yaiba, Gongenzaka adds Tuner and Synchro monsters to his deck to evolve his playstyle. As a member of the Lancers, he adds the Superheavy General sub-archetype of Pendulum Monsters to his deck. His ace monster is Superheavy Samurai Big Benkai.

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• Acrofatic: Well, he's more big than fat, but the sizeable guy goes on morning runs. Episode 30 shows that he's actually pretty muscular.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sora calls him "Gon-chan", but Gongenzaka does not like it.
  • Dennis later picks it up as well, crossing into Terms of Endangerment since Dennis is The Mole.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs Yaiba to teach him about Synchro summoning, with his face on the ground, in Episode 21. He actually references this trope in Episode 26, saying that if he can learn, he doesn't care if he has to beg.
• Badass Back: In his duel against Ankokuji, he goes into the arena and gives him the back in order to show his dislike for him as well as to show his new black belt. And damn, he looked badass.
• Batman Grabs a Gun:
  • In episode 120, in order to prevent Yuya from being defeated by the Battle Beast, he picks up and activates an Action Card, even though doing so completely ruins his deck, which relies entirely on having no spells or traps in the grave.
  • In episode 143, in order to help strengthen Yuya's resolve, he starts grabbing them like everyone else thanks to his new synchro monster letting him banish them from his grave.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's really a nice and easy-going guy, but get on his bad side or face him in a duel, and he'll show you what Steadfast Dueling is really about.
• The Big Guy: He is very definitely one of the bigger characters. His deck also runs a Stone Wall strategy.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Has very bushy eyebrows like Might Guy.
• Blindfolded Vision: Wears his bandana over his eyes in order to defeat Yuzo Tanegashima, who was camouflaged with the scenery.
• Blush Sticker: The manly Gongenzaka always has some blush on his cheeks, and it does not detract from said manliness one bit.
• Bully Hunter: He protected Yuya when they were younger, from those who wanted to beat him up for being a coward's son.
• Catchphrase:
  • "Unforgivable, this is unforgivable, [person name]!"
  • Also some variation of "I, the manly Gongenzaka..."
• Charles Atlas Superpower: As a result of his Steadfast Training, Gongenzaka is a very physically strong individual. He can endure attacks from Real Solid Vision monsters often without losing his balance, can stand still while holding very heavy boulders, do karate chops strong enough to destroy a Real Solid vision spike, and when he draws in his Draw Phase, he does with so much strength that he releases a strong force of wind. He is strong enough to punch a hole into a wall of concrete without injury.
• Childhood Friends: With Yuya and Yuzu.
• Color Failure: After Sora refers to him as an outsider.
• Cool Train: His strongest synchro monster, Superheavy Samurai Steam Fiend Tetsudo'o, is a demonic train that lets Gongenzaka take full advantage of action cards while still keeping his grave empty of spells and traps.
• Determinator: He never gives up, believing in his deck to the end. And if he gets hit by an attack, he'll keep himself on his feet and get pushed backwards, unless it wipes him out. He karate-chopped through Battleguard Mad Shaman's spike without flinching. He also saves Yuya by holding up a stone pillar twice his size with no injury. Granted, it was Solid Vision, but still dangerous. Also, he fought his way halfway to Kurosaki's solitary confinement cell armed only with his (metal) geta.
• Does Not Like Magic: He doesn't have any Spell or Trap Cards in his Stone Wall deck and just relies on his monster effects. This proves to be more awesome than people give it credit for; most of his monster effects require a Graveyard free of Spells and Traps to work. This is the other reason why he never uses Action Cards. He does however gain Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo, whose ability allows him to activate magic cards from his opponent's graveyard. He later gains Superheavy Samurai Steam Fiend Tetsudo'o, whose ability allows him to banish the Spells and Traps in his graveyard, allowing him to use them without hampering his strategy.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He doesn't want Yuya pitying him for fighting him, and inverted, because he feels the pity he held for Yuya after his dad went missing also made him weaker.
• Dub Name Change: Gong Strong.
• Elvis Impersonator: Talks like one in the dub version, likely due to his hairstyle. Ironically, as a "steadfast" duelist who tries to stay in one place as much as possible during Action Duels, he's not like Elvis at all.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: His deck's motif.
• Foil:
  • He's one to Yuya. They are both heirs to their schools with unusual decks, Yuya having a Pendulum deck and Gongenzaka uses a deck without Spells or Traps. Yuya is a Stepford Smiler, while Gongenzaka is very open about his emotions. Even their dueling styles are the exact opposite, Yuya runs about using Action Cards compared to the steady Gongenzaka that refuses to budge.
  • On the Lancers he and Sawatari are foils. Gongenzaka is steadfast and loyal friend that has willing let stepped out of the limelight to protect them while Sawatari is an egoistical glory hound who can't stand anyone badmouthing him. Gongenzaka understands the emotional effects of being a child soldier while Sawatari was giddy at being a Lancer. Gongenzaka is loyal to his dueling style while Sawatari has changed his decks after each lost.
• Foreshadowing: Since the beginning of the Junior Youth Championship's qualification mini arc, Nico has been bringing Gongenzaka's training up for some reason, because Gongenzaka is Yuya's last opponent for the qualifier.
• Fundoshi: Wears one while training under a waterfall.
• Gag Nose: Downplayed; it stands out from the other characters' because it's pink, but it's normal sized.
• Gentle Giant: He can be a bit stuffy, but he's a pretty nice guy.
• Good Is Not Soft: One of the nicest, most morally upright characters on the show, and he's proven himself perfectly capable of kicking lots of ass.
• Graceful Loser: He didn't really mind losing to Yuya and was simply happy to force Yuya to pass his limits. And again when he is defeated by Crow.
• Heel: When Dennis entertains the City citizens, he tries to put Gongenzaka into this role, but Gongenzaka reverses the roles.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Downplayed, Gongenzaka is easily angered or antagonized, but he's rather loud in general.
• Heir to the Dojo: And heir of said dojo's Dueling style that he uses with pride.
• Heroic Sacrifice: During his and Yuya's duel with BB, he uses an Action Card to save Yuya, making his deck useless. He likely would have lost anyway, but it keeps Yuya in the game.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Him and Yuya. They know what the other thinks without talking.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • After he and Yuzu's tag duel against Olga and Halil, he refuses to take any of the Pendulum cards they won except for the one he bet, because his Life Points technically hit 0 and it was Yuzu who won.
  • When he and Dennis wind up in the Synchro Dimension together, he angrily berates Dennis for not immediately looking for Yuya and the others and instead trying to raise money and gather information, even when Dennis rightfully points out how important this is.
• Hot-Blooded: Odd example; he's a very staunch and enthusiastic proponent of his own family's Steadfast Dueling style, which means that he doesn't care for the other Hot-Blooded characters running around during Action Duels, as "real men don't make unnecessary movements." While he can be very emotional, Gongenzaka is one of the most level-headed characters and tries to keep the others in line when they are acting unreasonably.
• It's Personal: Against Ankokuji for bullying Yuya as a child and dissenting against the dojo.
• Large Ham: The manly Gongenzaka is most definitely this.
• Last-Name Basis: His family name is used to refer to him both when he references himself and by all his friends. His father is the only person who calls him by his first name.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: The manly Gongenzaka values honor and mutual respect in duels.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Had no idea that there was much going on until Sora dueled Kurosaki. After that, the resulting infodump and conflicting evidence (a result of this trope) quickly frustrates him. Yuya fills him in on the plot in Episode 46.
• Made of Iron: Suffers no serious injury from a pillar falling on him.
• Manly Man: Let’s see: A hot blooded young man studying martial arts and heir to his family dojo. He presents himself as a fearless samurai and is not afraid to use his fists. He’s strong and skilled enough to not only withstand heavy attacks but somehow karate chop the horn off a hologram monster. Suffice to say he’s the manliest duelist around.
• Manly Tears: The manly Gongenzaka is prone to crying when he's overflowing with happiness. Especially when Yuya wakes up from his Convenient Coma in episode 38.
• Martial Arts Headband: Wears a red one around his head, though it might be his sash from childhood.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: His Superheavy Samurais are all Machine-Types.
• Mythology Gag: He evolves his Steadfast Duel (Fudo no Dyueru) with Synchro Summoning. Yusei Fudo was the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, which had major themes regarding evolution, although it's a bit ironic since Synchro Monsters were associated with D-Wheels and speed (especially with Accel Synchro), but Gongenzaka's dueling style involves standing still.
  • He ends up on a D-Wheel anyway.
  • This is extended in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special, where his voice tracks includes the summon chants of Road Warrior and Formula Synchron, including calling them by their names.
  • His deck of all monsters brings Jonouchi's first deck to mind, where he was chided for only packing it with monsters. Here Gongenzaka's deck actually works like this.
• Nice Guy: The manly Gongenzaka is loyal to his friends and respectful to everyone.
• Ninja: Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi and Superheavy Samurai Ninja Shinobiashi, which fits in how Ninjas and Samurai could be one in the same.
• No Indoor Voice: He's loud most of the time.
• Not So Above It All: He and Dennis end up together in Synchro dimension, and Dennis puts on shows to try to locate Yuya and the others. When Dennis tries to get him to duel, he indignantly refuses to be the Heel, and gets very worked up about it, despite telling Dennis off for doing so minutes earlier. Later he also gets mad at Dennis for using Yuya's Catchphrase.
  • He also puts Sawatari in a choke hold for being annoying.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction to Yuya summoning Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.
• Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement: Fights his way through waves of guards using his bare hands and his (admittedly heavy metal) sandals.
• One Hit Poly Kill: Gongenzaka defeats both Sawatari and Tsukikage in one turn in episode 142
• Only Sane Man: He has to try to balance at Kurosaki's aggression and Dennis's apparent silliness, trying to get them to work together.
• Power of Trust: Tells Yuya to have faith in Sora and Tsukikage because they can surely save Yuzu in Episode 95.
• Punny Name: Many of the Superheavy Samurai have puns involving parts of Japanese words replaced with English letters. However, several of these are Lost in Translation.
• Put on a Bus: Along with Sawatari and Jack, after the duel against BB.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He develops this with Yuya in the second Battle Royal, teaming up with him and defeating Shingo and Tsukikage by himself so he can take Yuya on alone.
• The Reliable One:
  • Called this by both Yuzu and Yuya, for having always helped them out.
  • Deconstructed in Episode 25. Yuya has relied on him since his father's disappearence, so Yuya needs to defeat Gongenzaka in order to stand in his own two feet.
  • Perfectly demonstrated in Episode 43, when he protects Yuzu during their Tag Duel.
  • Shown again in Episode 49, on his turn, he took Sawatari's Pendulum Cards and gave them to Kurosaki, allowing Kurosaki to summon Revolution Falcon and win.
  • He protects Yuya during their duel with BB. Fortunately, Jack shows up before BB can turn him into a card.
  • During the duel with Zarc, Gongenzaka is the only member of the duelists who joined in pairs not to get defeated with his partner; he gets taken out ensuring that Jack can carry on.
• Sixth Ranger: Gongenzaka isn't actually a member of You Show since he's going to inherit his family's dojo, but he hangs around a lot, and takes offense to being called an "outsider" by Sora (who only just transferred to the school himself).
• Team Dad: He's this for the Lancers, trying to keep them on track and from doing stupid things that will hurt them.
  • Creates Ho Yay due to Yuya being the Team Mom.
• Third-Person Person: Not only does he refer to himself by his last name, but adds "the manly" onto the front. This characteristic is retained in the dub, where he simply refers to himself as "Gong".
• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • One of his Catch Phrases is in the form of "Inexcusable! This is inexcusable, (person's name)!"
  • He says this to Sora in Episode 48 about his actions.
• Took a Level in Badass: Asks Yaiba to teach him Synchro Summoning for the purpose of invoking this trope. He finally learned it and shows it in Episode 25.
  • Exaggerated when he becomes the first person to pull off a Pendulum-Synchro Summon, beating both Yuya and Reiji in doing it.
• True Companions: With Yuya and Yuzu. And eventually with the Lancers with a lot of tries.
• Underestimating Badassery: Is the victim of this from both Sora and Yaiba (though maybe "victim" isn't the right word...), but he surprises them with his unique strategy and manages to get a draw. Then he's a victim of it from everyone when he Synchro Summons.
• Undying Loyalty: Without any knowledge of the circumstances, he refuses to believe that Yuya attacked Shingo Sawatari, and encourages the other students to do the same.
  • He's also irritated with Yuzu later for doubting Yuya about that.
  • He shows this to Yuzu to taking the hit for her in their tag match and willing went to back her up in when she was against the Obelisk Force when it was really Serena, not that he knew.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Tag Dueling is this to him. In Tag Duels, both partners have to share the same Life Points, field and Graveyard. Since all other characters use Spell or Trap Cards, they end up going to the Graveyard, which prevents Gongenzaka from activating his monsters' effects.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He gives one to Yuzu for not standing up for Yuya during the LDS vs You Show arc when she met the real attacker, and later for not believing in Yuya.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Despite debuting the first Pendulum-Synchro Summon, he loses to Crow, showing off the power of the Assault Blackwings.
  • He and Sawatari lose to Kaito, who is The Ace of Heartland. Although, Gongenzaka suffered from the Intrusion Penalty first and the last attack he receives is below 4000. It also does not help that Sawatari actually ruins Gongenzaka's first strategy.
• Worf Had the Flu: The third season seems to take a liking of handicapping Gongenzaka by teaming him up with Sawatari.
  • Gongenzaka has to duel with Kaito with only 2000 Life Points, and Sawatari isn't much of a help and actually hinders him.
  • Due to the Tag Dueling rules, Gongenzaka has to share his Life Points, field and Graveyard with his partner, and since Sawatari's deck is reliant on Spell Cards, Gongenzaka is heavily handicapped in a Tag Duel, resulting that he and Sawatari lose off-screen to the Tyler Sisters.
• Worthy Opponent: He sees Yuya as one, and later Crow after the latter gets over his distracting issues.
• Younger Than He Looks: Because of his heavy build, result of training in his family dojo since his early childhood, Gongenzaka looks older than other guys his age.

Shingo Sawatari (Sylvio Sawatari)

Shingo Sawatari (Sylvio Sawatari)

Voiced by: Shogo Yano (JP), Michael Crouch (EN)

An egotistical LID student from the composite course and The Rival to Yuya in the first season. Initially he equates rarity with power, filling his deck with the rarest cards in the game and attempting to steal Yuya's one-of-a-kind Pendulum Summoning monsters for his own use. After meeting Yuya, he is inspired by the "Dueltaining" style and begins to incorporate showmanship into his duels, becoming a better person for it.

He frequently changes decks throughout the first season. His first one is a Darts Shooter deck; his second is a WATER Monarch deck implicitly designed to counter Yuya's Pendulum cards; his third is a Yosenju deck; his fourth and final is an Abyss Actor deck, whose ace is Abyss Actor Superstar. His Abyss Actor deck utilizes Abyss Script cards to power up his monsters, and later incorporates measures to counter Extra Deck summoning.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed in the dub, where Sawatari as a Jerkass, is instead of being brash and rude, he has a posh and polite manner due to being a rich boy.
• Advertised Extra: He's introduced as one of the main rivals of Yuya and is prominently shown in the first opening and promotional materials, indicating that he's a main character. However, he rarely shows up and he is quickly forgotten for most of the time. He finally returns as a main character at the climax of the Battle Royale and he still appears from there, being one of the nine Lancers.
• Ambiguous Situation: At the end of episode 118, we hear him scream, implying that he was carded by BB. The next episode revealed that he actually fell of the edge of the arena onto a ledge.
• Ambulance Cut: Inverted. After being stated to be in great pain by his friends, we cut to Sawatari happily chowing down on melons in his hospital bed.
• Anti-Magic: Mobius and Mega Mobius are able to destroy Spell and Trap cards. Since Pendulum Monsters are recognized as Spell cards, it's likely he made his new deck with the purpose of destroying them as well.
• Ascended Extra: He's one of the five ARC-V main characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special, probably as a nod to his early status in the series. Sawatari basically took Reiji's spot, of all people.
• Attack Backfire: His duel with Yuto. The latter starts off by setting five Spell/Trap Cards. Sawatari takes the bait and, using a new Deck he made, sends all of them to the Graveyard. This allows Yuto to win the duel, via Spell Cards with effects that activate from the Graveyard.
• Attention Whore: He loved having the crowd cheering his name in his rematch with Yuya, and when he got the spotlight of Pendulum Summoning. And he got over his loss against Yugo the moment when people started chanting his name.
  • However, this trait is one of his biggest flaws, as Sawatari needs to be in the spotlight to satisfy his ego. Anyone else he perceives to be "stealing" his spotlight, he blows a casket.
• Bait the Dog: He lied, he still blames Yuya for Yuto's actions, until he's defeated by Yuya a second time.
• Blatant Lies: A lot of his bragging crosses into this. One example is him stating he was undefeated in Standard and Yuya is his student. Another example is stating himself as leader of the Lancers in Episode 70 when he's angry about not being chosen to duel next.
• Big Damn Heroes: He rushes in to save Tsukikage in the Battle Royale.
• Bishie Sparkle: In episode 15, while handing a napkin to Yuzu. Just look at him.◊
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tricks Yuya into letting him see the Pendulum Cards, and then steals them by pretending to be his friend.
• Blow You Away: His Yosenju monsters are all WIND monsters.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: He is the boke to everyone, notably to Yuya and Gongenzaka. Especially Gongenzaka.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: In his MCS duel against Yuya, Sawatari performs a counter that manages to put him into a corner. All proud of managing to leave the audience speechless for putting Pendulum summon against the wall, Sawatari shouts "The fun has just started!". Ayu then says that's one of Yuya's lines.
• Butt-Monkey: Sawatari has lost most of his on-screen duels despite painting himself as a great duelist^note He only wins when he's on a team, and even then that's not a guarantee.. Whenever he tries to brag, people either don't listen to him, cut him off, or chew him out for his small talk being used to cover his incompetence whilst acting like a brat for losing. Even his loyal friends notice this sometimes. He, however, does get to be a Lancer. But even then, the first thing that happened to him was losing in an OTK and getting arrested. Heck, despite interacting with Crow's orphaned kids for a while, Sawatari doesn't register so much as a blip in their memories and they dismiss him pretty easily.
• Can't Catch Up: While the Lancers that aren't Yuya, Reiji, Kurosaki, or Serena, tend to lag behind the powerhouses, Sawatari gets hit by this the most. Despite having the decent Underworld Troupe and getting better in each duel, he cannot stop losing to everyone and can't get close to Yuya's skill, having been close to his skill at the series start.
• Casting a Shadow: The Abyss Actor monsters are all DARK monsters.
• Catchphrase: "I'll put you (all) in your place!" and "Oh Yes!"
• Character Development:
  • Noticeable in the second duel with Yuya, he starts as an Attention Whore for the crowds attention, but has so much fun that he prompts Yuya to wow the crowd as well. Finally he takes his loss gracefully, and tells Yuya he'll duel him anytime. This is shown again in the Synchro Dimension Arc when Sawatari engages in an Entertainment duel with Yuya and Tokumatsu and his camaraderie with Yugo in their duel.
  • However, this trope hasn't taken full effect due to Sawatari's flaws holding him back, namely his need for attention and tendency to take credit for actions he hasn't done. Later an annoying trend has started during the Synchro Dimension saga where whenever someone does anything to offend him, Sawatari bitches about it and threatens to tell his dad, the Mayor, on the culprit. What he fails to realize is that 1) his father isn't in the dimension, 2) his dad is not officially the "Mayor", 3) even if he was there, given Mr. Sawatari's personality, no one would take him seriously.
  • It doesn't help his character further in the Xyz Dimension saga when he's willing to "card" unconscious Academia duelists as they lay defeated on the ground, immediately picks a fight with Kaito instead of reasoning with him, refers to Yuya and Gongenzaka as his "henchman" and doesn't read the mood between himself and his fellow Lancers, unlike Yuya and Gongenzaka, who were able to pick up on each other's thoughts perfectly.
• Circus of Fear: His deck during the Synchro Dimension saga, the Abyss Actor deck, is one, though it isn't evil since he is fully good while using it.
• Composite Character: Like Reiji, he takes cues from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! characters.
  • Of pre-Character Development Manjoume. Both Duelists are arrogant and believe that strong and rare cards can win Duels. They swore revenge on the main protagonists of their respective series after being defeated by them. Both were at one point also accompanied by a few toadies. Both lost in episode 4 of their respective series to the respective protagonists by cards they considered weak. They also both almost completely altered their decks with stronger cards the next time they dueled, only to also both lose these next said duels in turn. He also uses nothing but Parallel Rare cards (not counting his Yosenju cards), similar to Manjoume's brothers. He and Manjoume use new decks with WIND-attributed ace monsters (Mayosenju Daibakaze and Armed Dragon LV7, respectively) during their rematch with their rival, however, they lose to them, but they take their defeat better.
    • His Yosenju ace monster Mayosenju Daibakaze is not only a WIND monster, but has also 3000 ATK like Manjoume's Armed Dragon LV10. They also share the same Level.
    • His crush on Serena first displayed in Ending 4 brings another level of Manjoume.
    • He and Manjoume also share the distinction of changing their decks the most throughout the series as compared to most other characters who stick with one deck. Sawatari went through 4 decks, while Manjoume went through 5, although one of these was only while he was possessed.
  • Seems to also share some characteristics of Jounouchi. Both are hotheaded idiots, who are underestimated by a lot of characters in the show. Also started the series as a bully of the main character and eventually became a friend, though this was pre-Duel Monsters for Jou. Season 2 onward tends to focus on these traits.
  • During his first appearance, he acts like a friendly guy just to steal Yuya's two Pendulum Magician cards and then he puts Yuya's friends in danger. Rather evocative of Kaiba from the manga, though again pre-Duelist Kingdom.
  • And his appearance looks very similar to Mamoru Jinguji/Carlyle Chesterton, one of the CXyz users from ZEXAL.
  • And in a Non-Yu-Gi-Oh! example, his tendency to lose duels while claiming to be a great duelist makes him similar to Katsumi Morikawa. He's also similar to Shingo Komoi, as both their names are the same, they often underestimate their opponents, and when they lose their duels, they tend to change decks.
• Cool Board: He rides his Lightning Board in his first Action Duel with Yuya.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a hell of a showboat and not the brightest bulb in the shed, but when he needs to fight, he fights. He's strong enough to push Yugo into a corner with Abyss Actors. He's still one of the most incompetent Lancers, but on a team full of Badasses, that's not saying much. He's notably one of the few Lancers to make Zarc sweat by coming close to wiping out his ace monster with a destruction effect he couldn't respond to.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After a bit of Character Development, he comes back with a DARK Fiend-Type deck, the Abyss Actors.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Well, kinda. Whether he actually had any plans after playing up his injuries from his duel with Yuto isn't disclosed.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He calls out Zarc on his aggressive dueling style and cowering defense of hiding behind overpowered monsters when he and Crow are dueling Zarc. When Zarc claims that destroying everything is his own form of entertainment Sawatari tells him that it isn't entertainment at all, comparing it to the real entertainment Yuya always showed when he dueled. Sawtari's remarks and insults to Zarc were shown to get under Zarc's skin.
• Discard and Draw: He seems to have the tendency to replace his Deck anytime he loses with it. It happened against his will with the Yosenjus due to Reiji recalling them, so he ends up with an Abyss Actor Pendulum deck.
• Diving Save: Dives to save Crow's card after BB carded him and tries to stomp on the card.
• Expy: He's a rich, snobbish kid and a rival to the protagonist, and as such, can be seen as an Expy of Manjyome Jun from GX.
• Fatal Flaw: Let's just say that being an Attention Whore and a Glory Hound makes him The Load.
  • Another is that is he is a bit too quick to combative actions.
• Flung Clothing: In Episode 31, he flings away his samurai outfit to reveal his regular uniform underneath. Amusingly, he even has his shoes, even though he was wearing sandals just seconds before.
• Foil: On the Lancers, he and Gongenzaka are foils. Sawatari is an egotistical glory hound that can't stand anyone badmouthing him while Gongenzaka is a steadfast and loyal friend that has willingly stepped out of the limelight to protect them. Gongenzaka understands the emotional effects of being a child soldier while Sawatari was giddy at being a Lancer. Gongenzaka is loyal to his dueling style while Sawatari has changed his decks after each loss. Gongenzaka realizes the folly of challenging opponents to duels for no good reason and keeps his cool whereas Sawatari loses his composure at the drop of a hat and recklessly jumps into avoidable situations.
• Follow the Leader: After seeing how powerful they are, Sawatari tries to emulate Yuya and Reiji's powerful Pendulum decks. First with Yosenjus and then, most blatantly, with Abyss Actors, which are a set of Dark Fiend Monsters that utilise powerful Spells/Traps like the Dark Contract archetype and have colourful carnival appearances like the Perfomapals. Unlike either of his fellow Lancers, Sawatari never uses the Extra Deck for anything other than Pendulum Summoning.
• Foreshadowing: In episode 15, he tells Yuya that other people will perform Pendulum Summons as well, foreshadowing that he will be using Pendulum Monster as well. Not only is this confirmed when he and Yuya have their rematch, he with his lackeys were the narrators for the OCG Special Pack Tribe Force which introduced the Yosenju archetype, which was a much bigger foreshadowing.
• Forgetful Jones: Manages to forget important facts, the foremost that Sora was a Fusion User, despite having been suspicious of him earlier.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Given Sawatari's personality, he is this to everyone he interacts to, with the exception of his dad. His three "best friends" are more like minions if anything, given that they grudgingly follow his orders and even call out Sawatari's hypocrisy at times. As part of the Lancers, the rest of the group either ignore him (Serena, Kurosaki, and Reira), tolerate him (Yuya, Reiji, and Tsukikage), humors him (Dennis) or outright puts him in his place (Gongenzaka). At one point, the thought of being in Sawatari's care is enough to make Reira scream in terror.
  • Ironically he has a few Synchro Dimension people come to like him, such as Crow, Tokumatsu and Yugo. However, they're not around enough to enforce this and Sawatari generally goes back into being this trope, especially after getting sent to the Xyz Dimension with Yuya, Gongenzaka and Kurosaki.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Wields one while escaping prison, eventually losing it when he uses it as a projectile.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-Universe. Despite losing his first duel there, Sawatari is actually liked in the City.
• Glory Hound: In episode 61 he states the only reason he duels is to get compliments.
• Gone Horribly Right: After Kaito arrives and seals three Academia Students in cards on the spot, Sawatari has no idea how horribly right he was about carding them.
• Got Me Doing It: After being defeated by Yuya, Sawatari seems to have adopted some of his hamminess; even as his minions comment on it, he can be heard in the background saying "Ladies and Gentlemen!" while making a bunch of dramatic gestures.
• Graceful Loser: After his second loss to Yuya, he takes it a lot better... sort of. He does it again after his loss to Yugo.
• Gratuitous English: He has a lot of this.
• Gratuitous French: The English dub has him occasionally saying French phrases instead of the above.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He was initially jealous of Yuya being the only person who knew how to Pendulum Summon.
  • Later he gets jealous of anyone upstaging him in a duel or stealing attention away from him.
• Harmless Electrocution: As a result of his Big Damn Heroes moment during the Obelisk Force duel, he was electrocuted by the 2000 Life Points duel penalty.
• Hidden Depths: He's actually a skilled entertainer who enjoys putting on a good show for people.
  • He's never used it on-screen, but a few blink-and-you-miss-it moments ^namely...that he owns a Hungry Burger card and attends LDS' composite course, which teaches Rituals as a minor subject indicate that Sawatari is capable of Ritual Summoning, making him the only known Ritual user in ARC-V besides Mieru.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice.
  • In his Duel against Yuya, he lost due to Yuya using Block Spider, a card Sawatari gave him as an insult.
  • Against Yuto, Sawatari's new Mobius strategy ended up giving his opponent both the materials needed to summon Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and the card that dealt the final batch of damage.
• Hopeless Suitor: In the fourth ending he tries to kiss a sleeping Serena and gets punched in the face for it.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: His Yosenju deck is a Pendulum deck that counters Pendulum Summoning.
• Hypocritical Humor: Chides Allen for speaking informally while using the pronoun Ore-Sama. Gongenzaka promptly puts him in a headlock for this.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Yuzu calls Sawatari a "coward, sore-loser, and second-rate duelist". The last one is what causes Sawatari to react, especially when Yuzu says that he's not even on that level and calls him a "hundredth-rate" duelist.
• An Ice Person: After losing to Yuya, he starts running Monarchs, specifically Mobius the Frost Monarch and its upgraded form. He quickly switched decks soon.
• Idiot Ball: In his first duel with Yuya, it's shown very clearly that Sawatari has a copy of "Breakthrough Skill" in his hand, which would have negated at least one of the effects Yuya used throughout the Duel, particularly at points where Yuya could have lost or where Sawatari could have lost. Pride is Sawatari's Fatal Flaw though, and he's later insulted by Yuto for bad dueling skills.
• Idiot Hero: Subverted. Sawatari frequently messes up and acts stupid, but as seen in his duel with Kaito, he's capable of some very good deductions.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: His dueling skills may be in question, but he is really accurate with darts, able to get all three he threw to stick to Yuya's nose.
• Incoming Ham: Even Yuya is driven to speechlessness when Sawatari shows up spouting Purple Prose for their second duel.
• Insane Troll Logic: When Sawatari learns that Serena isn't Yuzu, he accuses her of being a spy, which would be fine...if she didn't just willingly reveal she was from Academia.
• It's All About Me: Mostly played for laughs. In the Friendship Cup arc he spends most of his appearances complaining about how he's not getting to duel.
• Jerkass: He starts the series as this; his Establishing Character Moment involves stealing Yuya's Pendulum Monsters and then forcing Yuzu and the kids into danger so he can test the cards out. And after he loses, he tries to get his friends to help him steal the cards by force. In the dub, he is more Faux Affably Evil due to his posh and polite manner.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once he develops his entertainer persona and becomes a Lancer, he begins to edge more into this, having genuinely good intentions while still being kind of a jerk. His dueling style also begins to focus less on hogging the spotlight and more on exciting the crowd to either side's benefit.
• Jobber: He loses so often, it's not even a spoiler who he is going to lose. Subverted with BB, where he survives the duel, but has his heart broken by seeing Crow get carded.
• Know When to Fold Them: When faced with the Wild Man BB, he doesn't even try to duel him until forced.
• Large Ham: After Yuya Gets Him Doing It, Sawatari ups his hamminess.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Sawatari was defeated by a card he threw away and called trash.
• Last-Name Basis: With the exception of his father, everyone refers to him as Sawatari; even the Vs screen does, which usually refers most duelists by their first name. When he is referred to as Shingo (Sawatari) during a tournament, it takes him a second to realize he was called.
• Laughably Evil: Not really a villain past his first appearance, but he always remains incredibly fun to watch.
• Leader Wannabe: Though to his credit, he didn't think about it on his own, Tokumatsu puts it into his head so he would stay back and protect Reira.
• The Load: Against Security he doesn't help at all but in fact makes things worse. First he loses off-screen and then tells Security about the Action Cards, allowing them to bring Yuya down to 400 Life Points. Later as he escapes with Kurosaki, Sawatari lets him do all the ass-kicking and tries to claim credit by saying he helped. Kurosaki rightly puts him in his place. During his duel with Kaito, in the span of a few turns, Sawatari shows Kaito how the Action Field, Action Cards, Pendulum Monsters and Pendulum Effects work^note Kaito is able to devise plan based on a dueling style he has seen, thus giving him time to devise a plan to counter it in his duel against Yuya, while at the same time, dueling poorly with Gongenzaka ^note Gongenzaka activates a card that seals everyone's movements so they can attempt to talk with Kaito. Instead, Sawatari activates a Action Magic card that destroys it just to cause superficial damage to Kaito. Though he was unaware it would destroy it, he was unapologetic about it. And Tag Dueling with Gongenzaka actually cripples the latter, due to Sawatari's heavy reliance on Spell Cards, though this was not his fault for once.
• Loose Lips:
  • In episode 52, he reveals the existence of the Lancers before Himika can because people badmouthed him.
  • In episode 56, he tells Security about the Action Cards, allowing them to bring Yuya's Life Points down to 400.
• Made of Iron: During his duel with Kaito, Sawatari flies and crashes into a rock, causing it to break in pieces. He is completely unharmed from the collision.
• Mage Killer: Part of his Abyss Actor Deck, having cards that can lockdown Extra Deck monsters to prevent their use.
• Making a Splash: Sawatari's second deck is a WATER deck focusing on Mobius and Mega Mobius. Aside from them, he runs other WATER support cards.
• Manly Tears: Sawatari completely breaks down when Crow is carded by BB.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Like Dennis, his rushing in a duel was awesome, but him losing 2000 points and his reaction slightly negated the cool of it.
• Never My Fault: He calls Yuya an idiot for letting Security bring down his Life Points to a measly 400 when he used the Action Card that Sawatari just explained to them for no reason.
• Our Demons Are Different: Known as Fiend-type in the TCG, they comprise Sawatari's Abyss Actor deck.
• Out of Focus: He's usually completely out of the picture when he's not dueling. This changes from Season 2, as he's a Lancer.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: While not at Kurosaki's level, in episode 100 after defeating three members of the Academia with Gongenzaka and Yuya, he tries to use their carding mechanism thinking the three of them will be still be dangerous.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Warns Yuya and Yuzu that someone assumed to be either the Dark Duelist or the equally enigmatic Shun Kurosaki had attacked an LDS professor, and doesn't believe Yuya to be responsible anymore.
  • He pets the dog again by being concerned about Yuzu, and reminding Serena they should be looking for her, not dueling a bunch of people.
  • He does it again by encouraging Yuya to show the strength of the Lancers, when Roget selects the latter to duel Jack Atlas in an exhibition match.
  • Due to Tokumatsu's Perilous Old Fool antics during the Commons riot, Sawatari goes to great efforts to keep him from getting killed.
  • Although he does ruin Gongenzaka's first strategy while tagging with him, he uses an equip card to boost the defense of Gongenzaka's monster to help him out, and thank him for keeping them in the game longer.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Among the Lancers, he serves as this by way of being the Butt-Monkey for basically everyone. He is also the least serious character among the Lancers. This is probably the reason why he is with Yuya, Gongenzaka and Kurosaki, all three of them being serious characters, especially the latter two.
• Power Equals Rarity: Firmly believes this. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that he plays nothing but Parallel Rares (a type of rarity where the whole card is shiny). This doesn't actually make them any stronger, so it serves no purpose other than to make his deck a lot more expensive. Just the way he likes it.
• Pragmatic Hero: Sawatari generally remains pragmatic brings up good points even if he is silly and gets dismissed a lot. Such as being the only one to distrust Sora since they just had an issue with Dennis being The Mole and carding the Academia students, even if he was convinced not to.
• Revenge: Wants revenge on Yuya for defeating and humiliating him last time, which leads us to...
  • Revenge Myopia: Since Yuya only beat him because Sawatari stole his cards and put Yuzu and the children in danger. And he still blames Yuya for what Yuto did to him, and Yuya has to remind him that wasn't his fault. Then Sawatari tries to accuse him for attacking his father, only for Yuya to respond that it wasn't him either.
• The Rival: He is Yuya's secondary rival in the first season. Later he becomes somewhat of a friend to Yuya, at worst a Friendly Rival.
• Running Gag: Sawatari complaining that it isn't his turn to duel when the next duel is announced in the Friendship Cup. This goes so far as to even have him complain when he's actually announced for a duel against Yugo; it takes a full five seconds for him to put two and two together.
• Samurai: He wears a samurai-like outfit during his entrance for his second duel with Yuya.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He likes to use his father's status to get what he wants. Incidentally it does work during the Battle Royale, as it gets him out of the arena to go talk to Reiji. Though it does nothing in the Synchro Dimension as no one knows who his father even is; Sawatari himself doesn't realize this simple fact.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Big time. Even after his character development, he's still extremely arrogant and probably doesn't fit his bragging just yet.
• Smug Snake: He images himself the best duelist in the world, but even with his Pendulum deck, he's just a test subject for the Pendulum cards and their counter strategy made by Reiji. Downplayed after his Character Development; he's still arrogant, but he is overall nicer.
• Spell My Name With An S: In episode 59, his first name is spelled as "Singo". His dub name also had this for a while; the German dub revealed it to be Sylvio, but later English reports had it as "Silvio". Official episode summaries and Legacy of the Duelist eventually revealed that it was indeed "Sylvio" in the English dub. The perceived differences caused a bit of trouble on The Other Wiki for a while.
• Stealing the Credit: Sawatari has a penchant for doing this. First he tries to claim that he discovered Pendulum Summoning, saying it belonged in his family for generations, with Gongenzaka telling him to shut up. Later he tries to claim credit for helping Yuya and Kurosaki in their duels with Security, even though he lost right away in the former and didn't do anything in the latter.
• Technically a Smile: His weird smile before his last attack on Yugo, though it may have just been an Off-Model.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He still loses to Yugo and gets sent to the Underground, but the crowd cheers for him despite his loss, enjoying his entertainment duel.
  • He gets his first onscreen victory in episode 96 when he stops Security from interfering with Jack and Yuya's duel. And again in episode 100, when he beats three Academia duelists with Yuya and Gongenzaka.
• Took a Level in Badass: Starting from the Synchro Dimension arc, he gains Abyss Actors, and from then on is shown to actually be a halfway-competent duelist wielding an actually-powerful deck. Both of the duels he gets on-screen after he reveals his new archetype have shown that he is fully capable of hard-countering numerous deck types if the plot didn't dictate that he lose so often.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After his rematch with Yuya, he starts embracing the "performer" life like Yuya does, and later turns the goal of a duel to entertaining the crowd, which is reflected in his Abyss Actor deck. While he's still a Sore Loser, he doesn't mind if the crowd had fun because of him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sweet Milk Apple-Berry Pie with honey. And he chokes at the moment he bites it due to Yuzu showing up to yell at him.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Sawatari with his lackeys was narrating the commercial for the OCG Booster SP: Tribe Force, which introduced the Yosenju. The commercial was first aired at the end of September 2014, while the episode where Sawatari first used the Yosenju cards was aired in 9th November 2014.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Gender flipped. Sawatari is a lot better looking than his father.
• Underestimating Badassery: He looks down on low Level and low ATK monsters and calls them trash, and never seems to consider their effects. Also does this to Yuya and Yuto. He gets over this mentality and ironically almost defeats Yugo with two low-Level monsters after Yugo underestimates them.
• Wicked Weasel: His previous Yosenju deck, the majority of them being based of the Kamaitachi ("Sickle Weasel")^note one of them is even called Kamaitachi, but with a different meaning. The ace monster is Mayosenju Daibakaze, a gigantic weasel creature made of green/turquoise fire and wind. However, he actually becomes nicer while dueling Yuya with it.
• Worf Effect: He never gets a break. You can expect of him losing to anyone who might be a very tough opponent.
  • After giving a hard time to Yuya, he loses very easily to Yuto.
  • He loses to Yugo just to show off the counterparts' ability of to sync with each other.
  • He and Gongenzaka lose to Kaito, The Ace of Heartland and he gives Kaito another reason to duel Yuya.
• Worf Had the Flu: Between episode 107 and 108, Sawatari has to share his field and Graveyard with Gongenzaka, which heavily handicaps the latter and makes him less of a good tag partner, resulting that both of them lose off-screen to the the Tyler Sisters.
• Worthy Opponent: After his second duel with Yuya, he recognizes him as a friendly rival rather than someone to exact revenge upon. And Yugo recognizes him as one in their duel, even lamenting he'll have to send him to the Underground.
• Yōkai: His Yosenju (often translated as "Hermit Yokai") deck is based on the Kamaitachi, the wind-sickle weasels of Japanese mythology.

Reira Akaba (Riley Akaba)

Reira Akaba (Riley Akaba)

Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa (JP), Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (EN)

Reiji's little sister, first introduced in the ARC League as Ayu's first opponent. Reira is quiet to the point of no emotion, but seems to be constantly scared of something. She uses a C/C deck, which revolves around copying the opponent's cards to use them as material for Extra Deck summons, and specializes in multiple types of Special Summonings, like Reiji. As her brother is confident about Reira's skills and power, he makes her one of the Lancers. Her ace is C/C Critical Eye.

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• Badass Adorable: While she's normally a nervous kid, she's a very skilled duelist. One of the few to actually challenge Reiji of all people.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Platonic version, but his actions in Episode 67 were because both Yuya and Shinji were kind to him so he refused to duel Shinji and ran to Yuya for comfort.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: She's a very skilled duelist, at least equal to Yuya and co. according to Reiji. This is marked quite clearly with her first high-stakes duel, where she deals OTKs to three Security guards in the span of a single Attack Phase. She can also easily hold her own in 3-to-1 duels against Elite Mooks; she simply stops being able to because exhaustion and PTSD kick in. In 131 she proves capable of dueling evenly with Reiji himself.
• Body Motifs: Eyes, particularly related to cameras, show up in her summoning chants.
• Broken Bird: The card she used to nullify the effects of Ayu's cards on her side of the field show that she sees the world as a cold, grey place. Later revealed due to her environment where she grew up.
• Camera Fiend: A rather literal example with her deck.
• Character Development:
  • Although she was initially shaky after becoming an Empty Shell, becoming a Yandere towards her brother and wanting Tsukikage to lose. After talking to Jack Atlas, she becomes a better person, wanting to become a brave duelist on her own, apologizes to Tsukikage and encourages Yuya to defeat Jack.
  • Brought to a head during episode 86, where she bravely fights and defeats three Security members to prevent them from taking Serena. Quite different from the cowardly Shrinking Violet she used to be.
• Cosmic Retcon: After the Standard Dimension became the Pendulum Dimension, Reira was brought back a baby girl housing Zarc's soul.
• Creepy Child: Her emotionless behavior can make people uncomfortable around her. She also has her eyes constantly wide open and is always looking at the ground. Taken up to eleven when she's turned into a baby.
• Dark Is Not Evil: CC Critical Eye is DARK, but Reira is a good girl.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Reira isn't actually related to the Akabas, but a child from a country where a war has raged on for decades. She lost any sense of will and identity and learned to copy people perfectly to survive. She was adopted by Himika to be made into a duel soldier against Academia.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She, alongside Ray, defeats and seals off Zarc.
• Ditto Fighter: Her deck consists mostly of Spell Cards that allow her to copy an opponent's monster.
• Dub Name Change: From "Reira" to "Riley".
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Has them almost all the time. After she gets a pep talk from Jack Atlas, these go away with her Character Development.
• Elemental Powers: The Extra Deck monsters she summons depend on the Attribute and Level of the copied monsters she is using as Materials.
• Emotionless Girl: She talks with a dull voice, and when Ayu tried to do the "Action Duel" speech, Reira's lines sounded very depressing. However, she's slowly come out of her shell as part of her Character Development.
• Empty Shell: Reira was this when she was adopted by Himika. She was all alone in a war-torn country, where she lost all her identity and will to survive.
• Expy: Like Haruto, she is the Nervous Wreck younger sibling of the Kaiba Expy, however once her backstory is revealed she has quite a bit in common with Mokuba, due to being adopted and for her forays into Creepy Child.
• Extreme Doormat: Subverted, Himika thought that she would be one. But she has shown she's got a will of her own, from her desire to please and find Reiji to her refusal to duel Shinji. Her interaction with Jack Atlas further instilled confidence within her.
• Family Eye Resemblance: She has her mom's blue eyes. Subverted. Reira isn't related to Himika at all.
• Family Theme Naming: Reira, like Reiji and Leo, have the the kanji of zero (零) in their names.
• Fountain of Youth: After Reira's sacrifice with Ray to seal Zarc, she is turned into an infant when the Pendulum Dimension reboots.
• Gender Reveal: In episode 146, Reira is described with female pronouns after the Cosmic Retcon. Meaning she was always a girl.
• Grew a Spine: As a result of her Character Development, Reira gains courage and is able to bravely face her opponents (as long as her PTSD doesn't trigger). She even comes to oppose her brother when she agrees with Ray's desire to be reborn to stop Zarc.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Reira reveals that she actually pushed Ray out of her body before she could seal Zarc and sealed Zarc inside of herself instead.
• Hero Antagonist: With Ray, she opposes Reiji to revive her, thinking she needs an advocate and to stop Zarc.
• In the Hood: Coupled with Hidden Eyes to empathize her creepiness and brokenness. She also wears a cap under her hood.
• Just a Kid: Some characters who haven't seen her duel, like Sawatari and Kurosaki, are dismissive of her and find it hard to believe such a young girl could be a competent duelist. Skills aside, they are not completely wrong either. She's not as brave as the others and Yuya has to tell Reiji in his face that Reira is way too young to be a Lancer.
• Light Is Good: Film Magician, in honor of Yuya and Jack's influences.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Reiji seems to be the only person she cares about in the world. This is made clear when it's shown that Reira sees everything dark except of the little space where Reiji is and she manage to win her duel after seeing that Reiji is watching her.
  • Reira seems more normal when her brother is with her. Being a shy kid compared to the emotionless creepy child she is when Reiji isn't around.
  • She gives her first smile when Tatsuya says she's similar to Reiji.
  • Later this extends to Yuya, immediately calming down when she's saved by him from the Obelisk Force, and Jack Atlas, smiling when she notices that Jack's proud of her dueling skills against a security member.
• The Magic Poker Equation: Incredibly blatant in Episode 86, when she draws into the exact five cards needed to one-turn kill all three Security guards at once.
  • A more subtle example would be Reira's dueling style in general, her deck revolves around swarming the field with Extra Deck monsters but they all require C/C Critical Eye to be summoned yet she still managed to draw it in every duel, barring the last one where she wasn't trying to summon a monster.
• Mommy Issues: It's made obvious that this little girl is afraid of her own mother. Might be due to the fact that Reira was experimented by her to become a Duel Soldier and that she is not her biological mother.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He feels terrible when she realizes Tsukikage was Made a Slave because of her.
• Nervous Wreck: Reira seems to be scared of people; she jumped when the public in the stadium started to cheer for Reiji and also when the news reporter tried to talk with her.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: Reira and Ray are the ones to defeat Zarc instead of Yuya due to him being part of Zarc.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: She defeats at least six Obelisk Force members on her own.
• Only Sane Man: After hearing Ray's voice she realizes that Ray is correct and needs to be revived in order to stop Zarc, dueling Reiji who insisted it needed to be stopped. Not only were she and Ray correct, but the two sacrificing themselves stopped Zarc from splitting apart to continue terrorizing the world.
• Parental Abandonment: We have no idea what happened to her biological family. Himika simply said she was all by herself, which leads to some very depressing or disturbing conclusions.
• Personality Powers: Her deck relies on copying the opponent's cards. It's because she has little sense of self from her Dark and Troubled Past, and hasn't recovered to the point she can be her own person yet without copying someone else.
• Playing Card Motifs: Reira's is the Club/Clover suit. Shown by her monster archetype starting with C and the clover pin she's wearing.
• Protectorate: While in the Synchro Dimension, Yuya has taken the role of a protective big brother towards her. In a straighter example, she's this to Tsukikage, by Reiji's orders.
  • Also appears to be one for Reiji in a different sort of way, as Reiji attempts to help Reira develop her own personality and apparently brought Reira into the Synchro Dimension because he honestly believes Reira is strong enough to handle it, even reassuring her and giving her slack when the kid refuses to duel.
• The Quiet One: She rarely talks, due to her timid personality. But when she gains more confidence, she is more talkative.
• Safety in Indifference: Due to her Dark and Troubled Past, the only way she knows to survive is by abandoning all free will and emotion.
• Satellite Character: Averted. Unlike most little brother/sister characters, Reira develops her own character by interacting with different characters other than the Akabas.
• Security Blanket: She only separates of her teddy bear when it's time to duel.
• Shrinking Violet: When around Reiji. Ironically, this is when she's more emotional.
• Spell My Name With An S: Despite her name being written in kanji, the official spelling is Layra.
• Tag Along Kid: To the Lancers. Reiji insists she's as good a duelist as any of them (and he's right), but Reira is this until she gets her Character Development and then hands three Security officers their asses.
• Trauma Conga Line: Her entire life is one. As stated in The Reveal, Reira has no sense of will or identity and is being used by the Akabas to defeat the Academia - putting her through even more pain despite being only a child. She has to sacrifice herself to ultimately defeat Zarc.
• Trauma Button: The way the Obelisk Force move and look cause her to remember the gas-masked soldiers from her former home country, sending her into a lapse of PTSD.
• Tyke Bomb: Reira was adopted by Himika for the sole purpose of defeating Academia.
• When He Smiles: She smiles rarely, but it's a heartwarming one.
• Yandere: When she starts to get her own will, she is worried that Tsukikage is better liked by Reiji, and wants him to lose. However, she is horrified by how callous Reiji is towards the loss, and even more horrified when she realizes that Tsukikage was Made a Slave because of her.

Tsukikage (Moon Shadow)

Tsukikage (Moon Shadow)

Voiced by: Manabu Sakamaki (JP), Eddy Lee (EN)

Tsukikage is Hikage's twin brother and fellow participant in the Junior Youth class of the Maiami Championship. After losing his brother to Academia, he joined the Lancers. Unlike the rest of the Lancers who specialize in a summoning mechanic ^note  Sawatari with his Pendulum, Serena with her Fusion, Kurosaki and Dennis with their Xyz, Gongenzaka with his Synchro and Yuya and Reiji with every summoning mechanic , Tsukikage focuses on utilizing the tricky and powerful effects of his Ninja Effect Monsters, while exploiting the Action Cards to great effect.

He serves as one of the most useful characters in the entire series, guarding Reiji and Reira from physical harm and taking advantage of his shinobi training to infiltrate even the most secure places to get the job done, which aids the Lancers greatly throughout the show. Eventually he's "carded" by BB in the Fusion Dimension but is later reborn when the Standard Dimension becomes the Pendulum Dimension. As a result, his deck undergoes an upgrade and his Ninja deck gains Pendulum cards by series end. His ace is Twilight Ninja Getsuga, the Shogun.

For tropes shared with his brother, see their folder in Maiami City.

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• And I Must Scream: Gets carded during Sanders' Survival Duel by BB. Later he's freed by series end.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: While not twins (maybe, Hikage was referred to as the older brother), although downplayed, in a Not So Stoic moment Tsukikage shows how deeply hurt he is by his brother's loss. He goes back to normal when Hikage is freed from being "carded".
• Ascended Extra: Tsukikage appeared as another duel school rival, and became a member of both groups of the Lancers.
• Back from the Dead: Returns in Episode 140 to help Reira up, who was on his way to confront Zarc.
• Badass Normal: No Extra Deck or Pendulum Monsters, just normal Effect monsters. It doesn't prevent him from being any less of a Badass.
• Berserk Button: Don't insult his clan. Shinji saying that Tsukikage is no better than Security really riles him up, especially since his brother got carded doing his duty.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: His role around Reiji besides stealth. He's a capable duelist in his own right, though Reiji is of course Reiji. Though considering his abilities and his sword, he appears to be for non-dueling defense as well.
• Boring, but Practical: Played with. His strategy is Stall Burn, using cards to protect his field and having monsters with high defensive power, while he inflicts Effect Damage to his opponent to win the duel. The strategy itself is unspectacular, but he performs it in a very flashy way in Action Duels.
• Cast from Hit Points: Tsukikage's Trap Card "Barrier Ninjitsu, Art of Gathering Shadows" can skip the opponent's Battle Phase, but Tsukikage must pay half his LP.
• The Comically Serious: Yes, he's generally the most stoic member of the crew, but he's still got a sense of humor.
  Reira: "Tsukikage, what's that?"
  Tsukikage: (holds up a large screw, which he removed from the wheel of Captain Solo's ship) "I don't know, just borrowing it."
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tsukikage worfs Mieru in their duel. Both ninjas were also selected by Reiji to be Lancers. More impressive are his ninja skills, making him arguably the most competent Lancer outside of a Duel (although he does have competition in Kurosaki).
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: His strategy involves discarding cards to inflict repeated, very low Effect Damage to his opponent until the opponent loses. Considering that he's a ninja, he can collect Action Cards basically on command and at nigh-impossible rates, unlike other duelists, who must move to the card first before collecting it, allowing him to repeat the effect as often as he likes.
• Dub Name Change: To "Moon Shadow". This is notable due to his name being a literal translation from the Japanese version.
• Dying Message: Before being carded by BB, Tsukikage carves the kanji of "11" on a tree, warning his allies about the eleventh duelist participating in the Survival Duel.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Tsukikage initially doesn't forgive Sora for carding Hikage, but Tsukikage is not blinded by his revenge to overlook that Sora is really protecting Yuzu. He becomes in better terms with him after Sora saves his life and they do eventually become partners during the last quarter of the Synchro Dimension arc. See Forgiven, but Not Forgotten below.
• Escape Artist: He's a ninja, so escaping the underground isn't hard for him.
• Face Death with Dignity: Tsukikage was ready to do this against the Obelisk Force, but Sawatari saves him.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His outfit only has a sleeve on the right side. Note that Tsukikage is left-handed.
• Flash Step: He can move faster than the human eye can see, to instantly move around the field and collect Action Cards. He can even move off his D-Wheel and move back while it is still in motion.
• Foil: Tsukikage is one to fellow Lancer, Dennis. Dennis is a flashy mole who hides his vicious personality with kindness and smiles. While Tsukikage is a silent stoic that is absolutely loyal to his mission and is benevolent. They are both much more plot important than expected.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: He tells Sora grudges are unending, letting him know he won't forget that he carded his brother, but forgives him.
• Heel: Unlike when Yuzu, Shuzou and Dennis invoked this, Shinji tragically forces him into this role for their duel.
• I Let You Win: During his duel with Shinji, Tsukikage manages to pick up an action card called "Evasion", which would've negated Shinji's strongest monster from attacking, thus saving him from losing the rest of his Life Points. He chooses to not use it, however, and loses on purpose on Reiji's orders^note as confirmed in episode 73, in order to infiltrate the hidden Underground Facility.
• Informed Ability: Initially. Tsukikage's supposedly a really good duelist, enough to one-shot Mieru and be chosen as a Lancer. Except his win against Mieru was off-screen and his second fight almost had him lose through his own lack of action and poor choice to act as a shield for others. It's later revealed that his offensive strategy is inflicting effect damage anytime he discards spell cards. Taking into consideration that an Action Field is full of them and his speed, of course he would easily drain Mieru's LP in one turn. In general he is a good duelist, but does poorly in a straight up duel against multiple opponents. Basically he is just like a ninja.
• It's All My Fault: In Episode 118, he blames himself for getting Yuya, Gongenzaka, Sawatari, Crow, and himself captured.
• It's Personal: Once he locates him, he confronts Sora to avenge his fallen brother, Hikage, who Sora carded scores of episodes earlier. However, he backs down when Yuzu convinces Sora to not fight and to help Yuya instead.
• Left-Handed Mirror: Tsukikage is the blue, left-handed Ninja with a stalling strategy, while Hikage is the red, right-handed Ninja with an offensive strategy.
• Made a Slave: Gets sent to the Underground, though Episode 73 shows escape isn't that difficult for a Ninja.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted, while it initially seems he has Undying Loyalty, he makes it clear to Yuya he would have abandoned Reiji long ago if he was as cruel as Academia.
• Nice Guy: Tsukikage is loyal to the Lancers, and kind, if a bit stoic. However, don't insult his clan to his face...
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His Guilt Complex in episode 118 leads to him running off on his own, which in turn causes Sawatari and the others to run into the Survival Duel. His actions directly lead to himself being carded and Sawatari's loss.
• Number Two: Tsukikage is Reiji's right-hand man, being the only Lancer that both knows and is involved in Reiji's plans usually acting as Reiji's substitute if he's busy.
• One-Hit Kill: Tsukikage pulled one of these, worfing Mieru.
• Revenge: He seeks this against Sora, though agrees to wait to deal with him until after Yuya is saved. He eventually drops it and works with Sora together to save Yuzu and to foil Roget's plans.
• Stealth Expert: Tsukikage is this for the Lancers, easily able to enter and leave the Underground Facility to bring information to Reiji.
• Stone Wall: His deck is defensive, and his offensive strategy sacrifices Action Cards to inflict scratch damage, using his speed to collect all the Action Cards.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Tsukikage is brutally taken out and carded by BB with no warning.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Episode 141 after the Standard Dimension became the Pendulum Dimension, showing off his new Ninja Pendulum Monsters in the Battle Royale against Yuya, Gongenzaka, and Sawatari.
• Wall Run: Performs this to grab an Action Card located far towards the edge of the track, where he could not have moved his D-Wheel in time to keep up his Trap's effect.
• Weak, but Skilled: His dueling record is somewhat spotty as his strategy is ill-suited to Battle Royale-style play, but outside of dueling his ninja stealth abilities have been an invaluable asset for the Lancers.
• The Worf Effect: Worfs Mieru, a powerful Ritual Duelist who had even Yuya on the ropes, when he finally gets to duel. He and Sora gets a two of these from Sergey physically and Roget in a duel, although the latter cheated with hologram clones, and he's the first Lancer victim of BB.
• Worf Had the Flu: He and Sora beat Roget once, but got thrown by him using Fighting a Shadow on them.

Shun Kurosaki (Shay Obsidian)

Shun Kurosaki (Shay Obsidian)

Voiced by: Yamato Kinjo (JP), Matt Shipman (EN)

Shun Kurosaki, along with Yuto, is one of the survivors of the invasion on the Xyz Dimension, as well as a member of Resistance. Originally a kind, if somewhat stoic, person, the invasion took its toll on his psyche. What makes this worse is learning his younger sister Ruri was captured by Duel Academy. As a result, Shun became very cold and anger-driven, desperate to save his younger sister, no matter the cost. In Standard, he mistakenly assumes that LDS is connected with Duel Academy, and he seals some members of LDS into cards. However, as Reiji figures out that this was caused by a misunderstanding, he convinces Shun to join him to fight Professor Leo Akaba and wrangles him into the Arc League Championship as a LDS student, becoming one of the first Lancer candidates. He beats Sora during the tournament, thus their rivalry has been born. Now he's one of the nine Lancers.

Despite his very harsh and cynical character and him often showing the cold shoulder towards other people, he deeply cares for his comrades, particularly his best friend Yuto. As the series goes on, Shun gradually learns to trust others besides his own kin from his home dimension. Eventually, by series end, he reunites with his sister and best friend, becoming happy once again.

Shun uses a Raidraptor deck, which is made for swarming Winged-Beast-Type monsters to Xyz Summon monsters with low base-ATK, but powerful effects. He also has many Spell and Trap Cards that can counter various situations and exploits his Rank Up spells to evolve his Raidraptors into more powerful forms. His ace monster is Raidraptor Rise Falcon.

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Tropes associated with Kurosaki:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original, Shun doesn't react all that much to Ruri's counterparts outside of his first meeting with Yuzu. In the dub, he clarifies that looking at Serena hurts due to her resemblance to Ruri.
• Aesop Amnesia: After losing to Sora and subsequently having a bit of Character Development by deciding to trust people in the Standard dimension, fans found him more likable. He goes back to being a completely anti-social Jerkass in the Synchro dimension by not giving a crap about the location of his comrades, focusing entirely on his own goals ^note  (which are implied to coincide less with his desire to help the Resistance, and more about pursuing a dream he had as a child) and even telling Gongenzaka off for trying to rescue him from prison.
  • This is finally subverted during his duel with Crow; while at the beginning he was just as belligerent and close-minded as usual, after he rescues Tanner from falling down on the Duel lane, Kurosaki realizes that he and Crow had similar experiences. As a result, he ended up befriending him, with both of them promising to continue fighting the good fight against their respective enemies.
• And This Is for...: Dedicates a blow to his fallen Resistance comrades, Ruri, and Yuto when applying the effect of Satellite Cannon Falcon.
• Anti-Hero: Almost to the point of being Nominal Hero and being an outright villain early on in the series due to his brutality. He'll do anything to rescue his comrades and stop Academia, but his current actions include attacking innocents for going to LDS, showing a disregard for the safety of his own allies, and he has no hesitation about fighting anyone in his way regardless of their own moral standing. This also doesn't get into his intensely antisocial behavior and general Jerkass-ness.
• Anime Hair: Bluish and a little spiky, but it is more subdued than the Yuto's.
• Badass Boast:
  • Makes quite a fierce one to the LDS trio.
  "That's right, because we were always badly beaten and fighting on the edge. But, we always had to stand up again! Then, we finally overwhelmed and eradicated our enemies!"
  • His summon chant for Rise Falcon comes across as one too:
  "Obscured falcon, from adversity, raise your sharpened claws! Spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Summon! Come forth! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon!"
  • When he faces Sora in a rematch.
  "I'm always serious when I duel, even when I'm facing a worthless opponent!"
  • Generally, he tends to embellish the attacks and effects of his monsters to the effect of commanding his opponents to burn in the flames of revolution or bear the suffering of his comrades.
• Badass in Distress: Suffers his first on-screen loss against Sora in their rematch and is injured because of it. Serena of all people has to save him from Sora and Obelisk Force and keep him safe.
• Badass Longcoat: Wear a long blue-purple coat and looks tough with it. In episode 62, it gets shadowed nicely during his Death from Above moment.
• Batman Gambit: He attacked LDS to lure out Reiji, so he can use him as a bartering chip against the Professor.
• Beam Spam: One of Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon's effects.
• Berserk Button:
  • Mentioning his enemies, whoever they may be, severely pisses him off. Before he learned that they were the wrong target, any mention of the name LDS makes him nearly foam at the mouth. But it's Fusion Summoning that really hits his button. He first goes against LDS' Fusion teacher and his eyes react when anyone fuses when he doesn't know that they could. Academia, who captured Ruri, is from the Fusion Dimension.
  • Heartland, his hometown, is one to him. This is taken to its logical extreme when the Action Field selected for his duel with Sora is Future Metropolis Heartland. You can tell by the look on his face he is NOT happy with this choice. The second time it happens, he's so disturbed that he doesn't even go into one of his famous monologues.
  • Another smaller one is to say that his monsters are weak because they have low attack points. During duels, he typically responds with proving the person who said that wrong.
• Big Brother Instinct: Kurosaki is so intent on attacking LDS because he believes his little sister Ruri was captured by them. He's later shown to be protective and more open to persuasion when talking to Serena due to her resemblance to Ruri.
• Big Brother Bully: Although always a Knight Templar Big Brother, episode 119 shows that he used to be very controlling towards her, out of his desire to protect her, reaching this trope as well, at one point even slapping a card out of her hand.
• Big Brother Mentor: Is this towards the child survivors of the Heartland invasion such as Allen and Sayaka due to his affection for children and being the strongest member of the Resistance remaining besides Kaito, who is uncooperative. Also is one for the Lancers as well, as they often look to him for leadership in the absence of Reiji, as he is one of its strongest members.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Literally leaps into the duel against the Arrest Corps in episode 63 after they had taken control of all the Lancers' remaining monsters and proceeds to use those captured monsters to summon Rise Falcon, a monster which they couldn't take control of due to not possessing a level, and defeat all 3 of their opponents at the same time.
  • With his Raid Raptors, he saves Yuya and the others by giving them a lift to the Duel Palace during the Riots.
• Break the Haughty: Does this to Sora, and Sora does it back in turn in their second duel. Noticeable in that afterwards he actually shows appreciation for Tsukikage, Sawatari, Gongenzaka, and Serena helping him.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Doesn't even remember who Marco is, until Masumi brings up Fusion Summoning. It is possible however that he just didn't ask for his name. He's never asked anyone he duels for their names.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Ruri's Cain, granted it isn't her fault.
• Character Development: His Duel against Kaito serves to reaffirm his growth as a character throughout the series thus far, where he has learned to treasure the bonds he has formed with his allies and trust them.
• Character Tics: He has a tendency to expand his eyes and point with his right index and middle fingers when ordering his Xyz monsters to attack.
• The Comically Serious:
  • When Sora tries to do the "Action Duel" chanting, Kurosaki doesn't even open his mouth to say he's not fooling around.
  • He's especially this in the third ending, participating in all the crazy antics depicted without a single smile save on the cards at the end where all of them are smiling.
  • During the escape from the Underground in Episode 90, he's paired with Sawatari. This is pretty much a given.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: His deck seems to be tailor-made for facing multiple opponents due to Academia's penchant for Battle Royal Duels. Rise Falcon and Revolution Falcon in particular become much more dangerous when he's outnumbered.
• Control Freak: Due to his overprotectiveness of Ruri, he was very much this, keeping his weaker sister in his shadow.
• Convenient Coma: Kurosaki is put into one before the Xyz Arc climax, and is unable to journey to the Fusion Dimension.
• Crazy-Prepared: As shown during his duel against Sora, Kurosaki manages to counter basically everything against him. Especially his last card Rank-Up Magic Revolution Force only works in a specific situation, yet Kurosaki gets the chance to use it. He does it again in his rematch with Sora. Not wanting to drag out the duel and fuel Sora's prideful lust for revenge, Kurosaki prepares a complicated strategy before attacking: summons in his first turn three copies of Force Strix and powers them up to a point where he could potentially OTK the kid. It fails off-screen and Sora subsequently defeats him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He annihilates Masumi, Hokuto and Yaiba in Episode 24. Later goes on to dominate Sora and the Knight duelists utterly, and wipes the Arrest Corps within seconds of joining. Then there's his escape from the underground labor facility.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Metaphorically; his Raid Raptors monsters resemble robotic avian predators, which might also symbolize his desire to protect and rescue his sister slowly sliding him down the morality road.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Academia invaded Heartland City, turned it into an interdimensional battle ground, and carded most of its citizens. His sister, Ruri, was kidnapped as well.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Though morally ambiguous enough to steal the souls of LDS employees.
• Death from Above:
  • A recurring motif of his Raid Raptors, with Rise Falcon dive-bombing the enemy and Revolution Falcon burying them under a hail of bombs. Taken to its logical extreme in Episode 75 with Raid Raptors - Satellite Cannon Falcon.
  • Also does this without cards in Episode 62, when "getting the drop" on the guards.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the dub.
• Determinator: He and his comrades had to get up again and again to defeat their enemies. This is to the point all of his summon chants describe this trait.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: He's barely used Rise Falcon in any duels since his duel with Sora. In an in-universe example, he starts his first duel with Dennis with only 1000 LP due to the rules of the underground.
• The Dreaded: Both Yuya and Yuzu are nervous about him due to past experiences. In time, however, they both get over it.
• Dub Name Change. To Shay Obsidian.
• Enemy Mine: With Reiji, to defeat Professor Leo Akaba.
• Expy: His purple coat and overall attitude is similar to Kaiba in Duelist Kingdom, when Kaiba was also trying to single-handedly mount a rescue of his younger sibling, doing whatever it takes to draw out the culprit.
• Extra Eyes:
  • The aforementioned Rise Falcon has 6 red eyes. It's just one of the things that make it a creepy card.
  • Blaze Falcon also has Extra Eyes, though green in color.
• Face Death with Dignity: He remains completely stone-faced as Kaito prepares to card him after defeating him. However, Sayaka's tearful pleas manage to dissuade Kaito from pressing the button.
• Fantastic Racism: He hates Fusion, and also considers LDS Xyz Summoning to be a sham. He sort of got over the former after Serena helped him, focusing his hatred on Academia rather than fusion users in general. Unfortunately, after Dennis's betrayal he becomes convinced that everyone who isn't from the Xyz dimension can't be trusted and that his only friends are his dead comrades, though thankfully Crow and the kids help him get over this.
• Fighting Your Friend: Challenges Kaito, a fellow Resistance member to a Duel.
• First-Name Basis: Only the citizens from Heartland call him by his first name. The anime and promotional materials do not.
• Foil: He's one to fellow Lancer, Serena. Kurosaki is a survivor from the Xyz dimension that has lost everything and in his attempt to get it back has done so very brutal things and has shown no remorse for it. While Serena was protected by the Academia in the Fusion dimension and threw away her home due to her moral code.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason he's so aggressive and paranoid is all thanks to Academia's destruction of his home, and their kidnapping of his sister, making things extra-personal for him. That being said...
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Despite everything he's lost, the show states that does in no way EXCUSE him. Yuya has stated while Yuto was as mad and hated the Academia, he was still much more reasonable and wanted a peaceful solution. Amanda, Tanner and Frank stated they also lost everything, but weren't nearly as destructive as Kurosaki is.
• Friend to All Children: Was this alongside Kaito prior to Academia's invasion.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Attempts to do this on Kaito during their Duel.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Often engages in this when declaring attacks.
• Glass Cannon: Kurosaki is a very capable fighter. He's fast, agile and hits very hard, taking down large and muscular adults with no problems. However, Kurosaki doesn't take hits very well and his stamina is rather low, causing him to be injured or unconsciousness a lot. Even his English voice actor noticed that issue.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Though considering what happened to Yuto, he might have the same reasoning.
• Graceful Loser: He takes his loss against Crow quite well, giving out a smile as Crow's attack finishes him off.
• Had to Be Sharp: His explanation for his strength. This isn't limited to card-game skills.
• Head Butting Heroes: Is a bit much, but he and Yuto argue about their methods.
• The Heavy: He basically functions as the main antagonist of the first arc before the Maiami Championship.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Goes through this briefly when the Action Field chosen for his duel with Sora resembles his destroyed hometown, Heartland. Then the BSOD is replaced by rage and determination.
  • He goes through another one in when he realizes that Lulu and Yuto may truly be gone for good. In the dub, it gives way to rage again as he blames Yuya for this due to his nature as a fragment of Zarc.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He's Knight Templar in defeating his enemies and finding Ruri, but his actions are taking him further into the dark. It took until his duel with Crow that he finally started to get out of this.
• High-Speed Missile Dodge: While riding Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon, he dodges Death-Toy Wheel Saw Lion's projectiles for enough time to grab an Action Card.
• I Work Alone:
  • He dislikes tag-team dueling, though he appreciates it when Serena, Tsukikage, Michio, Teppei, Sawatari, and Gongenzaka protect him from the Obelisk Force and make it possible for him to defeat them.
  • His attitude in the Synchro Dimension. He states he arrived alone and instead of attempting to find the rest of the Lancers, he just started looking for strong duelists instead. As a result of finding out about Dennis, he is even worse in this regard, declaring that everyone is his enemy and that his friends are only from the Xyz Dimension and are dead. Although after dueling Crow, Kurosaki finally mellows out of it.
• Ineffectual Loner: Flashbacks show that he has worked with people he trusts, but he wasn't seen teaming up with anyone on-screen until much later. He didn't even team up with Yuto, one of the few people he trusts, instead following his own agenda and occasionally getting in touch with him while in the Standard dimension. This gets him in trouble, but even after supposedly learning his lesson he goes back to being a loner. He eventually grows out of it.
• Insane Troll Logic: In the dub, he comes to blame Yuya for what happened to Lulu and Yuto after empathizing with Leo, deciding that it's Yuya's fault for Zarc's revival. To be slightly fair, not only does he not know the full extent of Yuto's role, but Yuya doesn't try to correct him out of his own self-guilt and wanting to duel Shun anyway.
• Irony: He hates LDS, yet is put among their numbers for the Maiami Championship.Later on in Episode 48, he's saved by Serena, an Academia Fusion user who looks like his sister.
• Ironic Echo: During his duel with Dennis in the Friendship Cup, Kurosaki uses the effect of Satellite Falcon five times on Ancient Gear Chaos Giant to weaken the latter. He yells his second attack up to his fifth while doing it. When he duels Ruri and is attacked five times directly by her Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale, she goes hammy the same way as he did, shouting the second attack up to the fifth.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's generally rude and demeaning to everyone he encounters, but he makes it VERY clear that he cares deeply for his friends. Despite their differing opinions and his threat to defeat Yuto, Kurosaki still considers Yuto his best friend and was furious when he couldn't find him anywhere after his duel with Yuya and Sora. He was prepared to rough up Yuya for possibly doing something to Yuto and for having Yuto's trademark card, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, in his possession. Even though the manner in which he finished off Dennis was violent, Kurosaki voices aloud that he still cares about the state his home dimension was left in, still grieves that many of his other friends were sealed away into cards, and is furious at Academia for stealing away the future happiness of the two people most important to him: Yuto and his little sister Ruri.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Shows signs of this after his second duel with Dennis. Stops doing it when he saves Tanner and realizes that Crow isn't so different.
• Kick Chick: A male version of this trope, Kurosaki is fond of using this fighting style which was seen when he escape from jail and underground, where he continues to kick peoples ass using Kick Chick style.
• Kick the Dog: Carding both Tio and Marco, who at least seemed like pretty nice guys, probably counts as this. Him carding of the three random LDS employees chasing Yuya believing him to be the one they're looking for. He later insults Marco in front of Masumi, calling him weak and pathetic. He then goes on to insult and demean Masumi and her other two friends Yaiba and Hokuto, noting that their efforts to defeat him lacked any sort of "iron and will", ignoring the fact that all three managed to wipe his field and hand clean of all monsters, Spells, and Traps, including reducing his Life Points to a mere 10.
• Kick Them While They're Down: Kurosaki intended to seal away both Sora and Dennis after winning his matches against them but was stopped by Reiji's actions, either directly or indirectly. While he was willing to let Sora go, he had no problem potentially killing Dennis by beating his unconscious body instead.
• Kill Sat: With the aptly-named Satellite Cannon Falcon monster.
• Knight of Cerebus: Like Yuto, his appearance slowly darkened the series.
• Knight Templar: Despite Yuto telling him LDS is not the enemy, he still attacks them, to the extent Yuto is forced to knock him out to get him away from Masumi, Yuzu, and Sora. It turns out that he attacked them because he wants to take Reiji hostage, because the Professor seems to be the one holding Ruri hostage.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: He's steals the souls of teachers and elite students, who may not be into the whole thing, and is willing to duel students just to bring out LDS' boss, Reiji, in order to duel some answers out of him.
• La Résistance: Reveals he is part of one fighting Academia from the Fusion Dimension during his duel with Sora.
• The Lancer: He becomes this to Yuya as part of the Lancers.
• Large Ham: Normally he's rather subdued, but when he's dueling, Kurosaki chews scenery with the best of them (with both verbal and body language).
• Last-Name Basis: The anime, promotional materials and non-Heartland characters call him by his last name.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: His current status as one of the heroes isn't a secret.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Yuto would prefer to keep a low profile in Standard. Kurosaki, on the other hand, just goes for attacking LDS Duelists seemingly at random without considering much else, which understandably does not help their case.
• Love Makes You Crazy: His love for his sister Ruri makes him very erratic in his willingness to get her back.
• Love Makes You Evil: To get Ruri back, he is willing to do a lot of dark things.
• Macross Missile Massacre: One of Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon's effects.
• Magic Knight: A pretty good duelist in a world where duel monsters can be implemented with real magic, and eventually shown to be a skilled hand-to-hand fighter capable of taking down several enemies at once.
• The Magic Poker Equation: Averted when he attempts to show Kaito the power of bonds and comrades by picking up and playing multiple Action Cards in succession to boost the ATK of his attacking Blaze Falcon. Like Edo, he picks up a nonfunctional Action Card^note  He picks up Flight, which boosts a monster's ATK only when it is being attacked, not when it is attacking. , leading to his monster's destruction at the hands of Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon, and a snarky retort from Kaito.
• Meaningful Name: The kanji in his first name, 隼, can be read as "hayabusa," meaning "falcon," referring to his monsters. "Kurosaki" means "black flower." In the dub, Shay is Gaelic for "hawk", but it can also allude to Shays' Rebellion, a famous historical uprising.
• Moral Myopia: States in Episode 34 that he'll do anything to protect his comrades... but when the LDS Trio went after him to do the same, he beat them down without even thinking about it.
• '90s Anti-Hero: Badass? Check. Physically kicks ass? Check. Completely willing to kill anyone if it's convenient? Check, just ask Professor Marco. I Work Alone? Check. While no guns are used, his ace monsters do tend to drop bombs or lasers on people. While he does have a handful of scenes where he feels grateful or glad to see a loved one kinda, sorta alive, most of the time he's either angry or indifferent. After his Character Development, he stops being one.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: A (arguably) benevolent version; given his background, he treats dueling like real combat and a battlefield, as opposed to more idealistic characters like Yuya, who treat dueling like fun.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Gives a speech to this effect after Sora takes his Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon in Episode 34.
  Kurosaki: "We, the Resistance, have always fought with the worst case scenario in mind. While keeping in mind the friends we lost who used to fight alongside us. But even if they're taken from us, we will never abandon them. I WILL take back my friends!"
• Noble Bird of Prey: His Raid Raptors are mechanical predatory birds and give off this vibe, especially his Xyz Monsters, with an example being Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon. They only get bigger and more badass from there.
• One-Man Army: Kurosaki is a specialist in dueling multiple opponents, since some of his Xyz Monsters can attack or destroy multiple monsters at once.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kurosaki believes that only he deserves to duel Jack Atlas and that everyone else who tries otherwise are wasting their time; Dennis disagrees. Apparently at the end of the Synchro Dimension arc, he seems to believe that Yuya can do the job.
• Only Sane Man: Interestingly, once he returns home, he shifts from being a Combat Pragmatist Anti-Hero to being one of the most reasonable characters, up there with Gongenzaka. This is in stark contrast to pretty much everyone else around him, including Kaito, who is blinded by hatred, Sawatari, who's, well, Sawatari, and even Yuya, who now has Yuto's overwhelming hatred to contend with in the face of Academia's soldiers.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Is subject to this after being rendered unconscious by Yuto in Episode 21.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Has no qualms mercilessly bombing Sora into the ground during his duel after Sora taunted him, revealing his true sadistic nature of hunting Xyz Duelists and destroying their city. Kurosaki was also ready to take his soul, but was stopped only by Reiji. He later tried to take Dennis' soul after he revealed how personal his actions were to Kurosaki and Ruri but when that failed, he settled for beating him to death; he was stopped before he could do so.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's almost always seen with a scowl on his face, as seen in the image above.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Aside from the fact that a number of his Xyz Monsters can attack every opposing monster on the field, or otherwise punish the opponent for multiple Special Summons, Kurosaki can also cause real damage with said monsters. More than once, this has left the Action Field (and even the Dueling site itself, in the case of Episode 75) in complete ruins.
• Perspective Reversal: Everyone spent all of the first two seasons trying to get Kurosaki to be a team player and Lancers comrade. He tries to do the same thing for Kaito.
• Pet the Dog:
  • A justified example. He shows sympathy and outright concern for Yuzu in Episode 77 after Sergey threw her and her bike off the road and into the side of a building. This is partially due to Yuzu looking exactly like his little sister, Ruri, but may also be the fact that even someone as stoic and battle-hardened as Kurosaki can be horrified by such violent events.
  • Later saves Tanner from falling off Crow's monster.
  • In Episode 95, he bails out the rest of the Lancers, Tokumatsu, Sam, and Crow's kids from the City's riot before giving Yuya a ride back to the Duel Palace so the latter can face Jack one more time.
  • Outright states that Yuya is his companion, saying that he trusts him, in order to get Kaito to lay off Yuya.
• The Power of Friendship: Tries to invoke this to overcome Kaito's hatred in their duel. Kurosaki puts up a valiant effort, and it partially works four episodes later.
• The Power of Hate: He really doesn't like Academia and considering their tendency to intentionally press his Berserk Button, he's got a lot of hate to spread around.
• Properly Paranoid: Played With, after his duel with Dennis he is sure that there is another Academia spy in the Synchro Dimension. He's not wrong, but the problem is he has no idea who it is and as such is planning on attacking everyone to makes sure. Drops this after his second duel with Dennis, becoming too paranoid and convinced that everyone is an enemy. Picks it up again after dueling Crow and losing a little paranoia.
• Pursue the Dream Job: Possibly; in episode 75 the audience learns he once dreamed of being a pro-duelist, which may explain why he decided not to search for anyone in the Synchro Dimension and seemed to be having fun in his Underground Riding Duels.
• Put on a Bus: After being injured saving Sayaka in episode 109, he remains in a coma, and is left in Heartland when the group moves on to the Fusion Dimension in episode 112. He returns at the beginning in episode 117 along with Edo.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He repeatedly states that the LDS duelists he has dueled lack steeled resolve.
• Remember That You Trust Me: Played with, see Aesop Amnesia above. He does continue to show signs of friendship with Crow and be largely hostile to everyone else, but not without reason, and slowly warms up to the others as the series goes on in small, subtle ways. It's implied that his duel with Crow helped remind him of what's really important. By Season 3 he moves out of this.
• Revenge: He's not so much interested in fighting the bad guys to stop their evil plans as he is out to take revenge for his destroyed home and fallen comrades.
• Second Hour Superpower: He has a bunch of Rank-Up-Magic cards to evolve his Xyz Monsters. Often several times in a duel.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The invasion of Heartland took a clear toll on him.
  • He definitely shows signs of this in Episode 33 when Heartland is used as the field for his duel against Sora.
  • Taken even further in the next episode, where he is clearly reminded of his conflict with Academia.
  • Again in episode 74, he has a brief flashback after seeing Dennis' Antique Gear Chaos Giant and the destruction those behemoths inflicted on his city.
• Shipper on Deck: Implied to be this for Yuto and Ruri, since he introduced them and considering the kind of person Kurosaki is, that he did not stop them from dating can be nothing else.^note Despite Yuto hiding from him during the sixth ending.
• Spell My Name With An S: An official website spells his rarely used first name as "Syun", which is a common spelling for the "Shu" syllable in spelled out names by the Japanese.
• Taking the Bullet: In his and Yuya's duel with Obelisk Force, a Chaos Giant breaks the building and nearly crushes Sayaka, him saving her but at the cost of getting severely hurt.
• Taught by Experience: He says the reason for his strength is this.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kurosaki does not work well with others, including his own best friend Yuto, and prefers to do everything alone. This is called out by Serena and Gongenzaka, since as skilled as he is, even he can't defeat everyone from Academia and needs all the help he can get. The most volatile partnership he has is with Reiji, since he gets pissed every time Reiji tells him to exercise caution or prevents him from following through on certain actions. Once in the Synchro Dimension, he doesn't even bother looking for the other Lancers and just goes about doing what he feels like. Gongenzaka chews him out for this, but it doesn't seem to stick. He finally drops his attitude after losing to Crow and is completely fine to help his new comrades, including Crow.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He has a tendency to do this prior to his Character Development when he unleashes a new Falcon.
  • Defeats Hokuto, Masumi, and Yaiba in their 3-on-1 by attacking every single monster they have at once with Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon after raising it to 16,400 ATK.
  • He goes even further in his duel with Sora by having Revolution Falcon bomb the Action Field and drop the Heartland tower right on top of Sora.
  • What about Dennis? The duel ends with Kurosaki's monster bombing him from orbit.
• This Cannot Be!: Kurosaki suffers his first loss when Sora destroys the majority of his monsters and makes the winning move against him in their rematch.
• Token Evil Teammate: Is initally this, being the only member of the Lancers willing to turn opponents into cards without remorse, and is generally uncooperative and does things on his own. He mellows out later on become more of an unambiguously heroic character.
• Took a Level in Badass: Unleashes a Rank 12 Falcon in his final duel, something he showed no indication of possessing beforehand.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Thanks to Crow, by the Heartland Arc, he had become a lot nicer, trying to get Kaito to come back and stop carding people, showing trust in the Lancers and Yuya, and generally a lot more pleasant to be around.
• Tranquil Fury: Looked shaken after seeing Heartland, but then spent the entire duel calm and composed while he kicked Sora's ass.
• True Companions: Despite his Nominal Hero-like willingness to go through everything in his way to accomplish his goals, it's been consistently shown that Kurosaki places great faith in his allies and those that he has bonded with. Part of his Character Development involves him opening up to the other Lancers and trusting them as much as they trust him. He goes through a brief episode (or few) of shunning them after Dennis is revealed to the cast as an Academia spy, but dueling Crow helps him get back on track. By the Xyz Dimension arc, he firmly believes that his remaining Lancer party is this, and he's willing to defend them and his belief in them.
• Underestimating Badassery: While he still takes the duel seriously, Kurosaki clearly doesn't think much of Sora during their rematch, having defeated him before. He ends up losing when Sora summons a Death-Toy monster he hadn't expected, mirroring their first battle.
• Unrealistic Black Hole: How Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon attacks. Although, given the origins of Xyz Monsters in ZEXAL lore, it's attack may be caused by Ultimate Falcon summoning a big ball of anti-matter rather than a black hole.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • Upon learning that Dennis was not only from Academia but the catalyst to starting the invasion on his home dimension, as well as setting Yuri on his sister Ruri and getting her captured, Kurosaki becomes hell bent on destroying the man.
  • In the dub, his duel with Yuya is this, since he's transferred his rage at Leo to Yuya after empathizing with Leo and deciding that Yuya is responsible for Lulu and Yuto's deaths. He remains utterly furious throughout the match.
• Vague Age: Kurosaki is clearly older than most of the main cast due to his height, mannerisms, and sharp features, yet is best friends with the 14-year old Yuto and at least young enough to attend school. He is placed into the Junior Youth division of the Miami Championship despite looking older than the members of the older Youth division, although that was probably because he was in charge of gauging the strengths of the Duelists there as potential Lancers. In later sketches however, it is revealed that he is at least physically meant to be 17.
• Violence is the Only Option: When breaking out of prison, Kurosaki doesn't have a Duel Disk on him, so he resorts to physically beating the crap out of the guards until he can find a Duel Disk to arm himself with.
  • Also in episode 75, after finding out that Reiji deactivated the carding mechanism on his Duel Disk, he apparently decides to just beat Dennis to death, but is stopped by the tournament guards.
  • Beats up an entire squad of guards in the underground, in what's probably the most badass display of physical violence in Yu-Gi-Oh! history.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • His ace, Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon only has 100 ATK. But its effect makes it deadly: upon summoning, it gains all the ATK of every monster that was Special Summoned. When he used it on his 3-on-1 duel, its attack was 16,400. This effect is nerfed in the real game.
  • Blaze Falcon continues this idea by only having 1000 ATK, but can attack directly and has two monster destruction effects. Revolution Falcon has a modest 2000 ATK, and firstly can destroy a Special Summoned monster and inflict half its ATK as damage to the opponent, while secondly, it can reduce the ATK of a Special Summoned monster to zero when it battles it. It can also attack all of his opponent's monsters. His strongest monster so far, Satellite Cannon Falcon, has a whopping 3000 ATK and can weaken his opponent's monster ATK by 800 points for every Raid Raptor monster in his graveyard, ensuring it will always come out on top; this effect is what allows Kurosaki to topple Dennis' true ace monster, Antique Gear Chaos Giant, which had 4500 ATK.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The anime seems to give Kurosaki a laughable weakness to the humble staircase. In episode 46, he falls down some stairs, causing him to break one of his ribs. After recently recovering from his injuries he received from the Obelisk Force in Heartland, Kurosaki has to run up a very long staircase, but for pacing reasons, he has to run on those stairs in a much longer airing time than Kaito and Yugo did. And then he has to go down from said stairs while carrying his sister on his back, and due to being damaged from his duel with her and the fact that he just woke up from a coma not a long while ago, he collapses. Even his English voice actor (who apparently follows the Japanese run), has noticed that.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Continues to card innocent people even after Yuto explains that LDS isn't their enemy, but only so that he can lure out Reiji and take him hostage. Showing no remorse for this puts him at a darker morality, but consider how many lives might have been saved if his plan worked.
• When He Smiles: Kurosaki doesn't smile much, but he gets a few such as when he returns Crow's fist-bump, affirming him as a comrade. Later in flashbacks of the Xyz Dimension saga, Kurosaki was seen smiling along with Yuto and Ruri when observing Kaito dueling.
• The Worf Barrage: Blaze Falcon's effect that requires him to detach 1 Overlay Unit to destroy all Special Summoned monsters the opponent controls and inflict 500 damage for each destroyed monster almost always fails. Whenever this happens, Blaze Falcon just attacks directly, inflicts damage and then destroys a monster the opponent controls; that always works. And that isn't even getting into Ultimate Falcon.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Hokuto, Masumi, and Yaiba put up impressive fights against the heroes, with Masumi beating Yuzu and Yaiba tying with Gongenzaka. In their 3 on 1 duel against Kurosaki, they flood the field with all of their signature cards, leaving him with no cards in his hand or on the field and less than 1000 Life Points. He draws a card that lets him Xyz using monsters in his grave, which can only be activated if he has less than 1000 Life Points and proceeds to wipe them out in a single turn with his Rise Falcon.^note  It's effect is extremely powerful in the anime, whereas it was subsequently nerfed in real life.
  • Despite being one of ARC-V's strongest characters, he loses to Kaito, although viewers familiar with ZEXAL may have expected this due to Kaito having one of the best dueling records in the entire franchise.
  • In Episode 119, Kurosaki is given a run for his money by Ruri just to show what her deck is capable of. It doesn't help that he's trying to snap Ruri out of the Parasite Fusioner's influence and the only reason why she lost the Duel against him is because of her Little Sister Instinct + Suicide by Cop combo.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no problem violently shoving Yuzu out of the way and knocking her down, and then was poised to seal Masumi within a card, had the duel not been interrupted before it could start. Later he almost does it again after he formally defeats her, along with Hokuto and Yaiba, but is interrupted again by the reinforcements of LDS.
• Would Hurt a Child: So long as that child is an enemy, as in the case of Sora and Academia's Child Soldiers, he holds no reservations about going all out, showing when he had Revolution Falcon bring down a tower on top of Sora. He was then poised to seal Sora away in a card, in front of a crowd no less but was told by Reiji not to make a scene at the last minute via radio.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: As with Reiji, this is zig-zagged: He's also right about the Darker and Edgier nature of the series, but genuinely believes that he's an Anti-Hero in The Dark Age of Comic Books story smiliar to Batman or The Punisher.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He sealed the souls of five LDS employees into cards with his Duel Disk. Attempted to do this to Sora and Dennis but was prevented by Reiji.

Serena (Celina)

See Yuzu, and her counterparts for more information.

Sora Shiun'in (Sora Perse)

Sora Shiun'in (Sora Perse)

Voiced by: Mie Sonozaki (JP), Eileen Stevens (EN, anime), Jen Silverman (EN, Duel Links)

A mysterious boy who decides to become Yuya's apprentice, joining You Show Duel School. He uses his looks to charm the pants off everyone he meets, and constantly seems to know more than he lets on. After Yuzu loses to Masumi, she ask him to teach Fusion Summoning, which he greatly accepts. He has been revealed as a member of the faction that destroyed Shun's and Yuto's home, specifically a Duel Soldier from a school known as Duel Academy, located in the Fusion Dimension. With his identity revealed, Sora returns to Duel Academy and has become Yuya and the others' enemy. He returns later during the Synchro Dimension saga, replacing Dennis after his compromise with the Lancers, under orders to retrieve both Serena and Yuzu. However, Sora has other plans in mind...while protecting Yuzu to keep his promise with Yuya, Sora eventually realizes that he does not belong to Duel Academy anymore and that Yuya and Yuzu are his only friends he can stay loyal to, becoming an ally to the Lancers, and later joining them.

By series end, Sora becomes close friends with Asuka and stays with her to cheer on Yuya in his final duels with Kurosaki, Jack and Reiji.

Sora runs a Fluffal Deck, which based on cutesy monsters fusing with a certain Edge Imp monsters to become horrifying mash-up creatures, the Frightfurs. His ace is Frightfur Bear.

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• Adorable Abomination: Mad Chimaera dancing with Bloom Prima makes it absolutely adorable.
• Anime Hair: Par for the course, closely resembling Lua's, but more blue than turquoise.
• Anti-Villain: Unless he's facing Xyz Duelists from Resistance, Sora would rather eat candy and fool around with the heroes, whom he develops a genuine bond with. These traits mostly remain after his Heel–Face Turn, making him an Anti-Hero.
• Arch-Enemy: Ever since his loss to Kurosaki, Sora considers him this. Nothing will deter him from trying to defeat him, nothing. He finally succeeds.
  • However, though they hate each other, their animosity is rather impersonal and more about Xyz vs. Fusion as a whole. Compared to Dennis, the latter fits this role between Kurosaki far better.
  • He's this to Tsukikage, since Sora turned his brother Hikage into a card. However, Sora is more accepting about this and is willing to let Tsukikage have his way with him as long as Yuya is saved first. Actually something of a subversion, since Sora is slowly becoming more good, and Tsukikage agreed to let it go for the time being to focus on the mission. He later drops this by saving Tsukikage from Obelisk Force.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Yuya calls Sora out on this when he asks Sora if he should abandon Serena to Academia in order to save Yuzu. Sora is shocked speechless as a result.
  Yuya: "Why do you want me to bring Serena?"
  Sora: "I want you to hand her over to me. In exchange, you can have Yuzu back. You can then return to the Standard Dimension with her!"
  Yuya: "Are you saying that I should abandon Serena!?"
  Sora: "That’s not what I meant! Didn't I tell you? She was a member of Academia to begin with. I’m just taking her back to her home!"
  Yuya: "You’re taking her back to the prison that is Academia!?"
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A platonic version, but after the reveal that he was The Mole, he's had moments that shows he still cares about his friends in Standard.
  • He was very disturbed when he saw that Serena, his capture target, looked identical to Yuzu.
  • In his rematch against Yuya, he noticeably doesn't pull any slasher smiles during the duel except when talking about the Academia's goals. Compared to his rematch with Kurosaki or his duel with Hikage, when it was on near constant. Showing he doesn't enjoy a duel to the death with Yuya.
  • Episode 78 reveals that he saved Yuzu, while that may have been just his duty, he then rushed to Yuya to show that she was safe. Episode 80 shows that despite his orders, he really doesn't want to hand Yuzu willingly over to Academia and wants to keep her and Yuya safe.
• Badass Adorable: He beat up Sawatari and his friends in an instant. With a lollipop stick. He also went ninja on us in Episodes 6, 15 and 34.
  • Despite being injured from his duel with Kurosaki, Sora quickly knocks out two Security guards to chase after Yuto. Note that the Security guards are full grown adults while Sora is still just a kid.
  • He later defeats Kurosaki in their rematch.
  • He manages to OTK a small legion of guards simultaneously with two monsters and a trap.
• The Bad Guy Wins: After his allegiance is revealed, Sora defeats Kurosaki in his rematch, laughing and enjoying the man's suffering.
• Bash Brothers: Teams up with Yuya in Episode 115 to beat up Solo.
• Beast and Beauty: Non-romantic metaphorical Beast to Yuzu's Beauty, lampshaded in the ballroom scene.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Episode 80 shows more of Sora's mindset: during his time in Standard, he came to regard Yuya and Yuzu as his first friends. This is due to the harsh training regime Academia put the kid through, which really left no time for relaxation and bonding between his fellow students. Plus since the majority of Academia are tortured into violent but obedient sociopaths, hanging out with Yuya and Yuzu came as a source of huge relief to the boy and he grew to care for them despite his better judgment.
• Being Evil Sucks: He really does want to keep his friendship with Yuya and Yuzu, and struggling against Professor's orders are becoming increasingly difficult. He eventually decides to go against Academia to help his friends.
• Berserk Button:
  • The idea of a Xyz duelist either being better or looking down on him is a major button. More specifically, thinking about Kurosaki and the way he humiliated him.
  • After becoming a good guy, Sora would like to let his enemies know that they should NEVER threaten Yuya and Yuzu in front of him if they know what's good for them. Solo learns it the hard way.
• Big Bad Friend: After Sora's real identity is exposed and his friends call him out on his behavior, Sora tries, in a half-hearted manner, to justify his actions of sealing people away into cards and promoting Dimensional Wars between the Fusion Faction and everybody else. Yuya and Yuzu are having none of it.
• Big Brother Mentor: An age-inverted example; he ends up teaching Yuzu about Fusion Summoning. Yuzu refers back to this relationship when explaining him to Frank, Tanner, and Amanda.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • He saves Yuzu and Crow's kids from Security. Counts as this due to being on the Face side at the time.
  • His Heel–Face Turn is immediately followed by him saving Tsukikage from Obelisk Force.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: A minor example; his eyebrows aren't particularly big, just thicker than everyone else's pencil-thin brows.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Due to being a Child Soldier Sadist, though his Death-Toy Chain Sheep is a literal example.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Yuya is the only one immune to Sora's cute face and the only one that sees him as the annoying kid he is during episodes 5 and 6. Later episodes have characters previously enamored with Sora's cuteness being clearly annoyed by his actions.
• Break the Haughty: As the duel with Kurosaki went on, this happened. And again against Yuto.
• Brutal Honesty: He points out that Yuya was the only reason that LDS didn't get the You Show Duel School.
• Bullying a Dragon: Does this to Kurosaki. At least Sora got to keep his soul. Subverted in that he later does beat him, showing they are more or less on equal footing.
• The Bus Came Back: After the Battle Royal arc, Sora more or less gets Put on a Bus until about halfway through the Synchro arc.
• Character Development: Thanks to Yuya and Yuzu he begins to move out of being a Sociopathic Soldier and gains a sense of empathy.
• Child Soldier: A lot of Sora's claims about his abilities and superiority to Xyz duelists, is eerily similar to the lies real child soldiers are told to get him to fight. Episode 36 confirms he is a Duel Soldier from the Fusion Dimension.
• Creepy Good: Post-Heel–Face Turn, his Death-Toys are still scary, but he is a good guy.
• Cute and Psycho: He plays off his cuteness blatantly, and partakes in hunting Xyz Duelists and destroying Heartland City for fun.
• Dance Battler: His Trap Card Fusion Death Waltz literally invokes this. Mad Chimaera then dances with Bloom Prima to wipe out Security.
• Dark Is Evil: His Death-Toy monsters are all DARK Monsters, with the exception of Death-Toy Kraken.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Post-Heel–Face Turn.
• Declaration of Protection: After seeing a rampaging Yuya, Sora declares that he will protect Serena before jumping on Crow's D-Wheel and bailing out Tsukikage from the Obelisk Force.
• Defector from Decadence: Sora ultimately leaves Academia for Yuya and Yuzu.
• Deliberately Cute Child: Sora plays his cuteness to the hilt, charming the pants off of Yuya's mother, friends, and teachers alike.
• Determinator: Once he sets his sights on something, Sora will not give up until he gets it. Kurosaki uses this to reason that Sora survived being blown up during his message to Yuya.
• Didn't Think This Through: Yuya points out the holes in Sora's plan to exchange Serena for Yuzu.
  Sora: "Don't you get it, Yuya!? There’s no other way to save Yuzu! If you keep hesitating, the Obelisk Force will arrive before you know it! And then, this city will become a battlefield!"
  Yuya: "Even if I bring Yuzu back, The Obelisk Force will still chase after her, won't they!? And then, our hometown will become a battlefield as well. My friends at You Show School will be in danger, too. There's no way I can allow that!"
  Sora: "That's why in order to prevent that, I’m going to bring Serena back, and persuade the Professor-"
  Yuya: "You know that he can't be persuaded, don’t you!?"
  Sora: "…"
• Dishing Out Dirt: Despite being fairies, the Furnimal monsters are all EARTH monsters.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He's incredibly insulted when Yuto passes up a chance to One-Hit Kill him because he didn't want to hurt him. He says he'll never forgive Yuto for looking down on him.
• Dub Name Change: His last name is changed to Perse in the dub.
  • Furnimal -> Fluffal
  • Death-Toy -> Frightfur
• Eldritch Abomination: His Death-Toy monsters, but Mad Chimaera takes the cake: It is best described as the upper parts of various puppets and plushes attached to four anvils, with working tools jammed into their heads.
• Evil All Along: Despite getting all buddy-buddy with the main cast he makes a sport out of hunting Xyz Duelists and partaking in interdimensional invasions.
• Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed; when he returns to the Standard Dimension, he is using the Academia's Duel Disk instead of the Standard Dimension one he previously used. He keeps it after his Heel–Face Turn though.
• Evil Is Hammy: Oh boy. Sora takes several levels in ham after The Reveal, especially when he's performing Fusion Summons, and it's quite telling that he drops it around Yuya and Yuzu.
• Evil Mentor: Since he was Evil All Along.
• Expy:
  • A silly guy that befriends The Hero with cutesy monsters that turn into nightmarish creatures, and turns out to be Evil All Along and makes constant evil faces. Shingetsu/Vector anyone? Though his character development is slowly edging him out of this.
  • He's also a mix between Bruno (helping out with the heroes) and Lucciano (being a child Duelist working with the bad guys). And like Bruno, he stays loyal to his new friends.
• Extreme Omnivore: He adds chocolate fudge to a plate of sardines. It grosses out Yuya of all people.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sora was actually Evil All Along. After showing his true colors and being forcefully teleported back to Academia, he has become an enemy.
• Fantastic Racism: Considers Fusion the best kind of summon, and actively looks down upon Xyz Duelists, using that as a justification to target them for fun. Averted when Yuya Xyz Summons, he's more impressed by the existence of a Pendulum Xyz.
• Final Boss: Of the Miami Championship arc, being the last remaining Academia member remaining after invading the tournament.
• Foreshadowing: His use of Fusion and his influence on Yuzu and by proxy Yuya ends up foreshadowing the later plot of the Dark Duelist's enemies using Fusions. This turns out to be more than a coincidence as he is revealed in Episode 34 to have a hand in the destruction of what is implied to be Heartland, Kurosaki's home. And his nature is further foreshadowed by the cards he uses, cute little creatures that when fused take on a disturbing corrupted form.
• For the Evulz: The reason Sora and his fellow Fusion duelists hunted Xyz duelists.
• Forced into Evil: Sora seems to believe no matter what he does because he was raised by the Academia, he is stuck to them forever.
• Forced to Watch: While invading Academia, he is stuck between two sets of bars and is thus unable to aid Asuka as she duels Yuri, and witnesses the latter defeat and card her. Yuri then reveals that he could have lifted the bars at any time, but chose not to simply for the sake of evoking this trope.
• Friendless Background: He grew up without any friends in Academia, Yuzu and Yuya being his first.
• The Gadfly: Enjoys teasing Yuya a lot. He also teased Yuzu over her interest in Yuto a lot while he tutored her.
• The Heavy: Despite being under the Professor's orders and Yuri and Dennis being around, he is the leader of the invasion force during the Battle Royale. Reiji also remarks that Sora's Fusion power indirectly influenced Yuya, which resulted to the births of Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Sora's an asshole, that's for sure. But saving an unconscious Yuzu and going after Yuya to tell him that she's okay makes him look saner than Yuri or the Obelisk Force. Episode 80 reveals that he saved Yuzu out of genuine concern for her well-being and that he's starting to have doubts towards the Professor and the "mission" of uniting all four worlds. Yuya is pleading with Sora at this point to abandon Academia like Serena did and join the right side.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sora ultimately decides to help Yuya save Serena and do the right thing.
• Hidden Depths: Initially, there were no hints as to what they were, but Sora's not just an annoying kid. Yuto especially stated Sora isn't from "around here". In Episode 33, he reacts for a second at the name "Heartland". And in episode 34, he reveals himself to be part of the faction attacking Kurosaki and Yuto's hometown, saying that they do it for fun. In Episode 35, he reveals what the Fusion faction do to their victims: not keeping them prisoners in holding cells, but in cards.
  • On a more positive note, it's heavily implied by his use of Yuya's catchphrase that he genuinely respects Yuya. And according to series director Katsumi Ono, he truly loves having fun and eating candy above all else, including revenge. Episode 80 reinforces this, as Sora admits to Yuya and himself that he does like Yuya and Yuzu, doing anything to keep them safe, even if it means disobeying the Professor's absolute orders.
• Homing Lasers: Courtesy of Death-Toy Wheel Saw Lion and Chain Sheep both.
• Hyper-Awareness: Realizes that Yuto is following him and Yuzu.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: A meta moment, but in Episode 33, we see Sora's extra deck and it is HUGE. Showing us he has a lot more Fusion monsters than just Death-Toy Scissor Bear.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: He's convinced that Yuya still exists somewhere inside Zarc and tries to evoke this trope, despite Zarc's assertions to the contrary.
• Iconic Item: His distinctive pink-and-white-swirled lollipop. However, after The Reveal, it's replaced by a smaller green one.
• Idiot Ball: Oh sure, Sora, mock the 2000 ATK Revolution Falcon after the 100 ATK Rise Falcon kicked your ass. And piss off Kurosaki by telling him what you did to his homeland and bragging about it after he's proven capable enough to knock you down. That'll end well. Possibly justified due to Villainous Breakdown. Doubly applicable when it's revealed that Mad Chimaera could have prevented Kurosaki's use of Rank-Up-Magic Revolution force had Sora activated that effect, which he did not despite knowing that Kurosaki had a face-down card and once again shows off Sora's immense arrogance.
• Ironic Echo: Says Yuya's trademark line, "The fun's just getting started!", as he makes the winning move against Kurosaki. The dark red background, the shadows in Sora's eyes, and his insane smile and laughter makes the scene all types of disturbing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sora slides between this and Jerk with a Heart of Jerk; he's introduced as the former, a Brutal Honesty Bratty Half-Pint, and during the Maiami Championship arc slides firmly into the latter; mocking everyone from the Xyz Dimension^note Yuto looking like Yuya doesn't spare him from this and reviling in the evil that he causes (with many a choice Slasher Smile no less) to the point of trying to mock even Yuya. He does get a few Pet the Dog moments that turn out to be key to his psyche. He returns to Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the Synchro Dimension precisely because of these; his friendship with (and their subsequent coaxing) Yuya and Yuzu prompts his Heel–Face Turn.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As mentioned in Brutal Honesty, he was pretty spot on when he pointed out that Yuya was the only reason LDS didn't acquire the You Show Duel School.
• Kick the Dog: Several. He reveals gleefully how his group attacked Heartland, and then turns Hikage into a card. He then completely rejects Yuya's attempts to invoke a Heel–Face Turn, claiming that they were never friends.
• Killer Rabbit: His Furnimal/Edge Imp/Death-Toy deck. Also a reflection of his own Badass Adorable nature and his Hidden Depths. Note that in the real game (but not in series yet) there is a monster called Furnimal Rabbit.
• Killer Teddy Bear: Again, his deck. Bonus point for his (initial) signature card actually being named Scissor Bear.
• Lack of Empathy: Sora doesn't see that his and Academia's actions against the Xyz Dimension was wrong and instead considers it fun. When others call him out on this, he just shrugs it off, saying its necessary to unite the dimensions. The Synchro arc is starting to subvert this trope, as Yuya's constant questioning is slowly bringing Sora around to his way of thinking, to the point that he even apologizes to Tsukikage for carding Hikage.
• Le Parkour: Being trained in Fusion has its upsides. He has improbably good skills for a small child, being able to Wall Jump, leap across wide gaps and rooftops, and chase a D-Wheel.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: He sees most of his duels as just a plaything, since nobody (aside Yuya) has been able to pass his Death-Toy Scissor Bear, until Episode 33. Kurosaki outsmarts him and destroys his monsters with Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon. Sora, at the end of the episode, though a little surprised, gets up, pulls a Slasher Smile and he finally decides to get a serious fight.
• Locked Out of the Fight: Twice. The first time is when Obelisk Force clamps down on his duel disk so he can't help Yuya. The second is after he and Asuka set it up so Reira, Reiji, and Yusho can get away from Yuri, but because he stops to push Reira through before the bars descend, he gets trapped behind the second set. This leaves him unable to help Asuka and she loses to and is carded by Yuri. An invoked trope on Yuri's part as it turns out he could have opened it to let Sora in at any time, but wanted an audience.
• Loose Lips: Was dragged back to Academia for revealing their plans to Yuto, but not Yuya (though he was there), since Standard Dimension isn't the enemy.
• Meaningful Name: His dub surname "Perse" is both a shade of purple and the name of a real-life private school in Cambridge, signifying his allegiance to Academia (recall that Fusion Monsters have purple card borders). His original surname, "Shiun'in", also incorporates kanji for "violet" and "school".
• Morality Pet: Yuya and Yuzu are this for him.
• Mr. Exposition: Oddly enough. He is the only one in You Show that seems to know the mechanics of the advanced Summoning methods that are apparently not available for general public. Especially Xyz.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sora likes to play the playful, cheerful and (sometimes) helpless child card in his duels, until he's pushed hard enough to get dangerous. Also, because he hardly finds people able to excite him enough to do it.
  • He also hides his true nature during the duel with Kurosaki until he is pushed to the edge and gleefully reveals his hand in the attacks on his hometown.
• Oh, Crap!: He gets this quite a few times through his first duel with Kurosaki. There's also a notable one when he realizes that Yuya seems to think that he's carded Yuzu (plus he's surrounded by the enemy). Sora promptly hightails it back to his dimension. (As it later turns out, he was afraid that one of his comrades might accidently captured Yuzu while mistaking her for Serena since they switched clothes, and Sora had no intention to capture Yuzu, only Serena.)
• Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement: Beats up Sawatari and his three goons using a lollipop stick.
• Oral Fixation: He sucks on lollipops frequently, and as mentioned above, he can knock someone out by throwing one. When angry or upset, he tends to bite them rather than suck them.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: How he feels about Kurosaki after Kurosaki beat him in their first duel. He even calls him his "prey". He finally pays him back in Episode 47.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lets just say the You Show was greatly shocked by his true nature.
• Our Demons Are Different: Known as Fiend-Type in the TCG, the Edge Imps are possessed cutting instruments, which in turn combine with stuffed toys, mangling them to create diabolical playthings, the Death-Toys.
• Out of Focus: Despite being prominent early and being The Heavy in the invasion arc, after he was sent back to Fusion, he remained absent for the next thirty or so episodes until he reappeared in the Synchro Dimension to assist Yuya and Yuzu.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He agreed to teach Yuzu how to Fusion Summon. Subverted, as he later revealed that it was for the glory of Fusion. Double Subverted, he later admits it was out of friendship.
  • An odd version. He finishes up his final qualifier duel quickly, to ensure that Yuzu has time to see the end of Yuya's duel with Mieru. He then later gave Yuya an honest congratulations for Fusion Summoning perfectly on his first try.
  • After his allegiance to the Big Bad is revealed, he gets one when the Professor orders him to recapture Serena who looks like Yuzu. Sora is shocked at the idea of capturing his friend. Even after the Professor clarifies that Serena and Yuzu are different people, he has trouble getting past the fact Serena looks too much like Yuzu.
  • Later after he saves Dennis he insists that he goes home because he is hurt, and promises that he will complete his mission for him, all the while being extremely courteous and kind to him.
  • After saving Yuzu from certain death, he drags her unconscious body somewhere safe before going out to give Yuya a message.
  • He later genuinely apologizes to Tsukikage for his brother, though he knows it won't make up for it, and asks he simply wait until after Yuya is safe to take revenge.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: Offers this to Tsukikage for carding his brother, but asks that he wait until after he rescues Yuya.
• Plot Armor: Despite losing to Yuri he avoids being turned into a card, thanks to the timely arrival of Yugo and Edo.
• Pride:
  • Sora is so proud of his dueling skills, particularly Fusion, that he tends to not take other duelists seriously enough.
  • When Yuya mentions he needs to beat six duelists in a row to qualify for the tournament, he just shrugs it off and mentions it won't be a problem. Yuya calls him out on this, saying that Sora should stop underestimating his opponents or he's going to regret it.
  • He considers a rematch between Yuzu and Masumi will have a vastly different outcome, since he was the one who taught Yuzu the mechanics of Fusion Summoning. When Masumi calls him out on this, he merely dismisses her and tells her that LDS and its Fusion course isn't as great as she thinks it is. Angered, she immediately wants to duel HIM, which then causes Sora to lament what a waste of time it would be, since he'll end up hurting her confidence even more.
  • When Yuto suggests that Fusion doesn't fit Yuzu's dueling style, Sora considers that an insult and suggests a duel to show him his place.
  • When Yuya tries to warn him about Kurosaki, he insists that he'll be perfectly fine. When Kurosaki destroys his Death-Toy Scissor Bear, Sora finally shows his teeth.
  • Even then though, Sora acts extremely smug, not believing that Kurosaki will get past his Fusion Monsters. Each time they activate their effects or attack though, Kurosaki still has a counter towards them. Sora undergoes Sanity Slippage, yelling that Kurosaki won't survive the attack and effect of Death-Toy Mad Chimaera. Kurosaki uses the effect of Chimaera against Sora, using a Rank-Up card to summon Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon, and wins the duel, on Sora's turn no less. After that, Sora begs Kurosaki for a rematch, only for Kurosaki to walk away as Sora faints.
  • The guy is still arrogant despite his loss to Kurosaki, claiming that "he wasn't going all out" and that if he did, he could've easily won. Notably, whenever he's being bested in a duel, Sora starts losing his cool.
  • His arrogance returns in full force when he engages in a rematch with Kurosaki. When Kurosaki suggests that he go grab a Action Card to help him out, Sora states that he doesn't need anything like that and his skill will be enough. He's proven right.
  • Agrees with having a rematch duel with Yuya since he doesn't like the fact that he has a "loss record" with him.
• The Promise: He made a promise with Yuya to protect Yuzu for him in Episode 80. Sora even states that he plans to uphold it by bring Yuya to Yuzu.
• Punny Name: Des-Toy, the Japanese name for his deck archetype. It's a pun to "Death Toy" and sounds like "destroy." Overlaps with Meaningful Name due to the monsters' appearances and offensive effects.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: When his act of cuteness isn't enough, Sora weaponizes the puppy eyes pout, and he can even add some Crocodile Tears for extra power.
• Put on a Bus:
  • After being sent back to Academia, Sora is absent until the Battle Royal starts.
  • After the Battle Royal, he is absent until half of the Synchro Dimension arc.
  • With Yuya and half of the Lancers being in the Xyz Dimension, Sora, the other half of the Lancers as well as Jack and Crow are absent for now. With the rest of the Lancers, he comes back as one himself in Episode 115.
• Rhymes on a Dime: His summoning chants in the dub.
  Sora: "Edge of sharpness and fury of bear, when the two come together you had better beware!"
• Sanity Slippage: During the second half of his duel with Kurosaki, Sora gets more and more unhinged, until he's just a screaming mess.
  • Sanity Strengthening: See Took a Level in Kindness
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As soon as he sees Yuya's Superpowered Evil Side the second time, "To hell with Academia, I'm going to save my friends!" is his reaction.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He warps away after the end of the Battle Royale in Episode 49.
• Shipper on Deck: One for Yuya/Yuzu.
• Sixth Ranger: To the Lancers after his Heel–Face Turn. He could be counted as one, but he is not officially a Lancer until Episode 115.
• The Smart Guy: In the first season, Sora is not only familiar with the different Special Summoning methods, he also judges most situations right, making him the smartest duelist among the four heroes. At least until his Face–Heel Turn.
• Slasher Smile: At the end of Episode 33. Does this repeatedly throughout the next episode. Later this becomes Sora's trademark as his true personality is out for the world to see.
• Smug Smiler: Very confident in his reading of people and his dueling knowledge which allows him to be one step ahead of his opponent. This also serves as a hint to the audience about his his mysterious Hidden Depths.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Well, Duelist in any case, though this does entail actively harming his opponents and destroying their city. He believes Fusion Duelists to be far superior to Xyz Duelists, and targets them just for fun.
• Sore Loser: Sora just can't accept the fact that he lost to Kurosaki and insists that he's the "stronger" of the two when he's not holding back, despite the audience clearly seeing that Kurosaki won fair and square. Downplayed when he goes to duel Yuya for a second time during the Battle Royal sub-arc. He comments he doesn't like having a losing record against Yuya, but would not have gone after him had Yuya not insisted on dueling.
• Sour Supporter: Downplayed. Sora is more realistic and knows how to choose his opponents. His attitude often clashes with the more optimistic and idealist members of You Show.
• Spanner in the Works: His actions in Episode 78 foils Roget's plan in regards to capture and use Yuzu as a bargaining chip against Academia.
• Stalker without a Crush: Sora in Episode 5 was more or less stalking Yuya.
• Stepping Stones in the Sky: How he manages to avoid being caught under a collapsing building.
• Student–Master Team: Whenever he Tags with Yuzu.
• Sweet Tooth: Sora is always eating something sweet. ALWAYS.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Hoo boy. Sora spends half of episode 5 following Yuya. From his house to his school, from his classroom to his toilet break. And even after Yuya beats him in a Duel, he joins You Show to become Yuya's friend rather than his apprentice. Then he leaves after getting called out on being a dick in episode 14.
• This Cannot Be!: Calm, confident, and a little bit smug, he nevertheless was astonished when Gongenzaka subverts his expectations. Twice.
  • Again during his duel with Kurosaki, as Kurosaki pretty much counters every single one of Sora's moves, even using the effect of Sora's strongest monster against him to win the duel.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Shares this dynamic with Asuka, despite both being roughly the same age.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Hanging out with Yuya and Yuzu has significantly improved his sanity.
• Troll: Whenever Sora starts getting the upper hand, he starts acting like this to antagonize his opponents. The greatest example is when he rebels against Obelisk Force and steals all their monsters with his ace Death-Toy Mad Chimera, giving them a smile as he kicks their asses with them.
• True Companions: Sora considers Yuya and Yuzu this. He muses aloud that they are his first and only friends. Later he shows that he sees all of You Show as this.
• Token Evil Teammate: Seemingly averted. Rather than be taken back to You Show by Yuya even after learning what a monster he is, Sora is warped back to the Fusion Dimension and is now an enemy to Yuya and the others.
  • Later, when he does come back, he is no longer evil.
• Tyke-Bomb: This is how he was raised as shown in Episode 80.
• Underestimating Badassery: Sora completely underestimates Kurosaki and Yuto as they are Xyz users. Averted in his rematch with Kurosaki, while still mocking him, Sora carefully analyzes his plays.
• The Unreveal: In Episode 36, he was going to reveal the ultimate Fusion Monster, before he got taken back home. Subverted, as you can see a bit of the card on his Duel Disk before he's teleported away: it's just Death-Toy Chimera.
• Villain Ball: See the Idiot Ball up there? He's only been this dumb when he was a villain, and the only times that he hasn't were when he had prior information about his foes, aka Kurosaki and Dark Rebellion. And despite strict instructions from the Professor to pursue Serena first and Kurosaki later, guess who he goes after first? The only reason that it didn't bite him harder than it could have was because fortunately Serena was looking for Kurosaki herself.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Right: Books it at the end of the Battle Royal, after hearing that Yuzu went missing.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end of his duel with Kurosaki, he was reduced to an insane screaming mess. Yuto also dealt it to him in considerably less time, though he was still fresh from his last breakdown.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • A villain on villain variant, when Dennis is injured after his duel with Kurosaki and the Council and Security are fighting over him, Sora sends him home to Academia (so he cannot spy on Serena anymore).
  • He also saves Yuzu from certain death in Episode 78, although his villain status is called into question. He additionally planned to send Yuzu back to Standard to keep her out of Fusion's way, but she adamantly protested against the fact, since that would mean leaving Yuya and her friends behind.
• Walking Spoiler: Sora being initially Evil All Along and him eventually pulling a Heel–Face Turn in the next season make most of the spoiler tags useless.
• Was It All a Lie??: During he and Yuya's second duel, he tells him they are not friends anymore, and that this is his true self. Though by the end of the duel, he doesn't sound too sure himself either. Episode 80 finally sheds some light on Sora's mindset: he grew to care for both Yuya and Yuzu.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: He joins the Lancers following his Heel–Face Turn.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims what he is doing is for the purpose of bringing the dimensions into one.
• What the Hell, Hero?: On the receiving end of this from the kids for his attitude, and later Yuya for when he revealed his true self.
  • Yuya calling him out again for still siding with Academia, knowing how rotten they are, and how Sora was willing to exchange Serena's freedom for Yuzu's, despite her trying to escape it.
• The Worf Effect: A rare physical one for this series. Despite Sora being a skilled fighter and Duelist, he and Tsukikage are both physically beaten by Sergey, and then by Roget in a duel, although Roget cheated by using hologram clones. Also interesting in that neither opponent is ultimately taken down by the main protagonist; Sergey defeated Yuya and then fell to Jack, while Roget is dueling Reiji. He also loses to Yuri, though by that point Yuri had well proved his sheer strength, and later on to Zarc, though Zarc was proving how "god-like" he is.
• Worf Had the Flu: He and Tsukikage lost to Roget, but it took him a second try and cheating with Fighting a Shadow antics.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Yuya one, as he comments on how fun it is to duel Yuya after seeing Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon.

Crow Hogan

Crow Hogan

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma (JP), Christopher C. Adams (EN)

An alternate version of Crow Hogan from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. A member of Commons, he takes care of three orphans. Despite being friends with Shinji, Crow believes in a more peaceful solution for the City. After witnessing the attack by Obelisk Force, he becomes one of the few Synchro Allies for the Lancers, later joining them.

He uses an Assault Blackwing Deck, which includes the old Blackwings and the new Assault Blackwing sub-archetype. Assault Blackwings can be treated as Tuners if made using Blackwings, allowing Crow to slowly build up towards higher-level monsters. His ace is Assault Blackwing- Raikiri the Rain Shower.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: This version of Crow is even more aggressive and cynical than his 5D's incarnation.
• And I Must Scream: Crow gets rather horrifically carded by BB. This is later subverted when he eventually frees himself to help combat Zarc.
• Back from the Dead:
  • His self-dubbed "Phantom Synchro" technique, which only summons Synchro Monsters from the Graveyard as opposed to summoning from the Extra Deck.
  • The man himself comes back from being carded in Episode 138 to face Zarc with Sawatari.
• Badass Biker: Comes with riding a D-Wheel. Since it's the Blackbird, he can "fly" with it.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Crow and his gang come out of nowhere to save Yuya and his group after they were surrounded by Security.
  • He does it again, this time with Jack in Episode 99 by sealing Roget's only chance for escape.
  • In Episode 115, he saves Yuya from falling into the ocean by using Raikiri.
• Broken Pedestal: Jack Atlas. Crow believed that Jack becoming the Duel King would change the situation between the Tops and Commons, but since Jack didn't do anything since then, Crow sees him as a traitor.
• Casting a Shadow: The Blackwings and Assault Blackwings are DARK monsters.
• Continuity Nod: Like his 5D's counterpart, this Crow sympathizes with people who are Friends To All Children.
• Cool Bike: It's not Crow without his "flying" Blackbird.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He ended up in one of the City's camps, which is why he has his facial markings here.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His Blackwings and Assault Blackwings are black in color, but Crow is a good guy.
• Everyone Has Standards: After saving a Tops kid in Episode 93, Crow expresses disagreement and moral disgust at Shinji's "revolution".
• Foil: He's one to Shinji. Crow in general seems more vocal in his hatred of the Tops, refusing to do anything with them, while Shinji kept his hatred quiet till the Friendship Cup and is willing to play their games if it advances his goals. Shinji focuses on how the Tops have mistreated them and calls for a much more violent uprising while Crow stresses the bonds between the Commons instead, focusing more on being an example and making the Commons desire change for themselves.
• Friend to All Children: Just like 5D's. The reason he rescued Yuya and the others was because of Yuya's attempt to protect Reira. Later he bonded with Kurosaki because Kurosaki saved Tanner.
• Flanderization: Crow is all about food and kids this time around. Which considering how he lives, is tragic. This is later toned down.
• Go Out with a Smile: When Crow is carded by BB, he smiles in a cool fashion. A sad Sawatari even lampshades how cool he looks.
• Graceful Loser: Isn't bothered by losing to Yuya, and tells him to save his friends.
• Handshake Substitute: He does a fist bump with Kurosaki after realizing that they're not so different.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Realizing that BB is too strong, Crow breaks Sawatari's Duel Disk to spare him from being carded. Crow continues to take on BB by himself, but he barely loses to BB and gets carded.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He puts on a facade in episode 62 since he and Shinji are planning a prison break, and pushes Yuya to arm's length because he knows friends left behind get punished for escape attempts.
• Large Ham: "Hungry Dueling" indeed. He isn't quite as hammy as the original Crow though.
• Made a Slave: He is sent to the underground after losing to Yuya... only to break out of it in the same night.
• Manchild: His argument and duel with Yuya in Episode 59 definitively shows he has some shades of this.
• Morality Chain: The three kids are this for him.
• Mr. Exposition: He explains Tops and Commons to Yuya, Serena, and Sawatari.
• Nice Guy: Saves Yuya and his group, and then goes to find Yugo and Yuzu since they cannot. Though he becomes a little more jerkish later.
• Noble Bird of Prey: The Blackwings. The Assault Blackwings are more humanoid than their predecessors but can also count as this.
• Obsessed with Food: He considers a full stomach to be more important than anything. Considering where he lives, he has a point.
• Only Sane Man: In episode 95, despite the entire City hearing Yuzu's message, Crow is the only one who wants to unite with the Tops to fight against Academia while the rest of the Commons don't care about any of that and just want to continue their revolution.
• Parental Substitute: For the three kids, Tanner, Frank, and Amanda.
• Power of the Storm: His Assault Blackwings are based on weather conditions, such as rain, thunder etc.
• Really Dead Montage: While not "dead" per se, he gets one when he's sealed into a card. So as-good-as-dead montage.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Shinji, being far more emotional than Shinji's logical calm. This is swapped around from episode 68 onwards. Crow is much more passive in his resistance to the tops as opposed to Shinji who outright announces that he intends to unite the commons to overthrow the tops. Crow also is much more willing to listen to Yuya despite his suspicions about him, while Shinji labels Yuya as a cheater and dog of the Tops immediately after losing to him.
• Shock and Awe: The Assault Blackwings have lightning in their attacks and summoning chants.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He has a low opinion about Yuya's smiling philosophy, claiming that just having a full stomach should be enough for happiness.
• Sixth Ranger: To the Lancers following the Security's disbandment. He becomes a Lancer himself.
• Tattooed Crook: Just like the previous Crow; and like the previous Crow, he isn't a bad guy by any definition.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While Shinji, Tony, and Damon are hardly heroes to begin with, Crow calls them out for being too busy with their "revolution", not caring about Yuzu's broadcast to the City. Unfortunately, they had other plans.
• Worthy Opponent: He sees Gongenzaka as one after their duel. Kurosaki also gets this treatment, especially after they become buddies.

Former Members

Members that have proven they either weren't up to snuff with the pressures of war and/or were taken out by the enemy. Dennis has proven to be a traitor and spy on the Lancers; Reiji himself had prepared for such a possibility.

Dennis McField (Dennis Mackfield)

Dennis McField (Dennis Mackfield)

Dennis plays the role of The Mole to the Lancers, with secret ties to Academia.

See Fusion Dimension for more information.

LDS Youth

LDS Youth

The initial strike team that Reiji selected due to their proven skills in past tournaments and matches. They all lost miserably against Obelisk Force, leaving Yuu Sakuragi as the sole survivor. For more information about Sakuragi, click here.

Tropes Associated with LDS Youth:

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• And I Must Scream: Sealed into cards.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: One of them uses Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The shown monsters are EARTH monsters.
• Flawed Prototype: To the current Lancers.
• Green Thumb: One uses the Naturia archetype, an archetype of Plant-Type monsters.
• Red Shirt Army: What they ended up as.
• Total Party Kill: All of them fall to Obelisk Force.
• The Worf Effect: All of them were creamed by Obelisk Force.