Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Main Characters

A character subpage from the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime and manga series, the Oddly Named Sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! For the main character page, see here.

ALL spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware major spoilers.

Repeat! ALL spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware major spoilers

Please remember the above mentioned when you update this page. Leave the spoilers unmarked to avoid confusion or look for and mark them all. Thank you.

Main Characters

Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki)

Voiced by: KENN (Japanese), Matthew Labyorteaux (English)

The top student at Duel Academy and the series protagonist. Jaden is happy-go-lucky and eager to prove himself. He's a dueling prodigy, but is regularly mentioned to have awful grades and often sleeps through or skips classes. Since his character in the first two seasons is radically different from the second half of Season 3 and Season 4, we had to split it into three different sections.

He uses an Elemental Hero deck, augmented with Neo-Spacians in Season 2.

---

See his page.

Johan Andersen (Jesse Anderson)

Jesse Anderson (ヨハン・アンデルセン) (Johan Andersen)

Voiced by: Kanako Irie (Japanese), Christopher C. Adams (English)

Introduced in Season 3; the top student of North Academy and owner of the only set of Crystal Beast cards. He quickly becomes Jaden's best friend and closest partner in the struggle to save reality in Season 4.

Jesse uses a Crystal Beast deck, with Rainbow Dragon as his ace.

---

• The Ace: Downplayed, but he has an impressive reputation. Owning one of, if not the rarest deck in the world. Which was given to him after he won a regional tournament and before going to dueling school. Pegasus placed him as his fifth top duelist in the world and Aster Phoenix took a break from his Pro tour just because he heard Jesse was going to be at Duel Academy.
• Action Survivor: As with all the season 3 transfers. Particularly in the desert, where he takes charge often enough that he even bosses around the teachers a couple of times. He's not used to dueling for his life, but he manages pretty well regardless.
• All-Loving Hero: Next to Jaden, he’s probably the most loving friend/student in Duel Academy. He always looks out for people, even people he just met, and tries to make sure everyone is doing ok. He’s even risked his life on more than one occasion, and is usually the first one to do so.
• Ambiguously Gay: Rainbows and frills, anyone? He is also very close to Jaden, and Yubel heavily implies that the two of them had a romantic attraction towards each other. Though their Yandere nature at the time makes it hard to pinpoint how much is them seeing things and how much was true.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The only person who he's ever shown to genuinely hate was Trapper, and by god did he trash him once he got his Sapphire Pegasus back. He wasn't even remotely considered with the guy disappearing while screaming.
• Bond Creatures: The Crystal Beasts.
• The Bus Came Back: Comes back later to help fight Darkness.
• Cain and Abel: A non-sibling related example with Jaden. Yusuke tries to tempt him to defeat Jaden, so that Jesse can be the best and he proceeds to attack Jaden. Subverted because it was all an act and both Jesse and Jaden reveal they don't carry any ill will in trying to outdo each other in dueling.
• Character-Driven Strategy: Jesse Anderson plays with a Crystal Beast deck, a monster series that, while lacking in raw ATK or DEF power, are capable of swarming the field and staying out of the GY, this reflecting Jesse's non-stop positive attitude, his predilection towards harmlessly trolling everyone and the kind of relationship he has with the Crystal beast spirits.
• The Chosen One: Said to be one, but of what is never revealed. Fans usually say he's been chosen by the Crystal Beasts/Rainbow Dragon and roll with that.
• Clark Kent Outfit: As seen when he's possessed by Yubel, Jesse is far more muscular than his normal outfit lets on.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: While possessed by Yubel.
• Demonic Possession: By Yubel.
• Dissonant Laughter: During the duel against Marcel to save Duel Academy, he finds pure joy from dueling the Sacred Beasts. Even Jaden isn't quite sure what to say to that but lets himself be infected by the enthusiasm.
• Distressed Dude: His disappearance sets the events of the latter half of Season 3 in motion.
• Empathy Pet: The Crystal Beasts, particularly when he's possessed and they try to reach out to Jaden to help Jesse even when they're forced to attack him.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: The only person who he's ever shown to genuinely hate was Trapper, and by god, did he trash him once he got his Sapphire Pegasus back. He wasn't even remotely bothered with the guy disappearing while screaming.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: His ultimate monster, Rainbow Dragon.
• Evil Makeover: When possessed by Yubel. His deck also switches to a Dark variant of his Crystal Beasts, built around "Advanced Crystal Beasts" which are functionally no different from the originals.
• Expy: Johan is also somewhat similar to Nagisa Kaworu, as they are both Pretty Boys who immediately gains the main characters' friendship and affection after their debut and have a close relationship with them. The difference is that unlike Kaworu, Jesse is never canonically acknowledged to be a love interest for Jaden.
• Fetch Quest: He was on a search for the Rainbow Dragon tablet in Season 3.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Champion of the North Academy.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Jaden. It borders into Heterosexual Life-Partners, and even the "heterosexual" part is very questionable. It reaches the point that makes Yubel think Jaden is now in love with Jesse instead of them.
• Guardian Entity: The Crystal Beasts and Rainbow Dragon protect his mind. Yubel is able to possess him by somehow corrupting Rainbow Dragon.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He remains behind dueling Yubel to keep the interdimensional portal back to Earth open. This triggers Jaden's Heroic BSoD.
• Honor Before Reason: He refuses to use cards that destroy monsters with effects. To him, such a strategy is too simple and boring. It is much more satisfying to defeat monsters in battle. This despite the fact that his deck's core monsters have very low ATK scores and thus cannot defeat most monsters in direct combat.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: It's telling that while everyone else Yubel tries to corrupt succumbs to their promises easily, instead, Jesse's soul was forcibly removed from his body and sealed away. In season 4 Fujiwara attempts to brainwash him into turning on Jaden and fails miserably.
• I See Dead People: He can see and interact with Duel Spirits.
• I Owe You My Life: To Jaden in Season 4 during their duel against Fujiwara, specifically referring to Jaden saving him from being blown up by a Hate Buster.
• The Lady's Favour: A male example and more implied than anything since Jaden never actually promises anything but just before Jaden goes off to duel Yubel Jesse gives Jaden his deck. Since this deck contains his literal family, it's implied he wants it back.
• Nice Guy: Even nicer than Jaden. He has a much kinder and more considerate tone than Jaden.
• Not So Above It All: As kindhearted as Jesse is, even he can be on the snarky side, like most other characters on the show, especially in the Dub.
• Parental Abandonment: Claims the crystal beasts are his family and no word is given on what happened to his human family. In the Japanese, he claimed to understand how Cobra feels about his son's death. Implying his biological family might be dead.
• The Pollyanna: More so in the dub, but this boy's been trapped and starving in the desert, was the sole hope for getting everyone out alive, forced to sacrifice his own return home in the process, possessed and had his soul ripped out by a demon and used as bait for his best friend and then his best friend disappears off the face of the planet for weeks with his deck. All the while Jesse has a near-constant positive demeanor and optimism. He takes time to celebrate finally getting Rainbow Dragon and laughs in excitement in the presence of the Sacred Beasts. It's possible he does it on purpose to encourage everyone else.
• Psychic Block Defense: The Crystal Beasts and Rainbow Dragon stop Yusuke Fujiwara from peering into his mind, but this didn't stop Fujiwara from seeing Jaden in his thoughts.
• Psychotic Smirk: When possessed by Yubel almost all the time. If you consider how much of a Nice Guy he usually is this gets even creepier.
• Put on a Bus: Returns to North Academy at the start of Season 4 and does not return until near the end.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Jaden’s Red, both in physical appearance, and even their characters. Jaden and Jesse have many similar characteristics, but Jesse is a little more serious and down-to-earth than the carefree Jaden.
• Rival Turned Evil
  • Because of Demonic Possession by Yubel in Season 3.
  • Subverted in Season 4. Yusuke Fujiwara tries to make him have a Face–Heel Turn using his inner darkness against Jaden, but that doesn't turn out to be a bad thing and is just a Friendly Rivalry.
• Satellite Character: Downplayed, as Jesse definitely has a large role in the plot and interacts with many characters other than Jaden, but his most significant character trait is still his closeness with Jaden, along with their similarities.
• The Scapegoat: He stayed behind in the different dimension so Jaden and the rest of Duel Academy could return home.
• Spell My Name With An S: Johan's name in the Japanese version is written with the katakana ヨハン, with the "ヨ" character being "Yo" instead of "Jo" (ジョ), leading to many instances where Japanese fans write his name as "Yohan", even though "Johan" is the official spelling.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: He sports these while being possessed by Yubel.
• Taking the Bullet: During the 3-way duel between him, Jaden and Yusuke Fujiwara, he plays a trap to save Jaden which costs him the rest of his Life points, thus losing the duel for him.
• The Trickster: His first day at Duel Academy he fakes summoning the Rainbow Dragon to the displeasure of everyone at the school, then tells everyone the card hasn't even been made yet. In Season 4, he tricks Yusuke Fujiwara into believing he performed a Face–Heel Turn against Jaden, while Fujiwara was in the process of saying a breaking speech no less, then he and Jaden break out into laughter.
• Throwing the Fight: It's never brought to attention, but if Jesse had destroyed Jaden's monsters before attacking directly with Amethyst Cat she would have been able to attack with her full hit points and dropping Jaden to zero. Instead, Jesse attempted to summon Rainbow Dragon, a card he didn't even have, as a prank and possibly to ask if anyone's seen Rainbow Dragon's tablet anywhere. Jaden even points it out, with Jesse seemingly well-aware he could’ve done it, but wanted to keep the duel going, because it’s more fun.
• Top Five List: In a flashback many years before the series start, Pegasus told Aster that he considered Jesse the 5th best duelist he's ever met in his top 5 list.
• Undying Loyalty: He’s loyal to each of his friends, especially towards his Crystal Beasts, and to Jaden.
• Vocal Dissonance: A boy who is muscular, handsome and a bit taller than Jaden... yet he sounds very girly. Only in the original, though; his dub voice is much more masculine.
• Worthy Opponent: Zane considers him one, seeing him as one of his greatest opponents. Jesse made Zane so excited, Zane was yearning for a rematch, since their duel never ended in an actual outcome.

Sho Marufuji (Syrus Truesdale)

Voiced by: Masami Suzuki (Japanese), Wayne Grayson (English)

Jaden's best friend and sidekick, Syrus Truesdale is a fellow first year who quickly hits it off with Jaden. Burdened by his self-confidence issues and feeling overshadowed by his older brother, Syrus’ friendship with Jaden helps him move past them and grow as a duelist, having the most Character Development of all the characters, symbolized by his promotion to a higher dorm every season.

He uses a Vehicroid deck in Seasons 1 and 2, but through Season 4, he obtains the Cyber Dragons and the Cyberdark monsters as his main firepower, using the Vehicroids for support and abilities.

---

• And Then John Was a Zombie: Temporarily turned into a Duel Zombie (or Ghoul) in Season 3 when Duel Academy was sent to the different dimension by Yubel.
• Badass Adorable: His skills dramatically improve and he becomes one of the best duelists in the school in later seasons, but he remains small and cute.
• Bash Brothers: Like Jesse, with Jaden of course.
• Big Brother Worship: Zane may scare the living hell out of him (unintentionally) in Season 1, but Syrus misses no opportunity to talk about how awesome his brother is. Leads to a bad Broken Pedestal in Season 2 when Zane's mind snaps.
• Blind Without 'Em: In spite of the fact that they don't seem to cover his eyes.
• Book Dumb: It's implied multiple times that he's even worse than Jaden in this regard, the main difference being that while Jaden is lazy and impatient, Syrus is just not good with the intellectual side of things. He improves greatly at this as time goes on.
• Broken Pedestal: Zane becomes this at the end of Season 2 to him, and Jaden nearly ends up like this in mid-Season 3. The former case is so bad that Syrus outright resolved to duel Zane in hopes of turning him back into his old stuff.
• Break the Cutie: This poor kid can't even catch a break.
  • By end of Season 2 Syrus was almost killed by his older brother Zane, in a duel which ended with the former getting hospitalized.
  • He suffers this trope throughout Season 3. He gets shattered seeing Jaden's friendship with Jesse, witnesses his comrades getting killed and sent to the stars, and also blamed Jaden for their supposed death, and by the end of the season he witness Zane nearly dying of a heart attack and gets heartbroken witnessing his older brother and best friend dying in front of him.
  • Season 4 isn't easy for him since he had to take care and become overprotective of his brother who is having a fatal heart condition and this trope again takes a toll in him when he gets trapped in the World Of Darkness along with other students.
• Catchphrase: In the dub, he has "Wait up!" and "Way to play, Jay!".
• Character-Driven Strategy: Syrus Truesdale utilizes the Vehiroid Archetype for his decks. Like his older brother Zane and his Cyber Dragon deck, Syrus' Vehiroids are Machine-type monsters whose potential relies on fusing weaker cards into stronger Fusion monsters. Their toon-like designs reflect not only his youth but also his doubts, being seen as a lesser, more "babyish" version of his brother. In Season 4, his adoption of his brother's former Cyberdark deck and adapting and combining it with his Vehiroid deck displays the culmination of his character growth, reflecting his love and admiration for his brother, and at the same time his desire to break out of Zane's shadow without compromising himself and his beliefs like his older brother did in Season 2.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His Character Development is accompanied by dorm promotions and changes in uniform from Red to Yellow to Blue.
• Coming of Age Story: Throughout the series he learns to become more independent, with Season 4 featuring him setting out to become a pro duelist superior even to his brother.
• Cowardly Lion: Is he a bit of a wimp? Well, yes. Would he still go through hell and high water for his friends? Hell yes.
• Cute Machines: His Vehicroid monsters.
• Despair Speech: Almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon in his duel with Zane as his brother claims that respect is useless. Jaden is able to convince Syrus that Zane is wrong.
• Distressed Dude: Ends up taken captive a few times in the first season.
• Dub Text: His relationship with Jaden somehow gets even more blatant subtext than the original.
• Expy:
  • Of Yugi Moto. Hairstyles aside, they look pretty similar and both have a predisposition for cute monsters. His transition from a meek sidekick to an independent player is also reminiscent of Yugi.
  • Appearance-wise, he also takes after Tomoya Hanasaki, a soft-spoken friend of Yugi with a similar demeanor in the manga.
  • Being the best friend of the main Yu-hero and starting off as a weak Duelist, makes him similar to Joey, though unlike Joey being a tough guy, Syrus is much wimpier.
• Face Your Fears: The Power Bond card Zane gave him, which he feels unworthy of using. Regardless, Syrus has used this card several times to display his courage and win a few duels. He also had to work his way up to confront Zane after his Face–Heel Turn.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He starts out as a not-so-friendly rival with Hassleberry, but over the Society of Light arc, they develop into fast friends.
• First-Name Basis: After watching Jaden supposedly sacrifice his friends, he starts addressing him by name instead of respectfully calling him "Aniki" ("Big brother', and not the same "Nii-san" that he uses toward Zane). At the very end of Season 3, when Jaden seems set on making a Heroic Sacrifice to send everyone back home, he tearfully reverts to "Aniki" while begging Jaden not to go.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: In the later seasons of the dub, where he's responsible for a lot of Breaking the Fourth Wall moments that could easily have been written by LittleKuriboh.
  Syrus: I'm just the wimpy sidekick who's here for everyone's amusement. I'd never have an idea that could help move the plot along!
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the original timid Syrus doesn't really make a secret of the fact that he really does not like the rapidly developing relationship between Jaden and Jesse. He doesn't treat Jesse any worse though, he just gripes about it a lot from the sidelines.
• Growing Up Sucks: In Season 4, which becomes a big part of his fears when trapped in the World of Darkness.
• Hidden Depths: He's actually an extremely talented duelist being held back by his self-confidence issues. As he starts to believe in himself, he quickly rises through the ranks.
• Keep the Reward: He turned down a copy of the King of Games' deck as a prize in Season 4 because his own deck was the strongest to him.
• Kiddie Kid: Despite being 15 years old when introduced, Syrus can be rather childish. His Vehicroid deck speaks volumes. In the episode Sad But Truesdale He hides under the covers and tells Hassleberry all he needs among things such as drinking water is his teddy bear. Later when the boys go swimming Syrus is using an inner tube or floatation ring to swim.
• The Lancer: He's shorter than Jaden and lacks confidence. The contrast is seen because they are best friends.
• Little Brother Instinct: Interestingly enough, exhibited towards Zane in Season 4, after Zane becomes confined to a wheelchair or hospital bed.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Dark Magician Girl and Thunder Nyan Nyan.
• The Rival: To his older brother by the end, as well as to Hassleberry over who gets to be Jaden’s best friend.
• Running Gag: In the dub of Season 1, he occasionally claims that he "got the looks" when the subject of his brother's dueling skill comes up. It is invariably followed by noises of skepticism from surrounding characters.
• School Idol: Becomes one in the fourth season to all the younger Duel Academy students.
• The Short Guy with Glasses: He's well over a head shorter than any other major character, and wears round glasses. That don't seem to be anywhere near his eyes.
• Sidekick: In seasons 1 and 2, he even refers to himself as Jaden's. He gets jealous in Season 3 when Jesse starts to encroach on his sidekick territory.
• Take Up My Sword: In season 4, Syrus gains the Cyber Dragons and Cyberdark cards from Zane, whose illness makes him physically unfit to duel.
• Targeted Human Sacrifice:
  • Camula threatens to sacrifice his soul to the Sacred Beasts in episode 32, forcing Zane to throw the duel.
  • In the third season, he's part of Brron's ritual to complete the Super Polymerization card, which required several negative emotions to create. Syrus providing the negative emotion of doubt. Thankfully, he is spared from this fate and avoids capture by the Dark Army.
• Took a Level in Badass: Starting as a Slifer Red student in Season 1, then he is promoted into a Ra Yellow student in Season 2 and after the first half of the season he defeats Obelisk Blue students easily, eventually becoming an Obelisk Blue student himself.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After Jaden causes the others to be sacrificed for Brron's Super Polymerization, he pretty much ditches him, runs off on his own and temporarily becomes self centered, not caring about anyone else. Once Jaden's transformation into the Supreme King is reversed, he becomes stoic and aloof, barely talking to him, but gets over this near the end of the third season. Granted, the rune of Doubt planted on him by Brron definitely affected his mental state.
• The Watcher: Actively tries to become one of these in Season 3, after Jaden's Heroic BSoD.
• Why Can't I Hate You?: He distances himself from Jaden after the Super Polymerization incident, but quickly realizes that he's too attached to Jaden to truly abandon him.

Tyranno Kenzan (Tyranno Hassleberry)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Shimozaki (Japanese), David Wills (English)

Tyranno Hassleberry, introduced in Season 2, is a muscular dinosaur-obsessed student with actual "dino DNA" flowing through his veins from an accident (and for some reason fancies himself a wannabe army drill instructor in the dub). Originally fought with Syrus over Jaden's attention (and affection), but quickly finds a new rivalry with fellow fossil enthusiast Jim "Crocodile" Cook in Season 3.

Naturally enough, he uses a dinosaur deck.

---

• Adaptational Jerkass: In the Japanese version, while not fond of Syrus, he still acknowledges him as an upperclassman. In the dub, he's often condescending towards Syrus, although they start getting along later in the season and the third season.
• Ambiguously Brown: He's a fair bit darker than the rest of the cast.
• Artistic License – Biology: He got his leg bone replaced with a fossilized dinosaur bone after breaking a leg, which somehow gives him DINOSAUR DNA. Sure, let's go with that...
• Artistic License – Medicine: While on an archaeological expedition when he was younger, Tyranno fell and broke his leg. Rather than do something completely unreasonable like getting him to a hospital, they performed an on-site surgery to replace his broken bone with that of a dinosaur that they had dug up. Not even getting into how they just happened to find a dinosaur bone the exact size and shape of the shin-bone of a maybe ten year old boy. One that would also grow to keep pace with his body's maturity. Oh, and it infuses him with dinosaur DNA.
• The Berserker: He blames it on dinosaur DNA. Best exemplified by his Ultimate Tyranno, which can and must attack every monster the opponent controls at the start of the Battle Phase.
• The Big Guy: He's big, he's aggressive and he has dinosaur DNA!
• Character-Driven Strategy: Tyranno Hassleberry is a professional duelist who's plays an Evolution Deck, summoning high-powered Dinosaur-type monsters using cards like "Big Evolution Pill" and "New Ultra Evolution". This can reflect his personality and Character Development; he starts out as a rather predatory bully who preys on the weak, only to lose his "troops" one by one due to his inability to adapt (in this case, using the same strategies over and over again), only to become less of a jerk when Jaden beats him and makes him confront his flaws.
• Class Representative: Becomes this by the fourth season to demonstrate how independent he has become considering he won't be graduating with most of his friends. He mostly organizes activities for the graduating students.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In his first appearance, he was the leader of a gang of bullies who stole duel disks from students they defeated. Once he was defeated by Jaden, he became one of Jaden's friends and allies.
• Disney Death: In Season 3, he is killed when he is sacrificed for Brron's ritual, but is revealed to being held in another dimension by Yubel and is returned to Duel Academy at the end of the season.
• Dreadlock Warrior: He's got the hairstyle and the dinosaur DNA to qualify.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Syrus; as soon as Jaden is implied to be in danger, The Gloves Come Off and they almost defeat Frost and Thunder. From this point onward, the two rarely ever feud again.
• Hulk Speak: While dueling against Jim his dino-DNA was affected due to electromagentic waves, thus he spoke in broken English.
• Hunk: Despite being possibly a year younger than Jaden, he already has a bodybuilder physique and is very good looking.
• Immune to Mind Control: His dino-DNA prevents Sartorius from brainwashing him. It also helps against Trueman, but unfortunately, Trueman is a bit too good at giving breaking speeches for it to work.
• Last-Name Basis: He's only ever referred to by his last name in both versions.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In his duel against Syrus to see who has the right to call Jaden their big brother/best friend, he decides to let Syrus win considering Syrus had been giving up food and sleep to search for Jaden. This comes back to haunt him since Syrus let it go to his head and started bossing him around.
• The Resenter: In his first appearance, he's not thrilled to learn that, despite scoring the highest on his entrance exam, he's not allowed into Obelisk Blue because he did not attend an associated prep school. He gets it beaten out of him by Jaden after stealing some students duel disks, and eventually becomes so comfortable in Ra Yellow that he turns down a promotion in his second year.
• The Rival: With Syrus over who’s Jaden’s best friend.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His sleeveless Ra shirt exposes his bulging muscles.
• Southern-Fried Private: He talked like one in the dub, but instead of being The Idiot from Osaka in the original, he punctuated sentences with the onomatopoeia for explosions.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Bastion/Daichi Misawa, dorm-wise at least. After Season 1 spends much of its time building Bastion up as one of Jaden's rivals of the year and the only representative of Ra Yellow, Season 2 sees Bastion suffer a Humiliation Conga ending in leaving entirely outside short, rare appearances. Hassleberry, bearing the same facial profile but a darker skin tone and muscles, proceeds to take Bastion's slot in the dorm and cast for the remainder of the show all the way to the end. They even both use dinosaur-themed cards, although Hassleberry's are straight dinos and Bastion's are also chemistry-themed.
• Targeted Human Sacrifice: Becomes a sacrifice in the third season to Brron's ritual to complete the Super Polymerization card that required several negative emotions to create. He provides the negative emotion of Hatred.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Jaden. Aside from Syrus, he is easily the most loyal and devoted towards Jaden out of the entire cast.
• Verbal Tic: Ends sentences with "-saurus!" and "-don!" in the original Japanese version.
• World's Strongest Man: Not him, but his Super Conductor Tyranno held the record for strongest Normal Summonable monster without drawbacks for a long time, and it's only been equaled, not surpassed, by the Kaiju.

Jun Manjoume / "Manjoume Thunder" (Chazz Princeton / "The Chazz")

Voiced by: Taiki Matsuno (Japanese), Tony Salerno (English, Episode 1-89), Marc Thompson (English, Episode 90 onwards & Duel Links)

The Rival and Worthy Opponent to Jaden. Though initially a high-ranking member of Obelisk Blue, Chazz experiences a losing streak and drops out, going on a journey to find himself and ending up at the North Academy duelling school. Though he rejoins Duel Academy, he is forced to start over at Slifer Red and decides to keep wearing his black North Academy uniform. He eventually makes it back up to Obelisk Blue.

He also has the power to see and hear monster spirits. Unfortunately, his "spirit partners" are the Ojama Trio, three rather disgusting and tactless monsters that frequently annoy him. He grows fond of them over time, but will never admit it under any circumstance.

In the first few episodes, he uses a Chthonian deck. Later, he uses a machine deck based around summoning the VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon which he shelves when he flees Duel Academy. Upon his return, he is using the Armed Dragon series of cards. He's also seen using Insect Union monsters in joint with his VWXYZ deck. In his duel against his brother, he uses a defensive deck full of low-level monsters, which he later combines with his other deck to make one based jointly on the Ojamas and VWXYZ monsters. While brainwashed by the Society of Light, he uses a White Knight deck.

---

• All Love Is Unrequited: Despite his massive (and often hilarious) crush on Alexis, the poor guy was doomed from the get-go.
• Almighty Janitor: After transfer back to Duel Academy, Chazz was forced to be a Slifer Red for majority of the series until Season 4. During that time (and after that) he's the only other main character that can keep up with Jaden.
• Always Second Best: To Jaden.
• Anti-Hero: After his Character Development, he still has an arrogant streak and tries to maintain an air of superiority, but is a good friend to Jaden and the others in spite of himself. As he himself put it in the dub, he changed from a snob who looked down on everyone around him to a snob that only looks down on some people.
• Anti-Villain: He's a pretty nasty rival to Jaden in his first appearances, but he always had a noble streak that distinguished him from his brothers. His character development comes from losing the fear of failure that drove him to be so antagonistic in the first place.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Being a member of Society of Light, he becomes openly obnoxious and arrogant, convinced the Society is unstoppable and that Society members are more important than everything.
• Ascended Fanon: In Universe, his Nickname "Thunder" in the original was a mispronunciation of "San-da" which roughly means "It’s Mister [Manjoume to you]", eventually he starts calling himself by this as well and makes it a major theme in both his attitude and his deck when he starts adding more lightning based cards.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Temporarily turned into a Duel Ghoul in Season 3 when Duel Academy was sent to the different dimension by Yubel. His desire to duel Jaden is the only thing that never changes.
• Awesome McCoolname: His nickname Manjoune Thunder/The Chazz is so awesome, he even turned it into a cheer for his adoring fans.
• Badass Boast: His trash talk is one of the reasons he's a badass of his own right.
• Badass Longcoat: His Obelisk Blue uniform (until episode 24), his trademark black trenchcoat (which he wears almost throughout the series ever since episode 25), and Obelisk White uniform (while being brainwashed in Season 2).
• Barely-Changed Dub Name: In the French dub, his name is "Chad".
• Blue Is Heroic: An anti-hero case when he wears Obelisk Blue duel disk as of Season 4. Inverted in Season 1 when was wearing the Obelisk Blue uniform.
• Blessed with Suck: He can see Duel Monster spirits, and in a setting where having just one is a rare privilege, he obtains scores of abandoned spirit cards from an old well. If only they'd shut up at night...
• Bond Creatures: The Ojamas. Technically all of the spirits of the cards he found in the Reject Well are, but the Ojamas are the ones he keeps with him all the time.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: For most of the second season he is brainwashed by Sartorius and becomes a member of the Society of Light.
• Break the Haughty: His character arc in Season 1 is repeatedly getting his status as a super elite duelist thrown in his face by people with a less comfortable background but more ability. Getting beat by Jaden a second time after working his way back to the top is the final nail in the coffin, and he's far nicer from then on.
• Butt-Monkey: After his character development, (outside of his badass moments) Chazz tends to have absolutely horrendous luck.
• Cain and Abel: With his older brothers. He's the Abel in their relationship, as they're perfectly willing to disown him for not being the best duelist in the academy.
• Catchphrase:
  • Japanese version: "Ichi, jū, hyaku, sen, Manjōme-sandā!" (“One, ten, hundred, thousand, Manjoume Thunder!”)
  • English version: "Let's Chazz it up!"
  • Also from the dub, when he wins, or at least thinks he's won, a duel, he says, "You go bye bye!".
• Character Development: Easily one of the most well developed characters next to Jaden. Starting as an arrogant, high class jerk, he starts getting frustrated with being unable to top Jaden and other characters he sees as weak. His hubris sees him abandon the Academy only to return to see Chazz's real frustration into light, his desperate struggle to keep up with his successful brothers, that Chazz would conquer the world of Duel Monsters. It's only when he starts dueling for his own beliefs is where he starts to become the duelest he was always meant to be. In Season 2, after being the one to single handedly build up the students for the Society of Light, he atones by leading the charge to single handedly bring it down, even winning the GX Tournament. By Season 4, he begins his journey to the pro leagues after defeating Aster. As to really nail down his Character Development, Chazz's early decks relied on only one strategy (the Chthonians, VWXYZ, and the Armed Dragons) all meant to represent his single minded use of power, upon incorporating the Ojama brothers as well as many supporting cards and archetypes, he becomes far more well rounded which was probably always his natural style.
• Cherry Tapping: He defeats his brother Slade, an amateur duelist, using multiple 0-attack point monsters. Note that the rules of the duel his brothers forced on him to make it impossible for him to win only required him to use monsters of 500 or less attack points. Chazz didn't need to use monsters with 0 attack points, but did anyway because he could.
• Combo Platter Powers: He has easily the most diverse deck of any character in the series, juggling no fewer than five different archetypes with five distinct aces. This makes him difficult to counter, since he can switch to different strategies when one fails, but it also leaves him disorganized.
• Coming of Age Story: In Season 4 he decides to become a pro duelist after graduating from Duel Academy.
• Confusion Fu: His greatest weapon is that his deck juggles so many archetypes and strategies that it is impossible to perfectly counter him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: This is how Chazz defeated the North Academy students' 50 round Duel Gauntlet. (Bonus points for his Ring of Destruction OTK in his 4-on-1 duel). Chazz also does this in the Genex Tournment (excluding his duel with Jaden) while Jaden and Aster deal with Sartorius.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Black hair with matching black eyes and a black outfit.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Once he becomes North Academy's top student, he wears a black uniform. This also marks the start of him becoming a better person. After being brainwashed by Saiou/Sartorius, he switches to a white one, and after Jaden turns him good, he wears his black coat again. In fact, after that event, Chazz starts disliking white. Even when Chazz eventually returns to Obelisk Blue by Season 4, he still wears his black uniform.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Ends up becoming one for the Stock Shōnen Rival, specifically Kaiba from the original series. Chazz is set up as a straight Kaiba to Jaden's Yugi, but just a few episodes in, it becomes apparent he's never going to beat Jaden, no matter how blustery he may be about it; even with new rare cards on two occasions in Season 1's first half alone, Jaden kept coming out on top. Compared to the rivals in later series as a result, Chazz's development and motives occur independently of Jaden, and while he himself may claim to be Jaden's rival, far more dangerous and skilled opponents quickly come in (Zane and Aster immediately coming to mind) and make it clear that trying to be this is a serious detriment to Chazz (as it is why Sartorius succeeds in brainwashing him). Indeed, by the time his Character Development caps off in Season 4, Chazz's final proper duel is not against Jaden, but against Aster; Jaden himself is just an observer throughout this.
• Didn't Think This Through: Because of Chazz dropping out of Duel Academy (in fear of becoming a Ra Yellow student) of his own free will, he's forced to start over as a Slifer Red student when he transfers back.
• Dirty Coward: In Season 1 as an Obelisk Blue student, Chazz attempts to prevent Bastion to duel him by throwing the latter's deck in the ocean. (To be fair, Baston was very irresponsible for leaving his deck at the dock where anyone could easily mess with it.) It fails because Baston has not just one backup deck; the man has SIX.
• Disney Death: In Season 3, he's killed when he is sacrificed for Brron's ritual, but is revealed to be held in another dimension by Yubel and is returned to Duel Academy at the end of the season.
• The Dragon: The closest thing to one for Dr. Crowler in the 1st half of Season 1. In Season 2, Sartorius makes Chazz this as a member of the Society of Light, and through him, takes over much of the school.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He becomes the Champion of the GeneX Tournament and gets practically nothing for it, Jaden is still the strongest player and probably would have been the champ if he hadn't given up his place to Save the World. He forfeits his only prize, going back to Obelisk Blue because he hates how they obsess over a dorm color. When he leaves for Slifer Red, his fancy room is stolen by Blair who, being the only girl in the dorm now, needs her own privacy. This forces him into the older rooms.
• Empathy Pet: Whether he finds them annoying or not, The Ojama Brothers (especailly Ojama Yellow) are his answer to Jaden's Winged Kuriboh.
• Evil Costume Switch: He wears a Obelisk White uniform as a member of the Society of Light.
• Expy: Chazz is strongly based on Seto Kaiba via his dragon and machine cards (he even picks up Kaiba's XYZ cards to expand into the VWXYZ series), long coat, and general snobbish and jerkish behavior; plus both of them serves as the main rivals of Jaden & Yugi/Yami Yugi respectively. Chazz also has one of his ace momsters that is a dragon type monster with original 3000 ATK (Armed Dragon LV 10). As the series continues he starts taking some cues from Joey as an underdog who has to rely on weak cards and unlikely combos with them.
• Final Boss: Of the first half of Season 1 via the build-up to the inter-school duel with North Academy.
• Foil: To Jaden; he's the arrogant and overly serious Obelisk Blue to contrast the friendly and laid back Slifer Red. Similarly, Jaden is proud to be Red and flaunts the colors, while Chazz (outwardly) hates being Red and refuses to even wear the uniform. They also can both see spirits, but Jaden views his as one of his True Companions while Chazz (mostly) dislikes Jaden. They also have an essentially inverted character arc; while Jaden becomes a withdrawn and serious loner with too much responsibility, Chazz becomes a comical and heroic figure at the center of a large circle of friends.
• Freudian Excuse: His desire to live up to his family's reputation puts a lot of pressure on him, leading to a lot of his jerkish tendencies in the first half of Season 1. Him defeating them causes them to back-off and he becomes a good deal more relaxed.
• Fusion Dance: The purpose of his VWXYZ deck and he has Polymerization to fuse some of his other monsters.
• Good Is Not Nice: Despite being a jackass, he eventually stops being a spoiled brat and learns to be more respectful (or less disrespectful), and he begrudgingly becomes part of Jaden's group of friends.
• Great Detective: Triple Subverted. He styles himself as one to investigate the thefts committed by the Dark Scorpions, but he completely fails to pick up on the very obvious clues that they leave behind. However, he solves the mystery anyway, because not only did he think to use the Ojama Brothers to spy on them, he also used all of the other monsters he obtained from the Reject Well to keep tabs on his own key in his room.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Jealous of Adrian due to his family having far more money than Chazz's. He never admits it, claiming that he dislikes Adrian because he's a Self-Made Man while Adrian is Idle Rich, though that's far from the truth.
• Goroawase Number: His "Manjyome Thunder" chant in the original:
  1: Ichi!
  10: Jyuu!
  100: Hyaku!
  1,000: Sen!
  10,000: Man-joume San-da!
• Growing Up Sucks: In Season 4, where he needs to start considering his career options and has been rejected by numerous sponsors; even when Crowler gets him an internship under Aster, it's at a very bottom-rung position wherein he's basically Aster's secretary where he has to learn every aspect of pro-dueling from the bottom-up. He also fears he might not live up to being a pro duelist.
• Heel–Face Turn: Start of as a jackass who has lacks respect that only relies of powerful cards to recpectable duelist by learn more than just power for the cards (because of his experince from North Academy) and further by the time he transfers back to Duel Academy.
• Hypocrite: He expresses anger towards Jaden for going off on his own and claims he cares only for himself which is the cause of his friends being captured and sacrificed by the Dark Army. He chooses to forget that his obsessive infatuation with Alexis caused the release of the Sacred Beasts allowing for Kagemaru to use them to drain Duel Spirits to restore his youth (although the magical rune planted on him by Brron definitely made him much angrier and less reasonable than usual).
• Insistent Terminology: In the Japanese version, he insists that people show him respect by addressing him with the -san honorific: "Manjoume-san da" ("It's Mr. Manjoume"). This leads to his in-universe nickname of "Manjoume Thunder" when he transfers to a new school as his new classmates mistake "san da" for the Japanese pronunciation of "thunder".
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: His VWXYZ monsters in the anime.
• Jerkass: Especially in Season 1.
• Jerk Jock: Pre-Character Development, he was shaping up to be Jaden's Draco Malfoy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even at his worst, he was never that bad a guy, just self-obsessed to the point of playing dirty. When given the opportunity to show kindness, he usually does. Post-character development, he's still kind of abrasive, but is much better as a person. During Zane's duel against Camula, she tries to use Syrus as a sacrifice for her Illusion Gate card. When she captures Syrus, Chazz attempts to grab him back to safety.
• Keep the Reward: He turned down a copy of the King of Games' deck as a prize in Season 4 because his own deck was the strongest to him.
• Kick the Morality Pet: In his duel with Jaden using the Ojamas to save him, Chazz brutally attacks the Ojamas over and over until Yellow breaks down into tears.
• Last-Name Basis: In the Japanese version, everyone (aside from his brothers who call him Jun) refer to him as Manjoume.
• Lethal Joke Item: His Ojamas, obviously, but specifically the deck that he's forced to make by his brothers in Episode 35, "Sibling Rivalry": the only monsters he could have in his deck had to have less than 500 attack points. Even though Chazz was on the defense for most of the duel, he managed to win against Slade on his last turn via a combination of Chaos Necromancer, powerful Spell Cards and the Ojamas themselves, who in particular get Lampshaded as this by Chazz in an an epic clap back to his brothers:
  Slade: You are kidding. Don't tell me you pinned the hopes of saving your little academy on these three twerps?!
  Chazz: That's right. And you're about to see why! Sure, they look funny, they smell real bad, nobody even likes 'em, and they never shut up! But these guys taught me something important: that good bros support each other!
• Light Is Not Good: He was always kind of a jerk, but when he joins the Society of Light and switches to an all-white wardrobe, he becomes outright evil. Even Armed Dragon LV 10 (one of his ace monsters) becomes this while equipped with the "White Veil" card, an extremely powerful Equip Spell that nullifies and wipes out an opponent's backrow.
• Lonely Rich Kid: He'd never admit to it, but his first true friends were made in the Slifer Red dorm.
• Lost in Translation: His "Manjoume Thunder" nickname in the Japanese version - a nickname born from a Japanese wordplay pun - was replaced by "Chazz it up!" and "The Chazz" in the dub. The episode at North Academy turns his dub last name — Princeton — into a play on the word "prince" multiple times. Unfortunately, this removes the explanation for why he starts using more lightning-based cards and symbolism after acquiring the nickname.
  Chazz: Soon the Czar will fall, and the Princeton will rise!
• Love Makes You Crazy: His crush on Alexis drives him to pull some pretty stupid stunts, most notably stealing the 7 Spirit Keys and accidentally unsealing the Sacred Beasts.
• Magic Poker Equation: Not quite to the extent of Jaden, but it definitely comes into play for Chazz.
  • He will always summon all three Ojama Brothers when he uses Enchanted Fitting Room, and he'll always have Ojama Delta Hurricane! in his hand when he does.
  • He has Despair from the Dark in his hand to use Armed Dragon LV 5's or 7's effect with implausible frequency. The card doesn't actually seem to have any other purpose in his deck besides being a monster with high enough attack power to destroy just about any monster with Armed Dragon's effect.
  • When he starts mashing his archetypes together he can use each of them to his fullest without getting any dead draws, despite his most-used archetypes (Armed Dragon, Ojama, VWXYZ) not being compatible with each other. If one archetype doesn't work, he switches to the next one almost flawlessly.
• Mass Hypnosis: He does this to the blue dorm to turn most of Duel Academy students into members of the Society of Light.
• Morality Pet: The Ojamas, especially Ojama Yellow. He's hesitant to admit it, but they bring out the best of him, and when he's brainwashed by the Society of Light, it's their influence that brings him back. Ojama Yellow later makes the finishing blow in his last duel in the series, against Aster.
• Must Make Amends: After being freed from his brainwashing he challenges the entire White dorm and frees them as well since he brainwashed them in the first place.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: He may hate everything about the Red dorm, but he's fought to preserve it more than once, and the fourth season implies that he was among the last students to leave.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Rival: He lost a duel to Alexis holding all the Spirit Keys which released the Sacred Beasts.
• Noble Demon: Even at his worst, in the first season and under the control of the Light of Destruction, he always duels fairly. The worst he does is abuse the Ojamas during his duel with Jaden. Although, that didn't stop him from throwing Bastion's deck into the sea in order to sabotage him before the promotion duel. Granted, this was primarily motivated by the possibility of a dorm demotion and his own brothers' expectations of him, as well as before his humbling and proper Character Development.
• No-Respect Guy: Despite quite possibly being the second-best duelist at the academy, he sure doesn't get much respect.
• Not Completely Useless: His Ojama deck and the Armed Dragon deck. He even defeated his brothers in a duel using a deck with zero attack point monsters. Through Character Development, he goes from being a duelist who only respected powerful cards to a duelist who believes that any card can work.
• Offended by an Inferior's Success: Pre-Character Development, Manjoume hates Judai for being a superior duelist because of his lower rank.
• Parental Abandonment: True, this applies to 99% of the characters, but he's the only one with two older brothers who appear to be his guardians.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Alternates between being this and being badass.
• Pragmatic Hero: Deconstructed. His inner darkness was that he wanted to win doing whatever it takes because he feared failure. For this reason, Sartorius manipulated him into joining the Society of Light in Season 2, and in Season 4 while in the World of Darkness he believes he would need to resort to cheating in the Pro League. Through Jaden, he accepts that failure isn't the end and he can always try again.
• Privileged Rival: Just like Kaiba, Chazz is rich.
• Punny Name: His nickname Manjoume Thunder ("sanda" in Japanese) is partly a pun on his Insistent Terminology.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Chazz has black hair, and his skin is really pale compared to other characters, even his brothers.
• Red Baron: Manjoume Thunder! Occasionally Black Thunder gets used as well.
• Redemption Promotion: After rejoining Duel Academy, Chazz gains the Ojama cards, which would soon become a staple for his deck and enabled a much wider berth of strategies for him.
• The Resenter: Of Adrian Gecko for mainly presenting the same image as Chazz of being from a wealthy family, but Chazz assuming he hasn't had any struggles. He could not have been more wrong.
• The Rival: He is Jaden's main rival and to a lesser (and more comical) extent Atticus. He tries to be one to Adrian Gecko, but he doesn't quite live up to it.
• Rival Final Boss: Serves as this for Jaden in 1st half of Season 1 when Chazz became North Academy's Top Rank Student.
• Rival Turned Evil: After being brainwashed by the Light of Destruction, he becomes The Dragon to Sartorius. Jaden has to break him out of it via a duel.
• School Idol: Becomes one in the fourth season to all the younger Duel Academy students.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He has moments of this even after Season 1.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: He eventually rejects his brothers' plans and tries to go pro without their connections.
• Self-Made Man: In the first season during his duels at North Academy, he learns to make the best out of what he has, finding random cards, and becomes a much better duelist for it.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He initially seems to think that being the top duelist at his prep school means that he's in a league of his own. That's very much not the case. Learning this the hard way kickstarts his character development.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The dub has him called himself "The Chazz".
• Signature Move: Despite the amazing amount of variety his decks display throughout the series, he will always fall back on the three Ojama Brothers.
• Spoiled Brat: He starts off this way, flaunting his family's wealth and prestige like a badge of honor. Post Season 1 Character Development has him move past it, though the dub still includes some moments. Adrian Gecko in Season 3 notably still considers him one, however, finding Chazz's past rebuilding of himself to be a trifle compared to his own Dark and Troubled Past. Notably, Chazz doesn't try picking a fight after Adrian again after this.
• Taking You with Me: One of the core mechanics of his original Cthonian deck revolved around inflicting whatever battle damage he received to his opponent or punishing them for destroying his monsters.
• Targeted Human Sacrifice: Becomes a sacrifice in the third season to Brron's ritual to complete the Super Polymerization card that required several negative emotions to create. Chazz providing the negative emotion of Anger.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: In the third season, his negative feeling of anger becomes a key sacrifice to Brron's ritual for the creation of the Super Polymerization card. Chazz expresses his anger against Jaden before he is sacrificed calling Jaden selfish.
• Teacher's Pet: Crowler very clearly favors him, and the feeling seems to be at least somewhat mutual, as Chazz takes it particularly hard when it appears that Crowler has shifted his attention to Bastion. This is best showcased in Season 4, when Crowler goes out of his way to help Chazz get his pro career started.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Downplayed. He was angered that he wasn't chosen to duel against Jaden and Syrus in the tag duel to determine their expulsion in Episode 10. However, he make it clear that he prefers Jaden getting expelled and losing the tag duel over Jaden and Syrus winning and continuing their enrollment.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a brutal one to his own brothers in episode 35, "Sibling Rivalry". Chazz summons the three Ojamas for the first time, then has this exchange with Slade:
  Slade: You are kidding. Don't tell me you pinned the hopes of saving your little academy on these three twerps?!
  Chazz: That's right. And you're about to see why! Sure, they look funny, they smell real bad, nobody even likes 'em, and they never shut up! But these guys taught me something important: that good bros support each other!
• They Call Me Mr Tibbs: In the original, he insists on being called "Manjoume-san" so often that it becomes a catchphrase.
• Third-Person Person: The aforementioned "Manjuome san-da" can be translated as "It's the Manjoume" under some circumstances. The dub retains this, where he calls himself "The Chazz".
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He wins the GeneX Tournament, and later beats Aster to become a pro duelist.
• Took a Level in Badass: Chazz does this a lot throughout the series. Most notable in Season 4, where he's skilled enough to beat Aster Phoenix, and almost certainly would have beaten Jaden if he hadn't thrown the match at the last minute. His Armed Dragon cards also counts. Initially, Chazz has the stages of Armed Dragons: LV 3, LV 5 & LV 7. In Season 2, Chazz reveals he has Armed Dragon LV 10.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Steadily throughout the series, moreso seen in Season 1 where he debuted as the most antagonistic of Jaden's rivals.
  • In Episode 24, he is told the requirement to enter North Academy is to gather 40 cards in the Arctic wilderness and finds an old man outside next to a campfire who reveals that he found 39 cards but didn't have the strength to find the 40th card. When Chazz returns, he claims to have found 41 cards and gives his extra to the old man. It turns out he lied and only found 40 cards and having given one away, didn't have enough to enter North Academy.
  • Despite his attitude towards the Ojamas, particularly Yellow at the start, he warms up to them over time and makes them a core element of many of his strategies.
  • By Season 4, much of his past arrogance has been tempered to only be skin-deep.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Jaden, and with the Ojamas (one-sided in both cases). While he vocally expresses how much he can't stand them, his actions tell a different story.
• Wax On, Wax Off: He goes through this organizing cards for Aster, which allows him to practice card strategies.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Season 3, he angrily berates Jaden for going off on his own and claims he cares only for himself, which is the cause of his friends being captured and sacrificed by the Dark Army.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Towards his older brothers in Season 1.
• What Have I Become?: How he breaks free from the Society, realizing he isn't at all like himself anymore.
• Zerg Rush: Often did this with his Chthonian cards. Best exemplified by his Chthonian Alliance Equip Spell, which buffs a monster's ATK based on the number of monsters with the same name he controls; naturally, his strategy involves getting three of the same monster in play to use it to its fullest.

Asuka Tenjouin (Alexis Rhodes)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Priscilla Everett (English, Episode 1-26), Anna Morrow (English, Episode 27 onwards & Duel Links)

A beautiful and talented duelist who is also kind and pretty, Alexis is regarded as the "Queen of Obelisk Blue" and unlike most of them, she is not an elitist like many of the other Blue members. She quickly takes interest in Jaden, soon becoming one of his close friends. Later, it is also revealed that she harbors feelings for Jaden.

Her main deck is based around using Cyber Girls in the early stages, and Cyber Angels as her trump cards. While brainwashed by the Society of Light, she uses an Ice Dragon deck.

---

• Aborted Declaration of Love: Planned to reveal her feelings to Jaden after their tag-team duel in Season 4, but changed her mind at the last second.
• Action Girl: She's considered one of the seven best duelists in Duel Academy, as well as the only other duelist aside from Jaden and Chazz to defeat a Shadow Rider. Overall, she's got a pretty good on screen record compared to most of the main cast.
• All Love Is Unrequited: She does not reciprocate Chazz's crush on her. While it's unclear whether or not Jaden reciprocate Alexis' crush on him, he generally seems to be oblivious to it.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: Being a member of Society of Light, she becomes openly obnoxious and arrogant, convinced the Society is unstoppable and that Society members are more important than everything.
• Barely-Changed Dub Name: In the French dub, her name is "Alexia".
• Betty and Veronica:
  • On one hand, Asuka is the nice Betty who can never speak out her feelings to Judai to Rei's flirty and loud-spoken Veronica.
  • She's also the Betty to Johan's and Yubel's Veronica.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Asuka is the Blonde to Those Two Girls, Momoe/Mindy (brunette) and Junko/Jasmine (redhead).
  • Franchise-wise, she's the Blonde to Anzu's Brunette and Aki's Redhead.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Season 2, by Chazz. However, she begins to show some resistance during the Genex Tournament, such as by refusing to play the "White Veil" card given to her by Sartorius to win with her own strength or how she stood up for her former friends from Obelisk Blue despite having no reason to do so. As such, Sartorius didn’t have full control over her until her duel with Jaden, where he stripped Alexis of her free will and gave her a completely different deck to use against Jaden.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Near the end of the series, Alexis attempts to confess her feelings to Jaden, but then decides not to.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Downplayed, but gets visibly upset when Rei/Blair flirts with Jaden.
• Coming of Age Story: She decides to become a teacher in America after graduating from Duel Academy.
• Curtains Match the Window: Gold eyes to match the blonde hair.
• Damsel in Distress: A few times, such as getting kidnapped by Titan in the first season and being brainwashed into joining the Society of Light in the second.
• Dance Battler: Her key deck motif.
• Deadpan Snarker: When she's exasperated, particularly in the dub.
• Depending on the Artist: While Alexis's physique is consistent throughout the series, in some episodes, her arms look rather well-toned, giving her a little more muscle compared to the other Obelisk girls.
• Disney Death: In Season 3, she is killed when she is sacrificed for Brron's ritual, but is revealed to being held in another dimension by Yubel and is returned to Duel Academy at the end of the season.
• Dude Magnet: The only guy in the show who doesn't have a huge crush on her is Jaden/Judai, but even then it's only because he either doesn't know or care about her sex appeal.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: She has dirty blonde hair and is the target of affections from many boys.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: The air around her cools to freezing when she duels while being a member of Society of Light, specifically when using the "White Night" series and related cards.
• Expy: Looking at her hairstyle and eye color, one can't help but think that she looks like a younger female version of Kaiba. This is especially notable when she joins the Society of Light, where unlike Chazz, who reverted to his previous persona before character development set in, or Bastion, who more or less stayed the same, Alexis undergoes a dramatic personality change that becomes eerily reminiscent of Kaiba's, becoming extremely rude, arrogant, and insulting towards Jaden and the others. She even uses an icy counterpart of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" during her rematch against Jaden. In terms of the previous main series females, she has the friendly and kind nature from Téa mixed with the sex appeal of Mai.
• Growing Up Sucks: In Season 4. She fears she might fail as a teacher.
• Hair Color Dissonance: While her hair is consistently dirty blonde in the anime, it's sometimes depicted as a bright blonde in the manga.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde, and by far the nicest student in Obelisk Blue, which is otherwise populated by elitist jerks.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Bastion says this about Alexis when Crowler and Atticus try to turn her into a dueling pop star, and this earns him a slap from her.
• Humble Hero: She's the top female duelist at Duel Academy and is very humble and isn't prideful like the majority of Obelisk Blue students.
• Idol Singer: Crowler and her brother try to turn her into one, but she isn't having any of it. In the dub, Bastion claims that it's because she can't carry a tune... and ends up paying for it.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure:
  • Not to the extent this trope normally sees, but considering she starts the series as a 15-year-old girl... Sometimes, her waist gets impossibly small in the anime, making her an uncanny version of this.
  • In the manga, the already very attractive Asuka gets even bigger breasts, a slimmer waist, larger hips and longer legs. Kind of ironic considering that she's even more of an Indifferent Beauty there.
• Irony: Even though most of the boys have a crush on her (Manjoume in particular makes it painfully clear), the only guy she shows any interest in is Judai, the resident Chaste Hero. It's exactly because he's the only one who doesn't have a crush on her but treats her like any of his opponents.
• Keep the Reward: She turned down a copy of the King of Games' deck as a prize in Season 4 because her own deck was the strongest to her.
• Kill It with Ice: The deck she uses against Jaden while being a member of Society of Light.
• Magic Skirt: Standard issue, much like the guys' coats that always flare outward.
• Married to the Job: Cites being in love with dueling as one of her reasons for rejecting Chazz's advances.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Her eyes become dull and dark while she's under the control of the Light of Destruction.
• Moral Myopia: Alexis expresses her sadness against Jaden before she is sacrificed to create the Super Fusion card by claiming she feels upset knowing Jaden does not care for his friends, not having looked out for their safety in his search for Jesse. When she is outraged that Atticus is going to duel against Jaden using the Nightshroud mask despite the risks, Jaden berates her for trying to stop them from discovering the truth that could help stop the new threat and for not being concerned about the harm it could cause other people.
• Ms. Fanservice: Quite self-aware about it, too! Her voluptuous and shapely figure with her large bust and long legs make her extremely attractive. For the majority of the series, she always wears a miniskirt and a form-fitting sleeveless top showing her bare shoulders.
• Nice Girl: Alexis is a very polite, kind, sweet, and selfless young woman.
• Only Sane Woman: All of her friends have some rather obvious quirks. She's the only normal one of the bunch, which she's all too aware of. Hilariously lampshaded in the dub at one point:
  "Why don't I have a catchphrase?!"
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Zane/Ryo. Fubuki suggests them dating, but Asuka dismisses that possibility and says that she only sees Ryo as an older brother.
• School Idol: Becomes one in the fourth season to all the younger Duel Academy students. Atticus tries to make her a more literal version of this a couple of seasons prior, but she's understandably not interested.
• Ship Tease: Being the only main female character of the show, she's shipped with a lot of her male friends but the only one that actually gets any sort of shipping moments with her is Jaden. The dub makes it more obvious that she has a crush on him: for example, during Jaden's duel with Tania who wagered Jaden's "single" status if he lost, Chazz commented that Tania might be Jaden's type which earned a fierce response from Alexis, who claimed that Jaden wouldn't even think about dating a woman like that.
• Signature Move: Her Doble Passe trap card, which let the opponent attack directly then let one of her monsters get a direct attack as well. Jaden later remarked that he always thought it was a gutsy move on her part.
• Spirited Competitor: Alexis does like a good challenge. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons why she gained a crush on Jaden in the first place, as she admires/respects boys who can beat her. It helped that Jaden didn't obsess over her looks and isn't bad on the eyes himself.
• Targeted Human Sacrifice: Becomes a sacrifice in the third season to Brron's ritual to complete the Super Polymerization card that required several negative emotions to create. Alexis providing the negative emotion of Sadness.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's not the only female duelist in the Academy, but she's only one with any real plot significance.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a tomboy most of the time but has had a few more feminine moments whether it is in some of her gestures or her crush on Jaden in the final season.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Well, not really her fault, after she is brainwashed by the Society of Light, she becomes more cold and heartless, and acting plain rude to her friends. This disappears after she overcomes the brainwashing and becomes herself again.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Subverted. She hates being mistaken for a diva, and is really nice. She just gets really annoyed by some of Chazz's and Atticus' more foolish antics.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Jaden out on his unwillingness to use teamwork in Season 4.
• Women Are Wiser: Is the most level-headed of Jaden's friends.
• Younger Than They Look: Due to her being rather tall and having an attractive figure, it's hard to believe that she's the same age as most of the main cast.

Daichi Misawa (Bastion Misawa)

Voiced by: Yuuki Masuda (Japanese), Eric Stuart (English)

The top student in Ra Yellow and the smartest student at Duel Academy... at least before a disturbing romantic rendezvous in mid-Season 1; his shtick in Season 2 changed from being a genius to being forgotten by all the characters and ignored by the recruiting Cult.

He has a deck based on each attribute in the game, but we only see two of them. His Water deck is based around summoning Water Dragon, and his Earth deck is built around the magnet warriors.

---

• Aborted Arc: He's set up to be one of Jaden's rivals, being the top student of their year and set up as an intellectual contrast to Jaden's Idiot Hero. However, this is abandoned as early as it begins.
• All Your Powers Combined: In his effort to defeat Sartorius, Bastion pools together all six of his elemental decks into an ultimate combination. However other than Plasma Warrior Eitom^note Presumably from his "Radiant as Light" Deck. all the cards he plays from then on are previously seen ones from his Water and Earth decks, leaving the contents of his other decks a mystery.
• Amazon Chaser. He denies any attraction to Amazonian Beauty Tania at first, mainly because he likes to think he's too rational to be affected by romantic feelings. Once he gets over himself, he finds that he's really into her strength, but by then she's lost interest because she thinks he's too weak. It's implied they get back together in season 3 though.
• The Artifact: His original intent was to be a friendly rival-type character, but his credibility as a rival was damaged when Jaden defeated him and completely lost when Tania humiliated him, and the role became far more competitive with the reintroduction of Chazz and the appearance of Aster. Add in the show's focus moving away from lighthearted school antics and towards increasingly serious battles, and his role as the class nerd increasingly lost relevance until he became little more than a Combat Commentator. Though it's fairly common in Yu-Gi-Oh shows for characters to lose their initial purpose with time, Misawa is likely the only time where the character's lack of purpose became their purpose, as he became aware of his nonexistent status. He tried to defy it by joining the Society of Light, but even that largely went nowhere, and ultimately, he had a breakdown and left the school entirely to find his purpose elsewhere.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's presented this way at the beginning of Season 1, but his calculated approach fails to defeat Jaden and then he gets humiliated by Tania. He doesn't get another duel for the rest of the season, and gets largely ignored for the rest of the series.
• Badass Bookworm: Not that the Hot-Blooded cast acknowledges it.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Would have fit right in among the geniuses of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds and received much more respect.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: He's not brainwashed per se, he was sick of getting the shaft, and he's still treated like nothing.
• Butt-Monkey: He barely gets any attention in Season 2. When he does, it's usually for the The Worf Effect or a joke at his expense.
• Celibate Hero: He tries, but ultimately fails when faced with Tania.
• Crazy-Prepared: Opponent tossed his deck into the lake? No problem — he's locked and loaded with 6 more decks to spare!
• Crippling Overspecialization: The core flaw of most of his strategies; Misawa tries to prepare specifically for his opponent's core tactics, or at least tries to anticipate them; his WATER deck's main ace is a good card stat-wise for example, but is most useful against FIRE and Pyro monsters specifically. His duel against Judai likewise focused too much on locking Judai out of his Fusion Monsters, resulting in Misawa taking several early hits that he could've avoided otherwise that ultimately enabled Judai to win via Cyclone Boomerang and Wildheart.
• Deal with the Devil: Sartorious promised him that people would remember him and he would get the respect he deserved if he joined up. Pity it didn't actually work that way.
• Demoted to Extra: Season 2 onward, and pointed out in the canon as his reason for joining the Society of Light. Justified by narrative arc. When the story focused on academy related events and themes like passing classes and utilizing knowledge learned in the classrooms, he was relevant. The more the story shifted towards space opera in seasons 2, the less he was really needed. Season 3 did somewhat rectify this, as learning from Dr. Eiselstein enabled Misawa to at least play a more core support role since he was now actually up-to-date on how these cosmic forces worked, though by Season 4, he vanished completely.
• Didn't See That Coming: He prepared for his duel with Jaden by carefully analyzing Jaden's previous matches. Noticing that Jaden relied heavily on Fusion monsters, Bastion set up his deck to prevent Jaden from using Polymerization. Unfortunately, Jaden won using a strategy that came out of nowhere and that Bastion wasn't prepared for.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Cited as the reason for his Face–Heel Turn and Heel–Face Turn in Season 2. By Season 3 he's given up and chooses to stay in the different dimension.
• "Eureka!" Moment: His nude running in the halls at the end of Episode 96 is treated as this in the Japanese version, wherein after witnessing Zweistein and Judai's duel, he recognizes the intersection between logic, as presented by Zweistein, and intuition, as shown with Judai, and thus decides to become the former's apprentice to create a new unified duel theory.
• Expospeak: Seems to be the sole reason for him to reemerge from the bus on occasion.
• Fatal Flaw: His sense of superiority. It's not enough for him to be the best, he also needs others to acknowledge him as the best. This causes him to throw a duel that, had he won, would have saved Chazz from the Society of Light, and he still doesn't get the recognition he feels he deserves.
• Forgettable Character: In season 2, people start forgetting he's even there.
• Genius Bruiser: Not only he's got a fine brain, but he also shows physical prowess during a baseball match in episode 12, managing to beat Jaden twice. In episode 96, it is shown how ripped he is under the uniform.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: To Jaden in Season 3 during his Heroic BSoD post Supreme King.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: He had a Freak Out when he realized that he had a crush on White Magician Pikeru. For context, this is what she looks like.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He devotes all of his time to analyzing decks and strategies, only to end up as comic relief.
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: He is taller and has a larger build than most of the main cast, and yet he's still dwarfed by Taniya, his eventual love interest.
• I Choose to Stay: He apparently stays in the Dark World with Taniya at the end of Season 3.
• Light Is Not Good: As a member of the Society of Light, visually speaking. That being said, he never uses their signature "White Veil" card in any of his duels, nor does he ever duel any relevant characters during this time, so the angle isn't really there.
• The Magic Poker Equation: A pointed aversion, he's one of the few characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe who doesn't rely on it. He uses mathematical formulas and science to fine-tune his decks to perfection, thereby minimizing the variable of luck in his duels and making his decks very precise and strategic, and he considers what he knows about the opponent's deck before choosing one of his own six as the best choice to counter the opponent. Unfortunately most of his opponents do rely on this trope and have Plot Armor to boot.
• Naked People Are Funny: In Season 2, he streaks across the island after having an epiphany, and it is very much Played for Laughs. The dub naturally keeps his boxers on.
• Non-Action Guy: Becomes this in Season 3 as he does not properly duel. It actually works to his advantage, as he avoids getting killed (well, imprisoned in another dimension.)
• No-Respect Guy: He was regarded as one of the best duelists in his class during Season 1, but by Season 2 he's much less important to the plot and other characters rarely pay him any attention. Season 3 gives him some dignity back thanks to Eiselstein's teachings.
• Not Brainwashed: It's all but said he willingly joined the Society of Light rather than get brainwashed like Chazz and Alexis, he was just that desperate to get some respect that he threw his match against Chazz and willingly joined them. Tellingly, he didn't need to be defeated to quit the Society, he just flat out left them and the Academy after speaking with Dr. Eisenstein in favor of becoming his apprentice.
• Number Two: Originally, but starting with Season 2, he becomes more and more obscure.
• Put on a Bus: Multiple times, finally staying in the Spirit World at the end of Season 3, with it never being confirmed or known if he ever returns to Earth.
• The Rival: To Jaden in Season 1.
• The Smart Guy: He is one, but his type of dueling isn't really acknowledged in this series.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: The Tiger to Jaden's Dragon.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Surprisingly enough, Season 3 of all things does this for him. Having chosen to study under Dr. Zweinstein/Eisenstein, Misawa gains a great deal more knowledge about the cosmology of the Spirit World, and is thus taken more seriously compared to Season 2, now actively working to help get everyone out of the desert dimension. Later, he's one of notably few characters to get through the Dark World arc physically and mentally unscathed, and is implied to get back together with Tania to boot.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what happened to him after Season 3.
• The Worf Effect: Beyond his one win against Chazz, despite dueling impeccably, he never wins another duel... until he joins the Society of Light during Season 2... and those wins are only against unnamed characters. To be fair, his first two on-screen losses were against Jaden (The Hero and one of the Academy's best Duelists), and Tania (a Shadow Rider strong enough to take Jaden down to 100LP before her defeat).
• Worf Had the Flu: Most of Bastion's losses can be considered this:
  • In his duel against Jaden to represent Duel Academy against North Academy, Bastion analyzed that Jaden's deck centres around his Fusion monsters and prevented Jaden from using them by specifically tweaking his own deck to counter them. Unfortunately, Jaden lucked into the Magic Poker Equation using Elemental Hero Wildheart and an Equip card that Bastion's strategy didn't anticipate. Said strategy also failed to take into account initial play build-up, enabling Jaden to pretty much hold the LP lead throughout the duel and ultimately burn out the rest with Wildheart/Cyclone Boomerang.
  • In his duel against the Shadow Rider Tania, Bastion was distracted by his attraction to Tania and didn't pay full attention to the duel, falling victim to her Trap cards.
  • In his duel against a brainwashed Chazz, Bastion had Magic Cylinder ready to deflect an attack from his Cannon Beetle and win. However, Sartorius convinced Bastion that it's better to lose and join the Society of Light, so Bastion didn't use it, costing him the match.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He's a brilliant strategist, unfortunately he lives in a time where Hot-Blooded instinct and miraculous creation skills are the Status Quo.

---