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Ignis
A group of six AI with free will created by Kogami during the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project, ten years prior to the start of the series. They are based on each of the six Attributes of Duel Monsters, and are the progenitors of the Cyberse-Type. In general
- Body Motifs: Besides the obvious pun, the AI are heavily associated with eyes, appearing as one in their simplest form as Ai was before he regained his body, and Windy was reduced to an eye after getting hit by Hanoi's virus. Earth's decompiled data is kept in Onizuka's eye as part of his brain chip.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: They are all colored after the attribute they are based on.
- Creative Sterility: Accused of so by Revolver, who points out they have no imagination, as they are taken by surprise in duels. Considering how surprised Ai and Flame tend to be with their partner's plays and are unable to keep up with them, he has a point.
- Deader than Dead: None of the Ignis, barring Ai, return to life even after Playmaker defeats Bohman a final time, as shown when Ai (in his humanoid form) silently mourns the Ignis, who all have tombstones dedicated to them.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: A subtle one. In their first appearance as silhouettes, all of the Ignis' eyes are colored yellow. Once they finally show up, Windy, Aqua and Earth have different eye colors which are red (originally violet), pink, and blue respectively.
- Face Death with Dignity: With no hope of salvation, Flame and Aqua, assimilated into Bohman, accept their inevitable fate of complete termination, but not before passing on their powers to Ai to take down Bohman one last time.
- Living MacGuffin: All of them are wanted by the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technologies because they remain a threat to humanity. The former wants to destroy them, while it's claimed the latter wants to use them as profit for their business (until Kengo discovers what they really intend to do with the Ignis).
- Living Program: All of them started out as sophisticated programs, but developed their own personalities and even created their own world. A big source of the series' conflict is their ability to determine their own actions and take their own decisions like humans do - an ability that other A.I.s in the setting lack. They and their allies claim they are alive, while others see them as simple A.I.s that are merely constructs.
- Meaningful Name: Because their true names are unpronounceable by humans, with the exception of Ai, all of the Ignis are named after their attributes. Ai named half of them, while Flame named himself, Earth named Aqua, and Yusaku and Kusanagi named Ai. As Ai put it:Ai: Be quiet! Easy to understand is priority!
- The FIRE Ignis is Flame.
- The WIND Ignis is Windy.
- The EARTH Ignis is Earth.
- The WATER Ignis is Aqua.
- The LIGHT Ignis is Lightning.
- Personality Powers: The Ignis are shown to each excel in different aspects befitting their attributes.
- Ai is a case of Dark Is Not Evil, and very carefree and goofy. He also is the wisest of his brethren, despite his goofy demeanor overshadowing it. He also can change his form to absorb the data of his opponents who lost a duel.
- Flame is very hot-headed and serious, and displays a tendency to spontaneously combust when excited.
- Windy is shown to be fairly laid back and flighty, and is the Ignis with the strongest control over the Data Storms.
- Earth is very reserved, but also headstrong, blunt, and socially awkward. He also has the ability to shrug off pain as if it were nothing, and is immensely strong.
- Aqua is very nurturing and calm, but just as ready to Dope Slap Ai for his stupid stunts. She can easily discern truth from lie just by interacting with someone.
- Lightning is very analytical and a quick-thinker, considered the smartest of his brothers, enough for him to be their unofficial leader. He also can summon forth bolts of Lightning, easily create complex programs, and move faster than a bolt of his namesake.
- Psychic Link:
- They are connected to their Origins even if they never met each other as shown when Earth gets terminated and his Origin, Spectre, cries without knowing why. This is also the reason why Lightning and Windy had to terminate their Origins. Lightning did this by turning Jin into his puppet while Windy caused his Origin to be part of a traffic accident which either severely injured or even killed him.
- The Ignis can also sense when another Ignis spends their final moments before they're completely terminated.
- Shadow Archetype: The Ignis appear to develop various similarities and differences in personalities from their original partners.
- Ai has wisdom and instinct just like Yusaku, except he is more playful, while Yusaku himself is more brusque and serious.
- Flame is energetic and courageous just like Takeru as Soulburner, except he is more confident, while Takeru himself in the real world is more humble and quiet.
- Earth is socially awkward and protects what's important to him with fierce devotion just like Specter, except he is more caring towards others, while Specter himself can be cruel and sadistic at times.
- Lightning is calm and collected just like Jin, except he is also arrogant, cold, and manipulative, while Jin himself is very aloof and withdrawn.
- Aqua is kind and cares about her friends just like Miyu, except she is more calm and cautious, while Miyu herself was more carefree and adventurous as a child.
- True Companions:
- They all care and love each other dearly, They even consider Ai to be this despite finding him annoying.
- Subverted with Lightning, who initially claims to be committing his crimes to protect the Ignis, but later turns out to be envious of them. He's willing to sacrifice all of his former friends to achieve his goal of becoming one with the ultimate AI, Bohman.
- Doubled subverted with Windy. At first, it seems like he turned against the other Ignis alongside Lightning, but then it turns out Lightning brainwashed him. The original Windy likely wouldn't have agreed with Lightning's goal of sacrificing the Ignis.
- The Unintelligible: They have their own language, also called Ignis, which is incomprehensible to the human ear.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Aqua, Flame, and Earth give their power to Ai and force Lightning and Windy to do the same. The result is Ai surpassing Bohman in terms of cognitive ability and Cyberse card creation. Unfortunately, this means Ai is now so powerful that future conflict with humanity is unavoidable for him, so he arranges for his own termination in order to prevent this outcome. The moment the transfer of power is complete, Lightning makes it clear that Ai will have to make a dire choice with this new power.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite having free will, how much they are truly alive varies per person and is also part of the conflicts they have against humanity:
- They themselves see them as living beings that have a right to life peacefully.
- SOL Technologies don't see them as living beings, but rather as objects as shown with what they did to Earth after capturing him which they even called a dissectionnote .
- The Knights of Hanoi do acknowledge them as living beings, but for the same reasons also see them as a threat to humanity.
- Yusaku's view of them changes as the series went on. He first only saw Ai as an object who was only programmed to keep himself from harm, but acknowledges them as living beings after learning they have free will and along with Ai tries to create the most peaceful solution to the conflict between humanity and Ignis.
Ai
Ai
A mysterious AI program sought after by the Knights of Hanoi and SOL Technologies Inc., that Yusaku, who is Ai's Origin, captures. Belongs to an AI species with free will, known as the Ignis, and is based on the DARK Attribute.See Cafe Nagi/Confidants for more information.
Flame
Flame
An Ignis who was created from and is partnered with Takeru Homura, and is based on the FIRE Attribute. The pair visit Yusaku and Ai after being informed that the Cyberse World was destroyed.See Cafe Nagi/Confidants for more information.
Aqua
Aqua
An Ignis who was created from Miyu, a childhood friend of Aoi's. Based on the WATER Attribute, she is partnered with Blue Maiden (i.e. Aoi's third Online Alias).See Cafe Nagi/Confidants for more information.
Windy
Windy
One of the six Ignis created by Kogami. He is based on the WIND attribute. His Origin never shows up in the story proper as he is a victim of a car accident.
See Bohman's Faction for more information.
Earth
Earth
Voiced by: Fumihiro Okabayashi (Japanese) Billy Bob Thompson (English)
One of the six Ignis created by Kogami; is based on the EARTH attribute. His Origin is Spectre.
Earth uses a "G Golem" deck, an archetype of EARTH Cyberse-Type Monsters which revolve around a beatdown play style, swarming the Field with Monsters to Summon stronger ones and overwhelm the opponent with brute force.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: As he dies, he begs them to stop erasing him as his memories of Aqua fade, screaming that he has free will.
- Catchphrase: "I am socially awkward."
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He doesn't appreciate Ai trying to get friendly with Aqua, and even confronted him at one point and warned him to stay away from Aqua; Earth himself insisted that only he has the privilege of protecting Aqua."Stay away from the Water Ignis! I'll protect her!"
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After he is defeated by GO, captured and turned in to SOL Technologies, his body is gradually lasered bit by bit until he is completely terminated.
- Deader than Dead: Revolver affirms that Earth cannot be restored to his former state since SOL Technologies converted him into source code that can be easily understood in human terms due to their inability to fully comprehend the Ignis algorithm.
- Dishing Out Dirt: He is an Ignis based on the EARTH attribute, with his entire body being primarily orange and brown, a colour commonly associated with the earth element.
- A Dog Named "Dog": An Ignis based on the EARTH attribute named Earth.
- Exact Words: He dueled Yusaku on the condition that if the latter won, he would give all information he knew about Bohman. As it turns out, the only information he knew about Bohman was that he knew nothing about him, and after losing the duel, he answered truthfully in that regard.
- Fate Worse than Death: Episode 81 reveals that his decompiled data is now fused with GO's AI chip. Go now has Earth's deck in his database and uses Crystal Heart to his advantage while Ai, Flame and Aqua can only look on with horror.
- Four Is Death: The fourth Ignis to be introduced in the series and the first one to be terminated (courtesy of SOL Technologies).
- Generation Xerox: He and Spectre both run EARTH Attribute Stone Wall decks that focus on protecting a certain card, and even end up losing to Playmaker the same way: By having their ace card lose all of their attack points by Playmaker's card effects, leaving them vulnerable to an LP Wipe. However, unlike Spectre, Earth succeeded in protecting his card "Crystal Heart" when Playmaker defeated him while Spectre's "Sunavalon Dryatrentiay" was destroyed twice.
- Graceful Loser: Earth accepts his defeat to Playmaker without any hard feelings, and reveals what he knows about Bohman's whereabouts... except he knows nada about Bohman himself.
- Killed Off for Real: In Episode 76, Ryoken tells Ai and Yusaku that Earth has been decompiled into a source code SOL Technologies can understand. He won't be able to be restored back to his former self if such a feat is possible.
- Made of Iron: This appears to be Earth's special power. Aqua was trapped for months in a cage protected by a program. Earth ripped it apart in seconds, albeit not without discomfort.
- Neutral No Longer: Spends nearly all his time pondering which side he should join, but after hearing that Go is willing to harm Aqua, decides to fight against humans to protect her. Sadly it doesn't really matter since Go captures him, leading to his termination.
- No-Sell: All of his co-linked Monsters are unaffected by his opponent's Monster Effects while he controls "Invalid Dolmen".
- No Social Skills: Earth himself points out his lack of social skills by reiterating from time to time that he is socially awkward, and doesn't communicate in any more than a few words per sentence.
- Rock Monster: His "G Golem" Monsters are golem-styled Cyberse-Type Monsters.
- Running Gag: In the dub, every other Ignis (yes, even Lightning) thinks his name is a little on the nose.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Earth's death demonstrates that SOL Tech is no longer playing around, and just how dangerous and depraved Onizuka has become in his quest for power.
- Shared Family Quirks: Earth makes a dueling AI out of a dead tree, making Playmaker believe Earth is Spectre's Ignis. Also, when both Link Summon, their circuits do not appear in the sky like everyone else's, but on the ground.
- The Spock: Earth finds the best solution to a situation is the straightforward, logical answer. He duels Yusaku/Playmaker to find out if he and Ai are a good reason to side with humans or not.
- Stone Wall: Earth's general playstyle involves using "G Golem Invalid Dolmen" in order to prevent his opponent from penetrating his defenses and destroying "G Golem Crystal Heart" in battle.
- Terse Talker: He is... like this... in the dub.
- This Is Unforgivable!: He holds Lightning in contempt for harming Aqua and destroying Cyberse World.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite his free will, SOL doesn't care, and heartlessly dissects and kills him.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Takes on Go Onizuka in order to buy Aqua time to flee, though it almost doesn't work when Onizuka tries going after Aqua.
Lightning
Lightning
One of the six Ignis created by Kogami. Is based on the LIGHT attribute. His Origin is Jin Kusanagi.
See Bohman's Faction for more information.
Origins
Origins are the kids the Ignis are based on. All of them were kidnapped to partake in the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project. They were forced to duel against AI opponents and if they lose, they would gets electrocuted and get less food, forcing them to continue to duel until they win. They were freed after six months of captivity, however their hardships were far from over since they still had to live with the trauma they suffered. In General
- Dark and Troubled Past: They all had to suffer the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project which as mentioned above included electrocution and starvation. Some of them even have other kinds of troubles in their past.
- Denied Food as Punishment: If they didn't win against the AI opponent, they wouldn't get food.
- Electric Torture: Whenever they lose a duel, they got shocked.
- Kidnapped by the Call: They were all kidnapped to partake in the Hanoi Project.
- Psychic Link: They share one with their designated Ignis.
- Sadistic Choice: In the Lost Incident their choices were to keep dueling and get shocked when losing or starvation if they don't duel.
Yusaku Fujiki
Yusaku is the Origin of Ai, the DARK Ignis. As a result of the incident, he became very traumatized and was unable to live a normal life no matter how much help he got. In order to let go of his past, he decides to put matters into his own hands and became Playmaker, the envoy of revenge, and fights against the Knights of Hanoi in order to recover the truth of his past for the sake of himself and the people affected by the incident.
See Cafe Nagi/Confidants for more information.
Takeru Homura (Theodore Hamilton)
Takeru is the Origin of Flame, the FIRE Ignis. As a result of the incident along with the death of his parents during their search for him, he became a Hikikomori and never went to school for years. However after learning about the three heroes of VRAINS and their battle against the people who made him suffer along with meeting his Ignis, Flame. He decides to move forward and fight alongside Playmaker against the faction that destroyed the Cyberse World.
See Cafe Nagi/Confidants for more information.
Jin Kusanagi (Jin Kolter)
Jin is the Origin of Lightning, The LIGHT Ignis, and Shoichi Kusanagi's younger brother. Like Yusaku, he was also one of the children kidnapped during the events of the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project, and is still shook from the incident, unable to escape captivity.
See Bohman's Faction for more information.
Miyu Sugisaki
Miyu Sugisaki
Voiced by: Natsumi Fujiwara (Japanese)
A childhood friend of Aoi's, and the Origin of Aqua, the WATER Ignis. In her childhood, she was Aoi's Only Friend, but they had to separate after Aoi took the blame for losing her mother's ring. Miyu still remembers that event and wants to meet with Aoi again. She's currently in a coma, because of a virus Lightning planted inside of her, forcing her Ignis Aqua to team up with Aoi to cure her.
- Break the Cutie: In one day Miyu lost her mother's ring and her friend Aoi took the fall so she wouldn't get in trouble with her mother, who then banned her from seeing Aoi again. Later Miyu would go through the Lost Incident and all that entailed before ultimately being rendered comatose by Lightning's virus.
- Cheerful Child: Miyu was energetic and kind, easily befriending the shy and reserved Aoi.
- Childhood Friend: She was Aoi's only friend before she was dragged away by her mother, who warned Aoi not to get involved with her daughter ever again after Aoi takes the blame for losing her ring.
- Convenient Coma: She's in a comatose state due to a computer virus installed in her by Lightning. Aqua's attempts to remove the virus failed, though she did retrieve a fragment of Miyu's memories. She regains her consciousness after Playmaker defeats Bohman a final time.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She is one of the victims of the Lost Incident. Despite the hardships she endured as a subject of the Hanoi Project, she never relented and kept fighting so she could escape from captivity and apologise to Aoi over the lost ring mishap. However, it's not known what happened to Miyu ever since she was rescued from captivity up until Lightning put her in a comatose state.
- Determinator: Despite the hardships she endured as a victim of the Lost Incident, she nevertheless stood her ground and fought to the very end, vowing to escape and apologise to Aoi over the day Miyu lost her mother's ring.
- Genki Girl: Miyu was an energetic Cheerful Child with cutesy behavior, making her similar to Aoi's behavior as Blue Angel.
- Girlish Pigtails: Miyu began to wear her hair in pigtails after she and Aoi last met, and continued to wear them like such throughout the Lost Incident.
- Only Friend: Aoi never had any friends in her childhood until Miyu came into her life.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only girl of the Lost Incident victims/Origins.
Windy's Origin
The Origin of Windy, the WIND Ignis, is currently the only one who wasn't shown in any way since Windy himself eliminated him by making him a victim of a car accident to ensure he wouldn't influence him in any way.
- Break the Cutie: Just like the other victims, he was an innocent kid that got tortured and starved during the Lost Incident. His case is turned up a notch however when years later Windy, the Ignis made from him, instigated a car accident in an attempt to kill him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He is one of the six victims of the Lost Incident, and years after the incident he's involved in a reckless driving accident orchestrated by Windy.
- Death by Adaptation: The Japanese version left his fate ambiguous, but everyone assumes he was killed. In the dub, Varis states that Windy's partner is "no longer of this world".
- The Faceless: He is finally shown in episode 88, but his face is partially shadowed.
- The Ghost: The only Origin not seen in the present day in any way.
- Hope Spot: He is shown to have been able to move on from his trauma of the Lost Incident and live a normal life, only for Windy to steal it away by instigating a fatal car accident during a blood moon.
- No Name Given: His name is unknown.
- Uncertain Doom: After the accident orchestrated by Windy, his fate is left unknown. Windy and Team Nagi however all operate under the belief the accident killed him. The dub, however, explicitly mentions that he is dead.
Spectre
Spectre is the Origin of Earth, the EARTH Ignis. However unlike the other Origins, he wasn't traumatized by the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project, but rather enjoyed it since it was the first time he felt he got a purpose in life. This caused him to join the Knights of Hanoi as one of their high ranking members to ensure that his time will keep moving.
See Knights of Hanoi for more information.
Creations/Minions of the Ignis
Roboppi
Roboppi
Voiced by: Minami Takahashi (Japanese) Sam Black (English)
Click here to see their human form
Yusaku's robot maid, and Ai's "minion."
Starting from the third season, Roboppi uses an "Appliancer" deck, an archetype of Machine-Type monsters based on common household appliances, with the Link Monsters boasting a variety of effects revolving around whether or not they are co-linked.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Roboppi's defeat is treated as a tragedy, as they are unable to handle Ai's system and overload, reverting back to their original form and mentality, while lying malfunctioning on the ground. Even when Soulburner gives them a Mercy Kill, they remain blissfully unaware of what was happening.
- Ambiguous Gender: Roboppi has a very feminine-sounding voice as a robot. Combined with their function as a robot maid as well as a certain scene with Ai, Roboppi was presumed female by the Western fans. The Japanese side was more divided due to their use of the masculine pronoun "oira". After obtaining a human form, however, Roboppi was depicted as an androgynous child.
- Artificial Intelligence: After Ai revived with a backup during Playmaker's duel with Bohman, it somehow caused Roboppi to develop free will as well.
- Ascended Extra: Becomes a free-willed AI and Ai's sidekick in Season 3.
- Bowdlerise: Provides this in-universe, where they claim that "idiot" or some variation thereof is a forbidden word. Dropped after being a free-willed AI, claiming that good children can say it.
- Catchphrase: "Idiot is a forbidden word."
- Clingy Jealous Girl: They were jealous of Linkuriboh and both developed a rivalry over both being Ai's "minions".
- Combat Commentator: To Ai's annoyance when he duels Queen, constantly stating the obvious.
- Death of Personality: While Yusaku could presumably create another Roboppi using its abandoned robotic body and a new program, the "original" Roboppi is effectively dead after being defeated by Soulburner in a Duel.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the machine who Grew Beyond Their Programming. In Season 3 Roboppi gained more intelligence and free will thanks to Ai's systems which allowed him to become more like a person, but the fact remains that Roboppi is an AI made to run a simple household cleaning robot, and as a result he couldn't handle the upgrade which caused him to malfunction and break down until Soulburner was forced to Mercy Kill him.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Rather horrifyingly, Roboppi seems to appears to realize at the last moment that he is going to mentally implode. He gloats how intelligent and invincible he has became and will become during his final turn, with victory against Soulburner secured, but abruptly declares that he is done for and ends his turn.
- Expressive Accessory: Their duel disk has the same eye display as his original robot form, which changes expressions based on their mood.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Comes to this conclusion after watching countless situations of humans fighting each other and polluting the world, and wants to turn humans into "experience points" to clean up the world.
- Insufferable Genius: As a result of his upgrade from linking to Ai's program, they turn into this since their mind can't grow as fast as their intelligence.
- Keet: In season 3 Roboppi develops a personality and free will, adopting the persona of a very enthusiastic and cheerful child.
- Leitmotif: "Roboppi's Battle" (track #22 of SOUND DUEL 3).
- Lovable Sex Maniac: It seems like their only reason for going against orders is so they can robo-bang Ai. And that's even before developing free will.
- Mercy Kill: Soulburner is forced to kill him when he finally couldn't handle Ai's system and as a result glitched and malfunctioned.
- Near-Villain Victory: Roboppi is one attack declaration away from defeating Soulburner, but their programming finally breaks down and surprisingly ends their turn, allowing Soulburner to Mercy Kill them the next turn.
- Power Degeneration: Ai's program may have given Roboppi more intelligence, but in the end Roboppi is still a simplistic AI made for household chores; thus, his program breaks down during the duel, forcing Soulburner to Mercy Kill him.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The activation of Ai's backup caused Roboppi’s eyes to turn red.
- Robot Maid: They're programmed to clean Yusaku's house, but thanks to Ai's influence, they started to do other things...
- Satellite Love Interest: For Ai, though a more literal and justified example than most, since Roboppi's limited personality and independence only emerge through interacting with Ai in secret. Upon gaining free will they act more like an Annoying Younger Sibling.
- Spell My Name With An S: Is it "Roboppy" or "Roboppi"? At first, it was believed to be the former, but the current subs in Season 3 say it's the latter.
- Too Powerful to Live: As how Roboppi himself stated, he gets smarter every second. He just went from a novice duelist to someone who would have defeated Soulburner if it wasn't for him malfunctioning. It's also implied that he could have even grown further if he wasn't a household AI. Naturally, he eventually breaks down when his intelligence became too much for him.
- The Unreveal: The mechanics of his Skill are never revealed. In the one Speed Duel he participates in, he deliberately forgoes using it in order to make the match more challenging.
- Yes-Man: Roboppi follows Ai's command at all times, not bothering to question his authority.
Linkuriboh
One of the many Cyberse Monsters created by the Ignis.
See Anime and Manga cards for more information.
Echo
Echo
Voiced by: Ryunosuke Watanuki (Japanese)
An AI program created by Windy.
- Eldritch Abomination: First appears as a monstrosity which appears to be the same exact one responsible for destroying the Cyberse World... but it all turns out to be a childish prank by Windy.
- Meaningful Name: It's name Echo fits as it usually quiet and always repeats whatever Windy says.
- Mooks: There are multiple Echoes, several of which fight the Knights of Hanoi, four in particular, ganging up on Spectre, though all are easily decimated.
- No Face Under the Mask: Echo's head consists of a hollow loop with a mouth floating inside of it.
- Replacement Goldfish: Windy created him as a substitute for his human counterpart.
- Shapeshifting: Echo has shown the ability to change shapes as shown when it first appeared in the form of the monster responsible for destroying the Cyberse World.
- The Unintelligible: Windy has programmed him to be able to speak Ignis, as shown in Episode 68. It's shown to be digitized gibberish.
