Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Friends In Heartland

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Main Character Index
Main Characters | Friends in Heartland | Tsukumo Household | Tron Family | Dr. Faker Faction | Numbers Duelists | Barian World | Astral World | Other | Manga Only | Cards

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Tetsuo Takeda (Bronk Stone)

Voiced by: Makoto Shimada (JP), Sean Schemmel (EN, ZEXAL), Robb Moreira (EN, Duel Links)

Another one of Yuma's friends. He can be quite competitive and often finds humor in others' failings, particularly with Yuma, but he generally tends to be on Yuma's side. He uses a Clockwork Deck with his Ace Monster being Tin Archduke.

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• Acrofatic: Can ride a skateboard at ludicrous speed and deliver a powerful jumping uppercut to a giant robot.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Has a huge crush on Rio.
• Amazon Chaser: In Episode 79, many guys seemed turned off by Rio's Action Girl status, but Bronk seems to find that attractive and calls her his ideal girl.
• The Big Guy: He's much larger and stocky than the others.
• The Bully: Was one to Yuma when they were younger, as he mocks the latter's dream of wanting to become a Duel Champion before becoming friends when witnessing Yuma's tenacity.
• Clockwork Creature: His deck is themed after toys made of clockwork. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links also associates him with the Wind-Up and Geargia archetypes, both of which follow the same theme.
• Cool Board: Rides a skateboard.
• Demoted to Extra: He had an important role as Yuma's best friend early on, even dueling Number 96, but later suffered from this, though he had it better than some and got his Days in the Limelight.
• Expy: He starts as one for Joey, being a Bully Turned Buddy to the main protagonist and a capable fighter in certain situations. However, he's much more in-line with Tristan, being The Big Guy in his group of friends and his one-sided crush on Rio is reminiscent of Tristan's crush for Serenity in the second anime.
• Fat Best Friend: To Yuma.
• Genius Bruiser: For the show's standards anyway. Bronk is a big guy, but as episode 20 shows us he is a very capable duelist.
• Idiot Hair: Has a spiky green one.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Comes off as a bit of a dick at first, but is revealed to have a good side. Finding Yuma's broken pendant could not have been easy, yet he did it nonetheless.
• Made of Iron: He shrugs off any injury that hospitalizes members of the group like Takashi/Caswell.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Compare to the human proportions of his friends, his own appearance is rather cartoonish.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Looks just like his mother.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Yuma. Despite making fun of Yuma on a regular basis, he's also a reliable friend when Yuma needs one.

Tropes exclusive to him in the second half:

• Amazon Chaser: Develops a crush on Rio for being The Ace and pretty.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted. He succeeds in reminding her of herself as Rio, but she defeats and kills him as she stands by Barian World no matter what.

Cathy (Cathy Katherine)

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (JP), Bella Hudson (EN)

A shy girl in Yuma's class who has a crush on him. Eventually joins the group when he starts paying attention to her after they duel. Uses a cat- and Cat Girl-themed deck.

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• Action Girl: Outside of duels, she's surprisingly... cat-like in her reflexes and agility.
• The Beastmaster: She can command a legion of cats to do her bidding.
• Big Fancy House: One with a rather gothic, cat-like theme. In the manga version, it has a high-tech computer lab in the basement that the Numbers Club use for their headquarters.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Thanks to Girag in episode 81.
• Cat Girl: Technically, it's cat ear-shaped hair, but it's close enough. She also meows occasionally, and can communicate with cats. Her deck has the Xyz monsters Twin-Tail Cat Lady and Cat Girl Magician, which are bona-fide Cat Girls.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Not as crazy as other examples, but she's still up there.
• Demoted to Extra: In the second half of the show. Despite being the best duelist out of Yuma's friends, she only duels in one episode and spends the entirety of the series not really doing anything.
• Engaging Conversation: In the manga, she shows off all her cool tech, and then casually points out to Yuma that if he marries her, all this will be his. Kotori was not pleased.
• Expy: Of Kuroneko.
• Femme Fatalons: Has a pair of gloves with cat-like claws on the fingertips.
• Free-Range Children: Her parents have never been seen or even mentioned; how she supports herself - and she's clearly very well-off - is unknown.
• The Glasses Come Off: When she duels so that she may fasten her duel gazer.
• Gothic Lolita: Her dueling outfit.
• Graceful Loser: Towards Dog-chan.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Literally pushes Tori to go with Yuma to Barian World, accepting that Tori is able to support Yuma better than she could.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's a rather nice girl (if rather timid), and gets along very well with cats.
• Magic Skirt: Like every girl in school.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Cathy is, well, strange. Most of the time, her cat-like features are a costume or a hairstyle, but she does have a strange ability to communicate and control actual cats, and when angry, seems to turn feral for a brief few seconds, sometimes with claws. None of this was ever explained
• Ninja: Perhaps not officially, but she's got plenty of the moves.
• Not Brainwashed: She wasn't stalking Yuma because she was brainwashed, she just wanted his attention.
• Shrinking Violet: Is incredibly shy and soft-spoken normally.
• Stalker with a Crush: Early on towards Yuma, but eventually comes to openly follow him along with the rest of his friends.
• Unusual Eyebrows: She doesn't have any. Its usually not noticeable because her eyes are really expressive.

Takashi Todoroki (Caswell Francis)

Takashi Todoroki (Caswell Francis)

Voiced by: Taishi Murata (JP), Jason Griffith (EN)

The class president and another one of Yuma's friends.

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• Catchphrase: "To sum it up..." The dub renders this as "In the end..."
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Referred to as "Class Rep" more than his actual name. He temporarily loses the position to Yuma, but he later gets it back because Yuma acknowledges that he is a terrible rep.
• Lawful Stupid: Temporarily, when made the Disciplinary Commander.
• Manipulative Bastard: Played for Laughs when he blackmails Ukyo, one of his own teachers, into helping them find Yuma's key.
• Nice Guy: He can be a bit smarmy at times, but he's the class representative because he often goes out of his way to help people.
• Playful Hacker: Runs a Debugger deck
• The Smart Guy: Fills in as Mr. Exposition for a while.

Tokunosuke Omoteura (Flip Turner)

Voiced by: Aki Kaneda (JP), Justin Boyd (EN)

A clever if somewhat creepy boy who used trickery and cheating when dueling his opponents and believed everyone was a bad person underneath. Yuma defeated him and proved otherwise, and the two became friends in the process. After taking one of Don Thousand's Fake Numbers in the hopes of helping Yuma, he is sacrificed in order to merge the Barian World and Earth together.

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• Adaptational Heroism: His Heel–Face Turn in the manga is much more genuine compared to his anime counterpart, making his Easily Forgiven Defeat Means Friendship status in the manga much more justified as a result while also averting his status as The Millstone in the anime, which is shown in his help to Yuma in his search for Numbers alongside others (in fact, HE is the one who suggests infiltrating Heartland to look for Numbers cards, and his tip actually points the team into finding them, though not before Yuma smacks it out of him when he gets clearly distracted by the other attractions while they're inside Heartland).
• Defeat Means Friendship: Not completely deserved though, see below.
• Easily Forgiven: Especially since he's still getting into trouble and his antics result in Yuma coming close to losing in a 2-vs-1 duel, though a major part of that is the fact that Astral is being kept captive by No. 96.
• Expy: Of Weevil Underwood, both in appearance and in tactics (sneaking your opponent a card just to cheat them) He also loses to Yuma in almost the exact same way Weevil loses to Joey in Battle City- with the very card intended to sabotage their opponent's strategy.
• Freudian Excuse: When he was younger, a bunch of kids cheated him out of his cards, breaking his faith in others and convincing him to resort to cheating to win.
• Heel–Face Turn: Not well deserved.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Baby Tiragon he snuck into Yuma's deck ends up allowing Yuma to win.
  • Thought that taking one of Don Thousand's artificial Number cards would allow him to help Yuma. Instead, he's converted to energy and is sacrificed.
• Meaningful Name: His dub name, which reflects on his philosophy and dueling style. Strangely, his last name didn't turn up until a character bio on Nicktoons' website. His Japanese name similarly references Omote-ura, roughly the concept of being two-faced.
• The Millstone: Rarely if ever makes any positive contributions to the group's goal, and hinders them significantly at least three times (getting Yuma into trouble with Nistro and Dextra, stealing Yuma's invitation, taking one of the Fake Numbers and not telling the others).
• Nerd Glasses: But Yuma thinks they're cool. (In the dub.)
• Pragmatic Hero: Even after he befriends Yuma, Flip retains his willingness to push moral boundaries, though he is firmly on the good side.
• The Smart Guy: Street smart to the Rep's tech smart.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Hands out fake Heart Pieces made of candy during the Duel Carnival. This later comes back to bite him in the ass when Nistro and Dextra find out(as they make him taste-test his own Heart Pieces to make sure they're real).
• Spared by the Adaptation: His ultimate fate in the manga, where he survives through the events alongside Yuma's other friends.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His shifty design and habit of playing dirty call Haga/Weevil Underwood from Duel Monsters to mind, albeit Tokunosuke can be seen as a version of Haga befriended by Yugi rather than becoming a sore loser and remaining a cheater to the bitter end.
• Verbal Tic: "-ura," which results in a rather amusing scene in episode 66 when Yuma goes Zexal in front of the WDC audience and they mishear it as "Zexal-ura" due to Tokunosuke's tic.

Ukyo Kitano (Mr. Kay)

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (JP), Darren Dunstan (EN)

The adviser of the protagonists' class and a teacher in their school. A kind hearted man that has a "small" hobby in hacking. Also the original holder of Number 34: Terror-Byte.

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• Brainwashed and Crazy: By Number 34: Terror-Byte.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Is reminded several times in the series about how much unintentional havoc his hacking with the Crashbug Virus caused near the beginning of the series, and is even blackmailed by the main cast to do a bit more hacking because of it.
• Playful Hacker: His normal behavior and his Number-possessed behavior.
• The Perfectionist: What he was like when he was controlled by Terror-Byte.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Seriously, he never had any evil motive. He was just trying to complete a city-wide AR circuit through hacking!

Fuya Okudaira (Nelson Andrews)

Voiced by: Yuichi Iguchi (JP), Wayne Grayson (EN)

A child actor who plays a superhero character called Different Dimension ESPer Robin. (The Sparrow in the English dub.) However, he doesn't initially enjoy the acting lifestyle all that much, and only performs out of love for his mother. After meeting with Yuma, he becomes more outgoing and willing to go against his rather controlling mother's wishes. The original holder of Number 83: Galaxy Queen.

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• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Inverted; Galaxy Queen is notable because it's one of the few Numbers not rendered in CG.
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The first opening theme features him in the same sections as Yuma's main rivals. He continues to make appearances in the opening and ending themes due to the character's popularity, but rarely actually shows up.
• Back for the Dead: The second time he comes back, he's defeated off-screen with Anna and sent to the Barian World.
• The Bus Came Back: He came back during the World Duel Carnival as a contestant.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Only while under Number 83's influence.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: He pulls some impressive physical feats while Lost in Character, but that might just be the Number talking.
• Graceful Loser: He takes his loss to Nistro fairly well.
• Humongous Mecha: His second ace, Superdimensional Robot Galaxy Destroyer, with a whopping 5000 attack points to boot!
• Lonely Rich Kid: Due to his commitment to his show, backed by his mother, he doesn't really have any friends.
• Lost in Character: Eventually starts to actually believe he's the Sparrow. Being Brainwashed and Crazy by Number 83 helped.
• Love Makes You Crazy: The reason he's in the show business, and the reason he turned to the dark side was because he loved his mother so much that he couldn't say no to her.
• One-Shot Character: He was originally a Number of the Week, but appeared pretty sporadically afterward.
• Parental Substitute: Galaxy Queen looks exactly like his mother, and he thought she was his mother while brainwashed by the card.
• Product Placement: Robin can be seen everywhere in Heartland City. He also has a monster card version of himself, "D.D. Esper Star Sparrow".
• Shout-Out: The show he stars in is a pretty clear one to the obscure 70s series Babel II.
• Show Within a Show: Different Dimension Esper Robin/The Sparrow.
• Superheroes Wear Tights: His outfit includes them.
• Spiders Are Scary: He freaks out and hides under a table when a spider drops on a thread in front of him.

Anna Kozuki (Anna Kaboom)

Voiced by: Rei Mochizuki (JP), Suzy Myers (EN)

A tomboyish and somewhat violent girl who confuses Yuma with an old crush of hers who she never got the chance to confess to. Even after the truth is revealed, she decides that she likes Yuma and comes to his aid every now and again.

Anna plays with a Railey deck which revolves around summoning ridiculously high-level monsters all themed around trains. Her dueling style is very overpowering, but most of her cards require her to get rid of her backrow and/or hand to maintain, meaning she has few backup options. Of those options, she usually goes for her Xyz Monster, Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max.

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• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening and ending themes prominently feature her as if she is a main cast member. She appears in only eight episodes, with two of those only being cameos. Overall, she tends to appear once or twice an arc.
• Bouquet Toss: In a Flashback scene, she catches it at Mayday and Brook's wedding, and finds that Brook has hidden a strange game card inside of it; the card is key to winning the tag duel with Yuma – against Mayday and a brainwashed Brook – in the present time.
• BFG: Her cannon, which has enough power to take chunks out of skyscrapers.
• Big Damn Heroes: Pulls this on the Duel Coaster to save Yuma from being overwhelmed by a 3-on-1 duel. Then she fires blasts from her cannon at Mizar.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: She's strong enough to punch through concrete.
• Cute Bruiser: After she develops her crush on Yuma, she tends to blush around him and act a bit less Hot-Blooded.
• Cool Train: Her entire deck is centered around them. Her ace card is the culmination of the two: the utterly ridiculous Super Dreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max, a rank 10 Xyz requiring two level 10 monsters.
• Easily Forgiven: Yuma and Tori don't seem to mind the little incident where she tried to kill them and blew up half of downtown Heartland in the process... Or the one where she beat up and tied up one of the Duel Carnival finalists in order to get on the Duel Coaster... (Maybe it's because she helped him with the Fallguys, but still...)
• Faux Action Girl: Sadly, loses every onscreen duel she's in; the closest she comes to a victory is losing a Tag Duel that her partner won.
• Fiery Redhead: Well, it's more pink than red, but the point stands.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: The reason why she's quite literally gunning for Yuma. Ultimately subverted; turns out she had him mixed up with someone else.
• Genki Girl: A more aggressive one.
• Glass Cannon: Her dueling style, as Astral notes. She has easy-to-summon monsters with insane attack points, including one that rivals Five-Headed Dragon and an ace monster that burns 2000 of the opponent's Life Points a turn, but they often require high costs to maintain or lock down her own spells/traps so she has virtually no protection if something goes awry.
• The Gunslinger: With her cannon.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Non-lethal example on two separate occasions, making a move in a duel that has taken her out in order to help Yuma. (Neither duel had any lethal stakes involved - for her at least - so she survived both times. This seems to echo her reckless nature.)
  • Her defeat during the Barian Emperor Onslaught was almost a real one, but she and the others were restored due to Yuma's victory over Nash.
• Hot-Blooded: She makes Yuma look tame.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Pretty much none of her backstory is explained. Why is she so strong? Where did she get that cannon? Why is she so crazy? We may never know.
• Leeroy Jenkins: She's even worse than Yuma.
• Mistaken Identity: The reason Yuma doesn't remember her is because she isn't a childhood friend. Anna was mistaking him for someone named Yuya Tsukune. (Kumo Tsuyuma in the dub.)
• Played for Laughs: Her intro episode, which starts with her trying to murder Yuma with a giant cannon.
• Plucky Comic Relief: In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, Anna becomes an Ascended Extra as a playable character, and most of her event interactions tend to be her challenging people for the most inane reasons due to her hopelessly crushing on Yuma and being a few cars short of a full train. As such, she's played far less seriously than most other characters.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Flashbacks show her in a nice white dress, and she pulls off the look quite well.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Wields a giant cannon.
• Shout-Out: To Kallen Kozuki of Code Geass, sharing both her surname and her distinctive hairstyle.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: A cannon that can turn into a flying machine. How about that?
• Tomboy: To the point where she refers to herself with the very masculine pronoun "ore".
• Tsundere: A sterling example of one.
• Woman Scorned: Thankfully she's also a tsundere. It also helps that the person she thought spurned her wasn't actually Yuma.
• Yandere: Not quite, but she came awfully close...

Rio Kamishiro (Rio Kastle)

Voiced by: Megumi Han (JP), Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (EN)

Shark's younger twin sister, and also a genius at dueling. She resents being seen only as "Shark's sister" or simply a decoration, and has therefore resolved to become strong enough to be both respected in her own right and able to defend herself against those who would use her against Shark.

She had a previous human incarnation as the princess of an island kingdom, while Shark was the king. An enemy prince (Vector's past incarnation) attacked said kingdom and, after having his Gorgonic Guardians defeated, summoned a deity (No. 73 Abyss Splash) to smite the kingdom for good. However, a knight riding a Pegasus (Dumon) arrived to assist, giving Rio the opportunity to sacrifice herself to summon another deity (No. 94 Crystalzero) to counter. She was eventually reincarnated as Marin, one of the Seven Barian Emperors, but was killed by Vector, who was also reincarnated as a Barian, and was reincarnated into her present life before regaining her past memories and turning back into Marin.

Rio fights with a deck of Water Winged-Beast monsters. Her Xyz monsters focus on "freezing" the field and cutting off the opponent's resources, like Ice Beast Zerofyne.

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• The Ace: Is good at pretty much everything and explains that she wants to be strong so she is recognized as something besides "Shark's sister" and so that no one will ever use her to get to Shark again.
• Action Girl:
  • Just watch her take on every club at her school by her lonesome and WIN.
  • Then she duels a Barian opponent who only saw her as a potential hostage. She wins again.
• Adaptational Modesty: The dub changes her black stockings and Zettai Ryouiki into Proper Tights with a Skirt.
• Ambiguously Human: Has been shown to have a power that allows to her sense Barians, as well as entering trancelike states that let her know when they're coming. Then we learn that she herself is a Barian.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Likes to be one towards Shark.
• Ascended Extra: Initially, she was just a part of Shark's backstory and only appeared on-screen bandaged up in the hospital. Come ZEXAL II, she becomes a lot more prominent.
• Badass in Distress: In Episode 114 due to being infected by Chironex's jellyfish poison.
• Berserk Button: Dislikes it when Yuma calls her "Shark's sister" or variations of it.
• Big Sister Mentor To Tori for dueling.
• Child Prodigy: Said to be a duelist equal to Shark.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Though alive, her injuries produce the same motivation for Shark.
• Dark Action Girl: Joins the Barians after regaining her memories
• Demonic Possession: Done to her by Abyss in order to give Shark a Secret Test of Character through their duel.
• Dead All Along: Rio and Shark both died in the car accident that killed their parents. Not only did they manage not to notice this, but Rio has been hospitalized twice since then. The fact that she's a Barian is obviously connected to the fact that nobody else noticed this, either.
• Dude Magnet: Her appearance wins the attention of the guys, including Bronk's.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Doesn't like to be seen simply as "Shark's sister".
• Establishing Character Moment: Long-term Yu-Gi-Oh viewers probably expected her to be an Expy of Serenity from the first series. When she finally lost the bandages from her eyes, the first thing she did was...trash-talk Shark for dueling badly before turning away in disgust.
• Face–Heel Turn: After regaining her memories as Marin, she defects from the heroes and joins the rest of the Barian Emperors to protect her people.
• The Faceless: Until ZEXAL II, she was always shown in the hospital, covered in bandages.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Downplayed, But Abyss-possessed Rio is wearing a replica of the outfit worn by Merag/Marin during her human life. How did he change her into that outfit?
• Head-Turning Beauty: Most of the school's male students instantly start swooning over her, including Bronk.
• An Ice Person: Uses ice monsters.
• Leg Focus: The first shot of her return to school is a close-up shot of her bare thighs.
• Magic Skirt: Somehow plays soccer, does martial arts, basketball, and a number of other activities that involve a lot of movement without her incredibly short school skirt causing any problems.
• Ms. Fanservice: Episode 81 had a "beach volleyball duel" that was a well-crafted excuse to put her in a bikini.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: She can sense Barians arriving on Earth, as well as what really happened in the Number ruins.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Uses an ice winged beast type deck.
• Not Brainwashed: Both she and Shark willingly abandon their human lives to make up for the mistakes of their past lives. She defeats Bronk and continues to stand by Barian World even after he succeeded in reminding her of her human self.
• The Ojou: She is the Ice Queen type and within that, the Iron Lady type, the former being a discussed trope (it helps that she has an Ice-themed deck)
• Pimped-Out Dress: Her past life wears a long, flowing white dress with plenty of decoration.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: In both considerable length and volume when in Barian form.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female Barian Emperor after transforming back into Marin.
• Snake People: Uses a Gorgonic deck while possessed by Abyss.
• Technicolor Eyes: Has pink eyes.
• That Man Is Dead: After returning to her identity as Marin, she tells Bronk "there is no Rio anymore".
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The end of episode 79 shows that she is very ailurophobic, squealing like a little girl and runs to hide behind Shark when she saw a cute kitten.

Rei Shingetsu (Ray Shadows)

Unmarked spoilers ahead for the second half of the series

^{Click here to see him post-reveal}

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (JP), Billy Bob Thompson (EN)

A transfer student to Yuma's school in Zexal II. He is a huge fan of Yuma (due to him being the WDC Champion) and has the energy and exuberance to match him, with the two becoming immediate close friends.

His true identity is Vector, one of the Seven Barian Emperors and the one responsible for the events of the first season. In order to sabotage Yuma, he takes the identity of "Rei Shingetsu" and carries out an elaborate long con, including the fake "reveal" that he was a fictional "Barian's Guardian." Because of this, he is able to convince Yuma to include "Barian's" cards in his deck, after which he stages "Rei's" kidnapping to draw Yuma into the Barian World and reveals his true identity.

For tropes applicable to his true form, see Seven Barian Emperors > Vector.

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• Anime Hair: It's considered ridiculous even in terms of the franchise.
• Badass Adorable: A kind, well-meaning, friendly guy who makes a fool of himself in front of others with extreme regularity - and also makes a living out of leading evil Barians. Subverted to high hell after The Reveal, though.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: By the Barian's Force card for an extremely short time in episode 85. Subverted in that he was actually evil and crazy anyway.
• Butt-Monkey: In a similar fashion to Yuma. Case in point, during episode 87 he attempts to find a shortcut to school to stop he and Yuma from being late again - and then they both end up getting chased by a pack of dogs because of it.
• Catchphrase: "Yokare to omotte!" It was originally translated as "Let's think positive," but that didn't fit the context for most of his uses of it, and it's now translated as either "Meaning well"/"I only mean well," "With the best intentions," or "It's for the best."
  • In the dub, he likes to say that he does things "the 'Ray Way'".
  • As Vector, he's used the phrase "Yokaranu koto o hajimeyou janai ka", which can be simplified to "With the worst intentions"/"Let's start something for the worst".
• Crash-Into Hello: How he's introduced, though in a somewhat◊ questionable◊ fashion.
• Distressed Dude: Subverted. Turns out to be a case of Faked Kidnapping in order to lure Yuma in. See Take Me Instead entry below
• Establishing Character Moment: Introduced as running late to school and then tripping over Yuma because he didn't stop in time, pretty much cementing the fact that he's an energetic (and accident-prone) force to rival Yuma himself.
• Fiery Redhead: Not too much, but he is Hot-Blooded. Played straighter after The Reveal, while also doubling as an Evil Redhead.
• Foreshadowing: The monsters he uses as Rei during the duel with Girag are happy, cute creatures; however, when they attack or use an effect, they show slight hints of dark, shadowy intentions, providing a clue to Rei's true nature.
• Hot-Blooded: Not surprising, considering this series.
• Improbable Hairstyle: His hair has so many different spikes that it'd be practically impossible to maintain in reality.
• Insistent Terminology: Yuma isn't his partner, Yuma is his subordinate.
• Knight Templar: Shows signs of this after attacking and injuring Alito for no apparent reason.
  • Subverted. Following The Reveal of Episode 96, it seems more akin to a mix of You Have Failed Me and setting up his Evil Plan.
• Large Ham: He's incredibly over-the-top for various reasons, to the point where the fandom's divided on whether it's annoying or endearing.
• Light Is Not Good: Uses LIGHT-attributed monsters...while secretly being a sadistic, cruel and ambitious villainous servant of Don Thousand.
• The Load: Considers himself this, as do the other characters to some degree. In reality, he's quite the opposite.
  Rei: I know. I'm terrible at dueling. I'm cowardly and useless.
• Master Actor: Effortlessly switches between foolish, well-intentioned middle school student Rei Shingetsu, and his "true" persona of the Barian's Guardian, who is utterly serious, and somewhat cold and demeaning, to his actual true persona of Vector who is a sadistic jerk who loves mocking people.
  Rei: Shingetsu Rei is an act this world must buy.
• Meaningful Name: The kanji for "Rei" can also be read as "zero". The first thing we see him do in a duel is... play a 0 ATK monster. In attack position, no less.
  • The Dub Name also qualifies. Ray can be used to refer to Light, the attribute of his Shining Monsters (And his Number: Masquerade (Masquerade Magician - Shining in the Japanese)). While Shadows is a rather obvious tell for Darkness and is the attribute of the Umbral Horror monsters (and by extension his Chaos Number)
  • There's a Genius Bonus in there too: in mathematics, a ray is represented by the same symbol as... a vector.
• Nightmare Face: Done as part of The Reveal. Just before revealing his true form, Ray adopts a twisted face where his whole face seems to be twisted into a V shape◊.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He's remarkably fine with chatting to Yuma while Yuma's head is still between his legs due to the position they fell in, gets rather huggy with him and drags him off with a piggyback at the end of 76.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Seems to have been the only one to really find Girag's Sports Duel Tournament suspicious.
  • Finally confirmed properly in episode 88, which reveals that he's part of a faction of Barians who protect rather than destroy, and his job is basically to get rid of the destructive Barians for the sake of protecting Earth and the Astral World.
    • And then turns out to be even more a case of this trope, since he's actually the villain responsible for the events of series 1.
• The Reveal: When he tosses "Rank Up Magic Limited Barian's Force" to Yuma, finally confirming that he's a Barian.
  • And then again in 96, when he begins to stand up from being "dead," much to Yuma's relief...and then laughs horribly and mockingly, tells Yuma he was "just kidding," and transforms into Vector.
• Shout-Out: His purpose in the plot (a supposed friend who is Evil All Along) is similar to Ren Krawler.
• Sixth Ranger: Joins the group in Zexal II.
• Take Me Instead: Essentially pulls this in 94 when he dives in front of Vector's magical hand before it grabs Yuma and ends up getting kidnapped in his place. Turns out to be a case of Faked Kidnapping/Decoy Damsel.
• Tender Tears: Episode 87, when he points out that while he may be useless and an awful duelist, he's still Yuma's friend and therefore doesn't want him to fight Girag alone when it was Ray he wanted to fight in the first place. May or may not have been Crocodile Tears.
• Walking Spoiler: Take note of the number of spoilers. Let's just say there's more to him than meets the eye.

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