Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Main Characters

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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Yuma Tsukumo

Voiced by: Tasuku Hatanaka (JP), Eli Jay (EN, ZEXAL), Noah Benjamin (EN, Duel Links; current)

The protagonist of the series, Yuma is a thirteen-year-old middle-schooler living in the city of Heartland. Despite, or because of, his energetic, peppy personality he's known amongst his peers as a screw-up who can't do anything right, whether it be at school or at Duel Monsters.

He possesses a pendant called the Emperor's Key, which turns out to be the key to unlocking a gate to another dimension, releasing the spirit Astral and the ninety-nine Numbers cards. With his own Numbers ace, No. 39: King of Wishes, Hope (a.k.a. Number 39: Utopia), Yuma and Astral must track down and collect the remaining Numbers cards.

Yuma plays a syllable-themed deck referred to as Onomat, featuring monsters with repetitive names or puns (Gagaga, Dododo, Gogogo, etc.). His strategies involve manipulating the Levels of his monsters to Xyz Summon and increasing the ATK of his monsters with various card effects. When duelling against characters who don't possess Number Monsters, he tries to refrain from using his own Numbers and will use a series of XYZ Monsters called "Djinns" as a replacement.

In the manga, Yuma gains the ability to summon Shining Numbers such as SNo. 39: Hope ONE, SNo. 39: Hope the Lightning, and SNo. 0: Hope Zexal

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Tropes exclusive to him in the first half:

• The Ace: Averted. Yuma is the first protagonist to be something of a loser at the start of his series, and is generally portrayed as such throughout, very rarely getting any respect from his peers and most of his duels being life-or-death scenarios requiring Astral's help.
  • Subverted since he is now becoming more skilled, able to hold his own with little to no guidance from Astral.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: After becoming eligible for the World Duel Carnival Finals, he tries to sell his autograph to all his classmates. No one takes him up on it.
• Adaptational Badass: In the manga, he takes on Kite (who is possessed by one of Kyoji's Numbers) in their second Duel and won. In contrast to the anime, where when he did take on Kite again after the World Duel Carnival, he still couldn't eke out a win.
• All-Loving Hero: He's a simple-minded individual who really can't see anything bad in most of his opponents, and firmly believes that dueling should not be a tool for revenge, being greatly disturbed by Shark's desire to do so. Even after being tricked by Vector in the second-half, Yuma refuses to not be this, claiming he can't change that aspect of himself.
• Anime Hair: As usual. Which is taken up a notch with his ZEXAL II transformation. Not only does it have the size of a Super Saiyan 3's hair, but it's tri-colored.
• Animal Motifs: All of the Zexal Weapons are named after an animal.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Both to highlight that it's capable of doing so and to stress his own initial recklessness, Yuma sometimes used Utopia's attack-negating effect during his own battle phase on itself.
• Audience Surrogate: Started out as one, but quickly graduated from it by the start of the second season.
• Badass Normal: In a show loaded with sci-fi-powered paramilitary types, aliens, and reincarnated heroes, Yuma gets by with a little help from Astral and largely by being himself. Case in point, near the end of the show, he's the only major duelist left who still needs to use a Duel Gazer. Subverted as it was revealed that he is Astral's other half, which means he can use "Shining Draw".
• Bash Brothers: With Astral.
• Black Knight: Utopia Ray and Utopia Ray V.
• Break the Cutie: Occurs multiple times in Zexal I and Zexal II
  • Zexal I:
    • Episode 14: When Yuma is almost defeated by Kite, he becomes wary of dueling and feels like he can't protect Astral.
    • Episode 47-48: Yuma's "kattobingu" spirit is stolen from him, regressing him to the depressed coward who never (among other things) met Astral and became a proper duelist.
  • Zexal II:
    • Episode 84: Yuma almost loses a duel to Mizar, and again becomes depressed over the fact that he's not a strong enough duelist to protect Astral.
    • Episode 96: Yuma is broken by the revelation that Ray Shadows was Vector all along, and that he had been faking his friendship with Yuma.
    • Episode 111: Astral is killed by Number 96 in order to save Yuma. Astral is able to give a heartwarming goodbye speech to Yuma before both he and Yuma's key disappear.
    • Episode 124: Shark reveals his true nature as Nash, shocking Yuma. When Yuma's key and Nash's emblem resonate and Yuma sees Nash's memories, the shock knocks him out.
    • Episode 128: Trey and Quinton lose to Mizar and are sacrificed to the Barian World. Yuma breaks down in tears as Mizar beats them down.
• Butt-Monkey: Oh yeah. The first episode alone has him failing at almost everything he does, and the series only proceeds to lay it on from there.
• Catchphrase: Kattobingu daze, ore! Often shortened to just "Kattobingu" when referenced or used by other characters. (Truthfully, it's a made-up word.)
  • Dub catchphrase: "Feeling the flow!", used less often. Also "High five the sky!" and "Get set to get decked!"
  • In the English manga, it's "I'm Gonna Jet!"
• Chained by Fashion: His Gagaga monsters.
• Character Development: He becomes much more strategic in his duels, and relies on Astral's help a lot less. Later episodes play up more on his All-Loving Hero nature as well.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Yuma is highly acrobatic and one-time able to jump kick "Orbital 5," a giant robotic gorilla, and able to counter Alito's cross counter despite his limited Barian Powers and his skills as a gladiator.
• Chick Magnet: Yuma unknowingly gains the affection of Kotori Mizuki (Tori Meadows), Cathy Katherine, and Anna Kozuki (Anna Kaboom).
• Childhood Friends: With Kotori and Tetsuo since early grades.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Bullheaded, somewhat stupid, largely incompetent, and disrespected even by his friends. His growing bond with Astral and the trials he undergoes eventually forge him into a more traditional if still a bit reckless, hero.
• Clothing Damage: Yuma getting thrown around around a lot in duels due to the enhanced physicality of AR Duels means his late-80s/early-90s wardrobe goes through a lot of wear-and-tear in his fiercer duels- more so than any Yu-Gi-Oh protagonist before or after him.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: In-Universe. Over the course of the series and dozens of duels, he obtained around seventy Numbers besides Utopia. He used maybe nine of them at any point and only two more than once. "Make two Level 4s, then go into Hope" is, without exception, his first resort, and usually his last resort as well, even if he could bring out something else. Downplayed in the manga, where he uses other Numbers with some more frequency.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Even moreso than the contrast between Judai and Yusei, the duo that provides the page image for this trope. Yusei was a stoic teenager who was well-liked respected by his friends and exceptionally skilled, going his entire home series without a real loss. Yuma is an immature and rather inept kid who his friends pick on because he's not very good at the game, losing a duel in his very first episode, no less. Yuma's character arc gradually averts this as his skills have grown towards dueling and his more positive traits are shown off; both have the Power of Friendship, Magnetic Hero, and kind-heartedness. Furthermore, Yusei grew up without his biological family, while Yuma grew up with his grandmother and sister.
• Cooldown Hug: Delivers one to Hart.
• Cool Sword: Zexal Weapon - Tornado Bringer.
• Dark Is Evil: After being possessed by a corrupted Astral and forcibly merged into Dark ZEXAL, Yuma gains a darker complexion and color scheme, along with a deranged personality to Attack! Attack! Attack! with little regard of his own life.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Utopia Ray. Exaggerated with Utopia Ray V, which due to the use of Rank-Up Magic Limited Barian's Force to create it looks downright demonic. Yuma also evolves his Xyz monsters into Chaos forms, a technique both he and several villains use when New Order is its "Light" counterpart that Astral ought to be using.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially in the dub.
• Defeat Means Friendship: A unique example as he believes that dueling in itself forges lifelong bonds between most people so even if you do beat him, he'll still consider you a friend.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: ZEXAL Weapon - Asura Blow.
• Death or Glory Attack: Unique among the franchise's protagonist in that many of his cards get stronger the closer he gets to being defeated.
• Deal with the Devil: His deal with the Door is treated as this, with it being stated that he'll gain great power, but lose what he holds most precious (and he comes up with about half a dozen examples of this by the end of the series; good luck figuring out what it is).
• Determinator: Jesus. Even for a protagonist in this franchise, it's impressive. His entire philosophy is based on never giving up and it shows for the most part. He falters a few times though.
• Don't Think, Feel: Deconstructed. This original philosophy towards dueling made him so strategically inept that it took him years to successfully Xyz Summon in a real match. Once tempered by Astral's pragmatism, it becomes a legitimate way for Yuma to get one over on his enemies.
• Dumb Is Good: On occasion, to the point of baffling his foes. It actually wins him the duel against Nasch when he cancels a game-winning attack because he doesn't want to lose himself and doom the Barian World. Nasch then reveals that he would have won if Yuma attacked, but the downside of the card because Yuma didn't attack caused him to lose.
• Forgetful Jones: He forgot to register for the World Duel Carnival, forgot his invitation to the WDC Finals party, and forgot the Heart Pieces he spent a whole arc collecting when he went to the Finals. He's also misplaced his deck and Key more than once.
• The Four Gods: Several of the Zexal Weapons are based on this.
• From Zero to Hero: Yuma went from being a good-for-nothing loser of everything in his daily life, to a champion duelist who the hero who saves Earth, Astral World, and Barian World.
• Fusion Dance: Can do so with Astral under extreme circumstances.
• Goggles Do Nothing: As the series goes on with exponentially escalating displays of supernatural happenstance, the utility of Yuma's Duel Gazer becomes increasingly suspect.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: He holds this opinion of his kattobingu and dueling philosophy in general.
• The Hero: Notably, he's the first protagonist who has not had any dark moments; Dark ZEXAL being largely Astral's corruption.
• Heroic BSoD: After his first encounter and near-loss to Kite, Yuma utterly breaks down in the rain in front of Tori, realizing he isn't good enough and even doing a Skyward Scream.
  • Also in his duel with Trey, it's revealed that without the word "kattobingu," Yuma is terribly depressed and afraid of dueling and taking on challenges in general.
  • He suffers this again during his duel with Mizar, so much so that Kite has to take over the duel in his place.
• Honor Before Reason: Double Subverted in his second Duel with Shark; despite promising not to use the Numbers, he summons Utopia anyway though Shark urges him to. Giving the reaction of his friends, it would seem that usually, Yuma does play the trope straight.
• Hot-Blooded: In direct contrast to Yusei.
• Hunter of Monsters: Despite his denial of such a title, Yuma is very much a Number Hunter.
• Hypocrite: Rare protagonist example, at least in the dubbed version; he freely claims that teamwork is the point of Xyz Monsters, even though he himself doesn't accept external help.
  • He gets angry easily at times yet does not approve of others dueling in anger, and at one point wanted to drop out of the WDC to find his father despite his promise to him about becoming a champion.
    • There's an episode that hangs a lampshade on this, with Yuma himself pointing out that he is indeed hypocritical and pointing out how that was wrong of him.
• Idiot Hair: A particularly impressive one, taking the form of two long spikes of red hair sticking up from his forehead. He also starts off as probably the worst duelist out of all the main characters, and his general smarts only improve slightly as the show goes on.
• Idiot Hero: To the point where Astral often Lampshades his dueling misplays.
  • He really seems to be the least intelligent out of the series's protagonists. He's actually closer to Jounouchi than he is to Yugi, both as a beginner and in his general personality.
  • It's also in stark contrast to the other mains though, who are all The Stoic. This leads to an amusing Not So Stoic moment when they are at Jinlong's ruins, and Yuma smells Jinlong's lunch. Shark thinks that Yuma's sensed a Barian, and when he and Kite see Yuma walking in a trance towards the food, their reaction is priceless. A look of disbelief that is very out of character for them, before shaking their heads in disgust ever-so-slightly.
• Ignored Aesop: When Yuma screws up his World Duel Carnival application, Shark tries to comfort him by saying that he didn't even try to enter as he wants to just duel for the love of the game. Yuma takes a moment to admire how cool and mature this sentiment is before immediately accosting whatever Heartland staff he can get his hands on to let him into the tournament.
• Invincible Hero: For once in this series, it's actually averted to help immediately show off his contrasts from Yusei. He still wins most plot-important matches, but he actually does lose quite frequently, having the highest number of losses among the protagonists until Yuga Ohdo from Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS. He never managed to beat Kite in the anime continuity, and many of his early victories were heavily dependent on Astral. Even after he gets better, he's still shown to have legitimate trouble fighting his opponents, Slightly Subverted since during WDC onwards, he is now more proficient and cooperative with/without Astral.
• Japanese Delinquents: His Gagaga monsters have this as their theme.
• Keet: Very loud, very young, and very easily excited.
• Kid Hero: The second youngest main character thus far.
• King of Beasts: Leo Arms is a Zexal Weapon Xyz monster and the one with the highest ATK gain.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Utopia and Utopia Ray Victory.
• Leeroy Jenkins: What his dueling style, at least to start out with, tends to lean towards without Astral's help.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: After realizing how much of an unfair advantage they give him in a typical duel, Yuma tries to refrain from using his Number cards against normal opponents. This trait ends up helping him in his final battle against Astral once he gets locked out of using the Number Cards, since he has experience using regular Xyz monsters.
• Light Is Good: Utopia and Utopia Ray Victory.
• Light Is Not Good: On the other hand, regarding Utopia Ray V. Ray, the person that gave Yuma the Rank-Up-Magic card used to summon him, is revealed to be Vector. And he gave Yuma the card as part of a Batman Gambit. Despite the spoiler and its appearance, it's still the same attribute as Utopia's other forms.
• The Load: When it isn't his turn during the final duel in the manga, his 1 LP constantly forces Shark and Kite to protect him. The ONE time he does protect himself, it's with an unbelievably counterproductive card that buys them a turn, but robs all of their monsters of ATK and effects. In addition, part of the reason that they're in so much trouble is that E'Rah mimicked his 5000 ATK Utopia the Lightning.
• Loser Protagonist: Yuma, at the start of the series, is viewed by his peers as a bull-headed, reckless buffoon who is incompetent at everything, including school and Duel Monsters. Even by the end, he is not high on the totem pole in regards to his school life, though he takes it in stride, Averted when it comes to real life-threatening duels.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Zexal Weapon - Ultimate Shield.
• Magnetic Hero: Commented on when his teacher compares him to the sun of a solar system.
• Missed the Call: Despite having looked forward to it for months, Yuma failed to actually sign up for the World Duel Carnival (a process that would have taken under a minute to complete), assuming that he'd just receive an invite. He only manages to get into the tournament because Kite wanted a rematch with Astral.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Yuma's a scrawny 13-year-old kid whose primary form of exercise is standing still and playing card games yet he routinely pulls off athletic maneuvers that would put an Olympian to shame, typically in the process of getting up after being knocked down while playing that card game. He does participate in his school's athletic activities, but that doesn't really justify the tricks he pulls off.
• Next Tier Power-Up: He manages to set a new record among the protagonists for the fastest gained canon upgrade to an ace monster with Number C39: Utopia Ray. He got one three times faster than Yusei. He's gained three more in the anime, and another two in the manga since. Subverted with Utopia Roots though, which is a power-up, but is actually a downgraded version. With Zexal forms, and his acquired ability that Yuma gains on his own, Shining Draw.
• Nice Guy: Yuma's genuine kind heart and empathy make him a very admirable character that wins over most of his major enemies and makes them close allies. He is always sympathetic towards his enemies, even those who did him wrong, which luckily saves him from Vector's attempt to commit suicide with him, only sacrifice himself for Yuma, and from his last duel with Reginald Kastle.
• Not Me This Time: Everyone, including Yuma himself, assumes that he misplaced his deck before the World Duel Carnival finals by accident given how forgetful he's been about the tournament since before it even started. It soon transpires that Faker stole it to facilitate a meeting with Yuma when he tried to get it back.
• Oblivious to Love: Poor Kotori, Cathy, and Anna. Lampshaded by Astral. The ending seems to have subverted this, as Yuma seems to have accepted Tori's affections.
• Order Versus Chaos: He's often the chaos to Astral's order, making him a heroic substitute for Astral's original counterpart in the dichotomy, Don Thousand.
• Pain to the Ass: How Yuma always landed after he jumped on a tall height point.
• Panthera Awesome: Zexal Weapon - Lightning Blade.
• Personality Powers: Utopia's abilities nicely compensate for Yuma's reckless dueling style, allowing him to negate his own attacks if he falls for an opponent's ploy. Utopia Ray also provides Yuma a potential Comeback Mechanic when his life points inevitably fall below 1000.
• Powered Armor: In Zexal Mode, and it gets spiffier and spiffier with each new form.
• The Power of Friendship: Played to incredible extremes. Yuma is able to become friends with ANYONE, ranging from stoic and seemingly emotionless characters (Astral), a juvenile delinquent whom he helps reform (Shark), a Hunter who will stop at nothing to collect his Numbers and Soul (Kaito), a gentle boy driven to Ax-Crazy insanity and hatred (Trey) and even Ray Shadows, who despite revealing himself to be Vector and trying to hurt Yuma countless times, is still cherished by Yuma as a friend as seen when he attempts to rescue him, and his sincerity brings Vector to some sort of Heel–Face Turn. It is even hinted in more than one episode that Yuma and Astral are able to go Fusion Dance into ZEXAL partly because of the bond of trust between them, which Vector tries to sabotage. Shark even Dueled Yuma to snap him out (successfully) of his Heroic BSoD, despite not wanting to admit out loud that he cares for Yuma a lot, and Kite opened up to Yuma gradually (Thanks to Yuma showing genuine concern for him and his brother) and finally considered him his rival (after calling him a mere idiot earlier), and promising him to duel him as many times as he wants in order for Yuma to achieve his goal (of surpassing Kaito). Trey even called Yuma his first true friend, and that's coming from an innocent soul who had to live in a broken family situation.
• Red Is Heroic: Yuma's hair, eyes, and parts of his clothing aside, the number 39 on Hope/Utopia is also red and for a while, Hope was the only Number monster with a number of that color. He gains a red aura to contrast Astral's blue whenever they go into Zexal Morph. Hope Ray V^note which may be a subversion and Utopia Ray Victory also have some red parts on their armor. He even gets a red aura briefly while traveling to Astral World.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Astral's blue. Astral is calm and analytical, while Yuma is headstrong and excitable.
• The Rival: At various points, to Shark, Kite, Nistro, Vector, and Alito.
• Rule of Drama: His deck mostly consists of new cards that are inferior to those in previous shows that have similar effects to guarantee that his life points always drop to the triple digits when he duels to raise the stakes. Most glaring of these is the trap Half Unbreak, which mitigates battle damage involving a Monster he owns by half and makes it indestructible by battle in preference to using Waboku, which would eliminate battle damage entirely and would make all of his monsters immune to being destroyed by battle.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon finding out that it's too late to join the World Duel Carnival, Yuma bolts out of his school with alarming speed, screaming in despair all the while.
  • Does this again in episode 81 after Tori and Cathy insist on having the final duel of the Friendship Games right after he frees them from Barian control in said duel (which Tori and Cathy can’t remember), claiming he had ‘enough fueling for today.’
• Shout-Out: To Pandora's Box. Yuma opened the door that unleashed 98 evils unto the world, but he also gained the power necessary to fight them: Hope.
• Signature Move: Double or Nothing!. Yuma tends to use this card to win his duels only when he's doing things on his own, or without consulting Astral first (which he uses to win his first duel against Shark and catching Astral off guard). Notably, it is also the card Yuma uses to defeat Astral when he had his final duel.
• Spanner in the Works: Yuma ends up being one for the Arclight family once he gets dragged into their revenge plot via Hart and helps Kite duel Trey and Quattro in a tag match to rescue Hart. At first the brothers didn't think too much of him until he brings out Number 39 during their tag duel, which causes Trey to realize that Yuma might be a huge risk factor to them since he knows their strategies and they know absolutely nothing about him in turn. They constantly get caught off guard by Yuma's actions during the duel, from the fact that he had a number the whole time, his selfless actions protecting Kite from their trap, Chaos Numbers, his relation to Kazuma Tsukumo, and the existence of Astral. It goes without saying that after the brothers' first defeat against Yuma, they scrambled to find out every single detail about Yuma and Astral to avoid being blindsided by them in the future.
• Stepford Smiler: Take into account the gravity of the word "kattobingu" to him and he slips right into type A.
• Super Mode: ZeXal, ZeXal II, and ZeXal III.
• Telepathy: Yuma and Astral can communicate with each other this way, but they usually don't. After all, how else would Yuma embarrass himself in public by talking with himself?
• Token Super: Yuma is the only one of his friends capable of ZEXAL Morph. It involves him and his extra-dimensional companion Astral undergoing fusion to create a Golden Super Mode for Yuma.
• Too Dumb to Live: An arduous climb with his father during early childhood cured Yuma of his fear of heights, but made him so unafraid that he has a propensity for excitedly leaping off of tall things without giving much thought to how he's going to land safely.
• Took a Level in Badass: Yuma shows easily the greatest growth of any Yu-Gi-Oh protagonist before or since. Originally something of a loser (with a stated record of 33 confirmed losses, though most of them occured off-screen) that needs Astral to coach him through every major duel. But by the time of the World Duel Carnival, he's learned enough to duel and win competently without relying on Astral or Numbers, defeats Eliphas, a "Rank-Up master", on his own with little help from Astral's Shining Draw, and by the end of the series he even defeats Astral himself, as he uses his own Shining Draw.
• The Unintelligible: Kattobingu! There is no real translation for it. It is merely just a phrase Kazuki Takahashi came up with for Yuma when he created the character. "Katto" literally means "to flare up" ("bingu" is merely the Japanese spelling of the English sound effect "bing").
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Yuma can use any Numbers that he has defeated and Astral has absorbed, making his Deck expand with each victory. However, he uses very few of them, and generally defaults back to only using Utopia. Though when he does, it's very satisfying.
• Warrior Therapist: The most blatant and straightforward one in the franchise, Yuma is even willing to lose if it means helping his opponent overcome the personal issues that make them duel out of spite, greed, revenge, etc.
• Weak, but Skilled: Only his Xyz Monsters are truly powerful in terms of ATK, so he compensates by having various powerful card effects, if he uses them correctly.
• Winged Unicorn: Zexal Weapon - Unicorn Spear. Its effect may reflect to a unicorn's powers in myths. In legends, it is claimed that a unicorn's horn can neutralize poisons. This may reference to this card's ability to neutralize monster effects during the Battle Phase (Monster effects that are active during the Battle Phase usually either stop your attacks or prevent them from destroying your opponent's monsters).
• Worf Effect: As he was unable to defeat Bronk and Kite, he was able to defeat Vetrix after he defeats Kite, and all serious threat opponents like Alito, Girag, and Nash (Shark), who were Barian Emperors.
• Worthy Opponent: He becomes this to several duelists who initially take him for a worthless buffoon.

Tropes exclusive to him in the second half:

• All-Loving Hero: Highlighted much more in this part of the series. He somehow managed to redeem Vector, despite Vector's constant trolling, maintaining that even if Vector had no soul he'd still believe his lies again and again because he believes that Vector has the potential to have a soul.
  • In the end, his personality and spirit defuses a war between two different worlds.
• Book Ends: Ends the series in the same place and using the same method he started it. Though happier than Yugi's ending where his alter ego dies.

* The Chosen One: Yuma, along with Astral, is actually destined to stop the war between Astral World and Barian World, and he is also the other half of Astral as he can use "Shining Draw" which is exclusive to Zexal and citizens from Astral.

• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Forms this with Kite and Shark. Is the squire due to his relative inexperience with duelling, optimistic attitude, and his status as The Hero. He also tends to look up to both Kite and Shark.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Senses Girag's first appearance on earth and later Don Thousand alongside Rio. Though what this means about him is currently unknown.
• Reality Warper: In ZeXal II form, he can use Re-Contract Universe(Shining Evolution in the Dub) to change a card, for instance transforming Limited Barian's Force into its 'true form', Numeron Force.
• Screw Destiny: In his final duel with Nash, Yuma realizes that the price the Door claimed would come with the power that he obtained with Astral, would be to lose who he truly was (his idealistic ability to connect with others), which he ultimately managed to defy.

Astral

Voiced by: Miyu Irino (JP), Marc Thompson (EN)

A spirit being from another dimension who meets Yuma after he unlocks a dimensional gate. With no memory of who he is, Astral and Yuma must collect the ninety-nine Numbers monsters to reconstruct his memory. While living with Yuma he tends to make observations regarding daily human life and possesses great insight into Duel Monsters. As only Yuma can see him, most others tend to think Yuma's going crazy whenever he bickers with him.

After regaining memories from several of the Mythyrian Numbers, he recalls his mission is to destroy the Barian World.

When he duels, Astral either uses a customized variant of Yuma's own deck, or his own set of cards that focus on Rank-Up Magic spells and summoning Utopia and its variants that he and Yuma collected throughout the series.

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Tropes exclusive to him in the first half:

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: "Number" duels. If he and Yuma win, then they get a new Number, but if their opponents win, then Astral perishes as their Number becomes the new dominant personality. They're also terribly one-sided as enemies can just ditch without forfeiting and losing one's Number is usually beneficial.
• Aliens Steal Cable: He grows quite fond of Earth culture while watching television as Yuma sleeps, such as wearing a deerstalker hat similar to Sherlock Holmes. He grows especially fond of the Show Within a Show "The Sparrow/D.D Esper Robin," partly due to his ignorance of culture meaning he thinks the show is real.
• Amnesiac Hero: He arrives on Earth with no memories of his past life, and has to piece his memories together by collecting the Numbers.
• Artificial Intelligence: He was created with a specific mission (destroy Barian World) and it is implied that Kazuma altered his programming to give him amnesia and send him to Earth.
• Bash Brothers: With Yuma.
• Batman Gambit: Taking down the math teacher by knowing that he was obsessed with perfection and so would act to restore his LP to 4000 even though doing so was unnecessary. Nice Job Fixing It, Villain ensues.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Made hilarious in the dub, which censored out his crotch with a blur despite there being nothing to censor.
• Captain Patriotic: Astral World's greatest champion. So much so that he was named after the place.
• The Comically Serious: Being such a straight-laced, stoic character gives him several amusing moments where he plays the straight man to the Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero Yuma, and a few others with him taking things entirely too seriously due to his combination of stoicism and initial naivety (like assuming the Star Robin/Sparrow TV show depicted real events).
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments of straight-faced wisecracking, mostly directed toward Yuma, especially in the dub. Though it's often hard to tell if he's trying to be scathing or if he just doesn't realize it.
  Yuma: Can I at least get a "please?"
  Astral: Stop making dumb mistakes, please.
• Deer in the Headlights: Develops a phobia to Kite, which causes him to freeze up whenever he hears his name. He gets over it.
• Disney Death: Trey/III eventually gets fed up with Astral after he uses the last of his power to partially restore Yuma's memory of his kattobingu, seemingly killing him off with his power. Once he accidentally unleashes a world-ending portal, though, he lends his power to Yuma so they can bring Astral back and end the Duel before the portal destroys everything.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Especially bizarre considering we eventually see the other inhabitants of Astral World, and they're all fully clothed.
• Expy: The Atem to Yuma's Yugi, although they do duel independent of one another more so than the duo they're based on and Yuma isn't entirely reliant on his aid during his matches.
• Fusion Dance: With Yuma.
• Heroic BSoD: The same as Yuma after their near-loss to Kite.
• Oh, Crap!: When Kite uses Photon Cerberus to prevent the Trap Card which forms Yuma's last defense from activating, Astral freezes up completely. It's also justified as this leads to Kite's Near-Villain Victory (which would result in Yuma getting his soul sucked out by Photon Hand and Astral dying) if it weren't for Hart collapsing, leading to the former to prematurely end the Duel with no result.
• Powerful and Helpless: He's a skilled and brilliant extraterrestrial entity who can't even pick up a card most of the time, much less play one, due to his disembodied state.
• Pure Is Not Good: Created to be a perfect agent of Astral World, such an unblemished essence paradoxically makes Astral even more susceptible to doubt and corruption than a regular person. He suffered a massive existential crisis after almost losing to Kite, and a single betrayal by Yuma was enough to cause Astral to embrace the power of evil and manifest the Dark Zexal form.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Yuma's red.
• Reverse Psychology: During Yuma's duel with Ukyo; Yuma gets so angry at him he tells Astral he will not do what he says, so Astral deliberately gives Yuma the wrong advice, and as he hoped, Yuma does the exact opposite, which is the what he should do.
• Sense Freak: Astral looooves rice balls. Justified, as he was fused with Yuma at the time, and he normally doesn't eat.
• Smug Super: At the start of the show, the only thing he remembers from his previous life...is that he's a much better duelist than Yuma.
• Spider-Sense: Gets a 'bad feeling' when Kite is nearby in episode 13.
• Spirit Advisor: Astral is this to Yuma, and later Shark, Kite, Tori, and Rio.
• The Spock: Very emotional and logical, in contrast to the reckless and emotionally-driven Yuma.
• The Stoic: Which contrasts quite starkly with Yuma.
• Stone Wall: This was Astral's usual playstyle during his first duel against Kite, fitting his overall analytical and cautious approach to Dueling. Deconstructed as this form of playstyle has proven to be just as detrimental as Yuma's Hot-Blooded Attack! Attack! Attack! playstyle, as his cautiousness and refusal to take certain risks, along with being afraid of Kaito at the time, leads him into a bad spot. ^note Kite took advantage of this by setting a single face-down spell card on his turn, and then on Astral's turn, he had the necessary materials to Xyz Summon Number 39: Utopia and destroy Reverse Buster along with being able to deal a good amount of damage to Kite's LP. However, by believing the face-down would be a very devastating trap that would allow Kite to summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, he instead, ends his turn by setting another card and fortifying his defenses with a combo of Gogogo Giant, Gogogo Golem, and Double Defender. Then on Kite's turn, he activates his face-down, Photon Hurricane, allowing him to bounce all three of Astral's Spell/Trap Cards back into his hand, Tribute Summons Photon Leo, and uses its effect to force Astral to shuffle his entire hand and draw the same number of cards, equips Photon Leo with Photon Spear (granting the monster with the ability to inflict piercing damage), destroy the 0 DEF Gogogo Giant, and demolished half of Astral's LP.
• Telepathy: As shown in Episode 28, Astral and Yuma can communicate telepathically. Regardless, they usually don't, which is really only noticeable on Yuma's end since, from most people's perspective, he is talking to air.
• Unwanted Assistance: Yuma doesn't take too kindly to Astral trying to take control of his duels, though eventually, he starts to realize that he's the main reason he's started winning in the first place. (Possibly owing to Astral's insults, though.)
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Displays a phobia of Cathy's cats, but quickly grows out of it in subsequent episodes.

Tropes exclusive to him in the second half:

• Anguished Declaration of Love: His manga counterpart confesses this to Yuma in the final chapter.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: In Dark ZeXal, he recklessly attacks Vector's Number even though doing so is only damaging his own Life Points.
• The Berserker: In Dark ZeXal form.
• The Bus Came Back: Reunites with Yuma ten episodes later.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Vector uses his suppressed jealousy and anger of Yuma being a closer friend towards "Shingetsu" than with him and Yuma not telling him he's a Barian to make him absolutely batshit.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: In the first half of Episode 98, both as Dark ZeXal and as himself.
• Final Boss: He serves as this for Zexal, serving as Yuma's final challenge as the two Duel to decide what Astral will do with the Numeron Code, while Astral wants Yuma to regain his love and passion for dueling. It's also a deliberate homage to Duel Monsters, with Astral serving the role of Atem/Yami Yugi while Yuma assumes the role of Yugi, complete with it being a capstone to the latter's arc and stepping out of the former's shadow for good.
• Go Out with a Smile: He gives one final smile to Yuma before vanishing in episode 111.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Forces Yuma out of Zexal II mode so Yuma wouldn't be hit by Number 96's attack. He almost does it again in Episode 139, only for Eliphas to take his place.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dark ZeXal uses a berserker strategy to try and overwhelm Vector with continuous attacks which increase in power, but due to Vector's Hundred Over Trap, the reckless attacks only damage Dark ZeXal himself.
  • Episode 121 shows that whatever Astral did during his battle against Don Thousand in the past ended up harming them both.
• Madness Mantra: When Vector corrupts him with darkness, he begins to chant 'ZeXal'.
  • In Dark ZeXal form, he constantly repeats the order for Utopia Ray V to attack Masquerade, as well as the name of Chimera Clad's power-up effect.
• Love Makes You Evil: When Vector manipulates his and Yuma's relationship to make Astral feel jealous and betrayed to the point where he snaps.
• Slasher Smile: When he's Drunk on the Dark Side.
• So Proud of You: He says this to Yuma in their final match, expressing his pride in how far Yuma has come as a Duelist since they met.
• Years Too Early: Says this to Yuma during their final face-off, after being challenged by his human partner to a duel, with the Barian World and Yuma's memories of Astral at stake, after overwhelming him in one turn with 5 Utopia monsters.

Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro (Reginald "Shark" Kastle)

Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda (JP), Gary Mack (EN)

Known as the number one bully at Yuma's school, Shark is a duelist who once played at the national level, but was banned from the circuit due to looking at his opponent's deck before the championship match. Due to his skills, at first, he is arrogant and merciless to his opponents, defeating Tetsuo and taking his deck through the ante rule, and crushing Yuma's pendant, but upon being defeated by Yuma he shows that he does have some sense of honor by returning the deck without protest, and Yuma believes that one day they'll be friends.

During his first duel with Yuma his ace monster is Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, and afterward, he switches to Black Ray Lancer. After his duel with Trey he gains possession of Number 32: Shark Drake. During his duel with Quattro, he is able to use Chaos Xyz Evolution, evolving Shark Drake into Number C32: Shark Drake Veiss.

He had a previous human incarnation as the king of an island kingdom. An enemy king (Vector's past incarnation) attacked said kingdom and, after having his Gorgonic Guardians defeated, summoned a deity (Number 73: Abyss Splash) to smite the kingdom for good. However, his friend, a knight riding a Pegasus (Dumon) arrived to assist, giving the princess (Rio) the opportunity to sacrifice herself to summon another deity (No. 94: Crystalzero) to counter. After that, Shark furiously attacked Vector's army and pursued the mad king to his kingdom, where he met a girl named Iris who looked strangely similar to Rio.

Shark decided to fight King Vector on his own to minimize the losses, but Vector started a Shadow Game, which meant the more monsters of a certain player's were destroyed, the more losses their army would have. Shark won the duel, but all the monsters in his deck were sent to the graveyard, meaning, his entire army died. An unspecified amount of time later, he died and was reincarnated as Nash, the leader of the Seven Barian Emperors, but was killed by Vector, who had also be reincarnated as a Barian and was reincarnated again into his present life. After Dumon shows him his past memories, he transforms back into Nash.

In both the anime and manga, he plays a WATER Xyz-based deck, mostly revolving around Sharks. His anime deck involves quickly Xyz summoning and banishing his monsters.

In the manga he has Number 47: Nightmare Shark and Number 37: Hope Woven Dragon Spider Shark.

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Tropes exclusive to him in the first half:

• Achilles' Heel: Yuma is this to Shark Drake's effect on Reginald, being a major spot of positivity that works against the hatred that Shark Drake propagates. In regards to his dueling, Quattro attempted to trick Ryoga to fight in a Field that auto-destroyed any WATER monsters, but Shark came prepared with two contingencies to work around it.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the dub, he broke Yuma's Emperor's Key mainly out of amusement and to cement the fact that he is a bully after Yuma labeled him as such, whereas in the original version, it's framed to be Shark's own way of teaching Yuma a lesson of "value", as he can't truly gain something without having to give up something precious in return.
• Aloof Ally: After becoming friends with Yuma he rarely hangs around with him and only comes to aid him whenever he's in pinch, but he begins to avert this trope by Season 2.
• Badass Biker: Following his first loss to Yuma, he drove a rather cool motorcycle - or something like one - for a while. (Word of God has said that Shark's bike is "not a motorcycle but a futuristic vehicle that has yet to be named", which is why he can drive it, despite not being legal driving age, and they didn't go into further detail.)
• Badass Normal: He's shown to be an excellent duelist even when he doesn't have a Numbers card and is able to hold his own against Kite even if he loses.
• Battle Aura: Gets a dark purple one when he gives in to Shark Drake in episode 58.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: By Vetrix, due to his actions in the duel with Quattro.
• Big Brother Instinct: To his twin sister Rio, in fact, he duels in the nationals in order to financially support her in the hospital.
• Black Knight: Black Ray Lancer, his first ace card.
• The Bully: Before his Face–Heel Turn, and he becomes much kinder as the season goes on.
• Bully Turned Buddy: He starts out as the biggest bully in Yuma's school, but slowly begins to become kinder to Yuma and his friends as the season goes on, eventually acknowledging Yuma as his friend and refusing to abandon him. It eventually reaches the point where he calls Yuma and Astral his two best friends.
• Character Development: At the start of the series, he's a jerk in the simplest terms. But, after losing to Yuma, he slowly becomes more humble and pulling multiple acts of kindness for Yuma: Protecting his Emperor Key from Kite and winds up losing his soul for it. Throwing a duel to Yuma after he snaps out of Vetrix's brainwashing, and storming Heartland Tower with Tori and insisted on staying when Kite told them to leave so he could help Yuma acknowledging him as his friend. After becoming a Barian, he's a bit sullen when he has to fight Yuma due to his loyalty to the other Barian Emperors, and makes it clear to them to to stay away from Yuma and that he would be the one to deal with him. Before dying after his final duel with Yuma, he tells him he had fun and wishes he could see the future Yuma creates before calling him and Astral his best friends.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to the previous expies of Joey Wheeler, Shark is much more different than the former. To start off, he was The Bully to Yuma's Yugi by messing with an important item that they wore around their necks (The Millennium Puzzle for Yugi and the Emperor's Key for Yuma), and later, Took a Level in Kindness by becoming a good friend. He has a younger sister and cares a great deal about her, and after she was hospitalized from an unknown incident, he became a Duelist in order to support her. Also, he shares Joey's status as a Badass Normal between the main hero and rival. That's where the similarities end. Shark and his sister were once originally from a wealthy family before getting orphaned in a car crash, compared to Joey's poor upbringing. Joey is initially depicted as a mediocre-at-best player who has to get good in a hurry, while Shark is shown to be a skilled player from the get-go. In the original manga, Joey remains a Badass Normal compared to Yugi and Kaiba, both of who were deeply connected in the Greater-Scope Villain of the past. Reginald and his sister, however, are the ones who are revealed to be connected to the Greater-Scope Villain of the past while Yuma and Kite happened to get roped into the conflict.
• Cosmic Plaything: He's been yanked around and exploited during both his past and present lives, with Vetrix outright manipulating the events of his post-accident existence to turn him into a weapon he can use against Dr. Faker.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Does this to Bronk in the first episode and Yuma in the 10th.
• The Corruption: Shark Drake's effect on him. Just as Vetrix planned.
• Empowered Badass Normal: With Number 17: Leviathan Dragon and Number. 32: Shark Drake and Chaos Number 32: Shark Drake Veiss.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: He has absolutely awful luck with Number cards which either contribute directly to his defeats or try to corrupt him with their influence, but he finds himself needing to use them regardless to achieve his goals.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He starts respecting Yuma and being friendly towards him, though not a member of Yuma's group by his own choice, after their tag match.
• Ineffectual Loner: It's worth noticing that in the openings, in contrast to Yuma with Astral and his friends, Shark is often shown alone in dark places. But Yuma refuses to let him go and insists that they're friends. He eventually begins to avert it, especially when Rio joins the cast.
• In-Series Nickname: "Shark". He is more commonly addressed by his nickname than the actual name.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Towards Yuma, as he excessively tries to push the latter away as to make sure that he doesn't end up hurt by Quattro.
• Jerkass: He starts out like this at the beginning of the series but after Yuma defeats him, he begins to become more humble.
• Kick the Dog: Upon their first meeting he steals Yuma's Emperor's Key, crushes it, and then kick away a broken piece of it. In the dub, this act is especially heinous by Shark saying that [Yuma] obviously didn't care for it much if he couldn't protect it, along with the act of doing so mainly because of It Amused Me. Good thing Yuma's a forgiving person.
• Large Ham: Once a duel begins he starts chewing scenery like there's no tomorrow. He's quite subdued at other times though, so it balances out.
• Laughably Evil: Even before his Heel–Face Turn, people still find Shark's tenacity to be a Jerkass hilarious... until he smashed Yuma's pendent.
• Magic Poker Equation: His monsters summon and search each other out reasonably enough with their effects, but Shark has absolutely insane luck with his Spells and Traps which tend to be just what he needs at the moment in contrast to Yuma and Kite who have more generic damage mitigation and protection cards. Perhaps most glaringly is Xyz Dimension Splash, a trap he used before getting knocked out in the trio's tag duel against Faker that summons two Level 8 Monsters (for Kite to use) after it's been banished by an opponent's card effect face-down in spite of the fact that Shark owns no Rank 8 Xyz Monsters.
• Making a Splash: His Deck is primarily Water-Attribute monsters and support cards.
• Man of Kryptonite: His Black Ray Lancer is able to negate monster effects, which is bad news for the Number monsters' effects preventing them from being destroyed in battle by non-Number cards.
• Meaningful Name: His Japanese name "Ryouga" is a homophone with the word "superior" and also contains the word "fang" (牙) which may reflect his nickname "Shark" while his surname, "Kamishiro", means "Age of the gods". At the same time, his dub name "Reginald" means "powerful ruler" and his surname literally spelled as "castle". Guess who he actually is in the second season.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: In the dub.
• Old Shame: An In-Universe example. Used to be a championship-level duelist, but he was tricked into cheating by a forced glance at his opponent's Deck pre-match and was disqualified from the championship. He went downhill after this.
  • Seems to think a bit of this about crushing Yuma's key, and in return tries to keep it safe from Kite. It doesn't end well.
• The Power of Friendship: Which he uses to resist Number 32's mind control.
• The Power of Hate: How he brought out Shark Drake Veiss.
• The Rival: To Yuma initially, then to Quattro after he and Yuma become friends. It borderlines to Blood Knight when we discover that Quattro put Shark's sister in a coma, and made Shark hate Quattro even when he begs for mercy
• Sanity Has Advantages: For Shark, this is very true. The first two times he lost to Yuma, he was Brainwashed and Crazy or under some other form of mind control. The times he was fully lucid and in control of his actions, however, Yuma didn't stand a chance. And this is usually the case with him overall, most of the time, to the point that both Barian assassins that targeted him had to gain an advantage in some way (one cheated, another, despite not dueling him, had an anti-WATER deck.)
• Say My Name: He very often yells the names of his enemies from the top of his lungs in a very dramatic fashion.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: When he deigns to "help" someone duel, his lessons tend to be harsh, but they're otherwise effective.
• Smug Smiler: His usual expression in his first appearance, but he later becomes more of Perpetual Frowner.
• The Stoic: Outside of duels, he tends to keep to himself.
• Super Mode: For Shark Drake, Number C32: Shark Drake Veiss.
• Superpowered Evil Side: When he fully embraces Shark Drake's power, he glows with purple aura and gets the power to summon Chaos Number 32. And that's long before he discovers that he's a Barian.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Particularly in the first half, he fills the Recurring Archetype of a Jounouchi-esque character. He is the third part of the main Power Trio and treated as its third-strongest member, initially a violent bully who steals the main character's golden keepsake, and motivated by his injured sister.
• Threatening Shark: Starting from his nickname, shark monsters such as Jawsman and Aero Shark make up the main component of his sea deck.
  • Then you get something weirder like Shocktopus, a Mix-and-Match Critter of a shark and octopus.
  • Exaggerated with Shark Drake and Nightmare Shark. And finally with Shark Drake Veiss.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Vetrix - who orchestrated the hospitalization of his sister, had Quattro goad him into competing in the tournament, and made sure he obtained an evil, darkness-enhancing Number - all to make him an effective assassin against Dr. Faker.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Has shades of this with Yuma, he may be annoyed with his antics but will happily acknowledge him as his best friend.
• The Worf Effect: He's a brilliant strategist and a fierce combatant who either loses to or is manipulated by the show's major antagonists to show how much of a threat they are to Yuma.
• Worthy Opponent: He considers Yuma to be this eventually.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Lost his soul after losing against Kite after their duel. He got better, thanks to Yuma.

Tropes exclusive to him in the second half:

• Ambiguously Human: Like his sister, he's started showing traits that provide a possible connection to the Barians. The first evidence was in episode 100, where he gets an aura that repairs Dumon's Barialapis bracelet, allowing Durbe to take his true form. The second (which pretty much confirms it) is in episodes 108-109, where he relives his previous life as a king who fought Vector's past human incarnation. Then he turns back into Nash.
• Big Brother Instinct: Although Rio is awake and healthy, he still is protective of her despite being a bit aloof. This most likely transcended back to his past self as he had failed to protect Merag when she had sacrificed herself.
• Bridal Carry: Gives one to his twin sister Rio in episode 78 after defeating Chitaro Ariga and freeing her from his imprisonment.
• Dead All Along: It's revealed that Shark had died three times before the start of the series - first during his past life as King, next he's killed as a Barian by Vector and reincarnated as a human, then finally dies again in a car crash. Though that last one wasn't the Shark we've known.
• Declaration of Protection: He tells an imprisoned Rio in episode 78 that he'll always protect her as he pleads for her to wake up.
• Does Not Like Spam: According to Rio, Shark dislikes onions and green peppers.
• Face–Heel Turn: After learning about his past as Nasch, he defects from the heroes and joins the rest of the Barian Emperors to protect his people.
• Final Boss: In the end, he takes up this role after Don Thousand's defeat, with the fate of the Astral and Barian Worlds hanging on his final duel against Yuma.
• Hates Being Touched: Behaves this way when Art Stanley holds his shoulder.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Forms this with Kite and Yuma. Is the knave due to his cold attitude, loner nature, and lack of care towards things other than his friends and dueling. At the start of the series, he also dueled for his own self-interest and mixed in with a gang as a mercenary duelist.
• That Man Is Dead: During his first meeting with Yuma after his Face–Heel Turn, he insists that he is Nash, and no longer "Shark" or "Ryouga".
• Memento Macguffin: Episode 78 reveals that he wore the two silver rings on his right hand throughout the first ZEXAL series as a reminder of his sister, Rio, who presented them to him when they were kids and suggested that they wear them to symbolize their bond as twins. When Shark dismissed it as a stupid idea, Rio threw the rings to the ground in anger and walked away, prompting him to wear them thereafter. He later gives one to Rio in the hospital. Their bond later helps to free Rio from Art Stanley's imprisonment, with the rings now serving their original purpose.
  • The Sharktooth pendant is actually a locket with a picture of his family inside. Its purpose is to show Ryouga that he has human memories and doubts whether or not he is a Barian.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: He claims his sister is this to anyone who cannot duel at least Yuma's level. This is misinterpreted by Caswell and Flip as "Yuma is dating Rio". He also does not like being called "Big Brother" by Bronk.
• Not Brainwashed: Neither him or Rio have turned against their will. They chose to embrace their past lives and defend the Barian World, which is why their human friends attempts to make them remember don't work.
• Say My Name: Yells out "RIOOOOOO" several times.
• Scars Are Forever: Has a scar on his shoulder from when he pushed Rio out of the way from a tumbling armor when they were kids.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: He attempts to goad those who duel him into hatred precisely because he doesn't want anyone to pull a "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, like Quattro attempts on him.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's still aloof but shows his softer side towards his friends, mainly Yuma, and his sister Rio.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Shark smashes the mirror when in his past life memories he sees the Barian pendant around his neck.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He continues to underestimate just how much Yuma cares for him which ultimately costs him victory in their final duel when Yuma choosing not to attack him resulting in his own strategy mortally backfiring.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Dumon seems to be trying to convince him of this. After showing Shark the remaining memories of his past life, he succeeds, resulting in Shark transforming into Nash offscreen.

Kaito Tenjo (Kite Tenjo)

Voiced by: Kōki Uchiyama (JP), Christopher Kromer (EN)

A 'Number Hunter', Kite is hunting down and capturing Number monsters to try and help his brother, Hart, who allegedly can only have his strange disease cured if all one-hundred Numbers are gathered.

He runs a "Galaxy" and "Photon" hybrid deck, with his ace being Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. His deck originally focuses on countering XYZ Monsters due to his role as the Number Hunter, with Galaxy-Eyes being able to strip an XYZ Monster of its Overlay Units to prohibit their effects. In addition, he also possessed around seventeen Numbers, five of which were seen in ZEXAL I: Number 10: Illumiknight, Number 20: Giga-Brilliant, Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction, Number 56: Gold Rat, and Number 9: Dyson Sphere. As of episode 43, he now holds one of the strongest Xyz monsters in the game, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. As of episode 64, he had lost all of his Number cards. He later gained a few more, like Number 46: Dragluon and Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon, though has apparently lost all of them as well, after his apparent death.

In the manga, he has a stronger version of Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon called Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon. He also gets Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon from Kyoji Yagumo. Later he gets Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy.

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Tropes exclusive to him in the first half:

• Anti-Villain: Aside from his sympathetic motivation, Kite tries to keep the fact that those who lose to him will have their souls taken a secret, and even commends Yuma on his spirit.
• Badass Boast: Gets one in his Rank 7 appearance before beating down a gun-wielding thug:
  Kaito: I am the light that illuminates the darkness stagnating people's hearts.
• Badass Longcoat: Black most of the time, but it turns into a white one to homage Kaiba and Jack when he Duels due to his Photon Transformation.
• Big Brother Instinct: His motivation is healing his younger brother Hart, to the point he cancels a Duel with Yuma he was about to win when he finds out that Hart has collapsed.
  • Even better in the tag duel with him teaming with Yuma against Trey and Quattro. His Big Brother Instinct and bond with Hart manifests itself as the strongest Xyz monster in the game.
    • And during his duel against Vetrix when Vetrix begins to torture Hart he was fully ready and actually tried to walk away from the duel and go to his brother. Unfortunately for him, Vetrix won't have any of that....
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Number 20: Giga-Brilliant.
• Big Damn Heroes: Episode 36; he stops an airship from crashing with only himself piloting it and Orbital 7 pushing against it.
• Catchphrase: In the dub, the chant to summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is either this or some variation of it:
  Kite: Here comes the monster more savage than a supernova! With a cataclysmic force of ten black holes put together! A cosmic scourge that vaporizes anything in its path: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!
  • He usually says something dramatic when he summons Neo-Galaxy Eyes, but it's different each time.
  • As per usual, he retains summoning chants in the Japanese version.
  • He commonly tells his foes, "Are you ready to repent?" This carries over into his Arc-V counterpart.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: How else is he still able to function with a heart rate of over 100 beats per minute at a resting period by the time of the Heartland Championship.
• The Comically Serious: He's an absolute grouch who gets around with a talking robot jetpack who used to be his nanny and lives at the top of a giant heart-shaped tower in the middle of a theme park.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: In-Universe. His over-reliance on his basic Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon starts to sabotage his duels in the second half of the first season as most of his opponents know about it and develop ways to counter the monster. This bites him hard in his and Yuma's Tag Duel against Trey and Quattro, who based their entire strategy around paralyzing Galaxy-Eyes as soon as it's summoned and then focusing their attacks on Kite and his helpless dragon, rendering him The Load for most of the Duel.
• Deadly Upgrade: The Photon Transformation puts considerable stress on his heart, to the point that his resting heart rate is well over 100 beats per minute. Overuse of it could potentially kill him.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Tends to take this attitude when Yuma shows concern about him, most notably in episodes 42-43, 55-56, and 69-71.
• Expy: To Seto Kaiba. His Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a Call-Back to Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon in Duel Monsters, with a similar name theme, appearance, and the same stats (3000 ATK/2500 DEF). His Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is an Expy of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and Paladin of Photon Dragon is the "Photon" counterpart of Paladin of White Dragon, Paladin of the Cursed Dragon, and Knight of Dark Dragon. He himself has motivations that hit most of Kaiba's beats, even compared to earlier and later rivals; he has a younger brother he cares for deeply to the exclusion of everyone else, he takes great pride in Galaxy-Eyes, and hates his father's abusive and insane attitude.
• Genius Bruiser: The equivalent; his Deck hits very hard due to its ability to rapidly summon Numbers and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, but Kaito is a very good player noted to be more skilled than Astral, to the point he even takes into account the fact his Galaxy-Eyes can't destroy Numbers by using his Photon Wind card to capitalize.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: His father went mad and became abusive, his mentor abandoned him, he was coerced into serving Mr. Heartland, he went through Training from Hell, and one person he cares about is not only sickly but psychotic from Demonic Possession. With a bit of Fridge Logic, one could even infer his mother is dead. It's no surprise how distant he is.
• Hour of Power: He can't use his Photon Transformation for long periods of time, as it gradually damages his body.
• Hunter of Monsters: Introduces himself as "the Number Hunter," and certainly lives up to the title.
• Ineffectual Loner: He would have been absolutely demolished during his first duel against the Vetrix family as they had stacked their decks with cards specifically tailored to neutralize his Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. It's only with a lot of help from Yuma and Hart that he manages to win.
• Invincible Hero: Save the flashbacks where he was still in training, he loses a grand total of ONCE in the entire series, to Vetrix. Even Yuma, Astral, Shark and Mizael never beat him.^note Mizael was literally an attack declaration away from victory during their first duel though.
• Light 'em Up: All of his monsters are LIGHT-Attribute (barring Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction), and uses a lot of cards that support them like Photon Veil^note Shuffle 3 LIGHT monsters from your hand into the Deck, then add 3 LIGHT monsters from your Deck to the hand and Lumenize^note When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target 1 face-up LIGHT monster you control; negate the attack, and that target gains ATK equal to the attacking monster's ATK.
• Light Is Not Good: His 'Photon' cards are either LIGHT-Attribute monsters or support Light-Attribute monsters, but he's at best, a Well-Intentioned Extremist. And his above Badass Boast more-or-less cements it. Also, his dueling attire is white.
• Magic Poker Equation: Unlike Kaiba or Zane Truesdale before him, Kite only has one copy of his ace monster. Similarly, while Jack's Red Dragon Archfiend was in his Extra Deck, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a regular Effect Monster, meaning that Kite has to draw it from his Main Deck to use it, which he does without bricking in his first few turns if not his very first.
• Man of Kryptonite: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is designed to take down Xyz monsters even going by its real-life profile, where it can remove itself and the monster it battles from play and return both to the field later. Due to the way Xyz Monsters work, this removes their Xyz Material Monsters, leaving them without the ability to activate their effects which need them to give up an Xyz Material. To add insult to injury, Galaxy-Eyes gains 500 ATK for each Xyz Material the other removed monster had when they jumped out of play. If it takes out an Xyz Monster with five materials, this makes it stronger than Five-Headed Dragon, one of the two strongest monsters in the game. And this is before it upgrades to Neo Galaxy-Eyes...
• Mean Boss: Given how much Orbital 7 is afraid of him, probably.
• Mega Manning: Like Yuma, he adds the Numbers he defeats to his Deck.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.
• Morality Pet: His brother, Hart, brings out his kinder side.
• Near-Villain Victory: He almost beat Yuma, literally declaring a winning attack with Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, but called off the Duel after discovering that Hart had collapsed. Later on the receiving end of this against Mizar.
• Older Than He Looks: He's actually 18 at the start of the series, but only looks a bit older than the middle school-aged Yuma and his friends. Although it's not uncommon given the art style in ZEXAL.
• Pet the Dog: It's heartwarming to see Kite with his brother, to say the least:
  Kite: You're just dreaming... a bad dream...
  • Another example, he was clearly watching Orbital 7's duel with Yuma that Orbital 7 snuck off to do, proven by the small compliment he gave the guy when he got back.
• Power-Up Full Color Change: Whenever Kaito goes into Photon Transformation, and then again when he brings out Neo Galaxy-Eyes and later Prime Photon.
• The Rival: Both to Yuma AND Astral. But he considers Astral to be his true rival, whereas Yuma is just an idiot.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Upon capturing Number 56: Gold Rat in episode 13, but doesn't use the card at all.
• Say My Name: "HARUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" He does this many, many, MANY times. Even commercials and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links dig on it.
• Sinister Whistling: Does this occasionally as an intimidation tactic. Notably, in the Japanese version, it's a theme associated with his younger brother Hart, while it's only a generic tune in other versions.
• Super Mode: He gains the ability to turn Red summon Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Neo Galaxy-Eyes itself counts as one for Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. And we do mean SUPER, given that it's a serious contender for one of the strongest Xyz monsters in the game. Also gains an alternate upgrade for Galaxy-Eyes, Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon. Which is just as strong, but can get stronger far more easily and when it's destroyed, it comes back to BOOT.
• Training from Hell: On the orders of Mr. Heartland, with Dextra and Nistro against a dangerous Duel bot. He knocked Dextra out of the way and received a gash on his cheek, but managed to destroy it with Daybreaker.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Hardened and distanced himself from the gentle, young man he used to be so he could do what was necessary to save his brother.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything he does is for his ill brother, even if it means ripping out people's souls and potentially destroying Astral in his quest to collect Numbers.
• The Worf Effect: Both him and Galaxy-Eyes get hit with this as the opponents start getting tougher; Trey and Quattro manage to create a combo to seal Galaxy-Eyes, forcing a Next Tier Power-Up, while against Vetrix, even that is ultimately trumped to demonstrate the power of Number 69: Heraldry Crest.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: A side-effect of his Numbers collecting "Photon Hand" is taking the opponent's soul. Though, unusually, Kite seems to have a problem with taking his opponents' souls.

Tropes exclusive to him in the second half:

• The Atoner: Appears to have become this judging by his line to the thugs in episode 75 telling him they'll "send him to hell;"
  Kaito: I'm already headed there. It's where my guilty soul will end up one day. But I'm taking your Barian World with me! Are you ready to repent?
• Back from the Dead: Thanks to the Numeron Code.
• Dead Person Conversation: When he appears during Yuma and Nash's duel against Don Thousand.
• Demoted to Extra: While not quite out of the spotlight, with his major character arc resolved, Kite at this point only really appears in plot-critical moments or to duel against Mizar.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His final duel with Mizar has him creating an all-new ace monster for himself, Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon, out of just sheer willpower as he's slowly dying due to lack of oxygen on account of the duel being on the moon. Not only does he win, but he also ends up unlocking "Number 100: Numeron Dragon" in the process, which is the key to the Numeron Code. Then he promptly dies, but not before passing on the code, and the Numeron Dragon card, to Mizar, whom he admits is the better dragon tamer, showing an Always Someone Better moment (although it's changed to himself in the dub). The fact that he died despite winning the duel made this Heroic Sacrifice even more poignant.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In response to Yuma having a Heroic BSoD when Ray was kidnapped.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Forms this with Shark and Yuma. Is the knight due to his gathering of the Number cards for the sake of curing his brother Haruto's illness, and along with doing so under Dr. Faker's instructions. Additionally, the first Number card that he used is Number 10: Illumiknight, which can be said to be a representation of that nature. With Hart cured, he later takes up researching the Astral and Barian Worlds to find out more about their enemy's goals.
• Light Is Good: With Hart cured, he is no longer at odds with Yuma for hunting numbers, and aids him on numerous occasions.
• Meaningful Name: "Prime" means "Main" or "Important", which could show Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon is the "Main" "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" or important to Photon Dragon.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Defeated Mizar, but died from suffocation due to the damage sustained on his spacesuit.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He is notably more sincere to everyone in the later arcs.

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Kotori Mizuki (Tori Meadows)

Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (JP), Eileen Stevens (EN)

A friend of Yuma's. She's much more sensible and down-to-earth than he is, so as a result, she tends to have to constantly nanny him.

She doesn't duel as often but later uses a Fairy deck in the second season, with Fairy Cheer Girl as her ace monster.

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Tropes exclusive to her in the first half:

• All-Loving Hero: Much like Yuma, she too is a kind and forgiving person.
• Childhood Friend Romance: They are shown to have met each other at least in early elementary grades, and it is repeatedly hinted that she harbors a crush on Yuma.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Shows some shades of this towards Yuma, mainly towards Cathy and Anna.
• Damsel in Distress: This is practically her purpose of the entire series. She is often used as leverage against Yuma. Even in Zexal II where she does get a Fairy deck, it really doesn't make any difference.
• Expy: To Téa Gardner from the original DM series, being a childhood friend for Yuma with a hefty case of Childhood Friend Romance, providing eye-candy for viewers, and only duels one time in their respective series. However, Tori is much more feminine than Téa, and she tends to suffer from being a Damsel in Distress a lot.
• Flat Character: Through the course of ZEXAL's 146-episode count, Tori doesn't really have any character development, lacking any arcs compared to her predecessors-no development on her personal relationships with the other characters, nor any particular spotlight episodes highlighting who she is. She is mainly there to look and act cute and be a cheerleader for Yuma.
• Girly Girl: Most girly out of all of the female protagonists, probably due to the fact she is less of a tomboy than Téa or Alexis Rhodes, and can't duel to save her life.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted. In contrast to almost everyone else, she has at least eight outfits she cycles through in addition to her school uniform.
• The Load: Insists on tagging along with Yuma on his adventures even though the situations can be quite dangerous and she can't provide much help or defend herself. She eventually gets a deck but has only used it once in the series (and that when she was mind-controlled). Unlike most examples, to her credit, she's usually around for spectator purposes and doesn't particularly do anything to hinder Yuma.
• Magic Skirt: Considering how incredibly low it is, she luckily never gets a Panty Shot.
• Mandatory Line: It's pretty heavily rumored that Kotori's actress was mandated for every episode, which would likely explain why she insists on tagging along, saying Yuma's name, and doing nothing for the rest of the episode.
• Ms. Fanservice: Despite being only 13-years-old, she gets a lot of Male Gaze shots of her incredibly short skirt, long and toned legs, and scenes showing off her swimwear during the pool or beach episodes are very common. Hell, in the original version, she even gets a Modesty Towel Wardrobe Malfunction in a flashback scene!
• Only Sane Woman: Especially in episode 97, where she snaps Yuma out of his angst between choosing to protect his friends and Astral, and then Takes a Third Option to save herself and her friends.
• Patient Childhood Love Interest: She isn't really actively trying to get Yuma's love, she just likes to spend her time with him. They also walk to school together, and it's heavily implied that she sometimes cooks him his favorite Riceballs.
• Satellite Character: Take away her interactions with Yuma, and there's not really much to be said about Tori as a character. Whatever spotlight episodes she has usually tie back over to him in some way and don't really try to expand on her personality outside of her crush on him. Even her rivalry with Cathy ultimately just boils down to them having the same affection for him rather than any contrasting character traits between them.
• Say My Name: Basically in that her most used word is "Yuma".
• The Smart Girl: Shows more than enough tech knowledge to qualify as this.
• Tsundere: Alternates between worrying about Yuma and chewing him out for his more bone-headed stunts (which is to say, most of what he does).
• The Watson: When Duel Monsters is involved, allowing any of the more duel-savvy characters such as Bronk to explain the rules to her (and the audience).

Tropes exclusive to her in the second half:

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Courtesy of Girag.
• Damsel out of Distress: She and the rest of the Numbers Club are held hostage by Vector, set to be sucked into a black hole, she encourages Yuma to fight him and leads the Numbers Club into steering their airship and saving themselves.
• Light Is Good: Fairy Cheer Girl is a LIGHT attribute monster, who then is then on the inverted side when being upgraded to C Xyx Dark Fairy Cheer Girl.
• Fairy Sexy: Starts using a Fairy deck after getting pointers from Rio.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed. She does learn how to duel by asking Rio for tutelage but only ever dueled once, and during that time she was Brainwashed and Crazy by Girag, who then gave her the Barian Rank-Up Spell Card to upgrade her Fairy Cheer Girl to C Xyz Dark Fairy Cheer Girl. Said duel featured a major Worf Had the Flu on Yuma's part due to Girag's manipulations convincing Yuma to play like crap; once the jig was up, she was quickly trounced.

Tropes exclusive to her in the manga:

• Adaptational Wimp: If it was even possible. In the anime, she at least learns how to duel, even if she loses every duel she is in. In the manga, she never learns how to duel, and can't even work a Duel Disk.
• Chekhov's Gun: A minor one. While she can't even work a Duel Disk, she does HAVE a deck of cards assembled (though we never see the contents), which she carries with her when Yuma and co. decide to infiltrate Heartland in search of Number cards. It comes in handy because duelists get to enter for free, and she gets qualified when she presents her deck — she's not as wealthy as Cathy, and so most likely wouldn't have been able to afford the ticket price to enter the place without the deck.
  Receptionist at Heartland: If you have a deck, you count.