History Characters / YuGiOhVRAINSCafeNagiConfidants

* OnlyTheLeadsGetADownerEnding: Unless you count the short HesBack moment, [[spoiler: Yusaku is the only ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' protagonist to had a DownerEnding by being forced to kill Ai for the latter's SelfSacrificeScheme, while the others who had regained consciousness had gone to a better place (but in timeskip). His aftermath reaction after his final Duel really does said that he has the worst ending among all...]]

* GoldenSuperMode: As Playmaker, Yusaku's hair changes color, with the dark blue part becoming magenta, the bright blue part becoming a yellowish gold, and the bright pink parts becoming hot pink.

* AntiHero: Standing out massively from other Yu-gi-oh protagonists alongside Yami Yugi from early manga, Yusaku is neither HotBlooded nor an AllLovingHero, but a standoffish, serious, and distant {{Jerkass}} whose sole motivation is {{Revenge}} against the Knights of Hanoi for ruining his past. He would even go so far as to give the Knight of Hanoi a very brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, which is something that Kaiba archetypes would usually do. He grows out of it starting from Season 2 onwards and fights for peaceful co-existence between humans and Ignis, which makes Yusaku an AllLovingHero similar to his predecessors.

** [[spoiler:Even his final death winds up being this, and Ai himself doesn't quite seem to know how]].

* DisneyDeath: Ai disappears into nothingness after losing to Playmaker. Fast forward three months, however, he seemingly comes back to life in his eye form, unaware of what happened. This is eventually subverted when ''Duel Links'' comes around, as the Ai we know and love in the main anime is dead for good and the Ai from said continuation is just a reconstruction based on memories of his old self.

* XanatosGambit: His plan is to get himself killed before his existence leads to humanity's extinction. Ai loses his duel against Playmaker? He dies. If Ai wins his duel against Playmaker? His current plan continues, and he dies. However it is subverted as Ai was revealed to have survived.

* DisneyDeath: Ai disappears into nothingness after losing to Playmaker. Fast forward three months, however, he seemingly comes back to life in his eye form, unaware of what happened.

* SignatureMove: While Yusaku's strategy tend to be varied involving long chain of Link summon, it was the summoning of Cyberse Clock Dragon that is quite possibly Yusaku's most iconic move. After its first appearance, Cyberse Clock Dragon is frequently used by Yusaku to outright win the duel, or force the opponent to bring out their biggest gun. It made an appearance in almost every major duel in the series since its appearance, and [[TheReliableOne manage to bring results in all of them]]. This move is so iconic to Yusaku that [[spoiler:Ai]] manage to take advantage of it since he knew that Yusaku will summon Cyberse Clock Dragon with extremely high attack power.

Takeru uses a Salamangreat deck, an archetype of FIRE Cyberse-Type Monsters focused on a Beatdown strategy, but unlike Yusaku whose deck focuses on Link Summoning multiple Link Monsters and using their effects together for power, his deck focuses more on summoning his ace monster Salamangreat Heatlio whose effects alone are enough to defeat his opponents. His deck also utilizes Reincarnation Link Summon this allows him to use Link Monsters as the only material in order to summon a copy of the same monster, but with an effect it couldn't use before. His deck just like Playmaker's is capable of using Ritual, Fusion and Xyz Summon which he uses as an alternative when his Link Monsters aren't enough.

--> '''Flame''': "For drama"

As Blue Maiden, she uses a "Marincess" deck, an archetype of female WATER Cyberse Monsters.

* OneTurnKill: Has highest One-Turn Kills out of all the anime characters from the franchise, one-shotting Blue Angel, Revolver in their first duel, Ghost Girl, Prototype Ai-A, Kenmochi, Yoroizaka, Go Onizuka, and Shoichi Kusanagi for a total of ''nine'' characters. [[note]]To compare, the next highest is Yuma and Yuya tying at 7 One-Turn Kills each.[[/note]]

* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style which, in his case, happens each time he logs into LINK VRAINS (or cyberspace at one occasion) in Season 1. Unlike previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' protagonists, he can transform by himself without Ai's help, although justified because almost everyone had their own avatars and Yusaku was already active as Unknown/Playmaker before they eventually met in person.

* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style when he logs in via LINK VRAINS system. Unlike Yusaku, his was only shown once in Episode 69.

* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style which, in his case, happens each time he logs into LINK VRAINS (or cyberspace at one occasion) in Season 1. Unlike previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' protagonists, he can transform by himself without Ai's help, although justified because almost everyone had their own avatars and Yusaku was already active as Unknown/Playmaker before they eventually met in-person.

* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style which, in his case, happens each time he logs into LINK VRAINS (or cyberspace at one occasion) in Season 1. Unlike previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' protagonists, he can transform by himself without Ai's help, although justified because almost everyone had their own avatars and Yusaku was already active as Unknown/Playmaker before they eventually met.

%%* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style which, in his case, happens each time he logs into LINK VRAINS (or cyberspace at one occasion) in Season 1. Unlike previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' protagonists, he can transform by himself without Ai's help, although justified because almost everyone had their own avatars and Yusaku was already active as Unknown/Playmaker before they eventually met.

%%* TransformationSequence: He's one of two characters to had this in MagicalGirl-style when he logs in via LINK VRAINS system. Unlike Yusaku, his was only shown once in Episode 69.

* FightingTheLancer: Towards the end of the second season, he ends up fighting [[spoiler:Kusanagi]] of all people because [[spoiler:Lightning blackmailed him into fighting Playmaker in order to save his brother]]. In Season 3 he is forced to fight Ai, who had gone rogue, much to Yusaku's sadness.

* LovableCoward: After everything Ai has been through in just the first episode, this cowardice is entirely {{Justified}}.