Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yami Yugi

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Dark Yugi (闇遊戯; Yami Yuugi) (Yami)

Voiced by: Megumi Ogata (Toei Anime), Shunsuke Kazama (Duel Monsters), Dan Green (English), Irwin Daayán (Latin American Spanish), Pablo Sevilla (European Spanish)

"We'll play a game! A Shadow Game. The loser of this game loses his life."

The Nameless King

The soul of sixteen years old Pharaoh Atem and an expert at games - who resided in Yugi's body after the boy completed the Millennium Puzzle. In the beginning, he appears every so often to help his other half whenever trouble arises by possessing him - usually with high-stakes gaming. Using the powers of a Millennium Item wielder, he would challenge bullies, criminals, and sometimes just terrible human beings to occult judgment games called "Shadow Games" and inflict "Penalty Games" which dealt poetic justice upon the losers (after Character Development, these powers are exclusively used by the antagonists). Eventually, the two Yugis form a type of partnership and brotherly bond, and seek to uncover Yami Yugi's memories which he lost so long ago.

He is adept at all games and hardly ever loses a single one. If an opponent gives him trouble, chances are he'll find an unorthodox way of turning the tables. Within the game of Duel Monsters, he uses a deck originally put together by Yugi's grandfather, which has no particular theme to it, but prominently features all three Dark Magicians and their support cards. Material made since the original series release (such as the animated Bonds Beyond Time film) will usually give him cards focused specifically on Dark Magician. During the Doma arc in the second anime, his deck gains a specific focus on summoning alternate forms of Kuriboh and support centralized on Dark Magician Girl.

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A-L

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Almost every game he plays ends up turning out like this. Early on, he ups the stakes himself by initiating Shadow Games or wagering his own life.
• The Ace: He's introduced as the stronger counterpart to Yugi, being essentially invincible at every game he plays. Yami Yugi has saved people and the world countless times, simply by being that good a duelist. Also applies to his past self - he was very skilled in both sorcery and combat, and though he could not defeat Zorc, he created a seal strong enough to hold him for 3,000 years and with the failsafe of his name as the key in case the Puzzle was ever solved. Played up in derivative media like Capsule Monsters, where he does some impressive acrobatics.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: His last scene is walking into the light from the door to the afterlife.
• Adaptational Heroism: The second series anime cut out most of his Penalty Games and ruthlessness from the first dozen volumes of the manga, making him more heroic from the get-go. This had the effect of severly downplaying his overall Character Development from an Anti-Hero to a Nice Guy.
• Adaptational Villainy: While the second anime gave him Adaptational Heroism thanks to cutting out his more questionable actions in the beginning, during the Doma Arc he briefly gave in to his dark side completely out of self-destructive pride, used a powerful, evil card despite knowing what it could do, and lost Yugi's soul temporarily as a result. It's even worse in the dub. While in the original, he mostly just seems to be determined to win, no matter what, in the dub he comes across as much more malicious. He refers to his monsters as "useless" and shows glee and sadism towards his opponent Rafael, constantly taunting him about his soul soon being locked away forever.
• Adaptation Personality Change: The second anime adaptation makes him more generally heroic, and more interested in Duel Monsters than other games.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Along with the removal of his more varied Penalty Games, the Duel Monsters anime does not explain why Yami Yugi stops dealing out Mind Crushes after Duelist Kingdom, nor does it explain why he challenged Shadi to a Shadow Game in the original version. The 4Kids dub fixes the latter issue by having Shadi subjected to traps that the Pharaoh's mind had subconsciously set up.
• Amnesiac Hero: Thanks to having been sealed in the Puzzle, he has no memory of his past or his own name. This becomes a major plot point in the Millennium World arc, where finding his true name in the Memory World RPG is key to defeating Yami Bakura/Zorc Necrophades.
• And I Must Scream: His fate after being sealed in the Puzzle. He was completely aware of the time passing in the eternal darkness that he would be trapped in for the next three thousand years. The dub changed this into 5000, which only made it worse, and he wasn't exactly sane at first for good reasons. Thankfully, Solomon found his Puzzle and passed it on to Yugi who eventually solved it and allowed him to go to the Afterlife.
• And the Rest: In the Millennium World arc in the manga, he stands on a balcony and gazes longingly to the sky thinking of his friends, only to have a separate panel thinking of only Yugi afterwards.
• Anime Hair: His hair has the same level of craziness as Yugi, only now some of the bangs stick up.
• Anti-Hero: (At worst; especially the manga.) He started as a dangerous vigilante gamer who dealt out harsh punishments to evildoers. He mellows out through Character Development and becomes more unambiguously heroic.
• Artifact Alias: Even after it is revealed that he is a separate person, most of his friends still call him "Yugi". It's justified for most of the manga due to his Name Amnesia, which isn't resolved until the final arc.
• Ax-Crazy: In the early manga and Toei anime, he doesn't hesitate to dole out gruesome punishments to his enemies, taking particular joy in fire-based penalties. How crazy and sadistic he can get was dependent on the Puzzle, since he still possesses his past life's noble qualities while Zorc's minor influence draws out his more brutal tactics.
• Bad Powers, Good People: His dark powers are a result of human sacrifices of the Village of Ku Elna, where all seven Millennium Items were created using 99 people to do so, which allows him to use Shadow Games on people (unless you are a decent person or he thinks you are Not Worth Killing). Then Pegasus dropped the bombshell about the items themselves possessing an evil intelligence as he doesn't want to be evil. He stops using Shadow Games and Penalty Games for the rest of the manga, but it does have other powers both him and Yugi can use, such as locating someone and topdecking.
• Badass Boast: He's fond of giving these across all mediums, especially when he's about to get the upper hand.
  • A particularly badass one in the dub of the anime is when he's going up against Yami Bakura for the final time in the dark RPG. Bakura calls him out on stalling for time and it's time he's wasting.
  "I disagree. You said it yourself Bakura, this is a game. And every challenge in a game has a solution. Now need I remind you? You're playing with the king of games!"
• Badass Cape: Though not exactly a cape, his coat functions as one in the Battle City arc. As Pharaoh, he has an actual cape in the Millennium World arc.
• Badass in Distress: His soul resides in the Millennium Puzzle. Unlike the Ring where it always finds its way back to Bakura voluntarily or not, the Puzzle frequently gets stolen by someone, which forces Yugi to try to retrieve it back or Jonouchi having to beat up the one responsible for him. He can remove the Millennium Puzzle but only if he's active while Yugi is sleeping.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Shadi in The Darkside of Dimensions explains that the Puzzle is the balance between good (with the necklace, scales, and key) and evil (the eye, ring, and rod).
• Bash Brothers: With Yugi and Jonouchi, and maybe with Kaiba.
• Bat Family Crossover: In the Bonds Beyond Time movie, he and Yugi teams up with Judai Yuki and Yusei Fudo from different eras to defeat Paradox.
• Batman Gambit: Some of his Shadow Game victories rely entirely on goading his opponents into doing something stupidly villainous when it looks like their victory is assured. For example, after rolling a 6 in a dice game where the person with the highest number would lose, his bravado caused his foe to throw the cube at his face, breaking it and making the two halves fall onto the ground with a 1 and 6 value.
• Berserk Button: Don't even consider mocking his rival in front of him, and certainly don't try and impersonate him either. He's very testy about that.
• Big Brother Instinct: Has this toward Yugi once they finally interact. He'll hurt anyone who makes Yugi suffer.
• Big Brother Mentor: Is this with Yugi, to whom he frequently gives advice and guidance for duels.
• Big "NO!": Invokes it in both of his duels with Rafael.
  • In the first, he screams it as Rafael wipes out the last of his life points, filled with regret for playing the Seal of Orichalcos and callously sacrificing so many of his monsters.
  • In the second, it happens once it becomes clear that Rafael is about to play the Seal of Orichalcos himself. Dark Yugi, thinking back to their last duel and realizing how much Dartz and the Orichalcos have further polluted Rafael's soul to the point that he would play the card, begs Rafael not to do it, and gives the Big No once it becomes clear there's no stopping it.
• Black Magic: The Black Magician, his signature monster, wields this. In the Duel Monsters anime, his "Mind Crush Penalty Game" resembles the Black Magician's Black Magic attack.
• Blank Slate: Sort of, by the time his spirit takes over Yugi for the first time, he had gone mad and lost all his memories of the person he used to be. When his spirit fuses with Yugi, he gains his memories and assumes his identity as his own. Later on in the story he comes to understand that he is his own person however.
• Broken Ace: He has his share of issues, which mainly have to do with his pride and inner darkness, and his will to win nearly led him to attack Kaiba when Kaiba performed a suicide ploy.
• But Now I Must Go: His spirit has to pass on at the end of the series, but it can't without being defeated in one final duel.
• Calling Your Attacks: Like the rest of the cast, every time they play a game involving monster battling.
  Black Magic!
  • Likewise, whenever he inflicts his earlier Penalty Games:
  Penalty Game! ILLUSION OF AVARICE!
• Casting a Shadow: Relies primarily on the Black Magician and related cards, and his other monsters are Black Knights like Gaia and Buster Blader, or demons like Summoned Skull.
• Catchphrase:
  • In the first series anime: "Saa, geimu no jikan da!" which translates to "It's game time!" or, "It's time to duel!"
  • In the second series anime: "Sore wa dou kana." which translates to "We'll see about that." This line is something many of his successors "inherited" from him.
  • The English dub also gave him "It's time to duel!"
  • Early in the manga, he would often say "You trespassed in my soul" to the people he challenged to Shadow Games.
• Celibate Hero: Implied. Unlike Yugi, he never shows any romantic interest in girls, and there's no indication that he actually reciprocates Téa's feelings for him. In fact, he eggs Yugi on about going out with her (and suggests clothing that would make him look cool for her - like silver, hence the Japanese silver meme). Also, according to the Millennium World arc, he never took a wife when he was the Pharaoh.
• Character Development: From a borderline sociopath who has no problems using his dark Millennium Item powers to punish anyone who hurt his friends, letting his crippling sense of pride and disdain for "cowardice" endanger the well-being of others (refusing to play the defensive during his first Shadow Game with Pegasus and paying for it, almost letting Kaiba die to save Grandpa, etc.), to a dark and mysterious but still noble and selfless hero.
• Character-Driven Strategy: Yugi has been through a wide variety of different decks, but they all fall under the "Strategy Deck" category; decks that focus on balance through moderately powered monsters (most commonly EARTH and DARK monsters) with Spell cards to deal out combos. This reflects his role as The Hero, emphasizing a clever mind who knows how to play the game he lives his life to while also not relying too heavily on any key cards. Since he was taught to play Duel Monsters by his grandfather, this also reflects wisdom in his actions. His trademark monster, "Black Magician", is a strong card, but its true potential relies on a variety of monster, Spell and Trap cards to bolster it.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: In the manga, if he knows you're cheating, especially in his Shadow Games, you will regret it. In both the manga and Toei anime, if you're caught cheating, you will have a Fate Worse than Death or Laser-Guided Karma at worst when he initiates a Shadow Game.
• Cherry Tapping: He is fond of doing this to his opponents in his Shadow Games, such as defeating Mokuba with a Level 2 Capsule Monster when his were all Level 4 and 5.
• Coat Cape: Does this a lot during the anime version of Battle City.
• Coat Over the Shoulder: A few chapters/episodes during Battle City have him wearing his coat like this.
• The Coats Are Off: In the manga, before dueling some of his really dangerous opponents such as Pegasus or Yami Marik he ditches his coat. The anime averts this by having him wear it most of the time. It was literally blown off in a duel with a brainwashed Jonouchi after being pummelled by an attack.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: To anyone who plays his Shadow Games. If you happen to be a Dirty Coward, prepare to have your soul shattered, mind turned into jello, or face Karmic Death.
• Create Your Own Villain: He thought that subjecting Kaiba to the "Experience of Death" penalty after their first game would scare him straight and teach him the heart of the cards. Unfortunately, Kaiba had already been taught to associate death with losing, and the experience only drove him crazier and to swear brutal vengeance on Yugi. That being said, this is ultimately subverted as though he gains a lifelong rival in Kaiba, this rivalry, and being freed from his darkness (even if it took a while in the manga to kick in) ultimately benefited the latter's character, making him regain sight of his true goals, and, in his own way, giving him someone beyond Mokuba that he generally respects and values above all else.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Has a dark appearance, and generally uses Dark-Attribute monsters in games (Dark Magician being the most prominent example), and yet is always on the side of the good guys. Whether or not he is evil himself depends on what point you look at his character, but by the end of the series he's definitely a straight example.
• David Versus Goliath: He and Yugi are often subjected to games where they're in disadvantage or have weaker game units available to them, which requires them to outplay their opponents with strategy. He himself becomes the Goliath when he plays against Yugi in the Ceremonial Duel, and he gets outsmarted by Yugi who has predicted Dark Yugi's moves.
• Deadpan Snarker: More so in the dub. It's amazing how quickly "Yami" can shift from rigid-hero mode to Kaiba-level sarcasm. He's also one in the original manga, which is downplayed in the Japanese anime. It's implied that he has a very dark sense of humor.
• Determinator: Because nothing gets in his way.
• Deuteragonist: The series is as much about him and his growth as a person as it is about Yugi's. Yami is also the person who fights most of the duels in the series, though the series tries to mitigate this by making it so that Yami and Yugi share a mind while dueling and thus cooperate with one another.
• Did Not Think This Through: Some of his Shadow Games are set up with more irony in mind than anything else. While still largely fair, this has the potential to put himself at a disadvantage such as one memorable episode where he challenged a fellow student to a game of air hockey involving a massive hot grill and a tube of explosives encased in ice. Said student was much bigger and stronger than him and Yami nearly lost as a result.
• Doom Magnet: Most of the villains are either after the Puzzle, or want to kill him (or possess the Pharaoh's power for themselves in the dub). Exploited by Marik when he tells the Pharaoh that his friends are in danger because of him to make him jump into a trap, and lampshaded in Capsule Monsters, when Yami assumes the magic shenanigans are somehow his fault, and in Pyramid of Light when Jonouchi says that weird things happening is par for the course when you hang around Yugi.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In both the first episode of the Toei anime and the first chapter of the manga. He also gets these when he thought Insector Haga had killed Yugi in the Doma filler arc. In the manga, he also has these when Jonouchi collapsed after the duel with Marik, staggering like he's in a trance.
• Evil Laugh: While not evil, he had has this in the beginning. He also has a few while power-drunk on the Seal of Orichalcos in the filler arc.
• Famed In-Story: Moreso in the anime. People know him as the King of Games (Pyramid of Light suggests the world thinks he's Yugi but looks taller) and actively seek to win his crown.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His Pride — he feels he has to win at all costs, even if he has to do amoral things. He almost resorts to killing Kaiba during their rematch in Duelist Kingdom. In anime filler, this also leads to him playing the Seal of Orichalcos against Rafael even though nothing would have happened if he lost before that - While he isn't necessarily heartless, (He was reluctant to attack Kaiba, and hesitated to attack the weakened Bakura until Yami Bakura assured him the attack would not be fatal), his recklessness increases whenever his pride is directly challenged, as the aforementioned instances had Kaiba practically dare him to attack if he had the guts ("Use your cards to slit my throat"), and Rafael stating that if he was as righteous as he believed, he should have nothing to fear from the Orichalchos Barrier (Which did not turn duelists evil in the original, simply judged their conviction "Might makes right" style). Questioning Yami's convictions, it would seem, is a sure-fire way for him to throw caution to the wind in a need to prove you wrong. Considering the stakes and the events that both Yugi and Yami Yugi go through and the fact that he is reincarnated royalty, it's not surprising.
  • He also invokes this with about every game he plays, even the non-Duel Monsters ones — he figures out his opponent's weaknesses and makes them their downfall, and may invoke Hoist by Their Own Petard in the process. Notable examples include turning Marik's Osiris "God Five" combo into an infinite loop to win by decking out, exploiting his knowledge of Kaiba's ego at Battle City to figure out what three cards he was going to pick for Final Attack Orders and picking his own cards to counter them, and in an anime-exclusive filler arc he figures out how to destroy an indestructible Field Spell, the Golden Castle of Stromberg, by manipulating his deck so he couldn't pay its maintenance cost and it destroyed itself. The manga and first series anime give many more examples unrelated to Duel Monsters, such as tricking a gun-toting criminal into a stalemate by arranging for him to be lit on fire from his own lighter and alcoholic drink if he fires the gun.
• Final Boss: The final duel in the series is between him and Yugi. He also becomes this for Judai/Jaden Yugi in the GX anime episode 180.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Both subverted and played straight in the dub - having no memories, he picks up the technology of the age remarkably quickly but he also seems to retain some telling traits from his own time - old fashioned speech habits on occasion and an initial habit for Disproportionate Retribution.
• Freudian Trio:
  • Between him, Yugi and Jonouchi, he's the Superego to Yugi's Ego and Jonouchi's Id.
  • And between him, Kaiba and Jonouchi, he's the Ego to Kaiba's Superego and Jonouchi's Id.
• Fun Size: In the manga, he remains the same size as Yugi. But also like Yugi, he gets noticeably taller as the manga progresses. He gets a growth spurt whenever he takes over in the anime, for reasons.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: On the receiving end, courtesy of Jonouchi, after Yugi's soul is stolen in the Doma arc.
• Godlike Gamer: Possibly the Trope Codifier in manga and anime. Yugi is dubbed the "King of Games" and is an expert in all forms of games in-universe, with the reputation to go with it. His amazing success combines both exceptional strategic thinking along with luck manipulation.
• Good is Not Nice: His early characterization. If you harass him or his friends, expect an Ironic Hell at best and death at worst.
• Good Is Not Soft: This was part of his original personality as a Pharaoh before getting sealed in the Puzzle.
• Graceful Loser: He admits defeat gracefully after his duel with Yugi.
• Guile Hero: In contrast to Jonouchi's reliance on luck and Kaiba's reliance on power, Yami Yugi balances aspects of being a trickster and the Manipulative Bastard, relying on impromptu but effective strategies to outwit opponents and pull out moves they weren't expecting, or as described under Fatal Flaw, figuring out ways to turn their strategy back against them.
• He Who Fights Monsters: In his duel with Rafael in the anime's Doma arc, he uses the Seal of Orichalcos and is quickly brainwashed by it, causing him to uncharacteristically sacrifice his monsters when he judges them of no further use.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • He gets one during the Battle City finals, after Jonouchi temporarily dies.
  • He also gets one in the anime during the Doma arc after Yugi sacrifices himself to save him from the Orichalcos seal.
• Heroic RRoD: A couple of times, mostly in the anime and most notably after getting hit with an attack from Ra during a Shadow Game. He also shows signs of this through Millennium World when he tries to fight through his injuries, and is nearly dead when the gang band together for the last stand.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Pharaoh Atem gave his life to stop Zorc and saved his kingdom, with the price of it being sealed in the puzzle.
• I Did What I Had to Do: While not evil, Yami Yugi is more ruthless than his milder counterpart, Yugi.
• Idiot Ball: Grabbed it hard during the Doma-Arc in his duel against Rafael. When backed against the wall, he could have just conceded defeat and literally nothing would have happened, as the Seal of Oricalchos wasn't on the field then. Instead, he chose to play it himself, turning the harmless duel into a matter of life and death, which then caused Yugi to lose his soul after he lost anyway.
• I Have Many Names: Game King, Dark Yugi, Other Me, Other Yugi, Namless Pharaoh, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. The dub adds in Yami to the mix. However, his real name is Atem.
• Inconsistent Coloring: Not as prevalent as Bakura, but his eye color also varies between art. In the Toei anime the color was red, which changed to purple in the second series. They've also been green◊, orange, brown, and blue, but it seems red◊ is◊ his◊ most◊ standard◊ color◊ in his official arts.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Implied. He fears losing since it usually means letting down someone he loves at best or them being hurt/killed at worst. He is also insecure about his lack of identity early on, and initially acted as though he was just an invincible gaming spirit. He develops out of this to being more accepting of a loss in battle.
• Invincible Hero: You can literally count his losses on one hand, and even among those defeats, only one is legitimate in the manga (two in the anime).
• Jekyll & Hyde: Though he first starts as an Anti-Hero variant of Hyde, whenever he shows up when Yugi or any of his friends are in danger, he will challenge the offender to a Shadow Game, and switches back to Yugi with the latter having no memory over anything that happened. He then loosens up and talks to Yugi when he acknowledges his existence, and Yugi retaining his memories.
• Kill It with Fire: He's set six people on fire (five directly, one indirectly) in the manga, and sets Trents on fire in Capsule Monsters.
• King of Games: He's an expert at all games, which is the translation of the series title. He's also a literal king as revealed later in the manga.
• The Kirk: Shares this with Yugi.
• Knight Templar: Primarily early on in the manga and the Toei anime. Someone threatens your friends? Drive them insane! Someone beat up your friend when you helped him selling tickets to a bad concert? Drive him insane, too! Punks also beat up said friend? Set them all on fire!
• Leitmotif: "Passionate Duelists".
• Lethal Joke Item: It doesn't matter how worthless his opponents view whatever he has on hand. He knows how to defeat his opponents via Cherry Tapping.
• Light 'em Up: His Poker Knights and Watapon.
• Living Emotional Crutch: The Doma arc suggests that Yugi is this to him. Earlier on, many of his friends suffered devastating fate, especially on the case of Jonouchi who fell into a coma with almost no chance of surviving, but the most he did was punch a wall. However, after Yugi's soul is taken, he cries and screams out loud, and falls into a depressed unresponsive state which he only falls out of when Yugi's soul briefly come back and assures him that he will be alright.

M-Y

• Made of Iron: Like Jonouchi, he takes a hit from an Egyptian God and manages to keep dueling. He is also able to withstand shadow games and the real damages taken from them when Yugi could not. In the Millennium World arc, his Ba is fused with his monsters and takes an obscene amount of damage from his multiple Shadow Games with Thief King Bakura and Zorc, including falling down a very tall chasm and shortly after being tortured by vengeful spirits of Kul Elna, and still makes it to the final battle with Zorc. The amount of punishment he stands up to in the Millennium World arc alone borders on the ridiculous, and he probably should have died at least twice.
• Magic Versus Science: The Magic to Kaiba's Science, using the magic of the Millennium Puzzle to contrast Kaiba's preference for modern technology.
• Manly Tears: Not present in the manga, where he never cries at all, but he does cry a few times in the anime. He cries Tears of Remorse after losing Yugi's soul to the Seal of Orichalcos during a filler arc. He also sheds a Single Tear when he nearly surrenders to Dartz, which falls onto the Millennium Puzzle and forces back the Seal of Orichalcos. He cries about three times in the Doma arc alone. He also cries during his anime-only duel with Jonouchi in Duelist Kingdom.
• Master of Illusion: In the manga and Season 0, his Penalty Games often trap his victims in terrifying hallucinations, as seen in both the Season 0 version of "One Finger Battle" and his first encounter with Mokuba in the manga.
• Mental Fusion: In the dub, he and Yugi share a mind when dueling.
• Mind Rape: His Penalty Games.
• Mr. Fanservice: Particularly in the anime, which made him taller and Yugi slightly shorter. He's a very handsome man, especially when he takes off his coat and shows off some surprisingly decent muscles in his arms.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • He says this almost verbatim immediately after playing the Seal of Orichalcos in the Doma Arc, but quickly shakes it off once the power of the Orichalcos fully takes hold of him. It doesn't truly hit until he loses the duel and Yugi subsequently performs a Heroic Sacrifice to keep Dark Yugi from having his soul taken, leading Yugi's to be absorbed in his place.
  • It occurs again at the end of his following duel, after he comes back to his senses and realizes the brutality of his repeated attacks on Haga.
• Mysterious Protector: Before his identity is revealed in the early manga.
• Name Amnesia: The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle has been sealed in the puzzle for 3000 years. He's forgotten his name, along with much of his past. While his friends just call him "The Other Yugi" or "Dark Yugi" ("Yami" in the English dub), others call him "Spirit of the Nameless Pharaoh". His name, Atem, is finally recovered in the final arc.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The original seven-volume manga gave him several implied abilities through the Puzzle, such as bestowing curses and declaring and enforcing Shadow Games through which to judge the hearts of its participants. The Toei anime keeps these and adds Reality Warping when a Shadow Game has been invoked. In both, it's implied that solving the Puzzle gave its wielder access to actual dark magic. The manga also gave the Puzzle two establishing powers: to locate Jonouchi remotely, which was only seen twice, and to topdeck, which he only explicitly uses iJonouchi's duel with Mai. The anime version of Duelist Kingdom gave the Puzzle powers such as a psychic link with Kaiba, immunity to fire, and switching souls during a duel. These were all phased out post-Duelist Kingdom.
• Nice Guy: Becomes this after Character Development kicks in. While Atem is clearly more flawed than Yugi even after the aforementioned Character Development, he is still ultimately a kind, heroic, and caring soul who fights for what's right and would do anything for his friends.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In a Breather Episode in the manga, Jonouchi goes on a game show where he'll be able to win enough money to get himself and his dad out of their financial woes. When Yugi learns that the corrupt station manager has rigged the final game so that Jonouchi will lose, Yami Yugi challenges him to a Shadow Game and defeats the manager, which allows his friend to win. However, because of the Penalty Game he's put through, the manager goes live on TV, makes an ass of himself, and exposes all the sleazy things he's done in the past. As a result the station goes bankrupt, which means the check Jonouchi received with his winnings has become completely worthless since it can't be cashed now. Whoops.
• No Indoor Voice: The dub has shades of this, but the Japanese version definitively is this trope after some Vocal Evolution.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, despite Yugi's claim to Kaiba that Atem is gone for good now that his spirit has crossed over and left the Millennium Puzzle, in the climax he is able to manifest himself again and save the day.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Him sacrificing himself to seal Zorc and his own soul, setting up the events of the series in the original timeline.
• Older Alter Ego: As in 3000 years older, but since he died in his teens...
• Older Than They Look: In the basic sense, the same reasons as the normal Yugi in spirit of sharing the same body and being as small as he is. But his own example is even more extreme - he's over 3,000 years old. However, this is downplayed in that he is only that old in spirit, and he was actually younger than Yugi when he died - 15 to Yugi's 16 years old.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: In the Doma Arc, Dartz attempts to convince Yami Yugi to surrender to him, preying on his vulnerability. Yami Yugi has a vision of himself naked and sinking in water towards darkness as he loses confidence in himself and considers giving up.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Especially in the beginning of the manga, still present in the anime but toned down due to Adaptational Heroism. He isn't afraid to harshly punish those who deserve it via Ironic Hell or Family-Unfriendly Death.
• Personality Powers: Yami Yugi's ace monsters, the Black Magician trio, are of the Dark Is Not Evil variety, indicating his dark and mysterious but heroic attitude.
• Player Character: During the final arc, a portion of his soul gets sent to Memory World as his past self, Pharaoh Atem, and becomes the Player Character for the portion of his soul that's playing the Shadow RPG with Dark Bakura.
• Post-Final Boss: For Joey in the epilogue of the Battle City arc. He's the final obstacle for Joey to prove his worth as a Duelist and win back his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Definitely the Friendly Enemy variant and according to Word of God, Joey won the Duel offscreen.
• The Power of Friendship: The true power of the Millennium Puzzle is unity. His initial manga and Season 0 characterization is a deconstruction of this. He cares deeply about Yugi and their friends, which means he'll be that much angrier and more willing to use the puzzle's dark powers when someone hurts his friends. This is reconstructed when his friends help him develop into being more merciful.
• Progressively Prettier: He tended to look downright creepy in the earlier parts of the manga, especially when performing Penalty Games, and was prone to many a Psychotic Smirk. Art Evolution eventually turned him into a much more handsome Bishōnen. This doesn't apply to the anime, where he's good-looking from the start.
• Punch a Wall: In the midst of his Heroic BSoD during the Doma arc, he punches a wall on a train before collapsing with grief.
• Quest for Identity: He doesn't know his name or anything of his life before. He spends Battle City and the Memory World trying to find the answers.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In the anime, he criticizes Johnny Steps for not coming up with a valid theme for his deck. Johnny focuses more on the aesthetics of his cards than synergy and forfeits the match shortly after his flagship monster is destroyed.
  • After defeating Seto Kaiba on the Battle City tower, he explains precisely where Kaiba went wrong. Kaiba doesn't take this well at all.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Though his actual eyes are purple, during his duel with Marik, when he ordered Obelisk to attack, lightning flashed so only the silhouette of the Pharaoh with glowing red eyes (then fading to Obelisk) was visible. His eyes also appear red normally in other depictions. During the Doma Arc, after he plays the Seal of Orichalcos, his eyes take on a red hue and he becomes much more aggressive.
• Relative Button: Go ahead and make light of Yugi's sacrifice to the Seal of Orichalcos in front of his face; see how long you last. Haga learns this the hard way.
• Retool: In an author's note in the front of one of the manga, Takahashi comments that when brainstorming the concept for Yu-Gi-Oh!, he wanted to make it a horror series at one point. Going off of this, it's possible that Yami Yugi was intended to be just a vengeful ancient spirit or another facet of Yugi the Puzzle brought out, especially in the first few manga volumes. Then the series settled down into an arc-based manga, so his character changed pretty dramatically. This is especially jarring when comparing the early manga and later on, or the manga and the anime.
• Rule of Three: Some of the iconic group monsters in his deck are made in a set of three. Some of the more notable examples are, the three Egyptian God Cards, the card knights (King, Queen, Jack) and the Magnet Warriors. The reason behind this trend is because the Egyptian God Cards requires 3 sacrifices, so by having a set of 3 monsters, its easy to pick up which monster to become the sacrifice to summon them. Later down the line Atem would include cards that multiplies his monster into several copy to act as a tribute to summon the Egyptian God Cards, an extension to the Multiply and Fiend's Sanctuary combo used against Marik. These copy often appeared in a set of 3.
  • These set of monsters would later include a combination between themselves in case the God Cards are not available at the time, the poker knights would later fuse into Arcana Knight Joker while the magnet warriors can combine to Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, which comes with the ability to separate at will allowing it to be sacrificed for the summoning of the God cards when required.
• Secret Test of Character: His Shadow Games work like this. They start out as a pretty even match where the opponent has a good shot, then he tries to see if the opponent will cheat or otherwise fight dirty by gaining the upper hand. Once they do, the game immediately turns on them and becomes unwinnable.
• Sharing a Body: Initially believed to be Yugi's Superpowered Evil Side, not helped by him having an Identity Amnesia, it soon becomes apparent he's about just as old as the Millennium Puzzle. This has an extra benefit when opponents try to attack Yugi's soul and get caught off-guard with him having two.
• Shipper on Deck: He doesn't mind Yugi getting along with Téa.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Téa. Once he was established as a separate individual rather than just Yugi's split personality, he himself started initiating the ship teasing of the latter with the former. He was hilariously nervous when Yugi baited him to go on a date with Téa before the Battle City arc. Yami and Téa also seem to spend a lot of time alone together, at least in the anime, though there is more actual physical touching in the manga. It's obvious that they care a lot about each other, but whether or not there were actual romantic feelings was never elaborated on or concluded.
  • If such a thing as Cargo Ship Tease exists, then his interactions with the Black Magician Girl qualify. Then again, Atem had Ship Tease with Mana, the Black Magician Girl's progenitor, so It Makes Sense in Context.
• Signature Mon:
  • Black Magician is this to him, even more so than it is to Yugi, thanks to the Black Magician's origin story being deeply tied to the Pharaoh. It is the monster with the most amount of Magic combos, and has the most amount evolutions, and he's referred to as "the strongest servant" despite other monsters being more powerful than him. When regular Yugi builds his deck to duel his Other Me, he doesn't include Black Magician or Black Magician Girl, instead Yami Yugi gets to play them. Unlike other Signature Monsters of Yami Yugi's successors, Black Magician doesn't get played that often.
  • Black Magician Girl has become a secondary one during Battle City, as she sees more play compared to her teacher. She also plays a significant bigger role in the Doma arc, thanks to the prominent Duel Spirit, acting as Yami Yugi's Morality Pet after Yugi's soul gets stolen.
  • Osiris the Heaven Dragon is the God Card that is heavily associated with Yami Yugi, and it is Yami Yugi's usual to-go God Card to use. However, compared to Obelisk and Ra, Osiris is the God that sees the least success.
  • Obelisk the Giant God Solider becomes a secondary Signature God Card to Yami Yugi, despite it being more associated with Kaiba. However, of Yami Yugi's three God Cards, Obelisk is the one that sees the most success, and it plays an especially important rule during the Grand Finale of Yu-Gi-Oh! R where Obelisk receives a primordial form that is equal to Ra's hierarchy rank.
  • The Eye of Timaeus becomes this during the entire Doma arc once he receives the card, playing it in every duel he can. Part of Yami Yugi's character struggle is that Timaeus stops working for him due to the influence of the Orichalcos, and he has to overcome his own darkness to be able to use Timaeus's power again.
  • Theme-wise, Yami Yugi utilizes Spellcasters than any other type of monster.
• Sixth Ranger: Somewhat, as the others were not aware of him until later and the cast realized he was separate from Yugi at different points in time. In-Universe, too, as once he has his own identity he acts consistently surprised when the main gang volunteer to help him in the Millennium World arc even though he's not joined with Yugi at that point.
• Smug Super: Not as obvious as Kaiba, but he does have a great deal of confidence, which gets him into trouble at two crucial points.
• Socially Awkward Hero: He's often more fearless about life-threatening situations than anyone with sense should be, but going on a date with Tea makes him act very awkward (especially in the anime, where he shouts at the Puzzle in public and in front of Tea because Yugi forced him into control outside of a duel). And when he's sent back to his life as a pharaoh, he panics at the sight of his subjects and barely manages an awkward "hi".
• Sociopathic Hero:
  • Before Character Development sets in, anyway. In early chapters of the manga, Yami Yugi was more than willing to Mind Rape them in the name of justice. Even if it's for something as simple as being an asshole. Although Yami Yugi softened up after Pegasus reveal the evil intelligent lurking in the Millennium Items, his inherent nature as a Shadow Game player hasn't changed, as during the deadly battle on the building rooftop against the Ghouls, in which the losers would fall to their deaths, when one of them used a parachute, Yami Yugi scoffs at them for boasting a death match whilst not being prepared for death themselves.
  • And during the buzzsaw duel with Pandora, it was the normal Yugi that saved Pandora from having his legs dismembered - Yami Yugi was probably more than willing to leave it up to Pandoras fate if it were up to him, since Pandora was the one to create such a death match to begin with. He even coldly tells Pandora, "your last act of cruelty is awaiting you" (the buzzsaws) before Yugi switched in to save him (though admittedly, he gave Pandora every chance he could prior to get out while he still could).
• So Last Season: His Magical Hats were one of his best defenses in Duelist Kingdom, but they're much less effective during Battle City; Keith negates them, Pandora is able to bypass them, and Marik has the excellent intuition to aim for the right one.
• Spiky Hair: Another subtle difference between him and normal Yugi is that his hair is even spikier. The creator said in an interview that he wanted Yugi/Yami to have a distinct recognizable silhouette, hence eccentric hair design.
• Split Personality: Initially, Yami Yugi and the normal Yugi are presented as this. It turns out to be more of a case of Sharing a Body, as Yami Yugi is the soul of a 3000-year-old king living inside him, rather than just a dark "other" personality.
• Split-Personality Merge: Although Shadow Games were a big thing in Ancient Egypt, it's implied that Yami Yugi shared Yugi's memories and gaming knowledge in the beginning, which also explain why he thought himself was Yugi earlier on.
• The Stoic: Varies between complete composure and anger when incensed. In his mind maze one of the rooms reflects back painful memories from whoever looks it, and it's implied by Yugi that he's blocking out the things he can't deal with. Yugi also comments that the Kaiba duel in Duelist Kingdom was hard on him and wonders if Atem was lonely on seeing his tomb, but Atem never brings it up directly. Goes more into the realm of Not So Stoic in the anime when he cries a few times, as opposed to the manga where he never cries once.
• The Strategist:
  • Wins his duels by wit. One of the examples must be Duelist Kingdom when the rules were more RPG-like; he was thinking outside of the box and showed his creative and intelligent physical strategies like catapulting his monster into the castle, or blow up the moon. Another example is him winning a duel by deck out in Battle City.
  • A non Duel Monsters example is when Yami Yugi won twice against Mokuba in Capsule Monsters, and the game was rigged both times, Mokuba's monsters consist of high level ones and his own only weak ones.
• Super-Empowering: He has the ability to "curse" games and doesn't necessarily have to compete in them himself or let his target know that the stakes of what they're doing have been exponentially raised.
• Super-Powered Alter Ego: Not really an alter-ego, but he is a spirit in the Millennium Puzzle with the power of Shadow Games, so he partially fits.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Not that he was evil per se, but the Millennium Pendant contains both light and dark powers, which allows him to use Penalty Games and powers that can benefit himself and Yugi. When he finds out the Puzzle contained a dark intelligence, he stops using his dark magic powers and Penalty Games for the rest of the series.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The consequences for losing his Shadow Games range from blinding illusions to immolation. Most of his Penalty Game victims had it coming, unlike the later antagonists who dish out Penalty Games to anyone out of sadism. His last victim was the Player Killer of Darkness, who had Yugi's neck tied to a rope, ready to strangle Yami Yugi once he lost the game. After cowardly kidnapping a bunch of players in the thick of night and eliminating them from the Duelist Kingdom tournament, and then threatening to hang Yugi, you don't really feel bad for the guy when he gets hung during his Mind Rape.
  • Comes into play at the end of his second duel with Insector Haga as well. Still raw from losing Yugi, he goes into a rage when Haga pranks him by ripping up a card he (falsely) claimed to be carrying Yugi's soul, all For the Evulz. Yami Yugi responds by playing "Berserker Soul", allowing him to attack Haga's life points directly with his Breaker the Magical Warrior every time he draws a Monster Card. Yami Yugi subsequently draws two Monster cards, enough for him to bring Haga's life points down to zero and win the duel. However, because Yami Yugi is still obsessed with making Haga pay for his actions, he keeps drawing cards just to have an excuse to attack again while the effects of his Spell Card are technically still in play. He strikes Haga six more times after the latter had already lost the duel (cut down to three more in the English dub), and would have kept going had Tea not snapped him out of it.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: After Pegasus reveals that the Millennium Items contains an evil intelligence, Yami Yugi was about to outright kill him until he was told this. Anzu notices he doesn't pull his usual Penalty Games on him, and decides to stop using Shadow Games for good. Dark Bakura knows this, and gives Pegasus a death Penalty Game in "his place".
• Troll: During his early years, he intentionally messes with his opponents and banks on them cheating in his Shadow Games. Even after Character Development, he continues to mess with his opponents once he gains the upper hand.
• Tsurime Eyes: His eyes are sharper and more pointed than Yugi's. In the manga, this was the most immediate sign that he'd taken over.
• Underestimating Badassery: Most of his opponents seem to think that Yami Yugi isn't all that much of a duelist until they're on the brink of losing. Dub Seto Kaiba especially in the Battle City Finals thought that he could easily defeat Yami Yugi only to end up being defeated when his supposed 'perfect' strategy to win is countered. Even in his early Shadow Games, they always underestimate him when they think they have the upper hand or celebrate their victory too early (or trying to outright cheat in his Shadow games, where his Unwinnable by Design conditions takes full-effect). He on the other hand does things that allows him to without cheating.
• Unwinnable by Design: He designs his earlier Shadow Games like this. For example, if you are a greedy jerkass who will do everything to win and try cheat your way out, you either suffer a Fate Worse than Death, burn to death, Mind Raped, or suffer a Karmic Death.
• Vocal Evolution: Shunsuke Kazama's voice for Yami Yugi simply starts out sounding like just a more serious version of regular Yugi, with a lowered tone. His pitch would gradually deepen as the anime goes on, reaching the more distinct, older, and aggressive voice we know around Battle City. Incidentally, his voice for regular Yugi in The Dark Side of Dimensions dips into the pre-evolution voice as a sign of his increased maturity, which makes this come full circle. The same is true for Dan Green in the dub.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Yami/Atem will always draw the right card when he really needs it. This is usually framed as "believing in the heart of the cards". In the final duel between Atem and the normal Yugi however, it is revealed that Atem can quite literally influence fate and draw whatever he wants (in the anime). He himself has become aware of this and starts literally predicting what cards he would draw.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Becomes this for a bit in the Doma arc after he loses Yugi - especially during his duel with Haga. Oh, silly Haga, didn't you know that pretending to destroy the soul of a highly protective and emotionally unstable (and once-Axe-Crazy) ancient spirit's partner was just asking for a one-way ticket down extreme-pain-and-death lane?
• Younger Than They Look: Yami/Atem is an odd example of both older and younger than he looks. Since he's already dead, he doesn't age at all so he's still only sixteen years old.

The Pharaoh

Pharaoh Atem (アテム; Atemu)

Voiced by: Shunsuke Kazama (Japanese), Dan Green (English)

A Pharaoh from Ancient Egypt who sealed himself inside the Millennium Puzzle and became Dark Yugi. During the Shadow RPG, which is a recreation of the past in the form of a Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a portion of Dark Yugi's soul enters the RPG version of Pharaoh Atem within the game world, who serves as Dark Yugi's main player character while the other portion battles Dark Bakura at the RPG table.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: Presumably the youngest of the Sacred Court, though no-one really brings it up, either for political reasons or faith in his abilities.
• Badass Cape: A long, purple cape that represents his status as king.
• Big Good: As the Pharaoh, he opposes Thief King Bakura and Zorc, and leads the High Priests to stop them.
• Broken Pedestal: To his father when Thief King Bakura tells him that the creation of Millennium Items involved him ordering the slaughter of Bakura's village. It doesn't stick, as he realizes that his father didn't know about the slaughter at first, and gave up his own life to save his son's life when he realized.
• But Now I Must Go: Even after defeating Zorc, he cannot remain in the Memory World due to that point in time being where his memories originally ended.
• Celibate Hero: He never took a wife, or at least died before he could get married. Historically, ancient Egyptian pharaohs were known to marry at ages as young as ten, but there's no indication of that here.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: An asskicking pharaoh and only fifteen years old.
• Good Is Not Soft: Presumably less ruthless than his pre-Duelist Kingdom persona, since he hadn't yet been confined for 3,000 years, but the events of the shadow RPG, which were 'based on what really happened', show that he guns to take down Bakura straight away, since the man breaks into the palace, hurts his guards and disrespects his father's body. The following fights also have him following this trend.
• The Good King: Willing to sacrifice himself to save his country.
• God in Human Form: Both metaphorically in the sense that a Pharaoh was considered the embodiment of the gods (as commented on multiple times in the manga), and somewhat literally as he was able to summon a creator god, Horakty, and Bakura comments that he isn't 'mortal' in the manga. Usually empowered by the Power of Friendship to reach ultimate potential.
• Heroic Sacrifice: His original timeline death, sealing Zorc, Bakura and shadow magic inside the Items, which presumably reduced their powers to the versions we see in the future.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: He's heavily based on King Tutankhamun, the boy king who died at a young age and whose tomb was thought lost for thousands of years until it was rediscovered in the modern era. Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten serves as the namesake for Atem's father and uncle, Akhenamkhanen and Akhenaden, and Atem's name, while also being the name of an Egyptian deity, is similar to "Aten", the monotheist deity that Akhenaten briefly replaced the original Egyptian pantheon with. Tutankhamun's name was original Tutankhaten, and according to Kazuki Takahashi, the idea of Atem reclaiming his true name was based on him changing his name to Tutankhamun and restoring the polytheistic belief system that predated his father, likely under pressure from his priests and advisers. He's also apparently from the 18th Dynasty, which was the dynasty Tutankhamun ruled in. The early issues of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga (before later retcons changed the details) said that all the archeologists involved in the discovery of Atem's tomb died mysterious deaths, a direct reference to the urban legend of Tutankhamun's tomb being cursed and all who desecrated it died.
• Player Character: Serves as the main character for Dark Yugi during the Shadow RPG. If the Pharaoh dies, Dark Yugi loses the Shadow Game and dies as well (and, in his place, Zorc will be resurrected into the modern world).
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Especially since he's the king, who is able to summon the gods.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Leading the army on the frontline during Zorc's rampage.
• Ship Tease: With Mana in the anime.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In-universe example. During the events of the real past, it's said that the Pharaoh died during the fight with Zorc. Atem used a spell that sealed his soul and Zorc into the Millennium Pendant with his name, and the Millennium Pendant shattered, becoming the Millennium Puzzle as its known in the modern timeline. In the Shadow RPG, Dark Yugi managed to win the battle with the help of his friends, and Atem in the RPG managed to destroy Zorc Necrophades by summoning The Creator God of Light, Horakhty. Rather than dying, the Dark Yugi acting as Atem leaves the game world and returns to Yugi's body, leaving the kingdom in the hands of Seto.
• The Stoic: In contrast to Dark Yugi. In the manga, we can see that he never smiles the trademark cocky smile of Dark Yugi when he confronts his enemy. Most of the time, he is rather serious - being a king at the young age helps.
• Universally Beloved Leader: In the anime, it's heavily implied the vast majority of the citizens loved him equally as much as his father. The manga implies that he was this before he even became Pharaoh, with Siamun stating that the previous Pharaoh’s tomb was only a prototype for Atem’s. As the tombs were built while the Pharaohs were still alive Atem must have been pretty young when they decided his tomb had to be impenetrable.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: As ever, lets Seto know that sacrificing allies is a destructive, cruel strategy in the long run. Generally acts much older than his age (though we do see him rising to the challenge when provoked by Seto).

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PENALTY GAME!