Yugi Muto

Yugi Muto is a not-so-average kid. Yugi is pure-hearted and child-like. He lives with his grandfather Solomon Muto and mother, although he never speaks of the latter in the English anime. In the Japanese manga, it's explained that Yugi's father is a businessman. Yugi is good at games and puzzles, especially "Duel Monsters".

Yugi possesses the Millennium Puzzle, which allows his body to bear host to the spirit of the Puzzle, Yami Yugi. Yugi was initially unaware of his existence and control of Yugi's body would involuntarily shift to Yami, when Yugi or his friends are wronged.

Yugi is part of a close-knit group of friends: Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner. Miho Nosaka is also one of Yugi's friends in the first series anime. Yugi's friends often cheer him on from the sidelines, and Joey has dueled at his side. Yugi has been friends with Téa since childhood and is in love with her. Téa is also love with both Yugi.

In Japanese, the first characters of "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" combine to form "Yūjō" (友情), which means "friendship." The "Yu-Jo Friendship" card is named after the word and the fellowship between the characters.

Personality
The character of Yugi in the manga starts as being very short of confidence and being lonely. However, it's shown quite frequently that students are friendly towards him and care a little about him. Anzu is his best friend from childhood but before the manga has never seen Yugi's Millennium Puzzle before, as Yugi hides the Puzzle from everybody at school while he is building it. Yugi is also incredibly trusting of people - despite Jonouchi and Honda bullying him many times, he still believes they are just trying to persuade him to be more manly.

Design


Yugi's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit consists of the standard male Domino Junior/Senior High uniform complete with a closed buckled collar. His extremely extravagant hair features multiple layers including long blond crocked, pointy locks for his fringe, the rest features a six large spikes colored black with magenta rims all along the edges. He wears the Millennium Puzzle on a lace around his neck. In the manga and second series anime, the lace is later replaced with a chain. In the manga (post Volume 7) and in the second series anime, he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

When he and Téa took a day together to find out about the Millennium Puzzle, he wore a black linen and several pieces of wrist-chains, along with a pair of leather pants. He is seen wearing the same outfit, except for the chains, when he met Jaden Yuki for the first time. However, in GX, Yugi's (present day) face is never directly shown.

Prior to pilot
Yugi lives with his mother and Grandfather, Sugoroku in the family game shop, Kame Game. By the pilot, his father is away on buisness.

Yugi found the Millennium Puzzle on a shelf in the shop. He spent 8 unsuccessful years trying to solve it.

Early games
At school, while working on the Puzzle, he utters the riddle on the box "It's something that you see, but have never seen before". Honda and Jonouchi enter the room and start tossing the puzzle around. Jonouchi manages to secretly steal a piece. However Anzu arrives and tells them off. Yugi discloses with Anzu how he's been spending years trying to solve the Puzzle and believes he will be granted a wish upon solving.

The hall monitor Ushio believes Yugi is being bullied by Honda and Jonouchi. He takes it on himself to be Yugi's bodyguard, although Yugi denies that Honda and Jonouchi have been been troubling him. Regardless Ushio beats them both up. Yugi protest as Ushio continues to hit them, resulting in Ushio attacking him too. Afterwards Ushio imposes bodyguard fees of ¥200,000 and threates him with a knife should he not pay.

That night, Yugi works on the Puzzle, while thinking of way to make the money. Unlike other days, he was able to assemble the Puzzle a lot easier and quicker, until he realized the last piece was missing. His Grandfather gives him the last piece, which Jonouchi had returned earlier.

When he assembled the Puzzle, he became the Dark Guardian and his body became the host for the spirit of the 3,000-year-old Nameless Pharaoh. The spirit, known as Dark Yugi shares Yugi's body, unbeknownst to Yugi.

Dark Yugi defeats Ushio in a Shadow Game and changes back to Yugi, who has no knowledge of what has passed.

The next day at school, Jonouchi answers Yugi's riddle, saying it's friendship and that they're friends.

A ZTV director arrives at Domino High to make a documentry about bullying. He has his assistant Fujita stage a bullying scene, by attacking Yugi. Yugi is saved by Jonouchi and Dark Yugi later beats the director in a Shadow Game.

The untalented singer, Sozoji, forces Yugi to sell tickets to his concert. After Hanasaki tries to sell Yugi a ticket, Yugi takes all Hanasaki's tickets off his hands. Knowing neitehr of them are going to be able to sell the tickets, he tries to spare Hanasaki of the burden. The day of the concert, Yugi informs Sozoji that he couldn't sell any tickets. As punishment, Sozoji makes Yugi listen to music at full blast and reveals Hanasaki, beaten-up, as the audience for the next song. Dark Yugi once again takes over and subjects beats the bully in a Shadow Game.

Yugi and Jonouchi notice how Anzu is acting suspicious and avoiding walking hime from school with them. To get to the bottom of it, they follow her home from school and find she has been working at Burger World. Since part time jobs are against school rules, she makes them promise they won't tell. An escaped convict enters the restaurant, takes Anzu hostage and blindfolds her. Everyone is else is made lie on the floor apart from Yugi, who is made serve him. Dark Yugi takes control of Yugi's body and faces the convict in a Shadow Game. Anzu thinks his voice sounds like Yugi, but his actions and bravery are completly different. Dark Yugi defeats the convict, setting him alight. Yugi is made believe the convict accidentally set himself on fire.

Yugi gets envious of the self-proclaimed psychic Kokurano, as he tries to seuduce Anzu. For Yugi's disbelief in his powers, Kokurano says that in Yugi's future countless letters will fall from the heavens and bring disaster upon him. Later that day Kokurano knocks over bookshelves on top of Yugi. Dark Yugi then emerges to punish Kokurano and save Anzu.

For a school carnival, the class follow Yugi's suggestion to set up a section for games. However Goro Inogashira and his classmates tear down their stand to make way for their own. Yugi gets injured trying to protect their stand and is taken to the infirmary. Anzu takes care of him for a while, but after she takes her eyes off him, he disappears as Dark Yugi to get revenge on Goro.

Despite Honda's wishes, Jonouchi let's Yugi in on Honda's crush on Miho Nosaka and asks him for help. Yugi suggests that they browse his family's store for a present, where they decided on a love letter jigsaw puzzle. Having never sent a love letter before, Honda gets Yugi to write one and threatens him, should Miho not like it. The next day at school, the teacher Ms. Chono finds the puzzle on Miho's desk and confiscates it. She demands the sender come forward. Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda all claim to have doen so, but Chono continues the puzzle to find out who really sent it and plans to punish the others for lying. Dark Yugi emerges and turns the puzzle into a Shadow Game; as Chono continues to complete the puzzle, she feels the pain she is inflicting on others. The makeup on her face begins to crack up, revealing her true ugly self. Chono flees the room, sparing the boys any trouble. After Miho turns Honda down for a date, Yugi and Jonouchi treat him to a hamburger to cheer him up. Since then Honda becomes good friends with Yugi.

After Jonouchi buys a pair of Air Muscle shoes from the Junky Scorpion, he, Yugi and Honda are ambushed by the Muscle Hunters, who steal the shoes. After finding out they were sent by the store owner, Dark Yugi emerges and returns to the store, to win back Jonouchi's shoes. Not knowing how he got the shoes back, Yugi returns them to Jonouchi.

After realizing Jonouchi has missed school for the first time, Yugi, Anzu and Honda investigate. They visit Jonouchi's apartment, but get scared off by his father, who mistakes them for Jonouchi and yelling at them for disappearing for two days. The trio search the city and find Jonouchi with Hirutani's gang attacking a boy. Yugi ran over to ask Jonouchi what was going on, but Jonouchi denied knowing him. As Yugi continued to plea with Jonouchi, one of the gang members punched Yugi in the face.

Yugi refuses to believe Jonouchi has changed so they followed the gang to J'z. Honda demanded Yugi and Anzu to wait outside, for their own safety, while he went inside. However Honda could only report the gang had left, so the trio split-up to look for Jonouchi.

Unable to find him, clasped the Millennium Puzzle and asked it to tell him where Jonouchi is. Dark Yugi took control of his body and went to Hirutani's torture chamber, where the gang had Jonouchi tied-up. Dark Yugi managed to take out the gang and relinquish control to Yugi, who escorted Jonouchi out.

Yugi gets a Digital Pet, which he names U2. At school, he connects it Jonouchi's pet, where it initially gets bullied, but they start to get along afterwards. After Kujirada's pet eats Jonouchi and Anzu's, he connects it to U2. Initialy it gets chased, but then uses the data it incorporated from its battle with Jonouchi's pet to transform to a more powerful form, allowing it to take out its opponent. After U2 reachs its life expectancy, Yugi stays awake to watch him disappear.

The Man from Egypt
Yugi reads that there will be an Egyptian exhibition at the museum in the newspaper. Since his Grandfather knows Professor Yoshimori, the archaeologists who discovered the tomb, Yugi is allowed come for free and invites his friends too. Anzu notes that Egypt is where the Millennium Puzzle came from and reminds Yugi that his grandfather had said all the archaeologists involved in finding the puzzle had died mysterious deaths. Yugi assures his friends that he isn't cursed, but admits to suffering memory loss.

Outside the museum, he is introduced to Professors Yoshimori. Yoshimori in turn introduces him to Kanekura, who begs Yugi to let him put the Millennium Puzzle on display for the day. During the exhibition, Yugi doesn't feel right without the Puzzle.

After the exhibition closes, Yugi returns to collect his Puzzle. Unable to find Kanekura, he meets Shadi and explains what he's looking for. Shadi is astonished to learn that Yugi may be the one who solved the Puzzle. To check, he uses his Millennium Key to look into Yugi's soul room. However he find two rooms, one for Yugi and one for Dark Yugi.

Shadi leaves Yugi's mind, after he is defeated by Dark Yugi. He returns Yugi the Puzzle, saying there is no need to thank him as he is in his debt, since Yugi's other self had saved him. Yugi laughs at the idea of there being another person living inside him.

After hearing the news of Kanekura's unexpected death, Yugi, Sugoroku, Jonouchi and Anzu go to Yoshimori's house to cheer him up. However Yoshimori, possessed by Shadi, starts attacking Yugi's friends. Shadi redecorates Anzu's soul room and order the other Yugi to appear. He tells Yugi that he can make Anzu die by commanding her to do so. This prompts Dark Yugi to appear.

Dark Yugi faces Shadi is a Shadow Game in order to save his friends. Anzu and Jonouchi see Yugi shortly after he wins the game and notice he is acting differently. They approach him over this matter, but Dark Yugi relinquishes control to Yugi, causing them to think they'd been mistaken.

Death-T
Yugi invites his friends Joey, Téa and Tristan to come see his grandfather's rare card. Seto Kaiba overhears this and deduces that they are talking about the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon." In the first series he switches Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes with a counterfeit but "the other Yugi" wins a game of Duel Monsters and places a penalty game on Seto, causing Seto to be trapped in an illusion where Duel Monsters kill him repeatedly, though it is just a sensation of death. Yugi returns the real card to his grandfather.

It is during Death-T, that finally both Yugis are seen as different people; albeit the context staying unrevealed. After Honda is caught in one of Kaiba's games and is presumed dead, Yugi breaks up in the tunnel leading to Death-T4. He then reveals how he is scared of there being another Yugi and doesn't want to see anybody get hurt because then somebody else will be hurt as well... Jonouchi and Anzu take him to speaking the truth. After the Death-T incident, Dark Yugi also seems to be more open to Yugi - Yugi ends his short epilogue of the arc by saying that he remembers 'all the battles we've fought together.' Jonouchi also regards Dark Yugi taking over as 'changing.'

Later games
The evidence existing becomes drastically clearer and clearer that Yugi and Dark Yugi are different souls. In the most prominent of these, Yugi is challenged to a Shadow Game by a boy named Imori using Chinese Dragon Cards that were sealed. Yugi loses and, as the rules say it must, his soul is sucked into the soul-eating jar. However he seizes the puzzle just in time and Dark Yugi challenges him to a re-match, defeating Imori and setting the captured Yugi's soul free while at the same time imprisoning Imori's. Now it is made clear that Dark Yugi and Yugi just live in the same body.

Monster World
Yugi and his friends play a role-playing game of Monster World against Dark Bakura, who then seals the souls of Yugi's friends into the miniatures. Yugi demands that Bakura seal his soul into a figurine as well. In his thoughts he states that even if he can't roll the dice, 'the other me' can. Dark Yugi then meets Yugi for the first time. At this point both characters have changed dramatically from the beginning of the manga - Yugi is more confident and daring, while Dark Yugi's treatment of his foes is softer and his attitude is no longer so arrogant. This is shown in their designs: Yugi's face has matured and sharpened, and he no longer looks awkward when putting on a brave face; Dark Yugi's has softened, his glare is more of weariness than of pride and his eyes are less wild. After this story, both Yugis have a more comfortable relationship with each other and their friends.

Duelist Kingdom
Pegasus sends Yugi a video inviting him to participate in his Duelist Kingdom tournament. Pegasus appears on the video and invites Yugi to duel him on the spot. Initially astonished at how he can face a pre recording, Yugi complies. Seeing the nature of the Duel, to be that of a Shadow Game, Dark Yugi takes control. Pegasus later imposes a time limit, which becoms responsible for Yugi's defeat. As a penalty for Yugi's defeat, Pegasus traps Sugoroku's soul in the video tape.

Yugi inserts the tape into a camcorder, so he watch his grandfather on its screen, to easily communicate with him wherever he goes.

Having recently attained the ability to tell what his other self is feeling, Yugi divulges that Dark Yugi feels bad for losing to Pegasus to his friends at school. They fill Bakura in on what happened to Sugoroku and consider Yugi entering the tournament to return him to normal.

Yugi arrives home, finding the invitation to and instructions for Duelist Kingdom attached to the door. Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Bakura catch up with him, revealing Jonouchi also received a tape in the mail. Since he doesn't have an 8 mm VCR of his own, he asks if they can watch it on Yugi's. The tape shows Jonouchi's sister Shizuka telling Jonouchi her inevitable blindness is approaching. Jonouchi tells them about being unable to afford the expensive surgery and mopes about being unable to help her. Yugi then changes to Dark Yugi and reminds Jonouchi of the prize money for the Duelist Kingdom and hands him one of his 2 Star Chips, granting Jonouchi entry to the tournament.

Yugi and Jonouchi spend the next week training for the tournament. Among this time, Yugi gives Jonouchi the card "Time Wizard".

Along with Anzu, Bakura and Honda they arrive at Domino Pier and board the ship to the tournament. Here they meet Insector Haga, Dinosaur Ryuzaki and Mai Kujaku. Yugi spends some time conversing with Haga, who leaks word of newrules being in place. Haga requests to see the "Exodia" cards Yugi used to defeat Kaiba, only to throw them overboard. Jonouchi dives into the water but is only able to rcover 2 of the cards. Yugi changes to Dark Yugi, who vows to take out Haga first in the tournament.

After the tournament starts, Yugi and his companions head to the forest, having seen Haga go that way. No sooner than than when they come face to face, Haga challenges Yugi to a Duel, knowing his monsters will benefit from the Field Power Bonus. Dark Yugi accepts and is led to a Battle Box, where he wagers his 1 Star Chip and his Deck for Haga's 2 Star Chips. Yugi emerges victorious, eliminating Haga from the tournament.

Yugi spends much of his time as Dark Yugi, including watching Jonouchi face Mai, winning his next 2 Star Chips from Ryota Kajiki and facing a Star Chips thief, who turns out to be Mokuba Kaiba, on the run from Pegasus. Mokuba tries to swipe Yugi's Star Chips, but is discouraged by Dark Yugi. Saruwatari refuses to let Mokuba hand the Star Chips back to Yugi, but arranges an opponent for Yugi to face, the Ventriloquist of the Dead for Mokuba's freedom. Yugi's opponent uses Seto Kaiba's Deck, but as Dark Yugi defeats him, Kaiba wakes from his coma and Yugi ups his Star Chip count to 6. However Saruwatari has already disappeared wth Mokuba.

Seeing as Jonouchi is disallowed from receiving help from Yugi in his Duel with Ryuzaki, Dark Yugi returns control to Yugi.

That night, Mai proposes a ceasfire, as she shares her food with Yugi and his friends. After the meal, Yugi speaks with his grandfather on the camcorder, briefing him in on his progress in the tournament.

After Jonouchi, Honda and Bakura falls asleep, Mai arranges for Yugi and Anzu to meet up, telling Yugi that Anzu wanted to speak with him. Anzu starts to talk about old times, but Yugi believes she wants to speak with his other self and offers to change. Anzu refuses as she tries to convince herself that both Yugi's ar the same person.

Dungeon Dice Monsters
Mr. Clown frameed Yugi for stealing merchandise from his shop. After taking him away for the alleged crime, Clown stole the Millennium Puzzle and locked Yugi in a secret game room, where he faced Ryuji in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters for the ownership of the Puzzle.

As Yugi gets the upperhand on Ryuji, Clown entered the room and shattered the Puzzle. Yugi manages to defeat Ryugi with Dark Bakura's help and Ryugi admits that he cannot hate Yugi.

Clown pretended to apologize as he put the Puzzle's chain back on Yugi's neck. However he tightened the chain and dragged Yugi into another room, locking the door and pinning down the a piece of the Puzzle by its chain. He faces Yugi in the same Shadow Game he played against Sugoroku Mutou. However Ryugi accidentally sets the room on fire.

Honda and Jonouchi arrive the save Yugi, but Yugi refused to leave without finishing the Puzzle. After he finished the Puzzle, Honda and Jonouchi managed to remove the pin and help him escape.

One-shot games
At school, while working on the Puzzle, he utters the riddle on the box "It's something that you see, but have never seen before". Jonouchi swipes the puzzle from Yugi and starts teasing him. Honda enters and begins to tell Jonouchi off. Jonouchi manages to steal a piece, before Anzu arrives and takes the puzzle back. Honda leaves shortly afterwards to buy Miho lunch and is followed by Jonouchi. Yugi tells Anzu what he knows about the Puzzle and how he believes he'll be granted a wish after solving it.

The hall monitor Ushio believes Yugi is being bullied by Jonouchi and Honda, although Yugi denies it. Ushio takes it on himself to be Yugi's bodyguardand beats up Jonouchi and Honda the next day. Yugi protests, but Ushio jokes about Yugi calling them his friends and imposes a bodyguard fee of ¥200,000.

That night, while trying to think of how to pay Ushio, Yugi works on the Puzzle, making fast progress. He notices the last piece is missing and returns to school to see if he left it behind, but is confronted by Ushio. Since Yugi is unale to pay him, he gets beaten-up. Honda and Jonouchi arrive and find Yugi beaten-up. Jonouchi gives Yugi the missing piece, while he and Honda attack Ushio, but get beaten-up again. Yugi manages to finish the puzzle, while lying barely consciious.

Yugi's body becomes host to the spirit of a 3000-year-old Nameless Pharaoh. The spirit, known as Dark Yugi goes after Ushio and defeats him in a Shadow Game.

The next day at school, Yugi has no memory of what happened after solving the Puzzle. He meets Jonouchi, who answers Yugi's riddle, saying it's friendship and tells Yugi that they are friends.

Yugi and his friends notice Anzu is acting suspicious and avoiding walking home from school. Subsequently Miho and Honda start to act as such, prompting Yugi and Jonouchi to investigate. They follow follow the other three home one day and find them working at Burger World. Since part time jobs are against school rules, they are made promise not to tell. A dispute between the escaped convicts, Tetsu Tasaki and Jiro the Yellow Spider at the restaurant, results in Anzu being taken hostage and blindfolded by Jiro. Everyone is else is made lie on the floor apart from Yugi, who is made serve him. Dark Yugi takes control of Yugi's body and faces Jiro in a Shadow Game. Anzu thinks his voice sounds like Yugi, but his actions and bravery are completly different. Dark Yugi defeats Jiro, saving Yugi and Anzu.

Prior to pilot
Yugi lived in his family's game shop, Kame Game, with his mother and grandfather. His grandfather thought him a lot about the game, Duel Monsters.

Joey and Tristan used to bully Yugi. Joey even went as far as taking a piece of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and throwing it into a canel. However Yugi stood-up for Joey and Tristan, when they were attacked by Ushio, claiming that they were his friends, whereas Ushio claimed he was protecting Yugi in order to earn money. Joey and Tristan came to be Yugi's friends after the incident and Joey recovered the piece of the Puzzle.

Yugi and Joey once visited Burger World, only to find Téa working there. She fears that if they tell, she'll get expelled as it's against school rules to have part-time jobs. (In the English version, she worries about getting fired, as they could reveal that she's under 18; the required age to work there.) She splatters their burgers in ketchup, warning them not to tell.

Yugi later finds Téa in a warehouse, being filmed by a pervert, who threatens to reveal she's working at Burger World. (In the English version, he was a mugger who tricked her into thinking there would be dance lesons.) Yugi tackles the man, but gets thrown against a wall. Téa is also knocked unconscious after trying to attack him. Yugi then transforms into Yami Yugi, who defeats the man in a card draw game and Mind Crushes him. Yugi came to believe he had saved Téa, although he doesn't remember how he did it.

Prior to the tournament
After beating Joey in Duel Monsters, Yugi invites Joey, Téa and Tristan to see his grandfather, Solomon's rare card, the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", after school. Kaiba, who overheard, ends up kidnapping Solomon and forcing him into a Duel for his "Blue-Eyes", as he refused to trade or sell it. Yugi and his friends catch up after Solomon had already been defeated, and witness Kaiba rip the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in front of them. Outraged, Yugi challanges Kaiba to a Duel, and Solomon gives Yugi his Deck. Yugi duels Kaiba as Yami Yugi and discovers Kaiba has the other three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" in his Deck but defeats him using "Exodia." After defeating Kaiba, Yugi becomes the Duel Monsters World Champion.

Since Joey has been having troubles with winning in Duel Monsters, Yugi asks his grandfather to help train Joey.

Pegasus sends Yugi a video inviting him to participate in his Duelist Kingdom tournament. Pegasus appears on the video and duels Yugi on the spot while freezing everyone else in the room. He places a time limit on the Duel and wins because he had more Life Points when the time ran out. As a penalty for his defeat Solomon's soul is stolen.

Yugi enters the tournament to rescue his grandfather. At the pier, he gives Joey one of his two Star Chips that are required for entry to allow Joey to participate and help him.

Yugi meets Weevil Underwood on the ship to the tournament, who acts friendly to Yugi, including telling him that he knows of new rules that are going to be introduced in the tournament. Shortly after Weevil leaves, Yugi gives Joey the "Time Wizard" card, telling him how it can be useful in a tight situation. Yugi meets Weevil again later and shows him his "Exodia" cards, which Weevil tosses overboard, to hinder Yugi's Deck. Joey jumps into the water to recover them. After getting two of the cards, the current hits Joey and Yugi dives in to save him. Both of them are then rescued by the stowaways, Téa and Tristan, who throw them a rope ladder.

Preliminaries
After the tournament starts, Yugi tracks down Weevil, determined to get his revenge, but Weevil flees, leading him into a forest. Yugi suspects this is to do with the new rules Weevil mentioned earlier. Weevil leads them to a meadow, where he accepts Yugi's his challenge, as his monsters now get Field Power Bonuses. Yugi switches to Yami Yugi, who bets both his Deck and Star Chip, earning him Weevil's 2 Star Chips after he wins.

Yugi cheers for Joey in his Duel against Mai. As Yami Yugi, he offers Joey abstract clues to help him win. Joey defeats Mai using the "Time Wizard" card, Yugi gave him.

While searching for food, Yugi and his friends, find fish Mako Tsunami had prepared. Unbeknownst to them, Mako had set it as bait to lure opponents, to where his monsters greatly benefit from the field. After sharing the food, Mako challenges Yugi. After switching to Yami, Yugi defeats Mako, winning 2 more Star Chips.

Yugi and his friends see a contestant, being forced to leave the island as he is out of Star Chips. The boy says they were stolen, along with his Deck and describes the thief and where he met him. Yugi promises to get his Star Chips back, before the boat leaves the island. Back at the sene of the crime, they meet the thief, who has his face disuised. He duels Yugi with 5 Star Chips on the line. Yami Yugi identifies the thief as Mokuba Kaiba. Mokuba tells them how Yugi humiliated his brother, causing him to leave, giving Pegasus an opportunity to take over KaibaCorp. Mokuba now seeks revenge on Yugi for this. Unable to win the Duel, Mokuba makes a grab for Yugi's Star Chips. Yami discourages Mokuba and promises to help him and Seto.

The group make their way back to the bay, but the boat has already left. Yugi shows Kemo that he won back the Star Chips, but Kemo slaps them into the water, including some of Yugi's. Kemo grabs Mokuba to take him back to Pegasus, but Yugi challenges Kemo to a Duel for Mokuba's freedom. Kemo doesn't Duel himself, but tells Yugi to come back in an hour (4 hours in the English version) and he'll have an opponent arranged for him.

Yugi returns to the spot, where he faces Ghost Kaiba. Ghost Kaiba pretends to be the actual Seto Kaiba and uses his Deck. With the help of the real Kaiba, who weakens Ghsot Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", via a virus, Yami Yugi wins. Yugi retrieves Kaiba's Deck, but Kemo has already disappeared with Mokuba.

Yugi is unallowed to help Joey in his Duel with Rex Raptor. As the Duel starts Yugi goes to find Tristan, who left in a huff with Joey for accepting those conditions. Tristan reminds Yugi that he should still be at the Duel to offer Joey his friendship, so the two of them return to watch.

That night, Mai shares her food with Yugi and his friends, although she promises that they'll be enemies tomorrow.

Ryo Bakura appears at their campsite, shortly after Mai leaves for a walk. While the group talks about cards they own, that they an identify with, Yugi encourages Téa to pick one for herself. Yugi picks the "Dark Magician" as his. After everyone has exchanged, which cards they recognize with, Bakura suggests they play a friendly Duel, where Yugi includes the cards Joey, Tristan and Téa choose; "Flame Swordsman", "Cyber Commander" and "Magician of Faith" and he can show them how his card, "Change of Heart" works.

Bakura changes to Yami Bakura, who traps the group's souls in the cards they selected. He proceeds to take Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, but Yami Yugi emerges. Yami faces Yami Bakura, in a Shadow Game, to return his friends, but staking his Millennium Puzzle.

Yugi's friends appear in place of the monsters they selected as Yami Yugi Summons them. When the Dark Magician, Yugi is Summoned, the 2 Yugis meet. In the Japanse version, Yugi was aware of Yami's existance and the two of theme agree now is not the time to keep secrets. Yugi tells his friends of Yami's existance, that he is the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and apologises for not telling them before. In the English version, Yugi admits to having felt Yami's presence while he duels and feels they can trust him.

Yami manages to win the Duel, with the help of Ryo betraying Yami Bakura, returning everyone to normal. Although Téa, Tristan and Joey believe the Duel to have been a dream, Yugi doesn't take time to explain as they hear Mai scream.

The group find the Eliminator, Panik, who has just beatne Mai and taken all eight of her Star Chips. Yugi accuses Panik of being a coward and duels him as Yami Yugi, winning back Mai's Star Chips. He offers them to Mai, who reluctanlty takes them back, saying she owes him one.

Later that night Kaiba arrives on the island and Yugi returns his Deck.

The next day, Mai leaves a letter explaining she's left and owes Yugi for winning back her Star Chips. Joey later gets seperated from his friends. They search a cave after finding his wallet outside. After running from many traps, they find Joey in a Duel with Bonz. But after Joey wins, Bandit Keith's gang trap Yugi and his friends in the cave, by sealing the entrance with a boulder.

Using Bakura's Millennium Ring as a guide, the friends find the Paradox Brothers guarding the exit. Yugi and Joey face them in a Tag Duel. After winning Yugi and Joey, each have enough Star Chips to enter the finals. Yami Yugi passes the brothers riddle test in order to exit.

At the stairs to Pegasus' castle, Téa ponders on Yugi's differing personalities and wonders if there could be two Yugis. Yugi admits to feeling as though there is someone else living inside him, but hopes he isn't going crazy.

At the top of the stairs, Kaiba blocks the way and talks Yugi into a Duel. Yami takes control and faces Kaiba, using his Duel Disk technology. As Yami is about to win, Kaiba stands up on the edge of the castle, such that the shockwaves from Yugi's attack may cause him to fall to his death. (In the English anime, Yugi speaks to Yami, telling him not to do it.) Yami contemplates, but overall decides to attack. Téa runs to Yugi insisting that this isn't like him and calls for the ordinary Yugi to come out. Yugi takes control in time to cancel the move. He falls to his knees, disgisted by what he's done. Kaiba takes his turn and wins the Duel, claiming 5 of Yugi's Star Chips.

Now fully aware of the other Yugi's existance, Yugi admits it to his friends, telling that he is afriad of him and consequently afraid to Duel. Kaiba calls Yugi weak, but Téa protests arguing that Yugi saved him and Kaiba is the real loser. After Kaiba leaves, Yugi continues to mope. Joey offers Yugi to take his Star Chips, so he may enter the finals, but Yugi ignores him. Frustrated Joey grabs Yugi by the shirt, asking him if he cares about his Grandfather.

Mai appears and is briefed in on what just happened. She offers Yugi her excessive Star Chips, as per her promise from earlier, but Yugi doesn't even acknowledge Mai's appearance. Annoyed Mai tells him to grow up and hangs on to the Star Chips. She accuses him of being afraid to Duel again and challenges him. Téa instead accepts the Duel, to win back Yugi's Star Chips.

Yugi begins to slowly snap out of his depression as he watches Téa duel. After Mai surrenders, Yugi approaches her about the face-down card she didn't use. Mai denies that she lost for him. (In the English version, she says that some cards just aren't worth playing.)

Finals
Inside the castle, the group are invited to watch Pegasus duel Kaiba. Seeing as Kaiba is dueling to save Mokuba, Yugi offers support to Kaiba. Kaiba is trapped in Pegasus' "Soul Prison" card, after his defeat. Yugi then shouts down to Pegasus' asking who he is to mess with people and their families like this.

The finalists, Téa, Tristan and Bakura are treated to a meal that evening, where the finalists get paired-up. After the meal, Yugi gives Joey his "The Glory of the King's Hand", as it is mandatory for each finalist to possess either it or "The Glory of the King's Opposite Hand".

That night, Yugi is woken by his grandfather's voce, calling him. He follows it and finds a "Soul Prison" card, with his grandfather's soul inside. Solomon warns him about Pegasus and is accompanied by the cards containing Seto and Mokuba Kaiba's souls. Yugi wakes up afterwards, wondering if it was a dream.

Yugi faces Mai in the first Duel of the finals. In the Japanese version, Yami Yugi gives little effort to the Duel, as he worries about facing Pegasus, whereas in the English version, Yugi refuses to let Yami duel, fearing how he may harm their opponent. Either way results in Yugi playing poorly. Encouraging words from Mai, return the Yugis to the top of their game and allow them to turn the Duel around and emerge with a win.

Yugi cheers for Joey in his Duel against Bandit Keith.

Yugi and Joey advance to the final round where they duel each other. Joey uses all he learned from Yugi, but is still defeated. Yugi then advances to the finals where he duels Pegasus. He learns of Pegasus motive to steal his Millennium Puzzle to try revive his deceased wife Cecilia. Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to read Yami Yugi's mind during the Duel, but Dark Yugi and Yugi continue to switch minds so Pegasus cannot read the other's strategy. Yugi and Yami Yugi defeat Pegasus.

Aftermath
Yugi and Yami Yugi rescue Solomon along with Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, whose souls Pegasus had also taken. Yugi gives his prize money to Joey, so he can pay for his sister, Serenity's eye operation.

Legendary Heroes
Afterwards, in an anime-only mini-arc, Kaiba's mind gets trapped in the "Virtual World" by "The Big Five" while testing out a virtual reality machine that he created. Yugi and Joey entered the virtual world at Mokuba's request where they help Kaiba defeat the Big Five and escape.

Battle City


Kaiba hosts a duel monsters tournament with the intent of drawing out the rare card hunters, and the 3 God Cards.

Yugi enters in hopes of gaining the 3 god cards, in order to return Dark Yugi's memory.

Waking the Dragons
Shortly after Battle City, in an anime only arc, Yugi, Téa, Joey and Tristan go the museum in order to recover Yami Yugi's memories. As Yugi holds the Egyptian God cards, something holds him back. The group hear a scream and dash outside, finding a large number of living Duel Monsters in the city.

After Yugi's God cards get stolen by a group of bikers, he ends up dueling one of them, Grerimo. Gremimo uses the soul stealing card "The Seal of Orichalcos" and is even able to Summon "Obelisk the Tormentor" through its power. Yugi still manages to defeat Grerimo, causing his soul to be sealed in the card. Afterwards Yugi takes his necklace containing a fragment of the Orichalcos stone. As a reward for his victory, Rafael releases the souls of Rex and Weevil, which Grerimo had captured using "The Seal of Orichalcos".

Afterwards yugi and his friends meet Rebecca Hawkins, who claims Yugi is now her boyfriend. She takes Yugi and his friends to see her grandfather Arthur, who tells them that he believes there is a dimension where Duel Monsters are real.

Back home during a dream, Yugi ventures to the Duel Monsters Spirit World. Here he meets Dark Magician Girl, who instructs Yugi and Yami Yugi to pull a sword from a dragon trapped in a glass prison. Yugi succeeds and receives the dragon as a card, "The Eye of Timaeus", after waking up.

While showing his friends the card, Yugi receives a video tape from Industrial Illusions. he is initially reluctant to open it, remembering how last time, Pegasus sent him such a tape, his Grandfather's soul got stolen. After deducing Pegasus can't seal their souls, since he no longer has the Millennium Eye, Yugi and his friends watch the tape. Pegasus offers some explanation for the recent events, but must meet Yugi in person to tell him. Pegasus arranges a jet for Yugi and his friends to come to California.

The leader of the organization responsible for the soul stealing Dartz, wants to use the 3 God cards to help awaken the force that once destroyed Atlantis. His swordsman Rafeal targets Yugi. When Yugi duels Raferu, Yami Yugi ends up using "The Seal of Orichalcos", despite Yugi's objections. Yami Yugi loses the Duel, but since the card only takes one soul, Yugi lets it take him, sparing Yami.

Dawn of the Duel
Yami Yugi finds out his name is Atem in Episode 219, In the Name of the Pharaoh. "Aktem" is actually a variant of the name of the Sun god ." After finding out his real name, he is told by Ishizu Ishtar that in order for his spirit to be freed and return to where he belongs, he must be defeated in a Duel in the tomb where the Millennium Items are held. Yugi decides to duel his other half. The two put up a good fight, but in the end, Yugi manages to defeat all three Egyptian God Cards and win the Duel. The pharaoh then returns to the spirit world and the Millennium Items are sealed up.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yugi, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler are regarded as legendary duelists.

Jaden Yuki, bumps into him on the way to the Duel Academy sign ups. Yugi gives Jaden the card "Winged Kuriboh". In the Japanese version he says the card is lucky. In the English version, he says that he feels the card belongs with Jaden.

Yugi's Deck goes on display at Duel Academy. Later on, it is stolen by Dimitri, who duels Jaden with it. Afterwards the Deck is returned.

While Lyman Banner was giving a history lesson and mentions Yugi and Kaiba. One of the girls in the class calls him a dream boat, and another girl says that he is one of the best looking.

While Jaden is dueling T-Bone, Jaden gives T-Bone some words of wisdom, which Solomon Muto believes to be exactly what Yugi would have said.

While Bob Banter is caught spying on Alexis Rhodes, he distracts Jaden, Syrus and Hassleberry, by saying "Hey look! It's Yugi", so he make his escape.

When Jaden's duels Frantz, who stole a copy of "The Winged Dragon of Ra", Pegasus compares Jaden to Yugi.

During one of Aster Phoenix's flashbacks, Pegasus mentions Yugi being "Number 1" in his top five duelists, with Kaiba as number 2, Joey number 3, Aster number 4, and Jesse Anderson as number 5.

Mr. Stein talks about Atem and Thief Bakura while dueling Jaden.

During Jaden's last year, the person who had gained the most graduation points at the exam would get a copy of Yugi's Deck (excluding the God Cards). Chazz Princeton, Alexis Rhodes and Syrus Truesdale qualified, but turned down the prize in favor of their own decks. During the graduation party, Jaden is led by Winged Kuriboh to the room containing Yugi's Deck. Yugi appears and sends Jaden back in time to duel his younger self.

The two engage in a Duel. Yugi is impressed by Jaden's "Elemental Heroes". After Jaden gets the upper hand, Yugi switches to Yami Yugi, who Summons "Slifer the Sky Dragon", stating that the only worthy opponent for Jaden is a god. Jaden then remembers the important thing that he had lost - how to have fun in a duel regardless of its importance - and has Neos attack Slifer. No outcome to the Duel is shown.

Voice
The voices differ slightly between the different series and the English dub, although commonly the voice of Dark Yugi is stronger and more confident than that of Yugi.

In the first series anime, Yugi and Dark Yugi are voiced by Megumi Ogata. Yugi's voice is positively timid, rarely showing any strength and almost always being polite in his speech, using honorifics and "boku" as his personal pronoun. Dark Yugi's voice is much rougher, uses "ore" as his personal pronoun and rarely ever uses honorifics. He also has a catchphrase, saa, geimu no jikan da (It's game time), usually spoken immediately after the change.

In the Japanese version of the second series anime, Yugi and Dark Yugi are voiced by Japanese singer Shunsuke Kazama. Yugi has considerably more confidence than in his previous appearance, but is still very polite. It's harder to distinguish between his voice and Dark Yugi's, but Dark Yugi's tone is considerably sterner and has the same pattern of speech as his previous appearance. This series also established Yugi calling Dark Yugi mou hitori no boku (the other me) and Dark Yugi referring to Yugi as aibou (partner).

In the English version of the second series anime, Yugi and Yami Yugi are voiced by Dan Green. Yugi's voice is high pitched and sometimes strained in more emotional moments, and generally has a friendly tone towards everyone. Yami Yugi's voice, in comparison, is fierce and commanding. In the Singaporean dub of the second series anime, Yugi and Yami Yugi are voiced by Chuck Powers. In this dub, Yugi's voice is soft and slightly high-pitched, while Yami Yugi's voice is near the total opposite. In the Singaporean dub, both Yugi and Yami Yugi speak with a slight drawl. In first season, Yugi calls Yami Yugi "spirit", then in other season Yugi started to call Yami Yugi "pharaoh". Yami Yugi always called Yugi by his name.

Deck
Yugi's Deck is most famous for his "Dark Magician". Yugi's Deck probably has the most variety and balance of any other character's Deck in the series, and is sometimes referred to as a Strategy deck. His original Deck mostly composed of low Level EARTH and DARK monsters. The deck also originally had Exodia in it, which he used in the first episode to defeat Kaiba, but on the ship to the Duelist Kingdom, Weevil Underwood threw them overboard, and even though Joey Wheeler attempted to save them, only two of the five pieces were ever recovered, which were the head and the right arm.

During the Battle City arc, he keeps the theme of having EARTH and DARK monsters with dangerous effects. His Magnet Warriors become a major part of his Deck, as does his "Dark Magician Girl". His Deck from Battle City onward focuses more not only on his "Dark Magician", but also on his manipulation of his Spell Cards that are designed to destroy or negate the effects of his opponent's Spell Cards and Trap Cards. The rarest card in his Deck (aside from the previously lost Exodia) is "Dark Magician", of which he has only one. (Though during Battle City when challenged by Arkana the winner of that duel would obtain the loser's Dark Magician. Although Yugi won, it's unknown whether he actually took Arkana's Dark Magician but if he did, he never used it. It is unlikely that Yugi would use Arkana's Dark Magician card as he determines during the duel that it has been tampered with, having its edges trimmed.)

As the series progresses he adds more support for his "Dark Magicians", such as "Dark Magic Curtain", "Magical Dimension", "Dark Renewal", "* Sage's Stone" and "Skilled Dark Magician".

During the Dawn of the Duel arc, Yugi uses a deck based around cards with a Toy theme and LV monsters such as "Silent Swordsman" and "Silent Magician". This deck represents the strength Yugi has without the help of Yami Yugi as well as his playful side.

When Yugi's Deck goes on tour at Duel Academy, the Copycat duelist Dimitri steals it and copies Yugi's voice, mannerisms and dueling style. While Dimitri copies Yugi's moves very well, he loses because he lacks the bond with the cards that Yugi has. This Deck is based around the "Dark Magician" and retrained Chaos varients of Yugi's Ritual Monsters.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, when Jaden travels to the past to duel Yugi, the deck Yugi uses is one of his Decks from after Battle City but before the Dawn of the Duel arc.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Yugi uses a Toy Deck, centered around Yugi's childish side, using cards such as Toy Magician and Toy Box.