Mai Valentine

Mai Kujaku (孔雀 舞, Kujaku Mai), known as Mai Valentine in the English anime and English video games, is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Asia).

Character design


Mai's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. In the anime, in Duelist Kingdom, Mai wore a shortsleeve purple coat over her white tube top. From Battle City on, she changed to a sleeveless light blue vest and a white tank top. She wears a dark purple mini-skirt in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs, but in Waking the Dragons, she wears dark purple shorts.

In the manga, in Duelist Kingdom, she largely wore the same outfit as the anime, but her top was open, revealing the middle of her chest and held together using strings, like a corsette. In Battle City, she changed to wearing a black leather vest and mini-skirt, and wore a similar tube top as her Duelist Kingdom self, but with the front closed.

In the English anime her cleavage and lines of cleavage have been digitally reduced and erased and her skirt has been lengthened.

Character biography
In the beginning, Mai is a self-absorbed woman who only likes her prize money. She once worked as a card dealer on a ship-board casino, lost in life, until finding purpose with Yugi Mutou (Yugi Muto in the English anime) and his friends. After she meets them, she seems to start caring more for her friends and the deeper meanings of the game as her wins become empty to her later in the series. Mai first appears in the Duelist Kingdom arc of the manga. She lost the first duel she is seen participating in to Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime). In the actual tournament, she loses to Yugi. In Battle City, she loses to Marik Ishtar. In the English anime, she is sent to the Shadow Realm after she loses to Marik, but she is later pulled out by Yugi.

She is paired up with her friend, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler). Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh! deemed the show as purely 'friendship.' Many Yu-Gi-Oh! fans see this as a sign that they have deeper feelings for one another, although like all other pairings in the show, this one has not been resolved. In the Waking the Dragons series (Doma) Mai finds Valon, one of Dartz's men, who develops romantic feelings for her which she slightly reciprocates. Mai is also a role model to Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler in the English anime, Shizuka Jonouchi in the first series anime). Mai's deck mainly consists of Harpie Ladies. In the anime, her deck also has Amazons.

In the Waking the Dragons (Doma) arc of the second series anime, Mai apparently turns evil and joins Dartz's group (Doma in the Japanese version). Reeling from her defeat from Marik in Battle City (and in the English anime, her torment from the Shadow Realm), Mai is once again in fear of defeat, and now fears that she cannot rely on herself.

Even though she enters and wins many tournaments, without her friends to show her the way again, her fear of defeat still persists. The worst of it however has to do with her recurring nightmares of Marik (In the English anime, Mai dreams of Marik trapping her permanently in the Shadow Realm) that persist throughout most of the arc. At the end of her rope and with no one to help her, Valon finds her and convinces her that what she needs is not friendship, and that what she needs can be found with Dartz and the power of the Seal of Orichalcos. Dartz fools her into believing that it was Yugi, Joey, as well as her other friends that abandoned her, and, after being infused with the Seal of Orichalcos and all of its atrocity inducing power, she not only believes it, but she intends to defeat them, starting with Joey. It isn't until she sees Joey ready to pass out from their second duel during the story arc that she finally sees through all of the deception and remembers everything that they went through that she overcomes the power of the Orichalcos. In an attempt to pay back Joey and Valon, both of whom lost their souls to the Orichalcos trying to help her in their own ways, she attempts to take on Dartz but is ambushed and defeated by Rafael and lost her own soul.

Following Doma, she spends the rest of the series alone and out of the picture reevaluating her life and trying to rediscover her passion for dueling. She promises to return one day to both Joey and Valon, however, in the US version, Mai and Valon's relationship seems to end, and she doesn't say whether she will go back to Joey. She is on the invitation list to participate in the KC Grand Prix but disappears. She is seen in passing a few times, including the ending credits in the Japanese version, where she is dueling alongside Vivian Wong against the Meikyū Brothers (Paradox Brothers) on top of the Great Wall of China.

Naming
"Kujaku" means "peahen". In the English anime, Mai calls Joey by his given name, while almost everyone in the manga and the original Japanese anime calls Jonouchi by his family name. Interestingly enough in the Doma arc she only refers to Joey as "Wheeler" his last name until the very end of their final duel in the arc and series having finally overcome the lies she was told she refers to him as "Joey" once more. Her name in the English anime is a pun of "My Valentine".

Deck
Mai runs Harpie Deck. She focuses on multiplying the amount of Harpies she as out, via "Elegant Egotist" and "Nightmare Tri-Mirror". During the Battle City tournament she includes more female cards such as Amazoness cards. During Waking the Dragons her deck is changed to a Beatdown deck focusing on "Cyber Harpie Lady, "The Seal of Orichalcos" and "Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation". Throughout all the different series, Mai plays a lot of Trap Cards featuring mirrors such as "Mirror Wall" and "Fairy's Hand Mirror".

In the English anime the Harpie related cards are given more clothing and sexual references are removed.