Arkana

Arkana, known as Pandora the Conjurer in the manga and Japanese version, is a member of the Rare Hunters organization, who uses the "Dark Magician" card in duels. Unlike Yugi's "Dark Magician", Arkana's magician wears red and gold robes instead of purple, has slightly darker skin, silvery hair, black markings under his eyes and on his chin, and a more sinister expression. Prior to becoming a Rare Hunter, he was a professional stage magician.

History
In the manga, it was briefly mentioned that Pandora was once a professional stage magician before becoming a Rare Hunter. He considered suicide twice: once when his mother died, the second when he lost his lover when a magic show went awry.

The anime elaborates on Arkana's lost love. He was once a world-famous professional stage magician and illusionist, who had everything: money, fame, and was in love with his lovely assistant, Catherine, who was also his fiancée.

His life went downhill after one escape trick went wrong, with the box exploding prematurely and scarring his once-beautiful visage, which led him to wear the mask that is seen today. With his reputation and face ruined, Arkana fell into despair and selfishly focused on his own dilemma while rejecting Catherine's love, leading her to leave him.

Eventually, Arkana came to realize that Catherine's love was too important to him, but that it was already too late, as she was already long gone. Losing both his love and career, a ruined and depressed Arkana stumbled from day to day with the verge of giving up hope when he met Marik Ishtar, who promised to help him regain the love of his fiancée if he became a Rare Hunter and kill Yugi Mutou.

Arkana's losses seemed to have a negative impact on his psyche, as he became sadistic and insane during his duel with Yugi, believing that, as the master of the Dark Magician, he has the right to sacrifice his monsters' souls to win.

Battle City
Upon assigned in the Battle City tournament to duel Yugi Muto in which the loser gets his legs chopped off by a buzzsaw (in the English version of the anime, the buzzsaws were changed to Dark Energy Disks that sent the loser's mind to the Shadow Realm upon contact), Arkana acted insanely sadistic throughout the entire Duel, while rejecting all offers to end the unnecessary gruesomeness by dueling more honorably by claiming that this is his great show of escaping from the jaws of death, much to Yugi's disgust. Furthermore, Arkana cut up his cards through the technique of "trimming" to draw them easier, and sacrificed his monsters in a cruel way to win, all the while proving that he treated his monsters as dispensable slaves and claiming that ruthlessness to even one's own "slaves" is necessary to victory; in the anime when Yugi tells him that he must believe in the Heart of the Cards instead of Marik if he is dueling for his lost love, Arkana claims his deck was made for the sole purpose of defeating Yugi, and after that, he will have no more use for it. He made claims that he was the ultimate Dark Magician user based what he considered to be his deck's superiority in terms of summoning speed and spell card powers and having three Dark Magicians, which led him arrogantly believe he is the the ultimate arch-mage; ironically, he had no knowledge of the Dark Magician Girl's existence until Yugi played it against him. Eventually, because Arkana betrayed his cards, Yugi managed to defeat him.

As the buzzsaw approached Arkana, he, at first, put up the dramatics by screaming in feigned horror, then planned to use a spare key he hid in his sleeve, but Marik used his Millennium Rod to erase the key from his mind as penalty for his failure, ignoring his pleas. After Yugi saved him, Arkana realized that the promise was a lie and that, if Yugi had not saved him, Marik would have left him to die; Marik then spoke to Yugi through Arkana about the Tomb Keepers and his ultimate goal is to free himself of the duty that he never wanted.

In the manga, upon his loss and escape from the buzzsaw, Marik saw through Arkana's memories network and saw that he considered suicide twice in his life: once after his mother died, the second was when he lost his lover. Marik then brought out these memories and stirred them up, so Arkana would commit suicide upon waking up.

Waking the Dragons
In the anime's Waking the Dragons arc, Arkana makes a reappearance, his lost soul is seen next to Yami Marik's, wandering the sacred circle Yami Yugi ventures through to find his other half.

Dark Duel Stories
Arkana has also appeared in the Yu-Gi-Oh! video game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories for the Game Boy Color. He is the fifth duelist available after beating the first wave of duelists five times. His deck contains most of his key cards from the anime and manga, although some of his more powerful cards have been taken out to make him an easier duelist. Another thing worth noting in this deck is that all of his cards are repeats, with the exception of "Dark Hole", which is Limited in this game.

Anime/Manga
Arkana plays a Magician Deck, using an assortment of DARK monsters lead by his "Dark Magicians", which, in the anime, have a different artwork from Yugi's "Dark Magician". Arkana supports his monsters with Magic and Trap cards themed after the props of a stage magician, such as "Dark Magic Curtain" and "Thousand Knives". Arkana trims the edges of his cards and shuffles his deck in such a way to manipulate what he will draw, and sacrifices his monsters through the use of "Ectoplasmer" to attempt to defeat Yugi. This reckless disrespect for his cards would prove Arkana's doom, when his own "Dark Magician" served to power up Yugi's "Dark Magician Girl" enough for him to destroy Arkana's second "Dark Magician" and win the Duel.

In dubbed anime using the "language neutral" cards, many of his cards were incorrectly changed, which caused the contents of his hand to change between shots, and included the additions of cards that he couldn't have possibly possessed.


 * See also: Card replacements in the dub.