Bastion Misawa

Bastion Misawa, known in Japan as Daichi Misawa (三沢大地, Misawa Daichi), is a fictional character in the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX in Japan) and the manga series of the same name.

A highly analytic duelist, Bastion is a mathematic genius who covers his cards and the walls of his room with endless numeric formulas, believing that everything in life can be calculated arithmetically. The neglect of his character is a running gag throughout the series in both incarnations.

Character design


Bastion's usual outfit consists of the standard Ra Yellow. His black hair is neatly arranged, with a large portion flushed back and slightly to his left, featuring different layers where the sloping changes direction. He carries an Academy-issued Duel Disk on his left hand.

Character biography
15-year old Bastion Misawa is a first-year student attending Duel Academy (Duel Academia) who resides in the Ra Yellow dormitory. He was #1 in the entry examinations, and is generally regarded as the best newcomer student. He and Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki) first met during the examinations, Jaden referring to him as "#2," and himself as "#1." After seeing Jaden defeat Vellian Crowler (Cronos de Medici), Bastion himself agrees with these titles. (In the Japanese version, Bastion occasionally addresses Jaden as ‘‘Ichiban-kun’’.) Despite his protests that such feelings are illogical and irrational, it is implied that Bastion has feelings for several female monster cards seen throughout the series (his primary crush being White Magician Pikeru). In the English version, Bastion has a British accent. The neglect of his character is a running gag throughout the series in both incarnations.

After defeating Chazz Princeton (Jun Manjoume) in a public duel, Bastion is offered entrance into Obelisk Blue, but declines, saying he promised himself he would not advance to Obelisk Blue until he was the #1 duelist of the school, and in order to do so, would have to defeat Jaden, who he viewed as #1. He builds a seventh deck, seemingly based off his Water deck, devoted to sealing certain cards so that an opponent will not be able to summon most of his or her monsters. Bastion uses the seventh deck against Jaden, preventing the use of Polymerization with Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, therefore keeping Jaden from calling forth his stronger monsters, but is still defeated.

Due to his skill, Bastion is one of the seven duelists that receive a key to the Spirit Gate that can unleash the Sacred Beast Cards (Three Phantom Demons). Bastion only duels one of the Shadow Riders (Seven Stars), Tania. Although Bastion uses his Magnet monsters, which use opposing plus and minus charges to stop his opponent's attacks and fuse to become stronger, he eventually loses. Afterwards, he is stripped of his free will to a degree and becomes infatuated with Tania. He returns to normal after Jaden defeats her and she runs off leaving her Shadow Charm behind. At one point during the second year, angered by the fact that he was not considered for entry into the Society of Light, Bastion challenges Sartorius (Takuma Saiou) to a duel in order prove his strength and disband the Society. Chazz, however, takes Sartorius' place, and although Bastion has the means of being victorious, Sartorius takes advantage of his self-doubt and desire to be accepted, convincing him to intentionally lose to Chazz and finally join the organization.



Following his conversion, Bastion is regulated to the sidelines, watching helplessly as other Society members are given the opportunity to duel Jaden and convert other school members into their group, while he himself is assigned no such tasks. After weeks of such torture, as well as a conversation with Dr. Eisenstein (Albert Zweinstein), he grows "enlightened" about his worth as a duelist and as a person, and leaves the Society of his own accord to pursue his goals.

After leaving the Society of Light, Bastion follows Eisenstein back to his laboratory and becomes his impromptu apprentice, helping him with an experiment in quantum mechanics. However, the experiment goes wrong, and Bastion is flung into the same alternate world that Jaden and his friends, as well as the entire Duel Academy main building, is pulled into after Jaden's duel with Professor Viper (Professor Cobra). There, he wandered the world for an indeterminate amount of time, until he is finally reunited with his friends, looking not much unlike the monster D.D. Survivor. When Blair Flannigan (Rei Saotome) is found injured, Bastion offers to help her get the medical attention she needs by locating a submarine he had spotted earlier in his travels, and attempting to use it to get her out of the (quickly becoming zombified) campus building and to a hospital.

Voice/Mannerisms
Despite his protests that such feelings are illogical and irrational, it is implied that Bastion has feelings for several female Monster Cards seen throughout the series (his primary crush being "White Magician Pikeru"). In the English version, Bastion speaks with a British accent. In the manga, Bastion appears to be secretly attracted to Alexis Rhodes (Asuka Tenjouin).

Deck
Underneath his jacket, Bastion wears a special vest that holds six different decks, one for each attribute (Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Light and Dark). He changes decks accordingly depending on his opponent, although nearly all of his decks contain cards based around scientific processes eg using Hydrogeddon and Oxygeddon to create Water Dragon, Plus monsters being unable to fight other Plus monsters etc.

Bastion also has a special seventh deck made to combat Jaden. Each deck runs on a specific theme, with his Water deck's theme being the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen to form water, and his Earth deck's theme being the manipulation of plus and minus electronegativity. During the second year, he abandons his six decks in favor of one deck that is an amalgam of all his cards.

In the manga, Bastion plays a Yōkai deck, which relies on the summoning of monsters from Japanese folklore from his Graveyard.

Trivia

 * In the American version of the GX cartoon intro, Bastion is shown with his "Water Dragon" and a Fire-Attribute equivalent; however, this fire dragon has not yet been shown in the cartoon or the GX manga, where Bastion's Fire deck (where the dragon would logically be played in) was featured.
 * Occasionally during episodes that specifically pit Bastion against Jaden, a picture of a tiger and Chinese dragon, respectively, would appear. These two creatures are represented of the Tao philosophy of Yin and Yang, with the Tiger being Yang, and the Dragon being Yin; similarly, they represent the dichotomy between Bastion's calm, calculated, and orderly way of dueling, and Jaden's more hectic, impulsive, and erratic dueling style. Coincidentally, the Shadow Rider Tania, who Bastion falls in love with, has a tiger pet, and is revealed to be a tiger herself; indeed, during Duel Monsters Spirit Day, Bastion dresses up as "Amazoness Tiger" as a tribute to Tania. This further ties Bastion in with the Tiger of Yang symbolism.