Jesse Anderson

Jesse Anderson, known in Japan as Johan Andersen (ヨハン・アンデルサン Yohan Anderusan) is a transfer student hailing from North Academy (North School) who enters Duel Academy (Duel Academia) in the third year.

He is voiced by Kanako Irie in the Japanese version. In contrast to his Scandinavian origins in the Japanese version, he has a Southern accent in the English dub.

Character biography
Invited along with his fellow overseas champions from around the world by Chancellor Sheppard (Samejima), Johan’s the most secretive of his identity, even with those he’s supposed to be traveling with. Although he doesn’t board the ship that’s supposed to take the champions to their final destination, Adrian Gecko (Amon Garam) expects that Jesse would appear once they reached Duel Academy. He’s known simply as a "ghost" or the "mystery man" until officially introduced during the school's year-opening ceremony. Similar to Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki), Jesse possesses the ability to communicate with Duel Monster spirits since he was a child. His spirit partner is Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle, whom he affectionately nicknames, "Ruby". Although Ruby is seen most frequently by his side, Jesse considers all his monsters a part of his "family," for they themselves selected him as their master. He is chosen by Professor Viper (Professor Cobra) to duel Jaden in the first exhibition match of the third year, and the two are unknowingly fitted with Bio-Bands (Dis-Belts). Just as Jesse is about to be defeated by Jaden, he suddenly reveals the name of the most powerful Rainbow Dragon, the Crystal Lord. However, he’s defeated when he confesses that Rainbow Dragon has not yet been made into a card by Industrial Illusions, and that he wishes to find the Roman lithograph from which the concept of his Crystal Beasts was derived in order for Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford) to finally create it. After being drawn into an alternate dimension, Jesse and the rest of Duel Academy are contacted by Dr. Eisenstein (Dr. Albert Zweinstein), who tells them that the lithograph has finally been found. Securing the lithograph's excavation site, Pegasus has the Rainbow Dragon card made and sent to the other world via a Duel Energy-powered wormhole, opened in a battle between Johan and Zane Truesdale (Ryo Marufuji). Jesse later uses the Rainbow Dragon when Jaden fought Marcel (Martin Kanou), only to learn their real opponent is Yubel, a duel spirit that took control of Marcel. Jesse sacrifices himself to get Jaden and the others out while he remained in the alternate dimension to face Yubel. From episode 131 on, Jesse remains in the alternate dimension after using Rainbow Dragon to send Duel Academy back to the real world.

Deck
Jesse plays a Crystal Beast (Gem Beast; 宝玉獣 Hōgyokujū) Deck. His monsters are based on seven precious gemstones collected from around the globe for the construction of a lithograph as evidence of Julius Caesar's reign during the time of the Roman Empire. On its return trip, the ship carrying the stones was battered by a storm, and the treasures disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Employing this concept, Pegasus specially designed and created the Crystal Beasts, which have the unique ability to retreat in a crystallized Continuous Spell form to their controller's Spell/Trap Zones when destroyed as means of avoiding complete annihilation. Due to the exclusivity of the cards, Chazz Princeton's (Jun Manjoume) family once attempted to purchase them using all its assets, but were rejected. Instead, Pegasus awarded them to Jesse at the end of a European tournament (in the English anime, it was a Southern Tournament).

Aside from Counter Cards, Jesse's deck does not contain any other specific resources aimed towards directly destroying the cards of his opponents. He feels that a strategy of merely destroying his opponent's cards through effects is far too simple to execute, thus values battle over cunningness.