HERO

Heroes are a five-prong series of Archetypes introduced in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Hero cards are noted by 「 ＨＥＲＯ(ヒーロー) 」 in the card's Japanese name. In the anime, Jaden uses Elemental Heroes and Neo-Spacians (sub-archetype of Elemental Heroes), Aster uses Elemental Heroes and Destiny Heroes, and Jaden as The Supreme King uses Elemental Heroes and Evil Heroes. In the manga, Jaden instead uses Elemental Heroes and Masked Heroes, while Aster uses Vision Heroes.

Initially divided into "Elemental Heroes", "Evil Heroes" and "Destiny Heroes" they shifted towards unification of the three archetypes and later added 2 more; "Masked Heroes" and "Vision Heroes".

Cards whose text specifically reference this unification are "Elemental Hero Stratos", "Elemental Hero Ocean", "Elemental Hero Divine Neos", "Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy", "Elemental Hero Absolute Zero" and "Hero's Bond", where the effects are based on cards present on the field whose names contain "Hero", allowing them to be used with either the "Elemental Heroes", "Evil Heroes", "Destiny Heroes", "Masked Heroes" and "Vision Heroes".

The Japanese cards use 「 Ｅ・ＨＥＲＯ(エレメンタルヒーロー) 」, 「 Ｅ－ＨＥＲＯ</rb>(</rp>イービルヒーロー</rt>)</rp> 」, 「 Ｄ－ＨＥＲＯ</rb>(</rp>デステニーヒーロー</rt>)</rp> 」, 「 Ｍ・ＨＥＲＯ</rb>(</rp>マスクドヒーロー</rt>)</rp> 」 and 「 Ｖ・ＨＥＲＯ</rb>(</rp>ヴィジョンヒーロー</rt>)</rp> 」 at the start of their applicable cards, so only those five would work with 「 <rb>ＨＥＲＯ</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>ヒーロー</rt><rp>)</rp> 」. Note that Elemental Hero and Evil Hero use 「Ｅ・ＨＥＲＯ」 and 「Ｅ－ＨＥＲＯ」, and their furigana is different: Elemental Heroes have 「エレメンタルヒーロー」 and Evil Heroes have 「イービルヒーロー」.

The Korean cards use "히어로" to indicate Heroes. Elemental Heroes and Evil Heroes are denoted by "엘리멘틀 히어로" and Destiny Heroes are denoted by "데스티니 히어로". How ever, "엘리멘틀" doesn't mean "Elemental", it is translated to "Elrimenteul". The real translation would be "엘리멘탈". And further, the only card that shows "Evil Hero" translated into Korean proper is "Evil Hero Inferno Wing" and only in the Ultra Rare-Version of this card. So the proper translation of "Evil Hero" is "이블 히어로".

In English and other languages, they have since changed the text to allow only Destiny Heroes and Elemental Heroes to work with these related card effects. Most cards still need to be updated with the release of the "Evil Heroes" to include them. "Elemental Hero Stratos" and "Elemental Hero Ocean" have been errata'd to support each type of Hero.

In the 50th chapter of the GX manga, the "Masked Heroes" and "Vision Heroes" make their debut.

Monsters such as "Oscillo Hero", don't belong in this series of archetypes.