Téa Gardner

Téa Gardner, known as Anzu Mazaki in the manga and Japanese versions, is a childhood friend of Yugi Muto. Téa does not usually play games with Yugi and his friends, but in the beginning of the anime, she could beat Joey Wheeler in Duel Monsters, while she herself is not that strong a player. She is also very good at dancing and wants to be a professional dancer when she grows up.

Personality
At the beginning of the manga, Anzu has a spunky, tomboyish personality and was able to scare away Jonouchi and Honda after they bully Yugi. She's very kind hearted, strong willed and supportive.

In the second series anime, she and Tristan are basically cheerleaders for Yugi and Joey. She is known among fans for her "friendship speeches", as she makes one in the majority of the episodes she appears in.

Design


Téa's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi.

In the manga, Anzu originally had a conventional, short hairstyle. Her first color image, seen in Duel 1, featured dark brown hair and brown eyes. As Takahashi continued drawing the manga, Anzu gained more feminine and "cute" facial features. Her hair style became longer and less conventional. Color images from Volume 3 and onward portray her hair as a lighter brown color. Sometimes her eyes are colored blue and sometimes reddish brown. By the final volume of the manga, Téa's hair touches her shoulders. The standard female Domino High School uniform, Téa's usual outfit, consists of a pink coat, a white oxford shirt, a blue tie, and a blue pleated skirt.

In the first series anime, her hair and eyes are of a reddish brown color. Her school uniform color differs; her coat is orange and her tie and skirt are green.

In the second series anime, she has dark brown hair and blue eyes. On occassions she wore the school uniform colored in the same manner as in the manga. Her brown shoulder length hair is sectioned into two layers, consisting of a darker shade of brown inner layer, with the outer layer a lighter shade.

During the first season of the anime, her usual outfit is comprised of a yellow shirt, which flows like a skirt at her thighs, with a pink waist coat over it and a blue mini-skirt under it.

In the second and third season, her clothes consists of a light green yellow polo sleeveless buttoned shirt, pink and blue braclets, navy shorts with a light blue belt, white stockings, and blue platform sandals.

Burger World
Anzu gets a job at Burger World in order to save money to attend a dance school in New York. Having a part time job was against school rules, so she tried to keep it a secret. However Yugi and Jonouchi decided to follow Anzu after school one day, after noting suspicious behavior on her behalf. Jonouchi had suspected she might be dating older men for pay. They follow her to Burger World. Here Anzu serves them Burgers, but squirts a warning message onto the burgers, in ketchup, saying not to tell.

An escaped convict enters the restaurant and takes Anzu hostage. While she's blindfolded, Yugi is made to serve the convict a drink and a cigarette. Dark Yugi takes control and plays a Shadow Game with the convict. To Anzu, his voice sounds like Yugi's, but he is much too confident and dangerous to be Yugi. Dark Yugi defeats the convict and saves Anzu. Not knowing who her rescuer is, Anzu develops a crush on him and wants to find out his identity.

The Burger World incident was done differently in the first series anime; Miho Nosaka, fearing Jonouchi could be right about Anzu dating for pay, first followed Anzu after school in the hopes of saving her. This resulted in Miho getting a job there too. Seeing both girls leave together by themselves the next day, Honda fears Miho is also dating for pay and follows them, resulting in him getting a job there too. Yugi and Jonouchi follow the three of them the next day. Anzu serves the boys and warns them not to tell.

They were alerted by a police chief that there was an escaped convict in the restaurant. Knowing the convict has an injury on his right calf, Anzu spills a basket of toy cars, so she, Honda and Jonouchi can secretly check the legs of the customers as they gather the cars. After one man makes a fuss over being searched they alert all customers of the convict, but them of them are wlling to co-operate. After hearing the convict is allergic to eggs, Anzu lies out load that they should have no problem as the burger buns have traces of egg in them. This causes one man to panic, exposing him. That man Tetsu Tasaki tried to escape but exposed another convict, who had been framing him in the process. After being exposed the other convict takes Anzu hostage.

The preceeding events were the same as the manga. Anzu quits working there afterwards to spend more time with her friends.

The event was also done differently in the second series anime; After Yugi's friends find out she worked at the restaurant, she receives a note in her locker. In the Japanese version of this anime, the note, written on the back of a photograph showing her working at the restaurant, threatened that the school will be told that she has an after school job. If she doesn't come to the gym after school. When Anzu shows up, she finds the PE teacher with a camera videotaping her body; it is implied that he was the one who wrote the note. In the English version, the note, which had a picture of dancing shoes, stated that the warehouse was a good place to take dancing lessons, and the man Téa encounters is a mugger instead of her gym teacher. Yugi appears and jumps the man. Tea bites the man's arm, and she is knocked unconscious against a wall. Dark Yugi, also known as Yami Yugi, challenges the man to a game where whoever draws a better Duel Monsters card wins. Yugi's "Dark Magician" defeats the man's "Curse of Dragon". In both the Japanese and English version, the man is a victim to a Mind Crush.

One-shots
The self-proclaimed psychic Kokurano tries to seduce Anzu, by reading her future telling her how she'll meet a wonderful man, who will reveal himself to her and she will swoon before him in love. Anzu hopes this is the man who saved her at Burger World. Kokurano tries to make himself the man from the prediction and causes Anzu to swoon, by knocking her out with a bottle of chloroform. Dark Yugi learns how Kokurano is in the habit of maing his predictions come true and rushes to Anzu's rescue. Using the bottle, Dark Yugi defeats him in a Shadow Game. In the anime, Anzu has a brief moment of consciousness, in which she gets a glimpse of her rescuer's hand, spotting a cut. Afterwards she spots the same cut on Yugi's hand.

When Digital Pets become popular, Anzu gets one which she calls Peachy. In the manga, she lectures Kujirada on how he shouldn't disrespect other people's Digital Pets, since they aren't a hidden character, like his. Peachy falls victim to Kujirada's pet, Devil Master, after Kujirada swipes it from Anzu to feed to Devil Master.

In the manga after Anzu becomes aware of Dark Yugi's existance, she gives a "Love compatability tester" to Yugi. Initially it gets no reading, suggesting they aren't romantically compatible. The teacher Tsuruoka confiscates Yugi's. Dark Yugi emerges and tells Tsuruoka, he has never lost a game. Tsuruoka then imposes a game; he hides the love tester, somewhere in the school. If Yugi and his friends can't find it in an hour, they get expelled. Anzu gets bashful, seeing the other Yugi out, but hands him her love tester. Dark Yugi brings into close approximation of Yugi's and switches it on. This time the testers react, suggesting Anzu and Dark Yugi are compatible. They find they keychain under Tsuruoka's wig.

Anzu went with Yugi to an amusement park. Here she faked putting herself in danger in the hope that Dark Yugi, would come out, as he had done so before to rescue her. The first time, prendeds a boy who talks to her is pervert, but that results in him getting beaten up. In the anime she pretended to be drowning, but other people came to help her, while Yugi himself started drowning. When she doesn't know there is a bomber is in the park, she gets into a ferris wheel. The Bomber also in the ferris wheel, has planted bombs in it, endangering Anzu. Dak Yugi emerges and plays a game with the Bomber, to save Anzu.

In the anime, Anzu's fashion idol, Aileen Rao, who is hired by Kaiba as one of his Game Masters, invites Anzu and Yugi to her condominium. She challenges Yugi to a game of Rijinhai, with something important to Yugi on the line. That something important is Anzu, as she threatens to kill her with a tiger. Dark Yugi defeats Aileen, saving Anzu.

The Man from Egypt
In the manga, Shadi, seeking to challenge Dark Yugi, "redecorates" Professor Yoshimori's soul room and has him attack Yugi's friends. Anzu stops Yoshimori from choking Jonouchi by walloping him in the head with a globe.

In the anime, Shadi enters Anzu's soul room. Inside he sees items that represent her dream of becoming a dancer in New York and a photo of a hero, whose face is blank. Shaidi redecorates her soul to use her in a Shadow Game against Dark Yugi.

Anzu is suspended on a bridge of life supported by three ushetbi, which break when a weakness is detected in Yugi's heart. A fourth ushetbi, which breaks when a weakness is detected in Shadi's heart, holds the Millennium Key. Yugi's ushetbi breaking would result in Anzu being sent to her death, while breaking Shadi's would slide the Millennium Key to Anzu and return her to normal. Dark Yugi passes a series of tests Shadi throws at him, although letting 3 ushetbi break. The rope from the third begins to break, but Jonouchi appears under the board and holds it up. From Jonouchi's action and how Dark Yugi passed the last test, Shadi is surprised by how the friends help and support each other, causing his ushetbi to break and return Anzu to normal. Yugi and Jonouchi help Anzu back onto the building. Anzu notices how Yugi had been acting different, but Dark Yugi relinquishes control to Yugi when she approaches him about this.

Death-T
Anzu is fired from Burger World, after she punches a customer, who touched her. She then gets a job at KaibaLand. She is made work at the Stardust Shootout, where she meets Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Honda's baby nephew Johji, during Death-T.

Honda gets her to mind Johji, who dislikes the boys, but admires Anzu, in a perverted sense. Since Kaiba rigged the game, Yugi and his friends laser guns were duds. The staff were unaware that Anzu was their friend, so she had been given a functional gun. Using her gun and hiding Johji on his back, Honda is able to take out the remaining opposition. In exchange for Johji's help, Honda had promised him a bath with Anzu, which she blatantly refuses.

The friends are strapped into an electric chair ride on their way to Death-T 2. If a rider screams, they would be electrocuted. As Anzu feels, she is about to scream, Johji, who wasn't strapped in, makes his way to the butler, who was orchestrating the ride. To save Anzu, he deficates on the butler's lap, causing him to scream and get electrocuted.

In Death-T 3, the gang enter an empty room. Since nothing happens for a while, Anzu, Yugi, Honda and Jonouchi reflect on how their lives have changed by meeting each other. Anzu asks them to hold out their hands as hew draws a smiley face on their hands. If they end up taking seperate paths in life, she tells them to remember this symbol and they'll remember being friends.

The stage's game starts and a number of blocks begin to fall from the ceiling. Having studied dance patterns, Anzu notices a rhythm to how the blocks are falling. She is able to predict where the next blocks are about to fall and warn the others. As the room fills up with blocks, the gang climb up on top of them. Anzu, Yugi, Jonouchi and the sleeping Johji make it out through a hole in the wall high above the ground. Honda gets trapped in and is left behind.

Upset over what happened to Honda, Yugi admits to Anzu and Jonouchi that he thinks there is another Yugi inside him, that he doesn't know about; Ever since he solved the Millennium Puzzle, there have been times he blacks out and the other him takes over. He'd been afraid to tell his friends, as he feared they might leave him if they knew. Anzu and Jonouchi promise that they'll always be friends with Yugi.

Anzu knowingly sees Dark Yugi for the first time, as he prepares to face Mokuba in Death-T 4.

Monster World
Anzu, along with Yugi, Honda and Jonouchi (and Miho in the first series anime) visit Ryo Bakura, to play Monster World. However, Bakura gets possessed by Dark Bakura, who turns the game into a Shadow Game.

Anzu gets trapped in her piece, an elf. Her friends also get trapped inside pieces, while Dark Yugi leads them as the player. She rolls a critical hit, at an early stage of the game, destroying a number of Zorc's minions. She later heals the party after getting attacked by Zorc. Ryo manages to destroy Dark Bakura's dice, leaving him open for Anzu to attack, defeating him.

After the game, Anzu and her friends are returned to normal.

Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie
In Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie, Anzu works in the Duel Monsters Center. She reacts in the same as at Burger World, when her Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Miho find her working there. She serves her friends with an intimitated look on her face.

She recognizes Shougo Aoyama as a regular at the center and wonders if he'll start to duel, now that he has a powerful card, "Red-Eyes Black Dragon".

Duelist Kingdom
In the anime, Téa defeats Joey in Duel Monsters, five times at school.

The events of Death-T are skipped in the second series anime, so Téa draws the smiley face symbol on her, Yugi, Joey and Tristan's hands before Yugi faces Kaiba, after Kaiba tears up Solomon Muto's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".

In the anime, Téa and Tristan sneak onto the boat to Duelist Kingdom to support Yugi and Joey in the tournament. In the manga, they along with Bakura have no problem getting onto the boat. Téa mostly stands on the sidelines giving the boys encouraging speeches.

Since the Monster World arc was skipped, Yugi and his friends faced Yami Bakura in a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters, where the players are trapped in cards similar to their Monster World pieces. Téa becomes the card "Magician of Faith" in the Duel. As she is upset over Joey's scarifice, she uses her effect to return "Monster Reborn" to Yami Yugi's hand, which allows him to revive Joey.

Kaiba defeats in the tournament by standing on the edge of the castle, so Yugi's last attack, would kill him. Yugi relinquishes the Duel to Kaiba. Téa then argues with Kaiba over his strategy. Kaiba explains how duelists are given one chip and must use it in whatever way allows them to win. Téa argues back that Kaiba only won becuase he couldn't live without the chip and insist that Yugi won the Duel.

After losing to Kaiba, Yugi no longer has enough Star Chips to enter the tournament finals. Mai offers Yugi her excessive Star Chips. Yugi initially refuses, feeling unworthy. In the manga, Anzu gives him an encouraging speech, talking him into taking the Star Chips. In the anime, Téa duels Mai for the Star Chips. Using a combination of Magc Cards, Téa makes her "Shining Friendship" card defeat Mai's "Harpie Lady". Although Mai is able to turn the Duel around, using "Harpie's Feather Duster", she is impresed by Téa's performance and wants to give Yugi the Chips, so she surrenders saying "Harpie Lady" was her best monster and Téa defeated it.

Kemo doesn't allow Téa, Tristan or Bakura to enter the castle, where the finals are held, as they are not finalists. In the manga Jonouchi (Joey) punches him, letting them in. In the anime, Mai distracts him, letting them sneak in.

Inside they witness Kaiba and Pegasus dueling. Pegasus was able to predict Kaiba's moves and easily win. Tristan suspects that Pegasus cheated, so that night he talks with Téa and Bakura on the subject. The three inspect the Duel arena and find a hole that shines moonlight directly at the Duel arena. Tristan spots a tower and the three head towards it. In the tower, they are confronted by Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to transport them to another dimension. They wake up and enter a room, where a Shadow Game between two robed men is taking place while others are chanting. The winning man, Pegasus confronts the three and tries to take Bakura's Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura takes over Bakura's body and sends Téa and Tristan back to their rooms and erases their memories.

During the final rounds, Téa cheers on Yugi and Joey in their Duels. She is unable to watch the end of Yugi's Duel with Pegasus, as Pegasus takes the Duel to a realm of darkness. Despite this Yugi feels his friends are with him in spirit and manages to defeat Pegasus.

Pegasus disappears after the Duel. The gang proceed to a tower, where they find Pegasus' diary, which Téa reads. She learns that Pegasus had a wife Cecelia, who died and Pegasus was trying to revive her using the Millennium Items and Kaiba Corporation technology.

Téa and her friends are taken home by Seto Kaiba in his helicopter.

Battle City
Yugi asks Téa to go out with Yami. After visiting many shops and attractions, they enter an arcade. Inside Téa beats Johnny Steps in a dance game. Not taking his loss too well, Johnny laster catches up with Yugi and Téa and challanges to another game. If she loses she must become his girlfriend. Yami instead challenges Johnny to a game of Duel Monsters. If he wins, Johnny must leave Téa alone. If Johnny wins, Téa must go on a date with him. Yami reveals himself to be Yugi Muto, during the Duel, causing Johnny to surrender and run. Téa stops him tells him how quiting isn't go to get him far and he must keep trying to achieve his goals. Afterwards Téa and Yami go to an Ancient Egyptian exhibition to find clues to Yami's past. Here they meet Ishizu Ishtar, who shows Yami some information about his past as a pharaoh and tells him he must enter the Battle City tournament to learn more.

During the preliminary rounds, Téa encourages Joey along the side lines for his Duels, before being captured by the Rare Hunters. Téa is possessed and used to lure the Pharaoh into a Duel with Joey, who is also possessed by Marik Ishtar. The Duel is set up, so the loser would drown. In the anime, Téa is made sit on a chair under a large crate. A push of a button, would kill her, should anyone else interfere. In the manga, Anzu is released from Marik's control after Yugi and Jonouchi save themselves by forcing the Duel into a draw. In the anime, she is released from Marik's, after she explains the provisions to the duel and helplessly tries to help Joey break free of Marik's control several times while doing her best to remain brave and cheer Yugi on, despite the fact her life was in danger. In the anime, Mokuba frees her after Joey and Yugi end the Duel in a draw.

Téa, along with Tristan, Serenity and Duke Devlin proceed to the KaibaCorp blimp to cheer for Yugi, Joey and Mai in the finals. Roland initially refuses to let them board, as they aren't finalists, but Mokuba talks him into letting them on. Despite Joey's objections, all of them take residence in Joey's room for the finals.

Téa cheers for Yugi and Joey, during their quarter-final Duels. When Joey tells Mai, she wasn't in his dream, which his friends appeared in and jokes about it, Téa seizes him after Mai leaves and tells him off.

Virtual World
During the anime version of Battle City, as the blimp traveled to the Duel Tower, it was sucked into an underground lair, by Noah Kaiba. Téa, along with Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke Devlin, Serenity, Mokuba and Seto Kaiba emerge from the blimp to investigate. Here they are sucked into the Virtual World.

The gang encounter Noah and the Big Five, all of whom seek revenge on Seto Kaiba and require a body to return to the real world.

The gang get seperated and Téa ends up being chased by a gang of Hitotsu-Me Giants. She manages to escape, but passes out. While she's unconcious, Téa has a dream where she and Yugi went to see a show about Dark Magician Girl. She is woken up by a penguin, who leads her across the Virtual World, to a temple. Inside she meets Crump of the Big Five, who has taken the form of Nightmare Penguin.

Crump imposes a Duel and takes her to an icy region, where both players stand on opposite icebergs in freezing water. Téa is made assemble a Deck, by selecting from a monitor of cards appearing before her. remembering her dream she chooses "Dark Magician Girl" as her own Deck Master, while "Nightmare Penguin" is Crump's.

As Téa's Life Points lower, she becomes engulfed in ice. Dark Magician Girl helps her during the Duel. Towards the end of the Duel, Téa was almost completly engulfed in ice. Using her Deck Master's effect and "Sage's Stone" to Special Summon "Dark Magician" from Yugi's Deck, Téa is able to defeat Crump as she attacks him with both Magicians.

After the Duel, Téa is released from the ice. Yugi who had witnessed the last few moments of the Duel came to her assistance, by giving her his coat. The two proceed to the courtroom, where Joey is dueling Johnson.

Millennium World
Téa and her friends prepare for Yami Yugi, the Pharaoh to finally regain his memories. Téa worries that if the Pharaoh regains his memory, he might lose his memory of them, but Yami assures her he could never forget them.

In the manga Anzu, Yugi, Jonouchi (Joey), Honda (Tristan) and Bakura meet Bobasa at the museum, who will take them to the world of the Pharaoh's memory. Before they leave, Anzu goes to the gift shop to find something to give to the Pharaoh. She bought him a cartouche pendant, which he can use to put his real name on, once he learns it.

At the Millennium Tablet, the Pharaoh is sucked into the world of his memroies. Anzu gets a shock and is greatly upset when Yugi reports that the Pharaoh is no longer inside him and scared after she hears its possible he could be returning to a death. The friends agree that they want to accompany the Pharaoh in the Memory World, so Bobasa transports them inside Yugi's heart using the Millennium Key. Inside is the same labyrinth of stairways and doors, that Shadi found when he entered. Here they must find the Pharaoh's true soul room, in order to venture to his Memory World.

Later life
Anzu leaves Japan and goes to America to study dance.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Anzu is never mentioned in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX, but for a brief moment, she can be seen on a flyer that Judai Yuki picks up, along with Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda.

Téa's romance with Yugi and Yami
Téa is in love with Yugi, but is uncertain if it is Yami Yugi (Dark Yugi) or regular Yugi that she loves more. Even though she has been friends with Yugi since childhood she is unaware that he is in love with her. The story of Téa's affection for Yugi differs from medium to medium and is a hot debate topic among the fans.

During the first chapter in the manga, she hung out with Yugi instead of playing basketball like the rest of the girls. In another manga chapter (Duel 45: 13 O'clock Terror!), when on a date with Yugi, Téa is so perturbed at him apparently ignoring her that she goes to extreme measures and plays a joke on Yugi. She makes Yugi fearful for her safety by going onto a ferris wheel when it was known that a bomber was in the park; she was "pretending" to be in danger so she could "make the Yugi she wants to appear", not knowing that she placed herself in danger of being blown up for real. She is rescued by Dark Yugi, so her ploy succeeds in the end.

In the manga and the anime for much of the series, Téa believes that Dark Yugi is a more mature personality of regular Yugi. While at Duelist Kingdom, Yugi tells Téa that he "knows" that she prefers Dark Yugi. When he offers to switch out with Dark Yugi to give them time alone, Téa stops Yugi and tells him that there's no need because Yugi and Dark Yugi are both Yugi, so there's no need for him to change, as she cares for both "personalities". It is only later on in the series when Yugi is in the hospital after trying to save Dark Yugi that she finally accepts the fact that Yugi and Dark Yugi are two separate people. This then causes confusion as to who Téa is really in love with: Yugi or Dark Yugi. The last references to this in the anime are during the final duel, when Anzu wishes Atem to be victorious so she does not have to say goodbye to him. She also does have feelings toward the original Yugi as it is shown in many episodes when Rebecca Hawkins hugs Yugi, Téa appears upset.

Deck
Téa uses a Deck full of mostly Fairy cards, but in the Virtual World arc, she played with a Deck mostly made of Spellcasters. Like Mai Valentine, most of her monsters are female-related. She duels once in the manga and seven times during the course of the second anime series (four of which were off-screen).