Yami Bakura

Yami Bakura, known as Dark Bakura in the manga and Japanese version, is the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring.

After Ryo Bakura came into possession of the Millennium Ring, his body became host to the spirit, allowing Yami Bakura to freely take control of Ryo. Yami Bakura is the longest running, and most prominent villain in the entire series present for nearly every season but doesn't act as the major antagonist until the final season. His role towards the heroes consistently shifts from secondary villain to the main antagonist. He also acts as the final villain of the second series anime.

Design


Yami Bakura's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi.

Yami Bakura usually wears whatever Bakura was dressed in. In the Duelist Kingdom arc he wears a white wool sweater and green undershirt. His usual outfit in following seasons consists of a blue open shirt over a blue and white horizontally striped t-shirt. His white hair is pointed downwards in various directions and trails half way down his back.

His hair points in more directions than Ryo Bakura's and becomes noticeably more stiffer and rigid rather than Ryo's smooth flowing hair. Part of his bangs angle upward like bat wings when Yami Bakura is in control. He wears the Millennium Ring on a cord around his neck. In the Battle City arc as Yami Bakura he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

In the Millennium World arc, Yami Bakura wore a black trenchcoat with the collar flipped up, as an addition to this outfit. However, during his final duel with Yugi he reverts to his Battle City attire.

Origin
After Pharaoh Atem defeated Zorc Necrophades, a part of Zorc's soul was sealed in the Millennium Ring. At some time, Thief King Bakura's soul was also put in the Millennium Ring.

3,000 years later (5,000 in the English anime), Ryo Bakura's father bought the Millennium Ring, which he passed onto Ryo.

The spirit of the Millennium Ring, which came to be known as "Yami Bakura" ("Dark Bakura" in the manga and Japanese versions) became able to take control of Ryo Bakura's body, while Bakura was in possession of the Ring.

Dark Bakura would often prevent Ryo from ridding himself of the ring and has even gone as far as piercing the prongs of the Millennium Ring into his own torso.

Monster World
Through his host Bakura, Dark Bakura played RPGs including Monster World with many people, though Yami Bakura turned the innocent sounding games into Shadow Games. As a Penalty Game, the loser often had their soul trapped in a miniature to be used as a Monster World non-playable character, leaving the victims' bodies in comas. Bakura often had to change schools as a result of this.

After transferring to Domino High School, Ryo Bakura is picked on by Mr. Karita, a teacher at the school. Dark Bakura plays a Shadow Game with Karita, turning him into a miniature. That night, Dark Bakura talks to Bakura for the first time, telling Bakura that he is his new host and that he has his sights set on acquiring Yugi Mutou's Millennium Puzzle.

Bakura sets up a miniture "Monster World" game, to play with Yugi, Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda and Anzu Mazaki (in the Toei anime, Miho Nosaka also plays). Bakura tries to warn his friends, and get them to leave, but Dark Bakura takes over and invites them in, while pretending to be Bakura.

Each of the group picks a type of monster they wish to play as, and Bakura seals them inside miniatures of their selected monsters.

Ryo Bakura managed to emerge during the RPG, taking control of the body's left hand. Ryo Bakura intentionally fumbled several critical dice rolls, giving Yugi an edge in the game. Once Dark Bakura realized this, he impaled his good self's controlled hand on a tower spire of the game board's castle, laughing madly. Ryo Bakura then sealed his soul into a pair of possessed dice. He caused the dice to shatter, effectively ending the game, though killing himself in the process.

The good Bakura is dead when Dark Yugi reaches him. His avatar in the RPG is still animated, however, and White Mage Bakura uses his power as a level 13 mage to bring him back to life. When doing this, Dark Bakura is also placed back together with him.

Duelist Kingdom
Although not a participating player, Bakura snuck onto the Duelist Kingdom island for the tournament.

In an anime only part of the storyline, Yami Bakura traps Yugi Muto, his friends and Ryo Bakura in their favorite Duel Monsters cards, in an effort to take Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, thus forcing Yami Yugi to face him in a Shadow Game in order to free them. The events of this Duel were similar to those of the Monster World RPG. This Duel was used to make up for the second series anime not including the Monster World storyline.

When Yami Bakura tried to use "Change of Heart" to turn Yugi, as the Dark Magician, against his friends, Ryo Bakura took the form of the card and interfered with the Duel. He attempted to sacrifice himself so Yugi could win, but Yami Yugi switched the places of Bakura and Yami Bakura's souls, resulting in Yami Bakura's defeat and him being sent to the Graveyard. Afterward, he was assumed to be dead, trapped in the Shadow Realm.

Ryo Bakura then stayed with the group until the night of the finals of Duelist Kingdom, at which point he, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner go on an adventure through Pegasus's castle. Pegasus catches them and sends the three of them to the Shadow Realm, along with himself. Yami Bakura takes this opportunity to take back Bakura, then sends everybody back to their rooms, plotting to take both Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and Pegasus' Millennium Eye.

The manga differs significantly in regards to Bakura's involvement within the Duelist Kingdom. Having seemingly overcome the power of the Milennium Ring after the Monster World incident, Bakura keeps the item with him under the belief that he will not be possessed unless he wears it. As he travels with Yugi and his friends he begins to fall under the influence of the ring once again. Yami Bakura makes his presence known to Ryo once more after the battle with Para and Dox. As the group searches for the right exit from the labyrinth, the spirit of the Ring tells Ryo that they would remain trapped in the maze forever unless Bakura were to put the ring on again and let the spirit use him once more. Reluctantly, Bakura accepts, allowing Yami Bakura to point out the correct exit (something which Yami Yugi himself had not figured out) before seemingly let Bakura have control again.

Later, at the beginning of Yugi's duel with Pegasus, Bakura hears Tristan's idea of trying to find the bodies Pegasus took the souls from, and Yami Bakura is intrigued about the plan, taking over Bakura's body again. Somewhat ironically he actually saves Tristan from Pegasus' guards while the two of them searched for a way to escape, utilizing the card Man-Eater Bug, and his shadow magic. Tristan is still somewhat disturbed by Bakura's sadistic enjoyment that he got from torturing the guards before he killed them. After Tristan realizes who he is, Yami Bakura revealed that he intended to use the soulless Mokuba, which Tristan had previously rescued, as a host, and threatens to kill Tristan if he tries to stop him. Tristan, however, manages to catch Yami Bakura off guard, knocking him out. Tristan then threw the Millennium Ring into the jungle. Somehow, however, the ring still reappeared on Bakura, and Yami Bakura was still in control, which went unbeknownst to Yugi and company until Yugi and Bakura's rematch in the Battle City finals. After Pegasus' defeat at the hands of Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura challenged Pegasus to another Shadow Game, for possession of Pegasus' Millennium Eye, which Yami Bakura easily wins.

Sealing a part of his soul in the Puzzle
In the manga, Dark Bakura witnesses some of Yugi's game of Dungeon Dice Monsters against Ryuji Otogi. He declares Otogi doesn't stand a chance against Yugi and supports Yugi throughout the game. After Mr. Clown smashes the Millennium Puzzle, Dark Bakura manages to use the power of his Millennium Ring to seal a part of his soul in one of the pieces, before Yugi reassembles it.

In the anime, Dark Bakura detects the Millennium Puzzle is nearby, when Yugi duels Bandit Keith, possessed by Marik Ishtar. He uses the power of his Millennium Ring to free Keith from Marik's Millennium Rod. Though Keith manages to end the duel and run off, Marik gets one chance to have Keith shatter the Millennium Puzzle in rage. Ryo Bakura comes to Yugi's rescue, knocking Keith back. Yami Bakura takes advantage of the opportunity to seal a fragment of his soul into a piece of the Millennium Puzzle.

Battle City
Yami Bakura teams up with Marik Ishtar in a verbal deal consisting of Marik's relinquishment of the Millennium Rod if Bakura obtained "Slifer the Sky Dragon" for Marik once again. As part of their plan, Yami Bakura stabbed himself and then released Ryo Bakura. Marik, who took the guise of Namu, pretended to save Bakura and took him to Joey and Téa.

While Bakura is sleeping in the hospital, Marik appears in his mind. Marik tells Yami Bakura that he now needs to enter the Battle City finals in order to receive the Millennium Rod. Bakura is awoken by Solomon Muto, and turns into Yami Bakura. Solomon tells him that Yugi and Joey are qualified for the finals. When Yami Bakura gets up to leave to try to find them, he is stopped by Solomon. Yami Bakura knocks out Solomon with his Millennium Ring and leaves the hospital.

Yami Bakura acquires a place in the Battle City finals by stealing another duelist's Duel Disk and locator card and winning the remaining locator cards by defeating Bonz in a Shadow Game.

During the quarter-finals, when he is about to be defeated by Yami Yugi, he reverts back to the real Bakura, knowing Yugi would not risk hurting his friend. However, when Marik mentions that Yugi may still attack with the fate of the world at stake, Yami Bakura decides that leaving Ryo Bakura in his vulnerable state poses too much of a risk, and he again takes over his body, challenging Yugi to attack. When Yugi does attack, he wins the duel, but also leaves Bakura in a coma. The Ring was lost in the Duel, but was returned by Téa, who was being controlled by Marik. In Téa's body, Marik insists on Bakura's assistance, for an evil part of Marik had gained control of his body. Yami Bakura then challenged Yami Marik to a shadow game, teaming up with Marik to vanquish the greater evil despite doing so from evil intent. However, he was destroyed by Marik's "The Winged Dragon of Ra". Yami Bakura had earlier held and sealed a part of his soul into a piece of Yugi's Millennium puzzle, resulting in him to continue existing by secretly residing in the Millennium Puzzle. The Ring then fell into the hands of Yami Marik, and eventually ends up in the hands of Yugi after Yugi defeats him. After Yami Marik was destroyed Bakura's body returned from the shadow realm, however Yami Bakura didn't return to Ryo Bakura straight away as Yami was exploring the Millennium Puzzle and eventually discovered how to resurrect Zorc Necrophades with ease.

Waking the Dragons
Yami Bakura appears in a vision by Dartz during his duel with Yami Yugi. Dartz also reveals (indirectly) that Yami Bakura was the ancient evil that Yami Yugi fought 3000 (5000 in the dub) years ago and that Bakura was in Dartz's way of capturing Atem's soul to revive The Great Leviathan.

Millennium World
In the manga, a thief stole Yugi's Egyptian God Cards. Yami Bakura assaulted him and took the cards. He returned the cards to Yugi, but still kept the Millennium Ring as he said it was rightfully his. However he gave Yugi the Millennium Eye, stating it to be his oath of loyalty and that he will lend a hand in solving the mystery of the Pharaoh's memory.

In the anime, Yami Bakura takes the Millennium Ring back from Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, who mistakenly took Yugi's Millennium Items while trying to steal his Egyptian God Cards. He later challenges Seto Kaiba to a Duel but leaves before they can finish. At that rate Bakura most likely would have won, but still gives Kaiba the Millennium Eye, so Kaiba too may enter the Millennium World.

In the Memory World, Yami Bakura takes over the body of Thief King Bakura in order to revive Zorc Necrophades, yet simultaneously controls the shadow game from above. Eventually, he claims that he really is Zorc, and merges his spirit back into Zorc's. Zorc's destruction at the hands of Horakhty destroyed Yami Bakura as well.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yami Bakura appeared in a flashback in episode 85 after Franz stole the copy of "Winged Dragon of Ra". He told Jaden about the God cards and when he brought up Slifer Footage from Yami Yugi's duel with Yami Bakura from Battle City was played.

Deck


Yami Bakura often uses cards that resemble ghouls or specters, undead creatures (though not necessarily Zombies), and demons of the underworld or undead. His Decks often perform locks, attempting to prevent his opponent from making many moves while trying to either instantly win through "Destiny Board" or through a mill strategy, like "Cursed Twin Dolls."