Yuma Tsukumo

Yuma Tsukumo is the main protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. He is a young Duelist who aspires to be the greatest, despite his poor skills. He finds himself unwillingly partnered with a Dueling spirit called Astral and together, they search for the "Numbers" cards to recover Astral's lost memories.

Yuma's surname, Tsukumo, can be translated as "Ninety-Nine" which may be a nod to the ninety-nine "Number" cards he and Astral are looking for.

Personality
Yuma is a hasty young boy who likes to challenge himself to do anything that seems impossible, which he normally fails at. He states that doing these challenges gets him fired up and will eventually accomplish what he sets out to do. He is also somewhat self-contradictory as he often says one does thing and does the exact opposite, as when Kotori Mizuki tells him that she doesn't understand what it's like to be him after being left exhausted only to change the subject to how he always gets fired up, or when he says he won't show up to his Duel with Shark until immediately regaining his confidence. Yuma treasures the artifact his mother gave him greatly and when Shark crushed it in two, this drove Yuma to challenge him.

Yuma is shown to stick up for others despite their protests, challenging Shark to reclaim Tetsuo's Deck. Yuma believes Duelists can't be bad people and believes a Duel to be a clash of souls. He also appears to be naive as he believed that Tokunosuke really had good intentions even after his friends had warned him he was a swindler from the start.

He is easily annoyed and clashes Astral, tends to disobey Astral's instructions when they duel, which leads to him making his common mistakes. He only starts obeying when he is about to lose, as he believes the duels are his and listening to him would mean he needed help to win.

In episode 9, it is seen that Yuma appears to be fairly bad at tests, shown by the shock that follows Yuma scoring well on a few. Also in this episode, it may be said that he could have a slight crush on Kotori, as he talks in his sleep saying "Of course, Kotori!"

Yuma seems to have a positive effect on the people he duels. After his duel with Shark, he stopped stealing others decks and the two eventually became friends. After defeating Tokunosuke, he gave up his conniving ways and became an honest person. After defeating Fuya Okudaira, he helped him repair his relationship with his mother and become his own person instead of living in the shadow if his ESPer Robin persona.

Biography
Yuma is plagued by nightmares of a demonic gate. His sister, Akari forbids him to Duel. He regularly lost to his friend Tetsuo Takeda. When Tetsuo loses his Deck to Shark in an Ante Duel, Yuma challenged him. Shark breaks The Emperor's Key in response, which was an artifact he inherited from his parents. Tetsuo recovers the missing piece. During the Duel, he uses a Deck constructed by his father, as opposed to his usual Deck. Yuma makes several amateur mistakes and sees the demonic door again. He is given to the opportunity to open it, and does so with The Emperor's Key. After he opens it, a dark force envelops Shark as he Xyz Summons "Number 17: Leviath Dragon". Surprised at his power, and feeling like he wouldn't be able to win, a strange entity tells him to stand up and win.

The entity reveals himself to be Astral, a Duelist from another world, shocking Yuma. As Yuma talks with Astral, he notices his friends, and everyone else, cannot see him. Astral tries to take over Yuma's Duel, stating that he has to win at all costs with Yuma always complaining that it was HIS Duel. Astral tries to order Yuma around, intentionally or not, to gain the advantage against Ryoga. However, Yuma refuses to listen to Astral as he is taken down each turn. When Astral informs him that his own life fades as Yuma's Life Points decrease, Yuma takes Astral's advice and uses "Monster Reborn" to Special Summon "Gagaga Magician" from his Graveyard. Astral gifts Yuma with "Number 39: Utopia", an Xyz Monster. Yuma has never owned one before and is excited. He Exceed Summons it by overlaying "Gagaga Magician" with "Ganbara Knight". Astral states that "Utopia" is the power he has entrusted to Yuma and that he must use it to win the Duel. With this card, he made a comeback, and won using it in a combo with "Double Up Chance". Shark is returned to normal, and returns Tetsuo's Deck as promised.

With this win, Yuma begins to gain a following around his school, as Shark was known to have pro-level Dueling skills. The network at school mysteriously went down one day, and Professor Kitano allowed them to use the day to Duel instead, as they could not access their virtual textbooks with the network down. Yuma Dueled his class's chairman, Takashi Todoroki. Astral was not present, so Yuma did not have access to his Extra Deck of "Numbers". As a result, he lost without inflicting a single point of damage to Todoroki. Yuma and Kotori suspected Todoroki of being responsible for the network going down, but he would eventually lead them to the real culprit, Professor Ukyo. Ukyo had been possessed by one of the "Numbers" and Duels Yuma using "Number 34: Electronic Computer-Beast Tera Byte" and the "Bugman" series. Yuma is able to overcome him only through Summoning both "Utopia" and "Leviath Dragon". Ukyo revealed that he had no ill intentions and simply wanted to bring happiness to the city with a virtual "Bugman". Astral determined through this that the "Numbers" amplify the emotions that their vessel already had, malicious or not.

Tokunosuke Omoteura approaches Yuma to ask for his autograph, and eventually gifts him with a "Baby Tragon" card in return. Yuma is quite excited to have his own Exceed Monster, despite Kotori and Tetsuo's reservations about Tokunosuke. Yuma began what he thought was a friendly Duel against Tokunosuke, but it turned out be far from it. "Baby Tragon" was a trap, and Tokunosuke steals "Utopia" via the effect of "Uratra C". Tokunosuke then revealed that the autograph Yuma signed was a contract agreeing to ante his Deck in the Duel. Tokunosuke goes on to steal "Leviath Dragon" as well, and appeared possessed by both "Numbers". Astral is sealed in an orb of light as his power weakens, but urges Yuma to protect "Baby Tragon". Yuma does so and uses its effect to let "Needle Swordsman" attack directly. With his Continuous Trap Cards returned to his hand, Tokunosuke loses the "Numbers" and they return to Yuma. Yuma wins the Duel with them, and attempt to return "Baby Tragon". Tokunosuke tells him to keep it and the two leave the Duel as friends.

Kotori Mizuki
Yuma seems to harbor quite a passionate feeling for Kotori, which is evident that she harbors too due to her annoyance at Yuma's adoration with Kathy's dueling abilities, which she doesn't show towards male duelists that Yuma admires. This is also evident at how she blushes when ever Yuma makes a friendly comment towards her. Another blatant way that this is evident is that Yuma has gone out of his way to protect Kotori many times such as when he thought Kathy had kidnapped her, which also allowed him to duel without the assistance of Astral, winning him the duel.

This is also present in episode 13 when Yuma pushed Kotori out of the way of getting run over by a truck, placing himself in her position, which if Kaito Tenjo didn't pause the time, would have resulted in Yuma being critically injured or causing his death. More evidence can be observed of Yuma's liking for Kotori is from Episode 9, where during the usual scene when Yuma puts on his D-Gazer, he isn't wearing his casual dueling smile, showing his absolute seriousness for victory so he can find her.

Anime
Yuma's Deck is filled with the Syllable monsters, a series of cards which have repetitive names e.g. Gogogo. He also uses an array of ATK increasing cards such as "Wonder Wand", and Trap Cards which protect his monsters from destruction such as "Bye Bye Damage". Yuma originally played a different Deck. He decided to use his father's Deck in his first Duel against Ryoga Kamishiro. After that Duel, he keeps using this Deck instead of his original one. He is currently using this Deck to obtain the "Number" cards from various Duelists in order to help Astral get his memories back. When Yuma defeats Number holders, Astral absorbs them, giving Yuma access to them. Yuma only has access to them while Astral is fighting alongside him in a Duel.