Bakura Ryou

Ryo Bakura (Bakura in the English Anime), is a side character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! magna and anime series.

Bakura is a friend of Yugi Mutou (Yugi Muto in the English anime), a duel monster duelist and owner of one of the Mellenium Items, the Mellenium Ring. Bakura's father purchased the item whilst on a trip in Eygpt, after being told that it was related to the Duel Monsters card game, which he knew his son had an interest in.

The Mellenium Ring, contains the evil spirit of a powerful thief, Dark Bakura (Yami Bakura or Spirit of the Ring in the English anime). The two never directly converse, and host Bakura refers to Dark Bakura only as a "voice".

In the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, has a polite speaking matter using many honourifics. The darker half however, uses none. Reflecting this, Bakura in the English Anime, posseses a British accent.

Japanese Magna and First Anime Series
Bakura first meets Yugi and his friends Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime), Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) and Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner) when he is transferred to Domino High School. Bakura tells his new friends that he has a love for games of all types, particularly the RPG "Monster World". However for some mysterious reason that he can not explain, everyone who has played with him has fallen into a coma. This is the main reason he transfers schools so often. When Yugi allowed him to hold the Mellenium Puzzle, Bakura felt a sharp pain in his chest (later revealed to be the Spirit of the Mellenium Ring).

That night, Bakura is busy writing a letter to his sister, Amane (who later dies in a car crash), a voice announces that he is its new host. Bakura looks down in horror to find that the sharp points of the Mellenium Ring are jabbing into his skin. This voice is Dark (Yami) Bakura, a 3,000 year old ancient spirit from Egypt (Yami Bakura is a 5,000 year old spirit in the engish anime), who has his sights set on aquiring the Mellenium Puzzle for himself.

Bakura sets up a miniture "Monster World" game, and the next day invites his friends to play (in the Toei anime, Miho Nosaka is also invited). Each of the group picks a type of monster they wish to play as, and Bakura seals them inside minitures of their selected monsters. Yugi becomes a monster tamer, Jonouchi a warrior, Hiroto a magic gunman and Anzu as a magician. In the Toei anime Miho becomes a gypsy. With everyone elses souls sealed in minitures, Dark Yugi (occuping Yugi's body) challanges Dark Bakura to free his friends.

The host Bakura emerges in subtle ways throughout the course of the game, causing some criticals errors for Dark Bakura's game plan. Dark Bakura realises this and decided to punish his host by impaling his right hand on a tower spire in the game, laughing insanley. The host however, would not be beated so easy, determined to save his his friends. Concealing his soul into a pair of dice, the host Bakura causes the dice to shatter, ending the game, sacraficing his life in the process. Dark Bakura is then banished to the Shadow Realm when Dark Yugi conducts a Penalty Game.

The host Bakura is dead when Dark Yugi reaches him, howver his avatar is still animated in the RPG, and that Bakura uses his healing powers to bring his own body back to life.

Second Series Anime
Bakura first makes his appearance in the second anime series when he confronts the group at Duelist Kindgom (he is seen by Téa a few times prior to this; on the ship transporting them to Duelist Kingdom and in some woods). Here Yami Bakura traps Yuigi, his friends and the host Bakura into their favourite Duel Monster cards, leaving Yami Yugi with the responsibility to save his friends lives. This is the anime's outlook on the RPG Magna story arch (see above). To further support this, the cards each member inhabits are similar to that of which they inhabited in the RPG. Yugi inhabist the Dark Magician, Joey the Flame Swordsman, Tristan the Cyber Commander and Téa the Magician of Faith. The host Bakura himself was placed into his favourite, the magic card, Change of Heart. Once again the host Bakura saves the day, betraying Yami Bakura when he plays Change of Heart. Yami Yugi seemingly banishes Yami Bakura to the Shadow Realm.

[[image:Yami bakura 2.jpg|thumb|right|Yami Bakura at Duelist Kingdom. After Yugi's defeat of [[Maximillion Pegasus]] (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese anime), Yami Bakura challanges him to another Shadow Game, and defeats Pegasus, taking his Melennium Eye. This brought Bakura's Mellenium item count up to two.