Jaden Yuki

Jaden Yuki, known in Japan as Judai Yuki (遊城十代, Yūki Jūdai), is a headstrong, fun-loving, and talented duelist that functions as the series' main protagonist. In the English version, Jaden is voiced by Matthew Charles, while KENN takes his Japanese counterpart.

Character design


Jaden's character design was overseen by Kenichi Harrah. Jaden's usual outfit consists of the standard Slifer Red uniform, unbuttoned. A deck box is strapped above his waistline, largely hidden beneath the lower rim of his jacket. His brown hair is sectioned in two layers, the layer closest to his face a darker shade of brown than the one behind it. His brown eyes are positioned directly beneath the bangs of the layer closest to his face. He carries an Academy-issued Duel Disk on his left hand.

Character biography
Intending to attend Duel Academy, Jaden bumps into Yugi on his way to the school's entrance examinations at the beginning of the series. He is given a Winged Kuriboh card by the legendary duelist, but receives a low score on the exam's written component, and is therefore placed in Slifer Red, the lowest-ranked dormitory, alongside Syrus and Chumley, who become his new friends. He was once granted entrance into Ra Yellow, but declined the offer as he preferred the "burning fiery spirit and hot passion of red."

Jaden has made several enemies at his school, including Crowler, whom Jaden defeated in his examination duel. Out of spite, Crowler tries to kick Jaden out of school on many different occasions before finally beginning to respect him. Jaden is an accomplished duelist, having defeated the aforementioned Crowler during his examination duel, Chazz in a school-wide duel, and Bastion for the representative position. He is also responsible for the defeat of most of the Shadow Riders, and goes on to pummel a slew of other opponents.

During the second year, Jaden ventures into Neo Space after being defeated in his second duel with Aster. There, he learns of the ongoing battle between the forces of darkness and light. With the help of the Neo-Spacians, Jaden adopts the role of the universe's defender wielding the "darkness of justice" against Sartorius and the Society of Light.The task of rescuing most of his converted friends from the organization's clutches also falls on him.

To prevent his evil side from activating the mind control satellite of Misgarth, Sartorius entrusts Jaden with one of the keys to its control switch. The diviner's evil personality sends numerous duelists after the boy to win it back, but to no avail. He ultimately confronts Jaden himself, demanding the key in exchange for Aster, from whom he had already regained the other key in battle. Jaden agreed, and although Aster was rescued shortly thereafter, both keys were put into the possession of Prince Ojin, who went on to fire the satellite. It is, however, destroyed during the course of their Duel. Sartorius is then defeated, and the Light of Destruction purged from his body.

During the third year, Jaden is pursued by the spirit of his favorite card in childhood, Yubel, which was given to him by his father. With his parents always working and away from home, Jaden turned to dueling friends to pass the time, but the sadness associated with his inability to play Yubel properly led the Duel Monster to hospitalize a young duelist named Osamu and scare away the rest of his companions with other misfortunes.

When Duel Academy is returned to the real world, Jaden cannot find Jesse and realizes that Jesse must still be in the other dimension. He blames himself for Jesse being stranded there and goes back to rescue him along with his friends, but end up landing in a different dimension from the one from before. While looking for Jesse, Jaden loses all of his friends except Syrus to Brron, Mad King of Dark World. The anger in Jaden released by the loss of his friends causes an unexpected change. When Jaden finally wins, Syrus turns on Jaden as he feels that Jaden sacrificed his friends just for himself. Syrus abandons him and Jim and Axel soon follow, leaving Jaden to mope by himself.

Afterwards, Jaden is in the darkness within his mind, and a strange figure called Haou the Supreme King enters, giving him the chance to redeem himself by becoming evil. Jaden accepts it along with the incomplete "Super Fusion" card and at that time, Haou possesses him. While under Haou's control, he commits many atrocities that include unrepentant slaughter of duelists in order to complete the "Super Fusion" and the oppression of several villages. However, as Haou performs these actions, Jaden himself is left in doubt about what he needs in order to be complete not only as a duelist, but as a person. Unfortunately, he turns to Haou for this advice, who only tells him that one can only overcome evil by becoming evil. After Axel uses the Eye of Orichalcum on Haou during a successful invasion of Haou's castle, Jaden is freed from his possession, but is deeply tormented by the atrocities he committed during his possession, and he thus starts refusing to use his Fusion Monsters.

When Jaden starts doubting himself even more, Jesse possessed by Yubel reappears. Then learning that his friend is being controlled, Jaden puts his problems aside for the time being so that he can save Jesse. However, when Jaden finally duels Yubel to save Jesse, it is revealed that Yubel actually removed Jesse's soul from his body and placed him inside the "Rainbow Dragon" before taking over. Jaden manages to exorcise Yubel out of Jesse, but in one foul swoop, it snatches the "Super Fusion" card from Jaden and then forces him into a duel. Before the final clash, Jaden finds out that Yubel's power was previously augmented by the Light of Destruction while it was still stranded in space. Although he feels guilty because his actions led to Yubel's exposure, the sheer atrocity and shamelessness of its actions prevents Jaden from feeling any sympathy towards the deranged spirit.

However, near the end of the duel, Jaden is told the truth between his connections with Yubel: Instead of just being a part of him, Jaden is Haou, the reincarnation of a young prince of Neo Space from long ago, who was once friends with a human Yubel. As Haou contained the enigmatic power of a being called the Supreme King that is needed to defeat the Light of Destruction, he needed a guardian to protect him until he was old enough to control and wisely use his power; Yubel chose himself for the role, and was transformed into the Duel Monsters it eventually became, its effect allowing for the perfect defense against anyone who tried to harm Jaden. Despite the great burden and sacrifice, Haou Jaden promised to give his love only to Yubel, which explained why Yubel became present-day Jaden's favorite card as a kid, and why Yubel was so obsessed and jealous with him and his friends. Finally realizing the truth behind all his troubles, Jaden - after bidding adieu to his friends - allowed Yubel to gain a hold of "Super Fusion”, chaining "Spiritual Fusion" to choose their souls as the fusion materials instead of all twelve dimensions as Yubel was expecting, and purging Yubel of the Light of Destruction's influence. After Jaden's disappearance and everyone else being returned back to Duel Academy, Syrus, Hassleberry, Atticus, Chazz and Alexis were talking about Jaden. After the talk, Syrus sees a shooting star and wishes Jaden to be back, which happened as the "star" crashed at Duel Academy, and was revealed that it was Jaden.

Jaden possesses the ancient power of the Supreme King, also known to many as the "darkness of justice", that renders him immune to the Light of Destruction's power. He has also displayed a basic control over Yubel's several powers in which his eyes turn orange and green when the powers are in use.

In the fourth season, Jaden is seen with his new look, but he is still easily to identify from the past seasons. He comes back with longer hair, a longer, darker Slifer red jacket, darker pants and, since he fused his soul with Yubel in the third season, occasionally manifesting its power to protect himself in the form of his eyes glowing the same bichromatic scheme. Jaden decides to leave Duel Academy, not wishing to put his friends in danger. However, both Sartorius and Kagemaru attempt to convince him otherwise, believing that he is needed on the island to prevent a growing danger in the near future. This seems to be well-advised, as before their meeting, Jaden already confronts a mysterious Obelisk Blue student by name of Yusuke Fujihara, who can hypnotize people and set fires with his eyes, as well as a new darkness-controlling antagonist (or set of antagonists, as multiple copies of him are shown in the end of episode 158), Mr. T, who seems to want both Jaden and Fujihara dead. He also has to deal with the reemergence of Nightshroud, whose past may also tie into the mysteries behind Fujihara and Mr. T. Before leaving the academy Syrus revealed he was the last student left in red dorm, the fate of the dorm is put into question since there are no students remaining in it now.

Manga
In the manga, Jaden played a deck similar to that of his anime counterpart as a child. While in the hospital for breaking one of his bones playing baseball, fellow patient Kouyou gave the boy his own nature-themed Elemental Hero deck (including Winged Kuriboh), and as a result of the meeting with Koyo and his sister, Midori, Jaden was inspired to become a duelist. From the outset of the manga storyline, he is already a student of Duel Academy, with Kouyou's heroes standing by his side.

Personality
Jaden loves dueling and is always ready to duel. Typical of an anime protagonist, he keeps going not matter how hard things get or how hopeless it seems, although he does sometimes doubt himself. He always shows respect towards his opponents, with a few exceptions, even complementing them during a duel. Jaden is however, a bit of an airhead outside of dueling. He is always late for his classes and usually just sleeps through them. Aside from dueling, he also loves eating. Jaden however, can often be ignorant and naive. During his first year he was completely ignorant of Crowler's attempts to get rid of him as well, and didn't even seem aware of Crowler's dislike for him. His naive nature can sometimes get him into trouble, like when Sartorius tricked him into giving him his key to the world destroying satellite. However, Jaden is always able to get out of trouble whenever he gets into it as well. Occasionally, Jaden was shown to be smarter then he usually appears. One example is that when Jesse returns it's Jaden that points out that he's possessed by Yubel. Also, during his duel with Yubel when it’s using Jesse's body, Jaden is able to figure out that Jesse's soul was place inside the Rainbow Dragon card.

Jaden has a close bond with his cards except for when he's borrowing somebody's cards, in which he gives them back. His ability to see and hear monster spirits also typically results in him befriending his cards. Jaden's extremely loyal to his friends, and often ends up risking his life for them because the villains in the series almost always threaten them in some way. When it comes to stopping the villains, Jaden usually prefers to save his friends first, then stop the villain, unless there's a situation when he can do both at the same time. Although he's overall carefree, he gets more serious as the series goes on, especially during season three.

In the fourth season, Jaden's personality transforms dramatically compared to his younger counterparts. He acts much more mature and serious, and doesn’t find dueling as enjoyable as he used to. One striking difference is that Jaden no longer says his catchphrase ("That’s Game!"/"Gotcha!") at the end of his duels. He much more cold as well, shown he tried getting some information about Professor Banner's spirit he actually threatened him (granted, Jaden's threat was very comical, threating to flush him down the toilet). Also, he acts more cold around his friends (Alexis is quick to notice this), but he still does still deeply care for them.

Voice/Mannerisms
Jaden is known for his catchphrases, most notably "I'll throw down a face-down" when setting cards, "Get your game on" when beginning a Duel, and "That's game!" when winning one. Another common phrase he says during his duels is "Here goes something." In the Japanese version, he uses the phrase "Gotcha! Tanoshii no duel dattaze!" which translates into “Gotcha! That was a fun duel!”. Both versions show the character as extremely eager and carefree in duels, although the English version exaggerates his comical side and often gives him playfully narcissistic dialogue.

Deck
During the first year, Jaden plays an Elemental Hero Deck composed of Spell and Trap Cards that support them, as well as his partner "Winged Kuriboh". His Deck largely supports Fusion Summoning stronger Elemental Heroes, often using a colorful array of Spell cards, which have additional effects besides the aforementioned effect, allowing great flexibility in strategies. All Elemental Heroes fuse in some combination, granting Jaden a myriad of different effects to take advantage of.

In his second year, after his second Duel with Aster, Jaden's Deck is left blank to his eyes due to Sartorius' powers. With the inability to use his old Hero Deck, Jaden received a new one that included some cards he created as a child for a KaibaCorp contest. Once his ability to see his older cards returned, he combined elements from both Decks into a single Deck, his Neos Deck. While this deck still contains many of the cards from his original deck, it also consists of Neo-Spacians and cards that exploit their ability to "Contact Fuse" with "Elemental Hero Neos" in a Guyver-inspired fashion.

In his third year, only as the Supreme King, Jaden plays an Evil Hero Deck, vile incarnations of his regular Elemental Heroes.

 