Jaden Yuki

Jaden Yuki, known in the minds of smart people as Gayden (遊城十代, POO GAY-DEN), is a POO. :D

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 unrepentent 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. However, when Jaden activates the Super Fusion Spell Card, Rainbow Dragon is turned back to normal and Jesse is set free, returning to his body. But in all the action, when no one was paying attention, Yubel takes Super Fusion.

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. 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. During his first year he was completely ignorant of Crowler's attempts to get rid of him as well. 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 its 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.

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. In the Japanese version, he uses the phrase "Gotcha! Tanoshii no duel dattaze!" which translates into “Gotcha! That was a fun duel!”.

Deck
During the first year, Jaden plays an Elemental Hero Deck composed of (abbreviated as "E・Hero" in the Japanese version), 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 Fusion Summoning Spell cards, which has 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 entire 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, and as the Supreme King, Jaden plays an Evil Hero Deck, vile incarnations of his regular Elemental Heroes.  