Jesse Anderson

Jesse Anderson, spelled Jesse Andersen in some video games and called Johan Andersen in the Japanese version, is a transfer student hailing from North Academy who enters Duel Academy in the third year. Jesse is Scandinavian in the Japanese version while he seems to be from the Southern United States in the English version. Sometimes, people call him 'Jess' as a nickname. Jesse is kind, thoughtful, and sometimes shy.

Excitable and energetic much like Jaden (similarities between him and Jaden are noted in both versions), he serves as one of Jaden's allies. Although a close friend, his disappearance serves a catalyst for Jaden's descent into darkness as The Supreme King of the alternate dimension. Jesse is later possessed by the spirit of Yubel, Jaden's favorite card in childhood, using him and his Crystal Beasts as mediators to act through.

Design


Jesse's usual outfit consists of a blue, above waist length, jacket similar with darker blue outlines, a lavender shirt with frilled cuffs at the wrists of his sleeves and black pants which are held up with a white belt. His blue hair juts in backward and down directions. He carries an Academy Duel Disk on his left wrist.

Biography
Invited along with his fellow overseas champions from around the world by Chancellor Sheppard, Jesse's the most secretive of his identity, even with those he’s supposed to be traveling with. Although he doesn’t board the ship that’s supposed to take the champions to their final destination, Adrian Gecko expects that Jesse would appear once they reached Duel Academy. He’s known simply as a "ghost" or the "mystery man" until officially introduced during the school's year-opening ceremony.

He is chosen by Professor Viper to duel Jaden in the first exhibition match of the third year, and the two are unknowingly fitted with Bio-Bands. Just as Jesse is about to be defeated by Jaden, he suddenly reveals the name of the most powerful Crystal Beast: "Rainbow Dragon". However, he later confesses that "Rainbow Dragon" has not yet been made into a card by Industrial Illusions, and that he wishes to find the Roman lithograph from which the concept of his Crystal Beasts was derived in order for Pegasus to finally create it.

In episode 115 it is introduced that Jesse has been looking for a duelist called "Trapper" his name is given to him because his deck is composed of cards he steals after winning duels, and in the same episode Jesse duels "Trapper" and defeats him.

After being drawn into an alternate dimension, Jesse and the rest of Duel Academy are contacted by Dr. Eisenstein, who tells them that the lithograph has finally been found. Securing the lithograph's excavation site, Pegasus has the "Rainbow Dragon" card made and sent to the other world via a Duel Energy-powered wormhole, opened in a battle between Jesse and Zane Truesdale. Jesse later uses the "Rainbow Dragon" when Jaden fought Marcel, only to learn their real opponent is Yubel, the duel spirit that took control of Marcel. Jesse uses "Rainbow Dragon" to get Jaden and the others out while he remains in the alternate dimension to face Yubel, prompting Jaden and his friends to dive back into a rift left open between the worlds to get him back.



Although labeled dead by many, he later appears as merely a shadow standing on a cliff near Syrus and Ojama Yellow, but it's later confirmed that the shadow was Jesse in Ojama Yellow's flashback where it spots him. He later reappears in front of Zane and it is revealed that he is possessed by Yubel. After defeating Zane using Advanced Crystal Beasts (dark versions of his regular Crystal Beasts), Yubel challenges Adrian Gecko, in order to retrieve its lost energy. Jesse is able to easily destroy Exodia in the first turn, and summon the Sacred Beasts one after the other in quick succession, before fusing them to form "Armityle the Chaos Phantom". When his Sacred Beast strategy fails after they are all removed from play, he switches his strategy to survival, keeping Adrian's "Fog King" away from his life points, before being able to destroy it. After Adrian suddenly adds most of Exodia to his hand, with the last piece on top of his deck, Jesse pulls out all the stops and summons "Yubel", his ace card, beating Adrian there and then.

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 Dark Dragon" before taking over. However, when Jaden activates the "Super Polymerization" Spell Card, Rainbow Dark Dragon is turned back to normal and Jesse is set free, returning to his body. But using its last two cards, Yubel takes "Super Polymerization" using "Last Trick" and ends the duel in a draw with "Thousand Buster".

At the beginning of Season 4, Jesse returns to North Academy but he comes back when Jaden is about to leave Domino City. Though, Jaden's "Polymerization" card was tainted in darkness by Sartorius putting his "Arcana Force 0 - The Fool" in Jaden's deck, and he thought Jesse was Trueman. The darkness only lifted once "Polymerization" flew out of Jaden's graveyard and Jaden saw that Jesse was really the one he was dueling. Then, they return to Duel Academy to fight the Trueman army in time to witness the defeat of Atticus Rhodes at the hands of Nightshroud. The two of them then duel Nightshroud, and although Jesse is beaten during the duel, Jaden continues, and is able to use "Rainbow Neos" during it because Jesse was around. Jesse keeps guarding Yusuke Fujiwara while Jaden searches for the source of the darkness that still covers the world and when he comes back to the duel place, it's strongly implied that Jesse was killed by Nightshroud. However, he is revived with the antagonist's demise.

He then makes a small appearance during the graduation party noting that his graduation at North Academy is held at a different time than at Duel Academy. He is last seen standing at a lake with Alexis and Axel. They wonder where Jaden went and talk about how they will all see each other again.

Manga
In the manga, he and the rest of the Overseas Champions are from the American Duel Academy.

In the manga, Jesse seems to have an interest in bugs. He was seen chasing a rare beetle when he first met Jaden and Syrus. He also plays an Insect deck to reflect his interest.

Voice/Mannerisms
In the English version, Jesse speaks with a Southern American accent and utilizes southern vocal mannerisms such a "y'all". While possessed by Yubel, it is much thinner and his voice is much deeper and darker. At first, his voice went back and forth between electronic effect and no effect, but as of episode 149, when speaking with his own voice he uses the one with effects exclusively. It's also worth noting that Yubel doesn't usually use her own voice while controlling him in the original, but in the dub she uses it a fair amount. At one point, when she told Adrian Gecko about what Jaden did to her, she used her voice and Jesse's added together. When she did, his body glowed purple. By contrast the Japanese version does not use electronic effects and he has no accent; but his voice is darker while possessed.

Similar to Jaden, Jesse has possessed the ability to communicate with Duel Monster spirits since he was a child. His spirit partner is Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle, whom he affectionately nicknames, "Ruby". Although Ruby is seen most frequently by his side, Jesse considers all his monsters a part of his "family", for they themselves selected him as their master.

In addition, he tends to say "Come out!" when summoning his monsters during the Japanese Duels. In the Japanese version, Jesse claims that his purpose for dueling is to duel for people who believe in their decks and have strong bonds with their cards.

Deck

 * Main article: Jesse Anderson's Decks

Jesse plays a Crystal Beasts deck, which contains monsters that are unique in that they can be be put in the Spell and Trap card zone as Continuous Spell Cards after their destruction, as opposed to being sent to the Graveyard. The deck later focuses on the summoning of the "Rainbow Dragon" card by having all seven Crystal Beasts in the Graveyard and on the field after Jesse acquires it.

Later, while possessed by Yubel, he plays corrupted versions of the Crystal Beasts, known as Advanced Crystal Beasts as well as a deck focusing on the summoning of the Sacred Beasts and their combined form, "Armityle the Chaos Phantom".

In the manga, he plays a "Papillon" deck, featuring Butterfly monsters.