Arkana

Arkana, known as Pandora the Conjurer in the manga and Japanese version, and the Swedish dub as well, where he calls himself Illusionisten Pandora, is a member of the Rare Hunters organization in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. He uses "Dark Magician" similar to Yugi, but his magician wears red and gold robes instead of purple, has slightly darker skin, silvery hair, black markings under the eyes and on the chin, and a more sinister expression. Prior to becoming a Rare Hunter, Arkana was a professional stage magician.

History
In the manga, it was briefly mentioned that Pandora was once a professional stage magician before becoming a Rare Hunter. He considered suicide twice: once when his mother died, the second when he lost his lover when a magic show went awry.

The anime omits Arkana's mother's death, but elaborates on his lost love. He was once a world-famous professional stage magician and illusionist, "the greatest illusionist and magician since Harry Houdini himself", as he says, originated from France, who had everything: money, fame, and was in love with his lovely assistant, Catherine; in the English dub, Catherine was also his fiancée.

His life went downhill after a routine escape trick that he'd done a million times went wrong as Catherine looked on, with the box exploding prematurely and scarring his once-handsome visage, which led him to wear the mask that he is seen wearing during the Battle City tournament. With his reputation and face ruined, Arkana fell into despair and selfishly focused on his own dilemma while rejecting Catherine's love, which caused her to leave him.

Eventually, Arkana came to realize that Catherine's love was too important to him to lose, but that it was already too late, as she was gone. Losing both his love and career, a ruined and depressed Arkana stumbled from day to day with the verge of giving up hope when he met Marik Ishtar, who promised to help him regain the love of his fiancée if he became a Rare Hunter and killed Yugi Muto.

Arkana's losses seemed to have a negative impact on his psyche, as he became sadistic and insane during his duel with Yugi, believing that, as the master of the Dark Magician, he has the right to sacrifice his monsters' souls to win.

Battle City
Assigned in the Battle City tournament to duel Yugi Muto, Arkana took inspiration from his background as an escape artist, and trapped Yugi in a duel arena where the loser gets his legs chopped off by a buzzsaw (in the English version of the anime, the buzzsaws were changed to Dark Energy Disks that sent the loser's mind to the Shadow Realm upon contact). Arkana acted insanely sadistic throughout the entire Duel, while rejecting all offers to end the unnecessary gruesomeness by claiming that this was his great show of escaping from the jaws of death, much to Yugi's disgust.

In the manga and Japanese anime, Arkana also made a reference to Pandora's Box, a nod to his own name, and that the box containing the key to their shackles is one of their hope of escape. Furthermore, Arkana cut his cards through the technique of "trimming" (shaving the edges) to draw Dark Magicians more easily, and cruely sacrificed his monsters to win, all the while treating his monsters as dispensable slaves and claiming that ruthlessness to even one's own "slaves" is necessary to victory; in the anime when Yugi tells him that he must believe in the Heart of the Cards instead of Marik if he is dueling for his lost love, Arkana claims his deck was made for the sole purpose of defeating Yugi, and after that, he will have no more use for it. He made claims that he was the ultimate Dark Magician user based what he considered to be his deck's superiority in terms of summoning speed and spell card powers and having three Dark Magicians, which led him arrogantly believe he is the the ultimate archmage; ironically, he had no knowledge of the Dark Magician Girl's existence until Yugi played it against him. Eventually, because Arkana betrayed his cards, Yugi managed to defeat him.

As the buzzsaw approached Arkana, he, at first, put up the dramatics by screaming in feigned horror, then planned to use a spare key he hid in his sleeve, but Marik used his Millennium Rod to erase the key from his mind as penalty for his failure, ignoring Arkana's pleas for mercy.

After Yugi saved him, Arkana rushed towards the curtains where Catherine was supposedly waiting for him; she turns out to be a mere dummy, but Arkana apparently lost his sanity, caressing the doll as though it was his true love. Marik then spoke to Yugi through Arkana about the Tomb Keepers and his ultimate goal is to free himself of the duty that he never wanted.

In the manga, upon his loss and escape from the buzzsaw, Marik saw through Arkana's memories and saw that he considered suicide twice in his life; the first was after his mother died, and the second was when he lost his lover. Marik then brought out these memories and stirred them up, so Arkana would commit suicide upon waking up.

Arkana made an additional appearance during Yami Marik's Duel with Mai Valentine at the Battle City Finals. After Marik's Makyura the Destructor was destroyed during their Shadow Game, Marik's memory of Arkana was erased, to which Marik showed sick satisfaction.

Waking the Dragons
In the Waking the Dragons arc, Arkana makes a cameo as one of the "lost souls" seen alongside Yami Marik wandering about the sacred circle as Yami Yugi ventures to find his other half.

Dark Duel Stories
Arkana has also appeared in the Yu-Gi-Oh! video game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories for the Game Boy Color. He is the fifth duelist available after beating the first wave of duelists five times. His deck contains most of his key cards from the anime and manga, although some of his more powerful cards have been taken out to make him an easier duelist. Another thing worth noting in this deck is that all of his cards are repeats, with the exception of "Dark Hole", which is Limited in this game.

Deck
Arkana uses a "Dark Magician" Deck centred around his "Dark Magicians" by supporting them through an array of cards such as "Thousand Knives" and "Dark Renewal". Arkana's "Dark Magician" cards are all trimmed so that he can manipulate what he is about to draw.