Seto Kaiba

Seto Kaiba is the majority shareholder and President of his own multi-national company, KaibaCorp, who aims to become the world's greatest player of the Duel Monsters card game. To accomplish this goal, he must defeat his arch-rival, Yugi Muto. He is largely considered an anti-hero, as his motives are usually ego-centric, but in several cases towards a good cause.

Among one of the recurring plots in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Seto Kaiba is being forced to deal with either people adversely affected by Gozaburo Kaiba's actions wanting to take their revenge on Seto Kaiba, or people from within KaibaCorp attempting to take over the corporation.

Design


Kaiba's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit from the second series anime consists of a long white sleeveless KaibaCorp designed coat featuring shoulder pads and a raised studded collar, with black sleeves from his shirt coming out from under. He has extra belts in pairs strapped around his upperarms and shins. He often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

In the first series anime, Kaiba has green hair, while in the manga, Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, and the second series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Kaiba has brown hair.

Biography
At a young age, Kaiba and his younger brother Mokuba were orphaned. Their mother died after Mokuba was born, and their father died in an accident when Seto was eight. Their relatives used up their inheritance and left them at the orphanage. When the former head of KaibaCorp, Gozaburo Kaiba, arrived at the orphanage to perform a publicity stunt, Kaiba saw the chance to challenge him to a game of chess, with Gozaburo forced to adopt Seto and Mokuba should he win. The different versions of the story differ on Seto's age: the manga and Japanese animated series states that Seto was ten years old, while the English animated series states that Seto was twelve. Seto had won by studying Gozaburo's chess methods (cheating in the manga). But Gozaburo forced Seto into a rigorous accelerated school program, forcing him to study several subjects, including economics, social studies, foreign languages, and game strategy.

Gozaburo also had an ulterior motive: he wanted to adopt Seto because he was bright enough to be motivation for his own son, Noah Kaiba, to do better so that Noah could inherit KaibaCorp. With Noah's untimely death (his mind was placed into a virtual world), however, Gozaburo focused his energies to Seto Kaiba. On Seto's birthday, he was given a 2% share of KaibaCorp (in the English anime, ten million dollars) and was told that although he could spend the money any way he wished, he must return one hundred times (in the English anime, ten times) the amount in one year. In an unknown method, Seto returned all the money within a single day.



Six years later, Seto Kaiba took over his step-father's company by gaining the 51% that he needed to be in control. In the manga, Gozaburo, provoked by Seto taking over and becoming CEO, committed suicide by jumping out of his office window, but not before he downloaded his mind into Noah's virtual world. Gozaburo's death occurred six months before Seto dueled Sugoroku Mutou. In the first series, Seto electrocutes Gozaburo after Seto takes over the company.

After taking control of KaibaCorp Seto shifted its interest from the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction to gaming equipment. One of Kaiba's dreams was to build an amusement park for orphaned and underprivileged children called KaibaLand. At the start of the series, only one KaibaLand had been built, in Domino (in the English anime, none of the parks had been built, and KaibaLand was touted as the KaibaCorp headquarters).

In the manga, the four Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards were possessed by an American, a German, a Hong Konger, and Sugoroku Mutou of Japan, Yugi's grandfather. Kaiba took the cards belonging to the former three using force: by either forcing the person into bankruptcy, by making deals with the mafia, or by forcing the person to commit suicide.

While Yugi Mutou and his friends are playing Duel Monsters, while reading a book (In the Japanese version, the book is supposedly Friedrich Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (but the title in the Japanese verion is: Also Spracha Zarathustra)). he overhears that Sugoroku Mutou is in posession of the fourth "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card. In the first series he switches Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes with a counterfeit but Dark Yugi wins a game of Duel Monsters and places a penalty game on Seto, causing Seto to be trapped in an illusion where Duel Monsters kill him repeatedly, though it is just a sensation of death. Yugi gives his grandfather the real card back.

In the Duelist Kingdom arc Kaiba was Duel Monsters World Champion. He challanges Sugoroku to duel in order to claim Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes after he refused to trade it and sell it. Yugi and his friends catch up Sugoroku has already been defeated and Kaiba rips the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in two in front of them. An outraged Yugi duels Kaiba, and discovers Kaiba has the other three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his deck. Yugi finally defeats him by using Exodia.

After his defeat, Kaiba drops out of playing Duel Monsters. But after Pegasus kidnaps Mokuba in an attempt to take over KaibaCorp, Seto flies to Duelist Kingdom to try to save his brother. Kaiba loses a duel to Pegasus and Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to strip Kaiba's soul from his body. Kaiba, Mokuba, and Sugoroku Mutou are restored after Yugi defeats Pegasus to become World Champion.

Afterwards, in an anime-only mini-arc, Kaiba's mind was trapped in the "Virtual World" by five shadowy figures known as "The Big Five" while testing out a virtual reality machine that he created. These five had been working with Pegasus to take over KaibaCorp, and Kaiba subsequently fired them, they were all out for revenge now. Yugi and Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) entered the virtual world at Mokuba's request and in this video-game like setting, saved Kaiba. The Big Five took the form of Five-Headed Dragon in the Virtual World, trying to stop the rescue, but were defeated - now doomed with their minds in this virtual reality setting forever.

In the start of the Battle City arc, Ishizu Ishtar gives Kaiba the Egyptian God card "Obelisk the Tormentor" to convince him to host the Battle City tournament. Ishizu also shows Kaiba a tablet that shows him and Yugi dueling in ancient Egypt. Kaiba refers to this as superstition, but plays into Ishizu's plan by deciding to hold the "Battle City" tournament. Kaiba goes through with the tournament in the hopes of gaining the other two Egyptian God Cards with an ante rule and so he can defeat Yugi and reclaim his title as World Champion. Various injuries occur in the tournament to which Kaiba shows little or no concern. Despite witnessing the power of the Millennium Items he still dismisses the idea of magic, particualary while dueling Ishizu in the quarter-finals, who uses the power of her Millennium Necklace to predict the future and forsees her victory against Kaiba. An unknown instinct tells him to summon his Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba follows it claiming he makes his own future and tributes Obelisk the Tormentor to play Blue-Eyes hence avoiding his defeat.

In the manga the blimp arrive safetly at the island where the finals are to take place. In the anime however, while travelling to the finals the blimp goes out of control and is guided by an outside source into an underwater submarine. Noah Kaiba appears on a screen and threatens to kill Kaiba and his guests if he does not step out. Kaiba and the others step into a room where the Big Five appear on an image screen and report that they will now have their revenge on Kaiba. Kaiba and the others then fall into the Virtual World. Noah shows various flashbacks of Seto and Mokuba's past to turn Mokuba against Seto. The guests duel and defeat the big five in duels that involve using Deck Masters. Noah brainwashes Mokuba into taking him in as his new brother. Kaiba ends up dueling Noah and breaking through to Mokuba, freeing him from Noah's grip. Noah turns Kaiba and his brother into stone, and Yugi ends up finishing Kaiba's duel with Noah. Kaiba and Mokuba are unfrozen, and Kaiba decides to duel Gozaburo - who reveals himself to have been controlling Noah's actions. Kaiba defeats Gozaburo (who was using Exodia Necross, symbolic since Yugi defeated Kaiba with Exodia) and escapes with Yugi as the Virual World crumbles. Gozaburo attempts to stop Kaiba's escape but fails and Kaiba exclaims, "I won't be buried with you Gozaburo".

Kaiba, his colleagues and guests arrive safely at the finals afterwards, where Kaiba is defeated by Yugi in the semi-finals causing him to forfeit Obelisk the Tormentor to Yugi. Joey survives an attack from The Winged Dragon of Ra in his semi-final against Marik Ishtar but falls just before he can declare victory. Kaiba admits to himself that he was impressed by Joey's performance. However upon facing Joey (who awoke from his coma during Kaiba and Yugi's duel) in a friendly duel, he still shows no outward respect for him and defeats Joey. Before Yugi's duel with Marik, mainly due to Ishizu, he hands Yugi the Fiend's sanctuary card, which helps Yugi win the duel.

In the Waking the Dragons arc Kaiba, along with Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler, are the three "chosen duelists" each given a Legendary Dragon card (the The Fang of Critias in Kaiba's case) in order to save the world from Dartz, who had been using the power of The Seal of Orichalcos to steal people's souls to release his legendary serpent, "The Great Levitian". Kaiba is challenged by Alister who was one of Dartz "Swordsmen of Doma." Alister blames Kaiba for tragic events that happened in his life due to Gozaburo. Alister has also somehow managed to take control of a large portion of KaibaCorp. Unable to convince Alister that he is not responsible Kaiba defeats Alister, who loses his soul. Kaiba ultimatly loses to Dartz while dueling alongside Yugi. However using Kaiba's contributions to the duel, Yugi defeats Dartz.

Kaiba hosts the KaibaCorp GrandPrix after to regain control of his company after it was bought out by Dartz. Kaiba only duels once in this arc. His old economic competitor, Zigfried von Schroeder, returns hoping to collapse KaibaCorp, but Kaiba defeats him and Yugi defeats his younger brother, Leon, to maintain his title as World Champion and save KaibaCorp.

In the Dawn of the Duel arc (Millennium World arc in English version), Kaiba is challenged to a duel by Yami Bakura. Bakura leaves before they can finish the duel and gives him the Millennium Eye so he can gain entry to the Memory World. Despite his misbelief, he travels to the Millennium World. Still convinced it is an illusion he summons Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to fight Zorc Necrophades, he attacks telling Zorc that he is nothing more than a hologram that he used to deal with, and that his first words were Neutron Blast, which is Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack. His Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, however, could not defeat Zorc, just as Zorc could not defeat it. Zorc explained that the ultimate force of darkness and the ultimate force of light were now in collusion implying that it was the Light attribute of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes that allowed it to hold it's own against Zorc better than the Egyptian Gods. But with Atem's help they summoned Dragon Master Knight, which in turn was then defeated by Zorc, most likely because it was no longer a pure light monster. Later Kaiba, protected Yugi and his friends using his Ring of Defense giving Atem more time to recover his name so he could re-summon and fuse the Egyptian God Cards. After witnessing the presence of both Atem and Yugi in the same place Kaiba mumbled to himself "Maybe there is some truth to this junk", but when Joey Wheeler inquired as to what he said of the whole Millennium Arc events being real, Kaiba replied "Nice try I said this was all a mind trick.", it can be assumed that Seto merely denied it out of pride.

After returning to the present he wishes to duel Atem in the Ceremonial Battle, but is refused the privilage as Yugi states his intentions to duel the Pharaoh. He responds to the refusal saying he didn't come this far to see Yugi lose his title to his imaginary friend. Nevertheless Kaiba watches the duel and witnesses the Pharaoh seperate from Yugi's body and finally be put to rest. After this performance he admits that there may have been more to this magic, but withdraws his statement when Joey asks if he heard him right.

Kaiba in the Manga
In the manga, Kaiba is subjected to a "Penalty Game" after he loses to Yami Yugi and is said to be rebuilding the "shattered puzzle of his heart". Mokuba responds by saying "Big brother, I'll wait for you forever". Kaiba solves the puzzle in his heart while Yugi is dueling a ventriliquist using Kaiba's deck at Duelist Kingdom in the manga. At the end of Duelist Kingdom, when Kaiba and Mokuba are finally reunited, Yugi says that Mokuba was the last piece. The child Seto, who was shown beginning to put the puzzle together at the end of Death-T, is shown once again, holding the finished puzzle. In the manga, Kaiba doesn't go with Yugi and his friends to the Millennium World.

Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Though not seen much in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, Kaiba is referred as the one who set up Duel Academy and named the dormitories personally. He made several appearances, the first being when he made a bet on his ownership of the school. He seemed bold and had full confidence in the duelist representing Duel Academy, Chazz, would win despite the unfair advantage in the duel (in the Japanese episode, Kaiba stated at the end that anyone who was a student at his academy should be able to win a duel no matter what the stipulations are, and in the English version stated that Chazz's brothers needed to learn a little bit more about world domination). During the second year, he also appears in Jaden's flashback, announcing a card illustration project, and again when he allows Sartorius (Takuma Saiou) the use of KaibaLand during the Academy's field trip. The Duel Monster spirit "Kaibaman" who duels against Jaden is based on Seto Kaiba and uses the same deck, including his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons.

In the fourth season, Kaiba is the only citizen of Domino City who survives Trueman's attack.

In episode 76, Sartorius says that "Kaiba hasn't aged in years". This is likely an inside joke to fans on how the character animation for Kaiba is identical in both series, despite the fact GX is ten years later, making Kaiba over 27 years old.

Voice/Mannerisms
In the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kaiba omits honorifics and has a "rude" pattern of speech. Kaiba uses the word "ore" to mean "I" instead of the usual boku; ore is a boastful way to say "I" in Japanese. Kaiba usually calls Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) names, such as "bonkotsu" (mediocre), "make-inu" (pathetic dog, loser), and "zako" (small fry, weakling). This name calling was carried over to the English anime.

In the English version, Kaiba has a certain contempt for Yugi's group of friends: he refers to them constantly with derisive nicknames such as "the dweeb patrol" or "the geek squad".

One of Seto's recurring traits is his absolute refusal to believe in the powers of magic often used in the series. Later on during sagas like Waking the Dragons, he openly admits to believing in all the supernatural events occurring around him instead of just ignorantly saying they don't exist as he does in the English anime. Also, in the Japanese version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, Kaiba stated at the end that the only reason he tried to destroy the Pyramid of Light card during his duel with Yugi was because if the card really was magic, it would mean he didn't defeat Yugi using his own strength and he refused to win that way. However, the closest the English Kaiba has come to this is "Maybe there is some truth to this junk" in the final episodes; however, when questioned by Joey, he quickly denies he ever said such a thing. He probably did this because of his arrogance and the fact that had he admitted to saying so knowing Joey's occasional childish nature he would have been teased to no end by Joey because of their rivalry.

Deck
Although Kaiba's best known cards are his three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" and the fusion monster formed from the three dragons, the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", other Duel Monsters Cards have been utilized in his Deck, including the XYZ series.

Kaiba appears to favor the Beatdown type of strategy, meaning he favors using cards and monsters that completely overpower his opponents.

During Duelist Kingdom, he utilized various brutal appearing monsters to reflect his personality. In Battle City it takes on traits of a Virus Deck, relying on removing cards from the opponents deck, by utilizing cards such as "Crush Card Virus", "Virus Cannon" and "Vampire Lord", while also focusing on summoning and using "Obelisk the Tormentor". In later episodes, his Deck becomes more focused on removing his monsters from play and returning them to the field to overwhelm his opponents.

As the series progresses he adds more support for his "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", such as "The Flute of Summoning Dragon", "Cost Down", "Kaiser Sea Horse" and "Paladin of White Dragon". In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX his Deck is used by Kaibaman and focuses entirely on the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".