Anzu Mazaki (manga)

Anzu Mazaki is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Anzu Mazaki, known as Téa Gardner in most English media, as created by Kazuki Takahashi.

Anzu is a childhood friend of Yugi Mutou and often accompanies him on his adventures. She is interested in dancing and wants to study abroad after leaving school. At the beginning of the series she develops a crush on Dark Yugi and becomes obsessed with finding out his identity, having been saved by him while she was blindfolded.

School
Fed-up playing basketball with the boys, who were trying to look up the girls skirts, Anzu returned to her classroom at lunchtime. Here she found Yugi being bullied by Jonouchi and Honda. She caught Yugi's puzzle's box that they were throwing around and told them off. After Jonouchi and Honda left, Yugi told her about the puzzle he'd been working on for eight years.

After Yugi became friends with Jonouchi, Anzu started to hang out with Jonouchi too, albeit still punching him hard when he and Honda lifted her skirt with a t-square.

Anzu got a job at Burger World in order to save money to attend a dance school in New York. Having a part time job was against school rules, so she tried to keep it a secret. However Yugi and Jonouchi decided to follow Anzu after school one day, after noting suspicious behavior on her behalf. Jonouchi had suspected she might be dating older men for pay. They followed her to Burger World. Here Anzu served them burgers, but squirted a warning message onto the burgers, in ketchup, saying not to tell.

An escaped convict entered the restaurant and took Anzu hostage. While she was blindfolded, Yugi was forced to serve the convict a drink and Lucky cigarettes. Dark Yugi took control and played a Shadow Game with the convict. To Anzu, his voice sounded like Yugi's, but he was much too confident and dangerous to be Yugi. Dark Yugi defeated the convict and saved Anzu. Not knowing who her rescuer was, Anzu develops a crush on him and wanted to find out his identity.

The self-proclaimed psychic Kokurano tried to seduce Anzu, by reading her future telling her how she would meet a wonderful man, who will reveal himself to her and she will swoon before him in love. Anzu hoped that this would be the man who saved her at Burger World. However, Kokurano tried to make himself the man from the prediction and caused Anzu to swoon, by knocking her out with a bottle of chloroform. Dark Yugi learned how Kokurano was in the habit of making his predictions come true and rushes to Anzu's rescue. Using the bottle, Dark Yugi defeated him in a Shadow Game.

Anzu was class representative as her class prepared for the school festival. She took suggestions from other students as to what they should do and decided to go with Yugi's Carnival Games idea. She managed to win the most popular spot at the festival in a lottery, but Goro Inogashira tried to steal the spot for his class and tore down their Carnival Games booth. When Yugi saw Anzu cry over this, he changed to Dark Yugi and won the spot back in a Shadow Game against Inogashira.

Yugi and Sugoroku introduced Anzu to Duel Monsters at the Kame Game shop.

When Jonouchi mysteriously missed a day of school, Anzu admitted that it was lonely without him and helped Honda and Yugi look for him later.

Anzu went to an Egyptian exhibition in Domino Museum for free as Yugi's grandfather was friends with Professor Yoshimori. Yoshimori's friend Professor Kanekura died a sudden suspicious death on the day of the exhibition, leading Anzu and Jonouchi to accompany Yugi and his grandfather as they visited Yoshimori to cheer him up.

Shadi, the man responsible for Kanekura's death was also looking to punish Yoshimori for taking treasures from the pharaoh's tomb. However seeking to challenge Dark Yugi, he "redecorated" Yoshimori's soul room and had him attack Yugi's friends. Anzu stopped Yoshimori from choking Jonouchi by walloping him in the head with a globe.

Shadi entered Anzu's soul room in an attempt to coax Dark Yugi into taking control of Yugi. Inside he saw items that represented Anzu's dream of becoming a dancer in New York and a photo of a hero, whose face was blank. Shadi redecorated her soul to use her in a Shadow Game against Dark Yugi.

Anzu was suspended on a bridge of life supported by three ushebti, which break when a weakness is detected in Yugi's heart. A fourth ushebti, which breaks when a weakness is detected in Shadi's heart, held the Millennium Key. Yugi's ushetbi breaking would result in Anzu being sent to her death, while breaking Shadi's would slide the Millennium Key to Anzu and return her to normal.

Dark Yugi passed a series of tests Shadi threw at him, although he let three ushebti break in the process. The rope from the fourth began to break, but Jonouchi appeared under the bridge and held it up. From Jonouchi's action and how Dark Yugi passed the last test, Shadi was surprised by how the friends help and support each other, causing his ushetbi to break and return Anzu to normal. Yugi and Jonouchi helped Anzu back onto the building, after which Anzu and Jonouchi noticed Yugi had been acting different, but Dark Yugi relinquished control to Yugi when they approached him about this.

When Digital Pets became popular, Anzu got one which she called Peachy. She also lectured Kujirada on how he shouldn't disrespect other people's Digital Pets, because they aren't a hidden character, like his. Peachy later fells victim to Kujirada's pet after Kujirada swiped it from Anzu to feed to it to his.

Death-T
Anzu was fired from Burger World, after she punched a customer, who touched her. She then got a job at Kaiba Land, where she had to work at the Stardust Shootout. While working here, she met Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Honda's baby nephew Johji, during Death-T and learned how Kaiba was trying to kill Yugi in his theme park.

Honda got Anzu to mind Johji, who disliked the boys, but admired Anzu, in a perverted sense. Since Kaiba rigged the game, Yugi and his friends laser guns were duds. The staff were unaware that Anzu was their friend, so she had been given a functional gun. Using her gun and hiding Johji on his back, Honda was able to take out the remaining opposition. In exchange for Johji's help, Honda had promised him a bath with Anzu, which she blatantly refused.

The friends were strapped into the Electric Chair Ride on their way to Death T-2. If a rider screamed, they would be electrocuted. As Anzu felt, she was about to scream, Johji, who wasn't strapped in, made his way back to the butler, who was orchestrating the ride. To save Anzu, he defecated on the butler's lap, causing him to scream and get electrocuted, leaving nobody to operate the terrifying features.

The gang entered the Murderer's Mansion, where they were made stick their hands in the holes of a guillotine. Yugi managed to solve a riddle in time to save his friends from having their hands cut off. After this, Johji was taken captive by the Chopman, but Jonouchi saved him and the group moved on to Death T-3.

In Death T-3, the gang entered an empty room. Since nothing happened for a while, Anzu, Yugi, Honda and Jonouchi reflected on how their lives had changed by meeting each other. Anzu asked them to hold out their hands as she drew a smiley face on them. If they ended up taking separate paths in life, Anzu told them to remember the symbol and they will remember being friends.

The stage's game started and a number of blocks began to fall from the ceiling. Having studied dance patterns, Anzu noticed a rhythm to how the blocks were falling. With this, she was able to predict where the next blocks were about to fall and warn the others. As the room filled up with blocks, the gang climbed up on top of them. Anzu, Yugi, Jonouchi and the sleeping Johji made it out through a hole in the wall high above the ground, but Honda got trapped in and was left behind.

Upset over what happened to Honda, Yugi admitted to Anzu and Jonouchi that he thinks there is another Yugi inside him, that he doesn't know about; Ever since he solved the Millennium Puzzle, there had been times when he blacked out and the other him took over. He'd been afraid to tell his friends, as he feared they might leave him if they knew. However Anzu and Jonouchi promised that they would always be friends with Yugi.

Anzu knowingly sees Dark Yugi for the first time, as he prepared to face Mokuba in a game of Capsule Monster Chess in Death T-4. Jonouchi and Anzu were held there at gun point, during this stage. After Dark Yugi won, they were taken to the Dome Duel Arena to watch him face Kaiba in a game of Duel Monsters in Death T-5. They were still held at gunpoint after Dark Yugi won, until Honda showed up and saved them with the help of Mokuba.

After Anzu became aware of Dark Yugi's existence, she gave a Lovely Two, which is a love compatibility tester, to Yugi. Initially it got no reading, suggesting that they weren't romantically compatible. That day, the teacher Tsuruoka confiscated Yugi's Lovely Two, but Dark Yugi emerged and told Tsuruoka that he had never lost a game. Tsuruoka then imposed a game, where he hid the Lovely Two somewhere in the school and gave Yugi and his friends one hour to find it or face expulsion. Anzu became bashful, seeing the other Yugi out, but handed him her love tester, thinking it might be of some use. Dark Yugi brought her tester into close proximity of Yugi's and switched it on. This time the testers react, suggesting Anzu and Dark Yugi were compatible. They then found Yugi's Lovely Two under Tsuruoka's wig.

Anzu went with Yugi to an amusement park. Here she faked putting herself in danger in the hope that Dark Yugi, would come out, as he had done so before to rescue her. The first time she pretended a boy who hit on her was pervert, but that backfired as a group of other boys beat him up. When there was a bomber in the park, Anzu stuck around, hoping it would be enough to get Dark Yugi to come out. She got into a ferris wheel, not knowing that the Bomber had planted bombs on it. Dark Yugi emerged and aided the police by playing a game of clock solitaire the bomber had set up, which determined which bombs would go off. Dark Yugi managed to end the game before any of the bombs near people went off.

Monster World
Anzu, along with Yugi, Honda and Jonouchi visited Ryo Bakura, to play Monster World. However, Bakura got possessed by Dark Bakura, who turned the game into a Shadow Game.

Anzu got trapped in her piece, an elf. Her friends also got trapped inside pieces, while Dark Yugi led them as the player. She rolled a critical hit, at an early stage of the game, destroying a number of Zorc's minions. She later healed the party after getting attacked by Zorc. Ryo Bakura managed to destroy Dark Bakura's dice, leaving him open for Anzu to attack, defeating him.

After the game, Anzu and her friends were returned to normal.

Pharaoh's Memory
Anzu and her friends prepare for Dark Yugi, the Pharaoh, to finally regain his memories. Anzu worries that if the Pharaoh regains his memory, he might lose his memory of them, but Yami assures her he could never forget them.

Anzu, Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Bakura meet Bobasa at the museum, who will take them to the world of the Pharaoh's memory. Before they leave, Anzu goes to the gift shop to find something to give to the Pharaoh. She bought him a cartouche pendant, which he can use to put his real name on, once he learns it.

At the Millennium Tablet, the Pharaoh is sucked into the world of his memories. Anzu gets a shock and is greatly upset when Yugi reports that the Pharaoh is no longer inside him and scared after she hears its possible he could be returning to a death. The friends agree that they want to accompany the Pharaoh in the Memory World, so Bobasa transports them inside Yugi's heart using the Millennium Key. Inside is the same labyrinth of stairways and doors, that Shadi found when he entered. Here they must find the Pharaoh's true soul room, in order to venture to his Memory World.