Yuya Sakaki

Yuya Sakaki (, Sakaki Yūya) is the main protagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime. He is a student of You Show Duel School who dreams of becoming an "entertainment Duelist", a type of professional Duelist.

Appearance
Yuya is a young boy with crimson eyes, and dual-colored green and crimson hair of average length sticking out in downwards pointing spikes all around his head in a similar manner to Jaden Yuki, with the exception of one short-upwards pointing spike of green hair. He wears his good-luck charm pendant on a simple string around his neck, and a buckled collar, and also wears a pair of golden goggles with orange lenses on his forehead, with a blue star obscuring the right lens.

Yuya wears a simple red shirt with a thick, silver-buckled brown belt over it, green pants with what appear to be "Deck pockets" on each leg, and magenta shoes, as well as crimson wristbands. He also wears his gold and red lined white jacket over his shoulders like a cape, in a similar manner to Yami Yugi.

Personality
A fun-loving and energetic boy, Yuya is very theatrical and loves to entertain people, traits he seems to inherited from his father, Yusho Sakaki. He idolizes his father very much and wishes to become an entertainer like him one day. After his father disappeared during an important match, Yuya was left heartbroken and traumatized by the event because his beloved father was labeled as a "coward". As Yoko Sakaki had stated, Yuya acts like a fool merely to beat people to insulting him about his father disappearing. Yuya even joked about his father when Noboru Gongenzaka brought up the fact that he should act more serious about his Duels like his father.

Due to Yuya's buffoonery, his friends and other people are often baffled by Yuya's behavior and believes he doesn't take things seriously. Because his father was so famous, his friends and other people seems to have high expectations of Yuya to live up to his father's reputation while simultaneously quick to bring up Yusho's "cowardice" or scold him for his clownish actions. During his Duel with Strong Ishijima, Yuya proved to be quite clever and skilled in Action Duels, having learned everything from his father.

Yuya has a habit of putting his goggles over his eyes when he is upset, something he did since he was young.

Etymology
Like the protagonists of the other series, Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo, and Yuma Tsukumo, his name contains the syllable "Yu".

Yuya is the name of a powerful Egyptian courtier during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt, father of Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. When the latter died, his son ruled the Ancient Egypt as Amenhotep IV, but later changed his royal name for Akhenaten, who may have been a reference to Akhenaden, the father of Seto and uncle of Atem.

History
In his childhood, Yuya sat by himself crying when his father, Yusho Sakaki came in to cheer him up. He gave him the advice on laughing whenever he felt down and used Yuya's Pendant to explain that if Yuya was happy, the happiness would swing back at him.

At a later point, Yuya and his mother, Yoko Sakaki, watched the final Duel between Yusho and Strong Ishijima. When Yusho did not show up, Yuya ran to the bottom of the stands, saying that his father would appear, and challenged Ishijima to a Duel until his father arrived. Yoko pulled Yuya from the stands as he continued to protest.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Yuya and Noboru Gongenzaka were engaged in a Duel in You Show Duel School to recruit future students. As Noboru called out to Yuya to Duel in a one-on-one match, he boldly made a stage performance with "Hippo Carnival" and started to dance. After Yuzu Hiragi accidentally broke the Solid Vision machine, Yuya fell to the ground, but he managed to make a quick recovery and pulled a funny face after seeing Tatsuya looking concerned. At the lounge, Yuya was frustrated that he couldn't entertain his audience, much to the annoyance of his friends. When Nico Smiley offered Yuya a chance to fulfill his desire of Dueling Strong Ishijima in his father's place, Yuya became upset. Eventually, he left the school and sat by himself, remembering the time when his father told him to stay positive when he felt down. He later made his way to the Dueling arena to participate in Ishijima's Duel, dressed as a clown. Yuya sneaked up behind Ishijima and taunted him behind his back before revealing himself, much to Ishijima's shock and anger. Yuya apologized for his actions before commencing the Duel. He put up a good performance with "Entermate Discover Hippo" and used the Action Cards that were scattered around the battlefield to save himself. Yuya eventually Summoned "Odd-Eyes Dragon" in an attempt to defeat Ishijima's "Battleguard King", which had been weakened by "Wonder Balloon", but Ishijima managed to counter Yuya's play with his own Action Card, "Miracle". "Odd-Eyes" was then destroyed by "Battleguard King", pushing Yuya to a corner and making him lose hope. Remembering his father's words, Yuya regained the courage to continue. Suddenly, his pendant reacted with three of his Effect Monsters - "Magician of Astromancy", "Magician of Chronomancy" and "Odd-Eyes Dragon", transforming them into Pendulum Monsters, while "Odd-Eyes Dragon" was transformed into "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon". Using his Spellcaster-Type Pendulum monsters, Yuya performed the first Pendulum Summons, Special Summoning "Entermate Sword Fish", "Entermate Whip Viper" and "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon", to the amazement of the audience.

Deck
Yuya uses an "Entermate" Deck, which consists of animals dressed in carnival attire, referencing his passion for entertaining people. The majority of his tactics involve reducing the ATK and DEF of his opponent's monsters through the effects of his "Entermate" monsters or cards such as "Wonder Balloon". During the Duel against Strong Ishijima, Yuya uses the Pendulum Summon mechanic to Summon multiple monsters at once.

Since everyone else was surprised by this feat, it can be inferred that Yuya created the Pendulum Summon. He also Summons high mobility monsters to help him grab Action Cards, primarily his "Entermate Discover Hippo" and "Odd-Eyes" monsters.