Bakura Ryou

Ryo Bakura (獏良 了 Bakura Ryō), is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series. In the English-language anime and video games, he is known as Bakura.

Bakura is actually two seperate entities. One is Bakura, a good friend of Yugi Mutou and Yugi's group of friends. He is a kind young man, who enjoys playing Duel Monsters for recreational purposes. He owns of one of the Millennium Items, the Millennium Ring. Bakura's father purchased the Millenium Ring whilst on a trip in Egypt, after being told that it was related to the Duel Monsters card game, which he knew his son had an interest in. The other entity is that of Thief Bakura (also known as Yami Bakura and the Spirit of the Ring), an ancient Egyptian tomb robber, sealed inside the Millennium Ring for 5,000 years by the Pharaoh, Atem (Yami Yugi),or Yugioh. This Bakura wants all seven Millennium Items for himself, in order to obtain a great evil power.

The two rarley directly converse, and host Bakura refers to Yami Bakura only as a "voice".

In the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bakura has a polite speaking matter using many honorifics. The darker half however, uses none. Reflecting this, Bakura in the English Anime, posseses a British accent, as does his evil counterpart (although he tends to treat other humans with great disrespect).

Thief Bakura and Ancient Egypt
The origins of Bakura begin in ancient Egypt, where most of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters stories begin. Thief Bakura was one of the main enemies of the Pharaoh and the holders of the Millennium Items. Slowly, Thief Bakura's strength grew and he began a campaign against the Pharaoh and his people seeking to gain the power of the Millennium Items.

Early Life
Thief Bakura grew up in a small village, home to many thieves and bandits. This villiage was known as Kul Elna. Akhenaden (the brother of the ruling Pharaoh at the time), tricked the Pharaoh in allowing him to create the Millennium Items. What he failed to tell the Pharaoh was that this required sacrafices of evil souls. Akhnaden decided Kul Elna was a perfect choice for the sacrifices, as all who lived there were thieves.

When the Pharaoh's men appeared in the villiage, Thief Bakura remained hidden and looked on in horror as everyone he knew was slaughtered by these men. It's possible that he witnessed the creation of the Millennium Items here, as that would explain his knowledge of them, as well as the Millennium Stone.

A few years later it was revealed to Thief Bakura that the men who destroyed his villiage had been men of the Pharaoh, and thus he swore revenge on the King of Egypt.

Thief Bakura's Revenge
Thief Bakura begins his quest for revenge by raiding the tomb of the last Pharaoh (Atem's father), Akhenamkhanen. Here he not only takes valuable treasures and the Pharaoh's coffin itself, but he steals a ancient dueling device and Akhenamkhanen's collection of Shadow Monster Tablets. With all of this power now in his hand, Thief Bakura made his way to the Phraraoh's palace with his mounted henchmen.

When they arrived they quickly dispatched of the Pharaoh's guards and Thief Bakura found his way into the Royal Chamber. Here the Millennium Item Holders waged a battle against the tomb robber, but were defeated. Atem took control and he had the upper hand. Thief Bakura knew it would be unwise to fight the Pharaoh with his limited strength and thus he fled.

The Millennium Item Holders, now began a quest to find Thief Bakura. He himself began ambushing them one by one. The first was Mahado, who he fought in a Magic caster's sacred tomb. Mahado attempted to defeat the thief, but he was not powerful enough, and with the last of his power, fused himself with his Illusion Magician, creating the Dark Magician. However Thief Bakura survived, and took the Millennium Ring for himself.

He then ambushed Akhenaden, and through dark images, convinced the man that his son (Priest Seto), should be Pharaoh, rather than his brother's child (Atem). This caused a feud between the Millennium Item holders, and Thief Bakura used it as an opportune time to battle the Pharaoh. He defeated Atem, taking his Millennium Puzzle, leaving him for dead. However, Atem had in fact survived and after tracking Thief Bakura down, they waged one last battle at Kul Elna, the birth place of the Millennium Items. Thief Bakura lost to the mighty Pharaoh, and he was punished by Atem, being sealed inside the Millennium Ring for 5,000 years, until his younger alter ego, Bakura obtained the powerful artifact.

Present Day
At the present day, the two entities of Bakura are joined in the same body, with Thief Bakura using Bakura as a vessel for him to conduct all his work. Through Bakura, Thief Bakura still hopes to aquire all seven Millennium Items.

Monster World Arc

 * This arc only appears in the manga and the Japanese first series anime by Toei

Bakura meets Yugi and his friends Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime), Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) and Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner) when he is transferred to Domino High School. Bakura tells his new friends that he has a love for games of all types, particularly the RPG "Monster World". However for some mysterious reason that he can not explain, everyone who has played with him has fallen into a coma. This is the main reason he transfers schools so often. When Yugi allowed him to hold the Millennium Puzzle, Bakura felt a sharp pain in his chest (later revealed to be the Spirit of the Millennium Ring).

That night, Bakura is busy writing a letter to his sister, Amane (who later dies in a car crash), a voice announces that he is its new host. Bakura looks down in horror to find that the sharp points of the Millennium Ring are jabbing into his skin. This voice is Dark (Yami) Bakura, a 3,000 year old ancient spirit from Egypt (Yami Bakura is a 5,000 year old spirit in the English anime), who has his sights set on aquiring the Millennium Puzzle for himself.

Bakura sets up a miniture "Monster World" game, and the next day invites his friends to play (in the Toei anime, Miho Nosaka is also invited). Each of the group picks a type of monster they wish to play as, and Bakura seals them inside minitures of their selected monsters. Yugi becomes a monster tamer, Jonouchi a warrior, Hiroto a magic gunman and Anzu as a magician. In the Toei anime Miho becomes a gypsy. With everyone else's souls sealed in minitures, Dark Yugi (occuping Yugi's body) challanges Dark Bakura to free his friends.

The host Bakura emerges in subtle ways throughout the course of the game, causing some criticals errors for Dark Bakura's game plan. Dark Bakura realises this and decided to punish his host (and alter ego) by impaling his left hand on a tower spire in the game, laughing insanley. The host however, would not be beated so easy, determined to save his his friends. Concealing his soul into a pair of dice, the host Bakura causes the dice to shatter, ending the game, sacrificing his life in the process.

The host Bakura is dead when Dark Yugi reaches him, howver his avatar is still animated in the RPG, and that Bakura uses his healing powers to bring his own body back to life.

Duelist Kingdom
Bakura makes his first appearance in the anime series while on the cruise ship to Duelist Kingdom. Strangley enough, Bakura was not selected by Maximillion Pegasus to be an official duelist in the tournament, and thus did not posses a dueling glove and two star chips, which were required for entry onto the ship. Bakura first makes contact with the group when he confronts them at Duelist Kindgom (he is seen by Anzu a few times prior to this; on the ship transporting them to Duelist Kingdom and in some woods, however she thought her mind was playing tricks on her). Here Yami Bakura traps Yugi, his friends and the host Bakura into their favorite Duel Monster cards, leaving Yami Yugi with the responsibility to save his friends lives. This is the anime's outlook on the first series anime and manga's RPG story arch. To further support this, the cards each member inhabits are similar to that of which they inhabited in the RPG.

Bakura stayed with the group up until Yugi's defeat of Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese anime). After which Yami Bakura challanges Pegasus to another Shadow Game, and defeats him, taking his Milennium Eye. This brought Bakura's Millenium Item count up to two.

Anime-only duel
In the anime, Yugi inhabits the Dark Magician, Joey Wheeler the Flame Swordsman, Tristan Taylor the Cyber Commander and Téa Gardner the Magician of Faith. The host Bakura himself was placed into his favorite, the magic card, Change of Heart. The host Bakura saves the day, betraying Yami Bakura when he plays Change of Heart. Yami Yugi seemingly banishes Yami Bakura to the Shadow Realm.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist, Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World, and Second series anime
In the anime Yami Bakura is referred to as just "Bakura". Many of the people in the cast think that the spirit is not the same person as the host due to the incident in Duelist Kingdom where Yugi and the regular Bakura both found out they were possessed by sprits. Strangly, he is, but he is Bakura's evil alter ego. This would suggest that the host Bakura is 5000 years old as well. Yami Bakura had trapped Yugi and his friends in a Shadow Game where each of them were trapped as their favorite card on the playing field. Yami Yugi battled Yami Bakura for their souls. This is the anime collary of the Monster World arc in the manga. Similar to the characters they played as in the RPG, Yugi was the Dark Magician, Joey was the Flame Swordsman, Tristan was the Cyber Commander, and Tea was the Magician of Faith. Dark Bakura later takes the Millennium Eye from Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese) after defeating him in a Shadow Game, leaving but a bloody remnant of Pegasus afterwards. This expanded Bakura's collection to two Items. He later teams up with Marik Ishtar in a verbal deal consisting of Marik's relinquishment of the Millennium Rod if the Dark Bakura obtained the God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon (Saint Dragon Osiris in the Japanese version). The Dark Bakura stabbed his host body in the arm and presumably helped in the encapture of Jonouchi and Anzu when he left his injured host to fend for himself. He later challenged Yugi and narrowly lost, his other self's weakened body becoming a liability. The Ring was lost in the duel, but was returned by a controlled Anzu. Marik in Anzu's body insists on the Dark Bakura's assistance. A personality fragment of Marik had gained control of his body. The Dark Bakura challenged what was now Marik, and ultimately lost. The Ring then fell into the hands of the transformed Marik, and eventually ends up in the hands of Yugi after he defeats Marik. Neither Bakura makes another notable appearance (save for the host Bakura pigging out on food in the kitchen of the Kaiba Corp blimp and in a conversation between Dartz and Atem about their resurrection into the Millennium Items) until the beginning of the last arc of the manga/episode 199 of the anime. In the anime, the host Bakura is chased into a church in the dead of night by a voice. He is trapped and the voice reaches a crescendo, shattering the stained glass of the windows as the host Bakura is re-possessed after a brief reprieve. The manga offers no such introduction. Here are many theories about who Dark Bakura's true identity is. Some argue that he is the spirit of tomb robber from Ancient Egypt 3,000 (5,000 in the English anime) years ago named Thief King Bakura. Others argue that he is none other than a part of the soul of the Great Demon Zorc Necrophades, an evil demon that threatened to destroy the world 3,000 (5,000 years ago in the English anime) years ago but was sealed up in the Millennium Puzzle by Pharaoh Atem. Still others argue that he is a composite of the two, a fusion of the souls of Bakura and Zorc. The anime never states how any soul ever entered the Millennium Ring (though the manga has a brief explanation saying that Zorc sealed a piece of his soul in the Ring), so it's mostly open to discussion. Given how both the anime and the manga give conflicting evidence about his identity and never clearly states with 100% assurance whether the soul in the Ring is Thief King Bakura or Zorc Necrophades, it's impossible to say for certain who Dark Bakura truly is, though more often than not, the evidence points to Zorc.

Notable Dueling Cards
Bakura uses an Occult Deck for the initial part of the show, using monsters that reflect his views on the supernatural. A great deal of his cards cause disruption, or breaking his opponent's strategies through various cards, which range from White Magical Hat to Morphing Jar. His favorite card is Change of Heart, a Magic Card that has the ability to take control of one of his opponent's monster for one turn.

During the Battle City arc, he uses a new deck constructed by Yami Bakura, focusing on the darker side of the occult by making extensive use of Zombies (Undead) and Fiends (Demons). The signature card of this deck is Dark Necrofear, a powerful monster that can only be Special Summoned by removing three Fiend Sub-Type monsters from his Graveyard. During his duel with Dark Yugi, he shows Dark Necrofear's true power once it is destroyed, bringing forth Dark Sanctuary. Dark Sanctuary enables him to cancel one attack from his opponent's side of the field and gain Life Points equal to half that monster's attack points and deal the same amount of Life Points as damage to his opponents. Furthermore, with Dark Sanctuary, he can use his Monster card zones for his Magic and Trap cards, from which he plays Destiny Board (Ouija Board in the original Japanese version of the franchise). Destiny Board writes out a letter of the word "Final" ("Death" in the Japanese version) every turn, using Magic and Trap zones for each of the letters. When the entire word is spelled out, he will automatically be victorious. With Dark Sanctuary's ability to allow Bakura to play Magic and Trap cards without restricting Destiny Board (as Destiny Board ultimately requires five Magic or Trap zones in order to fully function) and also halt his opponent's attacks, he has a huge advantage. Bakura appears to have his duel clinched against Dark Yugi until he feels the power of Yugi's Slifer the Sky Dragon.

He plays largely the same deck when he confronts Seto Kaiba in order to gain the power of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon for his own purposes, although the theme of it seems to be mix of his first two decks. Most of his cards revolve around sealing or otherwise crippling his opponent's monsters while protecting his own through cards such as Ghost Shield. He also uses various tablet cards that may be meant to symbolize the original Duel Monster spirits that were captured in stone. When he summons Diabound Kernel, it reduces the attack points of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes and manages to absorb its power via defeating it. Bakura withdraws after getting what he wanted and also since Kaiba appeared to have turned the duel in his favor.

In his final duel of the series, Bakura plays an Undead Lock deck against Yugi Mutou, which focuses upon winning the duel by having one's opponent running out of cards. He eventually uses cards that summons his entire Graveyard onto the field, and furthermore another card that forces Yugi to discard cards from his deck equal to the number of monsters on the field. He furthermore uses cards to seal Yugi's most powerful monsters, including Yugi's Silent Swordsman.

Monster Cards

 * Dark Master - Zorc (Millenium World arc)
 * Dark Necrofear
 * White Magical Hat (White Thief)
 * Morphing Jar (Metamol Pod)
 * Electric Lizard
 * Man-Eater Bug
 * Lady of Faith (High Priestess)
 * Seven-Armed Fiend (Seven Arm Demon) (seen only in a flashback)
 * Headless Knight
 * The Earl of Demise (Ghost Count)
 * The Portrait's Secret (Possessed Painting)
 * The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams (Demon Dream Ghost)
 * Earthbound Spirit
 * Sangan (Critter)
 * Souls of the Forgotten
 * Jowgen the Spiritualist
 * Goblin Zombie
 * Gernia
 * Puppet Master (Controller of Dead Spirits - Puppetmaster)
 * Dark Ruler Ha Des (Ruler of the Underworld - Ha-Des)
 * Duke of Demise (Ghost Duke)
 * Diabound Colonel
 * Doomcaliber Knight (Dead Spirit Knight - Death Calibre Knight)
 * Disgraced Mage (Dead Spirit Master - Discredit Mage)
 * Necro Soldier
 * Necro Mannequin
 * Necro Wall
 * Necro Jar (Necro Pod)
 * Necroface (only in the Manga)

Spell Cards

 * Dark Sanctuary
 * Change of Heart
 * Chain Energy (Magical Bonds)
 * The Shallow Grave
 * Spiritualistic Medium
 * Ectoplasmer
 * The Dark Door     (Dark Corridor)
 * Spirit Message "I" (Death Message "E")
 * Spirit Message "N" (Death Message "A")
 * Spirit Message "A" (Death Message "T")
 * Spirit Message "L" (Death Message "H")
 * Dark Designator
 * Exchange
 * Monster Reborn (Resurrection of the Dead)
 * Premature Burial
 * Polymerization (Fusion)
 * Spirit Illusion (Afterimage of Ghost)
 * Pot of Greed
 * Grief Tablet (Grief Wedju)
 * Spirit Sword of Sealing (Sealing Sword of Dead Spirits)
 * Negate Defense (Defending Seal of Dead Spirits)
 * Cursed Twin Dolls (Cursed Necro Twins)
 * Counterbalance (Killing the Counterbalance)

Trap Cards

 * Destiny Board (Ouija Board)
 * Just Desserts
 * Dark Spirit of the Silent
 * Déjà Vu (only in the Manga)
 * Fearful Earthbound
 * Multiple Destruction
 * Spirit Shield (Dead Spirit Shield)
 * Mirror Tablet (Mirror Wall Wedju)
 * Rebirth Tablet (Revival Wedju)
 * Earthbound Spirit's Invitation
 * Zoma the Spirit (Dead Spirit Zoma)
 * Trap Amulet (only in the Manga)
 * Narrow Corridor
 * Necro Cycle