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Ryo Bakura (獏良 了 Bakura Ryō) is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. In the English Duel Monsters anime, he is known as simply Bakura, and in the English Yu-Gi-Oh! Eternal Duelist's Soul video game, Bakura's name is given in the wrong order and is rendered Bakura Ryou.
Bakura is a friend of Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto in the English anime), yet he is also the holder of the Millennium Ring, one of the seven Millennium Items. Because of this, he also has a dark half, Dark Bakura (Yami no Bakura) (Dark Bakura is called Yami Bakura and Spirit of the Ring in the English anime) who intends to take all of the Millennium Items for his own.
In the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bakura, who is in class 1-B at Domino High School, is extremely polite in his speech pattern, using honorifics almost all the time. His speech is peppered with "kun"s. On the other hand, his dark half doesn't use honorifics. (See Wikibooks:Japanese:Pronouns) In the English anime, Bakura has a British accent to represent this speaking pattern.
Bakura received the Millenium Ring from his father, who had bought it while on a trip in Egypt, being told that it was connected with the
In the manga, Bakura first met Yugi and his freinds, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime), Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor), and Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner) when he transferred to Domino High School. Bakura, who quickly garnered a host of girls in admiration over him, explained that he loved playing the RPG "Monster World" (a parody of Dungeons and Dragons) but cautioned the four that everyone who played with him fell into a coma. Because of this, he had to keep transferring schools. When he tried on Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, he felt a pain in his chest. In Toei's anime, Bakura had been going to Domino High School for some time when he decided to play a RPG with Yugi.
Later that night, as he was writing to his younger sister, Amane, a voice in his head spoke that he was his new host. Bakura opened his shirt to find the sharp points of the ring, which had been given to him by his archaeologist father, sticking into his skin.
The voice was Dark Bakura, a spirit of a 3,000-year old thief. Dark Bakura, at the time, had his mind set on taking the Millennium Items for himself, for when all gathered in a certain place, a great power would be unleashed.
After sealing the soul of a P.E. teacher, Mr. Karita (Who earlier had bullied Bakura over his effeminate looks and long hair), into a miniature, Bakura set up the Monster World game. The next day, Yugi and his three friends played Bakura. Yugi was a monster tamer, Jonouchi was a warrior, Honda was a magic gunman, and Anzu was a magician. Their souls were sealed into miniatures. Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) played for them. With the help of the real Bakura, who regained control of parts of his body from Dark Bakura, Yugi and his friends defeated Zorc, the monster that Bakura set up as the boss, causing Yugi's, Honda's, Jonouchi's, and Anzu's souls to come back to their bodies.
In the first series anime, Bakura was introduced in episode 19. Miho Nosaka (Melody in the English Dungeon Dice Monsters Game) has a crush on Bakura while rejecting Honda at the same time. Bakura was an member of the audience at KaibaLand during the Death-T project; Bakura believed in Yugi's abilities to win.
Since that defeat, Dark Bakura started playing Magic and Wizards (later called Duel Monsters for the remainder of the series) and continued his quest to take the millennium items for himself. Miho plays in Bakura's tabletop RPG using a tradewoman figurine.
The tomb robber spirit named Dark Bakura is also known as "the other Bakura" or "mou hitori no Bakura" (もう一人の獏良)". Everyone else refers to the spirit by this in the manga, but Ryo himself just calls the spirit "That voice in my head".
In the English anime Yami Bakura is referred to as just "Bakura" but almost everyone in the cast knows it's not really him, due to the incident in Duelist Kingdom where Yugi and the regular Bakura both found out they had other spirits. Dark 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. Dark Yugi battled Dark Bakura for their souls.
Dark Bakura later returned and took the Millennium Eye from Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese) after defeating him in a Shadow Game (Pegasus was weak after just having fought Yugi in one). This expanded Bakura's collection to two Items.
He later teamed up with Marik Ishtar in a deal where Marik would turn over his Millenium Rod to Bakura if Bakura would help him get the three Egyptian God Cards. Bakura helped in the capture of Jonouchi and Anzu as part of Marik's plan by pretending to be injured. He later challenged Yugi and narrowly lost, his host's weakened body becoming a liability. The Ring then fell into the hands of Marik.
In the manga, Amane Bakura, his sister, later died in a car accident along with her mother.
Profile
Notable Dueling Cards
Some of the cards used by Bakura are:
- Dark Necrofear
- Dark Ruler Ha Des
- D,E,A,T,H/F,I,N,A,L
- Change of Heart
- Earl of Demise
- Sangan
- Dark Sanctuary
- Headless Knight
- Earthbound Spirit
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