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Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人 Kaiba Seto), in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!, is the main rival of Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto in the English anime) in the trading card game Duel Monsters (originally Magic and Wizards). In the English Yu-Gi-Oh! Eternal Duelist's Soul video game, Kaiba's name is given in the wrong order and is rendered Kaiba Seto.
Kaiba is the majority shareholder and CEO of his own multi-national company, KaibaCorp. Arrogant and self-centred, Kaiba aims to become the world's greatest duelist; to do so he must defeat Yugi, who has humiliatingly defeated him repeated times.
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. The first series TV series has not been translated into English by 4Kids and therefore not shown on TV.
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. (See Wikibooks:Japanese:Pronouns) Kaiba usually calls Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) names, such as bonkotsu (mediocre), make inu (pathetic dog), and zako (small fry). This name calling was carried over to the English anime.
Kaiba is known for owning 3 of the 4 Blue-Eyes White Dragons in the world (the fourth belonging to Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Moto in the English anime) which Kaiba later destroyed), and later, in the Battle City Tournament, for owning an Egyptian God Card, known as The God of the Obelisk in the English manga, and known as Obelisk the Tormentor in the English anime (the card is known in Japan as Obelisk no Kyoshinhei). In the manga, the four Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards were possessed by an American, a German, a Hong Konger, and Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Moto in the English anime) 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.
In the case of the fourth, he tries to steal it at first, but Dark Yugi wins a game of Magic and Wizards and places a penalty game on Seto, causing Seto to feel the sensation of dying while he isn't really dying; Yugi gave his grandfather his card back. Several chapters later, Kaiba kidnapped Mr. Mutou and forced him into a duel. When Sugoroku Mutou lost, Kaiba tore up the fourth card and forced him into a virtual reality torture. Sugoroku Mutou barely survived. Yugi agreed to go through the theme park of death, Death-T. Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) later dueled Seto and won. In revenge, Yugi placed a penalty game on Seto, destroying the part of his heart with evil in it. The first and second series anime have similar plots at Death T.
In the manga, at a young age, Kaiba and his younger brother Mokuba were orphaned (their actual surnames are unknown). Seto's 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 (or in the manga, by cheating). 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. Six years later, Seto Kaiba took over his father's company. In the manga, Gozaburo, provoked by Seto taking over and becoming CEO, committed suicide by jumping out of his office window. Gozaburo's death occurred six months before Seto dueled Sugoroku Mutou.
In the first series, Seto electrocutes Gozaburo after Seto takes over the company.
In the second series, Kaiba was bright and intelligent, which led to many prospective parents wanting to adopt him, Kaiba swore to protect his brother at all costs, and wanted Mokuba adopted with him, which all had refused. 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. On Seto's birthday, he was given a large sum of money and was told that although he could spend the money any way he wished, he must return ten times the amount in one year. Not only did Seto accomplish this feat, but he did so in one day, and such ruthless business skills led to Kaiba's takeover of his father's company. Gozaburo tried to use Mokuba but that plan went down the drain too due to Mokuba's loyalty to his brother. Gozaburo downloaded his mind into Noah's virtual world. In the original Japanese version, Gozaburo committed suicide. In the English Duel Monsters anime, Gozaburo ran away and was never heard from again.
The Gozaburo in the digital world intended to use Noah to digitize the entire world. Gozaburo also wanted to defeat Seto at his own game using Exodia Necros. Gozaburo was defeated in the game and a missile was headed towards Noah's virtual headquarters. Gozaburo turned into a monstrous entity and tried to kill Kaiba, but Kaiba and Yugi escaped. Gozaburo tried to log himself out, but a changed Noah refused. Noah and Gozaburo were destroyed.
Previous to Seto's control, KaibaCorp was a company specializing in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, but when Seto took control of KaibaCorp, KaibaCorp became a company that manufactured game 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).
Among one of the recurring plots in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is Seto being forced to deal with either people adversely affected by Gozaburo Kaiba's actions wanting to take their revenge on Seto, or people from wihin KaibaCorp attempting to take over the corporation.
Seto's name is the Japanese phonetic equivalent of the ancient Egyptian deity Set, the god of chaos, war and storms in Egyptian mythology. That is for whom he is named.
Seto is the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian High Priest from the reign of the Pharaoh Atemu (Dark Yugi a.k.a. Yami Yugi or Yu-Gi-Oh). Priest Seto was, unknown to him, the cousin of Atemu.
Profile
Notable Dueling Cards
Although Kaiba is best known for 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 prominently featured in his deck. They include:
- Obelisk no Kyoshinhei (オベリスクの巨神兵) / Obelisk the Tormentor or The God of the Obelisk
- Deck Destruction Virus of Death / Crush Card Virus
- Battle Ox
- La Jinn the Mystic Genie of the Lamp
Trivia
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