Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V/Characters

Yuya Sakaki
"Voiced by: Kensho Ono (JP), Michael Lisco Jr(EN)"

The main protagonist of the series Yuya aims to become an Entertainment Duelist to make people smile. As the series goes on he is forced to abound his entertainment style and focuses on dealing interdenominational war in order to save his childhood friend Yuzu but he will try his base to make people happy and smile.As the show goes on Yuya learns that he has doppelgangers who share his face: Yuto (Xyz), Yugo (Synchro) and Yuri (Fusion).

see tears in his eyes, hinting at his Stepford Smiler personality.
 * The Ace: He's the best duelist of the You Show Duel School, though there are only six students there.
 * All-Loving Hero: Yuya deeply cares about making people happy and smile through duels even his enemies.
 * Always Save the Girl: While he gladly helps the Lancers and wants to save the dimensions, he makes Yuzu's safety his top priority. He spends the Friendship Cup dueling so he can broadcast his message of peace to the Tops and Commons, but wanted to forgo his duel so people could help Yuzu after she crashed into a building. Reiji even points out how Yuya keeps putting Yuzu before everybody. It also doesn't stop at just Yuzu bu the also intends to save Ruri and Rin as well who are the xyz and synchro counterpart of yuzu
 * Anime Hair: Like his predecessors in other Yu-Gi-Oh! installments, his hair is pretty out there. However, it's more subdued in comparison, and the "out there" part comes more from the hair colors; half red and half green.
 * Badass: He nearly took down Strong Ishijima, the world champion, and that was before he got his Pendulum Cards, with which he did win. His badassery has only increased since then as he continually brings out ever stronger Extra Deck monsters and evolves his dueling to new heights, trouncing many powerful opponents and holding his own against Reiji Akaba, a world-famous dueling genius. In the finale of Season 2 he beats Jack Atlas, the King of Riding Duels who was previously invincible for years and is the strongest duelist in the Synchro Dimension.
 * Badass Adorable:He gets somany cute movemnets
 * Badass Biker:He becomes a riding duelist during the synchro saga and he is shown to pull some amazing stunts while riding a big
 * Badass Boast:Gave a pretty nice one during his second duel with Jack where he declares that he will save the city and make everyone smile
 * Badass in Distress:He was capture by roger who intend to mind control him
 * Berserk Button: Using duelings as war is a major button for him
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Yuya is the one of the most nicest character you would have interact in the show so far but when he gets angry he is more scarier than any other characters
 * Big Brother Instinct: He has grown protective towards Reira while in the Synchro Dimension and uses his duels to both protect him from Security and in attempts to make him smile. In episode 59, he's more worried over Reira's disappearance than he and the others being captured by Security. In episode 67, he questions Reiji's decision to allow Reira to join a dangerous battle and declares to him that if Reiji would not protect Reira, he will.
 * Big Brother Mentor: Yuya acts this to the students of Youshow as well as Reira
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * In Episode 4, when Yuzu and the kids finally fall, Yuya has his newly returned Pendulum Monsters rescue them.
 * In episode 89, he arrives just in time as Reira starts to suffer from PTSD and exhaustion.
 * In episode 99, when Jack and Crow's Big Damn Heroes moment nearly kills Yuzu in the progress, Yuya saves her from her fall with the help of Whip Viper and Discover Hippo.
 * Book Dumb: Yuya mentions in Episode 19 that he is bad at science and math.
 * Butt Monkey: He has his movements
 * Character Development He gets somany development in the series so far
 * Childhood Friends: With Yuzu and Gongenzaka. He met Gongenzaka 3 years ago and has been friends with Yuzu at least since the opening of the You Show Duel school.
 * Chess Motif: Roget sees him as the White Knight.
 * Dark is not Evil
 * Defeating the Undefeatable: How does Yuya beat Jack in Episode 98? By using Niranva High Paladin's Pendulum Effect to weaken Red Dragon Archfiend Tyrant, allowing Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to finish it off with a rainbow-colored Spiral Strike Burst.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Jack becomes a lot friendlier towards Yuya at the end of their second Duel, even though he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
 * Determinator
 * Disappeared Dad: Yuya's father Yusho was a popular Duelist, but three years ago, he no-showed an event and hasn't been seen since. Mentioning anything about his father is one of the only times Yuya won't be smiling.
 * Expy: Mostly of Judai with his surface personality and somehow of his appearance, and Yuma with his backstory, with a dose of Yusei's dueling style, and his inner depression about what he thinks may be his fault. Also of Yugi and Kaito Kuroba. His Superpowered Evil Side gives him another parallel with Judai, and his dragon resonating like the Signer Dragons is another parallel with Yusei. His belief that every card has a use is also like Yusei. That being said, see Contrasting Sequel Main Character.
 * Friend to All Children: Yuya seems to care deeply about children, being close to the kids in You Show and becoming very protective of Reira the second he saw that Reira was scared.
 * Full-Name Basis: He and Reiji refer to each other by their full names.
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: Yuya was already disliked and called a coward by the Commons. Episode 80 has them brand him as a spy for the Tops and hated even more. Roget coming to congratulate him does not help. It only gets worse when even Sam and Crow lose faith in him.
 * Heroes Love Dogs: He loves his mom's pet dogs.
 * Heroic BSOD:Happens somany times
 * Identical Stranger:Like Yuzu he has three
 * First is Yuto who is a member of Resistance ad has come from warzon XYZ Dimension
 * Second is Yugo who is a hot headed d-wheeler from synchro dimension and is searching someone precious to him
 * the last one is Yuri who is a physcophatic academia soldier
 * Idiot Hero:At times but gradually grows out of it as series progress
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Whenever it's his Superpowered Evil Side, he usually decimates his opponents and they deserve it.
 * Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He loves his mom's pet cats.
 * King of Games: Dethrones Jack and takes over his position as "King", not only in Riding Duels, but also in Entertainment Dueling.
 * Large Ham: He tends to treat Duels like a show, so he is very hammy and dramatic, although not all the time. He's much more normal outside of a duel though.
 * Loser Son of Loser Dad: His father got a reputation as a Dirty Coward for his no-show and disappearance. Many people mock Yuya and declare that he must be a coward as well.
 * Multicolored Hair: His hair is both red and green. It mimics the Pendulum Card color scheme.
 * Nice Guy:He is a friendly and a outgoing person
 * Only Sane Man:
 * Red Is Heroic: He is the main character, he has red hair, red eyes, a red shirt, a red Duel Disk and his ace is a red dragon.
 * Tears of Joy:
 * He is so moved by Yuzu's duel in episode 69, he starts crying.
 * Again in episode 99 when he and Yuzu are briefly reunited.
 * Took a Level in Badass: So many times
 * Worthy Opponent: He sees Gongenzaka, Reiji, and Sawatari as ones. And after Episode 97, Jack calls him "interesting".

Yuzu Hiragi (Zuzu Boyle)
"Voiced by: Yunna Inumara (JP), Emily Jenss(EN)"

The main heorine of the series and Yuyas Childhood Friend unlike Yuya she is quite rational and rather quick to use her temper.She often carries a paper fan in her person in which she uses it on Yuya and her father whenever they pisses her off similar to Yuya Yuzu has doppelgangers through out other dimensions: Ruri (Xyz), Rin (Synchro) and Serena (Fusion).Yuzu uses a Meldious deck that focuses on Special summoning but after losing to Masumi she decided to learn fusion summoning from Sora and now she specilize in fusion summoning


 * Action Girl:She is also a duelist like Yuya. She proves to be this where she Badassly defeat Masumi in their rematch.She is also the only girl along with Olga to make it to the junior youth top 8
 * All-Loving Heroin:Much like Yuya Yuzu cares about keeping everyone safe and is deeply against harming others but like Yuya she has also gotten bitten in her ass
 * Always Save The Boy: She deeply wants to end the Interdimensional war and will do anything to keep everyone safe, but if she thinks Yuya either is hurt or depressed, she will drop whatever she was doing to help him. Yugo even lampshades this after her duel in episode 69.
 * Amazon Brigade: Her deck seems to mostly contain female, Fairy/Angel-type Fantasia monsters.
 * Badass Adorable: She has her cute moments.
 * Biker Babe:She becomes a D-Wheeler during frendship cup arc
 * Berserk Button:
 * Meriu became this to her whenever she calls Yuya darling.
 * Taking pleasure in hurting others pisses her of like anything
 * Break The cutie:Not to Yuyas extent but she does gets tortured as well
 * Burning with Anger:In episode 27 when Meriu called Yuya darling she burst out in anger like anything
 * Butt Monkey: She was this in Episode 55 when she was reasonably nervous about a dueling while riding on a motorcycle and that it was Yugo driving it.
 * Character Development:The first few episodes played up to her Tsundere side like she had a very short tempered but after meeting Yuto and suffering some Heroic Bosed she becomes more serious and determined to protect her friends no matter what and her paper fans are now usally reserved for her father
 * Childhood Friend:With Yuya
 * Clingy Jealous Girl:She gets angry whenever Meriu calls her darling
 * Cool Big Sis:Acts this to the students in Youshou
 * Determinator: In Episodes 3-4, she refused to give up even as she was dangling from a tower. Also demonstrated by her will to fight for her friends and school. She later spent an entire night running away from Yuri in Episode 47.
 * Demoted to Extra: In the Synchro Dimension arc, where she went from the Deuteragonist to just a member of the (many) supporting characters.
 * Dub Name Change: Zuzu Boyle.
 * Damsel in Distress:Despite her skills and when she is cornerd by Yuri she begs Yuya to save her.Later Sergey kindnapp her and took her to roger
 * Expy: Partially of Anzu and Aki, due to being the Nice Girl best friend of the main character that defends him from bullies that belittled him (albeit with Gongenzaka doing so more physically), and her undefined abilities as a bracelet wielder bringing the analogue with Aki being a Signer, and suffers great confusion over them. And Kotori, for having the most open attraction and reciprocated at that to Yuya, due to a lot of Ship Tease between them.
 * just horrifying.
 * Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in this style, complete with blue barrettes.
 * Girly Bruiser: Both she and her deck are overtly feminine, and she's proven herself to be a capable duelist
 * Hair Decorations: A pair of blue clips over her pigtails.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Like any Tsundere, she has this, but she has mainly grown out of this by character development.
 * The Heart
 * Heroic BSOD: After she encounterd Yuto she was confused by his resemblance over Yuya it only took about eight episodes for her to recover
 * Identical Stranger: Like Yuya, she has three. They also each wear a bracelet just like her, although their bracelets don't seem to exhibit any powers. Professor's plan revolves around gathering all four of them for unknown reasons.
 * To Ruri, a comrade of Yuto's, and Kurosaki's younger sister. This is why Yuto dueled Sawatari in her place, and why Kurosaki mistook Yuzu for Ruri when he first saw her.
 * She's also one to Serena from Academia, as revealed in Episode 38.
 * And Rin, Yugo's precious person, who grew up in the slums and wanted to make a name for herself. She also has bracelet, but hers does not function the same way as Yuzu's.
 * Light Is Good: Her monsters are LIGHT monsters.
 * Living MacGuffin:She and her counterparts currently serves as this to Professor Leo Akaba for currently unknown reason
 * Ms. Fanservice: Averted for the majority of the time, which differs her a lot from the other YGO heroines. She gets her first fanservice moment in episode 62. Her second is a silhouetted Shower Scene in Episode 106.
 * Multicolored Hair: Has dark pink hair and two bangs that are light pink, similar to Serena, Ruri and Rin.
 * Nice Girl: She's kind-hearted and shows it most of the time, though she won't hesitate to use her paper fan as a weapon when the situation calls for it.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech:She and Reiji gave Roget a very good one in episode 98 fore his Sore Loser and Dirty Coward attitude
 * Rose-Haired Sweetie:
 * Ship Tease:Mostly with Yuya
 * Took a Level in Badass: Attempts this by asking Sora to teach her about Fusion Summoning. The results are finally shown in Episode 29, "The Fused Divas."
 * Tsundere: Type B.

Reiji Akaba (Declan Akaba)
"Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (JP), Billy Bob Thompson (EN)"

The mysterious 16 year old CEO of Leo Corporation. He is a genius duelist with good brain.After traveling to Fusion Dimension three years ago before the current event Reiji rescued a young girl named Serena from academia who looks identical to Yuzu and learns from her his fathers plan to unite the four dimension ever since then he became against of his Father Leo Akaba and creat a organisation called Lancers in which he is the leader to defend his hometown and defeat Academia. Reiji uses DD deck which is a dark fiend type monsters and that deck mainly specializes in Fusion,Synchro and Xyz summoning.later he created his own Pendulum summoning

Awesome by Analysis: He was able to create a Pendulum counter deck based on his knowledge on Yuya's duels. He proves it even more when he duels, having mastered every form of summoning. He proceeds to show this by summoning a Fusion Monster, a Synchro Monster, AND an Xyz Monster in just two of his turns. He does this again 8 episodes later, but in one turn. It's pretty much explicitly stated that he managed to make his own Pendulum Monsters. Granted, they malfunction at first, but that's still a pretty big achievement. And according to Tsukikage, he won't abandon his comrades, meaning that the loss of his first team of Lancers was likely unintentional. This is deconstructed in the Battle Royal mini-arc. While the Battle Royal plan is sound on paper, in reality it runs into problems. Underestimating how long the invasion would go on, he forces the town to stay in the stadium, causing some to question what is going on. His first bunch of Lancers' decks were mismatched, lowering their efficiency as a team, which leads to their defeat. And his attempt to keep the invasion under wraps puts the MCS duelists in danger. All these problems show that while he's intelligent, he's lacking in experience.
 * The Ace: He's a pro and runs the largest gaming business in the world, all at the age of 16. He's also the first duelist to use every Extra Deck summoning method (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Pendulum), something that wasn't accomplished by another character until Yuyu gained Enlightenment Paladin in episode 79.
 * Achilles in His Tent: He's the leader of the Lancers, but because of his Japanese VA's busy schedule, he doesn't get to say or do much to the point that he only dueled twice in the show's first season.
 * Adjusting Your Glasses: He adjusts his glasses by the bridge a lot in his duel with Yuya, showing that he has a well thought-out strategy and a few tricks up his sleeve.
 * All According to Plan: Says this very casually to "losing" Tsukikage in the Friendship Cup. Reira, and the Executive Council are disturbed.
 * All Your Powers Combined/Master of All: His deck is based around performing every kind of summoning. So far he's displayed Fusion, Synchro and Xyz, and the elemental theme of his monsters makes it possible he's also got an EARTH Ritual monster we haven't seen yet. Not to mention his Pendulum Monsters.
 * Aloof Big Brother: Towards Reira; he may be a little distant with him, but it's clear that he cares for his little brother. He starts out as the only person Reira seems comfortable around.
 * Ambiguously Evil:
 * He's initially presented as an antagonist, then turns out to be a respectful and decent guy, then turns out to be engaging in shady activities behind the scenes. By the time of Episode 36 when he true motives are revealed, it's clear he has good intentions, but is willing to do very morally grey things for the greater good.
 * During their duel, Roget attempts to invoke and exploit this, claiming that it's entirely possible that Reiji is in cahoots with his father and that they are both playing Standard and the Lancers for fools, and how they should just abandon him because of it, but right one cue when Reiji points out the flaw in this logic, Yuya goes and declares that they will trust Reiji no matter what, thus calling the bluff.
 * Anti-Hero: Everything he does is to stop his father, Leo Akaba who started a war between the Fusion and Xyz dimensions and does seem to honestly care for his town. But he has done a lot of morally gray actions in his quest, from manipulating his students and allies, to lying to his allies so he can experiment on their possibly dead ally's Duel Disk, and willingly using teenagers as soldiers.
 * Archnemesis Dad: The MCS is actually a way to distillate the strongest duelists in order to fight his father. He also flat out calls Leo Akaba his enemy.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: In their second duel, Reiji asks Yuya if he is fine with leaving the other carded even if Yuzu is all right.
 * Badass:
 * He's one of the best duelists in the world, and he proves it. To date, the only duel he lost is one where he forfeited to Yuya, at a time when it wasn't fully clear who would win or lose. Then in Episode 51, he deals Yuya his first defeat since the second episode.
 * If you defeat the Arc Villain during your first turn, and you are able to defeat every hologram of the villain whenever they begin their turn, you are offfically the most badass character of the series.
 * Badass Bookworm: Being a CEO at age 16 and a professional duelist at age 15 certainly qualifies him even before we see what he can do.
 * Batman Gambit: Does this to Yuya in their second Duel.
 * Benevolent Boss: Even more so than his mother
 * Berserk Button: Dont insult or badmouth Yuya or the Sakaki family
 * Big Damn Heroes: Greets Roget by finishing Yuzu's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, followed by demanding him to unhand Yuzu. Roget obviously refuses and opts for giving her to Academia to save his own skin, forcing Reiji to take drastic measures.
 * Big Good: In spite of his morally ambiguous ways, he's the closest thing the show has to one, as he's dedicated to protecting Maiami from the forces of the other dimensions, and is fundamentally opposing Professor Leo Akaba, who's responsible for the war between Academia and the Resistance.
 * Big "Shut Up!": Shouts at Hokuto and Yaiba to make them stop trash talking Yuya's dad, declaring that he highly respects Yusho for being a pioneer in Action Duels.
 * Brutal Honesty: Outright tells Yuya that he can't save Yuzu with his naivety and self-righteousness
 * Character Tics: Primarily adjusting his glasses.
 * The Chessmaster: He's implied to have spent the last three years preparing for the inevitable inter-dimensional war when it comes to the Standard Dimension, and likes to be aware of everything that happens in the city to make sure it doesn't interfere with his plans. Episode 52 reveals that the Leo Duel Schools that have been set up around the world were a cover; they're actually Duel Monster-type military training camps where duelists learned the skills needed to prepare for the war with Academia, and with said war beginning the schools are opening to the public so everyone can learn to defend themselves in case of a second invasion.
 * Chick Magnet: As seen in Episode 27, he has a lot of fangirls.
 * Composite Character: A lot of his traits draw on aspects from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! rivals, most notably Seto Kaiba:
 * He's a sixteen year old CEO of a gaming corporation who uses a monster with a 3000 ATK Level 8 monster, which he runs three copies of in his Deck, and they are also the only ones that exist in the world (Though it's not a Dragon-type or something with "dragon" in the name).
 * He also considers his father an enemy (though for different reasons than Kaiba).
 * He does have a little brother, drawing parallels to Kaiba, Kaiser and Kaito.
 * He also channels Jack Atlas, as he mentions kings a lot in his summoning chants, and his monsters are named after famous conquerors. Ironic considering Jack is a character in this series.
 * Moving away from rivals, he also has some similarities to Rex Goodwin, with his morally ambiguous actions for some unstated duel, and keep an eye on duelists to bring out their potential.
 * His playing style is essentially a mix between Atem and Kaiba's playing styles. Like Kaiba, Reiji plays a lot of powerhouses and can defeat the opponent through overwhelming beatdowns, but he has much more varieties and relies a lot on Spell Cards and combos, like Atem. And like Atem, Reiji does not focus on a single ace monster, but has a an entire army of reliable monsters in his arsenal.
 * Curb-Stomp Battle: His Duel against Roget is basically this. He defeats the first Roget hologram with an OTK, and then he defeats the second one during the hologram's Draw Phase. Reiji would repeat the same combo to all of the next holograms.
 * Deadpan Snarker:Towards Roger whenever he speaks to him he will often snark and him.He also snarks at Yuya during their second duel
 * Dark Is Not Evil: In spite of his DARK Fiend-Type deck, Reiji is a polite and reasonable person and proves to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
 * Dub Name Change: Reiji to Declan, and DD to D/D.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: How "bad" he is is anyone's guess, but he's on very good terms with his mother Himika, though she's also bad and they're quite formal with one another (likely because of their positions within Leo Corporation, though).
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Though he is an antagonist at first, he's easily the nicest LDS associate so far, and yelled at Yaiba and Hokuto for badmouthing Yusho Sakaki.
 * Everyone Has Standards:Reiji might be a very morally ambiguous character but even he was uncomfortable about using Reira, a very traumtized child, to battle against the Academia. He also seems fine with the idea that Reira is gaining a will unlike Himika.
 * Evil Laugh: Delivers one in Episode 13 after he realizes the true potential of Pendulum Monsters.
 * Foil: To Yuya, they are both the aces of their schools and are Pendulum users. While Reiji is well respected as the head of the top duel school at the start of the series, Yuya is looked down upon because of his father and is a member of a duel school made up of only 5 people. They both hide their emotions, Yuya using laughter and smiles compared to Reiji's stoicism. Their relationships with their fathers are completely different as well. Yuya's father disappeared but Yuya still thinks very highly of him, while Reiji doubts his father even cares enough about him that he would be a useful hostage. his is furthered in their methods in dealing with the interdimensional war. Yuya attempts to still bring smiles to his opponents, while Reiji is willing to do anything to gain the upper hand against the Academia, even willing to sacrifice his men. Also, Reira also sees both of them as brother figures and both Reiji and Yuya care about him in different ways.
 * Frontline General: In spite of having command of an entire corporation, Reiji has a habit of confronting enemy agents in person, doing so with Kurosaki and Serena and Barrett. Later going personally with the Lancers to the Synchro Dimension.
 * Improbable Age: In a stunning homage to Kaiba, Reiji is the head of a corporation which practically owns Maiami City at just 16, as well as being a pro duelist at the same time. On top of that, he's basically leading the effort to deal with an interdimensional war.
 * Invincible Hero: The most competent and ruthless among the "Kaibas". So far, his only loss is against Yuya in their first Duel because he threw himself out of the ring to deal with Marco's disappearance.
 * Japanese Pronouns: The CEO of Leo Corporation uses the formal pronoun watashi, which also fits to his respectful character. He used to use "boku" until he learned what his father was doing, after which we actually see him switch to "watashi".
 * The Leader: Of the Lancers. Most of them get captured in three days in the Synchro Dimension when he's not around.
 * Noble Demon: His DD deck contains Fiend-type monsters, but Reiji is the leader of the heroes and his noble goals.
 * Not So Stoic: His Big "Shut Up!" moment. He exploded. Again in Episode 13, where he performs an Evil Laugh and while his face is covered by his hand, his eyes look crazy. His backstory reveals that he wasn't stoic three years ago.
 * Oedipus Complex: Cares for his mother, not to a creepy extent, but hates his father, Leo Akaba.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In a flashback in Episode 86, Reiji takes on every single Security guard holding him and the Council hostage, simultaneously. He beats all of them.
 * One-Hit Kill: Of course, The Ace of the Lancers, Reiji is also capable of this. He defeats the Arc Villain Roget in one turn. Furthermore, even after it is revealed that Roget can re-join the duel everytime after losing thanks to his hologram clones, Reiji simply uses a loop combo that defeats every hologram during its Draw Phase.
 * Out of Focus: In Season 2. While everyone else is running around the Synchro Dimension dueling and getting Character Development, Reiji has spent most of the season talking to the Executive Council in their chambers, watching the others duel, and very rarely taking some action to further his unrevealed overarcing plans. He does duel the Arc Villain in the end of the season, though.
 * Pet the Dog: While Reiji is morally ambiguous, at least he's a Benevolent Boss who has complete faith in Yuya and the Lancers because he knows that they're the ones who will beat the crap out of Security and Academia.
 * Power of Trust:He has a great faith and trust in his fellow lancers
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Berates the Exective Council for their Dirty Coward attitude, telling them that those who prefer being neutral and sitting on their asses have no right to talk about the future.
 * The Rival: To Yuya, despite being a Broken Pedestal to the latter.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Instead of having a Badass Longcoat that defies gravity and has a Dramatic Wind, Reiji has a scarf that does and has all of that. His scarf is more badass when you learn that he's been a duelist with the potential needed to be a pro since he was 15, owns the famous Leo Duel School at 16 and he specializes in all types of summoning.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality:He mostly shows his icy side but deep inside his heart he is on sugar side despite being morally ambiguous which he does shows his sugar side at times
 * Shut Up, Hannibal!: His response to Roget's offer and cowardice.
 * Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: His attitude towards Yuya's kindness.
 * The Smart Guy: While the Leader of the Lancers, he is also The Strategist and the most intelligent member.
 * The Stoic: He's usually calm and collected and rarely shows emotions.
 * Supporting Leader: He is the leader of the Lancers and the tritagonst, so he is definitively this.
 * Tranquil Fury: He's visibly angry when the Executive Council insults Yuya and none of the Synchro Dimension cares about what happens to the losers of the Friendship Cup.
 * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Episode 41 showed him as a :Nice guy three years ago who would willingly rescue a girl he didn't know. In the present, while he still has good intentions, he is a rather gray character.
 * The Watcher: After his duel with Yuya he has done little in the way of getting directly involved with the plot. Mostly observing Duels from his private room and having Nakajima run errands for him, such as giving Kurosaki a Pendulum Card and having him take Yuto's Duel Disk. This is justified since he's running the tournament and creating an army to defend against the Fusion Dimension. He's finally got another duel as of episode 40 with Barrett from Academia and another one against Yuya in Episode 50. He returns to this role during the Friendship Cup until its final moments.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: As stated in Anti-Hero, he just wants to protect his dimension but he has done some really dark things in his quest.
 * When He Smiles: Lets out one of these after Reira hugs him in Episode 95.
 * Worthy Opponent: Considers Yuya one and doesn't even consider that he is the perpetrator attacking LDS students.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Aside from his silver hair color, it's actually fairly subdued.
 * Younger Than They Look: For a 16 year-old, he appears more like 18 or 19. The demeanor and voice might have something to do with it.

Noboru Gongenzaka (Gong Strong)
"Voiced by: Yohei Obayashi (JP), Billy Bob Thompson(EN)"

One of Yuyas best friend who is seen regularly hanging around with him. He is not the student of You show instead he is a heir to his family dojo but he is regularly seen hanging out with his friends in Youshow. He later becomes one of the lancers. Gongenzaka's Superheavy Samurai deck has no Spell or Trap cards at all, and many of his monster effects can only be activated when he has no S/T in his Graveyard


 * Acrofatic: Well, he's more big than fat, but the sizeable guy goes on morning runs. Episode 30 shows that he's actually pretty muscular.
 * can learn, he doesn't care if he has to beg.
 * Badass: Karate-chopped through Battleguard Mad Shaman's spike without flinching. He also saves Yuya by holding up a stone pillar twice his size with no injury. Granted, it was Solid Vision, but still dangerous. Also, he fought his way halfway to Kurosaki's solitary confinement cell armed only with his (metal) geta.
 * Badass Back: In his duel against Ankokuji, he goes into the arena and gives him the back in order to show his dislike for him as well as to show his new black belt. And damn, he looked badass.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: He's really a nice and easy-going guy, but get on his bad side or face him in a duel, and he'll show you what Steadfast Dueling is really about.
 * The Big Guy: He is very definitely one of the bigger characters. His deck also runs a Stone Wall strategy.
 * Bully Hunter: He protected Yuya when they were younger, from those who wanted to beat him up for being a coward's son.
 * Catch Phrase:
 * "Unforgivable, this is unforgivable, [person name]!"
 * Also some variation of "The manly Gongenzaka!"
 * Childhood Friends: With Yuya.
 * Determinator: He never gives up, believing in his deck to the end. And if he get's hit by an attack, he'll keep himself on his feet and get pushed backwards, unless it wipes him out.
 * Dub Name Change: Gong Strong.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai: His deck's motif.
 * Expy: He's essentially a beefed-up version of Jonouchi and Tetsuo.
 * Foil:
 * He's one to Yuya. They are both heirs to their schools with unusual decks, Yuya having a Pendulum deck and Gongenzaka uses a deck without Spells or Traps. Yuya is a Stepford Smiler, while Gongenzaka is very open about his emotions. Even their dueling styles are the exact opposite, Yuya runs about using Action Cards compared to the steady Gongenzaka that refuses to budge.
 * On the Lancers he and Sawatari are foils. Gongenzaka is steadfast and loyal friend that has willing let stepped out of the limelight to protect them while Sawatari is an egoistical glory hound who can't stand anyone badmouthing him. Gongenzaka understands the emotional effects of being a child soldier while Sawatari was giddy at being a Lancer. Gongenzaka is loyal to his dueling style while Sawatari has changed his decks after each lost.
 * Gentle Giant: He can be a bit stuffy, but he's a pretty nice guy.
 * Good Is Not Soft: One of the nicest, most morally upright characters on the show, and he's proven himself perfectly capable of kicking lots of ass.
 * Graceful Loser: He didn't really mind losing to Yuya and was simply happy to force Yuya to pass his limits. And again when he is defeated by Crow.
 * Heir to the Dojo: And heir of said dojo's Dueling style that he uses with pride.
 * Hot-Blooded: Odd example; he's a very staunch and enthusiastic proponent of his own family's Steadfast Dueling style, which means that he doesn't care for the other Hot-Blooded characters running around during Action Duels, as "real men don't make unnecessary movements." While he can be very emotional, Gongenzaka is one of the most level-headed characters and tries tokeep the others in line when they are acting unreasonably.
 * Japanese Pronouns: The manly Gongenzaka uses the masculine pronoun ore.
 * Large Ham: The manly Gongenzaka is most definitely this.
 * Last Name Basis: His family name is used to refer to him both when he references himself and by all his friends. His father is the only person who calls him by his first name.
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: The manly Gongenzaka values honor and mutual respect in duels.
 * Made of Iron: Suffers no serious injury from a pillar falling on him.
 * Manly Tears: The manly Gongenzaka is prone to crying when he's overflowing with happiness. Especially when Yuya wakes up from his Convenient Coma in episode 38.
 * Martial Arts Headband: Wears a red one around his head, though it might be his sash from childhood.
 * Manly Tears: The manly Gongenzaka is prone to crying when he's overflowing with happiness. Especially when Yuya wakes up from his Convenient Coma in episode 38.
 * Martial Arts Headband: Wears a red one around his head, though it might be his sash from childhood.
 * Nice Guy:He is loyal to his friends and respectful to everyone
 * Worthy Opponent: He sees Yuya as one, and later Crow after the latter gets over his distracting issues.
 * Younger Than He Looks: Because of his heavy build, result of training in his family dojo since his early childhood, Gongenzaka looks older than other guys his age.

Shingo Sawatari (Sylvio Sawatari)
"Voiced by: Shogo Yano (JP), Michael Crouch (EN)"

An egotistical and a Plucky Comic Relief LDS student. He was initially The Rival to Yuya during the first season.He frequently changes deck His first one is a Darts Shooter deck; his second is a WATER Monarch deck; his third is a Yosenju deck; his fourth and final is an Abyss Actor deck.

Card.
 * Advertised Extra: He's introduced as one of the main rivals of Yuya and is prominently shown in the first opening and promotional materials, indicating that he's a main character. However, he rarely shows up and he is quickly forgotten for most of the time. He finally returns as a main character at the climax of the Battle Royale and he still appears from there, being one of the nine Lancers.
 * Ascended Extra: He's one of the five ARC-V main characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special, probably as a nod to his early status in the series. Sawatari basically took Reiji's spot, of all people.
 * Attack Backfire: His duel with Yuto. The latter starts off by setting five Spell/Trap Cards. Sawatari takes the bait and, using a new Deck he made, sends all of them to the Graveyard. This allows Yuto to win the duel, via Spell Cards with effects that activate from the Graveyard.
 * Badass: He manages to corner Yugo without any Action cards, and only lost because Yugo synchronizing with Yuya allowed him to grab an Action
 * Blatant Lies: A lot of his bragging crosses into this. One example is him stating he was undefeated in Standard and Yuya is his student. Another example is stating himself as leader of the Lancers in Episode 70 when he's angry about not being chosen to duel next.
 * Big Damn Heroes: He rushes in to save Tsukikage in the Battle Royale.
 * Bishie Sparkle: In episode 15, while handing a napkin to Yuzu. Just look at him.◊
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tricks Yuya into letting him see the Pendulum Cards, and then steals them by pretending to be his friend.
 * Butt Monkey: Sawatari has lost most of his on-screen duels despite painting himself as a great duelistnote . Whenever he tries to brag, people either don't listen to him, cut him off, or chew him out for his small talk being used to cover his incompetence whilst acting like a brat for losing. Even his loyal friends notice this sometimes. He, however, does get to be a Lancer. But even then, the first thing that happened to him was losing in an OTK and getting arrested. Heck, despite interacting with Crow's orphaned kids for a while, Sawatari doesn't register so much as a blip in their memories and they dismiss him pretty easily.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: After a bit of Character Development, he comes back with a DARK Fiend deck, the Abyss Actor.
 * Foil: On the Lancers, he and Gongenzaka are foils. Sawatari is an egotistical glory hound that can't stand anyone badmouthing him while Gongenzaka is a steadfast and loyal friend that has willingly stepped out of the limelight to protect them. Gongenzaka understands the emotional effects of being a child soldier while Sawatari was giddy at being a Lancer. Gongenzaka is loyal to his dueling style while Sawatari has changed his decks after each loss. Gongenzaka realizes the folly of challenging opponents to duels for no good reason and keeps his cool whereas Sawatari loses his composure at the drop of a hat and recklessly jumps into avoidable situations.
 * The Friend Nobody Likes: Given Sawatari's personality, he is this to everyone he interacts to, with the exception of his dad. His three "best friends" are more like minions if anything, given that they grudgingly follow his orders and even call out Sawatari's hypocrisy at times. As part of the Lancers, the rest of the group either ignore him (Serena, Kurosaki, and Reira), tolerate him (Yuya, Reiji, and Tsukikage), humors him (Dennis) or outright puts him in his place (Gongenzaka).
 * Ironically he has a few Synchro Dimension people come to like him, such as Crow, Tokumatsu and Yugo. However, they're not around enough to enforce this and Sawatari generally goes back into being this trope, especially after getting sent to the Xyz Dimension with Yuya, Gongenzaka and Kurosaki.
 * Gratuitous English: He has a lot of this.
 * Gratuitous French: The English dub has him occasionally saying French phrases instead of the above.
 * An Ice Person: After losing to Yuya, he starts running Monarchs, specifically Mobius the Frost Monarch and its upgraded form. He quickly switched decks soon.
 * Idiot Ball: In his first duel with Yuya, it's shown very clearly that Sawatari has a copy of "Breakthrough Skill" in his hand, which would have negated at least one of the effects Yuya used throughout the Duel, particularly at points where Yuya could have lost or where Sawatari could have lost. Pride is Sawatari's Fatal Flaw though, and he's later insulted by Yuto for bad dueling skills.
 * Idiot HeroSubverted. Sawatari frequently messes up and acts stupid, but as seen in his duel with Kaito, he's capable of some very good deductions.
 * Jerkass: He starts the series as this; his Establishing Character Moment involves stealing Yuya's Pendulum Monsters and then forcing Yuzu and the kids into danger so he can test the cards out. And after he loses, he tries to get his friends to help him steal the cards by force.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once he develops his entertainer persona and becomes a Lancer, he begins to edge more into this, having genuinely good intentions while still being kind of a jerk. His dueling style also begins to focus less on hogging the spotlight and more on exciting the crowd to either side's benefit.
 * Large Ham: After Yuya Gets Him Doing It, Sawatari ups his hamminess.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Among the Lancers, he serves as this by way of being the Butt Monkey for basically everyone. He is also the least serious character among the Lancers. This is probably the reason why he is with Yuya, Gongenzaka and Kurosaki, all three of them being serious characters, especially the latter two.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Starting from the Synchro Dimension arc, he gains Abyss Actors, and from then on is shown to actually be a halfway-competent duelist wielding an actually-powerful deck. Both of the duels he gets on-screen after he reveals his new archetype have shown that he is fully capable of hard-countering numerous deck types if the plot didn't dictate that he lose so often.
 * Took a Level in Kindness: After his rematch with Yuya, he starts embracing the "performer" life like Yuya does, and later turns the goal of a duel to entertaining the crowd, which is reflected in his Abyss Actor deck. While he's still a Sore Loser, he doesn't mind if the crowd had fun because of him.

Reira Akaba (Riley Akaba)
"Voiced by:Yui Ishikawa (JP), Alyson Leigh Rosenfiled (EN)"

Reijis adoptive younger brother. He was found in the warzone country and was adopted by the Akabas family to become a child soldier to defeat academia and he later becomes one of the Lancers. Reira is very quite who rarely talks and has no emotion due to being in the war zone but after meeting Yuya and Crows kids and staying with them for a while Reiras started to develop and he slowly became a bit emotional and confident of himself and his skills. Reira uses a CC deck that focuses on copying his opponents monster and like his brother his deck also specilizes in different summoning method Fusion,Synchro and XYZ it is currently unknown if he uses Pendulum or not

Reira seems more normal when his brother is with him. Being a shy kid compared to the emotionless creepy child he is when Reiji isn't around. He gives his first smile when Tatsuya says he's similar to Reiji. Later this extends to Yuya, immediately calming down when he's saved by him from the Obelisk Force, and Jack Atlas, smiling when he notices that Jack's proud of his dueling skills against a security member. Brought to a head during episode 86, where he bravely fights and defeats three Security members to prevent them from taking Serena. Quite different from the cowardly Shrinking Violet he used to be. Also appears to be one for Reiji in a different sort of way, as Reiji attempts to help Reira develop his own personality and apparently brought Reira into the Synchro Dimension because he honestly believes Reira is strong enough to handle it, even reassuring him and giving him slack when the kid refuses to duel.
 * Because You Were Nice to Me: Platonic version, but his actions in Episode 67 were because both Yuya and Shinji were kind to him, so he refused to duel Shinji and ran to Yuya for comfort.
 * Big Brother Worship/Living Emotional Crutch: Reiji seems to be the only person he cares about in the world. This is made clear when it's shown that Reira sees everything dark except of the little space where Reiji is and he manage to win his duel after seeing that Reiji is watching him.
 * Broken Bird: The card he used to nullify the effects of Ayu's cards on her side of the field show that he sees the world as a cold, grey place. Later revealed due to his environment where he grew up.
 * Camera Fiend: A rather literal example with his deck.
 * Character Development:Although he was initially shaky after becoming an Empty Shell, becoming a Yandere towards his brother and wanting Tsukikage to lose. After talking to Jack Atlas, he becomes a better person, wanting to become a brave duelist on his own, apologizes to Tsukikage and encourages Yuya to defeat Jack.
 * Creepy Child: His emotionless behavior can make people uncomfortable around him. He also has his eyes constantly wide open and is always looking at the ground.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Reira isn't actually related to the Akabas, but a child from a country where a war has raged on for decades. He lost any sense of will and identity and learned to copy people perfectly to survive. He was adopted by Himika to be made into a duel soldier against Academia.
 * Dub Name Change: From "Reira" to "Riley".
 * Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Has them almost all the time. After he gets a pep talk from Jack Atlas, these go away with his Character Development.
 * Emotionless Boy: He talks with a dull voice, and when Ayu tried to do the "Action Duel" speech, Reira's lines sounded very depressing. However, he's slowly come out of his shell as part of his Character Development.
 * Empty Shell: Reira was this when he was adopted by Himika. He was all alone in a war-torn country, where he lost all his identity and will to survive.
 * Expy: Like Haruto, he is the Nervous Wreck younger brother of the Kaiba Expy, however once his backstory is revealed he has quite a bit in common with Mokuba, due to being adopted and for his forays into Creepy Child.
 * Family Theme Naming: Reira, like Reiji and Leo, have the the kanji of zero (零) in their names.
 * Grew a Spine: As a result of his Character Development, Reira gains courage and is able to bravely face his opponents (as long as his PTSD doesn't trigger).
 * In the Hood: Coupled with Hidden Eyes to empathize his creepiness and brokeness. He also wears a cap under his hood.
 * Just a Kid: Some characters who haven't seen him duel like Sawatari and Kurosaki are dismissive of him and find it hard to believe such a young boy could be a competent duelist. Skills aside, they are not completely wrong either. He's not as brave as the others and Yuya has to tell Reiji in his face that Reira is way too young to be a Lancer.
 * Light Is Good: Film Magician, in honor of Yuya and Jack's influences.
 * Mommy Issues: It's made obvious that this little boy is afraid of his own mother. Might be due to the fact that Reira was experimented by her to become a Duel Soldier and that she is not his biologicl mother.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: He feels terrible when he realizes Tsukikage was Made a Slave because of him.
 * Nervous Wreck: Reira seems to be scared of people; he jumped when the public in the stadium started to cheer for Reiji and also when the news reporter tried to talk with him.
 * Nice Hat: He wears a cap under his hood.
 * Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: He defeats at least six Obelisk Force members on his own.
 * Parental Abandonment: We have no idea what happened to his biological family. Himika simply said he was all by himself, which leads to some very depressing or disturbing conclusions.
 * Protectorate: While in the Synchro Dimension, Yuya has taken the role of a protective big brother towards him. In a straighter example, the OP and ED imply he's this to Tsukikage, by Reiji's orders.
 * The Quiet One: He rarely talks, due to his timid personality. But as his character development goes on he becomes more and more talkative
 * Reality Ensues:The kid may be a good duelist on par of the other Lancers, but he's still just a little kid. He's scared stiff when he arrives in the Synchro Dimension without Reiji.Despite being a good duelist, he also tires much easier than the older Lancers, and after beating three Security officers and two Obelisk Force squads in a row, he is exhausted... and his PTSD is triggered.
 * Security Blanket: He only separates of his teddy bear when it's time to duel.
 * Shrinking Violet: When around Reiji. Ironically, this is when he's more emotional.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": The Versus Character Splash shows his name as "Layra". His name is actually written in kanji, so it cannot be anything else than a Japanese name. However, since he was found in a country that was in war, he is probably not even Japanese and "Layra" might be indeed the correct spelling.
 * Tag Along Kid: To the Lancers. Reiji insists he's as good a duelist as any of them (and he's right), but Reira is this until he gets his C Haracter Development and then hands three Security officers their asses.
 * Trauma Conga Line: His entire life is one. As stated in The Reveal, Reira has no sense of will or identity and is being used by the Akabas to defeat the Academia - putting him through even more pain despite being only a child.
 * Trigger: The way the Obelisk Force move and look cause him to remember the gas-masked soldiers from his former home country, sending him into a lapse of PTSD.
 * Tyke Bomb: Reira was adopted by Himika for the sole purpose of defeating Academia.
 * Yandere: When he starts to get his own will, he is worried that Tsukikage is better liked by Reiji, and wants him to lose. However, he is horrified by how callous Reiji is towards the loss, and even more horrified when he realizes that Tsukikage was Made a Slave because of him.

Serena (Celina)
"Voiced by: Yunna Inumara (JP), Emily Jenss(EN)"

A girl that resembles Yuzu from the Fusion Dimension Academia she is later reveled to be Yuzus fusion dimensional counterpart. Serena has held in Academia against her will for so many years despite being on their side.After hearing that their are some xyz remnants in standard she travels to Standard dimension with Barret without Professors permission and seeks to prove to Leo Akaba that she is worthy enough for being a front liner soldier after hearing the Academia's true colors from Yuzu her standard counterpart Serena changes side and is now one of Reijis lancers, Serena uses Moonlight deck which is a dark attribute animal like female monsters unlike Yuzus deck Serena's deck is very offensive.Similar to Yuri Serena has doppelgangers throughout the other dimensions: Yuzu (Standard), Ruri (Xyz) and Rin (Synchro).


 * 100% Adoration Rating: She is the only character in the Synchro arc to be loved by both the Commons and Tops.
 * Alleged Lookalikes: With Yuzu, Ruri, and Rin. A few friends from Standard mistake her for Yuzu several times, Yuzu mistakes her for Ruri briefly until she concludes that Serena is her Fusion counterpart, and Yugo mistakes her for Rin prior to their first duel.
 * Almighty Janitor: In her first outfit, she wore the alternate Duel Academia's version of the Osiris Red uniform, Osiris Red being the lowest dorm.
 * Badass: An overall competent duelist, that beats most of her opponents, with a good beatdown strategy.
 * Badass Adorable: Not to Yuzu's extent, though she is cute at times, such as when she pouts in her prison cell, and comes to enjoy her duel with Yugo.
 * Biker Babe: Becomes a D-Wheeler in the Synchro Dimension.
 * Berserk Button: People not treating her seriously in a duel.
 * Blood Knight: She is really combat happy, refusing to retreat or anything. It's to the point that in episode 59, even Sawatari starts to get annoyed with her wasting time dueling people instead of looking for Yuzu.
 * Broken Pedestal: The look on her face when she heard of the attack on the Heartland from Kurosaki told us all we need to know how she feels about the Academia.
 * Brutal Honesty: Because of her lack of social skills, she regularly speaks her mind when people have disappointed her like when she mocked Crow for not finding any clues about Yuzu when she was staying with him or showing her disappointment when she faces off against Yugo and flat-out tells him that his dueling style is flawed.
 * Cat Girl: She has two of them in her deck, including her Fusion Monster Lunalight Cat Dancer. Four with Panther Dancer and Lio Dancer.
 * Character Development: During her duel with Yugo, she starts to see the reasons behind Yuya's philosophy after she begins enjoying herself during a duel for the first time.
 * As the series goes on, Serena is no longer as confrontational as she was when first introduced and learns to appreciate the people who care for her like Yuya and Reira. She also finally acknowledges what Academia is doing is wrong; when Barrett offers to take her back to Academia and sweetens the deal by promising to give her exactly what she wanted from the Professor, she outright refuses.
 * Chess Motifs: Designated by Roget as the White Queen.
 * Clothing Switch: With Yuzu, so she could talk to Kurosaki. This is the reason why Yuzu still wears her clothes until the beginning of the Friendship Cup.
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair, eye, and outfit colors are drawn from the Polymerization card◊.
 * The Comically Serious: Serena has her moments in the show when she's not being arrogant. Episode 62 actually shows Serena pouting in her jail cell before being rescued. The special Omake corners that airs at the end of an episode has her either complaining about Sawatari's incompetence or getting flustered by Yuya's silliness.
 * Contralto of Danger: Her voice is deeper than Yuzu's, and Serena is willing to hurt Xyz duelists, regardless whether they are from the Xyz Dimension or not.
 * Damsel in Distress:Becomes one in Episode 86 when she's incapacitated with Nerve Gas and captured by Roget's Security Force en route to the Underground Facility. Fortunately, she is saved by Reira and Tsukikage. Later she is protected by Yuya and Sora. Unfortunately all four fail in the end and she's successfully captured by Barrett after his loss to Sergey, once again becoming Academia's prisoner.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Her Lunalight deck is DARK-attribute, but she herself proves to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
 * Defector from Decadence: She does a Heel–Face Turn after seeing the actual methods Academia uses.
 * Dub Name Change: Her monsters are called "Lunalight" in the English version as opposed to "Moonlight" in the original version, though her name is only changed in spelling.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Yuzu. Serena hunts Xyz duelists and seals them in cards, including Hokuto. Subverted when she learns about the atrocities Academia commits, which causes her allegiance to shift.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: She and Yuzu share the same seiyuu, but Serena's voice is noticeably deeper. She's also not really "evil", unlike the dimensional counterpart of Yuya.
 * Expy: Like Yuzu, she has similarities with past Yu-Gi-Oh! female characters. Due to being from Fusion she is like Asuka being a Dance Battler and Blood Knight (albeit much, much more pronounced than Asuka). Her personality and introduction, starting as an enemy and joining the heroic team when she realizes how evil the threat is, is like Aki's appearances in Season 1 and early Season 2 of 5Ds. Sawatari's crush on her is another holdover from Asuka.
 * Fan Boy: She has a lot of these among the Commons in Synchro.
 * Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears a glove on one hand, a bracelet on the other. After her outfit change, this is no longer the case.
 * Fingerless Gloves: The single left glove. After her outfit change, this is no longer the case.
 * Foil: She's one to fellow Lancer, Kurosaki. Kurosaki is a survivor from the Xyz dimension that has lost everything and in his attempt to get it back has done so very brutal things and has shown no remorse for it. While Serena was protected by the Academia in the Fusion dimension and threw away her home when she was horrified by their actions.
 * She is also one to Yuzu, both of them are dimensional counterparts, but while Yuzu is kind, friendly, compassionate, and is always willing to listen, Serena has No Social Skills, is callous, belligerent, has little patience and yearns to prove herself, but like Yuzu, she has good intentions and after learning the truth behind the Heartland invasion she joined the Lancers
 * Gilded Cage: Implied. Serena is as much of a prisoner and vital part of his plan to the Professor as Ruri and Rin are, but the difference is that she doesn't know it. She only thinks that the Professor doesn't consider her strong enough to be in the front lines so she was kept inside the curiously castle-like Academia and never allowed to leave, with every attempt of escape failing. She only was able to escape this time thanks to the Professor keeping an eye on Standard instead of her for once.
 * Good Costume Switch: After becoming a Lancer she changes her outfit to a set of casual clothes that resemble her old Academia uniform. It involves a less evil looking red-jacket and a white skirt.
 * Graceful Loser: She took her loss to Yugo well, even happily shaking his hand and wishing him luck for the rest of the Friendship Cup.
 * Gravity Master: Her summon chants for her Fusion Monsters invoke the moon's gravity.
 * "Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power!"
 * Hair Decorations: A yellow ribbon in contrast to Yuzu's blue clips.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Just like Yuzu, but for very different reasons. While Yuzu is normally calm and collected but easily pissed at people's idiocy, Serena is bitter that her potential is getting wasted and hates that people are looking down at or mocking her.
 * Heroic Resolve: She declares that she'll save Yuzu as Yuzu opened her eyes about the Academia and it was her fault that Yuzu was captured.
 * Heel–Face Turn: She betrays Academia and ends up fighting side-by-side with Standard and Kurosaki. Serena also becomes one of Reiji's eight Lancers.
 * Heel Realization: She's utterly horrified when Kurosaki tells her the truth about Academia's attacks on Heartland.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Barrett.
 * Identical Stranger: To Yuzu, Ruri, and Rin. She even sounds like Yuzu; granted, they share a voice actor.
 * I Just Want to Be Free: Despite her talent, the Professor keeps her cooped up in Academia and refuses to let her go out on the front lines. She hates this.
 * I Will Only Slow You Down: In episode 88, she insists Tsukikage and Reira abandon her since she can't move. They refuse. Done again in episode 91, when she sees how much Yuya and Reira are struggling to keep Barrett and Obelisk Force away from her and she wants them to run; again, they refuse.
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: Doesn't think anything of stripping off her jacket when Yuzu suggests they switch clothes. She probably would have gone further had Yuzu not stopped her.
 * In the Hood: Keeps a black hood over her face, so she can walk in Maiami City more freely.
 * Japanese Pronouns: She uses the gender neutral watashi, in contrast to Yuzu's feminine atashi.
 * Jerkass: Rude to everyone she interacts with, such as Reiji and her own bodyguard, Barrett. Calls Dennis pathetic after she beats him in a duel that he wasn't going all out for.
 * Later she calls Crow an incompetent coward for "staying in one place" and not producing answers about Yuzu's whereabouts...despite the fact that Crow gave them shelter in the first place and Security is essentially everywhere, with one wrong move leading to them getting arrested... which does occur later.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
 * She's grateful to Barrett for going with her to Standard. Drops the "gold" part when she coldly walks away from Barrett after he was beaten in his duel with Reiji, showing that she only really cares about herself, despite Barrett being the one decent Fusion user who doesn't take outward pleasure in attacking others nor did anything to prevent her from leaving Academia in the first place.
 * She regains it later when she proves that she's not like her other companions from Academia, namely taking pleasure in the suffering of others. Yuzu makes her realize that the Xyz Dimension duelists had families as well and that Academia went around attacking EVERYONE, not just duelists, which she made the mistake of thinking that all citizens from the Xyz Dimension were. She later becomes disgusted and horrified when she witnesses Sora attacking Kurosaki, the guy that she was "hunting" all this time, and after Kurosaki relates the story of Academia's attack on Heartland.
 * Despite her arrogance, Serena can be seen glowing with pride over watching Yuzu duel and reacting in horror over Yuzu's lost to Sergey.
 * She later admits to Yugo that she was impressed with his duel with Sawatari.
 * Karma Houdini: Granted, she doesn't stay a villain forever, but she doesn't really get any sort of comeuppance for carding Hokuto.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Unlike Yuzu, Ruri, and Rin and their feelings towards their respective "Yuya", she cares nothing for Yuri nor gives any acknowledgement that she knows him.
 * Late-Arrival Spoiler: The third opening and upcoming official materials (such as posters or covers) reveal her Heel–Face Turn.
 * Living MacGuffin: Like the rest of the Yuzu counterparts, serves as one to the Professor for unknown reasons.
 * Magnetic Plot Device: Her bracelet is one, just like Yuzu's.
 * Megaton Punch: Serena delivers a hilarious one to Yugo in Episode 84 when he tries to hug her; he made the mistake of confusing a counterpart for Rin...again. In the episode prior she did this twice!
 * Modesty Shorts: Is wearing what looks like black biking shorts under a red skirt in her first outfit.
 * Multicolored Hair: Has dark blue hair and two bangs that are light blue, similar to Yuzu, Ruri and Rin.
 * No-Nonsense Nemesis: Being raised in Fusion, this is her primary attribute. She's always very serious in her dueling and hates it when her opponents are weak or aren't taking the duel seriously.
 * No Social Skills: Supplementary materials reveal that she has never left Academia prior to Episode 38 and that she only learned how to duel, but at the cost of learning social skills. Which explains why she believed that every person is a duelist and also her not seeing anything wrong about stripping out in the open.
 * Not So Above It All: Serena is one of the most serious characters in the series... yet special Omake corners after any episode that features her show that she:
 * Has a fondness for sweets like Sora.
 * Is jealous of Kurosaki for having monsters that can fly and wants one too.
 * Can get nervous before a duel and walk off completely in the wrong direction.
 * In the show proper, she was pouting like crazy when the rest of the Lancers sans Kurosaki were escaping and when Yugo complains about her saying Fusion (Yugou in Japanese), she yells back to shut up and let her duel.
 * Perpetual Frowner: In contrast to Yuzu, Serena is usually seen with a scowl on her face.
 * Pride: Believes her own skill in dueling to be so great that she gets pissed that the Professor is keeping her secluded on Academia. However, this blinds her to the fact that by attacking anyone who's not a Fusion duelist (namely anyone who can Xyz Summon), she's causing more harm than good and doesn't think of the consequences her actions could potentially bring.
 * Refusal of the Call: She rejects Reiji's offer to join him. After seeing Academia for what it really is, she ends up as a Lancer.
 * Serious Business: Prior to her duel with Yugo, Serena didn't view Duel Monsters as a game, but as a duel between two warriors who are fighting for their honor.
 * Smug Smiler: When not frowning, Serena loves doing this to her opponents whenever she gets the upper hand.
 * The Smurfette Principle:The only girl in Reiji's Lancers.
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Similar to Kurosaki, Serena doesn't appreciate being saved from danger, stating that she has the situation "handled" and sees someone helping her out as someone who is underestimating her abilities, which she hates. In Episode 56, she, along with Yuya, Reira and Sawatari, are surrounded by Security forces; when Yuya offers to distract them and begs her to take Reira to safety, Serena just screams back that she's no coward and she intends to wipe everyone out...despite being surrounded by at least thirteen duelists at once. However, she does at least acknowledge that she'll need to work in a group if she intends to save Yuzu and protect her from Academia.
 * Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Subverted. While her deck is very feminine, the play-style of her deck revolves around attacking as much as possible while preventing her opponent from protecting themselves; fitting given some of her tendencies, so it might just be that she doesn't care for looks as long as what she's using works. She's also the only "Yuzu" counterpart who hasn't shown any form of closeness/affection towards her "Yuya" counterpart (though it's possible they haven't met yet.) note
 * Tomboyish Ponytail: To contrast Yuzu in appearance.
 * Took a Level in Kindness: During her duel with Yugo, she starts to enjoy dueling and states she finally understands what Yuya was talking about. Even being worried about Reira in the next episode when in previous episodes she had been apathetic to him.
 * War for Fun and Profit: Subverted, she rejects Yuzu's claim that the Academia sees their invasion of the Xyz Dimension as a game.
 * Well Done Daughter Gal: Wants to impress her mentor, Professor Leo Akaba, and make him proud enough to let her fight.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her talk with Yuzu painted her as this. She fully believed that what the Professor wants to do is for the greater good. And even if the Xyz duelists lost, they still had their pride despite losing. She was shaken by the implication of the Xyz duelists having families that are not duelists and resolves to see Kurosaki to check if its true.
 * Worthy Opponent: Serena originally saw Yugo as this because of his duel against Sawatari, although she changes her mind when he spends his entire first turn summoning a single monster from his hand. In Episode 85, she revises her opinion once again seeing Yugo as one again.
 * When She Smiles: Although smug, Serena is capable of smiling genuinely; this is best seen when she watches Yuzu duel with Sergey, and she's beaming with pride over seeing her counterpart duel so spectacularly. Later when she starts to truly enjoy herself dueling, she starts to smile for real again.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Her hair is primarily dark purple. She also has two blue strands.

Tsukikage (Moon Shadow)
"Voiced by: Manabu Sakamaki (JP), Eddy Lee (EN)"

Tsukikage and his brother Hikage were hired by Reiji. He and his brother took part in Miami championship in which his brother was sealed in a card. Tsukikage later became one of the lancers and is Reijis personal bodyguard.

Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: He tells Sora grudges are unending, letting him know he won't forget that he carded his brother, but forgives him. My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted, while it initially seems he has Undying Loyalty, he makes it clear to Yuya he would have abandoned Reiji long ago if he was as cruel as Academia.
 * Angsty Surviving Twin: While not twins (maybe, Hikage was referred to as the older brother), Although downplayed, in a Not So Stoic moment Tsukikage shows how deeply hurt he is by his brother's loss.
 * Ascended Extra: Tsukikage appeared as another duel school rival, and became a member of both groups of the Lancers.
 * Badass: Tsukikage worfs Mieru in their duel. Both ninjas were also selected by Reiji to be Lancers. More impressive are his ninja skills, making him arguably the most competent Lancer outside of a Duel (although he does have competition in Kurosaki).
 * Badass Normal: No Extra Deck or Pendulum Monsters, just normal Effect monsters. It doesn't prevent him from being any less of a Badass.
 * Berserk Button: Don't insult his clan. Shinji saying that Tsukikage is no better than Security really riles him up, especially since his brother got carded doing his duty.
 * Bodyguarding a Badass: His role around Reiji besides stealth. He's a capable duelist in his own right, though Reiji is of course Reiji. Though considering his abilities and his sword, he appears to be for non-dueling defense as well.
 * Dub Name Change: To "Moon Shadow". This is notable due to his name being a literal translation from the Japanese version.
 * Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Tsukikage initially doesn't forgive Sora for carding Hikage, but Tsukikage is not blinded by his revenge to overlook that Sora is really protecting Yuzu. He becomes in better terms with him after Sora saves his life and they do eventually become partners during the last quarter of the Synchro Dimension arc. See Forgiven, but Not Forgotten below.
 * Face Death with Dignity: Tsukikage was ready to do this against the Obelisk Force, but Sawatari saves him.
 * Fashionable Asymmetry: His outfit only has a sleeve on the right side. Note that Tsukikage is left-handed.
 * Flash Step: He can move faster than the human eye can see, to instantly move around the field and collect Action Cards. He can even move off his D-Wheel and move back while it is still in motion.
 * Foil: Tsukikage is one to fellow Lancer, Dennis. Dennis is a flashy mole who hides his vicious personality with kindness and smiles. While Tsukikage is a silent stoic that is absolutely loyal to his mission and is benevolent. They are both much more plot important than expected.
 * I Let You Win: During his duel with Shinji, Tsukikage manages to pick up an action card called "Evasion", which would've negated Shinji's strongest monster from attacking, thus saving him from losing the rest of his Life Points. He chooses to not use it, however, and loses on purpose on Reiji's ordersnote, in order to infiltrate the hidden Underground Facility.
 * It's Personal: Once he locates him, he confronts Sora to avenge his fallen brother, Hikage, who Sora carded scores of episodes earlier. However, he backs down when Yuzu convinces Sora to not fight and to help Yuya instead.
 * Left-Handed Mirror: Tsukikage is the blue, left-handed Ninja with a stalling strategy, while Hikage is the red, right-handed Ninja with an offensive strategy.
 * Made a Slave: Gets sent to the Underground, though Episode 73 shows escape isn't that difficult for a Ninja.
 * Nice Guy: Tsukikage is loyal to the Lancers, and kind, if a bit stoic. However, don't insult his clan to his face...
 * One-Hit Kill: Tsukikage pulled one of these, worfing Mieru.
 * Revenge: He seeks this against Sora, though agrees to wait to deal with him until after Yuya is saved. He eventually drops it and works with Sora together to save Yuzu and to foil Roget's plans.
 * The Southpaw: In a rarity for this series, Tsukikage's left-handed. However he uses his right hand in a Riding Duel.
 * Stealth Expert: Tsukikage is this for the Lancers, easily able to enter and leave the Underground Facility to bring information to Reiji.
 * Stone Wall: His deck is defensive, and his offensive strategy sacrifices Action Cards to inflict scratch damage, using his speed to collect all the Action Cards.
 * Weak, but Skilled: His dueling record is somewhat spotty as his strategy is ill-suited to Battle Royale-style play, but outside of dueling his ninja stealth abilities have been an invaluable asset for the Lancers.
 * The Worf Effect: Worfs Mieru, a powerful Ritual Duelist who had even Yuya on the ropes, when he finally gets to duel. He and Sora gets a two of these from Sergey physically and Roget in a duel, although the latter cheated with hologram clones.
 * Worf Had the Flu: He and Sora beat Roget once, but got thrown by him using Fighting a Shadow on them.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Tsukikage has dark blue hair.

Shun Kurosaki (Shay Obsidian)
Shun is one of the saviors along with Yuto for the invasion of xyz dimension and he is the member of the resistance.His younger sister Ruri was kidnap by Academia he and Yuto then traveled to Standard dimension where they both target LDS in order to lure out Reiji so that Professor can handle Ruri to him.After learning that he and Reiji shared the common enemy he then agreed to work with him. Reiji then made him the student of LDS he then took part in Miami championship.He harbours a deep vengeful hatred to academia due to the sufferings they have cost to him and his comrades.Despite his hostile and cold nature he is shown to care deeply about his comrades including Yuto and Ruri who are completely precious to him.Kurosaki uses a Raidraptor deck, which is made for swarming Winged-Beast-Type monsters to Xyz Summon monsters with low base-ATK, but powerful effects. He also has many Spell and Trap Cards that can counter various situations.

With his Raid Raptors, he saves Yuya and the others by giving them a lift to the Duel Palace during the Riots. Does it again in his rematch with Sora. Not wanting to drag out the duel and fuel Sora's prideful lust for revenge, Kurosaki prepares a complicated strategy before attacking: summons in his first turn three copies of Force Strix and powers them up to a point where he could potentially OTK the kid. It fails off-screen and Sora subsequently defeats him. Kurosaki: "We, the Resistance, have always fought with the worst case scenario in mind. While keeping in mind the friends we lost who used to fight alongside us. But even if they're taken from us, we will never abandon them. I WILL take back my friends!" Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Is subject to this after being rendered unconscious by Yuto in Episode 21. Drops this after his second duel with Dennis, becoming too paranoid and convinced that everyone is an enemy. Picks it up again after dueling Crow and losing a little paranoia. Taken even further in the next episode, where he is clearly reminded of his conflict with Academia. Again in episode 74, he has a brief flashback after seeing Dennis' Antique Gear Chaos Giant and the destruction those behemoths inflicted on his city. He finally drops his attitude after losing to Crow and is completely fine to help his new comrades, including Crow. Beats up an entire squad of guards in the underground, in what's probably the most badass display of physical violence in Yugioh history. You Gotta Have Blue Hair: He has two different shades of teal.
 * And This Is For...: Dedicates a blow to his fallen Resistance comrades, Ruri, and Yuto when applying the effect of Satellite Cannon Falcon.
 * Anti-Hero: Almost to the point of Nominal Hero. He'll do anything to rescue his comrades and stop Academia, but his current actions include attacking innocents for going to LDS, showing a disregard for the safety of his own allies, and he has no hesitation about fighting anyone in his way regardless of their own moral standing. This also doesn't get into his intensely antisocial behavior and general Jerkass-ness.
 * Anime Hair: Bluish and a little spiky, but it is more subdued than the Yuto's.
 * Badass: Somewhat memetically so.
 * Beats two of LDS' aces, and later three employees at the same time. Then he defeats the LDS trio with a 16,400 ATK beatstick.
 * He becomes even more so in his duel with Sora, where he Ranks-Up his ace monster twice.
 * He escapes from solitary confinement in the Synchro Arc by climbing up above line of sight, then dropping down onto the guard that came into figure out where he went. He then beats up other guards on his way out.
 * He later defeats Dennis, despite the latter summoning a very powerful 4500 ATK giant!
 * Starts kicking everyone's ass Underground after he decides to leave, first with his fists then with his duel disk when he gets it back...both times, by himself.
 * Badass Boast:Generally, he tends to embellish the attacks and effects of his monsters to the effect of commanding his opponents to burn in the flames of revolution or bear the suffering of his comrades.
 * Badass in Distress: Suffers his first on-screen loss against Sora in their rematch and is injured because of it. Serena of all people has to save him from Sora and Obelisk Force and keep him safe.
 * Badass Longcoat: Wear a long blue-purple coat and looks tough with it. In episode 62, it gets shadowed nicely during his Death from Above moment.
 * Batman Gambit: He attacked LDS to lure out Reiji, so he can use him as a bartering chip against the Professor.
 * Berserk Button:
 * Mentioning his enemies, whoever they may be, severely pisses him off. Before he learned that they were the wrong target, any mention of the name LDS makes him nearly foam at the mouth. But it's Fusion Summoning that really hits his button. He first goes against LDS' Fusion teacher and his eyes react when anyone fuses when he doesn't know that they could. Academia, who captured Ruri, is from the Fusion Dimension.
 * Heartland, his hometown, is one to him. This is taken to its logical extreme when the Action Field selected for his duel with Sora is Future Metropolis Heartland. You can tell by the look on his face he is NOT happy with this choice. The second time it happens, he's so disturbed that he doesn't even go into one of his famous monologues.
 * Another smaller one is to say that his monsters are weak because they have low attack points. During duels, he typically responds with proving the person who said that wrong.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Kurosaki is so intent on attacking LDS because he believes his little sister Ruri was captured by them. He's later shown to be protective and more open to persuasion when talking to Serena due to her resemblance to Ruri.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Literally leaps into the duel against the Arrest Corps in episode 63 after they had taken control of all the Lancers' remaining monsters and proceeds to use those captured monsters to summon Rise Falcon, a monster which they couldn't take control of due to not possessing a level, and defeat all 3 of their opponents at the same time.
 * Break the Haughty: Does this to Sora, and Sora does it back in turn in their second duel. Noticeable in that afterwards he actually shows appreciation for Tsukikage, Sawatari, Gongenzaka, and Serena helping him.
 * But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Doesn't even remember who Marco is, until Masumi brings up Fusion Summoning. It is possible however that he just didn't ask for his name. He's never asked anyone he duels for their names.
 * Character Development: His Duel against Kaito serves to reaffirm his growth as a character throughout the series thus far, where he has learned to treasure the bonds he has formed with his allies and trust them.
 * Character Tic: He has a tendency to expand his eyes and point with his right index and middle fingers when ordering his Xyz monsters to attack.
 * The Comically Serious: When Sora tries to do the "Action Duel" chanting, Kurosaki doesn't even open his mouth to say he's not fooling around. He's especially this in the third ending, participating in all the crazy antics depicted without a single smile save on the cards at the end where all of them are smiling.
 * During the escape from the Underground in Episode 90, he's paired with Sawatari. This is pretty much a given.
 * Crazy-Prepared: As shown during his duel against Sora, Kurosaki manages to counter basically everything against him. Especially his last card Rank-Up Magic Revolution Force only works in a specific situation, yet Kurosaki gets the chance to use it.
 * Curb-Stomp Battle: He annihilates Masumi, Hokuto and Yaiba in Episode 24. Later goes on to dominate Sora and the Knight duelists utterly, and wipes the Arrest Corps within seconds of joining. Then there's his escape from the underground labor facility.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Academia invaded Heartland City, turned it into an interdimensional battle ground, and carded most of its citizens. His sister, Ruri, was kidnapped as well.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Though morally ambiguous enough to steal the souls of LDS employees.
 * Deadpan Snarker: In the dub.
 * Determinator: He and his comrades had to get up again and again to defeat their enemies.
 * This is to the point all of his summon chants describe this trait.
 * Dub Name Change. To Shay Obsidian.
 * Enemy Mine: With Reiji, to defeat Professor Leo Akaba.
 * Expy: His coat and overall attitude is similar to Kaiba in Duelist Kingdom, when Kaiba was also trying to single-handedly mount a rescue of his younger sibling, doing whatever it takes to draw out the culprit. He is also one for Shark, being the revenge minded older brother, and in personality he takes more after Shark.
 * Eviler Than Thou: Episode 75 has shown him to be the most anti-heroic character on the Lancers, being the only member willing to card people.
 * Fantastic Racism: He hates Fusion, and also considers LDS Xyz Summoning to be a sham. He sort of got over the former after Serena helped him, focusing his hatred on Academia rather than fusion users in general. Unfortunately, after Dennis's betrayal he becomes convinced that everyone who isn't from the Xyz dimension can't be trusted and that his only friends are his dead comrades, though thankfully Crow and the kids help him get over this.
 * Fighting Your Friend: Challenges Kaito, a fellow Resistance member to a Duel.
 * First Name Basis: Only the citizens from Heartland call him by his first name. The anime and promotional materials do not.
 * Foil: He's one to fellow Lancer, Serena. Kurosaki is a survivor from the Xyz dimension that has lost everything and in his attempt to get it back has done so very brutal things and has shown no remorse for it. While Serena was protected by the Academia in the Fusion dimension and threw away her home due to her moral code.
 * Freudian Excuse: Deconstructed, while why he's so aggressive and paranoid can be explained by what he lost, the show states that does in no way EXCUSE him. Yuya has stated while Yuto was as mad and hated the Academia, he was still much more reasonable and wanted a peaceful solution. Amanda, Tanner and Frank stated they also lost everything, but weren't nearly as destructive as Kurosaki is.
 * Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Attempts to do this on Kaito during their Duel.
 * Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Often engages in this when declaring attacks.
 * Graceful Loser: He takes his loss against Crow quite well, giving out a smile as Crow's attack finishes him off.
 * Had To Be Sharp: His explanation for his strength. This isn't limited to card-game skills.
 * Head Butting Heroes: Is a bit much, but he and Yuto argue about their methods.
 * The Heavy: He basically functions as the main antagonist of the first arc.
 * Heroic B.S.O.D.: Goes through this briefly when the Action Field chosen for his duel with Sora resembles his destroyed hometown, Heartland. Then the BSOD is replaced by rage and determination.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: He's Knight Templar in defeating his enemies and finding Ruri, but his actions are taking him further into the Moral Event Horizon.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Flashbacks show that he has worked with people he trusts, but he wasn't seen teaming up with anyone on-screen until much later. He didn't even team up with Yuto, one of the few people he trusts, instead following his own agenda and occasionally getting in touch with him while in the Standard dimension. This gets him in trouble, but even after supposedly learning his lesson he goes back to being a loner. He eventually grows out of it.
 * Irony: He hates LDS, yet is put among their numbers for the Maiami Championship. Also, see Not So Different. Later on in Episode 48, he's saved by Serena, an Academia Fusion user who looks like his sister.
 * I Work Alone:
 * He dislikes tag-team dueling, though he appreciates it when Serena, Tsukikage, Michio, Teppei, Sawatari, and Gongenzaka protect him from the Obelisk Force and make it possible for him to defeat them.
 * His attitude in the Synchro Dimension. He states he arrived alone and instead of attempting to find the rest of the Lancers, he just started looking for strong duelists instead. As a result of finding out about Dennis, he is even worse in this regard, declaring that everyone is his enemy and that his friends are only from the Xyz Dimension and are dead. Although after dueling Crow, Kurosaki finally mellows out of it.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's generally rude and demeaning to everyone he encounters, but he makes it VERY clear that he cares deeply for his friends. Despite their differing opinions and his threat to defeat Yuto, Kurosaki still considers Yuto his best friend and was furious when he couldn't find him anywhere after his duel with Yuya and Sora. He was prepared to rough up Yuya for possibly doing something to Yuto and for having Yuto's trademark card, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, in his possession. Even though the manner in which he finished off Dennis was violent, Kurosaki voices aloud that he still cares about the state his home dimension was left in, still grieves that many of his other friends were sealed away into cards, and is furious at Academia for stealing away the future happiness of the two people most important to him: Yuto and his little sister Ruri.
 * Kick the Dog: Carding both Tio and Marco, who at least seemed like pretty nice guys, probably counts as this. Him carding of the three random LDS employees chasing Yuya believing him to be the one they're looking for. He later insults Marco in front of Masumi, calling him weak and pathetic. He then goes on to insult and demean Masumi and her other two friends Yaiba and Hokuto, noting that their efforts to defeat him lacked any sort of "iron and will", ignoring the fact that all three managed to wipe his field and hand clean of all monsters, Spells, and Traps, including reducing his Life Points to a mere 10.
 * Kick Them While They're Down: Kurosaki intended to seal away both Sora and Dennis after winning his matches against them but was stopped by Reiji's actions, either directly or indirectly. While he was willing to let Sora go, he had no problem potentially killing Dennis by beating his unconscious body instead.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: His intended carding of Sora and Dennis. Also how he likely views his Kick the Dog moments, particularly before he learns that LDS is a potential ally.
 * Knight of Cerebus: Like Yuto, his appearance has slowly darkened the series.
 * Knight Templar: Despite Yuto telling him LDS is not the enemy, he still attacks them, to the extent Yuto is forced to knock him out to get him away from Masumi, Yuzu, and Sora. It turns out that he attacked them because he wants to take Reiji hostage, because the Professor seems to be the one holding Ruri hostage.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: He's steals the souls of teachers and elite students, who may not be into the whole thing, and is willing to duel students just to bring out LDS' boss, Reiji, in order to duel some answers out of him.
 * La Résistance: Reveals he is part of one fighting Academia from the Fusion Dimension during his duel with Sora.
 * The Lancer: He becomes this to Yuya as part of the Lancers.
 * Large Ham: Normally he's rather subdued, but when he's dueling, Kurosaki chews scenery with the best of them (with both verbal and body language).
 * Last Name Basis: The anime, promotional materials and non-Heartland characters call him by his last name.
 * Love Makes You Crazy: His love for his sister Ruri makes him very erratic in his willingness to get her back.
 * Love Makes You Evil: To get Ruri back, he is willing to do a lot of dark things.
 * Magic Knight: A pretty good duelist in a world where duel monsters can be implemented with real magic, and eventually shown to be a skilled hand-to-hand fighter capable of taking down several enemies at once.
 * Meaningful Name: The kanji in his first name, 隼, can be read as "hayabusa," meaning "falcon," referring to his monsters. "Kurosaki" means "black flower." In the dub, Shay is Gaelic for "hawk", but it can also allude to Shays' Rebellion, a famous historical uprising.
 * Moral Myopia: States in Episode 34 that he'll do anything to protect his comrades... but when the LDS Trio went after him to do the same, he beat them down without even thinking about it.
 * Nineties Anti-Hero: Badass? Check. Physically kicks ass? Check. Completely willing to kill anyone if it's convenient? Check, just ask Professor Marco. I Work Alone? Check. While no guns are used, his ace monsters do tend to drop bombs or lasers on people. While he does have a handful of scenes where he feels grateful or glad to see a loved one kinda, sorta alive, most of the time he's either angry or indifferent. After his Character Development, he stops being one.
 * No-Nonsense Nemesis: A (arguably) benevolent version; given his background, he treats dueling like real combat and a battlefield, as opposed to more idealistic characters like Yuya, who treat dueling like fun.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: Gives a speech to this effect after Sora takes his Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon in Episode 34.
 * Noble Bird Of Prey: His Raid Raptors are mechanical predatory birds and give off this vibe, especially his Xyz Monsters, with an example being Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon. They only get bigger and more badass from there.
 * Not So Different:
 * Hinted at by his duel with Sora when you consider that Kurosaki has hunted people in much the same way as the Fusion faction, Academia, albeit for a different reason, and he finishes the duel by bombing the virtual Heartland to the ground, which is exactly what the Academia did to the real one. This is further emphasized when Sora revealed that Academia would seal their victims' souls in cards. Furthermore, he is also able to card people like Academia.
 * He and Serena share a similar desire in working alone and believing that their strength and skills is enough to take on anyone.
 * Hilariously enough, he's this to LDS given that his attitude seems to come from when he was at a pro duelist school himself.
 * Befriends Crow once he realizes that this is their situation.
 * Kaito is exactly like Kurosaki, but more violent and angrier at Academia, if that's even possible.
 * Only Sane Man: Interestingly, once he returns home, he shifts from being a Combat Pragmatist Anti-Hero to being one of the most reasonable characters, up there with Gongenzaka. This is in stark contrast to pretty much everyone else around him, including Kaito, who is blinded by hatred, Sawatari, who's, well, Sawatari, and even Yuya, who now has Yuto's overwhelming hatred to contend with in the face of Academia's soldiers.
 * Perpetual Frowner: He's almost always seen with a scowl on his face, as seen in the image above.
 * Perspective Reversal: Everyone spent all of the first two seasons trying to get Kurosaki to be a team player and Lancers comrade. He tries to do the same thing for Kaito.
 * Pet the Dog:
 * A justified example. He shows sympathy and outright concern for Yuzu in Episode 77 after Sergey threw her and her bike off the road and into the side of a building. This is partially due to Yuzu looking exactly like his little sister, Ruri, but may also be the fact that even someone as stoic and battle-hardened as Kurosaki can be horrified by such violent events.
 * Later saves Tanner from falling off Crow's monster.
 * In Episode 95, he bails out the rest of the Lancers, Tokumatsu, Sam, and Crow's kids from the City's riot before giving Yuya a ride back to the Duel Palace so the latter can face Jack one more time.
 * Outright states that Yuya is his companion, saying that he trusts him, in order to get Kaito to lay off Yuya.
 * The Power of Friendship: Tries to invoke this to overcome Kaito's hatred in their duel. Kurosaki puts up a valiant effort, and it partially works four episodes later.
 * The Power of Hate: He really doesn't like Academia and considering their tendency to intentionally press his Berserk Button, he's got a lot of hate to spread around.
 * Properly Paranoid: Played With, after his duel with Dennis he is sure that there is another Academia spy in the Synchro Dimension. He's not wrong, but the problem is he has no idea who it is and as such is planning on attacking everyone to makes sure.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He repeatedly states that the LDS duelists he has dueled lack steeled resolve.
 * Remember That You Trust Me: Played with, see Aesop Amnesia above. He does continue to show signs of friendship with Crow and be largely hostile to everyone else, but not without reason, and slowly warms up to the others as the series goes on in small, subtle ways. It's implied that his duel with Crow helped remind him of what's really important. By Xyz arc he moves out of this.
 * Revenge: He's not so much interested in fighting the bad guys to stop their evil plans as he is out to take revenge for his destroyed home and fallen comrades.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: He definitely shows signs of this in Episode 33 when Heartland is used as the field for his duel against Sora.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": An official website spells his rarely used first name as "Syun", which is a common spelling for the "Shu" syllable in spelled out names by the Japanese.
 * Taught by Experience: He says the reason for his strength is this.
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kurosaki does not work well with others, including his own best friend Yuto, and prefers to do everything alone. This is called out by Serena and Gongenzaka, since as skilled as he is, even he can't defeat everyone from Academia and needs all the help he can get. The most volatile partnership he has is with Reiji, since he gets pissed every time Reiji tells him to exercise caution or prevents him from following through on certain actions.
 * Once in the Synchro Dimension, he doesn't even bother looking for the other Lancers and just goes about doing what he feels like. Gongenzaka chews him out for this, but it doesn't seem to stick.
 * Took a Level In Kindness: Thanks to Crow, by the Heartland Arc, he had become a lot nicer, trying to get Kaito to come back and stop carding people, showing trust in the Lancers and Yuya, and generally a lot more pleasant to be around.
 * Tranquil Fury: Looked shaken after seeing Heartland, but then spent the entire duel calm and composed while he kicked Sora's ass.
 * True Companions: Despite his Nominal Hero-like willingness to go through everything in his way to accomplish his goals, it's been consistently shown that Kurosaki places great faith in his allies and those that he has bonded with. Part of his Character Development involves him opening up to the other Lancers and trusting them as much as they trust him. He goes through a brief episode (or few) of shunning them after Dennis is revealed to the cast as an Academia spy, but dueling Crow helps him get back on track. By the Xyz Dimension arc, he firmly believes that his remaining Lancer party is this, and he's willing to defend them and his belief in them.
 * Underestimating Badassery: While he still takes the duel seriously, Kurosaki clearly doesn't think much of Sora during their rematch, having defeated him before. He ends up losing when Sora summons a Death-toy monster he hadn't expected, mirroring their first battle.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Upon learning that Dennis was not only from Academia but the catalyst to starting the invasion on his home dimension, as well as setting Yuri on his sister Ruri and getting her captured, Kurosaki becomes hell bent on destroying the man.
 * Violence Is the Only Option: When breaking out of prison, Kurosaki doesn't have a Duel Disk on him, so he resorts to physically beating the crap out of the guards until he can find a Duel Disk to arm himself with.
 * Also in episode 75, after finding out that Reiji deactivated the carding mechanism on his Duel Disk, he apparently decides to just beat Dennis to death, but is stopped by the tournament guards.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Continues to card innocent people even after Yuto explains that LDS isn't their enemy, but only so that he can lure out Reiji and take him hostage. Showing no remorse for this puts him at a darker morality, but consider how many lives might have been saved if his plan worked.
 * When He Smiles: Kurosaki doesn't smile much, but he gets a few such as when he returns Crow's fist-bump, affirming him as a comrade. Later in flashbacks of the Xyz Dimension saga, Kurosaki was seen smiling along with Yuto and Ruri when observing Kaito dueling.
 * Would Hit a Girl: He has no problem violently shoving Yuzu out of the way and knocking her down, and then was poised to seal Masumi within a card, had the duel not been interrupted before it could start. Later he almost does it again after he formally defeats her, along with Hokuto and Yaiba, but is interrupted again by the reinforcements of LDS.
 * Would Hurt a Child: So long as that child is an enemy, as in the case of Sora and Academia's Child Soldiers, he holds no reservations about going all out, showing when he had Revolution Falcon bring down a tower on top of Sora. He was then poised to seal Sora away in a card, in front of a crowd no less but was told by Reiji not to make a scene at the last minute via radio.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: He sealed the souls of five LDS employees into cards with his Duel Disk. Attempted to do this to Sora and Dennis but was prevented by Reiji.