Yugi Muto

"I made a wish on the puzzle. 'I wish for friends'...friends I can count on, friends who could count on me, no matter what!"

- Yugi Muto Yugi Mutou (also known as Yugi Muto in his English dub) is the main character of the anime, manga, and card game of his name called Yu-Gi-Oh! Like everyone else in the show, he is a duelist who relies on special cards that allow him to beat opponents. Some of his friends are Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda, and Anzu Mazaki who all entered the championship to duel other powerful duelists. It is shown that Yugi has a split side named Yami Yugi who often releases during duels and other times from the pyramid necklace(millennium puzzle) he wears. He is seen living with his Grandpa. It is never known what happened to Yugi's parents though the manga has shown he has, or at-least had a mother.

Background
Yugi Mutou is a young elementary school student living in Japan. For most of his life Yugi had no friends and spent his spare time playing games by himself. His grandfather Sugoroku Muto, a hobby shop owner and retired archeologist, had come into possession of an ancient puzzle, one he was never able to solve. To indulge his grandson, Sugoroku gave the puzzle as a gift. Yugi spent eight years working on the puzzle before he solved it. Upon assembling the puzzle Yugi was surprised to hear a voice congratulate him and offer him one wish. Yugi would wish for friends. The puzzle was an ancient relic that housed the ka of powerful spirit, the spirit took over Yugi's body and pledged to fulfill Yugi's wish being his friend.

At first Yugi remains unaware that the spirit is a separate being and thinks he is just the one preforming the actions. The spirit takes over Yugi's body whenever he plays the Duel Monsters card game as the spirit seems to have some link to it. During the games Yugi at first claims he feels like a different person but still believes the spirits choices were his. In other situations such as when Yugi is picked on or his school-mate, Anzu is in trouble, the spirit takes full control of Yugi as well, however during these early possessions Yugi is largely unaware of what has occurred. As the series progresses Yugi adapts more and more to the spirit and the spirit it-self begins to soften. Saving Anzu, helping Jonouchi and freeing Bakura all brings Yugi closer to the other students and earns him their friendship thus the spirit feels it has satisfied Yugi's wish.

Duel Kingdom
In the early manga Yugi primarily deals with schoolyard bullies, sadistic teachers and even some street punks. As the Manga progresses Yugi must deal more and more with the mystical threats that his millennium puzzle attracts. The anime start off on the beginning of the manga's Duel Kingdom arc. Yugi is challenged to a Duel Monsters game by the new student, Seto Kaiba, a legacy millionaire and business despite still being a minor. Seto is considered a prodigy at the Duel Monsters game and enjoys challenging others to matches to demonstrate his skill. When Sugoroku Mutou refuses to sell his shop to Kaiba corp, Kaiba decides to challenge him to a match over it. Sugoroku is beaten but Yugi decides to try a rematch on his grandfather's behalf. Kaiba is ultimately beaten and because of the public displays he makes of each match is not only takes massive blow to his ego but also grants Yugi the title of King of Games by Kaiba as the previous holder of the title. Yugi was less concerned with the title and more so with keeping Kaiba corp from continued seizure of his grandfather's business.

Shortly after beating Kaiba and proving his skills as a world class player of Duel Monsters, Yugi encounters millionaire, Pegasus J. Crawford, publisher of the Duel Monsters game. Pegasus sends Yugi a tape to watch but Yugi finds that Pegasus can actually interact through with him through the tape and challenges him to a starter duel. Due to a time limit Pegasus wins and inflicts a penalty game on Yugi in the form of a curse. Pegasus uses his own millennium puzzle, the millennium eye, to imprison Yugi's grandfather, leaving his body comatose. Pegasus states if Yugi wished to win Sugoroku Mutou' soul back he would need to participate in a tournament he was holding on his private island. The entire Duel Kingdom arc is spent trying to win Pegasus's contest for to find the world's greatest duelist to fight. Pegasus promises each participant their choice of prize that is within his power to grant them, this leave Yugi up against many other talented players looking for money, fame or power including Junouchi, who was looking to win the contest to buy his sister eye surgery. Though the two were cometitors Jonouchi still swore to help Yugi p until the moment the two actually needed to fight each-other.

Yugi is accompanied on the trip by Anzu and Honda, who sneak aboard Pegasus's boat to offer their support. Yufi encounters Seto Kaiba once again, fighting both to win back his honor and his brother Mokuba Kaiba, whom Pegasus was holding hostage as leverage over Seto. Seto uses the tournament not only to attend to his unfinished business with Pegsus but as a chance to win back his title from Yugi. During the course of the arc Yugi meets his class-mate Ryou Bakura who had been possessed by a spirit from a millennium puzzle similar to Yugi's. During his duel with the spirit Yugi is separated from his body along with his friends but finds that his body still appears to be playing confirming for Yugi that the spirit that takes him over is in-fact an entirely separate being. Once the spirit wins and returns Yugi and his friends to their bodies, including the real Bakura, Bakura shows his thanks for the situation by telling Yugi all he knows about the puzzles, telling Yugi that the puzzles are ancient Eypptain relics. Armed with his knowledge of the relics and the spirit Yugi confront the spirit about his past only to find it seems to have lost most of it's memories but what Bakura said had reminded him he was in-fact Egypt and even a pharaoh. Yugi makes a pack to continue helping to try to uncover the spirit's full past claiming Pegasus, also in possession of a millennium puzzle and creator of the game almost certainly would know more. Grateful, the spirit resolves to help Yugi win back his grandfather's soul and win Yugi the contest no matter what.

When finally encountering Pegasus in a duel Yugi finds that Pegasus's millennium eyes grants him the power to read minds, thus being able to prepare for any strategy. Yugi overcomes the technique by switch out his soul and the spirits, where one always preps one turn and the other plays the following but never conferring with each-other, thus preventing Pegasus from gleaning the knowledge from his foe. Yugi eventually does complete the tournament and is assigned as the world's greatest player. Yugi is happy to give Jonouchi the cash reward portion of the prize for his sister's surgery however Pegasus is confronted by the spirit of Bakura's millennium ring before he can be interrogate about the origins of the relics, resulting in his death in the manga, but serious injury in the anime cannon. Either way Yugi is able to uncover relatively little about the spirits past for him to tells him he will continue to try to find the answers.

Battle City Arc
Following the Duelist Kingdom arc is the Battle City arc. Though Pegasus is beaten before he can answer any questions the match makes global news in-light of Pegasus's fame and Seto Kaiba uses his connections to put on a similar tournament, claiming to allow even more players to participate thus granting the winner; himself as he plans, the undisputed title of world's greatest player. The Battle City arc gets the attention of one, Marik Ishtar a cult leader with his own millennium relic seeking others like it. During the Battle City arc Yugi encounters many of Marik's cult members, the Rare Hunters. Confronting the Rare Hunters seems to indicate that Marik knows much about the origin of the millennium items and makes Yugi realize he can uncover the spirit's past for him by continuing to seek out the Rare Hunters and Marik himself, motivating him to take Kaiba's tournament as much more than just a simple game.

Over the course of the Battle City Arc Yugi wins one of the three god cards. The one card he has is called Slifer the Sky Dragon. Other notable monster cards of his are Dark Magician and Kuriboh. Yugi discovers all three were made by Pegasus but never released officially and each was one of a kind. As it turns our Pegasus got his idea for the entire game from an old ritual from a long dead Egyptian dynasty and had created the Duel Monster's game as tribute. The God Cards, however channeled more than simple monsters and the Egyptian Gods' powers made Pegasus realize that they were not meant to be toyed with thus never putting the three into circulation with the rest. As it turned out the Rare Hunters were looking for all three in addition to the millennium items for some powerful ritual. Acquiring his Slifer the Sky Dragon, won Yugi both a powerful weapon and a major target for Marik to have his Rare Hunter cultists focus on. The holder of the final card was Seto, who had been given the card Obelisk the Tormentor from Marik's sister, Ishizu Ishtar, prior to the tournament to keep it from her brother. Upon winning the arc Yugi does indeed uncover nearly the full origin of the pharaoh's past.

Personality
Yugi himself is naturally demure, conscientious, and friendly almost to the point of naivety which is why he often relies on his alter-ego to take over for him when confronting an adversary. Though Yami Yugi is supposedly Yugi's own past life he and the spirit are so different that they act as two different people. Unlike Bakura and his past self who are enemies, Yugi and his past-self may be different but they are allies, thus no fight for spiritual dominance has occurred and the two have grown into their own beings. Yugi has objected to Yami Yugi's methods when the spirit has shown itself willing to hurt or even kill opponents, over time though Yugi is able to soften Yami Yugi up. Yugi plays conscience to Yami Yugi and Yami Yugi player mentor to Yugi in return, both influences but never repressing the other. As friendship was Yugi's truest wish it is not surprising that he is willing to go to any length to protect or save his friends. Though Yugi's nativity and purity of heart appears to make him an easier target than Yami, removal of Yugi's soul from his body by the villain Dartz, only served to demonstrate how psychotic Yami Yugi becomes without Yugi by his side.