Sora Perse

Sora Shiun'in (紫し雲うん院いん 素そ良ら Shiun'in Sora), known as Sora Perse in the Dub version, is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime. Interested in the Pendulum Summon Yūya created, this mysterious boy decides to become his apprentice. During his first Duel against Shun, Sora is revealed to be a soldier of Academia, a "Duel Soldier" training facility in the Fusion Dimension. As a soldier of Duel Academia, he swears loyalty to Leo Akaba and his plan to "unite the dimensions" despite his friendships with Yūya and Yuzu Hīragi. With encouragement from Yūya and Yuzu, Sora eventually realized he was hurting people and reluctantly abandoned his old ways. Since then, he has formally turned his back on Academia and becomes an unofficial ally of the Lancers, working to keep Serena and his first friends Yuzu and Yūya safe.

Appearance
Sora is a short, young boy with light cyan hair, that is tied up and spiked out and light green eyes. He wears a blue jacket with a yellow and orange trim over a black t-shirt. He also wears a pair of light gray cargo shorts over long white socks and brown shoes. Sora has also been shown to carry a pink/white lollipop around with him.

Sora has also been noted by several characters as being extremely cute to the extent that they will side with him or give him what he wants, such as Yōko Sakaki who gave him Yūya's pancakes and Shūzō Hīragi who changed the field that Sora and Yūya were Dueling on simply because Sora didn't like it.

Despite his small size, Sora demonstrates an incredible degree of athleticism, being able to knock out three boys much larger than himself using only a lollipop stick, and later displays incredible jumping ability to quickly snatch Action Cards during Duels.

Personality
Sora is first shown to be a huge fan of Yūya, to the extent of obsession. This is shown when he constantly follows Yūya around, wanting to see Pendulum Summoning first hand. At first Yūya declines, causing Sora to spy on Yūya and continuously bother him until he gives in. Sora has also been shown to use his cute appearance to win others over to his side and get his own way. However, it does not seem to work on Yūya who only agrees to Duel with him if Sora stops following him around. Sora is also extremely childish and persists until he gets his own way. Sora has a habit of misunderstanding situations, often asking "Did I get it wrong?" in response to other peoples' reactions. However, he later becomes more secretive, making sarcastic comments toward the students of Leo Duel School.

Sora also shows exceptional knowledge of Duel Monsters for his age, including the different styles of Summoning and can strategize accordingly. However as such, he does not take Dueling seriously unless there is a Duel or Duelist that excites him, and ultimately, this is what motivates Sora: His own entertainment.

It is seen that Sora is much more serious and malevolent than he actually shows, as seen when he was considering going all-out against Shun he let out a malicious grin, making him look noticeably more menacing. As the Duel progressed against him, he slowly descends into madness, subsequently bringing out more morbid Fusion Monsters and violently attacking his opponent, while slowly revealing more of his horrifying nature as he explains how much he and his people enjoyed "hunting" Shun and his comrades, simply because it is a "fun hunting game", while showing some disgust towards Shun, calling him "Xyz scum." He is infuriated by his loss against Shun, showing he has a superiority complex and a huge ego. His pride can be seen earlier: he derides LDS Fusion Summons and believes that Yuzu would be the clear victor in a match against them if she uses the techniques that he taught her, and after Yūto told Yuzu that "Fusion" did not suit her, Sora was off ended enough to challenge Yūto to a Duel.

However, deep down it seems that much of Sora's personality comes from his attachment towards the Fusion Dimension, as he truly considers the invasion of the Xyz Dimension to be a "gallant" battle, and that the only reason he could not allow himself to lose is because it would sully their honor. Being one of Academia's top students and trusted with their mission, he is very strict with himself, thus his behavior is likely a result of believing he is both honoring his comrades and doing right. This belief makes him indifferent to the horrible actions of the Academia. Not caring that they destroyed innocent lives in Heartland and instead seeing it as a step in uniting the dimensions.

His meeting with Yūya and Yuzu and their growing friendship made Sora's loyalty for the Academia starting to waver. He still insisted that he will always be part of Academia as he feels bound to the organization and still believes that Leo's goal to unite dimensions is the right thing to do, but eventually he couldn't bring himself to fulfil his mission at the cost of Yūya and Yuzu, whom he has considers as his first and true friends, leading to his defection.

He has sweet tooth, as he is obsessed with sweet foods or candies to the extent that he is rarely seen not eating them, even to the extent that he eats during lessons. Whenever he is serious or angered he tends to bite his candies rather than keeping it on his mouth.

Etymology
This character's name, "Sora" (素そ良ら), can be confused with 空そら that is also read "Sora" and is a name, means sky. The Kanji characters, 素良 (The first can be literally be translated as "elementary" or "prime", while the other is "good"), are unusual to make the "Sora". Shiun'in means "Purple Cloud Yuan". The masculine pronunciation of Sora (素良) is "Motoyoshi" and "Sora" is the feminine pronunciation of 素良.