Mai Valentine

Mai Valentine (also known as Maj Kujaku) is one of the principal characters from the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ''series.

Duelist Kingdom
Mai is introduced as a selfish and arrogant duelist who only participates to win wealth and fame. She is often very cynical about dueling, claiming that duelists only have themselves to trust and count on.

This cynicism leads her to cheer against Yugi Moto and Joey Wheeler during the first half of the season. After Yugi wins her star chips back from Panik, an eliminator who kidnapped and strong-armed her into dueling, she has a change of heart and begins to consider Yugi, Joey, Tea Gardner and Tristan Taylor as friends. She returns the favor by offering her extra star chips to Yugi following his defeat in his last duel with Kaiba. She later shows personal growth in character when she tries to knock Yugi out of his daze, and reveals she has learned from her last duel with Joey about how a person can learn from their defeats than their victories.

Battle City
Mai continues to follow Yugi and the others on their adventures in season two. During this season, she develops a strong bond with Joey. Aside from giving him her entry card to qualify for the finals at Duelist Kingdom, she rescues his sister Serenity from the danger of the Rare Hunters, and acts as her big sister, comforting her during Joey’s duels. After Joey woke up from his coma during his duel with Odion, he tells everyone about his dream of all his friends helping him up. She asks if she was in that dream and he responds with a nervous “no”. She doesn’t take this well as she adopts an “every man for himself” attitude. During her duel with season two’s primary antagonist, Marik Ishtar, she ignores her friends’ cheers and continues proclaiming that she can duel on her own.

She reveals during the duel that she was alone as a child, living with wealthy parents who did not give her any attention. Upon obtaining a job on the cruise, Mai discovered Duel Monsters and became close with the "Harpie Lady" cards, regarding them as the closest things to friends she had. All of this displayed her true weakness: her fear of loneliness. Near the end of the duel, her individualist attitude is gone and she welcomes the help and support of her friends. As everyone parts ways following the end of the Battle City tournament, Joey confronts her about his true feelings as he fought for her during the tournament.

Waking the Dragons
In season four, Mai undergoes several personal struggles. Despite maintaining a winning streak in many tournaments, she fails to rank in the same class as Joey, Kaiba and Yugi, causing her to feel inadequate and alone. In addition to this, she starts having nightmares about Marik and her time in the Shadow Realm. This makes her susceptible and easy to lead astray, which allows Dartz to easily recruit her as one of his minions. As a result, Mai becomes cold and hard-hearted, wanting nothing but vengeance and power. Despite this, she is still plagued by the fear of losing.

After winning her last duel with Joey, she not only realizes the error of her ways, but that she made a mistake leaving Joey for "a madman who promised me power" (according to her). Now filled with grief and anger over losing Joey (as he was "the only one who ever cared about" her), Mai challenges Rafael in a duel to avenge Joey (believing that Joey would've done the same thing for her if their roles had been reversed and he was the one who had won the duel possessed by the Orichalcos). However, Rafael wins, and Mai loses her soul.

Rafael later saves her life by pulling her unconscious body from the wreckage of the collapsing headquarters.

After Yugi, Kaiba and Joey defeat Dartz, Mai's soul is freed alongside Valon's, as well as all others who were victim to the Orichalchos.

Life Reevaluation
Mai spends the rest of the series out of the picture, reevaluating her life, and trying to rediscover her passion for Dueling. In the English version, Mai claims she cannot face Joey and the others until she can "face up" to what she's done. Mai leaves one of her "Harpie Lady" cards with Valon (in this case, "Cyber Harpie"); she also promises to return one day to both Joey and Valon. However, in the English version, Mai and Valon's relationship seems to end, and she doesn't say whether she will go back to Joey.

She is on the invitation list to participate in the KC Grand Prix but only attends the final Duel as a spectator to witness Yugi defeat Leon von Schroeder.