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| “ | I want to help but we must act quickly Yugi. | „ |
| ~ Bakura Ryou |
Bakura Ryou, known as Ryo Bakura in the Japanese version, is a supporting character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga. He is a school friend of Yugi Muto, though he is far less seen than his other friends like Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda and Anzu Mazaki. Bakura is constantly at odds with the series' main antagonist Yami Bakura, though he can only stop the evil spirit on occasion.
In the first anime series produced by Toei, he was voiced by Tsutomu Kashiwakura. In the second anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, he was voiced the late Yō Inoue (only in Duelist Kingdom Arc) and later by Rica Matsumoto (in the rest of his appearance), who also voiced Satoshi in Pokémon in Japanese version, and Ted Lewis who also voices Tracey Sketchit in Pokémon, Jack Atlas in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's and Yuri Hyuga in Shadow Hearts in the English version.
Background[]
Like Yugi Muto, Bakura Ryou would receive a millennium puzzle, and ancient relic composed of numerous pieces like a 3-D puzzle. Though the object was picked up for Bakura by his father during a trip to Egypt, both it and Yugi's millennium puzzle were predestined to wind-up in the hands their respective owners. Upon completing the puzzle Bakura was told he would be given a wish. The spirit haunting the puzzle first persuaded Bakura to invoke him by offering him power to undo death, Bakura had lost his sister and his mother in a car crash and agreed to the terms at first not knowing the true nature of the spirit he was allowing to possess him and soon came to regret his decision but his later objections were of no consequence after the spirit was first invoked.
For the bulk of the series Bakura is possessed by an evil spirit and indeed seen less as his normal self than his evil alter-ego. Bakura is considerably skilled in the Duel Monsters game but nowhere close to the level of the spirit that takes him over or Yami Yugi and plays Duel Monsters as little more than an amusing hobby. Bakura's link to the spirit world is a Millennium Puzzle similar to Yugi's but while Yugi's Puzzle alters chance, Bakura's is a divining tool used to located other Millennium items. While traveling to the past it is hinted at that Bakura himself is the reincarnation of the spirit's first host and thus tied to it. Bakura himself is often well spoken, intelligent and trepidatious but only on a few rare occasions has he actually helped the main cast of heroes. Towards the very end of the series, Bakura is freed completely from the evil spirit's possession.
Personality[]
Once Bakura became aware of the evil nature of the spirit possessing him he is willing to go to any length to foil the spirit going as far as trying to remove his own hand and even allow himself to be killed if it means being free of the spirit and sparing his friends. Because the spirit that possesses Bakura often forgets to eat whenever Bakura regains control of his body after a long bout of possessing his first instinct is always to fill up on food immediately.
Like Anzu, Bakura is more moral support as he is physically quite weak and he has learned to distance himself from high-stakes Duel Monsters games. Bakura still knows practically all the in-and outs of Duel Monsters and though he is less inclined to play it, he is happy to advise Yugi on it and can usually foresee the moves Yugi intends to make. The spirit possessing Bakura has noted that dealing with Bakura's soul has been almost more trouble than it is worth and explores taking over others in his place so he need not deal with it. As the series progresses, Yami Bakura becomes more powerful after each semi-exorcism, only allowing him to gather more power with each renewed attempt to possesses him; as a result of this, the later appearances of Yami Bakura have cut off Bakura entirely from his body and he is unable to remember the experiences, initially.
As seen before his final possession, Bakura has waking nightmares as he relives taking the lives of others, at which point he is racked with guilt of and fear. Once Bakura is able to piece together the plans and continued presence of Yami Bakura, he quickly tries to find Yugi, unfortunately he is not able to get to Yugi Muto in time to warn him of Yami Bakura's previous actions and return before he is completely overtaken.
Skills and Talents[]
Bakura is an honor-student in school according to Téa, he also seems to attract the attention of many girls - though he considers the sort of girls he attracts bothersome and shallow as they only seem to focus on his looks. He and Téa both consider the other to be a very good study-buddy - as both are over-achievers in school this indicates both are exceptionally smart academically. Bakura greatly enjoys arts-and-crafts and has great talent building dioramas. Bakura has an major interest in the occult and gotten fascinated with arcane, macabre and occult subjects. Due to his interests and his father's status as an archeologist, Bakura has what seem to be early talents in anthropological study. Bakura's main talent in the manga/show though, is Duel Monsters - he is the only one in Yugi's group of friends as talented as Yugi himself. Though Bakura has been spooked away from Duel Monsters ever since his possession, he is still greatly talented at the game, and Yugi often reviews his battle-strategies with Bakura if available. Bakura is phenomenal at battle-strategies and has memorized every single card in the game, a combination that has allowed him to foresee plays several moves prior to their reveal.
Bakura's intellect is still overshadowed though by his spiritual strength, which boarders on the obscene. Bakura has been possessed no-less than four times, at least three of said times his soul has been outwrite stripped from his body and sent to the Shadow-Realm/Graveyard - a place where normal humans can fade to nothing or be reaped by the various apparitions there at a moments' notice, and most don't last an hour there; Bakura on the other-hand has persisted literal weeks! The Spirit-Of-The-Millennium-Ring has learned to make a habit of fully removing Bakura's soul from his body during possessions as if Bakura is left inside he tends to find ways to sabotage the spirit if only on subconscious levels. When invoking his Millennium Ring, Bakura can instantly divine the location of other Millennium Items - in theory the Ring could do other thing like Yugi's Millennium Puzzle like manipulate souls or ward him, but as Bakura does not wish to stir the spirit within it, he has not invoked the Ring passed it's most blatant use as a divining tool.
Despite is intellectual and spiritual skills, Bakura is actually quite weak, physically. He is all but helpless when confronted with Pegasus's traps and confronted with the likes of Bandit Keith. Though the Spirit-Of-The-Millennium-Ring can give Bakura's body limitless endurance and even stand on broken legs, it cannot make his body any stronger and is easily over-powered by the likes of Tristan. Though Bakura has what most of the girls at his school consider gorgeous looks, his social skills are jejune and his timid nature often sees him unable to take advantage of them.|
Reincarnation[]
Bakura is the reincarnation of the one dubbed "Thief-King-Bakura". The spirit possessing him is a combination of Thief-King-Bakura's memories and the dark influence of Zorc working through the Millennium Items. Thief-King-Bakura and Atem both invoked a Shadow Duel to activate all the Millennium Items at once, but it ended in a tie with both of their life-points spent - resulting in their deaths. The Millennium Items, do-not accept a draw though, by their very nature a Shadow Game must have a winner - and that has keep the Millennium Items active for thousands of years since, constantly pushing at Aten and Thief-King-Bakura's new lives as Yugi Muto and Ryou Bakura. Bakura's complete reformation in his new life means he will never willingly under-take a Shadow Game, and as such, Zorc is able to use the Millennium Items' need to complete the ritual to insert his own agent in Bakura's place by overriding Bakura's current mind with a construct from the memories of his passed-life in the form of Yami-Bakura.
The Ancient Egyptian concept of a Ka - is the memories of a specific life meant to give a soul it's identity, with the Ba it's ties to the physical world that allow it to anchor to a body. Ka and Ba are both needed to form a spirit. As Bakura is reincarnated he still has his old Ba but reformatted for is currently body and a rebuilt Ka from his new experiences and how he was raised to makes him a new person in his current life. Yami-Bakura appears to be essentially a copy of his previous Ka imposed upon him by Zorc through his Millennium Ring.
Trivia[]
- The name "Ryou" is Japanese for "Dragon King".
- In the Duel Monsters Anime, his love for Tabletop games is removed completely.
- Bakura's attitude toward the harems of girls that tend be attracted to him implies he is asexual.
- Both of Bakura's voice actors also worked in Pokemon, in Japanese by Rica Matsumoto, who voices Ash Ketchum and Ted Lewis, who also voices Giovanni in the English version.
- Bakura's first voice actress was, You Inoue. You Inoue had several years experience as voice actress but fell ill during recording and needed to retire. Bakura was the final role before her death in 2003.
- It's never known when the real Bakura is in control as the Evil Spirit mimics him.
- Due to the English Dub, many fans believe that Bakura is his first name.
- Bakura's eyes are Green in season zero but altered to brown in the main-series.
- The occult-based decks that Yami Bakura uses throughout the series are often Bakura's own decks, something that unsettles Joey and Tristan
See Also[]
- Bakura on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki
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