Yami Yugi

English Name: Yugi Mutou - reading - same as above.
Japanese Name: Yuugi Mutou (You-gi Moo-toe) (gi is pronouced like the g in "get")

Yugi is a freshmen at Domino High School. Yugi loves to play and solve games. Aside from that, Yugi lives with his grandfather, above the gaming shop. Yugi is a very smart boy. Like everyone else in his classes though, he has time to play many games. His grandfather gave him the long lost Egyptian "Millennium Puzzle", knowing that the power within would help Yugi in some way. After Yugi put the puzzle together, Yugi's life changed. He changes into an "invincible" gaming king, Yami Yugi. During this transformation Yugi will sometimes briefly grow a third eye in the middle of his forehead. Once the transformation is complete, he will play whichever game it is and beat the crap out of his opponent. He'll set up opponents, sometimes even while playing by their own rules, and he, of course, beats them at their own game. Since Yugi is weak in his normal state, he has some strong friends. Joey Wheeler (Jounouchi Katsuya), possibly his best friend, and Tristan Taylor (Honda Hiroto). Yugi has a crush on Tea Gardner (Anzu Mazaki), but he's shy so he doesn't act upon his feelings. However, what Yugi doesn't know is that Tea likes Yugi's other side, the Game King, Yami Yugi.

English Name: Joey Wheeler
Japanese Name: Jounouchi Katsuya [Jow-No-uu-Chi, Kah-Tsoo-Ya]

Joey/Jounouchi is a Freshmen at Domino High School. Jounouchi is sort of a beat-them-up, gangster type of guy. . Although he's is a tough character, he is still a good guy. He cares about his friends and would go out of the way to help them. He usually takes matters into his hands if he spots something that he doesn't like. When himself and Honda first met, they used to pick on Yugi. That quickly changed once Yugi said that he considered them his friends. Jounouchi/Joey has a soft spot for Yugi because he knows how vulnerable he is even though Yugi tries to act like he's not. Jounouchi/Joey and Honda are the best of friends often spotted hanging around together at school and other places. Jounouchi/Joey is a great duelist, but he's still no match for Yugi nor Kaiba. His constant goal is to prove himself a worthy duelist to "Game Master, Yami Yugi", instead of Yugi always getting Jounouchi out of sticky situations.

English Name: Tea Gardner (Tay-a)
Japanese Name: Anzu Mazaki (An-zoo Ma-za-key)

Anzu is a freshmen at Domino High School. Her dream is to visit New York and study dance. While that's not happening, she spends her free time at school with her friends. She worked at a burger place called "Burger World", but a criminal there stopped that. Yugi had saved her from getting shot down. That was when Anzu started wondering about the person that had saved her, and her friend Yugi. She is often found with Yugi and is sometimes mistaken for his girlfriend. Yugi would love that to happen, but perhaps Anzu finds safety in the fact that their just friends. Anzu cares a lot about her friends and shows it on a regular basis. Anzu can't stand Mai. She only puts up with her because she's another duelist. Later down the road Anzu and Yugi find themselves together, accepting each other for who they really are. Among all of Yugi's friends, Téa is the voice of reason. A childhood friend of Yugi's, Téa is also the biggest cheerleader in the group, always encouraging everyone to believe in themselves and to never give up. Téa loves her friends so very much and is willing to help them in any way she possibly can.

English Name: Tristan Taylor
Japanese Name: Honda Hiroto (Hee-row-toe)

Honda is a little bit of a tough-guy like Jounouchi , although he's not as good of a fighter as Jo, the only exception is that instead of the life of a delinquent Honda has chosen the life of a model student. Honda's the type of all around guy that everyone has seen or remembers from high school, you know the kind of guy who does a little bit of everything. In addition Honda's a hopeless romantic who devotes a great deal of his time (more so in the anime than the manga) trying to win the affections of a girl named Miho who as you may have guessed fails to acknowledge Honda's existence. Despite his hopeless romanticism Honda is still a very cool character, he's always standing up for his friends especially Jounouchi whom he seems to have a long history with. Honda's the level-headed one of
the group he's kind of right in between Jo and Yugi he doesn't charge into things like Jo and at the same time he doesn't worry so much as Yugi. Rather Honda takes a more calm analytical approach to every situation.

English Name: Mai Valentine
Japanese Name: Mai Kujaku

Mai is commonly known for her use of feminine wiles to get her way, and her continuous use of her most favorite card in "Duel Monsters", Harpy Lady. Mai is a confident duelist, but she was shaken by Joey when the two actually battled. Jounouchi won the battle and left her with some disturbing words to remember: "That's just it...you can see it, but this, you couldn't see!" She gets seriously humble when Yugi fights on her behalf to get her Star Chips back. At that moment she realizes what Yugi and Joey truly are. She's one of the top duelists in the world and fights for the riches that await only the best. Posh and frequently self-absorbed, Mai is not above using her charm to advance her situation. Though she plays for superficial reasons, Mai may yet learn from Yugi's example.

English Name: Seto Kaiba
Japanese Name: Seto Kaiba [Seh-Toh, Kai-Bah]

Kaiba is rich. Uncle Scrooge from Duck Tales rich. He manages his own accounts, rides limos everywhere, and has an unlimited passion for Duel Monsters. He even created the ultimate gaming place, "Kaiba Land". He can't live with the fact that Yugi beat him, but he realizes that Yugi changes when he starts to play a game. He also knows that Yugi's pendent is the key to his transformation. However, if you take away the pendent Yugi is still capable of transforming into the game master. His ultimate goal in life is to beat Yugi using whatever means necessary. Seto has a younger brother named Mokuba. Mokuba shares the passion of gaming, and wants to see Yugi humiliated for messing with his brother. Since both parents died, and both were sent to an orphanage, Seto promised Mokuba that he would take care of them no matter what. Seto challenged the president of the Kaiba Corporation, Gozaburo Kaiba, to a game of chess when he came to the orphanage to adopt. As a reward for the game, Seto and Mokuba became his adopted sons. However, Gozaburo treated Seto cruelly to train his successor. That is why Seto is so cold-hearted. Even though Kaiba is the wealthy CEO of his own multinational high-tech corporation, KaibaCorp, his real passions lay in the world of Duel Monsters. There, he uses his ruthless business drive to overcome any who challenge him. He is an expert in the art of dueling and although he resents him, Kaiba is slowly developing respect for Yugi. We may see Kaiba straying from his selfish ways just yet!

Mokuba Kaiba

Mokuba is Seto's younger not so evil brother. Mokuba's game of choice is a chess-like game called "Cap Monsters". Mokuba challenges Yugi to a game of Cap Monster to sort of avenge his brother's defeat but despite all of his obvious cheating Yugi manages to defeat him and gives Sema the hallucination that he is imprisoned in a giant bubble. After Mokuba also recovers he too becomes obsessed with defeating Yugi but not to such an extreme degree as his brother. Mokuba sees no evil in his big brother, Seto; these brothers are the only friend and family each other has since their parents died at an early age. Instead, Mokuba idolizes Seto and sees only his good side. Mokuba is so devoted to his big bro, that he's pledged to avenge anyone who crosses him.

English Name: Just "Grandpa"
Japanese Name: Sugoroku Mutou

A game shop proprietor and expert gamer all around. Sugoroku is Yugi's grandfather. Not much is really known about Yugi's parents, but we're shown that he is raising Yugi. Sugoroku owns the game shop below where they live. Yugi gets most of his games and other items from there. Sugoroku has his own mystery behind him. He's been to America and has several friends there. He has connections to Egyptian artifacts, mostly games, and he has friends in the universities in Japan and other places. We don't know what else Sugoroku has or where he's been or even what else he's gotten in his travels. Sugoroku is a great player of Duel Monsters. He has a special card, the "Blue Eyes White Dragon". It's said that it can only be used by the person who's heart it belongs to. Seto Kaiba tried to steal it from Yugi, and was successful in his attempt. In the end however, the heart of the card was for Yugi's grandfather and Kaiba couldn't use it. Sugoroku cares a great deal about Yugi, perhaps that's why he gave Yugi the "Millennium Puzzle". He knew what secrets it held, and perhaps he wanted Yugi to become stronger. But strength comes at a price. A former world traveler, Yugi's grandpa now owns the neighborhood gaming shop. Sugoroku knows everything there is to know about games, but is especially well-versed in the ways of Duel Monsters. Sugoroku teaches Yugi about believing in the "heart of the cards."

Ryou Bakura [Rie-You]

Bakura is a new transfer student to Domino High School. He seems like a nice enough guy, he's friendly, and the girls really love him! The only problem is that Ryou is also the subject to bullying but not even half as much as Yugi. But what's this? Ryou has an artifact too! Ryou has a pendant much similar to Yugi's, except the pyramid is right side up instead up upside-down, that gives him the power to turn people into game pieces for Ryou' s favorite game, an RPG style board game called "Monster World". However Ryou is not able to control his pendant like Yugi and it sometimes has much more evil person emerges without Ryou's permission, unlike Yugi's, Ryou's pendent has an almost hypnotic control over him that makes you wonder who's really in charge... Ryou.....or his pendent.

English Name: Maxamillion Pegasus
Japanese Name: Pegasus J. Crawford

Sophisticated and cultured, Pegasus is not only the ingenious creator of the Duel Monster's game, but seems to be a perfect gentleman, as well. However, Pegasus has many dark secrets. His left eye has been replaced with an ancient Egyptian artifact called the "Millenium Eye," a totem that gives Pegasus strange and magical powers. Pegasus modeled Duel Monsters after a mysterious Egyptian game thousands of years old.

English Name: Duke Delvin
Japanese Name: Otogi Ryuuji

In the anime, he is set to be "idolizing" Pegasus. Angry over the fact that his plans to publish Dungeon Dice Monsters were impeded when Yugi defeated Pegasus. Challenges Yugi to DDM but is defeated and finally learns the value of friendship. Becomes one of Yugi's friends.

Japanese Name: Malik Ishtar

The main villain of the Battle City after Pegasus was defeated. Head of the GHOULS underground organization which robs people of their rare cards after defeating them in Duel Monsters. He hates the soul of the Pharaoh (Yami Yug) to his bones because he believes it's the soul of the Pharaoh that killed his father. He mobilizes the entire GHOULS organization to defeat Yami Yugi and claim the title of Pharaoh for himself.