Dark Bakura is the main antagonist of the series. He is a dark spirit dwelling in the Millennium Ring who seeks the Millennium items to open the Door of Darkness and gain evil power, possessing Bakura's body due to lacking one himself. His Penalty Games trapping his friends' souls in figures caused him to constantly transfer schools until, with help from Yugi and the group in the Toei anime, they temporarily purge Dark Bakura's influence on Bakura by defeating the final boss of Monster World, . However, when they are trapped in the labyrinth beneath Duelist Kingdom, Dark Bakura convinces him to put the Millennium Ring on again by claiming that he has undergone a change of heart. With Bakura's friends unaware of this, Dark Bakura helps Dark Yugi in his game, which is designed to outwit the Meikyuu Brothers' trickery, and they return to the surface. Though he aids the group while trying to gain their trust and seemingly allowing Bakura more control over his body, unbeknownst to them, he killed Pegasus by tearing the Millennium Eye out of his eye socket and took it for himself. His true nature is revealed during the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc; after supporting Yugi during the game against Ryuji and helping him retrieve the pieces of the shattered Millennium Puzzle, he secretly puts part of his soul into one of the pieces to uncover the True Door from within. He intends to manipulate events until the Millennium Items have been gathered in preparation for the , with the goal of opening the Door of Darkness and unleashing the darkness sealed in the Puzzle. Unbeknownst to Bakura, later in the manga he takes over his body when he has the opportunity to further his goals. During the final arc, Dark Bakura is revealed to have been created when the soul of , the sole survivor of the Kul Elna massacre who sought revenge against Egypt by attempting to steal the Millennium Items, merged with a fragment of Zorc Necrophades when they were sealed in the Millennium Ring. He is killed when Dark Yugi summons Horakthy, the Creator of Light, to destroy Zorc. In the anime, he dies due to being a part of Zorc and merging with him during the final battle, while in the manga, he dies due to his life being linked to Zorc and Akhenaden, who is destroyed by the light of the Blue-Eyes.
Maximillion J. Pegasus is the eccentric American chairman of Industrial Illusions and creator of the game (originally ). He is the wielder of the . He is known as "Maximillion J. Pegasus" in the English manga. In the manga, his story about meeting Shadi and the supposed "evil intelligence" of the Millennium Items prompts Dark Yugi's search for his origins. During his final Shadow Game with Yugi, he tells him of his discovery of an ancient Egyptian Shadow Game during his travels in the
Valley of the Kings, which inspired his creation of Duel Monsters and of card games in general. He plays a key role in the
Duel Monsters anime, where he, as the creator of Duel Monsters and the discoverer of their ancient Egyptian roots, possesses knowledge of the game and its origins. Pegasus serves as the fourth main antagonist of the manga and the first main antagonist of the
Duel Monsters anime. In the anime, he challenges Yugi to a Shadow Game to force him to come to his tournament and face him, taking Sugoroku's soul and trapping it in a Soul Prison Duel Monsters card as a Penalty Game for losing the timed match to ensure this. He also kidnaps Mokuba to convince Kaiba to come to the Kingdom, later capturing their souls. In flashbacks, Pegasus is revealed to have had a lover, (Cecelia in the English anime dub), who died after her seventeenth birthday or after their marriage in the anime, and sought to resurrect her. At the end of the arc, Yugi and Dark Yugi defeat him in a final game of Duel Monsters and he releases the stolen souls. Soon after, Dark Bakura murders him and takes the Millennium Eye for himself. In the manga, he is reunited with Cecelia in the afterlife, while in the
Duel Monsters anime he instead fell ill. He uses a "Toon" deck, which uses Toon World to make Toon versions of his monsters. His ace monster is Relinquished.
Mr. Clown , known as
Sindin the Clown in the Dungeon Dice Monsters video game, is an antagonist who appears in the manga. He is the owner of the game shop, located across the street from Sugoroku's Kame Game shop. In the past, Sugoroku took him in as a disciple and they eventually challenged each other for ownership of the Millennium Puzzle in a Shadow Game called the '''Devil's Board Game'
. After losing the game, the Penalty Game caused him to age fifty years in a single night and he sought revenge through his son Ryuji. He appears in The Dark Side of Dimensions'', a film set in the manga continuity, where he opens a cafe with Ryuji after Black Clown burns down.
Marik Ishtar is the heir to a clan of tombkeepers and Ishizu Ishtar's younger brother, who disregarded his duties and turned to crime because of his hatred for the Pharaoh. When he was a child, he developed a split personality as a result of trauma after undergoing the tombkeeper's initiation ritual, which involved carving into his body with a hot dagger, and his isolated upbringing. After breaking one of the clan's laws, his dark personality emerged and murdered his father. However, his adoptive older brother Rishid sealed his dark side away, leaving him with no memory of his actions and believing the Pharaoh to be responsible for his father's death. He became obsessed with killing the Pharaoh to avenge his father and end his clan's suffering. To this end, he founded the Rare Hunters, a gang of thieves who steal and collect rare Duel Monsters cards, and uses his Millennium Rod to control people's minds. Though innocent and kind as a child, he became cruel and uncaring, killing his servants when they fail him and deriving pleasure from hurting others.
Dark Marik is a dark personality within Marik, who was created through his pain and suffering and serves as the main antagonist of the Battle City Tournament saga. To prevent him from emerging, Rishid carved marks into his own face. However, when Marik's father tortured Rishid as punishment for allowing Marik and his sister Ishizu to break one of the clan's laws, Dark Marik emerged and murdered him (sent him to the Shadow Realm in the 4Kids version), beginning Marik's quest for vengeance against the Pharaoh. Dark Marik enjoys violence and the suffering of others and only cares for his own survival, attempting to destroy the mind of the regular Marik to have sole possession of their body. While he is connected to the Millennium Rod, he differs from Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura in that he exists independently from Marik. During the Battle City Tournament Semi-Finals, Dark Marik reemerges and takes control of Marik's body after Rishid falls unconscious as a result of being unworthy to control Ra's power during his duel with Jonouchi. He is destroyed after Marik surrenders to Yugi.
Yako Tenma appears in
Yu-Gi-Oh! R. He is Maximillion Pegasus's protégé and adopted son, who seeks revenge for his death.
Akhenadin is the guardian of the Millennium Eye and King Ahknemkhanen's brother. As they grew up, he was secretly jealous of his brother's position as pharaoh. Using the Shadow Alchemy inscribed in the , he secretly ordered the massacre at the village of Kul Elna, using their blood and corpses, which he melted into gold, to create the Millennium Items to defend his brother's kingdom. To protect his family from those seeking revenge, he abandoned his wife and his son, Seto, who became a priest of Pharaoh Atem's court, but Akhenaden kept their relationship a secret. After seeing that Seto flourished after he abandoned him, he aimed to see him achieve power. Through Zorc's influence within the Millennium Eye, which is awoken after Thief King Bakura puts part of his soul in it, he becomes convinced that he must kill the Pharaoh and makes a contract with Zorc to become the . In the manga, Akhenaden's soul merged with Zorc after they were sealed in the Millennium Puzzle along with Atem before being released during the final arc. His mummy is used as a second player on Dark Bakura's side of the Shadow RPG, influencing his own playing piece as part of the game's recreation of the events before his soul is vanquished after Atem wins the game; the skull of his mummy splitting in half upon defeat. In the
Duel Monsters anime, his mind is corrupted after Dark Bakura puts part of his soul in the Millennium Eye and he is granted power from Zorc after gathering the Millennium Items, transforming into the High Priest of Darkness. Seto later kills him physically, with Kisara in her White Dragon form killing him for good when he enters Seto's mind to kill the Pharaoh. His purified soul (reverted to his age from the moment he first used the Millennium Eye) is later seen alongside his brother on the other side of the door to the afterlife as Atem walks through it.
Zorc Necrophades is a destroyer of worlds born from the darkness in humans' hearts and, in the English dub, the creator of the Shadow Realm. He was summoned by Akhenaden through the power of the Millennium Items to attack the kingdom and killed Atem's advisers. He is the final boss of Memory World, where, with help from Yugi and his friends, Atem defeats him and prevents his resurrection, freeing Bakura from the Millennium Ring in the process. Dark Bakura was born from the merging of Zorc and Thief King Bakura's souls, and, in the manga, an entity made of their souls who calls himself Zorc Necrophades, High Priest of Darkness, appears.
Minor antagonists ; : A deranged theme park which Kaiba creates to kill Yugi. ; : : The guide of the Horror Zone in Death T-2, who welcomes Yugi and Jonouchi to Kaiba Manor prior to Kaiba Land's opening. After Mokuba has him prepare six meals, including two poisoned ones, for his rigged game of Russian Roulette Dinner with Yugi and Jonouchi. However, after the game backfires and Mokuba is poisoned, he comes to his aid. In the manga, he dies during Death-T. In the anime, he is Gozaburo's butler. ; : A serial killer who appears in the manga as one of the traps at Death-T. In the past, he murdered ten boy scouts at a camp near Domino Lake. The news of the murders caused fear throughout Domino City; the suspect came to be known as "The Chopman", but was not captured.
Laser Tag Assassins The Laser Tag Assassins are three professional mercenaries who Kaiba hires to kill Yugi and his friends in the game. ; : A former Green Beret commander who specialized in guerrilla warfare. ; : A former SWAT team leader who specialized in long distance sniping. ; : A former hitman who KaibaCorp hired.
Pegasus's servants ; : : The right-hand man and butler of Pegasus. In the manga, Kaiba takes him hostage and holds him at gunpoint in the guestroom, threatening to kill him if Pegasus does not show himself. ; : : A man who works for the Kaiba Brothers as one of their private bodyguards during the Death-T arc. In reality, he was working for Industrial Illusions, gathering information from within KaibaCorp and giving it to Pegasus. During Pegasus' tournament, Saruwatari is in charge of taking the eliminated players to the boat leaving Pegasus' island. In a filler arc, Saruwatari works for the Big Five and is sent to shut down the virtual reality pods that Yugi, Jonouchi, and Mokuba were using, but leaves after they exit the game. Saruwatari reappears in the
Yu-Gi-Oh! R spin-off manga and the
1999 movie, where he kidnaps unwilling invitees to Kaiba's tournament before Jonouchi stops him from forcing Shougo to enter.
Player Killers The are duelists who Pegasus hires during the Duelist Kingdom tournament to challenge contestants to duels and take their Star Chips, ensuring that they do not reach the finals and that he will become the world's number one duelist and fit to be KaibaCorp's new CEO. ; : The first Player Killer that Yugi and his friends encounter, who Saruwatari hired to defeat Yugi. He controls a puppet that resembles Kaiba and uses his stolen deck. After he is defeated, Dark Yugi inflicts the Penalty Game "Puppet Illusion" on him, trapping him in an illusion where a puppet of himself attacks him. ; : :An obese shape-shifter hired to defeat Yugi. After being defeated, he vanishes after Dark Yugi uses a Mind Crush. He proclaims himself as the evil side of Seto Kaiba's heart that Dark Yugi banished to the Shadow Realm. He replaces the role of the Ventriloquist of the Dead in the anime adaption. ; : : The second Player Killer that the group encounters, who steals Mai's star chips. When Dark Yugi intends to bet his own life to even out the stakes and win back Mai's star chips, he ties a noose around his neck and threatens to kill him once he wins. Because of this, Dark Yugi turns the duel into a Shadow Game. After the Player Killer loses the Shadow Game, Dark Yugi inflicts the "Darkness of Naraku" Penalty Game on him, where he imagines himself being hung from the gallows over the abyss. In the anime, the penalty of the game is changed so that fire is shot at the loser. When the Player Killer attempts to do this to Dark Yugi even after losing, Dark Yugi's magic shields him from harm. He then performs a Mind Crush on the Player Killer, and Mai's star chips are returned to her. His ace monster is King of Yamimakai. ; : Mei/Para : Kyu/Dox : The last set of Player Killers the group meet within the underground maze of Duelist Kingdom. They challenge Yugi and Jonouchi to a tag-battle game, a hybrid of Duel Monsters and a maze game. After losing, the group must choose the correct path or else they will be stuck in the underground labyrinth. In reality, both doors are correct and the brothers are able to change the correct door at will. Their trickery is outed by Dark Yugi's game, with help from Dark Bakura in the manga, and the group returns to the surface. Their ace monster is Gate Guardian.
Ghouls are a group of card thieves that serve Marik, whom Dark Yugi and Kaiba refer to as the "Ghouls of the Gaming Underworld". They provide Marik with a supply of minions, rare cards, and money by stealing and selling rare cards from duelists. ; : : The first Ghoul to appear, who Marik dispatched upon learning from the card shop owner that gave Jonouchi his Duel Disk that he owns the rare Red-Eyes Black Dragon. He uses a deck that focuses on making a complete hand of counterfeit Exodia cards. After Dark Yugi destroys his strategy and wins the duel, Marik uses his Millennium Rod to take over Rare Hunter's mind to introduce himself to Yugi, after which he is seemingly killed. ; : : The second Ghoul. He was a magician whose mother died when he was young. After one of his escape tricks went wrong, he was disfigured around the eyes and his sadness drove away his fiancee Catherine. While wandering around with a bandaged head, Marik approached him and offered to reunite him with Catherine. Following Seeker's failure, Arkana is dispatched to challenge Dark Yugi to a death game in which their legs are shackled and buzzsaws threaten to saw off the loser's legs. After he is defeated by Yugi's Dark Magician Girl, Yugi saves him from the buzzsaws and he goes to where Catherine was supposed to be, only to find that she was actually a mannequin. ; : : The third Ghoul, who first appears before Bakura, Anzu, and Sugoroku in the park. Marik uses him as a puppet in an attempt to kill Yugi before arriving in Battle City. He wields Slifer the Sky Dragon and uses a combination of Revival Jam with "Jam Defender" and "Infinite Cards" to power Slifer the Sky Dragon, but is defeated after Yugi uses "Brain Control". ; : : One member of a duo of Ghouls who challenge Dark Yugi and Kaiba to a tag-team death game where the loser sets off a bomb near their side of the glass ceiling and will fall to their death. However, they survive after being defeated due to being equipped with parachutes. His ace monster is Masked Beast Des Gardius. ; : : One member of a duo of Ghouls who challenge Dark Yugi and Kaiba to a tag-team death game where the loser sets off a bomb near their side of the glass ceiling and will fall to their death. However, they survive after being defeated due to being equipped with parachutes. His ace monster is The Masked Beast.
Filler antagonists ; : : The CEO of Schroeder Corp, a long-time rival to the Kaiba family and the Kaiba Corporation. When Siegfried and Kaiba become heads of their respective family companies, they create holographic systems for Duel Monsters, with Siegfried's invention being the Holographic Duel Box Room System. However, he falls into ruin after Kaiba markets and patents his invention first and seeks to destroy the Kaiba Corporation. After discovering that his younger brother Leon is a successful duelist, he takes interest in him and manipulates him to destroy Kaiba. Siegfried joins the KC Grand Prix to discredit Kaiba and claim revenge, using computer viruses in an attempt to destroy Kaiba Corporation's computer systems before Kaiba stops them and expels Siegfried from the tournament. When Leon faces Yugi in the finals, he attempts to use him to destroy Kaiba Corp, but fails, as Leon did not want to use cheating to win. After his defeat, they reconcile and Leon promises to help rebuild their family's company.
Kaiba family : : : A selfish and power-hungry businessman and Seto and Mokuba's adoptive father. He was the original founder and CEO of Kaiba Corporation, which began as an arms manufacturer, when he was a chess champion. When Gozaburo visited the orphanage where he and Mokuba were living, he challenged Gozaburo to a game of chess, with the stakes being the adoption of the two brothers. After Seto won by cheating, Gozaburo adopted him and Mokuba, forcing Seto to spend his time studying to groom him into becoming his heir. However, Gozaburo's plans backfired when he gave Seto a 2% share of Kaiba Corporation's stock as a test, challenging him to pay back ten times the amount within a year. Seto managed to acquire the money within a single day and, along with the board of director, secured majority control of the company stocks and became the new CEO after overthrowing Gozaburo, who committed suicide by
defenestration. In the Toei anime, he instead suffers a heart attack. In the
Duel Monsters anime, he is the major antagonist of the "Virtual World" arc. His ace monster is Exodia Necross. : /
Noah Kaiba : : Gozaburo's biological son and Seto and Mokuba's adoptive brother. As the heir to the Kaiba Corporation, Noah's father made him study in the arts and academics, but, unlike Seto, he enjoyed it and was eager to please his father. When Noah was around ten years old, he was fatally injured in a car accident, after which Gozaburo uploaded his soul onto a supercomputer before Seto was adopted. In the present, he kidnaps Yugi and the group and traps them in his Virtual World. His ace monster is Shinato, King of a Higher Plane.
The Big Five The Big Five were originally the executives for Kaiba Corporation, who were swayed to Kaiba's side. After Kaiba was victorious, he shut down their factories and re-established Kaiba Corporation as a gaming company. This caused the Big Five to resent him, and they allied with Pegasus in a plan to allow Pegasus to claim control over KaibaCorp. In the manga, they are fired following Pegasus' defeat. In the anime, Kaiba fires them as they offer a peace offering in the form of a virtual reality game. After he becomes trapped in the game, Mokuba enlists Yugi and the group for help. The Big Five program Witty Phantom to oversee Kaiba's sacrifice for a ritual that would summon Five-Headed Dragon. After Kaiba is saved and Saruwatari is sent to deactivate the virtual reality pods, the Big Five reprogram the game so that Five-Headed Dragon can appear and activate the Dragon Seal so that only dragon monsters can fight. After Jonouchi, Mai, and Mokuba are defeated, Yugi and Kaiba combine Black Luster Soldier and Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to form Dragon Master Knight, which destroys the Five-Headed Dragon. After Yugi, Jonouchi, and Mokuba exit the game, Saruawatari and his men leave to beat Kaiba to the Big Five. In the "Virtual World" arc, the Big Five's minds are separated from their bodies and they are trapped in Kaiba Corporation's cyberspace until they are found by Noah Kaiba, who offered them a chance to gain new bodies. They challenge Yugi and the group, but are defeated and deleted. In the English dub, they are imprisoned in the different corners of the virtual world, which are later destroyed. ; / Gansley : : The former vice-president of business strategy at Kaiba Corp and the founder of the Big Five. He is the oldest of the group. In the Virtual World arc, his Deck Master was Deepsea Warrior. ; / Adrian Randolph Crump III : : A former manager of Kaiba Corporation's personnel, who was an accountant and chief financial officer for Kaiba Corp. In the virtual world, his Deck Master was Nightmare Penguin. His position and deck master were based on his dream of an all-penguin theme park, which Kaiba turned down. ; / Johnson : : A former expert lawyer and chief legal officer for Kaiba Corporation. In the virtual world, his Deck Master was Judge Man. ; / Nesbitt : : A former engineer and chief technical officer at Kaiba Corporation. In the virtual world, his Deck Master was Robotic Knight. He seeks to take revenge on Kaiba for forcing him to destroy his weapons and replace them with video games. ; / Lector : ::The former right-hand man of Gozaburo and later Seto, who was next in line to become CEO after Gozaburo. However, Seto took his title and left Daimon as little more than company consultant and figurehead. In the virtual world, his Deck Master was Jinzo.
Doma / Paradius An organization who attempted to take over the world using the Orichalcos. ; : : The former King of
Atlantis and the head of the organization Paradius. He was corrupted after being forced to kill his wife, who had been turned into a monster by the
orichalcos, which turned his right eye green. Dartz led the forces of the Orichalcos against his father, daughter, and the forces of the Dominion of the Beasts, but was defeated. He spent the next ten thousand years collecting souls to revive the
Leviathan, which he believed could be revived using Atem's soul. His ace monster is Divine Serpent Geh. ; : : The strongest of Dartz's henchmen and the duelist sent to defeat Atem and Yugi. After he was trapped in an accident while on an ocean cruise, he was stranded on a deserted island. With only his duelling deck to keep him company, Rafael developed a deep bond with them before he was rescued by Dartz, who was responsible for his tragic past. His ace monster is Guardian Dreadscythe. ; : : Dartz's second henchman. As a child, he lived in a town during a war and led a resistance group with his brother after their hometown was attacked by soldiers armed by Gozaburo, which resulted in his brother being kidnapped. Since then, Alister began to seek revenge on Kaiba while being unaware that Dartz is behind ruining his life. His ace monster is Air Fortress Ziggurat. ; : : Dartz's third henchman. In the past, he was sent to the detention center by Dartz because he framed Valon for an unspecified crime, but Dartz tricked him in order to make Valon his henchman. He develops feelings for Mai and seeks to defeat Jonouchi for defeating her and destroying her sense of worth as a duelist. He uses the 'Armor' deck. He wears his Armor monsters and fights the opponent with his own hands.
Film antagonists ; : : The main antagonist of
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, who was sealed inside the titular artifact and a card after Atem defeated him a millennium ago before awakening after Yugi solves the Millennium Puzzle. He controls Seto by having him play the "Pyramid of Light" while using the "Andro Sphinx" and "Sphinx Teleia" cards, whose destruction can summon "Theinen the Great Sphinx" along with paying 500 lifepoints. In the Japanese version of the movie, Anubis seeks revenge by using the King of Light (Kaiba) to defeat the King of Darkness (Dark Yugi) to revive Anubis, the King of Destruction, and then use Kaiba to become the new king and rule the world. However, Yugi stops his plans and he is killed by the "Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon". ; : : The main antagonist of
Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time. He is one of
Iliaster's Four Stars of Destruction and a Turbo Duelist, who seeks to save his own time by traveling across time and space to destroy the history of Duel Monsters, but ends up causing damage to the timeline. He faces Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei Fudo in a duel, but is defeated and returns to his time, having regained hope for the future. He uses a "Malefic" deck, which consists of stolen Duel Monster cards. He also appears in a flashback in ''
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's''. ; : : The main antagonist of
Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions. He lived in Egypt with his sister Sera and Mani and were mentored by Shadi, who taught them about the Millennium Items, telling them that three represented evil, three represented justice, and the seventh, the Millennium Puzzle, represented both justice and evil. He also told them that when the Items are gathered together, a door to a better world would open, which they could enter because they had been chosen. Before being killed by Dark Bakura, Shadi gave Diva the , whose power allows him to erase people or transport them to an alternate dimension, where they will gradually dissolve into nothingness. He plans to kill Seto and Yugi to save his home dimension and seeks revenge on Bakura, whom he blames for Shadi's death. :In the present day, he alters the memories of everyone in Domino City to make them believe that he is a new student at Domino High School named . After he is corrupted by the Millennium Ring's power, he is defeated by Dark Yugi and returns to normal before fading away. ==Recurring characters==