Although Yu-Gi-Oh! has firmly established itself as a shonen franchise, one among its most well-known villains opens up a pathway to seinen.
Yu-Gi-Oh! has a various listing of characters that each assist and oppose Yugi and the pharaoh. Of those opponents, maybe none characteristic as prominently as Yami Bakura: the haunted youth who survived the tragedy of Kul Elna, the village sacrificed to create the Millennium Gadgets. Although the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has taken a light-hearted strategy in recent times that grounds itself increasingly more in science fiction and shonen, if it ever needed to discover its personal darkish facet, a sequence about Bakura within the extra grownup seinen style may function its golden ticket.
Yami Bakura, generally known as Thief King Bakura throughout his lifetime, serves as an excellent foil to the Pharaoh. He is teased to be highly effective from early on within the sequence, having the ability to defeat the formidable Maximillion Pegasus in a battle between their Millennium Gadgets within the conclusion of Duelist Kingdom. Although Yami Yugi defeats him within the Battle Metropolis quarterfinals, the villain makes an attempt to get revenge through the Daybreak of the Duel arc. However for all that, he is additionally simplistic in his motivations. His hatred in direction of the dominion originates within the bloodbath of the village he grew up in, Kul Elna. However 5,000 years later, that hatred manifests as… tormenting innocents who simply wish to play card video games. Definitely, their possession of the Millennium Gadgets performs a component, however for somebody that holds the title of “Thief King,” you’d think about he’d have higher methods to take the artifacts out of their arms.
For Bakura, there’s a lot that may nonetheless be expanded upon as a result of we by no means get to truly perceive him. For viewers of the anime, Bakura’s major character trait is revenge. It is his want for revenge for the bloodbath that created the Millennium Gadgets, and ultimately, that want for revenge fuels his obsession to acquire the facility of the artifacts. In any other case, he solely reveals as much as confront the Pharaoh and his allies. However we by no means get to see him mirror or perceive every other motivations he has, and we’re left questioning what he desires to do if he emerges victorious. Presumably he’d set himself up as king, so how would his tragic previous and commoner upbringing have an effect on his rule? What are the rules he believes in, if any in any respect? We do not know, and so, regardless of being an excellent foil to the pharaoh, Yami Bakura is relatively undeveloped.
It isn’t simply Bakura’s character that might use some growth, both. His village of Kul Elna is described by Aknadin as a village of thieves answerable for a lot chaos, whereas within the English dub it is mentioned that they are possessed by darkish spirits and have been robbing the graves of royalty for years. Whereas we by no means know if that is truly true or not, it is sure that Egypt is dealing with inner battles along with exterior ones. If it is true that Kul Elna was a village of thieves, then it speaks to the financial state of Egypt that a complete village has to show to grave robbing. If it isn’t true, then it speaks to how straightforward it’s for the federal government to create a scapegoat.
With higher perception into Kul Elna, Bakura’s story may be remodeled completely. Within the anime, the Thief King’s journey is portrayed as an evil man obsessive about revenge. However with slightly extra backstory and a higher deal with Bakura because the protagonist, it may be seen because the final survivor of Kul Elna trying to overthrow a corrupt system in order that nobody suffers the destiny of his village. However that journey does not have to finish in victory. As he sees the corrupt hailed as heroes and outcasts like him declared criminals, he falls into hopelessness. The very villagers he desires to avoid wasting now root for his enemies, and he develops a defeatist perspective as his probabilities of victory develop slimmer and slimmer resulting from Yugi and his pals. And at last, believing the entire world to be corrupt, he sacrifices himself to destroy it completely by summoning Zorc Necrophades.
In fact, that is only one method of many to strategy it, however the seinen potentialities that Bakura presents are limitless. If Yu-Gi-Oh! ever desires to enterprise into the style, then one among its hottest and enduring characters must be the one to guide that cost. Although he lacked growth within the unique anime, increasing on Bakura’s character affords a lot perception into the story of one among Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s most legendary villains.
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