Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Yuzu's Counterparts

Beware of major spoilers, Late Arrival Spoilers and Walking Spoilers!
This page lists the main female characters of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V with their respective tropes. The main heroine is Yuzu, but her counterparts in the other dimensions also play a central role in the storyline.

The Bracelet Girls

All four

• Action Girl: All of them are very skilled duelists.
• Amazon Brigade: All of them use decks composed of female monsters.
• And I Must Scream: All girls suffer this when they're captured by Academia and are successfully implanted with parasites to be controlled by the Doktor. The Professor considers this bad taste, since each one is technically a part of his daughter and later frees all four from the Doktor's control... only to activate the ARC-V system and absorb all four girls in an attempt to resurrect Ray.
• Artificial Human: Like the Dragon Boys' case, the girls are also this due to Ray's attempts to prevent Zarc from being revived.
• Barrier Maiden: Yusho thinks that Ray sent them to seal the Dragon Boys and states that the Four Dimensions are protected by them. Leo's separation of Yuri and Serena implies it had a large reason in who Yuri ended up becoming.
• Color-Coded Characters: They have two layers:
  • First they are coded by the gem color on their bracelet. So Yuzu is pink, Serena is blue, Rin is Green and Ruri is Yellow.
  • Second, a complex version, Bracelet girls have the same colors as the summon animation of their respective dimension. Yuzu is pink and blue fitting the blue backdrop and pink portal when a Pendulum Summoning is performed. Serena is red, blue and yellow the exact colors seen in the background when Polymerization (Fusion in Japanese) is played. Ruri has purple and yellow, the color of the portal that is seen when a Xyz Summoning is performed. Rin has green the color of the rings shown when a Synchro Summoning is performed.
• Connected All Along: With the exception of Serena, none of them ever interacted with Reiji or Reira in amy level beyond some name dropping, come The Reveal and they are the reincarnation/fragments of Ray; Reiji's half-sister.
  • A much more subtile version of this is that each of the girls' deck motifs are connected to one of the four En cards needed to seal Z-Arc.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: It's revealed that Ray intentionally sent the Bracelet Girls near the Dragon Boys to prevent Zarc's revival. Based on how well adjusted Yuya, Yuto and Yugo (who were friends with Yuzu, Ruri and Rin respectively) were compared to Yuri who was isolated from Serena, it was working till Leo interfered.
• Doppelmerger: Serena, Rin and Ruri all have their souls transferred into Yuzu.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: They all gain these while under the control of the Doktor and his parasites.
• Foil: Like the Dragon Boys, the girls are foils of each other due to their personalities and relationships.
  • Yuzu and Ruri are both sweet girls who were part of a trio. Yuzu is generally more energetic and hot head at times, while Ruri was calm and always kind. They both believed in Yusho's ideals and will fight to protect themselves and their loved ones even if they don't want to. They differ in their viewpoints of fusion as while Yuzu asked Sora to learn the summoning method to protect her friends, Yuto states Ruri would never want to learn it. They differ in their relationships with their respective dragon boys too. Yuzu and Yuya grew up together but she's rather shy about her feelings for him, Ruri met Yuto in their teens and was shown to be the more forward in their relationship.
  • Yuzu and Rin are both childhood friends with their respective Dragon Boy and generally were the ones that kept them in order. But Yuzu is also very supportive towards Yuya while Rin generally told Yugo off for his flaws but still showed appreciation for his strengths. Yuzu is very fair is willing to end a duel prematurely to stop someone from being hurt while Rin is much more pragmatic and not willing to let a chance slip by. Yuzu is surrounded by friends and family while Rin's only friend seems to be Yugo. But they're both entertainers in a sense as Rin's dream was to have a duel with Yugo in the Friendship Cup in front of everyone.
  • Yuzu and Serena are arguably the most different at the start. Serena has no relationship with Yuri compared to Yuzu's deep friendship with Yuya. Serena was bitter at the Academia at the start and only grew to hate it more when she realized the reality of their actions while Yuzu loves You Show and would do anything to protect it. Yuzu has a variety of Fusion monsters while Serena's Fusion monsters are Cat Dancer and its upgrades. But they are both good people at the end of the day who believe in fair play and want to protect reality from the Academia.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Yuzu is the upbeat and energetic Sanguine, Serena is the volatile and angry choleric, Rin is a cold and icy melancholic, while Ruri is a calm and sweet Proper Lady.
• Girly Bruiser: Yuzu is a kind-hearted girly girl who is emotionally sensitive and wears a lot of pink. However, she does have a hot-temper and a paper fan that she'll hit you with if you get on her nerves. Keep in mind, she has hurt others almost every time she has used that fan.
• Iconic Item: Their bracelets.
• Identical Stranger: A huge plot point is that like the Dragon Boys, the bracelet girls have the same face and similar personalities. They each have a mysterious bracelet. This is revealed to be due to the fact that they are technically the same person, all of them being reincarnations of Ray, whose soul was split when she stopped Zarc.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Excluding Serena, they are this to their respective Dragon Boy due to their close relationships.
• Living MacGuffin: Leo Akaba wants to get each of them in his custody, and most other characters trying to capture them want to either blackmail or hinder him. They qualify as Dismantled MacGuffins due to being fragments of Leo Akaba's daughter, which also makes them unknowing Hostage MacGuffins.
• Made of Iron: So far each of the girls have shown incredible durability. Yuzu was thrown into a building by Sergey and was walking in a few hours. Serena and Ruri were blasted by Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon, whose attack destroyed two walls, not only were they perfectly fine, they could easily run away soon after. After Rin's ace was destroyed by Crystal Wing, she was next to a huge explosion that sent her flying, she showed no damage and walked away with no trouble soon after.
• Magical Accessory: Their bracelets have powers related to the Dragon Boys. Ray created them when she absorbed the power of the En cards to become Zarc's equal and with them, she was able to defeat and split Supreme King Dragon Zarc back into Zarc and his dragons.
• Magnetic Plot Device: Their bracelets serve as one, as Academia's agents are under specific order to track down the girls wearing the bracelets. It's because Leo saw the bracelets form on Ray's arm before the dimensions were split, so he knows the girls that have them carry the fragments of her soul.
• Morality Pet: Yusho suggests that Ray intentionally revived her four alternates in families close to Zarc's four alternates to prevent Zarc from being revived. Unfortunately that plan went sideways when they ended up befriending each other; hurting the Ray alternates is a major Berserk Button for three of the four Zarc alternates, and allows his old personality to shine through.
• Neutral Female: Considering one of the major gimmicks of the series is that people can join into a duel already in progress at any time, it's conspicuous that they're all sidelined in season 3 and when they do participate in duels, it's only while Brainwashed and Crazy.
• "Not So Different" Remark: The bracelet girls have been commented to be very similar in personality to each other multiple times by different characters.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Averted. The girls get along fine as seen when Serena and Yuzu interacted and the openings and endings always show the girls interacting happily.
• People Puppets: Combined with Brainwashed and Crazy, the Doktor implants Parasite Fusioners in their brains to control them. Since mind control is a recurring Yu-Gi-Oh! villain technique, it's nothing new, especially for the heroines. In Episode 127, their free will is finally restored by the Professor, who is not amused at the Doktor's actions and quickly disposes him.
• Put on a Bus: Due to the Professor's attempt to revive Ray, the four of them are currently inside ARC-V. They all eventually revive as Ray's spirit to inhabit Reira and do battle with Zarc once again. Afterwards, Ray's very existence is reincarnated later as Yuzu, with the other dimensional counterparts (Ruri, Serena and Rin) existing within Yuzu's body, similar to Yuya and his counterparts.
• Reincarnation: All of them are reincarnations of Ray.
• Sharing a Body: By the end of the series, Yuzu and her counterparts have become one again, with Yuzu controlling the body, similar to Yuya.
• Soul Jar: They all contain a fragment of Ray's soul.
• Tareme Eyes: They all have these.
• Tsurime Eyes: minus Yuzu whose eyes remain lifeless, the other girls temporarily gain these when they duel under the influence of the Parasites.
• Theme Naming: Each of the girls' names share a theme with the previous heroines' names. Yuzu has a fruit theme like Anzu, Serena and Asuka's names are the moon and sun respectively, Rin and Aki's names are connected to cold and emptiness and Ruri and Kotori have bird themes.
• Worf Had the Flu: Due to their status as Living Macguffin, the people that try to capture them rarely use fair methods or use their most dangerous duelists like Sergey or Yuri.

Yuzu Hiiragi (Zuzu Boyle)

Yuzu Hiiragi (Zuzu Boyle)

Voiced by: Yuuna Inamura (JP); Emily Jenness (EN); Jennifer Weiß (DE)

The heroine of ARC-V and Yuya's childhood friend, she is the daughter of You Show Duel School's headmaster. Where Yuya is energetic and upbeat, she is more rational, though rather quick to lose her temper. She has a habit of whacking people, particularly her father and Yuya, with a paper fan whenever she's annoyed with them. While never outright stated, there are plenty of hints of her being in love with Yuya. Like him, Yuzu also has counterparts from other dimensions who share her face and mannerisms. It's later revealed that she is a "piece" of her original incarnation named Ray, a woman who sacrificed herself long ago to stop the main antagonist, Zarc, from destroying the world.

Yuzu plays a Fantasia/Melodious deck which largely relies on Special Summoning multiple smaller monsters to Tribute Summon her ace, Prodigy Mozart, which Special Summons more Fantasia monsters, continuing the chain. After her loss to Masumi Kotsu, she decided to train in Fusion Summoning. The result is a deck that can take advantage of swarming and Fusion and earning her a new ace, Bloom Diva.

By the end of the series, Yuzu and her counterparts have been reborn as one with Yuzu being in control and Serena, Ruri, and Rin continuing to exist within her body.

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Tropes associated with Yuzu:

• Adaptational Modesty: The dub turns her Zettai Ryouiki into Proper Tights with a Skirt.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When she asks Sora to teach her how to Fusion Summon.
• All-Loving Heroine: Yuzu cares about keeping everyone safe and is deeply against people willingly hurting others. And has willingly tried to stop a duel prematurely to protect her opponent. And like Yuya, this has bitten her in the ass before.
• Always Save The Boy: She deeply wants to end the Interdimensional war and will do anything to keep everyone safe, but if she thinks Yuya either is hurt or depressed, she will drop whatever she was doing to help him. Yugo even lampshades this after her duel in episode 69.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Sora stated she learned how to counter a Fusion deck by understanding a Fusion duelist.
• Badass Adorable: She has her cute moments.
• Badass Biker: Starting in episode 69. She has a miserable start when the Action Riding Duel begins, but that is later forgotten thanks to several stunts she does during the duel, some of them being even in mid-air.
• Baddie Flattery: On the receiving end of one from Yuri who compliments her on defying him and not going willingly with him, after he proved to be completely remorseless on carding Halil and Olga and threatened her with the same if she got in the way as well, saying that she's the same as Ruri and Rin. He then offers to duel her and if he wins she has to go with him.
• Batman Gambit: During her second duel with Masumi, she counted on her doing another Fusion summon, allowing her to use a certain Trap Card.
• Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Sora's metaphorical Beast. Shown in the Ballroom scene.
• Berserk Button:
  • Judging by her reaction in Episode 27, Mieru has become one. Episode 38 is an exception, though this may be because she's more concerned about Yuya's coma.
  • Making fun of her friends is never a good idea. Especially if said friend is Yuya. This is a much more serious one.
  • Acting callous about human suffering pisses her off more than anything else, just ask Yuto, Serena or Yuri.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine:
  • Whenever Yuya or her father make her mad, she hits them with her fan, which is a classic manzai gag.
  • She also has this dynamic with Yugo.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: In episode 69, she uses Yuya, Shuzou and Futoshi's Catch Phrases during her Entertainment Duel with Tokumatsu.
• Break the Cutie: Yuzu is a kind hearted girl that deeply cares for her family and friends and while not as bad as Yuya, she gets tortured as well. From being disturbed and distracted because of Yuto and feeling frustrated at her lack of focus and power, learning that Sora was evil and finding a comatose Yuya who didn't wake up for 2 days, meeting and being chased by Yuri for an entire night and finally being teleported to the Synchro Dimension away from everyone she cares about. Later she's captured by Academia, and then infected by the Doktor with a Parasite Fusioner in her head. After she's freed from the Doktor's control, Yuzu learns that she and her counterparts are actually pieces of Ray, that the Professor plans to sacrifice her to resurrect his daughter, is helpless as she watches Yuya fall under Zarc's influence, and becomes the first of the Bracelet Girls to be absorbed into ARC-V.
• Bridal Carry:
  • Indirectly done by Yuya, since one of his Magicians saves her when she falls, and carries her like this.
  • Then she does an indirect one to Masumi in episode 29, when Bloom Diva saves her from a (possibly) fatal fall.
  • Has a proper one done to her by Dennis when he saves her and himself from falling into lava, complete with his monster saving them in a stylish way. Yuzu's dad is pissed, not because his daughter was saved, but because in the manner in which she was saved.
  • She gets another one from Tsukikage when he and Hikage save her and Serena from the Obelisk force. While Serena got an Over-the-Shoulder Carry.
  • Gets one from Yuya in episode 99 when he saves her from falling.
• Burning with Anger: In Episode 27, she burst into flames when meeting Mieru. The reason why she does this? Mieru calls Yuya her "darling".
• Butt-Monkey: She was this in Episode 55 when she was reasonably nervous about a dueling while riding on a motorcycle and that it was Yugo driving it.
• Call-Back: In Episode 28, Yuzu calls Sora and yells at him that he must hurry up to be in time for her first duel. Sora did the same to her in Episode 22, about his last qualification duel. The animation style is even similar.
• The Cassandra: While in Synchro Dimension with Yugo, she tries to warn people about the invasion, but no one listens to her.
• Character Development: The first few episodes played up her Tsundere side and made her seem like she had a very short temper. But due to traumatic events, she's grown much more serious and focused. Determined to grow strong enough to protect her friends and to discover the secret of the events around her. Her fan-smacks are now usually reserved for her dad.
• Character Tics: Yuzu does the same hand-clasping gesture when she Fusion Summons as Sora and others from the Fusion Dimension, due to learning from him. Though Sora points out later that her elbows aren't quite far enough out.
• Childhood Friends: With Yuya, which is why her meeting with Yuto disturbs her so much. He looks like Yuya, making her question just how much she really knows about her best friend.
• Childhood Friend Romance: There have been plenty of hints that her feelings for Yuya are more than just friendship.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She was not happy that Mieru hugged Yuya, calling him her fated person. She looked very annoyed to see Mieru again, in Episode 27, calling Yuya her "darling" all the time.
• Clothing Switch: Later she starts wearing Rin's clothes.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Although Yuzu has some similarities to previous female main characters, such as being a Nice Girl with an Amazon Brigade deck of fairy-types and powers, she serves as a contrast to the previous main character girls, such as being the Deuteragonist instead of just a supporting character like Kotori. Unlike Anzu, she is a Girly Bruiser Action Girl instead of a Tomboy. Unlike Asuka, she does not struggle with being a female duelist and for the most part avoids being put Out of Focus, the Synchro Dimension arc notwithstanding.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts this way to the younger students of You Show Duel School.
• Curbstomp Battle: On the receiving end of one from Sergey.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Happens early on when she is taken hostage by Sawatari.
  • Despite her skill in dueling, even Yuzu is fleeing in terror from the far more dangerous Yuri and starts wishing for Yuya to come and save her after running a whole night long from said enemy. Then Damsel out of Distress kicks in when her bracelet makes Yuri disappear, probably because Yugo arrives at that moment.
  • Later the unstoppable Sergey kidnaps Yuzu and brings her to where Roget is in episode 92, despite Tsukikage's and Sora's efforts to protect her.
  • Again, in episode 98, Roget manages to defeat her protecters and kidnap her offscreen.
  • Kidnapped again in episode 115 by an infected Serena.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the dub, her response to Yuya pulling a funny face after she asks him what he's got to say for himself oozes this. "Figures", indeed.
• Defiant Captive: In episode 95, she knocks Roget to the ground and hijacks his broadcast to expose his Evil Plan in front of the City before being pushed away by him.
• Designated Girl Fight: With Masumi, twice. Then again with Mikiyo.
• Determinator: In Episodes 3-4, she refused to give up even as she was dangling from a tower. Also demonstrated by her will to fight for her friends and school. She later spent an entire night running away from Yuri in Episode 47.
• Deuteragonist: While she doesn't get to duel as much as Yuya, she is as deeply involved in the plot events as him, and prior to Episode 35 had more to do with the main plot than him; while Yuya was running around qualifying for the tournament, Yuzu was getting further involved with the Yuto-Sora plot. While Yuya has gotten more involved over time, Yuzu continues to be important and often has a lot of plot development in episodes focusing on her. It's a tell to her status as this trope that she and Yuya are the only characters with dimensional counterparts, and it's Yuzu's counterparts, not Yuya's, that are critical to Academia's plans until the revelation of the plan Revival Zero.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: She's a perfectly competent Duelist and able to hold off most of her pursuers on her own. So naturally she keeps losing her Duel Disk throughout the Synchro arc.
• Dub Name Change: Zuzu Boyle.
• Edible Theme Naming: She's named after the citrus fruit. This would become an important plot point near the end of the series, when Shuzo finds a citrus and other belongings associated with her, which helps him remember her after she's Ret-Gone.
• Epic Fail:
  • Fails her first Fusion Summon, because she added it to her Main Deck instead of her Extra Deck while thinking about the whole Dark Duelist affair. Fortunately, it's just a training duel.
  • She has a false start during her first Riding Duel. However, it does not actually hinder her at all.
• Everyone Can See It: It is fairly obvious to most people that Yuzu loves Yuya, and no one really seems to believe her claims otherwise.
• Explosive Instrumentation: In the first episode, Yuzu loses her temper and pounds on a keyboard, which damages the school's Solid Vision system and forces them to get a replacement.
• Expy: Partially of Anzu and Aki, due to being the Nice Girl best friend of the main character that defends him from bullies that belittled him (albeit with Gongenzaka doing so more physically), and her undefined abilities as a bracelet wielder bringing the analogue with Aki being a Signer, and suffers great confusion over them. And Kotori, for having the most open attraction to their Childhood Friends male protagonists.
• Fiery Redhead: Of the fuchsia-haired kind. While normally a well-meaning Nice Girl, people's idiocy (especially Yuya's) gets on her nerves.
• Flower Motifs: Yuzu's deck represents the flower kanji ka of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle, which is also referenced in the sixth opening. Her Melodious Choir monsters are all based on flowers, and fairies are generally related to flowers.
  • Much more obvious as the card associated with her to seal Z-Arc is En Flowers, which sets up the other cards.
• From Bad to Worse: Being surrounded by the Obelisk Force is bad. Yuri sending them away and taking over is just horrifying.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in this style, complete with blue barrettes.
• Girly Bruiser: Both she and her deck are overtly feminine, and she's proven herself to be a capable duelist.
• Girly Run: She runs like this in Episode 24, when chasing after Masumi.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Like any Tsundere, she has this, but she has mainly grown out of this by character development.
• Hammerspace: Where she keeps her fan.
• Happily Adopted: She is perfectly happy being Shuzou's daughter.
• The Heart: Downplayed due to the fact that she is the Deuteragonist whose plotline and character development doesn't revolve around this trope, but she is still the one who was forced to control the You Show Duel School more manic personalities. Probably why her disappearance in episode 50 hits them so hard, especially Yuya.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Says this in stereo with Yuya. Though she didn't like how much stronger he said.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • She's very troubled by her encounter with Yuto and his resemblance to Yuya. A few episodes after that, her opponent Masumi could tell she was off her game, and she ends up losing because she wasn't thinking clearly.
  • Happened again in Episode 21, when she is completely confused over what is happening to her life after meeting Yuto.
  • She has a nasty one in Episode 47 after dueling and running away from Yuri for an entire night, she admits that she can't escape him and is crying for Yuya to save her.
• Heroic Resolve: Despite being surrounded by three Obelisk Force, she refuses to go down without a fight. She maintains the same attitude even when confronted by Yuri.
• Heel: She tried to invoke this trope in Episode 2. Like Father Like Daughter.
• Hidden Eyes: In Episode 23, she shows this when Mieru calls Yuya her fated person. Hilarity Ensues.
• Hunter Of Her Own Kind: Card game version. She runs a Fusion deck that counters Fusions, as Masumi found out.
• Instant Expert: After only a few minutes using a D-Wheel, she masters the autopilot so well she can do impressive tricks with it.
• Le Parkour: While not as much as Yuya, she's shown to be rather nimble in an Action Duel and did four backflips in a row when she dueled Yuri.
• Light Is Good: Her monsters are LIGHT monsters.
• Luminescent Blush: Happens to her a couple of times, though all of those times involve Yuya and his dimensional counterparts getting up close and personal with her. Usually she thinks each of Yuya's dimensional counterparts is Yuya.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Yuzu realized that she couldn't beat Yuri in Episode 47 and instead of letting herself be captured, she spent the entire night running away from him.
• Made of Iron: Even though Sora saved her, her waking up after being rammed into a building a few hours later and being able to walk, makes her this.
• Magic Skirt: Particularly noticeable in Action Duels. The Synchro Arc instead puts her in pants.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Her Fantasia monsters' attacks are visualized as voices that materialize... As razor-sharp waves.
• Mini Dress Of Power: She wears a jacket mini-skirt when she borrows Rin's clothes.
• Missing Mom: In episode 57, she tells Yugo that like him she grew up not knowing her mother's face.
• Miss Exposition: She acts as one to Yugo, telling him about the people that resemble them, her bracelet, the Academia and the Resistance.
• Modesty Shorts: Well more like tights, but Yuzu's Riding Duel outfit has hot pink pants to avoid the Magic Skirt issue.
• Morality Pet: Her and Yuya's friendship with Sora caused him to make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Ms. Fanservice: Averted for the majority of the time, which differs her a lot from the other YGO heroines. She gets her first fanservice moment in episode 62. Her second is a silhouetted Shower Scene in Episode 106.
• Musical Assassin: Her Fantasia monsters are graceful divas that can charm their opponents with the sweet melody of pain.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: At the beginning of her duel with Halil, she was just about to perform her first Pendulum Summon, when her opponent pulls a Continuous Trap not only negating the summon but taking the card and using it to perform it himself. To add salt to the wound, she got the second Pendulum Card from him in the first place, so he could duel her.
• Nice Girl: She's kind-hearted and shows it most of the time, though she won't hesitate to use her paper fan as a weapon when the situation calls for it.
• Nonuniform Uniform: Yuzu wears a sleeveless shirt, different from the one other girls wear at the school and also is missing the jacket; still, nobody comments on it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Yuya suspects something is up in Episode 8 when Sora (who was "Fusion Summoning" a dessert during class) isn't hit by her Paper Fan of Doom.
  • She breaks down crying when she is teleported to the Synchro Dimension, away from Yuya and everyone in You Show.
• Out of Focus: In the Synchro Dimension arc, while still very important due to being a Bracelet girl, the focus is directed more towards Yuya and the Lancers until the Friendship Cup.
• Paper Fan of Doom: She smacks her father with a paper fan whenever he does something stupid. Her other target is usually Yuya. She also uses the fan on other people.
• Pink Is Feminine: She has not only pink hair, her Duel Disk is pink, her Destiny Draw draws a pink, music-themed line, she continues to wear a pink (and white) Riding outfit and rides a pink D-Wheel, thanks to Rin herself who seems to be fond of the color pink. Her deck is very feminine, so is her character. She would later borrow Asuka's old clothes which are coincidentally pink (and white).
• Plot Armor: How did Yuzu survive from Sergey's attack? Sora bails her out while unconscious.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: The dub lengthens her skirt, resulting in this.
• Put on a Bus: She was teleported with Yugo to the Synchro Dimension, she's back during episodes 54-55 and briefly during episode 57 and fully returns in episode 63.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Gives a fabulous one to Roget in Episode 94, telling him that those who oppress others through absolute power can't win against those who opened up their hearts and resonate with each other. A desperate Roget is pissed off as a result.
  • Gives another one to him, calling him a Sore Loser and Dirty Coward for all his plans failing. This time, Roget loses it even more and slams her against the wall.
• Ret-Gone: After Ray finally defeats Zarc and the universe splits into the dimensions again, she's nowhere to be around and Yuya, Gongenzaka and Shuzo appear to having forgotten all about her except that Yuya's cat (Encore) has her red tie and Shuzo somehow has her fan (with a tiny citrus fruit and a musical note pendant) which he uses to smack Yuya because he remembers that he used to get that a lot. Later subverted when memories of Yuzu gradually start coming back and she, along with her counterparts, appears in the final episode of the series.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Her hair has two different shades of pink and she's mostly a Nice Girl.
• Rousing Speech: She gives a strong one towards Yuya in Episode 140. She states that Yuya isn't a devil but instead someone that gives happiness. That he kept looking for her and it was because of him that she was able to grow stronger. This speech was able to give Yuya the strength to awaken.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Inverted in her dynamic with Yuya; he's the energetic guy and she's the savvy girl.
• Sanity Slippage: After her meeting with Yuto, Yuzu's perception has become a bit... flawed. She gets better after uncovering the facts.
• Say My Name: Loves saying Yuya's name out loud, no matter what the situation.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: After Yuri appears and tries intimidate and threaten her to surrender and go with him without making a fuss, she slaps his hand away and makes four backflips to get away from him, and is prepared to fight back.
• She-Fu: She backflips four times in a row when she faces Yuri.
• Sharing a Body: Yuzu is reborn, with Serena, Ruri and Rin living on within her, similar to Yuya and his counterparts.
• Shout-Out: Her localized name is a thinly-veiled reference to famous British singer Susan Boyle, since she uses a music-themed "Melodious" deck. Her first name is even pronounced similarly to "Susan", for better or worse.
  • She is also themed after Tjuyu, the "Singer of Hathor" and "Chief of Entertainers".
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's in love with Yuya, one of the kinder characters of the series. And whenever Yuya shows his more aggressive side due to his dark side or his buttons being pushed hard, she is noticeably disturbed. She even tells Yuya outright in episode 92 that seeing him act angry is not something she likes and wants him to stay normal. She states the same thing again during Yuya's duel with the Professor and seeing Yuya struggle with his inner darkness.
• Standard Female Grab Area:
  • Zig-Zagged, in episode 3 Sawatari's friends take Yuzu and the kids away, not only is she shown struggling but also that two of them grab Yuzu by both of her arms and holding her with both of their own respective arms, which makes more believable that she couldn't break free like that.
  • Happens again in episode 65, this time it's both of her arms again and it's two adult men.
• Student–Master Team: When she tags with Sora.
• Suicidal "Gotcha!": In order to stop Masumi from getting an Action card and negating the Trap Card vital for her combo, Yuzu jumps off of a bridge to retrieve it, knowing that Bloom Diva will catch her.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Yuzu actually tries to call off her duel with Sergey after seeing how far he's willing to go in order to secure his win. Ends up being wasted as the unsympathetic bastard enjoys his own suffering and flies into a sadistic psychotic rage against the poor girl.
• Tears of Joy: Yuzu tends to this whenever she's away from Yuya for a long time and ends up running into him.
  • She cries these in episode 64 when she see Yuya in the Synchro Dimension.
  • Cries them again when she and Yuya are briefly reunited in episode 99.
  • After being freed from the Doktor, she's ecstatic when the first face she see again is Yuya running towards her.
• Took a Level in Badass: Attempts this by asking Sora to teach her about Fusion Summoning. The results are finally shown in Episode 29, "The Fused Divas."
• Trauma Conga Line: A long series of moments for her, especially Episode 21, though she hasn't quite broken... Yet. She eventually gets better in Episode 24.
• Tsundere: Yuzu is generally kind, but Yuya's messing around annoys her.
• Twin Switch: With Serena, by using Clothing Switch. They did that to distracts the Obelisk Force from Serena.
• Unknown Rival: She's one to Masumi. Masumi doesn't consider her a threat at all. In Episode 29, Masumi recognizes her as a Worthy Opponent.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Downplayed, but she gets more outfit changes than expected in a shounen. Her original outfit, a track suit in the first ending, Serena's borrowed clothes, Rin's borrowed clothes, Rin's borrowed Biker outfit, the facility outfit, and Asuka's borrowed old clothes. As you can see, most of her outfits aren't even hers.
• Weak, but Skilled: Her Fusion Monsters don't go beyond Level 6, yet their effects makes them deadly. In particular, Bloom Diva's effect means she actually becomes more deadly against Special Summoned monsters the lower her own ATK should become. Yuzu exploits this.
  • It is more apparent that Yuzu is best suited for this trope when the moment she switched to the less useful Bloom Prima, which trades Bloom Diva's awesome effect for more ATK and the ability to attack twice, she lost. It's a case of her trying to fix what wasn't broken in the first place.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She gives one to Yuto, saying it is wrong for him to protect her, but let Masumi be hurt.
• Will Not Be a Victim: Her Living MacGuffin status gets her kidnapped/targeted a lot, but even weaponless and handcuffed Yuzu always tries to fight back, whether physically or verbally.
• Worf Had the Flu: Yuzu loses to Masumi in their first duel because she's been confused by the existence of Yuto the entire time, making mistakes like not preparing counters, and not realizing the Action Card she saw was a reflection before she desperately attempted to dive toward it.
• The Worf Effect: She lost to Sergey in Episode 77, just show how insanely terrifying Sergey is, and to present him as a major threat for the likes of Jack to deal with.
• Worthy Opponent: Develops this relationship with Masumi after their rematch, with Masumi giving her the Crystal Rose card.
• You Are Not Alone: Her goal in a nutshell for Yuya, during her duel with Tokumatsu in episode 69, she made sure to let know Yuya that she was there for him, and that he would never be alone, especially pronounced when she used Yuya's, Futoshi's, and her father catchphrases.

Serena (Celina)

Serena (Celina)

Voiced by: Yuuna Inamura (JP); Emily Jenness (EN, Arc-V), Samantha Cooper (EN, Duel Links)

Serena hails from the Fusion Dimension and has been held against her will inside Academia for about three years despite being on their side. After learning that remnants from the Xyz Dimension fled to Standard, she sees her chance of proving to Professor Leo Akaba that she is worthy enough to be a front line soldier and travels with Barrett to Maiami City without permission to hunt down any Xyz users. However, after meeting her counterpart Yuzu and hearing the truth about the true nature of her fellow comrades from Kurosaki, Serena changes sides and is currently one of Reiji's Lancers.

Serena uses a Moonlight/Lunalight deck, which features female, animal-like monsters with a moon theme. Unlike Yuzu's Melodious deck, Serena's deck is very offensive.

Similar to Yuri, Serena has doppelgangers throughout the other dimensions: Yuzu (Standard), Ruri (Xyz) and Rin (Synchro).

By the end of the series, Serena and her counterparts have been reborn as one with Yuzu being in control and Serena, Ruri, and Rin continuing to exist within her body.

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Tropes associated with Serena:

• Alleged Lookalikes: With Yuzu, Ruri, and Rin. A few friends from Standard mistake her for Yuzu several times, Yuzu mistakes her for Ruri briefly until she concludes that Serena is her Fusion counterpart, and Yugo mistakes her for Rin prior to their first duel.
• Almighty Janitor: In her first outfit, she wore the alternate Duel Academia's version of the Osiris Red uniform, Osiris Red being the lowest dorm.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Delivered to her by Yuzu, she never considered there were non-duelists getting hurt in the Xyz Dimension.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her approach to any problem in life. When she duels, she focuses on dealing damage, ignoring her own defense. And in Episode 56, she refused to retreat declaring she'll defeat every member of Security even when they were literally surrounded.
• Badass Adorable: She is cute at times, such as when she pouts in her prison cell, and comes to enjoy her duel with Yugo.
• Badass in Distress: Becomes one in Episode 86 when she's incapacitated with Nerve Gas and captured by Roget's Security Force en route to the Underground Facility. Fortunately, she is saved by Reira and Tsukikage. Later she is protected by Yuya and Sora. Unfortunately all four fail in the end and she's successfully captured by Barrett after his loss to Sergey, once again becoming Academia's prisoner.
• Berserk Button: People not treating her seriously in a Duel.
  • Duel Links shows that, following the events with the parasites, parasites, and bugs to a lesser extent, have become a mix of this and Trauma Button for her.
• Blood Knight: She is really combat happy, refusing to retreat or anything. It's to the point that in episode 59, even Sawatari starts to get annoyed with her wasting time Dueling people instead of looking for Yuzu.
• Boring, but Practical: Her Dueling style due to her belief in having a strategy, she reuses the same tactics over and over again, Yugo comments that she's tough but inflexible.
• Broken Pedestal: The look on her face when she heard of the attack on the Heartland from Kurosaki told us all we need to know how she feels about the Academia.
• Brutal Honesty: Because of her lack of social skills, she regularly speaks her mind when people have disappointed her like when she mocked Crow for not finding any clues about Yuzu when she was staying with him or showing her disappointment when she faces off against Yugo and flat-out tells him that his dueling style is flawed.
• Cat Girl: She has two of them in her deck, including her Fusion Monster Lunalight Cat Dancer. Four with Panther Dancer and Lio Dancer.
• Character Development: During her duel with Yugo, she starts to see the reasons behind Yuya's philosophy after she begins enjoying herself during a duel for the first time.
  • As the series goes on, Serena is no longer as confrontational as she was when first introduced and learns to appreciate the people who care for her like Yuya and Reira. She also finally acknowledges what Academia is doing is wrong; when Barrett offers to take her back to Academia and sweetens the deal by promising to give her exactly what she wanted from the Professor, she outright refuses.
• Chess Motifs: Designated by Roget as the White Queen.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair, eye, and outfit colors are drawn from the Polymerization card◊.
• The Comically Serious: Serena has her moments in the show when she's not being arrogant. Episode 62 actually shows Serena pouting in her jail cell before being rescued. The special Omake corners that airs at the end of an episode has her either complaining about Sawatari's incompetence or getting flustered by Yuya's silliness.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: She's not the least bit pleased that Tsukikage and Hikage rescued her and Yuzu from an attack by the Obelisk Force.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of her duels since her deck revolves around a quick kill combo. Yugo was the first opponent to ever last more than 3 turns against her and although Serena lost, it was also the first duel she ever had fun in.
• Cute Bruiser: Dueling example, Serena's Lunalight relies on combat and brute force, but can also take hits due to their inability to be destroyed by battle or effects.
• Dark Action Girl: Serena really wants to be this and to be a front fighter of Academia, and she is willing to crush Xyz duelists to get Professor Leo Akaba's approval, even though he doesn't want to let her go from Academia.
  • After defecting from Academia, this is downplayed but still present, especially when you compare her to the other girls on the series.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Her Lunalight deck is DARK-attribute, but she herself proves to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Defector from Decadence: She does a Heel–Face Turn after seeing the actual methods Academia uses.
• Disappointed in You: Says this to Yugo after watching him summon a single monster in Attack Position and nothing else.
• Dub Name Change: Her monsters are called "Lunalight" in the English version as opposed to "Moonlight" in the original version, though her name is only changed in spelling.
• Evil Doppelgänger: To Yuzu. Serena hunts Xyz duelists and seals them in cards, including Hokuto. Subverted when she learns about the atrocities Academia commits, which causes her allegiance to shift.
• Evil Sounds Deep: She and Yuzu share the same seiyuu, but Serena's voice is noticeably deeper. She's also not really "evil", unlike the dimensional counterpart of Yuya.
• Expy: Like Yuzu, she has similarities with past Yu-Gi-Oh! female characters. Due to being from Fusion she is like Asuka being a Dance Battler and Blood Knight (albeit much, much more pronounced than Asuka). Her personality and introduction, starting as an enemy and joining the heroic team when she realizes how evil the threat is, is like Aki's appearances in Season 1 and early Season 2 of 5Ds. Sawatari's (albeit one-time) attraction to her in the fourth ED is another holdover from Asuka.
• Failed a Spot Check: She doesn't know how many refugees from the Resistance are in Standard or how they look, so she hunts for any person that can Xyz Summon... but always misses Kurosaki, her real prey, to the point of walking away from a TV screen after seeing Dennis's Trapeze Magician, right before it cuts to Kurosaki and his Rise Falcon.
• Fan Boy: She has a lot of these among the Commons in Synchro.
• Fantastic Racism: Like other members of her faction, she looked down on Xyz users. Unlike other members of her faction, it's because she honestly believed they're evil; when the Fusion forces were attacking Xyz Dimension, Serena was purposely prevented from going by the Professor, and he seems to have misled her as to his actions and intentions.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears a glove on one hand, a bracelet on the other. After her outfit change, this is no longer the case.
• Foil: She's one to fellow Lancer, Kurosaki. Kurosaki is a survivor from the Xyz dimension that has lost everything and in his attempt to get it back has done so very brutal things and has shown no remorse for it. While Serena was protected by the Academia in the Fusion dimension and threw away her home when she was horrified by their actions.
  • She is also one to Yuzu, both of them are dimensional counterparts, but while Yuzu is kind, friendly, compassionate, and is always willing to listen, Serena has No Social Skills, is callous, belligerent, has little patience and yearns to prove herself, but like Yuzu, she has good intentions and after learning the truth behind the Heartland invasion she joined the Lancers. Her deck also contrasts Yuzu's, being aggressive and offensive, relying on a single beatstick while Yuzu's deck relies on swarming and is much more Weak, but Skilled in her style.
  • Serena contrasts Rin by being by grumpy and a Ladette, while Rin is much more of a Tsundere Black Magician Girl and Wrench Wench. While both of them use aggressive and dueling tactics, Serena relies on battle damage versus Rin's effect damage, and her Lunalights remain on the field while Rin makes use of the graveyard.
• Gilded Cage: Implied. Serena is as much of a prisoner and vital part of his plan to the Professor as Ruri and Rin are, but the difference is that she doesn't know it. She only thinks that the Professor doesn't consider her strong enough to be in the front lines so she was kept inside the curiously castle-like Academia and never allowed to leave, with every attempt of escape failing. She only was able to escape this time thanks to the Professor keeping an eye on Standard instead of her for once.
• Good Costume Switch: After becoming a Lancer she changes her outfit to a set of casual clothes that resemble her old Academia uniform. It involves a less evil looking red-jacket and a white skirt.
• Graceful Loser: She took her loss to Yugo well, even happily shaking his hand and wishing him luck for the rest of the Friendship Cup.
• Gravity Master: Her summon chants for her Fusion Monsters invoke the moon's gravity.
  "Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power!"
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Just like Yuzu, but for very different reasons. While Yuzu is normally calm and collected but easily pissed at people's idiocy, Serena is bitter that her potential is getting wasted and hates people looking down on or mocking her.
• Heroic Resolve: She declares that she'll save Yuzu as Yuzu opened her eyes about the Academia and it was her fault that Yuzu was captured.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: She betrays Academia and ends up fighting side-by-side with Standard and Kurosaki. Serena also becomes one of Reiji's eight Lancers.
• Heel Realization: She's utterly horrified when Kurosaki tells her the truth about Academia's attacks on Heartland.
• Homage: Her Lunalight deck has several references to Sailor Moon, with her name being identical to Usagi's former dub name ^note  All current English translations keep Usagi's original Japanese name . Blue Cat is a reference to Luna, and Purple Butterfly is a reference to the Holy Grail and Super Sailor Moon. White Rabbit is reference to Usagi and the whole "rabbit on the moon" in general. Notably, the number of Cat Dancer's various attacks is unusually high for a monster, as most monsters have only one attack, rarely two, but Cat Dancers has shown to have at least five different attacks so far, with three of them resemble attacks from Sailor Moon. They resemble Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Boomerang, the Sailor Kick and Sailor Venus's Crescent Beam. Additionally, Blue Cat and Purple Butterfly are shown to fuse together and become Cat Dancer, who looks more humanoid and sexier than Blue Cat — a parallel to Luna turning human with the power of the Holy Grail and Super Sailor Moon, as Luna wanted to become closer to the human she fell in love with.
• Honor Before Reason: Roger rigged her duel with Yugo in her favor by continually altering the course, so she started intentionally passing up action cards, which cost her the duel.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Barrett.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Despite her talent, the Professor keeps her cooped up in Academia and refuses to let her go out on the front lines. She hates this.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: In episode 88, she insists Tsukikage and Reira abandon her since she can't move. They refuse. Done again in episode 91, when she sees how much Yuya and Reira are struggling to keep Barrett and Obelisk Force away from her and she wants them to run; again, they refuse.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Doesn't think anything of stripping off her jacket when Yuzu suggests they switch clothes. She probably would have gone further had Yuzu not stopped her.
• In the Hood: Keeps a black hood over her face, so she can walk in Maiami City more freely.
• Jerkass: Before her Character Development, she's rude to everyone she interacts with, such as Reiji and her own bodyguard, Barrett. She calls Dennis pathetic after she beats him in a duel that he wasn't going all out for.
  • Later she calls Crow an incompetent coward for "staying in one place" and not producing answers about Yuzu's whereabouts... despite the fact that Crow gave them shelter in the first place and Security is essentially everywhere, with one wrong move leading to them getting arrested... which does occur later.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • She's grateful to Barrett for going with her to Standard. Drops the "gold" part when she coldly walks away from Barrett after he was beaten in his duel with Reiji, showing that she only really cares about herself, despite Barrett being the one decent Fusion user who doesn't take outward pleasure in attacking others nor did anything to prevent her from leaving Academia in the first place.
  • She regains it later when she proves that she's not like her other companions from Academia, namely taking pleasure in the suffering of others. Yuzu makes her realize that the Xyz Dimension duelists had families as well and that Academia went around attacking EVERYONE, not just duelists, which she made the mistake of thinking that all citizens from the Xyz Dimension were. She later becomes disgusted and horrified when she witnesses Sora attacking Kurosaki, the guy that she was "hunting" all this time, and after Kurosaki relates the story of Academia's attack on Heartland.
  • Despite her arrogance, Serena can be seen glowing with pride over watching Yuzu duel and reacting in horror over Yuzu's loss to Sergey.
  • She later admits to Yugo that she was impressed with his duel with Sawatari.
• Karma Houdini: Granted, she doesn't stay a villain forever, but she doesn't really get any sort of comeuppance for carding Hokuto.
• The Lad-ette: A rather G-rated example. As discussed in her subversion of Tomboy with a Girly Streak, she is not feminine. Serena is blunt, abrasive, and is so aggressive and combat-happy that Sawatari, not a bastion of restraint himself, calls her out on it at one point.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The third opening and upcoming official materials (such as posters or covers) reveal her Heel–Face Turn.
• Leeroy Jenkins: During the Lancers' duel against Security, she refuses to flee the scene with Reira to get help after Yuya instructs her to do so, leading to their entire group being cornered by Security and almost getting arrested, until Crow and his gang rescues them.
• Le Parkour: Serena is quite agile, able to leap around her surroundings with amazing speed. She showcases this in her duel with Yuya in Episode 125.
• Lunacy: Serena's Moonlight deck represents the moon kanji getsu of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is either derived from Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon, or from Mare Serenitatis ("Sea of Serenity"), which is a lunar mare located to the east of Mare Imbrium on the moon.^note Princess Serenity a.k.a. Sailor Moon is named after the latter.
  • Her name is actually a pun in Japanese since the letters "R" and "L" are interchangeable. With Serena being derived from the word Serenade, a form of musical performance, and the latter, Selena, as mentioned above, means Moon Goddess. It's shown in her deck as well, since it is a combination of both, a musical performance and the image of the moon.
• Megaton Punch: Serena delivers a hilarious one to Yugo in Episode 84 when he tries to hug her; he made the mistake of confusing a counterpart for Rin... again. In the episode prior she did this twice!
• Modesty Shorts: Is wearing what looks like black biking shorts under a red skirt in her first outfit.
• Ms. Fanservice: Not her, but her aces Lunalight Cat Dancer, Panther Dancer and Lio Dancer.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Academia tries to leave Standard away from the war, but Serena hunts everyone that can Xyz Summon in Standard, disregarding the troubles that can come from that. While she's just as arrogant and battle crazy as the rest of her dimension, she does not like the possibility of innocents getting hurt.
• Mythology Gag: Wears a red jacket, similar to the ones worn by the Osiris Red dorm students. Her Duel Disk also resembles the ones from GX. The fact that she appears to be an Osiris Red girl who holds her hair with a yellow ribbon make some think of Rei's first design.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: She's appalled when Yuzu tells her that families were being hurt in the Xyz invasion.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Cat Dancer evolves into Panther Dancer, who then evolves into Lio Dancer.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Serena hadn't been so adamant about searching for Yuzu (and strong duelists) in a place where Security are constantly roaming the streets for them, she would have never had lead them to where Yuya, Crow and the rest were. As a result, they were all arrested.
• No Name Given: Supplementary materials first gave her name as Mysterious Girl before her name was revealed.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Being raised in Fusion, this is her primary attribute. She's always very serious in her dueling and hates it when her opponents are weak or aren't taking the duel seriously.
• No Social Skills: Supplementary materials reveal that she has never left Academia prior to Episode 38 and that she only learned how to duel, but at the cost of learning social skills. Which explains why she believed that every person is a duelist and also her not seeing anything wrong about stripping out in the open.
• Not So Above It All: Serena is one of the most serious characters in the series... yet special Omake corners after any episode that features her show that she:
  • Has a fondness for sweets like Sora.
  • Is jealous of Kurosaki for having monsters that can fly and wants one too.
  • Can get nervous before a duel and walk off completely in the wrong direction.
  • In the show proper, she was pouting like crazy when the rest of the Lancers sans Kurosaki were escaping and when Yugo complains about her saying Fusion (Yugou in Japanese), she yells back at him to shut up and let her duel.
• One-Man Army: Her entire dueling strategy is about this trope. She summons one powerful Fusion Monster that obliterates the opponent's entire field by herself, but she is mostly left alone.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Hikage carries her in this manner after saving her from being attacked by the Obelisk Force, much to her displeasure.
• Perpetual Frowner: In contrast to Yuzu, Serena is usually seen with a scowl on her face.
• Plot Armor: In Episode 125, both she and Ruri survive a point blank energy blast from Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon that ended up eradicating all the Parasite Fusioners in their tanks, scorching the room they were in and blasting open several holes behind them leading to the outside world. Despite this, both girls end up slightly damaged and have enough strength to get up and run away.
• Pride: Believes her own skill in dueling to be so great that she gets pissed that the Professor is keeping her secluded on Academia. However, this blinds her to the fact that by attacking anyone who's not a Fusion duelist (namely anyone who can Xyz Summon), she's causing more harm than good and doesn't think of the consequences her actions could potentially bring.
• Precision F-Strike: When Dennis's true colors are revealed, she comments, "That bastard."
• Refusal of the Call: She rejects Reiji's offer to join him. After seeing Academia for what it really is, she ends up as a Lancer.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: Had this response in episode 90 when Barrett offered her the possibility of fighting in the front lines if she returned willingly. She all but outright told him that she had no intentions of becoming a pawn of the Devil.
• Serious Business: Prior to her duel with Yugo, Serena didn't view Duel Monsters as a game, but as a duel between two warriors who are fighting for their honor.
• Sharing a Body: By series end, Serena, Ruri, and Rin continue to exist within Yuzu.
• Ship Tease:
  • As a result of Ending 4, she's this with Sawatari, though the feeling is not mutual as she punches Sawatari in her sleep when he tries to make a move on her during the ending sequence. There is no indication from either side in-universe, however. By series end, there never will be.
  • Given how hellbent Yuya is on protecting Serena in episode 91, and how worried Serena is becoming over Yuya's state of being, this qualifies too.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Her English name, Celina, is a two-fold:
  • Her English name is a homage to Selina Kyle, the civilian identity of Catwoman. All three of her Fusion Monsters are women in feline-like clothing much like Catwoman.
  • Much like Yuzu, whose English name is based on Susan Boyle, hers is based on the famous French-Canadian singer Céline Dion.
• Smug Smiler: When not frowning, Serena loves doing this to her opponents whenever she gets the upper hand. She keeps showing this off these type of smiles in her duel against Yuya while under the control of the Doktor and his Parasites.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female member of the Lancers.
• Spanner in the Works: Her stubborn attitude and pride blows Roget's plan to make her the queen.
• Spell My Name With An S: The old R and L problem. The Versus Character Splash and an official website give us the R consistently.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Averted like Yuzu. When Security captures her, they hold both arms, and are also an adult overpowering a fourteen-year-old girl. Yuya was being held the same way.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Despite hostilely refusing to return with Barrett when he offers her the chance to come back to Academia peacefully, she is saddened when she sees how far he's willing to go to complete his mission after his violent loss against Sergey, even saying his name in a concerned voice before she's forced to return to Academia.
• Technician vs. Performer: In her duel with Yugo, she's the technician that doesn't take any chance and has a strategy in place compared to his more fluid style of dueling.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Similar to Kurosaki, Serena doesn't appreciate being saved from danger, stating that she has the situation "handled" and sees someone helping her out as someone who is underestimating her abilities, which she hates. In Episode 56, she, along with Yuya, Reira and Sawatari, are surrounded by Security forces; when Yuya offers to distract them and begs her to take Reira to safety, Serena just screams back that she's no coward and she intends to wipe everyone out... despite being surrounded by at least thirteen duelists at once. However, she does at least acknowledge that she'll need to work in a group if she intends to save Yuzu and protect her from Academia.
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted. Being from the Fusion Dimension and a student of Academia, she initially appears to be this for her dimensional counterparts. However, she is soon revealed to have noble intentions and, upon learning of Academia’s true nature, she immediately defects from them to join the Lancers.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Subverted. While her deck is very feminine, the play-style of her deck revolves around attacking as much as possible while preventing her opponent from protecting themselves; fitting given some of her tendencies, so it might just be that she doesn't care for looks as long as what she's using works. She's also the only "Yuzu" counterpart who hasn't shown any form of positive emotion towards her "Yuya" counterpart. ^note However, given the fact that Serena is not sadistic and doesn't enjoy destruction like Yuri does, it's unlikely that she will EVER have any towards the guy.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: To contrast Yuzu in appearance.
• Took a Level in Kindness: During her duel with Yugo, she starts to enjoy dueling and states she finally understands what Yuya was talking about. Even being worried about Reira in the next episode when in previous episodes she had been apathetic to him.
• Twin Switch: With Yuzu, by using Clothing Switch. They did that to distracts the Obelisk Force from Serena, so she would have free way to Kurosaki.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Also noted in Boring Yet Practical; although she is a good duelist, Serena relies on a single strong monster that attacks over and over again, and generally uses the same tactic.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It was due to Leo finding her that he learned that Ray was split in four and started the Arc Area Project.
• Walking Spoiler: Aside from being Yuzu's Fusion counterpart, she is also part of the Lancers, the heroes of the story, so it's pointless to hide these facts from people, especially since Late-Arrival Spoiler is applied.
• War for Fun and Profit: Subverted, she rejects Yuzu's claim that the Academia sees their invasion of the Xyz Dimension as a game.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Wants to impress her mentor, Professor Leo Akaba, and make him proud enough to let her fight. It gets a sadder if you realize that Celina is technically Leo's daughter by virtue of being a fragment of Ray, his actual daughter from the Original Dimension before it was split.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her talk with Yuzu painted her as this. She fully believed that what the Professor wants to do is for the greater good. And even if the Xyz duelists lost, they still had their pride despite losing. She was shaken by the implication of the Xyz duelists having families that are not duelists and resolves to see Kurosaki to check if its true.
• Worf Had the Flu: She's never helpless until Security hits her with nerve gas. Then she spends six episodes needing to be protected and rescued because she's barely able to move.
• Worthy Opponent: Serena originally saw Yugo as this because of his duel against Sawatari, although she changes her mind when he spends his entire first turn summoning a single monster from his hand. In Episode 85, she revises her opinion once again, seeing Yugo as one again.
• When She Smiles: Although smug, Serena is capable of smiling genuinely; this is best seen when she watches Yuzu duel with Sergey, and she's beaming with pride over seeing her counterpart duel so spectacularly. Later when she starts to truly enjoy herself dueling, she starts to smile for real again.
• You Fight Like a Cow: In Episode 56, she completely made fun of Security from their similar decks and their decision to call back up against 4 people. She also insults Yugo's more flexible duel style as opposed to her own strategy-based format, though after her loss to Yugo, she realizes that staying consistent all the time is not always the best play.

Rin

Rin

Voiced by: Sarah Emi Bridcutt, Emily Jenness (EN)

Yugo's childhood friend who also hails from the Synchro Dimension and grew up with Yugo as a part of the "Commons" in the slums of City. Like Yugo, she too dreamed of building a D-Wheel of her own and using her dueling skills to participate in the Friendship Cup to escape the hardships of her environment, similar to her hero, Jack Atlas. Sometime before the plot started and the Friendship Cup drew near, she was hunted down and captured by Yuri on behalf of Professor Leo Akaba. Despite Yugo's attempted rescue, Yuri escaped with his prize and brought her to Academia. There, she was successfully corrupted by The Professor and his creepy, sinister ally simply known as the "Doktor" of Academia. Fortunately for her, Rin was freed from the Doktor's control. Similar to Yugo, Rin has doppelgangers throughout the other dimensions: Ruri (Xyz), Serena (Fusion) and Yuzu (Standard).

Her deck is a Wind Witch deck, themed after winter, wind and bells, which focuses on Burn Damage and copying effects from the Graveyard. Due to Parasite Fusioner corrupting her deck, Rin also uses Fusion Monsters, in addition to her regular Synchro Monsters.

By the end of the series, Rin and her counterparts have been reborn as one with Yuzu being in control and Serena, Ruri, and Rin continuing to exist within her body.

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Tropes associated with Rin:

• Badass Adorable: While Rin is cute herself, the real one is Wind Witch - Ice Bell, a Cute Witch that inflicts 500 points of damage due to her effect. Through graveyard manipulation, Rin uses the effect five times, beating Yugo despite Crystal Wing being on the field.
• Black Magician Girl: Dueling example, although she does cross into Lady of Black Magic due to the elegance of her cold winds and monsters. Rin uses an offensive and aggressive Spellcaster-Type deck that relies on burn damage, and is also a Wrench Wench and Tomboy.
• Blow You Away: Rin's Wind Witch deck is full of WIND monsters and it represents the wind kanji fuu of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle. Her monsters attack with cold wind and several of her Spell and Trap Cards are related to wind.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: Like Ruri, she, Yuzu and Serena are somehow important to Professor Leo Akaba's plot, so it is certain she will appear at some point. However, she has appeared in flashbacks before Ruri.
• The Chessmaster: Rin is aware of the effects of her opponent's monsters (especially Yugo's), so she forces them to use their effects to prevent them from reusing them again, allowing her to utilize the full potential of her own monsters without any prevention.
• Childhood Friends: With Yugo. Both of them grew up in the slums.
• Closer to Earth: Than Yugo, often reprimanding him like a mother reprimanding a child.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair color resembles the Rings that appear when a Synchro Summon is performed. She also wears blue, white, and pink to contrast with Yuzu's purple and pink and Serena's red.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: After Yugo rescues her she knees him in the stomach and complains about how long she waited for the rescue before breaking down crying.
• Combat Pragmatist: Yugo mentions that she used to lecture him about taking any chance that presents itself, no matter what. This means that she believes in doing anything it takes to win. When we see her Dueling, we see that he wasn't lying.
• Composite Character: Like her counterparts, except Serena, she is one for Anzu, her constant chiding of Yugo being similar to how Anzu was the Team Mom and kept Jonouchi in line, as Yugo is an Expy of him through being an Expy of Judai and Yuma. She also brings 5D's characters to mind, her Winter Witch deck being similar to Aki's Rose Witch deck through use of similar tactics, and brings the green-haired, more level-headed counterpart to Yugo like Ruka was to her brother, albeit as Childhood Friends instead of siblings.
• Consistent Clothing Style: All of her outfits are in soft and bright colours with prominent shades of pink.
• Creepy Monotone: Rin gives plenty of these during her duel with Yugo and even finishes the duel with one.
• Cute Witch: She uses a Wind Witch deck, although the only one that fits this criteria so far is Ice Bell who looks like a Magical Girl. Neither of her Extra Deck Monsters nor her Tuner Monster are either this trope nor Hot Witches and are barely humanoid.
• Damsel in Distress: Defeated and spirited away by the Fusion Dimension. Yuri mentions that her personality was comparable to Yuzu's, implying she also resisted him in her kidnapping. Although, we only saw her being cornered by Yuri against a wall in a flashback. However her skill can be vouched for in episode 84, where she cornered Yugo in a flashback. Episode 117 finally shows how skilled and smart she is. It's worth mentioning that in all on-screen duels of the corrupted Bracelet Girls' duels, only Rin was able to win her duel; both Ruri and Serena lost and Yuzu never had a chance to duel.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: How Rin beat Yugo in episode 117. Due to her careful planning, she was able to reuse Wind Witch - Ice Bell's effect of 500 points of damage five times to beat Yugo.
• Dub Name Change: Subverted for a change; she is the only girl of her counterparts to not go through a name change, unlike the others: Yuzu (Zuzu), Serena (Celina) and Ruri (Lulu).
• Face Framed in Shadow: Episode 116 shows viewers that something isn't quite right with Rin as Yugo finally rescues and reunites with her. It's heavily implied that the "Doktor" of Academia successfully corrupted her and outright confirmed in Episode 117.
• Foil: Rin's Wind Witch deck is in some ways similar to Yuzu's Melodious deck and Serena's Lunalight deck, but also different.
  • Like the Melodious archetype, the Wind Witches are swarm-friendly and not particularly that powerful in brute strength. But rather than relying on field presence alone, Rin's deck relies more the power of the Graveyard and is more offensive.
  • Like the Lunalight archetype, the Wind Witches are very aggressive and offensive, but they rely more on Burn Damage rather Battle Damage to win the duel. And rather than using the power of a Cute Bruiser on the field, Rin relies more on drawing the power out of the Graveyards.
• Fusion Dance: Thanks to Parasite Fusioner, Rin's deck is corrupted with said monster and she uses Fusion Monsters.
• The Glomp: Rin gives one to Yugo in episode 116 when Yugo finally reaches her.
• Horse of a Different Color: Rin likes to ride her ace when dueling as seen in her duel against Yugo.
• An Ice Person: Her deck is winter themed, but rather than using ice, her monsters use cold wind to frost burn the opponent's life out of them. That also explains the blue and white in her primary outfit.
• Idiot Hair: She has a light green-turquoise one.
• Insane Troll Logic: As part of The Corruption, she challenges Yugo to a duel, pushes him out of the window, expects him to be uninjured and then activates her Duel Disk. Even if she's a tsundere, she cannot expect Yugo to be the indestructible Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina or something.
• Meaningful Name: Rin's name is a pun to "to ring", which is a reference to her monsters having "Bell" in their names. Her name might also be derived from "rinrin", which has multiple meanings. Rinrin can mean "severe" or "intense", which corresponds with Rin's personality. It can also mean "piercing and cold", which may be a reference to Rin's deck being themed after icy wind.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Rin while under the control of the Parasite Fusioner is far quieter compared to Ruri or Serena when they were under the control of the same bug. She is also the only one to win her duel.
• Only Friend: Yugo seemed to be Rin's only friend.
• Our Fairies Are Different: The only known card in her Deck is Lucky Pied Piper; averted as this was her childhood deck only. Her current deck is a Spellcaster-Type deck.
• Out of Focus: Downplayed, but Yugo and Edo seem to be the only characters who actually remember her. In episode 124, Yuto and Yuya swear to save Serena, Ruri and Yuzu from the Doktor, conveniently leaving out Rin. When confronting the Professor, Yuya doesn't even seem to notice or mention her at all, even when she's right in front him along with the other Bracelet Girls. In group shots with the girls she is also the last to speak, generally parroting what one of the other girls said. This is mostly because Rin only has connections to Yugo and thus has no emotional attachment to Yuya and Yuto and vice versa, unlike the other three girls.
• Palette Swap: Curiously, despite the two Ice Bell monsters Rin summoned being the same card, one had green hair, boots and hair while the other one was purple.
• Pink Is Feminine: Rin seems to be very fond of the color pink. All of her clothes have the color pink as well as her D-Wheel. This is very convenient, since Yuzu happens to borrow some of her outfits and her D-Wheel.
• Satellite Character: Rin shares a similar relationship to Yuzu as the more rational, Tsundere childhood friend to their respective Dragon Boys. We first learn that they are both orphans, grew up in the same facility and like him she is an skilled duelist, and together they designed and built their own D-Wheel in order to compete on the Friendship Cup and make a promise than at least one of them would duel against Jack. However, her characterization ends up almost entirely relegated to flashbacks and she has no significant interaction with anyone in the story beyond Yugo. This becomes especially apparent when Yuya barely shows her any attention when the four girls are trapped in Arc V.
• Sharing a Body: By series end, Rin, Ruri and Serena continue to exist within Yuzu's body.
• Slasher Smile: Rin sports a VERY creepy one◊ as she's hugging Yugo at the end of Episode 116, though he doesn't notice. She later sports several ones in the next episode, but not nearly as creepy as the one from Episode 116.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Rin is a Tsundere and Wrench Wench, but she is also fond of the color pink and is described as motherly by Yugo.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: One entirely out of Rin's control; the parasite used on her transformed Rin into a cruel and sadistic person and she's willing to attack her childhood friend, spit on their happy memories and outright destroy the one thing that meant EVERYTHING to both parties: the D-Wheel they built together.
• Tough Love: Downplayed. One of the first descriptors we get of her is Yugo calling her his mother figure, leading viewers to assume she had a gentle personality. Come her first appearance outside of flashbacks, her first action when Yugo rescues her is to knee him violently in the gut as punishment for not arriving sooner. This isn't just because she's brainwashed either; Yugo shows indignation but no surprise at her behaviour.
• Tsundere: Type B, towards Yugo. Even though she cares for Yugo, she occasionally yells at him for doing things he shouldn't do. Episode 116 shows that when pushed enough, she'll even resort to physical violence, similar to Yuzu, outright kneeing Yugo in the stomach to stop his glomp.
• Weak, but Skilled: Like Yuzu's deck, Rin's Wind Witches have relatively low ATK, but make up for it with their powerful effects and support.
• Wicked Witch: Wind Witch Crystal Bell is the corrupted and stronger Fusion evolution of Wind Witch Winter Bell.
• Women Are Wiser: Okay, it doesn't take much to be wiser than Yugo, but still...
• Wrench Wench: She and Yugo built a D-Wheel together. Which makes it heart-wrenching when she ends up destroying it while infected.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Implied by Yugo when he mentions that her and Serena have the same bad breath.

Ruri Kurosaki (Lulu Obsidian)

Ruri Kurosaki (Lulu Obsidian)

Voiced by: Rin Aizawa (JP), Emily Jenness (EN)

A girl that comes from the same place Yuto and her brother Shun Kurosaki comes from: Heartland. Yuto mistakes Yuzu for Ruri when they first met and it implied that they are very close friends given how far Yuto is willing to go to protect Yuzu from danger, on account of how similar the two are. After being spied on by Dennis and having her home dimension be nearly destroyed by Academia, Ruri is then targeted by Yuri in the aftermath of the chaos. Despite fighting bravely, she loses and is captured by the guy, who then gets brought to Academia itself. There, Ruri is successfully infected by the Doktor's Parasite Fusioner until she's freed later after much hardship.

Ruri uses a Lyrical Luscinia/Lyrilusc deck, a luscinia-based archetype that focuses on swarming the field to Xyz Summon Weak, but Skilled monsters with a lot of Overlay Units. Due to The Corruption of Parasite Fusioner, she also uses Fusion Monsters.

Similar to Yuto, Ruri has doppelgangers throughout the other dimensions: Rin (Synchro), Serena (Fusion) and Yuzu (Standard).

By the end of the series, Ruri and her counterparts have been reborn as one with Yuzu being in control and Serena, Ruri, and Rin continuing to exist within her body.

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Tropes associated with Ruri:

• Animal Motif: Her deck is based on lusciniae, a genus of singing birds, completing the Kachou Fuugetsu theme of the Bracelet Girls with her bird-themed deck. The episode where she first duels is also called "The Little Bird Trapped in Darkness", which also has "Kotori" ("little bird") in the title.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She has nice earrings and jewelry when Yuri kidnaps her, despite having lived in a war zone for an undetermined amount of time.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Luscinia" is Latin and has the feminine genus. The term doesn't refer only to the genus of birds the archetype is based on, but also to the fact that all members are female.
• Blow You Away: Ruri's Lyrical Luscinia deck is full of WIND Winged Beast-Type monsters, similar to Rin's Wind Witch deck being full of WIND Spellcaster-Type monsters. Both decks rely on swarming the field and using damage to whittle down the opponent's life points. Unlike the Wind Witches who use cold, magical wind, the Lyrical Lusciniae attack with Wind from Beneath Their Wings. However, the wind aspect of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle is not represented by Ruri, but by Rin.
• Cain and Abel: Cain to Kurosaki's Abel, albeit due to being brainjacked.
• The Cameo: In chapter 10 of the Strongest Duelist Manga.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: Though mentioned often, she doesn't appear on-screen until episode 75, and in a flashback at that. She appears for real in Episode 116.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Her disappearance is what drives Kurosaki's crusade against Academia, which he mistakenly believes includes LDS.
• Damsel in Distress: Defeated and spirited away by Yuri. Yuri mentions that her personality was comparable to Yuzu's, and it is shown that after Yuri was able to corner her, she dueled him (even if she lost). She (at least while possessed) later comes extremely close to defeating her brother.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Her strategy is this. Her ace monster Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale at best has 500 attack points. But due to her effect, she can continually attack her opponent directly slowly destroying them.
• Dub Name Change: To Lulu Obsidian. According to Matt Shipman (Kurosaki/Shay's voice actor) it's because it can't be said without sounding ridiculous unless one uses a Japanese accent.
• Expy and Composite Character: She's both Rio and Shizuka/Serenity, due to being the missing sister that the older brother (Kurosaki) goes through hell to find and take care of. Though since she is an Xyz Duelist, she's a bit closer to Rio. She also appears to have the personality and bird motif of Kotori, which makes her one for Kotori as well.
• Feather Motif: Ruri wears feather-shaped earrings and a feather-shaped bracelet, which not only gives her a connection to her brother's bird motif, but is also a hint of her deck eventually representing the bird kanji chou of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle. And indeed, her deck, Lyrical Luscinia, is based on said genus of singing birds, and they use feathers to attack.
• Fragile Speedster: Ruri's Assembly Nightingale's effect allows her to speedily use a Death of a Thousand Cuts to fight, but also trends into a Speedy Stone Wall due to her effect allowing her to protect herself as well.
• The Ghost: Although she has been mentioned by Yuto and Kurosaki multiple times, she has yet to appear in person. Despite being the first mentioned counterpart of Yuzu, both Serena and Rin (her Fusion and Synchro counterparts respectfully), have appeared on-screen before her. Her appearance is finally revealed in episode 75. Her proper in-series appearance is in Episode 116.
• Girly Run: She runs like Yuzu, which contrasts Serena's way of running.
• Harping on About Harpies: Also crossing into Our Sirens Are Different due to their musical motif, the Lyrical Luscinia all take the appearance of cute little harpy-like girls, though not the archetype.
• The Heart: It is implied that Ruri was this to both Yuto and Kurosaki, going by this photo. Her disappearance takes a major toll on the two of them.
• Heroic Resolve: Even when Yuri cornered her or the Doktor infected her with a Parasite Fusioner, she refused to go down without a fight.
• Ironic Echo: When she duels Kurosaki and attacks him five times in a row, she counts from the second attack up to the fifth, in the same fashion as Kurosaki did when he dueled Dennis in the Friendship Cup. And one of those had been for her sake too.
• Irony: She was the first counterpart of Yuzu to be mentioned, but is the last counterpart to make an on-screen appearance.
• Lady of War: Unlike her more Tsundere counterparts, Ruri is very feminine, graceful, and polite. Her deck archetype is harpy-like females based on a genus of singing birds, and her dueling style focuses on directly attacking her opponent's LP while protecting her monsters from destruction and damage.
• Letter Motif: Like Kurosaki's RR, Ruri's motif is LL.
• Luminescent Blush: In Episode 124, Ruri blushes happily during her date with Yuto.
• More than Mind Control: Even prior to her infection, Ruri was a bit frustrated with her brother and that she was dependent on him, something that the Parasite Fusioner exploits. Her inner consciousness has to fight her dark feelings to overtake her body and save her brother.
• Nice Girl: Similar to Yuzu and Rin, she's seen helping people in need. Episode 104 shows she fully believes that dueling should only be used for fun instead of war. She just smiles kindly when Kaito rescues her, which is then horribly subverted next episode when she pushes Kaito off a cliff.^note At that point, Ruri was already corrupted by the "Doktor". It if wasn't for Kurosaki saving the guy at the last minute, Kaito might've died!
• Plot Armor: In Episode 125, both she and Serena survive a point-blank energy blast from Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon that ended up eradicating all the Parasite Fusioners in their tanks, scorching the room they were in and blasting open several holes behind them leading to the outside world. Despite this, both girls end up slightly damaged and have enough strength to get up and run away.
• Proper Lady: Ruri is kind, proper, and graceful, and is the only counterpart with no violent tendencies.
• Resist the Beast: To save Kurosaki from losing the Duel and being carded, her inner consciousness trapped in darkness fights her corrupted self. However, she only manages to regain her body for a short amount of time. After her duel with Kurosaki, the parasite inside her mind takes her over again when she duels Yuya/Yuto.
• Satellite Character: Subverted; at first most of her characterization revolves around being Kurosaki's little sister and Yuzu's Xyz counterpart. Though flashbacks and due to her friendship Sayaka ^note from whom she learned about Yusho's entertainment dueling, Kaito, and Allen, and that she went to the Dueling School with them, along with possibly being in a relationship with Yuto. During their duel we learned that she and Kurosaki had a bit of strained relationship which is quickly resolved within the same episode.
• Sharing a Body: By series end, Ruri, Rin and Serena continue to exist within Yuzu's body.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: While Kurosaki's personality has yet to be seen before the invasion, he's known for being hot-headed and reckless. Meanwhile Ruri is shown to be kind and thoughtful, similar to Yuzu if Yuto's word is to be taken seriously, which Episode 104 shows to be true. However, they do love each other dearly and Kurosaki is willing to do anything to get her back.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Episode 124 shows that Ruri might have feelings for Yuto, who while he has anger issues is still a kind person that wanted a peaceful resolution to the war. In fact she generally reacts well whenever he compliments her of his own will.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In episode 75, we see that before the invasion she wore a long dress and regular shoes, afterwards as a member of the Resistance she's seen wearing much more practical clothes: a vest with an undershirt, cargo pants and combat boots, the only thing remaining from back then? Her feather accessories, including her bracelet.
• Slasher Smile: Not as prominent as Rin, but she gives a small sadistic one after watching Kaito plummet to his doom from a cliff she pushed him off of. Her duel with Kurosaki is half of these, the other half is full of frowning. Starts showing these off again in her duel against Yuya/Yuto.
• Smug Smiler: Under the control of the Parasite Fusioner, Ruri has grown very arrogant and loves taunting her opponents while smiling condescendingly.
• Stone Wall: Assembly Nightingale is a speedy stone wall, relying on rapid scratch damage to decrease the opponent's Life Points, and also has an effect to protect her from destruction.
• Technical Pacifist: Ruri hates that dueling is being used for war and fully believes that should be used to make people smile. But she will defense herself if need be as shown in the flashback in episode 75 when Yuri cornered her.
• Trash Talk: While under the control of Parasite Fusioner, she is one hell of a trash talker compared to Rin who was deadly silent.
• Weak, but Skilled: Even more than so Kurosaki. Ruri uses weak Level 1 monsters and weak Rank 1 monsters to battle, but she utilizes the number of Overlay Units she has on her monsters to fight her opponents. The more units the monster has, the stronger the effect becomes. When used defensively, Ruri becomes untouchable to an extent.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: How the Lyrical Lusciniae attack. They flap their wings to create strong gusts.
• Worf Had the Flu: Episode 119 is supposed to be her time to shine by giving Kurosaki the fight for his "life". She's almost winning... until the real Ruri pulls a last minute gambit and advises Kurosaki to finish her off.
• Zerg Rush: Literally her strategy. Ruri summons a lot of monsters that have low ATK, but provide a lot of Xyz Materials for her Xyz Monsters, which then leads to her unleashing their devastating effects.

Other

WARNING - The following profile has all unmarked spoilers for the late episodes of the series.

Ray

Ray Akaba

Voiced by: Mai Fuchigami (JP), Emily Jenness (EN; first incarnation), Erica Schroeder (EN; while possessing Riley Akaba)

A duelist from the Original Dimension, Ray was the original form of Yuzu Hiiragi and her other doppelgangers Serena, Rin, and Ruri.

Ray is the daughter of Leo Akaba. When Leo created four cards decided to defeat Supreme King Dragon Z-Arc, Ray took the cards in his place and faced Zarc on her own. She was able to de-fuse Zarc from his dragons, but in the process the original dimension was split into the four dimensions. Ray's soul was split among them as well, and she was reincarnated as Yuzu and her counterparts.

After much hardship due to the actions of Leo and Zarc, Ray's spirit was eventually reborn and inhabited Reira's body to do battle with her nemesis. By series end, much like how Zarc was permanently reincarnated as Yuya (with his counterparts living on within him), Ray was permanently reborn as Yuzu (with her counterparts living on within her).

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Tropes associated with Ray:

• Action Girl: She was also a pro duelist and eventually faced Zarc at the height of his power.
• All Your Powers Combined: It's implied that she mastered Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summoning since the En Nature cards require at least three monsters of each type to be in the graveyard in order to work.
• Always Someone Better: To Zarc. Both times Zarc started to rampage, Ray was able to stop him despite the fact that he created Pendulum Summoning to counter her the second time. She even proves to be this for Reiji, being Leo's favoured child and ultimately defeating Zarc while her surrogate brother failed to do so even with his Purposely Overpowered cards.
• Arch-Enemy: To Zarc. Ray generally let the people of the Four Dimensions make their own decisions but when Zarc's revival was imminent, she was dedicated to her revival to stop him.
• Badass Boast: She delivers a great one to Zarc.
  Ray: If you're reborn, I'll be reborn as well! If you’re going to annihilate this world, I'll stop you!
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Unlike her arch-nemesis Zarc who gained power equal to a god at the price of his human appearance, Ray became just as powerful or possibly more while retaining her human appearance.
• Befriending the Enemy: Under the belief that prevention is better than cure, she opted to have her soul fragments befriend Zarc's fragments and pacify them such that they wouldn't want to turn evil again. If it wasn't for Leo's interference it probably would have worked. Ultimately it does work, Yuya's feelings for Yuzu causing him to rebel against Zarc.
• Big Good: Since she was the one who stopped Zarc the first time around, managing to split him from the Dimensional Dragons and as Yusho states that Ray purposely sent her reincarnations to Zarc's reincarnations to stop his revival, she's pretty much this for the whole series.
• Daddy's Girl: She was close enough to her father that she didn't hesitate to take his place to save his life.
• David Versus Goliath: The David in this situation. She was just a pro Duelist when Zarc was pretty much a god; she still won.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Her victory over Zarc... twice.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The En Nature cards. They are the only cards that can defeat Zarc but they are incredibly hard to pull off. While En Flowers can be activated easily, En Birds need En Flowers to be activated and 3 or more Xyz monsters in the graveyard. En Wind needs both Birds and Flower and three or more Synchro Monsters in the graveyard. En Moon needs the other three cards activated and three or more Fusion Monsters in the graveyard. But together this negates the effects of Xyz, Synchro and Fusion monsters, makes them Normal monsters and then destroys them. Fortunately, Ray doesn't run into this problem when she finally joins the continuous duel at the end, as by then everyone else who has lost have already set the groundwork for these conditions, allowing her to dismantle Zarc's monsters on her first turn.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Again, her victory against Zarc. Twice.
• The Dreaded: To Zarc. He's noticeably afraid when Ray (in Reira's body) reveals herself to him, a reaction he didn't give to any of his previous opponents. Episode 146 reveals that she's this to the Four Dimension Dragons too.
• Family Theme Naming: Her name is pronounced as Rei in the original Japanese which means Zero. Just like her father and brothers Reiji and Reira.
• Foreshadowing: When we see the file listing the Revival Zero plan, under Serena's picture we have Ray-A-001. This is later revealed to be Ray Akaba.
• Gender-Blender Name: Zigzagged, while the romanization of her name (Ray) is indeed a commonly masculine name in the West, it's written as "Rei"(レイ) which in Japan has always been a feminine name, as a whole seems like it's pun meant to invoke both the Family Theme Naming of the Akaba family and the word synonymous of "light" (see Meaningful Name below).
• Gone Horribly Right: Her plan to stop Zarc's revival by sending her reincarnations to Zarc's worked too well. For most of the pairs, her reincarnations became very important to the Zarc's reincarnations. To the point that if they're harmed, Zarc's reincarnation will Awaken from pure rage.
• Good Counterpart: To Zarc. While Zarc purposefully sent his reincarnations to speed up his revival, Ray sent hers to stop it.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: To Zarc's Greater-Scope Villain. It is due to her intervention that the Lancers were able to defeat Zarc when he was revived.
• Hero Antagonist: In Episode 131, Ray reaches out to Reira to stop Reiji from stopping her revival as she believes only she can stop Zarc's awakening or all of reality will be destroyed.
• Hero of Another Story: A duelist in her own world much like Zarc, if he can be compared to a version of Yugi who turned evil, she might be considered a Kaiba turned heroic, who eventually faced him and took him down.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Twice over. She took the place of her father and faced Zarc to save his life.
  • Once again in episode 140 when sealed Zarc inside of herself to ensure that Zarc can never rampage again.
• Hidden Buxom: Ray's actually stacked whenever she appears in episode 131 as a nude golden spirit but when it's not really noticeable in her regular clothes.
• Identical Stranger: Her face looks just like Yuzu and her counterparts aged up.
• Informed Attribute: Ray is supposedly a professional duelist whose crowning achievement is defeating the Zarc so thoroughly that his dragons are later shown to be terrified of her revival. At no point are we shown even a sliver of her talent, or even her personal deck; her victory was, from what we can see, mostly a result of using the four special cards that her father made specifically to defeat Zarc. Yet the narrative insists that she, not just the cards, is crucial to defeating Zarc when he revives. While Leo fails to use them to defeat Zarc, it only didn't work thanks to a card that would have countered Ray equally well—the only reason the series didn't end in tragedy was that Leo ran into Zarc's trap before she could. The closest we get to seeing her skill is when she advises Reira during her duel with Reiji—a Duel which the former lost.
• Living Emotional Crutch: She is this to Leo, since his obsession to bring her back was pretty much what kickstarted the main plot. Needless to say, this gets deconstructed.
• Long-Lost Relative: She's Leo daughter making her Reiji's older half sister.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Downplayed. Leo didn't plan of Zarc destroying the world and even created the cards to defeat him.
• Meaningful Name: Ray is synonymous to "light" and a homophone of "zero" in Japanese. Similar to Zarc and Zorc, her name may be derived from "Horakhty," the goddess of light in the original Duel Monsters series that defeated Zorc.
• Messianic Archetype: A Big Good that saved the world from the incarnation of humanity's evil desires "dying" in the process and reincarnating^note As four people but still in the new world, and whose resurrection is (on Leo's account) supposed to bring an utopia? Yeah Ray fits this to the T.
• Nerves of Steel: Even when staring into Supreme King Dragon Zarc while still a regular human, she does not look scared at all.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: Ray is the one to defeat Zarc in episode 140 after his revival when Yuya was possessed by Zarc.
• Only I Can Kill Him: Episode 131 reveals she believes that only she can defeat Zarc, with good reason considering that she already did it once, and so far no one has even managed to touch Zarc's LP. Then Leo attempts to use the same method that Ray used to defeat Zarc the first time and was defeated instantly. It doesn't end well for him, however. She proves it in episode 140 when she defeats Zarc again as she possesses Reira.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: When convincing Reira to stand up for her, she appears next to him as a golden nude silhouette.
• Power Nullifier: This is essentially how the Nature En Cards work via completing all their requirements (see Difficult, but Awesome above) they nullify Zarc's monster effects by turning all Extra Deck monsters into Normal ones.
• Reality Warper:
  • A minor example. Episode 128 hints she had a degree of control of where her reincarnations are sent to, Yusho even states she sent her reincarnations to be close to Zarc's. She can also alter decks like Zarc, as seen when she gives Reira cards for his duel.
  • It's implied that she has some influence on reality during the cosmic retcons that occur when Zarc is defeated. As the first retcon had Leo as the only survivor and the second one had the Pendulum Dimension which included Yuya, who was technically Zarc reborn, lose memories of the Dimensional Wars.
• Sealed Good In A Sixpack: Well, more like in fourpack, much like her enemy, her soul was sundered and now resides in those of her four reincarnations.
• The Unchosen One: She chose to face Zarc alone, with only her skills and a handful of magic bracelets, and she won. Her reincarnations might be The Chosen Many, but only because she was The Unchosen One first.
• Walking Spoiler: Like Zarc, her existence spoils a lot of the Myth Arc and Leo Akaba's backstory and motivation. As well as where the bracelets came from and what they can do.
• World's Strongest Woman: She defeated Zarc the first time and was crucial in defeating him again at the end of the series, even after Zarc had run roughshod over most of the main cast up to that point, making her the strongest duelist on the show.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: An interesting variant where she says this to Zarc. When Zarc states that all he wants to do is create fear, Ray states that there must have been good in him to have created Yuya's pendulum.