Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! Kaiba Corporation and Death-T

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Members of Kaiba Corporation or participants of Death-T from the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh.

ALL spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware of major spoilers.

Kaiba Family

Seto Kaiba

See his own page here

Mokuba Kaiba

Mokuba Kaiba (海馬 モクバ; Kaiba Mokuba)

Voiced by: Katsue Miwa (Toei anime), Junko Takeuchi (Duel Monsters), Tara Sands (English, seasons 1-4 and onwards), Carrie Keranen (English, season five), Ana Lobo (Latin American Spanish, seasons 1-3), Isabel Romo (Latin American Spanish, seasons 4-5), Chelo Molina (European Spanish)

Seto Kaiba's little brother and biggest fan. In contrast to his brother's obsession with Duel Monsters, Mokuba has an obsession for Capsule Monster Chess. He is initially portrayed as a spoiled brat, with vindictive and malevolent behavior. He was named champion at Capsule Monster Chess, but cheated in many of the games he played. His negative traits are partly credit to the neglect he gets from his older brother, whom he desired to prove his worth to. Though still somewhat of a "brat", his behavior improved as he befriended Yugi Mutou and his companions and as Seto grew to love and appreciate him. In the anime, he is made to be much friendlier right off the bat.

Aside from his brief unfinished stint playing Duel Monsters against Yugi in Duel Kingdom, the only games he ever played on-panel were Capsule Monster Chess and Russian Roulette Dinner. Can usually be seen either carrying his brother's briefcase or monitoring his brother's tournaments. While Kaiba is openly disdainful of Yugi and his friends, Mokuba gets along with them just fine, though he's still mostly on his brother's side when it comes to the rivalry he has with Yugi.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Mokuba is much nicer in the second anime than he is in the manga with his villainous traits removed. His revenge against Yugi is minor and he gives up on it once Yugi offers to help him defeat Pegasus.
• Adaptational Personality Change: While his Canonical manga-continuity characterization is more of Jerk with a Heart of Gold, the second anime completely removes both his initial villainy and his post-Face–Heel Turn Hidden Heart of Gold moments, making him an outright Nice Guy.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the Duel Monsters anime, his villainous characterization and being a threat to Yugi was never adapated in exchange for him purely being Kaiba's Morality Pet. While he does try and take revenge on Yugi, it is a pretty flimsy scheme that falls apart pretty quickly. He also gets kidnapped a lot more often than in the manga, where in R! at the very least, he acts as The Cracker. He's also more generally obnoxious and snarky in the manga as well, making his more vulnerable moments stand out more.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In the first anime and manga, Mokuba softens up to Yugi and co. considerably after he saves him from his brother's Penalty Game.
• Big Brother Worship: He adores his brother, even when he's being a jerk to the other characters. Part of the reason Mokuba starts off as such a cruel person in the first anime series and manga is because he tries to emulate his brother, thinking it will earn his love; while he eventually snaps out of this and becomes kinder, he still follows Seto through thick and thin, although he's not afraid to call him out when he's especially selfish.
• Brainwashed: By Noah in the Virtual World arc in the anime.
• Character Development: Like his brother, he becomes a less devious person and goes out of his way to help Yugi and his friends. Yami Yugi saving him from his brother's Penalty Game helps solidify this as the latter made him through with it.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Has never played a game that wasn't rigged in his favor. Yugi still beats him every time they face off.
• Compressed Hair: When he challenges Yugi during the Duelist Kingdom arc, he's wearing a disguise in which he manages to cram his three pounds or so of hair underneath a cap.
• The Cracker: In R!, he acts as this, hacking into the systems Yako took over so that he and Seto do not need to duel Card Professors to progress through the Kaiba Corporation headquarters. It also enables him to rescue Jounouchi and Honda, who had been sent down a dead-end.
• Creepy Child: The first thing he does in the manga is challenge Yugi to a game of Capsule Monster Chess with the condition being that if Yugi lost, Mokuba would cut his fingers off. The second time, he tries to poison Yugi and succeeds in poisoning Jonouchi. It's only when his brother gets more evil and unhinged that this wears off and he starts being good.
• Decomposite Character: In the manga, he’s Yugi’s first Capumon opponent and gets a Penalty Game where he is sealed inside a giant capsule. The first series anime gives this storyline to Canon Foreigner Warashibe.
• Designated Victim/Distressed Dude: In the anime, he gets kidnapped or is otherwise endangered at least once a season.
• Didn't Think This Through: Rigging a game of Capsule Monsters, not once but twice, was not a smart move in his part as he deliberately gives himself strong high-level monsters while Yami Yugi ends up with low level monsters, and claims to be good at it. Yami Yugi however understands how Capsule Monsters works, and intentionally sacrifices his monsters to have the weakest become a high-tier monster. And he loses both times and gets a Penalty Game from Yami Yugi and Seto.
  • He challenges Yugi to duel during Duelist Kingdom with the intent to defeat him. It counts as this as A: He's using a stolen deck he's not familiar with, B: The duel demonstrates he doesn't understand how to play as he keeps attacking Yugi's monsters with clearly weaker cards, and C: He's dueling Yugi the guy who held his own against and defeated his his older Brother Kaiba who was dueling champion.
• Disguised in Drag: In the Legendary Heroes anime arc, he switches outfits with his virtual counterpart Princess Adena to get himself kidnapped in her place and be taken to where Seto was.
• The Dragon: During Death-T, he is this to his older brother.
• Easily Forgiven: Less so in the second anime since he was never villainous there, but more so in the first anime/manga, where he comes off as being almost bad as Seto was. Once Seto nearly kills Mokuba in his own version of a Penalty Game and is saved by Yugi, he comes clean that all he wanted was his brother's approval, earning sympathy from the protagonists.
• Heel–Face Turn: Early in the series he hated Yugi just as much as Seto did, and in the manga tried to kill him three times; his intro, and twice during the Death-T arc ^note Russian Roulette dinner and presumbly the Experience of Death Penalty Game if he won Death-T4. He loosened up after the Death-T arc due to Yami Yugi saving him from the Penalty Game Kaiba tried inflicting on him and later revealing his and Seto's past.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: In the manga after his Heel–Face Turn, he still displayed bits of a Jerkass attitude not unlike his brother, but as opposed to Seto it's clearly an act. The driving point of this is at the end of Duelist Kingdom where he mocks Yugi and the others, then almost immediately softens up when he sees that they have no ride back to Japan, asking his brother to let them come along in their helicopter.
  • He also allows Anzu, Honda, Otogi, and Shizuka to enter the Battle City blimp for the finals even though they're technically not allowed since they aren't duelists.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: The Toei anime and the manga establish that all he wants is for his brother to love him again. It's a huge Kick the Dog moment when his brother tells him that "useless things like brotherly love don't exist" and later subjects him to the Experience of Death Penalty Game. In the anime, Noah exploits this by tricking Mokuba into thinking Seto is abandoning him in order to get Mokuba under his control.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Contrary to what the second anime would have you believe, this is Mokuba's Canonical personality. He is initially perceived as a spoiled brat, with vindictive and malevolent behavior. His negative traits are partly credit to the neglect he gets from his older brother, whom he desires to prove his worth to. His behavior improves as he befriends Yugi and his companions and as Seto grows to truly appreciate him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Mokuba's first appearance in the manga caused the story to become darker and more arc-based. It's extremely jarring to people who have only seen the second anime, where he's slightly arrogant at worst and is usually a sweet kid.
• Meaningful Name: Although Mokuba's name is written in katakana (which is typically used for non-Japanese names/words), one of the ways Mokuba can be written in kanji is 木馬, which can mean "wooden/rocking horse". This reflects that he and Seto are part of the Kaiba Corporation, which has been converted in a toy and gaming company.
• Morality Pet: To Kaiba. Mokuba is the only one Seto is genuinely nice to and Mokuba tends to bring out his brother’s better side.
• Nice Guy: In the second series anime, he's more or less consistently friendly to everyone he meets. Not quite so much in the manga where, after his Heel–Face Turn, while he's not really malicious, he can still be very bratty and snarky in casual situations.
• Orphanage of Fear: Along with Seto, he grew up in one, although he says it wasn't all bad.
• Sadist: When Yugi asks him why he keeps touching the syrup bottle during the Russian Roulette game, he explains that "the suffering of others makes the sweetest syrup." Like most of his characterization at this stage, it's forgotten after Death-T, and ignored in the second anime.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: During the early manga and the Toei anime, he uses this to bribe a store owner to rig a Capsule Monsters machine to give him the strongest monsters.
• Smug Snake: During his time as villain, he was an even bigger example of this then Kaiba. He had all of his arrogance, but none of his skills.
• Thicker Than Water: He's very loyal to his brother, to the point where he seems outright blind to some moments of Seto's being a completely selfish jerkass, but he'll also become deeply hurt when he's pushed too far by recollections of Seto being mean to him.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the Toei anime and manga, Mokuba was a jerk that was only surpassed by his brother Seto, believing being more like his brother would get him to love him again. Once Seto nearly kills him in Death-T 4's Penalty Game and he's saved by Yugi, Mokuba realizes he was wrong and tries to become a better person, imploring Yugi to help his maddened brother like he helped him.
• Trauma Swing: Spent his first day in the orphanage on a playground swing, where only Seto regarded him.
• Undying Loyalty: To his brother, even after finding out that Seto manipulated and used him for his own gains in the past.
• Young and in Charge: As Battle City Commissioner. He's also Vice President of his brother's company. The former serves as a slight deconstruction. When Mokuba comes across a duelist who is trying to force his losing opponent to hand over two rare cards instead of one and calls him on his cheating, the cheater does not take him seriously until Seto shows up and uses him as a test for Obelisk the Tormentor. His emotions also get the better of him, as he allowed the duel between Joey and Espa Roba to continue instead of calling it off despite having caught Roba's brothers helping him cheat. Why? Roba reminded him of Seto.
• Yubitsume: Would have done this to Yugi had Yugi lost the first Capsule Monsters Chess game. The kid ran a frickin’ gang!

Gozaburo Kaiba

Gozaburo Kaiba (海馬剛三郎)

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (Toei anime), Tetsuo Komura (Duel Monsters), David Wills (English), Armando Réndiz (Latin American Spanish), Víctor Valverde (European Spanish)

The former head of Kaiba Corporation and Seto Kaiba's adopted father. When Kaiba took over the company, Gozaburo either fled in shame, committed suicide or experienced a heart attack, depending on the adaptation. In the anime, he is the mastermind of the Virtual World arc and Noah's father.

He uses an Exodia deck, focusing on Exodia Necross.

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• Abusive Dad: To his three sons.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While Gozaburo was always evil, the Virtual Nightmare arc made him much worse by turning him into a Omnicidal Maniac intent on launching missles all over the world; killing most of Humanity and ruling over the survivors as a digital ghost.
• Arc Villain: He and Noah, as the Arc Villain and The Heavy respectively, share this role in the "Virtual Nightmare" arc.
• Archnemesis Dad: Has reached this status with regards to Seto Kaiba by the time of the Virtual World Arc.
• Arms Dealer: Under his leadership, Kaiba Corporation was a major producer of military arms.
• Ascended Extra: In the manga he was just a part of Kaiba's backstory and commits suicide by jumping off the Kaiba Corp building within said backstory. The anime turns his death into a fake one and makes him the Arc Villain of a Filler Arc, devoting a lot of screentime in it to fleshing out his past with the Kaiba brothers.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: His entire Exodia Necross deck revolves around this. With Exodia Necross constantly attacking and battling monsters even when they have higher ATK points, and gaining 1000 ATK points each time it engages in battle. Lampshaded by Seto as this is the major weakness of his deck, ultimately bringing Gozaburo to his demise.
• Back from the Dead: A Variation in the Virtual World arc. While they make it clear his body was long dead, his mind and soul were transferred into the same digital world as Noah.
• The Chessmaster: Not only is he good at setting up overarching plans in advance, but this trope is a recurring motif for him — he's a master chess player forced to adopt Seto when Seto beats him, he uses a chessboard and pieces to summon monsters in the virtual world, and snickers he'll call out "checkmate" when he beats Seto in their duel.
• Child Hater: Implied in the dub at least. When he arrives to give toys at the orphanage Kaiba and Mokuba are, he complains about the smell and asks one of the employees if they "bathe these urchins". Later, when talking to Kaiba and the Big Five about voting him out of power and Kaiba in using the company stocks they bought, he fires the Big Five and tells Kaiba he's going back to the orphanage where "ungrateful brats" like him belong.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Relies entirely on the power of Exodia Necross once he summons it, at the expense of the rest of his entire Deck. Apparently, he thought by doing some research on Seto Kaiba's past Duels he could beat him with the power of a single monster during his first Duel. It does not go well for Gozaburo.
• Death by Irony: He tries to pull this on Kaiba, intending to defeat him in duel monsters the same way Kaiba defeated him in chess, even using an undead version of Exodia, the card that handed Kaiba his first defeat in Duel Monsters, to do it. It didn't work out.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In the manga, he just plain kills himself after being ousted by Seto.
  • In the Toei anime (which puts the scene in present-day instead of years ago), he keels over from a heart attack, and his ultimate fate is ambiguous.
  • In the second-series anime, he supposedly kills himself ("ran away" in the dub), but digitized his brain into the same virtual world as Noah. Then he dies for good after the entire server blows up.
• Driven to Suicide: In the manga, he jumps from a window after Kaiba took control of the company in order to show him the fate of a loser.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He assumed Mokuba would turn Kaiba after their nasty fight, and would hand him his 2% of the company. He failed because he underestimated family ties, something that Kaiba counted on.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played straight, then subverted. It seems Gozaburo really did love Noah when he was alive, spending time with him, making sure he had the best education his influence could get, and resorting to making him a Virtual Ghost to save his life when he died. After that though, Gozaburo realized that Noah could not be the heir he needed in his current state, and left him to wander the datascape while he turned his time to Seto.
• Evil Mentor: His grooming of Kaiba to be his heir in the anime was intended to make him a vessel for Noah's mind. In the dub he comes to decide why bother, when Seto is just as smart and capable as Noah, while in the Japanese he decided to take Seto's body for himself when he died.
• Evil Virtues: Despite his disdain for the man, Kaiba acknowledges that Gozaburo understood the value of hard work.
• Fatal Flaw: His arrogance and pride — he thinks he's always in control of the situation and has thought everything out so there's no way he can lose. Kaiba beats him this way twice, first by manipulating Mokuba into spending time with Gozaburo so Gozaburo thinks Mokuba will support his control of KaibaCorp over Kaiba; he thus allows Kaiba and the Big Five to buy up 49% of the company, ignorant to the idea that maybe Mokuba won't support him after all. Second, he believes Exodia Necross is completely invincible and will win him the duel to the point he never plays any other cards, never anticipating Kaiba might find a way to banish the Exodia parts in his graveyard and strip Exodia Necross of its powers.
• Faux Affably Evil: He shows up at Seto and Mokuba's orphanage to give out toys and donating a substantial amount of money to it, which is part of what makes Seto think he'd be a great parent for them. Gozaburo showed his true colors as an emotionally abusive and manipulative monster once they were home with him.
• Filler Villain: In the anime he's the final villain of the Noah arc, though he has a legitimate reason for showing up, being a major part of Kaiba's backstory.
• Final Boss: Of the "Virtual Nightmare" arc, dueling Kaiba moments before the virtual world itself goes into meltdown.
• Glass Cannon: Ironically for a guy who relies heavily on an indestructible monster, his own strategy burns through his LP extremely quickly, between the hefty cost of his Contract and the multiple turns Necross needs to become properly unstoppable. This turns out to be a major weakness, as for a lot of the Duel, Kaiba is actually ahead of him in LP, and only really needs to get in one solid hit with Blue-Eyes to bring him down.
• Godhood Seeker: In the anime dub, his goal is to digitize the minds of everyone on the planet and rule humanity as the all-powerful king of the virtual world.
• Grand Theft Me: Tries it on Kaiba, attempting to resume control of his company through Seto's body.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is the reason for Seto's harsh and mean character, and in the manga, the major reason why Seto's such a psycho before Yami Yugi's "Mind Crush" and why he takes games so seriously.
• Hate Sink: It's pretty clear with his abuse on Seto that he was not meant to be liked at all.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Despite his awful personality and treatment of his family, he seems to have been an honest and competent businessman, if in the morally dubious market of arms dealing. In-universe some believe he was double-dealing, but it was actually Dartz disguised as him.
• Hot-Blooded Sideburns: His chops complete the trifecta that include his 'stash and his 'brows.
• Jerkass: Gozaburo is up there with Yami Bakura and Yami Marik for one of the most unpleasant human beings of the original series. He's cruel, ruthless, manipulative, pulls You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on his own blood son, and plans to blow up the world's major cities with missiles for no real reason. However, unlike Yami Bakura and Yami Marik, Gozaburo has no Freudian Excuse or other justification for why he is the way he is. He's just a bastard, plain and simple.
• Killed Off for Real: In the anime, it was shown that he committed suicide after losing KaibaCorp to Kaiba, and was thought to be dead. But he then shows up near the end to reveal that he is still alive as he uploaded his mind into the virtual world like he did with Noah. As the cast escapes back to the real world and tries to escape in the KaibaCorp blimp, Gozaburo appears as a beast of flame and attempts to destroy the blimp along with the cast as one last attempt to get revenge on Kaiba, but then Kaiba activates the blimp's thrusters to escape Gozaburo, leaving him to die with no way to return.
• Knight Templar Parent: About the nicest way to interpret his personality is that he's so harsh and strict to temper Noah and Seto into strong, capable businessmen. This is part of why he adopts Seto, he sees another intelligent and capable boy Noah's age and tells Noah the two will compete to see who is worthy to take over Kaiba Corp. This is pre-death though; by the time of the Virtual World he finds all three of his sons are failures or have turned on him, so he tells Noah You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, decides to get rid of Kaiba, and has no interest in Mokuba at all.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The man never dueled before. And he thinks that just by doing a little research before now he knows everything about duels, on top of that he's gonna defeat frigging Seto Kaiba. Yeah dude, surely you'll be able to beat the second-best duelist in-universe just by researching him in advance... His lack of experience also shows heavily in his Duel, as his strategy is entirely one-dimensional, consisting of summoning Exodia Necross and then attacking with it until Kaiba runs out of monsters—he doesn't even play any cards to back it up or cover its weaknesses, merely assuming that the card's protective effects made him invincible.
• Lack of Empathy: He's an Abusive Dad who considers his biological son expendable, and later returns to try and trap Kaiba and his allies in the Virtual World. He tells Kaiba that you can trust no one, including him, neglects Mokuba, abandoned Noah before using him for his own ends, and generally doesn't care about anyone beyond himself and his own legacy. He's not as over the top about it as Yami Bakura and Yami Marik, but yeah—there's no empathy there.
• The Man Behind the Man: The dub included foreshadowing of his appearance, most notably that Noah acts all along as if he knows Gozaburo is watching. In the original though his arrival is completely unexpected and Noah is shocked to see him, thinking he was dead like everyone else.
• Not Quite Dead: Sure, he did die in the manga. But, in the anime, not before uploading his memory into the virtual realm.
• Offing the Offspring: His objective by the time of the Virtual Nightmare arc.
• One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a corrupted virus after his defeat, and tries to first possess Kaiba, and then take the group with him.
• Parental Abandonment: Of Noah, he initially showed some manner of affection towards his natural-born son. However, after being digitized after his physical death, Gozaburo gradually gives up on Noah to focus on Seto.
• Parental Neglect: He focuses all his attention on Seto's development with Mokuba only being taken in as a condition by Seto himself. Mokuba was ignored at best and abused at worse when he tried to spare Seto of any further bad treatment. It is really telling how awful that Mokuba, the kid Gozaburo neglected, turned out more well-adjusted than the child whose attention he sunk his time into.
• Posthumous Character: In the manga. Subverted in the anime, when he turns up alive in the virtual world.
• Self-Made Man: According to Kaiba, he rose up from nothing to become the leader of a powerful company. However, given his character, it was likely through some underhanded and morally questionable means.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: A totally evil one. While the details vary between English and Japanese versions, he gives Kaiba ten million dollars and one year to pay Gozaburo back ten times that in order to prove he's worthy to take over KaibaCorp. If he blows it, he and Mokuba are going back to the orphanage.
• Smug Snake: In spite of raising Seto to be his heir, either as a potential host for Noah before giving up on the idea when Seto proved superior on his own merits; he thought that as a child, Seto was nothing, but a thrall to continue in his footsteps. He underestimates Seto's intelligence when he beats him in a chess match and he later regrets it when Seto utilizes the man's own ruthless ideology on himself to usurp control of the company.
  • It also surfaces in his dueling style. He banks everything into summoning Exodia Necross on its power alone, convinced that his strategy is invincible and not having a backup plan. When Seto manages to remove the monster from the game, Gozaburo decides to deny the results and attempt to steal Seto's body for himself, regardless of whether he won or not.
• Social Darwinist: In the manga, this even applies to himself.
  "Seto! I lost my game with you! Burn this into your brain! This is what a loser deserves! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
• Sore Loser: Doesn't take both of his defeats well.
• Taking You with Me: Tried it on the cast at the end in the anime as he attacks their blimp when he appears momentarily as a beast of flame, but failed when Kaiba activates the blimp's thrusters to escape, leaving Gozaburo to fade away in defeat.
• True Final Boss: Of the "Virtual World" arc. At first it appears that Noah is the Arc Villain and the guy that Kaiba and Yugi have to beat in order to escape. Then Gozaburo shows up, and Kaiba has to fight one last duel against him in order to make good his getaway.
• Vicariously Ambitious: His relationship with his children is defined by only how he can use them.
  • He groomed Noah just so he could take over Kaiba Corp, and pretty much gave up on him when he saw Noah was too immature.
  • He initially only decided to adopt Kaiba to serve as a vessel for Noah, but in the dub, he decided Kaiba was already smart enough and so he ditched Noah.
  • He is totally apathetic to Mokuba... until he thinks he can use him to take control of Kaiba Corp from Seto.
• Villainous Legacy: Even after his suicide/disappearance, his poisonous treatment of his adopted son is what turned Kaiba and Mokuba into the rotten people who would kill Yugi and friends just to win. Even after they loosen up somewhat, his shadow hung over Kaiba and his desire to be better.
• Villain Ball: When he learns that the virtual world is set to be destroyed, he decides to take Kaiba's body by force and escape, but Kaiba convinces him to back off and finish the duel, since he was so intent on proving himself superior.
• Virtual Ghost: His physical body is technically dead, having transferred his consciousness to the virtual world and either wants to convert the world to a virtual kingdom for himself or steal Seto's body so his mind/soul can resume control of his company in the real world.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: His Deck doesn't seem to have any usable cards at all in it, aside from Exodia Necross, its requirements, and Painful Choice. After playing Contract with Exodia, he doesn't use a single card for the entire rest of the Duel, despite having a pretty full hand (in fact, he'd have to discard something on his last turn). Of course, in his eyes, Exodia Necross is so powerful he doesn't need anything else.

The Big Five

In General

The Big Five

Left to right: Oota/Nezbitt, Otaki/Crump, Oshita/Gansley, Ooka/Johnson, and Daimon/Leichter

The Kaiba Corp board of directors, consisting of Oshita (Gansley), Otaki (Crump), Ooka (Johnson), Ota (Nezbitt) and Daimon (Leichter). Played a part in Seto Kaiba's takeover of the company when Gozaburo ran things, but once Seto Kaiba took over he stripped them of their power and left them as figureheads. They've since tried various schemes to take the company for themselves, such as when Yugi Mutou beat Kaiba in his Death-T final game, which left him in a coma and without his title of best gamer. Thus, they attempted to work with Pegasus to take control of the company.

In the anime, the Big Five are promoted to significant filler villains. Their betrayal is what ultimately result in them being locked in a virtual world; they must each defeat a member of the main cast in a duel in order to escape. They fail, and are either trapped in cyberspace forever or deleted from existence depending on the version.

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In general

• All Your Powers Combined: Twice. The first time is when they all possess Honda's body, the second is when they sacrifice all of their Deck Masters to summon Five-Headed Dragon.
• Arc Villain: In the "Virtual World" and "Virtual Nightmare" arcs, though in the latter they're subordinate to Noah and Gozaburo.
• Ascended Extra: Went from a minor faceless group in the manga to recurring foes each with a distinct personality in the anime.
• Asshole Victim: While it wasn't right for Kaiba to betray them and screw them over the way he did, it's difficult to feel sorry for them considering they were each a greedy Corrupt Corporate Executive and proud of it.
• Boring, but Practical: Aside from Daimon/Leichter, the group clearly has only a beginner's understanding of Duel Monsters. Thus they use straightforward and simple strategies, but they're good enough to work. Oshita/Gansley uses self-replacing monsters with effects to limit the opponent's card advantage, Otaki/Crump uses a Water-themed beatdown deck, Ooka/Johnson uses a Fusion-monster Life Point recovery combo that lets him abuse his Deck Master ability, and Oota/Nezbitt uses a Machine-themed beatdown deck focused on Machine King. Nezbitt even comments on this due to repeatedly using his Robotic Knight's special ability to pile damage onto his opponents, Serenity, Duke, and Tristan, after which Tristan complains about his tactics. His response:
  "Why change a good thing?"
• Busman's Vocabulary: They all use terminology related to their professions and/or passions:
  • Gansley uses business related terminology.
  • Crump often uses number, bird, and ice puns in his speech.
  • Johnson uses courtroom based puns and terminology.
  • Nezbitt likes to speak like a robot, using words like "negative".
  • Leichter regularly addresses people as "mister".
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: They betrayed Gozaburo to Kaiba, and Kaiba to Pegasus before (in the anime only) trapping him in a virtual world. After they themselves were trapped there, they join up with Noah, but have no problems flouting his rules and going behind his back in their desperation to get out of there. Finally, they violate the terms of their duel with Yugi and Joey, refusing to return Honda's body despite having promised to.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: They worked for Gozaburo after all. They are all quite corrupt themselves. Johnson in particular was an Amoral Attorney who once convinced a jury that a man with aquaphobia stole a boat.
• Deal with the Devil: They cut deals with Pegasus and then Noah in hopes of gaining control of KaibaCorp. Leichter's "A Deal With Dark Ruler" card simulates this, summoning Berserk Dragon in exchange for half his lifepoints.
• Death by Adaptation: They were simply fired in the manga, and never seen again. In the anime, Noah deletes them for their failures (or imprisons them in the dub, though it doesn't make a difference in the end, since the base they're in is destroyed).
• Death by Irony: All of them lose in ironic fashions:
  • Oshita/Gansley spends the duel insulting Kuriboh and loses due to its ability.
  • Otaki/Crump declares Dark Magician Girl to be useless without the Dark Magician, so Tea summons Yugi's and the tag team wins her the duel.
  • Ooka/Johnson loses because he can't tell if Joey's telling the truth about what cards he's drawn.
  • Oota/Nesbitt picks Serenity as an opponent because she's inexperienced and it's her monster that finishes him off. He also defeats Honda/Tristan by destroying his deck master. Serenity defeats him the same way.
  • Daimon/Leichter considers himself superior to Kaiba and loses when Kaiba pulls out a monster with a higher level than his.
  • In their combined duel with Yugi and Joey, they allowed Joey to duel with Yugi because they thought he would be weaker and hold Yugi back. Ultimately, the two combined proved to be more than they could handle (in fact, based on the cards they drew, they would have beaten Yugi quite handily if they'd fought him on his own), and several key moments of the Duel (including the final move) were the result of Joey's handiwork.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Their Five-Headed Dragon is supposed to be unbeatable, having the highest attack of any monster in the game at that time, and an immunity to Trap Cards, Spell Cards, and attacks by any monster that doesn't have the Light attribute. Yugi and Kaiba take it down with Master of Dragon Soldier in their first confrontation with it, while Yugi and Jonouchi/Joey use a Dark Flare Knight/Mirage Knight combination the second time.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original Japanese version, Noah deletes them. In the dub, he seals them in virtual cells and they later die offscreen when the virtual world is destroyed.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Initially they're an Omniscient Council of Vagueness, with the collective goal of taking over KaibaCorp for unspecified, but undoubtedly sinister intentions. In the "Virtual Nightmare" arc, they're all given separate personalities, and objectives, and while they all share the goal of defeating Kaiba and escaping into the real world, their reasons for hating him are fleshed out, with them gaining separate backstories and motivations. Gansley and Johnson are just greedy, Crump's mad at Kaiba for mocking his penguin obsession, Nezbitt's angry about his work being disposed of, and Leichter's The Resenter par excellence.
• Faux Affably Evil: Johnson and especially Leichter, who in the English dub at least, is incapable of addressing anyone informally, despite being the biggest bastard of the entire group. Also Crump for being Laughably Evil.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In the dub, they all have fairly low voices, with Gansley and Nezbitt hitting the lowest notes.
• Gender Bender: They aren't against using the bodies of Tea or Serenity to escape the virtual world. Crump in particular states in the Japanese version that he would prefer a female body, since he's a pervert.
• Grand Theft Me: What they try to do.
• Greed: A motivating factor for all of them, but especially Oshita/Gansley and Ooka/Johnson.
• Jerkass: While they do have their reasons for wanting revenge on Kaiba, none of them are nice people. Gansley stole a neighbor's lemonade stand to profit from it, Johnson is a shameless Amoral Attorney who once convinced a jury that an innocent man with aquaphobia stole a boat, Nezbitt is a sexist Misanthrope Supreme, and Crump is a Dirty Old Man. Even Leichter is shown to be unwilling to keep his word when he refuses to return Tristan's body.
• Last-Name Basis: In the English dub, only Crump's first name has been revealed, and they are all addressed by their last names.
• The Man Behind the Man: They think they're this to Pegasus; in reality he's just using them.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: In their initial appearances.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the Japanese version. Daimon shares his name with Kaiba's butler, who uses the same name from the Toei anime.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Their Five-Headed Dragon is quite overpowered with 5000/5000, that destroys all cards on the field through the act of being summoned and can only be harmed by a monster with the Light Attribute. After it's destruction in their duel with Yugi and Jonouchi/Joey, Leichter summons the Berserk Dragon, a freaky undead monster with 3500/0 that can attack the entire field at once (but fortunately loses 500 ATK points every turn).
• Pungeon Master: All of them in the English dub—Gansley makes business puns, Crump accounting ones, Johnson legal ones, and Nezbitt machine related ones, while Leichter makes most of his at Kaiba's expense.
• The Resenter: They all resent Kaiba for his control of the company, but Daimon/Leichter is the most classic example, feeling control of the company should have come to him due to his status as Gozaburo's right-hand man.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: As revealed in Daimon/Leichter's flashbacks, the Big Five betrayed Gozaburo Kaiba by helping Seto take over Kaiba Corp and Seto rewarded them by demoting them to powerless figureheads.
• Sinister Silhouettes: In their initial appearances.
• Sore Loser: A result of their desperation to escape from the virtual world. All of them except for Nezbitt (who had defeated one of his opponents and secured a body) attack Joey, Serenity, and Duke in a bid to take their bodies by force, a stunt the full group attempts again following their 5-on-2 duel with Yugi & Joey. Both times, they are stopped by Noah, who has no patience for their underhanded tactics.
• Smug Snake: All of them. They range from very low-functioning (Crump and Nezbitt) to the far more high-functioning Gansley and Leichter. Johnson may be the most classic of them, with his condescending attitude, arrogance, and smarmy personality.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: In the English dub, Gansley vs Yugi and Leichter vs Kaiba.
• Spikes of Villainy: Their deck masters have this to varying degrees, most prominently Deepsea Warrior◊ and Jinzo◊.
• Split Mind, Split Powers: During their duel against Yugi and Joey, they switch which of the three is controlling Tristan, which has the effect of changing which Deck Master is in control.
• Teeth Clenched Team Work: They frequently argue while working together in the five on two duel against Yugi and Joey.
• Theme Naming: In the original Japanese. Their surnames all begin with the character for 'big,' romanized as 'O.' The exception is Daimon, who uses the more Chinese 'dai' pronunciation. In the English dub, they are named after 4Kids executives. Yes, the Abridged joke about them being 4Kids didn't come from nowhere.
• Took a Level in Badass: Between their original appearances in the manga and the anime's Virtual Nightmare Filler Arc, to the anime's Virtual World Filler Arc. Oshita/Gansley and Daimon/Leichter in particular have become capable duelists who can give the likes of Yugi and Kaiba, both world champions, a run for their money.
• Tuckerization: In the dub, with the exception of Johnson, they are named after 4Kids employees.
  • Gansley is named after John Gansley, the Vice President of Human Resources.
  • Crump is named after Melanie Crump, executive assistant to John Gansley.
  • Nezbitt is named after Sarah C. Nesbitt, who worked as a producer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003).
  • Leichter is named after Jamie Leichter, a marketing director.
• Villainous Cheekbones: All of them but Otaki/Crump, who has chubby cheeks. Special points to Daimon/Leichter, who has cheekbones that could cut sheet metal.
• Villain Ball: They tend to have some nasty run-ins with this. Justified in that they're all sadists that, with the exception of Leichter, have only a rudimentary understanding of how the game is played.
  • Oshita/Gansley could have beaten Yugi^note Tribute Ruklamba to summon Ashingray and another Ruklamba in attack position, Tribute Summon Rainbow Snake Eingana and attack Celtic Guardian; even if Yugi summons Kuriboh to negate the attack, Ruklamba can attack it and Yugi loses since Kuriboh is in his Deck Master, but he decided to drag the duel out to watch him squirm.
  • Johnson's duel with Joey. After rigging the effect of Joey's dice cards, he could have attacked Joey's Swordsman of Landstar with one of his strengthened Fusion monsters and won the duel. Instead, he inexplicably uses his Deck Master ability to destroy it and deal far less damage than an attack would have, and then Joey uses Scapegoat to protect himself long enough to draw the cards he needs and ultimately win.
  • Johnson and Nezbitt get hit with this hard in the combined duel. Twice, once for each of them, they could have easily finished off Joey, who had no monsters out and there were no facedown cards to protect themselves. Instead Johnson settles for taking Joey down to 300 Life Points, while Nezbitt flat ignores Joey and attacks Yugi. In the latter case, Yugi metagames Nezbitt into attacking him using a double bluff, knowing that Joey was vulnerable and that Nezbitt was stupid enough to take the bait. Leichter immediately points this out and promptly replaces Nezbitt in the duel in frustration.
• Virtual Ghost: Their fates after the Virtual Game arc, which is why they need to do Grand Theft Me on the heroes to get human bodies again.
• Would Hit a Girl: Otaki/Crump and Oota/Nezbitt would both trap a girl in the virtual world, and even specifically choose Shizuka and Anzu as their opponents because they think they'll be easier to beat.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In the group duel, Yugi and Joey manage to do the near impossible and take down the Five-Headed Dragon, which served as the group's collective Deck Master and is all but undefeatable. They celebrate, they cheer—and then Daimon/Leichter activates A Deal With Dark Ruler to summon Berserk Dragon as their new Deck Master, even as Yugi and Joey's all powerful Mirage Knight splits back into the Black Magician and Flame Swordsman that were used to summon it. Uh-oh.

Konosuke Oshita

Konosuke Oshita (大下 幸之助) (Gansley)

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Saito (JP, Legendary Heroes), Eric Stuart (EN, Match of the Millennium, Legendary Heroes); Shintaro Sonooka (JP, Virtual World), Marc Thompson (EN, Virtual World), Carlos Kaniowski (European Spanish)

The former vice president of business strategy at KaibaCorp. He uses a control deck focused on monsters with effects that increase his card advantage by letting him draw more cards, summon more monsters, or reduce the opponent's hand. While they individually have poor stats, he doesn't need them to be strong to defend himself: using his Deck Master Deep Sea Warrior, he can change any monster attack against him into a direct attack on his opponent by tributing two of his own monsters.

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• Authority in Name Only: While he's the official leader of the Big Five being its eldest member, he's still inferior to Leichter, both in his superior position as the assistant to the company and in terms of dueling skills with Leichter being the most skilled out of the Five.
• Bald of Evil: In his real body.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: He could have beaten Yugi^note Tribute Ruklamba to summon Ashingray and another Ruklamba in attack position, Tribute Summon Rainbow Snake Eingana and attack Obnoxious Celtic Guardian; even if Yugi summons Kuriboh to negate the attack, Ruklamba can attack it and Yugi loses since Kuriboh is his Deck Master, but he decided to drag the duel out to watch him squirm.
• Boring, but Practical: In his duel with Yugi, he doesn't make many major dramatic plays, and his "boss" monster has a measly 2200 ATK and is more useful for its effect (which he never gets to activate). His focus is on low-level, low-powered monsters that have effects to let him maintain card advantage and field presence, like letting him draw cards or summon additional monsters to the field. Given that he got himself to a point where he could've beaten Yugi fair and square were it not for sudden Bond Villain Stupidity, his tactics were certainly effective.
• Cool Mask: Has one as Deepsea Warrior.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: All the Big Five are this, but Oshita/Gansley stands out in particular. In the dub, he recounts in his childhood that he stole a lemonade stand from a neighbor, before expanding it into a canned juice distributor. In the original, he instead talks about his reputation as a corporate raider for Kaiba Corp.
• Crazy-Prepared: In the Japanese dub, he's done extensive research on Yugi's method of dueling. It's so comprehensive that he's one of the few people who knows that Yugi has two personalities, and is able to choose his Deck Master and deck specifically to combat Yami Yugi's style.
• Deadpan Snarker: Somewhat surprisingly in the English dub, he keeps up a pretty constant barrage of understated sarcasm in the initial part of his duel with Yugi.
• Death by Irony: He spends his duel against Yugi insulting Kuriboh, and loses due to its ability.
• Delusions of Eloquence: His tendency to use quotes from famous warlords and conquerors to make a successful army is stated by Yami Yugi to be this as he relies on utilizing quotes to make himself seem more profound. Even though he's merely a business strategist for an admirably powerful company.
• Demoted to Extra: Gets forced out after just one turn in control in the 5-on-2 duel against Yugi and Joey despite his competence.
• Evil Old Folks: He's the oldest of the Big Five and needs a cane to support himself.
• Fat Bastard: Is noticeably portly.
• Fatal Flaw: He enjoys watching people squirm. He could have beaten Yugi quickly, but instead decided to drag the duel out, leading to his defeat.
• Ironic Echo: He recites a quote to rub his presumed victory in Yugi's face. Yugi throws it right back at him while delivering the finishing blow.
• The Leader: He was the highest in authority of the five at Kaiba Corp.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's a scowler.
• Prongs of Poseidon: Wields one as Deepsea Warrior.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: His deck is made up almost exclusively of reptile cards.
• Sadist: He drags out his duel with Yugi just to watch him squirm.
• Speaks in Shout-Outs: In the Japanese original, Gansley recites quotes from military strategists instead of making business puns. Yugi calls him out on this, claiming that the old man is just using the quotes as decoration without actually internalizing their tactical lessons. It comes full circle when he uses one to convince himself to make a tactical blunder that Yugi exploits for the win.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: He's convinced he has Yugi beat, so gives him a one turn reprieve as a Hope Spot. That one turn ends up costing him the duel.
• Wicked Cultured: In the Japanese version, he makes several quotes from conquerors and warlords throughout his duel with Yugi, which irks the young man eventually due to his perceived posturing as someone more profound than he actually is.

Shuzo Otaki

Shuzo Otaki (大瀧 修三) (Adrian Randolph Crump III)

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (JP, Legendary Heroes); Andrew Paull (EN, Match of the Millennium), Ryosuke Otani (JP, Virtual World); Robert O'Gorman (EN, Virtual World), Antonio Villar (European Spanish)

A former KaibaCorp accountant (human resources in the original) deeply obsessed with penguins. He runs the sharply-dressed Nightmare Penguin as his Deck Master and focuses on a Water beatdown playstyle, summoning aquatic monsters that receive an attack boost thanks to Nightmare Penguin's Deck Master ability.

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• Animal Wrongs Group: A somewhat heavier part of his personality in the Japanese original, where he rattles off every environmentally-unfriendly thing Anzu ever did in her life, then says that he's going to use her body to treat the Earth (especially the ice caps where the penguins live) with more respect.
• Anti-Villain: He is by far the most sympathetic of the Big 5 (if only because his is the most deeply fleshed out backstory), aside from his humiliating treatment in his duel with Tea. He had Abusive Parents and only found comfort in watching penguins at the zoo, jealous of their deeply paternal bonds with their children. He eventually worked up the ranks to gain enough authority to get his own penguin-themed amusement park, but Seto turned his proposal down.
• Beard of Evil: More mustache of evil but you got the case.
• Captain Ersatz: He is very clearly based on Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. As Nightmare Penguin he even sports the top hat and tuxedo.
• Death by Irony: He declares Dark Magician Girl to be useless without Dark Magician, so Tea summons Yugi's and the tag team wins her the duel.
• Dirty Old Man: He makes many lewd comments about Tea and Dark Magician Girl in the Japanese version. Downplayed in the dub where Crump's middle aged.
• Fatal Flaw: Caution. Had he been a little more aggressive during the first phase of his duel and swarmed the field with the penguins in his hand after Penguin Sword gave him an edge, he could have won his duel with Tea.
• Feathered Fiend: As Nightmare Penguin.
• Freudian Excuse: He grew up with Abusive Parents and only found comfort in watching penguins at the zoo, jealous of their deeply paternal bonds with their children. He eventually worked up the ranks to gain enough authority to get his own penguin-themed amusement park, but Seto turned his proposal down.
• Good with Numbers: He was formerly KaibaCorp's head accountant in the English dub. This is explained in his backstory as it stemming from his love for counting.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: His secondary strategy revolves around generating advantage if a card of his is destroyed. His Mirror Wall trap is hit with Mystical Space Typhoon? It turns out his other facedown card was Driving Snow, which triggers when a trap of his is destroyed, allowing him to take out one of his opponent's spells or traps. A monster of his gets taken out in battle? He had set Revenge Sacrifice on his previous turn, which lets him Tribute the monster who defeated his to summon another one from his hand. It should be noted that it's a rather slow display of this trope, and can only counterattack singular moves by his opponent. When Tea manages to get more than one monster on the field, Crump can't keep up, which is what costs him the duel.
• Homefield Advantage: Downplayed. Thanks to taking the form of his Nightmare Penguin Deck Master, he's immune to cold temperatures. So while he still gets frozen when he loses life points thanks to the stage gimmick of his arena, he feels no discomfort from it, allowing him to continue playing without distractions.
• Laughably Evil: Crump is portrayed as the most comedic and high strung of the Big Five, as he shows exaggerated facial expressions when hit, or surprised like an animated cartoon character (compared to his associates who all manage to stay serious during their Duels while in Deck Master mode).
• Nothing Personal: Crump tells Tea that he has no grudge against her and he simply needs a body to escape to the real world, saying she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He uses a deck filled with weak penguins, which he's been obsessed with since childhood, and comes off as so pathetic in his duel with Tea that you almost feel sorry for him. Then in the duel between the Big Five and Yugi & Joey (in which most of the cards on the field belong to other Big Five members) he and his Deck Master, Nightmare Penguin, really come into their own, boosting the power of the WATER monsters Gansley had played and establishing a significant field advantage for the Big Five.
• Pungeon Master: While all of the Big 5 are this, Crump makes puns more than any of the others. Almost every other sentence from him has some bird, ice, or number related pun in it.

Chikuzen Ooka/Oka

Chikuzen Ooka/Oka (大岡 筑前) (Johnson)

Voiced by: Shin'ichi Yashiro (Japanese); Ted Lewis (EN, Match of the Millennium), Wayne Grayson (EN, Legendary Heroes); Andrew Paull (EN, Virtual World), Cholo Moratalla (European Spanish)

A lawyer, formerly KaibaCorp's legal advisor. Reflecting his self-perceived control of the courtroom, he uses Judge Man as his Deck Master. With its Deck Master ability, he can impose a "death sentence" (or "clear the courtroom" in the dub) by paying 1000 Life Points, which destroys all his opponent's monsters and deals 500 damage for each of them.

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• Amoral Attorney: In the Japanese version he says outright he has no problem twisting the facts, and claims "the truth" is whatever tale he can spin for the court. In the dub, during an internal This Cannot Be! as he's defeated, he notes "I once convinced a jury that a man who was terrified of water stole a boat!"
• Batman Gambit: He lets Joey abuse his Deck Master's ability to power up his monsters and swarm the field, because once he's invested enough resources, his Deck Master ability will make it all for nothing. In the Japanese anime he compares it to a gambler letting their wins go to their head and then blowing it all.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Notably the only one of the Big Five who explicitly cheats in his duel, utilizing the mechanics of the virtual reality in order to alter Joey's luck to fail so only he come up ahead. Noah would call him out on this and threatens to erase/send him into the depths of cyber space before Joey decides to finish the duel anyway. It comes back to bite him as he is defeated through Joey's guile due to no longer being in complete control of the situation.
• Evil Is Petty: Johnson targets Joey in the Big Five's tag duel because he's still sore about his loss. Johnson denies it, but no one is fooled.
• Faux Affably Evil: He acts humble to Noah and somewhat polite to Joey, but it soon becomes apparent that he's a slimy, underhanded and smug attorney under the facade.
• Fixing the Game: His deck master Judge Man already had a huge game breaking ability, but he added rigging the results of Joey's luck-based cards to his advantage. Noah wouldn't put up with that second one.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: In his human form, he's an Amoral Attorney who lies and cheats.
• Gender Bender: Disguises himself as Mai to trick Joey and briefly talks with his own voice while still in Mai's form.
• Hanging Judge: A literal case as Judge Man. In the Japanese, his Deck Master ability is even called Death Sentence.
• Informed Ability: He insists that he's a brilliant litigator and negotiator. He ends up losing his duel against Joey after getting bluffed in a 50/50 gamble. And then he ends up making the Big Five worse off in the duel with Yugi than they would have been had he just let Leichter handle the deal. It's obvious that he's only capable of winning when he's already got the odds rigged in his favor.
• Ironic Name: His Japanese name is likely derived from the legendary Ooka Tadasuke, an absolute icon of judicial fairness and wisdom.
• Large and in Charge: Played straight when it comes to his monsters, being larger and more imposing in terms of attack power based on his Deck Master. Subverted overall, in spite of being having the largest monster as a Deck Master with only Leichter's Jinzo being taller, he's arguably the least skilled Duelist of the Five due to resorting to cheating to gain an advantage.
• The Load: He's easily the second weakest duelist after Nezbitt, but this doesn't end up causing too much trouble as he's only allowed to play for one turn during the Big Five's duel with Yugi (though this is only because Nezbitt butts in and forces him out). Rather, he accidentally sabotages the Big Five when he insists on taking point in negotiating the terms of the duel. He sets them up for failure by agreeing to a Tag Duel and underestimating Joey, despite Leichter's warnings on both fronts. The only thing he does get in their favor is double the starting life point count, but this ultimately doesn't even matter.
• Never My Fault: Only in the dub. He tries deflecting responsibility once it becomes clear to the others that Joey (who Johnson was certain would prove The Millstone to Yugi) just secured the win for himself and Yugi in their duel.
• Recurring Element: He is one of Joey's many opponents who resort to cheating in order to best the blonde street rat.
• This Cannot Be!: He assumes that Joey will hold Yugi back. To his astonishment, Joey ends up being the reason why Yugi wins, something his colleagues angrily berate him for. In the sub, he insists that wasn't supposed to happen; in the dub, he tries to pass the buck on the blame.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He changes his form the most of the Big Five during their stay in the Virtual World, going from disguising as Mai, to himself and finally as Judge Man.

Soichiro Oota/Ota

Soichiro Oota/Ota (大田 宗一郎) (Nezbitt)

Voiced by: Hiroomi Sugino (JP), David Wills (EN), Eduardo del Hoyo (European Spanish)

An engineer and former chief technical officer of KaibaCorp. Naturally, due to his love of robotics and technology, he utilizes a Machine deck, particularly loving Machine King and using card effects to power it up. His Deck Master is Robotic Knight, which lets him discard Machine monsters to deal damage to his opponent with artillery barrages.

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• Arms Dealer: Under Gozaburo, he was in charge of KaibaCorp's military factories.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He looks like someone drew angry eyebrows on him with a giant marker.
• Bling of War: As Robotic Knight, which has a gold outline on its robotic shell.
• Blood Knight: Implied. He's the only one of the Big Five prior to the tag battle to make the decision to have himself as a Deck Master be on the playing field in order to be able to fight the opposing monsters of his enemies with his own might and he later makes blunt decisions to attack the enemy head on. And being the former technical officer of the company being in charge of the military assets, meant he indulged in warmongering as well.
• Combining Mecha: Oota/Nezbit combines Robotic Knight with Machine King to create Perfect Machine King.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Even if he was consistently the most useless of the Big Five, he was technically the only one who won against one of his opponents and got them all Tristan's body to use.
• Cyborg: He would desperately like to be one, a fact that Noah mocks him for.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When he manages to defeat Tristan due to the latter taking all of his hits aimed at Serenity (who had no idea how to play the game and would constantly summon weak monsters in Attack Mode, not realizing she had to turn the card sideways to defend), Serenity falls into Heroic BSoD and continually skips her turn for the next several rounds. Despite nothing compelling him to give her multiple chances to re-enter the game, he arbitrary decides that she can have three skips before he considers her as disqualified.
• Fixing the Game: Sort of. While he doesn't legitimately cheat the way Johnson does, he forbids his three opponents from discussing their strategies with each other, knowing that only one of them has any practical dueling experience and exploiting it to help get ahead.
• Four Is Death: He is the fourth one dueled and he is the only one to kill (temporarily at least) one of his opponents. Bonus points for the duel having four players, and the Perfect Machine King he becomes being a four stage card, though the other two were added to the game after the series, with a four on the shoulders.
• Genius Bruiser: Subverted. He thinks he's become one after fusing to create Perfect Machine King but he relies on brute power more than strategy, and he later costs the Big Five their duel with Yugi and Joey.
• Hot-Blooded: Not immediately obvious due to his guise as Robotic Knight and later Perfect Machine King give him the impression of a cold machine. When he's in the tag duel with the other Five, he makes reckless decisions based on impulse, leading to a massive hiccup that forces Leichter to be in control for the rest of the duel to regain their lead.
• Humongous Mecha: His Perfect Machine King, created by fusing Machine King and Robotic Knight.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: His one turn in control against Yugi and Joey makes it clear he has no clue just how bad he is at Duel Monsters: He forces Johnson out while describing himself as a "real duelist", before proceeding to blunder away his signature Machine King and a whopping 2,800 Life Points.
• Irony: Beneath his mechanical and logical facade, Nesbitt is the most impulsive and makes the most illogical decisions in the tag duel.
• Machine Monotone: Attempts to put this up as Robotic Knight.
• The Millstone: In the duel against Yugi and Joey, he totally blows the substantial lead that his allies had established; not only does he botch his chance to finish off Joey and eliminate him, but his misplay results in the Big Five losing almost 3000 Life Points, forcing Daimon/Leichter to take over the duel earlier than he'd wanted. If not for his blundering, they probably could have won.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He favors machines over people.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Long-term strategy is not Nezbitt's strong suit. In his three-on-one duel he focuses on a beatdown strategy with Machine King while constantly discarding his other monsters to deal damage to his opponents through his Deck Master's ability. This kind of play leaves him with virtually no resources when Machine King is destroyed, forcing him to put his Deck Master into play since he has nothing else left. Then during the tag duel against Yugi and Joey, he blunders into attacking a monster he accidentally powered up due to its effect, losing the Big Five a powerful monster (ironically, his beloved Machine King) and then causing them to take a big direct hit from Yugi, costing them greatly.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Tries to abandon his four teammates and leave them trapped in the virtual world after he acquires Tristan's body.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Perhaps a better description is "Tiny Fish in a Microscopic Pond". He only gets as far as he does in his first duel because, out of his three opponents, one has little to no practical dueling experience due to usually cheering from the sidelines (Tristan), and another is brand-spanking-new to dueling, with zero knowledge about how the game is even played (Serenity). That he forbids his opponents from discussing their strategies (and, by extension, how to play) with each other shows that he knows this and is taking full advantage of it. When he goes up against seasoned players (Yugi and Joey), however, he quickly proves himself to be the biggest liability to his allies.
• One-Winged Angel: Gets an impressive one when he (as Robotic Knight) fuses with Machine King to create Perfect Machine King: 2700 ATK, 1500 DEF. It gains 500 ATK for every Machine monster on the field, including itself, and Nezbitt runs a Machine deck and has a Magic Card that turns opposing monsters into Machines - in Nezbitt's duel, this causes the King to rocket up to 5200 ATK the second it's summoned.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He comes across as intimidating during his duel with Duke, Tristan and Serenity, managing to score the only (partial) victory of the Big Five. However, when closely examined, he only came across as threatening as he did due to Duke being the only one with credible experience—though not as skilled as Yami Yugi or Seto—in the game: Serenity is a newcomer, and Tristan, in addition to being recklessly distracted trying to protect Serenity, is not experienced at playing the game as he's usually on the sidelines. Bombarding them with beatsticks like Machine King, his Deck Master's ability, and later, Perfect Machine King is enough to overwhelm the novices. To seasoned players like Joey and Yugi, his blunt force tactics are easily put down and it takes Leichter to get back the momentum due to his recklessness.
• We Have Reserves: His support strategy—summon, then discard Machine monsters to directly deal damage to his opponents. The only ones that ultimately matter to him are his beatstick Machine King and himself as Robotic Knight.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Once he brings out Machine King, he relies solely on boosting its power and later enhancing it by merging himself with it to become Perfect Machine King, becoming an even more powerful beat stick to his enemy with no additional tactic after this.
• Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: After stealing Tristan's body, he attacks Seto with a bokken and easily disarms Seto when he tries to fight back with a steel pipe. In the Japanese version, he claims to be a five-Dan kendo master.

Kogoro Daimon

Kogoro Daimon (大門小五郎) (Leichter)

Voiced by: Eiji Takemoto (JP, Legendary Heroes); Hisashi Izumi (JP, Virtual World), Eric Stuart (EN, Match of the Millennium), Tom Souhrada (EN, Virtual World), Jesús Rodríguez (European Spanish)

Former assistant to Gozaburo Kaiba and later, Seto. The only one of the group with any real understanding of Duel Monsters strategy, he utilizes a control deck that locks down his opponent's plays through various cards that come at the cost of his Life Points, which he continually replenishes using support cards. This playstyle is highlighted by his Deck Master Jinzo, which negates and destroys Trap cards as it always does, but as a Deck Master its effect is only applied to his opponent, giving him all of Jinzo's benefits with no drawback.

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• Ambiguously Brown: He's got dark skin, dark hair, and a six foot thick Southern accent in the dub.
• American Accents: Has a pretty straight up Dixie accent in the dub.
• Anime Hair: Though not as impressive as Kemo's, his hair stands up in a single spike.
• Bald of Evil: As Jinzo.
• Beard of Evil: Has a classic evil goatee.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He also has thick villainous eyebrows.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • While the rest of the Big Five's Deck Masters have fairly elaborate and flashy effects, Daimon/Leichter just has Jinzo's straight-forward, but very effective ability to permanently lock his opponent's Trap Cards while leaving his own Traps free to use.
  • His choice of cards for his deck is an example as well, unlike the other members of the big 5 he doesnt care about using a particular theme for his deck. He simply picks which ever cards are most effective at locking his opponent down.
• Cast from Hit Points: His playstyle is to use powerful cards that drain his Life Points, then regain them with cards like Solemn Wishes or Life Absorbing Machine.
• Coat, Hat, Mask: He disguises his Jinzo Deck Master this way.
• Cool Mask: Wears one along with some Sinister Shades when he first appears; one could argue that the mask he wears as Jinzo counts too.
• Cyborg: As Jinzo.
• The Dragon: Out of the Big Five, he's the closest of the members to being one for Noah. He's the only member Noah seems to not have total contempt for and even respects. The fact he was selected to duel against Kaiba, who Noah was obssessed with defeating, is an indication of the confidence he had in Leichter's skills.
• Dragon-in-Chief: He is by far the most skilled duelist in the Big Five and takes over for the group permanently in their unified duel with Yugi and Joey. After seeing him take on both heroes for two episodes you could be forgiven for forgetting that the rest of the Big 5 are even there.
• Dramatic Unmask: Takes the effort of disguising his Deck Master identity before revealing himself as the powerful Lockdown-style monster Jinzo when Kaiba tries to set Trap cards.
• Driven by Envy: All of the five are envious of Kaiba, but Daimon/Leichter is the worst, as he feels he and not Seto, should have been given control of KaibaCorp due to Kaiba taking his title as heir to president.
• Faux Affably Evil: Shows several shades of this, being polite to his enemies in spite of his obvious contempt for them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's a bad guy, no doubt, but he's entirely right when he calls out Kaiba for the way he used Mokuba and The Big Five during The Coup against Gozaburo.
• I Lied: Daimon/Leichter's response when Yugi reminds him that he promised to return Honda's body if the Big 5 were defeated. Ironically, he actually did intend to return the body initially, but Ooka/Johnson talked him out of it.
• Kill Sat: He uses Satellite Cannon, which remains out of reach of attacks, and gains 1000 ATK points every turn.
• Killer Rabbit: Injection Fairy Lilly. She's a small cute fairy with only 400/1500. However, by paying 2000 Life Points he can raise her attack to 3400 until the end of his turn, making her very hard to get rid of. Leichter's initial strategy is to make sure he always has enough life points to milk her power for all it's worth.
• Large and in Charge: Out of the Five, he's the most talented duelist and is therefore given the most control when the Big Five are forced to duel together. He is also physically tallest as a human and probably as Jinzo as well.
• Lean and Mean: As Jinzo. Possibly as a normal person as well, since he is the tallest of the Big Five but seems to have narrow shoulders.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: An attorney by trade, Daimon/Leichter seems to have a real talent for Duel Monsters, being clearly far more skilled than the rest of the Big Five and able to give some serious competition to Kaiba, Yugi and Joey.
• Noble Demon: Implied by his own distaste towards Kaiba's actions, though this doesn't mean he isn't above things like playing unfairly.
• Odd Name Out: In the original, he's the only one whose name doesn't begin with an "o". He arguably counts in the English as well, given that his name is a Shout-Out to Hannibal Lecter.
• One-Steve Limit: In the original, he shares his name with Kaiba's butler, Daimon.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a lengthy one to Kaiba in which he calls him out on his ruthless attitude and treatment of Mokuba.
• The Resenter: He was next in line to run KaibaCorp, until Seto arrived, and despises Seto for this.
• Weaksauce Weakness: While Leicther is a very talented duelist his strategy has one major weakness, its utter dependence on him constantly regenerating his lifepoints. The second Kaiba figures that out, he destroys his most powerful monster, Injection fairy lily, because Leicther can't power her up twice in a row due to the high cost of activating her effect and he spends the rest of their match on the defense.
• Shout-Out: In the English dub, "Leichter" is named for Hannibal Lecter, and in the Jinzo body◊ looks the part a bit. It also fits he gives such speeches too.
• Signature Mon: Oddly enough it's actually not Satellite Cannon, his most dangerous card, but Injection Fairy Lily, who is often drawn together with Jinzo seemingly just because of her appearance in his duel.

Employees

Daimon/Hobson

Daimon (大門) (Hobson)

Voice by: Ryuji Saikachi (Toei series), Jimmy Zoppi (English), Alejandro Villeli (Latin American Spanish), Miguel Ayones (European Spanish)

Seto Kaiba's faithful butler, rarely leaving his side. He once worked as a torturer and learned to resist torture himself, before being employed by the Kaiba family. Using his skills of torture, he designed the Electric Chair Ride game of Kaiba's Death-T theme park. The ride was designed to make the participants scream, which they must resist doing to avoid being electrocuted with ten million volts.

In the Toei anime he was given the name Daimon, and was a more heroic character than in the manga. The Duel Monsters anime also named him Daimon, and the English dub named him Hobson.

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• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: His Electric Chair Ride of Death-T's horror section electrifies you to death if you scream.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the first series anime by Toei, he is portrayed as more sympathetic. Instead of being a master torturer, he's an elderly player of Duel Monsters. Being ill and perpetually on life support, Daimon experienced Seto Kaiba's kindness when Seto was young. He duels for Kaiba in the hopes of his good heart reemerging, and upon his loss, urged Yugi to restore Kaiba's kindness.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In Toei's anime he's not that bad of a guy.
• Anti-Villain: In the first series anime, where he's only following Kaiba's evil orders in the hopes that he'll eventually become good again.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: In the Toei anime, he is decrepit with age and has had to replace many of his internal organs with artificial ones. He half-jokingly calls himself a zombie because of this.
• Dub Name Change: The English dub changes his anime name from "Daimon" to "Hobson."
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": In the manga, he's just Kaiba's butler.
• High-Voltage Death: His fate in the manga.
• Man in the Machine: In the Toei anime, he's being sustained by life support and numerous devices, and he can't last very long outside his life support capsule.
• Morality Pet: In the Toei anime, he was the one person Kaiba cared for as a child, and he expresses hope that his kindness can be restored.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Toei and second-series anime named him Daimon (Hobson in the English dub). He was unnamed in the manga.
• Noble Demon: In the Toei anime he's much more noble than other versions, where he's a Worthy Opponent to Yugi and a Morality Pet to Kaiba.
• Reincarnation: Of ancient Egypt's Gelbelk, keeper of the pharaoh's dungeons and also a master torturer.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the manga, Johji shits on his lap, which causes him to shout and get electrocuted. Played with in the Toei anime where it's mention he's already dead, but was revived through life support. In Duel Monsters, he disappears after his first appearance, suffering no punishment for taking Sugoroku to Kaiba.
• Tickle Torture: Literally, he sets up tickle machines in an attempt to get Yugi's crew laughing so they'll be electrocuted to death.
• Torture Technician: Doubles as this for Kaiba as well as being his butler.
• Uncertain Doom: In the Toei anime Kaiba leaves him for dead after his loss, but it's never started whether he actually died.
• Worthy Opponent: In the Toei anime Yugi considers him one, as they share a respect for games and he refuses to cheat or use an unfair advantage like earlier opponents.

Laser Tag Assassins

Laser Tag Assassins

The Laser Tag Assassins were three professional mercenaries hired by Kaiba. After being offered ¥10,000 each for killing Yugi and his friends in the Shooting Stardust game of Kaiba's Death-T amusement park, they were determined to get their job done and were equipped with guns that fired real lasers that can cause fatal electric shocks, whereas Yugi and his friends were given toy guns.

In the original manga, the team composed of Johnny Gale, a former Green Beret commander, Bob Mcguire, a former SWAT team leader and sniper, and Name unknown, a hitman who succeeded in killing all of his opponents until he was hired by Kaiba Corp.

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• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: To them, getting shot by the enemy is just another game of laser tag. To the enemy, it's an actual war ground because their laser guns are real.
• Adaptation Name Change: Johnny Gale, Bob Mcguire, and "Name unknown" are changed to Red, Black, and Blue in the Toei anime. Well, "Name unknown" doesn't get a name change, but rather...
• Adapted Out: "Name unknown" is replaced by a woman named Blue in the Toei anime.
• Captain Ersatz: "Name unknown"...? That face looks familiar... A killer who never fails an assignment... Wait a minute... Holy crap, it's Golgo 13!
• Bounty Hunter: Their targets? Primarily Yugi, and also his friends.
• Dub Name Change: The Dungeon Dice Monsters game names them Charlie Gale, Bickford Gage, and Snipes Crosshair, respectively.
• Fixing the Game: Yugi and his friends walked into Death-T Arena 1 thinking it was just a normal laser tag game, and it is for them as they're giving regular toy guns used for laser tag. However, Kaiba had rigged the game and the assassins obviously have the upper edge here because their guns are real, which the characters luckily found out before anyone died.
• Foreign Cuss Word: In the Japanese manga, there was an instance where on of the assassins cursed in English.
• Private Military Contractors: Johnny Gale and Bob Mcguire were former soldiers/law enforcement officers.
• Professional Killer: "Name unknown" was a professional hitman that had a perfect kill count until he was hired by Kaiba Corp, where our heroes obviously escaped death.
• Race Lift: Bob Mcguire is a white man in the manga, whereas the Toei anime turned him into a black man named "Black"

Chopman

Chopman (チョップマン)

One summer during a camp near Domino Lake, Chopman murdered ten boy scouts who had been staying there in a single night. He chopped their bodies into unrecognizable pieces and the news of the murders had all of Domino City in fear. The suspect came to be known as "The Chopman", but was not captured and remained at large. Seto Kaiba later hired him for the Horror Stage of his Death-T theme park.

After a horrifying struggle, Jonouchi manages to kill the Chopman by burning him alive.

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• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: His role in Death-T is basically Clock Tower come to life.
• Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the first series anime because Death-T was heavily toned down by Toei Animation. Likewise, the first episode of the second series anime skips over Death-T's lower stages and goes right into Yugi's final Death-T battle with Kaiba, so he doesn't appear there either.
• Ax-Crazy: As long as he gets to kill people, he's satisfied.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Leatherface.
• Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: How he dresses.
• Homage: To The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th.
• Hulk Speak: He speaks like this in the Destiny Board Traveler game.
• Kill It with Fire: Jonouchi's solution for this psychopath.
• Psycho for Hire: Kaiba somehow tracked down this crazed killer and got him to be a living attraction.

• Only Known by Their Nickname: No one knows who his identity is - all they know is that he's the Chopman.
• Would Kill a Child: Killed ten boy scouts and was all-the-more-willing to kill Johji, Honda's infant nephew.

Isono (Roland)

Isono (磯野) (Roland)

A rule-posturing KaibaCorp employee who refereed the final duels during Battle City, Isono is also Seto Kaiba's personal bodyguard. He continued to work for KaibaCorp after the tournament, though in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom he quit and found new work at SIC.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Had black hair in the manga, which was made dark teal in the anime.
• Anime Hair: Mild, but the dark parts of his hair are separated by lightning bolt-shaped stripes.
• Ascended Extra: He gets a bit more to do in season 4 of the anime, highlighting his genuine loyalty to Kaiba as well as showcasing his positive traits more.
• Face–Heel Turn: In The Falsebound Kingdom Isono quit KaibaCorp to work for Scott Irvine, and is complicit in trapping Yugi and Kaiba in the game.
• Friend to All Children: In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction he's good with kids, organizing a Kaibaman show to give them hope and speaking kindly of Rebecca's skills.
• Rules Lawyer: According to him, duelists cannot interact with one another during the match, even if they're in danger of dying. He was ready to just start a countdown after Joey collapsed in his duel with Marik, when even Mokuba realized that maybe he should check to see if Joey had been seriously injured first.
• Those Two Guys: He often appears alongside Fuguta, another employee with similar hair.
• Undying Loyalty: In the anime he remains steadfastly loyal to Kaiba even after Dartz takes over the company.

Scott Irvine

Scott Irvine/Engineer A (技術者Ａ)

A KaibaCorp technician who supervised the creation of the Duel Disk, Scott Irvine bore witness to Kaiba defeating his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Obelisk the Tormentor. His story ends there in the manga and anime.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom video game, Scott is the main villain of the game, trapping the characters in a virtual game world in a bid to summon DarkNite. He also cameos in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light and Yu Gi Oh The Darkside Of Dimensions.

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• Actually a Doombot: At one point in Kaiba's campaign, he and Yami Yugi team up to defeat Scott, only for the real Scott to reveal that they'd defeated a remotely-controlled robot stand-in.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He had grey hair in the manga and anime, black hair in Pyramid of Light, and The Falsebound Kingdom gives him brown-grey hair.
• Ascended Extra: From a random technician to the main villain of Falsebound Kingdom.
• Beard of Evil: In The Falsebound Kingdom his beard is more unkempt compared to his other versions.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: He inflicts this on Joey, Tea, and Bakura via mind control.
• The Cameo: He makes minor appearances in the manga, the second series anime, Pyramid of Light, and Darkside of Dimensions.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Scott was a background extra from the manga and anime before appearing in the game. It's really highlighted in Yugi's campaign, since they have no idea who he is.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: He gets these when erasing Haysheen from the game and brainwashing the players.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: He went mad from seeing Yugi, Kaiba and Marik wield the Egyptian God Cards and became obsessed with controlling their power.
• Insufferable Genius: He talks down to Yugi and his friends frequently, calling them a feeble-minded bunch who wouldn't understand his schemes. When Yami Yugi does figure it out, he's only mildly impressed.
• Mad Scientist: He built a huge video game simulation to trap the players' souls and summon a wicked spirit.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Falsebound Kingdom was the first media to name him. He went unnamed in the manga, DSOD gave him the last name Kuwabara after one of the movie's staff, and the anime designated him Engineer A.
• Never Found the Body: Though DarkNite implies he's dead, Scott's body is never found and he vanishes without a trace.
• Sanity Slippage: While he's already unhinged by the start of the game, by the end he's gone mad to the degree that DarkNite calls him more than a little crazy.
• Smug Snake: One of his defining traits in the game is his supreme arrogance. His mugshot's only expression is of him sneering.
• Start My Own: He forms SIC after leaving KaibaCorp, hiring Roland/Isono to work for him as well.
• Would Hurt a Child: Threatens to kill Mokuba if Seto won't do as he says, and he set the game up to sacrifice everyone in it to DarkNite.
• Yes-Man: In the manga and anime he followed Kaiba's orders to the letter, inserting Kaiba's deck into the duel computer at maximum level despite the damage Solid Vision could cause.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pulls this on the villain of the virtual game, Emperor Haysheen, to take over his army and his role.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He steals Mokuba's soul to coerce Kaiba into fighting Yugi, then adds that he'll kill Mokuba if Kaiba doesn't comply.

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