Yugi Mutou - The Character

The Character

A youngster who grew up playing games by himself, Yugi later received the pieces of the ancient Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle from his grandfather, Sugoroku. As such, Yugi spent eight years trying to solve it.

When he eventually succeeded, Yugi unknowingly undid a binding spell created by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Atem, who had sealed the magic of the Shadow Games in the Puzzle and the other Millennium Items thousands of years ago in order to stop the victory of the evil demon Zorc Necrophades. The Pharaoh had bound the spell with his own name and sealed his own soul within the puzzle; when Yugi solved the puzzle, both the magic of the Shadow Games and Atem's soul were released, and Yugi's body became host to the spirit of Atem, resulting in Yugi gaining an other half while changing the youngster's life forever.

At first, Yugi has no awareness of the presence of this second personality within himself, which emerges in times of stress and takes control of his body. The spirit of Atem also would emerge from the Millennium Puzzle to take control of Yugi's body for the purposes of dueling others in the card game; rather than entirely supplanting Yugi's personality, as he had before, there was a degree of interplay between the two, wherein Yugi was aware of his surroundings and the events of the duel, but unaware of the presence of the pharaoh guiding his hand.

After a contest with Ryo Bakura, in which Yugi's soul was removed from his body, he and his friends came to understand that an additional soul existed within Yugi's body when the pharaoh's soul, left in the body alone, took control of it and defeated Bakura in their contest. This led to "Dark Yugi" being referred to as "the other Yugi" (もう一人の遊戯, mō hitori no Yūgi?) by Yugi's friends, and as "the other me" or "my other self" (もう一人の僕, mō hitori no boku?) by Yugi himself. Additionally, Dark Yugi calls Yugi "partner" (相棒, aibō?). When it was revealed that "Dark Yugi" was the spirit of the pharaoh, he became known as the Nameless Pharaoh (名も無きファラオ, namonaki farao?), as his true name was unknown even to him, although everyone besides Yugi himself would refer to Atem as 'Yugi' nonetheless.

Solicitations and summaries for the English-language release of the manga refer to the pharaoh as Yu-Gi-Oh, from the title of the series meaning "King of Games." Additionally, various English-language sources, notably video games, draw on the Japanese terminology and refer to the character as Yami Yugi. The English language translation of the series began referring to the character as Yami for the duration of the second season (to justify the "Yami Yugi" moniker without having to involve the Japanese language in the explanation), but this dropped early in the third season, and characters began to refer to Atem as "Pharaoh" without explanation to the sudden reversal of naming. On the other hand, Atem calls Yugi 'Yugi' instead of partner.

When the pharaoh takes control of Yugi's body, Yugi's undergoes a growth spurt, gaining additional streaks of yellow in his hair, and has differently shaped eyes. Additionally, in the first series, Yugi's eyes were purple and Atem's were red. Also during the Duelist Kingdom arc, his shoes change when the Pharaoh takes over, from tennis shoes to what seemed like heeled boots. Whether or not such a transformation occurs within the fictional "world" of the series, however, is unclear, as no characters ever remark on his physical change, though some remark him as 'looking taller on TV'. Yugi's voice changes – in the manga, when the transformation happens in the presence of Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner in the English dub), who had her eyes closed at the time, the Pharaoh's voice was so different that she did not realize that Yugi was the speaker. In the English language dub of the first episode of the NAS/Studio Gallop anime, Seto Kaiba also notices a change in Yugi's voice. On several other occasions, other characters who possess Millennium Items are able to tell the two apart. In the 4kids dub, Yugi's thoughts while under the Pharaoh's control have the voice of Yugi himself instead of the Pharaoh (with the exception of the Doma Orichalcos arc, where Yugi's soul is captured), while in the Japanese dub (as well as the uncut English dub), the voice retains that of the current host.

Yugi has a mother and a father; his father is away on business, so Yugi does not see him, and his mother has a brief appearance in the manga. Yugi's parents were written out in the 4Kids dub.