Just remember, for the whole of Yugioh, Yugi was using an ancient dark magic item that gave him a luck boost that got bigger the closest he was to losing. Every other main villain had some other magical artifact or knowledge of ancient magic that gave them a tremendous advantage. Meanwhile Kaiba only had his skills as a duelist to rely on.
No, the Millenium Puzzle didn't boost his luck... Believing in the cards and his skill boosted his ability to draw the right card... And it's because Duel Monsters is actually an ancient heathen battle ritual that's only disguised as a card game... Kaiba on the other hand spent so much money to actually modify the rules of the game.....
Seto Kaiba lost his parents, outsmarted his way into the biggest military manufacturer in the world via a chess game, outsmarted the owner and CEO of that same company to take over, transformed that company from the inside out to go from hurting people to helping them via memorable gaming experiences, assembled what is arguably the best deck in the whole first series (no, seriously, just about every other deck in the first series is trash at best), designed the first portable hologram dueling system, refined that portable hologram dueling system to be even better, took flight lessons so that he could pilot a private jet modeled after the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (we now have Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon in the TCG and OCG thanks to this), built a school for aspiring duelists, and even seized the fabled "eighth" Millennium Item and used its power with a new piece of tech to literally break into the Egyptian afterlife to duel a god (Egyptian mythology believed the Pharaoh was a god incarnate, which in Yu-Gi-Oh! means Atem is a genuine god). Seto Kaiba makes Elon Musk look like a nobody.
One of the most compelling things about Seto to me is that it's clear that outside of Yugi and the gang the man has noble intentions and a decent heart, at least post-mind crush. Disassembling his father's weapons empire to create a toy company, being shown to have a soft spot for children, showing disdain for people who try to take unethical short-cuts instead of earning their success. Underneath the harsh exterior there is something of a good man. And the thought that it was Gozuboro's absolute abuse of him as a child that has kept it buried is equal parts tragic and hopeful since its still there, just needs coaxing.
Pretty much. He had to be ready to nearly ruin many people to exceed Gozaburo's expectations and thus get the man off his back for a while. And all this approval got him was that Gozaburo took his new holotech and was planning to sell it for use in war. He ended up risking his own fate to avoid his passion being used to ruin the world for profit, while having to temporarily disassociate himself from his brother to limit the damage a failure could have done to him.
I agree, those are the main reasons he’s my favorite character. I’ve tried explaining it countless times but people are like “do you have a crush on him?!” Like- He’s cool and all but he’s just a comfort character 😭 if not they just pass it off without any other thought :(
I actually kinda liked (as a kid) that Kaiba was introduced as a standard villain of the week in the first episode that for some reason just didn't disappear after he was beaten.
it's funny that he basically IS a villain of the week in the first manga chapter he's introduced in lol since takahashi wasn't even intending to ever bring him back until everyone wanted more of the card game
Never realized that Kaiba dragged himself and Mokuba out of poverty by playing games and get on the top using his own power. He never give up and even threw away his pride for his dear younger brother. In an alternate universe, Kaiba could have been the main character all along.
I don't know why isn't that appreciated like the usual "I got friends to support me". The biggest reason this world is so unfair is that people rely on powerful friends/relatives, not on their own skills. I think this world needs more Kaibas and less Yugis or Joeys.
@@roncerjani9063 That's because in the end of the day the world requires cooperation if we never cooperated with anyone we would have destroyed each other long time ago Humanity survives on cooperation in his destroyed by the failure of it
@@ingamingpc1634 But cooperation in the real world is rarely similar to that of Yugi,Joey and their gang. Most cooperation is fixing your buddies good job positions or providing them advantages the others who may be much smarter and more qualified don't have.
Also a thing that I feel like the duel monsters anime didn't clarify was the parallels between Kaiba and his father during his duel with yugi in duelist kingdom. When Kaiba defeated his father, Gozaburo took his own life. Telling Kaiba "this is what happens to losers". Throwing himself out a window.
@@justinbryan6249 Possibly, or in the original dub due to 4kids censorship. I'm not sure, I don't have evidence either way. But even if he didn't state it explicitly, you could still see it implied.
the anime a similar event occurs with the digital world filler between part of battle city but just with his “brother” Noah. Noah was used as collateral damage to make sure Gonzoburo would come back. Man was so petty for a adoptive father. Even if the manga / season zero is cannon or not to japan’s airings of yugioh anime that’s still pretty dark. In this case in the 4 kids dub did sorta show this comparison twice with Noah being a reference to Seto’s beta design with the green hair and the struggle they had over Mokuba. The second time was with Sigfried, a competitor he had in business that was salty Seto got a duel disk patent and final design summited first and connections to Pegasus though ya know Pegasus was playing a long game in Duelist Kingdom. Kaiba overcame most of his parallels over time in those arcs and in DSOD. Only regret the author had was he wasn’t able to finish the parallel between Yami and Seto of millennium world arc as the author was cut from that side plot due to editors and his health at times.
9:43 DSOD goes by the manga continuity where he wasn’t there for the ceremonial duel though. And in the anime when he is there he says that he believes Yugi really is the king of games and it wasn’t just Atem.
When I was a kid I always saw Kaiba as the coolest guy ever and as I got older I loved him even more because he didn’t rely on friendship or magical items he relied only on his skills as a duelist and I respect that he’ll always be my favorite character with Jack being my second favorite.
If you think about Kaiba brought himself and Mokuba out of poverty by beating a tycoon at his own game and converting his weapons company into technology company that the whole world loved he definitely an inspiration to never give up and always have ambition
Nice analysis. One important thing you forgot to mention was his Penalty Game. As punishment for being a thief, Atem sentenced Seto spend a night in a dimension where he hallucinated Monsters were ripping him to shreds. Such cruel punishments were a side effect of Zoku's influence on Atem's part, but it had a lasting effect on Seto, driving him temporarily insane. It's telling that he modeled his Death Theme Park around the same concept, introduced to him by Atem; due to PTSD of the Dark Game, in addition to his pride being wounded, Seto not only forgot his devotion to Mokuba, who described him as seeming as though possessed by a demon since losing that first duel, but also became much more brutal and bloodthirsty for a time.
the concept of Fate and Reincarnation. Kaiba came from hardship and became lost in his lust for power. His fate was intertwined with Atem. ironically, Kaiba is the most loyal to his King, always seeking him out. (The movie reinforced that - Kaiba loves his King.) *btw I don't think Kaiba wanted to seek Atem to beat him... Kaiba wanted closure. that's why he smiles when Yugi defeats him in his own tournament. (Kaiba acknowledges that both Atem and Yugi best him, that HE has gave it his all. At that point, he wanted to seek Atem for closure, a farewell duel.)
I think it's also because he knows that he can challenge Yugi again. So he still has a rival, even though Atem is gone. He can work on getting better and stronger before challenging Yugi again while also working on the technology to go back in time and face Atem as well. The worst thing for Kaiba would be beating Yugi and not being able to face Atem again. He would never know if he is truly the best that ever was.
@@nopenever5107 It’s not even because he never got to duel him again. It’s straight up because in DSoD Kaiba never got to say goodbye and duelling is how he communicates. It has nothing to do with improving of challenge. That’s just what he tells everyone.
@@LucianDevine He didn’t go back intime. He literally travelled to the afterlife. The movie makes it very clear, Atem is dead and nothing will change that.
Not the best duelist, strictly speaking, but the best character in all of anime by a landslide. No one else has both the capability and ambition to create some of the most memorable conflicts and moments just to sate their own ego. He has understandable motivations informed by his backstory, and he only keeps escalating in order to raise the stakes time and time again.
my dude has watched 1 anime and immediately thought he could talk about best character 🤣 I'm wheezing I'm laughing so hard. dudes never seen Subaru from re:zero, naofumi from shield hero, ichigo from bleach, bakugo from my hero, ainz from overlord, the mob character from trapped in an otome game (can't even remember his name and he's better than kaiba), and that's not even 1 minute of me thinking of popular characters who are better than Kaiba 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@vollied4865 I totally agree, this guy clearly hasn’t watched much anime and is wrong af but also all your examples are all garbage I’m gonna be real.
one thing about dark side of dimensions, regular yugi does actually just beat kaiba in their duel, it gets interrupted right before he loses, but he even had a face of accepting his defeat right before
Interestingly, I feel like people underrate little Yugi as a duelist. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Yugi and Atem should be even in skill, it's just that for the majority of the series, Yugi didn't have the mentality/strength. Yugi gains this where as Atem gains heart and compassion. Even in canon, Kaiba sleeps on Yugi. Ig less that he doesn't think he's capable, but that he simply isn't him.
@@MK-bi1hj Considering that Yugi outright beats Atem with all 3 God cards by the end of the series, he should definitely be the better duelist at this point.
Just like marvel has there big 3 .iron man , captain america and thor. Dc has their holy trinity , batman , superman and wonderwoman . Yugioh has its 3 kings of games Yugi(atem) king of fate Kaiba ( king of skill ) Joey ( king of luck )
Yugi vs Kaiba in Dark Side of Dimensions was the only duel where I genuinely didn’t care who won, since either way it would be super satisfying. Kaiba’s only possible facedown was polymerization, his graveyard had no effects that could save him, and he had no cards left in his hand. So when Yugi attacked him directly with Black Magician, Kaiba lost the duel (but obviously the game was interrupted before his LP dropped all the way to zero, in order to keep the audience speculating). Honestly was really cool to see Kaiba still smile at the end. The movie is ambiguous about whether he’s smiling since he has one final trick up his sleeve (which he definitely didn’t), but I see that smile more as confirmation that Yugi truly did surpass Atem and was deserving of the King of Games title. Obviously in the manga he never saw Atem leaving, and never had the sequence where he admitted that Yugi truly deserves the title (since he wasn’t there for the ceremonial battle in the manga, and Atem never even summoned all three gods at once during the manga version of the duel). So the DSoD movie (which is canon to the manga continuity) gives him the same realization that the anime ending did. It’s a nice touch.
When Atem used mind crush (collapse of the heart) on Kaiba in the manga it basically made him a better person than before because it shattered the evil in his heart and made him comatose for quite a while while he put back together his own heart in the form of a puzzle. This didn’t stop Kaiba from being prideful however but he did stop trying to kill Yugi and his friends and instead duelled him.
In my own head cannon when Kaiba goes back in time at the end of Dimensions he actually ends up becoming the version of Kaiba we see in the ancient Egypt flashbacks. Thereby eventually becoming friends with Atem just like Ishizu explains in battle city.
@@paulalagar892 that sentence was from dark side of dimensions, hd didn't sacrafice Obelisk there. You're probably confusing it with Battle City in his duel against Ishizu
Awesome video. I'm glad you were really put some perspective on Seto Kaiba for those who didn't understand the nuances of his character. The one error I do have to point out is Gozaburo Kaiba didn't run a game company rather Seto turned it into one when he became majority shareholder and effectively president and renamed it Kaiba Electronic Gaming Corporation.
Yugi never relied on magic. All of Atem’s gaming skill came directly from Yugi. The Ceremonial Duel exsists to say Yugi is so much better than Atem that he won rhe duel before they’d even played. That’s what DSoD exists. Because Kaiba believes it was Atem doing everyonr when it actuality Atem’s skill at the game was always just Yugi’s.
I think you're the one that's correct. What actually makes Seto Kaiba the true king is that he continues believing in his own philosophy of NOT relying on others even after the losses. He is someone who will never stop believing that individualism is king. Instead of slowly accepting the protagonist's philosophy like every other character of that archetype. That's why the movie ending is so good. It shows how ridiculously far he'll take it to prove the Yugis wrong. If he had accepted the merits of teamwork, he would've been able to let it go. But that's not an option for him. So he builds a freakin' time machine.
kaiba has unlimited money, meaning he has all the time in the world to get the best cards at a moments notice, if you want to be fair joey is the only duelist who didnt have magic nor money and was still top 3 the whole show, it was just him and his deck and he was still keeping up with the rich guy and the magical wizard
Joey is the true King of Games of duel monsters. Didn't buy the best cards, didn't have a magical alter ego, and basically defeated a God card if wasn't for that shadow realm bs.
Kaiba is a weird topic. There are basically 4 major versions of him that are very destinct. -The original manga(manga and JP DsoD) -The japanese Studio Gallop anime -The Toei anime(Often called Season 0 by fans) -The dub(Dubbed versions of Gallop anime and DsoD) For my personal evaluation: -His toei-anime incarnation is a pretty great villain imo, but there is little to say. The way it is structured and presented just works imo with how he lost himself in his change towards the worse and how he was willing to kill a group of people for taking his perfect record away...with a draw. Not even a real cause for revenge like in the manga, where he actually lost and got a pretty rough penalty game. -His dub version is easily the most annoying one at times, but he has a pretty great turn around at the end, which ends with it being hinted at in dubbed GX that he did actually returned knowledge about Yami to the world. Basically the "he was a complete jerk, but he really toned it down over time". -The japanese gallop-version of him is imo the most consistent interms of character and tone. He never stops having rough edges, but he is always pretty great and is also the version of the character that the audience has the easiest time being sympathetic towards(At the end of the show, one knows exactly what makes him tick, why he was so adamant about everything he believed in and why him ripping that Blue Eyes-card was even worse beyond just the element of "this card was incredibly important to grandpa"). DsoD also doesn't happen here because he doesn't really ride his own ego unlike Dub-Kaiba. The one moment where the writers messed this version of him up was when he wins against Jounouchi in the fight for 3rd place in Battle City and then essencially treats him like dirt. Otherwise, this one is pretty clean. -His original manga-version is sorta the strangest. His early actions are very similar(in some aspects identical) to the ones of Toei anime-Kaiba(With the slight catch that he has more reason to want revenge, as stated above), but he doesn't really improve enough after the mind crush to where one can really say he is a great guy despite him coming back and having similar goals as JP Gallop-Kaiba. DsoD also happens here, but it is given the context here that he straight up wasn't even there for the ceremonial duel in the original manga, so it's not really about his ego. Unlike dub-kaiba, it is less "I just don't want to let go of my rivalry and Yugi winning that duel may have been a fluke" and more "I literally didn't even see proof that this is legit, so I am not going to believe it".
Yugi is better than kaiba, yugi even beat atem with the 3 Egyptian gods yugi is the undisputed king of games not atem nor kaiba I will say kaiba is probably better than atem
Another great moment of Kaiba is in Dark Side of Dimension, where he challenges Yugi, wanting him to bring Atem back. Despite being driven by pride and wanting to solve things with the Pharoh, it's clear that Kaiba also misses him and in the end, it's Kaiba belief, the character who didn't believe in miracles, that inspires Yugi to not give up and eventually recive help from Atem.
I get why everyone wants S0 to match up with the mainline series but it doesn't. Considering start of Ep1 S1, they point out Kaiba is the new kid and no ones met him before. On top of that, he suddenly has 3 Blue eyes. On top of that, Yugi introduces his granpa's blue eyes as though Kaiba has never seen it, never mind stole it like he did in S0.
The thing people seem to forget is the fact that Kaiba had a Negate Attack face down during the last turn of the Duelist Kingdom duel anyway, so he had completely won that duel, he assumedly was just testing Yugi’s resolve, as a strong resolve would be needed to fight Pegasus. I mean despite that he did have the duel won regardless the turn he drew Monster Reborn since he could have returned Ultimate Dragon to his hand and then revived even La Jinn, since Yugi has Celtic Guardian, 400LP and no way to stop an attack, so even the 1800 Attack La Jinn would have won him the game right there, since there’s no more Kuriboh wall or anything. I understand that people assume Kaiba did what he did because he had lost the duel, but in all actuality he had definitively won the duel and did it as a test of character not a cowardly bluff, and it paid off in a way, but most probably not the way he had wanted haha.
Hold up, bro. I like the retelling of Kaiba's childhood character through the "Enter the Shadow realm" filler arc. I had no problem that it happened right before the Battle City Final 4; I thought it made sense in an anime way. It also showed Kaiba wasn't entirely heartless via his care for Mokuba, but he has to be shown his obsession and drive that he uses to help his family actually harms it. And the Big 5 got some better attention than the 3-episode mini-arc giving fleshing out the world more. The virtual world arc was amazing and I'd argue way better than season 0.
At the end of "The Dark Side of Dimensions", we could see that Kaiba "teleported" himself to the Afterlife to meet Atem. Does this mean Kaiba is......dead now?
the theory is yes. Because there is a multiple timeline theory that merges it all together. DSOD being the follow on timeline from the manga where as the final season had Kiba present there at the final duel with Atem. The DSOD timeline had Kiba go "hell nah biatch we still need to settle this" and blasted himself to the afterlife to get closure, where as the anime duel had him accept Yugi as better and moved on.
@@avroarchitect1793 No, he actually physically went in there. As in, he took his actual body into the afterlife. That is why there are those purple particles on him at the end of the movie, the afterlife and living beings don't exactly go well together.
I would say the filler explaining Kaiba's back story came at a fine time. It was still fresh in your mind when Yugi and Kaiba fight in Battle City and his actions during the final. Especially for the orginal Japanese dub which had more depth for the story and characters.
Yeah, it pretty much couldn't have come at a diffrent time. Pre-BC would render the thematics confusing and random. Post-BC not only has the issue of the cast not being in the same vehicle, but also that having a story about Kaiba's past after he chose to let go of it would be...misguided, to say the least.(And no, Doma does not contradict this statement. Because it's less about Kaiba's past and more about the validity of his future. Plus, I won't deny that the end of the arc completely screwed up the storyline and its thematics)
Seto is an amazing individual who had fantastic character growth through the series, as he is the the character you love to dislike but have empathy for.
i would really love a analysis of GX. the original and GX are my favorites. i really liked the academy setting. even tho it might be a obvious and bland choice, i love all the "school" and "university" themes in it. maybe because i was going to school back then aswell. But i was always mind blown, by how drastically the tone shifts troughout the series. the first 2 seasons are really wholesome and lighthearted. but if i remember correctly, then it gets very very serious and dark. I always wonderes, if that darkness and seriousness was the reason why the final season was never adapted by 4Kids and therefore didnt get dubbed in my native language (ger). I always believed 4kids saw the final season, which really hammers the dark tone home and decided it is too "weird" and "unreasonable" for a "kids show". maybe you know more about it , but these circumstances alone , should make it worth analysing.
I would love a video on dark side of dimensions explaining how it’s the original finale of DM manga strictly and not mentioning sequels I think dark commander made a video on the true timeline being that movie and would LOVE for your take on it 🙏🏼 subbed for future content im enjoying theses videos so much 👏🏻
There's a fan theory / thematic reading I've been sitting on for a while regarding Yugioh, and I call it "the world that Kaiba built". The idea is that, while Yugi may win the games and save the day (and grow personally in the process; Yugi's arc was very focused on personal change), Kaiba's consolation prize was essentially reshaping the entire world around entirely different paradigms of his own choice. No longer would bullies like Ushio or Gozuboro call the shots through sheer force alone. Now, anybody with the skill to excel could take their destiny into their own hands and become truly great. Seto wanted a world where the engines of war could be wholly replaced by literal card games, where the winner was the one with the greater skill. At that, Kaiba _did_ succeed. Seto could've built foster homes. He could've taken in orphans. He could've donated to charity. He could've spearheaded outreach programs. He could've fought crime in a bat suit. But no. Seto is many things, but charitable is not one of them. Nothing came free for him, so why should anything come free to anybody else? Much like Seto rose from nothing through his own effort and skill, he wanted to make it so that only those who could similarly prove their worth could attain it. By the end, you realize that Kaiba isn't arrogant. He's principled. Seto Kaiba doesn't do great things because he is great. Seto Kaiba is great because he can do great things. Very objectivist of him (and of Takahashi to write Kaiba in this way). Kaiba is single-handedly responsible for setting the stage for the worlds of GX and 5Ds by reshaping the world into one that solved all its problems through strategic meritocracy. (Though "solved" is a strong word, given that parts of GX suggested that there were underground extreme duels, suggesting that you can take away everybody's guns and bombs, but you can't fundamentally change humanity's darker nature _that_ easily... which actually gets tackled by Judai's and Yusei's arcs, come to think of it.) That's why there are card game academies. That's why there are card games on motorcycles. It's not just some stupid market-driven contrivance to sell real-world trading cards. (Well, not _just_ that...) It's the world that Kaiba built. While the Virtual World arcs and portions of the Orichalchos arc dabbled in these ideas, it was actually the KC Grand Prix arc, of all things, to conclude Seto's storyline for good. The entire conflict was basically Kaiba vs Ziegfried engaging in a proxy battle, with Ziegfried trusting his Mokuba-esque (perhaps Yugi-esque) brother and Kaiba putting the fate of his company in Yugi's hands. Kaiba _knows_ Yugi can't be beat by this point, and certainly not by somebody like Ziegfried. Kaiba was just like Ziegfried at the start of the series, and Yugi is _fathoms_ stronger now than he was back then. Never does it cross Kaiba's mind that Yugi might lose, as was the case before Yugi's duel with Marik, even when Ziegfried resorts to cheating. Kaiba doesn't even enter the Grand Prix himself (except to boot Ziegfried, which he does by defeating him in a duel; remember, in Kaiba's worldview, you only deserve to get your way if you can prove you're better), instead focusing his efforts that arc on preserving his besieged company. Kaiba realizes that it's his company that matters, not some title. He doesn't need to be the king, but he doesn't have to be to get what he wants. If anything, Kaiba chasing down Atem, while amusingly ridiculous, seemed to be a backwards move for his character. The point of the final duel was that Kaiba acknowledged Yugi, not the Pharaoh, as the better duelist. Atem _lost._ Assuming Kaiba still cared about the King of Games title (which, as I suggested, he shouldn't), he should've been chasing Yugi. The only reason I could think of for him wanting to duel Atem specifically was personal curiosity.
DsoD simply did not happen in the japanese series. It only happens in the manga(Where Seto simply wasn't there for the last duel) and in the dub(where it seems entirely possible for his character to question if Yugi's win was a fluke afterall. And he just has a big enough ego here to where it's believable that he would want to challenge his rival for one last time, even if it has no practical point anymore.)
You forgot when Yugi & Kaiba teamed up to defeat The Big 5's 5 Headed Dragon during the aftermath of Duelist Kingdom. At first Kaiba hated working with Yugi, Joey & Mai, but when Joey, Mai AND his little brother mokuba got defeated by the Five Headed Dragon, Kaiba swallowed his pride & worked with Yugi to created the Dragon Master Knight to defeat The Big Five's Five Headed Dragon to rescue mokuba & friends.
I think other than season zero and the Anime, you should definitely read the original Manga, because the Anime butchered kaiba beyond just removing all of his arc in the S0 arc (and it's overall way better written so yeah). The battle city arc is, to me, kind of the end of Kaiba's arc. At the end of the arc, he may hide under the façade of "yeah I'm doing this to prove I'm right", but both Mokuba and Ishizu make it clear he's doing this as a genuine act of good will to help yugi, and even he realizes it at the end of the duel. And guess what, Kaiba actually respects Jonouchi at the end of the Manga. Right, after his duel against Marik, Kaiba calls Jonouchi a worthy duelist in both Anime and manga, but the manga doesn't have the rematch between the two of them where kaiba calls him weak once again, the literal last thing he tells Jonouchi at the end of the Manga was "you should have stayed dead" right after being defeated by Atem so he was clearly pissed off. There is no comment about Jonouchi's skill whatsoever. Bringing Kaiba back for two filler arcs where it feels like he hasn't learned anything at all and just acts like the same winning obsessed madman once again is just dumb... And this takes us to the dark side of dimensions Kaiba, which I feel is vastly misunderstood. Kaiba doesn't care about being the best in this movie. He loses to Diva and never really comments on it, and it's very possible he lost to yugi right here and there thanks to multiple in depth duel analysis on youtube, yet all he does is smile, and accept it. What Kaiba really wanted was to beat Atem, because the truth is, Kaiba basically lived for Atem. Atem was the one who helped kaiba rebuild himself as a new person (in the Manga, it's explained the mind crush isn't an evil-Purge, it literally shattered Kaiba's mind like a puzzle for kaiba to rebuild himself on his own, basically allowing him to realize what Mokuba really meant for him). Atem was the one to save both him and Mokuba later on, Kaiba literally organized battle city only so that he could fight Atem once again, and ultimately, Atem was the one who taught Kaiba the strength of bonds and caring. One might have called Atem Kaiba's only friend at this point... And he left, without even saying goodbye. Kaiba isn't present during the ceremonial duel in the manga, he wasn't even Warned Atem was leaving. His obsession for Atem during the dark side of dimensions is only him trying to cope with the grief of losing the one person in life that had made him who he really was, and it's something Yugi actually noted during their duel. At the end of the movie, Kaiba leaves for the afterlife, entrusting Kaiba Corp to Mokuba. His body slowly disintegrates as he approached his one and only eternal rival to engage him in the only form of expressing his emotions he has always known : a duel. Come on, we all know he didn't intend to come back from this trip
@ 7:00 This is incorrect. It’s not that if one player’s Life Points went to 0 that both would lose. It’s that Lumis and Umbra’s decks were specifically made for this tag duel to work together and counter Yugi and Kaiba’s moves. This is a powerful strategy that is more apparent in the manga, where it’s specified that you can only use 1 Spell and 1 Trap per turn(basically, but that’s more complicated to explain). But what Lumis and Umbra did was gang up on 1 Duelist with 2 Spells, 2 Traps, and a juiced up monster with high ATK to overpower them. This is how Yugi showed Kaiba they had to work together, because if they didn’t the surviving duelist could literally not take on the 2 of them at once. One duelist could not have the resources and card advantage
Kaiba was based on the real life person so of course he's going to be the best rival in all of anime everything is better when it's based on a true story for the most part
Great video and I really liked your point about Kaiba offering cards to Yugi. I feel like that theme comes back in DSOD where, when Kaiba duels Aigami, he’s able to summon Obelisk, essentially borrowing the Pharaoh’s card/accepting his help for the duel. Look forward to seeing more videos :)
What I really find interesting is the use of magic and technology. Tech, by its very nature, is a cooperative beast. Innovative giants standing on the shoulders of previous giants, cooperation among different fields and branches, crowdsourcing solutions, supply chains that span the globe, where every link can make or break the endeavor. Magic, in story telling, is hyper individualistic in comparison. Special people doing special thing, because they're special people sitting on pinnacles above everyone else. A wizard can take on the world alone. A scientist would prefer the world backing them to advance their craft (that's why they always ask for funding). Kaiba runs a COMPANY, but is all alone. Yugi has been made irrevocably special through magic, but can't stand alone. By the end of the story, both shift to be able to more embody their respective power systems' nature.
Not nessesarily. There is always the first one to discover and cast a specific form of magic, which can be picked up and possibly refined by people coming later.
Yugi = Goku = Yuske = Naruto = Ichigo = Protagonist Type (Poster boy/child, lamo, Biggest Canon wins, always ends up stronger after losing some how) Setto = Vegeta = Hiei = Sasuke = Buyakuya = Rival Type ( Cooler, better character ark, works harder for their power over time yet still slaways second place)
Definitely partially tells about my writing style and super love for side-characters and rivals, but that Kaiba Yugi duel at duelist kingdom always bothers me. XD Personally would’ve just had Kaiba win fair and square after a long grind. Would’ve been cool to see Yugi and Yami struggling with dread after seeing Kaiba then lose to Pegasus convincingly. As for Battle City, they’d be one and one, and then it’d make the stakes higher for next time, almost like the “ultimate decider” of who’s the best duelist.
It should be mentioned that Kaiba does give up on his dream post-Duel Monsters Anime. He moves on to designing more ways to duel and help duelists like building a duel academy. This is because he witnessed the final duel between Yugi and Atem and acknowledged that Yugi was the true Duelist and not Atem. In the Manga, Kaiba was never present in the final duel so there always was doubt in his mind about the legitimacy of Yugi's win over Atem and thus the flame of vengeance never faded leading into the construction of the time machine/Dark Side of Dimensions.
Great Video,Kaiba has some character development but is mostly flat and his obsession with Atem,though thanks to him we have,yugioh card game in real life,and battle city influenced the rules for the life card game.
One thing to note is that Dark Side of Dimensions is NOT a sequel to the anime. It's a sequel to the Manga. In the Manga, Kaiba wasn't around for the Ceremonial Duel between Yugi and Atem, so he never got any closure, which was what drove him to invest so much time and money into bringing the Pharaoh back, just so he could duel him one more time. When that fails, he decides instead to travel to the Afterlife itself and challenges Atem to one final duel there, knowing that he will never be able to return.
Hands down my favorite anime character of all time. Still think he would have been an even better rival if he had won a couple of legit duels against Yugi/Atem. That they always win took any tension out of their duels.
Kaiba was a great character but my overall favourite character had to be the spirit of the millennium ring, Bakura. Fantastic bad guy and not like the regular Yu-Gi-Oh bad guys who turn good by the end of their arc, yami bakura was evil right to the bitter end and his back story was pretty tragic too, his whole village was slaughter to create the items to begin with who wouldn't turn evil after that?!
Imo, I don't think Kaiba turned good either. I think people are fundamentally misreading the character because he's not explicitly evil and they want him to be good. But in reality he rejected Yugi's philosophy of friendship & teamwork even at the end. Which is why he HAD to face the pharaoh at all costs. And continued to be a ruthless business man who only believes in individual merit. Had he accepted those notions, he could have let it go as Atem would have had the advantage in those duels. But he couldn't.
@@tehemail.7062 although you're right about kaiba not being good, I always thought of him more as an anti hero type character, not evil nor good but with his own agenda through which good deeds are done inadvertently. My first example is battle city, kaiba could have disqualified joey from the tournament but he let it go, without joey in the tournament merik would have surely had an easier run to the finals and joey wouldn't have been there to support yugi, kaiba also helped yugi twice first against strings giving him a pep talk and second by giving him fiend sanctuary allowing yugi to, in the end, defeat Ra and save the good side of merik. Another example is the legendary dragons arc, kaiba is one of main heros in that story albeit a reluctant one who gives his last bit of life points to yugi so that he could then go on to defeat dartz and save everybody. Then there's the final season in Egypt where kaiba finally sees his origins and helps the pharaoh to fight zorc with Blue-eyes ultimate giving atem the time he needed to summon the creator of light. And lastly is kaibas burning passion to defeat yugi/atem at any cost, a selfish endeavour for sure but as ishizu said its through this constant battling that kaiba kept the pharaoh at his best, constantly testing his abilities and driving him to be a better duelist. In the end Kaiba pretty much sacrifices his own life just for one more shot at beating atem, but he was never a bad guy to begin with... more so a grey hero, the hero of his own story if you will. And easily my 2nd favourite character after bakura for all of these reasons and then some.
@@johannMcGruber Yea, I wouldn't say he's really a villain either. I just don't think he ever really turned any kind of hero. Most of what you list here, I attribute to ego. E.g. He's not gonna disqualify joey, he wants to prove that he can beat yugi with all his cheerleaders. A shortcut of any kind, especially a disqualification, is unacceptable. Especially for Joey, who he doesn't really expect will slow down anyone. He also makes it explicit that Yugi can't lose until he beats him. Another ego related reason for things like the pep talk. He's never gonna do that for Joey because Joey didn't beat him. He doesn't care who Joey loses to in the meanwhile or what those losses will cost him. Had yugi not held those wins over him, he would never lift a finger. Mind you, that's also why virtually all the arcs end up using separate plot devices to drag Kaiba into things not unlike Bakura. General bad things don't phase him. If it doesn't directly affect Kaiba's goals, he usually won't care. Hell, he'll usually even see it as largely deserved for them being weak. Edit: I took a look at the scale of anti-hero of tropedia to see if he was listed. They actually classify him as barely in Type 5, which itself is described as someone who is borderline "in name only" amoral/villain types that just happen to be fighting the story's main antagonist. They too interpreted him as someone who really does _not_ improve as the series goes on. Some fans just kinda misread select selfish action as minor redemptions because they desperately want him to have that heart of gold deep down.
What Kaiba are we talking about? Because if we talk about JP anime-Kaiba, then he DID let it go in the end. He did lower his pride a few levels(Otherwise he would have tried coming up with more ways of fighting Zorc himself, instead of protecting the group) and he did accept the concept of team work at multiple times, even being straight up shocked when Yami stopped playing for a hot second against Dartz.
@@lpfan4491 I can't speak for what happens in JP version, but in the movie he builds a time/afterlife machine as he simply could not let it go. The point is not that he refuses to work as a team ever. It's that he doesn't accept the concept of teamwork being superior to his own individual merit. Which is why when he is on a team, most often situations forced upon him, he claims to be carrying them with his own skill. Also worth noting that saving or teaming with Yugi in high stake situations is to his benefit. He can prevent Yugi from being defeated before he gets a rematch. Imo, that's the most obvious explanation why he doesn't protest in the dartz duel as yugi had just recently lost to one of them. And again why he occasionally saves the group. He's not interested in their wellbeing. He just needs one of them for his own personal self redemption.
Adding the DSD isn’t a great ending since this are 2 different kaiba at that point. 1 who saw the final duel and believe in magic vs 1 who left after battle city and still had that drive to beat Atem. But beside that I agree, agree with everything. Kaiba is the best
It was always kind of funny how Mai was the only person smart enough to use Harpies feather duster. I get that its due to the themes in which every character must obey. Plus Harpies feather duster could be some 10,000$ card in their universe that only 1000 copies exist in the entire world. Blue eyes has 4 copies so its not too crazy to think about. Then what's kaiba's excuse for not adding one to his deck, What's Mariks excuse for not taking it out of Mai's deck after he beat her in the finals. There could have been a whole scene of Marik using Mais card to destroy Joeys cards.
At first, kaiba is someone that we kinda loathed and can't be related to. He's ultra rich, arrogant, full of ego genius prodigy and an asshole. None of that criterias match most of the viewer but as soon as we learnt about his love for his brother. That's when we started to root and love this character. Kaiba is one of the best written character in yugioh history. His character is goat tier that he becomes a blueprint for next gen rival such as jack, kaito and reiji. Not to mention, Yugi vs kaiba battle city semi final is literally the best duel ever in duel monster.
He litterally isn’t the best duelist alive. That ‘s actual Yugi. It’s what he tealises in DSoD. The reason it seems like Kaiba had not given up on Atem is DSoD was because he hadn’t. He was not there for the Final Arc in thr manga which DSoD follows. DSoD happens literally because the manga straight up ends with him getting to Egypt just as Yugi and friends are leaving. He did not get to see Atem leave and accept Yugi. It’s because he didn’t see Atem leave that he doesn’t just accept Atem is dead. Yugi has to wuite blunty show him he is for him to realise it.
I don't know mate. To me it always looked like - and the anime, manga and DSOD confirmed it - that little Yugi was in fact as good if not better as Atem, except for his lack of confidence in himself, both by physical and mental aspects. Him beating Atem, Diva and then Kaiba - the last two being one after another - completely cemented that for me. If anything, the original Atem was more of a powered up evil alter ego than a proper person who just happened to be imprisioned into the puzzle. I think that Kazuki Takahashi thought of that midway during the manga, so that it would not be THAT dark - after all, a hero who's ready to commit cruel torture and murder on a property that was getting more and more marketable to an all audiences card game was a bit of a tough pillow to swallow. It also ties well with the "coming of age of an immature child hero to a full fledged confident man with his friends" that almost all of japanese media targeted towards shonen audiences strives for. Kaiba is still a hell of a character and steals the spotlight often, but Yugi is the true king.
