Mai Valentine

Mai Kujaku (孔雀 舞 Kujaku Mai), known as Mai Valentine in the English anime and English video games, is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Asia).

In the beginning, Mai is a self-absorbed woman who only likes her prize money. She once worked as a card dealer on a ship-board casino, lost in life, until finding purpose with Yugi Mutou (Yugi Muto in the English anime) and his friends. After she meets them, she seems to start caring more for her friends and the deeper meanings of the game as her wins become empty to her later in the series. Mai first appears in the Duelist Kingdom arc of the manga. She lost the first duel she is seen participating in to Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime). In the actual tournament, she loses to Yugi. In Battle City, she loses to Marik Ishtar. In the English anime, she is sent to the Shadow Realm after she loses to Marik, but she is later pulled out by Yugi.

She is paired up with her friend, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler). Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh! deemed the show as purely 'friendship.' Many Yu-Gi-Oh! fans see this as a sign that they have deeper feelings for one another, although like all other pairings in the show, this one has not been resolved. In the Waking the Dragons series (Doma) Mai finds Valon, one of Dartz's men, who develops romantic feelings for her which she slightly reciprocates. Mai is also a role model to Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler in the English anime, Shizuka Jonouchi in the first series anime). Mai's deck mainly consists of Harpie Ladies. In the anime, her deck also has Amazons.

In the Waking the Dragons (Doma) arc of the second series anime, Mai apparently turns evil and joins Dartz's group (Doma in the Japanese version). Reeling from her defeat from Marik in Battle City (and in the English anime, her torment from the Shadow Realm), Mai is once again in fear of defeat, and now fears that she cannot rely on herself.

Even though she enters and wins many tournaments, without her friends to show her the way again, her fear of defeat still persists. The worst of it however has to do with her recurring nightmares of Marik (In the English anime, Mai dreams of Marik trapping her permanently in the Shadow Realm) that persist throughout most of the arc. At the end of her rope and with no one to help her, Valon finds her and convinces her that what she needs is not friendship, and that what she needs can be found with Dartz and the power of the Seal of Orichalcos. Dartz fools her into believing that it was Yugi, Joey, as well as her other friends that abandoned her, and, after being infused with the Seal of Orichalcos and all of its atrocity inducing power, she not only believes it, but she intends to defeat them, starting with Joey. It isn't until she sees Joey ready to pass out from their second duel during the story arc that she finally sees through all of the deception and remembers everything that they went through that she overcomes the power of the Orichalcos. In an attempt to pay back Joey and Valon, both of whom lost their souls to the Orichalcos trying to help her in their own ways, she attempts to take on Dartz but is ambushed and defeated by Rafael and lost her own soul.

Following Doma, she spends the rest of the series alone and out of the picture reevaluating her life and trying to rediscover her passion for dueling. She promises to return one day to both Joey and Valon, however, in the US version, Mai and Valon's relationship seems to end, and she doesn't say whether she will go back to Joey. She is on the invitation list to participate in the KC Grand Prix but disappears. She is seen in passing a few times, including the ending credits in the Japanese version, where she is dueling alongside Vivian Wong against the Meikyū Brothers (Paradox Brothers) on top of the Great Wall of China.

"Kujaku" means "peahen". In the English anime, Mai calls Joey by his given name, while almost everyone in the manga and the original Japanese anime calls Jonouchi by his family name. Her name in the English anime is a pun of "My Valentine".

Due to the rather risqué nature of Mai's deck and dress, her appearances and cards are edited in the English anime. This included:

• Digitally reducing her cleavage by removing cleavage marks
• Lengthening her skirt
• Filling the Harpie Ladies' clothes in so that they reveal no skin as opposed to covering little skin.
• Renaming sexually named cards (IE Cyber Bondage to Cyber Shield)
• Removing the sexually suggestive spikes from Cyber Bondage/Shield

In Duelist Kingdom, Mai wore a shortsleeve purple coat over her white tube top. From Battle City on, she changed to a sleeveless light blue vest and a white tank top. She wears a dark purple mini-skirt in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs, but in Waking the Dragons, she wears dark purple shorts.

Mai runs a deck based around Harpie Lady and her variants. She also includes Amazoness cards during the Battle City tournament.

Dueling Cards

Monster Cards

• Harpie Lady
• Harpie Lady Sisters
• Harpie's Pet Dragon
• Dark Witch
• Amazoness Swords Woman
• Cyber Harpie Lady (Harpy Lady Cyber Bondage)
• Dunames Dark Witch (Dunamis Valkyria)
• The Unfriendly Amazon
• Amazoness Chain Master
• Amazoness Fighter

Spell Cards

• Cyber Shield (Cyber Bondage)
• Elegant Egotist (Kaleidoscope - Elegant Separation)
• Rose Whip
• De-Spell
• Harpie's Feather Duster
• Monster Reborn (Revive Dead)
• Grave Arm
• Amazoness Spellcaster
• Graceful Charity (Angel's Charity)
• The Seal of Orichalcos
• Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation
• Arrow Nail
• Card of Sanctity (Treasure from Heaven)
• Spell Reproduction

Trap Cards

• Mirror Wall (Silver Screen Mirror Wall)
• Shadow of Eyes
• Amazoness Archers
• Dramatic Rescue (Rescue Operation)
• Gravity Bind
• Nightmare Tri-Mirror
• Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation
• Trap Jammer
• Harpie's Feather Storm (Harpy's Feather Snowstorm)
• Fairy's Hand Mirror (Angel's Mirror)