Seto Kaiba
| [[File:|0px|Seto Kaiba in the second series anime]] Seto Kaiba in the second series anime | |
| Age | 16 at debut; 18 at series' end; 26 in GX debut; currently 28 |
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| Favorite food | Beef fillet |
| Least favorite food | Oden |
| Kaiba, Seto | |
Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人, Kaiba Seto) is a fictional character from the the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. As the majority shareholder and President of his own multi-national company, KaibaCorp, Kaiba (as he is most frequently referred to by the other characters) aims to become the world's greatest player of the Duel Monsters card game. To accomplish this goal, he must defeat his arch-rival, Yugi Mutou.
Among one of the recurring plots in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is Seto Kaiba being forced to deal with either people adversely affected by Gozaburo Kaiba's actions wanting to take their revenge on Seto Kaiba, or people from within KaibaCorp attempting to take over the corporation.
Contents
Character design
Kaiba's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit from the second series anime consists of a long white sleevless KaibaCorp designed coat featuring shoulder pads and a raised studded collar, with black sleeves from his shirt comming out from under. he has extra belts in pairs strapped his upperarms and shins. He often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.
In the first series anime, Kaiba has green hair, while in the manga, Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, and the second series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Kaiba has brown hair. The first series TV series has not been translated into English and therefore not shown on TV in English-speaking nations.
Character biography
At a young age, Kaiba and his younger brother Mokuba were orphaned (their original surnames are unknown). Their mother died after Mokuba was born, and their father died in an accident when Seto was eight. Their relatives used up their inheritance and left them at the orphanage. When the former head of KaibaCorp, Gozaburo Kaiba, arrived at the orphanage to perform a publicity stunt, Kaiba saw the chance to challenge him to a game of chess, with Gozaburo forced to adopt Seto and Mokuba should he win. The different versions of the story differ on Seto's age: the manga and Japanese animated series states that Seto was ten years old, while the English animated series states that Seto was twelve. Seto had won by studying Gozaburo's chess methods (cheating in the manga). But Gozaburo forced Seto into a rigorous accelerated school program, forcing him to study several subjects, including economics, social studies, foreign languages, and game strategy.
Gozaburo also had an ulterior motive: he wanted to adopt Seto because he was bright enough to be motivation for his own son, Noah Kaiba, to do better so that Noah could inherit KaibaCorp. With Noah's untimely death (his mind was placed into a virtual world), however, Gozaburo focused his energies to Seto Kaiba. On Seto's birthday, he was given a 2% share of KaibaCorp (in the English anime, ten million dollars) and was told that although he could spend the money any way he wished, he must return one hundred times (in the English anime, ten times) the amount in one year. Not only did Seto accomplish this feat, but he did so in one day.
Six years later, Seto Kaiba took over his step-father's company by gaining the 51% that he needed to be in control. In the manga, Gozaburo, provoked by Seto taking over and becoming CEO, committed suicide by jumping out of his office window, but not before he downloaded his mind into Noah's virtual world. Gozaburo's death occurred six months before Seto dueled Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Moto in the English version). In the first series, Seto electrocutes Gozaburo after Seto takes over the company.
After taking control of KaibaCorp Seto shifted its interst from the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction to gaming equipment. One of Kaiba's dreams was to build an amusement park for orphaned and underprivileged children called KaibaLand. At the start of the series, only one KaibaLand had been built, in Domino (in the English anime, none of the parks had been built, and KaibaLand was touted as the KaibaCorp headquarters).
In the manga, the four Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards were possessed by an American, a German, a Hong Konger, and Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Muto in the English anime) of Japan, Yugi's grandfather. Kaiba took the cards belonging to the former three using force: by either forcing the person into bankruptcy, by making deals with the mafia, or by forcing the person to commit suicide.
He overhears from Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto) and his friends that Sugoroku Mutou is in posession of the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon card. In the first series he switches Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes with a counterfeit but Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) wins a game of Duel Monsters and places a penalty game on Seto, causing Seto to be trapped in an illusion where Duel Monsters kill him repeatedly, though it is just a sensation of death. Yugi gives his grandfather the real card back.
In the Duelist Kingdom arc Kaiba was Duel Monsters World Champion. He challanges Sugoroku to duel in order to claim Sugoroku's Blue-Eyes after he refused to sell it. Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto) and his friends catch up Sugoroku has already been defeated and Kaiba rips the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in two in front of them. Outraged Yugi duels and Kaiba discovering Kaiba has the only other three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his deck but defeats him using Exodia.
After his defeat but Kaiba drops out of playing Duel Monsters, but after Pegasus kidnaps Mokuba so he can take over KaibaCorp, Seto flies to Duelist Kingom trying to save his brother, but after losing a duel to Pegasus. Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to strip Kaiba's soul from is body. He, Mokuba, and Sugoroku Mutou are restored after Yugi defeats Pegasus to become World Champion.
Ishizu Ishtar gives Kaiba the Egyptian God card "Obelisk the Tormentor" to convince him to host the Battle City tournament. Kaiba goes through with the tournament in the hopes of gaining the other two Egyptain God Cards with an ante rule and so he can defeat Yugi and reclaim his title as World Champion. Ultimately, Kaiba is defeated by Yugi in the semi-finals causing him to forfeit Obelisk the Tormentor to Yugi.
In the Waking the Dragons arc Kaiba along with Yugi Mutou and Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) are the three "chosen duelists" each given a [[Legendary Dragons|Legendary Dragon card (the The Fang of Critias in Kaiba's case) in order to save the world from Dartz, who had been using the power of The Seal of Orichalcos to steal people's souls to release his legendary serpent, "The Great Levitian". Kaiba is challenged by Alister who was one of Dartz "Swordsmen of Doma". Alister blames Kaiba for tragic events that happened in his life due to Gozaburo. Alister has also somehow managed to take control of a large portion of KaibaCorp. Unable to convince Alister that he is not responsible Kaiba defeats Alister, who loses his soul. Kaiba ultimatly loses to Dartz while dueling alongside Yugi. However using Kaiba's contributions to the duel Yugi defeats Dartz.
Kaiba hosts the KaibaCorp GrandPrix after to regain control of his company after it was bought out by Dartz. His old economic competitor, Zigfried von Schroeder, returns hoping to collapse KaibaCorp, but Kaiba defeats him and Yugi defeats his little brother, Leon, to maintain his title as World Champion and save KaibaCorp.
Kaiba in the Manga
In the manga Kaiba is subjected to a "Penalty Game" after he loses to Yami Yugi and is said to be rebuilding the "shattered puzzle of his heart". Mokuba responds by saying "Big Brother i'll wait for you forever". Kaiba solves the puzzle in his heart while Yugi is dueling a ventriliquist using Kaiba's deck at Duelist Kingdom in the manga. At the end of Duelist Kingdom, when Kaiba and Mokuba are finally reunited, Yugi says that Mokuba was the last piece. The child Seto, who was shown beginning to put the puzzle together at the end of Death-T, is shown once again, holding the finished puzzle.
Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Though not seen much in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, Kaiba is referred as the one who set up Duel Academy (Duel Academia) and named the dormitories personally. He made several appearances, the first being when he made a bet on his ownership of the school. He seemed bold and had full confidence in the duelist representing Duel Academy, Chazz Princeton (Jun Manjoume), would win despite the unfair advantage in the duel (in the Japanese episode, Kaiba stated at the end that anyone who was a student at his academy should be able to win a duel no matter what the stipulations are). During the second year, he also appears in Jaden Yuki's (Judai Yuki) flashback, announcing a card illustration project, and again when he allows Sartorius (Takuma Saiou) the use of KaibaLand during the Academy's field trip. The Duel Monster spirit "Kaibaman" who duels against Jaden is based on Seto Kaiba and uses the same deck, including his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons.
In episode 76 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Sartorius says that "Kaiba hasn't aged in years". This is likely an inside joke to fans on how the character animation for Kaiba is identical in both series, despite the fact GX is ten years later, making Kaiba over 25 years old.
Voice/Mannerisms
In the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kaiba omits honorifics and has a "rude" pattern of speech. Kaiba uses the word ore to mean "I" instead of the usual boku; ore is a boastful way to say "I" in Japanese. (See Wikibooks:Japanese:Pronouns) Kaiba usually calls Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) names, such as bonkotsu (mediocre), make inu (pathetic dog, loser), and zako (small fry, weakling). This name calling was carried over to the English anime.
He has a certain contempt for Yugi's group of friends: he refers to them constantly with derisive nicknames such as, in the English anime, "the dweeb patrol" or "the geek squad".
One of Seto's recurring traits is his absolute refusal to believe in the powers of magic often used in the series. Later on during sagas like Waking the Dragons, he openly admits to believing in all the supernatural events occurring around him instead of just ignorantly saying they don't exist as he does in the English anime. Also, in the Japanese version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, Kaiba stated at the end that the only reason he tried to destroy the Pyramid of Light card during his duel with Yugi was because if the card really was magic, it would mean he didn't defeat Yugi using his own strength and he refused to win that way. However, the closest the English Kaiba has come to this is "Maybe there is some truth to this junk" in the final episodes: however, when questioned by Jonouchi, he quickly denies he ever said such a thing.
Deck
Although Kaiba's best known cards are his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons and the fusion monster formed from the three dragons, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, other Duel Monsters Cards have been utilized in his Deck, including the XYZ series.
Kaiba appears to favor the Beatdown type of strategy, meaning using cards and monsters that completely overpower his opponents.
During Duelist Kingdom his deck various brutal appearing monsters to reflect his personality. In Battle City it takes on traits of a Virus Deck, relying on removing cards from the opponents deck with cards such as Crush Card Virus, Virus Cannon and Vampire Lord]] while also focusing on summoning and using Obelisk the Tormentor. In later episodes, his deck becomes more focused on removing his monsters to the out of play zone and returning them to the field to overwhelm his opponents.
As the series progresses he adds more support for his Blue-Eyes White Dragons, such as The Flute of Summoning Dragon, Kaiser Sea Horse and Paladin of White Dragon. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX his deck is used by Kaibaman and focuses entirely on Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
| Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck | ||
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| Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Deck | ||
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| Yu-Gi-Oh! R Deck | ||
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Trivia
- In the Japanese version, the book Kaiba is reading in the first episode of Duel Monsters is Friedrich Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra.
