Ryo Bakura

Ryo Bakura is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga. In the English version, his name is Ryo Bakura, but is only called "Bakura"; as per Japanese custom, the other characters are not close enough to call him by his first name.

Yami Bakura (Dark Bakura) is his other self, released from the power of the Millennium Ring. The two rarely directly converse. Unlike the relationship between Yugi and Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura is a malignant entity, and has a separate mind, despite he and Bakura being the same person, and because of Ryo's weak will he completely suppresses his soul when he takes over.

Background
When he very young, Bakura stowed away in the cargo of a ship in Egypt while his father searched for the Millennium Ring. Once he and his father reached their location, Bakura's father approachs Shadi and is excited to see the Millennium Ring. He offers Shadi a bag of money for the item. However Shadi explains that the item is not for sale, but he can put it on, so he can be tested to see if he is worthy. When Bakura's father puts the ring on, after a few seconds, he is thrown across the room, with the ring detaching from him. Upon seeing his father be attacked by shadows in the shape of snakes. Bakura emerges from his hiding place to help him. He runs to his father, who begs him to get the ring. Bakura picks it up and a purple light is emitted. This causes him to became the host to Yami Bakura. While being controlled by Yami Bakura, Bakura was unaware that his dark half killed Shadi and started Aigami's hatred against him.

When he is a teenager, Bakura meets Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea when he is transferred to Domino High School. Bakura tells his new friends that he has a love for games of all types, particularly the RPG "Monster World". It is implied that he is the modern reincarnation of Thief King Bakura.

Personality
Bakura is a polite and slightly socially awkward friend of Yugi Muto. He is interested in gaming, especially tabletop games, with his favorite being Monster World.

In the second series his personality remains the same. But he at times tries not to let Yami Bakura control him. Nevertheless he does care about his friends as seen when he stopped Bandit Keith from harming Yugi in a were house. Years later after the ceremonial battle, it's reveal that Takahashi considered Bakura to be the most mysterious and consequently the least changed out of the major characters.

Appearance
Bakura's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi.

In the Duelist Kingdom arc he wears a white wool sweater and green undershirt. His usual outfit in following seasons consists of a blue opened shirt over a light blue and white horizontally striped t-shirt. His white hair is pointed downwards in various directions and trails half way down his back. He wears the Millennium Ring on a lace around his neck. In Millennium World, Thief King Bakura is shown with a red robe that openly shows his muscular chest, and has 4-stitched scar under his right eye.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Manga
Bakura came into possession of the Millennium Ring after his father bought it from an antique shop in Egypt. Unknown to him at the time, it contained the soul of Yami Bakura, who gained the ability to take control of his body when he wore the Ring.

Bakura used to play Monster World with his friends. He created his own miniature, a White Wizard Bakura, which he brought up to level 13 through his games. However Yami Bakura would take control of Bakura, without him knowing, and turn the games into Shadow Games. As Yami Bakura defeated Bakura's friends, he inflicted the "Mind Doll" Penalty Game on them, trapping their souls in Monster World miniatures, leaving their human bodies in comas. Bakura was aware that his friends fell into comas when he played games with them, but had no knowledge of the causation. As a result, Bakura had to keep changing schools and isolated himself by living in an apartment.

When Bakura transferred to Domino High School, ha sat next to Joey and quickly befriended him. During the lunch break of Bakura's first day, Joey introduced him to his friends Yugi, Tea and Tristan. Bakura was impressed to hear that Yugi's family owned a game store. He told his new friends about his interest in gaming and how he liked Monster World. The others liked the sound of Monster World and suggested that they play it the next day. Bakura reluctantly agreed, thinking about what happened when he played games with his older friends. Bakura asked Yugi about his Millennium Puzzle and was about to tell him that he had a similar item, but stopped after feeling a pain in his chest.

A group of girls, who thought Bakura was cute pulled him away from Joey and the others to give him a tour of the school, although he was slightly uncomfortable about this. The gym teacher, Mr. Karita, spotted Bakura with the girls and called him over and acted disrespectful towards him. He also said that boys having long hair was against the school rules and ordered him to have his hair shaved by the next day. Bakura went into the bathroom afterwards, where he heard Yami Bakura for the first time, but thought he imagined it.

As he was leaving school, he met Yugi, Joey, Tea and Tristan again, who asked about playing Monster World. However Bakura said that he could not play with them and told them about what happened to his older gaming friends.

At home, while Bakura was writing a letter to his sister, Amane, he heard Dark Bakura again. Yami Bakura introduced himself and said that he had been living inside of Bakura since he got the Millennium Ring. Bakura tried removing the Ring, but found that Yami Bakura had now pierced its prongs into his chest. As rent, Yami Bakura said that he had been granting Bakura wishes, including one to let him play games with his friends forever. He reminded Bakura of Karita before saying he was going to pay his rent tonight. Yami Bakura then took full control of him and defeated Karita in a Shadow Game.

Bakura skipped school the next day. So Yugi, Joey, Tea and Tristan came to his apartment to cheer him up. Bakura tried warning them to get out, but Yami Bakura took control, posed as Bakura, and invited them in to play a game of Monster World, which he turned into a Shadow Game.

Yami Bakura managed to trap the souls of Tea, Joey, Tristan and Yugi in their miniatures. Yami Yugi then took control of Yugi's body and continued to play on their behalf. Yami Yugi succeeded in getting Tristan's character to blow the left hand off of Yami Bakura's avatar, Zorc. Due to his connection with Zorc, Yami Bakura then lost control of his own left hand to Bakura. Bakura used that hand to make Yami Bakura miscalculate the damage Zorc inflicted on Yugi, Joey, Tea and Tristan, so that they each still had one hit point remaining.

He then typed on the laptop that he was not going to let Yami Bakura kill his friends or control him anymore. Yami Bakura slid the laptop to the other side of the table to stop Bakura interfering. However Bakura swapped Yami Bakura's brainwashed dice with regular dice on one turn and then threw the brainwashed dice on another turn, forcing Yami Bakura to get a 99, the worst possible roll. Frustrated by his meddling, Dark Bakura impaled his left hand on one of the diorama's towers to stop him. Yugi and his friends then began to suspect that the Bakura they were facing was not the same Bakura they befriended. Yami Yugi then got Yugi's character to use his training hand to pull the White Wizard Bakura out of Zorc's left arm.

The Wizard Bakura introduced himself as an NPC created by Bakura, who obeyed Bakura's will. Wizard Bakura lowered Zorc's defenses, allowing the others' attacks to do serious damage. When Zorc transformed into Last Zorc, Bakura used "White Magic Shining Shield" to defend the party from "Zorc Inferno". Not having the strength to defend them from another attack, he urged them to defeat Zorc on their next turn.

Yami Yugi's party came close to defeating Zorc. It came down to a lowest dice roll wins scenario between Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura, with Yami Bakura winning in the event of a tie. Both rolled 00. However Bakura had sealed his soul in Yami Bakura's brainwashed dice and was able to make them self-destruct, destroying his soul in the process.

Once Zorc was defeated, Yami Bakura collapsed and dropped the Millennium Ring. Yami Yugi checked on Bakura's body and reported that he was dead. However part of Bakura's soul still resided in the Wizard Bakura, so Yami Yugi rolled for the wizard who used his magic to return the soul back to Bakura's body. Everyone trapped in miniatures returned to their own bodies afterwards. A few days later, Bakura built a diorama as a memento of his and his friends adventure in Monster World.

At school, Bakura saw Yugi's grandfather, Solomon, on the screen of Yugi's camcorder and mistook the device for a video phone when Solomon spoke to him. Joey explained that Yami Yugi lost a game of Duel Monsters to an apparent video recording of the Millennium Eye holder, Maximillion J. Pegasus, after which Pegasus used his power to seal Solomon's soul in the videotape. Yugi and Joey said that they would have to go to the Duelist Kingdom Duel Monsters tournament in order to return Solomon to normal and Bakura showed interest in going to the kingdom to learn the secrets of the Millennium Items. He shocked his friends by showing them he still carried the Millennium Ring, but insisted it was safe as long as he did not wear it. Bakura went to Yugi's house after school that day. He saw Yugi's invitation and watched a videotape Joey received from his sister Serenity, but initially mistook as another tape from Pegasus. Bakura then learned about Serenity needing an operation to prevent her from going blind.

One week later, Bakura went to Domino Pier to travel to Duelist Kingdom with Yugi, who was participating to save his grandpa and Joey, who was also participating to save his sister, while Tea and Tristan who were traveling to support them. In addition to supporting Yugi and Joey, Bakura traveled to learn more about the Millennium Items. The group had to spend the night on the floor of the ship's common room, but Bakura was optimistic and said it would be fun like a sleepover. That night, he helped get the rescue equipment after Joey jumped overboard to try and save Yugi's "Exodia" cards that Weevil Underwood threw away.

In the preliminaries, Bakura cheered for Yami Yugi as he defeated Weevil, and Joey as he defeated Mai Valentine, although he initially tried to talk Joey out of accepting her challenge, fearing he would lose. As the group got hungry, they located fish cooking over a fire. It belonged to Mako Tsunami, who shared it with them, before revealing it had actually been bait to lure in Duelists. Bakura then cheered for Yami Yugi as he Dueled and defeated Mako. Bakura learned of Pegasus' plan to takeover KaibaCorp after Mokuba Kaiba tried to steal Yami Yugi's Star Chips and then supported Yami Yugi as he defeated Mimic of Doom. Finally before nightfall, he supported Jonouchi as he defeated Rex Raptor.

During the night, Bakura, Yugi, Joey, Tea and Tristan found a spot under some trees to sleep. As Bakura, Tristan and Yugi tried stopping Joey from eating a wild mushroom, Mai arrived and after teasing Joey for a bit proposed a truce for the night. She shared the supplies she had brought with the group and ordered the boys to do the cooking. Considering himself to be good a cooking, Bakura offered to do all of it, while the others did some other jobs to help prepare. After the meal, the boys went under the trees to sleep, while Tea and Mai took the tent.

Bakura, Joey and Tristan were woken when they heard the commotion from Mai and Dark Yugi's Duels with Panik. As the boys tried going back to sleep again later, they were woken by Bakura screaming as he noticed a needle on the Millennium Ring was pointing towards Pegasus Castle. He theorized that it was reacting to the Millennium Eye. He admitted to the others that learning the secrets of the Millennium Items had been one of the reasons he had come to the island and assured them that he would not put the Ring on.

The group were prevented from falling asleep again by the sound of Seto Kaiba's helicopter landing on the island. Joey challenged Kaiba to a Duel to get revenge for Death-T, but was defeated. As Tea tried telling Kaiba off for mocking Joey, Bakura tried to say that Joey was Dueling to save his sister's eyes, but Joey told him not to tell Kaiba.

The next day Joey was abducted by Bandit Keith, Bonz, Sid and Zygor. Bakura and Tristan searched Battle Boxes to see if they could find him, while Yugi and Tea checked the forest. The groups rejoined after failing to find him and Yami Yugi then saw a vision of Joey underground. They found Joey in an underground cave just after he defeated Bonz in a Duel. However before they could leave, Keith, Bonz, Sid and Zygor rolled a boulder in front of the exit.

With the Millennium Ring pointing in the direction of the Millennium Eye, Bakura was able to navigate in the direction of Pegasus Castle. This brought the group to the Meikyû Brothers' dungeon. Jonouchi and Dark Yugi Dueled and defeated the Meikyû Brother to gain access to the exit. Bakura, Anzu and Honda celebrated Dark Yugi and Jonouchi each reaching 10 Star Chips. However the group still had to solve a riddle to find which of two doors was the true exit. As they searched for clues, Dark Bakura spoke to Bakura. He asked him to put on the Ring, so that he could take control. As a master thief, Dark Bakura said he would have no problem choosing the correct door. Bakura refused at first, but when Dark Bakura pointed out that he and is friends would be trapped otherwise, he complied. Pretending to be Bakura, Dark Bakura was able to aid Dark Yugi in fooling the Meikyû Brothers into letting him choose the correct door. He returned control to Bakura afterwards.

The group were delayed from entering Pegasus Castle after Yugi lost five Star Chips in a Duel with Kaiba. As the group tried to cheer Yugi up, Bakura said that there must be some Duelists left that Yugi could win another five Star Chips from. They then met Mai Kujaku, who repaid the Yugis Star Chips that she owed them. With Yugi, Jonouchi and Mai each on ten Star Chips, the group proceeded to enter the castle. Saruwatari refused to let Bakura, Anzu and Honda inside as they were not finalists. However Jonouchi knocked him unconscious and the group entered.

Bakura watched the Duel between Kaiba and Pegasus and saw that Mokuba had had his soul stripped from his body. He tried to convince Mai that Pegasus had mind reading powers[30] and witnessed Kaiba's soul being sucked into a "Soul Prison" after he lost.

Bakura joined the finalists for a dinner party. Here he saw a portrait of Shadi. Dark Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda told him that Shadi was a Millennium Item holder, who had nearly killed them in the Trial of the Mind. This enforced Bakura's suspicions that the secrets of the Millennium Items were hidden on the island. When Honda asked Dark Yugi to try and save the Kaiba brothers from Pegasus, Jonouchi showed them no sympathy, but Bakura backed-up Honda. Although Bakura thought Kaiba seemed selfish and arrogant and did not know the full extent of what he did at Death-T, he thought that Kaiba could not be all bad, since he risked his life to save his brother. However he apologized when Jonouchi told him that he did not know what Kaiba was really like. The finalists each had a Millennium Eye replica in their soup as part of a bingo to randomize the pairings for the semi finals. Bakura asked Dark Yugi if he could have his replica eye afterwards.

After Bakura went to his room for the night, Dark Bakura took control. Bakura later regained control and found himself in the hallway being questioned by Pegasus' guards. He lied that he was looking for the bathroom and was told to use the one in his room. He met Honda as he was returning to his room and as a favor, distracted the guards, so that Honda could sneak by to look for the Kaiba brothers' bodies. Dark Bakura took control of his body again afterwards and freed Honda, who had been captured and put in the dungeon.[33]

Bakura and Honda were not present for either of the semi finals, as they had spent the night looking for Mokuba. Honda then brought him to a bedroom in the morning. As they did so, they spotted Jonouchi running around looking for his "The Honor of the King's Right". Before Dark Yugi faced Pegasus, they informed their friends where they had been. As Bakura urged Dark Yugi to kill Pegasus, Honda noticed he had been acting different, like when they were at the dungeon, but thought it was a bad time to bring the matter up.

At the beginning of Dark Yugi and Pegasus' Duel, Bakura commented on how much of an advantage Pegasus had. When asked if he was doubting if the Yugis could win, he said that he was not, but if he was in Yugi's position, he would not be able to think of a way to win.[36] He celebrated when the Yugi's used their Mind Shuffle technique to overcome Pegasus' mind reading and destroy "Toon World". However he was certain that Pegasus was keeping his better cards in reserve.

When Yugi became unconscious, due to the nature of the Shadow Game Dark Yugi was unable to perform the Mind Shuffle. However when Pegasus tried to perform another Mind Scan, he was blocked by an apparition of Bakura, Jonouchi, Yugi, Anzu and Honda. When the Yugis won, Bakura said that he felt their pain of fighting and joy of winning. Bakura then heard Pegasus say that the Millennium Items contained an evil intelligence and tell the story of how he met Shadi and acquired the Millennium Eye. He felt some sympathy for Pegasus after hearing this.

Bakura and his friends went to Mokuba's room to find his soul put back in his body. As the others went outside, Dark Bakura possessed Bakura again. He proceeded to kill Pegasus, steal his Millennium Eye, leave the replica in its place and leave undetected. After Bakura regained control, he and his friends got a lift back to Japan in Kaiba's helicopter.

Bakura attended the grand opening of the Black Clown, along with Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu and Sugoroku. As they purchased their own Dungeon Dice Monsters Booster Packs, they got separated from Yugi. In his excitement, Sugoroku invited them back to his house to try and play Dungeon Dice Monsters, without worrying about Yugi.

Later that day, he lost control to Dark Bakura, who went to the Black Crown to support Yugi in his Dungeon Dice Monsters game with Ryuji Otogi and seal a part of his soul in a piece of the Millennium Puzzle. He then returned control to Bakura, who had no idea where he was. Bakura saw Mr. Clown drag Yugi into a secret room to play the Devil's Board Game and the room caught fire just before Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Sugoroku arrived. Yugi refused to leave without the Millennium Puzzle. Jonouchi ordered Bakura and the others to get to safety, while he helped Yugi get out.

Bakura, along with Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Ryuji visited Yugi the day he was leaving the hospital after the fire.

Bakura agreed to meet Anzu, Honda and Sugoroku at the beginning of the Battle City tournament to cheer for Yugi and Jonouchi. However he stayed up all night writing an adventure for a tabletop role-playing game and showed up an hour late the next day. He met Anzu and Sugoroku, but Honda had left on a trip. As the three of them searched for Yugi and Jonouchi they found a mime that had been standing still for a day. Bakura shouted "boo" in front of him, but got no reaction.[

The group found Jonouchi chasing a thief, who had taken his Deck and Duel Disk. Unbeknownst to the others, the thief had added cards to Jonouchi's Deck. Bakura was skeptical about the thief's excuse that he was a competitor and had his own Deck and Duel Disk stolen. He questioned Jonouchi's decision to Duel the person the thief claimed stole his Duel Disk. While the thief was fetching Jonouchi's opponent, Jonouchi told the others that Shizuka's eye operation had been a success and that he was fighting to give her the courage to remove her eye bandages. Jonouchi's opponent, Insector Haga, then arrived. Bakura watched as Jonouchi defeated Haga.

Bakura pointed out how the two cards Jonouchi had won through the ante rule, "Jinzo" and "Insect Queen" were weird and scary. Jonouchi thought Bakura was making fun of him at first, but Bakura said that he loved grotesque cards and would like to have them in his Occult Deck. The idea of an Occult Deck, made Jonouchi afraid to Duel Bakura.

As Jonouchi searched for his next opponent, Dark Bakura possessed Bakura as the Millennium Ring had sensed the presence of Marik Ishtar's Millennium Rod. Dark Bakura separated from the others, who thought Bakura got lost in the crowd. He then stole a Duel Disk and Puzzle Card from a tournament participant and confronted Marik. Dark Bakura agreed to help Marik in exchange for his Millennium Rod. To help him get close to Yugi's friends, Dark Bakura stabbed Bakura's armed and relinquished control to Bakura, who fell unconscious.

Marik brought Bakura to outside the aquarium and began helping him walk. Anzu, Jonouchi and Sugoroku spotted Bakura. Marik explained that he found Bakura unconscious in the street and treated him as best he could. Bakura had no recollection of how he had been injured or where he got the Duel Disk. The Duel Disk's original owner then arrived with a friend. Marik got injured trying to defend Bakura from them and Jonouchi fought the two of them off. Sugoroku then called a taxi in order to take Bakura to the hospital. Marik won their trust from this event and lied that his name was Namu.

Bakura was taken the hospital and given a room. As soon as Sugoroku took his eyes off him, Dark Bakura took control and slipped out. He defeated and took the lives of other participants, qualifying Bakura for the finals.

At Domino Stadium, Dark Bakura met some of the other finalists and returned control to Bakura. Marik used the Millennium Rod on Bakura to brainwash him into not feeling the pain of his injury. Bakura insisted that he did not need to go to the hospital and offered to let Jonouchi touch his wound. He said that he entered the tournament to Duel Yugi and Jonouchi and acted as though he had won the Puzzle Cards himself. When asked how he got his Duel Disk, he said it was a secret. Yugi was suspicious that Dark Bakura could be involved and could not believe that Bakura would enter the tournament himself.

When Marik, still under the alias Namu, arrived at the stadium, Yugi and Jonouchi began to feel suspicious of him, but Bakura and Anzu, under the influence of the Millennium Rod, thanked Marik for helping Bakura earlier and insisted that he was their friend. As Rishid, who was pretending to be Marik arrived, Bakura showed Yugi that the Millennium Ring was pointing towards him. The finalists and their friends then boarded the Battle Ship for the quarter finals.

A bingo machine determined the pairings for the finals, starting with Yugi and Bakura. At the beginning of the Duel, Dark Bakura took control and revealed himself to Dark Yugi. As Dark Yugi was about to win, Rishid, still pretending to be Marik, arrived and claimed that Bakura was being possessed by the Millennium Rod. He said he would release his real personality and Bakura was then given back control of his body. He began to feel the pain of his wound, which had more of an effect on him than Dark Bakura. Rishid explained that if Dark Yugi attacked with "Slifer the Sky Dragon", it would kill Bakura. Dark Bakura was unhappy with Marik's plan, so he took back control of Bakura's body and allowed Dark Yugi to attack him, insisting that he would not let Bakura die. Dark Yugi complied and won the Duel.[56] After the Duel, Bakura was taken to a room to be treated and Anzu, under Marik's influence, took the Millennium Ring to stop Dark Bakura taking control of Bakura again.

A piece of Marik's soul still existed within Bakura's body from when he had possessed him before. After Dark Marik took control of Marik's body, Marik helped Dark Bakura regain control of Bakura and the two used his body to confront Dark Marik.[58] Dark Marik defeated them in a Duel and took the Millennium Ring.

The next time Bakura woke up, he was buried under the rubble on Alcatraz just after Dark Yugi defeated Dark Marik in the tournament finals. He made his way back to the Battle Ship and washed up. He found Mai had recently woken up after suffering one of Dark Marik's Penalty Games. She told him to pretend that she had stopped breathing in order to fool Jonouchi. Afterwards, he asked where the Millennium Ring was. His friends lied that they did not know, as they did not want him to get possessed again.

It was announced that the Duel Tower on Alcatraz was going to self-destruct soon and that the Kaiba brothers were not on the blimp. As Bakura searched for Kaiba, he found the Millennium Ring in Yugi's room. He was happy to find it and put it back on, but thought it was mean of Yugi to lie to him. After the Duel Tower blew-up, Bakura and the others went back to Japan, while the Kaibas went to America.

Dark Bakura took advantage of Bakura's diorama building hobby and the fact that Bakura's father was the owner of Domino Museum. He got Bakura to construct a diorama of an ancient Egyptian city and had it set up in a secret room in the museum, along with the mummy of Akhenadin, both of which were tools of the Shadow RPG, he intended to play with Dark Yugi.

One night, Dark Bakura possessed Bakura to stop a thief from stealing Yugi's Egyptian God Cards and give Yugi the Millennium Eye. The next day, Bakura went to school tired, unaware that his body had been awake late the night before. He, Yugi, Anzu, Jonouchi and Honda discussed Dark Yugi regaining his memories and Dark Yugi assured them that he would not forget them if he got his old memories back.

After school, as part of the ritual to regain Dark Yugi's memories, Bakura and his friends went to the Museum, where Dark Yugi was to present the Egyptian God Cards to a tablet. After doing so, Dark Yugi left Yugi's body and Bobasa explained that he had went to the Memory World[66] to relive his past, including his death. Bobasa said that the others were allowed to enter the Memory World to help him, but before that he used the Millennium Scales to test them. Since Bakura shared his body with Dark Bakura, the Scales detected evil in his heart and he was not allowed to enter.

Dark Bakura took control of Bakura's body to play the Shadow RPG in the museum with Dark Yugi.[62] Dark Bakura was finally defeated in the Shadow RPG and the Millennium Ring was taken away from Bakura for the last time.

Bakura and his friends traveled to Egypt for Dark Yugi, who now knew his name was Atem, to finally rest. Here the Millennium Items were placed in the Millennium Stone and Yugi and Atem engaged in the Ceremonial Battle. After Yugi's victory, they watched Atem pass on the afterlife and had to quickly leave as the underground temple began to collapse, burying the Millennium Items with it. Bakura and the others returned to Domino City afterwards.

Duelist Kingdom arc
Bakura is first seen in the first episode, watching Yugi Muto duel Joey Wheeler, and then again when Joey is dueling Téa Gardner. His face is not seen until he is on the cruise ship to the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. Bakura was not selected by Maximillion Pegasus to be an official duelist in the tournament, and thus did not possess a Dueling Gauntlet and two star chips, which were required for entry onto the ship. In the manga, Bakura went on the boat with Yugi and his friends. In the anime, Bakura first makes contact with the group when he confronts them on the island, although he is seen by Téa Gardner a few times prior to this, however she thought her mind was playing tricks on her. His favorite card was revealed to be Change Of Heart, most likely to represent him and his darker self.

In the anime, Yami Bakura traps Yugi Muto, his friends and the good Bakura into their favorite Duel Monster cards, leaving Yami Yugi to save his friends lives. This is the anime's outlook on the first series anime and manga's Monster World RPG story arc. To further support this, the cards each member inhabits are similar to that of which they inhabited in the RPG. When defeated, Yami Yugi sent Yami Bakura to the Graveyard. During Yugi and Joey's Duel against The Paradox Brothers, Bakura found out that Yami Bakura was his evil self, as he was told this by Yami Bakura.

Bakura stayed with the group up until Yugi's defeat of Maximillion Pegasus. After which Yami Bakura challenges Pegasus to another Shadow Game, and defeats him, taking his Millennium Eye.

Battle City arc
After Téa told Bakura that Yugi's Puzzle was stolen, Yami Bakura took over and used his Ring to locate the Puzzle. When Yami Bakura detected that the Millennium Puzzle was nearby, he saw Yugi dueling with Bandit Keith, possessed by Marik Ishtar. After He breaks Marik's control over Keith the good Bakura takes over. Keith shattered the Millennium Puzzle and Ryo Bakura went to Yugi's rescue, knocking Keith back. Yami Bakura took advantage of the opportunity to seal a fragment of his soul into a piece of the Millennium Puzzle.

Bakura is stabbed in the arm by Yami Bakura as part of Yami Bakura and Marik Ishtar's plan to get the trust of Yugi. Ryo doesn't know how he got the injury, but Marik helps him out, winning the trust of Yugi's friends.

Although Yami Bakura manages to collect a Duel Disk and the required number of Locator Cards to enter the finals, Ryo tells his friends that he acquired them himself, but doesn't go into details on how he got them. Yugi is shocked that Bakura is still hanging onto the Ring.

Yami Bakura faces Yugi in the quarter finals and narrowly loses. But to avoid defeat Marik orders Yami Bakura to let Ryo take control. With Ryo, weaker than Yami Bakura and still injured from the stab, Yugi's last attack would cause a critical injury to Bakura. Yami Bakura refuses to take the risk, as he needs Ryo Bakura to survive. He retakes control and lets Yugi attack him. Bakura is left in a coma and the Ring is lost in the Duel, but was returned by Téa being controlled. Marik in Téa's body insists on Bakura's assistance. An evil self of Marik had gained control of his body. Yami Bakura challenged what was now Marik, and ultimately lost. The Ring then fell into the hands of Yami Marik.

Battle City Finals arc
After Yugi defeats Marik, Marik relinquishes the ring to Yugi for Ryo's own safety. Bakura wakes from his coma after Yugi defeats Marik.

Battle City Finals Saga
After Yugi defeats Marik, Marik relinquishes the ring to Yugi for Ryo's own safety. Bakura wakes from his coma after Yugi defeats Marik.

Dawn of the Duel arc
In the Millennium World Yami Bakura takes the Millennium Ring back from Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, who mistakenly took Yugi's Millennium Items while trying to steal his Egyptian God Cards. In the manga, Ryo tags along with his friends to the museum. There, Bobasa shows them the gate to the Millennium World. When the gang is about to go in, Bobasa says Ryo isn't allowed because he has a dark evil surrounding him. Ryo runs out crying. Dark Bakura says he doesn't need him anymore anyway, and leaves him, going into the Millennium World.

Soon after Yami Bakura engages in a Shadow RPG which recreated the events of Yami Yugi's own life. After Yami Bakura ventures to the Memory World through the Shadow RPG, Ryo is finally free from his control following the destruction of Zorc and the subsequent destruction of Yami Bakura due to the fact that Yami Bakura merged his spirit with Zorc's in the past therefore when Zorc was destroyed, so was Yami Bakura because his spirit would no longer exist in the present time. To clarify, during the Shadow RPG, Yami Bakura transferred his spirit and Yami Yugi's to their Millennium World counterparts, therefore Yami Bakura became one with Zorc which is why he was destroyed when Zorc was. After the game, Ryo was seen collapsed on the R.P.G. table, and Joey thought it was a good idea to give Bakura's ring back to Yugi.

Ceremonial Battle arc
Ryo Bakura travels with Yugi and co. to Egypt to witness Yami Yugi's departure and the Ceremonial Battle. After the Ceremonial Battle is over, he reurns to Domino City with the others.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions
Bakura will make an appearance in this film.

Knownable Relatives

 * Unnamed Mother (mother)
 * Unnamed Father (father)

Trivia

 * His birthday is September 2, and his bloodtype is AB.
 * His favorite food is Profiterole. While his least favorite food is Raw oyster.
 * Bakura shares the same Japanese voice actress as Ash Ketchum from Pokemon.
 * Bakura shares the same English voice actor as Jack Atlas from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

Voice Actresses & Actors

 * Japanese voice actress : the late Yo Inoue (Duelist Kingdom arc), Rica Matsumoto (for the rest of the anime series successing the role after Yo Inoue's tragic death from cancer on March 28, 2003), Tsutomu Kashiwakura (Season 0)

all information on Ryo Bakura came from http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ryo_Bakura
 * English : Ted Lewis