Yuri (ユーリ Yūri), sometimes romanized as Joeri[3][4][5][6] in the Japanese version, is a character and one of the primary antagonists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime, and is a member of Duel Academy. He is the Fusion Dimension counterpart of Yuya Sakaki (Standard Dimension), Yugo (Synchro Dimension) and Yuto (Xyz Dimension), and one of Z-ARC's reincarnations. Yuri is one of Duel Academy's ace Duelists, the most loyal to the Professor, and the person responsible for kidnapping Rin and Lulu Obsidian. Yuri is the only incarnation of Z-ARC that retains his sadistic tendencies and lust for power even when not Awakened, something that horrifies even Leo Akaba. Yuri's face resembles that of his counterparts. He has very short, thick, pink eyebrows and purple eyes. Like his counterparts, his hair is two-toned, in his case being uniformly violet with pink underneath - his fringes extending to frame his face, with two pointing upwards. His outfit appears to be an officer's uniform of sorts, consisting of a purple and light blue waistcoat, pink cravat, a two-part cape of red and purple that resembles Yuya Sakaki's coat, a purple abbreviated coat with thick cuffs and gold shoulder bands with an amber-colored setting, fastened at the collar bone, and light blue pants tucked into silver-tinted leather boots. When he kidnapped Lulu and Rin, Yuri wore a brown hooded cloak that obscured his identity. Yuri and his dimensional counterparts' attire and hair are all based on the color of the cards that their dimensions are based on. As such, Yuri wears purple like the color of Fusion Monsters, and the top layer of his hair is purple. Yuri's design also seems to take cues from those of his dimensional counterparts; wearing a cape resembling Yuya's coat, a long coat that evokes Yuto's torn one, and a short jacket similar in form to Yugo's. As a child, Yuri wore purple-colored long-sleeved shirt with a pocket on the left side of the chest, orange-colored buttons and black-colored collar, white pants and brown shoes. Unlike his dimensional counterparts, Yuri is very cruel and ruthless with sociopathic tendencies, freely admitting he was the one who kidnapped Lulu and Rin. A very sadistic Duelist, Yuri has never considered that there is anything wrong with sealing people into cards and enjoys the act instead.[2] Yuri also likes taunting anyone he's speaking to, often playing mind games to lure his opponents into a false sense of security. Like many other Fusion Duelists, Yuri takes malicious pleasure in their mission, seen when he pursued Zuzu, Rin, and Lulu, likening the activity to a game of hide-and-seek. However, his joy for it seems to exceed any other member of Duel Academy, ultimately not even caring about the Arc Project. His drive for carding people is simply to prove himself stronger than anyone else, his ideal world being one where he stands alone as the best, something that concerned even Leo Akaba, the person who set him on this path. As a child training at Duel Academy, his talent and constant winning made others fear and avoid him, never allowing him to make any friends. This seemingly caused his self-serving and vicious aspect to take root. During his duel with Alexis Rhodes, Yuri came to understand the feeling of having things that he cared about ripped away from him. Despite this, he still sticks to his self-serving ideals, taking personal delight in defeating a former fellow honor student. In the English Dub, it is implied that Yuri didn't start out uncaring and evil by himself, but due to that Leo never disciplined him properly and let him had his own way as a child, spoiled him and left him with loose morality, as well as caring only for the challenge and pleasure from dueling without consideration for others [7] . Ironically, because of this, Yuri gained loyalty and trust toward Leo, whom he believed to be the only one who understands his talent and thus, willing to follow any of Leo's orders to the bitter end [8] [9]. It is also known that Yuri doesn't understand the concept of love due to never truly receive one himself, angrily shouting at Yusho for believing in such.[10] In a similar manner to Yuya, entertainment is a crucial part of Yuri's character, but rather than seeking to entertain other people, he largely entertains himself, following his belief that only the winner of a duel should smile. To this end he encourages his opponents to try their hardest against him, with ironically Yuya himself being the one exception as Yuri was impatient to absorb him, though he admitted that he was pleased to see Yuya continue fighting. In contrast to his counterparts, who reject their status as fragments of Z-ARC and the compulsion to become one, Yuri embraces this wholeheartedly once he learns about it, pursuing both Yugo and then Yuya relentlessly and encouraging them to become one with him. Even after losing to Yuya, he encouraged Yuya to absorb him quickly. After Z-ARC's soul was expelled from him and his counterparts, his soul residing in Yuya's body ever since, and with his wish to become one with his counterparts fulfilled even if he's not the one in control, Yuri seems to have had a change of heart. He no longer showed any cruel tendencies nor his arrogance he once had and even gave encouragement and full support to Yuya together with Yuto and Yugo without any sign of hostility between them, as they all accepted that they were once the same person. Yuri speaks politely, and he is not above complimenting his enemies; sincerely praising Zuzu for evading him for a whole night and admiring Yugo's "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon", though it's unclear if he does this respectfully or as a tactical mind game as it tends to vary. He has shown some degree of honor as he took his loss to Yuya with humidity and willingly offered to return his father that he trapped into a card to. He is very loyal to the Professor and will fulfill his orders without question, going as far as eliminating anyone who he perceives to be hindering his mission, even his own comrades. Yuri appears to possess high levels of endurance, jumping from a moderately high rooftop to the ground with little consequence. He is also shown to be incredibly athletic and acrobatic as he shown to leap to different buildings in New Domino City, and perform a front flip when he and the Obelisk Force found Celina. Like his dimensional counterparts, Yuri can become Awakened.[11] He loses this ability after Riley Akaba removed Z-ARC's soul from him.[12] Yuri also possesses the ability to Synchronize with his dimensional counterparts, during which he uses their personal pronoun of "ore" rather than his usual "boku".[11] After entering a synchronized awakening with his counterparts, Yuri ended up under the control of an unknown darkness.[13] Eventually, he learned to control the darkness after it returned again when the Four Dimension Dragons were all out at the same time.[14] After absorbing Yugo, Yuri gained better control as he was able to use the darkness as a weapon to attack Yusho Sakaki and Declan Akaba as well as being able to sense Yuya's presence.[15] During his Duels, Yuri's pupils tend to become slitted like a serpent's just before he finishes his opponent off. Yuri's speech in the Japanese version is very polite, in comparison to the rough and often-vulgar speech that Yugo uses. Yuri uses the personal pronoun of "boku" rather than the "ore" usually used by his counterparts and refers to others by the term "kimi". In the dub, Yuri's tone is much more mocking in general, though he retains his willingness to give compliments, and his smoother speech contrasts Yugo's roughness. His voice is similar to Yuya's, but with a posher tone, reflecting his spoiled upbringing by Leo. Additionally, Yuri's tone becomes similar to Z-ARC's during his duel with Yuya, reflecting the Supreme King's influence on him. Unlike most Fusion Duelists, who intertwine their fingers to symbolize Fusion, Yuri instead claps his hands together. Yuri was an orphan, having no memory of his parents or his life. As a boy, he was enrolled into Duel Academy, though he had difficulty making friends due to his strong methods of dueling. One day, while sitting on a bench watching the other students greet newcomer Alexis Rhodes, he met Celina and Leo Akaba, who told him of his crucial role in the Arc Project.[2] Leo then took Yuri under his wing, taught him everything he knows and appreciated his talent, earning Yuri's loyalty. However, Yuri was never disciplined for his wrongdoing, and he was spoiled, resulting in his loose morality and willingness to do anything for his own desire, without caring for the others, something that Leo never noticed. After Dennis McField greenlit the invasion of the Xyz Dimension, Yuri and Dennis met Lulu Obsidian in the Resistance base camp when she was queuing up to draw water. He pursued her and she challenged him to a Duel after he cornered her in an alleyway. Yuri agreed, warning Lulu that he would take her with him to the Professor if she lost. Yuri defeated Lulu, captured her, and brought her back with him to Duel Academy. After the invasion, Yuri went to the Synchro Dimension on Leo's order to kidnap Rin. He succeeded in tracking her down and securing her in the Commons slums just as Yugo arrived on the scene and escaped using "Violet Flash". He was then seen at Heartland, secretly watching the confrontation between Yugo and Yuto from behind a building.[18] Yuri has great admiration for Leo as the one who gave him a home at Duel Academy when he had no one, therefore views him as the closest person in his life as a parental figure. Although these feelings may have been one sided since Yuri was one of Z-ARC's incarnations, the being that destroyed his world, Leo saw him as nothing beyond a soldier to assist his project and views their relationship as mostly professional. Since they were younger, Yuri has had rivalry with Alexis as the two best Duelists in Duel Academy, furthermore Yuri had always been jealous of Alexis who was admired and loved by their peers while he was feared and left alone with no one to socialize or admire his own talents. Like Yuri, Yuya is one of Z-ARC's incarnations from the Standard Dimension, the two complete opposites of each other as Yuya's ideology of making people smile with his dueling contradict Yuri's who duel to satisfy himself. Yuri felt somewhat jealous of Yuya's relationship with his dad, having never experience it himself not even from Leo, Yuri took great satisfaction in stomping on it when he defeated Yusho, trapping him in a card and rubbing it in front of Yuya, whose anger nearly allowed Z-ARC to take over. As per Z-ARC's influence, Yuri desire to defeat Yuya to absorb and gain greater power. When Yuri was defeated, he respected Yuya's win and willingly offered to return his dad to him, but not before Z-ARC had completely taken over and absorbed Yuri to be complete. After Z-ARC was defeated, Yuri's spirit remained inside Yuya as well as their other counterparts and now assists and encourages Yuya to use their cards to win his duels. Yuri plays a "Predaplant" Deck that focuses on Fusion Summoning "Starving Venom Fusion Dragon", and if its Material is on the field, it will be much stronger. Like his Honor Student Deck, this Deck also includes "Super Polymerization".[6][26] With the effect of "Predaplant Squid Drosera", Yuri can use "Starving Venom" to efficiently defeat several opponents at once in a manner similar to Shay Obsidian with his "Rise Falcon", profiting off of the presence of many enemy monsters, then attacking all of them.[26] After getting his "Fusion Dragon" on the field, Yuri forces his opponent into a situation that they must destroy it to survive its vicious effect that steals the ATK and effect of their monster, only to trigger the vicious "Nuke-Burn" effect of "Fusion Dragon". After that, he tries to bring his "Fusion Dragons" back in play to repeat this vicious loop. After Yuri defeated Yugo, "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" came into his possession. To make actual use of this monster, Yuri added cards to his Deck to support it, including "Ultra Polymerization" to turn a monster used in a Fusion Summon involving that card into a Tuner. Much like Yugo, Yuri takes advantage of the effect of "Clear Wing" by activating it multiple times, and even by using on his own monsters, including "Starving Venom Fusion Dragon". He can take this to extreme levels with "Destruction Flower" and "Destruction Fruit", as he can use them with those monsters in his possession to form a controlled loop that keeps on damaging his opponent.