Kujaku Mai



A very admirable character, Kujaku Mai (tragically named Mai Valentine in the dub) is another of the rare females in the series. Having a lonely past involving working at a casino, Mai never really had a chance to have friends. Seeing people lose themselves through gambling was quite enough for her, so she went to seek something more. That's when dueling came into the picture.

Mai met Yugi and gang at Duelist Kingdom. Not wanting this concept of friendship coming between her and her success, she was a very tough nut to crack. Mai wound up being defeated by Jounouchi/Joey. Although Honda/Tristan and Anzu/Té tried to take down her emotional barricades, it wasn't until Yugi defeated Player Killer (Panik), who seized all of Mai's star chips, that she started to soften up. She was reluctant to accept those chips, but upon taking them, she said that her dream of dueling Yugi (as a standard of superiority...?) would not be able to take place until she repaid him (which she did after Yugi lost to Kaiba).

Finally, Mai dueled Yugi, but Yugi came out on top. Not stopping there, she entered the Battle City tournament, hoping to defeat Yugi and Jounouchi. Sometime around the finals, Mai felt as though the people she was starting to believe were her friends did not really care about her. With that burdenous feeling on her back, she dueled Yami Marik in the quarter-finals. Because of the nature of the duel (shadow game), her loss resulted in a game punishment, which was to sit in an hourglass (counting down 24 hours) to lose her mind and eventually become a sacrifice to darkness (NOTE: In the Doom arc, she muses over this incident.). Of course, she revived when Yugi defeated Marik.

Of everyone, Mai seems to be closest to Jounouchi. This is amplified in the animé, which makes them seem like they really like each other.