Seto Kaiba
From Janime
Seto Kaiba
 |
|
|---|---|
| Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga), Yu-Gi-Oh! (Toei series), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX | |
| Dub Name | Seto Kaiba |
| First Appearance | Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Vol. 2, Duel 9 |
| Birth Date | October 25th |
| Known Relatives | Mokuba Kaiba (brother), Gozaburo Kaiba (adoptive father), Noa Kaiba (adoptive brother), Priest Seto (past incarnate) |
| Height | 186cm. |
| Weight | 65kg. |
| Favourite Food | Filet mignon with foie gras |
| Least Favourite Food | Oden |
| Signature Card | Blue-Eyes White Dragon |
| Seiyuu | Hikaru Midorikawa (Toei series), Kiyomi Yazaki (NAS series younger), Kenjiro Tsuda (NAS series older) |
| VA | Eric Stuart |
Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人 Kaiba Seto) is Yugi Mutou's fated rival. As he discovers Yugi's skill in his own favorite game, Duel Monsters (Magic and Wizards in the original Japanese manga), he yearns to defeat him to regain his title of the best gamer in Japan. Seto also owns the prestigious Kaiba Corporation game company, which he took over from his cruel adoptive father, Gozaburo Kaiba. Cold and unfeeling on the outside, Seto's younger brother Mokuba is one of the few people who can make him open up.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Personality
Seto Kaiba is intensely arrogant and proud, and accepts absolutely no failure. Once a penniless orphan, he clawed his way up to the top and took the helm of Kaiba Corporation after being adopted by Gozaburo Kaiba, the previous CEO and taking the 'Kaiba' family name. Seto likes to control his own life, which is why he despises such things as 'fate'. At the end of the Yu-Gi-Oh series, Kaiba does acknowledge the events of his 'past life,' although he remains the least receptive of the Yu-Gi-Oh main cast.
When Seto Kaiba is originally introduced in the manga he is not at all honorable, stealing Sugoroku Mutou's incredibly rare Blue-Eyes White Dragon card without a second thought. The penalty game he receives from Dark Yugi gives him constant nightmares, and begins his long-lasting desire to get revenge on Yugi. He obsession reaches its peak when he builds Death-T, a deadly theme park inside the world's first Kaiba Land, for the express purpose of torturing and killing Yugi and his friends. His mind is cleared when Dark Yugi deals him a Mind Crush penalty game. From there, a new Seto Kaiba is born. Still hungry for victory, Seto remembers what is most important to him: his little brother Mokuba.
Mokuba is Seto's raison d'être and he will go to any length to protect him. After entering the harsh world of business, Seto forgets just how important Mokuba is to him and mistreats him, but the bond they share is able to overcome their dark history. Seto comes to Mokuba's rescue countless times, against all the odds, and Mokuba is hopelessly loyal to him.
Seto's signature card is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and he goes to extreme lengths in the series to obtain all three (four including the one he ripped up so it could never be used against him). His obsession with the card spills over to other areas of his life as well, and he frequently uses the BEWD motif to decorate his personal effects - e.g., his amusement park, his clothing, and his jet. According to Kazuki Takahashi, this obsession stems from the relationship between his ancient Egyptian incarnate, Priest Seto, and the girl Kisara (whose soul harbored the Blue-Eyes White Dragon).
Seto is constantly living in the shadow of his deceased adoptive father, Gozaburo Kaiba. Although it was Seto himself who won his right to be adopted by defeating Gozaburo in a game of chess, the Kaiba Corporation CEO put him through brutal training schemes, teaching him to be the best - or else. Eventually, Seto's mind became so warped that he began to see losing as equal to death. Due to the sorrow in his past, Seto lives for the future, which is one of the things that puts him at odds with Dark Yugi, who is trying to discover the mysteries of the past. Even though Seto does not want it, their two pasts are intertwined back to Ancient Egypt, where Seto's Egyptian incarnate was one of the Pharaoh's priests.
Since Seto lives to win, the presence of Yugi in his life is entirely necessary. Yugi helps him to understand and overcome the hatred in his heart and the two become both rivals and allies. When Yugi is facing off against the seemingly-indestructible God Card, Osiris the Heavenly Dragon, it is Seto who motivates him to carry on. Seto also gives over the Devil's Sanctuary card to Yugi to slightly raise the chances of Yugi defeating Dark Marik's Sun Dragon Ra, even though Seto is already eliminated from the tournament. In the end, he wants to be the only one to defeat Yugi at Duel Monsters.
[edit] Appearance
Battle City, KC Grand Prix
Seto is normally recognizable by his brown hair and blue eyes, except in the Toei series, where he instead has dazzling bright green hair and golden yellow eyes. In his manga introduction and throughout Death-T, Seto wears an entirely white suit with a high collar, when he's not in his Domino High uniform. During Duelist Kingdom and very occasionally from then on, he instead wears a blue coat. For Battle City and beyond, Seto wears his iconic white trench coat over a black shirt. This is worn for the rest of the series, although he briefly exchanges it for a white tuxedo during the KC Grand Prix.
[edit] Biography
[edit] First Appearance and Death-T
Kaiba is introduced in Duel 9 of the manga as a classmate of Yugi and world champion of the card game Duel Monsters. Upon paying a visit to Sugoroku's game shop, he found out that Sugoroku owned a Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Kaiba wanted to trade for it, but Sugoroku refused the offer. When Yugi brought the card to school the next day, Kaiba asked to see it and switched the the real card with a fake copy. Yugi obviously saw through it and whe he confronted Kaiba about it, he got hit by Kaiba's briefcase. Later, Yugi's alter ego challenges Kaiba to a game of Duel Monsters, the prize the Blue Eyes card. Kaiba comes close to winning the duel by cheating, but due to the magical theme of the game, Kaiba was not able to attack with the monster and is defeated. Bitter over the loss, Kaiba plots his vengeance against Yugi, and during this time, eventually obtains the other 3 Blue Eyes White Dragon cards. Kaiba then invites Yugi for the grand opening of his Kaiba Land indoor amusement park, as well as to watch a duel between himself, and Sugoroku, who was brought there when Kaiba threaten Sugorku with Yugi's life. Despite playing his cards well, Kaiba claims victory and has Soguroko experience a virtual sensation of death. In order to get Kaiba to turn off the simulator, Yugi agreed to participate in Kaiba Land's secret attraction that was Death-T, a theme park of death, designed to end the lives of Yugi and his friends.
After completing the challenges (as well as defeating Mokuba in a another match of Capsule Monsters Chess), Kaiba challenges Yugi for a rematch. While Kaiba proves to be a formidable opponent with the power of the three Blue-Eyes in his deck, Yugi ultimately wins by forming Exodia. Yugi then uses the power of his Millennium Puzzle to Mind Crush Kaiba, shattering his mind to pieces and leaving Kaiba comatose.
[edit] Duelist Kingdom
[edit] Battle City and Noa
At the beginning of Battle City, Kaiba is summoned to the Domino City museum by Egyptologist Ishizu Ishtar, where Kaiba is shown the ancient stone tablet that depicts the duel between his past self (Priest Seto) and the Pharaoh. Although Kaiba does not believe into Ishizu's warning that history was sure to repeat itself, he is greatly interested by her tale of the Egyptian God Cards - three massively powerful one-of-a-kind Duel Monsters cards that Pegasus has entrusted to her. Two, however, were already stolen by her brother Marik, and she gives the third - Obelisk the Tormentor - to Kaiba, encouraging him to hold a tournament of his own to draw in Marik and his organization, the Rare Hunters. Seeking to obtain the remaining two God Cards for himself, Kaiba agrees, and begins his "Battle City" tournament, which Yugi and Jonouchi Katsuya become participants in. During the tournament, Kaiba easily defeats his opponents using Obelisk the Tormentor while Yugi wins his own God card, Slifer the Sky Dragon. Eventually, Kaiba reluctantly teams up with Yugi to rescue Mokuba and Yugi's friends from Marik. Afterwards, Yugi, Kaiba and Joey enter the finals, unaware that Marik has made a deal with Yami Bakura, and he, along with Marik and Marik's stepbrother Odion, are registered as well. During his duel in the finals, Kaiba duels Ishizu herself. After receiving a vision of Kisara from Marik's Millennium Rod, the same Millennium Item his past self owned, Kaiba forgoes his originally desired strategy of using Obelisk the Tormentor to defeat her and sacrifices it to summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. With the White Dragon, Kaiba manages to trump Ishizu's prophecy of defeat and claim victory.
in the midst of the Battle City tournamet, the Big Five's digital consciousnesses are discovered stranded in cyberspace by a mysterious boy named Noah, who recruits them for a revenge campaign against Kaiba. The craft taking the Battle City duelists to KaibaCorp Island for the finals is hijacked by Noah, who then traps Kaiba, Yugi and several of Yugi's friends in his own rendering of the virtual world, forcing them to duel the Big Five.
As Yugi and his friends defeat the Big Five, Kaiba's past is revealed, and Noah ultimately admits to being Gozaburo Kaiba's biological son, and claims his mind exists as a computer program after he was fatally wounded as a child and subsequently digitized. Although Kaiba ignores Noah's claims and duels him, Mokuba is more sympathetic of Noah's blighting by Gozaburo, who began to neglect Noah and breed Kaiba as his new heir. After Noah is defeated, Gozaburo reveals himself as alive and inside the virtual world, and sets a series of orbital missiles to launch and destroy the world. While Kaiba stops Gozaburo, a reformed Noah reprograms on of the satellites to attack the main computer database and helps Yugi and his friends escape. Afterwards, the anime continues on to the Battle City finals.
[edit] Doma
[edit] Kaiba Corporation Grand Prix
[edit] Memory World
In the Memory World arc of the manga and anime, Kaiba is revealed to be the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian priest Seto, holder of the Millenium Rod and cousin to the pharaoh Atem (whose spirit inhabits the body of Yugi Mutou in the present day). When the Pharaoh comes under threat from Thief King Bakura, Seto has many villagers gathered together so that he might identify those with powerful "Ka" - monsters created by the power of their souls - that may help to defend the Pharaoh's rule. During his search Seto takes into custody a girl named Kisara, whose Ka is revealed to be the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Seto and Kisara develop strong feelings for each other, culminating in Kisara sacrificing herself to save Seto from Akhenaden (who was in fact possessed by Zork Necrophedius). In the aftermath, Seto holds Kisara's body in front of the BEWD tablet and weeps - notably, this is the "vision" which appears to Kaiba during his duel with Ishizu in Battle City. According to Kazuki Takahashi, Priest Seto's feelings for Kisara are the reason behind Kaiba's obsession with the "Blue Eyes White Dragon."
Seto subsequently assists Atem in the battle against Zork Necrophedius using the BEWD. After Zork is defeated, Atem says that his reign is over, and names Seto the new pharaoh. Priest Seto then creates the famous stone carving of the two of them as a tribute to their friendship. See "Priest Seto" for more info on Seto's role during the Memory World.
Although Seto Kaiba himself plays no direct part in the memory world in the manga, in the anime, Yami Bakura gives him the Millennium Eye, which begins to show Kaiba visions and convinces him to fly to Egypt (where he is subsequently transported into the Pharaoh's Memory World). During the final battle, Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, shown in the anime as a three-way fusion between his own spirit, that of Kisara, and that of Priest Seto. He is able to hold his ground against Zork, something that even the three gods were unable to do. Zork later explains that the Blue Eyes White Dragon is the "ultimate creature of light," and when pitted against Zork - "the ultimate creature of darkness" - its power is greater than any other force on earth. Kaiba later protects Yugi and his friends using his Ring of Defense, giving Atem more time to re-summon and fuse the Egyptian God Cards.
After returning to the present he wishes to duel Atem in the Ceremonial Battle, but is refused the privilege as Yugi states his intentions to duel the Pharaoh. He responds to the refusal saying he didn't come this far to see Yugi lose his title to his imaginary friend. Nevertheless Kaiba watches the duel and witnesses the Pharaoh separate from Yugi's body and finally be put to rest. During the duel, he for the first time openly shows respect for Yugi by calling him the "True King of Games" when he defeats all three Egyptian God Cards in a single turn. In the original Japanese anime, Kaiba eventually does acknowledge his past and the events that occurred in the Memory World, although he warns Katsuya to keep his mouth shut about it.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! R
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX
Kaiba rarely makes appearances in the GX series despite owning Duel Academia. Kaiba first appears making a bet with the brothers of Jun Manjoume, Chosaku and Shoji, that puts the ownership of his Academia on the line depending on the winner of a duel between two of the Manjoume brothers. He reappears later as the host of a Kaiba Corporation competition to send Duel Monsters cards in space, which Judai Yuki wins. In his last appearance he is approached by Takuma Saiou who requests the use of a Kaiba Land.
Also appearing in GX is a Duel Spirit known as Kaibaman, a superhero based off of Seto Kaiba and uses a Blue Eyes themed deck. Kaibaman defeats Judai in a duel inside the Duel Monsters Spirit World, and teaches him a valuable lesson about the importance of dueling for fun.
[edit] Duel Monsters/Magic and Wizards
[edit] Trivia
- The kanji used to write Seto (瀬人) mean "shallow man".[[File:File:Example.jpgFile:Example.jpg]]
