I'mEpix

So. Japanese is written with several kinds of characters:

Kanji have both a sound and a meaning. They're used for most words (at least the parts that don't conjugate etc) and they tend to be fairly complicated, like this: 獏良

Hiragana are phonetic characters used in native Japanese words that either don't have kanji or don't commonly use the kanji. They tend to be simple and curvy, like this: ばくら

Katakana are phonetic characters that are used for foreign words, emphasis, and a handful of other things. They tend to be simple and angular, like this: バクラ

Sometimes very small hiragana (or rarely katakana) are placed alongside kanji words to remind the reader how to pronounce them, especially in things like shounen manga where the audience may not know that many kanji yet. The small characters are called furigana.

Most words have a standard spelling that uses either kanji, hiragana, katakana, or a specific mix of them. But if you know what you're doing you can spell them with a different type of character to give a different nuance!

If you write a word in kanji that would normally be in hiragana or katakana, it gives off a kind of stuffy or stilted or old-fashioned vibe.

A word in hiragana that would normally be in kanji or katakana can feel soft/elegant/approachable, or it can feel like it's meant for kids who can't read kanji.

A word in katakana that would normally be in kanji or hiragana feels...emphasized. Loud, like you bolded it or something. Or sometimes it seems sleek and modern, like a recently borrowed foreign word.

And the Yugioh manga uses this to distinguish between (Ryou) Bakura, one of the main character's friends, and (Yami) Bakura, the evil spirit possessing him who happens to go by the same name.

Names are normally written in kanji, and this is a shounen manga so the kanji come with furigana For The Kids. The standard spelling for Bakura is 獏良 (ばくら). Like this:

(sorry buddy, I'm taking examples from a scene where you're hurt)

But that changes when he's possessed! Possessed by something foreign, loud and pointy. You know what else is foreign, loud, and pointy? Katakana, that's what. In katakana, Bakura is spelled バクラ.

And Yugioh characters switch to katakana when they're talking about Yami Bakura! Like really reliably! Look at this:

And that's not the best part. The best part is when they mean BOTH Bakuras, or when they're talking about Yami Bakura but want to emphasize that the nice Bakura is still in there somewhere being possessed.

Because when they mean both Bakuras, they say the name in kanji but the furigana are in katakana instead of the normal hiragana. 獏良 (バクラ). Like in this panel that's going through who has which Millennium Items. The Ring belongs to Bakura, as in, like, both of them:

ISN'T THAT JUST THE BEST SUBTLE LITTLE SPELLING CHOICE?? Look at it! It's kanji-Bakura, but with katakana-Bakura attached! Just like what's happening with the actual guy!

I love the attention to kanji/hiragana vs katakana vs kanji/katakana for Bakura's name. There's even a point where his name is spelled THREE DIFFERENT WAYS over the course of TWO PAGES:

This is from when Yami Bakura loses to Yugi in the Battle City finals and, importantly, chooses to take a giant energy blast to the face himself to shield his host body from the fallout. And as we switch Bakuras, the name Bakura does like...a cross-fade from katakana to hiragana:

The life point counter reflects who was dueling: バクラ in katakana for Yami Bakura.

Yugi is having a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about seeing Yami Bakura act like only mostly a bastard instead of like a complete bastard. He protected his host! (For selfish reasons but eh?) So Yugi is thinking of both Bakuras for a sec there: 獏良（バクラ） in kanji/katakana.

And then he's mostly just worried about his friend being injured and passed out on the ground, so we're back to regular standard spelling: 獏良（ばくら）in kanji/hiragana.