#shadi

These are season 0 designs, I will make DM versions in the future.

Yugi/Yami: Hedgehogs, because the spikey hair lmao, also hedgehogs are hella cute. Why they are different species of hedgehog and why Yami doesnt really look like a desert hedgehog is cuz... well... You'll see when I make Atem's design properly, now hes just copying Yugi's image.

Anzu: Blue crane, I wanted her to be an animal that is associated with dancing and most bird species do dance! Blue cranes also look very graceful and their dance requires quite the footwork!

Miho: Lilac rabbit, her nickname is ribbon and I immediately thought of rabbit. Who could have thought there was a lilac one in real life, tehee!

Katsuya: Carolina dog, I didn't realize how much Seto and Ryuji humiliated Katsyua in the anime with dog-themed insults I JUST THOUGHT HE WAS DOG-CODED, now I feel kinda bad...

Hiroto: Wolverine, I know he could have been a monkey instead based on that filler arc in the anime, but I'm basing most of these characterizations from the manga. Hiroto was certainly the hardest to assign a certain animal too, I tried with something that associates with his name more but ehhh. Wolverine works with his color palette, also they kinda cool, lanky but strong

The Kaiba bros: Puma, I definetly wanted to make Seto some kind of feline and I choose Puma because of their eyes, mostly their glare. It fits them so much hehehe. Mokuba was more an afterthought but puma works for him too

Ryuo/Yami Bakura: Japanese raccoon dog (tanuki), at first I wanted to make them normal raccoons but I also wanted to settle for something more regional in Japan, which is why I choose tanuki. While Ryuo isn't a theif, his counterpart certainty is

Shadi: African golden wolf, I wanted him to be whatever animal Anubis is and apparently it is not a jackal (common misconception lmao). Anubis is actually an african golden wolf that where historically misidentified as Egyptian jackal. Tho the ears aren't similar to Anubis at all, I still wanted to keep Anubis likeness in Shadi

Dark magician/Mahado: Pharao hound, well I think this one is pretty obvious, with Mahado being Atem's ever loyal servant and protector

There's a lot interesting about it (i'll recommend this video for more info on the game itself) but I'm fascinated by the special cards they released that had characters from the show in them

Some are more reasonable, like the Yugi card:

But then you have the Yami Yugi card, that just wins. Everytime. The most broken card ever made.

Then the Honda/Tristan card is the opposite, and loses for everything...

...Besides the Kaiba card, that loses to ALL the other character cards.

Damn Bandai, what did he do for you to say "yeah, Kaiba is made out of tissue paper and would lose for everyone, including Miho and Shadi."

Speaking of her, Miho's card description is really funny too, she loses to weaker monsters because she feels sorry for them

Shadi's card lets you look at the opponents's hand and makes them use whatever card you want. Really broken and unfair, fits him perfectly