Astrology, Blood Types, and Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Contents

Introduction

What do astrology, blood types, mystical cards, and similar things have to do with Yu-Gi-Oh? More than you might think, actually. In this series of articles focusing on members of the main cast of Yu-Gi-Oh, their birth dates and blood types are explored in conjunction with what we know of their personalities and of their past, allowing us to form a more complete picture of who they are and why they act the way they do.

This series was originally authored by Azurite, and posted to the PlayTheDamnCard community on LiveJournal. The birthdates are all drawn from the Yu-Gi-Oh Character Guide, the Gospel of Truth. It should be noted that the birthdates listed are ONLY the month and day, not the year; however, Takahashi made a point of including the star sign (Aries, Taurus, etc.) for the characters, which was critical for any characters whose birthday fell on a cusp. Using that information, along with various other "time-stamps," we can determine the birthdays and possibly range of birth times for many of the characters.

Please note that the articles themselves have been virtually unchanged from how they were originally posted on the PlayTheDamnCard community on LiveJournal. Some sections have been moved to this main page. Other than that, the only changes that have been made are for the markup language used (from HTML to Wiki markup).

The birth dates, ages, and grades used for this feature

I wanted to try and figure out just who is the oldest and the youngest out of the school-going Yu-Gi-Oh cast. In this document (PDF/Adobe Acrobat), it is stated that the cut-off for entry into Japanese primary/elementary school is April 1st. Thus, someone that turns 6 years of age prior to April 1st of a given year is allowed entry into Japanese primary school, while anyone born AFTER that point is made to wait until the next year. If we stick with the theory of the cast being born in 1980/1981 (speculative; in Vol. 1 of the manga, they're shown to be in class 1-B, aka 10th grade; by Battle City, they are all age 16 and in class 2-B, aka the 11th grade), then the age roster is as follows:

Italicized names are those whose ages and/or birth dates can be approximated, but are not the same age as Yuugi and Co. The italicized names are those of characters whose birthdays (month and day) AND ages were explicitly stated, rather than their birthday and grade (as it was for the main cast). Chinese zodiac signs are in parentheses.

A bit of a trick: if everyone of the main cast (non-italicized) was the same age (15) during Duelist Kingdom, then that means the tournament fell sometime between February 26th and April 17th, 1996. (Japanese law says that you age one year on the day BEFORE your birthday, hence the subtraction of 2 days from Otogi and Honda's birthdays. I include Otogi's age and birthday even though he wasn't involved in Duelist Kingdom, because he's the same age as them, and was, for a short while, in the same class as Yuugi and Co.)

The thing that screws everything up is the fact that the character guide uses the ages of all the characters as of Battle City (except Pegasus and Keith Howard, because they "died" during/after Duelist Kingdom, so their ages are their ages during their first appearance in DK), which was the arc running during the guide's printing (in 2002). Like Duelist Kingdom, the tournament itself was shorter than the run of the manga, so publication dates can no longer be used to approximate ages and/or birthdays.

This is also why technology like cell phones was seen in Battle City (by the early 2000s, it would make some sense to have such technology), but why it doesn't fit if you assume the birth dates of the characters are as they appear above. Like many manga-ka, Takahashi probably thought of Yu-Gi-Oh taking place in real-time, even if that wasn't the least bit possible (seriously, since when do duels take several MONTHS?). It is also unknown what the gap is BETWEEN the major arcs (Duelist Kingdom to Battle City, Battle City to the Dark TRPG); this also affects people's possible ages, because it could have been a few months up to nearly a year.

But again, if all the major characters were in the same grade by Battle City, then the tournament had to have taken place on or after April 1st, 1997. (This assumes that Japanese high schools cut-off entrance the same way their primary schools do, and on the same day). It is not known whether the characters are all the same age during Battle City, but that dating helps us figure out the approximate birth dates of the other characters... sort of.

Mokuba Kaiba, while of school-going age, is very difficult to pinpoint, because unlike the others, his age nor grade are never stated in the manga. The only clue we have is the difference between his age and Seto's, and I've seen both 5 years and 6 years. However, he *IS* in primary school (grades 1-6), so that DOES mean he is between 6 and 12 years old, with the most likely ages being 10 (5 year difference from Seto) or 11 (6 year difference). He was born July 7th, which means he started primary school when he was 7, rather than 6.

Check out the 1980 Decanates for more information on the main cast members' decanates as featured in this series of articles.

Completed Articles

These completed articles are listed in the order they were completed.

Future Articles

These articles that are left to be written are listed in no particular order.

  • Ryuuji Otogi
  • Anzu Mazaki
  • Mai Kujaku
  • Insector Haga
  • Dinosaur Ryuuzaki
  • Ryouta Kajiki
  • Isis Ishtar
  • Hiroto Honda
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