The Hot Mess That Is Akefia
Before we begin, cards on the table: I hate the name Akefia. It’s not even a name. Akefia is fandom, attempting to ascend by its own boot straps, and I’m still confused as to how it hasn’t choked to death in the process.
That said, I can still provide an objective account of the name Akefia, its origins, its mythology, it’s place in our community. That objective, however, is to finally kill it.
Akefia has been present in the English-speaking sphere of the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, since January 12th 2005. However, this is not the origin date of the name, which most likely appeared prior to September 2004. Regardless, the earliest confirmable date is - and was - January 12th 2005.
In all likelihood, the origins of Akefia are lost in the internet. All I can do is attempt to reconstruct its history, in an attempt to provide a valid thesis for its origin. Despite this, I’m not exactly talking millennia ago; there are people alive, and even involved in the fandom from this time period, who can provide first-hand accounts. If any of them would like to come forward with information, I would be extremely grateful, and can be reached at [email protected] or my personal blog.
As it is, here is my attempt to reconstruct the hot mess that is Akefia.
During my research, I came across a geocities website, boasting the veteran date of October 31st 2003. However, this page was merely published on that date, and has been edited as recently as 3rd April 2011.
Examining circumstantial information, the website was linked in a forum on the date October 22nd 2005. In this post, it was explained that Yami no Bakura was DemonKikyou’s favourite anime character. In their justification, they brought up Thief King, stating:
I also like Bakura’s ancient eygptian(sp) form„ known as Touzo,Thief Bakura,Thief Lord Bakura, Thief King Bakura ect..
It is unusual that in the list of names provided, the one cited on the geocities site - namely Akefia - was not mentioned. Further, there are no mentions of Akefia on any other website around October 31st 2003. Additionally, this use of Akefia would predate the Japanese animated debut of Thief King, and only post-date the first manga appearance by seven months. Therefore, it seems likely that as late as October 22nd 2005, the geocities website made no mention of the name Akefia.
Earliest Appearance: September 6th 2004
As mentioned above, the earliest confirmed appearance was January 12th 2005. However, the first apparent appearance of Akefia was the fanfiction Akefia King of Thieves by Redskin (FF.net), which was published on September 6th 2004. However, a fanfiction on fanfiction.net may be edited without changing its publication date, meaning Akefia could have been added to the page at any time since then. As FF.net frequently updates itself, the last modified date becomes useless.
It is therefore in the reviews of the fanfiction, that we find out confirmed sighting of Akefia. On January 12th 2005, MisawaDaichiFan reviewed Akefia King of Thieves (hereafter, AKoT) saying:
Nice. Hope it isn’t too late to review .; It was very cool to see Akefia(my absolute favorite name ever) in this kind of situation. Inspiration!
Although it’s possible that AKoT was edited between September 6th 2004 and January 12th 2005, Akefia could not have appeared any later than that. It is also possible this was the first use of the name Akefia in fandom.
To those familiar with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Series release dates, you will be aware that the English debut of Thief King was August 2nd 2005, with the official translation of 『千年の秘宝！！』 and his first animated appearance was rereleased for the American (&c.) audience, on October 29th 2005.
Since Akefia as a name provably predates his first official appearances for an English-Speaking audience, we must assume that Akefia originated with someone familiar with the Japanese original. It does remain possible they were working with a translated version, but given the era, this is some dedication.
Despite the strong link to the Japanese fandom, Akefia does not originate there. There is almost no record of the japanese fandom using Akefia (アケフィア, あけふぃあ, 赤-, or 赤-) and the closest reference is the fermented beverage ケフィア. This last leads me to suspect Akefia has never been used by the japanese fandom, as a name coincidence like that would at least lead to a few jokes (images of Thief King drinking Kefir, Is it Yoghurt? No It’s Thief King Bakura!, etc). Instead the japanese fandom has been referring to the character as 盗賊王 since his first appearance, where he introduces himself as such.
This can be confirmed in the western-japanese crossover fandom, as of October 3rd 2003. In summary,
Returning to AKoT, In general, I don’t recommend it as a fanfiction, but the author’s note sheds light on an important distinction.
Characters: Yami Bakura (Akefia) … Bakura is not gay, and neither is Yami Bakura whose Egyptian name is Akefia!
Although the name Akefia has long been associated with Thief King, and even here is noted to be his Egyptian name (aka Thief King), Akefia at its earliest traceable origin is closely linked to Yami no Bakura. Despite the fanfiction clearly being about Thief King, this link is more important than it appears.
Quote: I am a Thief and a
By now, the quote "I am a Thief and a Stealer of Souls" is well-known. Both as a mythical origin for Akefia, and also because it’s just a badass quote. Now this quote is exactly from Episode 13, of Duelist Kingdom [s1], specifically the English Dub. If you google ‘where did akefia come from’ (which was the first thing I did) you will come across a yahoo post from May 10th 2007, explaining this theory, although the theory itself was present from at least January 27th 2007.
Akefia is a mishearing from the english dub version.
Dub: “I’m a thief, a stealer of souls.”
It was mis heard to be: “I’m Akefia, stealer of souls.”
I still don’t get how that could’ve happened…
Like ⌈κøτsυκι⌋, I also had trouble understanding how that happened, but I will get to that in just a moment. For now, I would like to address the fact that when I went to rip the audio for this quote, I began looking in season five. Indeed the wikiquote page states as such.
I bring this up, because this quote is so strongly associated with Thief King Bakura, despite being a Yami no Bakura quote. As Akefia predated the debut of Thief King for an American (&c.) audience, I initially assumed that this myth had been busted. However, Episode 13 was imported to the US in January 26th 2002, and Akefia has been associated with Yami no Bakura in its early records.
Although the coiner of the name Akefia would have been working with the Japanese material, they were a member of the English fandom, and therefore familiar with the dub. That there has remained a clear link (even a probably reference) to Yami no Bakura in its usage, this myth remains open for discussion.
The next mention of Akefia is the story Akefia and Anzu by Chained and Tortured published on July 27th 2005, still predating the English appearance of Thief King. Examining the Author’s notes, we see a brief statement about the names used in the story.
Cat: New story! I want to thank Dis for the names!
Since the name Akefia predates Akefia and Anzu (hereafter, A3) the individual Dis cannot be credited with the name Akefia. However, examining the reviews shows us that A3 has been redacted to use the name Akefia, as its early reviews cite the name “Akifra”.
However on July 28th 2005, a mere day after the publication of A3 using Akifra, a guest reviewer (amanda.p) left a comment stating:
it’s “Akefia” not “Akifra”
Indicating that by this point Akefia was quite firmly set in the fandom. Most interestingly, the aforementioned Dis - under their full username, Demented Insane Spirit - makes an appearance on August 9th 2005 to say:
Well, I did find out that his name is FOR SURE Akifra.
Chapter 2 of A3 was published presumably around September 7th 2005 and by September 8th 2005 (post-dating the translated manga appearance of TKB, but not his animated debut)had certainly been changed from Akifra to Akefia. Once again, Dis comments on the fanfiction on the date August 3rd 2006, but makes no point of the retconned Akifra. Contacting Dis, they noted that:
It’s a little embarrassing, but Akifra was actually a misspelling on my part! … because it had been newly introduced into the fandom at the time, very few people used it and so I never saw [Akifra] or Akefia appear in any of the fanfiction I was reading, so I had assumed I was spelling it correctly.
At some time around 2007 or 2008, I had started going through a phase in my fanfiction writing where I wanted to … try to be more true to the canon. … I had been spelling Akefia wrong the entire time. Secondly, Akefia was never actually his name … and so I didn’t feel the need to use it anymore.
Akifra would normally have been nothing more than a brief misspelling of a fandom name, except that the mistake arose during a time when Akefia was first beginning to take root in the Western Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom. As such, it shares close roots with Akefia, and helps explain one of the biggest gaps in the history of Akefia.
Phonetic Homogenization of Akefia
⌈κøτsυκι⌋’s remark that the transition from “a thief and a” to “Akefia” is extremely farfetched, is not a sentiment uniquely held in the fandom. Whilst it is not an impossible mishear, phonetically it seems unlikely to jump from:
/ə/ /θiːf/ /ənd/ /ə/ -> /ə’kefiːæ/
However, Akefia most likely did not begin life as /əkefiːæ/, as evidenced by Akifra (pronounced /əkiːf’ræ/ by its creator). Instead, I would posit that Akefia might have been intended to be pronounced as /ə’kiːfiːæ/. This means, that in the mishear of the original dub line, not only did /θ/ transition to /k/, but /ənd/ /ə/ became /iːæ/. Even in a line said remarkably quickly, this is still linguistically strange since all of these sounds use very different placements in the mouth.
However, we are not dealing with a mispronounciation, but a mishear; whilst they all use distinctive placements, this is not an impossible transition. In fact, as the vowels are largely intact, I would suggest this is the most likely explanation.
The question then remains, if Akefia is intended to be pronounced differently to its almost universal pronunciation, how did the vowel shift occur. Well there is the obvious connection that Akefia resembles, and may have been intended to resemble, an arabic loan word (see: Akef). It is at this point I will remind everyone that Akefia is not a real word, or a real name.
Whilst words like kebab would be pronounced /kɪˈbæb/ if it was an English word, but as a imported word, it should be pronounced as /ke’bæb/. It is not unlikely that an English speaker would pronounce Akefia according to the latter kebab, rather than the first.
Nevertheless, this is a widespread pronunciation shift, and the answer potentially lies in the video Neko Porn - For Shadowwolf, uploaded by LittleKuriboh on February 23rd 2011. This is quite a late date in the Akefia timeline, but features LittleKuriboh's pronunciation of Akefia, which is /əkefiːæ/, thus homogenizing the fandom's pronounciation of Akefia.
Please note, that my lnguistics education, particularly my phonetics barely counts as a hobby. If there are any budding linguists tonight, I would advise you to speak up, to improve the accuracy of this section.
March 4 2003: Thief King is introduced to Japanese Audience as 盗賊王
October 3rd 2003 : Evidence of 盗賊王 in Western Fandom
October 31st 2003 : Modified Website, No Historical Value
April 21st 2004: Thief King’s First Animated Appearance
September 6th 2004 : Unconfirmed Debut of Akefia
January 12th 2005 : Confirmed Debut of Akefia
NB: Potential Creator (Redskin)
July 27th 2005 : Akifra Surfaces, Credited to Dis
July 28th 2005 : Akefia disputes Akifra
August 2nd 2005 : First English Appearance of Thief King
October 29th 2005 : First English Animated Appearance of Thief King
January 27th 2007 : LittleKuriboh’s Pronunciation Popularized
The misheard English dub remained the only theory with any circumstantial evidence that I could locate. However, if you have any information surrounding Akefia, I am always looking to do a Hot Mess 2.0.
Although the history of Akefia is shrouded, both by the deletion of large areas of FF.net, people leaving the fandom, and by the fact over ten years has past, I would urge you to attempt to reconstruct a timeline for your pet theory, before you approach me with it.
Whilst there are as many Akefia theories, as there are people to make them up, this was the only one that held any significant pedigree, or logic. It seems reasonable to me that Akefia truly is a mishear of the English Dub. In short, Akefia is a fandom mistake.
Although it may have no canonical value, it remains one of the most convoluted, and interesting parts of our own history, as a fandom. In short it is valuable to our community, but I would argue, only as part of our past. That we should move forward by understanding our mistakes.
I hope that by unshrouding Akefia’s past - even in such a small way - I have shown how ridiculous it sounds.
Cynnichurro - who helped immensely with the Japanese, and provided the Manga Scan I used
Demented Insane Spirit - whose current work can be read here or here!
Rowingviolahere - my skilled and patient friend, who listened to all this bullshit
Texasdreamer01 - my also skilled and also patient friend, who also listened to all of this bullcrap
And of course: Redskin, who may possibly have created Akefia in the first place.
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