Ryou Bakura
(Character Design Analysis)
[For context: I have not watched full episodes of Season 0, nor have I watched The Dark Side of Dimensions, but I am on Season 5 of binge watching Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters}
I've seen how some people talk about the eye color inconsistency in Ryou's appearances throughout the series. And in my speculation, I think its because of different interpretations of Ryou's character in its entirety.
1.) Color Psychology: Throughout the Series
Exploring INFP cognitive functions
{I won't go deep into his lore, my primary focus here is character design}
1.) Color Psychology: Throughout the Series
Let's just say that a common thread throughout all his character designs is that he specifically has spiky, long, and pale hair.
Represents an idea of vast, spaciousness. Almost like a blank canvas that you can easily project onto, as white itself makes colors bounce off of it by nature.
White on Ryou? it really makes him look "friend shaped" (approachable and almost innocent), a "cinnamon roll" as people call it.
What could the long hair mean for him?
Ryou is pretty much one of the only characters of the main cast with long hair (besides Duke Devlin) . I interpret it as more of an extension of his even-keeled temperament. Comfortable just going with the flow of things, letting things be as they are, open to go along with what others want but also maintaining self possession over their own appearance. It feels more like an emphasis that Ryou himself doesn't trouble himself with over emphasis on being presentable and overly efficient in any given scenario.
The spiky, blue-ish, long hair and green eyes really lean into that
"I know more than I appear" pretty boy look.
It makes him look ethereal, intuitive, but may hold back a lot like there's something he knows that we don't.
In Season 0, his hair is more of a pale turquoise color.
In my readings, a common symbolism of turquoise is:
So, what would having light green eyes mean?
In this context, it makes characters look intuitive. Like you can project onto them and make you think "what you see is what you get" when in actuality the green is a form of armor, and they're reading you a lot more well than you read them.
When I think to examples of where this speculation is applicable, I think to Reze from Chainsaw man and Kurama from YuYu Hakusho
Brief summary, Reze pretty much appears almost as an angel of light, until you find out that this lady is literally the Bomb Devil who really showed up in Denji's life to acquire something of his, but ended up feeling genuinely attached to him.
Kurama just like Ryou, has the whole "pretty boy with a demonic side" trope. They both appear gentle, kind, but have a struggle between two "truths" that live within themselves, but in the end they still choose to have compassion for others.
To combine both aspects together
Pale turquoise hair + green eyes,
creates a character who puts an external focus on other people, hell, Ryou puts others way above himself a lot of times, and he also knows too much and perhaps sees too much but keeps it to himself. Which creates a constant push and pull like waves but inside his own psyche, which is why, even as a "soft looking character" like Ryou, I do believe that his favorite card being "Change of heart" do fit him as a character (besides the whole Yami Bakura situation) I think he's the type of character who is able to hold two contradicting truths simultaneously without losing his core self.
Which is its own mental toughness on its own despite presented as almost fragile.
(Dark) brown eyes make him look grounded, like a familiar friend who you can almost instinctively trust. It shows the side of his personality that he's usually the one just tagging along, going with what everyone wants to do, and generally just enjoy the concept of just "being there" with other people. It very much leans into the idea that he himself does not occupy much space socially or interpersonally.
Hell, in that cave scene where they were running from a "boulder" rolling towards them, he kept chanting both in the Japanese and English version "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" as if he immediately just blames himself for anything bad going on even if its not even founded in the reality of the situation.
I feel bad for the fact that while its true he is within Yugi's friend group, I don't think anyone has really gotten to a first name basis with him, better yet, I don't think anyone really remembers to think "how's Bakura doing?" in just a normal day within their lives.
In the Duel Monsters series people commonly know, the first time we encounter both Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura is literally in his moment of showing his favorite card, that being "change of hearts"
It's not a direct pressure of power like how Kaiba pressure plays using strong attack stat monsters, but in that same episode, he uses alot of cards that forces your opponent to react to you, instead of directly attacking them via strong atk monsters.
Its a kind of "disruption deck" where the game is not just about "who has the higher attack stat" anymore compared to most duelists in Yugioh, but how much you can attack them indirectly. Whether mentally or psychologically.
Which reminds me of how he influences the show's story,
Dominant Fi (Introverted Feeling), would mean that he feels through things to ask himself is something is alright, correct, or when he should step in as a dominant way of living and seeing the world.
(Ne and Si...I might leave this blank for now until I find more things about Ryou)
You can argue that his inferior Te (Extroverted Thinking) shows up in the fact that (yes, the millenium ring comes right back to him) but boy does he CONSTANTLY WEAR IT. I'm not sure if it just magically appears on his neck even if he tried throwing it out, but based on the anime (most people know and watched) he voluntarily puts the millenium ring around his neck, but seems to be okay with Tristan throwing it away if it "makes him act weird".
With every variation of Ryou Bakura, even in the tiny tidbits I see from The Dark Side of Dimensions, he is someone who:
a lot more perceptive than he appears
self possessed despite his attention to others
I get the feeling that this part of Ryou that puts over emphasis on other people may come from the fact that in his life he probably has no one actually asking him, "how is he doing?" so he focuses on other people's well being instead (plus the fact he does seem rather lonely, often *is* alone socially, and lives all by himself.)
We see Yami Bakura a lot more than Ryou Bakura in the duel monsters series 😭 don't get me wrong, I enjoy Yami Bakura doing his shenanigans, but I also feel like Ryou deserves a lot more love. (I plan to read the manga of yugioh only after i pick up Season 0) oh well, atleast with so much yugioh content, technically you'll still see more of Ryou in small doses in each series...
I wanted to include the dark sides of dimensions version of Ryou Bakura but I cant currently watch the movie.
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