Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh! would know that the main character is, of course, Yugi Muto. The series is primarily about his journey to becoming a more confident duelist and person, in general, all as he helps his other self uncover the secrets of his past, and it’s rare for a story not to have him as its driving force in one way or another.

There’s no arguing that Yugi is the protagonist of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, but that doesn’t mean he’s the most important character. It’s common for stories in and out of anime to have characters other than the protagonist be the ones whom the lore is primarily centered around, and sure enough, there’s one specific character in Yu-Gi-Oh! who’s always been a far larger driving force of the plot than Yugi. That’s true in both the anime’s continuity and the manga’s, and it completely changes how someone should view the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

Why Seto Kaiba Was Always Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Most Important Character

If there’s anyone who can be considered more important to Yu-Gi-Oh!’s story, then it would have to be Yugi’s rival, Seto Kaiba. Not only was he the first recurring antagonist in the manga, but Duelist Kingdom and Battle City are framed largely around events related to Kaiba and his family, and he ends up with just as much development as Yugi and Joey, if not more. The Yu-Gi-Oh! manga wasted little time in making Kaiba the most important character in its lore, and that’s especially impressive when he was originally just another episodic villain for Yugi to deal with.

The story that best exemplifies Kaiba’s importance, of course, is 2016’s Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions. The film is supposed to be an epilogue to the original manga and a celebration of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s 20th anniversary, and while there’s plenty of focus on Yugi’s character, most of the story is driven by Kaiba’s actions and his arc of gaining closure with Atem. Yu-Gi-Oh! using a major anniversary special like The Dark Side of Dimensions to further develop Kaiba’s character emphasizes just how important he is, and the fact that Kazuki Takahashi personally wrote the film takes that even further.

How Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Anime Makes Kaiba Even More Important Than He Was In The Manga

Kaiba Has An Incredible Presence In The Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime

Kaiba is arguably the most important character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, and the anime took that even further. For starters, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Virtual World filler arc, which took up half of season 3, was focused entirely on Kaiba’s backstory, and not only did that give Kaiba a lot of character development, but it also led to it being the only arc where Kaiba defeated the main villain and not Yugi. The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime making Kaiba the star of an original story for half a year shows just how important his character had become, and it only got bigger from there.

While the manga ended Kaiba’s story with Battle City, the same can’t be said of the anime’s continuity. Not only does Kaiba go on to create Duel Academy, the main setting of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX for Jaden and his friends, but Kaiba sent Jaden’s drawings and Yubel into space, leading to the creation of the Neo-Spacians and Yubel’s corruption by the Light of Destruction. All of that means that Kaiba is the person most responsible for the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and there was no character more fitting for the role.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s would also show just how influential Kaiba’s character had become in the anime. While Kaiba doesn’t physically appear in 5D’s, KaibaCorp has become a tyrannical megacorp responsible for turning Domino City into the dystopian New Domino City, meaning that Kaiba is the only character from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! to have a presence in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s thanks to KaibaCorp’s continued existence. Granted, KaibaCorp’s presence is negative for half of 5D’s, but the fact that Kaiba was the only character to have a presence in 5D’s, even indirectly, says a lot about how big he had become.

Kaiba Being So Important In Yu-Gi-Oh! Completely Changes Its Story

It’s hard to argue with the idea that Kaiba is Yu-Gi-Oh!’s most important character, and that completely changes how one looks at the series. Naturally, the original story is still primarily about Yugi and Atem’s journey through life, but with how much focus Kaiba gets in the story, Yu-Gi-Oh! is a story about Kaiba’s struggles and eventual legacy just as much as it’s about Yugi’s, if not more so.

How someone feels about that is another issue, entirely, as there’s a case to be made that too much of the story is focused on Kaiba to the detriment of other characters, with even Yugi sometimes falling behind in of development. Regardless, Yu-Gi-Oh!’s story would be completely unrecognizable without Kaiba, and with how big and overall iconic Yu-Gi-Oh! has become over the past 20 years, it’s hard to see that decision as anything other than the right one.