Mai Kujaku

Mai Kujaku (孔雀 舞 Kujaku Mai), known as Mai Valentine in the English anime and English video games, is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (known as simply Yu-Gi-Oh! in English-speaking countries).

In the Japanese version of the anime, her name is spelled Mai Kujyaku while in the English manga her surname is spelled Kujaku. In the English Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses video game, she is Margaret Mai Beaufort.

Mai is a self absorbed woman who likes to buy makeup with her prize money. She once worked as a waitress, lost in life, until finding purpose with Yugi Mutou (Yugi Moto in the English anime) and his friends. Mai first appears in the Duelist Kingdom arc of the manga. She loses the first duel she is seen participating in to Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English anime). In the actual tournament, she loses to Yugi. In Battle City, she loses to Marik Ishtar. In the English anime, she is sent to the Shadow Realm after she loses to Marik, but she is later pulled out by Yugi.

Rumor has it she likes Jonouchi--and rumor has it he likes her. Mai is also a role model to Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler in the English anime, Shizuka Jonouchi in the first series anime).

In the Doma arc of the second series anime, Mai turns evil and joins Doma. The reason why she joins them was out of bitterness. No matter how many people she duels after Battle City it still isn't enough in camparison to the duelist skills and fame of Duelists such as Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey (Jonouchi in the manga). She also has been having frightening nightmares of Marik sealing her away in her mind again. This is how she meets Valon, who easily defeats her in a duel. He sees how Mai is depressed about not wanting to be a failure and that she is tired of living in her friends' shadows. Valon talks Mai into coming with him which is how she became a member of Doma. But with Joey's help she becomes good again.

"Kujaku" means "peahen". In the English anime, Mai calls Joey by his last name, while almost everyone in the manga and the original Japanese anime calls Jonouchi by his last name. Her name in the English anime is a pun of "My Valentine".

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