Ryuji Otogi

Ryuji Otogi (御伽 龍児 Otogi Ryūji), known in the English anime as Duke Devlin, is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Yu-Gi-Oh!.

In the series, Otogi invented the Dungeon Dice Monsters game. Otogi also owns a game shop called "Black Crown" that rivals the Kame Game Shop. (In the manga, the game shop is owned by Otogi's father, "Mr. Crown".) Otogi challenges Yugi Mutou to a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters despite the fact that Yugi does not know how to play it. In the anime, Otogi does this because Yugi defeated Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese versions), the creator of Duel Monsters, smashing Otogi's dreams of successfully making Dungeon Dice Monsters go world-wide. Otogi believed Yugi cheated, and did not deserve to be the King of Games. Using Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler), Otogi was able to force Yugi to duel for Jonouchi's freedom.

Yugi, however, manages to win, using some help from a laptop computer (which Otogi included in all Dungeon Dice Monsters set-ups, supposedly to provide help to newbies and give accurate statistics) Otogi realizes that Yugi is not a cheater, and becomes friends with Yugi. Otogi also received information from Pegasus's company that they decided to spread Dungeon Dice Monsters.

In the manga, Otogi was forced to have a Dungeon Dice Monsters duel with Yugi by his father, who was cursed by an ancient game he once played with Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku Mutou (Solomon Moto). Otogi's father wanted revenge on Sugoroku by doing to his grandson what Sugoroku had done to him. He also wants his son Ryuji to become the new owner of the Millennium Puzzle. During the course of the game, Otogi's father smashes the Millennium Puzzle to pieces. Although Yugi succeeds in defeating Otogi, Otogi's father grabs Yugi and the Puzzle and takes it to a secret room where he attempts to piece the Puzzle back together again. However, doing this causes him to hallucinate about being trapped in a maze, and in his confusion he knocks over a candle, setting the building on fire. Yugi is forced to solve the Puzzle on his own in the burning building, and though he does, he faints, but is rescued by Jonouchi.

Otogi proves to be a quite important secondary character. Otogi saves Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler) and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) from the Rare Hunters in Battle City, helped Jonouchi when he collapsed from his duel with Marik Ishtar, and cheered for Yugi.

In the anime, he also helps Yugi, Jonouchi, and Seto Kaiba against the Doma Organization in the Waking the Dragons saga and also tags along during the KC Grand Prix and Ceremonial Battle sagas.

Reference

• Kazuki Takahashi (2002). Yu-Gi-Oh! Characters Guide Book - The Gospel of Truth (遊戯王キャラクターズガイドブック―真理の福音―). Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-873363-0