Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku in the original manga and Japanese anime) is a character from Yu-Gi-Oh!'s second series anime and manga. Her Japanese surname means "peahen," while her English name is a pun on "My Valentine."
When we first meet her, Mai is pretty self-centered—she's in it for the prize money, the thrill of winning, and the power that comes with being a strong duelist. Underneath that tough exterior, though, she's deeply lonely. She actually convinced herself that her Harpie Lady cards were basically her only friends, which says a lot about where her head was at.
Things start to shift when she befriends Yugi and his crew. She develops a soft spot for Joey especially, and through them she begins to see Duel Monsters differently—less about ego and more about the deeper meaning of the game. For a while it seems like she's genuinely found her people. But as the series goes on, her victories start to feel hollow again, and the loneliness creeps back in. Eventually she bounces back though, regaining her confidence and sense of herself as a real duelist, not just someone chasing wins.
In the Japanese version, Mai speaks casually and drops honorifics with most people, though she uses "-chan" for Anzu and Shizuka. She favors "anta" (a casual, sometimes condescending way of saying "you") and refers to herself as "atakushi," a more elegant, old-fashioned form of self-reference.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
