Basara

Basara Akagiyama was first introduced in the Versus Revolution season of the Duel Masters Anime.

He was part of the secret society of Duel Masters Land and Katta Kirifuda's new rival. After obtaining the unsealed version of Forbidden, his strength and ambitions become on par with Zakira due to the influence of Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden, making him a major enemy of Katta and Lucifer and also indirectly, Shobu Kirifuda, Katta's brother. Later in the series, he became the leader of a cult, the "Rare Killers" and seems to be a husk of his former self whose mind and body was taken over by his forbidden card.

Details
He has spiky silver hair and a scar on the left side of his face. His appearance and attire closely resemble a speed motorist. He has a habit of touching the scar on his cheek. He is known to win a duel in only three turns and likes high speed vehicles, sometimes associating them in his duels. He is also an expert motorist, during the time when he avoids obstacles with ease and his ability to kidnap both Katta and Hamukatsu while driving his motorbike at the same time. One of his prominent vehicles is his red motorbike, which has a symbol of Duel Masters Land and can run in extremely high speeds. The motorbike also can glide on water, shown when he was able to arrive at Lulu's card shop despite being surrounded by water. The motorbike was deemed precious to him as it originally belongs to his late father.

As a child, he grew up in a motherless family. He had a cheerful personality and disposition with his father, looking upon him as his idol. However, the motorbike crash during a motorbike race and not making to the hospital in time which led to his father's death had drastically changed his perception, turning him into a speedster. He also turned himself to dueling as he found it as competitive as motorbike racing, even influencing his dueling style. Due to his thirst of achieving his ambition in the quickest way possible, he is impulsive and goes against anybody's orders, even his own boss without considering the consequences of his actions. After obtaining the unsealed version of Forbidden, his personality becomes darker, very likely due to possession by the card's spirit. He was even willing to defeat any duelists, even attempting to kill them in order to achieve his ambitions of demolishing all speed limits in the world. As a result, he was seen as a second Zakira, who also destroyed any duelists that stood in his way of gaining his ambition of capturing Duel Masters in the world. He also compares his overall power to be the equal of gods. Under the influence of the dark creature spirit's power, his hair becomes longer, an 'X' mark appears on his hand with the forbidden text extending to his arms. Even Shobu knows that his actions and use of the dark creature spirit must be stopped, to an extent that he decides to be part of the upcoming battle of the warring races. At the end of VSR, he became completely taken over by the card, which caused his muscles to be buffed up and his right hand becoming black and skeletal, with glowing Forbidden Characters written on that arm and an on his left hand. Due to the massive pain that the card brings, he often sits in the sofa in the Rare Killers homebase immobile while Number 2 does most of the job for him.

Though his only concern is to achieve his ambition, he was compassionate enough to side with his comrades Rambo and Hakase to overthrow Duema Land President, who he had gone against. He also has some sense of honor, disliking the fact that his former boss was cheating in the game. He also have a long standing friendship with Number 2 since the time they first met, even working together in order to achieve the same dream they have.

In VSRF, as warned by Kojiro's experiences with him, Basara might no longer be human in VSRF and could just be a husk of his former self with Dokindam X's spirit doing whatever it wants to do with his body.

Later on, he was defeated by Lucifer and while seemingly dead, Dokindam X became FORBIDDEN ~Star of Forbidden~ to hibernate into a stronger forbidden which caused him to appear with a different set of clothing and his entire right arm becoming grotesquely mutated. His personality has also became dangerously insane in this form as well and he seeks to turn the world into ZERO, with his friend Number 2 giving full support.

The Star of Forbidden later became into FORBIDDEN STAR ~World's Last Day~/Dormageddon X. At this point, his insanity reaches to the point that he kills Kojiro right in front of his own comrades, in which even Shobu won't take his actions lightly if he was even slightly aware of it.

He is a spirit friend with Number 2 due to their past relationship, and the 2 often act in unison. However he does not always trust Number 2, especially when his possession by Dokindam X and his insanity grows worse, as shown as he attacked Number 2 when he won against Lucifer because he considers his Number 1 position being take over. This has later became worse when he went into a killing rampage under the influence of Dormageddon X, Forbidden Armageddon and stabbed Number 2 in the chest with the spikes on his hand when Number 2 tried to quell his rampage.

Background
As a child, he watches his father Motorbike Grand Prix races, emerging as a champion every time. He admired his father and aspired to be like him. However, his father was in a motorbike crash during a race and died shortly afterwards. He then inherited the red motorbike, which was deemed a memento of his father. After the fatal accident, he worked on the motorbike his father left behind. During his modification work, he befriends Number 2, who was a mechanic and have the same dream as him. Basara then tests out the motorbike Number 2 build himself and skillfully uses it, prompting Number 2 to declare him as 'Number 1'. They eventually became best of friends. Both got a sponsor from a businessman in their work, but unknown to them, their sponsor's real intention is to get the bike for himself. After they completed their tuning up work, the motorbike glows and they briefly saw the spirit of Redzone, Roaring Invasion. They got attacked by a gang and Basara got hurt, gaining a scar on his face. Their sponsor eventually reveals his dark intentions and he was the one who indirectly killed his father by messing the motorbike structure before the race. Angered by the revelation, he fought off the gangsters, even the greedy businessman for murdering his father. Number 2 holds him back and plead him to stop. At a spur of the moment, the spirit of Redzone, Roaring Invasion possesses the motorbike, materializing itself and frightens the greedy man. Basara was surprised that his motorbike turns into a creature spirit, but he had no time to question as both of them fled the scene before the police arrives. Despite the major setback, both Basara and Number 2 kept their dream.

He traveled around the world and participated in motorbike races, including illegal ones with Number 2 as his main mechanic. It was during one of the races he first met Duemouse when he felt that the races did not satisfy him as he always emerged victorious. He was then introduced to the Duel Masters World which excited him after seeing the Elite Four, Katta Kirifuda and Gyou's performance, shown by Duemouse. He then became one of the top duelists of Duel Masters Land. Before the park opening, he informed Number 2 about his position back in their workshop. Number 2 still supports his decision nonetheless of creating a World of Zero.

Some time in the past, he defeated Number 2 in a duel using Schumacher, New World.

Duel Masters Versus Revolution
He first appears on the white castle of the park, noting on Katta's inability to note on Bucyake's disappearance, commencing his plan. He then appears again wearing his motorbike gear and riding his motorbike within the motorbike arena of the park, avoiding obstacles with ease and obtained a card within the flames, sustaining no damage. Obtaining the card, he decides to show the new power and revolution of Duel Masters to Katta. His actions have caused a huge discussion among the visitors of the park and the internet as he appears as a red flash, which gave him a nickname as 'Red Comet'.

He kidnaps both Katta and Hamukatsu when they were having a meal of curry buns and forcefully placed a helmet on Katta's head. His high speed ride had caused Katta and Hamukatsu to become dizzy and after reaching his location, he throws both of them right to the duel location. He then forcefully engaged Katta in a dangerous duel after revealing that he and his team are connected to Bucyake's disappearance, declaring that he will win in three turns, causing Katta to fear him. Before he duels, he even removes all but 1 of his shields (Illegal in real play, so watch out) to prove how powerful he is. During the duel he demonstrates the power of Invasion with his main trump card Redzone, Roaring Invasion. Although Katta's Reckless Cut Scrapper stopped his attempt at a three turn win, he gained victory afterwards.



He then appeared together with his teammates, Hakase and Rambo to discuss about their future plans. Hakase used a programmed robot to target Lulu Takigawa, Hokaben and Benchan. However, their plan was foiled by Lulu after she defeats Hakase through the robot in a duel. After Katta and his friends escaped the underground city, he discussed with Hakase and Rambo about their future developments and participates the Star Cup event.

Under his boss orders, he drove his motorbike to Lulu's card shop and demanded her to sell it. As Lulu refused, he engaged in a duel and made a deal to Lulu that she would have her land back if she won and got points based by the Star Cup rules. Although she was fortunate to have a good progression with a Glory Snow shield trigger, Basara managed to perform a successful three turn kill. However, Lulu's brother Lucifer arrived just in time to halt the duel he was close to winning. Upon identifying Lucifer as one of the finalists of the last season's National Tournament, he left the shop. Getting fed up of waiting, he decided to deal with Lucifer himself despite his boss's orders. He head to the school Lucifer was studying in and his motorbike engine was considered noisy by the students in the library. His boss also arrives using a robot as a communicator also agrees to Basara's conditions and he engages in a duel with Lucifer. Despite his confidence he will win in 3 turns, Lucifer uses his 'Time Stop Duel' to corner Basara, which results in his loss. As part of the deal, Basara's motorbike was destroyed by the President of the park, in which Lulu considered it as being cruel. Returning to the park, he demanded Duemouse to get him a stronger card, which lead him to a highly restricted area where one of the most dangerous card that causes destruction years ago during Shobu Kirifuda's time was kept in an ancient seal. The spirit's voice reaches him to break the seal and Basara was able to break it despite the seal's strength being able to damage him. Once obtaining the card, he was able to resist the card dark abilities and was willing to use it.

He later heads to another location related to Forbidden by ship owned by the park to unlock more of its dark powers. Guided by the light of the card, he went to Antarctica, not knowing the original owner of the card was waiting for his own revival. Entering the abandoned base(which is one of the location where the manga series Star Cross takes place), he encounters Zakira and duels him with the card at stake and the creature's unsealed version. During the duel, his three turn kill was halted by a Hell's Scrapper shield trigger, but he still caught Zakira's attention by his speed-based dueling style (empowered by Redzone, a card which Zakira had not seen before) and received physical damage when his shields broke. He successfully summoned Forbidden which might have lead to the duel a stalemate, but the card got removed by the effect of All Delete instead. Even though the duel ended without a winner, Zakira allowed him to have the Forbidden Legend card. Basara escaped the collapsing structure due to the impact of the battle and returned to Duel Masters Land riding a new bike. Waiting for revenge against Lucifer, he was unaware his actions might lead to destruction to the Duel Masters World.

When Lucifer interfered the white castle, he intercepted Basara while he was building a new deck and the two dueled with the future of the Duema Land organization at stake. While Lucifer managed to pull off his Time Stop duel and lock down Basara's deck once again with the power of his Rockinstar, Time Dragon and Miradante, Time Revolution, when he destroyed Basara's creatures he unknowingly activated the effect of Red-End, Super Lightning Sonic which brought back into the battle zone the final Sonic Command Basara needed to awaken the final form of Forbidden, granting him the win. However, before making the final attack, Basara showed slight compassion towards his opponent. Lucifer's fate is unknown, as the President dropped a bomb on him and he disappeared, but Basara took a red petal from his rose before leaving.

After failing to find the disappeared Lucifer, the President informs Katta and Lulu that Lucifer is dead and the one responsible was Basara. Angry at the situation, Katta ran down the Duema Land park's roller coaster and met with Basara at its top, dueling him to avenge Lucifer. However, much to his surprise, Basara did not go for a 3 turn kill and instead preferred to spam Sonic Commands in order to remove all of Forbidden's Seals, his new "Forbidden deck" now being equipped with the Initials race to support his new trump card. As such, Katta was rendered unable to activate the Revolution effect of his Dogiragon, so he simply broke all of his opponent's shields, hoping to win next turn. This gave Basara the cards he needed, for he used a double Invasion, spamming both Redzone and Redzone Z, removing the final seals and awakening Dokindam X, which led to a one-shot kill that brought Katta's defeat. Somehow, the duel was witnessed by one of the legendary duelists Shobu Kirifuda, who he eventually concluded that Basara's actions cannot be ignored and must be stopped.

In between the time Katta trains with his brother Shobu, Basara continued to destroy more duelists that stood in his way. Katta witnessed his darkened personality and decided to end his senseless ambitions. Even though Basara managed to seal all of Katta's creatures, his victory was delayed when Katta used Shobu's card as a last minute save and using the legend of the 2 Revolutionary Dragons to unseal Dogiragon when its Bolshack counterpart got in the battle zone. In the mists of the duel, the dark spirit of Dokindam X began to show its true colors when its corruption was revealed but faded after Basara suppressed it. The duel table self destructed (the work of Duema Land President), Basara was knocked unconscious and sent to the hospital for immediate treatment. However, this was not the end of him, as Basara got up and left the hospital to seek vengeance against the president for betraying him. He later wakes Hakase and Rambo from Zon-san's influence by pouring a pail of water right at them, with all 3 heading out to fight against Duema Land President.

During their trip in the fortress, Hakase sent a mail to Basara's duel phone with a map to locate Dokindam X, with Rambo telling him to go ahead. Basara agrees to their decision of handling things from there. After Hakase and Rambo were defeated by Zon-san in a double duel, Basara sensed something was wrong. Following the map's coordinates, he found the location of Dokindam X and retrieved it, then he headed to face off against the Duema Land President and avenge his comrades. During their match, Basara managed to overcome the president's cheating moves with his new cards that had a sealing ability and by the time he liberated Dokindam X and went for the win, the president got a Surf Spiral shield trigger which he targeted Dokindam in the hopes of making its owner lose the game. However, Basara used Marmo, Forbidden C's Ultra Saver effect and defeated the president. The president attempted to escape, but Lulu Takigawa threw the dueling table at him and caused an explosion which destroyed the entire Duema Land. Basara left unharmed with the Forbidden Legend card in his hands.

In the epilogue, he was struggling to control the power of Dokindam X. However influenced by the card's spirit, he had started to take action with Number 2 and the group, the "Rare Killers".

Duel Masters Versus Revolution Final
During the Rare Killers first action, he managed to suppress Dokindam X's power for a while before his arm was being bandaged. One of the members reported to him about failing to seize the rare card Katta had. While Number 2 and Ijiwaru Nokiyomori were discussing about stealing Katta's cards, Basara swears revenge on him and destroys the mini helicopter which Lucifer used to spy on them. After watching the duel between Lucifer and Katta, Basara vows revenge on him too and watches as Number 2 dispatches another member of the Rare Killers to go after them.

After Basara gets another rare card from Kojiro Sasaki, he heads to the underground sector with Number 2 to absorb the card's spirit for transfer to Dokindam X. However, as Katta carelessly removes the plaster, it results in Basara's bandaged arm react to Dokindam X's powers. Basara eventually disregards the risks and took out 2 D2 Field cards from the sub-dimension. He returns to the same stadium in which he duels Katta and challenges him to a duel again. He uses Dokindam Area, Forbidden of D Denjara Switch effect to remove all of the seals to Forbidden Liberate at one turn. Even though Katta attempts to get Dokindam X out of the battle zone with Natural Snare shield trigger, Basara saves himself with the D2 Field's effect to prevent him from leaving the battle zone and brutally took Katta down. He then forcefully takes Dogiragon, Flaming Revolution, deeming the dragon spirit as a worthy sacrifice for Dokindam X. The dragon was eventually taken away by one of his minions, Ijiwaru Nokiyomori to blackmail Katta, in which he was later defeated and Dogiragon was taken back.

After Kojiro's defeat in the hands of Katta, Kojiro warned to Katta that Basara may no longer be human, and at the same time his possession intensifies, causing Forbidden Characters to appear on his body and his pupils turning into an.

In Episode 21, Basara and the Rare Killers attack Katta's school. The mob members were mostly taken care by the school's inhabitants such as Leo Hyakujuu and Maria Ave, but Basara appears and encounters Katta. However, Lucifer then drops from the sky, interferes and Duels Basara.

In his Duel, his tactics basically remained the same as his first encounter against Katta in the season, which he gained an upper hand in spite of Lucifer calling out Sido Twelve, Time 3, Fasola Twelve, Time 2 and making a Generarose, Red Rose Dragon Elemental chain. He then proceeds to Forbidden Liberate Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden again using Dokindam Area, Forbidden of D. Before he can commence a direct attack, Lucifer uses his Final Time Stop Duel to reveal a Revolution 0 Trigger to halt his attack. Being cornered by Lucifer's Miradante Twelve, Time Pope, Judgment Time and Final Stop which prevented him from conducting further action, Basara seemingly accepts his end until Number 2 embraced him by the back, making him remember their promise. Determined to achieve this ambition, Basara unleashes Dokindam X's might, which summons a thunderbolt that struck both of them. Holding the unconscious Number 2 over his shoulder, Basara reappears in a different set of clothing and a fully mutated arm through the portal and reveals FORBIDDEN ~Star of Forbidden~, which the True Forbidden might be released in time to come.

Having returned to base, he witnesses the True Forbidden resting to evolve and yet he still pulls out a card from it. Number 2 designs a new black motorcycle around that card which is revealed to be Blackout, Zero Invasion which is capable of making a Zero Charge Kill. Later on, Leo Hyakujuu arrives at the Rare Killers base and challenges him to a duel, which he quickly defeats with his ZERO charge kill tactics using Dokindamoon, Forbidden Moon, Blackout, Zero Invasion and The ZERO, Black Speed, as well as using Black Touch to remove his Revolution 0 Triggers. But before he can kill Leo, Leo was saved by Katta and the Rare Killers base collapses. He then takes the coocoon as a card and returns to his house along with Number 2, with Number 2 taking action against Lucifer with his forbidden legend card.

After then one day in the Rare Killers base the FORBIDDEN ~Star of Forbidden~ has transformed into FORBIDDEN STAR ~World's Last Day~/Dormageddon X and this has shocked Ijiwaru Nokiyomori and Rokuro, and initially Number 2, but Number 2 accepted it as a part of he and Basara's plans. The transformation from Star of Forbidden into Dormageddon X has transformed Basara's personality completely into a monster and this time Kojiro challenges him to a duel.

In the duel he placed World's Last Day into the battle zone at the start of the game which shocked the mob and Kojiro, then Kojiro tries to counter this using Jigokushivaku, D2K and Kill the Vorof, Rebellion of K. However, when Kojiro breaks the last shield Basara sends out Blackout, Zero Invasion using ZERO and liberates Dormageddon X, seemingly killing Kojiro instantly.



After then Katta challenges him to a duel. When he and Katta dueled, the ground lifted and became a hand with the Dueling table, Basara and Katta dueling on it and Number 2 watches the duel on top of one of its claws. During the duel Katta successfully sends out Dogiragon Buster, Blue Leader and Team Hamukatsu in spite of Basara unsealing FORBIDDEN STAR ~World's Last Day~, but he succeeded in unsealing the Forbidden Star and it transforms into Dormageddon X, Forbidden Armageddon and seals all of team hamukatsu. Katta then sends out a command trying to unseal Hamukatsuman Buster, No.1 Wind but Dormageddon x prevents the Hamukatsu from being unsealed, but Katta broke all of his shields anyway. He then proceeds to break all of Katta's shields, and on the next turn Katta used Oriotis Judge to stop Dormageddon X, but Basara instead sacrificed 2 of Dormageddon X's forbidden cores and went for the Direct Attack. After Katta was rescued by Ryusei the Earth, Basara transforms into a terrifying figure with both of his arms mutated, removes his cape and tries to kill katta but Number 2 stops him and he returns to normal for now, still unconscious about what he is doing (Which proofs that he has been completely taken over by Dormageddon X), But not before he wounded Number 2 in the chest with his spikes. The two then leave via bike.

Duel Masters Versus: Manga
After his introduction in anime he was first introduced in Duel Masters Versus Manga: Volume 6. In manga his history and his rivalry to Katta remains same except for some of his duels that differ from the anime series. He uses the same deck and cards as in anime.

Later in the manga series his hand was transformed same as in the anime series, after meeting with his old friend Number 2 he became the leader of Rare Killers. But in manga his team of rare killers feature 9 members where-as in anime his team feature 10 members.

Deck
He uses a Fire Civilization deck based on the Invader/Sonic Command/Human Baku race. His first deck is focused on Rush capabilities to allow him to win in 3 turns.

His new deck has additions from DMX-20, as well as the Forbidden card.

He later uses cards from DMD-27, plus the unsealed version of Forbidden, dubbing his new deck a Forbidden Deck.

For his duel against the Duema Land President he updates his deck with cards from DMR-20 Gyuujinmaru's True Identity!!.

Duel Masters Versus Revolution Final
For his rematch against Katta he used an updated DMD-31.

For his rematch against Lucifer he upgraded his deck with cards from newer sets:

For his duel against Leo he went for a Zero Turn Kill with new cards from DMR-22 World is Zero!! Blackout!!.

His final deck uses cards from DMD-35 and DMR-23 Dogiragolden VS Dormageddon X.

Trivia

 * In reality, a rush deck will most likely win in the same amount of turns or 1 more that Basara needs to take.
 * The scar on his face resembles the Master's scars.
 * In manga he does not have a scar on his face and he wears a cross shaped necklace as compared to his anime appearance.
 * He was one of the few humans who momentarily saw and was saved by a creature spirit along with Number 2.
 * Both Basara and Zakira have some common traits:
 * Both use Fire and Darkness as their main Civilization.
 * Both have a similar hairdo.
 * Both aim to destroy the Duel Masters World for their own benefits; Basara wanted to create a World of Zero and Zakira wanted the Duel Masters Proof for himself.
 * Both have dark powers; Basara utilizing the power of Forbidden and its variation to create certain effects and Zakira uses curses and psychokinesis to inflict damage on duelists in a duel.
 * Both are opposed by the main protagonist of their respective dueling era; Katta Kirifuda opposes Basara and Shobu Kirifuda opposes Zakira. Coincidentally, both the protagonists are siblings from the Kirifuda family, use Fire as their main Civilization, Dragons as their main creatures and have a spiritual connection to the creature world.
 * Both made an on-screen kill in a duel, though it was unknown that Kojiro was even killed and Leo was saved by Katta.
 * Both have the highest dueling skills among duelists in their same era; Basara is only defeated twice throughout VSR and VSRF and both times by Lucifer, the single strongest duelist of the VS era, while Zakira is only defeated once by Shobu and another time by Adam (With the latter that finally killed him for a good time) throughout the old manga.