Kojiro Sasaki

Kojiro was first introduced in the Duel Masters Versus season of the Duel Masters Anime.

Plot
He is one of the Junior High School students and Katta Kirifuda's new rival.

He has three smaller brothers who follow him around and eat his rice dishes. Kojiro is not wealthy, but he survives by being a cook. His other jobs include dueling and boxing.

As a boxer, he is said to have a "hungry spirit", and the same is for him as a duelist. Katta himself noticed that he duels differently when he is "hungry".While apparently calm, during a duel he starts behaving wildly, entering "beast mode".In episode 38,his hair turns white and claws which resembles a wolf appears when he enters enhanced "beast mode".

Lucifer's house's location looks down on Kojiro's house, and since Lucifer is extremely wealthy, Kojiro is hostile towards Lucifer, though the feeling is not mutual.

He learned how to duel at a young age and won many competitions and tournaments. During one of the tournaments when he was in 6th grade,he heard from one of the audience members about Katta Kirifuda being one of the strongest duelist in the world of Duel Masters,thinking that he might be an interesting opponent. He has a fierce rivalry towards Lucifer since young and he always loses to him repeatedly during their duels.

He made his first appearance in episode 4. He duels Katta and shows his Dragheart card Go To Hell, Annihilator Blade / Deathshiraz, Demonic Corrupt King abilities. He won against Katta and gave him a curry bun for giving a good match.

In episode 9, he duels Sasori. He accepted her duel challenge, despite looking calm,his legs are shaking, noticed by Katta. Even though Sasori managed to gain an upper hand by using her Nature Dragon combination and conducting Dragon Solution,he turned the tables by using his own creatures to reduce her dragons power and conducting Dragon Solution. He mercilessly defeated Sasori,but was impressed by her dueling skills, saying his wish to duel her again.

In episode 14, during the Lucifer World Cup semi-finals, his ruthless dueling skills was too much for Katta to handle and win the duel. He told Katta that he was not at the level he expected to be in. He also tells Lulu Takigawa if Katta does not become stronger, he won't be able to make it to the Duel Masters Nationals.He duels Lucifer in the finals and revealed his ability to draw cards by just punching to create a gust of wind, countering Lucifer's "transcendence pitch". But Lucifer has a counter for his method, causing him to lose the duel.



In episode 28, he tried to get the golden chopsticks for one of his smaller brothers in a ramen shop. On his way he knocked Hattori and his comrades (even Sasori and Kaeru) out of his way running to the shop only to then realize that Sasori got them first before him.

He tried to ask nervously for the chopsticks. However, Sasori was kidnapped by Hattori the dueling ninja and he rushed with Kaeru to save her. He dueled Hattori, both using their respective 3D Dragheart cards. Kojiro barely managed to win the duel,saved Sasori and he obtained the golden chopsticks from her.

He was one of the finalist in the Nationals. He watches Katta and Hokaben's live interview together with his 3 brothers by television while he was working.His first opponent in the Nationals is Sasori.Before his duel against Sasori,he gained some words of encouragement from his smaller brothers and met Hattori. However,Sasori's personality change and her ability to stir up the audience's support causes him to be pushed to the corner.Fortunately his brothers cheered for him along the way and he knew who he was fighting for.Using his renewed confidence,he defeated her and recognized her true feelings towards him.Sasori gave him a hug and he froze due to his fear of girls.

Kojiro and his brothers watched the tournament round of Hokaben and Gyou.He paid attention to Hokaben's dueling skills and was impressed by how much he had improved.He was surprised by Gyou's metamorphosis and his devilish dueling style and explained to one of his brothers on what was going on in the match.He witnessed Hokaben's endurance and his fighting spirit.

Deck
His first deck was a mono Darkness deck focused on Funky Knightmares and Demon Command Dragons.

His new deck for the tournament was a modified version of DMD-19 Super Victory Deck: Annihilation Dragon Sword Diabolos.He then added cards from DMR-15 Double Swords Ohginga in the Duel Masters National Tournament.

During his duel against Lucifer in the semi-finals of the tournament,he added the following cards;
 * Welcome Hell, Prison Devil Depth / Deathgoros, Prison Demonic Corrupt King
 * Hellvorof, Prison Dragon Edge

Trivia

 * His voice actor was also the voice actor of Yuuki, a rival of Boy George.
 * Besides being the new Darkness duelist, his appearance is reminiscent of Kyoshiro Kokujo, an iconic duelist of the older series.
 * In episode 9 it is revealed that he is extremely shy around girls and is even scared by them.
 * Episode 12 hints that while Lucifer might have French origins, Kojiro could be of Mediterranean descent.
 * Besides Kyoshiro Kokujo, Kojiro might also be inspired by Kojiro Hyuga from the Captain Tsubasa series. His actor has also voiced Kojiro Hyuga.