Shobu Kirifuda

Shobu Kirifuda (切札 勝舞) is the main protagonist of the Duel Masters Anime and manga.

Anime
Shobu Kirifuda is the son of the legendary duelist, Shori Kirifuda. He loves to duel more than anything, especially with his favorite card, the Bolshack Dragon. Shobu's goal is to meet his father again. He wants to become the best duelist in the whole world and in doing so, be the best at what he truly loves. Shobu keeps a positive attitude throughout the series, insisting on dueling for fun as opposed to simply winning.

Season 1
Shobu won his first Duel Masters Invitational Junior Circuit Tournament against Joe Sayonji. After he just won this tournament he challenged by Knight at Knight's JDC for his first real Kaijudo duel. He lost this duel to Knight but still he was able to show his power of Kaijudo Master to Knight. And that was all what Knight wanted to see.

He later went to the Temple with the offer of The Master to duel and defeat Hakuoh and his way to defeat Hakuoh he defeated 50 temple duelists and also he has to face The White Soldiers one of them was his own friend Mimi. He defeated them all and then got to duel with Hakuoh and found out that he was being controlled by Master and in order to help him he has to defeat him in a duel. He then defeated him and won The Temple Tournament.

Sacred Lands
Shobu then goes on his quest for becoming a True Kaijudo Duelist towards the Sacred Lands. In his way he learns all five civilizations and also defeats the members of P.L.O.O.P.. He also manages to save both worlds with the help of all his friends and his father as well by defeating the boss of the P.L.O.O.P. army and sealing all five gates of all the civilizations. He then became a True Kaijudo Duelist.



Duel Masters Charge
Later he went into the the Duel Masters Battle Arena Tournament. In this tournament he defeated the boss of the Black Soldiers in the qualifying matches. In the finals he found out about about the plot of Zakira who is after the "Awakening Cards". Shobu wishes to become a Kaijudo Master and can only become one by defeating a True Kaijudo Duelist in a tournament of kaijudo duelists and also being able to control these awakened cards. Shobu wanted to defeat Hakouh who is already a Kaijudo Master but he was brainwashed by the evil power of Zakira, This tournament was his best chance to make his dreams come true but now he has to save his best rival Hakuoh from Zakira by defeating his followers and then by defeating him as well.

Now in he goes on this journey to learn about many these Awakening Cards and how to control them and also learn how to use them in his deck as these cards are too powerful to be used even in a duel so easily. In this journey he fights many of Zakira's followers and also see his trial of betrayal to his own followers just to get more power.

Deck
In the first season of the Duel Masters Anime, Shobu uses a Fire Civilization deck, with Bolshack Dragon as his trump card. He later experiments with the other civilizations as well as adding Armored Blaster Valdios as his secondary trump card after learning the power of evolution creatures.
 * Bolshack Dragon
 * Bolmeteus Steel Dragon
 * Immortal Baron, Vorg
 * Mini Titan Gett
 * Scarlet Skyterror
 * Rothus, the Traveler
 * Brawler Zyler
 * Armored Blaster Valdios
 * Armored Cannon Balbaro
 * Baby Zoppe
 * Twin-Cannon Skyterror
 * Tornado Flame
 * Rumble Gate
 * Gatling Skyterror
 * Onslaughter Triceps
 * Pyrofighter Magnus
 * Cocco Lupia
 * Nomad Hero Gigio
 * Rikabu's Screwdriver
 * Magmarex
 * Magmadragon Jagalzor
 * Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
 * Armored Walker Urherion

In the Sacred Lands season he constructed 5 different decks, and each a new deck for the respective civilization that he visited. He used these new decks to defeat the P.L.O.O.P. Leaders one by one.


 * Soul Phoenix, Avatar of Unity was his first Awakening Card. He received it from Extreme Bucketman.

In Duel Masters Charge, he now uses a Fire and Nature civilization deck.
 * Bolmeteus Steel Dragon
 * Bombazar, Dragon of Destiny

In Duel Masters Cross, he focuses on Armored Dragons. After losing to Yumama he loses most of his deck, and is given a new deck by his father which is based on Samurai and Armored Dragon's.


 * Bolshack Dragon
 * Bolmeteus Steel Dragon
 * Bolbalzak "Sword Flash" Dragon
 * Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon
 * Bolshack Yamato Dragon.

During Duel Masters Movie 2: Lunatic God Saga he used Drag Moon, the Enlightened.

In Duel Masters Cross Shock, he uses many new samurai creatures.
 * Saint Bolshack, Spiritual Dragon
 * Bolmeteus "Kensei" Dragon
 * Valkyrias Musashi, Ultimate Battle Dragon
 * Genji Double Cross, Blastdragon
 * Bolshack NEX
 * Flame Shiva Double Cross, Blastdragon
 * Spear Lupia
 * Bocco Lupia
 * Kicky Yacoopy
 * Tornado Shiva Double Cross, Blastdragon
 * Bolshack Dragon, the Temporal Blaze / Bolshack Möbius, Victory Awakened
 * Shobu Aini
 * Storm Double Cross, Blastdragon (Tornado Chain)
 * Eagle Aini, the Explosive Wing
 * Überdragon Sunburst NEX
 * Bolpheus Heaven, Holy Super Dragon.

Trivia
In the original manga, during the first seven volumes of the manga where Magic: the Gathering was the central focus of the plot, Shobu used a Sliver deck. Slivers are MtG cards that have a playstyle similar to Survivors.

His surname's kanji "Kirifuda (切札)" literally means "The Trump Card", "The Ace Card" or "The Winning Card". His name's kanji "Shoubu (勝舞)" is a combination of his father's name "Shouri (勝利)" meaning "Victory" and his mother's name "Mai (舞)" means "Dance", thus "Shoubu (勝舞)" means "Victory Dance" or "Dance of Victory". The pronunciation "Shoubu (しょうぶ)" is also a pun from "shoubu (勝負)" which literally means "Win (or) Lose" and from there derived the meanings: "Duel".

This trend runs in the Kirifuda family, as Shobu's younger brother Katsuta(勝太)'s name means "Winning Big."

While chasing Zakira in season 3, Shobu falls into a hole and burns his purple shirt. He later replaces it with an orange one.