Background

Atemu is actually the spirit of the mighty Pharaoh who once ruled Egypt 3,000 years ago. To save the world, he sealed evil within the Sennen Puzzle, but he had to seal his own soul too. The puzzle was broken apart and remained unsolved for thousands of years, until destiny brought the puzzle to Mutou Yugi. He was able to piece together the complicated puzzle and awaken the spirit of the Pharaoh that resided within.

Of course, he has no recollection of his days as the Pharaoh, and his past was one of the biggest mysteries of the series. At the beginning of the Battle City arc, he visits the Domino Museum and learns from Ishizu about his past as the Pharaoh, and that the only way to get his memories back is to collect the 3 god cards - the keys to his memories - in Kaiba's upcoming Battle City Tournament.

Past & Present

The first series of Yuugiou is completely unrelated to the storyline in Duel Monsters (second series). Takahashi-sensei focused the first series on various yami no game (shadow games), and Atemu had a much darker role. He challenges his opponents to these games and make them go crazy in the end. Since Yugi was always being picked on, Atemu had plenty of bullies to take care of.

In Duelist Kingdom, Atemu's opponent is Pegasus J. Crawford, the multi-millionaire who created the modern Duel Monsters card game. Pegasus had the Sennen Eye and wanted Yugi's Sennen Puzzle for himself, so he gave Yugi no choice but to enter his tournament with his grandpa's soul at stake. Atemu reaches the championship, and is able to face off against Pegasus and win.

During the Battle City arc, he learns from Ishizu that 3,000 years ago, he was a mighty Pharaoh who ruled over Egypt. In order for him to recover his lost memories and his forgotten name, he must gather all 7 Sennen Items and the 3 legendary god cards. But he must duel his way to the top against some of the toughest opponents, like Marik and Kaiba, to retrieve those items.

In the final arc of the series, Pharaoh's Memory World, Atemu heads over to the tablet, after collecting all the items, and is thrown into the Memory World, reliving his life as the Pharaoh 3,000 years ago. He meets the strong and faithful Priests that made up his court, how the Sennen Items were forged, and discover his true name with the help of his friends.

Personality

He is very protective of little Yugi, whom he calls aibou (partner). When he senses danger, he appears and takes over Yugi - especially during duels - and takes care of the situation. Shadi once entered Yugi's mind after Duelist Kingdom, and got lost in the confusing maze of illusions, trying to find the room to Atemu's closely guarded soul.

Atemu is likeable but unreachable, and the poor guy is constantly being targeted by villains - Pegasus from Duelist Kingdom, Marik from Battle City, Dartz from Doom, and Kaiba throughout the series. It's not easy being the Pharaoh and the King of Games.

Name

Since his true name was not known until the end of the series, he went by quite a lot of names. Below are the most common ones:

» Yami no Yuugi (Dark Yuugi) - Used during the first series.

» Mou hitori no boku (the other me) - Only used by Yuugi.

» Mou hitori no Yuugi (the other Yuugi) - Used by his close friends Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda, who realized there were "two" of them.

» Namonaki Pharaoh (the nameless Pharaoh) - Used by those who knew about his true identity, later in the series.

» Yuugi - Used by everyone else.

Atemu vs Atem? There is some dispute over the spelling of his name. Officially, his name is spelt アテム (Atemu). However, because of the way romanization works in the Japanese writing system, the last "u" may or may not be intentional. Basically, there is no way to spell Atem in Japanese, so the closest thing is Atemu. Therefore, both spellings are technically correct. I prefer to stick to the Japanese pronunciation, so I spell it Atemu on this site.

English dub: He is simply called Yami Yugi, or Yami for short, in the dub versions. Later in the series, he is called Pharaoh Yami, Nameless Pharaoh, or just Pharaoh.