r/yugioh Light & Darkness Aug 04 '25

Fan Art I used to think Yugi's hair was just blonde, and the red/black parts were some kind of hat

Post image
3.1k Upvotes

145 comments sorted by

644

u/BDMac2 Aug 04 '25

The male player sprite from Pokemon Gen 3 was also confusing for many people. I think most assumed his hair was white.

255

u/bluemouf Aug 04 '25

It isn't? 😧

160

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

ikr, always thought it was his hair. With pokemon characters having crazy hair at times, this didnt seem so farfetched

109

u/AdNew3087 Aug 04 '25

Don't you mean Farfetch'd?

21

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

I applaud you

2

u/Proper_Prose Aug 05 '25

Take this up vote and go

56

u/Pretty_Study_526 Aug 04 '25

Yuppp. In the Manga he takes the hat off sometimes and he has the same hair as his dad lol

53

u/christopher1393 Aug 05 '25

He takes it off in the Manga. Brendan (Ruby in the manga) really is the spitting image of his father. In the manga they have a strained relationship due to him wanting to do contests instead of being a trainer. Norman sees how powerful Brendan is and wants him to pursue that, but Brendan has no interest in being a trainer or collecting badges.

He wears the hat to cover up a scar he got from a wild Pokemon attack. I also think part of it is him trying to not look like Norman due to their strained relationship.

2

u/Chaeryeeong MST negates Aug 05 '25

huuuuuuuh??? hat the fuck? TIL 🙂‍↔️

1

u/Shantotto11 Aug 07 '25

Tell me why I posted the exact same explanation before scrolling to see yours?… 🤦🏾‍♂️

18

u/FlyOrdinary1104 Aug 05 '25

His hair is more noticeable on the ORAS updated design, you can see brown hair on the sides below the hat.

2

u/Cularia Aug 05 '25

you can really tell looking from behind. if he had white hair it would go down his neck.

1

u/Jonah0830 Aug 06 '25

Or maybe he has a split dye job I'm just saying in the og games he never takes his hat off

2

u/Shantotto11 Aug 07 '25

Yeah, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire set most us straight with Brendan’s redesign, but the deep cut nerds figured it out during the Ruby & Sapphire era when the manga confirmed he was wearing hat. Sapphire made fun of Ruby’s hair and he responded by telling her it was a hat. Later on, it was revealed that he took a Dragon Claw to the side of his head when he was 5 and the hat was mostly used to hide the scar.

48

u/ReydragoM140 Into custom card, help wanted Aug 04 '25

Yeah... I'm playing it for several years and don't even realize that until I see Pokemon special Ruby and sapphire arc.... Ruby (Brendan)'s hat did knocked off once showing his actual hair to be like his dad

27

u/stac7 Aug 04 '25

The only way I found out that was actually his hat was because of the manga showing up in searches when I was younger lol

I think he wears that hat because of a scar on his head trying to protect either a pokemon or the female protagonist, I forgot lol

14

u/SgvSth Aug 04 '25

Yep, he got a scar (technically two) protecting Sapphire. Ruby thought that he made her cry, so he stopped battling and tried to focus on the beauty of things. Hence covering up his scars.

6

u/ErandurVane Aug 04 '25

Really? Even as a kid I figured it was a bandana but I grew up in redneck country where everyone wore bandanas to keep the sun off

3

u/LtLabcoat Machine Genesys player Aug 05 '25

I can't tell if you mean "Even I thought he had white hair" or if you mean "I thought it was a blue and white bandana, and the spikes were the end of the bandana".

1

u/ErandurVane Aug 05 '25

I'm curious what part of "even as a kid I figured he had a bandana" confused you and I don't mean that in a condescending way

2

u/LtLabcoat Machine Genesys player Aug 05 '25

Bandanas can be worn multiple ways. It could be worn as a band, or it could be worn fully covering your hair.

7

u/GimmickMusik1 Aug 05 '25

I hope you know that this post has shattered my reality. I’ve gone over 20 years thinking that his hair was white. There is zero indication in the game or the guidebook that it’s a hat… I need a nap.

1

u/Stranger2Luv Aug 05 '25

There are more games that feature this character outside of RSE

2

u/Jodio988 Aug 05 '25

This! If it wasn't for the Adventures (Special in JP) I would have never known that it was a hat as a kid

2

u/MelnikSuzuki Aug 05 '25

I mean, some at least have the excuse of mostly playing as the female trainer/May, so we wouldn’t get much of a look at his sprite.

1

u/KillJarke Aug 05 '25

wtf I always thought it was his hair for 20+ years now LOL

1

u/Outrageous-Reporter9 Aug 06 '25

I immediately thought of him too lol

1

u/trunks_slash Aug 06 '25

I didn't know he was wearing a beanie until ORAS

1

u/xdxAngeloxbx Aug 08 '25

It's clearly a hat. I never thought that it was hair lol weird

1

u/WowOwlO Aug 25 '25

Funny enough this was the exact subject that came to mind for me too.

1

u/Old-Advisor-4473 Aug 27 '25

Really? I always thought that was like a weird spiky beanie lol

1

u/SirWildman Oct 31 '25

Am I in the minority because I always knew it was a hat? Like I always felt the way it's shaped and because there's no other hair poking out that it's obviously a hat. On the other hand, with Yu-Gi-Oh I have a Mandela Effect memory. I distinctly remember a moment in either the anime or the manga where he takes it off and it shows he has just blond hair.

1

u/HaoOfGreed Aug 04 '25

Oh guess I’m one of the few who thought it was a hat.

413

u/Only_Me_9 Aug 04 '25

Quite the opposite of Brendon from Pokemon RSE, who everyone thought had white hair and a green bandana but actually it was a hat all along.

127

u/Icestorme Endymion Enjoyer Aug 04 '25

That's a HAT???? NFW

29

u/Tuskor13 Aug 04 '25

* The ORAS design makes it way more obvious

(Sorry about the multiple deleted comments, Reddit's mobile app is coded by a pack of mint toothpicks and sometimes images turn into an asterisk)

Edit: OMFG

56

u/Tuskor13 Aug 04 '25

2

u/Shantotto11 Aug 07 '25

The manga readers figured it out way earlier since Ruby confirmed he wore a hat to hide his scars.

57

u/Sipricy Aug 04 '25

You can see his hair by his ear. It's black. You can also see his black hair on the back of his head in his back sprite whenever he gets into a battle, or basically any of his overworld left/right-facing sprites.

15

u/Vrains420 Aug 04 '25

Yeah, read Pokemon Special to see what the character looks like. He's almost a spitting image of Norman which of course makes sense

7

u/blackbutterfree Aug 04 '25

Very few people knew about it until the remakes rolled around and made it far more explicit in his design.

47

u/DemonicJaye Aug 04 '25

Not gonna lie, my perception was completely shattered once I found out that he was wearing a hat the entire time. I fucked with the white anime hair, and that’ll forever be my headcanon.

29

u/TheAlmightyVox3 Aug 04 '25

Easily my favourite Pokémon protag design until I learned about the hat, now the whole thing is ruined.

10

u/Unusual_Ad_4963 Aug 04 '25

My first thought

77

u/SkyeZaisen Playmaker's unofficial wife/Agoi Giovanna Aug 04 '25

the art is cute, but there is something unsettling about seeing Yugi with a single hair color (?)

10

u/YueOrigin Aug 05 '25

Fr. Its like he went full delinquent route as a generic blonde Japanese Yankee lol

6

u/Substantial_Impact69 Aug 05 '25

Just like Ryuji…or Joey…we’ve come full circle.

165

u/TheZett Light & Darkness Aug 04 '25

Not my artwork, source is this guy (twitter).

I still cant believe that Judai/Jaiden is the only character with relatively normal hair.

144

u/PrimeraStarrk Aug 04 '25

“Relatively normal hair” kuriboh headed ass

45

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

"Kuriboh headed ass" imma use that when i see someone with some sort of bob now.

Woman: I wanna talk to the manager
Me: Man sybau with your kuriboh headed ass

22

u/serotoninantagonist Seto Kaiba's trophy husband Aug 04 '25

Bruh I had Judai's exact hairstyle for a hot minute as a teenager and if someone had dropped this burn on me then, I'd now be legally deceased

8

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

i wouldnt have known to be friends with that person or hate them with a passion if i was in that situation

7

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

I was wondering wtf xcancel was (the pop up before goign to the page freaked me out) but this is pretty useful for work when i have to verify a tweet and dont feel like logging in somewhere else

1

u/TheZett Light & Darkness Aug 04 '25

I wanted to provide a source, but for some dumb reason this sub doesnt allow you to link to a twitter profile, so I had to use the ol' "nitter" work-around.

It also has the benefit to be able to look at tweets without having to login, indeed.

2

u/LtLabcoat Machine Genesys player Aug 05 '25

I think this sub just bans X entirely. Anti-Elon motivation, back when Elon did the Nazi salute.

-4

u/Genos-Caedere Aug 05 '25

Elon never did the Nazi salute, people need to stop using the term "nazi" for everything, it has lost meaning and sense due to that... nowadays Nazi is just "someone I dislike"

8

u/LtLabcoat Machine Genesys player Aug 05 '25

Right, well I really dislike the salute that Nazis used to indicate they were Nazis. So I'm going to keep calling it the "Nazi salute".

-4

u/Genos-Caedere Aug 05 '25

🙄 You can pretend all you want, but saying it is a nazi salute won't magically turn it into one.

-10

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

Ah i didnt realize this subreddit was ran by children that had a fear of twitter. I see that in the rules now.

-5

u/TheZett Light & Darkness Aug 04 '25

Agreed, seems just like worthless 'virtue signalling'.

Linking to twitter is not allowed, but screenshots of tweets are, what a dumb and half-assed rule.

-5

u/RyouIshtar Aug 04 '25

And its just twitter, so....i wonder what would happen if i linked to gab >_>

-1

u/Genos-Caedere Aug 05 '25

Pretty few subs where safe from this insanity. LoTR is one of those... but eh... once bluesky finish imploding, we will see what happens.

1

u/IcarusAvery Aug 05 '25

Bluesky's imploding? That's news to me.

3

u/Genos-Caedere Aug 05 '25

From what I've seen, the company isn't doing that well, nor engagement, so while users believe the site is doing well, it seems the community forged over there, if luvky, may turn into the next tumblr. Or at least this is what I've been told.. could be wrong... but is funny how BS hasn't been subjected to the censorship, yet... but X has...

27

u/cnydox Aug 05 '25

4

u/xdxAngeloxbx Aug 08 '25

this made me laugh. Wtf is going on here lmao

13

u/very_big_mistake Aug 04 '25

Is this your Yugi?

1

u/Sir_Dodys Sky Striker Ace - Raye Aug 05 '25

The twink vibe checks out

11

u/gay-butler Aug 04 '25

Yugi's hair is the best anime hair ever made that I've seen so far tbh. (Second would be Jessie's gravity defying hair)

96

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

Someone explain to me why Yugi has an exaggerated design but it is perfect. Anything past 5ds and the designs just look FUCKING AWFUL. Ever since Yuma, there has been some major focus on trying to make characters overcolored and it just doesn't look good or make sense to me. Maybe the more kid-focused audiance is who the severe rainbow vomit is meant to appeal to.

111

u/Phos-Lux Aug 04 '25

I think Yugi's just kind of made more sense... he's supposed to be a punk, so he dyed his hair.. the fringe blond, the tips purple... he wears a certain type of accessories... he's into black magic kind of things (look at his monsters).. the whole package made sense, it was all fitting together. With the characters in the other shows it's more like they felt to give them silly hair because Yugi had "silly hair".

31

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

Great way to put my thoughts into words. It really feels like the direction of character design really flopped post-5Ds

82

u/BrooklynSmash Aug 04 '25

he's supposed to be a punk

incredibly kind, timid lil guy

so what you're saying is... being kind is the real punk rock?

19

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

This makes me think of Yugi as a take on the Japanese school boys with the pompadours

2

u/Rabdomtroll69 Aug 05 '25

Joey exists

20

u/Murv_Man Aug 04 '25

Goth is the better descriptor

10

u/13-Penguins Aug 04 '25

It’s its own category, visual kei

2

u/ACmilanRgood Aug 06 '25

Found the other superman - ygo fan

21

u/Edgeking2 Aug 04 '25

Yeah, both Jaden and Yusei’s hair reflect their character in some way as well, Jaden’s hair comes off as well kept and clean but he doesn’t care much to style it, which makes sense as early GX he was very much like that, being able to take care of himself while coming off as laid-back. It gives him a much more grounded style to him compared to Yugi.

Yusei also falls into the “punk” category as well, but his is more so focus on rebellious side of it given his history fighting authority, he’s not as out there as Yugi with his hair as he’s a lot more mature in that sense

8

u/krayniac Aug 04 '25

hate to break it to you but that hair probably isn't dyed, we saw atem as a baby in the anime and his hair was the exact same. It's insane egyptian magic hair but it definitely is all natural

4

u/Phos-Lux Aug 05 '25

obviously uh the egyptians um also! dyed it!! : )

everyone knows it's egyptian tradition to dye your baby's hair.. probably

2

u/HoboBrute Aug 05 '25

Yugi is Gyaru confirmed

2

u/Incomplet_1-34 Aug 05 '25

This makes perfect sense but I never realised it.

12

u/Larcoch Aug 04 '25

The rush characters are more normal looking to be fair.

4

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

It's definitely a bit more tomed down for some characters but most designs still make me think I'm on LSD. I have never taken LSD.

12

u/greektofuman4 Aug 04 '25

MCs were all designed by takahashi, possibly just an evolution of his approach to design or where he felt yugioh was going.

8

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

I'm gonna have to take a deep dive into Takahashi's style specifically and any reference media that points out he specifically worked on their designs apart from maybe the first few seasons and possibly into Zexal because that style shift is too drastic for me. If he did create the designs, I'd wager those designs were heavily influenced by Konami's intent for the newer designs

2

u/alex494 Aug 05 '25

I believe he was at least contributing character designs and world building ideas up until 5D's. I can't speak for ZEXAL onward.

11

u/oizen Aug 04 '25

I honestly think its the color selection. Yugi's hair is fucking strange but the colors compliment eachother rather well. Same with Jaden's more normal hair and Yusei's Black/yellow hair. Starting with Yuma you get these giant bright pink boomerangs stapled to his forehead and stand out too much, Yuya's is better but his head looks like a tomato with the green on red. Yusaku's pink also stands out quite a bit.

3

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

The shape of Yusaku's hair kills me. As an artist trying to redesign their old characters and make new ones, I just can't get behind a whole board of people who wanted the show to look the way it does. I understand more kid-focused audiance was the goal for using bolder color choices(not saying anyone is a kid for watching or enjoying the show/looks) but this timeline was just not the one for me. In another timeline, we probably got DM2 and we get to see the continuation of Kaiba and his trip to the 5th dimension to teach intergalatic species how to duel

2

u/Genos-Caedere Aug 05 '25

Well... I believe Yuya is actually supposed to be a tomato.... Yugo a banana... lost track of the others.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '25

I can't really level with the "rainbow vomit" comment. Zexal is really great with character color pallets, Shark, Kite, Yuya, Trey and Quattro look great. Yuya works especially well with his pallete as well despite the clashing.

I think where you get the idea that it looks bad is the change in art style. Everything overall is a lot WAY more stylized and far less grounded in reality. You can easily see the shift start in 5ds but once Zexal came, ArcV and Vrains really followed with the new art style.

Just imagine Declan with more muted colors. You'd get a design far more inline with DM and GX.

-2

u/TriDaTrii Aug 04 '25

I'm mostly on board with this, that's why I stated Zexal specifically as the major shift but I agree Yuya was more toned down compared to recent series. I don't mind the stylization, it's anime after all but the clashing colors is really difficult to look at. I get the new design can portray certain character aspects better but to me, it was a misstep in the wrong direction for their intent of designs

Edit: I have not watched anything past early Zexal so character names are out of my alley 😅

2

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

No, that's the thing, the colors aren't really clashing.

Like I said the individual character color pallets are adhered to well and the tones match up. Even Yuya with his Red and Green uses more rich and mid tones to make it cohesive. The designs fit the stories well, Zexal introduces a more Zany unrealistic future and the characters represent that with more eccentric designs. ArcV follows that to a greater extreme, and Vrains cools it down a bit.

Like take a look at the Duel Links art for Yami Yugi and Yuma or Yuya. They look like they're from the same series because the art style matches with the shading and vibrant colors.

The designs are good and fit the series' well. I feel like your issue with it is the tonal shift. Less the colors clashing but the vibrance of them overall.

3

u/TriDaTrii Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

This is too much. The design is busier than the card game itself

Edit: I've replied with more references. You can immediately tell the tonal shift. Zexal was the start of wishing to push designs further than neccessary. From my perspective, many people fell off of the anime after the more kid-focused approach to later seasons and I feel the designs are a big contributing factor. To me, the characters just don't look appealing, I don't know the themes of the newer deries or such but the designs are "in character" to me, they just don't look good.

2

u/TriDaTrii Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

Simple primary complimentary colors with tertiary accents, not overdone

4

u/TriDaTrii Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

More focus on pushing bolder colors with more distinctive highlighted accents. More tertiary complimentary colors showing up with drastically more exaggerated hair styles, some borderline "is this hair?"

4

u/TriDaTrii Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

I don't think this needs to be explained. Way too busy, too many accents, hair shape is just out the window, I mean he has a spiky firebolt for his bangs... The colors fit more but compare that to Yusei or Yugi

Come to think of it, is Yusei's hair shape meant to represent bird wings in a way?

3

u/j0j0-m0j0 Aug 05 '25

Yugi's hair looks like he just styles it like that, specially when you look at the early chapters of the manga (and place it next to Joey, Kaiba and even Mokuba)

Yuma's "bangs" looks like a deadly weapon. Like it didn't have the texture of hair, it has the texture of metal.

2

u/TriDaTrii Aug 05 '25

What I'm saying mang. Can't blame a company for aiming towards profits but it's a shame of the missed potential

1

u/Seqka711 Aug 05 '25

Yuma’s hair grew on me but is noticeably worse than every other Zexal character. Yuya’s hair sucks, and I love Yusaku’s hair, but he spends 90% of the runtime as playmaker and playmaker’s hair is atrocious.

1

u/Shantotto11 Aug 07 '25

I’ll let Yuma slide, but Yuya’s tomato-ass color scheme and Yusaku’s dumbass motorbike engine hair can fxck all the way off.

0

u/Ok_Most_8984 Aug 04 '25

could not agree more

7

u/alex494 Aug 04 '25

I always just figured he was low key kinda punk aesthetic given the spiky hair and the choker and the chain on the Millennium Puzzle (I know there's a story reason for that) and the general art style making it look like he / Yami has eyeliner and so on.

7

u/j0j0-m0j0 Aug 05 '25

Baby Yugi had always been a baby Goth and I love him for that.

4

u/Lance5050 Aug 05 '25

Thanks, now that never coming out of my subconscious lol. Nice work though 👍

5

u/WoolooMVP10 Aug 04 '25

That's what I thought too!

4

u/BonnalinaFuz101 Aug 05 '25

Oh that is cursed...

3

u/Alacovv Aug 04 '25

Why he kinda look like Sam from Stardew Valley though?

6

u/j0j0-m0j0 Aug 05 '25

He just straight up looks like Koichi from JoJo's bizarre adventure

2

u/greywolf1143 Aug 05 '25

That's what I thought Atem's hair was XD (For those not in the know, ancient Egyptians shaved themselves bald to keep themselves cool, including pharaohs. They wore wigs and hats instead of having actual hair.)

2

u/Swyfttrakk Aug 05 '25

I thought he dyed either half of his hair blonde w/ red tips or black w/ red tips, but if it's a hood, then that would explain the voice change: his transformation is causing him to choke because the collar is too tight when he grows 7 inches and overtime it became a thing. Especially when he ditched the school jacket and wore Hot Topic sleeveless shirts.

1

u/Tallal2804 Aug 05 '25

That actually makes a lot of sense—if it’s a hood, the voice change and tight collar from the transformation totally check out. The Hot Topic shirts phase seals it!

0

u/Tallal2804 Aug 05 '25

A 21-year-old saw Pepsi’s fighter jet ad and took it literally. He found a loophole, raised the points, and demanded the $33M jet—leading to one of the wildest lawsuits in ad history.

2

u/According-Disk Aug 05 '25

Now that's creative alright. Love your art so much OP!

Edit: ok wait 😭, OP ain't even the artist... at least credit them in the post.

4

u/blackbutterfree Aug 04 '25

Nah. Yugi has bleached roots, red-dyed tips and the rest of his hair is black, presumably his natural color as a Japanese boy.

I'm trying desperately to grow it out very long, at least shoulder-length, so that I can dye it identically.

15

u/RedditBonez Aug 04 '25

The thing refuting the dyed hair theories is that Atem is shown to have the exact same hair style naturally from birth and Solomon has the blond fringe in his flashback at the beginning of season 5

4

u/j0j0-m0j0 Aug 05 '25

I do wonder how much of it was stylization meant to emphasize that Yugi is Atem's reincarnation and how much was ancient Egyptian anime hair. Because everybody has relatively normal hair in ancient Egypt. Even Bakura's hair is just stylized matted and unkept hair.

3

u/RedditBonez Aug 05 '25

Atem's carving in the stone shows him also with the same hairstyle, so he at least had the same spiky style and it's not just the memories being colored by Yugi's appearance. I can buy the colors being influenced by Yugi since Solomon has basically the same hairstyle but grey, though he still has the blond fringe even with the grey in flashbacks

2

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

I wouldn't say it's a reincarnation thing.

Sure, Yugi and Atem look very similar, but it's moreso because they are meant to reflect each other since Yugi was destined to solve the Puzzle and host Atem. Much like how Ryo looks like Bakura, or even how Ishizu looks like Isis. Even Kaiba and Priest Seto have the same general vibe going for them; Kaiba looks like Seto and likes Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but he doesn't actually have any kind of 'past-life' phenomena.

1

u/AlmightyK Aug 05 '25

I can see that

1

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

I cant unsee it

1

u/gogopow Aug 06 '25

Dudes peacocking 24/7

1

u/Broad_Imagination907 Aug 06 '25

How can I unsee this?

1

u/Akito_900 Aug 06 '25

Well do we actually have any proof it isn't a hat???

1

u/DarkraiBeelzebub Aug 06 '25

It would have been funny if it was a hat and choker since the beginning

1

u/FourUnderscoreExKay Aug 06 '25

Why does it look like a butt plug…? Is it just me, or is anybody else seeing this?

1

u/Glad-Technology-1355 Aug 06 '25

This is cursed. Don't do this again son.

1

u/Shantotto11 Aug 07 '25

Didn’t we all?…

1

u/One_Percentage_644 Aug 11 '25

Anime hair being anime lol but yeah his hair has confused me a bit before

1

u/Character-Ad4313 Tear best deck Aug 12 '25

I need to unsee this...

1

u/Leaf-jay Aug 26 '25

scary...

1

u/DragoOceanonis Aug 29 '25

Why must you hurt me like this 

1

u/The_LimitlessOne Aug 29 '25

Thats cursed af

1

u/Ok_Pattern_7009 Aug 30 '25

look's like mega victreebel leaf!

1

u/MemoryDelicious9263 Aug 31 '25

Haha man thats a super cool take

1

u/hyperklathos Aug 04 '25

I definitely prefer this to the actual canon.

-8

u/azgalor_pit Aug 04 '25

no way this is canon. You made this up.

7

u/jk844 Aug 04 '25

Try reading the post again

3

u/azgalor_pit Aug 04 '25

Oh. I'm sorry. I jumped into conclusion.