Anzu Mazaki

Anzu Mazaki
Yu-Gi-Oh! character
Anzu in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist manga
First appearance	Yu-Gi-Oh! (original and English manga) Volume 1, Duel 1
Voiced by	Japanese (1st Series) Yumi Kakazu Japanese (2nd Series) Maki Saito English (U.S.) Amy Birnbaum English (Singapore) Alison Lester

Anzu Mazaki (真崎 杏子, Mazaki Anzu^?), known in the English anime and English video games as Téa Gardner, is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Anzu's given name is sometimes written in hiragana (as "あんず" [1]) next to the kanji in order to emphasize the fact that her name is read as "Anzu" instead of "Kyoko."

Character design

Anzu as seen in the first series anime

Anzu's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi.

In the manga, Anzu originally bore a conventional, short hairstyle. Her first color image, seen in Volume 1, Chapter 1, featured dark brown hair and brown eyes. As Takahashi continued drawing the manga, Anzu gained more feminine and "cute" facial features. Her hair style became longer and less conventional. Color images from Volume 3 and onward portray her hair as a lighter brown color. Sometimes her eyes are colored blue, while sometimes her eyes are colored reddish brown. By the final volume of the manga, Anzu's hair touches her shoulders. Her normal female Domino High School outfit consists of a pink coat and a blue pleated skirt.

Anzu as seen in the second series anime

In the first series anime, her hair and eyes are of a reddish brown color. Her normal school outfit color differs; her coat is orange and her tie and skirt are green.

In the second series anime, she has dark brown hair and blue eyes. Her usual outfit from the second series anime consists of the school uniform colored in the same manner as in the original manga. From the second to the third season, Anzu's clothes consists of a bright green, yellow polo sleeveless buttoned shirt, blue and pink bracelets, navy shorts with a light blue belt, white stockings, and blue platform shoes.

Character

Anzu, who is in class 1-B at Domino High School, is the childhood friend of Yugi Mutou (romanized as Yugi Moto in the English anime). She becomes a good friend to Katsuya Jonouchi (known as Joey Wheeler in the English anime) and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor), though she is not fond of them at first. In the first series anime, Miho Nosaka is also one of Anzu's friends. Anzu does not usually play games with Yugi and his friends, though she is once shown beating Jonouchi.

Anzu has a spunky, tomboyish personality, and in the first chapter of the manga, intimidates Honda and Jonouchi into leaving the room after they bully Yugi. Anzu possesses a very kind-hearted, strong-willed, and supportive personality. In the Duel Monsters anime, she and Honda are basically cheerleaders for Yugi and Jonouchi whenever they duel, but she has proven herself adept at dueling as well, and usually keeps up with the going-ons of a duel. She has a stronger sense of faith and friendship than her group of friends, often serving as the mother/sister figure for the boys. She is known among fans of the Duel Monsters English anime for her "friendship speeches".

Anzu is athletic and holds jobs to save money in order to attend a dance school in New York. In the beginning of the series, she is revealed to be working at "Burger World" (in the English Duel Monsters anime, "Burgerpalooza"). By Volume 4 in the manga, Anzu is fired from that job for punching a customer who had pinched her buttocks. She one time was also captured by and filmed by a pervert, she was saved by Yugi. She gets a job at KaibaCorp afterwards and encounters her friends at KaibaLand. In the Toei anime, Anzu, Honda, and Miho work at Burger World, with Miho and Honda working to support Anzu. Once Burger World closes, Honda and Miho work for a beef bowl restaurant. In the opening scenes of the 1999 film Yugi and his friends discover that she works at "Duel Monsters Center," (デュエル モンスター センター), a Duel Monsters parlor. She already knows Shōgo Aoyama, a regular of the parlor and Yugi's neighbor.

In the original Japanese versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Anzu's speech is not wholly polite. Anzu omits honorific suffixes when talking to many people, including Jonouchi and Honda. In Toei's anime, she uses the "kun" suffix when referring to Honda and Jonouchi.

During Duelist Kingdom, and later Battle City Tournaments, Anzu has several close encounters with the Shadow Games herself, including being turned into one of her favourite card monsters, the Magician of Faith (when she and her friends became pawns of Dark Bakura as he and Dark Yugi dueled against each other in a Duel Monster Shadow Game), and having her mind possessed by Marik, in his quest, or more precisely, plot of revenge against the Nameless Pharaoh (a.k.a. Dark Yugi).

As part of Virtual World Arc Anzu dueled one of the Big 5 and had a dream she was the Dark Magician Girl and later used her as her deck master.

In most cases, Anzu's friends rescue her whenever danger exists. Anzu, in some scenarios, manages to rescue herself from the perils of the series if it means protecting her friends. Her strongest example of this comes in the Japanese version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, Pyramid of Light. When Anzu's soul is taken into the Millennium Puzzle by Anubis, she manages to resist him temporarily and breaks into the Pyramid of Light to try and convince Yugi and Kaiba to stop their duel.

While responding to a fan mail asking him why Yugi and Anzu are not in a romantic relationship, Takahashi stated that the relationship between Anzu and Yugi is "pretty much a love triangle." He added that Yugi and Anzu "always" act in a "very careful" manner in front of one another, so they cannot admit their feelings for one another.^[1]

Naming

In all of the Japanese versions, in the English-language versions of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga by Kazuki Takahashi, and in the English-language version of Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Anzu is known as Anzu Mazaki.

In the English-language second series anime, the English-language video games, the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, and the English-language "ani-manga" of that movie, she is known as Téa Gardner.

"Anzu" in Japanese means "apricot."

Voice actor casting

In the Japanese first series anime, Yumi Kakazu portrayed Anzu; in the second series, Maki Saito portrays her.

In the American English-language versions of the second series anime, Téa is voiced by Amy Birnbaum. In the Singaporean English-language versions of the second series anime, Alison Lester voices Téa.

On the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Music To Duel By" album produced by 4Kids, Téa's singing voice is provided by Lindsey Warner.

Deck

Anzu's first Deck is a Fairy Deck. It focuses on Light-Attribute Fairy monsters, and spells to enhance them. Her second Deck is a Spellcaster Deck. Almost all the cards are devoted to the Spellcaster theme, like Fire Sorcerer, Maha Vailo and the Dark Magician Girl because of her one-sided love with both Yugis. She duels once in the manga and three times during the course of the second anime series. During the Virtual World arc, she wields a deck that parallels Yugi's Spellcaster deck, albelit with a more feminine touch.

Anzu in the games

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories she has an "Ancient Egypt" incarnation known as "Teana"^[2] (Anzu in the Japanese version^[3])

References

1. ^ Shonen Jump Volume 3, Issue 11. November 2005. VIZ Media. 68.
2. ^ "Characters" (English). Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. Retrieved on October 5, 2009.
3. ^ "Characters" (Japanese). Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. Retrieved on October 5, 2009.

• Takahashi, Kazuki (2002). Yu-Gi-Oh! Characters Guide Book - The Gospel of Truth (遊戯王キャラクターズガイドブック―真理の福音―). Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-873363-0