Noah Kaiba
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Noah Kaiba (海馬 乃亜 Kaiba Noa?) is a fictional character in the second series of the anime Yu-Gi-Oh!. He is exclusive to the Virtual Realm saga.
Noah Kaiba is the birth son of Gozaburo Kaiba. He has turquoise hair and blue eyes. His general appearance (most noteably his outfit) is probably a reference to how Kaiba looked in the first series anime. He lived with his father in luxury; what happened to his mother is unknown. His father made him study heavily in the arts and in academic subjects, but unlike Seto Kaiba, Noah enjoyed it. When Noah was around ten years old, he was in a car accident which paralyzed his body. In the hope of saving his son, Gozaburo Kaiba downloaded Noah's mind onto a super computer just before Seto was adopted.
Gozaburo had adopted Seto as a body for Noah, but eventually Gozaburo forgot about his own son. When Seto Kaiba took over Kaiba Corp., Gozaburo, in frustration and defeat, uploaded his own mind into Noah's virtual world. Six years later (Gozaburo and Noah have not aged) Noah takes his revenge on Seto. He kidnaps Seto and his passengers on Seto's Kaiba Craft 3 during the semi-finals of Battle City, hoping to take one of the passenger's bodies, preferably Seto's. With the help of the Big Five and his father, Noah locks Seto and the others in his virtual world and duels with them for their bodies.
But the Big Five fail too many times, so Noah destroys them and decides to take on Seto himself, attempting to take Seto's body so that he can fulfil his role as Kaiba Corporation's heir. Using a brainwashed or hypnotised Mokuba Kaiba, in order to weaken Seto's resolve, Noah personally duels with Seto. Noah's plan backfires when he turns Seto's virtual body to stone, thus preventing him from taking Seto's actual body. Mokuba is also turned to stone just after he breaks free of the mind control.
Noah now duels with Yami Yugi a.k.a. Dark Yugi a.k.a. Atem, who has taken Seto's place, and loses. Even so, Noah takes Mokuba's body (now restored) and leaves the virtual realm. Using his new body, Noah attempts to blow up the computer with everyone else's minds in it. At the very last minute, Noah remembers how Mokuba had called him brother and still loved him even after he tried to kill him and Seto. Realizing that that what he was doing was wrong, Noah manages to give Mokuba back his body, get every one out of the virtual world to safety, and save them from being blown up. Noah doesn't manage to stop the explosion, though, so Noah's and Gozaburo's minds are destroyed. Noah is finally able to accept the fact that he is dead though, unlike his father.
He is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama in the Japanese version. He is voiced by Andrew Rannells in the American English dub and by Taaz Gill in the Singaporean English dub.
[edit] Notable dueling cards
Noah uses two decks during the series and the first one can be seen as an allegory for the history of Earth. The first monsters he plays are seemingly human, possibly a reference to the antediluvian members of humanity present before God sent a flood to destroy them all with the exception of Noah and his family. These monsters include Chiron the Mage and Aeris, whose powerful attacking abilities enable Noah to briefly gain the upper hand. He also utilizes Fissure and Earthshaker, referencing among other things, the earthquakes that frequented Earth when it was cooling, He then uses the Giant Flood Magic Card to destroy every monster on the field and in one's hand and send them to the Graveyard. Since Noah's Deck Master is Shinato's Ark, an obvious reference to Noah's Ark, all his monsters go inside the ark rather than to the Graveyard. He then switches to Dinosaur monsters such as Giant Rex and their large attacking capabilities allow Noah to gain another advantage on Kaiba. He then uses his Deepest Impact Magic Card, symbolic of an asteroid coming down to destroy the dinosaurs, to destroy all monsters in play and deplete both players' Life Points by half. The field then switches to the Ice Age, and Noah uses Ice Age Panic to call forth his Last Tusk Mammoth. After Kaiba destroys it, Noah switches the field to modern times, plays the Spell Dark Hole, and summons Gradius and eventually Gradius's Option to the field, equipped with several Magic Cards that reflect futuristic weaponry and space exploration. After Kaiba forces the duel into a final showdown with Last Turn, Noah calls forth his Deck Master, which is initially crushed by the blast from Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It then reveals Shinato, King of a Higher Plane, symbolic possibly of end times.
In the Japanese versions of the episodes, Noah actually refers to his duel with Kaiba as "The 7 Turns of Creation" duel, and makes references to the creation of Earth during the duel. Because of its biblical connotations, Noah's mention of the Earth's creation is omitted in the English version.
The next deck he uses is a Spirit Deck, where his Spirit Monsters must return back to his hand at the end of the turn on which they were summoned. However, he uses his Spring of Rebirth card to take advantage of this by gaining 500 Life Points whenever a monster returns to his hand. Combined with Shinato's ability to increase his Life Points whenever he does damage to an opponent, his Life Points climb higher to over 10000, and he simply waves off direct attacks from Yugi, laughing and stating he doesn't even feel them. Noah then summons various Spirit Monsters, ranging from the powerful Yamata Dragon to the direct-attacking Inaba White Rabbit. Noah eventually settles on Hino-Kaga-Tsuchi, his most powerful Spirit Monster, and uses Spiritual Energy Settle Machine to keep it in play.
