Reiji Akaba (manga)


 * This is the manga version of Reiji Akaba. For the anime character, see here.

Reiji Akaba is a main character appearing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V (manga). He works for the Leo Corporation and aims to capture the Entertainment Duelist Yūya Sakaki.

Appearance
Reiji is a thin young man with pale skin and grey hair, the front layer being a lighter grey than the back. His hair is arranged in a simple style, flicking upwards at the ends. Reiji's eyes are purple, and he wears red-framed spectacles. His ears are both pierced with black stud earrings. Despite his status as the CEO of the Leo Corporation, Reiji dresses rather casually, wearing a dark-blue sweater, white pants that end just above his ankles, and white shoes (apparently without any socks beneath them), along with a long red scarf wrapped around his shoulders with the ends trailing to the small of his back.

Personality
Unlike his more stoic anime counterpart, he is very emotional and reserved, but he is still a very confident and serious person. He is also easier to be shocked and angered than his anime counterpart, particularly when it involved his hatred for Yūya's father, Yūshō Sakaki. This hatred consequently clouding his mind and made him somewhat stubborn, refusing to hear Yūya's side of story unless he defeat him.

As a child, Reiji cared for his busy father and fervently seek his attention. Being a genius, Reiji is far mature than child his age and also has huge ego, choosing to leave his paper test blank rather than purposely writing wrong answers to fail the test to get his father's attention.

History
Reiji was the son of Leo Akaba, a researcher who developed Solid Vision with mass system. Reiji was a natural born genius, already attending university class when he was a child. He has a good relationship with his father despite his father's busy schedule as a researcher. To attract his father's attention, Reiji went as far as letting his grade in university to drop by purposely leave his paper tests blank so his father will pay attention to him. However, Leo easily saw through Reiji's intention and teased his son for it, much to the latter's exasperation. Though, as Reiji has hoped, Leo consented to Reiji's wish to spend times with him by taking him to a dinner. During the dinner, Leo told him about his project of combining Solid Vision with Duel Monsters and discover the possibility to open a divine realm that will enable them to challenge the gods. He then asked Reiji to finish it in his place if something happened to him.

A few years later, Reiji was asked by his father to help in finishing his research data in a lab. When an earthquake occurred, Reiji attempted to leave the lab, but found the door locked from outside. When he saw through the monitor, he was shocked to see meteors falling to the city. Leo, through the monitor, revealed that he had purposely asked Reiji to help in analyzing his research with knowledge that Reiji won't finish it within one day, and thus, making Reiji stayed in the lab that is actually a shelter. Leo explained to Reiji that the world is going to end with the power of G.O.D. Yūshō has taken G.O.D and the Entertainment Duelist used its power to regress time. Believing Yūshō is trying to control the power of G.O.D, Leo told Reiji that Yūshō is going to send his son, Yūya, into the past, and asked Reiji to stop him. Leo then bid Reiji farewell before the transmission ended. As the incident that was known as World Illusion passed, Reiji, who was trapped in the shelter underground, was saved by EVE.

Once arriving in the past, Reiji made his move to fulfill his promise with his father by leading Leo Corporation and took over the city's Solid Vision. Three months before the events of manga, Reiji was looking for strong Duelists to form a team specially to capture Yūya who took an identity known as "Phantom" who has been hacking into Leo Corporation's Real Solid Vision system and used it for his own goal. When he met Nico Smiley, Nico took him to the underground, where he witnessed Shun Kurosaki Dueling Ōtomo. After hearing about Shun from Nico and witnessing his skills, he decided to recruit him.

Chasing After the Phantom
Reiji is the head of Leo Corporation who is in pursuit of a mysterious young hacker named Yūya Sakaki, also known as The Phantom. When the sensors detected the Pendulum Summoning of "Odd-Eyes Phantom Dragon", Reiji immediately deployed many of Leo Corporation's squads to capture Yūya. Despite the charge, Reiji's real reason for ordering Yūya's capture was because Yūya is the "Destiny Factor" that holds their future. However, when Shingo Sawatari finally had Phantom cornered, Phantom revealed himself to be Yūto instead of Yūya, shocking Reiji. Sensing there was something special in Yūto and convinced that Yūto has a connection with Yūya, he ordered Shingo to capture him.

Yūto & Yūya vs. Shingo
Yūto surprised Reiji when instead of Pendulum Summon, he instead performed Xyz Summoned, summoning "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon", making Reiji doubted his earlier thought that he has connection with Yūya. However, he was proven right when Yūya replaced Yūto who was cornered and defeated Shingo. Once the Action Field was dismissed, Reiji ordered his LC squads to capture him using force if they have to. Unfortunately, Yūya tricked them using a Solid Vision projection and escaped.

Yūya vs. Shun
After their failure, Reiji ordered Shingo, Shun, and Sora to be on standby while they were researching Pendulum Summon. Shun, however, lured Yūya by kidnapping Shūzō at Deception Valley and challenged him into a midair Duel. With Sora and Shingo, he observed the Duel in the observation room and ordered them to just watch until Shun was defeated.

Sora's Questions
Sora, who was curious of Yūya's origin and Reiji's background, decided to investigate them by infiltrating into the Mother Computer. Knowing Sora's intention, Reiji allowed him to enter the room, revealing to Sora that he was wearing special contacts to prevent theft of his retinal pattern. He told Sora that he should just focus on his work, but Sora answered that he couldn't concentrate when he has questions, so Reiji agreed to answer his question directly. Sora asked who Yūya is, what is a Pendulum Summon, and why Reiji was so intent on capturing him. Reiji answered that Yūya is a Destiny Factor who will someday destroy the world and even if now he wasn't plotting to do so, he soon will walk to that path, and this was something predicted by the Mother Computer. Sora then changed the question about Reiji himself, asking who he is and where did he came from, but Reiji refused to answer, telling him to ask Yūya instead. Before Sora left, Reiji gave him three prototype cards developed by LC for him to try and that Yūya was looking for G.O.D.

Yūya vs. Sora
Sora successfully lured Yūya by leaking a fake intel about G.O.D and trapped him. Shun and Shingo demanded to be allowed to go, but Reiji told them not to because they will see something interesting. When Sora revealed to Yūya that Reiji took his sister hostage, Shun asked Reiji whether this was true or not, but Reiji neither denying nor admitting the accusation and remained silent, watching the Duel until Sora himself revealed that everything he said was a lie. Reiji then told Shun who accused him before not to bother with it, stating that he will remember that action such as kidnapping will make him a scum in Shun's eyes. After much struggle, Yūya finally defeated Sora, but not before Sora activated Action Cards to inflict damage strong enough to partly destroy the building since the damage setting has been tripled. As Sora disappeared and Yūya escaped, Reiji thought to himself that he seemed to have no choice but to take matters with his own hand.

Reiji visited a messy room inside an excavation side on the outskirt of Maiami City and then picked a photograph of him with his father as he reminisced his past. He then took a Pendulum card left by his father as he stated that he will end it.

Non-canon
Reiji faced Yūya Sakaki in an Action Duel in the special manga chapter. He used relentless tactics to quickly Summon high-Level monsters and was skilled with the use of Action Cards. In this chapter, Reiji is portrayed as a rather serious and a reserved Duelist, and he claims that he never loses Duels.

Canon
Reiji runs a "DD" Deck focused on Pendulum Summoning.

Non-canon
In the special manga chapter, Reiji runs a Fiend Deck, featuring the "DD" and "Demon" archetypes. He uses Pendulum Summon and cards like "Ancient Rule" to easily bring high-Level monsters on the field.