Kai Szasazu

Kai Szasazu is a major character and a secondary antagonist in the anime Dark Game! and the tritagonist in the anime Spirit Chi Warriors!. He is is the majority shareholder and CEO of his own multi-national training organization, TorrentCorp., and the heir to the Lord of the Dragon Gods. Kai aims to be the world's strongest fighter, willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. To accomplish this goal, he must defeat his arch-rival, Yugi Typhoon. As the main antagonist of the first half of the Dragon Riders arc and former leader of the Dragon Riders, Kai is now the team captain of the Spirit Chi Warriors. Kai is commonly viewed as an anti-hero, as his goals are usually ego-centric, pertaining to his pride, but he does have a sense of honor and fairness. Originally the arch-enemy of the main protagonist, Kai was very antagonistic towards Yugi and his team, before he reformed himself. Kai grew up alone, and was forced to learn everything he knows on his own accord. Kai had grown a rational fear and deep-rooted hatred for his grandfather, Voltaire Szasazu, as he was living in his shadow as a crutch for his grandfather's ambitions, always used as a pawn to his grandfather's schemes. As the series goes by, Kai begins to mellow out, becoming more of a silent yet observant fighter, who still retains his arrogance and cold-hearted nature. Kai's sheer determination and motivation to overcome his own darkness and destroy what his grandfather represents, is deeply connected to his past, as well as his inner solitude and confinement. Kai's story comes full circle as he realizes the Chi Warriors aren't just his teammates, but his friends. Kai is the possessor of the Ancient Beast God, Relinquished, the Destroyer. Kai eventually chooses his own path of freedom to follow, permanently putting his past behind him.

Personality
Cold, cool, and calculative, Kai is constantly shown throughout the series to be generally apathetic and insensitive towards people. In addition, he is also cold-hearted, callous, and extremely arrogant, often underestimating his opponents to better satisfy his ego. Kai's arrogance, along with his quiet yet cold nature is perhaps is most defining traits, as he is shown to be like this throughout the entire series. As an antagonist, Kai was heartless, not caring for anybody, and even showing hardly any interest in his teammates.

However, that was revealed to be false as he hides his true feelings from his comrades. When he joined the Spirit Chi Warriors, he had quickly grown to hate each one of them, especially Yugi. He would antagonize them anyway he could, as well as make them feel worthless. Due to this, he had isolated himself, prefering to train alone. Kai is also shown to be extremely unbiased when it comes to his opponents. He is displayed as a guy who spares nobody, relentless and doesn't hesitate to kill any males or females, regardless of their ages. Although it is subtle, Kai's change happens where he begins to realize the importance of a team, finally beginning to cherish the ones that he have come to know for so long. In addition, he comes to terms with what he really wants in life, becoming content with his life. Usually calm, introverted and observant, Kai prefers to isolate himself from others, displaying a quite preserved attitude and state of mind. Mentally, he is one of the strongest characters in the series, shown as when he resisted the corruption his grandfather placed into his mind. Kai's rather brutal, collected, and cold-hearted personality was created from the harsh treatment and environment he was forced to endure from living with his grandfather.

Although these traits of Kai's lessens over time, the core of his personality still remains, signifying that the nightmare and fear of being trapped under his grandfather's control and used as a pawn for his ambition. This had been scarred into Kai's personality for good; being used as a constant reminder to Kai of the horrible childhood he grew up in. Kai's most recognizable traits are his strong pride, his honor as a true fighter, and his isolated personality. As an individual, Kai is extremely prideful, often taking a loss extremely seriously, resulting in a wounded pride. Usually, Kai goes into sudden states of depression and determination to defeat the person that has defeated him, going off to train for sometime and return to challenge them in the future. Kai's honor is expressed in a way that differs from others. Although he went a large portion of the series despising the Chi Warriors, and brutally murdering anybody that fought him, Kai still had a sense of honor. This is shown several times throughout the series. For example, when Kai went evil after re-joining the Dragon Riders, despite wanting to defeat and possibly kill Yugi, he wanted to have a completely fair fight against him, even threatening to kill the Dragon Warriors when they came to defeat Yugi as back-up to Kai.

Creation and Conception
Kai was originally created as a starter villain to the introduction of the series second half. He was meant to have the role of the secondary antagonist during the Dragon Riders arc, with his grandfather, Voltaire Szasazu taking over during the second half of the arc to exact his revenge. However, the creator, Nicco, decided against that, believing Kai to have been useful as well as popular. These components made the character perfect for a major role in the storyline. As a result, Nicco instead opted to keep Kai, turning him into the main antagonist of the first arc, and from then on out, using Kai as the arch-rival/nemesis of the series main protagonist, Yugi Typhoon. Nicco's reasonings for keeping Kai were because he felt that Kai's story had much bigger potential than he was letting on, and that he wanted to expand on that storyline as best as he could, feeling that he had a strong enough character build up to stay in the story. In addition, he felt that he could tie in Kai's character growth within the main story line, as well as broaden the possibilities for new story elements.

List of Characters Killed By Kai Szasazu
As an extremely prominent character throughout the duration of the series, Kai has claimed the most kills among all of the other central characters.

Main article: List of characters killed by Kai Szasazu