Seto Kaiba is one of the strongest duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. He’s at the top of his game, and his Blue-Eyes cards strike fear into all those that dare to oppose him. While Kaiba is a fantastic duelist who knows how to perfectly craft a deck, he isn’t infallible. He’s lost a few duels in his time, with quite a few to the same person as well.
Throughout his time on the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, Kaiba has lost a few times. In fact, his first loss was actually his first on-screen duel.
First Yugi Duel
One of Kaiba’s most famous duels is also one of his most famous losses. In his first duel against Yugi, he straight up got obliterated. Literally. Yugi, who was dueling with his grandpa’s deck, managed to gather all five pieces of Exodia in his hand, something that had somehow never been done at this point in history. He then took out Kaiba with two words, “Exoida, Obliterate!”
After this duel, Yugi destroyed the dark side of Kaiba and turned him into a person who had a modicum of empathy. From there, Kaiba would be sent down a new path. However, this wasn’t the only duel that he lost in this season of the anime. His next loss would come soon at the hands of the season’s villain, Pegasus.
Pegasus
To be fair, Kaiba never stood a chance against Pegasus, as he wasn’t playing fair. Using the power of his Millennium Eye, Pegasus could see every card that Kaiba had in his hand. There was no way that Kaiba could win against a cheater like Pegasus. And those overpowered Toons, they really tipped the scales.
Kaiba’s soul was also stolen in this duel, which is somehow a typical thing that happens in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. While the only reason that he dueled Pegasus was to win his brother Mokuba back, Pegasus captured Mokuba in order to lure Kaiba to Duelist Kingdom. He wanted KaibaCorp’s technology to bring his wife back to life, but he would never be able to realize these goals after losing to Yugi near the end of the season.
Noah Kaiba (Sort Of)
Yes, Kaiba did technically lose to Noah during the Virtual World arc, but this duel was anything but fair from the beginning. Noah was willing to do anything to win, including using Mokuba as an actual human shield. Of course, Kaiba wasn’t going to win this one, he would never do anything to endanger his brother.
In the end, Yugi combined his card with Kaiba’s and continued on in his stead, eventually winning the duel. While seeing the Kaiba brothers be the final face-off would have been much more impactful, at least Yugi was able to take home the win and keep the group safe.
Second Yugi Duel
Kaiba’s second duel with Yugi took place during the Battle City finals, and it was just as wild of a match as viewers could expect with two talented duelists wielding Egyptian God cards. Kaiba had Obelisk the Tormentor, and Yugi had Slifer the Sky Dragon. The results were an absolute rollercoaster.
While Yugi eventually won out, the two went endlessly back and forth, pulling out random cards (some of which weren’t real) that just so happened to be exactly what they needed in order to knock the other back. Their God cards were constantly at battle with one another, too. Kaiba lost this duel but went on to defeat Joey and claim third place in the tournament behind Yugi and Marik.
Dartz (Sort Of)
The next duel that Kaiba lost actually saw him fighting alongside Yugi. The two teamed up to take on Dartz, the big bad of the Waking the Dragons arc. The two had a hard-fought battle, and while Kaiba saved Yugi more than once, he eventually went down midway through the duel.
As he’s going down, he activates a card that grants Yugi more life points to help him out. Yugi eventually wins this duel through the most anime means possible, so Kaiba only sort of lost this one. While he personally was knocked out, his team managed to snag the win in the end.
Third Yugi Duel
The final duel that Kaiba has lost so far is his match with Yugi during the Dark Side of Dimensions film. The two are both using far more advanced versions of their decks than seen in the original anime. Kaiba is using advanced Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards while Yugi is using new Dark Magician support cards such as Apple and Lemon Magician Girl. In the end, The only monster on the field is Dark Magician, who directly attacks Kaiba. While his life points never officially hit 0, stopping at 100 before he could officially lose due to the actions of Aigami, Kaiba did lose this duel. No cards that he had on the field would have been able to save him.
The animation, history, and breakneck action of this duel make this one of the best face-offs between these two rivals. It was great getting to see Yugi take on Kaiba rather than Atem this time around, as well.
