At its core, Yu-Gi-Oh! is a kid's show. Or is it? Many fans grew up watching it during their childhood's Saturday morning children's show watching block and the concept of people having the most intense card game ever sounds silly enough to appeal to children. However, don't mistake Yu-Gi-Oh! for being an exclusive kiddy program.
In the manga especially, the series - and, really, the entire franchise - not only deals with some adult themes and ideas but there are often instances of characters dying. In some cases, these deaths resonate strongly enough to bring audiences to tears.
10 Isis
This is an interesting one because Isis does not die, at least not as explicitly in a battle as she does in the anime. In the manga, she merely does peacefully of old age, but this is an entirely different case in the anime.
In the anime, we see Isis physically affected when Zorc destroys her Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress. As a result, she falls to her own death. The US version made for 4KidsTV sees her sent to the Shadow Realm, but either way, the character essentially dies.
9 Pegasus
This is a different type of emotional death. While a lot of emotion found on this list stems from heartbreak or tragedy, the emotion found in Pegasus' death is just downright horrifying and shocking to witness. Even without the tragic element, it's just too shocking not to include on this list.
In the anime, he loses his soul (which can be technically ruled a death in itself), but his end in the manga is far more gruesome as Yami Bakura rips his Millennium Eye out of his head socket. Pegasus dies while Bakura licks the blood off of his newfound prize.
8 Bakura
Speaking of Bakura, that brings us to his own death. As the good-natured and kindhearted alter ego of his evil Yami counterpart, Bakura's death was always going to pull at our heartstrings, even if he had more than one death.
First, he sacrifices himself to prevent his evil half from winning in the monster world. Even though he is revived seconds after, he later is killed again when he and his other half lose a penalty game to Yami Marik. Again, the good Bakura is revived at a later date.
7 Grandpa Muto
In the Yu-Gi-Oh 3D Bonds Beyond Time movie, which celebrated the series' 10th anniversary, there is an attack on behalf of Paradox where he unleashes the Cyber End Dragon and the Stardust Dragon on a crowd of people. Among those people in that crowd was Maximillion Pegasus and Yugi's grandfather, Solomon.
Even though this tragic event was later resolved and removed from the timeline when Yugi was sent back in time 30 minutes prior in hopes of saving everyone, seeing an elder who we grew up watching felt like a tough pill in the heart to swallow for long time fans.
6 Mikey
Yu-Gi-Oh! has an impressive knack for making us care about supporting characters on an emotional level, even if they spend less than five minutes on screen. When we get a brief flashback of Alister's origins and why he has beef with Kaiba, fans learn that Alister had a brother named Mikey and a mother who boarded a tank that was blown up.
In the US version of the anime, Mikey and his mother were merely kidnapped, but it could still be inferred that their kidnapping eventually resulted in their deaths as they were never found or rescued after the fact.
5 Shada
Nothing can get an audience's tears jerking quite like a sacrificial death, and Shada's death did the trick exactly. In order to save The Pharoah from a killing blow from Zorc, Shada jumped in front of him and as a result, his energy depleted immediately.
Even if Shada was not one of your favorite characters or even one of the more exciting characters across the history of the cast, it's hard not to appreciate his efforts in his noble sacrifice. The emotion comes from an honorable death.
4 Bandit Keith
This might be cheating as it refers less to the anime and more to the manga since the anime version - both in the US and in Japan - was censored. In both, we see Keith, everyone's favorite scene-stealing bandit who we hate to love, held Pegasus at gunpoint (although the gun itself was censored).
In the anime, Pegasus pulls a lever that forces Keith's exit into the sea through a trap door, but in the manga, Pegasus instead forces Keith to turn the gun onto himself and pull the trigger.
3 Joey
Some fans have accused Joey of being annoying, but even the character's biggest critics shed a tear during his battle with Marik. Despite taking a head-on blow from the Winged Dragon of Ra, Joey can endure it for as long as he can. He nearly pulls off an underdog victory, but before he can deliver a killing blow of his own to Marik, Joey collapses.
Seeing this typically jovial, joking character lose the life in his eyes so quickly was a heartstopping moment that quickly turned heartwrenching when his friends rush to his side with tears in their eyes.
2 Yugi Muto
During a duel with Rafael, The Pharoah pulled the Seal of Orichalcos, a card that literally steals souls. After losing, the seal came to collect, but in a last-ditch effort to save his own alter ego, Yugi pushed The Pharoah out of the way and sacrificed himself.
We all loved watching him duel as Yami Yugi, but the child version of our protagonist was the backbone and heart of the series. To see Yugi go out in a blaze of glory and then see how his death impacted his friends was one of the more gut-punching moments in franchise history, even though he was revived later down the line.
1 The Pharoah
Whereas most of the previous deaths seen on this list were emotionally heartbreaking, this one was emotionally satisfying. After spending the entire series curious to his past, The Pharoah finally has the opportunity to pass on to the afterlife and back to those who he lost in his past life.
Before passing on, The Pharoah duels Yugi to make sure he's emotionally ready to be on his own. After Yugi beats him in battle, all of The Pharoah's friends watch on one last time as Pharoah passes on.