Throughout the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, the protagonist and his friends encounter a vast and intriguing cast of supporting and secondary characters. The show had a little bit of everything, from regional champions obsessed with insects to members of ancient organizations trying to bring about the end of the world.
Bonz may be the most tragic of these unique characters, as his ultimate fate in the series proves. The bandit’s former lackey Keith is one of the few characters sent to the terrible Shadow Realm after losing a duel against Bakura. However, his true tragedy lies in the fact that he was not rescued and probably never will be.
Bonz was never rescued from the Shadow Realm
He and his friends are still trapped inside the house
In episode #79 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, Yami Bakura can be seen walking around Domino City trying to find duelists to challenge. His tour took him to the town’s cemetery, where Bonz and his friends pretended to be zombies to scare other duelists. As the reincarnation of the despicable and ruthless Zorc Necrophades, Yami Bakura laughed at his attempts to scare him and challenged the zombie-like duelist to a shadow duel. The game ended almost as quickly as it began, with the Thief King dominating his opponent.
As punishment for losing the shadow game, Bonz and his friends were dragged into the Shadow Realm by a black fog. Despite escape attempts, the group ended up trapped in this unnerving dimension. Bakura simply laughed as his opponent was forcibly taken to a world where he would be tormented forever. He left soon after, leaving Bonz and his friends behind, not trying to help or showing remorse for his horrible actions.
His destiny will never change, because no one knows what happened to him
Only Bakura knew about their duel
Although scary, the Shadow Realm was rarely a permanent punishment for those who were defeated during a shadow duel. Whenever a villain was defeated, the effects of their horrible curse would be lifted from their most recent victims. Regrettably, Bonz was not lucky enough to be saved by the protagonistssince none of them knew of their fate. Since they had no idea he needed saving, they didn’t try to fight Bakura to free him. The series all but confirmed that Bonz was never freed from his torment, as he never appeared again.
His fate is among the most horrific and tragic in the entire franchise, as the Shadow Realm is often depicted in the series as a horrible dimension in which humans are tortured forever. While it’s already horrific, Bonz’s fate only gets worse in the original Japanese version of the series. The Shadow Realm does not exist in this edition of the anime, as this idea was created by 4Kids Entertainment to censor the reality that most shadow games ended in death. In the original anime, Bonz and his friends were killed by zombified spirits after losing to Bakura.
THE Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters The anime, while mostly completely family-friendly, hides many frightening details that may shock fans. Bonz’s horrible fate is just one example of how atrocious shadow play can be. These small but hard-to-forget details have kept audiences interested for many decades, helping this incredible series maintain its status as one of anime’s most beloved franchises.