Tenzen Yanagi Tenzen Yanagi is an eccentric old man , who meets Yusei Fudo on a paddy wagon after Yusei gets caught by Sector Security and is being sent to the Facility . A cheery old man who is well - versed due to his many travels to foreign lands , Yanagi serves as one of Yusei ' s allies . In the English dub , Tanner and Blister commonly refer to him as " Grandpa " . In the original , he calls Yusei " sonny " . Personality . Yanagi is cherry , good - hearted , adventurous , eccentric , intelligent , helpful and insightful , but also a bit of a ditzy old man . While he has a good deck , he struggles making good strategies with it . Yusei was able to show Yanagi its true strength though . Biography . While trespassing in New Domino City , Yanagi witnessed the appearance of the Crimson Dragon while Jack Atlas and Yusei Dueled . He is later captured by Sector Security , and transported to the Facility ( in the dub , a guard tells Yusei that Yanagi has been to the Facility many times before . When Yusei asks Yanagi why this is , Yanagi says that he smuggles his treasures into New Domino , implying that the cards in his Deck are not legal . ) Yanagi meets Yusei on the wagon to the Facility and quickly befriends him . At the Facility , Yanagi Duels Bolt Tanner in place of Yusei , since Yusei had his Deck confiscated . After his defeat , Tanner mocks and stomps on Yanagi ' s " Crystal Skull " card despite Yanagi ' s pleas and explanation of how they are valuable to him . Disgusted by Tanner ' s behavior , Yusei defeats Tanner using Yanagi ' s cards . After Yusei ' s performance , Tanner befriends both of them . When Rex Goodwin tries to confirm his suspicions about Yusei being a Signer s , Yanagi informs Yusei about the Signers and the legend of the Crimson Dragon . The warden , Mr . Armstrong , beats up Yanagi for the sake of displeasing Yusei . Before Yusei leaves the Facility , Yanagi gives him his " Totem Pole " card . Yanagi and Tanner were later freed thanks to Goodwin . Yanagi stayed with Yusei and kept rooting for him during the Fortune Cup . After Jack and Yusei ' s Duel ended , he and the others headed to Blister ' s hideout through a tunnel . Here Luna spoke with Yusei about the vision they saw of Satellite being destroyed . She asked him what a Signer is , to which Yanagi interrupts and explains everything to her . This time he draws a sketch figure , explaining though that it ' s been a while since he saw this , the drawing represents the Crimson Dragon , as it almost looked exactly like the one on the stone tablet which is in the Sky Temple . Yusei is surprised to see the tail of the dragon ( head in the English dub ) being the same as his birthmark , and Luna ' s is one of the claw . Yanagi explains that according to the legend of the People of the Stars , all five of the marks that are engraved in their arms are the divided parts of the dragon itself . Since the Crimson Dragon showed up fully represented during the Fortune Cup , Yanagi concludes that the last Signer must have also been present . His second - to - last appearance was being seen waving goodbye to the Signers as they headed towards Satellite to take on the Dark Signers in their final showdown . He is last seen cheering on Yusei during his fight with Z - one . Deck . Anime . Yanagi plays a Hidden Treasure Deck , based around monster s themed after rare and mysterious objects from all over the world . His cards share the odd characteristic of inflicting damage to himself or forcing himself to discard . The true function of this Deck relies on the combination with " Curse Reflection Doll " and " Triangle O " to reverse the damage to his opponent .