Katsuya Jonouchi
Encyclopedia
is a fictional character and the deuteragonist
Deuteragonist
In literature, the deuteragonist is the second most important character, after the protagonist and before the tritagonist. The deuteragonist may switch from being with or against the protagonist depending on the deuteragonist's own conflict/plot.-History:Greek drama began with simply one actor,...

  in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh!
is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...

He is known as Joseph "Joey" Wheeler in the English-language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 anime and video games.

The pronunciations from the first characters of "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" form the word "Yūjō" (友情), which means "friend" or "fellowship". The Yu-Gi-Oh! game
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
The is a Japanese collectible card game developed and published by Konami. It is based on the fictional game of Duel Monsters created by manga artist Kazuki Takahashi, which is the main plot device during the majority of his popular manga franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and its various anime adaptations...

 card, called "Yu-Jo Friendship" (the Japanese card is "友情 Yū-Jō") is named after the word and the relationship between the characters, especially Jonouchi and Yugi.

Concept and creation

Jonouchi's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi
Kazuki Takahashi
is a manga artist, illustrator and game creator who created the manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, which led to the anime versions of it, Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters , as well as a spinoff manga , three spinoff anime and several video games, novels and books...

. Jonouchi's hairstyle changes throughout the first seven volumes of the original manga. Originally featuring two large fringes
Fringe (hair)
Fringe are a shaped cutting of the front part of the hair so that it is combed forward and hangs or curls over the forehead. A classic fringe is cut fairly straight at or above the eyebrows, but fringes can also be ragged or ruffled, spiked up with hair gel, swept to one side or the other, and...

 in front of his ears, the hairstyle changes to a sporadically arranged natural hairstyle. Jonouchi's first color appearance depicts him with medium brown hair and black eyes. Subsequent appearances lighten the hair color to dirty blond and blond. His eyes are portrayed as hazel.

In the first series anime, Jonouchi's hairstyle does not change, and the sporadic hairstyle colored in a bright blond style is used. His eyes are brown. In the second series anime he has dirty blond hair in the sporadic hairstyle and dark brown eyes. His usual outfit from the second series anime consists of a long green open jacket with a raised collar, a white T-shirt underneath and blue jeans. He often carries a KaibaCorp Duel Disk
Duel Disk
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Disk, sometimes referred to as the Duel Disk Launcher, as marketed in the United States, is a card-holding device attached to the left forearm by way of Velcro straps and plastic plate. It consists of two movable "wings" into which one can slip Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in either attack or...

 on his left hand.

Naming and Romanization

In the Japanese version of the anime, Jonouchi's surname is romanized as "Jyonouchi", as seen on the card Yu-Jyo, while in the English manga, it is almost always romanized as "Jonouchi." It was seen once as "Jônouchi." The uncut anime DVDs also romanize his name as "Jonouchi" (in the Uncut DVDs, he refers to himself as "Katsuya Joey." This is most likely a mistake). Katsuya Jono-Uchi is seen in the French, Dutch, and Italian versions of the manga, while Jonouchi is used in the English, German, Swedish, Spanish, and Norwegian versions. The Indonesian version uses Jounouchi. when Jonouchi goes in the shadow realm his body get's possessed by one of the people that was in the shadow realm.

Jonouchi's kanji is incorrectly stated on one of Toei's webpages as 城ノ内克也 when it is 城之内 克也).

When Jonouchi's first name was supposed to be revealed in Weekly Shonen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...

in 1998, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kazuki Takahashi
Kazuki Takahashi
is a manga artist, illustrator and game creator who created the manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, which led to the anime versions of it, Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters , as well as a spinoff manga , three spinoff anime and several video games, novels and books...

, mistakenly wrote "Tomoya" instead of "Katsuya". The error was fixed in the graphic novels. The author admitted the error on the front page in Yu-Gi-Oh! Volume 7.

Character biography

16-year old Jonouchi, who is in class 1-B at Domino High School, is a troublemaker and his mouth gets him in trouble often. Jonouchi starts out as a street thug and hangs in Hirutani's gang for long periods of time when he is in middle school. He also used to be a bully for young Yugi. He becomes best friends with Yugi Mutou
Yugi Mutou
is the protagonist of the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. He is a young boy whose body becomes inhabited by the spirit of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh named when he completes the Millennium Puzzle.-Character design:...

 and the most important to him, who lessens his tough-guy exterior to reveal his true nature. Jonouchi is the key on the series and for yugi' and their friendship is a element of the series as a whole and Yugi has credited his friendship with Jonouchi as one of the main factors that allowed Yugi to become stronger throughout the series. His other two good friends are Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) and Anzu Mazaki
Anzu Mazaki
, known in the English anime and English video games as Téa Gardner, is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!.Anzu's given name is sometimes written in hiragana next to the kanji in order to emphasize the fact that her name is read as "Anzu" instead of "Kyoko."-Character...

 (Téa Gardner). In the first series anime, Miho Nosaka is also one of Jonouchi's friends.

In the manga, Jonouchi is poor, due to his father's gambling addictions and alcoholism. Jonouchi goes to repay his father's debts, such as working at multiple jobs (he was one of the few that were permitted to work while going to school) and going on the "Get the Million" game show. Many of his Duel Monsters cards contain a gambling theme, and on occasion, his luck helps him win in the end.

Jonouchi's skill at Duel Monsters is somewhat as good as that of Yugi's, but he still duels as part of a tag team on occasions and he strives to improve his skills. This is a frequent subplot throughout the series, although it was muted somewhat in the English anime, and also he uses many warrior type monsters.

Jonouchi has a sister named Shizuka Kawai (Serenity Wheeler in the English anime; Shizuka Jonouchi in the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime). In the Japanese versions of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Shizuka's surname is her mother's maiden name while Jonouchi's is his father's surname. Their parents divorced when Jonouchi was 10. Shizuka was brought away by her mother while Jonouchi lived with his father. In the manga and the Duel Monsters anime, Shizuka started to go blind, so Jonouchi entered the Duelist Kingdom tournament to finance her eye surgery. Jonouchi would come second to Yugi in the event, although Yugi gives him the money to finance the surgery. In the first series anime, Shizuka is chronically ill in the hospital. Therefore Jonouchi ensures that she gets the best care in the hospital.

Voice/mannerisms

In the original Japanese versions of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jonouchi does not use a "rude" speech pattern. When talking to people he doesn't like, Jonouchi uses the word "teme" (a rude form of "you" in Japanese, often translated as "you bastard") instead of his normal "omae" (a form of "you" that in context is used between friends, but can imply that the person being spoken to has a lower status than the speaker does if used incorrectly), especially to Seto Kaiba
Seto Kaiba
is a fictional character and the anti-heroic tritagonist in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. As the majority shareholder and CEO of his own multi-national company, KaibaCorp, Kaiba aims to become the world's greatest player of the Duel Monsters card game...

, who does not think highly of Jōnouchi (Seto calls Joey a "dueling monkey"). The speech pattern translates into the English anime's Joey Wheeler having a Brooklyn accent.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Jonouchi never appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, known in Japan as , is an anime spin-off and sequel of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. It aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008, and was succeeded by Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's...

, although he has been mentioned: in the first season he is seen in flashbacks to Battle City, and early in the third season Maximillion Pegasus says to Aster Phoenix that Jonouchi is the third best duelist in the world, the first being Yugi Mutou
Yugi Mutou
is the protagonist of the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. He is a young boy whose body becomes inhabited by the spirit of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh named when he completes the Millennium Puzzle.-Character design:...

 and the second being Seto Kaiba
Seto Kaiba
is a fictional character and the anti-heroic tritagonist in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!. As the majority shareholder and CEO of his own multi-national company, KaibaCorp, Kaiba aims to become the world's greatest player of the Duel Monsters card game...

.

In episode 179, he is seen in a poster with Yugi, Anzu, and Honda.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

In the English-language 4Kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
is a Yu-Gi-Oh! series which aired in Japan between April 2, 2008 and March 30, 2011, following the previous series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and was succeeded by Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, on April 11, 2011...

, a character named Jesse Wheeler, is said to be Joey Wheeler's cousin. In the original Japanese version, however, the character was unnamed.

Deck

Throughout the majority of the series, Jonouchi's deck is mainly composed of Warrior-type monsters. At first it is composed entirely of monsters, but after he trains with Sugoroku Mutou, he adds more cards to it. His signature monsters are associated with fire, such as Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Flame Swordsman. During Battle City his Time Wizard becomes central to his deck that evolves to become slightly more luck based with cards like Skull Dice (a Trap Card that takes away an opponent's monster's ATK points) and Graceful Dice (A Spell Card that increases one of Joey's monster's ATK points). Such cards help in balancing his lack of access to stronger cards. After Battle City, Jonouchi maintains his Warrior strategy, powering them up with a variety of Spell and Trap cards, which can be quite useful when Kaiba uses his Crush Card against him. He wins the Jinzo card, which negates all Trap cards on the field, from Esper Roba, and it becomes another of his signature cards, as does Scapegoat (a Spell card that protects Joey's Life Points from direct attack) and Kunai with Chain. Other notable cards in his deck include Gearfried the Iron Knight, Alligator's Sword, Panther Warrior and Swordsman of Landstar.
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