Katsuya Jonouchi (manga)

Katsuya Jonouchi is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Katsuya Jonouchi, known as Joey Wheeler in most English media, as created by Kazuki Takahashi.

Jonouchi is the best friend of Yugi Mutou and Hiroto Honda. He suffered a poor upbringing with his parents divorcing and him living with his alcoholic father, while his sister Shizuka lived with their mother. Jonouchi used to be a thug and even hung out with Hirutani's gang for a while. After becoming friends with Yugi he became more righteous and would do anything to protect his friends or innocent people being taken advantage of.

Jonouchi starts out as a weak player after taking-up Duel Monsters, but becomes more powerful as he learns from Yugi and Dark Yugi and fights to protect people he loves.

Early life
Jonouchi and his sister, Shizuka, were separated when their parents divorced when he was 10. Shizuka was brought by her mother while Jonouchi lived with his father.

Jonouchi became a street thug and hung out in Hirutani's gang for long periods of time when he was in middle school. He often got into fights and developed great fighting skills. He also hung out with Hiroto Honda, who was not in Hirutani's gang.

Jonouchi lived in poverty, due to his father's gambling addictions and alcoholism. Jonouchi goes to great lengths to repay his father's debts, such as working at multiple jobs. He was the "lone paperboy" in middle school, meaning that he was one of the few that were permitted to work while going to school.

School arc
Jonouchi along with Honda used to bully Yugi at school. Jonouchi was annoyed at how Yugi would let himself get pushed around and claimed his bullying was teaching Yugi how to be a man and even offered Yugi to punch him back, although Yugi hates violence. After he and Honda swiped the box containing the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle, Jonouchi was told off by Anzu and left the room, but managed to secretly take a piece of the puzzle beforehand.

In the hallway, Jonouchi said he was sickened by how Yugi was obsessing over a puzzle and how Anzu had called them bullies. They then bumped into Ushio, who asked what they were saying about bullying. Jonouchi tried telling Ushio to stay out of it, but was restrained by Honda and insisted it was nothing. After explained how influential and powerful Ushio was, Jonouchi vowed to get back at Ushio. He then showed Honda the piece of the puzzle he had taken and threw it into the school pool.

The next day, Ushio beat-up Honda and Jonouchi under the suspicion that they were bullying Yugi. Yugi tried to stop Ushio, saying they were teaching him how to be a man, not bullying him. That resulted in Yugi also being beaten-up. Jonouchi was inspired by how Yugi had tried to help him and came to care for Yugi. Later that day, he retrieved the piece of the puzzle from the pool and gave it to Yugi's grandfather, to give to Yugi. The next day at school, Jonouchi answered Yugi's riddle, "something you can show, but can't see", saying that it's friendship and he is Yugi's friend.

When Jonouchi saw a ZTV van outside their school, he began to spread rumors about there being a star at their school. He suspected that they were disguised as a student and planned on unmasking them to make a fortune. However Yugi was skeptical of there being a star, so Jonouchi left him to find that star by himself. Later he spotted Yugi being beaten by Fujita. He quickly broke up the fight and found out that it was a staged bullying scene for a documentary, Caught on Camera: School Violence. When he confronted the director, the director reminded him that he was being filmed, so Jonouchi was reluctant to attack. However the director attacked Jonouchi when he told the cameramen to stop filming.

Later having looked into it, Jonouchi admitted that there was no star at the school, which Yugi was surprised he hadn't given up on until now. Jonouchi instead vowed to become the star of the school himself. He noticed something was bothering Yugi, who hadn't told him he was being forced to sell tickets to Sozoji's concert. Yugi insisted that he was fine. Jonouchi and Honda then proceeded to lift up Anzu's skirt using a t-square, earning him a punch in the face.

Jonouchi noticed how Anzu was acting odd, after avoiding walking home with them a few days and discouraging them from going to from Burger World. He initially assumed that she was dating older men for pay. He and Yugi secretly following her home after school to find out what she was really doing. They were surtomprised to see her enter Burger World and greet them at the door, in a waitress uniform. Anzu was intimidated, as after school jobs were against the school rules, and worried that Jonouchi, being a loud mouth would tell everyone. Anzu told the boys that she was saving money to go to New York to study dancing and Jonouchi promised not to tell anyone. Anzu got held hostage by an escaped convict. Jonouchi was unable to assist as the customers had to lie on the floor and couldn't see that Dark Yugi was rescuing her, as he was positioned by behind an obese man.

Jonouchi told Yugi that he was down on his luck, claiming to have gotten hit once in a fight against four punks. He attended a service hosted by the alleged psychic Kokurano in the hopes of curing his bad luck. Seeing that it was mostly girls at the service, he pretended Anzu dragged him there, when he was the one who insisted on her and Yugi coming. Kokurano simply told Jonouchi that he was having bad luck and didn't offer him any advice.

When coming up with ideas for their classes fundraiser in the school festival, Jonouchi suggested that they put on a cabaret, staring the girls from their class, which was immediately rejected. The class decided on a Carnival Games booth. Jonouchi worked on making the barrel for the life size version of Pop-up Pirate and planned on teasing whoever was to play the role of Bluebeard. However since Jonouchi was the right size for the barrel and Yugi had specifically made the head to fit Jonouchi, Anzu gave Jonouchi the role. When Goro Inogashira attempted to steal the class' spot, Jonouchi tried to fight him, but got stuck in the barrel and was easily knocked back by Goro. On the day of the festival, Jonouchi played Bluebeard and Anzu thought he had fun.

Honda fell for their fellow classmate, Miho Nosaka and despite Honda's objections, Jonouchi enlisted Yugi to help them find a gift for Miho. Yugi took them to his family's game shop where they get a love jigsaw puzzle. Together they hid the gift in Miho's desk. However Miho didn't find it until Ms. Chono performed a desk check. Chono started to assemble the puzzle and read its message out to the class. She intended to punish the sender, but Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda all claimed responsibility. Dark Yugi turned the jigsaw into a Shadow Game, so that Ms. Chono felt the pain she inflicted on others by working on the puzzle. This caused her ugly make up free face to be exposed, causing her to flee the classroom, without punishing Honda and his friends. Afterwards Honda asked Miho out directly, but she declined. Jonouchi then offered to buy him a hamburger to cheer him up.

Having had his eyes on a pair of Air Muscle shoes for a long time, Jonouchi took Honda and Yugi to the Junky Scorpion shop, to buy a pair. The owner refused to sell Jonouchi the shoes unless he puts his foot inside one of the shoes, while there was a scorpion inside. Jonouchi did it and found out that there really was no scorpion inside; it had just been a test and the owner sold him the shoes for half price. Shortly after leaving the shop, Jonouchi, Yugi and Honda were ambushed by a group of thugs, who stole the shoes. The three boys tracked down the thugs afterwards. Jonouchi and Honda beat them up and learned that the store owner paid them to get back the shoes. By the time Jonouchi and Honda returned to the shop, shop Yugi already had gotten the shoes back and the owner was being rushed to the hospital for scorpion stings. Unaware that he changed to Dark Yugi and defeated the owner in a Shadow Game, Yugi returned the shoes to Jonouchi, with a hole in one, which Jonouchi considered a battle scar.

Jonouchi took up Duel Monsters, having been introduced by Sugoroku and Yugi at their shop, where Sugoroku showed them his rare card, the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Jonouchi made plans to play Duel Monsters at school the next day with Yugi, just before Seto Kaiba arrived. Learning that Kaiba plays Duel Monsters, Jonouchi invited him to join them, but Kaiba ridiculed his cards and told him to come back after collecting at least 10,000. The next day at school Jonouchi was defeated by Yugi and asked him for a rematch, unintentionally distracting Yugi from approaching Kaiba, who just stole the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card.

Hirutani blackmailed Jonouchi into rejoining his gang by threatening to beat-up Jonouchi's classmates if he didn't. This caused Jonouchi to be away from home for two days without leave and consequently missed a day of school. Honda became suspicious when he noticed Jonouchi was absent, as he couldn't recall Jonouchi ever missing school beforehand. Jonouchi and the gang were spotted mugging someone outside the American Club, prompting Yugi to rush over and plea with Jonouchi to leave the gang. Jonouchi denied knowing Yugi and didn't react when one of the gangsters punched Yugi. Later at J'z, Jonouchi attacked the gangster for hitting Yugi earlier. Hirutani then orders the rest of the gang to seize Jonouchi and take him to the torture chamber. At the chamber, Jonouchi had his hands tied above his head and was beaten by the gang. They electrocuted him with stun guns to the point where he couldn't speak. Hirutani orders the gang to continue to shock him, despite concerns that it could kill him. Dark Yugi arrived, stopped the gang and defeated them in a Shadow Game, saving Jonouchi.

Yugi invited Jonouchi and their friends to the Egypt Unearthed exhibition at the Domino City Museum. Jonouchi was worried about getting cursed, since they found a mummy. He also became worried that Yugi might be cursed when Anzu asked didn't Yugi's grandfather say that the archaeologists who uncovered the Millennium Puzzle died mysterious deaths. One the day of the exhibition Jonouchi told Yugi off for wearing his school uniform on the weekend and was shown around by Professor Yoshimori.

Jonouchi, Anzu, Yugi and Sugoroku visit Professor Yoshimori, to comfort him over Professor Kanekura's death. However Shadi, seeking to test Yugi, redecorates Yoshimori's soul room, possessing him. Yoshimori begins to choke Jonouchi, while Jonouchi's friends try pulling him off. Anzu frees Jonouchi after walloping Yoshimori in the head with a globe.

Jonouchi distracts the zombie Yoshimori from the others, by having him chase him around the building. Once far away from the others, he turns and punches Yoshimori in the face. This knocks out the professor's teeth, but he stands back up and relentlessly chases Jonouchi.

Jonouchi reaches a dead end in the hallway, so he enters a room. Inside he sprays the professor with a fire extinguisher. Yoshimori knocks the extinguisher out of his hand. The two continue to fight and Yoshimori pushes Jonouchi out the window. Hanging three stories high, by a curtain starting to break off, Jonouchi swings onto a ledge and spots Anzu standing motionless on a board hanging over the edge up above him. He climbs up to rescue her, but is followed by the professor.

As a rope suspending the board begins to snap, Jonouchi manages to hold the board and Anzu up. Seeing Yugi's friends work together and trusting each other, causes Shadi's ushebti to break, letting his Millennium Key, slide down a rope to Anzu, returning her to normal. Jonouchi tells Anzu to climb off, while the zombie professor tries dragging him down. Dark Yugi helps Anzu and tells Jonouchi to touch the Key off the professor to return him to normal. Jonouchi complies, but also notices Yugi is acting different.

Jonouchi climbs onto the roof. After seeing everyone is okay, he calls Shadi and tells him that he is not welcome here. After Shadi leaves, Anzu asks Jonouchi if Yugi seems different to him, but after they approach Yugi, he has turned back to normal.

Jonouchi blames Anzu for knocking out the professor's teeth, although she knows that she only knocked out three of them.

Death-T
Mokuba Kaiba invites Jonouchi along with Yugi to the Kaiba's mansion, upon Seto Kaiba's request. Since they are guests Mokuba treats them to a meal. However the meal consisted of a turntable with six plates, two of which were poisoned. Mokuba lies by saying the meals aren't poisoned. Jonouchi is made spin the wheel and eat the meal that stops in front of him. Mokuba cheats by using a hidden switch in a syrup bottle, to make him eat a poisoned meal. Yugi turns into Dark Yugi and defeats Mokuba in the game making him eat a poisoned meal and relinquish over the poison to save Jonouchi.

The next day, Kaiba forces Yugi to participate in his Death-T theme park. Jonouchi says he'll help Yugi. Honda, who is minding his baby nephew, Johji, assists them too.

In the first stage, Death-T 1, they bump into Anzu, who to their surprise is working there. She tells them the rules of the stage; how they are to face three others in a shootout game. Unknown to them, Kaiba had hired professional hitmen as their opponents. Jonouchi couldn't bear Honda's plan of staying put, waiting for the other team, so he leapt up on the walls of the arena and took out one of the opponent's by kicking them in the face. Honda calls his team to retreat after finding their guns have no effect on their opponents. Jonouchi suggests another one of his sneak attacks, but Honda and Johji deal with the situation after finding Anzu's gun hasn't been rigged.

The first part of Death-T 2 consisted of an electric chair ride. During the ride, Jonouchi, Yugi, Honda, Anzu and the butler, who was orchestrating the ride, were strapped to electric chairs that would go off if anyone screamed. Jonouchi tells his friends not to scream, but they yell back that he's most likely to scream. Jonouchi fainted during the ride, preventing him from screaming.

After the ride the gang entered a haunted mansion and the doors locked behind them. Jonouchi's attempt to pick the lock was mocked by Johji, as there was no use going back the way they came. The gang were made put their hands through holes, where they got locked below a large guillotine. Yugi managed to solve the riddle to save them.

After the guillotine stage, Johji got kidnapped by the Chopman. As Johji has saved them in the electric chair ride, Jonouchi faced the Chopman to make it up to him. He was handcuffed to the Chopman inside a small chamber with weapons hanging from the ceiling and made fight to the death. Jonouchi was no match for the Chopman's strength, but after the Chopman's chainsaw got stuck in a pillar, Jonouchi made use of the time and used his lock picking skills to open his end of the handcuffs with a candlestick holder. By the time the Chopman freed his chainsaw, Jonouchi had re-cuffed his end to the door and left the candle hang loosely off it. Before noticing this, the Chopman gave the chain a tug ripping out the door, allowing Jonouchi escape. The candle hit the wet tar covered floor, setting the Chopman on fire.

For Death-T 3, Jonouchi and his friends were locked in an empty room. While waiting for something to happen, Jonouchi talks about how his life has changed a lot lately. Anzu draws a smiley face on her, Jonouchi, Yugi and Honda's hands. If they end up taking separate paths in life, she tells them to remember this symbol and they'll remember being friends. Yugi breaks down and cries that if it wasn't for himself, they would't be in the mess they were in. Outraged, Jonouchi grabs Yugi by the collar, demanding that he never say that again, as they were a team.

The stage began and large blocks started falling from the ceiling. Having studied dance, Anzu could follow the rhythms the blocks were falling at and guided the group away the blocks about to fall. After the room filled up, the gang were able to escape through a hole high up on one of the walls. While the everyone else made it through, Honda got stuck and told the others to go on. A block sealed the gap they escaped through preventing them going back to Honda.

Upset over what happened to Honda, Yugi admits to Anzu and Jonouchi that he thinks there is another Yugi inside him. He'd been afraid to tell them, as he feared they might leave him if they knew. Jonouchi promises that even if that's true, he'll always be friends with Yugi.

Jonouchi, knowingly sees Dark Yugi, for the first time, as he watches him face Mokuba in Death-T 4. Jonouchi and Anzu are held at gunpoint by staff for this stage. After Yugi wins, they are escorted to watch him in Death-T 5, where he faces Kaiba in Duel Monsters.

Before Yugi and Kaiba's Duel begins, Jonouchi manages to phone Tomoya Hanasaki to check up on Yugi's grandfather.

After Yugi wins, the guards still have Jonouchi and Anzu at gunpoint, but Honda appears and helps Jonouchi knock the guards out.