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 went 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, Anzu and Honda 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.

When news broke of Professor Kanekura's death, Jonouchi, Anzu, Yugi and Sugoroku visited Professor Yoshimori at the university to comfort him. However Shadi, seeking to test Yugi, had possessed Yoshimori by redecorating his soul room. Yoshimori acted strange and began choking Jonouchi, while Jonouchi's friends tried pulling him off. Anzu freed Jonouchi by walloping Yoshimori in the head with a globe. Jonouchi distracted the zombie Yoshimori from the others, by having him chase him around the building. Among Jonouchi's efforts to snap the professor back to normal, he punched him the face, knocking out more of his teeth and sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. Eventually, Yoshimori pushed him out a third floor window. Jonouchi managed to get onto a ledge and spotted Anzu, who was being used in the Trial of the Mind Shadow Game, standing motionless on a board hanging over the edge up above him. He climbed up to rescue her, but was followed by the professor. Still hassled by the professor, Jonouchi held onto Anzu's board as its supporting rope began to break. Seeing Yugi's friends work together and trusting each other, caused Shadi's ushebti to break, letting his Millennium Key, slide down a rope to Anzu, returning her to normal. Jonouchi and Dark Yugi helped Anzu to safety and Dark Yugi told Jonouchi to touch the key off the professor to return him to normal. He complied, but also noticed Yugi was acting different. After seeing everyone was okay, Jonouchi told Shadi he was unwelcome here. After Shadi left, Anzu asked Jonouchi if Yugi seemed different to him, but after they approach Yugi, he had turned back his normal self. When Yoshimori noticed some of his teeth were missing, Jonouchi tried blaming Anzu.

During the previous Shadow Game, Dark Yugi faced an illusion of Jonouchi created by Shadi. They were to play the Game of Death, where each player was to try and force their opponent to walk over the edge and fall to their death. The illusion displayed the traits Jonouchi had when he was bully. Dark Yugi refused to take his turns, as it was possible he was facing the real Jonouchi, possessed by Shadi. Dark Yugi's trust in Jonouchi, caused the illusion to disappear, rather than force him off the edge.

When Digital Pets became popular, Jonouchi purchased one, which his friends mocked how ugly it had become. When he connected it with Yugi's pet, U2, to exchange data, Jonouchi's pet proved to be a bully as a kicked U2, but they became friends shortly afterwards. Their classmate, Kujirada had a hidden character pet, which Jonouchi tittered at for being uglier than his. The next day at school, Jonouchi left his pet unattended, during which Kujirada fed it to his own pet. As Kujirirada tried feeding more pets to his own, it was defated by U2, who had become stronger due to its data transfer with Jonouchi's pet.

Jonouchi was introduced to the American comic Zombire by Tomoya Hanasaki. He, Yugi, Anzu and Honda were all invited to Hanasaki's house to see his Zombire collection afterwards. Among their antics, Jonouchi got a fright when Hanasaki's father entered wearing a Zombire mask and assembled a figure not knowing Hanasaki had wanted to keep in its box unopened. As they left Hanasaki forgave Jonouchi for assembling the figure, which he now thought was better assembled, and Hanasaki's father begged them to stay friends with Hanasaki. After assuring him that they would, Jonouchi told him that Hanasaki wasn't as fragile as his father thought.

Death-T
Jonouchi went with Yugi to the arcade hoping to beat "KAI" in at least one of the national high scores. He heard from other kids at the arcade, that the "KAI" high scores belonged to Seto Kaiba and that there was a rumor Kaiba was working on building the ultimate game. Jonouchi failed to beat Kaiba's score on a racing game and after watching Yugi play Virtual VS for a while went to buy a coffee and a cola for himself and Yugi. However when he returned, he found Yugi had been beaten-up and his Millennium Puzzle was stolen.

Jonouchi tracked down the thief, who offered to give back the puzzle, if Jonouchi could beat him in a fighting game. The rules involved each player holding a knife in their mouth that would stick into their throat if punched in the face. Jonouchi asked that his opponent not use a knife, as he didn't want to hold back punching him in the face. Jonouchi founght with his hands in his pockets and found it difficult to dodge his opponent's punches in the alley. He told his opponent that he had promises in each of his pockets. He revealed one of the promises was Yugi's cola, which he sprayed in his opponent's eyes after it had been shaken, and that the other was the promise to "clobber" him and punched his opponent in the jaw. Jonouchi then took back the Puzzle to give to Yugi.

Shortly afterwards a limousine pulled up beside Yugi and Jonouchi and chauffeur explained that Seto Kaiba requested to see Yugi at his mansion. Yugi and Jonouchi both got inside the limousine and Jonouchi was surprised to hear that Kaiba was president of KaibaCorp. When it was discovered that Kaiba was unable to see them, Mokuba Kaiba asked the butler to prepare the "special course" meal for them. Yugi and Jonouchi were disappointed to find that it consisted of childish meals and Mokuba suggested that they make a game out of it by spinning the turntable and eating the meal that stopped before them. Mokuba lied when Jonouchi asked if the food was poisoned. Mokuba cheated by using a hidden switch in a syrup bottle, to make Jonouchi eat a poisoned meal. Yugi turned into Dark Yugi and defeated Mokuba winning the antidote to save Jonouchi.

Jonouchi and Yugi stayed the night at Kaiba's mansion and were greeted by Kaiba the next morning. Jonouchi initially got mad over what Mokuba did, but Kaiba brought them to the grand opening of his Kaiba Land theme park as special guests. They and many other children were given free access to all the attractions, leading Jonouchi to believe he had misjudged Kaiba. However Kaiba showed them a special show, where he dueled and defeated Sugoroku Mutou. After which, he forced Yugi to take part in Death-T, the theme park of death, before releasing Sugoroku from the simulation capable of driving humans insane. Jonouchi insisted on accompanying Yugi in Death-T, as did Honda who was babysitting his nephew, Johji, in the audience.

In the first stage, Death T-1, they bumped into Anzu, who to their surprise was working there. She told them the rules of the stage; how they were to face three others in a shootout game. Unbeknownst to them, Kaiba had hired professional hitmen, Johnny Gayle, Bob McGuire and "name unknown", 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 Gayle by kicking him in the face. Honda called the team to retreat after finding their guns had no effect on their opponents, while their opponents were armed with lethal guns. Jonouchi suggested another one of his sneak attacks, but Honda and Johji dealt with the situation after finding Anzu's gun hadn't been rigged.

Jonouchi's bravery vanished as they entered the Horror Zone for Death T-2. The first part of the stage consisted of the Electric Chair Ride, during which, Jonouchi, Yugi, Honda, Anzu and Kaiba's butler, who was orchestrating the ride, were strapped to electric chairs that shock their sitter if they screamed. Jonouchi advised his friends not to make a sound, but they yelled back that he was most likely to scream. The participants were subjected to various terrors during the ride. These caused Jonouchi to faint, preventing him from screaming. The gang were saved as Johji caused the butler to scream and consequently electrocute himself.

After the ride, the gang entered the Murderer's 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 had to put their hands through holes, where they got locked below a large guillotine. Yugi managed to solve the necessary riddle to save them.

After the guillotine substage, Johji got kidnapped by the Chopman. Since Johji had saved them in the Electric Chair Ride, Jonouchi faced the Chopman to make it up to him. Under Kaiba's death threat, Johji handcuffed Jonouchi to the Chopman. The two had to fight to the death inside a small chamber with weapons hanging from the ceiling. Jonouchi was no match for the Chopman's strength, but after the Chopman's chainsaw got stuck in a pillar. While the Chopman tried to free his chainsaw, Jonouchi looked for something to pick the lock on the handcuff. Yugi pointed him to a candlestick and then briefed him in on a plan to defeat the Chopman. Jonouchi picked open his end of the handcuffs with the candlestick holder. By the time the Chopman freed his chainsaw, Jonouchi had attached his end of the handcuffs 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 oil 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 talked about how his life had changed a lot lately. Anzu drew a smiley face on her, Jonouchi, Yugi and Honda's hands and explained that if they wound up taking separate paths in life, they should remember this symbol and they'll remember being friends. Yugi broke down and cried that if it wasn't for him, they wouldn't be in the mess they were in. Outraged, Jonouchi grabbed 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 admitted to Anzu and Jonouchi that he thought there was another Yugi inside him. He'd been afraid to tell them, as he feared they might leave him if they knew. Jonouchi promised that even if that's true, he'd always be friends with Yugi. Jonouchi and Anzu, knowingly saw Dark Yugi for the first time as, Yugi switched to him, before facing Mokuba in Capsule Monster Chess in Death T-4.

Jonouchi and Anzu were held at gunpoint by Saruwatari and another KaibaCorp guard during Death T-4. After Dark Yugi won, they were escorted to watch him in Death T-5, where he faced Kaiba in Duel Monsters. Before Yugi and Kaiba's Duel began, Jonouchi swiped Saruwatari's phone and called Tomoya Hanasaki, who was at the hospital, to check up on Sugoroku. During the Duel, Dark Yugi imagined Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda were with him before drawing his last card. When he won, the guards still had Jonouchi and Anzu at gunpoint, but Honda, who had been saved by Mokuba, appeared and helped Jonouchi fight the guards off. One of the guards managed to get back on his feet and hold his gun to Jonouchi's head. However Mokuba told him to stop down and explained that he saved them because he owed Yugi a favor.

As they left Kaiba Land, Jonouchi got word from Hanasaki who said Sugoroku's surgery was a success. After realizing that Dark Yugi had switched back to Yugi, Jonouchi was about to ask him a question, but then decided not to.

Post Death-T
Jonouchi, Honda and Yugi played the Achievement Test Bingo Game when the results of their achievement tests were posted. Jonouchi lost having not got any lines on his card and had to buy three hamburgers for Yugi and two for Honda. The guidance councilor, Tsuruoka, spotted them making a game of the test results and pointed out how they scored among the lowest of the four hundred who took the test. He confiscated Yugi's Lovely Two love compatibility tester and threatened to break it while calling the three of them "unskilled slackers". However Dark Yugi emerged and claimed they had skills Tsuruoka could never match. This resulted in Tsuruoka imposing a game where he hid the Lovely Two and gave them one hour to find it or be expelled. Jonouchi and Honda fetched some digging equipment in case Tsuruoka had buried the device, but Dark Yugi deduced he had hidden it inside. Eventually Dark Yugi discovered the device was somewhere on Tsuruoka's body and used Anzu's Lovely Two to get Yugi's to make a reaction noise proving it was there. Jonouchi and Honda pounced on Tsuruoka and discovered he was wearing a wig and his device inside it.

Jonouchi sent in an entry form to participate in ZTV's The Get the Million Game. He decorated his form with rainbow colors to make it stand out. The studio did a background check on him and found that his father was an unemployed alcoholic, whose gambling debts Jonouchi was working to pay off. The producer thought Jonouchi's sob story and struggle would be perfect to boost ratings and he was selected to appear on the show. Jonouchi succeeded in the first two stages of the game, Darts of Fortune and The Electric Helmet. The final stage The Wheel of Fate had been rigged to lose, but Dark Yugi had discovered this and played a game, which prevented the game from being fixed. Jonouchi succeeded and won the million yen. However the studio went bankrupt before Jonouchi cashed the check.

Jonouchi purchased a Monster Fighter figure; "Killer Emaada" at Kame Game and used it in a a game against Yugi, which he lost. The two of them brought their fighters to school the next day, where Jonouchi lost another game to Yugi and got plenty of other students interested in the game. After Yugi's fighter got stolen by Koji Nagumo, he borrowed Jonouchi's "Killer Emaada", which Dark Yugi used to defeat Nagumo in a rematch.

Imori brought the Dragon Cards, while they were sealed, to Kame Game to ask Sugoroku for information about them. He allowed Jonouchi to open the seal, but Jonouchi was stopped by Sugoroku, who explained that breaking the seal would cause yin and yang to clash and create a warped power. This freaked Jonouchi out. A few days later he realized something was wrong with Yugi, who had received a ransom note from Imori, but Yugi insisted everything was okay.

Jonouchi purchased a Yovega Fireboy yo-yo brought it to school school. The other students mocked him for trying to show off by giving walk the dog a new name. Determined to impress them, he tried his "loop the loop" trick, causing everyone to run for cover. Nezumi was unimpressed and told him he never wanted to see a yo-yo again after he had been mugged by a yo-yo-wielding gang. Disgusted by the misuse of yo-yos, Jonouchi agreed to help get revenge on the gang. Nezumi led Jonouchi and Yugi to the location he said he got mugged, which they recognized as Hirutani's torture chamber". After entering they were surrounded by Hirutani's gang, who tried getting Jonouchi to rejoin them, as Hirutani's number 2. Jonouchi refused, but Nezumi who had set them up, helped the gangsters capture Yugi and hang him from a hook by his Millennium Puzzle rope. Jonouchi pushed his way through the gang taking numerous blows from their yo-yos and helped Yugi down.

Hirutani gave Jonouchi a last chance to join him, before ordering the gang to kill him and Yugi. While the gangsters swung their yo-yos at them, Jonouchi borrowed Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and swung it around, catching the yo-yos on its rope. He then took all the yo-yos and attached them to the hook, causing the gangsters to be hung by their fingers.

Yugi switched to Dark Yugi to help fight off the rest of the gang. Dark Yugi led the remaining gangsters onto a rooftop and Jonouchi separated Hirutani from them. The two engaged in a fight, where Jonouchi punched out two of Hirutani's teeth. Hirutani broke some glass and threw at Jonouchi, causing some to go in his eyes. Hirutani punched Jonouchi around while he was temporarily unable to see and prepared to stab him with a shard of glass. However Jonouchi heard Hirutani step on some broken glass and determined his location. He swung a punch at Hirutani, knocking him off the roof and leaving him hang on by one hand. Jonouchi then took out his yo-yo and used walk the dog to hit Hirutani's hand, causing him to fall. Jonouchi met up with Dark Yugi who had disposed of the other gangsters and apologized for getting him dragged into his problems, but Dark Yugi insisted that Jonouchi's problems were his problems too.

Monster World
When Ryo Bakura transferred to Domino High School, he sat next to Jonouchi and the two quickly got along. During the lunch break, Jonouchi introduced Bakura to Yugi, Anzu and Honda and the four of them agreed to play the tabletop role-playing game Monster World the next day. A group of girls then came over and told Jonouchi not to be hogging Bakura and pulled Bakura away for a guide of the school. After school, Jonouchi, Yugi, Anzu and Honda caught up with Bakura to ask where they'd play Monster World, but Bakura said that it was better they don't play at all, since the last few people who played games with him all wound up in comas.

Bakura didn't come to school the next day, so Jonouchi, Yugi, Anzu and Honda went to his apartment to cheer him up and prove that his old friends ending up in comas was just a coincidence, by playing Monster World. They met Dark Bakura at the door and mistook him for Ryo Bakura. Dark Bakura went over the rules of Monster World and created their character miniatures after giving them forms to fill out. Jonouchi's character, "Joey" was a human warrior. He, Yugi, Anzu and Honda played the adventurers, while Dark Bakura played the Dark Master.

Not knowing anything about their enemy or the world the game was set in, the adventurers went to the village for information. Jonouchi got enthusiastically involved in the game as he pushed the barman into telling them how Zorc had taken over the land and infested it with his monsters. Honda noted how the game brought out the worst in Jonouchi, as he demanded the barman give them gold so they could help him. The barman directed them to another villager, who could tell them the safest path to Zorc Castle. Jonouchi and Honda roared out laughing at how the villager looked like Mr. Karita, the gym teacher, not knowing it was really him, trapped in a miniature. Karita gave them directions and advised them to stay out of the forest.

Outside the village there was a 30% chance of an enemy monster encounter. Dark Bakura rolled a 02 on a pair of ten-sided dice. Since this was less then 30, an enemy Level 3 Goblin appeared. Jonouchi rolled the dice to determine the strength of his attack. Dark Bakura calculated he would need 40 or lower to slay the goblin and Jonouchi rolled a 13, easily killing it.

The adventurers encountered a stranger lying unconscious in their path. Unbeknownst to them it was Zorc in disguise. Jonouchi got his character to poke the stranger with his sword, waking them up. The stranger told them that he had a holy sword, capable of defeating Zorc, stolen from him after he was attacked in the forest and begged for their help. Jonouchi thought it was worth going against Karita's safety advise for the sword and after some discussion the adventurers agreed to help the stranger.

Inside the forest there was a 80% encounter rate and the adventurers were quickly faced with five monsters. Jonouchi rolled an 82, causing his character to fall on his face when he tried attacking. Honda, Yugi and Anzu defeated the monsters and tamed Pokii into joining their party.

The stranger revealed that he was Zorc and changed form. Dark Bakura rolled a 00, causing Zorc to trap Anzu in her miniature. Angry over this, Jonouchi rolled to attack Zorc, not realizing it wasn't his turn. He rolled a fumble, 99, causing his soul to also be sealed in his miniature. Honda and Yugi were sealed in their miniatures too shortly afterwards, leaving Dark Yugi to roll for all four of them.

Dark Yugi caused Honda to blow off Zorc's hand. Zorc retreated afterwards, while his hand mutated into two more monsters. Using the double hit technique, Dark Yugi rolled a super critical 00 for Jonouchi, allowing him to slash the eyeball monster in two. The double hit was banned for both players after Dark Yugi used it again to get Yugi to tame Pao.

At Zorc Castle, the adventurers inspected a strange pedestal inside a tower, causing them to get caught in a trap. The spiked ceiling dropped onto their heads and it was estimated that they would have three turns before the miniatures broke under its pressure. While trying to figure the required dice roll to complete the roof's supporting tower, Yugi and Jonouchi were attacked by Zorc lowering their HP. Dark Yugi managed to make the right roll and due to the adventurers' high speed scores, they escaped just before Zorc attacked again. Jonouchi's figure was left with two holes in his head due to the spikes.

Having caught Zorc off guard, the adventurers won initiative and began attacking Zorc. Channeling their anger into the dice, Dark Yugi made powerful rolls as they attacked Zorc, but due to the difference in levels, Zorc wasn't injured too badly. Using brainwashed dice, Dark Bakura rolled a 00 for Zorc's attack. However Ryo Bakura had been able to take control of Dark Bakura's left hand, since his avatar's hand had been blown off, and used it to recalculate the damage so the adventurers each survived with 1 HP remaining. Dark Yugi rolled a 05 for Jonouchi, allowing him to stab and gouge out Zorc's left eye. Dark Yugi got Anzu to heal the party afterwards.

With his control of the left hand, Bakura rolled a 99 with the brainwashed dice, causing Zorc's next attack to backfire. Dark Bakura then impaled the left hand on one of the castle towers, causing the adventures to suspect Dark Bakura was not the same Bakura they knew. Yugi used his beast tamer training hand to pull the White Wizard Bakura, the avatar of Ryo Bakura, out of Zorc's wounded left arm. Bakura joined the adventurers and helped them fight Zorc.

After taking significant damage, Zorc transformed into Last Zorc and attacked the party, but they were shielded by Bakura's magic, leaving them with some HP. Pokii and Yugi were able to take advantage of Last Zorc's weak point being exposed to inflict serious damage and Jonouchi cut Last Zorc in half afterwards.

Deck
Initially, his Deck contained only Monster Cards, allowing his opponent's to easily defeat him.

For Duelist Kingdom, his monsters were mainly tough Warrior and Beast-Warrior-Type ones. Yugi gave him the "Time Wizard" card and he won "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" from Dinosaur Ryuzaki, both of which became valuable assets.

Having done well with his Duelist Kingdom Deck, Jonouchi planned on sticking with it. However Yugi told him that wasn't a good idea and that he had already come up with a strategy to combat it, so Jonouchi constructed a new Deck before Battle City. The number of tough Warrior and Beast-Warrior monsters decreased and he added more cartoon-like Warriors and a number of luck-based cards. Throughout Battle City, he added rare cards that he won through the ante rule. He did not use his "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" after losing it to a Rare Hunter. Although Dark Yugi won it back, Jonouchi opted not to take it back until he proved himself as a Duelist.

While possessed by Marik Ishtar, Jonouchi's Deck was strengthened with a number of tournament banned Spell Cards which directly damage the opponent and destroy monsters.