Tristan Taylor


 * Honda redirects here, for the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator character, see: Honda (WC09).

Tristan Taylor, known as Hiroto Honda in the manga and Japanese version, is in class 1-B at Domino High School and a friend of Yugi, Joey, and Téa.

Personality
In the Japanese version, Honda tends to omit honorifics just like his friend Jonouchi does.

Tristan plays few of the games that Yugi plays, and does not play Duel Monsters that often.

In the manga, Honda is a sharpshooter. He said that when he was a kid, he could shoot a 100-yen piece with a BB gun from 50 feet.

In the first series anime, Honda is the head of the clean-up committee at school and often overdramatically cites his duty while doing things, which causes him to annoy his friends.

Design


Tristan's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit from the second series anime consists of a long brown coat with a raised collar, a white buttoned shirt underneath and black jeans. His brown hair is arranged such that a large portion spikes out from the front of his head.

Manga one-shots
Honda together with Jonouchi bully Yugi at school. Togther they take the unsolved Millennium Puzzle from Yugi and start teasing him. Anzu Mazaki arrives and tells them off, causing the two boys to flee.

Honda develops a crush on Miho Nosaka. As his infatuation gets to him, he lets Jonouchi know. Despite Honda's wishes, Jonouchi tells Yugi and asks him for help. Yugi suggests that they browse his family's store for a present. Yugi's grandfather suggests a love letter jigsaw puzzle. Honda could write a love letter to Miho on it, for her to assemble when she receives it. Jonouchi laughs at the idea of Honda doing something like that. However Honda thinks it's perfect and buys it. Having never sent a love letter before, he gets Yugi to write one and threatens him, should Miho not like it.

The next day at school, the teacher Ms. Chono finds the puzzle on Miho's desk and confiscates it. As she finds out it's a love letter, she offers the sender a chance to confess or face expulsion. Although owning up would still result in expulsion. Jonouchi claims to have sent it, so Honda can still have a chance with Miho. Yugi and Honda also claim they sent it. Chono continues the puzzle to find out who really sent it and plans to punish the others for lying. Dark Yugi emerges and turns the puzzle into a Shadow Game; as Chono continues to complete the puzzle, she feels the pain she is inflicting on others. The makeup on her face begins to crack up, revealing her true ugly self. Chono flees the room, sparing the boys any trouble.

After the incident, Honda plucks up the courage to ask Miho out directly, but she rejects him. Yugi and Jonouchi then treat him to a hamburger to cheer him up. Since then Honda becomes good friends with Yugi.

Honda accompanies Jonouchi when he buys new top of the range shoes at the Junky Scorpion. Honda doesn't see how such a fuss can be made out of shoes and tries to talk Jonouchi out of taking the store owner's test of putting his foot into a shoe, believed to have a scorpion in it. After leaving the shop, Honda, Jonouchi and Yugi are attacked from behind, by a gang who steal Jonouchi's shoes. They track down the gang afterwards. Jonouchi and Honda beat up the gang, who tell them they were paid by the store owner. Dark Yugi plays a game with the store owner, resulting in Yugi returning to Jonouchi and Honda with the shoes, unaware of how he got them back.

Death-T
As a favor to his sister, Honda takes his nephew Johji to the KaibaLand. Here he meets and Yugi and Jonouchi and assists them in Death-T.

They meet Anzu at the start of Death-T 1, who had been hired at KaibaLand. Honda gets her to mind Johji, while he takes part in the first game, the Stardust Shootout. Using his sharpshooting skills, Honda takes charge. Since Kaiba rigged the game, Yugi and his friends laser guns were duds. But the staff were unaware Anzu was their friend, so she had been given a functional gun. Using her gun and hiding Johji on his back, Honda is able to take out the remaining opposition. In exchange for Johji's help, Honda had promised him a bath with Anzu, which she blatantly refuses.

Honda gets trapped in the Death-T 3 stage, after his coat gets caught under a falling block. After Dark Yugi rescues Mokuba Kaiba, from Seto Kaiba's artifical Penalty Game, Mokuba repays him, by saving Honda.

Honda arrives to cheer Yugi on in Death-T 5.

Monster World
Honda, along with Yugi, Anzu and Jonouchi (and Miho in the first series anime) visit Ryo Bakura, to play Monster World. However, Bakura gets possessed by Dark Bakura, who turns the game into a Shadow Game.

Honda gets trapped in his piece, a magic gunman. His friends also get trapped inside pieces, while Dark Yugi leads them as the player. On their first encounter with the Dark Master Zorc, Honda manages to shoot off one of his arms off. On a later encounter, Honda attacks Zorc, who has been weakened by the White Wizard Bakura, causing Zorc to turn into his final form.

After the game, Honda and his friends are returned to normal.

First series anime
Honda's crush on Miho spans the series. Here he is not Jonouchi's crony, but a rejected candidate for class president and junior custodian. He is not entirely in favor of how Jonouchi treats Yugi and even tells him off at times.

When Miho is supected of "dating for pay", along with Anzu, Honda follows them both after school to find out what is going on. He discovers both girls are working at Burger World, even though part time jobs are against school rules. Although Honda is strict on enforcing school rules, his crush on Miho gets the better of him. He keeps quite about the girls and also gets a job there himself, so he support Miho's shopping desires. After hearing that a convict is in the restaurant, Honda assists in searching for him. Afer Anzu is taken hostage, by Jiro, Honda is forced to lie on the floor, missing Anzu getting saved. Afterwards he and the girls quit their jobs at Burger Word, but Honda and Miho get new jobs at a noodle shop.

Honda is invited with the rest of Yugi's friends to Kaiba's mansion. He mocks Jonouchi for being jealous of Kaiba, but also becomes envious of how Kaiba's wealth easily earns Miho's affection. Honda then takes up Duel Monsters in the hopes of beating Kaiba. The next day at school, he defeats Jonouchi in Duel Monsters. Kaiba then enters the room and asks Yugi if he can see his Grandfather's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card again. Honda and Jonouchi both notice Kaiba switches te card for a fake, before returning it to Yugi. They both confront Kaiba on the roof afterwards over this. However both of them get beaten-up by Kaiba's goons.

Honda gets up early to wait in line to but a D-Shock watch for Miho. When he needs a break to use the toilet, Yugi holds his place in the queue. As Yugi purchases the last copy, Shotaro Akaboshi attempts to steal it from him, but Honda arrives in time to stop him. Akaboshi manages to steal the watch from Honda later, while Honda isn't paying attention. At the arcade when Miho arives to collect the watch, Honda discovers it's missing and strips down to his underwear while searching his clothes for it. Miho then slaps him and runs off crying. Honda stays at the arcade, searching for the watch until he is asked to leave. Dark Yugi suspects Akaboshi and wins the watch back in a Shadow Game. Honda is glad to see the watch returned to Miho and two days later, he offers to wait in line to buy her perfume.

Unlike in the manga, Honda is present when Shadi tests Yugi. He replaces Professor Yoshimori's role. Using the Millennium Key, Shadi redecorates Honda's soul room, brainwashing him to attack his friends. He chases Miho and Jonouchi around the school, until Jonouchi touches the Millennium Key off him, returning him to normal.

Honda trains a Digital Pet in order to win the prize holiday in an upcoming tournament for Miho. He takes a couple of days off school to train the pet, describing his absence as maternal leave. He returns to school, right after Kujirada's pet Devil Master eats Anzu and Jonouchi's pets. Honda then links his pet, Super Strawberry to Devil Master to battle. Super Strawberry sweeps away Devil Master, defeating it.

Afterwards Honda finds a letter from Kujiara, saying Miho has been kidnapped. Honda locates Kujirada, but finds him badly beaten and learns Kujirada had been manipulated by Haiyama. Honda gets whipped by Haiyama, as he attempts to rescue Miho. While he's unconconscious, Dark Yugi defeats Haiyama in a Digital Pet duel.

Duel Monsters
Tristan and Téa are more or less cheerleaders for Yugi and Joey.

Duelist Kingdom
Tristan and Téa sneak onto the boat to the Duelist Kingdom. In the manga, Bakura accompanies them. They save Yugi and Joey, by throwing them a rope ladder, after Joey attempted to recover Yugi's "Exodia" cards, that Weevil Underwood had thrown overboard.

During the preliminaries, he cheers Yugi and Joey on from the sidlines of their Duels.

Tristan attacks Kemo, after seeing him grab a young boy. Kemo avoids being injured and recaptures the boy, explaining that he was to be evited for losing his Star Chips.

In the anime, during an argument between him and Joey, Tristan accidentally reveals that he has been making several attempts to construct a Deck of his own, with one of his cards being "Lava Battleguard". In the English dub, Joey reveals that Tristan's monster and his "Swamp Battleguard" could be related. Tristan lends Joey the card, before Mai Valentine forces Joey into a Duel with Rex Raptor for revenge. The greatly helps Joey in the Duel. Joey compares how the Battleguards work together, to himself and Tristan.

In the anime, after the gang meet-up with Bakura. Yami Bakura traps Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Bakura's souls in Duel Monster cards and duels Yami Yugi. Tristan is Summoned after Yami Yugi plays "Cyber Commander". He is destroyed by Bakura's "White Magical Hat" in the first attack and sent to the Graveyard. He is returned to the field when Yami Yugi plays "Monster Reborn". When Yugi is Summoned as the "Dark Magician", for the first time in the second anime series, Tristan learns there are two Yugis. After Yami Yugi ends the Shadow Game, everyone apart from Yugi and Bakura, believed the game was just a dream.

As Yugi and Joey are about to enter the Duelist Kingdom finals, Kemo refuses Tristan, Téa and Bakura are refuses entry as they aren't finalists. In the manga Jonouchi (Joey) knocks out Saruwatari (Kemo) to let the others in. In the anime, Mai distracts Kemo.

In the manga the day before the finals, Tristan asks Yugi to try and save the Kaiba brothers, remembering how Mokuba saved him during Death-T.

Tristan suspected Pegasus of cheating against Kaiba. The night before the finals, he, Téa and Bakura inspected the area, where the Pegasus and Kaiba dueled. They noticed a beam of light was entering the room through a hole in the wall. After peering through the hole, they found there was a tower that could have been used to spy on Kaiba's hand with the aid of a telescope. The group infiltrated the tower and found the portrait of Cecelia Pegasus. Pegasus confronted the intruders and, using his Millennium Eye, transported them to another chamber, where some occult activity took place. As Pegasus attempted to use his Millennium Eye on them, Yami Bakura countered with the Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura then transported Tristan, Téa and Bakura back to their rooms, causing them to forget the events of this night.

Tristan cheered for Yugi and Joey from the sidelies during the final rounds.

When Yugi dueled Pegasus, Tristan took time to search Pegasus castle to find Mokuba's body. He hides inside a suit of armor, while sneaking around the dungeons. He accidentally opened a secret passageway after tripping and grabbing a gargoyle to prevent himself falling over completely. Tristan takes out the man guarding Mokuba's cell, by shoving a helmet from another suit of armor on his head. He takes the guard's key and unlocks Mokuba's cell, which sets off a security alarm. Tristan removed the armor and carried Mokuba on his back.

On his way out, Tristan is confronted by two of Pegasus' goons. Yami Bakura appears and uses "Chain Energy" to create real chains of energy, which tie-up the goons. Tristan and Bakura make their escape before the chains dissipate. Tristan is unaware of Yami Bakura's existance and thinks this is the regular Bakura. He asks Bakura how he did that, but Bakura insists they focus on escaping right now The two boys get cornered by guards, but Bakura fends them off by Summoning Duel Monsters from his cards. Tristan realizes this isn't the same Bakura he knows recognizes him as the evil spirit that trapped them in a Shadow Game.

Yami Bakura reveals that he's searching for a new host, since regular Bakura has betrayed him in the past. He demands Tristan to hand over Mokuba's soulless body, threatening to set more monsters on Tristan if he doesn't. Yami Bakura advises Tristan to do as he says, as he will get what he wants either way. Tristan pretends to go along with this, but chucks Mokuba's body at Bakura and then attacks him, knocking him out. Tristan takes back Mokuba and looks at the Millennium Ring. Understanding this to be the source of Bakura's evil half, he picks it up and tosses it out of the castle, far into the forest below them.

Tristan returns to Yugi and Pegasus' Duel with Mokuba and Bakura's bodies. He sees that Yugi and Pegasus are now playing a Shadow Game and explains what happened with Yami Bakura to Joey and Téa.

Joey, Téa and Tristan are unable to see the Duel, as its surrounded by a strange dark matter, but they have a feeling something bad has happened to Yugi. Tristan tries running into the darkness, but immediatly comes out the other side.

After Bakura wakes up, Tristan explains how the Ring was making him act weird, so he threw it away.

After the tournament, Tristan and his friends are taken home by Seto Kaiba.

Legendary Heroes
In the anime, Tristan and his friends agree to help Mokuba rescue Kaiba, after Kaiba got trapped into a virtual world, by the Big Five. There are 3 remaining pods into the virtual world. Mokuba and Yugi take two, while Joey and Tristan argue over who gets the other one. Tristan eventually stays behind with Téa to work to controls.

To pass the time, he tries talking about his first crush and his essay about his dream of being a pilot. In the English version, he tries showing Téa his facial hair. Téa shows no interest in any of those. After hearing people outside, they barricade the door.

They manage to hold off the guards, until Mokuba, Yugi and Joey return with Kaiba.

Battle City
In the anime, after Yugi's Duel with Keith, who was possessed by Marik Ishtar, Joey and Tristan break down the door into the burning building. Keith rushes out and Joey and Tristan go inside to rescue Yugi. Yugi refuses to leave without his Millennium Puzzle, which is stuck to a wall, by a needle-like beam jammed into its chain. Tristan grabs Yugi's Deck from the Duel arena. He then returns to help Joey free the Puzzle. He and Joey push a pipe through the hole on the beam and use it as a lever to remove the beam.

After Joey goes missing, shortly before his sister, Serenity's eye operation, Tristan scanned the streets on his motorbike searching for him. (Cut from the English anime,) Honda (Tristan) found Jonouchi on the beach. Jonouchi was moping about losing his card "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", to a Ghoul and feels unworthy to face Shizuka (Serenity). Honda punches Jonouchi and reminds him how Shizuka needs him. After talking sense into Jonouchi, he takes him to the hospital to see Shizuka.

Tristan developed a crush on Serenity. Shortly before the Battle City tournament, he visited her in the hospital and impressed her by lying that he is the one who taught Joey what he knows about dueling. Joey made a phonecall to the hospital and was enraged to hear that Tristan is with Serenity and the lies he told her.

Tristan visited Serenity again after the tournament starts. He brought a laptop, so he could keep her updated on how Joey's doing in the tournament. He forgets how to turn on the laptop and has a nurse set it up. Although Joey was losing, Tristan couldn't break it to Serenity and lied about Joey's performance.

When the nurse returned to take Serenity's temperature, Tristan stepped out of the room and made a call to Téa. He got her to pass a message on to Joey; that Serenity believes in him and he's not to give-up.

When Tristan returned to Serenity's room, she reveals that the nurse told her that Joey is losing and makes Tristan promise to keep her truthfully informed on Joey's Duel, so she can support him when needed. The two of them celebrate after Joey wins. Before Tristan left, Serenity asked him to take her to the tournament the day her bandages are removed from her eyes, so the first thing she can see is her brother dueling. Tristan agreed.

Tristan met-up with Téa, Grandpa and Mokuba. They explained that Yugi has been missing and they've managed to track his location. They manage to catch Yugi, just after he defeats Arkana.

Téa and Tristan agreed to meet-up with Yugi the next day. However, Tristan takes time to flirt with Serenity on the phone, causing them to be late and miss Yugi. Grandpa decides to help them find Yugi.

While searching for Yugi, they spotted Joey chasing a kid who stole his Duel Disk. Tristan lept in front of the boy and grabbed him, ensuring Joey got the Duel Disk back. The boy lied that he had stolen it because Weevil Underwood stole his own Deck. he secretly took it to sneak "Parasite Paracide" into Joey's Deck.

The boy takes them to where he saw Weevil. Shortly afterwards Weevil shows up and Tristan prepares to beat him up for taking the boy's cards. However, Joey insists that he duel Weevil. Tristan advises Joey to be cautious and cheers for Joey from the sideline of the Duel.

Hasty to have Jonouchi qualify for the finals, Tristan tried talking Joey into dueling a participant he could easily beat, but Joey's pride was too strong to get into the finals the easy way.

Tristan, Téa and Grandpa accompany Joey to the aquarium, where Joey faces Mako Tsunami.

After Joey defeats Mako and qualifies for the finals, he needs someone to collect Serenity. Much to Joey's distress, Tristan eagerly volunteers and takes off before Joey can stop him.

Tristan takes Serenity to the tournament by train. On the way they talk about Joey, Tristan tells her some of the rules of Duel Monsters and buys her lunch. After they arrive in Domino City, Tristan calls Téa to find out where Joey is, but gets no answer, as she has been captured by the Rare Hunters.

As they walked down the street, a group of Rare Hunters surrounded them. Tristan gets Serenity to climb on his back and runs from the hunters. The Rare Hunters manage to surround them again, so Tristan lets Serenity down so he can fight them. He manages to take care of two of the Hunters, but the third grabs Serenity. As Tristan goes to save her, one of the two he just attacks, punches him onto the ground. The two of them are saved by Duke Devlin, who fires dice at the Rare Hunters.

The three of them continue to look for Joey. Thinking he might be in the finals, they decide to ask duelists, who may have qualified for the finals, where the finals are on. Unsuccessful, Tristan returns to Duke and Serenity, disguisted to find Duke used the time to flirt with Serenity.

The Rare Hunters reappear, so the group split into two; Duke takes Serenity to safety, while Tristan takes care of the Hunters. Tristan beats-up the three of them and demands to know the location of his fiends. he learns they're at Domino Pier, before Mai's car pulls-up, with herself, Duke and Serenity inside. Tristan gets inside and has Mai take them to the pier.

Virtual World
Tristan duels against the fourth member of the Big Five, Nesbitt. He duels alongside Serenity and Duke, but when Nesbitt targets Serenity, who has never dueled before, Tristan sacrifices his deck master to protect her, and loses the duel and is digitized into a robot monkey. Though Serenity and Duke defeat Nesbitt, he keeps Tristan's body. The Big Five then duel Yugi and Joey in Tristan's body, and when they lose, it disappears. However, Tristan returns to normal once he exits the virtual world.

Millennium World
Tristan's mind was taken over by Yami Bakura, but returned after Yugi defeats Bakura.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, a business man who looks like Tristan makes a small appearance during when Jack Atlas leaves Carly Nagisa's house.

Naming
In all of the Japanese versions and in the English-language versions of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga by Kazuki Takahashi, Tristan is known as Hiroto Honda.

In the English-language second series anime, the English-language video games, the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, and the English-language "ani-manga" of that movie, he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the English Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses video game, he is T. Tristan Grey.

In translated versions of the manga in Spanish, Indonesian, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian manga, he is known as Hiroto Honda. In the Brazilian Portuguese version of the manga he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the Spanish dubbed anime he is known as Tristán Taylor. In the dubbed anime of all of the other Indo-European languages he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the dubbed anime of the Arabic language, he is also known as Tristan Taylor (تريستن تَيلر).

Deck
Tristan's Deck is comprised mostly of militaristic cards. He Duels once during the first series anime and once during the second series anime. He doesn't Duel in the manga.