Joey Wheeler

"I got news for you, pal. Even if you beat me, which you won't, Yugi'd cream you."

- Katsuya Jonouchi to Bandit Keith

Katsuya Jonouchi or Joseph "Joey" Wheeler (4Kids dub) is one of the characters in the anime and manga, ''Yu-Gi-Oh! ''He is a close friend of Yugi Muto, the protagonist, and other friends such as Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda. Like his pals, he has defeated many enemies in duels. One of the duels being against Insector Haga, who had a creepy bug type deck. He was shown to have dark blonde hair, an almost Jersey accent in the 4Kids dub only, and his notable cards were his Time Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

Later, Jonouchi, Yugi, and Seto Kaiba became the Chosen Ones to handle the three dragon cards.

At the end, he became one of the top five duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. He became #3. It was stated by Pegasus J. Crawford in ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.''

Background
Jonouchi was given a hard upbringing after his parent's divorce. Jonouchi's father was a hard drinker and often neglected Jonouchi as a result. Jonouchi still visits and tries to see his sister Shizuka (Serenity, in English version) and tries to watch-out for her when the situation arises. Jonouchi was first met as one of protagonist Yugi Muto's more hot-headed school bullies and stole a piece of his Millennium Puzzle. However, after seeing Yugi's skill at the Duel Monsters game, Jonouchi became far more fascinated with Yugi's skill than antagonistic. Since being won over by Yugi, Jonouchi has become one of his closest friends, Sugoroku Muto's hobby shop after school and trying to improve his skills at the game to back-up his natural luck.

Jonouchi joins Yugi throughout his adventures, unlike Anzu, who is often moral support, and Honda, who tends to handle physical threats, Jonouchi is the only one in Yugi's regular group of friends who tends joins in duels along-side Yugi. In particular, Jonouchi dislikes Seto Kaiba, an on and off ally and social elitist, and the two often snipe at each-other when the other is around.

Personality
Because of his family life, Jonouchi is both aggressive as a default in any situation but also very protective of any friends he can get. He and Honda usually go hand in hand to resolve a situation with violence. Since the manga centers around Duel Monsters, Jonouchi is all to willing to forgo violence and solve a situation with a contest of skill to strike a blow against his opponent's pride, just as bad as a physical assault in Jonouchi's experience. Because Yugi was willing to show Jonouchi how to improve his skills, despite his original stance as one of his bullies, Jonouchi considers him to be one of his truest friends.

Quotes
"Wait a second. Not only did I win your star chips, but I won your Red-Eyes too, fair and square!"

- Jonouchi to Dinosaur Ryuzaki after defeating him in Duelist Kingdom