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Joey started out as a rough, tough kid trying to survive the mean streets. He even he bullied Yugi a bit because he was younger and took a piece of Yugi's yet-to-be-complete Millenium Puzzle. But when Yugi tried to protect him and Tristan from Ushio at cost of his well-being, Joey gave Yugi back the final puzzle piece and the two became friends after that.

In the second season, Joey dedicates himself to Dueling when he receives a video letter from his sister, Serenity [Shizuka], who is losing her eyesight. Their parents are divorced, and the two of them had each gone with a parent some years back. Her only hope for continued vision is an expensive procedure, and Joey knows of only one way to gain that much money: the prize money from the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. Learning of this, Yugi gives Joey one of his two Starchips, giving him the chance to actually compete for the prize money. After relieving the defeated Weevil Underwood of his dueling gauntlet, Joey was fully into the tournament.

With such high stakes, the novice duelist picks up skill at an incredible pace, coming through with clutch win after clutch win and soon learning to stand on his own in Duel Monsters. To everyone's amazement, Joey eventually managed to even show Yugi, perhaps the best duelist they know, a thing or two as they stood toe to toe in the Duelist Kingdom finals. But he and Yugi come through their adventures to become even stronger friends.

Joey's Dueling Deck is primarily a Warrior deck full of lean and mean fighters, like Flame Swordsman, but he also packs a number of surprise cards that can turn things around in a hurry, including a Time Wizard given to him by Yugi. He also eventually wins a Red-Eyes Black Dragon from Rex Raptor, and it becomes a much-valued addition to his Deck.

Joey has feelings for Mai, who knows this. She taunts him, and he's so love sick, poor guy. It got worse when her soul was sent to the shadow realm by Yami Marik. Joey was so desperate to get her back that he deliberately made sure that he faced Yami Marik in the semi-finals so he could win Mai's soul back. Although he lost to Yami Marik, his friendship with Yugi prevented his soul from going to the Shadow Realm, though he stayed in a coma.

Later, when he was forced to duel Mai (who joined DOOM's cause), Joey was chosen to use the Legendary Dragon Helmos.

Note: In episode 187, Joey's name is displayed on a screen as Jyonouchi. This is because it's supposed to be a part of the pun. Yu-Jyo is from the first syllables of Yugi and Jyounouchi, making the Japanese word Unity, which is pretty much the whole basis of the show.

Editor's Note: Most websites seem to list Marik's height as being 180 cm and Joey's height as being 178 cm, however in the picture to the right we can clearly see that Marik appears taller than Joey. So why is this? Well, I can think of only three possible explainations... either at least one of those heights is incorrect, the picture is somehow giving off some type of optical illusion, or Joey grew. Since the picture shown is from Episode 70: Spell of the Mask: The Skyscraper Duel, my guess is that the height listed for Joey was for the first episode, and that he grew taller by episode 70.

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