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There's no second chance to pull the trigger, one pull decides all!
引き金は二度引かねぇ、一発が全てだ!
Joe Kirifuda

Joe Kirifuda
きりふだジョー
Civilization(s) Jokers J Light Light
Water Water Darkness Darkness
Fire Fire Nature Nature
Affiliation Kirifuda Family
Family Z Kirifuda (Great Great Grandfather)
Katsuzo Kirifuda (Great Grandfather)
Shori Kirifuda (Grandfather)
Mai Kirifuda (Grandmother)
Shobu Kirifuda (Uncle)
Lucifer (Uncle)
Katta Kirifuda (Father)
Lulu Takigawa (Mother)
Voice Actor 小林 由美子
Yumiko Kobayashi Wikipedia
Signature Card(s) See: Signature Cards
Nationality Japan

Joe Kirifuda is the third central protagonist of the Duel Masters anime and Duel Masters manga series, succeeding Katta Kirifuda, the central protagonist from the previous Victory and Versus saga.

He was one of the known Duel Masters of the new generation and one of the few descendants of a long line of Duel Masters. Unlike most members of his family lineage who usually fight in the human world, he fights a war that extends into both the human world and directly into the creature world.

Details

He is the main protagonist in the final episodes of the 'Versus Revolution Final' season of the anime and a new generation duelist introduced in the season, followed by his childhood friend Kira.

He's Katta Kirifuda and Lulu Takigawa's son, Shobu Kirifuda and Lucifer's nephew, Shori Kirifuda and Mai Kirifuda's grandson. Like his father and paternal uncle, he learns to duel at a young age.

Like his father and paternal uncle, he has abilities linking to the creature world. While his uncle Shobu was capable of making contact with the spirits and his father Katta being able to give the spirits physical forms from their cards and speech through his "Victory Mode", Joe was able to make the card designs he drew into actual cards with the help of Deckie. Joe was capable of interacting with creature spirits, especially the Jokers he created.

Despite descending from the Kirifuda Family and the Takigawa Family, two families of legendary duelists, Joe is a pretty ordinary boy who was never acknowledged and intrigued by others for his bloodlines. Other kids like Shacho and his gang bully him like usual, he does not seem to attract attention by most other students in his school, while other notable duelists like Boltz and Momo Uraraka were never noticeably wary of his heritage. However, Deckie seemed to be aware of this since he chose Joe as a Duel Master, and some potential enemies like Kira's mother might have known his lineage and otherworldly abilities therefore took great plans to observe him.

Unlike past protagonists, His dueling strategies usually involve Alternate Wins, although he will seldom perform a direct attack against the opponent. However, in the subsequent battles, he begins to use all-rounder techniques unique to the Jokers and other main civilizations, making him the most versatile Duel Master in the new generation.

Appearance

Joe is a 10-year-old boy with brown hair which is yellow in the front, styled with a "D" and '"M" above his forehead. This is similar to the "V" for Victory Mode found on his father's head during a duel.

He wears a neckerchief given by Kira, blue wristbands and hangs his deck box Deckie around his neck. He also has a red deck belt buckled on his waist, which was a carrier of his art tools. He seems to be shorter than most characters in the show and only Fulcon Purito and Pyonko-Hime are shorter than him. He's currently the shortest protagonist of the main series, standing slightly shorter than his father Katta and parental uncle Shobu of the same age.

At the age of 3, Joe is a small toddler. He wears a toddler poncho in a model of Hamukatsu.

Joe Kirifuda in Kindergarden age

8-year-old Joe Kirifuda

When he was 8 years old, the edges of his hair weren't as sharp and the "D", "M" above his forehead wasn't present. He wears a red neckerchief, red wristbands, and buckles a red deck belt on his waist.

Joe's design changes in the time of the Ten Kings arc. His outfit consist of a white and blue shirt with the sleeves tucked in, red pants and white shoes. His facial features seem to be younger than he was in the previous arcs, having smaller pupils. In the King's Next arc, Joe dons a red jacket and blue pants. As a sixth grader, he grown taller.

During the Rise of Kings arc, when he summons MAX the Johnny, he undergoes a form change.

Joe Star Max Evo

Personality

Like his father Katta and paternal uncle Shobu, he is quite energetic. Unlike his father, he dislikes curry bread[1] and prefers ramen. He also can get a bit cocky like his father when it comes to duels. Like Katta when he first picks up dueling, he was an amateur duelist, in the beginning, losing many times to Kira. He was not quite good at building decks, as he placed cards from all 5 civilizations in his first deck, making it unbalanced. Despite that, he was capable of using spells and shield triggers to good use, though he has to read the card mechanics, making him a bit slow in a duel. Later on, when dueling his father's friends and rivals, his skills have improved and his deck becomes more balanced.

Joe drawing

Joe drawing a card

He loves drawing and western cowboys. He was shown to be a skilled artist and is the one responsible for drawing his own trump cards from one of the blank cards; Jolly the Johnny Joe, which later became an actual card. He was constantly seen with drawing materials and a sketchbook. Some individuals like Kira were impressed by his artistic skills. When he learns a new concept of dueling, he comes up and draws a card and abilities to match the concept learned. The cards he comes up with have some crazy abilities, much to his opponents' dismay or shock (this trait changes once he recieves Deckie). He sometimes draws cards based on his friends and allies, much to their chagrin. His room was filled with drawings of creature designs, in which Joe uses Deckie to convert them into cards. He still has liking of dragons, as his father always tells Joe stories of the legendary dragons.

When he was a toddler, he was quite shy, though he was able to introduce himself to his family and his parents' friends. He is not afraid of creature spirits as he grew up coexisting with them, even riding onto Dragon Ryu as Ryusei with Katsudon. Ironically, he did not believe that they are real despite being born and raised in the creature world until Katsudon's arrival when he was 8, which was not a surprise as Joe was too young at that time to remember. Likely due to his upbringing with creatures at an early age plus his seclusive nature immersing himself in his hobbies, he did not have many human friends.

When he was 10 years old, his personality remains almost the same as when he was 8 years old, and He also uses Deckie to create Jokers which can become into real creature spirits that aid him in his daily life, such as Chotto Q being his transport mechanism. Joe carries a canteen of hot water in case he needed the creature spirit. He even considers his cards as his friends, much like his father and uncle to the point that some of the spirits are touched to tears. His dueling skills also became considerably stronger due to his training with his father, being able to defeat most opponents save for Kira and Boltz at the first part of the anime. In his dreams involving dueling, he seems to be strong enough to hold out against master duelists of the past eras, which include his father's elementary school self and Basara under Forbidden's influence. He even can understand the concept of creature spirits due to his father's teachings and growing up with the latter in his early childhood.

Like most members of his lineage, he holds a high value of life and reasons for living, dislikes killing and prefers to use alternative methods to prevent any casualties. Due to his view towards life and knowing the truth about the hardships and battles his family had faced to protect the Duel Masters World, he shows disdain towards duelists that might cause future conflicts and upset in the balance of the world. Like his uncle Shobu, he was quite forgiving and being able to change the hearts of individuals.

Despite being only 10 years of age, he's much more knowledgeable regarding the events of the creature world. He's able to catch on explanations, geographical states depending on the civilization lands and knowing some creature behaviors. He's capable of deducing the events and consequences of certain actions that might lead to the imbalance of the creature world. Unlike the duelists of his era being ignorant of the past events, Joe took it to heart about the sacrifices and tragedies that occurred for the sake of the peaceful era. This empathized, even more, when the Nature Civilization lands were invaded by the Darkness Civilization. 

The most prominent trait that was shown over the course of Joe's journey is his klutzy and clumsy nature. In most situations, whether is finding/discovering an urgent situation or rushing through the field, Joe constantly trips over. 

Anime

Duel Masters Versus Revolution Final

Katta, Lulu and Joe

3 year old Joe with his parents

Joe Kirifuda was born during the time his parents Katta Kirifuda and Lulu Takigawa were in a 7 year-long journey in the creature world after the battle against Dormageddon X. He befriends his father's creature partner Katsudon and some of his allies since he was born before he went to the human world together with his parents and Dragon Ryu. At the age of 3, shortly after his parents' wedding, he was presented in front of Katta and Lulu's friends and family. Upon Katta revealing that Joe is his son, everyone was in a state of shock and surprise about the couple already having a kid. He was later being admired by his family and sits on his mother's lap in the group photo.

Joe and Katta in VSRF

Joe with his father Katta

Being part of the Kirifuda Family, a prestigious family of duelists, he learns how to duel at a young age. He eventually grew up in the human world for the next 5 years. When he was 7 years old, he first met Kira, who was amazed by Joe's sketch of a cowboy. When he was 8, he tries to take one of his father's cards from his deck when he was sleeping but got caught by him as a result. He lost to Kira in a duel and decided to practice with his father. Before the day of the duel, he uses one of the blank cards and draws out Jolly the Johnny Joe, along with a name and skill. Katta then takes a look on Joe's deck, pointing out that the deck was unbalanced, though he promised Joe that he will teach him some important basics of the duel.

However, on that day, his father was not present. As he wanted to find some clues of his father's whereabouts, he took one of his mother's notebook in order to find out more about Katta's friends. He then visits Yohdel, Benchan, Bucchake and Hokaben in order to learn about his father's status and has a duel with Benchan. He uses Jolly the Johnny Joe, much to Benchan's dismay as it was the card Joe created but he has to go easy due to Joe being an elementary school kid. Joe wins with Johnny's automatic win condition due to removing all of Benchan's creatures with the series of shield triggers in Benchan's turn, making Johnny the only creature in the battle zone once it was summoned.

He eventually meets one of his father's allies; Leo Hyakujuu and Nanmo Nai, who he decided to tag along with them in their spy missions. Upon learning of Leo and Nai's cooperation, he comes up with a support card Yattareman for Johnny. Again, he used Yattareman's effect to make all of his removal spells cost 1 and headed for the extra win.

Then he meets Kojiro which was working in a film studio and Kojiro did use a combination of Hellborof, Supreme Dragon Ruler, Deathgoros, Supreme Devil Corrupt King, Death the Lost, Demon Revolution and Kill the Borof, Rebellion of K to put Joe to the brink but he then used his Bainaradoor card to remove all of Kojiro's creatures and summoned Jolly the Johnny as an alternate win condition.

He then went to his uncle Lucifer's house and shoulder rides Lucifer. After then he challenges Lucifer to a duel, which Lucifer read all of his moves and the cards in his hand and in spite of Joe's drawn card, he still won with the help of Philosopher's Emblem and Neverend, True Destiny King.

He and his mother Lulu watches Basara's motor Grand Prix race. Finding Basara cool, he secretly entered one of the rest stops where Basara's crew were resting. As Basara's crew consisting of Hakase, Rambo, Ijiwaru Nokiyomori and Rokuro recognize Joe's surname and queries if he is Katta's son, Joe answered positively, much to their surprise and shock. Joe continues to stalk Basara all the way to a high cliff, in which Basara saves Joe in time. Basara reveals to Joe how Katta has changed his perception of the world and noted that Joe was like Katta when he was determined. After the duel, Joe received his father's note from Basara, which stated that he has to beat Kira first.

Joe showing his sketch

7 year old Joe showing his sketch

Joe managed to arrive at Kira's apartment in time before Kira could leave a farewell note to Joe. As Kira has to move overseas, Joe challenges Kira to their 100th challenge, right at the place they first met. Even though Joe was stuck by Kira's labyrinth duel, he managed to unstuck himself and gain his first victory against Kira. At the airport, he and Kira exchange their scarfs before they see each other off.

Somehow his father also sees Kira off, though Joe decides to challenge him to a duel. Knowing that his father was much more capable than him, Joe drew cards based on his father's allies and comes up with crazy abilities based on their duel style. In Joe's first duel against Katta, he uses most of the cards that he comes up with, combined with their crazy abilities, much to some of Katta's friend's chagrin and amazement. Katta commented that Joe had become strong due to all of the duels that Joe had gone through. Joe almost commanded a direct attack until Katta uses Iron Fist of Revolution to reveal Gaial, King of Kaiser in order to destroy Jolly the Johnny. Joe eventually lost by his father's very first trump card, Startdash Buster, Divine Hero Mech's direct attack.

In the end, Joe accepted his father's statement of the creature spirits when Katsudon arrive. Joe then passed his father all of the cards he has drawn before his and Katsudon's departure to the creature world.

Duel Masters (2017)

2 years after the events of Versus Revolution Final, Joe was 10 years old. He and his mother moved to a new town after his father's departure to the creature world.

When he entered a Duel Masters club, he was bullied by the rich boy kid Shacho and his friends. However, as soon as he went home, he saw a comet swarm and tried to photograph it, but in the middle a living deck box who is known as Deckie hit his face. Joe bought it back home and it claimed that it can create cards, which had Joe stick in a drawing of Jolly the Johnny in its mouth, forced it to dance and stuck a key up its rear and it became a real card. He was amazed that the creature-based by his drawing becomes alive until Johnny started shooting in his room. Deckie then coverts Johnny into a card before more damage could be done. He then proceeds to make a deck by turning all of his drawings into cards as well.

In his second time entering the dueling club he challenges Shaccho into a duel and at first, Joe swarmed the field with Jokers but Shaccho bounced all of his creatures with Sharkuga, King of the Sea and broke all of his shields. However, Joe still managed to win by topdecking Jolly the Johnny and won via the extra win condition. Due to his awakening, the yellow fringes of his hair turned into "D" and '"M" style.

Joe riding on

Joe riding on Chotto Q

The following day, Joe realized that he was almost late for school, and his mother left breakfast and a note saying that she has to go to work early. He has an idea and drew Chotto Q, with Deckie converting the drawing into a card. Deckie then uses hot water to make the card materialize and Joe rides it to school, in which it picks up speed until it reaches a staggering 300 km/h, though he overshot but made it in time. However, this had caught the attention of Team Usagi consisting of Pyonko-Hime, General Rabbit and Kabamaro, forcing Joe to play dumb in order not to get found out. After school, Joe went to the bar his mother and maternal great-grandfather owns in the shopping district. He continues to assemble his deck until he was called to help by his mother. Team Usagi also visits the bar and noticed the same card he used to get to school. Joe continues to be ignorant of Team Usagi's attempts to find out more about his cards, though it was unintentionally foiled by either his mother or great grandfather.

He was then spotted by the Team just to get his cards, with Rabbit reluctantly going into a duel with Joe due to pressure from Pyonko and Kabamaro. While General Rabbit summoned Georges Bataille by spamming Mafi Gangs and removed his jokers with Dark Sun and Gurudo 54, Dragon Armored, Joe used Bainaradoor against his Georges Bataille which made his graveyard have 4 cards left and defeated him with Jolly the Johnny's extra win effect.

Joe and Kira in Lulu's bar

Joe and Kira in Lulu's bar

A few days later he heard that his friend Kira was arriving from the airport and he used Chotto Q to meet him. He then encountered Kira dueling a swarm of duelists and winning every single one of them and hangs out with him, stopping by in his mother's bar and showing around the shopping district. After a while, he challenges him to a duel. In the duel, Kira locked him easily by sending out Shouten, Stellar Guidance and Wonder Turtle, Great Labyrinth Turtle and became extremely hostile, and despite Joe sending out Jolly the Johnny, Kira won anyway and crushed him, causing him to cry, and when he asked Kira for more answers he left without an answer, much to his dismay.

Joe returns home and decided to convert the drawing of the dragon he had kept a long time ago into a card. He mentions to Deckie that when he was young, his father always tells tales about the legendary dragons and their significance in the creature world. Deckie mentions to Joe that it was impossible as dragons no longer exist in his world.[2]

At one time, Joe was depressed that he did not have a chance to eat ramen. He eventually drew a creature The Ramen as an alternative method to have some ramen. However, the creature itself was not into the idea of having its ramen being eaten by Joe. Joe was forced to hide The Ramen when Team Usagi arrives and secretly uses Deckie to convert it into a card, but accidentally reveals the card. This results in Pyonko-Hime to challenge him to a duel.

In the duel, Joe managed to send out The Ramen but was shocked to see that it was Vanilla. Pyonko-Hime then broke all of Joe's shields using Spike 7K, Ganzan Tank only to meet the last shield Bainaradoor and Joe won by breaking a shield with The Ramen, then using Jolly the Johnny to extra win.

Joe eventually encounters a walking pumpkin and his classmate Momo Uraraka was following it. Joe drew Ura NICE to find out where she went. However, the creature spirit wants Joe to pay for its services to the point that Joe uses The Ramen to threaten it. Through Ura NICE's predictions, Joe arrives to a strange pumpkin field, finding Momo's smartphone and Momo being kidnapped by a rogue Shizenseijin which the spirit has taken a human form. To save her, Deckie forcefully teleports the two to a tower Duel Stage despite Joe not wanting it, and the Duel Field had the similar properties as the one projected by Katta's creature partner Katsudon's Duel Field.

Joe's scars in the True Duel

Joe experiencing the "True Duel" in a hard way

However, Joe experienced the duel in a hard way. Like his father and parental uncle's experience, Joe sustained damage when a shield break occurs. The rogue creature managed to spam the battle zone with massive amounts of Mafariich Tanks and broke all of Joe's shields, but the last one was the Ura NICE he created which caused a reversal, allowing Joe to defeat the rogue creature.

To make matters worse, After Joe is about to win the duel, Deckie forces him to kill the creature spirit at the end of the duel, completely contradicting the Kirifuda Family's spirit where nobody should die in a duel. However, Joe instead stops Johnny from finishing the creature and called Deckie to turn it into a card and send it back to the creature world, which he accepts, successfully protecting the Kirifuda's family spirit. Even though the duo managed to stop one creature spirit, Joe and Deckie worry that there might be more.

During the golden week, Joe has Shacho, Fulcon Purito and Hunter tell him that they will go to a southern area, then he goes there using Bainaradoor as well. However, when he went there he did not have any money to pay Bainaradoor, so he made Tutankhanen which has the ability to make money. Joe then places items into it and makes money, then encounters Shacho and his gang then Fulcon Purito challenges him into a duel. Purito uses Hemoglo, Demonic Doctor to discard Joe's hand and uses Geekogils, Misfortune Demon 06 to triple break Joe, but Joe destroys Hemoglo with a Hakushon Mask to make Purito lose due to Geekogils' demerit, but Hemoglo can revive itself at the end of the turn, so Joe used Johnny to break his last 2 shields and headed for the win. He returns to his home after getting enough money to pay for a return trip as Bainaradoor's service is a one-way trip, with his mother telling him that she was planning an outing with him for the following day.

Joe and and famished Boltz

Joe pushing a famished Boltz

In school, Joe was warned by Kira about a mysterious duelist who was recently seen in different parts of the country. Boltz was later revealed to be the one that Kira described when he made an entrance in the park. Joe was about to get away when Boltz halted him and decided to duel him to get the 100th deck case, much to Joe and Deckie's shock and anxiety. Boltz then fainted from hunger and Joe have to push him with a skateboard to Lulu's bar for food. Joe and his mother was quite surprised that Boltz was from a faraway region in a one-man journey and allowed him to stay at their home.

Later then Joe was hanging out with Boltz in which he suddenly challenges Joe to a duel. Boltz defeats Joe easily by rushing him aright at the start and using a Creature Trigger to save him from Jolly the Johnny's extra win ability. Boltz did not take his deck case afterward and promises to duel him in the future.

Then Joe one day was ordered by The Ramen to use rare cards to lure Kabamaro and beat him to get ramen ingredients which caused General Rabbit and Pyonko-Hime beat him up then force him to tell jokes in front of a crowd with Boltz and Momo Uraraka watching. Joe then creates Baron Gelacho for this job and he hung it on his mouth in order to prevent attention. Kabamaro then challenges joe to a duel.

In the duel, Kabamaro spammed Mafariich Tank and Babalga, Dragon Armored then removed all of Joe's creatures using Pumppump Panzer, but before he was going to do the final attack, Joe's last shield was a Baron Gelacho which tapped the Barbarga and Joe used the mana to remove it using Dotsuki Manjiro and headed for the win using Jolly the Johnny. While he did get the ingredient, the vial for it is broke when Momo Uraraka got angry and shot Joe's face with a plug-tipped bow due to Baron Gelacho's obnoxious mouth odor.

That night, they were unaware that Kira's mother was watching them via a camera set in Joe's house.

On the next day, Joe and Kira were having a fun duel in the courtyard of the school, with Kira defeating him easily. Joe then bids Kira farewell but does not know that Kira is going on a mission to kill Boltz via a Real Duel. While Kira failed to kill Boltz and instead teleported Boltz back to the real world, Joe was waiting for him until the sunset where Kira is spotted by Joe with a scar on his face with Joe wondering why. Kira did not give an answer and left, much to Joe feeling something is wrong with him.

Some days later Joe was barely passing a test and was grabbed by Hunter which warns him that there will be a test tomorrow and he and Fulcon Purito and Shacho will beat him. In order to counteract this, Joe created a new Jokers called Todai Sensei which is made to help him as a private tutor. However, while the creature used high-pressure tactics to force Joe to study, it was so dumb that it wrongly answered all of the questions while Deckie answers all of them right, then after a whole day without sleeping, Joe sees Hunter who challenges him to a duel in the school gates, and he is equally drowsy as well. While Hunter managed to pressure him using Hyper Mustin, He was defeated by a last-minute Bainaradoor. However, due to both Joe and Hunter not sleeping the whole night, they slept at the test and Lulu grounds Joe for the rest of the day in an extremely threatening manner. Along with Hunter who got grounded for 3 weeks.

Back at home, Joe realized that his dragon drawing was gone, in which Kira's mother took it for her unknown objectives. Even Deckie suspected the reasons of the drawing being taken.

Joe and Momo in the Hobby Fair

Joe and Momo receiving promotional cards in the New Generation World Hobby Fair

Joe participates in the New Generation Hobby Fair with Momo, though he was warned about a gang who steals rare cards. He have fun with Momo, receiving free cards, watching a show with Duel Leader Daiki and Duel Prince Noel as the hosts and receiving more cards from them. He eventually encounters another Duel Warrior, this time a Kiradon who petrified the gang and Momo,[3] forcing him and Deckie to initiate a Duel Tower. During the duel, he realizes that Kiradon went to the human world in order to have some fun dueling with other human duelists, but can't tolerate the gang who steal their precious cards. Joe defeats Kiradon and gives it 'punishment'; sending it back to the creature world. Due to this, the people petrified were returned to normal and the gang returns the victims' cards out of fear.

At home, Joe drew the sweets he wanted and compared their price. He wanted to eat them but did not have money, so he created Chocolate House. However, because the creature refused to make his desserts after one plus its ridiculous price charge, he went to the souvenir market with the creature with Pali Nights acting as its leg to show it the actual prices of the sweets. Joe fed candy to the creature and it wrongly guessed the price of the candy but proceeded to make a dessert for Joe anyway. However, after it did so the creature ran and it was in Lulu's bar. However Team Usagi found the 2 creature spirits walking around and Team Usagi's Pyonko-Hime removes her disguise and challenges Joe into a duel after Joe retrieved them. In the duel Pyonko-Hime pressurized Joe's battlefield with Gashagozra, Misfortune Demon 03 and Spike 7K, Ganzan Tank but the last shield trigger was a Time Stopon and she was defeated when Joe beat back her creatures until she has 2 left and headed for the extra win.

After class Joe was recommended my Momo to watch a DueTube video about a life counselor reading a poem. However, Joe did not understand a word that he said. He and Momo then visit his home, but Momo was suddenly attacked, which exposes Duel Warrior I am. Joe summons Todai Sensei to take care of Momo and Deckie imitates the Duel Tower. In the fight, Joe was surprised by it being able to duel in a complex manner. All of his shields were broken at one go due to its "World Breaker" effect, causing Joe to suffer major damage but was saved by a last-minute Bainaradoor. Joe finally summons Jolly the Johnny, breaking the rest of the shields with Chocolate House and Yattareman. Joe spares I am and reluctantly sends it back to the creature world, with I am's last message is that it has some faith in the current generation of duelists and world.

Joe learns about a mysterious ramen store found by the ramen chef. As Shacho was heading there too and bragging about it to Joe, Joe drew Helcopta to help him get to the place. However, Helcopta was proven to be incompatible in carrying passengers and objects to the destination, therefore Joe drew Tenkuuoh, Super Extreme Class as a form of air transportation. Joe somehow made it to the location, though he made a crash landing to hide his use of creatures to others. In his duel against Shacho for the ramen, Joe drew Jolly the Johnny but surprised that his card was blank. Johnny left a note that he was off to find his horse, much to Joe's dismay. Despite he won the duel with Tenkuuoh, Super Extreme Class, Shacho bribed the store owner anyway. But when Shacho and his gang ate the Ramen they fainted due to food poisoning.

At night, Joe managed to hear Deckie mumbling about the creature world, which prompts Joe to ask Deckie to take him there. After some skirmishes and prompting to reveal the secret, Deckie reluctantly agrees to bring Joe to the creature world. Joe finally arrives at the Fire Civilization lands, fascinated by the sights, though he has to deal with the constant flames in the landscape, which also affects some of the Jokers. He eventually has to avoid a flame rain, with Chotto Q, Helcopta, Tenkuuoh and a Bainaradoor as a getaway, only to finally land on Boltz. He engages in a true duel against Boltz, with Johnny returning to Joe after finding his horse and passing Texas Storm and Bullet the Silver to him.

After escaping from the Fire Civilization, he then went to the Jokers planet which is literally a paradise as opposed to the increasingly hostile environments in the other civilizations. In there the landscape is exactly like Joe's drawings where the mountains, trees, and sun can talk, ramen grows from fields tended by The Ramen, and Chotto Q transports Joe to different parts of the planet, eventually reaching a desert. In the desert, Joe calls all the lesser Jokers and draws a creature Wasshoi Mantaro, which had him organize a festival. However the creature does not listen to Joe and thus Deckie told him to duel Joe, which Joe won against the creature and the Jokers had a festival in the Jokers planet.

In his free time, he also went to a summer ramen festival with Kira and saw his favorite ramen store's owner crowded with people, so he drew The Chow Men and used him to cook Ramen for him in the store, which won the tastiest ramen competition. This resulted in a battle royale with Shacho's gang, Team Usagi, Kira and Himself, with all the people, save for Kabamaro and Joe defeated one by one. Eventually despite Kamamaro sent out Immovable, Proud Soul and Pumppump Panzer to only remove Joe's creatures, he was defeated by Joe anyway.

Joe about to draw extensions

Joe about to draw extensions

Joe spends his time in the Fire lands and realizes that if he draws an extension on his cards, it will materialize together with the card. He then witnessed the large blast which struck Boltz and Bad Brand, in which he tries to help but ignored by Boltz (due to the misunderstanding from their previous fight and did not know about it). He then saves Dachicco Churis from falling off a cliff, resulting in the duo having a change in heart. Even after giving Bad Brand a Hot Dog, there was no change to the damage until Joe has an idea of fixing Bad Brand. Joe uses Deckie to covert Bad Brand into a card, allowing him to draw plasters on the card much to Boltz's annoyance until Bad Brand was revealed to be fixed up. Due to this heroic act, Deckie gains the mark of Fire, allowing Joe to create Jokers under the fire civilization, creating his first fire Joker Merabeat the Johnny.

A party was then held among the fire spirits, and Joe drew Khan, Absolute Sound and Barberpapa to liven up the atmosphere. Joe converts Johnny back into his card but was noticed by Team Usagi, which as usual wants the card. A Gambleman, Land Tank challenges Bad Brand to a battle of strength, with both neither giving in until a mistake of dropping the missile by Team Usagi when inside causes Gambleman to blew them and its driver Bullman Churis out of the cockpit. Joe accepts Team Usagi's wager and uses his new fire Jokers and the mechanic acquired Jokers Over Explode based by Bolts's Bad Action Dynamite. In his final turn, he summons Merabeat the Johnny, allowing him to conduct a mass attack by summoning his fire Jokers directly from hand. After the battle, Joe leaves the fire land with a newly acquired power needed to fight the true enemy.

On another day, there was a contest to gather gossip, and Falcon took on this challenge, collecting as much gossip as possible about Joe, causing Joe to retaliate using Cameralife and do the same for Fulcon and his gang. Eventually, they used training techniques to give themselves huge muscles and duel each other. Falcon managed to beat back Joe's creatures with multiple copies of Gustav Albussar but was defeated when Joe sent out Merabeat the Johnny. However, all involved were given late school detention (where they had to clean the school backyard) because they cheated during the content and Momo Uraraka ended up winning.

He was not aware of what happened with Boltz and Kira, but the incident that Boltz told him made him suspicious about it.

Joe nearly naked

Joe wearing only a piece of cloth and Deckie on the catwalk

While Kira was going around and killing Duel Warriors, Joe was going to school and saw Shacho's gang demonstrating the latest fashion outfits. Responding to this he also made Coordinate, which claims that it can make fashionable clothes for Joe. However all the Joker did is to make Joe naked on the fashion catwalk, with only a piece of fundoshi[4] covering his underparts (And later on, wearing only a thread of black cloth around his waist and having to wear Deckie on his bottom). Then the fashion designer challenges Joe to a duel, in which it used Sebichen, Crustacean Army to bounce Joe's creatures. Joe sent out Coordinate but the Joker had a side effect where it would prevent the creature it battles from untapping instead of actually destroying it. However, it was good enough to stop a direct attack despite Joe not having any shield triggers, and Joe used the Master Double Merabeat for the win. After then the Joker made wearing fundoshi only a fashionable male trend and people on the streets were wearing it, but when he went home Lulu called him a pervert.

As part of his school homework to write about his family, Joe reads his family archives, amazed by the adventures and strength his father and uncle hold. Joe attempts to create dragons by stuffing some of the Kirifuda Family archive photos into Deckie, this results in Joe being transported to a world based on the memories and archives of the Kirifuda Family. Katta appears as his elementary school self, with Joe recognizing him as his father. When Shobu, Hakuoh and Rekuta appear as their younger selves, Joe was even more surprised to see his uncle.

In the mountain rest stop, Joe was amazed by seeing actual dragon cards in person. He even wonders who's Dragon is the strongest, matching to their competitive personalities, sparks an argument between Shobu and Katta until Deckie summons Katsuzo Kirifuda, Shori Kirifuda and Mai Kirifuda, Joe's great grandfather, grandfather and grandmother. Eventually, the brothers decide to settle the argument in a duel.

Joe, Katta and Shobu as kids

Joe with his father and uncle in their elementary school selves

Amazed by both his father and uncle's dueling strength in their prime, Joe begs Katta to lend him some dragon cards, but have to fulfill a challenge. Joe easily completed it with his Jokers, much to the past generation duelists' shock on their usage in real life. Joe allows them to test their capabilities, having so much fun with them. To showcase how the Jokers were created, Joe drew Buchigire! Fujiyamuscle and letting Deckie do the work as usual. When things went out of hand, Joe converts it into a card.

To prove his dueling capability, Joe engages in a duel with his father. Katta was proven to be a challenge for Joe but Joe won anyway. When Shobu was about to pass one of his dragons to Joe, Deckie had reached his time limit, resulting in the created memories to disappear. Joe then witness both his father and uncle in both their younger and adult selves, with them believing that Joe's wish will be fulfilled. Joe was found asleep within his family archives and manages to finish his homework. He reads out his homework in class, mentioning his father and uncle being the strongest duelists of the past generation and their belief that Joe will be friends with dragons.

After learning the hard truths about Kira's darkened personality and the use of the dragon drawing to cause more casualties and upset in the balance of the creature world, which might lead to the same tragedy of the past, Joe decides to end all of this madness and prevent future conflicts. However, Deckie rejects the idea of creating another dragon as the current state of the creature world prevents him from doing so. Therefore, he asked the Jokers to give their options about the current situation.

Joe was dragged by Boltz to a week-long training camp duel, which also involves exploring to places his father and uncle had visited and trained before. Before the last duel, Joe had a hard time figuring out how to use some of his finisher class Jokers as he mostly relied on Johnny. With Johnny's suggestion, Joe has Omegattai Sandaioh as one of his finisher class Jokers and a shield burner.

Preparing for the decisive battle against Kira, Joe made a talk with his creatures and his thoughts with them. He drew one more creature/spell which was not converted into a card, as a form of his love of art and compassion towards creatures. Together with his Jokers, Joe moves on forward to Kira, determined to end the cycle of hate, disillusioned "justice" and restore the balance of the creatures. During the battle, Deckie was able to determine the creation of Kirazeus Savark due to his historic knowledge and ties to the state of the creature world, allowing Joe to realize the dark nature of its creation. Continuing the hard battle, Joe was saved by Johnny from a rampaging Kirazeus Savark, in dismay of its suffering and dark nature as he did not want this to happen. As his final stand, he summons Johnny and casts Jojojo Maximum, allowing Barrett to transform into a blaster for Johnny. Together with his Jokers, Joe directs a full out attack on the field by maximizing Johnny's ability with the spell, which also blocks Kira's Novalty Amaze and ends the battle without killing the opponent to honor his family's belief. Even though Kira had killed a lot of innocent creatures, Joe understands that Kira was just misguided and had to count the heavy burden of his sins.

To find out more about the dragons and his father's past, Joe manages to dig out and reassemble a full dragon fossil. Determined to have a dragon, Joe drew some dragon designs, but Deckie was unable to get them to life. With the help of Runezance, Deckie managed to materialize a dragon Jhot Gun Joragon joe, albeit in a drawn like state like Joe's drawings.

To find a way to heal Deckie's sore butt, he explores the forest together with Momo to find a herb. Along their treck in the forest, he encounters Tonbo, a mysterious boy who resides in the forest. Tombo's klutziness resulted in him tripping over the root herb Joe meant to find. As Tombo accidentally dropped his deck, revealing himself to be a Nature Civilization user, Joe decides to duel him.

After countless trials and errors, Deckie manages to finally get himself to materialize a dragon. Joe drew Jot Gun Joragon and fed the picture to Deckie. However, due to the dragon's refusal to come out even though 6 hours had passed, Joe and Boltz were sucked into another dimension within Deckie. After avoiding traps and opponents, Joe encounters Joragon's material form. As it refuses to come out, this prompts him and the Jokers to pull him out. Joragon was successfully pulled out and materialize for the first time in the new era. However, Johnny was in the way and as the final trial, Joe has to battle Johnny.

In the duel, Johnny managed to overwhelm Joe using both Jolly the Johnny followed by Merabeat the Johnny, but lost to Joe exploiting Johnny's Khan, Absolute Sound's effect to activate Jhot Gun Joragon's Joragon Big 1, which allowed him to stop Johnny's creatures using the effect of Dotsuki Manjiro and Baron Gelacho and win on the next turn, causing him to move away from the masters seat and leaving Joe, having Joeragon to replace himself as the Jokers master. Since then, Joeragon became Joe's Master card in place of Johnny.

Twinpact Arc

As Joe begins to investigate the world pillar consisting of the civilizations, he has entered the Nature Civilization grounds. While Joe tried to sip the nectar from one of the giant flowers in the civilization, the bee-like girl from Fleur Life and the DMRP-01 version of Faerie Life appears and knocks Joe away from the flower which he was saved by Decky. Joe then tries to get around by creating Jobato De Runo which goes into the flower branches to sip the nectar of the giant flower. He then tries to sip nectar from another flower, but Seminar, Perfect Score warned him that it was a poisonous plant so Joe ended up with a bad stomach. After then he encounters Kuromame Danshaku which offers him some nattou rice but he saw Hakumai Danshaku in the pot of rice so he gets angry and challenges Joe. He managed to block Joe's shield trigger creatures using a copy of himself but was defeated by Joe's Joragon and Jobato De Runo.

Then Boltz has also dropped into the Nature civilization grounds due to being chased by Amidanazca, Super Destiny and saw Joe while dropping in front of a Tomaton. They ride a giant beetle and ended up being inside the mouths of a large carnivorous piranha plant that but was barely saved by their strings. While Joe was playing Chase with Boltz, The Hot Dog that Dachicco gave him burnt parts of the forest and this resulted in Kabu Toki attacking Boltz.

Later on, he also went to a picnic with the Momo family and her father introduces himself as a master artist. Joe then creates Gayoushin which is capable of turning drawings to real life, in which he drew 2 animals using Gayoushin's paper, which is consisted of a muscular serval, a shoebill and a Tsuchinoko,[5] which Gayoushin turned into real-life creatures. But the live drawings quickly ran out of control and thus Joe uses Decky to turn Gayoushin into a card, which also makes the animal drawings disappear. As the act was spotted by Team Usagi, Pyonko-Hime challenges him to a duel.

In the duel, Pyonko Hime managed to beat back and remove Joe's creatures using a combination of Twin Les Paul and Zentoyou, Acupunturist, but was defeated by Jhot Gun Joragon using Baron Gelacho to untap itself and infinite attack. After the duel, Joe wants to meet Momo's family again only to have his mother drag him by one hand to put him back home.

Emphasis on Joe has become less as events go, with the events having a greater focus on the Gaia Hazard Quad's actions. One day, when Joe was sleeping, Kejisuki infected Deckie with a centipede and Deckie instantly collapsed and all of Joe's Jokers were rendered unusable. Boltz saw this and avenged him by defeating Kejisuki with Gogogo Brand. While Kejisuki escaped his death, Deckie recovers due to the sinister figure's defeat in the hands of Boltz.

However, due to the major damages caused by the imbalance, Joe became more emphasized and serious about the plight and situation forced in. Joe gains the Nature Civilization mark from Deckie after acquiring Kabu Toki's horn from the battle against the latter, resulting in the addition of the Nature Civilization. During the battle itself, Joragon began to speak for the first time. After some enjoyment, Joe begins to see the major damages caused by the Darkness Civilization.

In the finale, due to conflicting views of Momo's future involving the Nature Civilization, Joe and his team made a series of duels to determine the outcomes.

Gacharange Arc

During the final battle, he indirectly caused Ze-ro to die because he used Jogiride Final Fever to defeat Zeron with Jogirasta the Johnny.

10 Kings Arc

During the events of the 10 Kings arc, Joe's Joker deck changes to fit multicolour setting/strategies. Most of his old Jokers were ditched, and his companions are now Momoking, Jonetsu Hero, Momodachi Kentnark, Momodachi Monkid and Momodachi Canbello. He is also now officially joined by Kira, Boltz and Cap, with the former two transferring near his school.

Abaku Onifuda had taken an interest to him for unknown reasons, and the mysterious duelist sends his subordinates to antagonize him, but failed. He was also responsible for kidnapping Momo Uraraka, dragging the Daichourou into his side and causing the elder to become a major rival against Joe.

Eventually, with the help of Issun Smallworld, Joe managed to defeat the Elder and neutralize him, thanks to having saved Momo.

In Episode 17, he ran out of Soul points because he used all of them for pleasantries. A green haired Emma Kobayashi grants him 500 points in a chapel, followed by Megane arriving and enacting his final revenge, with Abaku's trump card, Jaouga, Oniga Overlord under his control. Unfortunately, because Megane has no control over the creature spirit, it did not work as expected and he was defeated, then taken down by Abaku.

In Episode 19, despite the appearance of the black duelist resembling the master of Darkness who was killed a while ago, Joe does not recognize him, but Zero Jr. faintly does.

In Episode 21, he managed to defeat Saiki in a wrestling match by distracting him with Barkaztec Ace and Kitakazeman Ace. When the two duel, Joe manages to defeat the wrestler, and comments that he might not be using his full force. (Foreshadowing the appearance of his King Master card, and that he was holding back in the previous duel.)

In Episode 23, when trying to find Bolts (who was disqualified from the tourney) back, he was stalked and later, found by the black duelist. The black duelist departs him to an abandoned warehouse and duels him as a revenge match against killing his father. In the middle of the duel, Joe finally recognizes the duelist as Zero Jr. the son of Ze-ro, who died a while ago because of Joe killing Zeron. While Kira tells Joe to stop dueling the Darkness master, he insists, and Deckie fell ill, presumably of a mushroom he ate a while ago.

Eventually, the Momodachi struggle to keep up with the ever increasing strength of the Onifuda Overlord Coalition Duelists, and he loses to Abaku Onifuda who predicted his moves to one-shot him easily, and to Chouki in a failed attempt to become stronger. With training given from Daichourou, the Momodachi evolved into their Revo forms. However, at the same time, Kouki was dispatched to steal all of Joe's Soul Points. Kouki almost succeeds in his mission, and if Joe loses to him in this duel, he will be eliminated instantly. Despite the overwhelming power of Moon, Destruction, Satan and Angel, Joe manages to win using the power of Momoking Revolution, Jonetsu Hyakupar.

Joe's final match in the second preliminaries has him dueling a very unlucky duelist who brings bad luck wherever he goes. Because Joe spent all of his soul points to buy luxury products for his Momodachi, if he loses this fight, he will be eliminated instantly. The "unlucky duelist" runs a Mystery Cube Drama deck filled with massive Dragon finishers, and quite ironically, he was extremely lucky when he uses Mystery Cube, pulling out a Finisher-tier Dragon every time and breaking all of his shields safely with Gyaia, Ground Seal Dragon and Bolmeteus Sapphire Dragon. However, the unlucky duelist lacks an extra creature to finish Joe, and Joe prevents him from using his luck by finishing him instantly with his Momodachi Revolutions. Despite the duelist has lethal shield triggers in every one of his shields, he cannot use any one of these and was defeated, securing Joe's position in the finals.

King's Next Arc

Joe and Deckie have a dream of the 12 legendary cards. He eventually shares this experience to his friends, which eventually lead them to find a magical scroll hidden in the storeroom within the Kirifuda household. However the Five Getters attempts to get the scroll, prompting Momoking to return to assist him. Upon learning the task to find the 12 legendary cards, Joe drew a creature capable of traversing through specific time periods where it was active.

The first card found was the Kirifuda Family's signature dragon, Bolshack Dragon. By travelling to the Kirifuda Family ancestral lands and obtaining Shobu's old empty deck case, the group traversed to the prehistoric era when dinosaurs are active. Bolshack Dragon grants his power to Momoking, gaining a Star Evolution form as Bolshack Momoking NEX. When chasing Zero Jr., Joe and Deckie ended up in Shobu's time era post Star Cross, encountering Hakuoh. In order to get back Alcadeias, Lord of Spirits, Joe duels against Jendle. By destroying Dorphadillom, Holy Demon Concatenated King, both Alcadeias and Ballom return to their original cards. However, the duel indirectly reveal Joe as a future relative of Shobu, much to Hakuoh's surprise.

The Rise of Kings Max Arc

Manga

Joe has created creature cards that became reality known as Jokers and used them to defeat the rich boy kid Shacho. One day he has encountered the Jolly the Johnny Master Card and caught it using a rope. However, after eating a bowl of ramen he encountered Team Usagi consisting of Pyonko-Hime, General Rabbit and Kabamaro which used a pair of pincers to get the card and fled.

This had him creating Bainaradoor and caused him to drop in the top of the Tokyo Skytree, in the middle of a pond in a park where Kira was eating an ice cream cone, into Antarctica and finally into the moon before entering Pyonko-Hime's base in a hot air balloon where he landed on top of the princess and stole the master card, enraging General Rabbit and General Rabbit challenges him to a duel.

In the duel Rabbit destroys Joe's Jokers with Mukade, Asura and he destroys it with Chotto Q, but Rabbit then regenerates Mukade and kills his Pali Nights. However, when the Mukade broke Joe's last shield it was a Bainaradoor and on the next turn, Joe sent out Jolly the Johnny and beat him using the extra win condition. However, he has mistakenly enraged Kira since he mistakenly swiped his ice cream cone into the ground when he left the park where Kira is encountered.

Deck

  • For a list of Joe Kirifuda's decks, see here.

Signature Cards

Versus Revolution Final

Duel Masters

Duel Masters!

Duel Masters!!

Duel Masters King

Duel Masters King!

Duel Masters King MAX

Gallery

Anime and Manga Appearance

Joe's Drawings

Trivia

  • He is the artist for his namesake card, Jolly the Johnny Joe. (However, the real artist seems to be Shigenobu Matsumoto)
  • Joe is the third central protagonist to be part of the Kirifuda Family, succeeding his uncle Shobu and his father Katta.
  • Joe, Katta and Shobu have similar character concepts;
    • All 3 uses Fire as their main civilization (though Joe switches to Jokers with a few Fire cards, then finally a full Jokers deck but switches back to Fire as his default)
    • All 3 of them share the same voice actress Yumiko Kobayashi in childhood and teenage years.
    • The protagonists have a deep connection to the creature world, though Joe was born and spent the first 3 years of his life in the creature world together with his parents and his daily activities are directly connected to there.
    • All 3 uses variations of Bolshack Dragon at some point of their journey
  • However, Joe has vast differences with Shobu and Katta.
    • He is not a source of fame and intrigue among people, other people treat him as if he was any other kid.
    • His hairdo is vastly different.
    • He does not have any human companions in his journey as opposed to Shobu and Katta's numerous traveling companions, and all of his friends are also his biggest rivals.
    • His first series of Trump cards have nothing to do with Dragons as Dragons were all extinct by his time.
    • His academic scores are only average.
    • His economic status is only average despite coming from 2 legendary families of duelists with members having government jobs or wealthy backgrounds.
  • Joe has some knowledge of his family's dueling history, even before reading his family archives and entering the dream of his family's memories. He's the only duelists of the new generation whom knows the full truth behind the battles of the past involving the fate of both human and creature world. This in turn was vital during their search for the 12 legendary cards.
  • Joe is the only protagonist that is known to cheat in the anime (By adding proxy cards in his deck).
    • This might be because he was just a kid at that time and does not know that adding proxy cards into a deck is against the game rules instead of on acting on deliberate misconduct. He also no longer does this when he was older.
  • His first name Joe is a common English name, making him the first central protagonist in the main series to not have a Japanese first name.
  • As Joe was 3 years old in his first appearance, this means that his parents were 18-19 when he was born by age estimation.
  • Joe was the first main character in the anime and manga to design and illustrate his own cards.
  • Joe was the youngest central protagonist known to make his debut in the main series, being 3 years old when introduced and his story saga in the anime starts when he was 8 years old.
  • Joe's academic results are seen to be able to barely passing the lowest pass quota (Which is 50 marks) or slightly lower than that in the Anime.
  • Joe Kirifuda is shown to be almost completely naked in multiple occasions, usually having only a piece of cloth covering his lower body. This is similar to Katta, who usually has an object covering his private parts or is sitting in such a position that it can't be seen.
  • Joe is one of the very few non-antagonistic duelists to actually kill another on screen, although indirectly because of Zeron's extra loss condition causing Ze-ro to die.
  • Joe Kirifuda's winning quote, "上出来" (Jyoudeki) uses a pun of both his name and Deckie's.

Notes

  1. Because his father ate it too much and he got bored about it
  2. Which matches the Duel Masters timeline
  3. With Momo affected because she tried to take a picture of the Duel Warrior
  4. A traditional Japanese male underwear made of a string of cotton
  5. Which were references to Kemono Friends
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