Joe Kido

Joe Kido, known in Japan as Jou Kido (城戸 丈), is a character in the anime and manga series Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. He is partnered to Gomamon. In the Japanese anime, Joe has two older brothers, named Shin and Shuu. The two brothers "became" one brother named Jim in the English anime due to choices that were made in the dubbing process. Joe's father planned on the boys to each become a doctor, a tradition which had existed since the Edo period. Joe is the bearer of the Crest of Reliability (Faithfulness/Sincerity/Integrity in Japan). The Toei legal English subbed streams used the term 'Honesty' and 'Sincerity'.

Prelude to Digimon Adventure
He witnessed the Greymon/Parrotmon fight. As a result he became a Digidestined.

Digimon Adventure
Joe is twelve years old and in the sixth grade at a private elementary school. In spite of his constant worrying and his tendency to feel "allergic" to everything around him (dub only), Joe has a strong sense of responsibility. In many instances, he takes it upon himself to be the voice of reason within the group and tries, often without success, to steer the other DigiDestined away from reckless action. He is often perceived as being a "stick in the mud" and his "safety first" attitude is often the source of teasing from other characters, especially Gomamon, his Digimon partner who feels he should lighten up and look on the bright side of things.

However, his sense of responsibility sometimes leads him into selfless and brave actions. His Crest of Reliability first activated during a battle with MegaSeadramon whom he and T. K. Takaishi encountered en route to Odaiba. Joe was able to save T.K. from drowning at his own expense. Because he was able to put T.K.’s safety before his own, his crest glowed and Ikkakumon was able to Digivolve into his Ultimate form Zudomon for the first time and make short work of MegaSeadramon. Also, shortly after the DigiDestined returned to the Digital World and Mimi Tachikawa lost the will to fight due to the untimely death of a few close Digimon allies, Joe decided to be the one to stay with her so she wouldn’t be alone. There is a slight possibility that there is a romantic interest between the two, but this is never clarified.

In May 2000, Joe arrived in the Digital World and gave up his Crest power to free the Digimon Sovereigns. As a result, Gomamon lost the power to become Zudomon.

Digimon Adventure 02
All his studying pays off as he is now a senior in a private middle school (or a junior in a high school in the dub). He later is busy studying for the high school entrance exams while helping the others out with the spare time that he has. One of his older brothers, Shuu, is revealed to be studying folklore under Professor Takenouchi, Sora's father.

Michi e no Armor Shinka
Much of Joe's family history was revealed as well as how his father now accepts his son's choice to carry on their tradition or not. It was because of Joe that the D-Terminals were all mixed up & new Armor forms were introduced to fight Pukumon.

Revenge of Diaboromon
At the beginning of the movie, Joe was busy trying to register himself in a high school of his choice (college in the English dub). Later on, he helped secure some bikes for Davis and Ken so they could get to the harbor, which was where their partners were.

Digimon Adventure 02 Series Finale Epilogue
By the year 2027, Joe becomes a doctor for Digimon, though his patients keep eating his tongue depressors. His second eldest brother, Shuu, appears to be working with Izzy and Sora's father to study the Digital World. He has a son, who has a Pukamon. His wife is not mentioned.

Songs

 * Joe has two Japanese image songs, "Chigau Boku ga Iru" ("There's Another Me) and "Kaze ni Mukatte" ("Face the Wind") as well as a third one sung with Gomamon (Junko Takeuchi) called "Sora wo Crawl" ("Crawl Across the Sky").

Development
Joe's character was designed for the pilot movie storyboard by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. In an exclusive interview released with the Digimon Adventure DVD box on December 21, 2007, producer Satoru Nishizono revealed that as the staff had agreed on deciding Tai's name, he had tried to name the other characters similarly with kanji that related to "luck."

In Japan, excluding the pilot film Digimon Adventure, all of Joe's appearances were voiced by Masami Kikuchi, who had auditioned for both his role and as Matt. Yūto Kazama and Mayumi Yamaguchi had auditioned for Joe as well, but were cast as Matt and Gabumon respectively.

In the English dub, Michael Lindsay provides his voice.