A worrywart and bookworm, Joe's main priority in life was studying - his father wanted him to be a doctor - until he got sucked into the digital world.

At first, he seems like a rather unlikely hero. He is a pessimist (which leads to some GREAT dry comments ^_^.), quick to see the worst in any situation, and he also gets nervous quite easily. He's usually quite scared, however he will always go along with the group despite his complaints, and he never lets his fear get in the way of doing a good job.

As his crest implies, his strong point is reliability. As the oldest, he feels he should take responsibility for keeping the others safe, particularly TK, who he risks his life for more than once. He is always around and can be depended on - he won't freeze up or do something crazy.

He feels very keenly the expectations of others. He wants to be thought well of and do the best by everyone. Once, when everyone was walking in silence, he was worried that everyone was thinking about him - paranoid. ^_^; As I already mentioned, his father wants him to be a doctor, which means that Joe wants to be a doctor. Actually, he's unsure of that... his older brother, Jim, encourages him to make his own decisions in life.

Although he is a self-proclaimed "stay-at-home-and-read kind of guy", Joe is fairly physically strong (although NOT co-ordinated, he's pretty gangly and clumsy), being particularly good at climbing. His two weak points are swimming and blood. (He also has a lot of allergies. ^^;;) He gets sick at the sight of blood (not good for a potential doctor!) and despite having a sea mammal Digimon and thus being around water often, has not seemed to learn how to swim properly. He comes close to drowning several times. ^^;

You can imagine that Joe is always the kind of kid who will get picked on. In the digital world, his friends often tease or insult him... I thought it was good that he went with Mimi (to protect her), because those two have both sometimes seemed a little different from the others in the group. He said that fighting is often bad, as it leads to more fighting, and his brother taught him not to bother. Joe is fairly laid-back in that respect; he's not hot-headed and is unlikely to get into an argument, usually just taking insults without much complaint.

His pessimism is countered by Gomamon, who is bright, friendly and always looking on the bright side. Surprisingly, the two don't fight at all. Gomamon knows just how to handle Joe, and the two make great friends. The Digimon knows his friend doesn't have very good self-esteem, and once when Jim implies that Joe isn't capable of doing something, Bukamon snapped that Joe was smart and could do anything he wanted.

Gomamon is often trying to help Joe to feel better about himself. Once, after Joe and Sora had ended up together away from the rest of the group, Gomamon privately asked Sora and Biyomon to help Joe feel better about himself by nominating him "leader". Sora showed remarkable restraint (as she has good decisions herself, but she let Joe make them) as Joe turned bossy and fussy, anxious to prove he could be a good leader. He was also anxious to prove that he wasn't afraid, and ended up doing quite an impressive job.

Although it's not as blatantly obvious as with Izzy, Joe is an intelligent person who knows a lot of things. He's the sort of person teachers trust. When not complaining, he is serious and quiet, embarassed to draw attention to himself in an obvious way.

He may like to look on the negative side of things (I keep mentioning this pessimism, but it comprises a large amount of his comments ^_^.), but Joe can thus usually make good decisions based on reality, although sometimes he would rather take no risks at all, in which case nobody would get anywhere. He is still a good person, good friend, and extremely brave when actually in dangerous situations.