TV-Series
Description
Princess Pyonko, also known by her original Japanese name Pyonko-Hime, is a young duelist who appears throughout the Joe era of the Duel Masters anime and continues to appear in Duel Masters King Max as a returning supporting character. She is introduced as a new-generation duelist and a rival of the protagonist Joe Kirifuda, and she serves as the leader of Team Usagi, a small group she forms with General Rabbit and Kabamaro. As the only girl in the trio, she acts as its most vocal and energetic member.
Her appearance and way of thinking are very childlike, but her actual age is never revealed; one running joke shows that even her resume lists her birthday as an unknown month and day. She speaks with a distinctive mannerism, ending many of her sentences with the phrase "dawasa," which gives her dialogue a cheerful and slightly grandiose tone. She is confident, theatrical, and eager to show off her skills, and her primary motivation is to prove herself as a duelist. She treats Joe as her main rival and repeatedly seeks duels against him, though these duels do not go her way: her on-screen record is a long string of losses, most of them at Joe's hands. This losing streak is played for comedy rather than treated as a serious flaw, and it never dampens her enthusiasm.
Princess Pyonko's dueling style revolves around speed and swarms of small creatures known as weenies. Her first deck was a fire-only aggressive deck built around the trump card Ganzen Tank Spike 7K. In later matches she showed more complex strategies, such as using the darkness civilization card Gasha Gozura to bring weenies back from the graveyard while boosting them with Ganzen Tank Spike 7K, or fielding a white-and-black deck that made the most of Akagegin Maruhaban's abilities. Over the course of the series her decks keep evolving and incorporate new mechanics such as Twin Impact cards, but her preference for fast, creature-focused play remains consistent.
Within the story she fills a supporting and comic role. She works as a waiter at Cafe Takigawa, where she is often saddled with heavy work by Ruru, whom she privately calls "Forehead." She also has a romantic side: she develops feelings for the recurring character Johnny, and in earlier seasons she makes Valentine's chocolate for him while he gives her sweets in return, showing a warm and friendly connection between them.
Her story reaches a notable moment in Duel Masters King Max. After Johnny returns from a journey, he tells her that he remembers nothing about her, and she is left visibly disheartened. Along with the rest of Team Usagi, she appears among the familiar faces who return for the series' festival-style episode, serving as a reminder of the earlier chapters of Joe's story. Overall, Princess Pyonko is defined by her boundless energy, her loyalty to her teammates, her hopeless romantic side, and her stubborn determination to keep dueling despite her constant losses.
Her appearance and way of thinking are very childlike, but her actual age is never revealed; one running joke shows that even her resume lists her birthday as an unknown month and day. She speaks with a distinctive mannerism, ending many of her sentences with the phrase "dawasa," which gives her dialogue a cheerful and slightly grandiose tone. She is confident, theatrical, and eager to show off her skills, and her primary motivation is to prove herself as a duelist. She treats Joe as her main rival and repeatedly seeks duels against him, though these duels do not go her way: her on-screen record is a long string of losses, most of them at Joe's hands. This losing streak is played for comedy rather than treated as a serious flaw, and it never dampens her enthusiasm.
Princess Pyonko's dueling style revolves around speed and swarms of small creatures known as weenies. Her first deck was a fire-only aggressive deck built around the trump card Ganzen Tank Spike 7K. In later matches she showed more complex strategies, such as using the darkness civilization card Gasha Gozura to bring weenies back from the graveyard while boosting them with Ganzen Tank Spike 7K, or fielding a white-and-black deck that made the most of Akagegin Maruhaban's abilities. Over the course of the series her decks keep evolving and incorporate new mechanics such as Twin Impact cards, but her preference for fast, creature-focused play remains consistent.
Within the story she fills a supporting and comic role. She works as a waiter at Cafe Takigawa, where she is often saddled with heavy work by Ruru, whom she privately calls "Forehead." She also has a romantic side: she develops feelings for the recurring character Johnny, and in earlier seasons she makes Valentine's chocolate for him while he gives her sweets in return, showing a warm and friendly connection between them.
Her story reaches a notable moment in Duel Masters King Max. After Johnny returns from a journey, he tells her that he remembers nothing about her, and she is left visibly disheartened. Along with the rest of Team Usagi, she appears among the familiar faces who return for the series' festival-style episode, serving as a reminder of the earlier chapters of Joe's story. Overall, Princess Pyonko is defined by her boundless energy, her loyalty to her teammates, her hopeless romantic side, and her stubborn determination to keep dueling despite her constant losses.