Ryojoe

Ryojoe is the het ship between Joe Tazuna and Ryoko Hirose from the Your Turn To Die fandom.

Canon
Before Ryoko and Joe met, Ryoko won a dog keychain at an arcade. For Joe's birthday, Sara gifted the keychain to him. So albeit indirectly, Ryoko gave the dog keychain as a gift to Joe.

At some point, Sara introduced Ryoko and Joe to each other and the three became close friends.

Eventually, Joe asked Ryoko out on a date, to which she agreed. On their first date, the two went out to eat doner kebabs, and Joe thought it was very cute that she was a bit of a glutton and could eat a whole doner kebab in one bite. At an unspecified time during their outing, Joe fell into a ditch, so Ryoko helped him back up. This was the same day Sara and Joe were kidnapped and thrown into the Death Game.

During Chapter 1, Part 2, Sara finds Joe in the bar looking at a photo of the three of them together. He goes on to talk about how he misses Ryoko. He also confides that during their date, he was so nervous to talk to Ryoko that the two of them ended up just talking about Sara. He asked Ryoko why she agreed to go out with him, since they didn't really know each other that much. Ryoko responded by saying that she thought no friend of Sara's could be a bad person, which Joe agreed on, and they made a pact: to beat up anyone who made Sara cry.

In Chapter 2, Part 1, in the beginning of Sara's nightmare, Joe begins to pester her in class, mentioning that they should go to new kebab restaurant that recently opened after school, and that he'll treat her but wanted something in exchange. Sara long-sufferingly tells Joe that she understands and will bring Ryoko along, much to Joe's sudden excitement and distraction.

Official 4-komas
Official 4-komas exist as a series of comedic comic pages about the cast of YTTD.

In 4-koma Season 1: #12, Kanna asks if Joe has a girlfriend and he readily responds to her that he's dating Ryoko. Kanna subsequently becomes nosy about their relationship, and starts excitedly asking personal questions, much to Joe's increasing flustered embarrassment. Finally fed up with Joe not answering, Kanna punches the wall, forming a mini-crater, and Joe weakly admits that they haven't gotten that far yet in shame.

Fanon
Despite being the only canon ship in Your Turn To Die, as Ryoko and Joe have gone on a date, and Joe calls her his girlfriend, Ryojoe doesn't receive very much recognition in the fandom. This is mostly because Ryoko never actually appears in the game and exists only as a part of Joe and Sara's backstory, occasionally being mentioned.

Some fans prefer this ship over another popular ship for Joe, Joesara, because they feel Joe is already committed to Ryoko since they had already gone on a date and were probably planning for more in the future.

Considering Japan's confession culture, typically one party would need to confess their love to another other party (for the purpose of starting a relationship) in order to go on dates. In Japan, dates are taken considerably more serious compared with the much more casual dating culture in Western countries. For Western countries, oftentimes people go on dates for the sake of learning whether they want to get into a relationship, but in Japan, typically only people in actual relationships go on dates.

Considering cultural values, Ryoko and Joe were likely seriously dating, though Joe's death means that they won't ever get their second date.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

WIKI
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Trivia

 * In the official manga, it is explored that Joe accidentally stood Ryoko up on what was supposed to be their first date. He was taking care of a stray cat, later adopted by Sara and named Kuro.

Variations

 * Ryojoesara refers to the poly ship between Ryoko, Joe and Sara.