And now, for a character everyone always overlooks: Honda Hiroto. (or Tristan Taylor, you sick dub-lubbers.) He's not my favorite, but I've developped a soft spot for him. I'm not sure if you can call him a bishounen but he's young and if he'd just let his hair grow he'd probably be handsome, so anyone who objects can take it up with whoever thinks they know the true, meaning of the word bishounen.

On to business.

Now, in every series, there are four people. The lead, the second lead, the girl, and Mr. Dead Meat, the man who will be eaten by the T-rex while in the can. (Whatever). In Yu-gi-oh these roles would correspond to Yuugi/Yami (the lead), Jounouchi (the second lead), Anzu (the girl) and Honda (Mr. Dead Meat). Only it's been over thirty two manga, and the last time he even came close to dying was when Yami Bakura put our heroes through a shadow game RPG. (That was a fun story, especially when Bakura skewered his hand. I don't know why Takahashi Kazuki-sensei never re-explored that concept.) Anzu and Jounouchi and Yuugi have had much closer brushes with death than he has. Why has Honda lasted this long without fading completely into the background? (As did the diminutive, bespectacled manga-only character Hanasaki Tomoya, last seen calling Yuugi from the hospital after the Death-T to inform him that Grandpa Sugoroku was a-okay.) Now there are many theories (read none, but I'm making them up as I go along) but the two most likely ones are these:
1- the author can't think of a good way to kill him off
2- killing off Jounouchi's best friend would turn the manga in decidedly too serious a direction for the comfort of this author of shonen.

I prefer to say that he's too useful to get rid of. Plus, despite his awful hairstyle, he has a lot of things going for him. He really saved Yuugi and Jounouchi's bacon in the Death-T with his mad quick-draw skillz. He was the one who first noticed when Bakura started acting suspicious during Duelist Kingdom. More memorable is his stunt with sneaking the soulless Mokuba out of his cell. He was the guy who had the idea to go visit Shizuka/Serenity. (Although frankly I think that that and the decision to keep Otogi Ryuuji in Yuugi's circle of friends were mistakes on the part of Kazuki Takahashi. Ryuuji has like no purpose there. And Shizuka's only an extra damsel in distress.) Honda, in short, is the unassuming character who gets things done. I've seen him referred to as the straight man of the gang. What with Yuugi and Bakura's schizophrenic ways, Jounouchi's spaztic personality, and Anzu's rampant angst about Yami's origins/friendship tirades, that basically leaves Honda as the only truly sane man. (Then Ryuuji arrived. >_< Stupid clown.)
And yes, Honda is sane. He spazzes sometimes too, like when he wanted to make a declaration of love to Ribbon-chan. When things got rough, though, he was ready to take responsibility for the disaster his declaration was creating. He's the one who keeps Jounouchi's ambition in check and keeps him firmly tethered to the ground. Or tries to. He wasn't able to convince Jounouchi not to put his foot inside a running shoe that they thought had a deadly scorpion inside. Which just proves that Jounouchi has the common sense of a pickled turnip.
And I bet I can tell you something about Honda that you don't know: He has an affinity for guns. In Volume 1, he contributes a toy gun to the carnival game his class is setting up for the school festival. In the Death-T, he demonstrates mad quick-draw skillz. And when Bakura springs his Role playing Shadow game on them, the job Honda had chosen for his character was the Magic Gunman.

*sigh* It seems I'm the only person who likes poor Honda... T_T

No, you aren't! :) I like ?Honda, too!

Awww... Look's like Honda's getting a bit of love after all.

Eh.I don't really like him all that much...But in my opinion he's a hell of a lot cooler than Ryuuji...
Who should only've been around for that little part where he was the bad guy,instead of becoming friends wih Yuugi and the rest...

My point exactly. The series isn't big enough for the two of them. Ryuuji should go the way of Hanasaki. He's okay for a chapter or two, but he doesn't deserve to stay on with them.

The same goes for Shizuka and Anzu. The series isn't big enough for two damsels in distress. Well, actually, it is, but ony if Shizuka stays on the sidelines. It's great that she was Jounouchi's inspiration and all, but she's completely superfluous in the Battle City story.