Meanwhile, Uncle is such an awesome dork. It's nice when it's a story about teens but some of the adults have actual personalities rather than just being "responsible parental figure #3".
Or worse yet, the perennial manga "parents who are never there," whose personalities consist entirely of being "mom who works way too hard because the family is poor," "absent dad who only cares about work," "both parents who travel all the time," or "mom/dad who has another family," etc.
As you say, Joe has a past life, a present circle of friends, and has been a profound influence on his cool-adorkable niece.