JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

This story depicts the mysterious Stone Mask from Mexico, and its effect on the destinies of two youngsters and their Bizarre Adventures!

—The prologue of Chapter One, of Volume One. Of Part One.

This is the story of the Joestar family and their ongoing conflicts with the supernatural. The series currently spans well over 100 years (and well over over 100 volumes).

It all begins in the 1800s when a boy named Jonathan Joestar met an orphan named Dio Brando. Jonathan's wealthy father takes the boy in and raises him as his own. However, Dio is secretly scheming to take Jonathan's place as the favored son and heir to the Joestar family. First, Dio torments Jonathan throughout their childhood, and later, he enacts a plan to poison Jonathan's father. Things become more complicated when Jonathan learns of these plans, and Dio simultaneously learns how to become a vampire. From there on out, Jonathan must find a way to destroy this supernatural foe and save the day.

And that's just the first of eight parts to the wonder that is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

From there, the series becomes a multi-generational epic, following the adventures of Jonathan's descendants from the 19th century to the present day. Each of the eight (so far) parts of the saga covers the adventures of another generation of the Joestar bloodline, which spreads all over the world, and each features a lead character whose name can somehow be read as JoJo.

Created in 1987 by the mangaka Hirohiko Araki, the series is famous for its original and unique art style, intricate plot and creative battles. It also features a huge number of allusions to Western rock music, including characters named Dio, Speedwagon and Zeppeli, just to name a few. Although JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has not been able to receive recognition like other imported manga and anime, it is still very well received by fans all over. And with such insane plots as exploding people, 15-year-old gangsters, and epic Rock, Paper, Scissors matches, is it any wonder?

Western audiences are likely more familiar with the memes the series has produced because of the series' general theme (read: badassery), as well as the Fighting Game from Capcom released in 1999 and the 10-episode OVA. Speaking of the fighting game, a leaked Xbox Live Arcade release list has revealed the existence of an HD port of it, which came as a big surprise to many as Capcom had lost the license after their endeavors with the series shifted to adventure games which did not sell well in Japan. ^{[not current]}

Tropes used in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure include:

• Abhorrent Admirer: At least, that's how Joseph reacts to the old woman who gets a crush on him during the Mariah sequence. She quickly switches gears though when Joseph and Abdul are trying to get themselves unstuck from each other...
• The Abridged Series: A pretty damn funny one, too. Now also has an entry here: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Dio's father was an abusive alcoholic who treated his wife and son like crap.
    • Diego Brando, his Steel Ball Run counterpart, actually suffered worse, being left on a river by his father just because he doesn't want one more mouth to feed.
  • Dio himself treats his flings as one night stands, leaving his various offspring fatherless to grow up seriously screwy. Must be that vicious cycle thing.
  • A few of the main characters in Part 5 had neglectful or abusive parents.
• Affably Evil: Dio, at least when Joestars aren't involved.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Sandman Soundman, Bruford, Ringo Roadagain.
  • The Diego Brando from the Steel Ball Run arc.
• Alliterative Name: Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Josuke Joestar, Giorno Giovanni.
• Alternate Continuity: Steel Ball Run began as a new series unrelated to the JoJo universe. Later, it was made part of the long running series; still it somewhat fits as an alternate continuity, as Steel Ball Run (Part 7) is presented as a different take on Phantom Blood (Part 1). The same thing with JoJoLion (Part 8) which is presented as an another take on Diamond is Unbreakable (Part 4).
• Anime Hair: Played straight with a lot of characters, with the most famous example being Polnareff.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • Including the main heroes. Hell, not only does Jonathan get killed by Dio, he loses his body to him as well. And in Part 6, everyone except for Emporio dies, including the main character Jolyne.
  • The entire Zeppeli-bloodline seems to have a habit of dying, but not without teaching the Joestar of the current arc a last lesson or making them more powerful.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Mista is a Stand user who hangs out with a bunch of other Stand users, yet he still wonders how a Bigger on the Inside Stand-using turtle could have electricity inside it.
• Art Evolution: Compare Series 1 to the others and you'll wonder how it could have gotten so good.
  • As an example, compare these muscles with these others.
  • We can see this pretty clearly in part 4, here's Josuke in the beginning of the part:4 and him in a later appearence in the same part:here
• Artifact of Death/Artifact of Doom: The stone mask has a disturbing propensity for causing/being around terrible events.
  • The Red Stone of Aja can incinerate the Pillar Men, but it can also turn them into God Mode creatures.
  • The Stand arrow fills this role later on.
  • And in the Steel Ball Run universe, it's the Corpse Parts.
• Asskicking Pose: These are everywhere. Pretty much every chapter has at least one.
• Attractive Bent Gender: Hilariously parodied in Part 2, as the big, muscular Joseph tries to sneak into a Nazi lab by dressing as a woman.
• Author Avatar: Rohan Kishibe from Part 4. He despises Josuke despite Araki stating that Josuke is his favorite character. Though apparently, Araki dislikes when fans are intimidated by him due to his similarities with the (actually frightening) Rohan Kishibe. Apparently, the real Araki is terribly laid-back, and wishes to be seen as someone who strangers can relax around. Yet it's kind of hard to relax around someone who the fans think is an immortal vampire that ages backwards.
• Awesome but Impractical: In the fighting games, Dio's death from above via steamroller. Anyone can see it coming a mile away, it's blockable, Dio can be punished as he jumps up to perform it, and the damage really isn't worth it. But who can resist creating one of the most badass and infamous moments of the entire series?
  • The Time Stop attacks in the game can be a pain too, since you're immobile for about 3 seconds before executing them. However, enjoy your 66-hit combo if you pull it off.
  • In-series, several stands aren't particularly useful. For example, Notorious B.I.G. only works if the user is dead, Ebony Devil requires you to get serious injury to hate the enemy enough, and Purple Haze has a tendency to destroy any living organism within several meters of it. Even Araki couldn't get more than one use out of the latter.
• Awesome McCoolname: Just look at the main characters.
• Back for the Dead: After seemingly dying in the second leg of the race in Part 7, Mountain Tim returns to save Miss Lucy Steel from certain death... only to get killed later in the chapter.
• Badass: Honestly, there's too many to count.
• Badass Beard: Joseph Joestar, Enrico Pucci, Gyro Zeppeli, Ringo Roadagain, Wekapipo.
• Badass Bookworm: Believe it or not, Jotaro Kujo, who has a Ph.D in Marine Biology. Not to mention he had a pile of books on mysticism when he was trying to figure out what his "evil spirit" was while in prison. He's pretty quiet as well so that does somewhat fit in with the traditional bookworm image. Ironic since he was a hardcase juvenile delinquent who only attends school when he feels like it, gets into fights, and scares off self-righteous teachers. There's also Gyro, who's an expert medic, and Johnathan Joestar, who looks like a musclebound mountain of a man, but is a scholar in Archeology.
  • Dio Brando is often seen reading in both Part 1 and Part 3.
• Badass Longcoat: Jotaro. His school uniform coat reaches trench levels in the Capcom fighter. He also retains this look in his adult years.
• Badass Normal:
  • Hayato from Part 4, who has no Stand ability but helps Josuke and Co. bring down Kira once and for all through sheer bravery and cunning.
  • Emporio, who in Part 6 defeats the Big Bad (who can control time and destroy the universe) on his own despite having only a one-location, non-combat stand (although he does gain Weather Report's stand during the fight, he needed to confront and outwit Pucci in order to do so).
  • Gyro in Part 7 also counts, having currently given up his Stand ability and relying solely on his naturally developed skills involving the Spin. Pretty much everyone else out there has Stands.
  • Jotaro in Stardust Crusaders after Alessi de-aged him into a seven-year-old child, which also cut off his Stand powers since he didn't have Star Platinum back then. Any normal child would have ran in terror of an axe-wielding maniac. Kid Jotaro, however, beat the crap out of Alessi with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs to the face.
• The Barber: Khan.
• Battle Aura: The Ripple. It is made from energy generated whenever a person breathes in, and is transferred out through natural means: the hands and feet are most obvious, but wool, metal and vegetable oil are all used to conduct the Ripple at points. Because all energy on Earth comes ultimately from the Sun, the Ripple has the same devastating effect on vampires as sunlight.
  • In a different vein, the Stands from the third part on are essentially anthropomorphic Battle Auras. It is particularly visible in the Jotaro vs Dio final battle from the animated series that, at times, seems a battle from Dragon Ball Z.
  • Or in the case of old man Joseph, literally by using both: channelling hamon through his stand wrapped around his body like a vampire-killing live wire.
• Battle of Wits: Many, but special mentions goes to the fight with Daniel D'Arby, an expert gambler and cheater. Jotaro challenged him in a game of poker, which is D'Arby's game of expertise. He also had EVERYONE in the bar working for him so that no matter who was picked to shuffle and deal, he'd be given winning cards to ensure his victory. However, Jotaro gets him to sweat after doing numerous feats with Star Platinum to make objects appear out of nowhere to give him the impression he was using Star Platinum to switch out his cards. Jotaro then raises his bet by offering his mother's soul, but then makes D'Arby offer the equivalent, which is information on Dio's Stand ability. D'Arby, who managed to con Polnareff and even Joseph before him, began to crack and eventually folds. He had four of a kind with Kings. What did Jotaro have? Nothing, even a pair would've beaten it. He won on a BLUFF.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy:
  • VAMPIRE JACK THE RIPPER!!!!
  • And in Part 7, it would appear to have been revealed that Jesus was a Stand user.
• Berserk Button: Say something bad about Josuke's hairdo and see how long you end up in a hospital.
• Big Bad: Dio, spanning several generations. Even after he's gone, many of the villains who follow him have connections to him somehow. The Pillar Men are ultimately responsible for Dio's status as the Big Bad though, since they created the Stone Mask.
  • Also the Big Bad of Part 5, Diavolo, is also responsible for all of the insanity that is Stands from Part 3 to Part 6, as he had the stand arrows which he sold three of and one was bought by Enya, which was then used to give Dio The World. So he also helped in establishing Dio's status as the Big Bad (or at least helped in making sure he kept it).
  • Apart from that, each part has one Big Bad:
    • Phantom Blood has Dio Brando.
    • Battle Tendency has Kars.
    • Stardust Crusaders has DIO.
    • Diamond Is Unbreakable has Yoshikage Kira.
    • Golden Wind has Diavolo.
    • Stone Ocean has Enrico Pucci.
    • Steel Ball Run has Funny Valentine.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Hol Horse knows exactly how underpowered his ability is compared to a lot of other Stand users. He still does what he can and uses his environment, along with his partners, to the best of his ability. He starts out intimidating, almost killing Abdul, but runs away in the end. Next time he shows up, he's at the mercy of Enya and forms a brief Enemy Mine situation Jotaro and company. Then in his final appearance with Boingo, where... yeah...
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • This, taking place as Dio is about to annihilate Polnareff with his mysterious Stand power, both JoJos and Kakyoin burst in through the wall to back him up.
  • Polnareff returns the favour during Jotaro's climactic fight against Dio, although he almost dies for his effort.
  • Also, Stroheim showing up to bail out Joseph and Lisa Lisa (with NAZI SCIENCE!!!!11!!!1!) after the hordes of vampire Mooks decide not to let them fight Cars anymore.
• Bittersweet Ending: The end of Part 6. Even though Emporio defeats Enrico Pucci and the other heroes seem to have copies in the new universe, none of them have any memories of their previous life and they are, for the most part, complete strangers to each other. Only Emporio remembers their adventure.
• Blind Idiot Translation: The notorious DUWANG scanlations of Diamond Is Unbreakable and Vento Aureo.
• Blob Monster: Yellow Temperance and Notorious B.I.G.
• Blue Bishonen Ghetto: Parts 4, 5 and 7 have casts that are 90% composed of attractive young men.
• Body Horror: Seeing the effects of many of the stands will make you cringe.
  • Not to mention some of the things clever vampires like Dio can pull off once they get used to their new physiology. And just about everything involving the Pillar Men.
  • The mother goat produced by Bohemian Rhapsody is a case of fridge horror logic. It's just bad to see until you notice that she has breasts for eyes.
  • The effects of eating food enhanced by Pearl Jam can be truly horrific, but turn out to be a subversion as the visible effect is simply the customer's body rejecting some ailment in the most direct way possible. They end up feeling better than before afterward.
  • My arm just exploded and the flesh became snails! Snails are growing out of me! I'M BECOMING A SNAIIIIIIIL!!!!
    • And then snail-eating beetles arrive...
  • My eye just turned into a flower!
  • Metallica has the ability to manipulate the iron in a person's blood stream. Its user Risotto Nero, a deadly assassin, uses it to create sharp objects inside his targets. In one memorable scene, Doppio begins to spit a mouthful of razor blades.
  • Vento Aureo also gives us a fishing rod whose hook crawls under your skin and towards your vital organs and a flesh-eating mold Stand.
  • Chariot Requiem can manipulate souls, but one of its abilities is to progressively transform the soul of a person into the soul of "something else", indirectly forcing the body to undergo horrific transformations into abominations, like the skin shedding to reveal inhuman limbs beneath, alien eyes popping at random... All inflicted upon the entire population of Rome.
• Boring Invincible Hero: Averted in Part 7. As it stands, Gyro is trailing a number of people in the points, and coming out on top is going to require him to seriously crush Dio and Pocoloco in terms of points.
  • In Gyro's defense, he did briefly rank high in the polls. He was knocked down the polls due to upper brass interference.
  • Fugo in Part 5 had a pretty unbeatable Stand, which is why he had to get taken out before they went up against the Big Bad.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Part 3, during the confrontation with Wheel of Fortune.

Wheel of Fortune: (after apparently burning Jotaro to death) I won! I ended Part 3 early!
Jotaro: Ha... Then who's going to replace me as the main character?

• Butt Monkey: Jonathan. The poor bugger can't catch a break.
  • Lets not forget Polnareff.
• Call Back: JoJolion has several in the first two chapters. The punk from the first chapter is called Joshuu Higashikata. Our hero's hat was made by a company called SBR, and apparently, our hero's name is Yoshikage Kira!
  • Part 3 also has a Call Back during the Empress fight. Before Joseph finishes off Empress for good, he predicts that she will say "don't do this!", referencing his old trick of predicting his enemy's statement before they say it back in Part 2.
• Casanova: Dio. He's got five sons, all from different mothers. There's also Hol Horse, who charms women so that he can use them easily.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Every character is easy to differentiate. Likewise for the Stands of all the users.
• Catch Phrase: Tons, from Dio's "Toki wo tomare! (Time has stopped)!" (which is parodied as often as his "Wryyyyyy") to the generation-spanning catchphrase of JoJo's "yare yare daze" (Gimme a break!). Joseph is fond of making random English exclamations when things go south for him (OH.MY.GOOOOOOOODD!), and of informing you that, depending on the way you answer his questions, he "may have to kick your ass."
  • Also, Joseph enjoys predicting what people are going to say out loud by saying "Your next words will be x."
    • He tends to shout "OH NO!" in his younger years.
  • Josuke would like you to know that he thinks this is "Great!".
• Chekhov's Gun: Jotaro's Star Platinum had been mainly used to beat the crap out of anyone with his diamond-hard fists and also to freeze time. In the beginning, it was used to make things appear out of nowhere, and eventually, his jail cell was filled with a lot of stuff, ranging from books, clothes, radios, RC cars and weights. Jotaro used this ability again to throw off Daniel D'Arby in order to win a rigged poker game against him.
• Chick Magnet: Could almost be considered a bloodline trait amongst the Joestars, considering that Joseph was still a player when he was well into his golden years. Polnareff, Kakyoin and several other sidekicks are also good with the ladies.
  • Weather Report is better than all of them in terms of getting chicks. In terms of keeping them, however... not so much. Kinda hard to score when all the ladies around you are snails.
• Church Militant: Hot Pants is hinted to be a nun sent by the Vatican to retrieve the Corpse parts.
• Cleavage Window: If there's a male equivalent to this trope, then Giorno and Bruno's outfits both qualify for it.
• Climactic Volcano Backdrop: The Final Battle between Joseph Joestar and Kars in the Battle Tendency arc happened on the top of an erupting volcano.
• Color-Coded Timestop: ZA WARUDO!
• Combat Pragmatist: Joseph. It's stated by many people that his tendency to resort to trickery is what makes him such a good fighter.
• Compressed Adaptation: There was a OVA based off the third series made, but it started near the last third of the story (when the party runs into D'Arby) then went into Iggy's introduction before jumping to the final battle with Dio.
  • Another set of OVAs were later made that started from the beginning of the third series, ending back to where the old OVA's starts.
• Continuity Reboot: Steel Ball Run is set in an alternate universe in the time period of Part 1 created by Stairway to Heaven speeding up time to the point where the universe ended. Pucci/Dio was killed before it was completed (which would have let him create his own perfect universe) which led to a new universe where things fated to happen occurred.
• Contrasting Sequel Character: Just about big time, each of the protagonists seems to be the opposite of the last guy that came before him or her.
• Cool Sword + Evil Weapon: The Stand Anubis which is bound to an scimitar Egyptian katana. Anubis' ability is to remember attacks and countering the same attack if used the second time. Anubis can also selectively phase through objects. Anubis, however, can possess the wielder if the user draws the sword from its sheath.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: With character names like Robert E.O. (or REO) Speedwagon, Tom Petty and Dire Straits, it's obvious that Hirohiko Araki LOVES 1980s rock.
• Cyborg: Stroheim, the Nazi officer in Part 2, ultimately packs twin arms that can crush metal, a high caliber machine gun in his torso, and ultraviolet light beams in his glass eye. Emphasis on the "Nazi" part.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Dio in Part 3. He doesn't take chances when it comes to the Joestars.
  • Ditto for Straights in Part 2. The Pillar Men in Part 2 act exceptionally genre savvy, but make plenty of genre-blind blunders due to sheer suicidal overconfidence.
  • Kira in Part 4, who is so savvy that it's paranoia at times.
• Dead All Along: Bruno Bucciarti in Part 5, after his first meeting with Diavolo. In a bit of a twist, it's noticed by several characters that he doesn't have a pulse or temperature, and this is used to stop a Stand user once.
• Death Seeker: Ringo Roadagain in Steel Ball Run.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Speedwagon, Bruford, Polnareff, Kakyoin and more.
  • Gets really crazy in Part 4: at least 6 of the people Josuke and Koichi fight wind up as friends.
  • Also happens once in Part 5: Giorno defeats Bruno but spares his life, and when Bruno wants to know why, Giorno basically answers "Because I'd rather be friends with you."
• Determinator/Clap Your Hands If You Believe: All the JoJos are able to win because they either believe they can or they have too much to lose to fail (or, according to Jotaro, "Because [they] pissed him off.").
• Did Not Do the Research: Shows up in chapter 27 of Part 1. Most of what it says about Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots is inaccurate or heavily skewed.
  • Usually averted by intent: Araki often puts in short 'interludes' explaining about a particular location, several Stand powers are based on obscure (and sometimes pseudo) facts of physics or biology, and characters are prone to spouting almost unrelated trivia on all sorts of topics when they're winning. Whatever topic Araki has interest in, his characters do too.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Yes. Yes it does. Constantly. Especially in Part 2, which features JoJo and Caesar climbing a tall, cylindrical tower that gushes oil out the top, as well as vampire who doesn't just use his boiling hot blood as a weapon, he "pours his boiling blood into all the openings he drilled in [Joseph's] body with those blood stiiiiiings", and much, much more. A bunch of attacks are based on bodily fluids too, because supersonic aqueous humor is somewhat more plausible than eye beams.
  • And of course, the fact that both Joseph in Part 2 and Gyro in Steel Ball Run have used a pair of balls to fight.
    • "I must know the secret of the steel balls!"
    • Just look at the covers for Steel Ball Run. They remind the audience of many things.
• Doing In the Scientist
• Doing In the Wizard: Stands, introduced as a mystic power, are later explained as an alien virus infecting worthy people and granting them power.
• Downer Ending: Part 1, where Jonathan dies to save his wife and unborn child, taking Dio down to the bottom of the sea with him.
• The Dragon: Vanilla Ice (yes, that's his real name) to Dio, Pucci to Dio, Wham to Kars, Kira's father to Kira.
  • Part 5 has a subversion. Doppio Vinegar appears to be the most trusted subordinate of Diavolo, to the point that Diavolo has entrusted him with the power to use his stand King Crimson. In reality, Doppio is Diavolo's split personality. The two are actually one in the same.
• Dual-Wielding: Anubis, being an Evil Sword, does this when possessing Polnareff, using Silver Chariot's rapier as well.
• Edible Theme Naming: Many characters in Part 5 are named after Italian foods. Examples include Pannacotta Fugo, Abbacchio Leone, Risotto Nero, Melone, Cioccolata, Gelato, Sorbet, Prosciutto, Pesci, Formaggio and Mario Zucchero.
• Elemental Powers: Are nowhere near the focus, nor do they win very often. Back in the day, there was:
  • An Ice Person: Pet Shop (Horus). A bird, and not so "nIce".
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Iggy (The Fool), in this case, the stand is more "Dishing Out Sand".
  • Playing with Fire: Mohammad Abdul (Magician's Red).
  • The last few appear in Part 4:
  • Making a Splash: Angelo (Aqua Necklace), N'Dour (Geb) in a smaller scale.
  • Shock and Awe: Akira Otoishi (Red Hot Chili Pepper).
  • Razor Wind: Stray Cat could be seen as a form of this.
• Enemy Mine: Hol Horse is forced to team up with Jotaro's party when Enya comes gunning for him.
  • And before that, Joseph teaming up with Those Wacky Nazis to defeat the Pillar Men.
• Epic Race: In Steel Ball Run.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Jotaro may be a violent delinquent, but his whole quest in Part 3 is one to save his mother from Dio's power. Not to mention one of the big reasons Dio hated his dad was because he treated his wife like crap.
  • Joseph, who despite his aggressively violent and playful nature loves and respects his Grandmother that raised him very much, as well as "Uncle" Speedwagon.
  • For Dio, true to a fault since he was responsible for father Dario's death. Most likely not the reason behind this, but this fact in particular makes you wonder if it even matters.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Dio. His charisma is part of what makes him so dangerous, and this is explicitly mentioned by Joseph.
  • And apparently, some of the guys want him "that way" too. One of Pucci's flashbacks shows him and a shirtless Dio sharing a bed, though what is equally or more insinuative is Ice's lack of pants.
• Everything's Better with Spinning: Literally. Gyro Zeppeli's ability with his metal spheres involves causing them to spin, then endowing this spin to other objects, enabling him to cut through stone, alter someone's muscular system, and even harden skin enough that bullets bounce off. Wekapipo uses a variant for his Wrecking Ball
• Evil Brit: Dio Brando. Subverted. Of course Dio is an Evil Brit. Part 1, where he is introduced, is set in England.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: This is a manga about the bizarre adventures of a guy whose nickname is JoJo.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Generally averted: half of defeating an enemy Stand is figuring out what it does. Amusingly (and somewhat realistically), the less important a villain is, the more likely they are to give away what their Stand does (Steely Dan is an exception: he was using his Stand's power as a deterrent).
• Expy: Kar's physical appearance, arm blades and desire to be the perfect life form make him a villainous twist on Araki's single other successful series Baoh.
  • Leaky-eye-Luka is an Expy of historical gangster Lucky Luciano.
  • Also, Wish is a Boys Love flavored manga centering two characters who, rumors say, are shojo-style Expies of Jotaro and Kakyoin. CLAMP are known JoJo fans, so...
  • Additionally, Rose from the Street Fighter Alpha series (and now, Street Fighter 4) is very clearly an Expy of Lisa Lisa from Part 2.
    • Speaking of Street Fighter, Juri Han, who was introduced in Super Street Fighter 4, bears a striking resemblance to Jolyne Kujo.
  • Stroheim surely inspired Guile's design, and Polnareff certainly inspired Benimaru's.
    • Even now, Benimaru is still referred as Polnareff by SNK.
  • Part 8 is full of this. Josuke not only is named after his Part 4 counterpart, but also looks like him sans the pompadour. He befriends an expy of Koichi from Part 4. He is initially mistaken for Kira, the main villain of Part 4. He is adopted into a family where two members look a lot like Giorno's fellow gang members from Part 5.
  • Jotaro Kujo was expressly based off Clint Eastwood.
• Eye Scream: This is prevalent in literally every part of the series. Just to list a couple of examples:
  • The first time Jonathan and Dio fight, Dio sticks his thumb in JoJo's eye.
  • And that time in Part 4 when one of Fatty's Harvests punched a hole in Okuyasu's eye, then tore out a handful of the ocular tissue.
  • As noted in Body Horror above, THE EYES, ALWAYS WITH THE EYES!!! From piercing to cutting to BECOMING A FLOWER, always with the eyes!
  • Present in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders (a.k.a. the Jojo manga released in the U.S.), quite early on in the series...

School Nurse: Does this look like a pen to you?!

• • One of Dio's special surprise attacks in Part 1 is to shoot vitreous humor (aka eye goop) from his eyes at the speed of a bullet. And whenever it happens, the reader is given a close-up as his eyes split open.
• The Faceless: In Part 3, Dio's face is not shown until the final battles begin... even though he's clearly identified as Dio (the fighting game calls this version "Shadow Dio"). Midler, meanwhile, is never clearly seen at all. When she appeared in the fighting game, Araki had to design her from scratch.
• Faking the Dead: How does Jotaro do it against Dio? By having Star Platinum grab and stop his heart. He is saved when Jean Pierre distracts Dio, allowing Star to massage Jotaro's heart and revive him.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Kars in Part 2, Yoshikage Kira in Part 4, and Diavolo in Part 5.
  • Although Kira's fate going by Deadman's Questions arguably isn't that bad compared to Kars and Diavolo's fates.
• Fighting Spirit: The Stands introduced in Part 3.
• First Kiss: Dio steals the one that would rightfully be Jonathan's.
• Forceful Kiss: In Part 1, when Dio steals Erina's First Kiss.
  • Also in Steel Ball Run, Diego does this to Hot Pants, although he was actually trying to suffocate her after she tried to suffocate him. Even so, it gets the same sound effect as the Dio/Erina kiss.
• Four Is Death: A number of times, ranging from Pucci's four subordinates the heroes fight in the maximum security wing of the prison in Part 6 to Mista's fear of the number in Part 4. Most notable, however, is the fact part one is forty-four chapters long, and in the last one, Johnathan dies.
  • Oddly enough, in the fourth arc, only two good guys die.
    • Part 4 is predominately about hunting down an elusive serial killer, who has been murdering girls for 15 year. So yeah, this still applies.
• Fragile Speedster: The Stand Tower of Gray. It is even faster than Star Platinum!
• Generation Xerox: Averted for the most part, as most members of the Joestar/Kujo family look distinctive enough on their own (although Joseph does bear a striking resemblance to his Grandfather, but only for Part 2). Abdul does look identical to his father though, which is still an aversion because it's actually Abdul himself in disguise.
• Genius Bruiser: Joseph is not only an amazing fighter, but his real strength his wit and intelligence he uses against his enemies. Likewise with his great-granddaughter Jolyne, who is just as sharp but an even more kickass fighter: it's the reason Pucci's more afraid of her than of Jotaro.
  • Pillar Men have both extremely strong bodies and superior intellect.
  • Weather Report from the Stone Ocean storyline is also notable. His abilities to manipulate weather are relatively limited in range, but he demonstrates remarkably precise control and clever applications of this power, as well as revealing a deep breadth of knowledge. All while looking like a humanoid version of Appa.
  • Subverted for Anasui, who was a child prodigy and has a compulsion to discover and learn things (by taking them apart). He downplays this severely by acting every bit the part of a thug, and it's not even clear if he has to act at all.
  • And Jotaro, who is well read, and eventually becomes a Marine Biologist!
  • Jonathan and Dio were both Genius Bruisers in Phantom Blood: both played rugby in college, with Jonathan majoring in archaeology and Dio graduating as valedictorian.
• Genre Shift: Almost all parts are noticeably different: Part 1 is over-the-top action-horror with Fist of the North Star elements, Part 2 is over-the-top Indiana Jones-style action-adventure with Fist of the North Star elements (again), the third part kind of resembles Journey to the West, the fourth part ends up being a murder-mystery, Part 5 is a mob thriller, Part 6 is a prison story, and Part 7 is a horse race/western.
• Girls Behind Bars: The beginning of Part 6.
• A God Am I:
  • Part 2 says in the start that the Pillar Men were worshiped as gods. Kars pulls this at the very end.
  • Enrico Pucci from Part 6 as well. He doesn't believe he IS God, but he believes that God chose him to create Heaven on Earth and control destiny.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Hol Horse, although he has a different partner each time. Eventually, he's put out of commission.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Tends to be used by Araki as an excuse to really beat up on his protagonists, but there's no denying it comes in handy. Josuke's Crazy Diamond is the purest example of this, as its ability is to restore damaged things to their original state (unless he's mad, in which case the results can end up quite distorted). Less directly, Giornio's Gold Experience can turn inanimate objects into living tissue to replace damaged flesh, and Foo Fighters can do the same with plankton for a quick patch job. Since this isn't the intended purpose for those stands, however, the full healing process can take much longer and be more uncomfortable than Crazy Diamond's work.
• Go Out with a Smile: Jonathan and Jolyne.
• Gorn: With so many gruesome deaths and graphic maiming (enough to easily compete with the likes of Gantz and Berserk), it's hard to believe that for the longest time this was a shonen series.
• Gratuitous English:
  • ZA WARUDO!, one of the biggest examples. Joseph's catchphrase OH MY GOD! is written in English in the manga whenever he uses it. The Darby family also have a habit of saying GOOD when they confirm an agreement.
  • "HAIL 2 U!", quickly parodied when Abdul returns from the dead and says it back to the villain as "HELL 2 U!"
  • From Part 4, Koichi's Stand Echoes (Act 3) is capable of speaking, but mostly quoting John McLane and saying stuff like this: "OK! Master Let's kill da ho! Beeetch!"
• Groundhog Day Loop: Kira's final Stand ability Bite the Dust is a version of this.
• Guardian Entity: The Stands are the Trope Codifier in Japanese media.
• Guile Hero: All the protagonists. Almost every battle is decided through trickery and clever tactics rather than power.
• The Gunslinger: Guido Mista, Hol Horse, Magenta Magenta and Foo Fighters.
  • Lots of people in Part 7 end up using revolvers, especially if their Stand is not really that useful for directly attacking an enemy, like Ringo's or Mountain Tim's.
  • Funny Valentine uses a gun.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Pretty much everyone, constantly. Taking seemingly-useless powers and making them awesome is a regular feature.
• Heel Face Turn: Wekapipo, sorta.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Too many to count.
• Honest Axe: Sugar Mountain, the guardian of The Saint's ears. If you throw something in the spring, she'll ask what it is that you lost among a selection of choices. Answer honestly, and you get it all. Gyro and Johnny find out very quickly that there's a catch even to that. You have to "use up" whatever you got before sundown of that day, or else you'll be assimilated by a "tree". Only so many people can be assimilated at any point in time, and Sugar Mountain deliberately strung Gyro and Johnny along simply because she'll get her parents back if they get assimilated.
• Hot Shounen Mom: Josuke's mother Tomoko; Joseph's mother Lisa Lisa; Jotaro's mother Holly.
• Hyper Awareness: Joseph is uncannily sharp about noticing thing right away about his enemies
• Idiot Ball: Happens all the time, unfortunately.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Kira from Part 4's primary motivation. Too bad about that whole hand fetish thing he has...
  • And not to mention keeping track of his nail-clippings, and purposefully getting second place in all manners of contests as a child, including B's and A-'s in school.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: The picture on this page is a pretty good indication how swank the average character dresses. And the Impossibly Cool Clothes factor evolves as the series progresses.
• Improbable Age: Several examples, particularly Abbacchio's police work.
• Improbable Weapon User: Zeppeli and WINE. His grandson uses soap bubbles. And his Alternate Timeline version uses Steel Balls.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Polnareff sheds some very un-manly tears after Abdul's (apparent) death.
• I Never Told You My Name: Enya Gail, one of Dio's most loyal followers, pretends to be an innkeeper in order to lure Jotaro and company in to be killed by the effect of her Stand Justice. However, she inadvertently gives herself away by addressing Jotaro by his correct name, when in fact he had registered to the inn under a false name.
• Infant Immortality: Gruesomely subverted in Part 1: one Dio's finest instances of dog buggering.
• Informed Ability: Kakyoin's Stand Hierophant Green is supposed to both love enclosed spaces to a fault, and have a passion for ripping things apart. It never really demonstrates these qualities, as Hierophant Green is used mostly as a long-range Stand, and its ability is firing gemstones at the enemy.
• Intellectual Animal: Developing a Stand in an animal brings its level of intelligence to near-human levels. Iggy, Pet Shop and Stray Cat being the primary examples.
  • Foo Fighters is an even more extreme example: it's a mass of plankton formed into its own Stand, though later, it conceals itself by taking over a dead girl's body to walk around in. It's less squicky than it sounds. Her main reason for allying with Jolyne is that she's absolutely in love with experiencing things like sights, smells, tastes and sensations, and having actual memories.
• Ironic Hell: Kars wants to become utterly immortal in every sense of the word. So Joseph uses a volcano to shoot him into space, where he can't die or change his trajectory and spends the rest of eternity curled into a ball until he goes insane and stops thinking. This is quite likely the biggest lapse into Rule of Cool (or Artistic License Physics) for the series. Volcanoes cannot generate such force in the first place, and well really, Joseph's body seemed to have a mind of its own. Unless said volcano has been supercharged with a Ripple via the Red Stone of Aja.
• Jack the Ripper: As mentioned above, and since it bears repeating, VAMPIRE JACK THE RIPPER!!!!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jotaro. While he yells at his mother and other women a lot, deep down, he's really a selfless and honorable guy. Many of the other protagonists as well, even if they were enemies beforehand.
• Kiai: Dio Brando's "Wryyyyyy!". The most famous version is from the popular flash-movie with it.
• Kick the Dog: Being a villain in this series means you have to do this at least once.
  • Dio, many times, and sometimes literally. In Part 3, he forces a rich guy (senator) to drive him around Cairo, after killing the guy's driver, regardless of who gets in the way.

Dio: Too slow. Drive on the sidewalk.
senator: But, but there are people there!
Dio: So? Do it.

• • Dio's first act upon meeting Jonathan is to literally kick Danny, Jonathan's dog, when he comes over to him.
  • The running joke is that Araki has some hatred of dogs, since he has a bad habit of violently killing them in the series. Ones that come to mind are Danny (less Kick the Dog and more set the dog on fire), a dog getting it's head split in a stand's dreamworld, Iggy (have the dog die from exhaustion or be torn to shreds by Negative Space Wedgie, all this following being forced to tear off its own leg to survive), the nameless dog that is dissolved by Yellow Temperance, the dog that gets killed during the final battle of Part 6 by Pucci's Stand, and the wolf pup shot by Magenta in Part 7.
  • Then there's the pair of dogs killed by Pet Shop just for being curious. Its owner was forced to watch as the bird ate their eyes, even.
• Legacy Character: Each of the protagonists are in some way, shape or form, related to the Joestar family, and have a Jo, or in Giorno's case Gio, in their first and last name, making them all the titular JoJo.
• Leg Cling: One of the Steel Ball Run covers ^{[dead link]} has Johnny doing this to Gyro.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded in Part 3.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: With one new set of them for every arc (not to mention some of the returning ones), it's no surprise.
• Local Reference: Every volume starting with the third one has some reference to Japan or Japanese characters.
• Loners Are Freaks: Yoshikage Kira.
• Long Runner: One of the longest-running manga series in Japan. 104 volumes and still going (although it doesn't share the joy of extensive numbering as other manga long runners, the volume account is constantly reset as of Part 5 with 63 Volumes, now each new part begins with Volume 1)!
• Lost Him in a Card Game: With souls. D'arby's brother Terrence does it with video games.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: J. Geil, which comes back to bite him later.
• A Love to Dismember: A big part of why Kira kills is his fixation on female hands, starting with an erotic fascination with the Mona Lisa's hands. Unfortunately, that love stops at the wrist...
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: Due to manipulating Axl RO, Funny Valentine was able to arrange for all but two of the Corpse parts to come together and are now in his possession.
• Made of Plasticine: Not just Mooks, but often the protagonists as well.
  • It gets worse in later arcs when someone can heal.
  • Subverted in Steel Ball Run where Gyro and Johnny actually have to often worry about dying from blood loss from serious wounds.
• Magical Camera: When Joseph Joestar smashes a camera with Hermit Purple, he can capture an image from anywhere he can envision.
• Magical Native American:
  • Devo the Cursed. Of course, that's nothing more than what he wants the world at large to believe. It's not mysticism or sorcery he uses, just his Stand's mechanism for gaining strength. He might end up vulnerable if someone found out how he actually accomplishes all his kills...
  • Sandman plays with this. His running style is one of the things that got him thrown out of his village: it's based on Western running techniques but modified and practiced to perfection so he can run for indefinite periods of time without ever tiring. His Stand, however, is pretty darn Magical.
• The Magic Poker Equation: EPICALLY subverted in Part 3.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Yoshikage Kira.
• Manly Tears: Most apparent in Phantom Blood because you couldn't go two chapters without manly tears being shed by Jonathan or his companions.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Giorno Giovanna.
• Mon
• Monster Clown: Death 13. Made even worse by the fact that he attacks people in their dreams.
• Mundane Utility: Because it takes a strong, fighting spirit to control one's Stand, the vast majority of Stand users throughout the series are psychos, delinquents, and/or heroes. Part 4, however, being more about (relatively) normal people tapping their Stand powers, introduces a chef who only uses his Stand to produce miraculously healthy food and a beautician who uses hers to alter the features of her customers.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: D'ARBY!!
• Mythology Gag: Mixed in with Fridge Brilliance. Joseph Joestar's stand, Hermit Purple, allows him to use some unique methods of divination. It's basically an expansion of his ability to predict what his opponent will say next.

Joseph: This is the part where you say "No, anything but that!"
The Empress: No, anything but that!... HUH?!

• • ...Or, that prediction ability was due to Hermit Purple being only mostly dormant back in 1939...
• Nice Hat: Baron Zeppeli and, later, Joseph and Jotaro are practically identified by their headgear.
• Nightmare Dreams: Mannish Boy's Stand Death 13, whose power is this.
• Not Quite Dead : Magenta Magenta.
• The Obi-Wan:
  • Will A. Zeppelli in Phantom Blood.
  • Joseph, to Jotaro right at the end of Part 3, brief stint as a Spirit Advisor for about 5 chapters included]].
• Older Than They Look: The Vampires go without saying, being anywhere from over 100 to several thousand years old. Jotaro doesn't age physically after Part 3 depite the rest of the series spanning about 30 years in-world time. Also, Hirohiko Araki himself. Apparently, extrapolating from various comments, Stand users age slower than normal people. He does not look 49 no matter how you slice it
  • Plus, because he was sick as a child, Narancia looks and acts like the youngest of the group in Part 5, but he's always quick to point out that at 17, he's actually two years older than the main character.
  • Also, Lisa Lisa, who keeps herself youthful at her fifties thanks to her mastery of Hamon.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • The "Pillar Men", a proud warrior race horned humanoids who lived in South America. They reproduced sexually but infrequently, were immortal, and fed by absorbing other living creatures into their bodies. They could also contort and shapeshift their bodies to make weapons or move in agile ways. But they were temporarily turned to stone by sunlight. In order to conquer this weakness, one of them created the Stone Mask, which was supposed to alter their brain chemistry to allow them to live in sunlight. That didn't work, but if used on humans, it did turn them into:
  • Vampires, the run of the mill kind. Well, except for the fact that JoJo's vampires can shoot rock-smashing water pressure through their eyes, freeze things on touch, and suck blood with their fingers. They can only be killed by severe blunt trauma to the head (decapitation only leaves a living head that will usually re-attach itself to its body, but is fully capable of taking someone else's body if necessary) or direct sunlight, which disintegrates them. They are able to recover almost instantly from anything else up to and including almost being bisected and being blown to shreds by grenades. They feed on humans but were fed on by the above race. Exclusively Evil. Vampires can make humans vampires by giving them their blood (which Dio does to Vanilla Ice), and humans fed on by vampires become:
  • Zombies: fanged rotting undead corpses that feed on blood and flesh, still vulnerable to sunlight and somewhat weak. Always Chaotic Evil, ugly and dumb as bricks.
    • Tarkus and Bruford, however, seem to be more sentient than most other zombies encountered in Part 1: Bruford in particular was more Lawful Evil as a zombie, retaining his chivalrous personality to an extent, while Tarkus was Chaotic Evil even when he was alive.
  • All of the above are also fortunately vulnerable to both the Ripple and (presumably) Stands.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Sports Max's Limp Bizkit. Not only does it bring back the dead as zombies, they also become INVISIBLE.
• Parental Abandonment: The main protagonist of each arc seems to be missing one or both of their parents.
  • Not exactly true... While in Arc 4, although he grew up without his father (Joseph), he still has both parents and meets him within the series.
• Pet the Dog: Kars, who is to vampires what vampires are to humans, slaughters a bunch of people driving past who were going to run over a puppy, making this both a dog-petting and a dog-kicking.
• The Power of the Sun: The Ripple uses energy from the sun's rays to vaporize objects, make objects more volatile and destroy vampires.
• Powers as Programs: Part of the ability of Pucci's White Snake.
• Prehensile Hair: Yukako, through her Stand Love Deluxe.
• President Evil: Funny Valentine in Part 7. We know his wife likes women... leading to one of two Epileptic Trees about her.
• Psychic Powers: Stands, which can have pretty damn crazy abilities at times. It's not just humans who can have them either: Iggy, a dog, faces off against Dio's pet falcon Pet Shop. Other stand users include a rat (who can melt organic tissue), an orangutan (with telekinetic control over every single piece of a boat) and a cat that died and grew into a flower (who can use the air to fire "bullets"). Araki's insane.
• Pummel Duel: Kujo Jotaro versus Dio Brando, in the famous ending to Part 3.
• The Rashomon: A side-effect of D 4 C's abilities.
• Rated "M" for Manly: It's been described as "the glam version of Fist of the North Star" for a good reason: even though 90% of the characters are well-dressed, sparkly attractive guys, it oozes testosterone, blood and raw fighting spirit from every page.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old:
  • Vampires and anyone with a Stand or the "Ripple" kung-fu teachings has a greatly extended lifespan. Jotaro actually seems to appear younger as the series progresses.
  • The mangaka himself, Hirohiko Araki, actually looks younger now than he did when the series began in 1987, leading to a running fandom joke that he's really an immortal vampire.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Duos of people with contrasting personalities are frequent in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • Gyro and Johnny have this kind of relationship in Steel Ball Run. But it's more complicated than that: Gyro is the much more prideful and headstrong one, but he also is more worldly in some respects. In terms of understanding people and what they have in mind, however, Johnny is leagues beyond Gyro.
  • This isn't the first time a Joestar and Zeppeli have had this relationship either. See also the second series.
• Red Right Hand: J. Geil and his mother Enya Geil in Part 3. Both have two right hands. Both are not nice people.
• Red Shirt: Don't work for the Speedwagon Foundation if you're interested in any kind of life expectancy.
• Refuge in Audacity: The sheer HSQ in the series can warrant this, whether from the characters' fabulous mannerisms, the over the top and clever powers and fights, or how much Dio can Kick the Dog.
• Ret-Gone: This was the fate of Jotaro and Jolyne -- and, presumably, Weather, Hermes, Annasui, and Versace -- when Pucci accelerates time and resets reality. This is because you only get to stick around if your spirit is still there. Dead = no spirit to exist for any time in the new universe = causality/history altering to compensate for that. However, when Pucci is killed, the reset effect snaps back, and all his victims are restored, albeit in slightly different forms. Probably because reality has to take into account the fact that Pucci has been hit with Ret Gone now.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Polnareff pulls this on Vanilla Ice after the latter kills Iggy and Abdul.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors: The Stand Boyz II Men, which leads to an insanely epic game. Were you to remove the dialogue, you'd think an climactic battle was going on. Even with the text, it still was.
• Running Gag:
  • Joseph being unable to successfully land a plane and Polnareff's fear of foreign toilets.
  • Heck, whenever a Joestar gets into a flying vehicle, it's never a smooth trip. What with Josef, Jotaro and Giorno's airplanes, and Jolyne's helicopter...
  • The secret Joestar technique to run away.
  • The sites of Part 4's stand battles becoming urban legends and/or tourist traps, such as the rock Josuke fuses Angelo with or the cliffside where Koichi fought Yukako.
• Sailor Earth: Pick a song name. Ideally, an older rock song. Come up with a power based on the lyrics, or failing that, just make one up. You now have a brand new Stand.
• Samus Is a Girl: In Part 2, Joseph Joestar and Caesar go to meet Caesat's mentor. When Jo Jo finally mets her, she is initially fully dressed and her face is concealed, and he thinks she must be a man... until she reveals her face.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: Despite being arguably the most battle-centric arc, it shows up a few times in Part 5. Whenever Buccellati's group stops to eat, Mista invariably leads them into an odd conversation, with such topics as how hardcore vegetarians are and how Narancia would be the tastiest of the group to eat.
  • Also prevalent in Part 6. It's practically slice of prison life at times.
  • In Steel Ball Run, for another example, Johnny suggests that he and Gyro take a moment to think about how they're going to cross the Mississippi River. Gyro then interrupts to share the totally awesome song about cheese he just came up with. Johnny is, naturally, incredibly amazed by his friend's talent.
• Send in the Clones: Funny Valentine's Stand power makes him practically immortal, since when he dies, a parallel version of himself is brought in to take his place and gets all his memories too.
• Serial Escalation: The entire series has elements like this, which only become more and more prominent with each successive installment and Stand introduced.
• Serial Killer: Yoshikage Kira, the Big Bad of Part 4, whose Stand Killer Queen makes him that much harder to track down, since he can easily dispose of bodies without leaving a trace behind.
• Sherlock Scan: Joseph does this to his enemies, along with predicting exactly what his foe is going to say next, which catches them completely off guard.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: A lot of people's reaction to the ending of Part 6. It didn't just make THAT chapter completely pointless, but it made every OTHER chapter before it completely pointless too! Yes, even despite the fact the Big Bad ended up dying in the end anyway.
• Shout-Out: With its own page.
• Shut Up, Kirk: This exchange from Part 1, a favorite among fans:

Zeppelli: Bastard... How many lives have you devoured to heal those wounds?
Dio: Do you remember every piece of bread you've ever eaten?

• • Gets a Shout-Out in Marisa's scenario in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the sixth game in the Touhou series:

Marisa: So, how many people's blood have you sucked by now?
Remilia: Do you remember how many times you've eaten bread?
Marisa: Thirteen times.] I prefer Japanese food.

• Spam Attack: "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAAAAA!" "MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDAAAAAAA!" Though, frankly, every humanoid Stand can do this to some extent.
• Synchronization: Any damage done to the Stand is inflicted upon its wielder, and vice-versa. Of course, since Stands as essentially a projection of the wielder's mind and personality, you technically ARE hitting them when you hit their Stand.
• Taking You with Me: This is the specific purpose of a few Stands. Notorious B.I.G. in Part 5 can only be activated upon its user's death, at which point, it becomes an indestructible Body Horror Determinator. Stone Ocean has a more direct example in Highway to Hell. Its user has extreme suicidal tendencies, and whenever he attempts to kill himself, the exact same trauma will be experienced by the Stand's target.
• Talking Is a Free Action: You may not realize it yet, but you've just lost to Dio in this game of wits. Does this street look familiar to you, or, being the tourist that you are, do all streets look the same?
• Talk to the Fist: Jotaro interrupts Dio when he's about to use his Stand by socking him in the face so hard, he's sent flying into a car.
• Theme Naming:
  • At first, Stands were named after the various cards in the tarot, but once they ran out of names, it was changed to Egyptian gods. Once those ran out, they were named after various Western music bands.
  • The Joestars aren't immune to this, either. Get back, JoJo. It's actually referenced specifically in the epilogue to Part 3, when Joseph is shown listening to that song on the return trip from Cairo.
  • Not to mention naming characters after Italian food in Part 5, or fashion designers in Part 6.
• Third Person Person: Dio in the English dub of the OVA. He takes it to new heights: he refers to himself in the first person, then the third person ("I, Dio"). This is probably a result of the difficulty involved in translating egotistical Japanese third-person business. Calling oneself 'kono -your name here-' is putting on the ritz; appending -sama to your name is just being a giant blowhard. Dio, it seems, does both, hence his translated pronoun quirk.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Stroheim and his group. Keep in mind, they're the good guys, helping to defeat the Pillar Men for the sake of the world. GERMAN SCIENCE!!

"It is I, Stroheim, and the Nazi Protection Agency!"

• Time Stands Still: Both Dio's The World ZA WARUDO! and Jotaro's Star Platinum have this ability, although Dio can only stop time for a few seconds at first. It's mentioned that if he hadn't been beaten, he eventually would've been able to stop time for as long as he wanted.
• Tongue-Tied: The Talking Heads stand has this as its power. Crosses with Cannot Spit It Out as Narancia desperately tries to figure out a way to circumvent its ability and warn the others about a different enemy Stand.
• Training from Hell: Sometimes you feel sorry for the main characters when you see how they're taught. In Part 2, Joseph Joestar had to climb up a tower with his bare hands, while said tower gushed oil (more like vegetable oil than crude oil) from the top, making it too slick for a normal person to even attempt climbing. Joseph Joestar does it with his fingertips, though it takes him 'four consecutive days'.
• Translation Convention: Possibly lampshaded when Koichi speaks to Giorno in plain Japanese at one point, and Giorno responds by telling him his Italian isn't bad.
• Translation Train Wreck: Applied to a Fan Translation of the manga. While everything up to the middle of Part 7 has been translated, the only available translations for most of Part 4 are beyond terrible, featuring untranslated text, sentences that don't begin with capital letters, and referring to Morioh as "Duwang" because that's the Chinese pronunciation of the characters.
• Tropes Are Not Bad: Explains why the anime revival is one of the most well-received anime TV series in recent years. Yes, the entire franchise is basically a Cliché Storm of tropes from shounen manga and fiction in general, but it's done with such a strong sense of self-awareness that it's refreshing. A lot of praise for the franchise comes from the fact that it is able to be an action-epic while embracing its own campiness. For a lot of people, this has made it the antithesis to other popular shounen like Naruto which lost sight of what made them enjoyable in the first place or series like Akame ga Kill! and Future Diary which are widely criticized for trying to combine shounen tropes with grimdark storytelling.
• Undead Child
• Undying Loyalty: Robert E.O. Speedwagon was like this with Jonathan: he would spend the rest of his life helping the Joestar family and even after his death via the Speedwagon Foundation Oil Company.
• The Unfavorite: Johnny had this unfortunate problem in Steel Ball Run with his brother Nicholas. The fact that Johnny indirectly killed Nicholas by not killing a pet rat that would go on to startle his horse makes it all the more heart-wrenching.
• Unorthodox Reload: Mista's hat bullets, though he reloads the normal way as well.
• Unsettling Gender Reveal: A number of times in the series. Most blatant with Annasui, since he was originally planned to be a woman and was then retconned into a man. Then inverted in Steel Ball Run with Hot Pants, who we find out is a woman when Johnny treats her wounds.
• Unsound Effect: The Stand Echoes has this as its power. Write kaboom, and something will explode. Put zoom on something, it will go fast. In its first stage, it actually just makes the sound continually blare inside your head if it's written on you, until you pass out or go insane... or shrink five feet. And in the third stage, it gives Koichi Super Saiyan hair and the ability to put a gravity well on anything by saying "Freeze": this can apply to anything from a person's hand to a car.
  • Sandman from Part 7, real name Soundman, has something similar.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Jotaro, even though he's badass and dangerous.
  • And subverted when Alessi tries to turn him into a child, knowing that his Stand hadn't manifested then. It backfires horribly, as Jotaro was every bit as violent and badass as a child.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: This is Enrico Pucci's motivation in Part 6. His plan involves using the fusion of his Stand and a homunculus of Dio to accelerate time to the point where the cosmos undergoes both a Big Crunch and a Big Bang, and everything repeats as before, just without anyone who died during the acceleration. The utopia is supposed to come from the fact that those who got to live through the singularity will subconsciously remember everything that ever happened to them in the previous, identical cycle. This means that they will be imbued with a kind of fatalism, immensely dampening any shock, horror, agony, etc, that they would otherwise experience. Basically, Pucci's idea of "paradise" is "a world without surprises".
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Araki likes to give in-depth explanations about the biology and physics behind certain abilities and stands despite the fact that most of the readers won't understand it. Half of the physics in the series are complete bullshit anyway.
  • And then there's all of the religious symbolism and imagery that's been popping up in Steel Ball Run lately. Though having shifted demographics and being a Seinen now, it's a lot more likely to be picked up on by readers.
  • In Steel Ball Run, it is just turned to astronomical levels. The explanation of the first use of the Spin put on top of criminals for execution is not true. The weight was put there so the dead could not be turned into vampires, as an old superstition. Best misleading ever. Just to understand the Spin is a whole problem in itself.
• Villain Pedigree: Vampires are quickly replaced by Pillar Men, who are quickly replaced by Stand users. Likely the reason the concept of stands was introduced in the first place was that the Big Bad of Battle Tendency was the paragon of the physical world, so Araki seemed to hit a dead-end there, and thus the series emerges into the psychic age. So possibly a subversion.
• Weaponized Headgear: Speedwagon has a razor-sharp hat that he can throw.
• We Need a Distraction: Speedwagon realizes early on that he can't fight vampires and zombies directly, so he serves as a distraction for others, even nicknaming himself "The Interfering Speedwagon".
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The entire series.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted to hell and back. No matter how stupid or ridiculously limiting a Stand power seems, the user will find a way to make it an advantage.
  • Played straight with Survivor, Cheap Trick and Superfly.
    • Survivor is derided by DIO as a useless Stand because it's always on, cannot select its targets, and is woefully restrictive in what it does. It makes people fight each other, and relays to them their opponents' weakest points. That's it. It can play off of aggression, but it won't make people fight if they don't have much animosity. Its user didn't even fight, and got quite a large bridge dropped on him. So what does it tell you that one of the most obviously offense-oriented powers in the series is derided like this, even in comparison to seemingly low-wattage powers like guilt magnifiers (The Lock) and story evokers (Bohemian Rhapsody)?
    • Cheap Trick kills its user if someone sees his back and goes to the person who saw it. It tries to get people to see the back of the current "user" by whispering and taunting the victim, attempting to drive them into a frantic state where they lose awareness of their surroundings and any people around them.
    • Superfly "protects" its user by keeping him contained in its tower. The user can only escape if a victim is lured inside of Superfly, and even then, the user/current victim has to escape before the new victim realizes what happened and tries to escape themselves.

Any attempts to destroy Superfly from the inside will automatically reflect the exact amount of damage back in the direction of the source.

• • • Generally, nearly all stands which function independent of the user and can't be turned off get a degree of this treatment just by the virtue that even the user can't control it if they wanted to. They often just try to get the user as close to their target as they can and let it operate naturally under the mentality of "Well, at least it's their problem too now."
  • One can only wonder about the poor bastard White Snake got the Stand disc from that makes all water the user touches boil on contact.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Averted with any non-human members of the protagonists' True Companions, and even their enemies are largely treated the same as their human foes. In Stone Ocean, Foo Fighters (a Stand composed of pond algae) is even given a Heel Face Turn and joins the core group.
• Why Does Everyone Think I'm Inigo Montoya?: Although they look and act nothing alike, Polnareff and Montoya have oddly similar backstories, both being European fencers who lost a family member after they were killed by a man with a deformed hand.
  • More exactly, this is a simple Shout-Out. It's Lampshaded when he and Kakyoin are finally facing J. Geil and losing (badly). J.P. calmly explains to a desperate Kakyoin that, when the moment of revenge arrives, you don't just shout random insults. There's a certain code you have to follow, and there are some precise phrases that have to be spoken. You know how it ends.
• Widget Series: Its called "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" for a reason.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The average Stand makes you untouchable by non-Stand users: ordinary people can't even see your Stand, much less do anything about it. This allows you to do pretty much whatever you want whenever you want to whomever you want. This is hinted now and then to be a big reason why so many of the evil Stand users are so Ax Crazy.
• Worthy Opponent: Subverted in Part 2. Kars tells Lisa Lisa that he will give her a fair fight to honor the memory of Wham and ACDC... only to disguise a mook as himself during their "fight" and stab her while she was distracted. He then tells her that he wanted the Red Stone of Asia, which she had on her person, enough to not take the chances his dead companions had.
  • Wamuu, Kars' dragon, plays it completely straight just before though.
• Xanatos Roulette: The end of Part 2. Technically, it was all coincidence, but that didn't stop Joseph from taking credit for it and saying he planned it all along.
• Yandere: Yukako Yamagishi.
  • One example of her crazy love is when she discovers that the one she loves (Koichi) isn't exactly an upstanding individual. Of course, this was a plot set up by Koichi's friends in order to make her stop liking him. This fails, however, because it instead makes her kidnap him in order to make him the perfect man. Then It Got Worse....
  • Daiya Higashikata from Part 8 seems to be yandere as well, seeing as she steals her new brother Josuke's memories because she wanted to share his experiences and be with him forever.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Surprisingly a case in this series. Pucci thought Stairway To Heaven would give him the power to Screw Destiny and control everyone else, but that's disproven when Emporio kills him. Boingo's Stand seemingly would enable him take advantage of it to defeat Jotaro and company, but due to a Prophecy Twist that tanked and he attributed it to Jotaro being favored by destiny.
  • There's a prequel chapter at the end of Part 5 as well, which retroactively predicts Bucciarati's death.
• You Taste Delicious: Part 5. "This taste... it's [the taste of a liar!" ]
• Your Head Asplode:
  • The eventual fate of Mike O.
  • Dio as well, though it's not just his head.