OVER HEAVEN

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Over Heaven is a light novel written by Nisio Isin with illustrations by Araki Hirohiko. It was released as part of the special JoJo 25th anniversary project "VS JOJO."

About
The book is written as a monologue on DIO's thoughts throughout the events in the original series. In the book, he reflects upon his battles, and talks about the concept of death, as well as his unfortunate mother.

Author's Note
The fictitious translator of the book comments on his reasons for restoring and decyphering Dio's Diary. First saying that the Speedwagon Foundation asked for the restoration of the book to find a way to free Jotaro Kujo from his current comatose state, the translator confesses that his work is also motivated by fascination for the thought process of Dio Brando. The translator also comments on the difficulties faced during the restoration and decyphering of the book, and decided to literaly translate it, leaving the interpretation to the reader.

Chapter 1
"Dio, no matter what happens, live nobly and with pride. If you do that, you'll surely be able to go to Heaven"

Dio reflects on his mother, her behavior and her beliefs. He comments about the apparent foolishness of his mother's righteousness while they lived in the most miserable living conditions, and were surrounded by the ungrateful. Dio then reflects on his mother's fixation on Heaven, particularly the way to go to Heaven. Saying that during his youth, Dio rather admired his father Dario Brando's immorality, he then comments that his mother would always try to correct him even when her efforts resulted in a beating, the scorn of her neighbourhood, and finally her death. Unable to understand her behavior, Dio thus questions his earlier assumption about his mother's foolishness. He reflects on why she, a righteous and educated woman, would remain besides Dario, and theorizes that she was being "charitable" toward him. Finally Dio wonders if his mother went to heaven, and denies the possibility.

Chapter 2
Dio admits to having been thinking about Heaven ever since he's acquired The World, and the possible way to attain it. He then thinks that he may be doing this in his mother's place, and diverge into diverge on his mother. He expresses that his mother's righteouness was akin to abuse and that his father was at least more honest. Therefore Dio speculates that his mother may have been emotionally distressed and that the idea of Heaven was a way to cope with her suffering. Finally when his mother died, Dio admits to have felt somewhat satisfied for her since she was able to maybe not attain Heaven, but at least escape the hell her life was.

Chapter 3
Dio acknowledges his inability to attain Heaven, even with The World in his possession, and says that he must acquire a friend who is "without desire for power, hunger, or for fame, or lust. He must hold God's laws in higher esteem than he does man's laws." Which is why he is recording his thoughts on a notebook. He then comments about the danger of the Joestar Family stumbling upon this book, and decides to take the risk. Dio predicts that finding that friend then win him over will be difficult, and decides to keep the diary secret from his organisation. Secretly Dio decides to veer his goal from mere domination to attaining Heaven, stating that the true winner is the one who has seen Heaven.

Chapter 4
Dio reflects on his father. For all the scorn he had for his mother, Dio now scorns his father more. After Dio's mother's death, Dario soon began to beat Dio for, as he soon understood, no reason beyond affirming his dominance. Dio then thinks that his mother's beatings may not have been caused by her righteousness, but simply Dario's wickedness. To escape his father's beating, Dio says that he worked hard to earn money and give Dario liquor to drink. To do so Dio used the education his mother gave him and it was there that he first felt grateful toward his mother. He then tells how he foolishly thought that his father being nice meant his father not beating him, and foolishly worked hard for his father. Put off by the thought, Dio interrupts his writings.

Chapter 5
Dio narrates his meeting with Daniel J. D'Arby, whom he could see he was a Stand user, a skill Dio finds strange. Dio initially wonders if Daniel will be his friend, but quickly retracts his idea, noting that gamblers do no have pure souls. However Dio thinks Daniel will be a guidepost for the purpose of going to Heaven.

Chapter 6
Dio tells how he decided to kill his father when he sold his mother's dress, having until that point hoped that Dario would change. Selling the dress convinced Dio that Dario was a scum, and that he was merely being exploited; thus Dio had to think of a way to kill his father without arousing suspicion on himself.

Chapter 7
Dio confirsm his doubts about Daniel J. D'Arby, saying that D'Arby's greed is indeed too great for his purpose, and he decides to think that he's already met that friend who will help him attain Heaven without realising it. However his Stand Osiris became a hint towards his goal. Osiris having no power whatsoever but the ability to manipulate souls, it may be possible to fuse souls, more precisely 36 souls that have committed sins. Dio diverges on the specificity of sinfulness as he thinks that the souls of sinners hold great power Dio notes that a certain Noriaki Kakyoin whom he won over commented that the loser are the evil one. However Dio reverses the logic by reasoning that the evil ones have a stronger drive to win and thus will be the winners.

Appearances

 * Jonathan Joestar
 * Erina Pendleton
 * Robert E. O. Speedwagon
 * William Anthonio Zeppeli
 * Dio Brando
 * Jotaro Kujo
 * Joseph Joestar
 * Jean Pierre Polnareff
 * Muhammad Avdol
 * Holly Kujo
 * Enya
 * Hol Horse
 * Boingo
 * Telence T. D'Arby
 * Daniel J. D'Arby
 * Nijimura Patriarch
 * Vanilla Ice
 * N'Doul
 * Enrico Pucci

Mentioned Stands

 * The World
 * Hermit Purple
 * Tower of Gray
 * Dark Blue Moon
 * Tohth
 * The Empress
 * The Emperor
 * Whitesnake

Book-Only Information
(The information below derives from a Light Novel not written by Araki. As such, it may or may not be considered canon.)


 * Despite seemingly different in the manga, Dio thought his mother was a fool due to her kindly nature and placed his father above her in terms of respect due to his father's more ruthless and hard nature. He also admitted to regret killing his father.
 * Enya once suggested to DIO that he should have Holly Kujo killed so he can take her blood while Jotaro and the others were still making their way to him. DIO rejected this idea because he thought it would only drive Jotaro to defeat him even more.
 * The blood of young women is more effective in healing and satiating a vampire's thirst.
 * Violent and mad people make for tougher zombies.
 * Evil people tend to have more powerful souls.
 * DIO theorizes that the worth of a human soul can be calculated as 10.
 * DIO never adapted to Jonathan's body. Due to this, DIO was left unable to use most of his vampiric abilities that he used in Phantom Blood. In order for DIO to adapt to his new body, he needed the blood of the Joestars to do so.
 * DIO discovered he needed a "friend" with a noble personality and no ambition. He first considers Daniel J. D'Arby but abandons that plan out of disdain for D'Arby's greed. After meeting Pucci, he chooses him as a suitable candidate.
 * DIO entertained the idea of forming a truce between himself and Jotaro, but abandoned the idea because he felt that even if there was a way to relieve Holly of her Stand, they would still want to defeat him because he is inherently evil. That, and he has absolutely no clue how to save Holly even if he wanted to.
 * DIO theorizes that Erina Joestar placed both him, herself, and the infant Lisa-Lisa in the casket on the boat where Jonathan died in order to escape the boat's explosion. DIO at first believes that Erina did this in hope DIO may return some day as a better man with Jonathan's body. He quickly dismisses the idea, stating that if it was the case that Erina reminded him of his mother.
 * DIO had a secondary Stand, the one Jonathan would develop, which is noted to be called "Hermit Purple", the same name Joseph's Stand would use.
 * The flesh buds were a new vampire technique DIO uses upon Enya's suggestion that he control people. DIO makes good use of these at first, but finds that the flesh buds weaken whoever they are placed on, hence why Noriaki Kakyoin and Jean Pierre Polnareff were easily beaten when they were first met. After losing two allies to Jotaro, he abandons the use of flesh buds, though he uses one last bud on Enya as a precaution.
 * In order to discover "Heaven", Dio learned first the concept of Fate, Future and Gravity.
 * It is hinted in this book that The World actually belongs to Jonathan and not DIO, which may make this non-canon according to JOJO A-GO!GO!.