Antonio Torres

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! This is boring! God, you're pathetic, Jorge! Can't you at least go out like a man?! Or are you gonna die like this?!"

- Antonio Torres to George Joestar II

Antonio Torres (アントニオ・トーレス), born Anthony Hightower (アンソニー・ハイタワー), is a major antagonist featured in the light novel JORGE JOESTAR.

He is the son of and. Antonio was one of the main childhood bullies of George Joestar II and later torments him throughout his life as a Zombie working for Dio Brando.

Appearance
Antonio has unruly brown that is shorter on the sides and back along with side-swept bangs. He is skinny with tan skin and wears a striped t-shirt.

As a zombie, Antonio appears naked with flat, stretched out skin along with claws and fangs. He has no eyeballs but instead dark pits where his eyes should be, no blood, no muscles, and no bones. People who saw glimpses of him while flying airplanes described him as a gremlin with varying physical appearances. His height would vary from a gnome-like 50 centimeters to being child-sized, some would say he looks like a lizard with giant ears, and others would say he has horns growing out of his head. Lisa Lisa states that these depictions are merely stories made up by people based on the rumors, but their imaginations and fear manifested into real things.

Personality
Antonio is a cruel, aggressive, and violent child as a result of his abusive upbringing. He and his friends such as constantly bully George for several years. Despite secretly being the same nationality as George, Antonio insults George and his family by calling him "balsa blanca", meaning "white raft" in Spanish. Although he gets beat up by Lisa Lisa for harming George, Antonio persistently beats up George and goes as far as to rub dog feces in George's face in an attempt to force him to eat it.

"Thinking back on it now I believe that was something evil in the shape of a child."

After becoming a zombie, Antonio retains his sadistic nature but is also as immature as he was twenty years ago when he was a child. Mentioning his mother puts him into a fit of rage and emotional trauma. He is submissive to his boss Dio and follows his orders completely.

Wound

 * Rapid Skin Cell Production: Antonio's mother Maria abused him so badly that his metabolism accelerated until she could peel off his entire skin every year, from his head to his toes, in one single peel. All cells in the average human body are replaced every seven years but skin is replaced once a month. In Antonio Torres' case, his skin cells adapted to being torn off on the same day every year. Three days before June 16th which was Maria's customary skinning day, his skin cell production would speed up.


 * Body Shedding: He could shed his own skin like a snake every year on June 16th, from a single incision. His new skin would be thin, but fully grown. After becoming a zombie, the skin he sheds would also remain alive as a zombie, essentially making a copy of himself with the same abilities.

Zombie

 * Body Possession: As a zombie, Antonio is capable of going inside the body of humans and possessing them from within.

Background
Antonio Torres was born as Anthony Hightower in. His family had been in the railroad business there, but went bankrupt and washed up at, one of 's.

Ever since he was a baby, his mother peeled only his skin away bit by bit while leaving his blood, bones, and flesh intact. She then carefully placed the pieces together, treated them with a thin-coating of oil to prevent them from drying out, sealed them with medical adhesive, and sewed the pieces together with very fine thread. Antonio's hair that was shed from prior months would be placed on top of the head of her creation to complete the full body work of art, which she called "This Year's Antonio". Antonio's body adapted to the torture, rapidly accelerating the production of his skin cells three days before Maria's skinning day. He was eventually able to slip out of his old skin from only a single incision on his back.

Antonio, his friend, and the rest of his gang frequently bullied George Joestar on his way to and from school for several years. Lisa Lisa would beat them up but this only gave Antonio more fuel to bully George, mocking him for needing protection from a girl.

Childhood (1904)
One day, Antonio and his gang attempt to force dog feces into George's mouth on George's way home from school. Lisa Lisa appears and saves him, but they still manage to get some up his nose. Despite Lisa Lisa knocking Antonio down and kicking him until the point where his nose starts bleeding, he had gotten used to the beatings from her and continues to insult George.

The next day, Antonio is found dead in the morning and Julio accuses George of being the culprit who murdered him along with the assistance of Lisa Lisa. Tsukumojuku Kato reveals Antonio's cast-off skin to the rest of the class, and then the class sees another Antonio at the door. It ends up being Lisa Lisa who was hiding inside Antonio's corpse in an attempt to lure his killer. The plan succeeds and Antonio's father, Alejandro, reveals himself. Alejandro was a Vampire who ate his own son because he hated him for being an awful brat.

Straizo later explains to George that the remains of Antonio and Alejandro were cleaned up. Tsukumojuku still has Antonio's cast-off skin in his suitcase when he ends up being transported to Nishi Akatsuki in 2012. However, his luggage and the skin had disappeared when he arrived there.