Anne

"So cool.... I'm crazy for him!"

- Anne about Jotaro Kujo

Anne (アン), full name Merlai Anne (マーライ・アン), is a tertiary ally featured in the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stardust Crusaders.

After being saved by Jotaro Kujo, she accompanies the Joestar Group as they head to Singapore. She somehow follows them from there to Pakistan and witnesses various Stand battles along the way.

Appearance
Anne is a young girl of average height and thin to medium build with a small, slightly upturned nose, and light freckles. She has long dark hair with bangs on each side.

She commonly wears baggy on top of a light shirt. Anne first appears disguised as a boy with her hair tied up and covered with a cap. After her identity as a girl is revealed, she stops wearing her cap while she is with the Joestar Group but continues to wear it when she hitchhikes alone.

Personality
"What's your problem? Staring at me like that... I don't know what's going on or what you want from me, but if it's a fight you want... then you've got one! Come on! Let's go! One on one! Any one of you! I'll take you all on!"

- Anne to the Stardust Crusaders

Upon meeting the Joestar Group, Anne presents herself as a temperamental and irreverent brat, becoming annoyed when Jotaro felt her chest to confirm she was female. On one occasion, she challenged all five of the members of the Joestar group with only a small knife when they were considering what to do with her, pretending to be a cold-blooded killer.

Anne is rather brave, but reckless, as she gathered the courage to flee from home and travel the world and opted at one point to swim from a boat to a shore barely visible over the horizon. However, the bravado doesn't prepare her for the Stands she meets. As foretold by Jotaro, Anne still only drags the Joestar Group down to the point of risking their own lives, especially in the battle against ZZ, where she screams for help instead of using the time she had to run.

Anne fancies herself a beautiful girl, even though the only one to have shown interest in her was Forever. When she tagged along Jotaro and his friends, she tried to catch their attention by commenting on her growth, to everyone's disinterest. She eventually develops a crush on Jotaro, appreciating his looks and attitude. The anime expands on that crush by showing her happy to see Jotaro greeting her one last time.

Abilities
Anne is shown to be a confident swimmer, as she believes she could reach the shore while swimming from the middle of the ocean. She is also very confident in her ability to use her small knife, though her actual skills with the knife are unknown.

Background
Anne wanted to travel the world, believing that posing as a boy would make it easier. She believed that once she had grown enough she would need to start wearing a bra, making it difficult to pose as a guy at that point. She then runs away, claiming that the age she is now is the best to travel. Her intentions for doing so has been hinted as due to her crush on Jotaro and "having nothing else better to do".

Stardust Crusaders (1988)
Anne first appears as a stowaway on the cruise ship that the Impostor Captain Tennille had abducted. Posing as a boy, she is found by one of the sailors who threatens to turn her to police when they reach shore. She then lies, saying she is going to Singapore to meet her father. She realizes that she was going to be imprisoned and jumps off the ship in an attempt to swim to shore by herself and remain safe. When close to being attacked by a shark (later killed by Dark Blue Moon) she is begrudgingly saved by Jotaro Kujo. It is then that her identity as a girl is revealed and she threatens to cut one of the crew members when the Joestar Group suspects her for a Stand user.

She is then taken hostage by the Impostor Captain Tennille when his real identity is revealed but is saved by Noriaki Kakyoin when Jotaro fails to do so and gets dragged into the water. She starts to develop a crush towards Jotaro and his attitude, thinking he is cool. During the battle, the ship is destroyed and she accompanies the group into Forever's Stand-bound ship, Strength. Forever, acting like a human being lusts for Anne and corners her in the middle of her shower soon after brutally killing all the sailors. She is saved by Jotaro again and watches their battle.

When the group reaches Singapore, the girl refuses to separate from them, saying she will meet her father in 5 days. Under protests at first, they agree to let her accompany them until her father arrives because she was too poor to live on her own. Later on, Rubber Soul poses as Kakyoin and approaches Jotaro and Anne; she eventually notices his strange behavior. Rubber Soul's real identity is revealed and he is defeated soon after.

On their way to India they leave her behind in Singapore to meet her father, but Jean Pierre Polnareff comes to the conclusion that it was a lie and she is probably an orphan. He then claims that it feels lonely without her presence. She is revealed, however, to have sneaked on the train and is following them again.

The group only encounters Anne moments before ZZ's attack, asking them for a ride in the middle of the street. It is then that she admits having run away from her parents in Hong Kong, though the group is more concerned about dropping her off and do not listen. Despite stern warnings from Joseph Joestar about their journey and how she is only going to slow them down, she tags along with the team and tries to bribe them with stolen porn pictures.

In the midst of ZZ's attack, Anne ends up tripping while running with the others. Instead of getting up and running, she stays on the floor and screams for help, at which Jotaro complies to do so, but not before scolding her for her attitude. The group eventually tells Anne they are going to give her money, plane tickets and send her back to Hong Kong as soon as possible. In the anime, it is shown that despite her protests, she is convinced by Joseph to stop running away and return to Hong Kong while explaining Holy Kujo's situation. She immediately does so, but not before cheering for Jotaro to save his mother's life.

Creation and Development
Araki had written Anne because he liked the idea of having a girl with Jotaro's group, but due to it being difficult to involve her in life-or-death situations during the era when Stardust Crusaders was releasing, he had to change the group back to being all men. He also states that he could have had Anne develop a Stand if she stayed with them, as even the smallest person can have a powerful Stand.

Anne's real name was initially unknown, as she's simply referred to as the "runaway girl" in the manga, and "bad girl" in the Drama CD. David Production producer Hisataka Kasama asked Araki if he could name the runaway girl because he thought it was odd that she didn't have a name despite hanging out with the Joestar group for a while. Araki named her Merlai Anne (マーライ・アン) as a pun of Singapore's official mascot, the. However, only "Anne" was used officially in the anime and related media.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (PS1)
In Super Story Mode Runaway Girl appears as a minor character introduced on Tennille's ship, she briefly accompanies the Joestar Group and quietly disappears after the group defeats Wheel of Fortune.

Gallery
}}