Josuke Higashikata

"You can call me the man who performs under pressure, "Josuke Higashikata"! (プレッシャーをはねかえす男「東方仗助」と呼んでくれっス！)"

- Josuke Higashikata,

Josuke Higashikata (東方 仗助) is the main protagonist of the fourth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Diamond is Unbreakable, and the fourth JoJo of the series. He is the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar and Tomoko Higashikata. He also appears as a primary ally in the 2021 spin-off Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.

Josuke is a biracial (half-Japanese and half-British) first-year high school student residing in the town of Morioh. In the year 1999, he meets Jotaro Kujo, who informs him that he is Joseph's illegitimate son, making him a descendant of the Joestar Family. After his grandfather dies, Josuke takes it upon himself to protect his beloved town from malevolent Stand Users.

Josuke is a Stand User that wields Crazy Diamond, a Stand with the power to repair almost anything.

Appearance
"Excuse me... What did you say about my hair?!"

- Josuke Higashikata,

Josuke is a tall, young man of average build. His most prominent feature is his well-maintained with two small, curved spikes in the back, styled after that of an unknown man who saved his life as a child. His pompadour has a tendency to become spiky with his mood, such as when he is irritated or angry.

Josuke wears a dark, modified Japanese school uniform. His jacket conforms to his body, extending to the middle of his thigh, accompanied by a pair of wide-legged pants. He keeps his jacket unbuttoned and pinned aside, revealing a light undershirt with a short zipper on each side of his chest. He also wears a small stud in each ear.

Josuke wears a number of metallic/golden emblems. On the left side of his collar, he wears a modified anchor and on his right, a row of two small hearts. Pinning his open jacket to his chest on his right is a (☮), and on the left is a heart (occasionally enclosing a palm, like on Jotaro's hat). He wears a gold band at both wrists over his sleeves (under more elaborate pieces in several illustrations).

A man with expensive taste, Josuke wears Mr. Junko original socks, ¥25,000 black shoes, and  brand underwear.

Josuke's most common color scheme consists of either a dark blue or purple uniform and a green or yellow undershirt.

Personality
"I'll protect my mother and this town. No matter what comes, I'll be the guardian in Grandpa's place."

- Josuke Higashikata,

At first impression, strangers are often intimidated by Josuke's delinquent appearance and hotheadedness, with Jotaro Kujo and Koichi Hirose both thinking Josuke was "scary" when they initially encountered him. Indeed, his "delinquent" attitude is conveyed through his rough language; he does not always display the deference towards adults and authority figures typically expected of a Japanese teenager, opting for a casual and straightforward tone. However, it is immediately apparent that Josuke has a deep capacity for kindness, with his anger simply being an extension of his tendency to display emotions openly and passionately. His outgoing and friendly nature allows him to befriend many Stand users over the course of the story, converting enemies into allies. These bonds strengthen his resolve to protect the town of Morioh and the people he loves.

Josuke's empathy is clearly manifested in his Stand, which has the ability to heal people and repair objects to a previous state. Already using his Stand to heal people and fixing broken bones as a young child, Josuke doesn't like to see people in pain. Because he was always able to "fix" people, he has difficulty accepting death as a permanent state that his Stand cannot change. For example, when he finds his grandfather dead, Josuke heals the wounds on his corpse and insists he is going to wake up fine, unable to accept his death as a reality until Jotaro gently tells him that no Stand can bring the dead back to life. This has a profound effect on Josuke, who begins to see life as something even more worthy of protecting. Josuke will also go to great lengths to heal acquaintances or even enemies; during the Nijimura Brothers arc, he risks his life and sustains injuries to heal a severely wounded Okuyasu, even though he tried to kill Josuke moments ealier. His reasoning was "I just don't want anyone to die."

Overall, Josuke behaves like a teenager and, aside from his general goal of protecting Morioh from any Stand menace, is concerned by more down to earth matters, such as hanging out with his friends. As a result, Josuke is almost never seen alone in the streets of Morioh. Josuke passively protects his town, and only acts when directly asked by the much more proactive Jotaro or when he directly encounters a Stand User. Curious, Josuke is quick to investigate any unusual phenomenon, which often leads him to a Stand User. Josuke is very prone to openly communicate his feelings and emotions, making him appear to be a goofy individual.

Sufficiently humble, Josuke confesses to being nervous around famous people, opting not to go with Koichi to first meet Rohan Kishibe due to his great fame as a mangaka. Josuke also has a fear of turtles, and has tried to touch a turtle to get rid of that fear. Josuke isn't shy to admit his limits, and has confessed that he doesn't know much about manga, or isn't good at video games, even though he isn't happy to have someone know these factoids. In the same way, Josuke tries to live up to Jotaro, whom he admires, and has been nervous around him due to a fear of not living up to the task Jotaro entrusted to him. He has also shown a mild fear of ghosts (in the beginning), as shown when Koichi wonders if he saw a ghost in the house next to Josuke's, and Josuke nervously tells him to cut it out.

However, in a fight, Josuke is much more calm and observational, even though aspects of his goofiness tend to shine through. He has sufficient confidence in his own abilities, namely his Stand, but this doesn't extend to Josuke himself since he can still be nervous if things don't go his way. Additionally, Terunosuke Miyamoto observes that Josuke's nervous tic is to bite his lips. Even if Josuke is gentle by nature, he has no qualms about brutalizing an enemy and, in the case that someone has hurt or endangered a loved one, Josuke will be even more vindictive, as he fused Angelo with a rock and Terunosuke with a book.

Having inherited his father's mischievous side, Josuke has no qualms bending any established rules or even breaking the law over his greedy pursuits. When he and Okuyasu meet Shigechi, Josuke uses his cleverness and charisma to exploit Shigechi's Stand Harvest to find discarded change and coupons from all over Morioh, and commits a felony by impersonating the original buyer of a winning lottery ticket in order to redeem the money. Similarly, after meeting Mikitaka Hazekura, he takes advantage of his shape-shifting ability, convincing Mikitaka to turn into dice in order to cheat money from Rohan, with whom he has a bad relationship. Josuke also steals Joseph's wallet as he departs Morioh, with Josuke cheekily referring to it as his "allowance".

While Josuke does have his fair share of groupies, he deals with them much less dramatically than his father and nephew. He isn't perverted nor relentlessly flirtatious (unlike Joseph), but he doesn't go out of his way to get rid of them (unlike Jotaro). Instead, if the girls near Josuke express interest in him, he is flattered and has shown to get along quite well with his female classmates and admirers. When Jotaro asks Josuke to go hunting, Josuke initially believes he means hunting for girls and says with a blush and smile that he is more of a 'love kind of guy'. He is also humorously noted to be jealous of Yuya Fungami's groupies. However, he seems to be willing to fight them as he threatened to kill Yukako if she tried to do anything to Koichi, with whom she was obsessed. While he does express interest in women, it is not his main priority.

As a catchphrase, Josuke often says "Great" in English. He also displays an odd quirk whenever he pronounces the Japanese phrase kakkoii (かっこいい), a masculine compliment essentially meaning "cool", where he will always pronounce it weirdly like "Kappyoii" or "Kacchoii." These mispronunciations are translated as "kewl" in the English Crunchyroll subtitles.

Josuke is hyper-sensitive about his unique hairstyle, reacting violently to anyone that mocks it. Koichi believes this idiosyncrasy is due to Josuke treating it as an insult to his childhood savior that he modeled his own style upon. Josuke automatically enters a blind rage, regardless of the circumstances, and doesn't hesitate to attack people he may have deferred to moments earlier, such as an upperclassman that was bullying him. This "blind rage" is also literal; when Rohan Kishibe openly mocks Josuke's hair in an attempt to manipulate him into looking at his manuscript, Josuke is so enraged that he cannot see it right in front of him, and beats Rohan so severely that he is sent to the hospital and forced to put his manga on hiatus for two months.

Araki explains that Josuke was truly hurt by the fact that he grew up never knowing his father and that he covered up this pain with the pompadour man who saved him as a kid. According to Araki, Josuke considers that man a hero, somebody he can rely on, and a symbol of his faith in people.

In the spin-off Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak, Josuke reveals that he also felt anxious about being a Stand User because he was the only one in his entourage to have one and he believed that he suffered from a disease.

Abilities
""Humans thrive on the destruction of others... but among them, there's you, and your power is the kindest, most generous ability one could ever have...""

- Jotaro Kujo,

Stand
Josuke's Stand, Crazy Diamond, can restore objects (and organisms) to a previous state in their history.

It is able to repair damage and heal injuries. It can also revert an item to its components (e.g. a wooden table into lumber).

With this, Crazy Diamond may perform a range of interesting feats; including trapping (parts of) an enemy by restoring pieces of a broken object around it; and tracking, accomplished by restoring something such as a torn piece of clothing, which seeks to reattach itself to the original article.

However, this Stand is not without limits: Crazy Diamond can only restore state, not life, hence a lifeless body would still remain dead even after being "fixed" by Crazy Diamond's power. Also, the healing power cannot be used on Josuke himself, or strictly speaking, anything that can be considered a part of his current self, body, or even his own clothes.

Mastery
Josuke shows great proficiency with using Crazy Diamond in combat. Thanks to its great physical prowess, Josuke can use Crazy Diamond's fists to perform outside-of-the-box tactics such as breaking through a wall to escape an attack. Moreover, he has been shown to throw projectiles with great efficiency thanks to his Stand's sheer strength and precision.

Additionally, Josuke has been shown to use his seemingly restricted power for a wide array of tactical goals. Crazy Diamond's power of repairing anything makes Josuke a great healer, as long as he can reach his allies before they die, and he works exceptionally well with a partner as a result. Because he can break objects and repair them, Josuke is liberal in breaking anything to get something he wants such as a more favorable position or a key item like fuel for a motorcycle, use a precious item as leverage, or even destroy his motorcycle to avoid a baby carriage; he then repairs anything he's broken, cancelling any consequence his antics would have. Josuke can easily exploit the environment to his advantage thanks to Crazy Diamond. His ability to repair makes it so he can manipulate the environment to a certain point, like creating a shield out of concrete or laying down a trap with an object's broken pieces only to repair it around an enemy. The deadliness of his projectile is also increased as he can create a boomerang effect by forcing a piece to come back to him, hitting an enemy from behind.

Personal Skills
Josuke is shrewd, confident, and courageous, possessing considerable fluid intelligence and a will to win - just like his father.


 * Intelligence: Josuke is extremely quick to get on his feet under almost any circumstance as he is very aware of his immediate surroundings as well as his own capabilities. He is proficient in utilizing anything he has within reach for dealing with problems at hand and is also shown to be capable of planning several steps ahead by reading opponents' behavior and habits. Josuke is very confident of his abilities to the point of claiming that there is nothing Crazy Diamond (indirectly referring to himself) can't fix and expresses mild disappointment after figuring out what he thought would have been one such problem. As a result of his intellect, Josuke can be quite cunning; manipulating, lying, and cheating others occasionally to achieve certain selfish goals.


 * Physical Fitness: Josuke possesses substantial athletic ability. He has been shown once to have successfully chased down a moving bus over long distances completely on foot, and can handle a heavy motorbike effortlessly for the first and only time riding it while achieving many otherwise professional feats during a high-speed chase in attempts to avoid direct contacts with the enemy chasing him down. The most well known demonstration of Josuke's physical toughness is shown when he withstands exposure to several explosions generated by Yoshikage Kira's Killer Queen, sustaining heavy injuries and blood loss but remaining conscious enough to think of countermeasures and tactics.

Friends, Classmates and Others

 * Koichi Hirose: Josuke is close friends with Koichi and frequently looks out for his well-being. When Koichi becomes victim to Yukako's intense affection toward him, Josuke takes measures to make Koichi seem less attractive. Josuke respects Koichi's bravery in dire times and sees him as a good friend and worthy ally, trusting him for help throughout various battles.
 * Okuyasu Nijimura: Initially, Josuke and Okuyasu met as enemies, but after hearing out Okuyasu's story and motives, Josuke becomes best friends with him. The two frequently hang out with each other and experience day-to-day misadventures. They often encounter or fight Stand users together such as Tonio, Otoishi, Shigechi, Mikitaka, Toyohiro, and Kira. They have such a strong bond that when Okuyasu was attacked and nearly killed by Kira, Josuke refused to leave him even though it seemed Okuyasu was dead and dragging his body slowed Josuke down.
 * Rohan Kishibe: Josuke and Rohan initially met as enemies due to Rohan nearly killing Koichi and Okuyasu. Josuke then gets his hair insulted by Rohan and pummels him in blinded rage. Although their views of each other cool down after that, they do not view each other any more amicably. Rohan becomes suspicious of Josuke's attempts to cheat money from him and Josuke becomes suspicious of Rohan's attempts at revenge. Despite this, the two hold some begrudging respect and trust in each other. Due to their contrasting personalities, Rohan had difficulty getting Josuke to listen to him during the fight with Highway Star and saved Josuke's life while risking his own. Josuke started to respect Rohan after that and risked his life in return by looking for Yuya Fungami in hopes of rescuing Rohan. Although Josuke has healed Rohan's pinky during their game of Cee-lo, and then healed him again after Highway Star, Rohan gets angry afterwards because he never asked Josuke to do so.
 * Mikitaka Hazekura: Josuke and Mikitaka see each other as close friends. Mikitaka is especially thankful of Josuke for "saving his life" by finding him in a crop circle and getting him away from loud sirens later on. Josuke does not hesitate to have Mikitaka use his ability to attempt to scam money from Rohan, but becomes worried when Mikitaka displays signs of sickness and attempts to look out for his friend's well-being. In addition, Josuke is moved when Mikitaka offers to sacrifice his freedom to save Josuke from Super Fly during their fight against Toyohiro, and does everything in his power to save him. Overall, the two are good loyal friends who stand by each other.
 * Josuke's Savior: In a past incident in which Josuke had a fever and the car his mom drove was stuck in a snowstorm, an unnamed student with a pompadour took off his coat and placed it underneath the car. By doing so, the car was able to start up and drive over the coat safely as the student pushed the car from behind. This caused Josuke to look up to the student as a role model, and hence style his own hair in a similar manner and to live his life based on how he believed his hero would act. Josuke's admiration is so strong that when someone insults his pompadour, Josuke takes it as an insult to his hero and beats up whoever insulted his hair.
 * Yukako Yamagishi: The two did not start off on good terms due to Yukako's initial obsession and kidnapping of Koichi. When Josuke saw her again, he threatened to kill her if she did anything to Koichi, though she promised not to. The two were stated to have a relationship where they don't care for each other, but after she and Koichi begin dating, Josuke was seen hanging with her and Okuyasu at a cafe in Chapter 371 (notably without Koichi).
 * Shigekiyo Yangu: Initially, Shigekiyo was friendly to Josuke and Okuyasu as he was glad to make new friends. Josuke and Okuyasu referred to him as "Shigechi". Together, they decided to use Shigechi's powers to their advantage to earn some easy money. However, when Shigechi got greedy and failed to keep his promise of sharing an equal amount of money with Josuke and Okuyasu, it led to a confrontation. Josuke and Okuyasu managed to defeat him and Shigechi re-befriended the two. While still annoyed by his greed, Josuke was distraught upon learning Shigechi was murdered by Kira and swore to get revenge for him.
 * Yuya Fungami: The two initially started out as enemies as Yuya used his Stand to absorb nutrients from both Rohan and him. Since he was injured, Josuke healed his wounds so that it would be a "fair fight" and then immediately punched him again several times, knocking him out the window. However, when Terunosuke captured Koichi, Josuke went to Yuya for help finding Koichi with his sense of smell in exchange for Josuke healing his wounds. Yuya agreed but stated he wouldn't help fight the Stand user. Despite this, Yuya put his life on the line to save Josuke and Koichi, earning Josuke's respect. The two soon became friends afterwards.
 * Reimi Sugimoto: While Josuke did not have much interaction with Reimi as much as she did with Rohan and Koichi, he did still seem to care for her and felt sorry for her condition. He also didn't seem scared of her, despite his initial fear of ghosts. He listened to her advice about the serial killer Stand user Kira and bid her farewell when she left.
 * Hayato Kawajiri: Hayato found out his father was replaced by Kira and when trying to expose Kira ended up being saved by Josuke. He gave advice to Josuke throughout his fight with Kira despite not having a Stand, such as exposing a weakness in Kira's Stand ability. Josuke in turn admires Hayato's bravery, such as when he allows himself to set off the bomb on Okuyasu's body in place of Josuke, as Hayato sees Josuke and his allies as the only way to stop Kira. He played an integral part in helping Josuke fight against Kira while Josuke protected him, becoming friends in the process.

Family

 * Tomoko Higashikata: Josuke is very close to his mother, as her emotions towards Joseph are much of the reason for his animosity towards his father. He considers her a strong woman and the two love each other deeply. Though he loves his mother, he can be annoyed by her strictness such as telling him to go to bed early or when she froze his bank account after learning he earned 1 million yen. Both act very informally with each other.
 * Ryohei Higashikata: Josuke respects his maternal grandfather and looks up to him due to his profession as a police officer. The two are very close and Ryohei has a habit of pranking Josuke. When he was killed by Angelo, Josuke got his revenge by fusing Angelo to a rock for eternity to stay in the town his grandfather protected.
 * Jotaro Kujo: Despite having fought Jotaro when they first met, Josuke has quickly grown to trust him especially after their battle with Angelo and after Jotaro tells him the details behind Stand users in Morioh. Later, when Jotaro takes him out hunting, Josuke is quick to accept and trusts his strategy. They also band together to fight against Yoshikage Kira. Although Josuke is technically Jotaro's uncle, he looks up to Jotaro as a mentor while Jotaro cares for Josuke as a younger brother, though is also mildly exasperated by the latter's temper and rougher-around-the-edge Stand abilities. The two have been described as having a relationship of mutual trust and respect, though Josuke tends to feel pressured by Jotaro due to his greater experience and power. He also looks up to Jotaro calling his Star Platinum invincible during his fight with Akira Otoishi and again when fighting Yoshihiro Kira.
 * Joseph Joestar: Before meeting his father, Josuke preferred that he would just leave because he thought it was too late for Joseph to get involved with him and his mother. Josuke states that he doesn't hate him, but it would be awkward meeting him now and would rather have him leave them in peace as it's always been. However, he fights against Otoishi to protect Joseph's life because he believes he'll be seeing bad dreams if he isn't able to help his father. When Joseph first arrives at Morioh with a broken cane, Josuke also helps him walk by holding his hand instead of repairing it. Upon seeing Joseph's strong desire to help people when he endangered his life to save Shizuka, Josuke starts to warm up to him. By the end of the manga, he's happily accepting of his father, though still steals his wallet.
 * Shizuka Joestar: When he and Joseph found her, they were surprised by her powers and did their best to take care of her and find her parents. Josuke was concerned when her powers caused her and everything around her to turn invisible and did his best to make sure she was unharmed. He also thinks of her as cute. Considering the limited interactions between the two, it is safe to assume the two get along, especially now that they are siblings (as Joseph later adopts Shizuka).

Enemies

 * Yoshikage Kira: After Kira killed Shigechi, Josuke swore to avenge him and developed a grudge against Kira. While Josuke loathed Kira, the latter didn't think much of Josuke and as an enemy, preferred to avoid any confrontation with him. However, during their final battle, Kira noticed that Josuke's ability to repair things was the perfect counter to Killer Queen's ability. After realizing that Josuke is the most terrifying person getting in the way of his peace of mind rather than Jotaro, Kira was more cautious during their fight.
 * Yoshihiro Kira: Because Yoshihiro is Yoshikage's greatest ally, Josuke and Yoshihiro are enemies. Josuke bears a grudge against Yoshihiro and the latter made several attempts to kill Josuke including attacking him with his Stand and creating several Stand users. Josuke manages to kill Yoshihiro by tricking Yoshikage, who unknowingly makes his father explode.
 * Anjuro Katagiri: Due to Angelo murdering his grandfather, Josuke despised him and made a vow to protect Morioh from criminals like him. Josuke would later take his revenge by turning Angelo into a rock.
 * Akira Otoishi: Out of empathy for Okuyasu losing his brother to Otoishi, Josuke disliked Otoishi and knew he had to be stopped. When confronting Josuke in his own home, Otoishi underestimated his abilities and thought he could defeat Josuke with only his pinky. When Otoishi threatens to murder Joseph, Josuke fights seriously against him and after his defeat, Otoishi cooperates by staying in prison due to fear of being hunted down by Jotaro.
 * Terunosuke Miyamoto: In order to lure out Josuke, Terunosuke trapped Josuke's mother and Koichi inside pieces of paper. Josuke was angered by him for being someone who would take people hostage, most notably his mother. Josuke would later get his revenge by turning Terunosuke into a book and leaving him in the Morioh library.
 * Keicho Nijimura: Josuke and Keicho met as enemies due to the latter's involvement in putting Morioh's population in danger and shooting Koichi in the throat. While Josuke detested Keicho's callousness toward his own brother, he felt sympathetic towards the brothers after learning of their father's fate, recognizing some decency in Keicho and offered a truce. Keicho, plagued by the thought of his past crimes, rejected the truce and was killed by Otoishi soon afterwards.
 * Toyohiro Kanedaichi: Originally acting friendly towards Josuke, Toyohiro reveals that his kindness was only a ploy in an attempt to kill him. After a brief fight, Toyohiro tells Josuke and the others that he is trapped by his Stand and was just trying to escape. He then dropped all hostility towards Josuke and his friends and informed him that Koichi was being attacked by another Stand user.

The Book: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 4th Another Day

 * Takuma Hasumi: After learning that there was another murderer in Morioh, Josuke went on an investigation that eventually led him to confront Takuma. While the two have only brief interactions, Josuke never forgave Takuma for assaulting Okuyasu and his mother and insulting his hero. Despite this, after a lengthy fight with Takuma, Josuke tried to save Takuma's life when he fell off a roof. Takuma rejected the help and fell to his death.

Creation and Development
As of Steel Ball Run, Josuke is Araki's favorite JoJo. He explains that because of the general everyday neighborhood setting of Diamond is Unbreakable, he felt more attached to Josuke, and considered him somewhat like a friend or a senior. In contrast, Jotaro was "more of someone you would admire as a hero".

The identity of Josuke's savior is a commonly discussed subject in the fandom, dating back to when Part 4 was first publicized in Weekly Shonen Jump. In a 1994 interview with OVA director,, when asked about the flashback and whether it was Josuke who met himself, Hirohiko Araki replied: "It's irrelevant, that was merely Josuke's memory." David Production's TV Anime director, Naokatsu Tsuda, also inquired Araki on who the mysterious boy was during production of the anime adaptation, though Araki seemingly chose not to comment.

Reception
In the 2019 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, skater paid tribute to Josuke's character by cosplaying as him during the exhibition gala, performing to the music of the anime's main theme.

Trivia

 * The "Suke" (助) in his name may also be pronounced as "Jo" in Japanese.
 * Josuke's surname, Higashikata, is written using the same kanji as "tōhō" (東方), the Japanese word for "eastern" or "oriental".