Lisa Lisa

"I'm not teaching you the Ripple to save your life. I'm teaching you to become warriors that can defeat the Pillar Men... that's all."

- Lisa Lisa to her students,

Lisa Lisa (リサリサ), full name Elizabeth Joestar (エリザベス・ジョースター), is a primary ally featured in the second part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Battle Tendency, but introduced as a tertiary character in the first part, Phantom Blood.

Lisa Lisa is a Ripple master and mentor to Caesar Zeppeli and Joseph Joestar, residing in Venice but whose past is initially unknown. She leads the Ripple Users' efforts in battling the Pillar Men. Later, it is revealed that she is Joseph's mother.

She is also a primary ally in the light novel JORGE JOESTAR and the main protagonist of rey infinito.

Appearance
Lisa Lisa is a tall and fit woman. Beautiful and poised, she has light eyes and long, dark hair. Lisa Lisa's real age is 50, but her Ripple training has allowed her to appear as though she were still in her late 20s.

Her most known clothes were worn during the last fight with Kars. She wears earrings, a dark strapless dress with shorted-skirt, black pantyhose, a pair of high heels and a long, Ripple-conducting scarf. Occasionally she also wears a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Personality
Lisa Lisa is like any Ripple Master, a dignified and courageous woman, facing the Pillar Men without fear, and confidently confronts any challenge she encounters, especially in regards to fighting someone. Lisa Lisa takes some pride in her fighting ability, and tells Joseph that she doesn't need a youngster like him to win. Lisa Lisa is constantly portrayed as a brave woman, being able to bluff Kars into sparing her and Joseph when they are surrounded by vampires without letting any emotion transpire, and in the past, immediately killed the zombie who murdered her husband George II, forcing her to hide in Europe. As the master of Caesar and Joseph, she skillfully employs harsh and apparently life-threatening training for her students, and is severe to Joseph, whose antics she doesn't tolerate during his training. Being the de facto leader of the Ripple Users, she is an authoritative leader and reminds everyone that their emotions are secondary to their goal of defeating the Pillar Men. After Caesar's death, Lisa Lisa tries to maintain an insensitive facade, telling Joseph to immediately focus on the fight. However, Joseph points out her loss of composure, upon which she breaks down in tears, illustrating her deep feelings for Caesar as a student and comrade.

Otherwise Lisa Lisa behaves like a normal if elegant woman. She managed to begin another life after her battle against the Pillar Men threat, notably marrying again and coming to live in the United States.

Ripple
Lisa Lisa is a Ripple master, trained by Tonpetty's successor, Straizo.

Illustrating her talent and skill, she first appears standing on an oar on a surface of water, turning it into a high bar on charged pillars of water. It is mentioned during the events of the chariot arc that her Ripple is at least three times more powerful than Joseph's. Her ability for training others results in Caesar and Joseph's rapid growth into Ripple masters in their own rights.

Creation and Development
For the second part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki decided to have a female character play the part of the Ripple master. He wondered what it would be like for a female to follow up the Ripple master Will Anthonio Zeppeli from Phantom Blood. There also weren't "too many female characters" in the series at the time. Araki also thinks Lisa Lisa works well when paired with Joseph and Caesar.

Araki mentions that the first obstacle in designing Lisa Lisa was her name, saying, "Back then, if you picked a non-Japanese name for your character, it was a challenge to get the audience to remember it." Thus, "Lisa Lisa" was chosen. Araki believes that a repetitious name like "JoJo" would help, and that it phonetically resembles Japanese to some extent.

At the time of Battle Tendency's serialization, the females in other shonen manga were depicted as "a man's ideal girl": cute types who would giggle during conversations. Because of this, Araki felt that a warrior-type female like Lisa Lisa felt fresh. Lisa Lisa's personality was inspired by an incredibly smart girl in Araki's neighborhood who tutored him when he was in elementary school, since he felt intimidated by her. He also personally admits that he's fond of female characters who are capable of fighting for themselves. He commented on his intents to have Lisa Lisa portrayed with "uncommon realism" for women in shonen comics, but he was held back from going as far as he would have liked with her.

Finally, Araki states that in addition to functioning as a master people weren't used to seeing a woman fight. In battles, the one who is physically stronger would win, but Araki realized that if supernatural abilities were involved a woman can fight evenly with a strong male. "In other words," Araki says, "if the battle is between those with supernatural powers, physical appearance has nothing to do with strength."

Trivia

 * In a piece from the Hirohiko Araki JoJo Exhibition 2012, Lisa Lisa is erroneously depicted with a Joestar Birthmark, despite her not being a Joestar by blood.
 * from the Street Fighter series is based off of Lisa Lisa; Rose's outfit is almost identical to Lisa Lisa's and both share a similar fighting style that consists of channeling energy into their scarfs (Soul Power in the case of Rose and Ripple in the case of Lisa Lisa). Additionally, both characters like to take baths and Rose's stage in is Venice, which is the same city where Joseph Joestar meets Lisa Lisa in the story.