Morioh

"The youth of this town have a golden spirit. That spirit they embody will naturally course into others without a word..."

- Joseph Joestar,

Morioh (杜王町) is a fictional town located within Japan's M Prefecture in S-City, and the setting of the fourth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Diamond is Unbreakable.

While the population of Morioh is small and relatively peaceful, living there before the introduction of the Bow and Arrow are several Stand users; among them Josuke Higashikata and the villainous Yoshikage Kira. After the Nijimura brothers take the Bow and Arrow, activity in the town takes a spike.

Morioh possesses several landmarks, the vast majority of them being connected to a Stand user.

Geographical Description and Climate
Morioh is a small coastal town situated in Japan. Morioh is said to be near a certain "S-City", in "M-Prefecture", which is a reference to Araki's own real-life hometown of,. The town is roughly centered around its train station, with downtown Morioh being situated near the station and the largest roads spreading in a circle from the station. To the East of the train station are most of the residential areas then the coast itself. To the West South-West of the station are the more rural areas and agricultural fields. Beyond that are mountainous areas. The Hirose river crosses the South of Morioh before linking with the sea.

Despite being a Japanese town, the local architecture is mostly Western-style. The residential neighborhoods of Morioh actually resemble American suburbs with spacious tracts of land and detached houses. Morioh's downtown is also occupied by Western-style buildings, which are a couple of stories tall at most, leaving a cleared skyline.

The infrastructure of Morioh is well-developed, notably in the local means of public transportation. One train station links Morioh to S-City and is often used by commuters. There is also a bus network that connects Morioh to other cities, for instance to Sapporo. There are at least three different bus lines, as Koichi Hirose tells Jotaro Kujo to take the "bus 3".

S City of M Prefecture is a city adjacent to Morioh. It was undergoing many forays to new enterprises. People working there were seeking to take residence and came to Morioh, quickly expanding the town's population.

S City was much more modern than Morioh: people often compared life there with the ones seen on TV dramas. Some people that didn't want a rural life or to take a modern job went there after graduating high school in search of a job, but the market was competitive.

As Morioh is situated in Northeastern Japan, it has particularly cold winters. A flashback of Josuke's childhood points out that Morioh could be subject to blizzards.

Culture
As a countryside Japanese town, life in Morioh is relatively quiet and peaceful. Most of the population consists of ordinary human beings who live ordinary lives. Most of the population belongs to the middle to middle-high class, with some residences used as summer houses for rich people who aren't locals. There is a mild obvious criminal activity in young biker gangs who break the law and drive recklessly. In the summer, the town sees an influx of tourists, and the local inhabitants are said to be relatively unwelcoming of the tourists.

However, Morioh is unique because of the unusually high population of Stand Users who live here. This is explained by the presence of two Arrows in the hands of the Nijimura and Kira families, as well as the presence of a minor branch of the Joestar Family in the Higashikatas. Keicho Nijimura has shot many people with his Arrow in the months preceding the events of Diamond is Unbreakable, and Yoshihiro Kira also has shot a number of people with his Arrow, resulting in a high concentration of malevolent Stand Users. Josuke Higashikata also has acquired a Stand thanks to his blood connection with the Joestar Family. Finally, the town has known a natural influx of Stand Users who have come for unrelated reasons, such as Tonio Trussardi and Aya Tsuji. Josuke and his companions often clash with malevolent Stand Users, resulting in regular occurrences of mayhem across Morioh.

The "town's flower" is the, and the town's specialty is.

The residents of Morioh are somewhat superstitious without being truly religious. Whenever they narrowly escape trouble, they think "I was saved thanks to my good conduct". People over 30 will also mutter an old saying: "With faith, even a sardine's head can be sacred".

The anime adaptation adds a local radio show named "Morioh-cho Radio", hosted by a man named Kai Harada. The radio offers local news and broadcasts songs.

Activities
Morioh is a commuter town and a suburb of S City, which means a large part of the working population commutes to the larger S-City to work. However, Morioh is not devoid of local business. The town has a number of small businesses operating, such as the Kameyu market hall, a bank, and other mundane businesses. Morioh also has an industrial port and has a local fishing industry (seen with the fishermen who witnessed the incident Yukako Yamagishi at Boing-boing Cape). The town also has a small number of unusual businesses. Tonio Trussardi's "Trattoria" and Aya Tsuji's "Cinderella" Beauty Salon's activities are based on their owners' respective Stand powers, resulting in highly unusual services. Tamami Kobayashi, a local resident, also operates as a loan shark and uses his The Lock to guilt-trip people into giving him back his loans immediately.

Every year on July 1, rivers and beaches open up to the public in Morioh. Because of this, the date range from July to August is the season for traveling and tourism. 70% to 80% of the total tourism revenue of Morioh is brought in during this time. The number of domestic and international visitors coming from the Tokyo area or S city nearly doubles the population. Each year, the town attracts around 200,000 tourists. However, the residents generally do not mingle with the tourists and local vendors approach them with an unwelcoming attitude like "If you're going to buy something, I'll sell it to you". Despite how their nature can be off-putting, the people of Morioh are generally good people after getting to know them.

Popular Activities include vacation resorts, golfing, camping, fishing, picnicking, yachting, windsurfing, tasting local seafood and traditional Japanese products, and visiting the mysterious underwater palace. All are main attractions that ensure a good time in Morioh over the summer.

History
The area around Morioh has been inhabited for a long time. There are remains of villages dating back to the (c. 14,000–300 BCE). It was then inhabited by samurai with many martial arts training grounds and villas. In the 1980s, the town quickly developed into a small yet significant commuter town with a middle-class population who commutes to S-City for work.

Not much earlier, Morioh had been just a rural town where one could find only rice and vegetable fields. The country town was run mostly by agriculture business, and as a result, people in there had hard and cracked hands. They often needed to check on the water in the paddy fields in the middle of the night. There was at least one area in the Northeast famous for an old summer retreat.

Morioh eventually underwent a transformation in an age where places all over Japan were improving. M Prefecture's government officials decided to invest money into Morioh to develop it, as its population was quickly increasing with workers from the adjacent S City. The streets were repaired, shops and markets were built, and pretty houses were lined up on the land that used to be rice fields. Power lines and telephone poles that harmed the views disappeared or were abandoned (including one that would later be bound to the Stand Super Fly). With the development of the town, many people came back to live in Morioh, with Akari Hirai among them.

On August 13, 1983, the story of Morioh takes a turn for the worse. A young Yoshikage Kira commits his first murder, killing Reimi Sugimoto and her family. Kira will kill 48 women over 15 years, remaining unsuspected all this time due to leaving no evidence save for his first murder, as well as keeping a low profile. As of 1999, Morioh has 81 missing persons, 45 of which are children, which is seven to eight times greater than the average for similarly-sized cities in Japan. At the start of the year, Keicho Nijimura and Okuyasu Nijimura arrive in town. They use the Bow and Arrow to create several Stand Users, leading to a spike in criminality. Months earlier, Keicho has turned the criminal Anjuro Katagiri into a Stand User and Anjuro moves to Morioh.

Warned about this criminal, Jotaro Kujo arrives in town and meets with Josuke Higashikata. For a while, Josuke and Jotaro gather allies and proceed to protect the town from all the malevolent Stand Users created by Keicho. Keicho is killed, and the Arrow temporarily stolen by Akira Otoishi, who is eventually arrested. The heroes also retrieve his Arrow.

However, on June 13, Koichi Hirose and Rohan Kishibe meet the Ghost of Reimi Sugimoto, who warns them about a serial-killer. The search for Yoshikage Kira accelerates when he encounters Shigekiyo Yangu and leaves a clue about his identity when he is forced to fight the little boy. Although he is found out, Kira manages to steal someone's identity and face. Yoshikage Kira's father, Yoshihiro Kira, uses his own Arrow to create another group of Stand Users, leading to a couple of fights. Meanwhile, Kira tries to live a normal life but the son of the Kawajiri Family, Hayato Kawajiri, manages to tip the heroes about Kira's identity. After a brutal fight, Kira is accidentally killed by an ambulance. His ghost is prevented from roaming free by Reimi and her dog Arnold, who make it so Kira's soul is taken away by the malicious spirits of Ghost Girl's Alley.

With Morioh now rid of Kira and with a generation of benevolent Stand Users to protect it, Jotaro and Joseph Joestar leave Morioh, confident that it is in good hands.

JORGE JOESTAR
An alternate version of Morioh appears in the novel JORGE JOESTAR. Morioh is situated in an alternate universe where things such as the general geography of Earth is different from the original universe. Unlike the original universe, Japan is actually on a supercontinent named Panlandia.

Similar to the original manga, Morioh is also a small Japanese coastal town known for its local delicacies and tourist-friendly attractions. The town is mostly peaceful yet lively; it has no telephone lines and has room for cars and pedestrians. With most of the town being on top of a valley, the residential area overlooks the coastal docks which are lined with several souvenir shops, inns, and restaurants. This Morioh also has some of the landmarks of the original Morioh, like the Angelo Rock, Boyoyoying Cape or Budogaoka High School.

One of the town's famous buildings was a unique house named the Cube House, which had no doors or windows, formerly residing on top of Morioh's biggest hill in 2004. In 2007, a new structure called the Arrow Cross House suddenly appeared in place of the Cube House, and it is later bought by in 2012. Other than Rohan, is also a tenant in the Arrow Cross House. It is later revealed that Reimi, in the form of the Arrow Cross House and the Cube House, is the Stand of Penelope de la Rosa, a character from the original universe with, which manifested from her desperation to find George Joestar II in the 37th universe.

Morioh's geography is altered drastically as a giant patch of land when it separates itself from Japan and the rest of Panlandia. The land begins to move on the ocean by itself, with an invisible dome-like barrier covering the town. It is further altered when another giant piece of land, the walking Nero Nero Island, collides with Morioh and sits atop the town.

Later, Jorge Joestar,, , and , crash their spaceship from Mars on top of the Arrow Cross House, and the impact knocks the piece of land upside down. Morioh ends up being underwater, revealing the mythical land of England under it. Although the town is submerged, people were still stuck to the ground with the dome protecting the town from the ocean.

Just like Morioh from the manga, this Morioh has a greater-than-average population of Stand Users, who are also aware of the existence of the serial-killer named Yoshikage Kira. This Kira has also changed his face and identity and is currently pursued by some detectives.

Creation and Development
The town is based on Hirohiko Araki's hometown,. He states that Sendai was an old historical town but began residential construction in the 80s, causing new houses to be built everywhere. Intimidated by the rapid increase in strangers, Araki used this experience for the basis of the setting in Part 4. However, Araki felt using the real name of the city in his manga may anger people, so he changed the name to Morioh. Morioh is instead a town within S City in M Prefecture, still referencing the real-life city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.

Film Production
The Spanish town of was used as the shooting location for the movie adaptation of Part 4.

All-Star Battle
Yoshikage Kira's residence and the street that serves as the location of the final battle are the two stages representing Part 4 in All-Star Battle.


 * Morioh (杜王町)
 * Stage Hazard: Lightning strikes the Pepsi sign and the puddles around the stage, damaging and stunning anyone hit as a result. Akira Otoishi takes no damage from the hazard, which instead sets his Power Gauge to the first level.
 * Situation Finish: The loser finds themselves in Ghost Girl's Alley, where the hands of the dead drag them off into the unknown.


 * Kira Estate (吉良邸)
 * Stage Hazard: Yoshihiro Kira attacks characters with a knife, traveling along a curving path.
 * Situation Finish: The loser is thrown into a stack of books. One of them flips open, revealing Yoshikage Kira's various nail clipping records and a message where he declares that he cannot be stopped during months where his nails grow more than 30 cm.

Eyes of Heaven
The area of Morioh near the Owson convenience store is an available battleground in the game.
 * Stage Gimmick 1: Certain characters may ride Rohan's motorcycle and perform offensive maneuvers on it, allowing for surprise attacks and quick traversal of the map. The bike can also be picked up and thrown as an explosive, inflicting heavy damage and setting the target area on fire.
 * Stage Gimmick 2: Café Deux Magots serves an espresso or other refreshment to any combatant who stops by at the glowing table, restoring their health.
 * Situation Finish: The defeated combatant finds themselves in Ghost Girl's Alley, where the hands of the dead drag them off into the unknown, recreating Yoshikage Kira's final defeat.

Boyoyoing Cape also serves as an available battleground in the game.
 * Stage Gimmick 1: Combatants that fall off the cliff are bounced across the stage to safety by Echoes ACT2's onomatopoeia, similarly to how Koichi saved Yukako.
 * Stage Gimmick 2: Bouncing onomatopoeia created by Echoes ACT2 can bounce combatants to various locations around the stage.
 * Stage Gimmick 3: Sizzling onomatopoeia created by Echoes ACT2 can damage and knock back combatants who touch it, potentially into other onomatopoeia. They will also attract Kira's Sheer Heart Attack if it strays too close.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Last Survivor
Downtown Morioh appears as the default stage of the game.

Trivia

 * Due to a Japanese-to-Chinese-to-English translation error in the first released online scans of Part 4, "Morioh" was incorrectly translated as Duwang; this name eventually becoming synonymous with and defining of the scanlation.