Jolyne Cujoh

"Gimme a break... (やれやれだわ)"

- Jolyne Cujoh

Jolyne Cujoh (空条 徐倫) is the main protagonist of the sixth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stone Ocean, and the sixth JoJo of the series. She is the daughter of Jotaro Kujo, the protagonist of Stardust Crusaders, and an American woman.

Framed for a murder, Jolyne is sent to Green Dolphin Street Prison, where she investigates and battles DIO's most trusted disciple, Father Enrico Pucci. Initially an ordinary girl, Jolyne quickly awakens her string-based Stand, Stone Free, during her time in jail.

Appearance
Jolyne is a young woman of above-average height and a slim to athletic build.

Bold-eyed, she wears her hair in two "layers": A dark base including two large buns atop her head and a short length going down her neck; above which, lightly dyed or bleached, she keeps a plait or braid that winds around both buns, joining in a short length at back, and bangs that frame her face.

Like all other members of the Joestar family, Jolyne has a small, star-shaped birthmark on the rear of her left shoulder, close to her neck. She also has an image of butterfly wings tattooed on the top of her left forearm, superimposed with a downward-pointing dagger, which also appears on the chest of her outfits.

Jolyne's depiction in Part 6 transitions from a slim and smooth build to a somewhat more dynamic and athletic one. Simultaneously, she works through several primarily dark outfits, characterized by a spiderweb-like print.

Jolyne, Fly High with GUCCI
In the one-shot, Jolyne makes an appearance in many different outfits. She mainly wears a white linen peacoat with an elaborate flower motif with a matching scarf. Underneath the jacket, Jolyne wears a dress that also changes for no reason, the first version being black with the same flower motif, the second being a white gown.

Jolyne also wears in order: a three-piece pink suit with spiked platform sandals and an elaborate necklace, a simple yellow dress with intricate flower and fruit decorations on the shoulder area, and a brown dress with a matching leather belt.

In the one-shot, Jolyne's hair is consistently portrayed as green with blonde strands of hair.

Personality
"Two men look out through the same bars, one sees the wall and the other, stars... Which one I am? [...] Of course I'll see the stars... until I see my father, I want to keep on looking at the stars. (『ひとりの囚人は壁を見ていた』……『もうひとりの囚人は鉄格子からのぞく星を見ていた』あたしはどっちだ？ [...] もちろんあたしは星を見るわ…父に会うまで……星の光を見ていたい)"

- Jolyne's strong resolve to save her father's life

Flighty, abrupt, and snappy with her elders, Jolyne during her adolescence would undoubtedly be considered a delinquent and a lost cause. Bitter at Jotaro for being absent from her life, she tried multiple times to catch her father's attention by committing various minor crimes and was arrested several times as a result. Because of her father's absence, Jolyne was said to be dependent on the affection and approval of those around her, and she was ready to cover Romeo's accident, resulting in her being sentenced to 15 years in prison for it.

After acquiring her Stand and being told by Jotaro of his love for her, Jolyne noticeably matures, becoming more courageous and confident. "Reviving" Jotaro, who fell into a coma due to Whitesnake stealing his Stand and memory, turns into her first priority.

Jolyne retains her confrontational attitude throughout the story. A former delinquent living in a maximum-security prison, Jolyne had to toughen up and can be especially rude, frequently taunting her enemies. She also advocates aggressively asserting herself, especially in prison, and once told F.F. to violently confront an inmate who cut in the queue for buying their lunch. Jolyne is particularly violent in her fights; she's used the cutting ability of her string to gruesomely wound her opponents, severing ears and nails, for instance. Jolyne usually doesn't seek to kill and even said that she didn't want Ermes to become a murderer. However, she readily uses lethal force against her archenemy Enrico Pucci, as he was the one enemy she explicitly said she would kill.

Jolyne also has a vindictive side and repays tenfold any wrong committed against her, notably indirectly cutting Romeo's tongue for betraying her and forcing her crooked attorney to crash his car. Moreover, Jolyne still holds a slight grudge against Gwess, her first enemy, and wants nothing to do with her despite the latter's effort to behave in front of Jolyne. More humorously, Jolyne kept a grudge against alligators in general after Limp Bizkit revived one that attacked her, and she had fun tossing something at another alligator's head as a form of revenge.

Jolyne possesses a fierce determination, carrying her through several battles and inspiring her companions. After learning of DIO's plan, Jolyne took pride in her lineage and opted to continue Jotaro's effort to seal the menace that DIO had left behind. Jolyne stoically endures the hardships she faces and carries on her goal, disregarding the suffering and possible risks. For instance, when she was brought to the maximum-security ward, Jolyne was only momentarily disturbed by the horrible living conditions of the cell (the food tray was covered in insects) along with the harassment of the other inmates in the ward and quickly soldiered on through the ordeal. Her determination is so great that she was willing to lose life or limb to defeat her enemy and save her comrades, an inclination so strong that it culminated in her sacrifice to keep Emporio away from Pucci. One good example of the strength of her determination is when she set herself on fire to buy enough time to attack Rikiel, ignoring the risk taken to herself since her body was made of string. Even still, Jolyne once expressed her doubts about her desire to stop Pucci after Weather Report's death and the priest's second escape.

Common in her lineage, Jolyne has righteous morals and treasures her family and friends. She would selflessly do everything in her power to help her companions and random victimized people, once helping a mistreated prisoner to take back stolen money from her tormentors. Jolyne is willing to believe in the good in people, which resulted in a share of betrayals, but also earned her F.F.'s friendship. Jolyne is especially sweet to Emporio, her real first ally in Green Dolphin Street, and despite its status as an enemy, she didn't want to kill the Green Baby. Jolyne's primary motivation for investigating Whitesnake was her love for her father, though Pucci exploited this affection to escape her when he tossed Jotaro's memory disc inside of a dying Anasui, putting her through a difficult choice and forcing her to try to save her father's memory.

Outside of combat, Jolyne behaves like an average young woman, if not a teenage girl, hanging out with her friends and occupying herself the best she can in prison, as she is also fun-loving. Jolyne notably played ball with F.F. and Ermes, additionally making herself a navel ring while in isolation. Unlike her father, Jolyne is fairly extroverted and easily expresses her feelings to others. She is an inherently social woman and can converse with her fellow prisoners easily, asking for explanations about the ins and outs of Green Dolphin Street.

Jolyne is notable for being somewhat libertine, being the first and only JoJo to admit to masturbating and offhandedly commenting that a snails' ability to copulate with anything makes her slightly jealous. Despite this, she is horribly embarrassed to talk about masturbation in public and having been caught in the act by a guard left her both flustered and deeply mortified. She was also shown to be deeply embarrassed while mentioning to Weather Report that she needed to urinate in the middle of a fight.

Stand


Stone Free grants Jolyne the ability to unravel parts of her body into a string. This makes it a very versatile Stand, enabling her to listen in on communications as well as escape and hide by unraveling parts of herself into string.

When she assembles the string, Jolyne can properly materialize Stone Free, partially or entirely. Stone Free is a humanoid Stand which has comparable physical prowess to the strongest Stands, with rankings of A in Destructive Power, Stamina, and Developmental Potential.

Unlike the rest of her family, Jolyne has awakened her Stand from being cut by an amulet (later revealed to be a Stand-creating stone arrowhead in disguise) given to her by her father.

Personal Skills



 * Intelligence: Jolyne's greatest asset is her imagination. The versatile power of her Stand allows her a wide range of moves which she extensively uses. For example, when Pucci used C-MOON to invert Jolyne's body, she used Stone Free to create a "Möbius Strip" rendering her effectively invulnerable to its power.

True to any other Joestar, Jolyne is particularly adept at using whatever presents itself to her advantage, among others the environment and the enemy's power. Jolyne's quick thinking has allowed her to prevail against enemies.

Jolyne combines her tactics with a high level of recklessness, often endangering herself to surprise enemies with an unanticipated move. The particular nature of her power nonetheless assures that she can shrug off some of the damage ordinary Stand users cannot risk in a fight.

Jolyne's intelligence is intuitive to a degree, as she often shrugs off some of her moves as dumb luck, although it is a valid interpretation of her actions.


 * Hand to Hand Combat: She has also shown to be capable of defending herself, seen in full detail against Officer Westwood. She has extensive knowledge of self-defense, which she demonstrates throughout the series, notably against Pucci.

Family



 * Jotaro Kujo: Her distant and near-fatherless childhood bore a tinge of loneliness in her, at times resenting him but also wanting his affection. Her relationship with Jotaro is challenging at first, not really fitting the typical father-daughter mold. When Jolyne was fourteen, she was wrongfully accused of pickpocketing. Panicked, she stole a car, sloppily tried to make an escape from the authorities, and was arrested soon afterward. Jolyne anticipated that Jotaro would pay her bail, but was sorely disappointed when she overheard her mother's frantic and unsuccessful pleas with him on the phone. Her father's absence following this led to her teenage years of delinquency (she later reflects that these events were a desperate call for attention). During Jolyne's imprisonment, Jotaro visited her in an effort to break her out. Angered that he would come out of the blue to see her after years of absence, Jolyne blew up at him, citing his inattentive behavior and his divorce. However, after risking life and limb to get Jolyne out as well as losing his Stand in the process, Jolyne broke down and got Jotaro to safety, sacrificing her own freedom and vowing to get his Stand back. As time passed, Jolyne came to respect her father more and idolized him somewhat, adapting his trademark "Yare yare daze" into a more feminine "Yare yare dawa". When Jotaro returns later, both father and daughter show considerable care to one another, each in their own way.


 * Mother: Jolyne's mother rarely appears and is hardly talked about. It's assumed that she loves Jolyne very much and dotes on her in Jotaro's absence, as she was the only known person to be allowed to call Jolyne "JoJo".

Friends

 * Ermes Costello: Ermes is possibly the first true friend that Jolyne encounters in her life when they meet and bond in jail. Her relationship with Ermes resembles that of Jotaro's relationship with Jean Pierre Polnareff. Jolyne and Ermes see each other as worthy allies and friends, and because of their similar temper, get along well and kill time together. She has fought alongside Jolyne against many powerful enemies like Sports Maxx, Rikiel, & Donatello Versus.
 * Emporio Alnino: Emporio's relationship with Jolyne is somewhat similar to her ancestor Jonathan Joestar to Poco, as Jolyne treats Emporio like a little brother and trustworthy ally, while Emporio is inspired by her courage and determination. Jolyne saves him from many dangerous situations and eventually sacrifices herself so than he may live, trusting that Emporio will defeat Pucci. Emporio's relationship with Jolyne extends to Irene as well.
 * Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters initially met Jolyne as enemies. However, Jolyne spares Foo Fighters; grateful to Jolyne, they become an ally. Jolyne treats Foo Fighters with respect and is very friendly with them, and noting their naïveté, is protective toward them. Foo Fighters, nicknamed F.F. by Jolyne, is inspired by her determination, and cherishes the memories they have of her. They are ultimately willing to put themself in danger and even sacrifice themself to save Jolyne's life.


 * Romeo Jisso: Before Jolyne's growth as a person, she and Romeo were in a relationship; with Jolyne being particularly affectionate and meek and Romeo trying to keep some distance, as he was suspicious of her past as a possible gang member. Their relationship ended when Romeo framed her for his manslaughter with aggravating circumstance, landing her in prison for a crime she didn't commit. After she escapes from prison, Jolyne pays him a visit and he weeps for forgiveness. Romeo shows genuine repentance and actually helps her, but while Jolyne doesn't show any lingering anger, she takes the occasion to damage his tongue to silence him.


 * Weather Report: When they first met, Jolyne was flabbergasted by Weather's eccentric behavior. However, during the fight against Lang Rangler, both eventually see each other as allies, and trust each other. Anasui suspects Weather as a rival love interest to Jolyne and becomes jealous when Jolyne and Weather hug. Jolyne grows to care deeply about Weather to the point of being distraught at Weather's death.


 * Narciso Anasui: Though Anasui fell in love with Jolyne at first sight, the feeling wasn't mutual; Jolyne was not really sure what to think of him and isn’t really interested in him, either. Often times she would be oblivious to his advances. He would sometimes try to seduce her in underhanded ways, such as asking F.F. to trip her down the stairs so he could romantically catch her or prompting a French kiss from a temporary-mute Jolyne, resulting in him getting punched in the jaw. Even so, he's truly devoted to her and will do everything in his power to keep her from being distressed. He has risked his life for her on more than one occasion and turns murderous when Jolyne is severely hurt. Eventually, during the final confrontation at Cape Canaveral, Jolyne motivates Anasui by telling him that he can ask for her hand in marriage after they survive. At the end of Stone Ocean, Jolyne and Anasui's counterparts Irene and Anakiss want to marry each other.

Enemies

 * Enrico Pucci: Pucci only saw Jolyne as bait at first in order to get to Jotaro, but as she proved to be a persistent threat to his scheme while finding her father's Stand and memory disks, Pucci threaded carefully around her. Unaware of his involvement at first, Jolyne treated the priest with respect. They became enemies right away once she was informed that Whitesnake was Pucci's Stand and was eager to take his life. Jolyne became more than determined in stopping him and putting an end to his plans but her efforts would soon be fatal while she almost fell to Pucci's newly evolved C-MOON and would finally fall to his Made In Heaven while protecting Emporio, but has managed to cut the right side of his eye before dying.
 * Donatello Versus: Due to his alliance with Pucci, Donatello and Jolyne were enemies. An additional reason for their antagonism would be that Jolyne's father destroyed Donatello's father. Unbeknownst to either of them since Donatello was conceived when Dio possessed Jonathan's body Donatello is actually Jolyne's distant uncle.
 * Johngalli A.: As the man who got her framed for murder, Jolyne and Johngalli A. were enemies. Johngalli A. attempted to murder Jolyne and Jotaro to avenge DIO but failed. As payback, Jolyne pummeled Johngalli A. as the sniper realized that Jolyne was more resourceful than she looked and inherited Jotaro's blood.
 * Gwess: Jolyne's cellmate during her time at Green Dolphin. Jolyne tossing her pendant away inadvertently caused the chain of events that let Gwess gain her Stand power. Gwess originally used her powers to bully Jolyne by shrinking her, but after Jolyne beat her she acted like her subordinate, advising Jolyne during her early days in prison and being somewhat afraid of her. Jolyne still had an arm-length relationship with Gwess but nonetheless tolerated her afterward.
 * Miuccia Miuller: Miu is an assassin sent by Pucci to make sure Jolyne doesn't interfere with his plans. Miu manipulated Jolyne into forgetting her goals and friends. After Jolyne remembered them, she beat up Miu and used her to escape the prison.

Creation and Development
The idea of a female JoJo protagonist was something that Araki had wanted to do since Part 5, with the main protagonist Giorno Giovanna. Araki had previously written a female protagonist for his older series, Gorgeous Irene, however, he decided against it doing it again as he felt that female leads never worked out well for him, and that it was too hard to get away with depicting violence against women in a shonen manga at the time. This was also the reason why not many female characters were featured until later in the series, as he thought the idea of drawing a girl getting beat up was far too cruel. During Part 5, Araki said that he still had plans for a female protagonist, but couldn't promise that the protagonist of his next work would be a woman.

For Part 6, Araki finally thought it was time that he could properly draw a tough female protagonist, and so decided to make the main character Jolyne Cujoh, the daughter of Jotaro Kujo. According to Hideto Azuma, Araki's editor at the time, he had requested that Jolyne's character was to be a man as Weekly Shonen Jump was a magazine for young teen boys. However, Araki insisted on Jolyne's gender, saying that the fact that readers wouldn't accept a female lead was exactly the reason why Jolyne had to be a woman. The role reversal between her and her father was devised for her character to go beyond the typical archetypes found in Japanese fiction.

Since Jolyne was to be a JoJo protagonist, Araki wanted her to be tough enough to not get disheartened even if she got punched in the face. A lot of scenarios that a JoJo protagonist would have to overcome, like crawling through a ditch or falling from the top of a building with their legs wide open, also proved quite challenging for a woman. However, Araki thought that this difference would be interesting to depict. Furthermore, he wanted Jolyne to be someone with great humanity, like the Virgin Mary. For this reason, he felt that he had to make the protagonist a woman.

Trivia

 * In a 2020 Valentine's Day poll in the official app, Jolyne Cujoh won first place for "characters I'd like to give me chocolate", having 4,489 votes.