New York's king of stray dogs, Iggy is brought to the Joestar Group after arriving in Egypt and reluctantly joins them on their final trek to Cairo to defeat DIO. Iggy is a Stand user who wields the shapeshifting Stand of sand, The Fool.
Iggy is a Boston Terrier with black and white fur. His forehead, muzzle, underside, and paws are white.
Iggy's design and facial features gradually shift as the story progresses; his head becomes rounder, his ears grow larger, his eyes are placed closer together with smaller irises, and his nose is drawn smaller. He loses his left front paw during his battle with Pet Shop.[6]
Color Schemes
The series is known for alternating colors between media, the information presented below may or may not be canon.
Colored MangaOVAAnimeSFC GameCapcom FightersAll-Star BattleEyes of Heaven
Body
(Black & white body, yellow inside of ears.)
Eyes(Blue)
Body
(Black & white body, brown inside of ears.)
Eyes(Pale Brown)
Body
(Black & white body, yellow inside of ears.)
Eyes(Blue)
Body
(Black & beige body, beige inside of ears.)
Eyes(Brown)
Body
(Dark gray & white body, yellow inside of ears.)
Eyes(Dark Gray)
Body
(Navy & white body, brown inside of ears.)
Eyes(Blue)
Body
(Black & white body, yellow inside of ears.)
Eyes(Cyan)
Personality
“
I thought you were a pain-in-the-ass dog, but I liked the way you never took orders from humans... Now I get it! The reason you were never nice to us... was your pride!
Iggy is a highly intelligent but unruly, prideful, self-indulgent dog described as having an "awful" personality.[4] He is primarily interested in living a peaceful, carefree life, especially with a girlfriend.[7]
Although the Speedwagon Foundation brings him to fight alongside the Joestar Group, he is apathetic to their cause. Iggy prefers to be independent, often departing from the group to do whatever he feels like and causing chaos in the process.[8][9] Polnareff states that Iggy is so defiant because he is too prideful to listen to anybody, a trait he upholds until his death.[10] Iggy greatly values his independence and will deter anyone who threatens it, regardless of if they are a human or an animal.[11] Particularly, he likes to rip out humans' hair and fart in their faces among other pranks. Additionally, he is able to take on an intimidating gaze to scare strangers away.[7] Due to his intelligence, he is also capable of recognizing and understanding others' Stands, so he will even use The Fool to keep people away from him.[12] If he realizes that he is in danger, he may pretend to act like a dumb dog to seem innocent.[7] He has no regard for others, even putting the Joestar Group at risk of death to ensure his own safety.[13][14] He goes by the philosophy of survival of the fittest and looks down on people he perceives as stupid, who he says cause their own deaths.[7] Iggy is also somewhat gluttonous and commonly steals food, even chewing entire boxes of gum.[8][9][12][15][16]
Iggy's pride also extends to confidence in his own abilities. He believes his Stand to be a match for Jotaro'sStar Platinum.[4]
His unruliness and pride lend themselves to a taste for vengeance. In addition to fending off those he finds annoying, Iggy will hold a grudge against anyone who especially inconveniences him. Although initially wishing to stay out of any trouble that could come with siding with the Joestar Group, he becomes motivated to stop DIO purely out of revenge, as noted by Kakyoin.[17]
Iggy has a soft spot for dog lovers
However, despite his general disregard for human life and well-being, Iggy is not entirely without morals. He has a fondness for children who like dogs, going as far as to engage Pet Shop to save a random Egyptian boy who was worried about his two dogs.[7] Additionally, although seemingly antisocial, he is indeed capable of forming bonds with humans. Polnareff and Iggy often antagonize each other, but Iggy ends up caring about Polnareff enough to sacrifice his own life, using the last of his power to save Polnareff with The Fool.[10]
The Fool is a highly versatile Stand composed of sand, the mass of which Iggy can throw with great force or use to construct intricate and variable shapes.
As a dog, Iggy has a superior sense of smell. This is shown prominently when facing off against N'Doul.[12] This extends to Stands as well, being able to detect Geb from its smell alone.[19]
Relationships
Allies
Jotaro Kujo: Jotaro sees value in Iggy during the fight with N'Doul with his keen senses and powerful Stand. Iggy gives back Jotaro's lost hat, shortly earning his trust until Jotaro realized that Iggy put coffee gum inside it. Iggy, although not vocal about it, is a very prideful stand user, even believing that The Fool is stronger than Star Platinum. After the battle with DIO, Jotaro and Joseph acknowledge his death, alongside the other fallen crusaders.
Joseph Joestar: When first introduced, Iggy acted much like a stray and initially hated everyone in the group. After the fight with N'Doul, he would willingly tag along with them, but during fights, he'd usually disappear. It wasn't until his fight with Pet Shop where his inner thoughts came to light; at this point, he seemed to understand Joseph was the leader of the group. While the interaction between the two was fairly minor, after sacrificing himself for Polnareff to defeat Vanilla Ice, Joseph and the group acknowledged his heroism and mourned his death along with the others.
Jean Pierre Polnareff: The two initially did not get along since Polnareff woke him up after a bumpy flight. Polnareff disliked Iggy's cocky and demeaning attitude and antagonized him frequently, causing Polnareff to be Iggy's most common target when it came to getting bitten and farted on. Despite this, during their fight against Cream, Iggy sacrificed himself to save Polnareff. Polnareff deeply mourned his sacrifice, admitting he initially thought Iggy was a stubborn mutt but grew to love how stubborn he was and how he didn't get close to humans because it showed how proud he was, and it was this determination that allowed him to beat Cream.
Muhammad Avdol: Avdol first encountered Iggy when he was causing trouble in New York and captured him. Avdol would later recruit Iggy into the Joestar Group and used coffee gum to calm him down. After Avdol sacrificed himself in the battle against Vanilla Ice, Iggy became determined to avenge him. In the end, Iggy failed to avenge Avdol but inspired Polnareff to do so instead.
Kakyoin Noriaki: Kakyoin had the least interaction and time spent with Iggy, due to his hospitalization after their confrontation with N'doul. Following the fight with Pet Shop, Iggy was found by Kakyoin and the Speedwagon Foundation doctors. When Iggy and Kakyoin rejoined the group, Kakyoin was the one who could immediately discern Iggy's determined drive for revenge underlying his behavior of leading the group to DIO's mansion.
Enemies
Pet Shop: Upon encountering Pet Shop, Iggy saw him devour 2 dogs and attempted to avoid fighting him, but after Pet Shop attacked a dog-loving boy, Iggy went to defend him. During their fight, Iggy lost his left paw and Iggy would take revenge by forcing Pet Shop's beak closed while he was attacking and blew him up. It was Pet Shop's actions that made Iggy want to kill DIO in the first place.
Vanilla Ice: Originally Iggy just saw Ice as an obstacle in his vengeance towards DIO, after Ice killed Avdol, Iggy became determined to kill him. In the end, Iggy failed to kill him but inspired Polnareff to do so instead.
DIO: Iggy was dragged against his will into joining the Joestar Group in Egypt, and as such didn't care about DIO or what was happening, being more concerned about himself. After his fight with Pet Shop though, he decided to help the group defeat DIO, as it was because of him that Iggy was brought to Egypt and put through so much trouble in the first place. In the end, DIO and Iggy never personally encounter one another, as Iggy dies protecting Polnareff during his fight with Vanilla Ice.
Relationships in Eyes of Heaven
The information below derives from Eyes of Heaven which was not written and only supervised by Araki. As such, it may not be considered canon.
Joseph Joestar: While their relationship is essentially the same as in the manga, Young Joseph will complain about having to team up with Iggy and state that he has evil eyes, but later states he is not bad for a mutt. Iggy will also complain about teaming up with Young Joseph and notes that his scent is similar to the Joseph he knows and wonders why.
Jotaro Kujo: When encountering Jotaro from Diamond is Unbreakable, Iggy will not recognize him at first and is surprised he knows his favorite snack. When he does recognize Jotaro, Iggy attempts to put another piece of gum in his hat and wonders why he has gotten older.
Noriaki Kakyoin: Iggy is very disobedient towards Kakyoin and wants to put gum in his hair.
DIO: Upon encountering DIO, Iggy immediately hates him. Upon defeating him, he will announce he is the true emperor.
Y-you've got to be kidding me! I couldn't care less about DIO... I was brought to Egypt against my will and forced to team up with those guys! There's no way I'm fighting this thing!
I couldn't care less if a human kid dies. The law of nature is survival of the fittest! Stupid people die... and so do people who don't think before they act...
Hirohiko Araki comments on how he wanted to have a pet dog join the Joestar group as he was writing Part 3 because to him dogs represent loyalty and friendship. He chose a dog to go with the party and not a cat because he felt that a cat would betray its allies somewhere along the line; in fact, Araki would end up putting cats on the enemy side.[20] He chose Iggy's breed because a black and white dog would be easy to depict in manga.[21]
Initially, Araki didn't plan on letting Iggy join the Joestar party nor have a Stand and Tarot card. While he felt that The Fool was the perfect match for Iggy, it was also the last card he had left to assign besides The World. Instead, he planned on assigning The Fool to an enemy Stand user, but he mentions that he loved the Stand's design and that it's "kind of crazy that it ended up being the last one left for [him] to assign".[20]
Iggy was the first animal that Araki had put into a main role in a manga. It was also his first time he put one into battle as well, so he used Yoshihiro Takahashi's Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin as a reference. The more he drew Iggy, the more he loved dogs, to the point where he thought of getting a Boston terrier himself (however, he gave up on it because he thought it would be hard to take care of a dog as a manga artist).[20]
Trivia
In the Capcom Fighting Games, when Alessi uses Sethan on Iggy he reverts into his earlier design.
Iggy's second special seems to be a reference to Akuma/Gouki's famous Shun Goku Satsu (AKA the Raging Demon) from the Street Fighter franchise, also developed by Capcom. Aside from the similar animation, the game's data contains an unused sprite of the kanji for dog (犬, "inu"), parodying the kanji for heaven (天, "ten") that appears during Akuma/Gouki's Shun Goku Satsu.[22]
Manga Appearances
Anime Appearances
Quotes
