Noriaki Kakyoin
Noriaki Kakyoin (花京院典明, Kakyoin Noriaki) is a major character featured in Part III: Stardust Crusaders. He is easily recognizable by his fitted school uniform (usually colored green), green eyes, double cherry-shaped earrings and reddish hair.
Synopsis
History
About 2-3 months prior to the start of Part 3, Kakyoin was approached by Dio Brando while traveling in Egypt with his family. Dio, having sensed Kakyoin's Stand powers, asked for a demonstration which led to them fighting. When Kakyoin lost, he was brainwashed into following Dio's will via buds from Dio's own cells and given the mission to kill Jotaro Kujo. Kakyoin returned to Japan around the same time as Jotaro left prison.
Stardust Crusaders (1987-1988)
Kakyoin carries out Dio's orders on his first meeting with Jotaro. In the manga (and video game), he manipulates the school nurse with his Stand, using her to attack Jotaro. In the anime, he utilizes a female student in much the same way instead. Regardless of the method, Jotaro defeats him and ends up dragging him home, both considerably injured. Jotaro soon discovers that Kakyoin was under Dio's influence and uses Star Platinum to remove Dio's implant from Kakyoin's head - despite the risk that it might openly attack both of them. Kakyoin is freed from Dio's control as a result and joins Jotaro, Joseph and Abdul on their trip to Egypt to fight Dio.
He is the first to realize that Mannish Boy is a stand user, and that his stand attacks while the group is asleep. Though the rest of the group don't believe him and come to believe he has succumbed to stress, Kakyoin is ultimately able to defeat Death 13 inside a dream by bringing Hierophant Green with him. He then teaches Mannish Boy a lesson by mixing some of the baby's own poop with the baby food.
During the encounter with N'Dour's stand Geb, Kakyoin is slashed across the eyes and put out of commission for a while as he recuperates at the Speedwagon Foundation hospital in Aswan. He returns just before the group finds Dio's mansion and is the first to face D'Arby in a videogame competition with his soul on the line. They play a racing game that Kakyoin is familiar with, and Kakyoin even uses Hierophant Green's speed and agility to accomplish complicated moves via the game controller. Ultimately, however, he loses and his soul is placed inside a small doll until D'Arby is defeated, at which point it is released again.
Later, he battles Dio and is killed after receiving a punch through the abdomen. Before dying, however, he manages to leave a message in the form of the destroyed clock tower, enabling Joseph and Jotaro to figure out Dio's stand ability.
Personality
Though Kakyoin comes across as cold, he is actually a warm and loyal fighter. He will support his comrades actively and fights for things that are ethically right. He hates bowing down or brown-nosing and only respectable people can be viewed as his friends. He is straight to the point but nice and cares very strongly for his friends. He resents people who plot secret schemes.
After Jotaro releases him from Dio's control, Kakyoin joins Jotaro's group in the quest to destroy Dio as compensation for having acted as Dio's pawn. Some of his personality undergoes changes in the middle of the story, and this is attributed to the events after his encounters with Mannish Boy and N'Dour. He eventually sheds his "repentant" attitude. In addition to the above traits, he now has more confidence and has regained a lot of his pride.
He also has a profound respect for his parents, remembering them before his eventual death.
In Video Games
Kakyoin appears as a playable character in the Arcade/PSX/Dreamcast game, and his gameplay is primarily designed for defense. A lot of his techniques reflect this; he also has limited forms of offense but plentiful techniques for striking back, punishing or even ticking. With the Stand activated, he can dash and double jump in the air. He also has one of the longest reaches in terms of physical attacks - particularly with his Stand attack.
In the arcade version, he has considerable offense power but is slightly slow. This was changed in the playstation port, but at the price of losing damage strength. He also gained a new super move that helped him in his offensives. Additionally, his appearance with sunglasses (a result of his encounter with N'Dour) is named New Kakyoin or 恐怖を乗り越えた花京院 (Kakyoin who overcame his fears) in the Japanese version of the game, having different attack methods and physics offsetting him from the original.
It is noteworthy that even in the video games (excluding the Super Famicom RPG), especially in the fighting game made by Capcom, Kakyoin's fate in his own storyline is to die, whereas other characters have more pleasant endings (excepting Midler). However, because of how the dialogue was done in the game, some may argue that it could be open-ended, suggesting a possibility of his survival. The ending seems to imply that Kakyoin died on the trip home inside the airplane, possibly due to the wounds suffered in the battle with Dio, and him keeping quiet about it. This could be otherwise explained as fainting or severe weakening, in the absence of solid illustration that he did die. On the other hand, New Kakyoin's storyline in the game confirms his death, as it occurred in the original storyline from the manga.
The endings where Kakyoin survives the adventure are in Iggy's and Abdul's storylines. This is because Dio attacks Iggy or Abdul before going after Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Joseph.
Techniques
- Emerald Splash: Best used as part of a combo. It has shorter range without the Stand activated, but reaches full screen with the Stand activated. The only downside is that the move cannot be integrated into combos in the way 2 in 1 attacks are performed.
- 20m Radius Emerald Splash: The powered-up version of "Emerald Splash." If the opponent doesn't have an active Stand, this inflicts massive chipping damage.
- Tie Wrap Snake: Used for both offense and defense, this is one of Kakyoin's most feared moves. Without his Stand activated, he can join in and punch the enemy, but with his Stand activated, buttons can be pressed repeatedly to fire emeralds. Expert players can inflict massive damage from just this move alone.
- Mystic Trap: Can't be sensed until it has been deployed. It can be hit with another Stand attack, but some realize the position of the traps too late. With this technique used in conjunction with specials or super moves, Kakyoin wears down an enemy very quickly, even though the damage is limited.
- Oshioki no Jikan (Time for Punishment): Demonstrates Hierophant Green's ability to enter an enemy's body. This move is similar to Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, but with one striking difference - it inflicts damage from within the body. While the damage it inflicts fares lower, the fact that it cannot be blocked and can be incorporated into combos provides a pressure tactic in battle.
- India's Arm
- Hierophant Finish
Trivia
- Kakyoin is the only protagonist to wield a long-range stand in part 3, and hence, is the first ever protagonist in the JoJo universe to do so.
- His favorite fruits are cherries. It seems that the producers of the anime adaptation overlooked this and replaced Kakyoin's cherry earrings with string-like piercings. Additionally, he has brown hair in the anime instead of the usual pinkish-red hair seen in the videogame, manga and various artwork.
- His favorite baseball team is the Yomiuri Giants.
In Popular Culture
- It is well known that the shoujo manga group CLAMP are JoJo fans. It is curious to note that in their series Wish, the main character, Kohaku, is an angel who greatly resembles Kakyoin in hairdo and appearance. Ironically, the love interest of said character roughly resembles a hat-less Jotaro. Although the angel is sexless, some fans have speculated this story is a shounen-ai interpretation of the two.
- Neo, the main character of the Matrix movie trilogy, bears a strong resemblance to Kakyoin after he returns with sunglasses.
