Soft & Wet
Soft & Wet (ソフト・＆・ウェット, Sofuto Ando Wetto) is the Stand of Josuke Higashikata (JoJolion), featured in Part VIII: JoJolion.
Appearance
Soft & Wet is a humanoid Stand of a streamlined, robotic form, light in color, and similar in height to Josuke.
On the top of its head is a five-pointed star bound with a circle. Horns roughly two-thirds the width of its head grow from the region of the ears, shaped as tapering pentagrammic prisms. It has round eyes, shaped as slotted screw heads; vertically dividing very small, slight, round pupils. Its face has a thick gap running from the top of the forehead past the bottom of the chin.
The front of two broad plates covering its torso is cut like its face in the shape of a large anchor; as well as in a line beneath both arms and between the base of its back and shoulders.
Its feet and hands are covered with plating, as are the sides of its hips and shoulders, both of which are shaped like sharp hearts, and bear a five-pointed star. It has fine arms and legs, with dark, exposed ball-and -socket joints supported by short exterior cables. Its pelvis is bare and mechanical.
The gaps in its plating reveal a deeper surface, covered in a fine pattern of horizontal ridges. An internal structure is visible at its profile, showing blocks approximating human centres of mass.
In recent chapters, it's torso has taken on a more 'heart' shape. This could be an allusion to Crazy Diamond, the stand of the Part IV Josuke Higashikata.
Personality
Soft & Wet's battle/Stand cry is "ORAARA", a sort of corruption of the typical stand cry. Every third cry is reversed to say "ARO/ARA" as written in the manga.
Abilities
The humanoid form of Soft & Wet first appears after a bubble emerging from under Josuke's birthmark on his shoulder bursts.
Plunder (プランダー, Purandā): According to its user, this Stand's primary ability is to "steal something from [an object] and take it for itself". Usually Josuke's bubbles must make contact with his target to do this.
Josuke can steal aspects or properties of inanimate and living things. Said properties seem to also be smaller objects that comes from a bigger object. The bubbles burst also seems to create some kind of momentum. Examples include:
- A human's sight: After bursting near his eyes, Josuke's bubble completely blinds Joushuu for a few seconds.
- The water contained in a human's body: With one bubble, Josuke covertly punctures several ~5mm holes in a woman's body in order to quickly drain her of water and provoke thirst.
- Sound: Josuke steals the sound from a wall or a light switch, preventing any noise that would have been caused upon breaking it or turn it off.
- A cat's fur: Seemingly without pain, Josuke removes the majority of a live cat's fur and relocates it, in the shape of a cat, in order to obscure the view of a security camera.
- Friction: Josuke removes the friction from a floor, creating an ice-like slippery surface.
- Small objects: Josuke when fighting the Aphex brothers filled his bubbles with screws and nuts to fire out upon bursting
The stolen objects can stay in the bubble and are still able to bust later (as shown with the bubble with the sound of the light switch).
The exact quantity and type of object Josuke may steal, how long he may keep them, and how it is redistributed is currently undefined. Quantity-wise, Josuke has demonstrated the ability to maintain a great crowd of bubbles when shaving and length-wise, has displayed being able to store the sound of a light switch for the length of a battle. As the story has progressed Josuke has developed a greater potency in the use of his soap bubbles, now effortlessly able to conjure dozens upon dozens with a quick flurry of strikes.
Aside from the 'stealing' aspect of this power, he has also commented he is capable of using his bubbles 'offensively'. This is first demonstrated when he strikes Yotsuyu Yagiyama and generates a large soap bubble around him to lift him and carry him off to a desired location.
So far the most destructive use of his powers has come in the form of striking an opponent and generating a bubble inside of their skin. When the bubble pops, it causes great damage and bleeding to the area in question.
Apparently Soft & Wet's ability cannot be applied to its own user.[1]
Enhanced Strength: Soft & Wet possesses superhuman strength, demonstrated first when it breaks a large portion of an apartment wall with a single back kick. As common to short-range humanoid Stands, it is also capable of extremely rapid hand-to-hand combat / melee attack.
It's strength in melee exchanges compared to other Stands has been further demonstrated in the brief encounter with Yotsuyu Yagiyama's Stand, I am a Rock. Despite it's volley of fast paced strikes Soft & Wet easily avoided and overcame it with a single 'Ora'-articulated strike[2].
History
In Chapter 17, Nijimura explains that the Stand may be a fusion between two other Stands; the first being Yoshikage Kira's Stand, and the Stand of another, unknown person having some connection to the Higashikata family. This person is later revealed to be Josefumi Kujo, where the Aphex Brothers recognized the abilities of Soft & Wet to be that of Josefumi's original Stand. Apparently Josefumi's Stand had the ability to steal much like Soft & Wet. However, it was not through the use of bubbles, as Josuke inherited that aspect from Kira's Killer Queen-like Stand.
Trivia
- On the cover of and in an illustration inside the first issue of JoJolion, Soft & Wet is seen with large holes in the sides of its face, and shorter, lined "horns".
- Soft & Wet's "eyes" have lines drawn in the middle of them as a possible reference to the protagonist's own divided irises.
- In colored illustrations, Soft & Wet's most frequent color scheme consists of a white body and purple details. In All-Star Battle, the primary coloration is yellow with green details.
- It bears some resemblance to Johnny Joestar's Stand Tusk. Both resemble humanoid robots, and have five-pointed stars on their bodies. However, Soft & Wet's eyes and facial structure resemble that of Killer Queen, the Stand of Yoshikage Kira.
- The fact that Soft & Wet's ability cannot be applied to its own user is shared with Josuke Higashikata's Crazy Diamond, in its restorative ability; and Rohan Kishibe's Heaven's Door memory reading ability, among others.
- It is the second Stand of a main protagonist whose namesake deviates from an album of the same musician, the first being Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience.
Gallery
- Rjojos-bizarre-adventure-part-008-jojolion-3793491.jpg
Josuke with Soft & Wet
Chapter 43
Soft & Wet's Render in All-Star Battle
Soft & Wet as a figure
References
- ↑ JoJolion Chapter 5: Soft & Wet (4)
- ↑ JJBA JoJolion chapter 32: "I Am a Rock" (2)
