Vampire
A vampire (吸血鬼, Kyūketsuki) is an undead creature in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Many vampires serve as antagonists in the first three parts.
Origin
Vampires were created by the Pillar Men with acupuncture techniques that they developed through the use of the Stone Mask. The purpose of the vampires were to become food for the Pillar Men and to explore human potential. This would then lead the Pillar Men to discover the Red Stone of Aja, which can be combined with the Stone Mask to make them perfect, granting them immunity to sunlight and allowing them to rewrite their DNA.
Vampires can be created in two ways. One way is to wear the Stone Mask while exposing it to blood. The other way is for a vampire to give a corpse some of his own blood. The art of the Ripple, created to fight off vampires, is said to revive their soul for a last moment before their death.
Zombies
A secondary undead, created by a vampire who dons the stone mask, is commonly referred in part I and II as a Zombie (屍生人(ゾンビ), Zonbi, lit. "Undead Person"). Those who have their blood sucked by a vampire are turned into zombies who don't feel pain. Another way to turn someone into a zombie is injecting the victim with a special extract vampires create, though skilled Hamon users are able to reject it. Zombies then can turn people into zombies by eating their flesh instead of sucking blood. While the zombies found in Part I: Phantom Blood were typically lesser beings that had no vampire abilities, including the ability to heal themselves, the discrepancy between the two is much more vague in Part's II and III.
As lesser beings, the majority of zombies base their methods of attack on their lives as humans, making each unique and unpredicable. Zombies are known for having a rotting stench and a monster-like appearance. Most of them, however, hide their true appearance through disguises (like Adams and Doobie)
The Blood Vessel Needle Attack may be their primary ability, as at least four individuals were capable of using it. It consists of small antennas coming out of their heads capable of sucking the blood of their victims.
Powers and Abilities
Vampires are known for their battle cry "WRY" (ウリイ, Ury) and to have numerous superhuman traits. The most obvious abilities are their raw strength, regeneration, blood-sucking tentacles at their fingers and near-immortality. On top of that, many vampires are capable of manipulating their bodies in creative and unique ways. Some as skilled as Dio have created their own unique abilities.
Abilities discovered by Dio Brando
- Space Ripper Stingy Eyes (空裂眼刺驚 (スペース・リッパー・スティンギー・アイ), (Kūsakume Toge Odoroki) Supēsu Ripā Suteingī Aizu, lit. "Space Splitting Eye Spiked Surprise"): Creates two pressurized fluid jets from the eyes. Strong enough to cut cleanly through a stone column.
- High-level Regeneration: The body is able to live even after having vital body parts amputated. It will regenerate and the body parts can reattach themselves. Vampires can also control their detached body parts.
- Vaporization Freezing Technique (気化冷凍法 , Kikareitōhō): A freezing ability enabling then to freeze their own body parts and transfer this over to other objects or beings. It is able to cancel out the Hamon by freezing the blood in the user's body.
- Fusion: By fusing different species, the vampires can create half-man half-beast creatures. They can even fuse themselves with another living being to take control of them.
- Spores: Vampires can spawn Evil Implants generated from hair and insert it in the brains of living beings to control them. If someone tries to take out the spore, it will grow tentacles in a attempt to kill both the host and the one trying to remove it. If the vampire wants, he can give permission to someone to activate the spore's tentacles anytime he wants if close to it.
Individual-Based Abilities
- Hamon (波紋, Hamon): The vampire Straizo, having previously learned the art of the Ripple, could continue to use it after turning into a vampire. As the two sources of power are opposites, it is possible that this essentially made him weaker.
- Spikes: The vampire Wired Beck had the ability to generate numerous spikes all over his body from his body hair.
- Two-Faces: The vampire Nukesaku displayed the ability to grow a second face at the back of his head with female features. With it he can trick people into thinking he is an innocent woman, but needs to manipulate his body to match his new face's visual orientation and cover his original one with his hair.
- Stand (スタンド, Sutando): Like humans with unusually strong spiritual power and determination, vampires also can develop and control Stands, as they are typically a reflection of the wielder's spirit.
Differences with Popular Culture Vampires
- JJBA vampires have reflections and can be photographed.
- Despite this characteristic, Straizo couldn't see his reflection when he was fighting Joseph
- Apart from sunlight, JJBA vampires are unaffected by traditional weaknesses such as crosses or running water.
- Vampires are commonly converted when they are bitten by another vampire. In JJBA the vampires are created by wearing a Stone Mask or receiving blood from a vampire.
- Another myth of popular culture is that vampires can turn into bats, wolves or other animals. Vampires are also capable of squeezing through small crevices. In JJBA, vampires are limited to manipulating their own bodies in various inhuman ways, but show no indication of using their bodies in either of the above manners. However, Kars, a Pillar Man and the creator of the Stone Masks, has been shown to be capable of such transformation in his ultimate form, and Santana has been shown to break down his own body in order to pass through small gaps in a ventilation shaft.
- Normal vampires suck blood through biting the neck of their victims. JJBA vampires are mostly seen sucking blood through blood vessels in their fingers. However, like traditional vampires, JJBA vampires are shown to bear fangs, and can spit them out like high-speed projectiles; Dio has also been seen sucking blood from the women in his mansion with his fangs.
- In some myths, killing the main vampire cures all the humans that were transformed. In JJBA, killing the main vampire does not reverse the transformation of other vampires or zombies.
- In some myths, vampirism is genetic. In those myths, cases of male vampires conceiving a child with human woman result in the child being a half-vampire (Dhampir). Dio Brando's sons show no indication of having inherited his vampirism, although on one occasion Giorno Giovanna has been shown to use his characteristic "WRYYY" battle cry. It should be noted however, that his vampiric powers were greatly diminished due to Jonathan's body having a strong hamon residue remaining within it, perhaps causing it to reject him. It is also possible that due to using Jonathan's body to reproduce, his vampiric DNA was simply too weak to be passed via normal conception.