Joshu is a 19-year-old male of average to above-average height and medium build. His eyes are slanted, and in his first appearances, they were curved at almost unnatural degrees.
His distinctive hairstyle consists of a nearly bald head, with long, straight, rectangular strips of hair that grow from the center of his scalp and only fall towards the front and back of his head, leaving him with eyebrow-level bangs in front, and totally bald on both sides and underneath.
He wears a distinctive cap-sleeved top, with a kind of band collar and a bow tie. A front section is lined horizontally, and he has two upward-pointing arrow shapes on his shoulders. He wears dark pants of a moderate fit with slashes in them, and thick wristbands.
Since his first meeting with Josuke near the Wall Eyes, Joshu has bite marks on his left knee.
Personality
Joshu is a 19-year-old college student and the third of Norisuke Higashikata IV's four children. Entitled, loud-mouthed and self-absorbed, Joshu is the archetypical spoiled teenager.
One of Joshu's most prominent traits is his general unpleasantness. He is rude and disrespectful to not only his regular entourage but also most people he interacts with. In general, Joshu is quite vulgar and regularly insults or disparages those he interacts with. Partly out of resentment, Joshu regularly bad-mouthes Josuke and has at one point mocked him for not having a family.[5] He also has a habit of bantering and playing pranks to his sister Hato. When Hato reveals her unattractive boyfriend, Tamaki Damo to her family, he immediately chuckles at the sight of Damo[6] and also consistently acts rude to his guest. Finally when Kaato Higashikata revealed herself to her family, Joshu was hostile to her and made it a point to humiliate her by disassembling her clothes.[7] Yasuho notes that Joshu has poor social skills, which is at odds with his educational pursuit of social studies.
Joshu also has violent tendencies and is able to ignore the law for his own interests. For instance, Joshu drew a knife with the intent of using it against Josuke during a dispute after slapping him for seemingly stealing his money.[8] He also stole Zaihei Nigatake's wallet when Nigatake left it on the counter and drew money from his bank account as a petty revenge, justifying it as Nigatake being "dumb enough to have an obvious credit card code".[9]
Joshu is also very selfish and has a self-centered view of his world. His selfishness is showcased on several occasions, for instance when he complains that the center spot in the family photograph is taken from him by Josuke or that his room is given to him, only to be pacified when Norisuke compensates with money.[10] When his father advises him to get a part-time job and give back to society, Joshu merely dismisses this and asks for money.[9] His selfishness goes in pair with an incredibly self-serving view of the world. Joshu asserts that he has a sort of romantic relationship with Yasuho Hirose, calling her "[his] Yasuho" (at the same time ignoring the fact that Yasuho looks down on him and tries to get away from him at every occasion). He interprets Yasuho's gesture of giving him twice as many mochis as Josuke as a sign of her loving him "twice as much" and readily misinterprets Yasuho's words as a solicitation. Moreover, when he finally notices the many instances in which Milagro Man's money gets him even more money, he easily dismisses it as him being lucky and even congratulating himself. In fact, he is midly arrogant and considers himself as someone on whom everybody counts.[11] However, Joshu harbors some insecurities in private: acknowledging that he has no special talents or achievements, Joshu feels uncertain about his worth.[12]
Joshu has shown to be superficial and spendthrift. After stealing money from Zaihei Nigatake, Joshu indulges in a shopping spree, wastefully spending it for things such as a luxurious wristwatch, buying nine seats at the movies just so he can sit alone in the center, or going to a hostess club flicking miscellaneous things into the women's chests, openly stating that he prefers women with large breasts. He also wastes money on merchandise of the idol Nanami Rena.[9]
Joshu seems to easily distrust many people and organizations. He has stated a disbelief in God, that the prospect of flying in an airplane frightens him, and has a reluctance to drink or eat pancakes made with milk a day older than its printed expiration date, comparing it to crossing a rickety bridge. Likewise, he became highly suspicious of a value package of fish sausages, trying to record the length of said sausages to discover any foul play.
The only person Joshu's been shown to fully respect is Jobin Higashikata, his older brother. Joshu admires and praises Jobin's achievements and abilities, and is able to put up with Jobin's own jabs at him. He also has a roughly playful relationship with Hato. They share some bonding moments but most of their interactions are petty dispute and pranks. Joshu also interacts little with Daiya, acting more or less aloof toward her.
Abilities
Joshu has a level of fighting competence, shown when he easily overtakes a newly-awakened Josuke who has shown to be proficient in unarmed combat.
Joshu's Stand, Nut King Call, allows him to easily disassemble objects by planting nuts and bolts in them or stick two objects together with nuts and screws, both of which are quickly removed. If reassembled incorrectly or abruptly, this ability can cause permanent deformities in the joints of whatever it separates.
History
Background
Prior to the events of JoJolion, Joshu presumably lived a normal life, being unaware of every supernatural phenomenon in Morioh. During his youth, Joshu became friends with Yasuho Hirose, with whom he eventually fell in love. Joshu applied to study Sociology in college, noted by Yasuho as ironic given his lack of social skills.[13] He and Yasuho also kissed once.[14]
Meeting Josuke
When Yasuho rescues Josuke from under the rubble at the Wall Eyes, Joshu immediately misunderstands the situation and tries to attack Josuke with a rock out of jealousy. He is quickly taken out by Josuke, who uses Soft & Wet to plunder Joshu's eyesight.[15] Joshu is later seen at the hospital, having received the same bite marks on his leg that Josuke had.[16] After leaving the hospital, Joshu is mostly seen getting into arguments with Josuke, which are broken up by his own father, although he never actually learns from his father's chastisement of his antagonism.
When Joshu is told to take Josuke to school, he tests Josuke's intelligence, then leads him to Shakedown Road, where he hopes to enlist Josuke's help in exposing the swindling nature of the road. He and Josuke are harassed by residents of the road as they keep stepping on the leaves. While the residents separate the two, Joshu discovers his Stand for the first time and incapacitates one of them. Joshu flees, believing Josuke would be arrested. Unbeknownst to him, the contents of the bag was swapped with the ginkgo leaves that were on the road by Josuke.
Later, Joshu is seen in town looking for Josuke who stole his phone. He finds Josuke, who is oblivious to him because of Tsurugi's Stand Paper Moon King. After retrieving his phone, he encounters Yasuho, who mistakes Joshu for Josuke due to her also being under the effects of Paper Moon King. Joshu is taken aback, but genuinely believes she is coming onto him. Thrilled by Yasuho's trust, and misunderstanding her words, Joshu leads Yasuho to a public bathroom, where he begins rapidly undressing her with his Stand. Halting, confused, when Yasuho calls Josuke's name, she strikes his head with a cistern lid and escapes. Later, Joshu would gloat about the incident to Josuke, misremembering what really happened.
Joshu is later seen reminding Josuke of his older brother Jobin's return, while also trying to show off with the gift he brought him while in Southeast Asia. Joshu is both surprised and jealous to discover that Jobin had given Josuke a live beetle and accompanies him to Jobin's room with the belief that Jobin will turn Josuke away. Jobin agrees to invite them in, and much to Joshu's annoyance even agrees to have a beetle fight with Josuke when the latter proclaims his beetle superior to one in Jobin's collection.[17] Surprised when Jobin loses the first match, Joshu threatens Josuke, angered by what he perceives to be an insult to his brother while Jobin shaves his own eyebrow as promised. Although reluctant, Jobin's insistence in the name of good form coerces Joshu to unenthusiastically cheer for Josuke when a second match is proposed.
After Jobin loses the second match and Josuke uses his Stand to send away the keys to Jobin's car, it is Joshu who suggests to Jobin that the car was Josuke's goal all along, and intuitively guesses (correctly) that the true motive was to acquire the event record data stored in the key, although he can think of no reason as to why Josuke would want it.
Two weeks before Kaato Higashikata is released from jail, Joshu goes to a meet-and-greet for an idol. As he buys goodies, he antagonizes a client and steals the man's wallet, which was left at the counter. Going on a shopping spree, Joshu slowly becomes suspicious at the fact that his money is only increasing, never decreasing. Eventually, Joshu becomes paranoid about anyone stealing his money or simply noticing his unusual wealth.
During an argument with a taxi driver, Joshu accidentally burns one of the bank notes he has and is submerged by bank notes spawning from the damaged bill. Burdened with his money, Joshu manages to find the client he stole from, Zaihei Nigatake. Zaihei reveals an urban legend about the Milagro Man, the origin of the cursed money, and tells Joshu to get lost. However, Joshu tricks Zaihei into tearing a bill and thus pass on the curse back to Zaihei before beating him up. Returning home, Joshu ponders his worth in this world.
Joshu is seen at the Higashikata House, having breakfast with his family as Jobin buries Ozon Baby in the garden. He measures the size and weight of the fish sausages the family is eating in order to find out if the company making them has made them smaller in exchange for having more sausages per package. To his dismay, the family ignores his "investigation" and eats all of the sausages.
After Ozon Baby is activated and the Higashikata household is affected by the Stand's ability, Joshu is seen bleeding from the face and unconscious on the couch alongside his father.
After Poor Tom's death, the loss of the Locacaca branch, and the destruction of the Higashikata orchard, Joshu becomes suspicious of Rai Mamezuku the plant appraiser and accuses him of setting the orchard on fire, but his accusation is quickly shot down by Norisuke. After the appraiser explains how the Locacaca will bear fruit in just ten days, Joshu accuses the appraiser of lying.
As the family wonders how they will recover from the loss of their orchard, Joshu proposes an idea of how the family could make money: a Matsutake mushroom hunting tour (turned into a bamboo shoot hunting tour in the Spring), as well as adopting red pandas and building a go-kart track. His fantasizing is interrupted by Daiya, who notifies him that everyone else has already left.
The New Locacaca
On the day of the harvest, a string of events result in the Higashikata Family catching Jobin and Mitsuba trying to drown Paisley Park. Joshu is forced to see his family tearing itself apart as Norisuke exposes Jobin's murder of Ojiro Sasame and Jobin induces a heat stroke in Norisuke with Speed King. Unlike his sisters, he has the presence of mind to help Paisley Park escape the house, giving Yasuho a chance to survive.
The hell's with that face?! You're a thief that got caught and you're getting angry at me?! That's damn funny! It's funny as heeeell! Just try it, you bastard!
I didn't [put on a bathing suit] because I don't believe in God. There's no way in hell I'd get on something insecure like an airplane in the first place. So there's no way I'm going to Hawaii. Not now, not ever.
This era is all about appearance. People only pretend to follow rules. They just dress thing up so the surface is pretty. You're better off beating them up before you get beaten yourself, right?
Okay, so now that guy probably got arrested I guess. Josuke. It was kinda creepy how he waltzed into my house without any memories. But I was surprised... he's actually a pretty straightforward and nice guy. Ot was pretty fun hanging out with him... I wouldn't have minded growing up together. Maybe once he pays for his crime and eventually gets freed from the detention cell or whatever... maybe I'll treat him to some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki from that place in front of the train station, eh?
Hey... Josuke. Did you hear that my big brother got back from his trip? He got me a souveniiir! Eheheheheheheh! Check it out! Looks real as hell, doesn't it? It's a spiny lobster figure! Sooo cooool!
There's seriously 500 grand here. Awesome!... but hold on, did I do something bad? No... it's his fault for leaving his walet at the register. Though I guess I have a duty to give back the wallet I picked up. And it's on him for having such a dumb way to get into his card! It's pretty much the same as him telling me it's okay to take the money at that point!
Something's weird... Like... I just keep getting more money, even though I'm trying to spend it... naaaaw, couldn't be! Gahahahahaha! I'm just a guy who's got luck with money is all!
Hpmh! These guys make shitty unbearable music that's a total ripoff of other shit, yet for some reason, they're successful...But I... don't even have that kind of talent, do I...? Even if it's just a little... I have something, right? I'm the... same age as them...
Hey, hey, heeeey! You've got some pretty big tits, don't yaaaa?! Are you really our mom?! Why don't you let me suckle a bit,! It's not too late, c'mon!
Joshu appears as a stage hazard and Situation Finish in the Wall Eyes stage. If one of the fighters is knocked down on the "hazard" indication area, Yasuho Hirose backs away in fright, causing Joshu to appear and run through the stage, knocking anyone who gets in his way down with a rock until he reaches her. Afterward, he can be heard having a conversation with Yasuho in the background.
As a Situation Finish, the losing side is knocked out near Yasuho, causing her to scream. Joshu becomes angry, walks up to the downed character, and finishes them off with the aforementioned rock (similar to how he attacks Josuke during their first encounter at the very beginning of Part 8).
Due to Joshu's lack of combat experience, having only recently discovered his Stand at the time of the game's development and release, his skillset is somewhat limited compared to other characters. His inclusion might simply be a result of Josuke lacking a proper partner to team up and have a Special Dual Heat Attack with. However, while sporting a low amount of abilities and skills, Joshu remains a viable fighter regardless. Joshu also has the slowest base movement speed in the entire game, but certain conditions can increase it to the fastest as well.
Style Action - What a stupid thing to say.: Joshu stops to make an irritating comment about Yasuho. This forces opponents within range to lock onto him and automatically unleash a Powerful Attack, and will also boost the Dual Heat Gauge by a considerable amount. Due to this effect, Joshu can easily leave opponents vulnerable if he guards or dodges the inevitable attack, and the ability is especially effective against opponents actively attacking his partner. However, Joshu himself is vulnerable upon activating the skill until he utters the first few words of the comment, and his opponents will of course still land their attacks successfully if he does not defend in time.
Whoa! I did that!: Joshu reaches forward, and if he connects with an opponent, he will lift them up by their neck with one hand as nuts fall from their body. He then uses his other hand to punch them and send them flying, leaving them Panicked for a short amount of time. While Panicked, opponents cannot use any skills nor guard, rendering them especially vulnerable. The effect will be lifted early if Joshu is hit by certain attacks or a DHA.
The Screw: Joshu falls backwards and sits on the ground as Nut King Call advances forward with its arm outstretched. If NKC connects with an opponent, it will implant large bolts into their bodies, paralyzing them and leaving them open to further attacks. Quickly moving the movement stick around can shorten the time bound.
I did it! Me! Ahahahahaha!: Joshu begins running around hysterically while holding himself. The skill's cooldown gauge then changes into a depleting timer; if Joshu successfully empties the gauge via his running, he will stop and laugh uncontrollably. This generates multiple beneficial effects: Joshu gains a temporary boost to attack power and Dual Heat Gauge charge rate, all of his skills will be instantly taken off cooldown (including EX skills), and a Flash Cancel and Flash Burst is restored if they have been consumed. Joshu can interrupt his run with any action without canceling the skill; the timer's depletion will only slow and Joshu will resume running if no actions are taken afterward. However, if Joshu is hit by or blocks an attack, or initiates a Dual Combo or DHA, the skill will deactivate and the cooldown will begin from wherever the timer leaves off.
EX - The Screw: The skill activates quicker and Joshu is invincible until Nut King Call begins moving. NKC will move a slight distance further, extend its arm's reach, and deal more damage.
EX - I did it! Me! Ahahahahaha!: Joshu runs at a much faster speed. The timer gauge will deplete at a considerably faster rate, and will also not slow down upon him taking action.
Of note is that if Joshu has a Soul Succession active, the effects of the movement speed boosts are multiplicative, causing him to accelerate into a superhuman sprint. At his level of speed, he is able to traverse one end of any stage to the other in only a matter of seconds, and he possesses the fastest running speed of any character in the game bar none as long as the skill is active. The speed increase is such that Joshu can outpace most characters' Homing Dash.
JoJolities
She even lets me give her kisses...: Joshu must use his Style Action 3 times. (200 Points)
Wait... I'm the one doing this! Yeaaaah!!: Joshu must connect "Whoa! I did that!". (200 Points)
Gross alert! Gross alert!: Joshu must break a Panicked opponent's health gauge. (300 Points)
He's a surprisingly good and honest guy...: Joshu must finish his run after activating "I did it! Me! Ahahahahaha!". (500 Points)
What an unbelievably crazy battle!: Joshu must Retire an opponent without losing a single health gauge. (800 Points)
Dual Heat Attacks
Solo - Wait... I'm the one doing this! Yeaaaah!!: Joshu, sitting on the ground, realizes Nut King Call has started acting on its own. The opponent suddenly has nuts and bolts embedded into their body when NKC stands up. As the nuts begin automatically undoing themselves from their bolts, the opponent violently falls apart and is soon completely dismantled.
With Josuke - We're friends, right?: Joshu and Josuke discuss their "friendship" status as Soft & Wet delivers a punch that downs the opponent. Joshu and Nut King Call hastily move in to finish them off, but fails to notice a bubble by Soft & Wet that steals the ground's friction, making him slip and spin out of control. Accelerating to high-speeds, Joshu is only stopped when he inevitably crashes into the downed opponent as Josuke humorously looks on.
He is paired with Diavolo in the Eyes of Heaven Tournament, having been placed in the F Block series of battles to be incorporated into the main Tournament. They were eliminated in the first round by Bruno Bucciarati and Trish Una.
Manga Appearances
Quotes
