The Diego Brando from a Parallel World (並行世界から来たディエゴ, Heikō Sekai kara Kita Diego) is a minor antagonist featured in the seventh part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Steel Ball Run, specifically in the "High Voltage" story arc.
This version of Diego is discovered by Funny Valentine after the death of the original Diego in the "base world". He is a racer from a similar Steel Ball Run happening in a parallel world. Upon request from the President and coveting the Saint's Corpse, he confronts Johnny Joestar in the final stage of the Steel Ball Run race.
Diego is also a Stand User like his original counterpart, but instead of Scary Monsters, he wields the mighty Stand THE WORLD.
The second Diego is identical in appearance to the first. He is a young man of below-average height and slim to medium build. He has light hair, dark eyebrows, and light, bold eyes.
He commonly wears an equestrian helmet with the letters "D", "I" and "O" mounted on bending pins emerging from a small ribbon tied at its front, a turtleneck jumper patterned with a diagonal grid, light, mid-forearm-length gloves, light, wide-legged breeches, and tall, dark riding boots.
Of few or no scruples, the second Diego is crueler than the first, prepared as he is to kill Johnny in inventively violent ways such as by throwing knives, like DIO, or using matches to burn him alive. He is capable of sacrificing innocent people for his sake, though he berates Johnny for killing his fans in the first place.
The alternate Diego's Stand, THE WORLD, is almost identical to DIO's The World: A powerful, humanoid Stand capable of stopping time for ~5 seconds.
Differing slightly in appearance, this Stand replaces hearts in its design with "D" emblems (e.g. on its knees), sports clocks on its shoulders and hips, and lacks the gloves/knuckle plates on its arm braces as well as a belt. It possesses a much slimmer physique while removing its pseudo-robotic arm pivots and knee hinges with joints under solid "skin" to appear more humanlike.
Later, Valentine was subject to Tusk ACT4, its infinite Spin bypassing Valentine's strongest defense and condemning him to stay in a hole in the ground forever. Valentine thus seeks another Diego Brando in a parallel world. Valentine reveals everything to this Diego and asks him to take the Saint's Corpse because he at least respects Diego's ambition. He thus hides Diego with him when he comes back to the base world and confronts Johnny alone.
This alternate Diego can be inferred to have participated in the Steel Ball Run for the prize.
Diego hides in the hole until Valentine is finally killed by Johnny Joestar. While Johnny, Lucy Steel and Steven Steel are distracted, Diego comes out, steals the Saint's Corpse and hides among the other top competitors of the Steel Ball Run. Johnny eventually finds Diego but Diego stops time to reappear behind Johnny. Diego summons his Stand THE WORLD and stops time. He throws a handful of knives at Johnny and takes the precaution not to touch the nail Johnny has shot. Leaving as time resumes, Diego leaves but Johnny shoots with his nails. The moving holes give troubles to Diego and he is forced to stop time to escape. Diego and his horse suddenly teleport. However, Johnny quickly works out the nature of its power thanks to his experience with Ringo Roadagain. Diego too has the advantage of already knowing Tusk's powers and the Golden Spin technique.
Diego arrives at the second place in Union Beach and quickly boards a boat to New York. Johnny eventually finds Diego in the alleys of Manhattan. Diego stops time again and sets up wires on whom Johnny nearly crashes. Johnny shoots the wall and uses the debris to shield himself and shoots a nail in the direction of Diego. A moving hole catches up to Diego and Tusk ACT4 comes out to attack. Diego stops time and prepares to strike Tusk but sees that Tusk is still moving slightly in the stopped time. Worried, Diego realizes that he best not even touch Tusk ACT4. Later in the streets, Diego splashes Johnny with oil and lights him on fire, forcing Johnny to open the pavement and go into the sewers. Diego loses sight of Johnny but predicts Johnny's actions and using his own fangirls as human shields. Finally, the competitors reach Brooklyn Bridge. On there, Johnny catches up and prepares to fire. Meanwhile, Diego uses his "5 seconds" to create a pincer move: he fires a gun from the front while THE WORLD attacks Johnny's back. Johnny is badly hurt again and falls from his horse.
Johnny seemingly misses his shot when his nail hits the bridge itself. However, he had accumulated enough spin to make one final attack, sending Tusk Act 4 climbing up THE WORLD's leg. Nonetheless, Diego already planned for this and has THE WORLD cut off its own leg off and throw it at Johnny, Diego manages to beat the Spin User with his own technique. He then remounts his horse and leaves Johnny to die. Diego is the first to cross the finish line and wins the Steel Ball Run.
Heeding Funny Valentine's advice, Diego quickly goes to the Trinity Church and the vault under it to lock the Saint's Corpse inside. Suddenly, Lucy Steel appears. The World pins Lucy against the wall and Diego checks that no one else is around. Confronting the girl, Diego asks why Lucy is here to which she answers that she crossed the continent for happiness. Diego says that he plans to kill Steven Steel because he knows too much, but lusts after Lucy and plans on making her his woman. However, Lucy has a "present" for him. Diego opens the bundle and sees his severed head. Realizing the danger, Diego stops time and tries to flee, but his missing leg prevents him from doing that. Furious, Diego tries to kill Lucy instead but the head of the original Diego Brando flies towards him. Diego's head explodes and is disintegrated, killing the jockey.
Manga Appearances
QuotesThough Diego, either version, is not physically present in All Star Battle, some of his alternate's lines are present and fully voiced in the final part of Steel Ball Run's STORY MODE.
Interestingly enough, he is voiced by Takehito Koyasu, DIO's voice actor. He is referred to as "Dio" instead of Diego.
This Diego Brando was confirmed for Eyes of Heaven alongside Johnny, Gyro, and Valentine, his name titled Diego Brando from a Parallel World (並行世界から来たディエゴ, Heikō Sekai kara Kita Diego), shortened as The World Diego (世界ディエゴ, Sekai Diego).
The World Diego has an unconventional standard set of abilities: Instead of a Homing Dash that all other characters have and used to charge forward, Diego summons THE WORLD at mid-range to take opponents by surprise and knock them down with a chop; In place of a Powerful Attack, Diego summons THE WORLD to throw five knives forward in a fanning fashion; In place of a Takedown Attack, an unblockable strike used against guarding opponents, Diego pulls out a revolver and fires a singular, high-damaging shot that also deals massive damage to guard (an opponent's guard will break using only two bullets). This causes The World Diego to have a unique basic playstyle outside of his special skills.
As a Mounted Fighter, The World Diego is able to switch between riding atop Silver Bullet or moving on-foot. Also, as a Stand User, he is one of many characters with wildly varied abilities that grant him uniqueness in battle.
The World Diego interacts in a special manner with larger stage objects in that he can trap them with barb wire, which will paralyze opponents that get too close and leave them open to further attack. While this is a simple style of trap by itself among playable characters, Diego can then create a larger trap: if he traps two stage objects within range of each other that have a direct line between them, the two will automatically link their barb wire together, creating a long trap extending between the two.
He is paired with Part 4 Jotaro Kujo in the Eyes of Heaven Tournament, having been placed in the F Block series of battles to be incorporated into the main Tournament. They defeated Josuke Higashikata (JJL) and Narciso Anasui in the first round, but were eliminated by Bruno Bucciarati and Trish Una in the second.
In the light novel JORGE JOESTAR, the headless corpse of Diego Brando is by the feet of Lucy Steel when Jorge Joestar and the others arrive at Trinity Church. Jorge wonders how he ended up that way. The original universe Dio Brando, who is now just a head after his battle with Kars, goes on top of Diego's back. He sees the Saint's Corpse on a table lying behind Lucy and prepares to make the body his own.
His plan is foiled when Jorge places Jonathan's head on top of the Saint's Corpse instead. Frustrated about constantly losing to the Joestars, Dio attaches himself to the headless body of Diego. Dissatisfied, Dio declares he does not want to associate with the Joestars any more and vanishes into the darkness of the stairs behind him.[2]
SBR Volume 24 Cover
SBR Volume 24 Illustration
Ultra Jump May 2011
SBR Chapter 92 Cover
SBR Chapter 94 Cover
SBR Chapter 95 Cover A
SBR Chapter 95 Cover
Diego and THE WORLD charge at Johnny
The return of the time stop
Throwing knives to Johnny like DIO did
"WRYYYYYYY!" - Diego's death
Another Diego Brando's render in Eyes of Heaven
Diego astride Silver Bullet render, Eyes of Heaven
Another Diego's intro, EoH
Stopping time, EoH
Diego pulling out knives during his DHA, EoH
Diego performing a pose with THE WORLD during his DHA, EoH
Ultra Jump 2011 Issue #4 (Bonus Sticker)
Ultra Jump 2011 Issue #5 (Cover)
Ultra Jump 2011 Issue #5 (Title Page)
Steel Ball Run Volume Spine Art
SBR Chapter 92 Tailpiece
Diego Brando's corpse in JORGE JOESTAR
Dio takes Diego's body for himself in JORGE JOESTAR
Through actions more closely related to those occurring in Part 3, the second Diego also bears similarities to DIO.
