Battle Tendency
- For the Anime adaption, see JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The Animation.
Battle Tendency (戦闘潮流, Sentō Chōryū) is the second story arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1987 and 1989. Originally titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2 Joseph Joestar: His Proud Lineage (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 第二部 ジョセフ・ジョースター ―その誇り高き血統, JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken Dai Ni Bu Josefu Jōsutā Sono Hokoritakaki Kettō), the arc is preceded by Phantom Blood and spans a total of 69 chapters.
Taking place in 1938-39, the story follows the misadventures of Joseph Joestar (a.k.a. JoJo), grandson of Jonathan, as he masters his innate Ripple abilities in order to combat hostile, ancient super-beings named the Pillar Men, creators of the Stone Mask that plot to become the ultimate lifeforms.
Plot Summary
New York's JoJo
In the winter of 1938, having became a wealthy businessman, Robert E. O. Speedwagon and his Speedwagon Foundation have discovered a Mexican pyramid where they found various Stone Masks along with a partly-living man integrated into a stone column. Fearing the worst, that the horror he and his old friend Jonathan Joestar from 49 years may resurface, Speedwagon contacted Straizo to meet him in Mexico for his aid in destroying the masks and the mysterious figure before he awakens. But Straizo suddenly kills Speedwagon's associates before badly injuring the man himself. Fascinated by the youthfulness and vigor the Stone Mask granted Dio, Straizo uses the spilled blood to activate the mask and transform into a vampire while explaining he intends to eliminate any who know of the masks.
Meanwhile in New York City, while defeating a pair of police officers for brutalizing a pickpocket named Smokey Brown, Jonathan's grandson Joseph Joestar demonstrates his ability to utilize Ripple. Jonathan befriends Smokey as he and his grandmother Erina Joestar make the boy feel welcomed. While eating at a restaurant with Smokey and Erina, Joseph is soon informed by a mobster of Speedwagon's presumed death at the hand of Straizo. After beating the mobster for giving his grandmother distress, Joesph assures Erina that he is going no where.
Later after sunset, Joseph is confronted outside a cafe by a vampirized Straizo who intends to kill the human before he becomes an actual threat to him. But Joseph expected the vampire and reveals a concealed Tommy-Gun he promptly uses on Straizo, the damaging the café before the resulting battle ends when Joseph completely destroys the interior by sneaking some grenades onto Straizo's person. Straizo is blown to pieces as a result, but his body parts begin to reassemble. Joseph assures Smokey that the advantage is his, noting Straizo's legs are not fully healed so he can use his last resort technique: running away.
Once Straizo had completely regenerated, he takes a woman hostage and catches up to Joseph on a bridge. Straizo proceeds to force Joseph to show his true character by threating to kill the girl if he dares leave. The fight end with Joseph punching Straizo off the bridge, grabbing the vampire for answers. Straizo reveals that after he became a vampire, he was forced to dump Speedwagon and his victims into the river to prevent the spilled blood from reviving the figure in the stone column: The Pillar Man. Having inherited his master's ability, Straizo tells Joseph that his eventual meeting with the Pillar Man will seal his fate before releasing the Ripple he stored in his body to self destruct.
Disturbed by Straizo's final words, Joseph travels to Mexico for answers before realizing he is being followed by a German assassin named Donovan. Joseph manages to subdue Donovan, learning that Speedwagon is alive and held in an underground facility managed by the Nazi research unit under the command of Major Rudol von Stroheim. Stroheim and his forces are revealed to have extracted the Pillar Man and proceed to revive him for research purposes. Once the being, dubbed "Santana" by Stroheim, is awakened, he demonstrates fantastic, super-human abilities as he kills most of those present. But Joseph, having managed to infiltrate the Nazis' base, saves Speedwagon and Stroheim.
At first, Joseph attempts to rather playfully make peace with Santana as he perceives the Pillar Man's actions were out of self defense. But once the Pillar Man reveals his contempt to humans, and learning he cannot absorb those who use Ripple energy, Joseph battles the being before blowing him to bits. With the Pillar Man in pieces, Joseph chains Santana's upper torso to drag him out so he can be turned back into stone. Stroheim aids Joseph, losing his leg before the fully regenerated Pillar Man entered his body once outside. Stroheim pulls out a grenade and ignites it after telling Joseph of the three other Pillar Men found in Rome. As a last ditch effort, a livid Santana drags Joseph with him into the well. But Joseph reveals to Santana, having expected his action, that the bottom of the well is reflecting the noon sun as the Pillar Man turns to stone. Once storing Santana's remains at the Washington Branch of the Speedwagon Foundation, Joseph accompanies Speedwagon to Rome after the latter decided to contact some assistance.
Ultimate Warriors from Ancient Times
Once in Rome, Joseph would cross paths with Speedwagon's contact in Italy: William Anthonio Zeppeli's grandson Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli. The two youths don't get along well as Caesar blames Jonathan for his grandfather's death and called Joseph's win against Santana dumb luck. After a scuffle between the two youths, they and Speedwagon head to the hotel to wait for Caesar's German contact Mark to pick them up and bring them to the Roman Coliseum where the three Pillar Men are kept under watch by the Nazis stationed there.
They arrive at the underground cave where the Pillar Men are, learning they have already awakened and killed the Nazis. Mark attempts to run away, only to lose half his body when one of the Pillar Men, Wamuu, walks into him. Ceasar is force to put the dying Mark out his misery before attacking Wamuu to avenge his friend. But unlike Santana, the three Pillar Men are revealed to have dealt with Ripple users in the past and developed counters as seen in Wamuu's headdress and Wind Mode. After Caesar was defeated, Joseph takes over the fight to show off his Ripple-infused clackers. Wamuu accepts Joseph's challenge, slicing through his wrist to the artery to serve as a timer for their fight. But Joseph proved to be a capable fighter despite his lack of Ripple training, managing to scar Wamuu who allowed the human to continuous strike him out of self-punishment before knocking him back with his Divine Sandstorm.
Wamuu was about to kill Caesar and Speedwagon as witnesses to his humiliation when he noticed Joseph, feigning death the first few times, crawling towards a mine cart. Though Caesar assumed Joesph was acting cowardly, he realized he was luring the Pillar Man away to save him and Speedwagon. Wamuu reached the same conclusion once on the cart, also guessing Joesph's intent to use a stick of dynamite to kill him and derail the cart. After Wamuu personally knocks the cart off the tracks, he decides to finish Joseph. But Joseph plays on Wamuu's ego and pride to give him a month to train for worthwhile rematch. Wamuu accepts, but implants a Wedding Ring of Death on Joseph's aorta to keep him from running away. Wamuu explains the ring will dissolve into a poison within 33 days while revealing the antidote to be inside his lip ring. Another Pillar Man Esidisi, ups the ante by placing his own ring around Joseph's windpipe, with the antidote in his own nose piercing. The Pillar Mens' leader Kars passes on the game as the trio take their leave to find the Red Stone of Aja. Caesar finds respect for Joseph for his heroic resistance.
Lisa Lisa, Ripple Coach
Wanting to teach Joseph to master his Ripple, Caesar takes him to Venice to meet his mentor: the masterful and beautiful Lisa Lisa. Lisa Lisa orders Joseph to wear a mask that limits his breathing for the duration of his training as she first has him and Casar climb the Hell Climb Pillar, a 24-meter pillar covered in oil, using only the Ripple or else starve to death. After Lisa Lisa caught him cheating, realizing she intends to leave him there to die, Joseph observes Caesar's efforts and learns to climb up by focusing Ripple energy in his fingertips. Once Joseph passes Lisa Lisa's test, asking her to teach him despite initially admitting revenge fantasies against her, he and Caesar continue their training under Lisa Lisa's servants Loggins and Messina. A few weeks later, Lisa Lisa reveals to Joseph and Caesar that Kars is the one who created Stone Masks like the one that caused their grandfathers' deaths. She also reveals that Kars is seeking a flawless Red Stone of Aja, the Super Aja in her possession to perfect the mask and use it to become the ultimate life-form.
With a week left until the rings inside Joseph dissolve and kill him, Lisa Lisa pits Joseph and Caesar against Loggins and Messina respectively for their final test. However, when Joseph reaches his destination, he finds Loggins has been killed by Esidisi who has learned of the Super Aja's location. Angered that he could pay Loggins back from the hell he was put through under him, his breathing mask destroyed in the process, Joseph decides to confront the Pillar Man over a bed of spikes. While Joseph managed to use a wire set-up on Loggins to sever Esidisi's arm, the Pillar Man grafts the corpse's arm while destroying it in a display of his own ability to melt things with his boiling blood. Esidisi also revealed to have in-depth knowledge of Sun Tzu's Art of War and appeared to have outwitted Joseph, only for the human to reveal that he used sleight of hand to outwit Esidisi and destroys him while taking the antidote to the ring around his wind pipe.
A relieved Joseph heads back to the manor and meets up with Lisa Lisa's slightly ditzy aide Suzi Q, who assumed he was a stranger as she never saw him without the mask. After a bit of flirting between the two, Suzi Q informs Joseph that Lisa Lisa had asked to see him and advises him to wait for her to finish her bath. Noting the pressure on his back after fighting Esidisi is gone after Suzi Q left, noticing her handing a package to a mail boat, Joseph decides to peep on Lisa Lisa bathing through the keyhole before being astonished to sees Suzi Q already inside. It was then that Lisa Lisa realized the Super Aja is gone as Suzi Q is revealed to be possessed by Esidisi's surviving nervous system (which used Joseph to enter the manor), who mailed the stone to Kars while intending to use his human host/shield to keep the Ripple users from leaving after it. Luckily, Joseph and Caesar use opposing Ripples to safely remove Esidisi from Suzi Q's body, with the Pillar Man's remains disintegrated by sunlight and Joseph admits his respect for him. Suzi Q reveals that the Stone is aboard a train headed to Switzerland and Joseph, Caesar, Lisa Lisa and Messina drive off to catch the package before it reaches it's destination.
Young Caesar
Reaching the Swiss border, Joseph and his group find the train had been stopped by customs as the Nazi retrieved the package for research. The lead Nazi who appears familiar with Joseph invites the group to log cabin up ahead. Later on that evening, having not received word from Esidisi, Kars approaches the cabin and senses the body heat of several soldiers inside, killing them before entering. Only the lead Nazi remained alive as Joseph learns the man to be Stroheim, who has been rebuilt by German scientists as a powerful cyborg based on Santana's stats. But Kars proves to be the stronger opponent as he cuts him down to size before Stroheim manages to make Kars drop the Stone, which is sliding toward a cliff. A struggle then ensues between Joseph and Kars for possession of the Stone, ending in Joseph managing to snatch victory. Kars, expressing a deep-seeded hatred towards the human for sensing him as Esidisi's killer, allows the human to hold the Red Stone a little longer.
The next day at St. Mortiz, learning the Pillar Men are taking residence in the San Moritz hotel, Caesar wishes to ambush Kars during the day before Wamuu returns. But Joseph objects as it might be booby trapped, The Joestar's words provoking Caesar before he decides to go alone with Messina following him. Lisa Lisa tells Joseph of Caesar's tragic past, having assumed his father Mario left the family before he died to save him from being devoured by the resting Pillar Men. The story convinces Joseph to follow after Caesar.
However as Caesar reached the San Mortiz, he and Messina are attacked by Wamuu, who is using streams of moist air to both protect him from the sunlight while appearing ghost-like. Wamuu drags Messina into the hotel with Caesar chasing after him, revealing the Bubble Cutter technique he developed from his grandfather's Ripple Cutter to overwhelm the Pillar Man. Caesar then uses a series of refractive bubble lenses to redirect the sunlight inside the hotel to pin down Wamuu to land the death blow. But Wamuu takes advantage of the split-second of Caesar blotting out the sunlight to counter with a point-blank Divine Sandstorm that fatally injures Caesar.
Wamuu, satisfied with the fight, prepares to leave, before Caesar gets back up with the Pillar Man telling him their battle is over now. But Caesar musters the strength to tear out Wamuu's lip ring, explaining that accepted his death but intends to die for another's sake as his father and grandfather had done. With that, Caesar uses his the last of his Ripple to create a blood bubble containing the piercing and his bandana to reach Joesph before being crushed by the collapsing ceiling. Wamuu respects Caesar's last gesture and the basis of his valiant fight, allowing the bubble to remain for Joseph and Lisa Lisa as they eventually arrive. Finding Messina's unconscious body, they realized Caesar died and mourned him before they venture further inside hotel, defeating a Vampire named Wired Beck. Despite having Wamuu's lip ring, Joseph vows not to drink the antidote until he has defeated the Pillar Man and avenged Caesar.
The Wind, the Chariot, and Wamuu
Joseph and Lisa Lisa meet Wamuu and Kars before they arrange for respective one-on-one fights. Wamuu selects the Skeleton Heel Stone, a stone chariot racing track centered by a bonfire at the foot of Piz Bernina, as the arena of his fight with Joseph. A chariot race super-powered by vampire horses ensues, and inside two laps the pair utilize hammers and steel ball crossbows in damaging the other's chariot and person. Ultimately Joseph is able again to anticipate his opponent's actions, before honoring Wamuu for his principled nature after emerging victorious.
The Warrior Returns to the Wind
Joseph pays his last respects to the dying Wamuu before Kars comes out and challenges Lisa Lisa.
The Bond That Binds Lisa Lisa and JoJo
The final showdown against Kars begins. First, keeping his promise, he fights Lisa Lisa and though he promised to fight her one-on-one, he lies and sacrifices one of his weaker Vampires and is able to defeat her. Angered by Kars' trickery, Joseph then challenges Kars who looks upon Joseph as a weak Ripple user and not even worth fighting seriously. It all seems to be over until Stroheim (resurrected as a machine once again), the Nazis, Speedwagon, and Smokey arrive to help Joseph. It is here that Lisa Lisa is revealed to be the biological mother of Joseph, Elizabeth Joestar.
JoJo: The Final Ripple
It is also explained that her husband, Joseph's father, was killed by the last of Dio's zombie troops while posing as a high-ranking air force commander, but when Elizabeth killed the zombie, she was sighted by another unaware officer and forced to go into hiding as a fugitive, taking on the pseudonym "Lisa Lisa" for her own safety.
After using the powers of ultraviolet rays of light it seems that Kars has been killed and the world has been saved. But, Kars was not only able to place on a stone mask that he had been hiding on his person, but fused with the powers of the Red Stone of Aja, Kars becomes the Ultimate Life form.
Kars the Ultimate Being Is Born
At first, Kars doesn't appear to have changed much, but he now disposes of an incredible ability to transform into any lifeform and is immune to the sun. All despair, but Joseph who makes a strategic retreat in order to lure out Kars, hungry for revenge. Joseph flies away on a plane, followed by Kars.
Joseph plans to lure the Ultimate Lifeform into a volcano, but as he closes on it, Kars manages to disable the plane. Joseph and Stroheim, who had been hiding inside the plane, manage to lure Kars into a bait and use the crashing plane to send him into the lava.
Final Chapters
But the fight is still not over. Kars was able to cover himself in an armor made of rock and protect himself from the molten lava. While Kars is incapacitated again, he pulls a surprise attack on Joseph, severing the latter's left arm in the process. It looks like this would be the gruesome end of not only the Joestars, but the world itself, until Joseph instinctively blocks a Ripple attack from Kars with the Red Stone. As a result of this sudden surge of Ripple energy, the volcano erupts and sends both Joseph and Kars flying. While Kars tries to fly away to safety, Joseph randomly throws his severed arm at Kars, distracting him long enough for him to be shot outside of Earth's atmosphere by flying debris. Though he tries to fly back down to finish the job, a defense mechanism of his kicks in, freezing his body solid and making him unable to travel back to Earth. Damned with immortality due to his newfound powers, Kars eventually becomes brain-dead in the endless vacuum of space.
Weeks later the group of Erina, Lisa Lisa, Messina, Smokey, and Speedwagon pay their respects as they have a funeral for the assumed-to-be-dead Joseph Joestar, but to their surprise Joseph appears, alive and well, and unaware whose funeral he decided to crash. After seeing his own name on the headstone, he explains that after falling back down from the sky he ends up in Italy where he is helped by a local fisherman. After finding and marrying Suzi Q, he returned to America and his friends. Unfortunately, Suzi Q forgot to inform the group that Joseph was alive, hence the funeral. Enraged, Joseph chases his wife through the cemetery while his comrades celebrate his survival.
An account is made for the remainder of the lives of several key members of the cast:
- Lisa Lisa, a.k.a. Elizabeth Joestar, revealed her true identity to Joseph before moving to America with her family and marrying a Hollywood screenwriter in 1948.
- Erina Joestar continued her work as a teacher until she died peacefully in 1950, surrounded by her friends and family.
- Robert E. O. Speedwagon continued his philanthropic scientific & medical research before dying of a heart attack in 1952, an eternal bachelor and the last of the Speedwagons.
- Despite the discrimination he faced as an African-American, Smokey Brown went on to major in political science in college, before becoming the first black mayor of a city in his home state of Georgia.
- Major Rudol von Stroheim was killed leading the German retreat at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, "a fearsome example of the German science he always championed."
48 years later, an aged Joseph is seen at JFK International Airport, reprimanding a Japanese man who accidentally hit him with his luggage. Joseph voices his anger towards the Japanese, explaining that his own daughter moved to Japan after marrying a Japanese man and never came back; he hardly gets to see his own grandson Jotaro as a result. The story ends with Joseph heading on a plane bound for Japan, aiming to visit his daughter for some urgent business regarding Jotaro.
Characters in Battle Tendency
| Character name | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Joseph Joestar | Main Protagonist |
| Smokey Brown | Ally |
| Erina Joestar | Ally |
| Robert E. O. Speedwagon | Ally |
| Rudol von Stroheim | Ally (previously Villian) |
| Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli | Ally |
| Lisa Lisa | Ally |
| Loggins and Messina | Ally |
| Suzi Q | Ally |
| Donovan | Villiain |
| Straizo | Neutral at death (Villain) |
| Wired Beck | Villain |
| Santana | Villain |
| Esidisi | Villain |
| Wamuu | Neutral at death (Villain) |
| Kars | Main Antagonist |
Major Battles
Joseph Joestar vs. Straizo
Joseph Joestar vs. Caesar A. Zeppeli Joseph Joestar vs. Wamuu Joseph Joestar & Caesar A. Zeppeli vs. Esidisi (2nd Battle for Former) Joseph Joestar vs. Kars Caesar A. Zeppeli vs. Wamuu (2nd Battle) Lisa Lisa vs. Wired Beck Joseph Joestar vs. Wamuu (2nd Battle) Joseph Joestar vs. Kars (2nd Battle) |
Chapters
Battle Tendency consists of 69 chapters, compiled into Volume 5 to 12 of the Jump Comics collected editions. The left column uses the titles from the bunkoban edition released in 2002. The right column uses the titles from the original serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump. The volumes use the Weekly Shonen Jump titles.[3][1]
| Volume 5: The Final Ripple! | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (最後の波紋！, Saigo no Hamon!) |
 August 10, 1988[2] |
978-4-08-851130-6 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 6: JoJo vs. the Ultimate Life-Form | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (JoJo |
October 7, 1988[3] |
978-4-08-851062-0 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 7: The Red Stone of Aja | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (エイジャの赤石, Eija no Sekiseki) |
December 6, 1988[4] |
978-4-08-851063-7 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 8: The Final Trial! | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (最終試練！, Saishū Shiren!) |
February 10, 1989[5] |
978-4-08-851064-4 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 9: Rushing Towards the Cliff of Death | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (死の崖へつっ走れ, Shi no Gake e Tsuppashire) |
April 10, 1989[6] |
978-4-08-851065-1 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 10: The Crimson Bubble | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (鮮赤のシャポン, Senseki no Shabon) |
June 9, 1989[7] |
978-4-08-851066-8 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 11: The Warrior Returning to the Wind | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (風にかえる戦士, Kaze ni Kaeru Senshi) |
August 10, 1989[8] |
978-4-08-851067-5 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Volume 12: The Birth of the Ultimate Being!! | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (超生物の誕生!!, Chō Seibutsu no Tanjō!!) |
October 9, 1989[9] |
978-4-08-851068-2 | |||||
| Bunkoban Titles | WSJ & Tankōbon Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Adaptations
The first episode of a TV anime adaptation of Battle Tendency, by David Production, aired in Japan on December 7, 2012; the last on April 5, 2013. It was later dubbed and aired on Toonami in America from December 17, 2016 to April 15, 2017.
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| Volume 4 | |||||
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| Volume 5 | |||||
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| Volume 6 | |||||
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T-Shirt | ||
| Volume 7 | |||||
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Strap | ||
| Volume 8 | |||||
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| Volume 9 | |||||
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Gallery
- Volumes 1-29 Spine.png
Volume 1 through 29 spine art
Part 2 End picture
References
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