Josefumi is a man of slim to medium build and seemingly average height. He is similar to Part 4's Josuke Higashikata in appearance, wearing metallic peace sign and heart pins on his clothes and styling his hair into a pompadour with the sides bleached. Josefumi wears a checker-patterned sweater over a loose-collared shirt with dark slacks.
During his first appearance, he had multiple irises with a ripple-pattern similar to Crazy Diamond.
Not much is known about Josefumi Kujo, as he had exchanged parts of his body with Kira's corpse to become Josuke Higashikata prior to the start of JoJolion. In general, Josefumi gives the impression of being an ordinary, kind young man.
Josefumi shows a degree of resourcefulness, using his Stand power and knowledge to concoct a plan that would allow him and Kira to secretly steal some Locacaca branches and cultivate the fruit in secret. When push comes to shove, Josefumi can be remarkably brutal during a fight. When the A. Phex Brothers turned up to assassinate him, Josefumi violently beat them up, inflicting injuries such as kicking violently their tibias, or flinging a tree branch violently enough to pierce one's head, before inflicting a brutal beatdown with Soft & Wet that sent them down a cliff.[1]
When given the opportunity by Tamaki Damo to let Kira die to save his own life, Josefemi's hidden sadness surfaces as he torments himself, saying that he always was abandoned and left out. He notably remembers the time when his mother Kiyomi almost let him die in the sea,[2] but his manner of speech implies that he's lived a unhappy solitary life. Thus, Josefumi seriously considered revealing the location of the Locacaca to save his life and sacrifice Yoshikage's when both were being tortured by Damo.[3] However, when Kira instead saved him, he was so moved that he attempted to sacrifice his own life to save Kira, showing that he he greatly valued their friendship at heart.[4]
He holds a sense of sentiment for Holy Joestar-Kira being grateful towards her for saving his life (with the assistance of her son's power) when he was a boy.[5] Out of gratitude, Josefumi would gladly do anything to help her.[6] It is implied that he sees her as a kind of sacred mother figure.[7]
It doesn't seem that Josefumi ever interacted much with Karera Sakunami, despite her crush on him and her constant stalking. He does find her cute[8] but circumstances made it so he died before anything could happen between them.
Originally Josefumi's Stand, Soft & Wet had the power to absorb aspects of things, an ability that it retained as the power to steal aspects of things post-fusion. It also produced bubbles, but they are not like the bubbles of Killer Queen, as they lack the star marking. Soft & Wet's bubbles eventually gain star markings after the Wall Eyes fuse Josefumi with Kira.
Josefumi is first shown demonstrating his Stand's ability when Kira unexpectedly meets him in a Morioh ramen shop when the pepper shaker lid comes off and spills too much pepper into his ramen, resulting in Josefumi using his Stand to pull the pepper out, completely dry.
He also is shown using his Stand's power to perform a complex botanical grafting, an act he believes will be instrumental in helping Kira cure the mysterious illness affecting his mother Holy. He later uses this ability to forcibly feed Kira a Locacaca fruit after the latter is killed by Tamaki Damo.
Personal Skills
Horticulture: Josefumi possesses extensive knowledge about plants and is able to perform botanical grafting. Using Soft & Wet's bubbles, he can bind different branches together, making the cells of a tree branch adapt to the other.[9]
History
Josefumi's drowning accident
As a child, Josefumi nearly drowned during an outing to the beach with his mother, being drawn underwater and striking his head on a rock, leaving him for dead. He ended up in the care of emergency room doctor Holy Joestar-Kira, who recognized Josefumi was suffering from a fatal blood clot in his brain and asked her son Yoshikage Kira to use his Stand to remove it, saving the young Josefumi's life.
At some point, Josefumi attended T Academy to study agriculture, where he would meet Karera Sakunami.[10][11]
Years later, he is seen eating in the same ramen shop as Ojiro Sasame and Kira. As Ojiro leaves the shop, he accidentally bumped into Josefumi, causing the latter to spill an excessive amount of pepper into his ramen, which he soon removed using his Stand. Kira quickly recognized him afterward.
The two meet up in the park later on to devise a plan to steal the Locacaca Tree from Aisho Dainenjiyama, as Kira wanted the fruit to save his mother. Josefumi insists that he help Kira as he feels some debt towards Kira's mother for saving him years ago, and devises a plan to steal a single branch from the tree and use his Stand's abilities to graft it to another tree and raise a Locacaca Tree of their own. One day, Josefumi and Kira approached Aisho and set up a plan to temporarily distract him. While Aisho visited a pharmacy, Josefumi took a large quantity of eye drops named Eye Eye Syaa, pretending that they worked perfectly. Kira then asked for the same medicine, persuading Aisho of the medicine's value. Aisho took the remaining bottle of medicine for himself. The moment he used the eye drop, Kira distracted him by causing an accident which allowed Josefumi to sneakily snap two branches of the Locacaca and replace them. The duo left the scene, having in their possession the Locacaca branches. Sometime after this incident, he took a photo with Kira and Karera.
According to Yotsuyu Yagiyama, he once tried to kill Josefumi but was prevented from doing so by Kira.
He and Kira were eventually found by Tamaki Damo and Yagiyama, the former horribly torturing them. Thanks to Kira, they managed to escape and arrive at the location of their Locacaca graft, but Kira having lost his liver, Josefumi fed him one of the Locacaca fruit. While waiting for Kira to awaken, Josefumi was ambushed by the A. Phex Brothers, whom Josefumi proceeded to viciously attack, before retreating with Kira's body.
Josefumi, anxious over Kira not awakening, begins to use their last Locacaca fruit to exchange his life for Kira's, claiming that he died a long time ago and that he owed Holy. He told Kira to live so that he could harvest more Locacaca fruit for Holy. During all of this, an earthquake was occurring with a reported tsunami on the way, destroying the ground and emerging a Wall Eye, burying Josefumi and Kira under the ground, the Locacaca having swapped pieces of the two to turn Josefumi into who would be known as Josuke, whom Yasuho Hirose would find under the ground. A few days after their meeting, Josuke and Yasuho return to the same spot and discover the corpse of Kira.
For the next several months, Josuke is unaware of his previous identity as Josefumi or his relation to Kira until Kei Nijimura reveals the process of equivalent exchange that resulted in him being partly her brother Kira and a chance meeting with Josefumi's friend Karera who recognizes that he is also Josefumi and the A. Phex Brothers who recognize that Josuke's Stand Soft & Wet is similar to Josefumi's Stand.
You need that fruit in order to heal your mother's illness, don't you? I've been thinking about this forever. On that summer day when I was a kid, if I hadn't been brought to Holy, if she hadn't been there to save me... I wouldn't be here right now.. I'll help out, of course I will. If it's to help Holy-san, just tell me what to do.
I can't take it anymore... I'm always being abandoned... Nobody ever even pays any attention to me... I've worked so, so hard... but, it's always gone the same way. I just end up abandoned.
Back up on the yacht... you said you roped me into this... but that's not true.... that's not what happened... from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to serve some purpose for Holy. I've been imagining it forever now. I'm certain that is my image of happiness. If I can be even a little help to Holy... that's my precious image of happiness. I thought that with this fruit, I'd definitely be able to make it a reality for Holy. It was really important.
I died a long time ago... drowning in the ocean on that summer day... Maybe I hit my head on a reef? I dunno, but I drowned. I didn't survive. From that day I went to the beach... I didn't exist anywhere at all. So the one to live... shouldn't be me. It should be Holy's child... it should be you...I'll offer it... using the equivalent exchange... I'll gladly exchange my body... That's how it should be. That's the way... of the image of happiness... and I got to live this long. The Locacaca branch is still okay. So for Holy's sake... you need to grow a new one.
Along with having the Joestar Birthmark, the structure of Josefumi Kujo's name allows him the JoJo moniker.
The pronunciation of Josefu in his name is the same as Joseph in Japanese.
Josefumi's bedazzled cellphone lists his name in English as Josephmi.
Josefumi's outfit appears to have been based on a piece of art drawn by Araki of Josuke Higashikata (from Diamond is Unbreakable). This same outfit appears during the credits of Part 4's anime adaptation. It is also one of Josuke's unlockable costumes in Eyes of Heaven.
Manga Appearances
Quotes
