Josuke Higashikata/Personality and Relationships
Personality
Josuke is friendly, savvy, confident and courageous. He is generally admired and respected by his peers.
At the start of Part 4, he lives with his mom and did not know his father, Joseph Joestar. When he finally met him he did not want to have anything to do with him and yelled at him. But when he saw that Joseph was willing to give up his own life to save a baby he had just found, Josuke's attitude changed and he started to call him "dad" instead of "Mr. Joestar".
Josuke is seen to go through any means necessary to save a friend: not only did he risk his life after Koichi was hit by Keicho's bow, but he also refused to leave Okuyasu's side during the battle with Kira, even when it appeared that his best friend was dead, as he carried Okuyasu's body throughout the first part of his battle with Killer Queen.
Josuke has a cunning streak; shown a couple of times in regards to money. When he and Okuyasu met Shigechi, he came up with a plan to get money and other things from all over Morioh Cho, and used his stand powers to cheat the lottery. When he meets Mikitaka Hazekura, he takes advantage of his shape-shifting power to cheat money from Rohan. He also takes Joseph's wallet using a piece of a picture he gave him and Crazy Diamond. But even with that he is a dependable and friendly person who is always willing to protect people who need it. This causes him to become friends with some of his former enemies who in turn have helped him out.
Josuke may become nervous when faced with something big, for example popular figures or superiors and he is well aware of this, such as when he refused to go with Koichi to meet Rohan initially because he didn't feel up to meeting a famous Mangaka. Terunosuke Miyamoto is able to reveal that in terms of body language, Josuke's first unconscious reaction when unsure is to touch his chin.
Josuke usually says "Great" in English gradution when anything has positive part has been solved easily in very lucky.
In a quintessential idiosyncrasy, Josuke takes a hyper-sensitive reaction to comments at all disparaging of his hairstyle. Josuke explains this as due to the honor of a man with the same hairstyle who saved both his mother and him in his youth. After an insult, Josuke enters a blind rage; violent and brutally punishing towards the source of the insult. Depending on how much someone makes fun of it, will cause that person to get beat up more and more as the insults go on. A random upperclassman student insulted his hair and got punched once and stepped on. Said upperclassman was healed afterwards by Crazy Diamond, but because it happened while Josuke was angry, his nose was restored improperly and never looked the same. When Rohan held Koichi and Okuyasu hostage and attempted to get Josuke to open his eyes and see his Stand by making fun of his hair, Josuke went berserk and landed him in the hospital for a month. (Ironically enough, this is what let Josuke save Koichi and Okuyasu from Rohan and Heaven's Door.)
Relationships
Friends and Classmates
- Koichi Hirose: Josuke is close friends with Koichi and frequently looks out for his well-being, such as when Koichi finds himself victim to Yukako's affections, Josuke takes measures to make Koichi seem less attractive.
- Okuyasu Nijimura: Initially, Josuke and Okuyasu met as enemies, but after hearing out Okuyasu's story and motives, Josuke becomes fast friends with him, and frequently hangs out with him in his day-to-day misadventures.
- Rohan Kishibe: Josuke and Rohan initially meet as enemies, and though their views of each other cool down after that, do not view each other any more amicably. Rohan becomes suspicious of Josuke's attempts to cheat money from him and Josuke becomes suspicious of Rohan's attempts at revenge.
- Mikitaka Hazekura: Josuke and Mikitaka see each other as close friends. Mikitaka is especially thankful of Josuke for "saving his life" by finding him in a crop circle. Josuke does not hesitate to have Mikitaka use his ability to attempt to scam money from Rohan, but becomes worried when Mikitaka displays signs of sickness and attempts to look out for his friend's well-being.
- Unnamed man with a pompadour: In a past incident in which Josuke had a fever and the car his mom drove was stuck in a snowstorm, the unnamed student took off his coat and placed it underneath the car, allowing the car to start up and drive over it safely. This caused Josuke to look up to the student as a role model, and hence style his own hair in a similar manner and to live his life based on how he believed his hero would act. This admiration is so strong that when someone insults Josuke's pompadour, Josuke takes it as an insult to his hero and beats up whoever insulted his hair.
Family
- Tomoko Higashikata: Josuke is very close to his mother, as her emotions towards Joseph are much of the reason for his animosity towards his father.
- Ryohei Higashikata: Josuke respects his maternal grandfather and derives respect for the profession of the police by his influence.
- Jotaro Kujo: Despite reacting angrily to Jotaro when they first met, Josuke has quickly grown to trust Jotaro, especially after their battle with Angelo and after Jotaro tells him the details behind stand users in Morioh. Later, when Jotaro takes him out hunting, Josuke is quick to accept, and trusts his strategy especially in their battle against Ratt.
- Joseph Joestar: Josuke is at first very resentful of his father after having to grow up hearing his mother's sadness of his absence early in his life, wanting him to just go away and leave her in peace. It's only strained further upon Joseph's reliance on him to keep him from getting lost in town further agitating him, upsetting Joseph. Upon seeing Joseph's desire to help people, in the first case Shizuka, he starts to warm up to him and by the end of the manga, he's happily accepting of his father.
