Josuke Higashikata/Personality and Relationships
Personality
Josuke is a savvy, confident and courageous teenager. Friendly and loyal, his amiable personality helps him making friends throughout the story .
Josuke's primary trait is his overall kindness, reflected in his Stand Crazy Diamond which repairs and heals. When a random bystander helped saving him out of genuine kindness, Josuke subconsciously reflected that kindness in him. Even upon the revelation that he's Joseph's bastard son, Josuke has thought first and foremonst about the troubles he's caused to the Joestars and disregarded any claim for an heritage, only wanting to reassure his biological father that he was doing fine. Agreeable by nature, Josuke isn't as prone to violence as other JoJos and can even calmly tolerate bullying by upperclassmen or Shigechi's selfishness. Josuke is loyal to his friends and loved ones; risking his life after Koichi is hit by Keicho's Bow, and carrying Okuyasu's body while apparently dead throughout the first part of his battle with Yoshikage Kira and Killer Queen. When his grandfather died, Josuke took upon himself to become the protector of Morioh. Upon meeting someone in not particularly antagonistic circumstances, Josuke will generally be polite and friendly.
Overall, Josuke behaves like a teenager, and aside from his general goal of protecting Morioh from any Stand menace, is concerned by more down to earth matters, such as hanging out with his friend. Josuke passively protects his town, and only acts when directly asked by the much more proactive Jotaro or when he directly encounters a Stand user. Curious, Josuke is quick to investigate any unusual phenomenon, which often leads him into a Stand User. Josuke is very prone to openly communicate his feelings, either expressing amazement, amusement, fear and anger thus he appears as a goofy individual.
Sufficiently humble, Josuke confesses to being nervous around famous people, opting not to go with Koichi to first meet Rohan Kishibe due to his great fame as a mangaka. Josuke also has a fear of turtles, and has tried to touch a turtle to get rid of that fear. Josuke isn't shy to admit his limits, and has confessed that he doesn't know much about mangas, or isn't good at videogames, even though he isn't happy to have someone know these factoids. In the same way, Josuke tries to live up to Jotaro, whom he admires, and has been nervous around him for fear of not living up to the task Jotaro entrusted to him.
However, in a fight, Josuke is much more calm, and has unshakeable confidence in his Stand Crazy Diamond, but his confidence doesn't extend to himself, as Josuke can still be nervous if things don't go his way. Additionally, Terunosuke Miyamoto is able to reveal that in terms of body language, Josuke's first unconscious reaction when unsure is to bite his lip. In general, his attitude will mix calmness and goofiness, and Josuke can switch between a taunting one-liner and a serene assertion of the situation. Josuke is occasionally distracted in a fight, often reflecting on the silliness of the situation he's currently in or trying to act cool. Even if Josuke is gentle by nature, he has no qualm about violently pummeling an enemy, and in the case someone has hurt or endangered a family member, Josuke will be even more vindictive, as he fused Angelo with a rock and Terunosuke with a book.
Josuke has a tangential respect of the law at best, shown primarily in regards to winning money. After nearly emptying his bank account on frivolous spendings, Josuke has been trying to get extra money in quick fashion. When he and Okuyasu meet Shigechi, he quickly devises a plan to exploit Shigechi's Stand Harvest to find first discarded change, and then discarded coupons from all over Morioh, going as far as commit felony to earn the money in a winning ticket. Similarly, after meeting Mikitaka Hazekura, he takes advantage of his shape-shifting Stand power, convincing him to turn into dice in order to cheat money from Rohan, with whom he has a bad relationship. Lastly, characterized as a knowing gesture, he steals Joseph's wallet with his Stand by restoring it to his possession with a piece of a picture planted there. The fact that his Stand can nearly repair or heal anything means that Josuke can get away with destruction of property or endangering someone, thus isn't really concerned about the legal ramifications of his actions since they will be without consequence, at least for him.
As a catchphrase, in approval, Josuke often says "Great", in English.
In a quintessential idiosyncrasy, Josuke takes a hyper-sensitive reaction to comments at all disparaging of his hairstyle; which Josuke explains as due to the honor of a man with the same hairstyle who saved his life as child. After an insult, Josuke enters a blind rage and becomes much more rude and violent. Firstly, a swaggering upperclassman to whom Josuke initially defers is punched and stepped on, before his nose is restored by Crazy Diamond improperly, indefinitely, due to Josuke's mood. Later, during his fight with Rohan, in an attempt to manipulate Josuke into gazing upon his Stand by openly taunting him about his hair, Josuke goes berserk; landing Rohan in hospital for one month.
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 looks up to him due to his profession as a police officer.
- 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 strong desire to help people, when he endangered his life to save Shizuka, he starts to warm up to him and by the end of the manga, he's happily accepting of his father.
