Jotaro Kujo
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Jotaro Kujo (空条 承太郎, Kūjō Jōtarō) is the most well known hero of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He has a recognizable attire of a blue trenchcoat-length school uniform jacket with yellow chains on the collar, with a blue cap that appears to be seemingly torn at the back. He is also known for a quick and short temper. He is the only JoJo to make an appearance in four different parts of the series.
Early life
Jotaro was raised in a average environment in Japan. Playing ball, running track, attending school, all the while being supervised by his mother, Holly.[2]
Stardust Crusaders (1988-89)
Possessed by an "Evil Spirit"
But as time went on, his years as a teen would toughen him up and give him a rough image of a juvenile delinquent.
In 1989, at the age of seventeen, Jotaro got into a fight with four gang members, whom he sent to the hospital soon after. Shocked upon beating them up beyond incapacitation even for himself, Jotaro thought he was possessed by an "evil spirit" and it would be too dangerous to live in the outside world, and turned himself into the police. Despite the police, as well as Holly, telling him to leave the jail cell, Jotaro insisted on staying, demonstrating the danger by taking one of the policeman's guns, and shooting himself in the head only for a third arm to catch the bullet in mid-air.[3]
Holly soon called her father/Jotaro's grandfather, Joseph Joestar, to work out the situation. While at first trying to tell him to leave, only to lose a finger from Joseph's prosthetic hand, Joseph sent out his Egyptian friend, Mohammed Abdul, to force Jotaro out of his cell. Abdul then sent out his own "evil spirit", known as Magician's Red, and trapped Jotaro's limbs with rings of fire.[5]
Jotaro's "evil spirit" soon fully released itself, which allowed Jotaro to successfully released himself from the fire. Joseph then revealed that the "evil spirit" is actually a manifestation of one's own life-force, known as a Stand. After breaking the iron bars of his cell in order to attack Abdul, he realized he accidentally let himself out of his cell. With Jotaro now freed, Joseph told him of the true reason why he and Abdul came to Japan. A century-old man named Dio, who was an enemy of the Joestar family since the time of Jotaro's great-great grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, had risen once more.[7]
At a nearby cafe, Joseph showed his stand to Jotaro, Hermit Purple. Using it's ability to put visions of distant places onto film, Joseph revealed a picture of Dio to Jotaro. The picture showed that from the neck down, Dio's body was actually Jonathan Joestar's, who possessed a star-shaped birthmark like all blood members of the Joestar family, including Jotaro, Holy, and Joseph.[9]
First Fight
The next day, Jotaro walked to school and was constantly getting hit on by his many female class mates. While walking down some steps, Jotaro's leg was cut and he was sent into the air.[10] Using his stand, Jotaro was able to catch himself with some branches, exactly who caused the cut on his knee became his next question. A young man his age, wearing a green school uniform, gave him a handkerchief and introduced himself as Noriaki Kakyoin.[12]
At the school nurses' office, Jotaro opened up Kakyoin's handkerchief revealing a message by Kakyoin saying he would kill him with his stand. Right after reading the message, Jotaro sees the nurse going insane, saying that her pen is a thermometer and stabbing a school punk in the eye. She then tried to stab Jotaro, who was barely able to hold her off. Kakyoin soon appeared and told him that he had possessed her with his stand, Hierophant Green. However, by kissing the nurse on the lips, Jotaro was able to use his stand to pull out Hierophant Green.[13]
Despite his hostage now having been released, Kakyoin soon attacked Jotaro with his signature attack, Emerald Splash. After saying that Kakyoin was evil because he manipulated the weak, Jotaro was able to deflect Emerald Splash. With Kakyoin now being held Jotaro proceeded to beat him up, which also caused some damage to the school. After seeing that the nurse was alright, Jotaro took Kakyoin's unconscious body to his house to see Joesph.[15]
Back at the Joestar house, Joseph told Jotaro that Kakyoin would die in a few days, not because of his wounds, but because of a flesh bud of Dio's. The flesh bud caused Kakyoin to become loyal to Dio and an operation to remove it would only damage his brain. After being told a story about Abdul first meeting Dio, Jotaro decided to remove Kakyoin's flesh bud with his stand. Despite the flesh bud trying to attack him, Jotaro was able to successfully remove the flesh bud, which was then destroyed by one of Joseph's Hamon techniques.[17]
The next day, just before going to school, Jotaro was shocked to see that his own mother had gained a stand ability due to Dio's influence. Unlike Jotaro or Joseph, who had a fighters will, Holy was much kinder and gentler and thus couldn't control her stand. According to Abdul, without any care she would die in 50 days. Thus, the only way to cure her would be to kill Dio. Thanks to Jotar's stand's precise vision, it was able to draw an Aswan We-We fly, a fly known only to live in the Nile River in Egypt, that was hidden in the darkness of Dio's picture. With the revelation that Dio was still in Egypt, Jotaro, Joseph, Abdul, and Kakyoin, grateful for Jotaro saving his life, began on their quest to Egypt. But not before Abdul gave Jotaro's stand a name, Star Platinum.[19]
The Journey Begins
Hong Kong
Jotaro, Avdol, Joseph and Kakiyoin arrive in Hong Kong, where they encounter a French man Named Jean Pierre Polnareff, who they initially enter a hassle with, but then he gives in and joins the team once he learns that a minion of Dio murdered his sister.
South China Sea
Singapore
India
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Red Sea
Egypt: Nile River
Egypt: Cairo
Battle in Dio's Mansion
The Final Battle
Diamond is Unbreakable (1999)
Jotaro, comes to fictional rural town of Morioh, to locate Josuke Higashikata his illegitimate uncle who is far younger than him. Jotaro, draws quite a bit of attention in Morioh mostly do to it been populated by various stand users, all feeling threaten by Jotaro's presence a particular nasty one is Akira Otoishi. However Akira, turns out to be a small-fry and the real danger is Yoshikage Kira who along with his father Yoshihiro Kira uses the Bow and Arrow to create an army of stand users. It out to Jotaro and Josuke to defeat this newly awaken stand user and pun end to the Kiras criminal ways.
Vento Aureo (2001)
Jotaro, appears only once telling Koichi Hirose that he wants a skin sample of Haruno Shiobana so that can be taken back to the Speedwagon Foundation for examination and informing Koichi that Haruno, lives in Italy and while he is half-Japanese he looks Italian. He hands over a picture of Haruno and tells Koichi that he is better fit to go Italy than himself because his stand would attract too much attention. He later reveals that he wants to inform Haruno, that he was the one that killed his father.
Stone Ocean (2011-2012)
Jotaro is a fully grown adult and marine scientist who has divorced his wife. Due to a life of fighting crime he never was around for his daughter, causing a large gap between them. He has returned to tell Jolyne, that she should leave the prison no matter what laws she had to break. However he is attacked by Whitesnake and his stand disk is taken out, which causes him to fall into a coma. For most of the story he is in this coma, hoping to be revived, until much later his disc is recovered and he shows up. Now fully mastering his stand, he confronts Pucci who has himself mastered his stand. During the final struggle he willingly gives his life to save Jolyne's.
Personality
He has a very tough exterior, and is even rather rough and delinquent, but he also is very dedicated, intense, and loyal. He is intelligent, but usually lets his (or Star Platinum's) fists do the talking with the enemy, even though he often has to rely on his wits to deal with stand users' attacks. Jotaro has a perpetual cooler-than-thou, slightly disinterested attitude, although he loves his mother and respects his grandfather. It is not that he is unaware of his own love and/or respect--rather, he thinks anyone can tell his emotions just by looking at him, and probably thinks further effort in portraying how he feels to be a waste of time. In the manga, he's constantly chased by adoring girls, whom he ignores or tries to drive away. He is the main target of Dio, who realizes that Jotaro is his greatest threat.
In part 6, he also shows his protective father side, often taking near fatal blows for Jolyne and throttling her out of harm's way. After he is "revived", Anasui, one of Jolyne's companions who is enthralled by her, asked Jotaro to approve of marrying her. Although he first acted deaf, Jotaro got the picture when he saw her lean against Anasui's chest. Not ready to see his daughter married off right away, he pulled his daughter into his arms, leaving Jolyne clueless to their interactions.
Jotaro is both fierce and gentle, and he shows these traits in various scenes, from the fight with N'Dour to the encounter with D'Arby. One shining example is how he spared Noriaki Kakyoin, instead of destroying him outright.
Stand
One of the strongest stands in the JoJo universe; Star Platinum possesses super human senses, strength, stamina, accuracy and speed. It can see for great distances and at great magnifications. As an added bonus, it has a "Spear Finger" attack in which it extends its finger to attack. It is similar to Dio's World stand, and, it turns out, can likewise be used to stop time, but that ability is only revealed in Jotaro's epic battle with Dio Brando when Dio was about to drop a steamroller on him.
The Star card symbolizes, above all, hope. This is very appropriate, since Jotaro is very much the young new hope of the series. Like other physically powerful stands, Star Platinum suffers from a narrow range of activity. It can only be active within a 2-3 meter radius from Jotaro.
Star Platinum look like combination of Jonathan Joestar and the Pillar Men. This could be reference to genetic memory and the power this two forces held.
Still one of the best stand, this evolved version of his Stand appears near the end of Stone Ocean. At his peak, Jotaro can stop time for as long as 5 seconds with his stand. It's stated that Star Platinum can freeze time for longer, but 5 seconds is the limit for human endurance under stopped time. Jotaro hasn't fully recovered from his injuries in this appearance and is somewhat unable to maintain 5 seconds as well as he used to.
In Videogames
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Arcade/PSOne/Dreamcast) Jotaro's gameplay is more oriented on offense. He is a lot more effective with his Stand off. This is because of his Blazing Fists, and Jotaro's ability to attack the enemy by himself, while the Stand is attacking. This, in turn, increases the hits and the damage in comparison to attacks with the Stand activated.
As such, his gameplay is more on poking the enemy until he or she budges. Jotaro players are known to be very pesky and can cover a lot of ground in a short time, but their nature of gameplay requires them to put defense strategies on a backseat, to take advantage of the strength from his Blazing Fists.
Also, the inactive Stand version of Putzun Ora may not deal that much damage in comparison to the active Stand version by itself, but when the player attacks with Jotaro going around the enemy, the hits and damage become significantly larger than the latter version.
Star Breaker isn't too effective for poking gameplay, and is seldom used. The active Stand version can be charged until it becomes unblockable, but this takes too much set-up time to be very effective.
Jotaro's "Stop World" isn't as powerful as Dio's, and with the attack speed from Putzun Ora, players are forced to perform the move before the super meter is depleted of one level during Stop World.
Trivia
- His catchphrase is "Yare yare daze." It has no direct translation but it is usually translated to the effect of, "Gimme a break." It can also mean "Well well well..." or "all-right all-right...", since "yare yare" commonly translates to "Oh well..." It generally relates of being bored. In the official Viz Media translations, the phrase is considered cursing and is censored. In the official Shonen Jump Advanced manga series he is seen saying "Give me a !@$&*# break..". In the English dubbed version of the OVA his catchphrase is replaced with 'what a pain'.
- Jotaro's trademark hat, while torn in the back, often seems to blend with his hair. While they are first shown as being completely separate, later publications cause more uncertainty as to where his hat and his hair actually meet. His hat is most likely a Japanese student cap that was normally worn along with the gakuran prior to the 1970s.
- As the series goes on Jotaro has worn many different hats and coats from blue, to silver yet he always keeps the same style regardless of his age.
- Jotaro is seen reading a Shonen Jump in his cell, with Shonen Jump being the magazine in which JoJo is published in Japan. In the manga, these magazines also saved Jotaro from being fatally impaled by Dio's knives.
- His father, a jazz musician, is thought to receive his namesake from Sadao Watanabe, a jazz saxophonist. His father is always on tour and is never seen.
In Popular Culture
- In the first episode of Puni Puni Poemy, the Director and his alien opponent humorously fight a battle between Stands. The alien fought using a Star Platinum look alike.
- The character Asuma Sarutobi from Naruto, is voiced by the same voice actor as Jotaro from the OVA. Likewise, Asuma Sarutobi uses the phrase "Yare yare daze", and "Ora ora", especially in the Naruto PS2 games.
- Sol Badguy, the main character from the popular video game series Guilty Gear, uses the phrase "Yare yare daze".
- The shoujo manga group Clamp are fans of JoJo. In their later publication, Wish, the main angel character, Kohaku, closely resembles Kakyoin's hairdo and appearance. Ironically, the love interest of said character roughly resembles a hatless Jotaro, named Kudo Shuichiro. Although the angel is sexless, some fans have speculated this story is a shounen-ai interpretation of the two. In their early years, Clamp also created doujinshi of part 3 of JoJo which featured their original character, Jotaro and Kakyoin's love-child Jota (hatched from an egg) and his stand Charmy Green (which looks like a green Star Platinum).
- In the NBC drama, Heroes, a fictional Japanese salaryman named Hiro Nakamura is a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. In his blog, he states that he wants to "be like JoJo and Vaan and go on adventures". One of his powers includes time manipulation, a gift shared with both Jotaro and Dio Brando. Hiro later posts on his blog under the pseudonym of Jotaro Kujo.
- Jotaro is said to have been a fan of Columbo when he was a child.
- Jotaro exhibits an anime archetype exhibited commonly by "genius" characters by forever staying young through all of his appearances in spite of age. Other characters that noticeably share this trait are Maximilian Jenius and Hiko Seijuro.
- Daishi, ex-vocalist of the former Japanese Visual Kei group Psycho le Cému, dressed like Jotaro in Love is Dead, the group's last PV.
- In Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Juste can use an item that allows him to use rapid punches while yelling "ORA ORA ORA".
