- Chapter 43: Fire and Ice, Jonathan and Dio, Part 5
- Chapter 44: Fire and Ice, Jonathan and Dio, Part 6
Lisa Lisa (リサリサ, Risa Risa), full name Elizabeth Joestar (エリザベス・ジョースター, Erizabesu Jōsutā), is a primary ally featured in the second part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Battle Tendency, but introduced as a tertiary character in the first part, Phantom Blood.
Lisa Lisa is a Ripple master and mentor to Caesar Zeppeli and Joseph Joestar, residing in Venice but whose past is initially unknown. She leads the Ripple Users' efforts in battling the Pillar Men.
She is also a primary ally in the light novels JORGE JOESTAR and rey infinito.
Lisa Lisa is a tall and fit woman. Beautiful and poised, she has light eyes and long, dark hair. Lisa Lisa's real age is 50, but her Ripple training has allowed her to appear as though she were still in her late 20s.
She dons a variety of outfits during the journey, but she almost always wears her Ripple-conducting scarf and a pair of aviator glasses while outside of home.
In 1973, Lisa Lisa has long silver hair and continues wearing her scarf and high heels. At some point, she stopped concerning herself with upkeeping her appearance with the Ripple's anti-aging effects. However, she still aged naturally and beautifully according to J.D. Hernández.[4] She occasionally wears a black suit as part of the Speedwagon Foundation.[5]
Lisa Lisa is a cool-headed, dignified Ripple master living in Air Supplena Island. After dedicating decades to mastering the Ripple and imparting its techniques to others, she leads the pursuit against the Pillar Men as a formidable leader. She strongly believes in fate, confident that she is destined to protect the Red Stone of Aja,[6] and feeling it was inevitable that her foster father ended up being defeated by her son.[1] As the most skilled Ripple user of her time, and the last master remaining in the world, she is prideful of her skills,[7] and Wamuu sings her praises for being composed and perceptive.[8] She can be cunning as she threatens to destroy the Aja with a timed bomb if Kars doesn't accept her offer to battle one-on-one, with Joseph even admitting that she is a better gambler than he could ever hope to be. Despite catching onto her bluff, Kars also commends her bravery.[8]
Lisa Lisa is an aloof, stoic woman, coming across as apathetic to her comrades.[1] She possesses little patience for antics[9] and doesn't offer her students any sympathy for the grueling, life-threatening training she puts them through.[10] As soon as they reach Air Supplena Island, she immediately pushes Joseph and Caesar down the Hell Climb Pillar before they even get to rest at the house.[11] Joseph notes that her eyes are as cold as if she's looking down at a pig about to be butchered.[9]
However, she is not truly cruel, as her cold demeanor stems from a desire to keep her allies focused so they could be prepared to handle the otherworldly threats they're destined to face.[12][1] She doesn't mind Caesar saving Joseph from falling when he was almost at the top of the pillar, faintly smiling when he asks for permission.[13] Hidden within her persona lies a tragic history that she refuses to discuss, having lost her parents as a baby, then later her husband, ally, and foster father. While she maintains a distance from most after being forced to live in exile, her affection for her servant Suzi Q is evident,[14] and she is glad to find Messina still alive after fighting Wamuu.[12] She also mourns for Straizo, despite hearing about his change in character.[15] She intends to keep her true identity as Joseph's mother a secret from him until the time is right.[1][16] Following the demise of her student, Lisa Lisa struggles to hide how she feels and attempts to continue projecting a hardened exterior, urging Joseph to concentrate on the impending battle. However, when Joseph calls out her faltering facade as her cigarette was upside down, her suppressed grief surfaces, leading her to collapse and cry.[12] After the defeat of Kars, Lisa Lisa no longer has to hide her emotions, as she sheds tears upon seeing that Joseph is still alive and soon reveals her relationship to him. She also manages to find love again in America and gets remarried.[3]
Lisa Lisa smokes sometimes, as she carries a case of cigarettes and a lighter in Switzerland.[17] She enjoys wearing fashionable dresses and taking baths. According to Suzi Q, her favorite food is carrots.[1]
The light novel JORGE JOESTAR details the life of Lisa Lisa from childhood until she is 31 years old. Lisa Lisa is a fiercely protective and strong-willed individual, often taking matters into her own hands when she sees injustice. As a child, she frequently defends George from his bullies, resorting to violence to teach them a lesson. After defending George, she would express her frustration with him for showing weakness, out of concern that he was making himself a target. At times, she would distance herself from George, hoping that would make him more independent.[18] Even after growing up, Lisa Lisa would continue worrying about George, wondering if he is still being bullied in high school.[19][20]
She displays an unwavering bravery and determination, especially when faced with formidable adversaries such as the vampire Alejandro Torres. She shows no squeamishness, casually wearing a corpse's skin over her body in an attempt to lure out Alejandro. Although George believes she is terrified while facing Alejandro, she is unafraid to speak her mind, taunting the man for being a terrible father. She is committed to saving those she cares about, declaring herself as George's guardian and fighting to protect the Joestar bloodline using her Ripple abilities.[18] She is proud to protect mankind, and is motivated that her actions fighting supernatural evils will help George live a normal life.[20] She can be intimidating, as she instantly shuts up George's entire class when they complain about her giving them orders, which she was only doing to keep them safe.[18] During the war, she fearlessly jumps across planes, using her acrobatic skills and Ripple techniques to obliterate zombies in the sky. George likens her to a war god upon witnessing her courageous feats.[21]
Despite her outward toughness, Lisa Lisa has a very soft and vulnerable side, especially when faced with personal challenges. She is deeply attached to Erina and George, seeing Erina as her mother. For instance, when she has to leave Erina and George to stay with her adoptive father, Straizo, her distress causes her to break down and cry openly. Her reaction surprises George, who had always viewed her as the more mature and composed one between the two of them. She often reflects on her place within the Joestar family. While she once yearned to be a part of their lineage, her growing understanding of love and relationships makes her realize that her bond with George is special in its own right, since she would rather marry him than be his sister.[18] When separated from Straizo and the other warriors in an underground temple in Rome, Lisa Lisa's fear of being alone in the absolute darkness summons a supernatural creature that reacts based on her emotional state, which only ends up disappearing once George suddenly appears and assuages her fears.[20] She acts playfully and humorously with George, often laughing at his jokes and being the first one to kiss him, laughing very hard when she accidentally shocks him by using Ripple energy on the kiss.[20] As an adult, she is the first one to propose to George, casually mentioning it while they are in the middle of fighting zombies in war. However, she distances herself from him upon hearing a prophecy from Tonpetty that George would die shortly after their marriage. When George worries about her not caring about him anymore, she firmly reassures him of her unwavering love for him, expressing that her love is an intrinsic part of her identity.[21]
In addition, Lisa Lisa is strongly perceptive with a sharp memory. She is capable of remembering the traumatic events she witnessed as a baby, such as vaguely recalling her time with Erina and the evilness she felt from Dio Brando while they were sailing together on a coffin.[22] Her quick thinking manages to lead her team to victory during the war, when she uses her Ripple on Steven Motorize's back to pull out his wings without him feeling any pain, allowing Steven to fly and later save George when he is forced to jump out of his plane.[21]
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Joseph describes Lisa Lisa's movements as smooth as silk, making his look amateur by comparison.[23] She is capable of detecting even the slightest of breaths, which surprises Wamuu, as she recognizes that there is a large number of vampires in the room with them trying to hide their presence.[8] Her body is abnormally flexible, allowing her to be extremely agile and pull off acrobatic feats.[1]
Lisa Lisa is a Ripple master, trained by Tonpetty's successor, Straizo. Illustrating her talent and skill, she first appears standing on an oar on a surface of water, turning it into a high bar on charged pillars of water. Her Ripple is at least three times more powerful than Joseph's.[1] Her ability for training others results in Caesar and Joseph's rapid growth into Ripple masters in their own rights.
A Ripple user is able to use the Ripple as a repellent and to adhere either themselves or objects to other objects and liquids. As per Lisa Lisa's training, Joseph and Caesar manage to climb a pillar covered in oil with adhesion, and Caesar uses it to deflect a high pressured oil jet.
Lisa Lisa can hypnotize people and animals by using the Ripple on them. The process involves touching one's head with her hands. She can extract forgotten memories using this technique, which she uses on Suzi Q to determine the location of the Red Stone of Aja.
A Ripple Master can use cloth woven from the dried intestinal fibers of the Satiporoja Beetle. The cloth is capable of conducting the Ripple at 100%. Straizo and Lisa Lisa use scarves that are made of 30,000 beetles. As it conducts and disperses the Ripple far better than the human body, it acts similarly to a lightning rod and can completely absorb an opponent's Ripple attack.
Lisa Lisa's primary method of fighting involves a scarf made with the yarn of the Satiporoja Beetle, which can conduct the Ripple at 100%. She can channel her Ripple through her scarf to stand upside down, leaving the now rigid scarf the only part of her in contact with the ground. She may also use the sensitivity of the scarf to detect life signs and know the direction of incoming attacks, even when out of sight.
The user imbues a contained liquid or object with the Ripple. The Ripple will pass through the holder's body and the environment, enabling the holder to sense their surroundings and detect others even through walls. Lisa Lisa uses it with her scarf, sensing a zombie's sneak attack.
Lisa Lisa charges Ripple into her fist and hits the ground. The Ripple travels across the floor, creating a circle filled with a complicated pattern. It instantly disintegrates Alejandro Torres into ashes.
Lisa Lisa holds the Red Stone of Aja in one hand and presses it against the opponent before charging it with the Ripple. Her Ripple resembles the color of sunset and creates a red firework, burning the enemy.
Lisa Lisa creates a massive electrified dome by imbuing the Ripple on leaves, flowers, and dyed sawdust from destroyed rugs. The materials pile on top of each other in layers to cover an entire plaza from El Señor de las Moscas's swarm of flies.
For the second part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki decided to have a female character play the part of the Ripple master. He wondered what it would be like for a female to follow up the Ripple master Will Anthonio Zeppeli from Phantom Blood. There also weren't "too many female characters" in the series at the time. Araki also thinks Lisa Lisa works well when paired with Joseph and Caesar.[24]
Araki mentions that the first obstacle in designing Lisa Lisa was her name, saying, "Back then, if you picked a non-Japanese name for your character, it was a challenge to get the audience to remember it." Thus, "Lisa Lisa" was chosen. Araki believes that a repetitious name like "JoJo" would help, and that it phonetically resembles Japanese to some extent.[24]
At the time of Battle Tendency's serialization, the females in other shonen manga were depicted as "a man's ideal girl": cute types who would giggle during conversations. Because of this, Araki felt that a warrior-type female like Lisa Lisa felt fresh. Lisa Lisa's personality was inspired by an incredibly smart girl in Araki's neighborhood who tutored him when he was in elementary school, since he felt intimidated by her.[24] He also personally admits that he's fond of female characters who are capable of fighting for themselves. He commented on his intents to have Lisa Lisa portrayed with "uncommon realism" for women in shonen comics, but he was held back from going as far as he would have liked with her.[25]
Finally, Araki states that in addition to functioning as a master people weren't used to seeing a woman fight. In battles, the one who is physically stronger would win, but Araki realized that if supernatural abilities were involved a woman can fight evenly with a strong male. "In other words," Araki says, "if the battle is between those with supernatural powers, physical appearance has nothing to do with strength."[24]
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