Team Jodio
Team Jodio (ジョディオチーム, Jodio Chīmu)[1] is a group featured in the ninth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, The JOJOLands. It is comprised of the protagonist, Jodio Joestar, and his primary allies. The members are all Stand users and work for Meryl Mei Qi.
Summary
Team Jodio is a group of teenagers and young adults invited by Meryl Mei Qi to be small-time gangsters with the goal of making money. They operate all over Hawaii. Excluding Charming Man, the members are students or former students from McKinley High School that Meryl recruited as their school's principal. They are primarily given missions to be gofers, transporting or smuggling things such as illegal substances and handing them over to others. They get their orders from Meryl and report to her at her office in Iko Iko.[2]
They are also permitted to sell drugs, which Jodio and Paco do in their schoolyard. However, Meryl encourages them to sell to university students as well to broaden their reach and not stagnate their profits.[3] They have various locations and methods for selling goods on their schoolyard. For example, Jodio gives their client directions to walk straight ahead toward the statue of William McKinley. Paco then rides past them on an electric scooter, telling them their item is hidden inside a rain gutter.[2] In another exchange, Jodio tells the client to put their money in a nearby soft drink can first and then walk straight ahead toward the statue of King Kamehameha. Paco rides his scooter by afterward and tells them the goods are hidden under a leaf.[3]
Despite the name, their roles are based on seniority so Jodio doesn't have the authority to decide which missions they accept. He relies on Dragona and Paco to make the decisions, and serves as the lookout during their diamond heist. Meryl gives each of them a small cut of the profit for successful missions.[2] Although Meryl is cautious and does not want to leave any evidence behind, Team Jodio typically ends up being careless and conspicuous.[4][5] After discovering the Lava Rock, the team's goal is to use it as a system for bringing in a flow of money.[6]
Members
★: The character is leader
(✩: Subsequent leader / ✦: Leader of their own faction within the group)
(👻: The character remains as a soul or ghost)
☮: The character has resigned
⚓: The character retired (incapacitated) and/or their fate is unknown
History
Background
Meryl Mei Qi recruited an eleven-year-old Jodio Joestar and fourteen-year-old Dragona Joestar after their father left Hawaii and their family was weakening from their mother's debts.[6] At some point, she recruited Paco Laburantes and Usagi Alohaoe, who also both had family issues.[2][7]
Jodio and Dragona would typically go on missions together, such as for smuggling or transporting products. For selling goods, Jodio and Paco would work together.
Diamond Heist
Meryl summons Jodio, Dragona, and Paco to her office at Iko Iko, informing them about a Japanese tourist who is on vacation at a villa on the island of Hawaii with a 24-carat blue diamond worth $6 million in his possession. She offers them to rob it from him in a mission with a difficulty level of "Level 2", planning to give the team 2% of the profits all together while she takes 18%. After Dragona and Paco accept the mission, Meryl introduces them to their fourth member, Usagi Alohaoe, officially forming the team.[2]
When the team raids the villa of the tourist, they find out it belongs to the famous manga artist, Rohan Kishibe. Usagi helps them get past the security camera with THE MATTEKUDASAI.[3] Jodio stays on lookout, distracting Rohan with November Rain while he is at the pool. Meanwhile, Dragona breaks into the villa and his safe containing the diamond using Smooth Operators. Usagi and Paco make a mess along the way, with Usagi cutting open an expensive painting and stealing various goods such as two bottles of wine, caviar, and a Pink Dark Boy artwork.[4] Rohan eventually catches them, incapacitating Usagi and Paco. However, Jodio turns the situation around by trapping him and blackmailing him with destroying Lava Rocks that Rohan was researching. Jodio destroys one, but before he destroys the other, Rohan accepts his defeat and lets them go with the diamond. He promises to rescind his report to the police and lets Jodio take the Lava Rock, assuring him that he can become filthy rich if he handles it with care. Before Jodio leaves, Rohan advises him to be wary of trusting his teammates.[8]
The group is stalked by Wild Cat Size into the jungle, but defeats the three cats.[7] The owner of the cats, Charming Man, follows them to a cafe near the airport and disguises as Paco while the latter goes to get food. At the same time, Dragona and Usagi experiment with the Lava Rock inside a luxury watch store, Diamotch, attracting an expensive watch to the Lava Rock.[9] The real Paco returns and fights Charming Man, with the latter shedding his disguise. Jodio nearly defeats Charming Man underwater, but Paco decides to make him an ally upon realizing that he seems like a good person.[10] Charming Man agrees to join them since they all have the same goal of wanting the Lava Rock, though Charming Man wants it for finding his younger brother whereas the others want it for money. After flying back to Honolulu, the team hands over all their new goods to Meryl: the $6 million diamond, a bottle of Corton-Charlemagne white wine, the Pink Dark Boy artwork, a broken luxury watch, and the Lava Rock.[5]
HOWLER's Rights
After convincing Meryl that Charming Man is trustworthy, she reveals her connections with HOWLER, an infrastructure development company who owns the private property on Hualalai where larger Lava Rocks should be. She concocts a plan for the team to claim the entire Hualalai Mountain as their own by taking over HOWLER's assets using their Lava Rock. Meryl plans to give them 4% each of the total estimated 50 billion dollars if they succeed. Rather than being robbers, they just have to get close to the land.[6]
Gallery
Team Jodio is formed
Waiting in front of Diamotch
Team Jodio gains a fifth ally
Singing with Meryl to turn off their phones
Assigned the mission to claim HOWLER's rights
Ultra Jump September 2023
Ultra Jump May 2024
Wall mural in Shibuya Station advertising The JOJOLands
Ultra Jump November 2023 Stickers
References
- ↑ Ultra Jump April 2024 next issue preview
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The JOJOLands Chapter 1: Departure
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The JOJOLands Chapter 2: South King Street
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The JOJOLands Chapter 3: The Villa on Hawaii Island, Part 1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The JOJOLands Chapter 12: Charming Man
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The JOJOLands Chapter 13: Joestar Brothers
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The JOJOLands Chapter 8: Hualalai - Cat Size, Part 3
- ↑ The JOJOLands Chapter 5: "Rise Up"
- ↑ The JOJOLands Chapter 9: Kailua-Kona - Flight Waiting Time, Part 1
- ↑ The JOJOLands Chapter 11: Kailua-Kona - Flight Waiting Time, Part 3
