Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure / Tropes G to K

Tropes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Tropes A to B (Adaptation Dye-Job) | Tropes C to D (Dub Name Change) | Tropes E to F (Evolving Credits | Famous Last Words) | Tropes G To K (Hate Sink | Heart Is An Awesome Power | Hoist By His Own Petard | Jerkass) | Tropes L to O (Logical Weakness | Nice Guy) | Tropes P to T (Shout-Out | Story-Breaker Power) | Tropes U to Z

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G

• Generation Xerox:
  • Downplayed with the Joestar family. While they're all Hot-Blooded and win their fights through cunning more than than brute force, they have different ways of expressing these traits and are otherwise Contrasting Sequel Main Characters.
  • Played straight with Avdol from Stardust Crusaders, who looks identical to his father. It's a subversion, as the father is actually Avdol himself in disguise.
• Genius Bruiser: Joseph is no weakling, but his real strength is his wit and intelligence he uses against his enemies. Likewise with his great-granddaughter Jolyne, who is just as sharp but an even more kickass fighter — it's the reason Pucci's more afraid of her than of Jotaro.
  • Pillar Men have both extremely strong bodies and superior intellect.
  • Weather Report from Stone Ocean is also notable. His abilities to manipulate weather are relatively limited in range, but he demonstrates remarkably precise control and clever applications of this power, as well as revealing a deep breadth of knowledge. All while looking like a humanoid version of Appa.
  • Subverted for Anasui, who was a child prodigy and has a compulsion to discover and learn things (by taking them apart). He downplays this severely by acting every bit the part of a thug, and it's not even clear if he has to act at all.
  • And Jotaro, who is well read, and eventually becomes a marine biologist!
  • Jonathan and Dio were both Genius Bruisers in Phantom Blood: both played rugby in college, with Jonathan majoring in archaeology and Dio graduating as valedictorian.
• Genius Ditz: Old Joseph is a wacky, pushy American who loves comic books, but he became a billionaire purely through his skill at running a real estate company, and this is before he gained Hermit Purple.
• Genre Mashup: As a whole, the manga is a combination of action, adventure, horror, fantasy, and drama. Then some parts are western, slice of life, romance, mystery...
• Genre Shift: The series drastically changes its genre with each new part, while including elements of fantasy and horror.
  • Phantom Blood is a Victorian gothic tragedy.
  • Battle Tendency is a World War II action-adventure.
  • Stardust Crusaders is an adventure
  • Diamond is Unbreakable is Slice of Life, and murder mystery
  • Vento Aureo is a Mafia crime thriller
  • Stone Ocean is a prison drama
  • Steel Ball Run is a Western.
  • JoJolion is a psychological thriller.
• Glass Cannon: Most Stand users are this. No matter how powerful the Stand is, their users are only slightly more resistant than normal humans. This is one of the reasons why DIO is so frightening: his vampiric powers make him a Lightning Bruiser on top of having one of the most powerful Stands ever.
• A God Am I:
  • Battle Tendency says in the start that the Pillar Men were worshiped as gods. Kars pulls this at the very end.
  • Enrico Pucci from Stone Ocean as well. He doesn't believe he IS God, but he believes that God chose him to create Heaven on Earth and control destiny.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Through Theme Naming, not by actual principle — God and Satan are both alluded to, but are never established as characters (though Jesus is in Part 7, and he's a pretty nice guy). "Dio" and "Diavolo" are respectively the Italian names for "God" and "The Devil". Neither of them are pleasant company, as the former is the Big Bad for Part 1 and Part 3, while the latter is the Big Bad for Part 5, and the both of them count as Greater-Scope Villains for the first six parts.
• Godzilla Threshold: Requiem Stands are treated as this by the protagonists. Piercing one's Stand with the Stand Arrow will transform it into a Requiem Stand, effectively evolving it into something bearing only a vague resemblance to the former Stand with radically different new abilities, unimaginable power, and complete control over some metaphysical domain, such as souls or time. The downside is that Requiem Stands require immense mental fortitude to control or they tend to go berserk, affecting friends and foe alike and ignoring their user's commands if they lack the necessary willpower.
  • In certain circumstances, the transformation can be undone by removing its Stand Arrow, unless the Stand's master is already dead, such as with Chariot Requiem. In such a situation, the evolution is permanent and the only recourse is to destroy the Requiem Stand in some way. On the other hand, Gold Experience Requiem's transformation is permanent and irreversible despite losing its hold on the Arrow, so it would seem to vary from Stand to Stand.
• Gonk: The drawings in Boingo's manga seem like they're trying to push this trope to its logical extreme. A number of characters are incredibly ugly or odd-looking.
  • The cops who beat up Smokey and later smear a booger on Joseph's face in Battle Tendency certainly qualify, as do some of the Nazi Mooks guarding Stroheim's base.
  • Stardust Crusaders:
    • J. Geil is bald, with a deformed head, no pupils, and two right hands. His design is actually based on Michael Berryman, and unlike most examples, where this trope is Played for Laughs, it makes him genuinely creepy.
    • At first, Nena is shown to be a beautiful Indian woman, but after Joseph defeats her Stand, Empress, it's revealed she's actually a short, fat, big-headed white woman hiding inside another woman's body.
    • ZZ, the Stand User of Wheel of Fortune, turns out to be this once he's revealed, having a scrawny body with unnaturally muscular arms.
    • Iggy, the Crusaders' Team Pet, was a rather ugly dog when he was first introduced. He grew out of it as the series progressed, looking more human-like, or at least a cartoonish chihuahua rather than a realistic Boston Terrier.
    • Mariah is normally a beautiful Ms. Fanservice, but her face becomes over the top ugly whenever she gets angry.
    • Nukesaku is comically short and big-headed.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable:
    • Shigekiyo "Shigechi" Yangu, one of the ugliest character of the entire franchise. He's short and fat, apparently bald, his crown is textured by short spikes, he has thick, drooping earlobes, small, high eyebrows, teeth are misaligned, and he is missing his left maxillary central incisor. However, his childlike appearance may cross somewhere into Ugly Cute for some people.
    • Toyohiro Kanedaichi wears a mask, and while the audience never gets to see his actual face, the heroes reaction to it implies that he's this.
    • Masazo Kinoto has a small, x-shaped patch of hair on his crown, completely bald everywhere else, large lips, and big, beady eyes.
  • A number of villain from Golden Wind are this:
    • Polpo, who is impossibly obese, has hair resembling a virus particle, inhuman-looking black eyes, and a pointed nose.
    • Pesci. There's a reason fans often compare him to a pineapple.
    • Ghiaccio isn't inherently ugly, but his constantly angry expressions cause him to somewhat appear as this.
    • Carne most definitely qualifies, looking hideous and lumpy with barely any neck and a square head.
    • Proportionally, Secco is overall normal, but his wide mouth, sharp teeth, and Overly-Long Tongue make him look rather odd.
  • Stone Ocean:
    • Guccio. I mean, just look at him.
    • Ungalo, one of DIO's illegitimate children, has none of the natural attractiveness of his father or brothers, having very wide-set eyes, a flat nose, and buck teeth. It's quite possible that this is all a result of his drug addiction.
  • Steel Ball Run:
    • Stephen Steel is rather plain, but his cartoonishly simple hair on his otherwise realistic looking body causes him to lean on this.
    • Pork Pie Hat Kid has wide eyes and a strangely angular face. And then he loses the pipes on his head, and suddenly he's even worse.
  • Tamaki Damo from JoJolion is overweight, with a combover and no chin. When he's introduced to the rest of the Higashikata family, they are left completely baffled on how a man like him could end up with Hato.
• Good Is Not Dumb: The large majority of the protagonists have at least some Guile Hero tendencies, and win their fight by outsmarting their opponents rather than brute strength.
• Good Is Not Nice: Joseph and Jotaro are heroes, but are still dicks.
• Good Is Not Soft: The purest of the Joestar will kill his enemies if they are evil.
  • Special mention to Giorno who genuinely is a Neighbourhood-friendly Gangster but also viciously kills anyone in his path.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Tends to be used by Araki as an excuse to really beat up on his protagonists, but there's no denying it comes in handy.
  • Hamon has healing properties, though they often aren't stated. Baron Zeppeli first discovered it through word of a healer who used Hamon to conduct his art, and demonstrates it for one of the first times in the series by striking Jonathan with it and causing his broken arm to mend in seconds.
  • Josuke's Crazy Diamond is the purest example of this, as its ability is to restore damaged things to their original state (unless he's mad, in which case the results can end up quite distorted). However, he can't use it on himself.
  • Less directly, Giornio's Gold Experience can turn inanimate objects into living tissue to replace damaged flesh, an ability he can use on himself. Prior to that, Bucellati uses Sticky Fingers' zippers to reattach severed limbs.
  • Foo Fighters can do the same with plankton for a quick patch job. Jolyne can also stitch people up quickly with her strings, but that's more of a stop-gap solution that works better on her than on anyone else.
  • Hot Pants can use Cream Starter to cover any flesh wound. Since this isn't the intended purpose for those Stands, however, the full healing process can take much longer and be more uncomfortable than Crazy Diamond's work.
  • In Steel Ball Run, Johnny and Gyro have a Zombie Horse (healing string) and Hot Pants' Cream Starter seemingly just to let Araki mutilate them even more.
• Gorn: Not as bad as say...Vagabond or even Fist of the North Star since it's mainly blood, not guts or limbs flying. But it is still one of the most violent shonen series out there.
  • Specifically Araki likes to draw injuries in specific organs the readers will probably cringe at the idea of being hurt in there.
• Government Conspiracy: In Steel Ball Run, the eponymous race is a conspiracy orchestrated by the President of the Unites States Funny Valentine in order to reunites the relics of Jesus-Christ.
• Gratuitous English:
  • Every single attack and Stand name is given in English, from Sunlight Yellow Overdrive (which is spelt Sunraito Iero Obadoraibu) in Phantom Blood through The World (ZA WARUDO!) and up to JoJolion's Soft & Wet (Sofuto Ando Wetto).
  • This goes for some catchphrases too. For example, Joseph Joestar's "OH! MY! GOD!" is written in English in the manga whenever he uses it. The D'Arby brothers also tend to say "GOOD!" when they come to agreement with their opponent, and Avdol's "Yes, I AM!" is always said with enthusiasm. Cameo and Judgment's "HAIL 2 U!" was parodied when Avdol corrupts it into "HELL 2 U!"
  • From Diamond Is Unbreakable, Koichi's Stand, Echoes (Act 3) is capable of speaking, but usually does it "gangsta-style" like: "OK Master! Let's kill da ho! Beeetch!"
  • The weird "3 (san)kyu 4 evah" in Steel Ball Run, which also a Pun.
  • For years, Part 4's title was officially translated as Diamond is not Crash (or Crush). It's more frequently referred to by the less Engrishy Diamond is Unbreakable, which has finally been seeing some use in Japanese materials as of 2013.
• Gratuitous German: The soundtrack releases to the TV anime's adaptation of Battle Tendency are titled Musik ("music") and Leicht Verwendbar ("light^note They picked the wrong translation of "light", as "leicht" is the adjective for "not heavy" or "easy" rather than the noun "Licht" meaning a source of illumination user^note Again, this is the wrong word, and actually means "usable". Thus, the name as a whole literally translates to "easily usable".").
• Gratuitous Italian: Everything in Vento Aureo, as it is set in Italy.
  • Some fansubs groups and the dub of the first season of the anime also add a bit of Italian when either of the Zeppelis are involved.
  • While it's not the Italian language per se, the vast majority of American citizens in Stone Ocean (set in Florida, US) have Italian names for some reason (because Araki names most Stand masters after famous fashion designers and companies, but there's no In-Universe reason).
• "Groundhog Day" Loop:
  • Kira's final Stand ability, Bite the Dust, is a version of this. Hayato has been cursed with a miniature Killer Queen which will emerge and detonate anyone who tries to extract information about Kira from him, with the time loop resetting to the morning Kira set the trap afterward. What makes this trap truly insidious is that certain key events will carry over to the next loop and spontaneously occur even if Hayato deliberately avoids taking the same actions.
  • Ringo's Stand Mandom from Part 7 creates a version where everyone has Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, creating a cat-and-mouse game between the user and his victims as they attempt to one-up each other.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The whole plot of Phantom Blood is said to have fallen into oblivion as everyone involved kept it secret.

• Guile Hero: All the protagonists. Almost every battle is decided through trickery and clever tactics rather than power.
• Guns Are Worthless:
  • The first two parts are focused around vampires, who can only be killed by sunlight and Hamon. Thus, when Dio and Straizo are blasted full of holes, they wind up perfectly fine soon after.
  • Whenever guns come into play, Stands can usually negate them. Most protagonist Stands (Star Platinum, Crazy Diamond) are fast and precise enough to catch the bullet, and a few villain Stands are able to deflect them as well. The only way a gun can pose a threat to a Stand user most of the time is if the gun is a Stand, or if it's being augmented by one.
• The Gunslinger: Guido Mista, Hol Horse, Magenta Magenta, and Foo Fighters.
  • Lots of people in Steel Ball Run end up using revolvers, especially if their Stand is not really that useful for directly attacking an enemy, like Ringo's or Mountain Tim's.
  • Funny Valentine uses a gun.
• Gut Punch: Beloved characters are more often than not suddenly killed. Sometimes, a Gut Punch literally happens because villainous Stands do punch through people's stomachs.
• Guy Liner: In most artwork, the mostly male characters are colored as if they wore lipsticks, as if the poses weren't enough.

H

• Ham-to-Ham Combat: They are everywhere, no character is letting an occasion to gloat about their power or exposing their way of life in the hammiest way possible pass.
• Harmful Healing: When Josuke of Part 4 gets angry, his Stand's ability to heal/repair objects goes a bit out of his control. Ask the guy whose nose was basically turned into a pig snout. Done deliberately against the user of Highway Star, Yuya Fungami; the guy was bedridden and tried to use that to defend himself... so Josuke healed him back to perfect health and then beat the shit out of him.
  • Pearl Jam's powers give food this effect. Any food or beverage affected by it will be especially delicious and restorative, but also detoxes the affected by forcefully expelling things such as rotted teeth and even intestines, though afterwards you'll feel better than before.
• Hate Sink: Has its own page here.
• Hates Small Talk: Jotaro is always straight to the point, and talking with him is an arduous task. Likewise, Giorno doesn't say anything until he has something to say.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Characters using seemingly-niche powers in creative ways are prevalent enough to warrant their own page.
• Heaven: Righteous characters are seen ascending to Heaven, although no one sees villains descending to Hell.
• Heel–Face Turn: Some characters introduced as evil become good after being defeated
  • Kakyoin and Polnareff from Stardust Crusaders were Brainwashed and Crazy, serving DIO against their will.
  • Foo Fighters began as a misguided henchwoman of Pucci, but befriends Jolyne and joins the side of good.
  • Wekapipo, a Punch-Clock Villain at the service of Funny Valentine, is told by Gyro that his family is taking care of Wekapipo's blind sister. He allies with Gyro and Johnny out of gratitude.
• He Knows Too Much: A common reason for why people die in Jojo.
  • Enya dies because she failed to kill the Joestars, but also because DIO doesn't want her to spill the beans on his power, even though she stays silent as she realizes DIO has betrayed her.
  • Shigekiyo discovers that Yoshikage Kira is a serial killer, he dies not five minutes after.
  • Anyone to even wishes to know about Diavolo, be it his past, name, power or appearance, gets offed.
  • Johngalli A. gets shot from behind by Whitesnake because he knows its owner and Pucci doesn't want to be discovered too soon.
  • Gloria Costello, Ermes's big sister, gets killed by Sports Maxx for accidentally witnessing one of his murders.
• Hereditary Curse: A Joestar curse is briefly alluded to in Battle Tendency to represent the tragic fate of every Joestar to date. It's not represented as an actual curse, though.
  • In JoJolion, the Higashikata disease which turns the eldest child to rock is explicitely called a curse.
• Heroes "R" Us: Commencing with Part 2, the Speedwagon Foundation dedicates a part of its funds investigating supernatural events and helping the Joestars in any way they can, providing supplies and information on the enemy at the cost of the many Red Shirts working in it.
• Heroic Build: Just about every character with a prostate has this, a Lantern Jaw of Justice, and oddly lucious lips. One almost gets the impression that human Y-chromosome must've been tinkered with at some point in the past.
• Heroic Resolve: Fights are won by those with the guts to do what's necessary to win, notably sacrifice a limb or two or even one's life.
• Heroic Sacrifice: There are many such sacrifices in the series.
  • Will A. Zeppeli fights Tarkus, knowing that he will die in order to free Jonathan.
  • Avdol and Iggy sacrifice themselves to save Polnareff from Vanilla Ice.
  • Kakyoin takes one for the team by using his Stand's Signature Move to figure out DIO's power. At the cost of his life, his plan works in the end.
  • Foo Fighters spends the last of its plankton to heal Anasui and subsequently, dies.
  • In JoJolion, Josefumi Kujo sacrifices himself to save Yoshikage Kira, the son of Holy whom Josefumi sees as a saintly figure.
• Hero Killer: Many main antagonists and their strongest henchmen will be this.
  • Dio Brando/DIO has killed Jonathan and Kakyoin while being indirectly responsible for many other deaths.
  • Vanilla Ice is the biggest Hero Killer of Stardust Crusaders, killing two of the main characters (Avdol, Iggy).
  • Whenever Diavolo appears, someone from Bucciarati's Gang dies, namely Bruno, Abbacchio and Narancia, half of the cast!
  • Pucci almost manages to kill the entire party in Stone Ocean, having the distinction of killing Jotaro!
  • Funny Valentine managed to kill Wekapipo, Diego (after each’s Heel–Face Turn), Hot Pants, and Gyro. Only Johnny and Lucy Steel managed to survive him.
• Hidden Purpose Test: As an entrance test to Passione, Polpo gives Giorno a lighter and tells him to keep it lit for 24 hours. The true purpose of the test is to weed out the weak when the lighter is eventually put out and lit up, as Black Sabbath appears to stab any nearby people with an Arrow.
• High-Pressure Blood: Whenever blood flows, it always sprays far and wide, covering the characters in blood.
• High-Voltage Death: Three known cases.
  • Keicho is taken by Red Hot Chili Pepper and is run through an electric cable, he dies electrocuted. His brother, Okuyasu, almost dies the same way, only saved in time by Josuke.
  • In Stone Ocean, Thunder McQueen tries to kill himself this way.
• Hot-Blooded: Being hot-blooded is practically a hereditary trait among Joestars, with Joseph being the most hot-blooded of the entire family.
• Hollywood Darkness: The anime portrays darkness with really out-there coloring. The first image is in torchlight; the second is "complete darkness".
• Hollywood Healing: Characters tend to receive gruesome wounds during a fight, but mysteriously heal between each arc. This is later Handwaved when Araki begins to incorporate healers in the group.
• Homage: Part 3 was originally intended to be a modern retelling of Dracula and that can still be seen in the final version.
  • The first willing servant of the main vampire is an older, deranged man associated with flies (Gray Fly, a man with a bug Stand, in JoJo; Renfield, who consumes flies, in Dracula).
  • DIO's coffin ends up on a boat that he wipes out, leaving an eerily empty boat to pull into port, just like Dracula's arrival in England.
  • A timed quest begins as the main vampire villain curses a woman close to the other main characters (DIO's actions granting Holy a Stand she can't handle in JoJo; Dracula cursing Mina in Dracula).
  • The heroes are able to track down the main vampire villain thanks to a mutual psychic connection between them (the connection with Jonathan's body and Hermit Purple in JoJo; Dracula's curse on Mina in Dracula).
  • The time limit leading to a quest to chase the vampire down to the home base that he has hidden in to escape the heroes that have discovered his plot (Jotaro going from Japan to DIO's home in Egypt in JoJo; the heroes leaving London to stop Dracula in Transylvania in Dracula).
  • Unlike what is typical for JoJo, since DIO is using Jonathan's body, the defeat of the vampire means his body finally gets to rest in peace (in Dracula, vampires are more like demons possessing a body, trapping the owner's soul from passing on, so killing Dracula frees his soul and causes the body to smile).
  • Several character elements could also be considered homages. The main vampire has a strong connection to a character named Jonathan. Either Joseph or Avdol could be considered parallels to Van Helsing (Joseph being the older mentor, Avdol providing information about the threats they face). Kakyoin's Heroic Sacrifice is somewhat similar to Quincey Morris, both of them are younger characters who die providing a way for the heroes to finish off the villain. Hol Horse, who was originally going to join the heroes, is an exaggerated cowboy stereotype, similar to the Texan Quincey Morris.
• Hotter and Sexier: Since the move to a seinen magazine, the series has been able to get away with showing the occasional nipple. Part 8 also is fairly sexualized at points, such as Gappy nearly having sex with Daiya, and Yasuho nearly getting raped, not to mention a decent bit of nudity.
  • Even then, whereas Phantom Blood was pretty prude (a stolen first kiss being the only scene vaguely reminiscent of sexual abuse), Stone Ocean begins with Jolyne complaining that someone saw her masturbating.
• How Do I Shot Web?: When Stand abilities first manifest in someone, they typically don't know how to utilize them, or don't know that that they are utilizing them. For example, Jotaro didn't know he could control Star Platinum and thought he was being haunted by a spirit only he could see, and Koichi had no clue how to summon Echoes when he was revived with his newfound Stand powers.
• Humans Are Special: Araki has described JJBA as "an ode to humanity," as evidenced by all the awesome stuff that humans in this series are shown to be capable of doing.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Mikitaka (who claims to be an alien) has something to say about Super Fly: "Boy, there are some weird people to live in a tower".
  • Earlier in Part 3, Polnareff decides to pick a restaurant by throwing his lit cigarette on the ground and going to the one it points too; later a fire starts due to the same cigarette and Polnareff wonders who could be so careless.

I

• Identity Amnesia: Weather Report from Stone Ocean has had his memory stolen by Enrico Pucci and doesn't remember who he is. In JoJolion, Josuke's (Josuke being a temporary name) amnesia and his attempt to discover his identity drive much of the plot.
• Idiot Ball: Happens all the time, unfortunately.
  • The whole damn Stardust Crusaders team (but especially Kakyoin) was collectively holding the ball when they were being attacked by Death 13. Even counting the fact that it attacks them in their dreams Freddy Krueger-style and they don't remember a thing when they wake up, Kakyoin acts completely hysterical when he finds out, to the point of convincing the others that he's losing his mind, while the others are unreasonably skeptical of the idea that the baby they're carrying around might be a Stand user (an orangutan turned out to be a Stand user earlier, why not a baby?) and that the Stand attacks them in their dreams when both Kakyoin and Polnareff remember having horrible nightmares (just not what happened during them) that day.
  • When Jotaro found Polnareff who was de-aged by Alessi's Stand, he assumes that Polnareff is just a kid. Considering that not only did the kid look like Polnareff but also wore his clothes and claimed to be Polnareff, Jotaro should have gotten suspicious. The group have fought Stand users with some really bizarre abilities after all, and an enemy Stand is usually the first conclusion they jump to whenever anything strange happens.
  • In Vento Aureo, it takes an absurdly long time for the gang to figure out that Narancia is knowingly being controlled by a Stand that makes him lie, even though he covers his mouth as much as possible, does increasingly bizarre things, and constantly freaks out right after speaking. They should at least have realized that something was deeply wrong with him, instead of writing it off as some sort of prank.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: As Caesar dies:
  Caesar Zepelli: JoJo! This is my last Hamon, take it!
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A recurring element in JoJo is that the strongest Stands will at one point punch through someone's stomach, impaling the victim with their arm.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: The picture on this page is a pretty good indication how swank the average character dresses. The Impossibly Cool Clothes factor evolves as the series progresses, and artwork outside of the actual story is just crazy. What is that hat? A deerstalker, maybe? Turned sideways? But what about that red...growth?◊
  • Impossibly Tacky Clothes: That said, not everyone views them the same way, especially with regards to the costumes presented from Vento Aureo onwards (try to convince newcomers that Fugo's clothes were not eaten by moths, for example).
• Improbable Age: Several examples, particularly Abbacchio's previous police work. He is supposed to be only 20 when Part 5 started.
• Improbable Weapon User: Zeppeli and WINE. His grandson uses soap bubbles. And his Alternate Timeline version uses Steel Balls.
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Polnareff sheds some very un-manly tears after Avdol's (apparent) death.
  • Esidisi's sudden crying fit, which was unexpected enough to rather unnerve his opponent, Joseph, and looked pretty silly.
• Info Dump: Happens frequently as Araki stumbles upon something that interests him, such as the brown rat, or the history of Singapore, Akira's custom-made guitar, or Florida's wildlife.
• Informed Ability: 20th Century Boy somehow has a mid-tier C stat in speed despite the fact that activating it prevents the user from moving at all.
• Informed Flaw:
  • The Emperor has the second lowest possible Precision possible for a Stand, just short of a zero. It's also able to guide its bullet mid-flight around a swinging sword and resume its original trajectory.
  • Part 4 Josuke is afraid of turtles. This only comes up at the beginning of the Part, when he's initially a little tentative about helping a turtle he found.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Oingo Boingo brothers are ineffectual goons who are simply a lot more hilarious and pathetic than genuinely threatening.
• Insane Troll Logic: A few CloudCuckooLanders demonstrate this.
  • Alessi claims that only weirdos say they aren't weird. Thus by claiming to be weird, he's not a weirdo.
  • Thunder McQueen is complimented and pushed to live by Ermes, he's overjoyed to find someone who supports him and figures that since something that good won't happen to him again, he's better off killing himself.
  • According to Dr. Ferdinand, dinosaurs went extinct because they didn't respect the Earth.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: All of the main protagonists and their allies have their own personal issues regarding their own pasts and upbringings, but they're all selfless enough to risk their lives for each other and to protect innocent people who cannot protect themselves. Most of the Big Bads and their subordinates are Smug Super murderous sociopaths who see themselves as being invincible thanks to their Story-Breaker Power abilities until their humiliating defeats by the heroes.

• Intellectual Animal: Developing a Stand in an animal brings its level of intelligence to near-human levels. Iggy, Pet Shop, and Stray Cat being the primary examples.
  • Foo Fighters is an even more extreme example: it's a mass of plankton formed into its own Stand, though later it conceals itself by taking over a dead girl's body to walk around in. It's less squicky than it sounds. Her main reason for allying with Jolyne is that she's absolutely in love with experiencing things like sights, smells, tastes, and sensations, and having actual memories.
• Interesting Situation Duel: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure could be summarized as "Interesting Situation Duel - The Manga". More prominent examples of this trope include:
  • Gyro vs. Valentine in which Lucy's corpse is the center of a space distortion which causes the water of the Atlantic Ocean to surround the three of them.
  • Joseph vs. Wamuu, as both have to pilot chariots pulled by vampire horses, and a weapon is distributed to each of them at every turn.
  • Kakyoin vs. Gray Fly happens in the cramped space of a plane.
  • Joseph vs. Kars, a Free-Fall Fight
  • Josuke vs. Toyohiro, a Rooftop Confrontation.
  • Jolyne vs. Lang Rangler, which happens in a no-gravity and no-atmosphere environment.
  • Foo Fighters vs. Kenzou as Kenzou's Stand Dragon's Dream points toward the best direction to attack the other, but Dragon's Dream is neutral.
  • Gyro vs. Ringo during which Ringo can rewind time by six seconds, but both are aware of this rewind and have to recompose plans to take into account their past mistakes.
  • Chariot Requiem causes a "Freaky Friday" Flip for everyone in Rome, then automatically protects the Arrow which everyone wants. However, Stands all try to protect the Arrow.
• Invincible Hero: Pocoloco, who is arguably a Shadow Archetype for Gyro and Johnny. While all three seek to win the race, Pocoloco's absurd luck means the race has no personal meaning to him, and never grows as a person because of his complacent dependence on his power. So while he may have won the race and the money, it pales in comparison to Gyro and Johnny's struggles and personal growth, represented by their greater cause to stop Funny Valentine from obtaining the whole Corpse.
• Invisible to Normals: Stands themselves, being psychic manifestations, cannot be seen by the non-sensitive. The same applies to any powers the Stand has - the flaming heat created by Magician's Red can be felt, but not seen. The two best occasions that illustrate this is in Stardust Crusaders, where Holly says she saw a "hand" emerge from Jotaro to stop a bullet, something other people couldn't see, and in Steel Ball Run, Blackmore notes that Lucy can't see his Stand, which takes the form of a mask, while from Lucy's point of view she only sees his face as normal. There are exceptions to this rule, most frequently in Stands that modify the appearance of objects, like the disguise-forming Yellow Temperance or the invisibility field of Achtung Baby.
• Involuntary Group Split: Several times:
  • In Stardust Crusaders, Terence D'Arby splits the group in half by taking Jotaro, Joseph and Kakyoin.
  • In Stone Ocean, C-Moon's gravity powers make Ermes fall away from the group.
• Invulnerable Horses: Zig-Zagged in Steel Ball Run, most of the time horses don't suffer damage from the battles, but one opponent will occasionally attack the horses themselves, and maybe even hurt them.
• Irony: The Red Stone of Aja, the key to Kars' ascendance to godhood, was also the key to his ultimate defeat.
• Ironic Echo: In the anime, Part 2 specifically, the same music is used when Caesar is introduced as when his body is found.
  • During the final battle of Part 3, DIO thinks to himself that "I have one simple ideal, just one — to be victorious and rule!" After Jotaro beats him, he says there was "one reason for your defeat, just one simple answer — because you pissed me off."
• Ironic Hell: Kars wants to become utterly immortal in every sense of the word. So Joseph uses a volcano to shoot him into space, where he can't die or change his trajectory and spends the rest of eternity curled into a ball until he goes insane and stops thinking.
  • Most of the villains actually end up suffering ironic fates.
    • Kira just wanted to be left alone and keep on murdering people to achieve happiness. He ends up being dragged to hell by the ghosts of his victims as karmic payback.
    • Diavolo wanted to erase all ties to his past and stand alone at the top of humanity. He ends up stuck in an infinite and continuously changing death loop due to Gold Experience erasing the moment of his death. Afterwards, Giorno takes over his organization.
    • Funny Valentine abuses the power of D4C to escape any harm in his goal to take the corpse. Tusk Act 4 slams him into a hole in the ground, and Funny's attempts to use D4C to escape by switching bodies with his counterparts fail since Tusk Act 4's power forces his counterparts into a hole as well, leading to a temporary repetitious loop of Funny escaping only to be dragged back into the hole.
    • The only exception is Dio Brando, who was originally cosigned to spending the rest of his limited unlife on a sunken ship in the arms of the dead Jonathan Joestar, the one person who he loved and hated more than anything in the world. Not only did he get what he wanted in the first place, but he came back stronger than ever from it. Ultimately, what he wanted ended up backfiring as it gave the other Joestars their Stands and it's later revealed to be a Double Subversion when Jotaro uses Time Stands Still powers against him, leading to his defeat.
• It Makes Sense in Context:
  • Arguably one of the selling points of the series. Because Stardust Crusaders was the first part to be localized in the West, a prologue explaining the events of the first two parts was made.
  • Furthermore, good luck explaining anything to anyone due to the rampant amount of Musical Theme Naming. "Vanilla Ice◊, using Cream◊, killed Iggy◊ and Avdol◊ and almost killed Polnareff◊."

J

• Japanese Delinquents: The Iconic Outfits of Jotaro in Part 3, Josuke and Okuyasu in Part 4, and Giorno in Part 5 are customized school uniforms similar, however, the characters themselves aren't actual delinquents; Jotaro is foul-tempered and rude, but he never goes out looking for trouble unless someone antagonizes him or hurts either an innocent people or someone he loves, Josuke is polite and easy-going, unless of course you're evil or you insult his hair, and Okuyasu, despite being a hothead with a thuggish looking face and an enemy in his first appearance, is a good guy at heart. Giorno is the closest to being an actual delinquent, as he's seen committing petty crimes in his introduction and has the goal of taking over the Passione Mafia, but his crimes are ultimately a means to an end in his quest to reform the Mafia from its current state as a murdering, drug-dealing crime syndicate to a force of justice.
• Just a Flesh Wound: Zigzagged; some wounds barely register on the characters, but others (usually those that truly handicap movement like a leg wound) are treated gravely.
• Just a Kid: The younger Stand users hide how dangerous they are by passing as a normal child. Everyone thinks of Mannish Boy as a normal baby while he wields one of the most dangerous Stands of Part 3. In the same vein, Ken Oyanagi acts like a normal kid obsessed with Rock Paper Scissors to lure people into his game.

K

• Kiai: One of the more well-known aspects of the series is the so-called "Stand cry", a repetitive war cry uttered when one's Stand engages in Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
  • Dio Brando's "Wryyyyyy!" The most famous version is from the popular flash-movie with it. There's also the famous "MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!" (meaning "futile" or "useless" in Japanese).
  • Jotaro's "ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA... ORAAAAAAAA!".
    • His daughter Jolyne has the same Stand cry, and so does Johnny. Part 8 Josuke as well, with an occasional "ARA" thrown in.
    • In fact, "ORAORAORA" could be said to be the signature Kiai of the Joestar family.
  • In the first two parts, everybody, even oneshot characters, had their own, although these were not Stand cries since the first two parts didn't feature Stands.
  • Part 4 Josuke has "DORARARARARARARARA! DORYA!"
  • In Part 5, almost everybody has some sort of Stand cry.
    • Giorno has "MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!" and "WRYYYYYYYY!", mirroring his father's.
    • Bucciarati has "ARIARIARIARIARI! ARRIVEDERCI!" (Arrivederci means "Goodbye!" in Italian.)
    • Narancia has "VOLAVOLAVOLAVOLAVOLA! VOLARE VIA!" (Meaning "Fly away!" in Italian.)
    • Fugo has "UBASHAAAAAAAA!" and the various other shrieks emitted by his Stand.
    • Trish has "WANNABEEEEEE!"
• Kick the Dog: Being a villain in this series means you have to do this at least once.
  • DIO, in Stardust Crusaders, forces Senator Wilson Phillips to drive him around Cairo, after disabling the guy's driver, regardless of who gets in the way. And then they run into a large traffic jam.
    DIO: There's plenty of room on the sidewalk. Drive on there.
    Phillips: But, but there are people there!
    DIO: So? Do it.
  • Later, just before fighting Jotaro and killing Joseph, he took advantage of his ability in the most petty way possible, ripping apart a cat and using its flesh to traumatize as many people as possible by sticking it into their stuff.
    • In Phantom Blood, he forces Erina to kiss him, rather than Jonathan, the rightful kisser, putting human heads on dogs, and forcing a mother to eat her child on the terms he wouldn't harm him.
  • Tarkus, one of Dio's zombies, literally kicking Bruford's armor and badmouthing him for dying again, which is very jarring considering the latter was a comrade in arms in life.
  • Straizo tearing out a lady's tooth in front of Joseph.
  • Kars going back on his word about fighting Lisa Lisa fairly and backstabbing her. Then gloating about it to Joseph.
  • Wamuu casually killing Mark without even noticing him. Both Caesar and Joseph are angry at this Lack of Empathy.
  • J. Geil gloating about killing both Avdol and Polnareff's sister.
  • Steely Dan's assassination of Enya comes across as this, considering how loyal she was to DIO.
  • Alessi turning an innocent woman into a fetus because she was in the way.
  • Kira using Hayato as a bomb while mocking him.
  • Diavolo killing a helpless boy and using him as a calling card to Bruno's group.
    • Polpo killing a helpless janitor for lighting a lighter during Giorno's initiation test.
    • Melone killing a woman in order to create a baby Stand from her.
    • Ciocolata going on a killing spree, killing a fraction of the population of Rome For the Evulz.
  • Pucci using DIO's knife trick on Jolyne in front of Jotaro to push his Papa Wolf button.
    • Donatello attempting to kill off some hospitalized children in front of Jolyne to drive down the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Valentine invoking his Karma Houdini powers to force his karma onto others.
  • The running joke is that Araki has some hatred of dogs, since he has a bad habit of violently killing them in the series. Just check below.^note Actually, Araki loves dogs. To him, it's the quickest way to show someone is an irredeemable monster.
    • Dio's first act upon meeting Jonathan is to literally kick Danny, Jonathan's dog, when he comes over to him.
    • Phantom Blood: Danny is bound in wire and burned alive.
    • Subverted surprisingly in Battle Tendency, when the Big Bad Kars actually saves a dog from drunk drivers while killing them at the same time.
    • Stardust Crusaders: A dog is dissolved by Yellow Temperance, another dog's head splits open in Death 13's dreamworld, Pet Shop kills two dogs for accidentally wandering around DIO's citadel and eats their eyes out in front of their owner, and Iggy is forced to tear his leg off to survive his battle with Pet Shop and is later either torn to shreds by a Negative Space Wedgie (OVA) or literally kicked to death by Vanilla Ice (manga and anime). The prevalence of dead dogs is practically lampshaded when Jotaro sees a impaled dog, and just thinks "Move on, nothing to see here!"
    • Diamond Is Unbreakable: Angelo bites off a dog's face, Kira slits Arnold's neck, and Antonio explodes a dog's internal organs, but it comes back healthier than ever before.
    • Stone Ocean: Pucci's Stand kills a dog during the final battle.
    • Steel Ball Run: Magenta Magenta shoots a wolf pup.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In a series full of Combat Pragmatist, characters choosing to retreat from a disadvantageous battle until they can get the upper hand are common.
  • A recurring joke in Battle Tendency is Joseph going into a big badass monologue about how he still has a trick up his sleeve that his opponent cannot match, with the "trick" being revealed as Joseph running away. For reference, it's absolutely hilarious. Of course, running away from a Crazy-Prepared Hamon-wielding vampire or a completely indestructible, shapeshifting Ultimate Life Form is a very rational thing to do, and being the Guile Hero that he is, Joseph is always thinking about a solution while running.
  • In Stardust Crusaders, the group doesn't even bother facing DIO directly at night, knowing that fighting him without the slightest hint of his power is suicide, thus opt to flee, despite Polnareff's protests.
  • In Stone Ocean, Pucci acquires the power of accelerating time, which he uses somewhat like Super-Speed. The group decides to flee temporarily toward a more advantageous terrain.

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