JoJo's Bizarre Adventure / Trivia

Trivia pages for individual parts:

Acting for Two:
- Japanese version:
  - Forever (Stardust Crusaders), Shigechi (Diamond is Unbreakable) and Yo-Yo-Ma (Stone Ocean) were all voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.
  - Jun'ichi Suwabe provided the voices of both Telence T. D'Arby in Stardust Crusaders and Leone Abbachio in Golden Wind.
  - Kenjiro Tsuda voiced both Bruford in Phantom Blood and Tiziano in Golden Wind.
- English version:
  - Jalen K. Cassell voiced both Vanilla Ice in Stardust Crusaders and Okuyasu Nijimura in Diamond is Unbreakable.
  - Steve Kramer voiced both Dario Brando in Phantom Blood and Yoshihiro Kira in Diamond is Unbreakable.
  - Kira Buckland voiced both Reimi Sugimoto in Diamond is Unbreakable and Jolyne Cujoh in Stone Ocean.
Approval of God:
- "Weird Al" Yankovic saw the episode post-defeat of DIO and resurrection of Joseph Joestar with his name mentioned, and posted it on his Instagram account.
- Darren Hayes approved of "I Want You" as the ED of Diamond is Unbreakable.
- Robert Fripp, the founder of King Crimson, has posted a meme of the stand King Crimson on Facebook.
- Michel Polnareff often tweets about the character of Jean-Pierre Polnareff.
Bad Export for You: This is the main reason why it took so long for both the manga and anime to be released in the United States. Licensors would have to negotiate with the musicians and record companies to see if they could use their names, and while several characters do retain their original names, many had to be renamed because the costs of negotiating with the musicians and record companies to avoid lawsuits with them would simply be too much and can drive the licensors to bankruptcy.^note
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Despite how popular the phrase is, no one in the series has ever said, "This must be the work of an enemy Stand." However, in one chapter of Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi says, "This has to be the work of an enemy Stand user".
Breakthrough Hit: It was Stardust Crusaders that launched both Hirohiko Araki's career and the series into the stratosphere.
Channel Hop: For over sixteen years, the series was published in Weekly Shonen Jump for Parts 1-6. From Steel Ball Run onwards, the series was moved to the monthly seinen magazine Ultra Jump, which would become the new home of the series.
Colbert Bump:
- Many fans first became familiar with the series thanks to the Capcom fighting game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, which came about during a time when the manga wasn't released in the West yet.
- While the franchise had been relatively obscure in America for some time outside of the aforementioned Capcom fighting game and Memetic Mutation, the 2012 anime, as well as its immensely positive reception from many anime reviewers on the Internet, has caused its popularity to skyrocket stateside. Its popularity in English-speaking territories further improved when both the 2012 anime and the Stardust Crusaders sequel were added to Crunchyroll. This is the reason why the PlayStation 3 game All Star Battle saw a North American release. Finally, airing on Toonami gave it probably the biggest bump for U.S. audiences, allowing the series to move from obscure to mainstream.
- The 2012 anime became one of these for the band Yes, due to usage of their most popular song, "Roundabout", as the anime's ending theme song. The trend continued with Stardust Crusaders and its ending themes, "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles and "Last Train Home" by the Pat Metheny Band; then in Diamond is Unbreakable with "I Want You" by Savage Garden. It happened again in Vento Aureo with Jodeci's "Freek'n You" and Enigma's "Modern Crusaders", and then again in Stone Ocean with Duffy's "Distant Dreamer".
- There has to be at least a few people who became attracted to the series thanks to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged.
- Popular Let's Players like Joel and Best Friends Zaibatsu frequently reference the series, to the point where fans have started watching/reading just to see what the heck they're talking about.
- If you're into both classic rock and anime, you may be curious just to find out if there's anyone named after your favorite band/song.
- Viz's original paperback releases of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders attempted this, using its influence on Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh! to pull in readers. Unfortunately, the initial early 2000s run tanked, and the arc wasn't re-released until about a decade later, when the popularity of the anime caused a resurgence in interest.
Completely Different Title:
- Rajawali Grafiti's unlicensed Indonesian translation of the manga renamed the title to "Misi Rahasia" (Mission Impossible).
- An unlicensed Korean translation of the manga renamed the title to "메가톤맨" (Megaton Man).
Creator Backlash: Araki has since admitted that part of the reason Avdol in Part 3 and Fugo in Part 5 didn't get many fights was because he found their powersets too difficult to make good battles out of. The experience led to him vowing to not use many if any fire or poison-based Stands for heroes again as a consequence.
Creator's Favorite: Araki has stated that his favorite JoJo is Diamond is Unbreakable's Josuke Higashikata.
Creator's Pest: According to Araki in an interview with Kappa Magazine, Vanilla Ice is his least favorite character, because he grew to regret his character design and found drawing him to be a hassle.
Cross-Dressing Voices:
- Giorno and Narancia in the PlayStation 2 video game adaptation of Vento Aureo.
- Koichi, Hayato Kawajiri and Narancia in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle.
- Mannish Boy, Iggy, Boingo, Polnareff (kid), and Jotaro (kid) in Stardust Crusaders.
Dawson Casting:
- For some reason (at least in Japanese), and until the TV series came out, most of the characters were voiced by older voice actors, despite voicing characters who are supposed to be teenagers or young adults. This is more exaggerated in the Part 3's OVAs when almost everybody are voiced by people who didn't even try to sound like young men (excluding Joseph, for obvious reasons).
- Young Jonathan and Young Dio in Part 1 are both voiced by the same actors who voice their adult selves. They also don't make an effort to sound like adolescents.
- Inverted with both Erina Pendleton and Suzi Q, in the TV series' Parts 2 & 3: Both voice actresses (Ayako Kawasumi and Sachiko Kojima, respectively) are normally typecasted for voicing younger girls or young adults, but they still voice their older versions in Parts 2 and 3, rather than casting much older voice actresses for the job.
- The same goes for both Speedwagon and Straizo's voice actors, since they are voiced by the same ones who voiced their younger counterparts in Part 1.
- Initially played straight with Joseph, then later averted. In Part 2, he is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, who also voiced his older self at the end of said Part. He voiced both young (Part 2) and old (Part 3) Joseph in All-Star Battle. Once the anime got into Part 3, Sugita was darrin'd by Unshō Ishizuka, who is an older voice actor that's around Part 3 Joseph's age. Does that mean Ishizuka is now the official voice of Joseph, staying true to this by even voicing the character's younger self? Nope. He'll likely keep his role as old Joseph (or, he would have), but Sugita reprised his role as young Joseph for J-Stars Victory VS and Eyes of Heaven. This falls in line with the Time-Shifted Actor trope. This changing of voice actors is retained in the English dub, with Ben Diskin voicing young Joseph and Richard Epcar voicing old Joseph.
- Jotaro is 28 in Diamond is Unbreakable, but Yusuke Iseya, who plays him in the live-action film, is 40.
Defictionalization: Ever wanted to own Noriaki- er, Tenmei Kakyoin's sunglasses and handkerchief, school uniform, and/or the soul doll D'Arby made of him? You can! Granted, the uniform is more of a track suit, but it's still pretty neat.
Directed by Cast Member: Patrick Seitz is the voice director of the English dub and voices Dio Brando.
Executive Meddling: Araki has on multiple occasions mentioned his intention to have more proactive female combatants since early on in the series (including more elaborate combat sequences for Lisa Lisa in Battle Tendency, and Anne in Stardust Crusaders being a full-on party member, as well as more female opponents), and how he was obstructed by the chauvinism of editors in the parts that preceded Stone Ocean.
Fake Nationality: Johnny Yong Bosch as the British Jonathan Joestar. The fact that Bosch pulled a British Accent (and a realistic one) actually surprised a lot of fans. ^note
Fan Translation: The Stardust Crusaders RPG for the Super Famicom has one by the Aeon Genesis group. Several exist for the manga itself, as well.
Humble Beginnings: The series began as an (relatively) normal horror/action shonen series, following the success of other works like Fist of the North Star. It wasn't until Stardust Crusaders that it would become as successful as it is, even though the manga always had highs and lows. Currently, JoJolion sells half a million of each volume, and the anime is one of the most financially successful around.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: A film adaptation of Phantom Blood came out in theaters in 2007. It hasn't seen any sort of home release. However, an incomplete cut (that is, there is no voice acting, and occasionally full animation is replaced by storyboard stills) of the first 16 minutes has appeared on the internet.
No Export for You: As aforementioned, this was the case for the manga and anime due to legal issues.
The Other Darrin: A lot of examples to list across many of adaptations at once, especially via the old OVAs and video games released before both the official anime and All Star Battle solidified several of the voices; even after All Star Battle, voices in respective anime adaptations of certain arcs still change around voice actors, even extending to Eyes of Heaven (such as the voice actors chosen for the Part 3 characters).
Promoted Fanboy:
- Japanese version:
  - Shoko Nakagawa is a lifelong fan of the franchise. She dreams of marrying Jotaro one day and even got to interview Hirohiko Araki back in 2009. In 2016, she even covered the first opening theme.
  - Daisuke Ono since he stated that JoJo was what got him into voice acting in the first place; speed up to All Star Battle where his dream came true of being able to voice one of the main iconic characters.
  - Prior to the announcement she would be voicing Jolyne, Fairouz Ai's fascination with the franchise stretched back to her middle school years, where she used Skype to have reading sessions with other fans.
- English version:
  - Kira Buckland is a lifelong fan. Jolyne is her favorite character in the series as she has frequently cosplayed her and has voiced her in some fanworks. Buckland also hosted a JoJo panel at Anime Expo 2016. She became a promoted fangirl when she got to voice Reimi Sugimoto in Diamond is Unbreakable and Jolyne in Stone Ocean.
  - Mick Lauer, a.k.a. Ricepirate. He's been a bonafide fanboy of JoJo for three decades, and is currently working on his own part, Blood Sun Vendetta, as seen here. He too is a promoted fanboy, with him voicing Leone Abbacchio in Vento Aureo.
Real Song Theme Tune: Araki picks out the ending theme songs for the anime, matching his taste in non-Japanese music:
- Part 1 and 2's ending theme is Yes's 1971 single "Roundabout".
- The first half of Part 3 gets the 1985 hit single "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles. The second half of Part 3 gets Pat Metheny Group's instrumental "Last Train Home" from their 1987 album Still Life (Talking).
- Part 4 has "I Want You" by Savage Garden.
- Part 5 has "Freek'n You" by Jodeci and the second part has "Modern Crusaders" by Enigma.
- Part 6 has "Distant Dreamer" by Duffy.
Referenced by...:
- See here.
- ZUN, the creator of Touhou Project, is an admitted fanboy. As such, there are several references within his games. Most notable is Sakuya Izayoi, who references DIO in both her powers and weapons of choice, as well as her association with vampires. Additionally, the kanji for Touhou (東方) are the same as the ones used in Josuke's family name.
Science Marches On: In Part 6, Rikiel's so-called sky rods were eventually revealed to be normal insects flying at such high speeds that cameras would capture them as longish "rods" (hence the name) with multiple wings. Not that Araki would let a minor detail like this affect the nature of Sky High's ability.
Series Hiatus: Hirohiko Araki has taken a few breaks. The first occurred after Golden Wind was finished, which lasted for nine months until Stone Ocean began. After Stone Ocean ended, another break lasted for about ten months until coming back for Steel Ball Run. The third, and longest, hiatus after the completion of JoJolion lasted for a year and six months until returning for the start of The JoJoLands.
Star-Making Role:
- Japanese version:
  - Jonathan Joestar for Kazuyuki Okitsu.
  - While Kenta Miyake was already an established voice actor at the time, his role as Avdol in Part 3's anime helped him land more popular roles.
- English version:
  - The JoJos for Parts 1-3 were voiced by top tier voice actors Johnny Yong Bosch, Ben Diskin, and Matthew Mercer, respectively. However, a younger voice was required to portray Josuke Higashikata. Enter Billy Kametz, who following his role in Diamond is Unbreakable landed more high profile roles within the anime industry, including Osomatsu from Osomatsu-san and Kyouya from KonoSuba.
Troubled Production: Apparently, one of the reasons for the poor quality of the Phantom Blood movie and why it's never been released on DVD was because one of the producers was killed in an accident, and his family pulled the plug on funding, leaving an incomplete, rushed mess of a film.
What Could Have Been: Has its own subpage.
Word of Dante: Most fans take for granted that the continuity reboot starting with Steel Ball Run was directly caused by Pucci's Made in Heaven after his defeat at the end of Stone Ocean. The latter does indeed show an alternative recreated universe, but neither Word of God nor any applicable in-story confirmation (such as an appearance from Irene, the alternate version of Jolyne) have actually shown that Steel Ball Run and JoJolion are set in the same alternative universe as Stone Ocean's ending.
Word of Gay: In a 2007 interview, Araki stated that DIO was bisexual.
Working Title: Several parts have had initial titles that were later replaced. For instance, Stardust Crusaders was first advertised as Heritage for the Future (hence the name of the fighting game), or Golden Wind was known as Golden Heritage, while Stone Ocean was at first known as Part 6: Jolyne Cujoh as a Protagonist Title.

The TV anime was one of the most requested shows for Toonami on [adult swim], and eventually premiered in October 2016.
Tying in somewhat to the first bit of trivia, was the very first scene depicted. The story actually started before Jonathan's time, back at least two millennia in some South American civilization, which eventually died out for one reason or another, had used the Stone Mask to gain immortality as a vampire. And the first character shown was a maiden to be sacrificed. This lost tribe is later revealed as the Pillar Men, though it was specifically Kars who created the Masks.
The phrase "Lucky Land" appears frequently on signs throughout the series, a reference to Lucky Land Communications, the company Araki formed to formally hold copyrights for the series.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers Album The Getaway was released on the same day the episode of the Diamond Is Unbreakable anime aired that had Josuke's climatic fight with Akira Otoishi and Red Hot Chili Pepper.
It is popularly believed among the fandom that "JoJo" is a reference to the The Beatles song "Get Back". However, according to Araki himself, JoJo is not a reference but the name instead came from the Japanese family restaurant chain Jonathan's. During the planning process for the series, Araki had several meetings in the restaurant and was looking for an Alliterative Name for the protagonist and decided to go with Jonathan Joestar, naming him after the restaurant.

Trivia / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

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