Even as a Nominal Villain, Boingo still manages to be endearingly dorky with his shyness, loyalty to his brother, and his impressions of people as he's reading his Stand's stories aloud.
The jovial, curious, and sometimes clueless Polnareff has been considered outright adorable at times, due to his eccentric personality and his habit of acting outright dorky at all sorts of moments.
Adaptation Displacement: In the early 2000s, the Capcom fighting game Heritage for the Future was the face of the franchise in the United States since it was the first JoJo product released in that country. Up until the TV anime in 2012, most people affiliated the franchise with the game rather than the manga.
His attitude being a far cry from Holly's flashbacks at the beginning of the part could be tied to him cultivating a delinquent persona so that he wouldn't be mocked by his peers for having his mother cling on him all the time. Adding to this interpretation is Araki's claim that Jotaro was inspired by Clint Eastwood, with many fans believing that Jotaro is a fan himself and Eastwood's movies are his "special interest."
Coupled with his Closet Geek traits, some believe that Jotaro isn't socially inept, and instead, humorously, he's just trying to look cool. This is expanded upon in Part 4 and his one-liners.
Jotaro being half-deaf. No seriously, a Reddit user discovered that since Jotaro has problems hearing from time to time. Jotaro shot a revolver at his head from basically point blank range in the first chapter just to show Star Platinum's reaction time realistically would have given him this problem due to a ruptured ear drum.
It's easy to think that the reason for his delinquent persona is because he's trying to suppress his emotions to avoid bringing out Star Platinum and beating innocent peoples faces in and getting sent to prison.
In a more comical instance, one Tumblr user comprehensively argued that Jotaro doesn't know how to play poker.
Is Holly really oblivious to Jotaro's behavior, her memories distorted by her Nostalgia Filter, or did Jotaro really use to be much nicer and Star Platinum somehow affected his personality? If 7-year old Jotaro beating up Alessi is anything to go by, then there's evidence that he had violent tendencies even back then.
When the D'Arby Brothers lose their composure (Daniel's anger over his name being mispronounced, Telence panicking whenever someone gets a lead), are they just faking it to throw their opponents off balance? Or is that foreshadowing of their inevitable Villainous Breakdowns?
The already unnerved Daniel J. D'Arby truly began his epic Freak Out when Jotaro managed to snatch a cigarette and a glass of juice of thin air, which made his suspicions about switching out the cards without him noticing in order to get away with cheating unnoticed even more possible in his mind. Was it merely him realizing he underestimated Star Platinum's speed, which would make him be able to force out DIO's true power, which he would've been certainly killed for this by DIO indirectly via Pet Shop/Vanilla Ice/DIO's implanted flesh buds or did he have a hunch that Jotaro's true power is identical to The World's Time Stop powers? Which would lead to him being Properly Paranoid about him being a threat to DIO?
Joseph's constant complaining about Japanese culture. Is he really bitter about Holly marrying a Japanese man? A Racist Grandpa? Or is he trying to cover up the fact that he had an affair with a Japanese woman? Despite his alleged hatred of the Japanese, he is shown to be very fond of both Kakyoin and Jotaro.
Were Joseph and Polnareff fooled by Oingo, and by extension, does that mean Jotaro enjoys making stupid bets with his friends in his downtime? Or did they realize he was an impostor and were just playing with him?
For that matter, considering Star Platinum's design, Heroic Build, and the numerous parallels such as its Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs fighting style, some fans believe it may be Jonathan's soul.
Considering DIO needs Joseph's blood to properly merge with Jonathan's body. It's implied that most of the Stand users sent to kill the Joestar group were out of boredom rather than genuinely expecting them to succeed—especially with the Oingo Boingo Brothers—so he can do the deed himself once they arrived in Egypt.
Did Enya really think J. Geil was a good son? Or was she proud of the monster he became? Furthermore, what were J. Geil's thoughts on his mother? Did he love her? Did he find her annoying or even hate her? Or was he indifferent to her? Considering how awful he was, it's very likely J. Geil didn't even love his own mother.
When Avdol warned Polnareff and Iggy that he wouldn't save them if they got in trouble inside DIO's mansion, did he mean it at the time, only to be unable to follow through? Or was he lying all along in order to motivate them?
Aluminum Christmas Trees: Despite Polnareff's encounter with a pig in the toilet being framed as unrealistic due to the absurdity of it, pig toiletsare real, and are indeed designed to have the pigs feast off of excrement.
Americans Hate Tingle: Although Stardust Crusaders is by far the most popular part in Japan, for a long while it was held in lesser regard by many western fans, who criticize it for its repetitive Monster of the Week structure, with many of the individual Stand users not being very memorable. Jotaro himself is perhaps the character that best exemplifies this; he is by far the most popular and iconic character of the series in Japan, but western fans tend to be much more split in their opinion of him, with many viewing him as bland, uninteresting, or even downright unlikeable in comparison to most of the other protagonists. For all these reasons, Stardust Crusaders is frequently considered to have aged less gracefully than many of the other parts, despite (or perhaps because of) it having coined many of the tropes commonly seen in Shōnen series today. The fact that it was the only part marketed everywhere else for a long time doesn't help matters. It also has the misfortune of being after Battle Tendency, which is one of the most popular parts in the west but not so much in Japan. The anime adaptation was able to rectify this by a good margin (partially due to the fact both Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency were adapted first), but there are still plenty of western fans who see Part 3 as their least favorite part.
Anti-Climax Boss: Enya's Justice is firmly considered this. After being a truly terrifying stand controlled by DIO's Evil Mentor that had a lot of build up and tension as Enya attempted to pick off the Joestar Group and Hol Horse one by one, Jotaro easily defeats the supposedly invincible stand by demonstrating an ability he's never demonstrated to have before or after with Star Plantium, within a few moments after he finally confronts her. This seems to be a common sentiment, as other materials state that the flesh bud implanted within Enya actually made her a much less formidable opponent than she otherwise would be.
While all of the Stand arcs until Steel Ball Run get accused of this to some degree, Stardust Crusaders is considered the one that suffers the most due to having an extremely formulaic Once an EpisodeMonster of the Week format against Stand users with little story relevance. It becomes worse if you're not a huge fan of Polnareff, who gets almost as much screen time as Jotaro himself. It's alleviated once the team sets foot in Egypt... only to resume in full force not long after. It doesn't help that Stardust Crusaders is longer than Parts 1 and 2 combined.
Due to being extended quite a bit, the Egypt arc in the anime drags quite a bit, with a lot of random scenes of Iggy and other characters that don't really contribute much of anything.
The TV anime adaptation as a whole received criticism for this. With the exception of the "Tower of Gray" arc, all of the arcs are at least one episode long. Many fans were not happy with how short, insignificant arcs such as "Wheel of Fortune," "The Sun," and "Dark Blue Moon" were stretched out for an entire episode's runtime when they could have been half as long. With the Diamond is Unbreakable anime portraying its final arcs simultaneously, some fans now believe that arcs that took place at the same time, like "Ebony Devil" and "Yellow Temperance" and "Bastet" and "Sethan," could have shared episodes instead. Even the final battle gets some criticism for being overly drawn out.
The two times Star Platinum used Star Finger (three if you count the anime-only use in the Anubis fight). In the battle against Dark Blue Moon, there was no buildup to any revelation of being able to pull off such a feat. It's more justified when used against Forever, since Star Finger had been seen prior, but considering it's never used again after the fact (other than the aforementioned Anubis fight), Star Finger comes across as being a little too plot-convenient.
Avdol Faking the Dead comes off as this, as he was clearly shot in the head several chapters ago with the rest of the cast confirming his status, but was brought back. Now, when it is revealed he is back, the cast tries to make it look like they kept his identity a secret. The anime tries to alleviate this by actually showing Avdol moving in the way he described — namely, recoiling and looking almost straight up from J. Geil's Hanged Man stabbing him in the back — when Hol Horse's bullet gashed his forehead.
Star Platinum being able to defeat Justice by inhaling it despite never displaying any type of super sucking ability before or after the fight with Enya.
Hierophant Green and Silver Chariot being able to be shrunk down to microscopic size in order to chase after Lovers. Not only is it a spur-of-the-moment revelation, but the ability to shrink one's Stand at will was never seen again for the rest of the part, or for the entire series, for that matter (somewhat justified, however, as the ability wouldn't have been of any use in later fights). It was all for the sake of gaining an edge against Steely Dan. This could potentially be justified, as Kakyoin and Polnareff state that shrinking their Stands takes a tremendous amount of concentration and energy, but the fact that such a power is never alluded to again makes said justification seem a bit like Hand Waving.
Star Platinum being able to freeze time just like DIO in the final battle. There's no direct build up to this being the case, but on the other hand, Star Platinum was able to catch a bullet at point blank range and seemingly teleported objects (reminiscent of the early uses of The World) as early as his introduction. Despite his immense strength and precision, his speed was always the main power commented on by his foes, and stopping time is basically another way to describe moving infinitely fast. However, a common way to show the threat of a minor villain was to have them be even faster than Star Platinum, and the time stop is treated as a separate ability, making it vague enough to debate whether those traits qualify as foreshadowing, or if it was just a coincidence due to Araki having planned out the basics of the ending in the early stages of writing the story and not accommodating for changes made along the way.
In the same arc as above, Jotaro casually appearing inside the sewers to stop DIO from escaping has no build up whatsoever and no coherent explanation, and is closer to a sight gag. It's no surprise that this was changed in the OVA to have Jotaro just stomp his foot down on the manhole cover — with enough force to completely bend it, no less — before DIO can crawl inside, since it made a lot more sense.
Even though it is licensed music from Pat Metheny Group, "Last Train Home" is a beautiful masterpiece to cap off episodes of the anime. The vocal bridge used at the end of particularly tense episodes is even more of a blessing to the ears.
"Villain Concerto" is an incredibly catchy surf rock-inspired tune that plays at the end of the Oingo/Boingo episodes. The 1960s-esque instrumentation perfectly complements the song, and Oingo, Boingo, and Hol Horse's voice actors are surprisingly good singers, with Oingo and Hol Horse's VAs especially being good at holding notes.
Joseph. His Stand is barely even capable of direct combat, and the few times he uses Hamon are often countered by So Last Season or The Worf Barrage. Somewhat justified since he's an old man by that point and hasn't practiced using Hamon in years, and the fact that he isn't fighting vampires, but it's still frustrating to see the guy that took down Wamuu and Esidisi struggling so much to fight the enemy Stand users. It's particularly annoying since throughout Parts 1 and 2, we see Hamon users perform feats and abilities that rival Stands in terms of power and variety. If Joseph had kept up his Hamon training, not only would he be much more physically fit but he would much more useful in combat.
Hol Horse in his first appearance shoots Avdol in the head — seemingly killing him at the time, but actually managed to incapacitate him for the majority of the Pre-Egypt arc and, alongside J. Geil, proves to be a real threat for Polnareff and Kakyoin. Every appearance afterward? The guy is basically reduced to a walking joke. In his next appearance, he unknowingly walks in on Enya fighting Jotaro and Polnareff and, without standing up to her whatsoever, is affected by her Stand and is left helplessly laying on the floor as Enya repeatedly stabs him. Following that, he tries to assassinate DIO, only for the attempt to unsurprisingly fail. He then finds himself teaming up with Boingo, which results in him getting caught with his finger up Polnareff's nose at the worst time, and ultimately having his plan to eliminate the heroes backfire on him.
Jotaro Kujo, the titular JoJo of this arc, gets this in spades, especially amongst western fans. Many fans love Jotaro for his sheer badassery in fights, his ability to keep a cool head even in intense moments, his occasional moments of Hidden Depths, and for just being one of the coolest JoJos. However, the other half of the fanbase find his stoic personality boring, outdated, thinks he wins fights a little too easily, and believe that, at times, he can be just plain unlikable. It doesn't help that, due to Stardust Crusaders being the series' most recognizable part, Jotaro is almost always guaranteed to appear more often than any of the other protagonists. Admittedly, he is considered to be written to be a lot more likeable in said later parts, but his portrayal in 3 nevertheless leaves a bitter taste in some fans' mouths.
Although he definitely has a large fanbase, Jean-Pierre Polnareff is probably one of the most controversial heroes of the series due to being the only main character with a story arc in a very episodic part and for appearing almost as many times as Jotaro, if not more. Many fans find Polnareff a very endearing character whose search for his sister's killer makes him an Iron Woobie of the highest calibre, find his Butt-Monkey antics very amusing, and enjoy his fights. Some, however, think that he takes up far too much screen time, with many wishing that less time could be spent on him and more on Kakyoin and Avdol. Despite this, no one really outright hates Polnareff, it's just that people wish he didn't have so much screen time.
In the way of Stands, there's Sethan. Its user, Alessi, is near-universally detested due to being a disgusting, creepy Psychopathic Manchild, but the Stand itself seems to have split opinions. Some love it for its cool, creepy Living Shadow design, its side ability to manifest weapons out of shadows, and age reversal being a rather unconventional power, while others don't like how the aforementioned abilities are underutilized, with the effects of the abilities being used more for nauseating jokes as opposed to weaponizing them.
When Vanilla Ice is closing in on Polnareff with Cream's void ball, a random multiple-choice quiz pops up, asking the readers/viewers what will end up happening to Polnareff. This quiz ultimately has no bearing on the plot, and in the anime adaptation, it causes everything to come to an abrupt standstill.
In the anime series, Jotaro and DIO being shown flying during the final battle ends up being something quite random that no one comments on, nor is it mentioned or even shown again. This whole sequence largely came about due to the animators overly relying on the manga imagery and drawing out the final arc, leading to cases where characters were simply jumping in the manga to flying and hovering in place in the anime.
The Oingo Boingo Brothers episode (and the later Oingo and Hol Horse episodes) are unusual in that there is no fighting going on in them. The heroes never even realize that they're under attack as Oingo's prophecies come true in the worst of ways for the villains. Also, instead of the usual Closing Credits, those episodes feature an alternative outro with a Stylistic Suck art style and a goofy song.
Mariah and her Stand, Bastet, make for a truly unusual fight, as it falls in the genre of Cringe Comedy due to Joseph being turned into a living magnet and getting into all sorts of embarrassing situations.
The fights with Nena and ZZ following the battle with Hol Horse and J. Geil, which ended in Avdol's Disney Death. Both of these fights are much more comedic and don't really give the heroes much difficulty. It's arguably lampshaded after the fight with Nena, when it dawns on Polnareff that he had been romancing one of DIO's henchmen only after she spontaneously dies right in front of him.
In particular, ZZ was never a fight meant to be taken seriously. With ZZ being one of the very few characters in the series to break the fourth wall, the tone set for the fight was made rather obvious, but according to Araki inJOJOVELLER, the only reason he created ZZ was just because he wanted to make a joke where a skinny guy has muscular arms.
After the rather long fight with Steely Dan that nearly killed Joseph, the next assassin the heroes encounter is Arabia Fats. The fight seems hopeless at first, but it ends up being pathetically easy after Fats' position is revealed. Jotaro just throws a rock at him and the battle's over.
The encounter with the Oingo Boingo Brothers after the nearly fatal encounter with N'Doul. Neither of the brothers attempt to fight the heroes directly. Boingo doesn't take any action at all, with the onus of actually killing the heroes being on Oingo, who tries, but his plans quickly fall apart. In fact, it's Oingo who ultimately does himself in, and the heroes don't even realize that someone was attempting to attack them.
The heroes find themselves in an intense gauntlet of consecutive encounters with Anubis, Mariah, Alessi, and Daniel J. D'Arby. What comes afterwards? Hol Horse and Boingo attempting to get revenge, and failing epically. Hol Horse at least tries to take action against the heroes, but none of them take him seriously, and going along with Boingo's Stand does him no favors. Boingo, on the other hand, once again avoids getting his hands dirty but even then ends up getting attacked by Iggy as a result of an accident nonetheless.
Before the battle with DIO, the heroes fight Pet Shop, Telence T. D'Arby, and Vanilla Ice, all of which are rather short on levity. The "fight" against Nukesaku provides a much-needed brief moment of humor before the final battle.
The Villain of the Week format has really divided fans in regards to this part. Some like it since it allows the story to move fast and introduces a colorful cast of enemies, or feel that the main cast's camaraderie is strong enough. Others felt it ended up getting repetitive after awhile (especially in the first half), the sizable number of not-too-interesting minor villains not helping matters.
The original OVAs released in 1991 and 2000. Especially with the anime that aired in 2014, a lot of fans are left to debate over whether or not they still have a place in history or are expendable. Starting In Medias Res, cutting out many of the Villain of the Week fights, and the more serious tone did not go over well with some fans. However, the OVAs did have a few accolades, such as cutting out some of the less important fights, how Daniel J. D'Arby and DIO's battles were handled, and the involvement of Satoshi Kon.
The English dub removing the accents from the dubs of Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. For some, they were the weakest part of those dubs and removing them was for the better, while for others, the accents made the dub more fun and removing them wasn't such a good idea. The latter contend that with the Multinational Team, the accents could've been even more fun, while the former had been dreading what Japanese, French and Arabic accents would've sounded like had the practice of the previous parts' dub been continued.
Joseph's Badass Decay: is it justified since he's no longer the main character (and is an old man, so of course he'd be past his prime), or does it flanderize him into too much of a Joke Character compared to in Battle Tendency, especially considering how versatile Hermit Purple's powerset could have potentially been? Fans who see it as the latter point out that Lisa Lisa in Battle Tendency was able to dramatically slow her aging via Hamon and thus even in his 60s, a Hamon prodigy like Joseph ought to be capable of still being in his physical prime. Fans on the former side point out that Joseph has nowhere near the work ethic of his mother, only putting in serious training out of desperate necessity, and thus it's perfectly in-character that he would've slacked off and gotten rusty during peacetime. And once he realized he was going to go back into action, Hamon can only slow aging, not reverse it, so there's not much he could do about his physical decline other than using his wits to work around it.
Avdol coming Back from the Dead. Some fans see it as a massive Ass Pull that undermines Polnareff’s Character Development, makes the other Crusaders come off as massive Jerkasses for hiding the truth from him, and nullifies the emotional impact of Avdol being eventually Killed Off for Real. Other fans see it as a well-executed twist with adequate Foreshadowing and state that adding Avdol back in allowed for more moments where he could have the spotlight, such as the Mariah and Daniel J. D'Arby fights.
Kakyoin is notorious in anime fandoms as a poster boy for the Ukefication trope. The manga explicitly defies this, mentioning early on that despite his feminine appearance he's very strong-willed and the complete opposite of an Uke, but it's not uncommon for fanworks to depict him as extremely sweet and innocent or slavishly submissive to Jotaro anyway. Unfortunately it's this characterization that became more famous with the Yaoi FangirlPeriphery Demographic, not helped by the fact that popular mangaka like CLAMP indulged in it (and may have even kicked it off) with their doujin of Kakyoin waking up next to a giant egg and the child born of it resembles him... and Jotaro. Not to mention the child's Stand mixes his "fathers" Stands too. It's even worse if he's paired with DIO, where he falls for him despite everything DIO has been trying to do to kill him and the crusaders. Often these stories paint Kakyoin as giving himself to DIO willingly, giving him something that resembles Stockholm Syndrome.
Jotaro doesn't come out smelling like roses either. It's not uncommon in Japanese fanworks at least to raise Jotaro's aggression/and or possessiveness to yandere levels at times. This is especially egregious considering even though their friendship isn't explored in much depth, Jotaro is consistently respectful, calm, and even polite to Kakyoin.
English dub-example, Xander Mobus' performance as Telence T. D'Arby sounds remarkably similar to his voice as the narrator for Super Smash Bros., not helping matters with his arc being extensively themed around video games. And if that wasn't enough, his whole shtick combined with his video game knowledge and white clothing bring Master Hand to mind.
Retroactively played to disturbing effect in the OVA. In it, Senator Wilson Phillips has a voice that his actor would later use a variation of for Luigi; which provides a surprisingly creepy dissonance when Phillips is brutalized, forced to commit mass murder, and ultimately driven insane before dying violently.
Steely Dan kills Enya for the sake of money, attempts to kill Joseph (and scammed him earlier into paying a little extra for a kebab by making him think he successfully haggled for it) for his own personal amusement, punches a child after demonstrating how his Stand works, forces Jotaro to be his amusement (rubbing his back, polishing his shoes, acting as a bridge), and frames him for stealing a necklace. There's a good reason why Jotaro beating him down and then tossing a bill at him is one of the best and most memorable parts of Stardust Crusaders.
Jotaro and Polnareff repeatedly punching and skewering Alessi, a despicable Dirty Coward and Child Hater, literally sending him flying after he had used his Stand to turn both of them into children in an attempt to kill them. Could also count as a Take That, Scrappy! given how loathed Alessi was as a character.
It's thought that Avdol coming Back from the Dead was due to a fan backlash from Avdol's supposed death, and that he was Saved by the Fans. This is incorrect, as Araki stated in a JoJonium interview that he had always planned for Avdol to come back, and only wrote his Disney Death to shake up the formula a bit. The rather sudden and convoluted explanation for the reveal in the manga (which was fixed in the anime) contributes to the confusion.
Alessi is frequently said to be a pedophile. While he is very creepy and a good chunk of his screentime involves chasing around a naked child Polnareff, there is no indication that he is actually sexually interested in children. It would be more accurate to call him a cowardly bully who enjoys hurting children because they can't fight back.
Stopping time doesn't stress the user's heart. It's never even hinted to do so in any part. People seem to have picked this up from Code Geass and started applying that rule to JoJo, most likely mistaking Jotaro's time stop getting shorter in Part 4 as being caused by the strain on his heart (rather than him simply being out of practice, despite the fact it improves throughout the Part).
Returning from Phantom Blood, Dio Brando, now going by DIO, tries to prevent Jotaro and his friends from reaching him by having a hitman bring down the passenger plane they're on, and murdering his loyal right-hand woman Enya Geil to ensure that she doesn't divulge his powers. In the climactic confrontation with Jotaro and company, DIO abducts a man, forces him to drive at lethal speeds through crowds of pedestrians in pursuit of his foes, and then kills him by using him as a projectile.
Gray Fly was a Stand user who used his Stand, Tower of Gray, to commit various mass murders disguised as accidents such as train crashes and plane accidents for the fun of it. Taking the lives of countless people with his Stand, Gray Fly was responsible for a plane crash in London which caused the death of 300 people. Hired by DIO to dispose of the Joestars and their allies, Gray Fly hijacks a plane and uses his Stand to attack the passengers inside by ripping their tongues from their mouths. After being defeated, he kills the pilot in order to have the plane crash and kill everyone inside in his last attempt at killing the Joestars.
J. Geil, one of DIO's henchmen, stands out as one of the vilest, and most sadistic, of the minor villains encountered by Jotaro and his friends. Driven by a lust for teenage girls, he raped and killed the young Sherry Polnareff—and attempted to murder her friend as well, succeeding in the OVA—prompting her brother Jean-Pierre to join the heroes and seek revenge. He boasts that she was just one of the countless girls that he raped and killed. When confronted by Polnareff and Kakyoin, he shows himself to be a coward of the highest order, placing his Stand in the eyes of a little boy and telling his opponents that they'll never reach him without gouging out the boy's eyes. When this fails, he escapes and inflicts grievous, potentially fatal wounds on a man to dress him up as a decoy for another sneak attack. Finally, he attracts a crowd of at least 10 people, then hides his Stand among them before trying to goad Polnareff to mow them down by gloating about what he did to his sister. He dies showing nothing but pride in his actions.
Telence T. D'Arby/D'Arby the Younger, DIO's butler, is the younger brother of Daniel J. D'Arby, and like him, has the ability to steal a person's soul when they admit defeat in their heart before turning them into dolls. Unlike his affable and nobler brother, any politeness Telence spews is an obvious attempt to hide the childish psychopath he really is, changing anybody who is defeated by him in a video game into a doll, while, unlike Daniel, keeping them fully aware of their situation and powerless to do anything about it. Besides having done this to at least 20 people, it is also implied that Telence is very abusive towards his brother, admitting to beating him nearly to death one time after catching him flirt with his girlfriend. When the heroes stumble across his path, he traps them in DIO's basement and forces them to play video games for their souls, while using his Stand to give himself an advantage. Through these methods he defeats Kakyoin and adds him to the collection, intending to do the same to Jotaro and Joseph, threatening to kill Kakyoin if they attack him. While only a minor villain, Telence manages to be one of the few villains that the heroes show nothing but contempt and disgust for.
It is not uncommon to see fans shipping Kakyoin... with himself! Or even characters he's never met, like Caesar, Lisa Lisa, and Tomoko.
Mariah/Midler, two characters who are never seen interacting in canon, are often paired up due to both expressing interest towards DIO, and one of the heroes (Joseph for Mariah and Jotaro for Midler).
If only because they're Ensemble Dark Horses, N'Doul/Mariah is a pretty enticing ship to many, even considering the fact that N'Doul died in his introductory arc; quite a bit before Mariah entered the scene. Most art depicting the two of them has Mariah comforting N'Doul for being blind, while N'Doul acts like a Tsundere.
Cross the Line Twice: In the manga, the scene where DIO forces Senator Phillips into mowing down a crowd of pedestrians is as horrifying and graphic as it sounds. What steers it into Black Comedy, however, is Waldo being among the pedestrians sent flying in the background.
A popular theory is that Jotaro Kujo is on the Autism Spectrum due to his poor social skills, especially at the start of the story, as well as his official description pointing out that he acts like The Stoic because he mistakenly assumes everyone else can figure out how he's feeling.
A number of fans speculate that Noriaki Kakyoin is autistic. Such readings hinge on his large knowledge of trivia (including his tendency to infodump), his odd eating habit of rolling cherries on his tongue before eating them, his high observance, his often blunt dialogue, his self-isolation as a result of his Stand (allegorically speaking), and two moments which parallel delayed echolalia. Additionally, fans also speculate Kakyoin has depression, as he isolated himself for almost two decades due to being unable to relate to those that didn't have Stands. This interpretation is further bolstered by his image song, "Goodbye Nostalgia", which elaborates on his longtime feelings of sorrow and isolation.
DIO gets its as much as he did in Phantom Blood. Made even more apparent due to him becoming a Fashion-Victim Villain.
Some of the enemy Stand users, particularly Hol Horse, N'Doul, Mariah, Midler, and frighteningly the D'Arby brothers (especially Telence) often have their evil qualities toned down in fan works. Some fans even go as far as believing that they're just regular people when not fighting for DIO.
While a lot of them are forgettable one-shot enemies, many of DIO's minions and assassins from Part 3 have gotten their fair share of love from the fanbase. In particular, most of the Egypt-arc minions (especially N'Doul, Mariah, Pet Shop and the D'Arby Brothers) are agreed to be significantly more interesting than those that came before; and bar them, Hol Horse, Mannish Boy and Midlernote who never appeared onscreen in either the manga or anime, but received an attractive, belly dancer-inspired redesign exclusively for the Capcom fighting game. are also very well-liked by the fans.
Aside from Hol Horse, Daniel J. D'Arby is the most popular of DIO's minions. His Affably Evil qualities and how he chose to fight the heroes not because DIO wanted him to but for his passion of gambling have gained him a lot of respect among fans. It also helps that his fight was considered one of the best in Stardust Crusaders arc for the high tension and how it broke away from the action of previous fights and was more logic driven; even Jotaro seems to have considered him a Worthy Opponent, noting later on that Daniel would never have fallen for the simple trick that they used to defeat his Smug Snake of a younger brother. He was so well-liked among fans that his fight in the OVA shifted to Araki's art style and he even got his own figure; he also appeared as a boss in Eyes of Heaven, which gave him a rematch against Jotaro in a game of poker, and expanded more on D'Arby's backstory as well as his recovery and thoughts since his Villainous Breakdown in their first game.
The Oingo Boingo Brothers have become very popular among fans, for their hilarious chapter and how unlike DIO's other henchmen, they weren't particularly villainous and had other character traits outside of following DIO. So much so that they got a figure, a one-shot that reveals Boingo tried to become a successful author after the events of Stardust Crusaders, a reference to Tohth in Stone Ocean, and both arcs involving Boingo had alternate credits in the anime.
Mariah, for being one of the very few Dark Action Girls in the series prior to Part 6, and for her both hilarious and tense fight with Joseph and Avdol. She was made playable in Eyes of Heaven, something that even the D'Arby and Oingo Boingo brothers missed out on. Her extremely good looks certainly don't hurt.
Although Alessi is considered a despicable Hate Sink, it is very popular to use the effect of his Stand, Sethan, to make cute fanart where Joseph get turned into a young adult and has to take care of the now toddler-aged Crusaders.
Although he's not technically a Glory God, Anubis' first victim, Chaka, is a very popular character for how much of a woobie he is with having to deal with his disappointed family, as well as providing one of the best-choreographed fights in the entire series against Polnareff. He even managed to be Promoted to Playable in Heritage for the Future.
Fans simply can't come to any sort of agreement as to what Holly's Stand is. Some believe that its only "ability" was killing her while others believe that it could have potentially become a stronger ability. It doesn't help that characters who are potentially weaker than Holly like Iggy, Pet Shop, Mannish Boy and the two rats awoke to Stands, creating even more confusion. The fact that Josuke suffered through a similar situation as a child and awoke to a Stand later in life while Holly's Stand completely subsided doesn't help the confusion either.
It's a popular theory that The World isn't really DIO's Stand, but actually Jonathan's. It is likely that the Stand Arrow hit DIO's body and not his head, and it would explain DIO's Stand's early resemblance to Hermit Purple, why Star Platinum shares The World's ability to stop time, and why Crazy Diamond vaguely resembles The World.note This inconsistency was introduced because one panel shows DIO utilizing a Hermit Purple-esque stand in the same manner as Joseph, without much context around its appearance. He later stated in an interview that the Stand that looks like Hermit Purple is Jonathan's, while DIO's is The World.
Considering how long Anne, the runaway girl, stayed with the Crusaders and how abrupt her removal from the series was, it's almost certain that Araki had bigger plans for her before he decided to stop using her for whatever reason. Much like how Hol Horse was initially intended to replace Avdol after his "death", a popular theory was that she was originally supposed to be the sixth Crusader instead of Iggy, only Araki scrapped the idea after the negative reception her character got. Araki would later admit to the idea being close: he had wanted her to be a long term ally and actual combatant with a Stand of her own, but negative pushback forced him to scrap the idea. Rather than the fans being the issue though, it was the editors, as the sexist attitudes in Shonen Manga during the 1980's forced Araki into having an all-male main cast of fighters.
Estrogen Brigade: Polnareff has a very strong following among female fans, owing to his chivalrousButt-Monkey nature, to the point that he's one of the most common characters that female fans cosplay as.
Due to him being a Silver Fox with plenty of Adorkable moments, Joseph Joestar is also extremely popular among many female fans.
For as much of a depraved Hate Sink as J. Geil is, his Hanged Man Stand is seen as both this and Creepy Awesome thanks to its cool design of a robotic mummy with machetes protruding from its wrists, as well as its hard-to-beat ability of hopping between reflections at the speed of light. It also helps that it managed to kill Avdol, or at least seemingly.
N'Doul is a tenacious fighter who, despite being blind, managed to give the heroes the fight of their lives, wounding Avdol and putting Kakyoin out of commission until the end of the part. Despite his ruthlessness, he is a Noble Demon who genuinely respects his opponents while remaining Defiant to the End as he takes the secret of his master's Stand to the grave. Even Jotaro found respect in N'Doul and saw fit to give him a proper burial.
Daniel J. D'Arby is a suave, sophisticated, well-dressed gentleman who's nothing but polite to our heroes even as he uses underhanded tactics to trap them, and his Stand battle is a unique one in that it requires Jotaro to rely on his intellect instead of his fists. Throw in the one and only Cam Clarke as his English dub VA, and it's easy to see why D'Arby the Elder became such a fan favorite.
Pet Shop, a hawk that is every bit as depraved as most antagonists. In his brief screen time, he mercilessly kills two dogs, has a powerful Stand that can summon ice, and comes close to killing Iggy. All of this coming from a super-fast and vicious bird of prey... how could he not be cool?
Fans often refer to Joseph in this part as "Oldseph" or "Foxy Grandpa" to distinguish him from his younger self, since he's now a senior and is also Jotaro's grandfather.
Polnareff is affectionally called "Pol" for short, or "PolPol" by his fans ever since Hol Horse gave him that nickname in episode 11 of Stardust Crusaders. Similarly, Kakyoin is called "Kak" for short, and Jotaro is called "Joot".
The World is often jokingly called "Holy Diver" in reference to Ronnie James Dio and its own diver-esque motifs.
DIO's outfit in this Part is (not-so) affectionately referred to as the banana suit.
DIO's mansion is commonly, and quite crudely, referred to as "DIO's fuckhouse".
Kakyoin being romantically interested in Jotaro is a major one as the two don't interact much throughout the part. The only reason Kakyoin is even labeled as this part's "JoBro" is because he is the same age as Jotaro, while Polnareff fits more of the criteria (brash, more offensively-oriented, prone to misfortune) but is slightly older.
Star Platinum being a reincarnation of Jonathan, or even Jonathan's spirit himself, turned into a Stand. The opposite is also true, with many fans thinking The World is Jonathan's spirit being a slave to DIO's will (which is perfectly in character for DIO, as he stole Jonathan's body) and him being destroyed is an unintentional Mercy Kill.
The lives of DIO's henchmen outside of battle. It is commonly portrayed by fans that most of them (notably the popular ones like Mariah, Midler, the D'Arby Brothers and N'Doul) are friends or even in love with each other.note The spin-off manga Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak fuels some fire to this. Some fans even speculate that some of DIO's henchmen may have been intimately involved with him. That Araki has said DIO would "pursue" anyone who interests him is just fuel for the fire.
Any sort of speculation on what Holly's Stand power could have been. Given how Josuke did eventually awaken to a Stand it can be assumed that she could have had the potential to awaken to a Stand power as well.
It is often believed that Jotaro is a fan of Clint Eastwood and his movies, thus explaining where he gets his one-liners and fashion-sense from.
A popular fan theory is that Hermit Purple is in fact Caesar's spirit manifesting as a Stand.
A theory for why Joseph and what Araki has stated is Jonathan's Stand, Hermit Purple 1 and 2, are the exact same between the two is that it's the Stand for Hamon users. That's why it tends to have the Hamon noise and lightning crackles in the anime, and potentially why Holly has a similar thorn/rose-based Stand.
Kakyoin will invariably be depicted as having inherited his iconic red hair from his mother.
It's unclear to what extent Sadao was actually involved in Jotaro's life growing up. While his complete absence from the manga leads fans to assume that he's an absentee father, it's left vague enough that his having been away may have been an exception to the Kujos' normal home life.
Fanfic Magnet: Because Sadao is one of those characters who has huge potential to be interesting given his background, his relationships, and the chances of him even possessing a Stand, fans often go to town on writing about him.
Midler expressing interest in Jotaro and the rest of the cast deciding to use that to their advantage, only to anger Midler as a result.
Mariah said that she would be dating Joseph if not for already having eyes for DIO.
Telence T. D'Arby, after taking Kakyoin's soul and storing into a doll, begins to touch him suggestively while taunting Jotaro and Joseph.
The anime-exclusive flashback scene where Kakyoin gets his flesh bud from DIO, where it consists of rose vines wrapping around his legs and DIO whispering seductively into his ear and calling him "Kakyoin-kun" while fondling with his earring. Even better, Kakyoin starts breathing happily after that, giving the viewers a certain implication.
Fountain of Memes: Kakyoin who the fandom portrays as a Memetic Badass, is frequently the subject of memetic shippings, and of course the famous "rero! rero! rero!"
Franchise Original Sin: The fought-one-at-a-time Monster of the Week format was in JoJo from the very beginning, but Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency tend to escape this notice because their main villains break the pattern by being fought multiple times and they have fewer fights in general. Stardust Crusaders gets most of the blame for "starting" this format, even though it's much longer than those parts and thus has more fights; the only structural difference between Stardust Crusaders and the first two Parts is that DIO simply rounds out the story as a Final Boss, not a Recurring Boss. It's in no small part becauseStardust Crusaders is so much longer and has so many more fights that it gets so much flak over the issue; the Monster of the Week format is much easier to notice when it goes on for so long.
DIO only directly appearing in full in the last battle of the arc sets up a trend that would become convoluted in later parts. DIO had the justification of appearing in a previous part and his mysterious nature was to build up the new dreaded powers he gained from that time so it wasn't a big issue. However, later in Golden Wind, Diavolo would also be in silhouette and only be fully revealed in full in the last battle except in his case, the vagueness of his character worked against him, though he was set up as the main villain from the start. It would become exaggerated in JoJolion where the final Big Bad, Tooru, only appeared in the final arc without any mention of his existence and is even more mysterious than the previous two, which worked even more against having a straight memorable impression due to having even less screentime than the previous two main antagonists.
A fairly depressing one regarding the second ED of part 3's anime. In it, you can see a section that has Joseph, Jotaro and Polnareff on one side of the river, and Avdol, Iggy, and Kakyoin on the other side. In Japanese mythology, it's believed that the dead have to cross a river named the Sanzu River in order to make it to the afterlife, much like the Greek mythologies River Styx. In addition, the New Kingdom era of ancient Egypt traditionally buried the dead on the other side of the Nile, opposite Thebes. Kakyoin, Iggy and Avdol have already crossed the river, foreshadowing their tragic deaths.
Iggy's Gasshole tendencies actually mirrors a common trait of Real Life Boston Terriers. Because of the breed's shortened snout, they tend to swallow air when they eat, which leads to a lot of flatulence.
Many feel that Stardust Crusaders is where the franchise began to show its true colors with the introduction of Stands allowing for more creative battles.
For Stardust Crusaders itself, a lot of people seem to agree that the Egypt arc is where it really picked up due to introducing more interesting minor villains and having some of the most memorable fights in the franchise.
Joseph trying to hit on Midler by saying "Baby, if I were thirty years younger..." becomes this in Diamond is Unbreakable when you find out that Joseph actually did have an affair, with a woman even younger than Midler, and it only happened four years prior to these events.
When the Oingo Boingo Brothers are introduced, there is a guy interested in Boingo's manga with a shirt that has the number 911. One of Boingo's manga panels predicts that he will die after a bus crash and slam into a telephone pole. In the background of the panel there is a plane. Keep in mind this chapter was drawn in the early 90's, long before the 2001 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. When the anime version aired, any resemblance to 9/11 was removed as the plane is no longer in the manga panel's background and the passerby doesn't wear the "911" shirt.
While plotting their assassination attempt, Boingo's manga predicts that the orange bomb would blow up in Jotaro's face. However, the bomb ends up blowing up in the face of Oingo disguised as Jotaro. Come Stone Ocean, Jotaro would actually die by Pucci's hands in the exact same fashion that Thoth predicted.
Hell, when Killer Queen Bites the Dust goes off in Diamond is Unbreakable, you can see Jotaro's face get split like Thoth showed as well. Becomes Fridge Brilliance when you remember that, given the way Bites the Dust works, Jotaro did die there and was only rescued due to Josuke forcing Kira to recall Killer Queen before the loop could close; no matter if metaphysical Stand based shenanigans are involved or not, Thoth's predictions are 100% accurate!
Could also be considered a Black Comedy version of Hilarious in Hindsight, but the day the anime episode when DIO fatally punches a hole into Kakyoin's stomach aired also happens to be National Donut Day in the US.
Joseph Joestar temporarily dying because DIO threw a knife into his throat also became this, as his Japanese VA Unsho Ishizuka had died of esophageal cancer as of August 13, 2018. Additionally, the English dub version of the episode had only aired a few weeks beforehand.
While in Japan, Joseph comments on how he hates Japanese coffee. Come Diamond is Unbreakable, there is a scene of him expressing a like for Japanese coffee.
The infamous 1994 CLAMP doujinshi where Kakyoin gives birth to a baby whose Stand is a mixture of his and Jotaro, with the ability to unravel its body into tentacles and Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs. 6 years later, Stone Ocean stars Jotaro's daughter, Jolyne, and she has the ability to unravel her Stand into string, has Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, and even a battle cry of "Ora ora ora!". This is lampshaded in a fan video.
In another bizarre connection between Jōta and Jolyne, as explained by this video, Jotaro named Jōta's Stand "Charmy Green" after Charmy, a real-life brand of dish soap. In a rather throwaway line from Stone Ocean, it's said that Jolyne's Stand, Stone Free, smells strangely like soap.
To tie these coincidences back together, it's explained in this interview that Araki had met CLAMP through learning that they frequented the same salon as his wife, previously assuming that they were actually one man posing as four women. ...Make of that what you will, as whether or not Araki has actually seen the doujin remains to be seen.
Jotaro was based off of Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. In 2012, not only would Araki meet Clint Eastwood himself but Clint Eastwood admitted to being a fan of the franchise.
DIO's Stand being named "The World" becomes ironic as the band DIO's 2004 album Master of the Moon featured a track named "End of the World".
Telence reads Jotaro's mind during the baseball videogame match to counter his moves, but suddenly Jotaro's character starts doing moves that he didn't intend to. When Jotaro wins, it is revealed that he had secretly swapped controls with Joseph. Years later, one way to harm mindreader Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid is to confuse him by putting the controller on the P2 port.
Joseph's complaints about Japanese culture were an obvious Take That! at the Executive Meddling to make this part closer to its Japanese roots. Come the next part, not only does it take place entirely in Japan, but it's also Araki's favorite part of the series.
In the Rubber Soul fight, some kids spot four rhinoceros beetles on a tree. In Stone Ocean Pucci uses 14 phrases to fuse his Stand with the Green Baby and turn it into C-Moon; said phrases include "rhinoceros beetle" repeated four times.
After Polnareff meets Hanged Man, Kakyoin claims that there's no such thing as a "mirror world". Golden Wind would then have a Stand called Man in the Mirror, whose abilities revolved around bringing people in and out of a mirror world, proving Kakyoin's statement wrong.
The Egyptian setting later became this when the anime adaptation of Stone Ocean was announced, as Jotaro's daugther Jolyne Cujoh is voiced by Fairouz Ai, a Japanese voice actress of Egyptian descent and named after a famous musician. Because of Ai's Egyptian background, her Japanese classmates jokingly referred to her as Avdol.
The Oingo Boingo Brothers' dub names being Zenyatta and Mondatta becomes this when realizing that a Rock Insect from JoJolion is named Dododo de Dadada, after a hit single from Zenyatta Mondatta.
Jotaro was only made Japanese as a result of Executive Meddling, since the lack of Japanese characters in Battle Tendency contributed to its low sales rate upon release in Japan. However, once Diamond is Unbreakable was released and took place entirely in Japan, it once again underperformed in Japan, meaning the execs were making a big deal out of nothing.
DIO often boasts about how his vampiric body makes him immortal. By the time he was Killed Off for Real in the final battle, he was 121 or 122 years old (his exact birthday is unknown). Impressive... but a French woman named Jeanne Louise Calment managed to live up to the age of 122 years and 164 days, meaning that she probably has DIO beat in terms of lifespan. Calment was still alive and not quite as old as DIO when Stardust Crusaders was being published, so it's unlikely that this was intentional, but it's interesting (and funny) how, for all his talk about how Living Forever Is Awesome, he didn't even exist for a supernaturally long amount of time.
Telence T. D'Arby's setup of having multiple televisions set up to one (copyright-friendly) Super Famicom looks surprisingly similar to a LAN party, which was unheard of among gaming consoles back in 1991, not being recognized until the Sega Saturn; the GameCube for Nintendo consoles.
Midler's method of using High Priestess is to use its long range to keep people away from the Egyptian border, while she observes the battle from a distance. Come a mere 3 months after her introduction, and Bette Midler would release her famous cover of Julie Gold's "From a Distance".
Hol Horse, who bears the Emperor card, deciding to make a team-up with Boingo, who bears the Thoth card, becomes extremely fitting when considering how the Shin Megami Tensei series, of which its Persona sub-series was stated to be inspired byStardust Crusaders, has Thoth be a card listed as part of the Emperor Arcana.
This part has an enemy named Gray Fly, whose Stand, Tower of Gray, looks like a superpowered flying insect. The next part has a Stand named Super Fly, which looks like a gray tower. This has not escaped fans, who joke about how the Stands should swap their names.
DIO, a Vampire, has a stand called "The World". A few years after the end of the original manga, Smashing Pumpkins would release the song "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", which opens with the lyric "The World Is A Vampire".
Hype Backlash: Stardust Crusaders is by far the most recognizable part and which gets the most promotion in merchandise and adaptations. But while no one will say it's bad by any means, a lot of fans, especially people who got into the series starting with the beginning parts, believe it doesn't live up to Phantom Blood or Battle Tendency. Doubly so if they got into the series by watching the anime. Fans who read the succeeding manga parts also often say it compares poorly to the parts that come after, thanks to Araki improving considerably as a writer, leading to later parts having more interesting characters, a bigger focus on overarching narrative themes, and more creative Stands and fights.
I Am Not Shazam: While the title of Stardust Crusaders is pretty obviously meant to refer to Jotaro and his Stand-using allies, the group is never actually called that, whether in canon or by Word of God. Officially, the team doesn't have a name at all. However, for simplicity's sake, many fans refer to the heroes of Part 3 as "the Stardust Crusaders", which leads some less-experienced fans to believe that's the group's name.
Iron Woobie: Kakyoin, having a Friendless Background as he spent his whole childhood distancing himself from other people as he knows they won't be able to connect with him properly, since they cannot see his Stand. It was only when he met Jotaro and the others did he finally felt like he has people that he can truly bond with. Yet, he shows no hints of this until the chapter/episode where he dies. His Image Song, "Goodbye Nostalgia", sums his dilemma up greatly.
It's the Same, So It Sucks: A common criticism regarding the anime adaptation. Unlike every part that's been adapted both before and after Stardust Crusaders, which either expand upon ambiguous situations or rewrite story beats to make a more cohesive experience, the anime adaptation of Stardust Crusaders opts to adapt the original manga panel-for-panel with little to no changes whatsoever, with any elaboration on ambiguity being subtle at best, and any and all new rewrites being tossed in at the very end of the story. This, combined with the anime's tendency of padding out the length of each individual manga panel, results in the anime's accused problem with pacing. As a consequence of this, Midler's official redesign from Heritage for the Future (even used in Araki's artwork from that point onwards) ended up omitted in favor of the faceless design from the manga. By far the biggest point of contention regarding this was in the DIO's World fight, as panels showing the characters airborne for a long period of time (in reality jumping across buildings) were translated as pure flying instead of pacing the fight differently from the manga, like the 1993 OVA had done.
The power of DIO's Stand, The World, is a weird case. At first, it was treated as a major spoiler, and the revelation that The World can freeze time was a big surprise. Then came the Capcom fighting game, which turned DIO and his Stand into a famous Internet meme. Since JoJo was not yet well-known outside of Japan, this was many Westerners' first impression of the series, and for a very long time ZA WARUDO! was the only thing most people knew about it, turning it into a standard case of It Was His Sled. However, the 2012 anime adaptation brought JoJo back into the spotlight and introduced a new generation of fans, who were mostly unfamiliar with the meme and therefore genuinely found the revelation of The World's power surprising. Then those ZA WARUDO memes got even bigger, and now many new fans already know what it does again. This can result in some conflict in certain parts of the fandom (including this very wiki), where different fans disagree on whether The World's ability should be handled as a spoiler or not.
Hol Horse, in spite of being one of DIO's henchmen, is a pretty unlucky guy. Unlike most of DIO's henchmen, who swore eternal loyalty towards him or allied themselves to give justification for their atrocities, Hol Horse just saw his partnership with DIO as just another job. He not only finds himself getting badgered by the heroes, but even DIO's other henchmen, such as when Enya beats him up, and even DIO himself who sees Hol Horse as the weakest link among his henchmen. And to top it all off, his final attempt at trying to defeat the heroes goes horribly wrong.
N'Doul grew up as a beggar who was sworn into evil as crime was the only way he could survive in the world. When he met DIO he finally found someone who he could relate to. In short, N'Doul is someone who's evil simply because it's the only thing he knows, and even Jotaro acknowledges that he could have been better than this.
Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans admit to watching the OVAs for the simple fact that Satoshi Kon directed the final fight with DIO. While people's opinions vary on whether it's a good adaptation as a whole, nearly everybody agrees that the final episode of Jotaro and DIO's fight was pulled off near-flawlessly and a must-see. Some even go as far as saying that the final fight in the OVA was better than the one in the TV anime that suffered from less than stellar and stilted animation and oddly sluggish pasing.
Like You Would Really Do It: Araki was aware of this in writing Part 3, according to a JoJoniuminterview. A major reason that Polnareff receives so much Character Focus is that, since he isn't Jotaro, when his life seems to be in danger, there's really a chance that he won't survive the fight, being the resident Butt-Monkey and quick to fall into dangerous situations. Especially given that the previous 2 parts had already established a trend for each JoJo to have a close friend who dies battling one of the villains. Even Araki sometimes wondered if he would make it out alive.
Rubber Soul is a massive Jerkass and kills a poor dog just because it amuses him, however his dick-ish behavior is so over the top that he ends up being extremely entertaining because of it. It certainly helps that Jotaro ends up giving him his karma at the end.
Steely Dan is one of the most insufferable minor antagonists in the series. Mercilessly killing Enya aside, the guy tries to kill Joseph just because it amuses him, and forces Jotaro to do many petty tasks for him even framing him for shoplifting. Yet at the same time, fans can't help but enjoy him for how truly despicable he really is, though not as much as the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he so rightfully deserved at the hands of Jotaro.
DIO continues his monstrous trend of being irredeemably evil by having a senator run over people on a street, killing Kakyoin, and mocking Jotaro for letting Joseph temporarily die at his hands. However, due to his over-the-top nature, the amount of memes born from his fight, and his impressive Stand, he's well-loved by the fans due to these traits.
Mandela Effect: Early in the story, there is a scene where Avdol has Jotaro draw a tarot card from a deck to name his Stand. Many fans online have claimed that Jotaro initially draws the World, only for Avdol to have him redo it because someone else had already taken the name.note This is particularly significant because it's often said to be foreshadowing to the later revelation that Jotaro's Stand has the ability to stop time, just like The World. However, the scene does not play out this way: Jotaro simply draws the Star right off the bat, inspiring the name of his Star Platinum. A video by Hamon Beat traces the misconception to a joke edit of the scene that matches the misremembered details.
Memetic Badass: Mohammed Avdol is a Memetic Badass?! YES, HE IS! Even though he's one of the series' most infamous examples of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character, what little chances to shine he gets show him to be a collected badass capable of defeating Polnareff and Jotaro, the latter easily being the other strongest Crusader, and was pretty much The Dreaded among the enemy Stand Users due to his stand, which even series creator Araki thought was overpowered (keep in mind that this is the same mangaka who created G.E.R.). Even his aforementioned status as a wasted character adds to his Memetic Badassery, since fans refer to him as the character so powerful that Araki had to write him out of the series twice.
Memetic Bystander: One of the people DIO has Senator Wilson Phillips run over resembles Waldo from the children's book series "Where's Waldo". He has been dubbed "Wally" by many fans, and some have even edited the scene where Joseph and Jotaro gaze into the sky before they leave Egypt to include him alongside Kakyoin, Avdol, and Iggy.
While Kakyoin is popular and far from a loser, a lot of fans like to poke fun of his Emerald Splash for being pretty useless against many of the enemy Stand Users.
Holy gets this as well due to her falling severely ill from her own Stand. With both Stardust Crusaders and future parts showing that just about anyone and anything (even babies and animals) are capable of having a Stand without dying, Holy's condition is all the more laughable in hindsight.
Kakyoin. Thanks to an off-handed comment on his admiration of Holly plus the infamous cherry scene, fans like to portray him as a MILF-hunter who's out stalking older women.
Malèna. Her picking up a de-aged Polnareff off the streets, stripping down to just her undergarments, and bathing with him comes across as... uncomfortablypedophilic.
The uncomfortable way Telence T. D'Arby fondles the Kakyoin doll has led to quite a few "cum jar" memes.
Moe: Despite technically being a villain, Boingo is rather endearing and lovable, being a shy little kid who admits to not being very brave. The anime helped by making him more conventionally cute.
More Popular Spin-Off: At least in the United States, the fighting game Heritage for the Future was more popular than the manga or the OVAs in the late 90's and early 2000's since the manga had not seen an international release yet.
ORAORAORAORAORAORAORORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!ORA! combined with the shotgun-like sound effect of Star Platinum's punches.
In relation to the above, whenever the Stardust Crusaders starts playing as Jotaro kicks someone's ass. This even shows up in Diamond is Unbreakablewhere both times Jotaro and Star Platinum beat down Kira.
On a similar note to Star Platinum, if not just for how hamtastic he is, any time DIO shouts MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA! The sound effects accompanying it don't hurt, either. If Star Platinum has the sound of a shotgun, then The World has the sound of a gatling gun.
While DIO's World is just as fearsome and powerful in the anime, the sound that plays when it stops time is... anything but. While the OVA went for a more distinct ambient sound, the Capcom game went with an impressively imposing roar and hum and All Star Battle played an ominous small chime, the anime instead plays an odd electronic sound that sounds more like farting.
Anime: when Jotaro plummets from several stories high and lands flat on the ground with a thud after being stabbed by DIO's Flechette Storm, what he has to say immediately afterwards comes across as a Major Injury Underreaction.
Jotaro: Yare yare daze...
DIO's second-in-command killing Avdol and Iggy with ease is pretty terrifying... until you remember that he’s named after Vanilla Ice.
DIO for most of his appearance is suitably impressive with an elegant design, a mostly calm demeanor, and savvy intelligence when dealing with his foes... until he drinks Joseph's blood—taking a complete reversal of personality to become even more Ax-Crazy than his worst in Phantom Blood, and gaining spiked up hair complete with inexplicable green lipstick—making him look and act less like the intimidating Big Bad of the entire saga and more like a Monster Clown that's harder to take seriously. The OVA removed the lipstick in order for DIO to continue to look intimidating even with the more overt psychotic behavior post-Joseph Blood.
Rewatching the scene with Polnareff and DIO on the stairs becomes this when you realize that DIO stopped time just to troll Polnareff by rushing down the stairs, picking him up and carrying him to the bottom, then going back up before time resumed again. However, to some it qualifies as Narm Charm since it's not exactly unlike DIO to occasionally Troll his enemies.
Jotaro seeing Joseph's soul ascend and give him advice on how to beat DIO is a pretty touching moment... up until you realize that DIO is laughing throughout the entire thing.
While grotesque imagery isn't exactly uncommon in Stardust Crusaders, the sight of Kakyoin mixing Mannish Boy's feces into his food is downright sickening, and gets even worse when Polnareff and Joseph make Mannish Boy actually eat it.
The scene where young Polnareff evades Alessi by literally shitting himself and throwing the (perfectly detailed) turd onto Alessi's face, coupled with the gross sight of the turd hanging off Alessi's nose.
A lot of fans still can't get over the fact that the TV airing for Stardust Crusaders had to censor scenes that involved Jotaro smoking since he is a minor, but didn't censor Anne's nudity during the fight with Forever or even Mannish Boy's genitals. Especially because none of these moments are major scenes but rather smaller parts of much bigger scenes.
Further exacerbated by the fact that Jotaro is shown drinking a cocktail when gambling against Daniel J. D'Arby, completely uncensored, despite the fact that the legal drinking age in Japan is 20, which is the same Japanese legal age for smoking.
Stardust Crusaders is brutal when it comes to animal violence in this franchise. None of those incidents however are as infamous as Vanilla Ice repeatedly kicking Iggy to death, which for many is the pinnacle of the animal violence in the franchise.
Pretty much everything about Kakyoin. He is known among the fandom for three things; an off-handed comment about Holly that some interpret as a crush (and extrapolate into a full-on mom fetish), the infamous "rero! rero! rero!" cherry scene, and getting killed by DIO with a "donut" in his stomach. Read most of the meme and shipping related tropes on this page.
Polnareff will always be the subject of jokes about being attacked while in bathrooms, wanting to build Polnareffland, or in a more serious case, being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad that gets more development than the part's main character.
How some fans have come to view the original OVAs thanks to the David Production anime. As seen in Broken Base above, a lot of newer fans find the OVAs to be a weak adaptation of this part among problems with the more serious tone. However a lot of fans of the OVA often defend it by saying that at the time it was the best they could have gotten out of an anime.
This part as a whole has gotten this reaction over the years. When it was first serialized and introduced to the United States market, it was praised for its introduction of Stands, the sheer insanity of most of the battles, and the epic final fight with DIO. New fans, however, don't get the hype behind this part, since the Monster of the Week format gets old after a while, and the fact that the other Stand-based parts improved on this one greatly. It's also notoriously slow pacing-wise, making it harder to watch compared to other arcs simply because each encounter is given a lengthy amount of screentime. Oftentimes, people will suggest skipping some fights, as they add nothing of value and simply are Padding, with Arabia Fats, ZZ, Devo the Cursed, and Mannish Boy in particular being skipped due to being the least impactful fights in the story.
Although the concept of Stands was novel when this part was new, later parts introduce much more unique, interesting, and, well, bizarre Stand abilities. In comparison, Stardust Crusaders' abilities, such as Super-Strength, Super-Speed, and Playing with Fire, can seem boring and generic.
OT3: DIO/Mariah/Midler since both Mariah and Midler expressed romantic interest in DIO to the point of loyalty. Golden Wind even reveals that DIO had slept with countless women while in Egypt. It also helps that Mariah/Midler is one of the few popular yuri ships in the fandom. One piece of art that Araki did for a Gucci promotion has both women simultaneously throwing themselves at him, which might help fuel the fire.
"Hol Horse and Boingo" is two episodes long in the anime. However, unlike other similarly adapted story arcs from the manga, Filler wasn't added to fill the time. Instead, sequences such as walking and action shots were lengthened, greatly slowing the pace.
Most of the Tarot Arc can be seen as this by virtue of the fact that every Tarot card ended up having to be represented. While there was plenty of development reaped from the likes of Gray Fly, J. Geil, Enya, Cameo, and Midler, almost nothing of value came out of the likes of Forever, Devo the Cursed, ZZ, Arabia Fats, or Mannish Boy.
Hanged Man. It can attack from any reflective surface. This includes eyes...
This video was made to show what DIO's time-stopping abilities would look like to an in-universe character in real-time. Watching it will drive home just how utterly terrifying the events of the DIO's World arc were to the heroes.
Questionable Casting: Many fans have this reaction towards Nobuo Tanaka's take on DIO in the OVA. A lot of fans felt that his voice sounded too old and wasn't deep enough for DIO, especially compared to DIO's future actors. Many felt that Norio Wakamoto, who voiced Hol Horse in the OVA, should have reprised his role as DIO from the CD Drama.
Recurring Fanon Character: Jouta Kujo is an original character who is the son of Jotaro and Kakyoin and hatched from an egg laid by Kakyoin. He first appeared in a CLAMP doujin and became widely memed due to the absurdity of his birth and character.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Most fans experiencing Stardust Crusaders for the first time often find Iggy to be a nuisance, contributing extremely little after his introduction fighting N'Doul. Thankfully, the fights against Pet Shop and Vanilla Ice ended up redeeming Iggy in the eyes of most of his detractors, as the former allowed him to prove his worth in battle, and the latter brought out his hidden caring side through trying to protect Polnareff.
Nukesaku in the dub, voiced by Arnie Pantoja. At first it was seemingly normal for a minor character to be voiced by a new and upcoming voice actor. The release of the dub of Konosuba created this effect for Nukesaku, because in that series, Arnie Pantoja voiced the loser protagonist Kazuma Satou (and stirred up quite the positive reaction thanks to his performance), making newcomers that saw Nukesaku think that he was Kazuma's equally suck-ass past life.
Also in the English dub, one-off villain Devo the Cursed's VA, Edward Bosco, was largely unknown at the time but would later gain fame for being the voice of Alastor.
Anne the runaway girl, despite only appearing in the early arcs, was heavily disliked by readers of the manga because of how frequently she got the Joestar team into trouble with DIO's henchmen and didn't really do anything useful for the group.note Of the four Stand Users the group faced while she was with the group, the only one she didn't end up hindering the team with was Rubber Soul, whereas the other three she had to be saved from by Jotaro It is somewhat alleviated when Joseph brought her a plane ticket back home and she was removed from the story, and when the anime eventually came, the viewers came to warm up to her somewhat. It doesn't help that she was originally meant to be a prominent ally for the group, only for that opportunity to be squandered by sexist attitudes in the 1980's.
Alessi is a strong contender for the most universally hated character in Part 3, and possibly all of JoJo. As a creepy Child Hater who turns his victims into kids before attempting to murder them with an axe and who lacks any redeeming qualities, he is definitely intended to be a Hate Sink. However, the fight against him is too full of uncomfortable and Squicky moments (mainly thanks to Polnareff spending most of it as a naked kid) to be enjoyable for most people, so he fails to garner the Love to Hate reaction that such a character is supposed to elicit during the brief time he's there. He also gets hatred for perceived missed potential, as he never uses his powers on (or even interacts with) Joseph, a character whom the audience knows to have been a great fighter in his youth. Thankfully, Alessi is also a Plot-Irrelevant Villain who's entirely contained within a single story arc, so those who can't stand him can easily skip over him without missing anything.
Self-Fanservice: A downplayed example with Kakyoin, he's already a Bishōnen in-canon but only out of comparison from the other main heroes, the original manga even has him have the same face as Jotaro and Polnareff. Fanartists however love to make him a straightout example, sometimes even making him look androgynous. What doesn't help is that CLAMP is guilty of this too.
Ship Mates: A lot of fans who ship Jotaro/Kakyoin also ship Polnareff/Avdol with an occasion of headcanoning Joseph having a former relationship with Caesar.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Jotaro/Kakyoin itself may count despite being the most popular ship in Part 3; the two interact very little throughout the series after Kakyoin's introduction, even before Kakyoin is Put on a Bus, though they have very good synergy during the fights they both take part in. Much of the pairing's popularity appears to stem rather from an infamous doujinshi made by CLAMP in the early 90's (as well as the two main characters in one of their works, Wish, very strongly resembling Jotaro and Kakyoin in both names and appearance). Seeming acknowledged in Eyes of Heaven, where Jotaro and Kakyoin are part 3's 'official' duo similarly to how Joseph and Caesar are part 2's duo.
During Jotaro and DIO's fight, it escalates into near-DBZ tier when both of them start flying, but what tops the "Holy Shit" cake is when DIO drops a motherfucking STEAMROLLER onto Jotaro.
In Episode 47 of the anime, the intro changes to have DIO and The World interrupt near the end, stop time, and then going into a punching duel with Star Platinum, complete with their signature Kiai.
Jotaro's epic beatdown of Steely Dan is iconic, as after two episodes of Dan being one of the worst Hate Sinks to date, seeing him suffer a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for 30 consecutive seconds is one hell of an Awesome Moment.
DIO throwing knives at Jotaro in stopped time and attempting to crush him with a steamroller, thanks to Memetic Mutation from the fighting game. Before the anime existed, a Flash animation called "Mudah.swf", in which stick figures reenact attacks from the video games, including the throwing knives and road roller, was many a Westerner's very first impression of JoJo, helping the scenes become extra-memorable.
In the manga, DIO approaching Jotaro is the single most recognized frame of the entire volumes. It became a very widespread meme that can be applied to a huge variety of situations, helping it spread even further.
Within Part 3 itself, DIO's World, being a Fountain of Memes (nearly anything relating to DIO originates here) and with DIO vs. Jotaro widely considered one of the best fights in the series, even by many of Part 3's detractors.
Part 3 itself is arguably this for the entire series, being the point where the series exploded in popularity and, for a long time, being the only Part localized in the West. The OVA and the games that were received in the West all revolved around Part 3. While this mostly died down in the West with the localization of the other Parts, in Japan it remains by far the most popular part. And even after the anime, for many Part 3 is still the first Part many will think of when JoJo comes to mind.
So Bad, It's Good: The OVA's English dub suffers from stiff, cheesy line deliveries and poor casting — several actors have similar voices which often don't fit their character.note To be fair, many would point these criticisms at the Japanese cast as well However, in spite of all of its faults, many have felt that the dub comes off as unintentionally hilarious; although a lot of viewers consider DIO's OVA dub — which, courtesy of Andrew Chaikin, reinterpreted him as a philosophical Soft-Spoken Sadist — to be pretty decent, as well as those of Hol Horse and Daniel J. D'Arby.
Forever being attracted to and attempting to rape the partially-naked Anne, who is explicitly said to be a prepubescent child (hence why she successfully disguises herself as a boy). It might have been done to make his ultimate death seem more like karma and less like Jotaro killing an innocent animal, but it's still pretty gross.
Mannish Boy being forced to eat his own feces by Kakyoin. It's probably the most karmic fate he can receive that doesn't involve killing a baby, but the detailed nature of Kakyoin scooping up a portion of his poop and mixing it with Mannish Boy's baby food and feeding it to him against his will is still hard to watch.
Polnareff and Avdol urinating down Cameo's breathing straw. It's a heartwarming bonding moment among two friends who haven't seen each other in a while... but they're still making a man drink their own piss.
A good chunk of the Alessi arc has some pretty nasty imagery, from Polnareff being a naked child throughout the whole arc, to his horniness not immediately subsiding when he becomes a kid (leading to him being turned on when Malèna attempts to tend to him and clean him up while half-naked herself), to Malèna herself being transformed into a tiny whimpering fetus from Alessi's actions, and Polnareff flinging a very detailed turd onto Alessi's face.
Stuck in Their Shadow: Fans won't deny that Jotaro is the lead protagonist of Stardust Crusaders, but considering he amasses almost identical screen time and has much more upfront personality than Jotaro does, fans often label Polnareff as the main star of Part 3, for better or for worse, since he tends to take the most active participation in fights compared to the rest of the Crusaders.
While not a physical example, Joseph buying a plane ticket home for Anne to get her off the heroes' back was a relief for most viewers.
With Arabia Fats being considered the most uninteresting opponent as mentioned above, it was probably fitting that for someone with a Stand as seemingly powerful as The Sun, he ended up giving himself away in a mistake so obvious that even Jotaro bursted out laughing with the others (except Joseph, who didn't know what was actually going on yet), and then one-hit K.O'd him just by having Star Platinum toss a rock that hit his head.
Considering... everything about Alessi, him getting a beatdown from a seven-year-old Jotaro was considered hilarious.
The Stardust Crusaders OVA sometimes get this reaction for removing much of the signature humor of the series, altering all battles except one, being much more serious in tone, and having grittier character designs. On the other hand, it's pretty much universally agreed that the D'Arby the Gambler episode, which was perfectly faithful to the manga (it even changed the art style to Araki's) save for one plot detail at the very end, is awesome. David Production even made a homage to it by casting Banjo Ginga as D'Arby as a replacement for the late Kenji Utsumi (both are famous for playing Fist of the North Star villains Souther and Raoh).
On the other hand, ever since Phantom Blood, DIO has never uttered the iconic "WRRRRRRYYYYY!!!!", being replaced with a generic "AAAAAARRGGHH!!!". For a lot of fans, this is a sore point to the dub that is thankfully covered with Patrick Seitz' spectacular performance and delivery.
Anne the Runaway Girl is given little to do in the story other than being The Load and actively dragging the heroes down before quickly being sent back home by Joseph. This one has an explanation, as Araki eventually revealed that he had very different plans for her, originally intending for her to be a long-term ally who would actively participate in fights like the rest of the heroes, but was forced to shelve her due to sexist attitudes in the 1980s forbidding him from writing female combatants, much like with Lisa Lisa in Battle Tendency.
While Noriaki Kakyoin was a major ally for a good chunk of the story, he was hit hard with this during the Egypt section of Part 3, being Put on a Bus to recover until the Crusaders were heading into DIO's place. He gets set up to have a cool fight against Telence, but ends up losing and generally doing nothing more of significance except for leaving a Dying Clue in the final battle. The anime gives him some Adaptation Expansion in the form of flashbacks and extra scenes.
Muhammad Avdol gets it even worse. After recruiting Polnareff, he was Put on a Bus when the Crusaders reached India (fairly early in the story) and only returned by the end of the Judgment arc. He doesn't do much of significance upon his return, and he only has two fights afterwards; one shared with Joseph and the other is barely even a fight since he ended up being killed by Vanilla Ice in one shot. All in all, it's pretty clear that Araki had no clue what else to do with the poor guy.
DIO himself. Despite being the villain of the entire series, he spends most of this part as an Orcus on His Throne, and dies an Undignified Death not long after he finally reveals his Stand.
Enya and J. Geil. The former was DIO's Dragon. However, she dies relatively early in the story. It would have been interesting for Enya to have been the penultimate boss before the battle with DIO, or for her to confront Avdol, a fortune teller that cares for Polnareff rather than hates him but her role instead gets taken by Vanilla Ice.
In an anime-exclusive example, some were disappointed that David Production opted to lift Midler's design straight from the manga, as her redesign from Heritage for the Future was not only proven to be popular, but had become her official design in all spin-off media made by Araki featuring her past the game's release.
Alessi had a Stand that could turn people into younger versions of themselves. There just so happened to be a Cool Old Guy among the Crusaders who kicked a lot of ass in his youth, as documented in Part 2. Too bad Alessi ended up getting pounded into hamburger meat by Jotaro and Polnareff before he came across Joseph. For what it's worth, Heritage for the Future explored this scenario with Joseph's Story, though it was more of an Excuse Plot than anything.
The idea of a character with both Hamon and Stand powers is interesting on paper considering the variety of Hamon techniques in prior parts, but Joseph, the only character with such abilities, doesn't get many opportunities to combine both powers, other than conducting Hamon through himself to be rid of DIO's flesh bud or through Hermit Purple to discourage DIO from hitting him. Furthermore, Hamon is completely phased out by the next part, closing the door on further Stand–Hamon interactions.
Likewise, Dio doesn't weaponize certain vampire abilities against Jotaro to gain the upper hand, such as Space Ripper Stingy Eyes to exploit Star Platinum's short range or vaporization to freeze Jotaro and Star Platinum on contact. One can only imagine how Jotaro would have strategized against Dio's aforementioned powers while also dealing with The World. This is partially justified by Dio's weaker vampire abilities in Jonathan's body, but Dio loses said weakness after acquiring Joseph's blood, making it more of a case that Dio Forgot About His Powers.
Too Cool to Live: The members of the Stardust Crusaders that managed to die were very much this.
Avdol, a father figure to Polneraff and the Stardust Crusader with the most experience and knowledge on Stands on the team managed to do twice, first his Disney Death against J. Geil/Hol Horse in order to make the situation more to save Polneraff after demonstrating his experience and skill as a Stand User with the mastery over his flame powers and then his actual death, unceremoniously and shockingly by Vanilla Ice via Heroic Sacrifice in order to save Polneraff once again.
Trapped by Mountain Lions: A decent number of battles amount to this, as they end up not leaving any lasting impact on the greater story and feel primarily self-contained as a result. Notable examples of this include "Strength", "Wheel of Fortune", "The Sun", "Death Thirteen", "Mariah's Bastet", "Alessi's Sethan", and "Hol Horse and Boingo", all of which feel detached from the larger story and don't build upon narrative beats.
Ugly Cute: Iggy started out like this before Art Evolution eventually made him more traditionally cute. Although, a lot of people still consider the revised version to fall into this because of Unintentional Uncanny Valley.
Ukefication: Kakyoin is one of the poster boys for this. While somewhat shorter and more slender than his teammates, and more polite, he's still fairly masculine looking and every bit as strong-willed and badass as the rest of them. However due to due to the infamous doujinshi made by CLAMP (and by extension,Wish), fandom tends to portray Kakyoin as feminine-looking and physically frail to the point of being completely unrecognizable, and also completely submissive to Jotaro. Ironically, Kakyoin's character profile makes it very clear that he utterly despises submitting to others.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Malèna is supposed to be seen as a sympathetic caretaker of Polnareff after Alessi transforms him into a child, as well as giving him his one pleasant experience in the bathroom. Unfortunately, she isn't by the fact that she picks up Polnareff off the streets with very little provocation, strips down to her undergarments while bathing him, and even says some mildly flirtatious lines. Coupled with the fact that she seems enamored with Polnareff after he turns back into an adult because of him as a child saving her, Malèna appears less like a nanny figure and more like a pedophile.
A lot of people find "cute" Iggy's face to be unsettling due to his cartoonier proportions making his face more humanlike, causing them to find his earlier and more realistic appearance cuter.
The World has massive lips and dead eyes that make it look really unsettling.
Viewer Name Confusion: The kanji for Kakyoin's name can be read as either "Tenmei" or "Noriaki". While Noriaki is the official reading, Tenmei is the one originally intended by Araki, according to the JoJonium interview on Kakyoin's creation. It has appeared as an easter egg during the Justice arc, where Kakyoin signs his name as Tenmei.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Stardust Crusaders features a lot of content that seems absurd for a manga that ran in a magazine aimed at ten-year-old boys: a cast of mostly adults or very late teenagers with only one temporary Tagalong Kid, extreme levels of blood and gore, sexual assault, bawdy humor, smoking, drinking, a whole lot of characters dying, animal abuse, and countless other things besides. This largely owes to it being part of the older tradition of shounen, before the infamous "otaku killer" moral panic placed shounen content under much greater scrutiny in Japan. It's quite telling just how much of the David Productions anime was censored in its TV broadcast. This is a lot of the reason for the part's more divisive international reputation, as a lot of the things that give it appeal to young boys—an episodic structure, a lopsided gender ratio, simple and straightforward character work, an often juvenile tone, Toilet Humor, a protagonist who can beat up anybody—don't really cross borders when most audiences willing to seek out this kind of story are at least in their teens.
Boingo is a timid little kid who gets dragged into working for DIO because his brother does, gets beaten up badly enough to land him in the hospital, and later gets kidnapped by Hol Horse because the mercenary wants to use his Stand, Thoth.
Anubis' first host, Chaka. He's a timid young man bullied by his father and co-workers, than gets possessed by a sword that makes him kill his dad and the others. When Polnareff defeats him, there's a very good chance he'll be scarred for life and possibly be blamed for Anubis' killings.
In the original Japanese, DIO's command to his Stand was "ZA WARUDO!"note "The World!" in Gratuitous English with or without "TOKI YO TOMARE!"note Commanding time to stop, e.g. "Time, stand still!". The English dub instead wrote fresh lines around whatever syllables were used:
"Behold, THE WORLD!"
"Once more, THE WORLD!"
"THE WORLD! GRIND TO A HALT!"
In the Japanese dub, DIO uses Gratuitous English to call consuming Joseph's blood "the greatest high!" In the dub, DIO instead uses "The blood of the Joestars courses through my veins!" as a Madness Mantra.
If this were the Wild West, the hero would say, "It's high noon." Now get off the ground and draw your piece, DIO!
When DIO arrives to use the Road Roller in Japanese, he shouts "ROADA ROLLA DA!"note "It's a road roller!" as he slams down on Jotaro. Since the term "road roller" is awkward on its own when used in English, the dub allowed DIO to indulge in an unhinged pun: "I'm going to roll all over you!"
Specifically averted with Jotaro and DIO's iconic battle cries of "ORA" and "MUDA" — notable for DIO because in Phantom Blood, he spoke the English equivalent, "useless."
Daniel J. D'Arby's catchphrase, "GOODU!"note "Good" in Gratuitous English had to be changed to "Oh-kay!" to match syllables.
The Captain Tenille impostor's tendency to call Jotaro 'nii-chan' is translated directly into calling him 'Brother'. However, with his own bulk and baritone voice provided by Michael McConnohie, it also makes him sound like he's doing a Hulk Hogan impression.
Kakyoin and Rubber Soul's cherry sound effect, "rero," was changed to the English equivalent, "lick."
Oingo and Boingo were renamed Zenyatta and Mondatta after the third album by The Police. Just like the third part of JoJo, Zenyatta Mondatta was The Police's biggest hit when it first came out in the '80s, but is now held in lower esteem because of the amount of Album Filler (much like Stardust Crusaders and its Arc Fatigue). Also, the lead single from Zenyatta Mondatta? "Don't Stand So Close to Me."
DIO's demeanor after Jotaro paralyzes him with a punch to the head was reworked; in the Japanese dub, DIO's dialogue is full of villainous denial, while in the English dub he actually comprehends that Jotaro is capable of incapacitating him. The simile DIO uses before his final Punch Parry with Jotaro was also changed: the Japanese dub has DIO say that Jotaro's reasoning is "about as compelling as rat shit in a bathroom," (which is a weird simile even for DIO), while the English dub has him call it "as pathetic as your species."
discovered that since Jotaro has problems hearing from time to time. Jotaro shot a revolver at his head from basically point blank range in the first chapter just to show Star Platinum's reaction time realistically would have given him this problem due to a ruptured ear drum.
