25 Days of Jojo’s - #7: Enrico Pucci

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#7 - Enrico Pucci: Pucci is cunning, intelligent, and above all else, subtle – that last feature being something that his mentor Dio Brando lacked entirely. Buying wholly into the twisted teachings of Dio, Enrico Pucci devotes himself to removing the threat of the Joestar family one by one before he can put in motion his master plan of reviving a sliver of Dio’s power. Early in Stone Ocean, Pucci’s Stand Whitesnake seals both the memories and Stand of longtime protagonist Jotaro Kujo, effectively leaving his inmate daughter Jolyne to mount an opposition to this then-unseen foe on her own terms. The problem for Jolyne, of course, is that at the time of these events, she has no idea who she can trust within the Green Dolphin Street Prison, and has very limited understanding of how her Stand Stone Free operates.

Pucci relies on the both the most despicable of inmates and the most easy-to-influence characters to play small roles in his larger plan, asking them to carry out tasks that will hinder Jolyne, Foo Fighters, Ermes, and Weather Report in ways that they are often not fully aware of. He is a master manipulator, and while he is similarly left somewhat in the dark for a time about Jolyne’s allies, he manages to adjust his plans accordingly at nearly every turn, whether he is laying traps or hoping that a gauntlet-style deathmatch among some of the prison’s most dangerous inmates will see to the end of Jotaro’s daughter.

While the vast majority of Stone Ocean deals with Pucci making careful moves within Green Dolphin Street Prison, the late chapters force him to actually participate in direct combat with his foes. After exhausting all of his other options and throwing Dio’s offspring at Jolyne and company, Pucci reveals that his Stand has evolved from Whitesnake to C-Moon, and finally to Made in Heaven, courtesy of the last remaining finger bone of Dio Brando. Each plotted move he has made over the course of the Stone Ocean arc has led him to the Kennedy Space Center, where he unleashes Made in Heaven’s newfound powers, speeding up time and forcing the Joestars, their allies, and everyone else on Earth to rapidly age before he is able to reset the clock and create a world that he and Dio would have wanted – a world without the Joestar bloodline.

Of all the villains in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Enrico Pucci is the only one to fully succeed in carrying out his master plans, which - I feel - lends him to be so much more of an intriguing foe than the likes of Diavolo or even the iconic Dio Brando. Pucci’s victory is, however, short-lived, as he fails to account for Emporio being the lone survivor of his rewriting the world. With Weather Report’s Stand under his control, Emporio kills Father Pucci, forcing yet a second rewrite of the universe, which ultimately results in the creation of the Steel Ball Run universe, wherein the Joestar Bloodline still exists, albeit under slightly altered conditions.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #8: Jolyne Kujo

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#8 - Jolyne Kujo: The tough, punky daughter of Jotaro Kujo, Jolyne finds herself being jailed for a crime she is not guilty of at the start of Stone Ocean. That’s not to say that Jolyne has had a perfectly clean track record, however – she participated in car thefts and other illegal activities during her teenage years, behavior that certainly was not aided by her father being absent for the majority of her formative years. She’s a girl that can hold her own, even in the highly dangerous environment of the Green Dolphin Street Prison.

Also occurring early on in Stone Ocean is Jolyne’s unexpected visit from her father, who brings her a shard of one of the series’ infamous arrows in order to awaken the abilities of her Stand, Stone Free. Things quickly go awry from there, however, as Jotaro’s memories and his own Stand, Star Platinum, are sealed away by the mysterious and sinister Whitesnake. Left with only her wits and a Stand with which she is almost wholly unfamiliar, Jolyne must find a way to retrieve her father’s discs and pass them off to the Speedwagon Foundation so that Jotaro can be returned to normal.

Jolyne’s encounters with her fellow prisoners is something of a crash course, finding many of them to be selfish, sadistic, or bribed by Father Pucci to hinder her progress. However, Jolyne eventually finds allies in fellow inmates Ermes Costello, Foo Fighters, Weather Report, Narciso Anasui, and a youth named Emporio Alnino. Ever-resourceful and quick to come up with plans on the fly, Jolyne and her friends gradually unravel the mysteries surrounding the Green Dolphin Street Prison, pinpointing Father Pucci as chief villain, and eventually escaping the prison grounds to pursue him, intent on stopping his nefarious plans.

Jolyne and friends take everything that Pucci throws at them, including Dio’s despicable Stand-using offspring trapping them in a memory of a plane crash, and the anarchy that ensues when storybook characters the world over bleed into reality. Jolyne is even able to reconcile her troubles with her ex-boyfriend Romeo, the man who struck the deal to pin her for crimes she did not commit, before cornering Pucci at the Kennedy Space Center. With Jotaro returning to aid her in the climactic battle, and warping her body into a mobius strip to negate any wounds Pucci might attempt to inflict upon her, it would seem that Jolyne has a distinct advantage over the villain – that is, until Pucci unleashes the full power of his fully-upgraded Stand, Made in Heaven.

With time speeding up and her body rapidly agining to the point of decay, Jolyne plays her final card, entrusting young Emporio to carry on and find hope without her and the others. When Pucci resets the universe and believes he has achieved victory over the Joestar bloodline, he stumbles across the hidden room in the Green Dolphin Street Prison where Emporio, Jolyne, Weather Report, and the others would secretly convene. Once inside, Pucci finds Emporio, who kills him, aided by Weather Report’s Stand, and causing the universe to reset once again. Whether she was fully confident in Emporio’s ability to save the day or she had simply exhausted every other option, Jolyne’s decision to see him to safety and entrust Emporio with Weather Report’s Stand disc ultimately led to the villain’s accomplishments being unraveled, and a brand new universe where the Joestar bloodline remains intact. Jolyne’s new self even makes a cameo at the end of Stone Ocean, referring to herself as Irene, and inadvertently evoking tears of joy and/or terror from Emporio.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #10: Weather Report

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#10 - Weather Report: A character shrouded in mystery for the majority of Stone Ocean, Weather Report’s story is a slow burn. He allies himself with Jolyne, Ermes, and Foo Fighters not long after their initial encounter, and despite Emporio’s insistence that Weather Report can be trusted in the otherwise dangerous Green Dolphin Street Prison, a place filled to the brim with all manner of thieves, murderers, and fiends, Jolyne is initially skeptical, to say the least. Weather Report is a man of few words, but in a pinch, he’s an invaluable team member, with a Stand that forms a cloud body which is seemingly untouchable by any other physical Stand.

However, Weather Report’s cool and largely silent demeanor is explained during the late chapters of Stone Ocean, after the iconic Joestar family tattoo suddenly manifests on his shoulder. After acquiring one of Whitesnake’s discs, Weather Report’s tragic memories as Wes Bluemarine are restored, and he is able to unlock the full potential of his Stand, Heavy Weather. Unfortunately for both his antagonistic brother Pucci and inmate allies, Heavy Weather is a Stand whose powers nearly go off the charts, and one that begins messing with the weather and atmosphere in all sorts of zany ways. Weather Report's demeanor also changes to something sinister, and he appears to grow rather tired of Anasui's talking. It is a rare scenario where, exciting as it is to see Weather Report in his prime, the preventative measures taken by Pucci could be considered a lesser of two evils.

25 Days of Jojo’s - #25: Foo Fighters

This month I will be running a sort of ‘Christmas in July’ special series of articles. Much like with my holiday season posts, these will be delivered once per day, for the next twenty-five days, and will focus on my twenty-five personal favorite characters in the entirety of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, from the start of Phantom Blood up to the most current chapter of Jojolion. Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries. With all the formalities out of the way, let’s begin with the twenty-fifth character on the list, Foo Fighters!

#25 – Foo Fighters: One of the more curious creations in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Foo Fighters is a Stand that formed out of the collective consciousness of a group of Plankton. With Pucci’s ability to seal Stands within compact discs, he opts to repurpose one of them as something of an experiment, which results in the creation of Foo Fighters. However, after a brief scuffle with Jolyne Kujoh and Ermes Costello, Foo Fighters realizes it does not have to do as Pucci desired simply because it had been instructed to do so. Foo Fighters then inhabits the body of a deceased inmate, and starts going by the shortened ‘F.F.’, developing a curious, child-like personality, but never sacrificing its ferocity in combat or determination to aid its friends.

Foo Fighters is frequently seen carrying a water bottle, drinking from it to keep its plankton makeup hydrated and healthy. Her personality walks a fine line between comedic relief and more-than-capable ally to Jolyne, Ermes, Weather Report, Emporio Alnino, and Narciso Anasui. Though Foo Fighters ultimately perishes shortly after escaping the Green Dolphin Street Prison with her friends, she is able to heal Anasui and help ensure their plans to revive Jotaro and Star Platinum are not halted.  Despite Jolyne's insistence that they could recreate Foo Fighters, F.F. states that it would not be the same version of 'her', that she has memories all her own, and is glad to have lived to meet such great friends.

Top 5 Stands in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Though the Ripple abilities harnessed by Jonathan and Joseph Joestar are the sort of ‘magical energy’ trump cards in the first two arcs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stands replace them from Stardust Crusaders onward. Stands are, in essence, a manifestation of their users’ willpower, and while the most iconic ones take on humanoid forms, their appearances can range from a small toy-sized fighter plane, to one powerful possessed sword, an electrical socket that forms a magnetic field around anyone who touches it, and even the collective consciousness of hyper-intelligent plankton. As is explained a number of times over the course of the long-running Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure tale, Stand users are the only ones who can see other Stands, and they will be inexplicably drawn to one another, be it on friendly terms or seeking to destroy one another. Below are my five current favorite Stands – as Jojolion is still ongoing and there will likely be more parts to Jojo’s in the coming years, this list may change in the future. Also, this list is based exclusively on the Stands, their appearances, and their powers, and the personalities or actions of their respective users do not necessarily bear any significant hold on their ranking.

#5 - Moody Blues: When part five presented the idea of a group of teens tracking down a mob boss and attempting to piece together the mystery of his identity along the way, Moody Blues stood out to me the moment its powers were explained. It allows its user, Leone Abbacchio, to rewind time and discover what transpired in a particular spot hours beforehand. It might not be the most exciting concept when compared to the Stands of the other Vento Aureo protagonists, like Guido Mista’s smart-mouthed revolver shells or Bruno Buccellati’s opening portals via zippers. Moody Blues is, however, quite practical, given the focus of their mission.

#4 - Whitesnake: Stone Ocean offered up many cool ideas that never quite panned out in quite as exciting a manner as I had hoped. It did, however, present some very cool Stand and core character designs, Whitesnake being chief among them. Enrico Pucci, Stone Ocean’s main antagonist, relies on Whitesnake’s ability to seal the memories and Stand powers of his foes on CDs in order to gain the upper hand on them. Whitesnake is present from a very early point in Stone Ocean, keeping tabs on Jolyne Kujoh, but often remaining in the shadows, carrying out tasks on Pucci’s behalf. It is one of the few Stands to display an ability to speak, and has a sinister, scornful personality that wonderfully matches its creepy subhuman face, its starkly-contrasting striped body, and the crown-like piece atop its head, denoting it as master of the Green Dolphin Street Prison

#3 - D4C: Considered one of the most powerful Stands in the entire series, D4C (shorthand for ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’) allows its user and President of the United States, Funny Valentine, to slip between objects in order to travel to parallel universes. D4C’s powers are barely even hinted at until it makes its grand debut late in the Steel Ball Run storyline, but when it does enter the scene, it commands center stage, constantly thwarting Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli’s attempts to halt President Valentine’s visions of grandeur. D4C also grants Funny Valentine an immunity to the dangers of traversing the multiverse, as he is able to move back and forth freely in order to heal himself via swapping bodies with alternate versions of himself, which D4C will subsequently follow. Any other individuals who might attempt to follow President Valentine to another reality, however, will ultimately meet their destruction upon being forcibly pulled towards the other version of themselves native to that universe.

#2 - Silver Chariot: The Stands in parts three and four of Jojo’s generally have simpler designs and powers, which is by no means a bad thing. The goofball would-be-heroes of Stardust Crusaders all boast powerful Stands with specialized abilities that complement one another well, though my personal favorite – both in terms of its aesthestic appeal and mystical powers – would have to be Jean Pierre Polnareff’s Silver Chariot. Single rapier in hand, Silver Chariot is a simple enough knight in armor design, but its lithe build and lightning-fast jabs make for a fresh approach compared to the heavy-hitting, armor-burdened design that would have proved the easier route to take in designing a medieval warrior-style Stand.

#1 - Killer Queen: Another one bites the dust with each detonation of Killer Queen’s explosive powers. Killer Queen is the antithesis to the Stand of Morioh’s local hero, Josuke Higashikata’s Crazy Diamond. Whereas Crazy Diamond can repair any broken object, Killer Queen is gracefully destructive, leaving not a trace of any of serial killer and user Yoshikage Kira’s victims (save for their hands, which Kira keeps as companions due to his fetishistic m.o.). While most Stands have a set power level they will never surpass, Killer Queen continues to grow more powerful over the course of Diamond is Unbreakable, making use of fellow Stand Stray Cat to launch projectiles and Kira's eventual 'awakening' as a gateway to forming temporal loops to overwrite any mistakes in Kira's plotting. Killer Queen’s appearance is largely humanoid, completely white, with a feline face and decorated with small portions of purple leather and gold studs. On its shoulders, its belt, and in a few other places, Killer Queen bears a terrifying skeletal face that appears to be something of a fiendish mockery of its own face – an appropriate parallel to the smooth and beautiful exterior housing such a violently destructive routine.