History Manga / JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency

* MirrorsReflectEverything: a notable aversion concerning Straizo's EyeBeams, which are composed of vitious humor fired at high pressure.
* MissingReflection: Exploited by Joseph Joestar in his fight against the vampire Straizo, who thinks he managed to score a fatal hit with his EyeBeams, only to realize that Joseph was behind him the whole time and he actually attacked his reflection in the mirror.

* AmbiguousGender: Two of Caesar's siblings. [[https://static.jojowiki.com/images/0/01/latest/20191015214318/Caesar%27s_Siblings_Anime.png In the anime, they are shown to be four children.]] Two of them are obviously female as they wear dresses; but the other two have long hair and feminine looks, but dress in shirts and pants like Caesar does, so it's not clear if they are Caesar's brothers or sisters. Although many fans usually interpret it as [[OutnumberedSibling Caesar having four female siblings.]]

''Battle Tendency'' (戦闘潮流) is the second part of the long-running manga series ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', which originally ran on Magazine/ShonenJump from late 1987 to 1989. It is preceded by ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Phantom Blood]]'' and followed by ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]''.

* SpoilerOpening: The shot of [[spoiler:Joseph unleashing a SkywardScream after putting on Caesar's bandanna]] heavily implies the latter's death, particularly given the fate of [[spoiler:his grandfather in the previous part]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: Caesar's father abandoned his children to find a way to stop the Pillar Men before they became a threat. However, he neglected to tell any of his children this and left them in poverty. This caused Caesar to grow to resent his father, become a criminal, and try to kill him, only learning too late of what his father was up to. If Caesar had just trusted his kids with at least part of the truth, his death could possibly have been prevented.

* BigotWithABadge: Heavily implied in the opening of this part. Smokey - an African-American boy - is seen stealing a wallet from Joseph. He is then apprehended by two white police officers, but instead of simply arresting him and returning the wallet to Joseph (as would be the reasonable thing to do), they beat the crap out of Smokey, demand from him he gives them the wallet and pay them money from here on so they don't rough him up further. The manga is set in 1940's New York, and such attitudes were not unusual at the time.

** Esidisi's [[PlayingWithFire Heat Mode]] can heat up his body temperature up to hundreds of degrees Celsius, so his blood can set wood on fire and burn right through flesh.

* AnArmAndALeg: Subverted. Santanna appears to have torn Joseph's hand off at one point but he evaded just in time. He faked the injury just to mess with him and the Nazis.

* RealityEnsues: While the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil may have turned vampires into {{Mooks}} when the Pillar Men arrived, Hamon users still have only a limited amount of stamina which means they can't go OneManArmy on a large group of them.
** While Joseph Joestar does defeat the {{Big Bad}}, [[spoiler:he loses his arm and it is replaced with a prosthetic. This remains all throughout ''Stardust Crusaders'' and ''Diamond is Unbreakable'']].

Set in 1938 right before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, ''Battle Tendency'' stars Joseph Joestar, the rough-and-tumble but extremely clever grandson of [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Jonathan]] who lives in New York City. When word gets out that Jonathan's best friend and Joseph's adoptive great uncle, Robert E. O. Speedwagon, has been murdered, Joseph sets out to avenge him. However, after defeating Speedwagon's alleged murderer, he learns that Speedwagon is actually being held captive by the Waffen-SS in a research facility in Mexico, led by Commander Rudol von Stroheim. While rescuing Speedwagon, Joseph learns of Stroheim's latest discovery: a race of ancient, superhuman beings known as the Pillar Men, the original creators of the Aztec stone masks. After a heated fight with a Pillar Man in the research facility, Joseph heads to Italy in order to train for his fateful encounter with three more powerful Pillar Men with the help of Caesar Zeppeli (grandson of Jonathan's teacher William Zeppeli) and their mysterious mentor, Lisa Lisa.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase The next line you're going to say is "What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass!". Am I right?]] [[note]]What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass! HUH!?[[/note]]]]

->''"He may have his grandfather’s face, but he’s far from being a gentleman."''

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase The next line you're going to say is "What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass!". Am I right?]] [[note]]What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass! ...NANI?![[/note]]]]

* ThemeTuneCameo: "Sono Chi no Sadame" plays during the climax of the anime adaption.

* WhamLine: As Lisa Lisa is in danger, Smokey gives a surprising revelation about her.

* PalmOnCheekPose: When he's flustered, Joseph often does this.
-->[[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/jjba/images/a/ab/Joseph-oh-my-god.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140807173126 OH MY GOD!]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''Yami wo azamuite setsuna wo kawashite Yaiba surinuke yatsura no suki wo tsuke Tsuranuita omoi ga mirai wo hiraku Like a Bloody Storm, Atsuku Like a Bloody Stone Ketsumyaku ni kizamareta innen ni, Ukiagaru kienai hokori no kizuna Nigirishimete''[[labelnote:Translation]]Mystify the darkness, dodge in a blink, Avoid the blade, find an opening and strike Conviction tested opens the way to the future, LIKE A BLOODY STORM, Hot LIKE A BLOODY STONE, Destiny written into your veins The undying bonds of honor arise, Take hold of them[[/labelnote]]]]

* ActuallyADoombot: When Lisa Lisa fights Kars, she manages to land a fatal strike to the head, but Kars is revealed to be a vampire in disguise, and the real Kars attacks Lisa Lisa from behind.

** [[spoiler:Lisa Lisa eventually revealed that [[LukeIAmYourFather she was Joseph's mother]], then went on to marry a Hollywood screenwriter]].

* WritingAroundTrademarks: In the manga, a flashback shows Joseph reading a ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' comic. In the anime, presumably due to some licensing issues, he's instead reading ''Manga/{{Baoh}}'', one of Araki's pre-''Jojo's Bizarre Adventure'' works.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase The next line you're going to say is "What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass!". Am I right?]] [[note]]What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass! ...NANI?![[/note]]]]

* CactusCushion: Joseph is attacked by a German agent, Donovan, while in Mexico. Joseph tries to punch him, but Donovan switches place with a cactus, causing him to hurt his hand. Joseph does manage to turn the tables, however, by using his Hamon to make a cactus explode right into Donovan's face, turning him into a HumanPincushion. After defeating him, Joseph leaves Donovan tied to the cactus.

* TrainingFromHell: Lisa Lisa's Hamon training begins with throwing her students in a pit with a large central tower that [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything constantly gushes oil]] (more like vegetable oil than crude oil), meaning they have to master their Hamon in order to climb out or else die of starvation. On top of that, since Joseph never learned Hamon breathing, Lisa Lisa fits him with a special mask that forces him to breathe properly or else suffocate. In the end it takes him four days to climb out of the pit.

* SpoilerTitle: The title of Episode 18, "Von Stroheim's Revenge," spoils the return of the character in question, which happens at the end of the episode.

* DirtyCop: Joseph's EstablishingCharacterMoment has him rescue a street thief from a duo of corrupt officers who unjustly beat up Smokey for stealing a wallet, then attempt to keep the wallet to themselves "as proof".

* RelativeRidicule: When they first meet, Caesar makes no effort to hide his dislike of Joseph and the rest of the Joestar family, calling Joseph an idiot with weak Hamon ignorant of his own family's legacy and blames Johnathon for the death of Caesar's grandfather William. Needless to say Joseph is not pleased by any of it.