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Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure / Tropes C to D

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

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    C 
  • Call-Back: JoJolion has several. The Higashikata family calls back to the Higashikatas of Part 4 (and our hero's tentative name is "Josuke Higashikata," although it's spelled differently in Japanese). Our hero's hat was made by a company called Steel Ball Run. Finally, our hero is half-Yoshikage Kira.
    • Stardust Crusaders also has a Call-Back during the Empress fight. Before Joseph finishes off Empress for good, he predicts that she will say "don't do this!", referencing his old trick of predicting his enemy's statement before they say it back in Battle Tendency.
    • At the start of Golden Wind, when Giorno is talking about how he hates having to repeat himself, he rants that it's "useless, useless, useless" or in the original Japanese, "muda, muda, muda."
    • Similarly, in Steel Ball Run, Gyro says one after the other "muda, muda" and "yare yare daze".
    • A self-contained one in Diamond is Unbreakable. Okuyasu's first fight has him accidentally knock himself out with a potted plant with The Hand's ability by dragging it to him. Okuyasu's last fight has him completely incapacitate Stray Cat, a plant, by dragging it to him.
    • In the very last volumes of Steel Ball Run, Johnny's evolved Stand resorts to the classic Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and ORA ORA battlecry the Kujos are known for. Steel Ball Run's lack of melee Stands makes this especially notable.
    • In Steel Ball Run, the last battle between Johnny and Diego Brando is a call back to the final battle of Stardust Crusaders. Just like then, it happens on the bridge, and Diego damages his leg to defeat his opponent. The only difference this time is that he succeeds.
    • The ending of Steel Ball Run mirrors the last arc of Phantom Blood, but with a more upbeat ending. Johnny leaves America for Europe and is implied to meet his future wife on the cruise; a coffin is brought in with the ship's cargo, but inside it is Gyro's body, prepped for burial in Italy as opposed to Dio and Wang Chan, out to kill Jonathan.
    • The opening for Stardust Crusaders shows Jonathan's death and Joseph's resolve to kill Kars and the Pillar Men, after Caesar's death.
    • Stardust Crusaders' opening has a direct call back to the first opening from the previous season when the lyrics mention the century-long conflict between Dio and the Joestars. The scene from the original OP where Jonathan punches Dio while they descend in a blue-shaded stair themed area as they are cloaked in auras is mirrored with Jotaro and Star Platinum getting ready to punch DIO as they are both cloaked in auras as they ascend upwards in a red-themed Tower area. Both the Joestar auras match the color of their environment while Dio's contrasts.
    • During DIO's World, when Kakyoin dies, Joseph makes the same exact expression in the anime that he had when Caesar died in Part 2. Syncing the two up, they are exactly the same besides the fact Joseph is now much older and not sobbing.
    • In the first episode of Diamond Is Unbreakable, a shot of Jotaro crossing his legs in the back of the car mirrors the way DIO was sitting when he got into Senator Phillips' car.
    • In the second Diamond Is Unbreakable episode, Josuke is playing Oh! That's A Baseball '99, the sequel to the game Jotaro played against D'Arby The Younger. He's playing the Jaguars, the same team Jotaro played, and his team is populated by Crazy Diamonds, like how Jotaro's was populated by Star Platinums.
    • In Golden Wind, Trish's Stand has this line:
    Spice Girl: That which is soft is more unbreakable than any diamond!
    • During Doppio's debut, a fortune teller approaches him and offers to tell his future, using the exact same tarot deck◊ that Avdol used to name Jotaro's Star Platinum. The top card in the deck is even The Star.
    • In the Shakedown Road arc from JoJolion, Josuke and Joshu accidentally break a little girl's toy mirror. Said mirror is seen to be adorned with a plastic jewel that looks exactly like Part 2's Red Stone of Aja.◊
    • Chapter 78 of JoJolion informs us that Mitsuba Higashikata used to be a model in her teens, going by the pseudonym “Miss Cherry”. When she drops that information, she mouths "rero" (Japanese SFX for "lick"), in a clear reference to a famous scene during the Yellow Temperance arc in Stardust Crusaders, where Kakyoin (and Rubber Soul disguised as him, before that) licks a cherry while saying "rero, rero, rero...".
  • Call-Forward:
    • In the OP of the 2012 anime of "Phantom Blood", you can see all the other JoJos up until Part 6 appearing on the manga pages.
    • In the OP of the 2012 anime, as Jonathan runs up the stairs, there's a close-up on Jonathan's eyes which then show flames. Very briefly, the flames turn black. Much like the Dark Will of Jonathan's alternate, Johnny.
    • When Dio heals his wounds by sucking on the life force of young women in Phantom Blood, the 2012 anime made him shirtless and pose like how he spends most of his time in Stardust Crusaders.
    • The OP of the 2012 anime of Battle Tendency has a really subtle reference to Stardust Crusaders. At the 11 second mark, briefly manifesting behind Joseph's silhouette are thorned purple vines, also known as Hermit Purple.
    • In the same opening, we see several shots of Caesar and Joseph posing, until Caesar appears to be yelling. People who know what happens in the story will note that Caesar was screaming because he was dying, and used the last of his Hamon power to help Joseph. His pose even matches the exact panel of the manga.
    • The 2012 anime subtly shows off both Jonathan and Joseph's Joestar birthmarks, though no attention is called to them since they are not yet a plot device at this point. In the original manga, the family birthmark does not even appear once until Stardust Crusaders, where it first becomes significant.
    • In the first ED of Stardust Crusaders, a clock hand becomes a racing silhouette of the Arrow that gives people their Stands, first established in Part 4, and using the design last seen in Part 5.
    • Also in the ED, there is a reference to DIO's stand, The World. Right as it begins, there is a clock covered in purple vines, hinting at DIO's power over time, as well as Jonathan's own Hermit Purple-like stand which he also controls.
    • In the Stardust Crusaders anime's first OP, there's a moment with five shooting stars flying over the world. In the very last moment, you can see a sixth star on the far right, representing Iggy's later recruitment into the group.
    • The same opening also mentions "paving your own road", a nod to DIO's use of a steamroller.
    • In episode 5 of Stardust Crusaders, during Polnareff's recollection of his meeting with DIO, there's once again a bird on DIO's shoulder. Only this time, instead of the manga's one-time parrot, the bird is Pet Shop.
    • In the second half of Stardust Crusaders, during the beginning of the Egypt Arc, a photograph is taken of the group with the newly added Iggy. Besides showing up in the ED, it is the cherished photograph of his friends that Jotaro would keep framed on his desk in Part 5. When he says it'll make for a good memory, it's a bittersweet call forward to when he looks at the photo with great melancholy while recalling their adventure to defeat DIO.
    • During the first episode of the Anubis two-parter, while Polnareff is getting his shave and haircut, Jotaro is seen reading a magazine on sea life, referencing him becoming a marine biologist in Part 4.
    • When Vanilla Ice is talking to DIO about the Crusaders breaking into the mansion, you can see in DIO's room that he has the Bow and Arrow from Part 4 hanging on his wall.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: After yet one demonstration of Jotaro's aloofness, Jolyne angrily calls him out of it since it's as if Jolyne doesn't count for him. Jotaro doesn't understand, sadly.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Common in the earlier parts, but once the Stands were introduced, this mostly disappeared — characters usually just call out their Stand's name rather than a specific attack name.
  • Camp: The whole series is fond of this, as seen by its perpetually hammy dialogue, increasingly outlandish fashion sense for hero and villain alike, and especially the characters' poses.
  • Canine Confusion: This manga has a few cases of dogs eating things that would be poisonous to them in real life:
    • In Phantom Blood, Erina leaves Jonathan a basket of grapes to thank him for rescuing her from bullies; Jonathan then proceeds to share them with his Big Friendly Dog Danny. Grapes are extremely toxic to dogs and can cause kidney failure even in small quantities.
    • In Stardust Crusaders, the Trademark Favorite Food of Iggy the Boston Terrier is coffee-flavored gum; prior to his Character Development, it's the one thing that lets the heroes keep him under control. Chewing gum contains xylitol, which is so dangerous to dogs that a single piece of gum can cause seizures and liver damage.
  • Captain Crash: Every Joestar so far. The vehicle they happen to be in at any moment is likely to be destroyed by a Stand user attacking them, or they are using it as a weapon, or it just plain crashes due to bad luck.
  • The Casanova: Dio. He's got four sons, all from different mothers. There's also Hol Horse, who charms women so that he can use them easily.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Parts 5 and 7 have casts that are 90% composed of attractive young men. As a whole, due to Araki's interest in the aesthetics of the human body, many characters are pretty boys.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: While character faces, at times, look practically the same, the Stands in the series are easy to differentiate from one another.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Catchphrase: Tons, from Dio's "Toki yo, tomare! (Time, stop!)" (which is parodied as often as his "Wryyyyyy") to the generation-spanning catchphrase of Jotaro's "Yare yare daze" (Gimme a break!) (and his daughter's "Yare yare dawa"). Joseph is fond of making random English exclamations when things go south for him (OH. MY. GOOOOOOOODD!), and of informing you that, depending on the way you answer his questions, he "may have to kick your ass."
    • Also, Joseph enjoys predicting what people are going to say out loud by saying "Your next words will be x."
      • He tends to shout "OH NO!" in his younger years.
    • Josuke would like you to know that he thinks this is "Great!"
  • Celebrity Paradox:
    • Araki's love of foreign pop culture bleeds over to his characters too; Joseph listens to The Beatles on his walkman, Josuke's favorite musician is Prince and Yukako uses Prince as well, and Akira says he desires to reach Jimi Hendrix's level of fame. These musicians all have Stands named after their works, though, so that begs the question of if the Stands and the in-universe albums/songs are connected somehow.
    • Lucky Land Communications, the manga studio that Araki owns, makes infrequent appearances throughout the series, perhaps the most prominent example being Jotaro's signature hand badge as an almost identical copy of the original logo. If Lucky Land exists in JoJo, did they create the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series in there too?
  • Censor Shadow: The broadcast anime does this to a lot of the heavier gore. The DVD/Blu-ray releases remove this for the most part.
    • Jotaro's face is always in shadow whenever he smokes in the anime, since he is underage, believe it or not. This is uncensored in the dub and the DVD/Blu-ray.
  • Central Theme: Hirohiko Araki states that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an ode to humanity, celebrating its potential. Around this theme revolve the problems of morality, the nature of happiness, and also the contradiction between this potential and You Can't Fight Fate.
  • Changing of the Guard: A new part means a whole new set of characters with maybe one or two old characters returning.
  • Character Title: The series is obviously named after Jonathan Joestar, the first protagonist of the series. By extension, since all the protagonists could be nicknamed "Jojo", the series is also named after them. On a smaller scale, individual chapters get their name changed after the magazine and in the tankobons, are gathered into a same arc, all titled after the Stand currently in the spotlight, usually resulting in an Antagonist Title with the Enemy Stand Of The Week plus some numbering.
  • Chase Scene:
    • In Stardust Crusaders, DIO briefly chases Joseph and Kakyoin before resorting to throwing his unlucky chauffeur at Joseph's truck to make it crash.
    • A good chunk of the penultimate fight in Steel Ball Run is based on Gyro and Johnny pursuing Valentine's train.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Jotaro's Star Platinum had been mainly used to beat the crap out of anyone with his diamond-hard fists and also to freeze time. In the beginning, it was used to make things appear out of nowhere, and eventually his jail cell was filled with a lot of stuff, ranging from books, clothes, radios, RC cars, and weights. Jotaro used this ability again to throw off Daniel D'Arby in order to win a rigged poker game against him.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In Part 7, one of the first effects of the Spin was to trigger leg reflexes. 23 volumes later, Johnny would use this exact application on his horse to gather the Super Spin and unleash it on Valentine.
    • In Part 3, Star Platinum's ability to catch bullets was brought up fairly frequently early on, despite the action in question occurring only once, in the first chapter. Then the final battle with DIO comes along, and Jotaro uses that very ability when DIO steals a gun and shoots him to make sure he's dead- Jotaro stops the bullet just after it penetrates his skin to create the illusion it hit its target
  • Chick Magnet: Could almost be considered a bloodline trait amongst the Joestars, considering that Joseph was still a player when he was well into his golden years. Polnareff, Kakyoin, and several other sidekicks are also good with the ladies.
    • Weather Report is better than all of them in terms of getting chicks. In terms of keeping them, however... not so much. Kinda hard to score when all the ladies around you are snails.
  • City of Adventure: Both versions of the town of Morioh. Many chapters in Diamond Is Unbreakable would even end with little notes detailing local folklore or landmarks in town relating to the events of said chapter. In JoJolion, Morioh features among others a strange earthen wall separating it from the coast, is inhabited by many quirky Stand users and even a strange race of humans able to turn into rocks.
  • Civilians Are Irrelevant: Particularly in Stardust Crusaders, anyone who accompanies the heroes and is not a Stand user or a child is likely to die to the hands of the Villain of the Week. In most cases, they have nothing to do with the conflict except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or worse, coming to the aid of the heroes. Though it makes sense for the heroes to be more concerned with defeating the villains, as stopping to help the victims will likely get them immediately targeted, after it's over, they have a tendency to simply move on and forget anything ever happened. Part 4's Josuke Higashikata is notable for being an aversion; as a Nice Guy, his fighting style involves taking every effort to avoid any collateral damage to anybody, even if he harms himself in the process.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Land: The world of JoJo is this; characters here are either quirky, outright demented, or somewhere in between. Jotaro Kujo is one of the few exceptions.
  • Clue of Few Words: In Part 3, when Kakyoin encounters Death 13 in his dream world he realizes that anything that happens to him also happens to his body in the waking world. So to help him remember that the infant child is actually Death's user, he takes a pocketknife and carves the words "BABY STAND" into his forearm. However, revealing this to the rest of the crew doesn't do him much good in convincing them that he isn't insane.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The 25th anniversary "JoJonium" hardcover omnibus collections. Each Part is individually renumbered at #1, so "Phantom Blood" #1-3 uses green accents on the cover, "Battle Tendency" #1-4 uses red, and "Stardust Crusaders" uses blue.
  • Combat Commentator: Any character describing a fight from afar becomes this as every move will be described lengthily.
    • Speedwagon is the first and foremost example in the series, so much that he is famous for being this.
    • Lisa Lisa and Kars comment in great detail what is happening during Joseph and Wamuu's fight, offering insights about what they plan to do or describe one particular successful move.
    • Koichi also has the habit of doing this during the first volumes of Part 4 as his weak Stand doesn't allow him to fight directly.
  • Combat Pragmatist: From the get go, everyone foregoes fighting fairly. Trapping the opponent, ganging up on him, sneak attacks, cheating at games, exploiting your opponent's emotions or beliefs, the only difference between heroes and villains is that villains are willing to involve civilians. Also Joseph. It's stated by many people that his tendency to resort to trickery is what makes him such a good fighter.
    • Every JoJo is this to varying extents save for Jonathan, who believes in fighting honorably.
  • Composite Character: Characters from Steel Ball Run and JoJolion can be considered a mix of older characters, most notably:
    • Gyro Zeppeli is a mix between Will A and Caesar in his interaction with Johnny.
    • Josuke Higashikata (from JoJolion): is a composite of Josuke and Jotaro, while literally being a mix between Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo.
    • Joshu Higashikata is a mix between Okuyasu's dumbness and Yukako's unhealthy romantic feelings for another Hirose.
    • Kei Nijimura has the last name of the Nijimura brothers, but resembles Jotaro much more. Her color palette is similar to his; they both have an apparently stoic personality that is actually a decoy; they're both direct descendants of their universes' versions of Holy Joestar; and they fight to protect their family.
  • Compressed Adaptation: There was a OVA based off the third part made, but it started near the last third of the story (when the party runs into D'Arby) then went into Iggy's introduction before jumping into the final battle with Dio.
    • Another set of OVAs were later made that started from the beginning of the third part, ending back to where the old OVA's starts.
    • Each episode of the 2012 anime has adapted five or six chapters of the manga. It's rather understandable, considering that this series is kinda long.
  • Conspicuous Gloves:
    • After Polnareff is saved from the flesh bud in his head, he asks Joseph about whether or not he has two right hands because he'd noted that Joseph never once took off his gloves. Joseph reveals that he just has a prosthetic hand from his adventures. He also reveals the antagonist he's looking for here.
    • When the team enter a hotel, they find the manager as a little old lady who bandaged her left hand because of a burn. It's really a cover-up and the covered hand is also a right hand, revealing her as also the mother of the man Polnareff was looking for and killed before this incident.
  • Contagious Powers: When someone acquires a Stand, those of the same bloodline gain one as well.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Whether coincidental or an intentional design choice, each protagonist of each part tends to have an opposing temperament to their predecessor.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The plot runs sometimes on this. Although they are justified by the common Because Destiny Says So, it eventually becomes a plot point that Destiny itself is manipulating the lives of the characters.
    • George Joestar, a wealthy businessman living in Liverpool, and Dario Brando, a Londonian petty thief, fatefully meet at the bottom of a cliff on the side of a road where George's carriage plunged into. This one fateful meeting eventually results in Jonathan and Dio meeting, living together and fighting each other to the death, to the point that Dio points out that their destinies seem to be tied together.
    • In Battle Tendency, Speedwagon and Joseph discover and become involved with the Pillar Men just as they wake up from their centuries-long slumber.
    • The protagonists of Diamond is Unbreakable only get wind of Yoshikage Kira's murders because Rohan happens to stumble upon an invisible ghost alley. Later, while the heroes have at large dismissed Kira as a cold case, Kira is forced to interact with them because a dog stole Shigechi's lunch, and Shigechi happens to have bought the same lunch from Kira, seen and taken the bag while Kira was distracted, went back to school only for Kira to kill him near Josuke, who picked up a clue to Kira's identity.
    • Enrico Pucci's backstory is full of unlikely coincidences. They are by order of apparition: Pucci's twin brother is swapped with another stillborn baby; Pucci happens to meet DIO while he is cleaning up a church, make DIO interested in him so that he gives him an Arrow; Pucci happens to hear the confession of the mother who swapped the babies, being mistaken for a priest while cleaning a confession booth; Pucci's twin brother Wes and his little sister Perla fall in love; Pucci hires a private eye to scare Wes away from Perla, only for the detective to mistake Wes for a mixed-blood, and lynch Wes because he's part of The Klan; at the moment, Pucci sees the body of Perla, he remembers DIO and travels to meet him.
  • Cool Old Guy: Joseph Joestar is pushing 70 when Part 3 takes place, but is still as strong as he was in Part 2 (if not stronger, thanks to his new Stand).
  • Coup de Grâce: The series' Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs are often used as this, as the omnipresent combat pragmatism means no one wants to face a Stand head-on.
  • Covered with Scars: Joseph Joestar after his training, and Funny Valentine has the most patriotic scars ever, shaped as the American flag.
  • Crack Fic: The Jorge Joestar novel at this point could be considered officially sanctioned crackfic. Although written and published for the 25th anniversary celebration of the franchise, it's not considered canonical by any means. It's also completely insane, which is an impressive feat given the franchise. See Serial Escalation for a hint of the craziness involved.
  • Crapsaccharine World: Italy is about as beautiful as Tonio describes it in Part 4, brimming with delicious food as well as gorgeous locales and fashions. It is also rife with crime. Even after Giorno tidies it a bit by the time he gets there, Rohan still winds up getting swindled of his possessions (by his translator/guide no less!) when he visits the country.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: The series live on this trope. Almost every major character would have thought of some plan requiring temporary loss of limbs, several layers of Batman Gambit, incredible luck, and so on.
    • One of the most glorious example would be Joseph stopping his fall in a crevasse by sticking stalactites to each other with Hamon, making a makeshift rope, while knowing the stalactites at his disposition wouldn't be enough but that his best friend Caesar would know that he would pull such a silly plan and thus make the rest of the rope with the stalactites near him.
      • Most of Joseph's actions boil down to Crazy Enough to Work with a heavy dose of Indy Ploy and Guile Hero, so much so that Kars believes him when he claims an exploding volcano blasting Kars into space was part of his plan all along.
  • Creature-Hunter Organization: The Speedwagon Foundation who doesn't specifically hunts creatures, but secures artefacts and arrests criminal Stand users.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: See here.
  • Cryptic Conversation: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is full of downright confusing dialogs and narration, because Araki has his own flow of thought, is fond of Mixed Metaphor, and the word he uses do not have the same meaning to him that they have in the dictionary.
    • Funny Valentine explains his philosophy about the nature of political power (meaning that the ones in power have to be respected first) with a convoluted metaphor about table etiquette and linking it to gathering the corpse of Jesus Christ.
    • Valentine's own power D4C, which allows the existence of parallel universes, is explained by the use of the puzzling imagery of overlapping sponges.
    • In Stone Ocean, the reader is presented the concept of "Gravity", which means the fated meeting between two or more people, somehow. Likewise when the characters are discussing "Heaven", they do not mean a theoretical place but a state of the world in which happiness is attained permanently.
    • Gyro Zeppeli's jokes which make as much sense in context that out of context.
    • Diavolo's Stand King Crimson is said to be able to erase time. However, Araki didn't think it was necessary to explain in further detail the mechanism of this Stand, leading to the meme about King Crimson: "IT JUST WORKS!".
    • Many a character like to make strange comparisons:
    Joseph Joestar: It's as inevitable as burping after drinking cola in one go!
    Norisuke Higashikata IV: Your Stand is like your asshole, you don't go showing it off to everyone!
    Okuyasu Nijimura:[after drinking high-class water] This is the kind of water a princess from the Alps would drink while playing her harp!
    • After a particularly powerful declaration, villains like to repeat it with a single, confusing statement.
    Funny Valentine: I have taken the first napkin! [shortand for being blessed by Jesus]
    • These same characters are also likely to indulge in Description Porn to convey irrelevant facts, such as Jotaro describing brown rats in great detail and the essence of hunting in the middle of a Stand battle.
    • Likewise, Seinfeldian Conversation is prevalent throughout the series.
    • One might want to look for examples of Insane Troll Logic in the appropriate page for further examples of Araki's own brand of dialog.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Lisa Lisa vs Wired Beck. The fight ends before the vampire even realizes it.
    • Kakyoin vs DIO. Kakyoin can't do anything and DIO takes him out with ease.
    • Jotaro vs Steely Dan. When Jotaro and Steely Dan finally fight, he gets his arms and legs broken and gets stabbed and also gets a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Star Platinum.
    • Jotaro vs DIO. Zigzagged. The fight clearly sets up that DIO is much stronger than Jotaro, and plays it as if it was a somewhat even fight (if somethat in DIO's favor), but Jotaro repeatedly manipulates DIO into unfavorable positions. Over the course of the fight, DIO has a hole punched through his torso, one of his legs sliced off, half of his skull caved in, his kneecaps shattered, and eventually he himself is literally shattered. This doesn't even include Jotaro's major beatdown for him where it looks like he shredded DIO. Meanwhile, Jotaro's only injuries were minor lacerations and a few broken ribs.
  • Cue the Sun: Done several times during the manga, to symbolize the heroes' victory.
  • Cultural Cross-Reference: With character names like Robert E.O. (or REO) Speedwagon, Tonpetty (Tom Petty), and Dire and Straizo (Dire Straits), it's obvious that Hirohiko Araki LOVES 1980s rock. The 70s also get several references, and as he started to run out of 80s names to use, 90s-music-based names started to become more prominent.

    D 
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Several characters had a very dark childhood.
    • Bruno's father was almost killed by drug dealers, and Bruno committed his first murder at age twelve to protect him. He then had to enlist into Passione for protection.
    • Diego Brando lived in poverty, witnessed his mother dying for his sake, and everyone around him watching and not giving a damn. This led him to become a Misanthrope Supreme.
  • Darker and Edgier: If the manga was already pretty gory and mature since his beginning, the tone still shifts toward darker region. In Part 5, Giorno Giovanna wants to become a mob boss to enforce his idea of Justice and is prepared to kill anyone in his path. Part 7 is the first part whose protagonist has truly morally questionable goals and methods, due to its shift into Seinen.
    • The two OVA adaptations based on Stardust Crusaders are considered this compared to the anime series and original manga.
  • Death by Flashback: Kakyoin, Bruno, and Caesar's deaths are preceded by one flashback narrating their lives.
  • Death Is Dramatic: Very dramatic. And if the death of a certain character is not dramatic by itself, be assured that his companions will have very dramatic reactions.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Jonathan Joestar, the original JoJo, is seemingly set up to be the hero of the entire storyline, as indicated by the title of the manga being possessive of his name and Phantom Blood originally being called Jonathan Joestar: His Youth. However, he dies at the end of Phantom Blood, and is succeeded by a number of characters that inherit his nickname.
    • In Stone Ocean (the last arc in the series' original timeline), after the arc's protagonist Jolyne commits a Heroic Sacrifice, what's left of the arc and to an extent the series' original timeline follows Emporio, who then defeats the Big Bad Pucci with Weather Report's help before crossing into a new timeline.
  • Debut Queue: Stardust Crusaders takes the time to introduce the party members one by one in subsequent arcs.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Speedwagon, Bruford, Wamuu, Kakyoin, Polnareff, and more.
    • Gets really crazy in Diamond Is Unbreakable: At least 6 of the people Josuke and Koichi fight wind up as friends.
    • Also happens once in Golden Wind: Giorno defeats Bruno but spares his life, and when Bruno wants to know why, Giorno basically answers "Because I'd rather be friends with you."
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: DIO lets Jotaro violently pummel him with Star Platinum, propelling into the helpless, and full of Joestar blood, corpse of Joseph Joestar, enabling a full synchronization with his body.
    • Narancia cuts off his own tongue and replaces it with a new one to throw off Qualo and Tiziano when he loudly announces he found them
    • In the White Album arc, Mista deliberately lets Ghiaccio bounce his bullets back to him, so his High-Pressure Blood can blind the armored assassin.
    • Jolyne sets herself on fire to protect herself from heat-sucking creatures.
    • In fact, it wouldn't be far off to say that the protagonists injure themselves as much as their enemies.
  • Delinquents: Jotaro and Jolyne are both introduced having been locked up in jail, and having done their fair share of hell raising (the former got into fights, the latter boosted cars and bikes). Like Father, Like Daughter.
  • Denser and Wackier:
    • Each succeeding part is considerably stranger than the last, going from a Victorian powerhouse beating vampires to death with the power of the sun and only gets better from there.
    • The Jorge Joestar novel is this. See Serial Escalation and Crack Fic for a vague idea of the insanity contained within.
  • Deranged Animation:
    • The TV anime often engages in this with its use of lurid colors and animated manga sound effects. Overall, it does an excellent job capturing Araki's style.
    • The Oingo Boingo Brothers Ending in the Anime is this, looking like Boingo's manga which has a very weird and deranged art style itself.
  • Description Porn: There are many example. In Diamond is Unbreakable, Araki interrupts the climatic battle between Josuke and Akira Otoishi to describe very precisely the latter's guitar.
  • Determined Expression: All characters in a fight situation have this by default. Big exception includes Joseph and DIO's constant smirks.
  • Deus ex Machina: Due to the fact that Araki really likes to see the villains get what they were after, they generally become too powerful to beat normally and become defeated through this.
    • Battle Tendency: Everything that happens in the Kars fight after he becomes immortal is essentially this, and it works perfectly.
    • Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro's time-freeze resistance evolving into the ability to stop time himself, though the D'Arby fight hinted at it.
    • Diamond Is Unbreakable: Echoes Act 3 and the ambulance.
    • Golden Wind: Gold Experience being hit with the Arrow and transforming into Gold Experience Requiem. Nuff said.
    • Stone Ocean: Emporio getting Heavy Weather's disk pushed into him, and it being compatible to boot.
    • Steel Ball Run: Lucy showing up with Diego's head. To be fair, Diego allows himself to be consumed with rage and tries to kill Lucy instead of running away.
      • The Spin is the Deus Ex Machina, not so much the trope as the concept. It is a reference to the logic of a 13th century priest, who stated that if a sphere spins, it can do so to infinity. He called this a "Deus ex Machina".
    • Interestingly, Phantom Blood actually ends on a Diabolus ex Machina. Dio and Wang Chen pull a surprise attack on the ocean liner that Jonathan is on, and end up getting everybody except for Erina, her unborn son, and an orphaned little girl killed.
  • Determinator/Clap Your Hands If You Believe: All the JoJos are able to win because they either believe they can or they have too much to lose to fail (or, according to Jotaro, "Because [they] pissed him off").
  • Deuteragonist:
    • Gyro is both the Spin master, and best friend to Johnny, the JoJo of Steel Ball Run.
    • Likewise, Bruno Bucciarati drives the plot of Golden Wind as much as Giorno, if not more.
    • Polnareff is undeniably Part 3's deuteragonist, to the point that if it wasn't for the focus on Jotaro in the final fight with DIO, he'd arguably be the true main character. With a majority of fights against DIO's assassins, a large amount of episodes/chapters dedicated solely to his fights, and two separate character arcs (finding his sister's rapist and avenging her, and coming to accept his responsibilities after almost getting Avdol killed, leading to his climactic fight with Vanilla Ice to avenge Iggy and Avdol), as well as being the only non-Joestar to survive through the final fight, Polnareff clearly has the focus for a majority of the part.
    • Much like Polnareff in Part 3, Koichi in Part 4 has a large amount of time and story dedicated to him. He also gets the most character development, becoming confident in himself and his abilities, and his relationship with Yukako has more of a focus than Jotaro's interactions with Josuke.
  • Dirt Forcefield: Characters can roll in the mud and still look clean one page after.
  • Disability Superpower: Somehow, blind characters develop Super-Senses to alleviate their blindness: N'Doul can hear footsteps from 4km away and read vibration in the ground whereas Jongalli A. can read air currents.
  • Disappeared Dad: A missing father is prevalent in the series:
    • Joseph's father George II died when Joseph was one year old, killed by a zombie.
    • Joseph himself didn't meet his bastard son Josuke until the latter was 16 years old, and regrets this.
    • Jotaro neglected his daughter Jolyne, causing her to become a delinquent.
    • DIO fathered several sons then shooed away the women he impregnated. Dying made meeting his offspring impossible anyway (Eyes of Heaven briefly has fun with this, as DIO and Giorno have a special Dual Heat Attack together; in the story itself, Heaven Ascension DIO just beats Giorno up like the other JoJos).
    • Funny Valentine talks about his dead father, whom he tried to meet in parallel universes.
    • In a minor example, Jotaro's father Sadao is never seen in canon, as his job as a jazz musician keeps him away from home on tour.
  • Disc-One Final Boss:
    • The second series, Battle Tendency, began with Joseph Joestar being attacked by former Joestar ally Straizo, who had become a vampire by the same means as the first part's Big Bad as well as Big Bad of later series Dio Brando. But Straizo's tenure as villain was cut short only a couple chapters later when he killed himself. The real main villains of Part 2 were in fact the Pillar Men who eat vampires, and against whom Hamon is of limited effectiveness most of the time.
    • In Diamond Is Unbreakable, the story initially focuses on trying to get revenge on Red Hot Chili Pepper for killing Okuyasu's older brother. But he turns out to be far too dim-witted and easily beaten for a JoJo Big Bad. Say hello to Yoshikage Kira instead!
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Diavolo's punishment for merely investigating him is a gruesome death, since it also invokes Make an Example of Them.
  • Distant Prologue: Phantom Blood begins with an Aztec sacrifice during the 14th Century AC, then jumps to the 19th century. This is omitted in the anime.
  • Distant Sequel:
  • Distinctive Appearances: For the party of Stardust Crusaders, Araki confides in the Jojonium interviews that he designed the characters so that they would be easily distinguishable. Jotaro Kujo ended up so iconic that Araki designed all the following protagonists specifically to contrast Jotaro's outfit.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: When the heroes try to get to the cockpit of the soon-to-crash airliner they're on, they are stopped by a couple of flight attendants... only for said flight attendants to immediately get distracted by Jotaro.
    • Later, in Diamond is Unbreakable, Jotaro has trouble getting Josuke's mom to answer his questions, as she's too busy Eating the Eye Candy to pay attention to what he's saying.
  • Doppelgänger Attack: Silver Chariot can create illusory clones which are really afterimages but Silver Chariot is so fast it can attack quasi-simultaneously from several angles anyway. Funny Valentine also invokes alternate selves in order to fight at his side, but being normal humans, they can only really hurt Stand users with guns.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Yes. Yes it does. Constantly. Especially in Battle Tendency, which features Joseph and Caesar climbing a tall, cylindrical tower that gushes oil out the top, as well as vampire who doesn't just use his boiling hot blood as a weapon, he "pours his boiling blood into all the openings he drilled in [Joseph's] body with those blood stiiiiiings", and much, much more. A bunch of attacks are based on bodily fluids, too, because supersonic aqueous humor is somewhat more plausible than eye beams.
    • And of course, the fact that both Joseph in Battle Tendency and Gyro in Steel Ball Run have used a pair of balls to fight. One piece of official artwork even shows Gyro licking one of his balls.
      • "I must know the secret of the steel balls!"
      • Just look at the covers for Steel Ball Run. They remind the audience of many things.
  • Doing In the Wizard: Stands, introduced as a mystic power, are later explained as an alien virus infecting worthy people and granting them power. However, this for the most part only applies to Stands produced by the Arrow. In the Steel Ball Run universe this is inverted, where Stands are almost exclusively tied to supernatural forces.
  • Downer Ending: Phantom Blood, where Jonathan dies to save his wife and unborn child, taking Dio down to the bottom of the sea with him. It's a nasty way to go, for one of the more unambiguously heroic characters in the series.
  • The Dragon: Vanilla Ice (yes, that's his real name) to DIO, Pucci to DIO, Wamuu to Kars, Kira's father to Kira.
    • Golden Wind has a subversion. Vinegar Doppio appears to be the most trusted subordinate of Diavolo, to the point that Diavolo has entrusted him with the power to use his Stand, King Crimson. In reality, Doppio is Diavolo's split personality. The two are actually one and the same.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Joseph disguises himself as a German soldier to infiltrate a Nazi base. In Steel Ball Run, Diego briefly infiltrates the Independence Hall disguised as one of the guards.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Characters often unceremoniously die due to a sneak attack or being victim of a new power. Several examples of this being Avdol, Aya, Abbacchio, Narancia, Ermes and Anasui, Wekapipo, Hot Pants or Aisho's deaths.
  • Dub Name Change: With so many references to rock artists and songs, imports of the series often have Stand or Stand User names modified to resemble their original title (Yoshikage Kira's "Killer Queen" to "Deadly Queen") or something entirely different (Bruno Bucciarati's "Sticky Fingers" to "Zipperman).
  • Dubstep: Used in scenes with the Pillar Men in the 2012 anime.
  • Duel to the Death: Joseph and Wamuu's duel. Subverted with Lisa Lisa and Kars' duel, as Kars uses a body double for a sneak attack.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: In the very first chapters of Phantom Blood, Jonathan is introduced as getting into a fight over a bullied little girl, while shouting "I don't know who she is, but I'll fight for her!"
  • Dull Surprise: An unfortunate side effect of the series' Art Evolution. The shift towards realism in art style and proportions has resulted in faces that are much less expressive as well. Although it can be argued that with a more realistic style, it is only normal for characters to abandon the more cartoonish reactions of the earlier parts, and characters are in fact as expressive as before, but now keep a neutral face most of the time to be realistic.
  • Dwindling Party: Near the end of each arc, this trope comes into full effect as characters start to get killed before or during the last battle.

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