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    L 
  • Laser-Guided Karma: No atrocious deeds are left unchecked; every bad guy gets what's coming to him.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: In its own series! Due to the widely different plots, locations and characters of each part, they can all be considered "sequels" of a sort. This means that knowing something about the other parts, like plot developments (i.e in part 3, DIO re-animates and possesses Jonathan's body, which will spoil the ending of Part 1) or characters (i.e Giorno, the protagonist of part 5 is DIO's son, or how Diamond is Unbreakable's Josuke is the son of Joseph, and therefore Jotaro's uncle), it's safe to say you should DEFINITELY read this series in order.
  • Legacy Character: Each of the protagonists are in some way, shape, or form, related to the Joestar Family, and have a Jo, or in Giorno's case Gio, in their first and last name, making them all the titular JoJo. The only exception is Josuke Higashikata, who got the nickname because the kanji for his given name can both be read as "Jo". Being the illegitimate son of a Joestar ties him into the family.
  • Leitmotif: In the anime adaptation, certain characters have themes dedicated to them.
  • Lemony Narrator: Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency used to feature one. In later parts, narration is given to the characters themselves or is absent.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision:
    • Joseph and Stroheim are fighting in an underground laboratory against Santana the Pillar Man, but only sunlight can neutralize Santana. To save everyone involved, Stroheim cuts off his leg to escape Santana's clutch and open a door, enveloping Santana in sunlight.
    • During the fight between Iggy and Pet Shop, the latter uses his stand's powers to trap Iggy's left front leg in a block of ice, immobilizing him. To escape, Iggy is forced to severe his own paw.
    • Illuso is infected by Purple Haze in the mirror world but decides to cut off his arm then escape to the real world. It doesn't serve him much as Purple Haze itself is here to punch him and infect him again.
  • Like Reality, Unless Noted: The world of the series is pretty much the same as ours, owning to Araki's interest in keeping the story grounded in reality (despite the sheer eccentricity of the whole series). Despite the vampires, Stand users, other magical artefacts and the occasional Human Subspecies, they've never interfered with the population at large so they all remain unnoticed. It helps that villains are rarely visionary enough to want to change the world and prefer to abuse their powers without being seen. Likewise, the heroes and the Speedwagon Foundation don't really go all messiah with their powers and magical artefacts in their possession and prefer to let humanity do its thing without interference.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Averted in the first two parts and select few characters in Steel Ball Run. Lampshaded in Stardust Crusaders, where Jotaro mentions that it was pretty convenient to have run into a tailor in Pakistan that knew how to weave a Japanese school jacket out of sheep wool that looks exactly like his old one.
  • Local Reference: Every volume starting with the third one has some reference to Japan or Japanese characters.
  • Logo Joke: Lucky Land Communications, the manga studio that Araki runs, is shown infrequently as a background element, usually just shortened to Lucky Land. Some examples include the opening to the Stardust Crusaders anime having a rotating globe that says LUCKY LAND on it, Koichi's shirt prior to being kidnapped by Yukako is inscribed with it, and the background of the Egypt stage in Heritage for the Future has it on a storefront (next to the "CAPCOM" sign, since they developed the game). Hell, Jotaro, the most prominent Joestar, has the logo as his personal symbolnote 
  • Long-Range Fighter: Stand users with long range Stands, such as Hierophant Green or Highway Star, and automated Stands, such as Black Sabbath and Killer Queen's Sheer Heart Attack.
  • Long Runner: One of the longest-running manga series in Japan. 124 volumes and still going! (Although it doesn't share the joy of extensive numbering as other manga long runners, the volume account is constantly reset as of Golden Wind with 63 Volumes, now each new part begins with Volume 1.)
  • Lost Him in a Card Game:
    • With souls. Daniel D'Arby's modus operandi. His brother Terence does it with video games. And a running theme.
    • Further weaponized by the Stand Marilyn Manson in Stone Ocean, which will forcefully take away your stake on a lost bet, and it sees your organs sold on the black market as perfectly legitimate collateral if you can't pay in cash.

    M 
  • Macho Camp: The series' character design has often been described as "a Glam Rock version of Fist of the North Star". It starts to become really blatant with the Pillar Men, then runs off and never looks back. Later in the series, however, it seems to downplay the "macho" part, and up the camp.
  • Made of Iron: Protagonists tend to shrug off very severe wounds, that is, until their Plot Armor runs out.
  • Made of Plasticine: Not just Mooks, but often the protagonists as well.
    • It gets worse in later arcs when someone can heal.
    • Subverted in Steel Ball Run, where Gyro and Johnny actually have to often worry about dying from blood loss from serious wounds.
  • Magic or Psychic?: Stands are psychic manifestations of the soul, and Hamon is an sun-elemental martial art used to combat the undead. Both are entirely separate phenomena within the universe, though Hamon can be channeled through a Stand, as is the case with Joseph Joestar channeling Hamon through Hermit Purple's vines.
  • Magical Native American:
    • Devo the Cursed. Of course, that's nothing more than what he wants the world at large to believe. It's not mysticism or sorcery he uses, just his Stand's mechanism for gaining strength. He might end up vulnerable if someone found out how he actually accomplishes all his kills...
    • Sandman plays with this. His running style is one of the things that got him thrown out of his village; it's based on Western running techniques but modified and practiced to perfection so he can run for indefinite periods of time without ever tiring. His Stand, however, is pretty darn Magical.
  • The Magic Touch: A few Stands across the series can only affect things they touch with their hands. For instance, Crazy Diamond and Gold Experience will only repair or give life to objects they are touching at the moment. It becomes a plot point when Giorno slices off his hands and is now unable to heal his allies for the moment while an enemy Stand attacks them.
    • In JoJolion, Yotsuyu Yagiyama and Dolomite can only activate their powers on people they touch. Dolomite is notably able to control people he touches, from any part of him. So he sends a tooth in an envelope to Josuke in an attempt to control him.
    • In Diamond is Unbreakable, Killer Queen's bomb ability can only be armed and detonated by Kira or KQ touching the target with their right hand.
    • In Eyes of Heaven, Heavenly Ascended DIO's reality rewrite ability can only be activated by his Stand The World Over Heaven punching the target first. There is no other way for him to access that power.
  • Magical Realism: The franchise's supernatural happenings are originally—in-universe, anyway—rooted in some scientific basis; for instance, the vampires of the first two parts are created through ancient technology designed to unlock the brain's potential. The series gradually folds in ghosts, (maybe) aliens, and even the Mormonic post-crucifixion adventures of Jesus Christ. After the cast gets over the initial shock of their first fantastical encounter, they're more inclined to believe in just about anything. Case in point, Josuke, Okuyasu, and Koichi just express mild surprise and interest when Rohan tells them, among other things, that mountain gods are real and quite wrathful.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Quite common throughout the series, particularly among the Joestars. Somewhat justified for Hamon users such as Jonathan and Joseph, as their hamon energy apparently dulls pain significantly.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Yoshikage Kira.
  • Make Some Noise: Multiple Stands have this as a power.
    • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi's Stand, Echoes, weaponizes Written Sound Effects by writing them on/shooting them at targets, which are then affected by the onomatopoeia in some way.
    • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run, Sandman's Stand, In A Silent Way, has the basic ability of "storing" sounds in objects. These sounds then affect people who touch the objects. He offensively uses it by storing hazardous sounds in things and setting traps with themnote . In A Silent Way can also make physical constructs out of sound.
  • Manly Tears: Most apparent in Phantom Blood, because most chapters have manly tears being shed by Jonathan or his companions.
  • Mascot Villain: Dio Brando/DIO. If there's a parody of this series, either him or Jotaro will be involved. Being a recurring villain and a Fountain of Memes helps.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • As we find out in Stardust Crusaders, all Joestars have a star-shaped birthmark on their back. They're JoJos with stars on their bodies.
    • Subverted by Jolyne's boyfriend. His name is Romeo, but he's the one who framed Jolyne for murder and even got her lawyer to lie to her in order to get her a longer prison sentence with no chance of appeal.
    • Secco and Gyro count.
    • Every story part's subtitle has something to do with either the plot or the main character:
      • Phantom Blood: Vampires, ghouls, blood in itself being a key factor.
      • Battle Tendency: Joseph's characteristic trend towards getting into fights, especially when he's in over his head. A more accurate translation of the Japanese title is "Tide of Battle", which is also accurate to Joseph's savvy during fights and his ability to read said tide of battle.
      • Stardust Crusaders: The whole plot is a crusade towards Cairo to save Holly's life. "Stardust" itself is a reference to Jonathan's descendants (Joseph/Holly/Jotaro), the "dust" or remnants of his branch of the Joestar family line.
      • Diamond Is Unbreakable: More than anything, this is true of Josuke's resolve. The final arc of the story is even named Crazy Diamond Is Unbreakable. It also can be alternatively understood as (Crazy) Diamond Unbreaks (stuff).
      • Golden Wind: Gold is an ever-present motif connected to Giorno.
      • Stone Ocean: Stated in-series, it's what prison is to Jolyne.
      • Steel Ball Run: Aside from the obvious, Gyro's balls, there's the race.
      • JoJolion: Ambiguous so far as the story is still picking up steam, but apparently the "-lion" is a reference to the myth of Pygmalion (Josuke is an artificial human of sorts, being the fusion of two people) and Christian terminology like "evangelion", which are Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ, usually read during Mass (while also serving as allusions to Neon Genesis Evangelion and "Joe The Lion").
  • Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: Subverted, if the character isn't deliberately a Gonk, they will be, especially in the later parts, be attractive and strong, regardless of gender. You can say that they are pretty strong.
  • Meta Origin: A conclusive one isn't given, though characters offer several theories on the origin of Stands.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Phantom Blood has vampire dogs with human heads, Battle Tendency has Kars, and Steel Ball Run has a dinosaur horse and dinosaur fleas.
  • Moment Killer: When Jolyne and her Dolphin Prison crew take a breather after the Heavy Weather incident and Weather Report's death, Jolyne ends up falling asleep on Anasui's shoulder. Realizing that he probably won't get another chance, Anasui decides that he's going to properly confess his feelings when she wakes up and quietly slips a ring that he bought for her on her finger to surprise her. He is then immediately cockblocked by, as Ermes likes to call them, "fuckin' alligators."
    • A more tragic example is Jonathan's honeymoon coming to a screeching halt when he realizes Dio is still alive and the boat is now doomed.
  • Monster of the Week: The series went into the "Villain of the Week" format since Stardust Crusaders with the main protagonists of each Story Arc battling a Stand User, with some occasions being two, on their adventure to defeat the main Big Bad. The overall story still follows a Myth Arc, being about the Joestars' struggle against Dio and his legacy.
  • Mood Whiplash: Joseph is a master at this, causing a number of comedic moments like this during the otherwise-tense fight with Santana, as well as pretending to be DIO as a prank after he's resurrected in Stardust Crusaders.
  • Mr. Fanservice: The heroes and even most of the villains in the series look like they're fashion models, given that they're all incredibly buff, have manly voices, very well-defined lips, and very attractive in their own special ways. For some standout examples:
    • Dio Brando/DIO, whose charisma and beauty are stated by many of his more loyal subjects to be their reason for following him. His outfits are usually designed to show off his muscular body (and that's not even counting the scenes where he's shirtless or just straight up naked), and his baritone voice probably helps.
    • Of the JoJos, Joseph Joestar, both in his youth and in his old age, is probably the most obvious example for this trope, almost always wearing outfits that show off his muscular physique.
    • While all of the Pillar Men from Battle Tendency are good looking in their own ways, Kars is by far the most notable, as his constant shirtlessness allows the audience to regally get shots of his muscular chest.
    • Rohan Kishibe from Diamond is Unbreakable is a good looking guy who sometimes wears outfits that expose his navel.
    • Also from Part 4 is Yoshikage Kira, who, after stealing Kosaku Kawajiri's identity, gets a couple of Shower Scenes where he's completely naked, allowing the audience to get a good look at his body.
    • In Golden Wind, Giorno and Bucciarati's outfits both feature large cleavage windows showing off their well-developed pectorals.
    • Golden Wind also has Diavolo, whose muscular body is only covered by a transparent mesh shirt. Combined with his long flowing hair, this causes him to look somewhat like a male stripper.
    • Also from Part 5 is Risotto Nero, who wears a longcoat that exposes his chest, and is given a very deep voice in the anime.
    • In a similar case to Diavolo, Narciso Anasui from Stone Ocean wears a mesh shirt that heavily exposes his muscular body.
    • Ringo Roadagain from Steel Ball Run is a handsome man whose outfit shows off a lot of chest.
  • Multinational Team: The first three Team Joestars had very diverse backgrounds and ethnicity.
    • Phantom Blood: A British Aristocrat (Jonathan), a Street Urchin (Speedwagon), an Italian (Zeppeli), and three Tibetan monks that don't look Tibetan (Dire, Straizo, and Tonpetty).
    • Battle Tendency: A British American (Joseph), an Italian (Caesar), a British-Italian-Tibetan Monk (Lisa Lisa} and a German Nazi (Stroheim).
    • Stardust Crusaders: A half Japanese, half British American high school student (Jotaro), a British American real estate tycoon (Joseph), a Japanese high school student (Kakyoin), an Egyptian fortuneteller (Avdol), a French whatever the hell it was was Polnareff did before DIO came along, (Polnareff), and a Boston Terrier from New York (Iggy).
  • The Multiverse: The entire JoJo setting /settings takes place within a multiverse in which all possible events from DIO being victorious in ''Stardust Crusaders'' to Jonathan Joestar being an american horse racer have or will have occurred in alternate timelines. Some Stands can even interact with different iterations of the multiverse, and Steel Ball Run and ''JoJolion'' take place in a drastically different yet somewhat similar universe from Parts 1-6.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Any instance in which the heroes are challenged to a game instead of a battle. The game will still be treated with all the drama as a life-and-death battle. This leads to things like an overly dramatic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, or a game of poker where the players are betting each others' souls.
  • Musical Theme Naming: An interesting variation. Many characters in Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, and Stardust Crusaders are named after musicians, bands, or albums, for example: Dio Brando, Robert E. O. Speedwagon, and Rubber Soul. In the later parts, the theme naming drifted towards Stand names in order to avoid Who Names Their Kid Esidisi.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling: People of the same family can "sense" when one of them is nearby, or even when they die. This seems to only apply to Stand users though. This sense is very limited though since it not precise by any means, and Jotaro and Joseph couldn't find where DIO was hiding in Cairo despite that.
  • Myth Arc: The first six parts develop as a whole the fight between the Joestar Family and Dio Brando, plus anyone associated with him.
  • Mythology Gag: Joseph Joestar's Stand, Hermit Purple, allows him to use some unique methods of divination. It's basically an expansion of his ability to predict what his opponent will say next.
    Joseph: This is the part where you say "No, anything but that!"
    The Empress: No, anything but that!...HUH?!
    • The new universe introduced in Steel Ball Run often has small references to the original universe:
      • Several unseen racers in the Steel Ball Run are named after characters from the original universe.
      • Jotaro's hat from Stardust Crusaders is seen in the hat shop Josuke and Yasuho visit in Part 8.
      • As well as Gyro's and Smokey's.
      • A little girl's compact in JoJolion resembles the Red Stone of Aja from Battle Tendency.
      • An artist is shown drawing a sketch of Crazy Diamond on the sidewalk when Josuke walks to Shakedown Road.
      • The kid whose house Josuke hides in from Born This Way resembles a younger Giorno. He even has a ladybug pin on his shirt.
    • At one point in episode 7 of the 2014 Stardust Crusaders anime, Jotaro gets a Palette Swap into his familiar blue scheme.
      • Happens again when DIO uses The World after sucking Joseph's blood.
    • Vanilla Ice is voiced by the same voice actor from the PS1 fighting game, and when he does a kick, he makes the same noise he did for the game.
    • In Golden Wind, Giorno introduces his life-giving powers by turning something into a frog, like how Zeppeli showed off Hamon by punching a frog in Phantom Blood. Giorno also says that Koichi is a good person because he didn't try to hit him as hard as he could, like what Speedwagon said to Jonathan when they first met.

    N 
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
    • Diavolo, who is Italian for Devil. Not that anyone knows his name though.
    • Yoshikage Kira counts too, as Yoshikage means "lucky shadow", and Kira is a pun on the word "Killer".
  • Never Mess with Granny:
    • Erina Joestar may be an aging ordinary human, but even Joseph doesn't want to incur her righteous wrath. One prominent example is her repeatedly smacking Joseph with her umbrella for asking if she and Speedwagon ever got together after Jonathan's death.
    • Lisa Lisa is in her fifties but is still a Hamon master able to kill Vampires with a kick to the face.
    • The elderly Enya wields one of the most terrifying Stands among DIO's minions. Not only is she the biological mother of vicious Serial Killer (and Serial Rapist) J. Geil, but she is also Justice is a gigantic fog Stand which can control you through any wound.
  • Nasal Trauma:
    • In Battle Tendency, Joseph punches a corrupt cop in the face and calls him a "stupid pig". For added fun, the cop's finger was still up his nose when it happened.
    • Diamond is Unbreakable has Josuke use Crazy Diamond to break and repair the nose of a delinquent who insulted his hair. The delinquent's nose ends up shaped differently that it was beforehand due to Josuke's foul mood messing with the healing process.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands:
    • In the early parts, villains or heroes sometimes used powers that weren't easily explained by their nature or even foreshadowed before their use such as Dio's first use of Space Ripper Stingy Eyes and Star Platinum's Star Finger and its use of Super-Breath to suck up Justice.
    • A small handful of Stands are divided into ACTs, each one generally becoming stronger than the previous one as their users grow as people.
    • Every Stand created by a second piercing of the Stand Arrow induces this.
      • The first sort-of Requiem stand, Killer Queen Bites the Dust, is an especially specific example of this trope: Hayato has told Kira he has discovered his identity, and has evidence of it, causing Kira to kill Hayato in a panic—despite shutting Hayato up, Kira now has a dead child to explain. Kira now needs a way to deal with the deceased Hayato and keep his identity secret. The answer? Bites the Dust. First off, time is reset to immediately before Hayato's death. Then Killer Queen converts to a remote stand and hides on Hayato, resulting in a bomb that will go off whenever Hayato tells anyone about Kira or if anyone tries to ask Hayato questions about the same. After that, time will rewind to the morning after Hayato's original death. In each permutation of the time loop, deaths from the previous loops will be carried over—even if Hayato deliberately alters his actions, the people who have died previously will simply spontaneously explode. Not only is Hayato trapped and kept quiet, but even those who interrogate him will die randomly without any evidence linking them to Hayato or Kira. The tiny remote Killer Queen will also protect Hayato from any significant harm, meaning the poor kid can't even kill himself. Despite some small weaknesses—it's implied that Kira can't choose to activate the ability, it leaves Kira vulnerable since he can only have one active bomb at a time, and Kira doesn't actually know about the "Groundhog Day" Loop element at first—the ability is perfectly tailored to the situation and close to invincible.
      • In Golden Wind, there are two of these. The first is Silver Chariot Requiem, whose powers are of a completely different set from its original form. Silver Chariot focused around extreme speed and swordfighting prowess, while its Requiem puts all of Rome to sleep and can manipulate souls, including controlling the Stands of others. Since its user was on the verge of death and wanted the Arrow to be kept away from the Arc Villain, Chariot Requiem moves Polnareff's soul into Mr. President to save him, and takes the arrow for itself to protect it. The second and final Requiem stand of Part 5 is Gold Experience Requiem, whose primary power is to reverse time. This power is not only strong in of itself, but it also directly nullifies Diavolo's Stand, whose power is to erase time.
  • Next Sunday A.D.: Parts 4 through 6, along with Part 8, are set in the near future.
    • Diamond Is Unbreakable took place in 1999 but ran from 1992 to 1996.
    • Golden Wind took place in 2001 but ran from 1996 to 1999
    • Stone Ocean ran from 2000 to 2003 but is set in 2011.
    • JoJolion takes place in 2011; it began its run in the same year and ended in 2021.
  • Near-Villain Victory: All of the Big Bads come very close to accomplishing their goals, but fall short thanks to some oversight in their carefully laid plans.
    • Battle Tendency: Kars becomes the Ultimate Lifeform but very quickly forgets about the Stone of Aja soon after. It ends up being the unintentional key to his defeat: it causes a super-powerful volcanic eruption to launch him past orbit, where his Complete Immortality "protects" him so well that he ends up going mad as he flies through space.
    • Stardust Crusaders: DIO succeeds in attaining the blood needed for his perfect body and killing off almost all of Jotaro's allies. Unfortunately, he forgot about Polnareff.
    • Diamond Is Unbreakable: Kira's perfect disguise is negated thanks to Hayato's Batman Gambit. Later on, his attempt to escape is thwarted thanks to his luck finally giving out, when he gets hit by an ambulance.
    • Golden Wind: Diavolo successfully gets rid of La Squadra and most of the members of Passione, along with Polnareff. Then he's defeated thanks to the three biggest thorns in his side denying him the Arrow: Bucciarati, Trish, and Giorno.
    • Stone Ocean: Pucci actually restarts the universe and kills off the heroes except the Tagalong Kid. While he gets points for trying to tie up that loose end, Emporio ends up defeating him by using the Stand power of Weather Report that was gifted to Jolyne.
    • Steel Ball Run: This actually happens twice. Funny Valentine succeeds in obtaining the power of the Corpse and killing off Gyro Zeppeli. He didn't count on Johnny unlocking the full power of the Golden Spin... by watching Gyro's last Golden Spin himself. Afterwards, the alternate universe Diego Brando actually renders Johnny helpless, wins the race, and is about to ensure complete possession of the Corpse when Lucy arrives with the first Diego's head, which merges with him, and blows him up.
  • Necessary Drawback: Pretty much every single Stand has a requirement or weakness that prevents it from being ridiculously overpowered.
    • Close-range Stands tend to have good durability and destrutive power, but as the name implies, they won't be able to go much further than spitting distance. If they have any special secondary powers, they're usually only usable on things that they have touched.
      • Star Platinum; A-tier everything except its C-tier range. Its Time Stands Still ability, while useful, can't be sustained longer than 5 seconds, dropping to 2 at most due to disuse in Diamond is Unbreakable. Furthermore, it won't be very helpful if he can't get to his target before stopped time ends.
      • Crazy Diamond can heal and restore anything to peak condition and even merge objects together, on top of being one of the fastest and strongest Stands around, but it can't resurrect the dead (more specifically it can't restore life), certain ailments like the Nijimura Brothers' father's condition can't be fixed, and it can't heal its user.
      • Purple Haze has great destructive power, further enhanced by its ability; if the capsules on its knuckles break (usually because it punched something), then a deadly flesh-eating virus is released and quickly kills anything it infects. Even that has its drawbacks, as Fugo is not immune to his own Stand's virus.
    • Long-range Stands have the advantage in that they can travel far distances from their users, but have the inverse problem of close-range Stands in that they tend to have middling strength and durability at best.
      • Echoes Act 1 has an incredibly situational power (creating Written Sound Effects on surfaces), but has great range at 50 meters. Its evolved forms have more applicable abilities, but decreased range.
    • Automatic Stands are able to go far distances from their user and can have high destructive power or durability (usually the latter), but those Stands aren't directly controllable by their users.
      • Sheer Heart Attack can generate powerful explosions and is virtually indestructible, but will always attempt to blow up the warmest thing nearby, even if it's not the intended target.
      • Super Fly is immensely durable and can reflect any damage done to it, but its power to trap the last person inside of it is indiscriminate, even towards its user.
  • Night of the Living Mooks: Localized mobs of zombies or something approaching attack the heroes every so often. While they usually pose little threat individually, their number make up for their lack of power.
    • In Phantom Blood, Dio lures Jonathan and his friends into a graveyard where he summons every zombie available to overwhelm them. Fortunately, zombies are vulnerable to Hamon.
    • In Battle Tendency, Kars unleashes his army of vampires on an exhausted Joseph, but a battalion of Nazi soldiers save the day.
    • Enya takes control of the corpses in a graveyard to mimick a foggy town. The mobs are simply puppets controlled by Enya, but the imagery is invoked. Although Star Platinum takes visible pleasure pummeling away the whole graveyard, it misses one dead baby who creeped up Jotaro's pant.
    • In Stone Ocean, Sports Maxx invokes a mob of invisible zombies to overwhelm Ermes in the prison morgue.
    • Part 7 features Civil War which materializes a crowd of dead people to attack Johnny.
    • In JoJolion, Dolomite's Stand creates a Technically-Living Zombie who chases after Josuke. The effect is contagious, and it ends up creating a horde of zombies who go after Josuke and eventually infect him.
  • Nocturnal Mooks: Zombies, vampires, and Pillar Men all have a weakness to sunlight, necessitating that they act at night.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Everything bad that happens started when George Joestar I, out of the goodness of his heart, adopted an orphan boy named Dio Brando. Eventually, Dio was killed by Jotaro Kujo to save Jotaro's mother from dying, but even that would eventually lead to Pucci, Dio's best friend, killing Jotaro in revenge, along with his daughter Jolyne and almost all of her friends.
  • No Ontological Inertia: The effects of a Stand's power tend to immediately dissipate when their user is defeated or dead. This is an especially common trope in Golden Wind. Ironically, that part introduced Notorious B.I.G., whose ability is a complete inversion: It activates when its user is killed, and it cannot be slain itself because its user is already dead.
  • No-Sell:
    • Gold Experience Requiem in a nutshell. All of Giorno's enemies' aspects are brought to zero the moment they oppose him.
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught:
    • The D'Arby brothers play this straight, and the game they play quickly transforms into a game of who can outcheat the other undetected.
    • Invoked when Josuke challenges Rohan to a dice game using a shapeshifting (alleged) alien as the dice. Unfortunately, said alien is horrible at being subtle about giving Josuke good rolls, and Rohan finds out pretty quickly that Josuke is cheating. Fortunately, Rohan is more angry at himself for not figuring out how Josuke is cheating, and lets him continue on the condition that if he finds out, Josuke has to forfeit one of his fingers.
    • In the same way, Jobin Higashikata in Part 8 is actually interested that Josuke could cheat in a beetle fight undetected and praises his ability. In fact, he cheats too but unless you can say how he cheats, he won't forfeit.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain:
    • In Golden Wind, Pesci seems the least dangerous compared to Prosciutto, but he soon reveals himself as a frighteningly competent Stand user whose almost kills the entirety of the team, with a fishing pole!
    • In Diamond is Unbreakable, despite not really being a villain, Shigekiyo looks like a dumb kid whose Harvest is only good for collecting small object, but in reality, he is a cunning fighter, and not even Josuke can defend against a whole swarm of Stands able to punch straight into the flesh.
  • Not What It Looks Like:
    • In Stardust Crusaders with Joseph and Avdol after they get magnetized to each other. When they try to separate by having Avdol slide himself down to Joseph's feet, but only makes it halfway before they drew a crowd.
    • In Golden Wind with Giorno and Mista where Giorno uses Gold Experience to heal a critically wounded Mista, which was a very painful process. Narancia spotted them, but with Giorno's head blocking the view around Mista's midsection, not to mention how and what he was screaming that could definitely be taken the wrong way, Narancia gets the wrong idea.

    O 
  • Odd Name Out: Every JoJo's name begins with the letter "Jo", except Giorno Giovanna.
    • Though, with the JoJo nickname stemming from Japanese, the true odd one out would be Josuke Higashikata. This is because Giorno's name is spelled ジョルノ・ジョバァーナ (Joruno Jobāna) while Josuke's name only accomplishes it through wordplay; specifically, the -suke part of his name being expressed with a character (助) that could also be read/pronounced as a second "Jo".
  • Odd-Shaped Panel: The manga uses a lot of slanted panels. The end of Part 5 gets especially hectic. Though Araki makes pretty good use out of this. Instead of entire panels to show character reactions like he did before Part 4, he later uses only small, circular panels to show character reactions, possibly a lampshading of how quick such reactions would be in real life, therefore it'd be just as quick to look at them.
  • Ode to Food:
    • Steel Ball Run has Gyro's cheese song where he sings about different types of cheese.
    • At one point in JoJolion, Yasuho asks Josuke to sing and he sings about how he loves large fries but not fried chicken.
  • Official Couple: There are several throughout the series.
    • Jonathan and Erina
    • Joseph and Suzie Q (although Joseph cheated on her at one point)
    • Koichi and Yukako
    • Jolyne/Irene and Anasui/Annakiss
  • Older Than They Look:
    • Jotaro Kujo should be over 40 by the time the Stone Ocean arc (whose 19-year old protagonist also happens to be his daughter) rolls around — but he barely looks like he's aged a day since his teen years (though he looked like a guy in his twenties back then). In fact, some say he actually looks younger in the later arcs. Compare his appearance at age 17 to his appearance in his 40s.
    • Lisa Lisa appears to be in her 20s or 30s, but is actually fifty years old. It's justified through her mastery of Hamon, which slows down aging.
    • In Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi Hirose starts out at fifteen years old, but resembles an elementary schooler due to his short height. He's eighteen by the time of Golden Wind but he's barely half the height of Giorno Giovanna, who's fifteen years old.
    • Golden Wind has Narancia, who was sick as a child looks and acts like the youngest of the group. He's always quick to point out that at 17, he's actually two years older than the main character.
  • Once an Episode: In the anime, during a climactic moment, the colors in a scene will completely shift to mimic Araki's random color schemes in the manga. These are often even references to actual color schemes he's used.
  • Once a Season: The anime adaption licenses an era-appropriate pop song for the end credits of each season. Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency both have "Roundabout", the first half of Stardust Crusaders uses "Walk Like an Egyptian" while the "Battle in Egypt" arc has "Last Train Home", Diamond is Unbreakable uses I Want You, the first half of Golden Wind uses "Freekn' You", the second half uses "Modern Crusaders", and Stone Ocean uses "Distant Dreamer" with the exception of the finale, which brings back "Roundabout".
  • One Cast Member per Cover: The JoJonium editions of Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, and Stardust Crusaders feature one principal character on each volume's cover, using new illustrations by author Hirohiko Araki. In order, the volumes depict Jonathan Joestar, William Zeppeli, Dio Brando in 1889, Joseph Joestar in 1938, Lisa Lisa, Caesar Zeppeli, Kars, Jotaro Kujo, Joseph Joestar in 1988, Hol Horse, Enyaba, Noriaki Kakyoin, Mohammed Avdol, D'Arby the Elder, Iggy, Jean Pierre Polnareff, and DIO in 1988. The volumes for Stardust Crusaders additionally depict each character's Stand on the back covers.
  • One Head Taller: Jonathan and Erina, as well as Joseph and Suzie Q. Width-wise, it veers towards Huge Guy, Tiny Girl. Neither Erina or Suzie is a combatant, and neither are anywhere near as muscular as her husband is.
  • One-Steve Limit:
    • Some Stands share names with their users, like Foo Fighters, Weather Report, and Oyecomova (whose Stand name is the Japanese translation of his name)
    • Played With, characters from the two continuities can share a name, but in a way are not called the same.
      • Johnny Joestar's name is officially Jonathan, but he was nicknamed "Johnny" instead of "JoJo".
      • The protagonists of Part 4 and 8 share the name "Josuke Higashikata", but the kanji used to write their names are different and Part 8's Josuke was given that name instead of it being his birth name.
  • One Super, One Power Set: A Stand user will never have more than one Stand at a time, and this Stand only gets one power or a set of sub-powers that complement each other (ex. all of Killer Queen's secondary abilities being explosive related).
  • Only One Female Mold: It's Exaggerated, basically 99% of the named characters fit one body type according to their gender and one for children (it gets especially funny when Araki had to draw a full model for Midler for the Capcom arcade; he ended up cribbing most of her look from Yukako Yamagishi). However, since the series underwent a continuous Art Evolution, it should be noted that the standard female silhouette didn't change that much while males went from very muscled to more slender and muscled anyway. Rare exceptions include babies of both gender and fat people, which are extremely rare to come by.
  • Only One Name: Several characters do not have their surname revealed or may not have any surname at all, most prominently the Pillar Men, or in Part 3, DIO who is only refered to as such even though his surname Brando should be known.
  • Only Six Faces: A result of the series' Art Evolution. As the character designs became more outlandish, newer parts have come to be much more reliant on using costumes and hairstyles to distinguish between different characters, while the faces on the other hand are extremely similar to the point that it can be very difficult to tell the difference between males and females at times. In contrast, older parts featured much more simplistic clothing and focused much more on differences in facial features such as eye, nose, and head shapes to differentiate between the characters.
    • Here's a drawing of all the protagonists through Steel Ball Run. The second guy from the left is supposed to be Jonathan (wearing the iconic scarf of Joseph's, to complicate matters) and not Josuke, by the way.
    • In one of the redrawn covers for JoJonium (and many other Part 8-era illustrations), Jonathan for some reason gets Caesar's headband to complement the aforementioned scarf making him look more like Joseph, who is recently depicted with an aviator hat as of late.
    • Here's an even more blatant example.
    • From Part 3 onwards (right after the heroes started their journey), young female characters tend to look generic and exactly alike, unless they have Stands. Even Holly is not immune to this after her curse is uplifted during her final appearance.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Okuyasu, who gets angry at the slightest provocation, enters in a Tranquil Fury as soon as he hears of Red Hot Chili Pepper, indicating how much Okuyasu hates him.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: They exist, though invisible to most people unless you have a Stand or are spiritually attuned, and most seem to have some form of Ghostly Goals. The spirits in Ghost Girl's Alley are noticeable for being one of the few beings in the series able to ignore the rule that only Stands or Stand Users can harm Stands by touching and destroying them (as Killer Queen found out to its regret).
  • Our Vampires Are Different:
    • The "Pillar Men", a proud warrior race of horned humanoids who lived in South America. They reproduced sexually but infrequently, were functionally immortal, and fed by absorbing other living creatures into their bodies. They could also contort and shapeshift their bodies to make weapons or move in agile ways. But they were temporarily turned to stone by sunlight. In order to conquer this weakness, one of them created the Stone Masks, which were supposed to alter their brain chemistry to allow them to live in sunlight. That didn't work, but if used on humans, it did turn them into:
    • Vampires, the run of the mill kind. Well, except for the fact that JoJo's vampires can shoot rock-smashing water pressure through their eyes, freeze things on touch, and suck blood through their fingers. They can only be killed by severe blunt trauma to the head (decapitation only leaves a living head that will usually re-attach itself to its body, but is fully capable of taking someone else's body if necessary) or direct sunlight, which disintegrates them. They are able to recover almost instantly from anything else up to and including almost being bisected and being blown to shreds by grenades. They feed on humans but were fed on by the above race. Always Chaotic Evil. Vampires can make humans vampires by giving them their blood (which Dio does to Vanilla Ice), and humans fed on by vampires become:
    • Zombies: fanged rotting undead corpses that feed on blood and flesh, still vulnerable to sunlight and somewhat weak. Always Chaotic Evil, ugly, and dumb as bricks.
      • Tarkus and Bruford, however, seem to be more sentient than most other zombies encountered in part 1; Bruford in particular was more Lawful Evil as a zombie, retaining his chivalrous personality to an extent, while Tarkus was Chaotic Evil even when he was alive.
    • All of the above are also fortunately vulnerable to both the Ripple and (presumably) Stands.
  • Out-Gambitted: Everywhere you look. Characters in this series live or die by how well they can out maneuver their enemy, and fights won by brute force are few and far between.
  • Outside-the-Box Tactic: The series thrives on it. Because of the esoteric powers in the series, conventional tactics are thrown out of the window in favor of fighting plans exploiting hidden uses of a certain power, injuring oneself deliberately, and imaginative use of the environment.

Alternative Title(s): L To O

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