Literature / Jorge Joestar

Jorge Joestar is a Light Novel written by Ōtarō Maijō and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, set in the universe of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Released in 2012 as part of the Milestone Celebration "VS JOJO" project^note where various authors wrote light novels in the world of JoJo, all illustrated by Araki, it is generally considered non-canon.

There are two plotlines in the book; the odd-numbered chapters concern the life and times of Jorge Joestar II (Joseph's father, previously introduced as George), as he grows up, falls in love with Lisa Lisa, and becomes a pilot during World War I. The even-numbered chapters tell the tale of Joji Joestar, a young detective whose investigation leads him to meet Giorno Giovanna and Rohan Kishibe, and all three fall into a bizarre tale of Cosmic Retcons and old foes returning anew.

The most (in)famous thing about the novel is that its second plotline is utterly bizarre - even more so than the series itself, which is saying something. Elements from the first seven parts are mixed together with no regard for coherence, and the end result is widely regarded as memorable for this exact reason.

Note: Due to the difficulty in concealing them, all spoilers from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are unmarked. (Spoilers from the actual story are properly hidden, however.)

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Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Antonio Torres' mother used to tear off patches of his body regularly to create complete replicas of her son from the skin, which she did since he was a baby to the point Antonio evolved to rapidly grow superfluous skin to survive the skinning process.
• Alien Geometries: The Cube House is falsely named. In fact, it's a tesseract which means that once you reach one side, you reenter the Cube House from the opposite side.
• All of the Other Reindeer: George suffers from this during his whole youth. He's neither Spanish nor completely British, is of noble blood without the wealth, and his mother was widowed. His unique background, complete with his initial meekness, make him a target for bullying at school, whether it's in La Palma or in England.
• Alternate Self:
  • Funny's D4C is all about this and there are times where there are many of one character at once.
  • Our two protagonists are both George Joestar II.
• Ascended Extra: Remember the nameless zombie who killed George II in Battle Tendency? Here he's named Antonio Torres, is now George's Archenemy and is The Heavy of the plot Jorge-wise.
• Ascended Meme: It is very popular among the fandom to refer to Bruno Bucciarati as a Team Mom. The 37th universe version of him has a Stand called Stepmom.
• Author Avatar: The true nature of Beyond, as revealed in Maijo's earlier novel "Tsukumojuku".
• Author Powers: The true power of Beyond, as shown in the previous Maijo's novel "Tsukumojuku".
• Back from the Dead: Jonathan Joestar, complete with his Hermit Purple-like Stand (glimpsed in canon but left unnamed; here it's called "The Passion").
  • The main hero Jorge "died" inbetween parts 1 and 2.
• Body Horror: Lots. First chapter alone gives us Antonio Torres' skin and the death of Mr. Hernandez. There is also the death of Jim Graham, who is forced by Torres to puke his internal organs.
• Boom, Headshot!: Funnier Valentine attempts to do this with Narancia. Thanks to U-Boat, it fails.
  "Tch, astronauts suck ass at murder. They don't even know the basics! Double Tap, motherfucker! One shot ain't enough. Always gotta hit them again to be sure. Every fucking gangster knows that shit."
• Character Title: Though he's generally known as George Joestar II in canon, he's renamed "Jorge" due to growing up in a Spanish-speaking locale.
• Clear My Name: When Kenton Motorize is murdered, George becomes the prime suspect and he decides to restart his activity as a detective to clear his name and find the real culprit.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: George is this, as he's the center of attention of Lisa Lisa, Darlington Motorize, and has so Ship Tease with Penelope.
• Continuity Porn: Joji's side of the story pulls characters and settings from every single part (at the time, anyway), as well as from some Maijo's earlier novels.
• Cool Boat: U-Boat, Narancia's Stand. It can split into fleets of smaller vessels and rejoin back, launch cruise missiles, also usable for orbital bombardment, "swim" through space and atmosphere alike, work as an Escape Pod for the astronauts and even stop the bullet, aimed for the head, by swimming through blood and taking the hit.
• Cool Spaceship: NASA's interplanetary spaceship◊ for expeditions to Mars, which is named after H. G. Wells. It can withstand battle of Stand users inside and solid pummeling from the outside without taking too much damage and is only destroyed, when the self-destruct system is activated. Kars' spaceship, made of other versions of himself and some scrap from interplanetary probes, also counts.
• Cosmic Retcon: The novel elaborates on the one Made in Heaven creates at the end of Stone Ocean - it's actually limited to Earth, and it's more of an Eternal Recurrence than anything.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover art focuses on George II (Jorge) and Lisa Lisa, drawn by Araki, completely ignoring the even-numbered chapters' plot. Joji and Penelope, however, are on the back cover and are in Maijo's art style.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Lisa Lisa jumping between planes and hijacking them by frying zombie pilots by conducting Hamon through the fuselage, then using the plane's guns to take out more zombies, then repeating this process.
• Creative Sterility: The main problem of Pillar Men, according to the original Kars. He also notes that it required him studying human writings and learning to enjoy them to overcome it.
• Denser and Wackier: The second plotline is full of such bizarre elements effectively from the multiple Cosmic Retcons that occurs.
• Eldritch Location: The original Rohan Kishibe's house contains a room that's a tesseract, a four-dimensional object where when you reach one of its end, you enter from the opposite side.
• Eldritch Starship: Kars' Mars escape ship. Seriously, when Jorge thought about that◊ vessel as of something, fitting for the sci-fi movie, he must've thought of something like Warhammer 40,000.
• Eternal Recurrence: The Earth undergoes a Cosmic Retcon regularly - Made in Heaven's was the 36th time.
• Evil Versus Evil: Dio vs. Kars.
• First Girl Wins: Jorge has three potential love interests in the story but Lisa Lisa is the first and only girl he fell for, and he ends up marrying her.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Half of the story takes place on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands, which lends to George II being renamed "Jorge"...despite not being homophones of each other.
• Griping About Gremlins: Understandably for a novel that happens to talk about airplanes at the wake of World War One. The plot lingers on the legend of the gremlins, little creatures that sabotage airplanes and which frighten most pilots. It is revealed that the gremlins are in fact zombified skins of Antonio Torres.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Gangster Vinegar Doppio uses his Stand, which can turn anything into a telephone, for incapitating Jorge by turning his skull into a telephone and then calling it. The agonizing pain from the ringing causes Jorge to try and shoot himself in the head, though he survives it.
• Heel–Face Turn: The original Kars changes his stance towards humans after he realizes that they aren't so different in comparison to him, when it comes to expanding their potential and making progress, as opposed to the rest of his species.
• Helicopter Blender: Koichi uses his Stand, Blue Thunder, to destroy the walls and ceiling of the gym in order to dispel the "Mothman" mass hysteria and prevent people from burning themselves alive.
• Hijacked by Ganon: DIO is, again, the Big Bad of the book with Antonio Torres as The Heavy. Although he appears at the very end of the book, everything bad that happens in the book can still be traced to his will.
• Humans Are Special: Kars holds this opinion, especially because it was human culture and biology that allowed him to overcome the Creative Sterility inherent to Pillar Men, and start making progress in removing other limitations his species had.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: The original Kars has these, serving to establish his Heel–Face Turn.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Original Kars held this position during the very beginning of his path towards ascension to the Ultimate Lifeform and returns to it after spending a long time on Mars.
• Kid Detective: George, Tsukumojuku, and Jorge are all kids detective (were, in George's case) who love solving mysteries and have caught many criminals with their wits.
• Kill Sat: Satellite weapons are used by the USA, as of year 2012 in the 37th universe. The Funniest Valentine orders to attack Morioh with them, but they are destroyed by cruise missiles from Narancia's U-Boat before they can open fire.
• Lack of Empathy: Second main problem of the Pillar Men, according to the original Kars. He notes, that Pillar Men's "...brains had no concept of emotional investment, of putting ourselves in other's shoes." It was also a cause of their Creative Sterility, complacence and lack of progress.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: What about being impossible to talk about the book without spoiling AT LEAST the ending of Part 6? It only gets worse when the Valentine(s) appear.
• Living Ship: The Mars escape ship, made from alternate versions of Kars and scavenged parts of the Giotto probes. Also doubles as a Staship Luxurious, even getting compared to the set for sci-fi movie.
• Lost in Translation: The original novel is full of kanji puns, which weren't carried through the fan translation. Also, the part of Jorge Joestar being "Great Detective" was also lost, even though it's an important details in the books of Maijo Otaro.
• Locked Room Mystery: At the beginning of the novel which centered around criminal cases, locked room mysteries represent a central plot point as George, Tsukumojuku and Jorge solve such mysteries and deal with the repercussions. Jorge in particular tries to solve Tsukumojuku's murder inside of Rohan's house.
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: Inverted, since each word of the Dio's password has a representation in the novel. In order: Spiral Staircase ^Explanation The 37 universes, each being similar, yet slightly unlike the previous one., Rhinoceros Beetle^Explanation Nero Nero Island standing on top of Morioh., Ghost Town^Explanation London, as for the 37th universe., Fig Tart^Explanation Smell of burning Kars., Rhinoceros Beetle^Explanation Morioh also walking., Via Dolorosa^Explanation The Way of Suffering, representing Kars' Mars escape vessel crashing directly on the Arrow Cross House., Rhinoceros Beetle^Explanation Great Britain reappearing as one of the giant "beetles"., Singularity^Explanation The body of the "holy man"., Giotto^Explanation Giotto probes., Angel^Explanation Kars., Hydrangea^Explanation "Water Vessel", by which Kars means planet Earth., Rhinoceros Beetle^Explanation Stand Arrow, which has a carving in form of an insect., Singularity^Explanation Joji Joestar, as he's an absolutely unique individual, who has no counterpart in any of the previous or following universes., Secret Emperor^Explanation Dio Brando, whose plans span multiple universal resets and who only gets revealed near the end, yet everything can still be easily traced to him..
• Meaningful Name: Joji Joestar, because ”jōji” is one of the names for the kanji iteration mark (々), which signalizes repeating the previous character while not in itself being / looking like the same character.
• Mind Hive: Original Kars has assimilated souls of all of his alternate versions into his body, which also allowed him to sacrifice them for building the Mars escape ship without much problems.
• Monster Clown: Penelope de la Rosa's Wound takes the form of a killer clown.
• The Multiverse: Created due to the Earth's Eternal Recurrence.
• Madness Mantra: "Scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared scared...."
• Mythology Gag: Invoked during Jonathan Joestar's resurrection. After coming back, he pretends to be possessed by Dio as a joke. This freaks out everyone except for Erina, who could tell that he was joking. Because of the nature of his Stand, The Passion, he can see the futures of his various descendants, so he saw in the future when Joseph did this exact thing to prank Jotaro and thought it was hilarious.
• Orbital Bombardment: Narancia performs it via cruise missiles of his Stand U-Boat, in order to halt progression of the USA army.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Antonio Torres' skin zombies, which, as their name suggests, are made out of self-replicating skin. They can be pretty easily recognized at closer range due to the fact, that they lack eyes (or anything under the skin, for that matter).
• Porn Stash: Alternate Narancia keeps one (sort of, since it's based on his memories) in his U-Boat.
• Powers as Programs: The original Kars has the ability to steal other people's Stands.
• Psychic Powers: On top of the Stands from the manga, Maijo introduces three new Stand-like psychic powers:
  • Wounds: A subconscious Stand-like ability formed when the user is subject to repeated trauma, and exist to stop the user's suffering.
  • Bounds: Stand-like abilities that are physically bound to a particular location.
  • Beyonds: Stand-like abilities whose reach is beyond space and time and the fourth wall, since they are manifestation(s) of author(s). They also require their user to have a name or surname, which can be even remotely linked to the religious symbolism.
• Reality Warper: Both Joji and Jorge Joestars, since they were chosen by the Beyond to be protagonists of this story.
• Reference Overdosed: To most, if not all, previous books of Maijo Otaro up to having characters from them, such as Tsukumojuku Kato and Japan Detectives Club.
• Reset Button: Bites the Dust manages to undo all the Cosmic Retcons and the Zombie Apocalypse threatening the wedding of Jorge and Lisa Lisa.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The original Giorno and Rohan are unaffected by Made in Heaven's universe reset, due to Gold Experience Requiem's ability to nullify actions on Giorno and Rohan being so wrapped up in writing his manga.
• Rule of Symbolism: Finding or making up something, which can pass for symbolism, is required to be able to harness the power of Beyond.
• Simultaneous Arcs: The odd-numbered chapters concern Jorge Joestar's life; the even-numbered ones cover the exploits of Joji Joestar. They eventually join together when a Zombie Apocalypse threatens George and Lisa Lisa's wedding.
• Shoe Phone:
  • Stand of the gangster Vinegar Doppio from the alternate universe allows him to give anything properties of the cellphone (skulls of living humans included). The pebble phone, created by him, allowed the protagonists to remain in contact with their comrades, despite being in different universes at several points.
  • There's also a literal shoe phone, also created by Doppio and used by Runbaba 12.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Rohan was so utterly absorbed in his work that Made In Heaven simply didn't affect him and he carried over into the next universe unchanged.
• Stealth Sequel: To Maijo's earlier novels.
• That's No Moon: The Eyed Baloon, originally thought to be a third moon of Mars, turns out to be a conglomeration of the alternate versions of Kars.
• Theme Naming:
  • In lieu of the series' usual Musical Theme Naming, Stands are now named after movies.
  • There's also the Valentines: Funny, Funnier, and The Funniest.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dio happens to receive one from Erina:
  "Hold your tongue. You are no longer human and have no right to speak that way with me. Not that you had any right to speak with me when you were human. You spoke and lived and behaved like a gentleman on the surface, but you never were one. You have an inferiority complex about your impoverished origins, and that prevents you from improving yourself as human. Let me teach you, Dio Brando. Your poverty did not make you villain. You relationship with your parents did not make you what you are. Lack of education or wealth had no bearing. You were doomed by your own inability to look beyond the surface of anything, by your shallow mind, and by your overwhelming self-importance!"
• Took a Level in Badass: George grows out of his meekness to become a proper man, and then becomes a pilot in the Royal Air Force who battles zombies with his airplane.
• Took a Level in Idealism: After learning the truth about the Corpse of the "holy man", Funny Valentine has decided, that: "...What makes America great is the people who live in it, not anyone lying underground or in the heavens above. And that lesson will be my treasure."
• Took a Level in Kindness: The original Kars is now more-or-less positive towards humanity (with blue eyes - as opposed to the other 36 Kars' red or gold - to boot).
• Traveling Landmass: The land around Morioh suddenly moves and becomes a moving island. The same happens to an island named Nero Nero Island, which not only moves, but then sprouts legs to sit atop Morioh.
• Wedding Finale: The book ends on George marrying Lisa Lisa.

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