"This fellow reeks of brimstone and blood worse than anyone I've ever laid eyes on! HE IS PURE EVIL, right down to his very bones! Is he a victim of circumstance, you're wondering? Not on your life! He's been evil since he drew his first breath!"
— Robert E. O. Speedwagon on Dio Brando, Phantom Blood
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has, during its extraordinarily long run, showcased a great variety of antagonists. These run the gamut from mere jerks; to sympathetic ones with understandable or well-intentioned motives; to tragic. Then there are these guys, who commit horrific actions with no justification.
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Original Continuity
- Dio Brando is the primary villain of the original universe, rising from humble beginnings to become a global threat. After murdering his abusive father, Dio is taken in by the kind-hearted George Joestar, and goes about ruining his adopted brother Jonathan's life so as to obtain George's wealth, attempting to gouge out Jonathan's eye, stealing the first kiss from his girlfriend Erina, and burning his beloved dog alive. Dio later poisons then fatally stabs George as a blood sacrifice to activate the Stone Mask and become a vampire, renouncing his humanity wiping out entire towns of all life while intending to spread his vampiric zombies across the world. When a mother agrees to let Dio zombify her on the condition that he doesn't hurt her baby, he watches with amusement as the zombified woman eats her own child. After being reduced to a disembodied head by Jonathan, Dio stalks and murders Jonathan and the dozens of guests aboard his honeymoon cruise before stealing Jonathan's body. Returning decades later, Dio schemes for further power while dispatching hired or brainwashed killers to slaughter Jotaro Kujo's group, uncaring that his minions claim hundreds of lives in the process, before murdering the loyal Enya Geil to ensure that she doesn't divulge his powers. In the climactic confrontation with Jotaro, Dio murders a variety of bystanders in gruesome ways and forces a man to drive at lethal speeds through crowds of pedestrians for fun. Stone Ocean reveals details about the now-deceased Dio's grand plan: he manipulated his fanatical follower Enrico Pucci into rewriting reality into Dio's warped vision of "heaven", granting Dio unchecked power.
- Stardust Crusaders:
- Gray Fly was a Stand user who uses his Stand, Tower of Grey, to commit various mass murders disguised as accidents such as train crashes and plane accidents for the fun of it. Taking the lives of countless people with his Stand, Gray Fly was responsible for a plane crash in London which caused the death of 300 people. Hired by Dio Brando to dispose of the Joestars and their allies, Gray Fly hijacks a plane and used his Stand to attack the passengers inside by ripping their tongues from their mouths. After being defeated, he kills the pilot in order to have the plane crash and kill everyone inside in his last attempt at killing the Joestars.
- J. Geil, one of Dio Brando's henchmen, stands out as one of the vilest, and most sadistic, of the minor villains encountered by Jotaro and his friends. Driven by a lust for teenage girls, he raped and killed the young Sherry Polnareff — and attempted to murder her friend as well, succeeding in the OVA — prompting her brother Jean-Pierre to join the heroes and seek revenge. He boasts that she was just one of the countless girls that he raped and killed. When confronted by Polnareff and Kakyoin, he shows himself to be a coward of the highest order, placing his Stand in the eyes of a little boy and telling his opponents that they'll never reach him without gouging out the boy's eyes. When this fails, he escapes and inflicts grievous, potentially fatal wounds on a man to dress him up as a decoy for another sneak attack. Finally, he attracts a crowd of at least 10 people, then hides his Stand among them before trying to goad Polnareff to mow them down by gloating about what he did to his sister. He dies showing nothing but pride in his actions.
- Terence (Telence) T. D'Arby/ D'Arby the Younger, DIO's butler, is the younger brother of Daniel J. D'Arby, and like him, has the ability to steal a person's soul when they admit defeat in their heart before turning them into dolls. Unlike his affable and nobler brother, any politeness Terence spews is an obvious attempt to hide the childish psychopath he really is, changing anybody who is defeated by him in a video game into a doll, while, unlike Daniel, keeping them fully aware of their situation and powerless to do anything about it. Besides having done this to at least 20 people, it is also implied that Terence is very abusive towards his brother, admitting to beating him nearly to death one time after catching him flirt with his girlfriend. When the heroes stumble across his path, he traps them in Dio's basement and forces them to play videogames for their souls, while using his Stand to give himself an advantage. Through these methods he defeats Kakyoin and adds him to the collection, intending to do the same to Jotaro and Joseph, threatening to kill Kakyoin if they attack him. While only a minor villain, Terence manages to be one of the few villains that the heroes show nothing but contempt and disgust for.
- Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak: Kazuki Karaiya is a Morioh cop who holds contempt for all of humanity, believing himself destined to reign as a god with the likes of DIO and Kars. Taking on Pet Sounds as a makeshift Stand, Karaiya tests the bird's illusory abilities by causing mass mayhem and murder. He tricks a man into driving on a sidewalk to run over dozens of civilians; forces multiple women to attack others and slash their own throats; and puts dozens of civilians through a terrible illusion of them being shot dead in a war, while having an actual killer murder several of them — including a child. When Josuke and Hol Horse close in on him, Karaiya tries to force their ally, teenager Ryoko, to kill the duo and herself.
- Diamond is Unbreakable: Anjuro "Angelo" Katagiri is a Serial Killer and Japan's most notorious criminal. A robber and rapist since the age of 12, his infamy reached its peak after an incident in which he raped and killed two teenage boys before taking a third one hostage. He arranged a ransom with the boy's rich parents, but revealed at the exchange that he had cut off the boy's penis and killed him, and then killed one of the policemen who came for him. After escaping prison, Angelo body-jacked a man, took a woman hostage at knifepoint and tried to stab her to death in a fit of pique. After Josuke thwarts him, he goes on a killing spree with 7 civilian deaths. He attempts to kill Josuke and his mother out of spite, and then kills Josuke's grandfather. He returns for another attempt on their lives, and when defeated, he taunts Josuke with his grandfather's death and the fact that he can't kill Angelo without becoming like him, before threatening to throttle a young boy to death.
- Golden Wind:
- Diavolo is the mysterious "boss" of Passione, defined by paranoia and ambition above all else. Diavolo made his first mark on the world when he buried his mother alive and sewed her mouth shut before callously murdering his foster father and burning down his hometown. After selling multiple powerful Stand Arrows to Enya the Hag — causing the events of Parts 3 and 4 — Diavolo goes on to found Passione, a criminal organization he rules with an iron fist and uses to addict children to hard drugs. Diavolo further uses his capo Polpo to subject any potential recruits to lethal "tests" with a Stand Arrow that leave many dead. When his agents Sorbet and Gelato tried to discover his true identity, Diavolo had them horrifically tortured and killed to make an example to their fellow teammates, an act that turns La Squadra di Esecuzioni against Diavolo out of sheer horror. Upon discovery that his former lover Donatella — whom he abandoned years ago with no visible remorse — birthed a daughter, Trish, Diavolo begins hunting down the teenaged Trish to murder her out of paranoiac bloodlust. Along the way, Diavolo murders a variety of citizens for petty reasons, and mutilates a child to drink his blood for sustenance. Diavolo later unleashes Cioccolata and Secco onto Rome to eliminate Trish's protectors, the Bucciarati gang, once and for all, and Diavolo is flippant to the countless innocents he knows Cioccolata's Stand will kill. In the end, Diavolo personally slays multiple members of Bucciarati's noble gang, and nearly succeeds in his plan to kill Trish and gain the all-powerful Requiem.
- Cioccolata, the most sadistic member of Passione, is a Serial Killer whose main joy in life is seeing pain and fear expressed on the face of someone about to die. He volunteered in aged care for the chance to drive vulnerable people to suicide by poisoning them and breaking their spirits by telling them that nobody would come to visit them. Inspired to become a doctor after filming the deaths of the elderly, Cioccolata would then purposefully kill the patients that fell under his knife by operating on them while fully conscious. From this cruelty was born a gruesome power: His Stand, Green Day, inflicts people with mold that causes them to die in agony as their bodies fall apart. While waiting to ambush the heroes, he kills several bystanders in this way. Rather than finishing off his targets while they're at his mercy, he waits while his similarly depraved partner Secco records their anguished expressions for posterity. He then takes a helicopter to pursue his foes and kills everyone else in sight. The anime adds to his list of crimes by having him be the one who butchered Sorbet. As a sadist unconstrained by morality and reason, Cioccolata earns the contempt of everyone he encounters.
- Stone Ocean: Kenzō is an egotistical former cult leader who was arrested for drugging and burning alive over 30 of his followers, and now hires himself out as an assassin. His preferred method of murder involving hitting pressure points that result in his victims drowning in their own fluids, Kenzō introduces himself to Jolyne Cujoh by killing dozens of prisoners in the area with his drowning technique and then tries to kill her. Kenzō afterwards delivers a painful, vicious fight to Foo Fighters, laughing at her pain and trying to murder her in the agonizing method of an electric chair for sheer sadism.
Rebooted Continuity
- Steel Ball Run:
- The Alternate Universe counterpart of Diego "Dio" Brando is completely devoid of his main counterpart's nobler qualities. Brought into the universe by the dying Funny Valentine, Alternate Diego agrees to secure the corpse parts solely so that all good fortune in the world would be centered on him, dooming most of the world to calamity. During his battle with Johnny, Alternate Diego tricks him into killing several of Diego's fans by using them as shields, mockingly blaming Johnny for their deaths. Upon being confronted by the young Lucy Steel, Alternate Diego attacks her, proudly claiming that he'll take his time raping and torturing Lucy before killing her.
- The nameless soldier from Ringo Roadagain's backstory is a slavering, despicable presence who put Ringo on his path of villainy. Having apparently deserted from his army, the soldier breaks into Ringo's home and murders his mother and two young sisters with a knife before trying to rape the 10-year-old boy. Planning to keep and "raise" Ringo for more disgusting intentions, the soldier threatens to force the child to watch his family's corpses be butchered and Fed to Pigs if he resists the soldier's attempts to force himself on Ringo.
- JoJolion:
- Tōru is the true mastermind of the Locacaca Organization and Rock Humans of Morioh. An improbably old entity who has cultivated the Locacaca fruit and used it to experiment on and profit off of hapless victims for decades, Tōru would stalk and groom Yasuho since childhood for the purposes of both using her Stand, and disturbingly seducing her for fun. Using his organization and a nightmarish guardrail creature to murder dozens of people who stumble onto his operation over the years while coldly disposing of or abandoning his own allies when it suits him, Tōru uses his Stand Wonder of U to murder the parents of Rai Mamezuku, a reporter investigating him, and plenty of unsuspecting bystanders who get caught up in its effects. When confronted by the heroes, Tōru orchestrates the deaths of Rai, Kei and Jobin while endangering the entire Higashikata family, and tries to sacrifice Yasuho to save his own life. Tōru plans to flood the Black Market with Locacaca and sit back as its effects throw the world into chaos, leaving only himself to rise above the ashes of upheaval as a supreme being, caring only for his power base and belief that his memories will be all that is left of humanity when he is through.
- Tamaki Damo is a Rock Human and the head of the Locacaca Organization's smuggling branch, standing out as the most sadistic member of the group. The primary source of the fruit being brought into Japan and sold under false pretenses to people unaware of the danger, Damo enjoys using his Stand Vitamin C to liquefy his opponents, then take his time horribly torturing and mutilating them. Subjecting Yoshikage Kira and his friend Josefumi to this fate after they stole from Damo, Damo sadistically goads them into betraying each other, claiming he'll spare the first one who turns snitch while truthfully intending to kill them both. Later assaulting the Higashikata home by making Hato fall for him, Damo horribly tortures Norisuke by letting fish swim through his organs and lighting him on fire; plans to vivisect and murder his entire family in front of him; and pathetically tries to prey on Hato's love for him to give him time to betray and murder her.
Other Media
Video Games
- Heritage for the Future "Super Story Mode": DIO is a charismatic vampire who desires the extermination of the Joestar bloodline. Having stolen the body of Jonathan Joestar to survive, DIO happily sics many Stand users — some of them enslaved by flesh buds — onto Jonathan's descendants Joseph and Jotaro, knowing that the Stand users will bring down airplanes full of innocents and kill civilians. When Jotaro and his allies make it to DIO's lair, DIO has his minion Iced murder Iggy and Avdol, then personally kills Kakyoin before trying to drain Joseph of his blood to destroy Jotaro once and for all.
- GioGio's Bizarre Adventure: Diavolo is Passione's founder and boss, using the organization to run hard drugs to young children. Diavolo uses Passione for assassinations and extortion, and regularly has new recruits stabbed with a Stand arrow to either kill them, or empower them as his minions. Hiring Bruno Bucciarati and his gang supposedly to protect Diavolo's estranged daughter Trish, Diavolo actually uses them to bring Trish before him so Diavolo can kill her with his own two hands simply to eliminate her as a "weakness". When the Bucciarati gang flew with Trish, Diavolo unleashes the sadistic Cioccolata and Secco with full knowledge they will cause mass murder, and personally kills Bruno and multiple members of his gang. Diavolo's ultimate plan is to achieve Requiem and ensnare all souls on Earth to his evil will.
- Phantom Blood: Dio Brando proves to be just as bad in this adaptation of the story arc. Having poisoned his father Dario before being adopted by George Joestar, Dio sets out to ruin the life of his adoptive brother Jonathan in order to claim his father's inheritance, from making him a pariah among his friends, to stealing a kiss from his girlfriend Erina. Discovering the power of the Stone Mask in his plan to kill Jonathan, Dio renounces his humanity and kills George to become a vampire, using his newfound abilities to amass a gang of zombie slaves and drain the energy of countless people to heal himself after a nasty fight with Jonathan. Dio seeks to use his zombies to raze all of England, even turning a portion of a small town's population. Surviving another encounter with Jonathan, Dio attempts to claim Jonathan's body, hoping to use his strength to conquer the world.
- Eyes of Heaven: Heaven Ascension DIO is an alternate version of Dio Brando who succeeded in his plan to wipe out the Joestar lineage and become a god. Having slaughtered his way through innocents and enemies alike to achieve godhood, DIO absorbed the souls of 36 people to power himself up, and altered reality to turn his world into one that worshipped him. Upon learning that there are an infinite number of realities across time and space, DIO begins plotting to conquer them all, starting with the primary timeline. DIO corrupts the souls of each JoJo's friends and family members, forcing them to fight one another before DIO murders them all and steals their souls, and, in the end, DIO shrugs off the death of his "friend" Enrico Pucci, murders Jotaro's daughter in front of him, and proclaims his plans to warp all realities until there is only one, where all worship DIO.
Others
- GioGio's Bizarre Adventure 2: Golden Heart, Golden Ring (Light Novel by Miya Shotaro, Gichi Otsuka, & Hirohiko Araki): Sogliola Lopez is an ambitious, elderly Passione capo operating in Venezia. Contacted by Passione's Boss to kill Team Bucciarati alongside one of the latter's former members Pannacotta Fugo, Sogliola, having compiled a list of all of Venezia's Stand users, decides to have Fugo stalk Coniglio "Coni" and regularly unleashing his Stand Purple Haze around her, using its own virus to horribly kill people and forcing Coni to use her Stand, The Cure, to absorb their pain in order to heal as many as she can. Sogliola has Fugo target Coni in a hotel, an hospital, and her neighborhood, killing several people, including Coni's friend and a little girl. Sending Rigatoni to kill Team Bucciarati, Sogliola did so while aware that Rigatoni would end up killed, in truth wanting him to incapacitate them. Once The Cure is Driven to Madness by all the suffering it absorbed from Purple Haze's victims, Sogliola has it attempt to kill Team Bucciarati and release all of Purple Haze's amplified virus in Venezia, killing a hundred people and attempting to kill hundreds more, all so that he could get the promotion he felt entitled to.
- Diamond is Unbreakable Chapter 1 (2017 film): Anjuro "Angelo" Katagiri shares his manga counterpart's depravity and lust for murder. A vicious murderer—his own father being his first victim — who is introduced stabbing his latest victim to death in front of the man's lover, Angelo later slaughters his way out of police custody by utilizing his newly-acquired Stand. Using his Stand to continue his killing spree, tearing apart the insides of over half-a-dozen people to kick things off, Angelo develops a seething hatred for the young teenager Josuke Higashikata after the boy saves Angelo's latest victim from a brutal death. Angelo invades the home of Josuke, sadistically murdering the boy's grandfather and attempting the same on his mother, all as payback for thwarting him, and, even when cornered and defeated, Angelo spends his final moments trying to blame all of his crimes on outside forces just to escape punishment.
