YMMV / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency

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• Accidental Innuendo: Lisa Lisa's idea of Hamon training entails Joseph and Caesar climbing a tall, cylindrical shaft of a tower that gushes oil out the top. Does This Remind You of Anything??
• Ass Pull:
  • Where did Joseph get that tommy gun, the grenade, and the other eleven grenades he tied the first to? Answer: Who cares?
  • Practically everything that Joseph does, most notably in his final battle with Ultimate Kars. However, unlike most examples, the series gets away with it as it doesn't even bother to sugarcoat the fact Joseph defeated an otherwise Invincible Villain through sheer luck.
  • Kars suddenly getting the Mask with the Red Stone inserted without anyone knowing, just as he's about to be fried by ultraviolet rays. The anime alleviates this somewhat due to a bit of Adaptation Expansion in which Kars makes a seemingly futile leap after first landing on the spikes, giving him a more plausible opportunity to grab the Mask and put the Red Stone in.
  • Straizo turning evil at the start of the part and revealing he'd always admired Dio came out of nowhere, since there was nothing in Straizo's limited screentime in Part 1 to indicate that he would seriously consider becoming a vampire or trying to kill one of the men he'd fought alongside against Dio.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Caesar Zeppeli. His smugness would put Joseph to shame, but damn is that cockiness justified.
  • Joseph himself, naturally. He may boast a lot, and he may be quirky, but those who look past his bravado and his goofiness will find what is possibly the most cunning mind the Joestar family has ever produced, combined with a physique that can actually put his outlandish plans into action.
• Awesome Music: Renowned anime composer Taku Iwasaki was brought on board for the soundtrack of the anime version. Iwasaki brings about many intense battle themes and hammy character themes, but perhaps the most famous would be the theme of the Pillar Men, Awaken.
• Base-Breaking Character: Rudol von Stroheim, once a popular Ensemble Dark Horse, has become this in later years. Although many fans still think he's an absolutely hysterical Large Ham and a great source of memes, there's a rather vocal amount of fans who detest him for being an actual Nazi who is nevertheless portrayed as one of the (temporary) good guys.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • After Wamuu released his masters Kars and Esidisi from their emprisonment, Kars accidentally steps on Wamuu's shadow. This caused the latter to instinctively attack the former. He quickly apologizes to his master and Kars does the same. That being said, stepping on Wamuu's shadow comes across as a Chekhov's Gun, but no. It's never mentioned again. The anime, however, adds a brief scene of Caesar stepping in Wamuu's shadow when he first challenges him under Rome.
  • Right after the gut punch that is Caesar's death, Joseph and Lisa Lisa are closing in on Kars and Wamuu... only to be ambushed by the misogynistic vampire, Wired Beck. Lisa Lisa takes him down in no time flat by infusing her scarf with Hamon, and the two continue going about their trek. In context, this is meant to show off how skillful Lisa Lisa is at using Hamon... except for the fact that she had already done so multiple times before as Joseph and Caesar's teacher.
  • While monologuing to JoJo over the unconscious Lisa Lisa, Kars... starts strumming her legs to air guitar. He does this for no reason other than to be an ass and taunt Joseph. Also worth noting that it's never mentioned how an ancient being that was being dorment for hundreds of years know what an eletric guitar is to begin with.
• Broken Base: The English dub for Battle Tendency was better received than Phantom Blood but still polarizing. Fans were still critical of the accents (especially Stroheim) and felt that there were better casting choices for the characters. There was also outcry over the dub changing many of this part's famous lines. Others however saw the dub as an improvement over the Phantom Blood dub with Ben Diskin fitting Joseph's playful personality and the accents being slightly stronger this time around. It is generally agreed among most viewers of the dub however that the Pillar Men all had strong English voices.
• Catharsis Factor: For those who don't think his punishment was a little much, Kars' And I Must Scream Fate Worse than Death can be rather satisfying after he lied about keeping his promise of a fair fight with Lisa Lisa and literally stabbed her in the back, and sliced off Joseph's arm. Even better is that his fate was brought about by him achieving the complete invulnerability he craved for so long.
• Character Perception Evolution: Rudol von Stroheim was originally an Ensemble Dark Horse for his depiction as a Large Ham cyborg Nazi, which was cited as adding onto the part's over-the-top nature and led to him quickly becoming a Fountain of Memes. However, by the end of The New '10s, he would become much more divisive, especially in America. While the aforementioned traits still give him plenty of fans who chalk up his Nazism to Deliberate Values Dissonance or think that his portrayal Crosses the Line Twice, a large contingency of readers/viewers find it difficult to stomach the idea of him being an ally to the main heroes (albeit a temporary one) thanks to him being an actual Nazi who's not only wholly unrepentant in his actions, but is also seen performing actual Nazi practices and is directly responsible for making things worse even when he does try to help.
• Common Knowledge:
  • There is a surprisingly high number of casual fans, and critics, that say that Jonathan was the father of Joseph. This isn't true as Part 2 clearly explains that Joseph is Jonathan's grandson. Even if you discount the Tangled Family Tree that is the Joestar lineage, it's still ridiculous that so many people believe this when one of the main arcs of Part 2 was the reveal of who Joseph's mother is.
  • There is a fair amount of fans, and those that vaguely know the part, that assume Stroheim and Joseph became friends over the course of Part 2. This is not the case, as while the two find respect for one another and can ally for the cause of the Pillar Men, Joseph himself says he's only grateful that Stroheim is around because he's another force against the Pillar Men to even the odds a little bit, and Stroheim goes right back to supporting Nazi Germany after everything is said and done. Joseph himself is more bothered that Stroheim couldn't upgrade his hand before the UK went against Germany, rather than lament that he's on the opposite side. They never even meet again before Stroheim's death. All in all, their relationship was always depicted as an Enemy Mine, in contrast with Joseph's legitimate friendships with Smokey and Caesar.
  • There's a common rumor that Kars playing air guitar with Lisa Lisa's legs after he defeats her isn't in the manga, and that it was a Throw It In! moment, when Kazuhiko Inoue randomly decided to make these sounds instead of saying his lines. Kars does make guitar sounds in the manga too. The truth is, Kazuhiko wasn't told which song Kars was singing, so he ad-libbed something that sounded like "Roundabout", the show's ending theme; over time, this got distorted into him improvising the decision to make guitar sounds in the first place. The rumor is not helped by how the most popular English fan translation replaces this joke with Kars commenting about how Lisa Lisa's legs feel nice, and how TV Tropes stated this as a fact for years.
• Crack Pairing: Caesar views Lisa Lisa as a mother figure, but that doesn't keep some fans from pairing them up.
• Crazy Is Cool: Joseph himself is a rare example of this for the main character. Fans love his goofball personality and the often-borderline nonsensical levels of trickery he uses to defeat his enemies.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Of the Pillar Men, Wamuu gets whitewashed the most thanks to his Noble Demon personality. The way he respects Joseph and Caesar as Worthy Opponents, as well as his Pet the Dog moments, cause some fans to view him as the Token Good Teammate of the Pillar Men. This is ignoring that these two are outliers: he views the rest of humanity the same way humans view insects, as shown when he casually kills Mark without even noticing, and that his Undying Loyalty is towards Kars, who seeks to enslave all of mankind for his own benefit. Had Wamuu succeeded, he would have gone on to mercilessly slaughter and devour humans at his leisure alongside the other Pillar Men.
  • Kars also sometimes gets treated as nicer than he is. Part of this is due to his good looks, while others point to him protecting animal and plant life when he can, making him a notable aversion of Bad People Abuse Animals in a series that loves the trope. However, he is much less honorable than Wamuu or Esidisi, using underhanded tricks in his fight against Lisa Lisa, and drops his animal lover attitude after becoming the Ultimate Lifeform and treating all life as a tool to exploit to further his goals, even killing a squirrel For the Evulz.
  • Some fans are convinced Stroheim's moments of heroism would lead him to gladly renounce his support of Nazi Germany. Although it's true he's The Social Darwinist as opposed to a straight-up racist, he did kill a village of innocents to demonstrate this, and it's stated multiple times how fanatically loyal he is to Nazi Germany regardless of any differences in philosophy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Wamuu is the most popular of the Pillar Men for being the Anti-Villain of the trio and for the sense of honor he displayed towards Joseph and Caesar. He's the only secondary antagonist in the franchise that is more popular than the main villain of his part. You know Wamuu has reached this point when there are fans who admit they can't bring themselves to hate him despite killing Caesar due to how honorable and respectful he acts.
  • Despite him being a Satellite Character, Smokey Brown has a rather large following due to him being the series' first black character, being the catalyst for Joseph to show that he doesn't tolerate racism, and his fate of becoming a successful politician.
  • The unnamed Pillar Woman in Kars' flashback is fairly popular herself for her design. She has no lines and only appears for about 2 seconds, but she's gotten plenty of attention in fanart and fanfiction.
• Epileptic Trees: While it never happened and most likely never will, fans have speculated on what kind of Stand Kars could have developed and how powerful it would be compared to other high-level hero/villain stands. Some fans also speculate on the idea of whether or not Kars as the Ultimate Lifeform would be able to defeat powerful characters like Jotaro, DIO, Kira, and Pucci.
• Even Better Sequel: Battle Tendency is often considered by fans to be one of the best parts in the entire franchise for being the point where it truly began to grow the beard. A lot of praise was given to its dynamic protagonists, villains with compelling motivations and backstories, interesting Battle of Wits fights, and being the point where the series began to embrace its own ridiculousness by becoming a self-aware epic.
• Evil Is Cool: Almost everything about the Pillar Men reeks of this. Not only are they Aztec vampires with superpowers and lavish designs, but they even have a badass theme song to go along with them.
• Fair for Its Day: Nowadays, Lisa Lisa qualifies as a Faux Action Girl, but when Battle Tendency was first printed from 1987 to 1989, most of her competitors were characterized as one-note gender roles that never had a shot at the spotlight, such as Stay in the Kitchen, Neutral Female, Ms. Fanservice, Behind Every Great Man, and Big Brother Instinct. Hirohiko Araki has stated that he based Lisa Lisa off of a neighborhood girl who gave him hell during his childhood, and that he wished to have her be more proactive as a fighter, but that the limitations imposed by his publisher and his audience kept him from making her any more realistic, with the encounters she does have being the most he could get away with at the time.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Depicting the Pillar Men as a family, with Wamuu and Santana as Kars and Esidisi's adopted sons. Often played in such ways as Grotesque Cute, Lighter and Softer, and Villains Out Shopping.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Pillar Men have been called the "Aztec Gods of Fitness". Alternatively, "Aztec Vampire Stripper Gods".
  • "Holy Wubstorm" (after Wamuu's special attack Divine Sandstorm) for the Pillar Men's dubstep-flavored Leitmotif in the anime.
  • Joseph Joestar in this part is sometimes referred to as Bugs Bunny due to his tricky nature, ridiculous antics, and incredible luck.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: While Joseph/Suzi Q is not disliked by any means, Joseph/Caesar is one of the most popular pairings in the entire franchise, especially since many fans consider them the first "BroJo'' duo.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The Pillar Men, who seem to emphasize wearing as little clothing as possible. Esidsi at one point had what looked like leather pads sewn onto his skin and the manga even has him Going Commando in his debut.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Joseph/Wamuu has quite a bit of subtext as the two slowly become each others Worthy Opponent over the course of the arc culminating in Joseph bidding farewell to Wamuu by giving him some of his blood to ease his passing. Wamuu's last words noting that perhaps he lived so long to meet a warrior like Joseph, taken out of context, wouldn't sound out of place in a Love Confession.
  • Joseph and the Pillar Man in general. Wamuu and Esidisi give Joseph their Wedding Rings of Death, Esidisi tries to wrap his blood vessels around Joseph to fill him with his hot bodily fluids. Hell, the dub even adds a scene between Joseph and Santana by making it sound like the former is flirting with the latter.
  • Caesar/Wamuu has a following especially since their relationship was also a rivalry of respect.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While generally ignored in Japan until the 2012 anime came out, Battle Tendency is widely loved in the West for its sheer awesome nature and the fact that it refuses to take itself seriously while still being genuinely dramatic at key points (i.e. Caesar's death). Joseph himself is also a massive fan-favorite in the West, often being considered one of the best protagonists in the series or even all of shounen manga as a whole.
• Growing the Beard: After the Slow-Paced Beginning of Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency is generally considered the part where the series improved greatly, with more interesting characters, creative fight scenes where the characters frequently attempt to outsmart each other, and a globe-trotting plot that ups the scale. This is also reflected in the anime, where the animation quality sees a noticeable improvement.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • For most of his life Joseph believed that his father abandoned him. Come Diamond is Unbreakable, Joseph would find out that he has a teenage son in Japan that he had unintentionally neglected for several years.
  • Adding to the above point, the scene where Suzie Q is happily rejoicing at being married to Joseph when they attended his own funeral can be considered harsher and even really awkward and cringing due to the fact that after a seemingly happy marriage, many years later, Joseph cheats on her with a younger woman and has an illegitimate son out of it (and it was before Stardust Crusaders). And we find out in Diamond is Unbreakable that she not only found out but is (understandably) angry at this. Although the narration later states she forgave him after being mistakingly furious regarding his adoption of Shizuka Joestar.
  • Erina and Speedwagon hid the Joestar family history from Joseph fearing he might end up like his great-grandpa, grandpa, and his father before him (all three of them fell to Dio, or his minions). Not only was Joseph presumed dead during the end of Battle Tendency (seemingly confirming their worst fears) before they found out that he managed to survive the re-entry, but after almost 50 years, Joseph does indeed die in the final chapters of Stardust Crusaders by the hands of DIO himself, who judged him as a threat due to his Hamon, although his grandson Jotaro managed to save him in the nick of time by an emergency blood transfusion.
  • Joseph pretending to have lost his hand to Santana was Played for Laughs. He ends up losing his hand to Kars in the final battle instead.
  • After Joseph gets poisoned by Wamuu and Esidisi's Wedding Rings of Death, he makes a joke about committing bigamy now that he has two wedding rings. Turns out in Diamond is Unbreakable that he had cheated on Suzie Q and unknowingly fathered an illegitimate child as a result.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • After Santana is defeated, the Speedwagon Foundation confirms that he is still alive, and he is never mentioned again. Which leaves some fans to believe that Santana could have potentially made a comeback in future parts. Though another common fan theory is that Joseph destroyed Santana before he left for Italy.
  • Inverted with Kars, who some thought had the potential to make a comeback if he returned to the Earth's atmosphere. Hirohiko Araki however confirmed that he wrote Kars' final fate the way he did to ensure that he'll never return.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Joseph always dreams of becoming a pilot like his father, and Araki often draws him with airship goggles. His english voice actor, Ben Diskin, voiced Numbuh 2 from Codename: Kids Next Door, who also wears airship goggles. Made even more hilarious and ironic since Numbuh 2 is an Ace Pilot, while Joseph is a Captain Crash.
  • Related to the above, Joseph also shares the same voice actor as Numbuh 1, another badass Brit. He also voiced Jupis in Rogue Galaxy who has an attack that is literally using clackers as a weapon.
  • The fact that Ryōta Ōsaka (Mark in the Battle Tendency anime) later voiced Marco Bodt in Attack on Titan, due to the remarkable similarities between their names, backgrounds, personalities, appearance, role in the plot, and relationship with the other main characters. They even die in almost the same exact way from having the same half of their bodies eaten by a group of Humanoid Abominations, down to the identical use of Censor Shadow on their corpses.
  • During his fight with Kars, Joseph sets up a dummy with a henohenomoheji face on it as a decoy. When the manga was adapted into an anime, Kars was played by Kazuhiko Inoue, one of whose most famous roles is Kakashi in Naruto, whose namesake refers to scarecrows which in Japan are often marked with a henohenomoheji on their faces.
  • Joseph being an Indiana Jones Expy with a dream of becoming a pilot but an unfortunate propensity for crashing his planes takes on additional hilarity in Stardust Crusaders, where it evolves into a proper Running Gag. It gained a second level of hilarity in the 2010s and onward, with Indiana Jones' actor Harrison Ford (whom he physically resembles) having also developed a similar reputation for crashing airplanes in the 2010s when these parts were adapted into anime.
  • The scene of Joseph Disguised in Drag upset at his inability to seduce Nazi soldiers becomes even funnier with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands, which features Dragona^note An unintentional Punny Name in English Joestar, a Wholesome Crossdresser who is much more successful at passing as an attractive woman. Naturally, this resulted in joke posts such as this one◊ comparing and contrasting the two.
• Ho Yay: The source of some of the series' most infamous examples, even in context. See the main page for details.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Those who're aware of which character in this part becomes a main character in Stardust Crusaders can easily come to the conclusion that Joseph doesn't actually die at the end of his battle with Kars.
  • Due to all the memes surrounding it, Caesar’s death is no longer a secret. This is not helped by the fact that Joseph wearing Caesar's bandana is one of his most iconic appearances which is shown in a lot of official content, including Part 2's opening.
• Jerkass Woobie: Caesar. At first, he's really just a Jerkass, until he shows that he cares about Joseph's survival while hanging to the Hell Climb Pillar when the latter accidentally activates a trap (although Joseph mistakes his facial expression for resentment), and saving him not long after, cementing their friendship for good. The Woobie element comes after Caesar gets in an argument with Joseph (briefly going back to his jerk self) and goes to face the baddies on his own, at which point Lisa Lisa tells Joseph of his difficult past and how his father sacrificed himself to save him without even recognizing him. Then, while he has the upper hand on Wamuu, he does that one really stupid mistake that earns him an instant No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. As Wamuu (and the audience) thinks that he's going to die miserably, he uses his very last strength to make an inspiring speech about the human spirit and to steal an item from Wamuu that can save Joseph's life. And if one of the most magnificent deaths in the series didn't earn the viewers' sympathy, then Joseph's heartbroken reaction upon finding Caesar's remains ought to.
• Karmic Overkill: Many fans felt genuinely bad for Kars when he was defeated through a Fate Worse than Death, even considering all of the sins he committed, mainly due to him being A Lighter Shade of Black than most JoJo villains, as well as said defeat of being immobilized, in total isolation, and having complete conscience being a horrifying premise.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Kars is the leader of the Pillar Men, a group that seeks the Red Stone of Aja so as to become immune to the sunlight that harms them and reign as the "ultimate lifeforms." Awakening in the present day after centuries of slumber, Kars dispatches his loyal friends Wammuu and Esidisi to search for the Red Stone, and showcases his love for nature and its creatures when he murders a group of men who tried to kill a dog. Manipulating Joseph into assisting him in his quest for the stone by threatening the life of Lisa Lisa, promising to play fair only to use pragmatic tricks to win the day, Kars obtains the Red Stone of Aja, using it to become a god. Kars gives Joseph the fight of his life, as he constantly adapts to each and every thing the Hamon user throws at him, until he is finally outwitted and blasted into space only by sheer luck on Joseph's part.
  • The affable Esidisi is Kars' best friend and the second-in-command of the Pillar Men. Upon confronting Joseph when looking for the Red Stone of Aja, Esidisi quickly proves to be an expert in messing with his opponent, temporarily leaving Joseph unable to get a read on him, and leading to Esidisi nearly killing Joseph with his tactics while praising him for being a Worthy Opponent. Even when Joseph destroys Esidisi’s body, Esidisi reveals his plans went deeper after all, using his surviving brain to possess Suzi Q and mail the gemstone for Kars to pick up. He then shows his conviction to the Pillar Men’s cause by being willing to sacrifice his own life in an attempt to take out the heroes by using the possessed Suzi Q as a boiling blood bomb, earning Joseph’s respect for Esidisi’s devotion to his allies.
  • Wamuu is the strongest of the Pillar Men and a dangerous combatant. During his initial fight with Joseph Joestar, he completely overpowers him and sees through every trick his opponent came up with, only sparing him because of his potential. Said potential causes Wamuu to poison Jojo, forcing him to train for a month to defeat him for the cure. After a month of training, Caesar Zeppeli impresses Wamuu enough for him to honor his final moments, even if it would give Jojo an advantage. His final battle has him use every technique to fight Jojo, seeing him and Caesar as Worthy Opponents. Wamuu dies without any regrets, believing his last fight to be the reason why he was born.
• Memetic Loser: An odd case of this is Joseph Joestar himself, as while he's not twisted into being a weakling, it's joked that he's so bad at piloting that every plane he ever gets on will inevitably crash.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Your next line will be: "[X]" ! ^ExplanationPart 2 Joseph had a knack for predicting his opponent's next sentences. He always guessed correctly.
    • [X]! ... Uh!? ^ExplanationThe usual reaction from the above; some responses alternatively read "[X]! ... Nani?!"
  • "SHIIIZAAAAAAAA!!!" ^{Explanation (spoilers)}Joseph's response to finding Caesar's dead body following the latter's unsuccessful fight with the Pillar Men. The tongue-in-cheek usage of this quote tends to be most commonly applied in conjunction with various jokes about the large amounts of Ho Yay between Joseph and Caesar.
  • The infamous anatomy description that appears for Kars when he becomes the Ultimate Being. Partly because it's reminiscent of many a bad DeviantArt Marty Stu, but especially for one stand-out entry pointing out that for Kars, "Sex: USELESS".
  • Esidisi crying: both his face and the sound he makes when crying in the Japanese dub ("HEEEEEEEEEY!") have become rather popular.
  • SEKAI ICHI^note Based on Stroheim's ham-tastic declaration that "German science is the best in the world!" Frequently typed in all caps, often followed by multiple exclamation points, additional 'i's optional ("SEKAI ICHIIII!!!")
  • Ahh! Sto-sama is dead!/あーん!スト様が死んだ! ^{Explanation with mild spoilers for Battle Tendency}Tankobon releases of the manga used to have a section for fan-submitted art. One of the pieces chosen was of the slightly unhinged artist bawling on Straizo's chest at the end of the volume in which he dies. Likely kicked off because of the hilarious Fangirl Self-Insert going on, and goes to show you that Estrogen Brigades as we know it (and the Draco in Leather Pants aspect for that matter) predate the Internet by a loooooong shot.
  • The opening Bloody Stream has become a meme in of itself. Not only is it used in many JoJoke videos, but a lot of parodies will often use that opening as a template, replacing the characters with other people.
  • AIAIAIAIAIAIAIIIIIIIIII/Pillar Man Dubstep^note "Awaken", the Pillar Men theme from the anime, has become memetic in the fan community.
  • I'll never forgive the Japanese!^ExplanationA quote by Old Joseph lamenting that Holly had to live on the other side of the world. It was quickly appropriated by the anime culture, blaming Japan for their weird tastes in storytelling or accusing the Japanese of getting them addicted to anime porn.
  • Eventually, Joseph stopped thinking. ^{Explanation (spoilers)}Fans used this quote to parody the narrator quoting Kars' fate. It's commonly used to describe Joseph's reaction upon discovering that Lisa Lisa (who he peeped on earlier) is his mother.
• Memetic Psychopath: Caesar, due to a line saying that he committed every crime "short of murder." Fans took this to the logical conclusion that he is, among other things, a child sex-trafficking, zoophilic war criminal who removes "do not remove" tags on mattresses.
• Mis-blamed: Due to official translations' tendency for rather clumsy name changes to get around trademark issues, many fans assume the same happened with the names of the Pillar Men as well. However, in this case the My Nayme Is aspects come from the original Japanese^Examples"Esidisi" is a direct transliteration of his name エシディシ, whereas the band uses エーシー・ディーシー; likewise Wamuu's name is written ワムウ in Japanese, while the band Wham! is known as ワム, meaning the "changed" names are the accurate translations.
• Moral Event Horizon: See the dedicated section of this page for examples.
• Narm:
  • Mark's Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of the Pillar Men? Horrifying and dramatic. Caesar and Joseph's immediate reaction afterwards? Not as much.
  • Kars becoming the Ultimate Being is supposed to be a terrifying, momentous scene that signifies a Darkest Hour for our heroes. A pity, then, that Speedwagon hams it up so hard you can practically feel the honey glaze dripping off the screen. Kars' facial expression doesn't really help either.
  YouTube Commenter: Speedwagon has been waiting to go full Speedwagon for lord knows how many episodes.
  • Stroheim's English dub voice is quite hard for some fans to take seriously, partly due to Woren's poor attempt at a German accent and partly due to his cheesy delivery.
  • Although the OP, "Bloody Stream," is an awesome song, its name might remind viewers of something else.
  • Bryce Papenbrook’s performance as Caesar warrants this due to his poor accent, to the point where people will compare it to Billy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
• Narm Charm:
  • The Italian accents that appear in Battle Tendency, particularly Caesar's, are so poorly done that they wreck just about any line that they're spoken in. That being said, they are hilarious, and Caesar's VA reins in some of his accent's more exaggerated parts when the mood needs to be serious.
  • Stroheim's voice in the English dub, despite his corny delivery, is seen as this since it does befit Stroheim's character.
  • Caesar's death is played for all the melodrama it's worth, especially in the anime, where they even break out the opera music. It's still one of the most tragic scenes in the series.
  • The narrator in the English dub maintains his breathless, serious delivery in even the most ridiculous parts of Battle Tendency... which ends up making them even more ridiculous.
  "The cat stance! A fundamental element of kung fu! Caesar has never heard of kung fu!"
• Never Live It Down: The infamous "Tequila Joseph" scene only takes place in the span of a couple of pages, but you'd think from fanworks that Joseph was a lifelong drag queen who continued to enjoy crossdressing all the way into Stardust Crusaders. It helps that noncanon spinoffs such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven lean into it a fair amount.
• One True Threesome: Joseph/Caesar/Suzie Q is a popular OT3 within Part 2 fans.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now: Kars was the first invincible villain where their level is so high, so above the heroes that some readers were able to see a Deus ex Machina coming to save them. Kars becomes an Ultimate Life Form who can use Hamon so powerful it melts its victim's body. Also, because of his new Healing Factor, he's immune to sunlight and cannot die. How do the heroes defeat him now? The series resolved it by having Kars trapped in a volcanic explosion that propels him into outer space, accomplished by a series of coincidences that is explained as nothing but a sheer luck.
• Questionable Casting: Fans were not fond of the dub's decision to give Stroheim an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like accent, making him sound less like the over-the-top character in the Japanese version. Many had wished the dub followed the same direction as the Japanese version and gave Stroheim an overly hammy English voice actor to match his personality.
• Self-Fanservice: The Pillar Men get a lot of this, toning down their highly exaggerated physiques and features into more typical Hunks. Kars will get slimmed down even further into a Long-Haired Pretty Boy with feminine hips.
• Shocking Moments: This is the point where the franchise begins embracing its own absurdity. Battle Tendency is a globe trotting adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones that involves cyborg Nazis, ancient Aztec vampires, and to top it all off, the main villain tops Dio by becoming the Ultimate Lifeform.
• Signature Scene:
  • Joseph crossdressing to sneak into a Nazi compound. This pops up as an alternate costume in Eyes of Heaven.
  • Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi awakening from their slumber. The posing and music are well-known memes, and the moment helps the Pillar Men stand out as some of JoJo's most memorable villains.
  • The death of Caesar and Joseph's response has become very famous for its Narm Charm, as it manages to be a huge Tear Jerker despite how over-the-top it is.
• Spiritual Successor: A mystery surrounding an ancient artifact, a globe trotting adventure, Nazis, and Aztec vampires? It's not called anime's answer to Indiana Jones for no reason. Especially considering Joseph's design for Part 3. Or can be seen if Walter Hill and Terry Gilliam together made an Indiana Jones project instead of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
• Superlative Dubbing: Chris Jai Alex's performance as Esidisi was widely praised.
  • Likewise Ben Diskin is almost universally praised as the best choice to dub Joseph Joestar.
• Squick:
  • Esidisi's nails flipping up and extending veins as tentacles.
  • Esidisi, when reduced to a brain. You can see slime left on Joseph's back and on the doorknob to Lisa Lisa's bath. When he possesses Suzi Q, he ends up mutilating her and trying to make her explode in order to shower his enemies with blood.
  • The scene of Kars transforming his arms into wings includes the thumb claws rippling under and bursting through the skin, as lovingly animated as the rest of the sequence.
  • Joseph's perverted antics on Lisa Lisa, like peeping in on her bathing or even trying to sniff her panties, are extremely gross already; but they become a thousand times worse with the revelation later that she is his mother.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The opening part of Welcome To The World sounds very similar to that of "Owner of a Lonely Heart", also by Yes.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The English dub removing most of Joseph's instances of saying "Oh no!" and changing the German soldiers saying "Tacos!" to "Ouchies!" Also "German science is the greatest in the world!" was changed to "German science is the FINEST in the world!"
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Santana shows a lot of potential to get stronger during his fight with Joseph. He begins to slowly learn the English language and even think past some of Joseph's tactics. Although the series makes a point of him surviving his fight with Joseph and Stroheim, he never appears again.
  • Despite his prominence in the anime opening, Caesar Zeppeli appears for less than half of the story, being introduced after the Santana fight and dying before the chariot race. He is only victorious when he helped Joseph defeat Esidisi after the latter was already reduced to a brain and spinal cord and his Heroic Sacrifice is rendered almost null when Joseph refuses to take the antidote until he defeats Wamuu. Araki himself may have felt the relationship between Joseph and Caesar had untapped potential, which is why Steel Ball Run has the Joestar/Zeppeli bond front-and-center.
  • Due to Executive Meddling, Lisa Lisa suffers from this during the final arc. Despite being a Hamon master and thus being more experienced than Joseph and Caesar combined, has only two rather short fight scenes, one against a one-shot vampire and Kars where she is defeated easily, and then spends the rest of the final battle unconscious. Her past and being Joseph's mother was revealed by other characters. Even if she survives the events of Battle Tendency, not much else of her is revealed aside of remarrying, implying that she lived a normal life. Worse yet is that Joseph actually mentions her in Part 3 when he tells Jotaro that Dio is back, implying that she might still be alive, yet the manga never lets her appear again after Part 2.
  • Straizo.
    • As a returning character from Part 1 who turned evil, became a vampire and claims to have learned from Dio's mistakes, he might have made an interesting antagonist, but he ends up being taken out in Joseph's first major fight. His status as Lisa Lisa's Parental Substitute is only briefly touched upon, and while she says she has "complicated" feelings about Joseph killing him, she never elaborates.
    • One of the last things we see from Straizo before his death is that he fully percieves the danger and threat that comes from The Pillar Men and chooses to warn Joseph about it. Instead of dying at the end of that fight, Straizo could've also been used to better emphasize Santana's threat level by teaming up with Jojo and Stroheim, showing a truly united front from humans and vampires. This almost seemed like it's what was going to occur when Joseph saved him from falling into the river, then Straizo activated the Ripple.
• Too Cool to Live: Caesar. He's a way more accomplished user of Hamon than Joseph and just oozes style. So of course he has to die before the final act.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Mark's death is supposed to be tragic, and just another factor in Caesar's vengeance to be rid of the Pillar Men as fast as possible— But then considering Mark is an unapologetic Nazi who was rather enthusiastic about serving his country, and how little characterization he's given, the audience would not be blamed for simply not caring about what would otherwise be a sad scene.
• Values Dissonance: The fact that Stroheim is an unrepentant Nazi, has done some horrific things in-universe (though he's at least portrayed as A Lighter Shade of Black), and is still on the side of the heroes makes a lot of his scenes come across as awkward today, especially among Western audiences. At the time, Japan's alliance with Germany in World War II was still a relatively recent memory, and the Nazis, while their crimes were known, weren't as looked back on as negatively as they were and are elsewhere. Could be considered Deliberate Values Dissonance, since the story is set in 1938, before World War II started and the true extent of how evil the Nazis were became widely known, but it also counts as unintentional Values Dissonance since it's unlikely that someone would try writing a Nazi character like this nowadays.
• Vindicated by History: Battle Tendency didn't really get much attention in Japan when it was first serialized, as the franchise had yet to achieve widespread popularity. However, the 2012 anime caused the popularity of this part to skyrocket, and it's often considered the best part by many fans. In fact, many fans who got into the franchise through the anime believe that (aside from the even more-loved Diamond is Unbreakable) Battle Tendency is the best part that has been adapted into animation so far.
• Woolseyism:
  • The English dub changes Joseph's taunts toward Santana from untranslatable Japanese wordplay to pretending that Santana is a model. Considering the Pillar Men's reputation in the fandom for looking like strippers, it makes perfect sense.
    Joseph: Oh, I get it. You're one of those strong, silent types, right? Ever thought about modelling? You've got a nice look there!
  • During the final battle between Joseph and Kars, Joseph does his "The next thing you'll say is:" gimmick as a way to prove he is winning the fight. In the original Japanese version, Kars just ends up starting to say the line before being hit by rocks, at which point he says the line fully. In the dub, Kars actually subverts it by asking him how he always knows before scalding rocks launch him even higher, followed by him actually saying what Joseph predicted. This change was well received since it reinforces Joseph's internal line about actually just making it up, since it means Kars fell for it. Fans have also semi-jokingly interpreted this scene as the universe punishing him for saying the wrong line.
  • In the German dub, Stroheim, Donovan, and other members of the Nazi party speak their lines specifically using Berlin dialect. Berliners are known across the rest of Germany as being curt, rude, and unabashed, in no small part thanks to their dialect, so having the Nazis, an infamous Old Shame to Germany, speak in a dialect that's known for being crass and unfriendly is a rather apropos voice direction.