All spoilers for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
"He may have his grandfather's face, but he's far from being a gentleman."
— Robert E. O. Speedwagon
Battle Tendency (戦闘潮流, Sentō Chōryū) is the second part of the long-running manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which originally ran on Shonen Jump from late 1987 to 1989. It is preceded by Phantom Blood and followed by Stardust Crusaders.
Set in 1938 right before World War II, Battle Tendency stars Joseph Joestar, the rough-and-tumble but extremely clever grandson of Jonathan who lives in New York City. When word gets out that Jonathan's best friend and Joseph's adoptive great uncle, Robert E. O. Speedwagon, has apparently been murdered, Joseph sets out to avenge him. However, after defeating Speedwagon's alleged murderer, he learns that Speedwagon is not only alive, but actually being held captive by the Waffen-SS in a research facility in Mexico, led by Commander Rudol von Stroheim. While rescuing Speedwagon, Joseph learns of Stroheim's latest discovery: a race of ancient, superhuman beings known as the Pillar Men, the original creators of the Aztec stone masks (like the one that Dio Brando used to become a vampire). After a heated fight with a Pillar Man in the research facility, Joseph heads to Italy in order to train for his fateful encounter with three more powerful Pillar Men with the help of Caesar Zeppeli (grandson of Jonathan's teacher William Zeppeli) and their mysterious mentor, Lisa Lisa.
Battle Tendency was adapted into episodes 10-26 of the first season of the anime. The English dub of the anime aired in 2016 on Toonami.
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Tropes # to E
- 12-Episode Anime: Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency were both adapted in the first season of the 2012 anime, with Battle Tendency getting 17 of the 26 episodes.
- Adaptation Distillation: The anime removed a scene where Joseph enters a rural Mexican village and gets into a fight with some hostile natives.
- Action Girl:
- Lisa Lisa is Joseph and Caesar's mentor, as well as a talented Hamon warrior who's able to kill vampires.
- During a flashback scene, members of the Pillar Men clan are shown trying to kill Kars in fear of his power. One of the shot shows a Pillar Woman who appears to be fighting without any weapons.
- Action Mom: Unbeknownst to Joseph, his master Lisa Lisa is his mother, and indeed Lisa Lisa kicks much ass.
- Actor Allusion: In the English dub for the 2012 anime, Ben Diskin voices the young Joseph, while Richard Epcar voices an older Joseph in the epilogue. They've also voiced different versions of Xehanort, the antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series' Dark Seeker Saga. This also isn't the first time Diskin has voiced a British action hero.
- Actually a Doombot: When Lisa Lisa fights Kars, she manages to land a fatal strike to the head, but it turns out to have been a vampire in disguise, and the real Kars attacks Lisa Lisa from behind.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, Caesar's dad Mario and three of his siblings are blondes. In the anime, Mario and all siblings are brunettes, leaving Caesar as the only blond in the family.
- Aerosol Spray Backfire: Before talking to Speedwagon in episode 11 of the anime, Von Stroheim is seen killing flies with a can of bug spray, although he winds up choking on it shortly afterwards.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Joseph mourns Wamuu's death after defeating him. The narrator even refers to their relationship as a "bizarre" friendship.
- Ambiguous Gender: Two of Caesar's siblings. In the anime, they are shown to be four children.
◊ Two of them are obviously female as they wear dresses; but the other two have long hair and feminine looks, but dress in shirts and pants like Caesar does, so it's not clear if they are Caesar's brothers or sisters. Although many fans usually interpret it as Caesar having four female siblings. - An Arm and a Leg:
- While Joseph Joestar does defeat the Big Bad, he loses his arm and it is replaced with a prosthetic. This remains all throughout Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable.
- Subverted earlier. Santana appears to have torn Joseph's hand off at one point but he evaded just in time. He faked the injury just to mess with him and the Nazis.
- Soon enough after that, Santana tries to stop Stroheim from reaching the exit door by literally infiltrating one of Stroheim's legs through a wound in it, forcing the German to have Joseph hack his leg off with an axe, in order for them to get through the exit door and defeat Santana with sunlight.
- Anachronism Stew:
- Joseph wields weaponized clackers roughly 30 years before they became a thing.
- When Speedwagon's plane gets hijacked, Joseph can be seen in the manga reading◊ a Superman comic. Given that he's 18 in Battle Tendency, 13 during this flashback and was born in 1920, this means that the flashback was from 1933. Action Comics #1, which introduced Superman, wouldn't be introduced until 1938. The anime changes this to Baoh, which debuted in 1984.
- Anti-Villain: Wamuu is this for the Pillar Men. He has a profound respect for both Joseph and Caesar and in the final battle is more concerned with getting a good fight out of Joseph then getting a victory for Kars.
- Anyone Can Die: Much like Phantom Blood, Araki doesn't hold back with the bloodshed. Once again, numerous background and minor characters are killed off; Caesar, Esidisi, Wamuu, several soldiers and in the epilogue we find out that Stroheim, Speedwagon, and Erina died a few years after Joseph's battle with Kars. For a while there it looked like Joseph would be killed off too, just like Jonathan, but this was a red herring.
- Artistic License – History:
- In the manga, Joseph is reading a Superman comic during a flashback that takes place a few years before the story's main action in 1938, which was the year of Superman's debut.
- Both the manga and the anime state that World War II has begun in 1938, when in reality it only begun a year later.
- Asshole Victim: The Nazis slaughtered by Santana, who just prior to releasing him had murdered several civilians so they could use their blood to release and destroy him. There's also a couple of drunkards who almost run over a dog, prompting Kars to slice the car and its occupants in half to save it.
- Astral Finale: Downplayed, but the final battle between Joseph and Kars ends with a volcanic eruption launching them both to the very edge of the Earth's atmosphere, to the point where stars become visible. Unfortunately for Kars, he gets hit by chunks of debris from the eruption that push him just a little bit further, outside of the Earth's gravitational pull, and dooming him to float through outer space forever. Joseph, meanwhile, survives riding on top of that big piece of rock all the way back down to the sea.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: It's been a month since Joseph Joestar's final clash against Kars on an erupting volcano and no one's heard from them since, so their friends decide to make a funeral for them. However, it turns out Joseph's alive and Suzie Q forgot to send the letters saying he was fine, which only comes to light when they show up at said funeral.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Hilariously parodied when the big, muscular Joseph tries to sneak into a Nazi lab by dressing as a woman.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The track "Welcome to the World" opens with the first two bars of "Owner of a Lonely Heart."
- Award-Bait Song: Season from the Battle Tendency soundtrack definitely qualifies.
- Bathing Beauty: Lisa Lisa, who is said to love baths, but is only shown doing it once.
- Bathtub Scene: Lisa Lisa takes a bath in a clawfoot bathtub after Joseph defeats Esidisi. The anime version definitely increased the fanservice.
- Bigot with a Badge: Heavily implied in the opening of this part. Smokey - an African-American boy - is seen stealing a wallet from Joseph. He is then apprehended by two white police officers, but instead of simply arresting him and returning the wallet to Joseph (as would be the reasonable thing to do), they beat the crap out of Smokey, demand from him he gives them the wallet and pay them money from here on so they don't rough him up further. The manga is set in 1930's New York, and such attitudes were not unusual at the time.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: Subverted when Joseph teases a cat with a piece of salmon, then kicks and insults it. The scene seems to be Played for Laughs due to the music and Joseph's snark, but immediately afterwards he admits that this was mean, even for a Jerk with a Heart of Gold like him, and that he only did that was because the stress of everything he's going through is getting to his head.
- Bland-Name Product: Coco Cola.
- Book Ends: Joseph wins the first fight of Battle Tendency by using Hamon to launch a bottlecap off a bottle, and he wins the last fight by using Kars' Hamon amplified by the Red Stone to cause a volcanic eruption which sends the slab he and Kars were standing on sky-high, like a bottlecap launched off a bottle.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Joseph Joestar is a natural Hamon prodigy, but unfortunately is too lazy to train, and relies on his brains instead.
- Cactus Cushion: Joseph is attacked by a German agent, Donovan, while in Mexico. Joseph tries to punch him, but Donovan uses a cactus hidden in his cloak to block the attack, causing him to hurt his hand. Joseph does manage to turn the tables, however, by using his Hamon to make a cactus explode right into Donovan's face, turning him into a Human Pincushion. After defeating him, Joseph leaves Donovan tied to the cactus.
- Call-Forward: In the intro to the anime, purple thorny vines make a brief appearance in the background. This references Joseph's future Stand, Hermit Purple, in Part 3.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Who would've imagined that the little orphaned baby Erina rescued at the end of Part 1 would grow up to be Lisa Lisa, Joseph's mother and Hamon teacher in Part 2?
- Child Prodigy: Joseph was able to effectively use Hamon since he was a child without any formal training. However, he still had to go through Training from Hell in order to defeat the Pillar Men.
- Climactic Volcano Backdrop: The Final Battle between Joseph and Ultimate Kars takes place on the top of an erupting volcano.
- Confusion Fu: Joseph's fighting style generally involves him being unpredictable and confusing the opponent while reading what they will do and acting accordingly.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: While Dio and Straizo are very dangerous vampires that presented real threats to the heroes of Part 1 and Joseph, respectively, the army of vampires created by Kars is only a threat in that there are so many of them. Slightly justified in that Dio and Straizo were peak humanity before becoming vampires while the vampire army wasn't, but even so, it's a rather big power creep.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: While there are more close fights than in Part 1, there are also a few utter stomps:
- Joseph's "fight" against the brass knuckles-wielding gangster serves as an Establishing Character Moment, showcasing Joseph's Awesomeness by Analysis. He effortlessly reads every move the thug tries to make, and easily parries his punch with a hat rack, breaking his hand and putting him out of commission.
- Lisa Lisa vs. Wired Beck is over before the vampire even realizes the fight's started. Lisa Lisa throws her Hamon-charged scarf at him, and though he rips it to shreds, he's already taken a lethal dose of Hamon and melts shortly afterwards.
- Decoy Protagonist:
- Jonathan Joestar, the protagonist of the previous part. Joseph Joestar is the first to inherit the nickname JoJo and begins the trend of future protagonists (descended from Jonathan and Joseph) doing the same.
- From the perspective of an anime viewer, Joseph is Jonathan's replacement following his untimely death in Season 1 Episode 9. Watching the anime will play this trope more straight.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: While Joseph and his family are progressive and ahead for their time towards the African American Smokey, Smokey faces racist harassment from the Dirty Cops to the gangster customer in the restaurant.
- Denser and Wackier: This part marks the point where the series starts to become a bit more self-aware and run with the silliness it provides, from the fairly weird and inventive ways Joseph and Caesar both use their Hamon, to the fact that one of Joseph's allies is eventually a Cyborg Nazi. One of the villains is a crybaby, and is part of a trio that strike a lot more poses than either Dio or Jonathan in Phantom Blood... culminating in the main villain becoming a Glam Metal screaming bird vampire who constantly licks his lips.
- Design Student's Orgasm: The Bloody Stream opening is chock-full of this. The anime and the manga also qualify, what with the love of abstract backgrounds, and the creative approach to coloring and costume design.
- Dirty Cop: Joseph's Establishing Character Moment has him rescue a street thief from a duo of corrupt officers who unjustly beat up Smokey for stealing a wallet, then attempt to keep the wallet to themselves "as proof" before blackmailing Smokey to keep stealing and give him part of the money.
- Disguised in Drag: Parodied. The enormous, ridiculously muscular Joseph tries to sneak into a Nazi lab by dressing as a woman. It doesn't work.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the English dub of the anime, Wamuu uses the word "dynamite" during his first fight with Joseph, even though he shouldn't have had the chance to learn that word since he just woke up after thousands of years. The manga and Japanese anime have him refer to the stick of dynamite with vaguer terms instead (a "thing" or an "explosive").
- Dubstep: Used in scenes with the Pillar Men in the 2012 anime.
- Dub Text: During the car ride in New York, Joseph in the manga and sub is a Shipper on Deck for Erina and Speedwagon (asking if they dated in the manga and saying they should date in the anime.) The English dub instead has him questioning Erina on whether Jonathan and Speedwagon were just friends, even pointing out how Speedwagon never married anyone.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Joseph goes through Training from Hell after which he loses Loggs to Mentor Occupational Hazard, has to live with Survivor Guilt when Caesar dies heroically in battle, narrowly wins a gruelling duel with Wamuu, and has his hand cut off during his final battle with Kars before crash landing in the middle of the ocean. But the Pillar Men are defeated, the epilogue reveals that Joseph and his surviving allies lived long and happy lives (barring Stroheim, who met his end during the Battle of Stalingrad), and the world is, for now, safe.
- Eating the Enemy:
- This was one of Santana's, the first pillar man Joseph encounters, tactics of choice. He's notable for having the ability to extend his ribs out of his body to attack his enemies. And his chest powers don't stop there; he can actually devour people through his chest. He did this to a vampire the facility sent in to test him and tried to do this to Joseph. To bad for him, Joseph wanted him to do this so he could fill the demon with Hamon energy.
- Later, Mark the Nazi gets half of his body eaten by Wammu when the latter walks through him.
- Eat the Bomb: Esidisi eats a lit dynamite stick whose explosion causes him as much damage as a burp.
- Elemental Powers: The main trio of Pillar Men have techniques that invoke an element, called Modes. Unlike regular elemental powers, their techniques are simply the manipulation of their powerful bodies. Only Santana is shown to not have any Mode.
- Wamuu's Wind Mode can create Razor Wind by making a quick slicing motion. He possesses tube like organs that suck up the air and blow it out of the body at high speed, enabling manipulation of gusts of wind. His strongest technique, Divine Sandstorm, is about twisting his arms fast enough to create a vortex.
- Esidisi's Heat Mode can heat up his body temperature up to hundreds of degrees Celsius, so his blood can set wood on fire and burn right through flesh.
- Kars possesses Light Mode, where he sprouts chainsaw-like blades from his arms and legs. The reflection of the light on the moving blades make them glow.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Subverted in the case of Stroheim. He prepares to execute a bunch of prisoners to feed their blood to the Pillar Men, but secretly resolves to spare the strongest of them. The one he deems to be the strongest turns out to be the child who was willing to die to protect his people (ironically meaning the boy got the exact opposite of his wish).
- Evil Takes a Nap: the Pillar Men have been hibernating beneath the Colosseum (and Santana beneath an Aztec temple) since the Roman era, but are awakened by Those Wacky Nazis in search of supernatural things to weaponize.
Tropes F to O
- Face–Heel Turn: Straizo kicks off the plot of part 2 by embracing vampirism and seemingly killing Speedwagon out of jealousy over Dio's immortality and eternal youth.
- Family Honor: Caesar first subverted this by renouncing his family pride when his father Mario left him and his siblings. Later when Mario saved Caesar from the Pillar Men, despite not recognizing his son, he made a complete U-turn and began to take great pride in his lineage.
- Fatal Family Photo: Happens to a German soldier named Mark. His locket with his fiancée's photo in it even falls significantly to the floor as he dies.
- Fate Worse than Death: What can be worse than dying? How about being launched into space after becoming immortal and unable to die while drifting in the endless always-expanding frontier, and desiring death so much to escape the misery that you're forced to cease thinking altogether. Isn't that right, Kars?
- Fist Pump: Joseph lifts a victorious fist toward Kars as a volcano eruption is propelling the latter into space.
- Flaw Exploitation: Joseph Joestar is a master of this. He exploits Straizo's intelligence to repeatedly trick him, Wamuu's Blood Knight tendencies to convince him to spare Joseph on the grounds that he would make a great adversary given time to train, and uses Kars' obsession with the Red Stone of Aja to protect himself.
- Free-Fall Fight: In Switzerland, Joseph and Kars are chasing after the Red Stone of Aja which is sliding toward a cliff. Both jump and a struggle ensues between the two as they fall down the cliff. Joseph thankfully manages to grab the Stone and stop his fall.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The magazine that Joseph reads in the café contains an excerpt from "The Rise of Silas Lapham".
- Friendly Rivalry: Joseph and Caesar at the start of their friendship, which became Heterosexual Life-Partners after their training.
- Genocide from the Inside: Kars did this when his race refused to join in attempting to become ultimate lifeforms. Only three survivors were left; his loyal follower and two infants he raised to be his servants.
- Guile Hero: Joseph is one par excellence, and by far the best example among the JoJos. He is so good at reading and predicting his enemies' moves that he can predict what they're going to say.
- Greater-Scope Villain:
- Kars is retroactively this to Part 1, being the one who created the Stone Mask that allowed Dio to become a vampire and hailing from a race where the purpose of the Stone Mask was to create vampires, which his kind eat. This also means he's the Greater-Scope Villain to parts 3-6, where DIO is a major factor in several characters' motivations.
- Though he's overshadowed by the Pillar Men, Dio Brando still haunts the Joestars despite being trapped at the bottom of ocean for the entirety of Part 2. Not only is the power he displayed in Phantom Blood part of what motivates Straizo's Face–Heel Turn, but one of his henchmen is responsible for Joseph losing both of his parents due to murdering George Joestar II and then being killed by Lisa Lisa and forcing her to go into hiding since he was a army officer.
- Happily Married:
- Lisa Lisa was once this with George Joestar II, until George was killed by one of Dio's zombies.
- Joseph and Suzie Q get married at the end of this part.
- Heel–Face Turn: S.S. Commander Rudol von Stroheim and his entire platoon of German soldiers pulls one once Joseph squares off with Santana, as Joseph and the Nazis both share the common enemy of the Pillar Men.
- Henohenomoheji: Joseph draws one of those on a decoy dummy for Kars.
- Heroic BSoD: Joseph briefly enters this, calmly accepting his death, after having his left hand cut off by Kars and suffering a brutal Hamon-boosted Knee Capping. It's only when his body instinctively pulled out the Red Stone of Aja he took with him at the last second, deflecting the Hamon and regains the will to defeat Kars.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When the Nazis tell a bunch of captured civilians that they need to kill one of them, and tell them that if they can choose someone to be killed then they'll let everyone else go, a young boy volunteers to die to save his fellow prisoners. Unfortunately for him (and everyone else), this was a Social Darwinist Secret Test of Character to pick the one exceptional enough to deserve to live, and everyone except him is killed instead.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Kars' own Adaptive Ability renders it impossible for him to ever make it back to Earth.
- Human Subspecies: The Pillar Men. They were a tribe of pre-history Mesoamerican Horned Humanoids who were physically harmed by sunlight, but had long lifespans and advanced technology; as such, they were worshiped as gods by early humanity. The four Pillar Men in the present only survived by using the Stone Mask, which gave them immortality and Body Horror-tastic body-manipulation powers. Kars, the leader of the four and the creator of the Stone Mask, wiped out the rest of the tribe when they tried to kill him.
- Hyper-Awareness: Joseph is uncannily sharp about noticing things right away about his enemies.
- Immortality Seeker: Straizo became more aware of his mortality the older he got, which made him try to find the source of DIO's powers.
- Immunity Disability: Kars ends up gaining immortality and an auto-evolution ability after combining the Stone Mask and Red Stone of Aja. Joseph uses this ability against him by throwing him into an active volcano where he hardens in defense as it's about to erupt. He gets launched into space and is stuck floating around forever; eventually his mind shuts down completely.
- Indy Ploy: Pretty much everything Joseph does is one, thanks to his quick thinking and ability to read his opponents. He even defeats Kars this way!
- Interim Villain: With Dio being saved for Stardust Crusaders, Kars takes the spotlight as the Big Bad in this part as the creator of the Stone Mask.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: The epilogue has one of these scenes, which contrasts nicely with Attending Your Own Funeral.
- Just as Planned: At the end of the final fight, Joseph creates a volcanic eruption which propels Kars into outer space due to sheer luck and instinct. That didn't stop Joseph from saying he planned it all along, just to tick Kars off.
- Killer Rabbit: After Kars achieves his goal of godhood, the first thing he does is turn his hand into a squirrel, much to the confusion of everyone present. Said squirrel plows a hole through Stroheim's stomach and rips off another soldier's face.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Right from the get-go, readers for this part are told that Jonathan died during his honeymoon and Dio used the Stone Mask to turn into a vampire.
- Last Episode Theme Reprise: "Sono Chi No Sadame," the theme music from Phantom Blood, kicks in at the end of the final battle when Joseph uses the Red Stone of Aja to blast Ultimate Kars into space.
- Life Will Kill You: Erina is revealed to have died of old age a few years after Joseph defeated the Pillar Men in the epilogue. Also implied to have happened to Tonpetty between parts.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Lisa Lisa is Joseph's long-lost mother, who went into hiding after she killed her husband's murderer, who was his commanding officer and one of Dio's zombies.
- Macho Latino: The Pillar Men, who are a a group of 7 foot tall, extremely muscular and powerful ancient Aztec vampiric beings who enjoy making poses when they aren't busy slaughtering their opponents.
- Manly Tears:
- Though he tries to hold it in, Joseph sheds much tears upon Caeser's death.
- Esidisi also cries to get a hold of his emotions, whenever he feels like he is about to lose it.
- Mayincatec: The Pillar Men have this vibe to them, as they originate from South America and wear tribal costumes.
- Mental Shutdown: The ultimate fate of Kars after getting launched into the stratosphere on Isola di Volgana. He's launched into space at escape velocity and freezes before he can reverse his direction, floating off into space as an unkillable, completely stationary superbeing. Eventually, he stops thinking.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Joseph's Hamon mentor Loggins is killed by Esidisi not long after the audience is introduced to him. This is averted with Caesar's Hamon mentor Messina (though barely) and Lisa Lisa herself, as she survives to the end of the series and even gets a mention in Stardust Crusaders.
- Mirrors Reflect Everything: A notable aversion concerning Straizo's Eye Beams, which are composed of vitreous humor fired at high pressure and thus are not reflected when fired at a mirror.
- Missing Reflection: Exploited by Joseph Joestar in his fight against the vampire Straizo, who thinks he managed to score a fatal hit with his Eye Beams, only to realize that Joseph was behind him the whole time, while he only hit his reflection in the mirror.
- Modernized God: Downplayed. After awakening, Kars finds a time-period-appropriate Badass Long Coat and hat to wear unlike the other Pillar men.
- Molotov Cocktail: Joseph uses one against Wamuu in their second fight.
- Monochromatic Impact Shot: During the death of George Joestar II at the hands of DIO's last zombie, the camera pans away from him at the last second to a red background, before it gets splattered with black blood as we hear him screaming.
- Mook: The only reason why Wired Beck exists is to show how skilled Lisa Lisa is at using Hamon.
- Multinational Team: The main cast is composed of a British man (Joseph), an Italian (Caesar), a British-Italian-Tibetan Monk (Lisa Lisa} and a German Nazi (Stroheim).
- Musical Theme Naming: Once again continued with many characters having names that are music references. Like Phantom Blood many of the references are to rock bands who were prominent in the 70's and early 80's but a few pop music references were thrown into the mix to change things up.
- My Blood Runs Hot: Esidisi, a Pillar Man, has a special Mode that allows him to boil his Blood up to 500 degrees and inject said blood into anything.
- Nonverbal Miscommunication: After Joseph sets off the oil trap inside the pillar, Caesar looks at him with a none-too-happy expression on his face, and Joseph assumes Caesar's blaming him, since they haven't gotten along very well thus far. Caesar's thoughts reveal that he's actually concerned for Joseph; Caesar's not very confident in his own chances of getting through this situation, much less those of a novice like Joseph.
- Not Quite Dead: Esidisi fakes being killed by Joseph to infiltrate Air Supplena Island undisturbed and manages to snatch the Red Stone of Aja from the Hamon users.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: Pillar Men sleep in stone pillars, fusing with the rock to protect themselves from sunlight.
- One Cast Member per Cover: The JoJonium edition features Joseph, Lisa Lisa, Caesar, and Kars on the cover of each respective volume, featuring new art by Hirohiko Araki.
- Our Vampires Are Different: While they're never actually called vampires, the Pillar Men display a lot of the same abilities as vampires in Jojo, such as regeneration, life draining, and body manipulation. However, Pillar Men can take those abilities further, altering their bodies as will and devouring people by absorbing them with a single touch. Justified, since the Pillar Men created vampires in the first place. It is implied that Kars' Stone Masks actually awakened these abilities in him and his allies, as he and Esidisi used their abilities to kill off the rest of their tribe.
Tropes P to Z
- The Peeping Tom: Joseph peeks in on Lisa Lisa at one point while she bathes. Much fun has been had juxtaposing this scene with
his reaction when he finds out that Lisa Lisa is his mother."Nice!" - Pet the Dog: Kars, who is to vampires what vampires are to humans, slaughters a bunch of people driving past who was going to run over a puppy, making this both a dog-petting and a dog-kicking.
- Pistol-Whipping: Machine gun ran out of ammo, but the bad guy isn't dead yet? Joseph Joestar provides a simple solution◊.
- Plot Hole: The most notorious example plot-wise would be why the heroes simply didn't just smash the Red Stone of Aja when they had it in their possession in Venice. This is Hand Waved by a legend passed down among the Hamon masters that destroying it would make defeating the Pillar Men even harder while Lisa Lisa who justifies that it will be their greatest weapon against them due to it being shown as a powerful light and therefore, Hamon amplifier. The problem is that they know that the Pillar Men need it as this trait is exactly what they need to make the stone masks work for them, meaning that smashing it will pretty much put a stop to their plans. However, the Pillar Men are vampiric demigods of mass-destruction even without the stone anyway, so...
- Poison and Cure Gambit: When Joseph promises that he would make a great opponent if he was given time to train, resident Blood Knight Wamuu cannot resist the temptation after millennia of being unchallenged. He isn't completely fooled and administers poison to Joseph, while keeping the only antidote in his lip ring so Joseph has to seek him out.
- Poor Communication Kills: Caesar's father, Mario, abandoned his children to find a way to stop the Pillar Men before they became a threat. However, he neglected to tell any of his children this and left them in poverty. This caused Caesar to grow to resent his father, become a criminal, and try to kill him, only learning too late of what his father was up to. If Mario had just trusted his kids with at least part of the truth, his death could possibly have been prevented.
- The Power of the Sun: Hamon is still in use by the protagonists. This would be the last part it would be the focus of the main characters, before it was largely replaced with Stands.
- Prelude to War: Battle Tendency happens in 1937 as Nazi Germany militarizes itself. However, the Nazis are not the bad guys this time.
- Rags to Riches:
- Speedwagon went from being a London street thug to an incredibly wealthy oil tycoon who funds studies and research.
- Joseph starts off as a delinquent who picks fights with people in the streets. After defeating the Pillar Men, he becomes a wealthy realtor.
- Rated M for Manly: The story is already manly, but special mention to the Pillar Men. Santana gives zero cares about the Nazis he massacres with the very bullets he was shot with, Wamuu is a proud, honorable warrior who respects his opponents, Esidisi has no qualms about expressing his emotions, and Kars will stop at nothing to get the Red Stone and become the Ultimate Life Form. Since they all are muscular and pose like bodybuilders in a way that would make Jonathan, Joseph, and Jotaro pale in comparison, they aren’t called the Aztec Gods of Fitness for nothing. Even their character theme will give you muscle mass just by listening to it!
- Razor Wind: Wamuu can twist his arms so violently they create a small tornado, able to grind a stone pillar to bits.
- Relative Ridicule: When they first meet, Caesar makes no effort to hide his dislike of Joseph and the rest of the Joestar family, calling Joseph an idiot with weak Hamon ignorant of his own family's legacy and blames Johnathan for the death of Caesar's grandfather William. Needless to say Joseph is not pleased by any of it, and even Speedwagon, who's trying to play peacemaker, thinks Caesar's going too far.
- Roller Coaster Mine: Joseph makes good use of one in Part 2 in an attempt to escape from the Pillar Men.
- Say My Name: Joseph famously shouts Caesar Zeppeli's name after finding out about his death.
- Schmuck Bait: The Hell Climb Pillar can only be climbed by using Hamon, but a crack midway up, around when it truly starts getting difficult, seems like a convenient handhold. In reality, it hides a pressure plate that causes the pillar to spew oil at high pressure, making the climb much more difficult.
- Sequel Hook: The final scene of this part is Joseph at John F. Kennedy Airport preparing to leave for Japan talking about his grandson who lives over there. The next part follows up on this with Joseph in Japan visiting his grandson in jail... who is the protagonist of the next part.
- Sexy Mentor: Lisa Lisa, who teaches Joseph the use of Hamon, and also a Ms. Fanservice for Joseph. The fact that she is Joseph's mother makes it rather squicky.
- She-Fu: Lisa Lisa's fighting style is incredibly gracious, involving somersaulting over her enemies with the help of her scarf, which can harden and serve as a pole and rope.
- Sherlock Scan: Joseph does this to his enemies, along with predicting exactly what his foe is going to say next, catching them completely off guard.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. While the Algorithm may have turned vampires into Mooks when the Pillar Men arrived, Hamon users still have only a limited amount of stamina which means they can't go One-Man Army on a large group of them.
- Space Is Cold: In the climax of the story, Kars is launched into space and is unable to fly back to earth because the vents he use to fly freeze over instantly.
- Sparing the Aces: Joseph convinces Wamuu via Scheherezade Gambit that it would be a waste for a Proud Warrior Race Guy to kill the one creature who has a chance of becoming the Worthy Opponent that he seeks.
- Spoiler Opening:
- The shot of Joseph unleashing a Skyward Scream after putting on Caesar's bandanna heavily implies the latter's death, particularly given the fate of his grandfather in the previous part.
- There's also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment ten seconds in where it shows Joseph at various stages of his life, including a silhouette of Old Joseph using Hermit Purple. Some shots of Joseph in silhouette also have Hermit Purple vines faintly fly across the screen.
- More noticeably, the opening directly shows Kars as the Ultimate Lifeform with dawn breaking behind him, foreshadowing that he achieves his goals and becomes immune to sunlight in the process.
- Spoiler Title: The title of Episode 18, "Von Stroheim's Revenge," spoils the return of the character in question, which happens at the end of the episode. Stroheim had seemingly died during the fight against Santana several episodes ago, so his return is quite the surprise.
- The Stinger: In the anime. After the credits for Phantom Blood, the expedition that leads to Santana's rise can be seen. After the credits for Battle Tendency, Dio's coffin is shown being raised in 1983 and Jotaro Kujo is sitting in his jail cell, setting up the beginning of Stardust Crusaders.
- Stupid Jet Pack Hitler: The Nazis can create cyborgs, but their technology is still inferior to the Pillar Men's prowess.
- Stripperiffic: All four of the Pillar Men are dressed in little more than a thong with some Aztec-looking accessories, though this is primarily meant to show how ancient they are. Joseph himself, while not nearly as much as the Pillar Men, is also prone to wearing revealing clothing, and his most iconic outfit has him wearing a midriff-baring crop top that also shows his muscled arms. One piece of artwork for the anime adaptation has him wear ripped jeans belonging to Jolyne.
- Suddenly Shouting: While Esidisi taunts Joseph during their duel, down to stealing his catchphrase, he taunts a shocked Joseph by asking if he, perhaps, stunned him with his accurate deconstruction of his plan, or perhaps he hit the bullsEYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEE????
- Suicide by Sunlight: Straizo, transformed into a vampire but defeated by Joseph, kills himself by using the last of his remaining Hamon.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Lisa Lisa, who looks no older than 30, even though she's about 50. She is a Hamon master, which has the side effect of making you age slower.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The Nazis are apparently aware of everything that goes on with Joseph through their spy network. However, this also happens to be to the benefit of the protagonists, as they are able to stop the Red Stone of Aja from being delivered to Kars when Suzi Q, possessed by Esidisi's disembodied brain, sends it to him.
- Scheherezade Gambit: An injured Joseph promises that he would make a great opponent for resident Blood Knight Wamuu if the latter spared him and gave him a month to train, since Joseph already injured him without training. It only works since Wamuu decides to play along and double down with a Poison and Cure Gambit, making the fight obligatory.
- Symbolic Blood: When Joseph takes a bad hit during his fight with Esidisi, Lisa Lisa's glass of red wine cracks and leaks all over her tablecloth on another part of the island.
- Talking Is a Free Action:
- During Joseph's first encounter with Wamuu, the Pillar Man cuts his wrist, explicitly stating that he's only got one minute to stop the bleeding before passing out ("Here is an hourglass measured in blood.") In that time, he manages to hit Wamuu with his Clacker Boomerang attack, follow that up with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, then gets hit by the Divine Sandstorm, survives, plays dead for long enough to fool the Pillar Men into thinking he's dead while slowly sneaking towards a minecart, rides down a tunnel, then talks Wamuu into letting him go. To put this into perspective, the wrist-cutting happens less than halfway into the episode, and we never see him treat his wound before the credits start to roll. Adding another layer to the free-action-ness of this, Joseph lights a stick of dynamite after getting on the minecart. It doesn't go off until after he's finished giving Wamuu his speech and Esidisi's swallowed it, several real-time minutes later.
- When Joseph and Kars tumble off a cliff in St. Moritz, the narrator explicitly states that they have five seconds of falling until they impact the ground below. Yet, the both of them seem to have enough time to fight for the Red Stone and attempt to outwit each other.
- Telephone Polearm: During Joseph's chariot race against Wamuu, the first weapon is a large hammer hanging from a pillar. Joseph thinks he's got the advantage when he manages to take the lead and snatch the hammer, only to realize that Wamuu is able to use his Super-Strength to take the pillar itself as an even more powerful weapon.
- Theme Music Power-Up: In the climax of the final battle between Joseph and Kars. Notable in that the theme music in question is "Sono Chi no Sadame" — the theme music from the Phantom Blood arc.
- Theme Tune Cameo: Although it's hard to make out, the faux guitar noises Kars makes while "playing" Lisa Lisa's leg are to the tune of Roundabout.
- Those Wacky Nazis: After hearing about Straizo's vampirism and the Pillar Men, they become minor antagonists as they wish to use them to enhance their armies. In an ironic twist, they later become allies to Joseph and his friends, as they do not wish for the Pillar Men to destroy all of humanity either."It is I, Stroheim, and the Nazi Protection Agency!"
- Time Skip: Takes place 50 years after the events of Phantom Blood.
- Training from Hell: Lisa Lisa's Hamon training begins with throwing her students in a pit with a large central tower that constantly gushes oil (more like vegetable oil than crude oil), meaning they have to master their Hamon in order to climb out or else die of starvation. On top of that, since Joseph never learned Hamon breathing, Lisa Lisa fits him with a special mask that forces him to breathe properly or else suffocate. In the end it takes him two and a half days to climb out of the pit.
- Truth Serum: Stroheim gives one to Speedwagon to force him to divulge what he knows about the Pillar Men. Speedwagon is horrified to find out that it worked.
- Turn Out Like His Father: After George is killed and Lisa Lisa is sent on the run for taking down his killer, Erina decides that it would be best to tell Joseph that both of his parents are dead, lest he follows in their footsteps.
- Ultimate Life Form: The Pillar men. Their end goal is to become this but they're pretty damn close!
- Kars succeeds in becoming this at the end.
- Villain-Beating Artifact: Defied. Lisa Lisa states that it's prophesized that the Red Stone of Aja is the only way to defeat the Pillar Men for good. By contrast, not only are Esidisi and Wamuu defeated through Joseph's Hamon skills alone, but the Red Stone ultimately ends up becoming the heroes' undoing, as Kars uses it to transform into the Ultimate Life Form.
- Wham Line:
- After the shocking death of Jonathan in the previous part, this Part introduces a new character, whose introductory line completely redefines how the story was set up to that point.
Joseph: Joestar - Joseph Joestar. You can call me JoJo.- As Lisa Lisa is in danger, Smokey gives a surprising revelation about her.
Smokey: Jojo doesn't know. He doesn't know the woman he's trying to save is his mother. - Wham Shot:
- As Kars lies on his stomach, seemingly defeated, Stroheim prepares to fire the UV amplifier to finish him off. At that moment, Kars turns his head to reveal that he's wearing a stone mask with the perfect Red Stone of Aja in it.
- As the now old Joseph takes the flight to Tokyo to meet his daughter and grandson, the story immediately goes 4 years back to 1983, where Dio's coffin from Part 1 has surfaced again and is open.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: As this is the last Part to feature Hamon, the status of the Hamon Tribe/Ripple Warriors after this is in the air. Were those men accompanying Straizo, who took over Tonpetty's position, all that were left? Do any still exist in Central America? We may never know.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Prior to the buildup to Stardust Crusaders.
- Lisa Lisa eventually revealed to Joseph that she was his mother, then went on to marry an incredibly lucky Hollywood screenwriter.
- Erina Joestar, Joseph's grandmother, worked as a teacher before quietly passing away at the age of 81 surrounded by her loved ones.
- Robert E.O. Speedwagon continued his several capital ventures, which paved the way for new advances in science and medicine. He died at the age of 89 of a heart attack.
- Rudol von Stroheim continued to fight in the German army. He was killed in action in the Battle of Stalingrad.
- Smokey Brown went on to graduate college with a major in political science, eventually becoming the first black mayor in his home state of Georgia.
- Joseph married Suzi Q and started a family. 50 years later, in 1987, he boards a plane to Tokyo when his grandson gets into trouble...
- Writing Around Trademarks: In the manga, a flashback shows Joseph reading a Superman comic. In the anime, presumably due to some licensing issues, he's instead reading Baoh, one of Araki's pre-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure works.
- Wrongly Accused: Well, technically Lisa Lisa did kill that high-ranking British officer she's accused of murdering — it's just that she was the only one who knew he was secretly a bloodsucking undead monster.
- Years Too Early: While preparing a coup de grace against Kars, Joseph tells him that he may be thousands of years old, but he's still 10 years too early to beat Joseph's wits.
GAAAHH!!! OH NO! Unbelievable! What the hell was that woman thinking!? Wait!!
