Jotaro Kujo

Character Inspiration

Creator Hirohiko Araki has stated that Jotaro was modeled on the American actor Clint Eastwood. Araki's father was an Eastwood fan, and when Araki was in elementary school, he went with his father to see Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The film made a deep impression on him. He went on to watch Eastwood's films as both an actor and a director, and Eastwood became Araki's ideal image of a hero. This influence can be seen in Jotaro's restrained speech and movements: he stands quietly with his hands in his pockets during a fight, yet delivers attacks of tremendous speed and destructive force.

The Hat

Jotaro's most recognizable features are his hat and school uniform. The design was inspired by the combination of a desert setting and a school uniform in Babel II, as well as delinquent manga such as Ai to Makoto. When Araki drew the hat, he decided that it would become Jotaro's trademark, keeping it on him even when the story required him to dive underwater. Araki also deliberately blurred the boundary between the hat and Jotaro's hair. He felt that marking out the boundary in white and then drawing it in would look awkward, so he blended the hat and hair together.

Identity and Background

Jotaro lives in Japan. His father is a Japanese jazz musician, and his mother, Holly Kujo, is an American of British descent who has lived in Japan for 20 years. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Joestar, is a New York real estate tycoon. After DIO awakens, his curse causes Jotaro and Joseph, who share the Joestar bloodline, to awaken their Stands. Holly also develops a Stand, but she cannot control it and instead suffers at its hands. To save her, Jotaro, Joseph and their companions decide to travel to Egypt and kill DIO, the source of the curse.

Appearance

Like the other men of the Joestar family, Jotaro is tall and muscular, with a broad torso. Those with Joestar blood have a star-shaped birthmark on the back of the neck, and Jotaro, as Joseph's grandson through his daughter, has one too. He has black hair and slightly green irises. Jotaro's appearance in different art styles:

His designs across the different parts:

Personality

Jotaro feels no need to make a deliberate display of his emotions because he assumes that others can already tell how he feels. As a result, he is often misunderstood as cold, rebellious and uninterested in everything, which frequently gets him into trouble. His catchphrase is “Good grief” (yare yare daze).

In Part 4, Jotaro guides Josuke Higashikata as an experienced mentor. Part 6 places him in a father's role, revealing how deeply he cares for Jolyne Cujoh despite his distant manner.

Jotaro likes reading books about aircraft and ships, and he likes clean colors. His favorite athlete is Chiyonofuji, his favorite musician is Toshinobu Kubota, and his favorite film is Never Cry Wolf. In high school, his classmates call him “JOJO” because both the “jo” in Kujo and the “jo” in Jotaro can be read as “JO.” He is extremely popular with the girls at school. They often greet him on his way to school in the morning and argue over him. Even when he finds them annoying and scolds them, they are pleased that he has paid attention to them. Others see him as a delinquent. He fights brutally, leaving some people hospitalized. Teachers who merely bluster without any real competence become afraid to come to school after he teaches them a lesson. He often refuses to pay for meals, saying that the food served by those restaurants is bad.

After graduating, Jotaro studied marine biology and became a researcher. During his stay in Morioh, he also wrote a thesis on starfish. His scientific work continued alongside his investigations involving Stands.

General Abilities

Muhammad Avdol names Jotaro's Stand “Star Platinum” after the seventeenth Tarot card, The Star. It is extremely fast and strong enough to shatter teeth as hard as diamonds. Its precision allows it to catch a handgun bullet at point-blank range. Its exceptional eyesight can serve as both a telescope and a microscope; it even spots a fly in a dark image of DIO produced through Hermit Purple's spirit photography. It can deliver a rapid barrage of punches while shouting “Ora!” It has also used the technique Star Finger, extending its index and middle fingers to pierce an opponent. However, this requires time to charge and is slower than a direct attack, so it is used only when circumstances put Jotaro on the defensive. Against Justice, it once used its enormous lung capacity to inhale the opposing Stand. Initially, Star Platinum is simply a close-range power-type Stand.

Star Platinum's direct attacks normally reach only about two meters from Jotaro. Stopping time lasts only seconds and requires a brief interval before another use. Observation, bluffing and careful timing remain central to his fighting style.

Techniques

• Star Platinum: The World: An ability awakened during the battle against DIO's Stand, The World, allowing it to stop time. The duration varies between works: five seconds at its peak, 0.5 to two seconds in Part 4, and two seconds at the beginning of Part 6 before returning to five seconds in the final battle. According to JOJO MAGAZINE, its reduced Part 6 statistics result from physical factors; the chart is not a separate set of statistics for this technique, as is sometimes claimed online.
• Steel-Ball Flicking: Star Platinum launches steel balls or bullets from its fingertips to strike distant enemies, using its A-rated Precision to compensate for its C-rated Range. This is not a regular technique in Part 4 and is used only once.

Stand Statistics

The decline in the later Part 6 statistics is due to physical factors, rather than the chart being a separate set of statistics for a technique.

Time-stop Names and Game Versions

Star Platinum: The World is the name Jotaro uses for his time-stop technique. DIO’s The World is a separate Stand with a similar power. Star Platinum Over Heaven, which can rewrite reality, belongs to the game Eyes of Heaven and its separate storyline; that ability is not part of Jotaro’s standard powers in the manga or TV anime.

Awakening his Stand

In 1983, the coffin containing Dio Brando was recovered from the sea. In 1986, DIO acquired a Stand, and his influence caused members of the Joestar family to awaken Stand abilities to varying degrees that same year. In December 1987, Jotaro mistakenly believed that a ghost was haunting him and shut himself in jail to avoid hurting anyone. Joseph and Muhammad Avdol drew out his Stand, leading him to confront the reality of its power. Avdol used the tarot cards to name it “Star Platinum.” At his introduction, Jotaro is a tall, handsome high school student from a wealthy family and a school idol admired by girls. Calm, intelligent, outwardly cold but warmhearted, and possessed of a strong sense of justice, he fits the image of a classical hero. Yet he is still young, and small details reveal his boyish side. Dio Brando, the antagonist of Part 1, acquired his Stand with the help of Enya the Hag. Because Dio had stolen Jonathan Joestar’s body, Jonathan’s descendants Jotaro, Joseph, and Holly also awakened their Stands.

DIO’s curse

In December 1987, Jotaro defeated Noriaki Kakyoin and removed the flesh bud DIO had implanted in him. Meanwhile, Holly could not control her Stand’s power. Her fever would not subside, and her life was in immediate danger. Defeating DIO was the only solution. Joseph used Hermit Purple to locate DIO, and the four set out for Egypt.

Journey to Egypt

• 23 December 1987: Removed the flesh bud DIO had implanted in Jean Pierre Polnareff.
• 24 December: Defeated Imposter Captain Tennille (Dark Blue Moon) in the South China Sea.
• 25 December: Defeated the ape (Strength) in the South China Sea, then defeated Rubber Soul (Yellow Temperance) in Singapore.
• January 1988: Defeated Wheel of Fortune at the India–Pakistan border. In Pakistan, he defeated Enya the Hag (Justice) and joined Joseph, Kakyoin, and Polnareff in defeating Steely Dan (Lovers). In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, he defeated Arabia Fats (The Sun). Near Egypt’s Red Sea coast, he defeated Midler (High Priestess).

Travels in Egypt

• January 1988: Used Iggy to defeat N’Doul (Geb) in the Egyptian desert.
• 25 January: Came under attack from the brothers Boingo (Tohth) and Oingo (Khnum) in Egypt’s Nubian region without even realizing it. The brothers ended up defeating themselves.
• 26 January: Joined Polnareff in defeating the cursed sword Anubis in Aswan, Egypt.
• 27 January: Alessi (Sethan) used his Stand to turn Jotaro back into a boy of about seven, but Jotaro still defeated him in his seven-year-old body.
• 28 January: Defeated Daniel J. D’Arby (Osiris) through psychological pressure on the outskirts of Cairo.
• 29 January: Arrived in central Cairo. Hol Horse (Emperor) and Boingo attacked him together that day. Jotaro was only hit by a car, while the two attackers ended up defeating themselves.
• 31 January: Found DIO’s residence with Iggy’s guidance and joined Joseph in cheating to defeat Telence T. D’Arby (Atum).
• Late on 31 January to the early hours of 1 February: Fought his fateful duel with DIO in central Cairo, ultimately awakening the ability to stop time and killing DIO (The World).

After the battle in Egypt, Jotaro read and burned DIO's notebook. Its contents survived in his memory, connecting the earlier battle to Stone Ocean: Pucci needed those memories to recover DIO's plan for attaining Heaven.

Searching for the Arrows

In the 1990s, Jotaro and Polnareff investigated the Arrows that could awaken Stand abilities. They learned that a young man, Diavolo, had dug them up. To search more efficiently, they split their efforts: Jotaro covered the United States and Asia, while Polnareff covered Europe and Africa. In an area of Europe experiencing a sharp rise in drug-related crime, Polnareff found a lead on an Arrow and pursued it. He was defeated and disabled by Diavolo, the leader of the organization Passione. Because the organization controlled communications, he could not contact Jotaro.

Journey to Morioh

In March 1999, Jotaro went to Morioh to handle matters concerning Joseph’s illegitimate son, Josuke Higashikata, and acknowledged Josuke as his uncle. In April, he and Josuke defeated the fugitive Anjuro Katagiri. He then investigated the whereabouts of the Bow and Arrow. During the investigation, he was attacked by Akira Otoishi’s Red Hot Chili Pepper but emerged unharmed. He later obtained an insect-design Arrow from Otoishi’s home. Finally, he investigated the serial killer Yoshikage Kira. That same year, he and Josuke fought Yoshikage’s deceased father, Yoshihiro Kira (Atom Heart Father). He was once blown up and killed by Yoshikage Kira’s Killer Queen: Bites the Dust, the third bomb, but survived because Hayato Kawajiri turned the situation around and prevented the third rewind of time from taking place. Jotaro then joined Josuke and the others in defeating Yoshikage Kira.

Investigating DIO’s son

In March 2001, Jotaro asked Koichi Hirose to travel to Italy and investigate DIO’s illegitimate son, Haruno Shiobana, who later changed his name to Giorno Giovanna for family reasons. Koichi discovered that Giorno was not an evil person and possessed the Golden Spirit. He called Jotaro and asked him not to interfere. Jotaro chose to trust Koichi and ended the investigation.

Stone Ocean

In November 2011, Jotaro’s daughter Jolyne Cujoh was framed and imprisoned by DIO’s close friend Enrico Pucci. Jotaro planned a prison break to rescue her, unaware that Pucci’s true target was DIO’s “secret of attaining Heaven” within Jotaro’s memories. Pucci ambushed him and extracted his memory DISC and Stand DISC. Deprived of his memories and Stand power, Jotaro was left in a vegetative state, and his body was preserved by the SPW Foundation. Jolyne later recovered his DISCs and revived him. Jotaro arrived in time for the final battle, but Pucci had already completed his final evolution, and no one could match Made in Heaven’s speed. Narciso Anasui gave his life to create a single opportunity for Jotaro to attack the priest during stopped time. Yet, as Pucci said, the glory of the Joestar family gave Jotaro great strength while also bringing an unavoidable human weakness: within stopped time, Jotaro instinctively chose to protect his daughter first. He missed his chance to kill Pucci and was ultimately killed by him. The bodies of those killed rapidly decayed and disappeared under the effects of Pucci’s ability. Finally, the surviving Emporio Alnino defeated Pucci after one cycle and entered a new world. There, Emporio met Irene, that world’s counterpart of Jolyne, and the JoJo group from a parallel world. She was preparing to visit the Jotaro Kujo of that new world.

Manga

• 1989: Stardust Crusaders, serialized by Hirohiko Araki from 1989 to 1992.
• 1992: Diamond Is Unbreakable (1992–1995).
• 1995: Golden Wind (1995–1999).
• 1999: Stone Ocean (1999–2003).

Audio drama

1992: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Shueisha released three audio drama CDs from 1992 to 1993, comprising six episodes in total.

Animation

• 1993: An OVA produced by A.P.P.P., adapting Part 3. Videotapes covering the Egypt story were released in 1993, followed in 2000 by videotapes covering the opening through the Justice arc.
• 2012: The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure television anime, produced by david production. Jotaro appears at the end of Part 2.
• 2014: The Stardust Crusaders television anime; 2016: The Diamond Is Unbreakable television anime; 2018: The Golden Wind television anime.
• 2021: The Stone Ocean anime, produced by david production and premiered on Netflix.

Games

• 1993: A Super Famicom RPG published by Cobra Team, featuring Part 3 Jotaro as a playable character.
• 1998: A Capcom arcade fighting game; 1999: Heritage for the Future (Capcom), an upgraded version of the 1998 arcade release.
• 2002: The PlayStation 2 exclusive GioGio’s Bizarre Adventure (Capcom).
• 2013: The PlayStation 3 exclusive All Star Battle, developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai Namco.
• 2015: The PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 exclusive Eyes of Heaven, featuring playable versions of Jotaro from Parts 3 and 4.
• 2019: The arcade game Last Survivor, published by Bandai Namco and featuring playable versions of Jotaro from Parts 3 and 6.
• 2022: All Star Battle R, featuring playable versions of Jotaro from Parts 3 and 4.