Will Anthonio Zeppeli

"What is "Courage"? "Courage" is knowing fear and making that fear your own!"

- Zeppeli, Chapter 22

William Anthonio Zeppeli (ウィル・A・ツェペリ) is Jonathan Joestar's primary ally in Part I: Phantom Blood.

As mentor to Jonathan, he is the first member of the Zeppeli family to aid a Joestar.

Appearance
Zeppeli appears as a man of average to above-average height and middling build. He has dark, curly hair, protruding somewhat from under his hat, and a subdued handlebar moustache. His ears and nose protrude slightly.

Between two outfits, he wears a suit, a bow tie, and a top hat; first characterized by a rainbow print, and then by a chequered print.

Personality
As a master of the Ripple, Zeppeli is confident and brave, freely approaching an injured Jonathan and giving him the power of the ripple, without having met him previously. This personality also extends to the majority of his battles, such as when he is teaching Jonathan to apply the ripple in his fight against Jack the Ripper, all the while calmly pouring and drinking wine. Even when he realizes he is about to die horribly in the future, he does not seem to be too fazed by this and acts very casually with regards to life.

Abilities

 * See also: Ripple

Having taught Jonathan himself, Zeppeli is an expert when it comes to using the Ripple. Aside from attacking, he is able to use it for other things such as jumping, standing on water, healing wounds, revive plants, foresight, etc.

Attacks

 * Zoom Punch (ズームパンチ): The attack involves a ripple breathing technique that stretches the joints in the arm. Due to the increased length, the strike is useful as a semi-ranged attack. Interestingly enough, the technique was originally taught to Jonathan, though Joseph is also capable of using it with its proper name.
 * Hamon Cutter (波紋カッター): Zeppeli fires liquid from his mouth. The ripple combined with the liquid makes it dense enough to cut through solid objects.
 * Sendo Wave Kick: A ripple-infused strike with the knee. The ripple energy upon entering the bloodstream tears vampires apart.
 * Sunlight Yellow Overdrive: Using the power of sunlight, Zeppeli is able to transfer the ripple through his body into another being, causing burn damage to zombies and vampires alike. A quick simple jab is enough to cause a group of zombies to get blown away, and then eventually melt into nothing.
 * Life Magnetism Overdrive (生命磁気への): An ability that allowed Zeppeli and Jonathan to gather forth all the leaves in the area. The leaves can be combined to create a much larger leaf which is used as a hang glider.
 * Tornado Overdrive: Zeppeli leaps into the air and points his legs towards his opponent. From here, he is able to move the ripple to his lower half, and essentially dive bomb the opponent in a spinning motion, much like a drill.
 * Ultimate Deep Pass Overdrive: Zeppeli's last and most powerful ripple technique. Right before his death, he transfers all his life energy into Jonathan. Using this technique, Jonathan obtains all of Zeppeli's power, causing his strength, agility, and ripple technique to shoot up.

History
Born to a scholar family, Zeppeli had been interested in researching the unknown since his youth. When he became of age, he joined the archaeological group at his father's university and was able to travel to various places around the world.

On one of his travels, the group went to Mexico to excavate an underground Aztec ruin. Amongst their finds was the Stone Mask.

On the voyage home, several of the crew began to die off, until they realized that someone had put on the mask. It turned out to be the leader of the group, Zeppeli's father. All 58 crew members were slaughtered, but Zeppeli managed to escape by jumping into the sea. His father was eradicated by the morning sun soon after. Zeppeli was eventually rescued several days later by a fishing boat.

Two years after this horrific event, Zeppeli travels the world in order to find a way to destroy the stone mask. In a town in India, he meets a strange man with the ability to heal even the most impossible injuries and sicknesses. The man directs Zeppeli to his master, Tonpetty, who teaches him to use the "ripple". However, during his training, Tonpetty foresees Zeppeli's death and warns him that should he complete his training he will surely die. Zeppeli accepts his fate and agrees to complete the training along with Dire.

Phantom Blood
After hearing that Jonathan Joestar defeated Dio Brando, the current owner of the Stone Mask, Zeppeli presents himself to Jonathan and volunteers to teach him the ripple. Zeppeli then accompanies Jonathan and Robert Edward O. Speedwagon on their quest to defeat Dio and destroy the Stone Mask, Zeppeli briefly fighting Jack the Ripper before giving this task to Jonathan in an attempt to teach him to use the ripple better. He also tries to help Speedwagon use the ripple, but makes a mistake and ends up hurting him instead.

Dio shows himself to the group and fights Zeppeli, who has his arm frozen in the battle, until Jonathan and Speedwagon save him. When Dio summons the Dark Knights, Zeppeli and Speedwagon are unable to assist Jonathan in his fight against Bruford due to Tarkus's interference. After Bruford is defeated, Zeppeli and Jonathan use their ripple on leaves to make a hang glider to escape Tarkus, who eventually manages to catch up. When Jonathan is struggling to defeat Tarkus, Zeppeli enters the battle with Poco's help and it is then that he shares the fact that he is destined to die. Like the prophecy says, Zeppeli has his body torn apart by Tarkus's chains, but gives his power to Jonathan moments before dying. It is with his power that Jonathan is able to defeat Tarkus. It is later revealed that Zeppeli had sent a letter to his master Tonpetty asking for help in destroying the Stone Mask, but he arrived too late to prevent Zeppeli's death.

Phantom Blood (PS2)
Zeppeli makes his first playable appearance on the PS2 title. He's one of the 5 character that can use hamon.

Gameplaywise, his two special moves are Sendou Wave Kick (as a not-fully charged special move) and Sunlight Yellow Overdrive (as his fully charged special move). Aside from his hamon-based moveset, he uses normal punches and kicks to attack the enemies. Zeppeli is playable during most of the chapters (alongside with Jonathan and Speedwagon).

Also worthy mention that his appareance on this game was his first other media debut.

All-Star Battle (PS3)
Zeppeli makes his comeback on the PS3 title as a playable character, being the one of the three characters that represents the PART I saga. He was confirmed for the game alongside Jonathan and Johnny Joestar.

Unlike the previous game, this time Zeppeli uses more hamon-basead attacks over normal punches and kicks, his main projectile it's his hamon cutter where he drinks a little of wine and spits on the enemy on hazor forms, also his Tornado Overdrive works as in-air attack, his Zoom-Punch works as an extended punch (he and Jonathan shares this attack), his Sendou Wave Kick appears as a normal attack (unlike the previous game) and his Life Magnetism Overdrive can be used to make Zeppeli fly for a short time on the air making possible a air combo for the character.

His HHA it's the same punch he used on the frog during his first appareance and his GHA it's the Sunlight Yellow Overdrive, where he charges the attack (much like the first time he showed the art to Jonathan) and use it with Zoom Punch as an extended version of the attack.

If Zeppeli fights Caesar, before the match start they will have a special dialogue, where Ceasar says he will make Zeppeli pays for what he did to his family's namesake.

Zeppeli is voiced by Yoku Shioya, who voiced the character in the anime version, and shares the same color scheme from the anime. Zeppeli also has an alternate costume, that being the tuxedo he used on his first appareance (with a rainbow themed hat over the chess themed one), one of his alternate color-schemes makes his clothes resembles his previous video-game appearance (red Hat and green suit).

Stardust Shooters (Android/iOS)
Zeppeli appears on the game as one of the several PART I characters who posses a Metal Striker. His FINISH move makes him shooting several Hamon Cutter on the defeated oponent.

Eyes of Heaven (PS3/PS4)
Zeppeli was confirmed for the game alongside Jonathan and Speedwagon.

His main partner in the game is Jonathan, they posses a tag special move where they both uses an overdrive on the opponent.

Trivia

 * In an interview, Araki stated that he was inspired to make Zeppeli a "silly" teacher to train Jonathan, like something akin to the "drunken master" in Jackie Chan films or Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid.
 * He additionally said that while Zeppeli was named after the rock band "Led Zeppelin", he felt that he had used the reference too early in the series.
 * Zepelli states that "Boreas fathered the vikings" while training Jonathan Joestar, making reference to the fact that the vikings had been made into a strong people by the harshness of the northern winds. Boreas was the ancient Greek god of the cold north wind (and the wind itself as an anemoi) and bringer of winter.
 * Hirohiko Araki stated that giving Zeppeli a mustache was a gamble, as it was uncommon in those days to give shonen protagonists any type of mustache, as it usually made the character seem older and untrustworthy. The mustache in particular Araki chose was inspired by Salvador Dalí and Iyami from Osomatsu-kun.
 * Upon Zeppeli's death, his hat was worn by Speedwagon until the end of Part I. Later his hat is used by his grandson, Caesar Zeppeli.
 * Yuugi Hoshiguma from Touhou Project, who has learned to fight without spilling a drop of sake, is a confirmed reference to a scene from Part I where Zeppeli makes Jonathan fight without spilling a drop of wine.
 * Both Zeppeli and Yoshikage Kira are the few characters to have the same voice actor, Rikiya Koyama, in different games(The Part 1 PS2 Game & All-Star Battle), along with Koichi and Giorno (In the part 5 PS2 game & All-Star Battle) who are voiced by Romi Park, Kakyoin and Jo2uke (Heritage for the Future & All-Star Battle) who are both voiced by Mitsuaki Madono, and Pucci and Vanilla Ice (All Star Battle & Heritage for the Future), by Hayami Show.