Kars


 * The character featured in this article is commonly referred to as "Cars".

"Don't you wish to conquer the sun? Don't you wish to rule over all? Don't you wish to purge your fears?!"

Kars (カーズ) is the main antagonist of Part II: Battle Tendency.

Kars is the designer of the Stone Mask, and the 102,000-year-old leader of the Pillar Men.

Appearance
Kars takes the appearance of a tall, very well-built man. He has elegant, relatively feminine facial features, and a much lighter complexion than the other Pillar Men. He has long, dark, wavy hair; which he keeps under a dark, tight head-wrap (taking it off as a sign of either honor or aggression).

He is otherwise minimally dressed, wearing high boots, forearm guards, a thong, and a flowing loincloth. When attacking, he produces long, shimmering blades from his forearms (similar to Ikuro Hashizawa of Baoh).

Personality
"I don't intend on being a warrior like Wamuu, nor am I an idle dreamer. I don't care what method I have to use, victory justifies any means!"

- Kars

Kars is intelligent, ruthless, and single-minded in his dedication to obtain the Red Stone of Aja. He was stated to have been a genius among the Pillar Men, having been the original creator of the stone masks. Kars also seems to have respect for nature and animals as seen when he killed a drunk driver, who almost hit a puppy, and when he fell off a cliff, he deflected his body to avoid falling on a flower. However, he does later attack a squirrel when testing his Ultimate Form's abilities.

Initially, he appears to be the most aloof and no nonsense of the Pillar Men, rarely smiling and is often the one who has to remind the other two of their ultimate objective. He also came across as mockingly polite, as he offered Lisa Lisa poison in order to die on her own terms. However, after striking Lisa Lisa, he reveals his true nature as a power-hungry sadist, who is willing to trample anyone in his way, no matter how dishonorable the method.

Abilities

 * See also Pillar Men.

Light Mode (光の): Kars' power is that of light, he is able to produce bladed appendages from his arms and legs and use these to reflect blinding light toward his enemies. The light comes from the tiny, shark teeth-like claws running along the edge of the blade much like a chainsaw. It is from the reflections of these claws that gives Kars's Light Blades (輝彩滑刀) their shining intensity. In this mode, Kars' blades are sharp enough to cut through most objects, including an automobile and several bullets at blinding speeds.

Bodily Manipulation: As with the other Pillar Men, Kars also has the same body manipulation capabilities shared by his companions. When he gains the power of the Red Stone, Kars's bodily manipulation abilities are enhanced to the genetic level, to the point where he is capable of reactive evolution. Kars was also shown to be able to mutate parts of his body into various living creatures and control them accordingly whilst in his ultimate form.

Ultimate Form Abilities: As the Ultimate Life form, Kars becomes an immortal being and his body cannot age. He acquires multiple abilities and skills such as: an IQ of 400, being able to sense the heat and air pressure, superhuman strength (900kg/cm2), can heal any wound in a short period of time, can reconstruct his entire body on a cellular level to transform into any lifeform, his vision is comparable to an Astronomical Telescope, Kars's cells store the DNA of every lifeform, he's able to hear ultrasonic sound (from bat's echolocation to whalesongs).

Hamon (波紋): In his Ultimate Form, Kars is shown using the Hamon. This Hamon is shown to be hundreds of times stronger than Joseph's Hamon, able to melt human flesh and according to Stroheim, comparable to the intensity of the Sun itself.

History
Kars was around during the brink of evolution where the people lived underground and strived off the essence of all living things at the same time, failing to reproduce since they had such a long and worthy lifespan.

Frustrated by their ignorance of perfection, Kars wanted the beings to find a way to "tame the sun" and leave the underground to become perfect. In time, Kars created the stone masks in order for his race to become immune to the effects of the sun, and proceeded to kidnap humans in order to test the effects of the stone masks. However, the masks that he created, while capable of turning humans into vampires, were unable to penetrate deeply enough to unlock the pillarmen's full potential, only resulting in some increased body manipulation powers at the cost of greatly increased hunger. Eventually, his race began to fear him for his obsession and sought to execute him due to the increased hunger caused by the mask would threaten their way of life if their use became widespread. Kars was shown protesting their actions before being forced to slaughter the race of Pillar Men himself, including his own parents. Along with Esidisi, he took two children who were presumably the Pillar Men to be known as Santana and Wamuu.

Sometime between his formation of his group of Pillar Men and the beginning of his millennia of rest, he and his comrades would travel to Rome and fight a battle with the ripple users that would end in their victory; how they ended up resting in the wall is unknown.

Battle Tendency (1938-39)
Kars is introduced as the leader of the Pillar Men, getting attacked by Wamuu after stepping on his shadow and apologizing for having forgotten about that trait. After Joseph's initial defeat, Kars and the other Pillar men set off to find the location of the Red Stone of Aja, but eventually settle in an abandoned mansion in San Moritz, Switzerland. Having found a lead to the stone, Esidisi had planned to contact Kars after retrieving it, but was promptly defeated by Joseph instead. With no phone call, Kars assumes something amiss and sets off to Italy to handle things himself.

At the border between Switzerland and Italy, he is confronted by Rudolf von Stroheim and almost effortlessly defeats him after some struggle. At the same time, Kars is able to retrieve the stone, but has it taken from him by Joseph Joestar after a short mingle off a cliff. Kars travels back to San Moritz, where he is eventually confronted by Joseph and Lisa Lisa. He agrees to have a fair fight with Lisa Lisa at the nearby ruins, but ultimately tricks her during their fight with a doppelgänger and steals the stone from her, leaving her unconscious.

This immediately enrages Joseph, who battles Kars but is continually trapped in a dilemma where Kars pierces Lisa Lisa's feet and strings a rope through the wounds, forcing Joseph to grab the rope to stop her from falling and inhibit his combat abilities. An overconfident Kars approaches as Joseph lights his scarf on fire and attacks, but falls from the beam clutching the rope as Kars severs it to finish off Lisa Lisa. However, this is revealed to have been Joseph's intentional setup, as he drew Kars' attention to his upper body while he arranged the loop of rope with his legs below, tricking him into stepping into the loop and forcing him to keep his opponents above the spikes below. Kars faces Joseph in a final standoff with his arm blade, but is soundly beaten as Joseph's ripple breaks the blade and wounds his arm, knocking him off the railing and into the spikes below.

Stroheim and his Nazi troops arrive along with Speedwagon and Smokey, and Stroheim gloats over Kars before ordering his troops to unleash the full barrage of their ultraviolet light on Kars.

Kars, however, reveals himself to have worn a stone mask with the Red Stone of Aja in place and the ultraviolet light activates the mask and enables him to enter his ultimate form. In a final confrontation, he succeeds in severing Joseph's hand but is blown into space by a volcanic eruption induced by his Ripple colliding with the Red Stone of Aja that Joseph instinctively held out. The Ripple sets off the eruption and blasts the slab of rock with Kars and Joseph on it into the sky. Kars prepares to fly off, but is interrupted by Joseph's severed hand stabbing into his throat. This lapse in concentration causes other hot volcanic shards that Kars could have dodged otherwise to hit him and finally propel him into outer space. Kars prepares to return to Earth after being thrown out of orbit by ejecting the built up air, but the air freezes on its way out. His vital body begins to freeze from the near-absolute zero temperature and he becomes trapped in the void of space for eternity. Unable to die even though he wishes for it, Kars eventually stops thinking.

Steel Ball Run
In Steel Ball Run, Magenta Magenta is trapped at the bottom of a river while using his defensive stand. As he hopes for Diego's rescue that would never come, he eventually stops thinking. Magenta Magenta's "death" in Steel Ball Run is a reference to Kars' fate.

All-Star Battle (PS3)
Kars makes his first appearance as a playable character in All-Star Battle, he was confirmed alongside Rohan Kishibe. Since Kars never exactly fought extensively in Part II, most of his normal attacks consist of regular punches and kicks. Along with Wamuu and Esidisi, Kars uses the "Mode" style, with his being the Light Mode, which allows him to use his Lightblades to attack the opponents in different directions.

The first one being a straight attack on the opponent, seemingly warping Kars behind his opponent and uppercutting them with his blade to set them up for a juggle combo. The second special move is an array of slashes peformed in a single wave of his arm (similar to how he saved a dog from being ran over during Part II). The third special move is Kars jumping right at his opponent and using a backforward kick (similar to how he barely avoided falling down a cliff during his fight with Joseph in Switzerland) which also strikes the opponent away from him. The fourth special move can go in 3 different directions depending on what button was pressed. Kars charges his Light Mode and vanishes. Depending which button the player pressed to pull the move off, Kars will appear right in front of, behind or above his victim.

His HHA is a large array of Lightblade slashes done in a single movement of his arm. If they successfully hit, Kars moves past them in a samurai-esque fashion and brings his arm down, dealing a last, bloody attack to his victim. His GHA uses the Stone Mask (combined with the Red Stone of Aja) to turn into Ultimate Life Form Kars. If the animation fully plays out, Kars will rise upward and gain a new array of moves (it's also one of the longest and most difficult GHA to be fully activated, taking about 5 seconds to work).

After using his GHA, Kars gains a whole new moveset revolving around his godlike creation ability and gains wings to better move around the area. The first new move is a Hamon punch (Kars unleashed a super powerful Hamon punch whilst also mockingly confirming that it is indeed Hamon that he is using.) The second new move has Kars shoot hardened feathers from his wings (the same way he attacked Joseph's plane during the last chapters of Part II). The third new move has him summon a squirrel to attack his victim (Much like he did to attack Stroheim and his Nazi cohorts.) The fourth and final new move is along range attack with Kars transforming his arm into an octopus tentacle. When guarding in this form, he forms a shell around his body (similar to how he survived being launched into a volcano).

Ultimate Kars is not entirely infallible. If he falls victim to Kosaku-Kira's Bites the Dust GHA, Kars will revert back to his previous form. Also, Cars is the only character whose name is changed after using his GHA (the name "Cars" under the heath bar changes to "Cars (Ultimate Life Being)").

Kars also appears on the stage "The Battlefield" as a background character along with Lisa Lisa. If Wamuu is one of the combatants ingame, Kars will brag about Wamuu's strength. Obviously if Kars is in the actual battle itself, he won't be in the background.

Kars also possess two alternate costumes, the first one being the attire he usually is using (the veil that covers his long hair) and the second one being the overcoat he used to fight against Stroheim.

In the English release of the game, Kars' Lightblades are called "Shining Sabers" (keeping the aliteration of the Japanese name).

Trivia

 * Kars is the only original pillar man capable of using the ripple. This may make him the antithesis of Straizo, the first antagonist in Part II and the only vampire capable of using the ripple due to having been a ripple master prior to becoming a vampire.
 * Ironically, in the above case, Kars is the strongest ripple master to date.
 * For JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's 25th anniversary, Sorachi Hideaki, mangaka of Gintama, drew a parody of Kars drifting endlessly into space. A part of Hasegawa Taizo's head is seen jutting from Kars' body.
 * In Symposium of Post-mysticism, an official Touhou Fanbook, Toyosatomimi no Miko says that Koishi Komeiji "stopped thinking", using the phrasing of the famous line "After a while, he stopped thinking" (そのうち考えるのをやめた, Sono uchi kangaeru no o yameta) referencing Kars.
 * Kars is, so far, the only main antagonist in the series who does not possess a Stand.
 * Kars is the shortest of the Pillar Men.
 * The explination for Kars' Ultimate Lifeform ability to transform into animals is a reference to recapitulation theory.