Gyro Zeppeli

Gyro Zeppeli (ジャイロ・ツェペリ, Jairo Tseperi) is a character featured in Part VII: Steel Ball Run. In Steel Ball Run's alternate universe version of the world, he most likely takes the place of William Antonio Zeppeli, Caesar Antonio Zeppeli or another previously unseen member of the Zeppeli family. He is the main protagonist of this series alongside Johnny Joestar.

Personality
Gyro has a cocky and flamboyant personality, appearing to have a high opinion of himself. However, he can be driven by emotions for other people and become realistic and serious when a problem presents itself. Like most Manga archetypes, Gyro is incredibly intelligent when he needs to be. His most distinguishable body features are his long hair, western hat and his teeth which have "GO! GO! ZEPPELI" written on them, revealed whenever he smiles at someone. His signature laugh/chuckle is "Nyo ho ho ho~".

Storyline
Gyro is from the Zeppeli family, a line of practiced executioners in Italy. They use an ancestral technique named the 'Spin' which allows people to die painlessly, usually applied through the use of an iron ball. Gyro lived this way until his late teens, becoming a skilled executioner. However, this is not to say that Gyro kills indiscriminately. Although the Zeppeli family usually sticks to delivering the death penalty to serious and dangerous criminals, there was one incident which resulted in the arrest and death sentence of an innocent little boy who made a living from cleaning shoes, Gyro was struck when he heard of this and even more when the boy offered to clean his own executioner's shoes. Gyro's father is strictly convinced that the Zeppeli family are in the hands of the state and they aren't the ones who choose whether or not someone dies-- refusing this, Gyro pleads with the king for an appeal. After this, it's agreed that Gyro will receive an amnesty to release the boy if he can complete the American cross-country race, the Steel Ball Run.

Faithful Encounter
Shortly after joining the race and before it begins, Gyro goes into town where he fights with a man, using his 'Spin' and iron balls as weapons. As the paraplegic Johnny Joestar touches one of Gyro's spinning orbs which causes his paralyzed legs to move for a moment. Gyro attempts to convince Johnny that it was simply a reflex of his legs but Johnny isn't convinced and joins the Steel Ball Run race to follow him.

Gyro sees Johnny, at the start of the race but he is clearly displeased with him been there and upon the start of the race he quickly gains and upper hand. Its then that Gyro would first meet Dio and using his iron balls, he would get ahead of the race and win a high amount of points. Stephen Still watching this happening would later on remove Gyro's points for so called use of an unauthorized weapon.

The 'Spin'
The 'Spin' is the Steel Ball Run counterpart to 'Hamon' used by several characters in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. The Zeppeli family's 'Spin' technique is Gyro's primary means of attack. The iron balls which Gyro carries are his weapons which he uses the 'Spin' technique with. By throwing them, he seems to be able to control their path, cause spiral ripples in the flesh of his opponents and even return to him once it's done. However, Gyro explain that his 'Spin' technique is not really for offensive purpose. It is in fact used as a medical treatment or anatomy objective.

The Golden Rectangle
The actual technique behind the 'Spin' is through the mathematical Golden Rectangle. If you continuously divide the rectangle, the angle which connects the corners of each rectangle will form a spinning motion. By aiming at this point clockwise, any thrown object can achieve the 'Spin' and cause a rippling motion in the flesh or surface of any person or object. The Golden Rectangle can be found in nature and requires a reference in order to be used, therefore rendering it useless in an empty room or vast flat ground.

Trivia

 * In the popular pixel avatar site [| Gaia online], there is an obtainable item know as Roto's Hat. This item first pose allows the avatar of the site to wear a hat identical to that of Gyro's, cleverly name Roto's hat.


 * In Steel Ball Run Vol.19 it is revealed from himself that Gyro was just his nickname. His real name is, in fact 'Yulius Kaiser Zeppeli', upon which Johnny in surprise asks him if it is actually pronounced 'Julius Caesar'.
 * In the Italian edition of SBR, Gyro's name is written as "J.Lo" as a reference to American-Latino singer Jennifer Lopez.