Dio Brando

"WRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!"

- Dio Brando's battle cry

Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō) is the main antagonist of parts 1 and 3, though his legacy causes repercussions throughout the rest of the series as well. He is also the father of part 5's protagonist Giorno Giovanna.

Early Life
"Your upbringing made you a villain, you say? It didn't! You've been evil since your birth!"

- Speedwagon, to Dio

Dio was born the son of Dario Brando, an alcoholic and abusive father who he secretly despised - in part for having caused pain to his mother. On Dario's deathbed, he told Dio of his encounter with George Joestar twelve years prior, instructing Dio go to the Joestar house and use his wiles to become wealthy. He was then adopted into the Joestar household and subsequently began undermining his new adoptive brother Jonathan at every opportunity. Dio was resolute to shatter Jonathan's spirit and take his place as the favored son, even going so far as to arrange for Jonathan's dog, Danny, to be burned to death.

Phantom Blood (1888-89)
"I'm going to extinguish your life!!"

- Dio, to Jonathan

Seven years later, both boys attend Hugh Hudson Academy, where Dio intends to graduate as a top law student. During that seven-year span, he had acted brotherly and friendly toward Jonathan to lull the latter into a false sense of security. Dio's plans to take over the Joestar household are discovered by Jonathan, who comes to realize that not only had Dio poisoned his biological father to death, he was doing the same to his adoptive father, all to take the Joestar estate for his own.

Determined not to be stopped and understanding the potential to enjoy power over all things instead of just the Joestar estate, Dio plans to subtly kill Jonathan by using the mysterious Stone Mask the latter had been researching. However, during a live experiment, Dio realizes that the mask is not a torture or killing device; it is capable of turning the wearer into a nearly unstoppable vampire. The man he had tested the mask on nearly kills him, but he is saved by a timely sunrise which obliterates his attacker. Returning to the Joestar estate, Dio is confronted by the recently-returned Jonathan, a recovered George, and an ensemble of policemen set to arrest him for attempted murder. Cornered and with nothing left to lose, Dio wears and activates the Stone Mask (by stabbing George, who prevented the knife from reaching Jonathan) and becomes a vampire himself. The policemen shoot him repeatedly, sending him crashing through a window. Though he is at first presumed dead, he soon reappears and attacks those present.

In the battle between him and Jonathan which ensues, the Joestar mansion is set aflame and Dio ends up impaled on a statue of the goddess of love. The combination of such a severe injury and the surrounding flames overpowers Dio, who seemingly burns away to a mere skeleton. However, a few days later when Wang Chan visits the charred remains of the house to find items to sell for profit, Dio resurfaces and drains his blood while vowing vengeance against Jonathan. Dio, now with burns across his face and body, turns Wang Chan into a vampire and the pair hunt down others to become Dio's underlings - Jack the Ripper, Bruford, Tarkus and Page, Jones, Plant, and Bonham, among others. With these, he continues his fight against Jonathan et al.

In his climatic battle with Jonathan, Dio's lower body is destroyed and he severs his head to prevent the Ripple from taking his life. He decides to kill Jonathan and take over the latter's body, ultimately managing to kill him while on a boat sailing the Atlantic Ocean. Together, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and Dio succeeds in removing Jonathan's head and taking over his lower body (giving Dio the same star birthmark as the members of the Joestar family ). However, he remains there inside his specially-prepared casket until 1983, when divers salvage the casket.

Pre-Stardust Crusaders (1983-87)
Dio's casket is recovered off the coast of Africa by fishermen, who are implied to have been killed by him shortly after. Dio then seems to travel a great deal, ranging from Egypt to Japan. Around July-August of 1985, he impregnates a Japanese woman who goes on to give birth to Giorno Giovanna. The following year, he meets Enya Geil and gains a stand power (The World) as a result of the Bow and Arrow. Later that same year, he encounters Polnareff and brainwashes him after winning against him in a fight.

In 1987, he first meets Enrico Pucci while hiding in a church waiting for the sun to set. July of that year, he goes on to encounter Abdul in Egypt and around the same time, his stand is first able to stop time. In August, he meets Kakyoin while the latter is vacationing in Egypt and fights and brainwashes him as well.

Stardust Crusaders (1987-88)
"Don't you Joestars ever give up!"

- Dio to Jotaro after showing The World's superiority

The anime series and vast majority of video games are based on this third arc, which occurs about 100 years after part 1 and begins in the later months of 1987. For most of part 3, Dio is off-screen and in the shadows, and the question of exactly what his stand "The World" does is a mystery. Dio's ambition is to create a perfect world for him and his servants. In the interim, he seeks to drain for himself the blood of the Joestar lineage, which will help him to fully fuse with Jonathan's body and take better control of The World.

Despite his knowledge that Joseph et al. are looking for him, he doesn't make any effort to go confront them himself and instead is occasionally shown lounging around his mansion reading or feeding on unknown girls. In fact, judging by the flashbacks shown in part 6, Dio spends a fair amount of time philosophizing in his mansion with Pucci while the protagonists battle their way toward him. Even with being part 3's main antagonist, Dio only plays a key role toward the end.

He first appears as a reclining figure with a shadowed face reading a book when Vanilla Ice comes to inform him of Terence T. D'Arby's defeat. When Vanilla volunteers his life to complete Dio's assimilation of Jonathan's body and subsequently slices off his own head, Dio utilizes his own blood to revive Vanilla as a vampire. After Vanilla's defeat, Dio's face is revealed for the first time when he confronts Polnareff on a set of stairs. He toys with Polnareff for a while but when it becomes clear that Polnareff won't rejoin his ranks, Dio prepares to kill him - only to be interrupted by Joseph, Jotaro and Kakyoin breaking down a wall and flooding the stairs with sunlight. Dio then flees to higher ground.

With the sun setting, the protagonists split up into two groups and Dio follows Joseph and Kakyoin, who have commandeered a truck. Dio does much the same by taking over a limousine and forcing the senator inside to act as a chauffeur. During the car chase, Dio is attacked by Kakyoin's Hierophant Green but comes out unscathed thanks to The World, which he uses to counterattack. In order to get close enough to Joseph and Kakyoin's truck, Dio launches the senator at them, thus resulting in their truck crashing into a building. He then follows them as they use their stands to flee across the rooftops, and ends up battling Kakyoin in the process. Kakyoin is able to use his Stand to make a barrier from which Dio can't escape without getting hurt. Dio uses The World to stop time and destroy the barrier, punching Kakyoin through the stomach and back. Before dying, Kakyoin realizes the nature of The World's time-stop power and uses his last strength to give Joseph a message. Dio wastes no time in catching up to and attacking Joseph, who is able to pass Kakyoin's message to Jotaro before he is also killed by Dio's Stand.

After a long and bloody battle between Dio and Jotaro, the latter is able to stop time just before Dio drops a steamroller on him, and wounds Dio's leg. Jotaro plans to keep on breaking Dio's leg whenever it regenerates until the sun comes up and kills him. Dio, determined not to lose, squirts some blood out of his leg and into Jotaro's eyes. He then attempts to escape but to no avail. In the end, Jotaro lands a punch which connects with a kick from Dio. The kick connects at approximately the same point on The World's leg as where Dio broke his. Because injuries to a stand and its user echo each other, this is where The World's own structure was weakest. Jotaro's hand breaks but Dio's upper body starts to crumble, and his head shatters. Jotaro and doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation are able to do a blood transfusion between Joseph's body and the lower half of Dio's body. The transfusion is able to revive Joseph, and later they lay Dio's remains in the middle of the Sahara Desert to evaporate with the rising sun.

Vento Aureo (2001)
In part 5, we learn that Dio had at least one child (utilizing Jonathan's body) after his casket was pulled up from the ocean. Giorno Giovanna, part 5's protagonist, is the first of Dio's illegitimate children introduced and the most prominent. After the awakening of his stand power, Giorno's hair changed from black to blond, even somewhat resembling Dio's part 3 hairstyle. Additionally, Giorno uses the same "MudaMuda!" battle cry as his father, and even pulls off a "WRYYYYYY" during his battle with Cioccolatta.

Stone Ocean (2012)
In part 6, it is revealed that the main antagonist, Enrico Pucci, encountered Dio shortly prior to (and during) the events in Stardust Crusaders. Dio "healed" Pucci's disfigured foot and gave him a stand arrow, speaking about the gravity which draws people together. He then told Pucci to seek him out using the arrow if he wished to learn more. After a series of unfortunate events which led to Pucci being stabbed by the arrow and gaining a stand, he did, in fact, turn to Dio. The two spent a considerable amount of time together, mainly philosophizing and plotting ways to turn their philosophies into reality. Dio questioned Pucci's loyalty to him, wondering why the latter didn't use Whitesnake to remove The World from him. Pucci explained that he loved Dio as he loved God, and thus worshiped him too much to betray him. Ensuring that he wouldn't completely fade, he left one of his bones in Pucci's care.

This bone becomes a vital plot element for the first half of part 6, when one of Pucci's underlings, Sports Max, uses his stand to reanimate it. This resulted in the incubation of a "Green Child" (which also possessed the Joestar birthmark) that would later merge with Pucci to give him C-Moon and finally Stairway to Heaven (Made in Heaven). Aside from Pucci, several other characters in part 6 are shown to have ties to Dio: Jongalli A is one of Dio's underlings who bears a grudge against the Joestars for Dio's demise, and Ungaro, Rykiel and Donatello Versace are, like Giorno, Dio's illegitimate children.

Steel Ball Run
Dio's alternate universe counterpart, Diego "Dio" Brando, acts as one of the antagonists of Steel Ball Run. Though they have much in common (an alcoholic father, a fondness toward their mother, and reaching great heights despite starting with next-to-nothing), there are some key differences in their personalities and motives. Like Dio, he will do whatever is necessary to reach his goals and can be ruthless to those who stand in his way. However, Diego is primarily driven by a desire for fame and respect in order to distance himself from his lowly origins.

In the final chapters of SBR, Funny Valentine uses his stand to bring over another alternate Diego. This second Diego is far closer in personality to the original Dio and seems to possess the same level of charisma. He also possesses a version of The World, as well as performing Dio's trademark knife throwing technique.

Personality
"Can a monkey reach a human? You are but a monkey, Jojo!"

- Dio, to Jonathan

Dio Brando's treacherous, sadistic nature may be partially explained by his abusive upbringing at the hands of an alcoholic father, whom he later killed. He is also ambitious, narcissistic, arrogant and megalomaniac. He will do anything to get what he wants, even if it means trampling people, like he did to Jonathan Joestar when they were young, and relinquishing his humanity in favor of becoming a vampire. However, Dio is not entirely evil, although he tends to approach it. He shows a good side to those who are good to him. In particular, he has shown favorable attitudes towards Enrico Pucci, who also showed loyalty in return. Dio also has a passion for reading, as he is found in the library of his Egypt mansion at times.

Unless provoked or deemed an obstacle, Dio will normally not attack anything or anybody (although probably more out of regarding them as inconsequential, and so not worthy of attention, than anything akin to kindness). He will first try persuading people to work for him, then fight them, if they oppose.

Childhood
Dio's appearance in the 1st chapter. He has blond hair and a handsome face. (Many fans who first see him may believe his hair to be white, due to the loss of details from the manga's black-and-white illustrations.)

Shadow form
Dio does not have a visible face as an effect of the shadowy darkness of his mansion. He has white and flowing hair. He is topless, exposing Jonathan's muscular body (of which his head is sewn in place) and wears green pants with suspenders, gray clogs, black shiny cuffs on both wrists and heart-shaped knee guards. As of JoJo's Venture, his voice is also distorted (an effect created by the writers to add mystery). This form of Dio is also called "J'yaku no Kenshin Dio." (Evil Incarnation of Dio)

Fuku form
Just like the Shadow form, only his entire suit is now colored yellow. Dio's face is seen, his hair is blond, wearing a jacket with a tank-top underneath. He now also wears a heart-shaped hairband, and rings for his cuffs. This is his form during the beginning of the "Dio's World" story arc.

Enraged/Armored form
Dio transforming into his ultimate form, after sucking Joseph Joestar's blood. The description is like his fuku form minus the jacket and the heart-shaped hairband (which had been destroyed during Star Platinum's attacks). He now sports a deranged and homicidal look and mannerisms, losing his cool touch, and his hair is now disheveled, mostly oriented upwards. This is his form during the latter half of the "Dio's World"' story arc.

As a Vampire
Dio is able to walk on walls and regenerate his body faster than fire can consume it. A bullet to the head fired at point-blank range is only able to momentarily stun him. He is able to pressurize liquid in his eyeballs and then create small openings in his pupils, eventually creating two fluid jets (referred to as "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" ) powerful enough to slice stone and kill living things. He is also able to vaporize his bodily fluids rapidly enough to freeze anything he touches. His seemingly supernatural abilities are explained as him exercising the full potential of the human body.

All of this, however, is at the expense of having a body sustained by sheer willpower alone, rather than vital energy. A sufficiently powerful vital force - specifically, sunlight or the Hamon force - will negate the sustaining force's presence and disintegrate the long-unliving body. Like all Jojo vampires, Dio sucks blood through tentacles in his fingers and has been seen at least once drinking blood from an unnamed girl.

In part 1, Dio's powers are more bio-organic and slimy, but for the most part in part 3 he only utilizes the "evil implants" - a parasite that brainwashes Polnareff and Kakyoin and is generated from Dio's hair (In the fighting game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure it is the vector of attack when he uses the move "Charisma").

As a Stand User
About a year after gaining a stand, Dio discovered that The World is capable of stopping time. At first, he could only do this for a very short amount of time but by the end of part 3, he is able to stop time for a maximum of 9 seconds. As his stand has great strength and can stop time, Dio often seems to be teleporting or moving at impossible speeds.

Due to the familial connection between his (Jonathan's) body and Jonathan's descendants, Dio is able to sense the presence of other Joestars. He was even able to tell when Joseph used Hermit Purple to take a psychic photograph of him, as well as instinctively knowing that his acquisition of a stand also awoke stand abilities in Jonathan's descendants.

In Games

 * Blazing Fists (MudaMuda)
 * Blazing Strike
 * The World, Road Roller
 * Eye-Crushing Kick
 * The World, Circle of Knives
 * The World, Time Stop
 * The Touch of Evil (Charisma)

Stands
The World

Shadow Dio
Even without an active Stand, he can deal a lot of damage with full offensive attacks. He also has a reversal move that helps this play style to be more effective, which can be used either for offense or defense.

Throw Knives, while not too fast for up-close attacks, can push enemies further back. The angle of the knives can be varied, and he can throw knives twice.

His eyebeam projectile can be charged to an incredibly powerful and un-blockable level.

His Stand attacks are good for surprises, and for juggling. Combined with his own attack, he deals a lot of damage in a short time, more so within The World, when he stops time.

His Super Combo, Punishment, deals heavy damage if it connects. However, it can't be incorporated into combos easily. His other Super Combo, called "Charisma", takes two levels of power, but the buds coming out of his hair are un-blockable and hone in on the enemy. The slow start-up animation of this move requires it to be a part of the combo, in order to be able to perform the move without being interrupted by the enemy's attacks.

Dio
In contrast to Jotaro, Dio is more effective with his Stand on. His Stand combos are effective at dealing a lot of damage to the enemy in a short time. As such, Dio specializes in quick disposal of an enemy.

His Blazing Strikes can be manipulated to hit low, where the enemy must guard low. This makes his attacks unpredictable, keeping opponents on their toes. His eyebeams, now with different commands, are now completely unblockable, though the animation is notably slower.

His Road Roller, though weak in JoJo's Venture, now deals bigger damage in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. His Chi no Shoukan (Bloody Summoning) requires the enemy to be hit before he sucks their blood. The scene when he connects with the move is bloody, with a cutscreen of the enemy's face being punctured by Dio's fingers.

His main problem is that his super moves cannot be integrated into combos in such a way that they will chain together. However, his super moves have a degree of invincibility, which enables him to dominate in close-quarter battles, even though predictable. To be able to use him well, Dio players must have the reflexes to perform their super moves at the right moment.

His The World - Time Stop is deadly at 10 levels of power. He can deploy a lot of knives and perform Road Roller before the power gague goes below level 1. If the enemy is big in size, the more the enemy will take damage from the knives. It is a gamble though to successfully perform The World against a human player, but the damage it inflicts is worth the effort.

Jump Super Stars/Jump Ultimate Stars
Dio appears as a playable character in both Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars. In the former, he can only be unlocked after clearing the game once. He has three potential "battle panel" formations: a 4-block, a 5-block and a 6-block. All three have his characteristic "MudaMuda!" stream of punches as one special attack. His other special attack varies depending on the formation: With the 4-block, it's "The World, Circle of Knives", with the 5-block it's "The World, Road Roller" and with the 6-block, it's "The World, Time Stop". He also features in two "support panels" - the 2-block "Eye-Crushing Kick" and the 3-block "WRYAAAAA!" - and one "help panel" which renders the player's battle character immune from damage for a short period of time.

In terms of playing style, he is best for long-range attacks and uses a combination of punches and kicks. The World gives him a longer range than most characters, but at the cost of his speed. Dio is able to drains an opponent's health in close quarters (via sticking his fingers in their neck) and transfers it to himself. He can use "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" as a regular attack, and has an aerial move which involves throwing knives.

Interestingly, he receives a power boost when his "battle panels" are placed beside those of Hao from Shaman King and/or Papillion from Busou Renkin in Super Stars. In Ultimate Stars, power boosts come from being beside panels for Giorno, Jonathan, Rohan, Gyro, Taizo from Taizo Mote King Saga and Frieza from Dragonball Z. He is also able to perform a special tag-team attack with Sasuke from Naruto called "Sharingan World", whereby Dio's homing daggers and Sasuke's shuriken slice through all enemies on the screen.

In popular culture

 * Zephyr, one of the bosses in the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as well as Portrait of Ruin, pays homage to Dio Brando. Besides a habit of bending over backwards, he has the ability to throw knives, as well as freeze time with a shout of Toki wo Tomare!!! ("Stop, O time!"). He also faces the protagonist in a clock tower, a reference to Dio Brando's fight with Joseph Joestar and Kakyoin in the first half of the Dio's World story arc.
 * Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou Project series is likely to be a homage to Dio. She is not a vampire, but the servant of Remilia Scarlet, who is a vampire. Her main power is manipulation of time - usually demonstrated by stopping it completely. She attacks by throwing knives as well. Some of her spell cards involve stopping time and making many knives appear around the player, and one of these cards is even named Illusion World "The World". In the fighting game spin-offs, she has many time stopping special moves, one of which is called "Sakuya's World", which acts in the same way as Dio's time stop move in the JoJo fighting game.
 * The characters Robo-Ky and Justice (Guilty Gear) from the 2D fighter series Guilty Gear (series) both make references to Dio's 'The World'- Robo-Ky in the form of the "Muda" battlecry with a barrage of punches in an Overdrive attack, and Justice in the form of a "WRYYYYYYYYY"-like battlecry and pose in both her victory poses and her most powerful Overdrive attack, Gamma Ray.
 * Neo Dio a character from World Heroes, another 2D fighter game series, uses various lines from Dio incluiding Muda Muda Muda! and WRYYYY!. Also his visual design is based on the protagonist of the manga Baoh a previous manga from Araki.
 * In the online game, Erepublik, Dio Brando is God
 * In the popular pixal avatar site Gaia online, there are obtainable item series known as the "RIO Star" series. These items show resemblances to Dio's outfit in Stardust Crusaders. There are also "Back/Tails" accessories that are called "K.O. Star (Za Warudo)" and "K.O. Star (Time Stop)" which is obviously a reference to Dio's stand, The World (Za Warudo).

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
The eerie cry of "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" (ウリイイイイイイ, Uriiiiiii pronounced ree) is a shriek given off by the vampires throughout JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. While all vampires in the series are prone to doing so, this noise is most commonly associated with Dio Brando.

A resurgence of popular interest in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure occurred when "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" began making the rounds as an Internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel imageboards. Sparked by a Flash movie called "Mudah.swf" which features stick figures performing the signature attacks of five different characters from Parts 3 and 5 of the series (This was due to the fact that only series 3 and 5 had games at the time). Dio Brando's clip features his use of The World (often pronounced intentionally as "Za Wārudo", to mimic how Dio pronounces it in Japanese) to freeze time, throwing a barrage of knives, and finishing his dying opponent off by dropping a steamroller on him, atop which he leans back and exclaims "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!". This proved hilariously random to those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Another phrase popularized by the animation is "Muda!" (which translates to "useless" or "futile" in Japanese) which is Dio's (not to mention The World's) battle cry.

The recent English publication of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (which begins at the start of the third arc) uses the spelling "WREEEEEEEEEE!", which reinforces the proper pronunciation (at the cost of obscuring the connection to the Internet fad, however given the rather offensive nature of 4chan, where the meme was most popular, it is possible that it was a deliberate act of distancing itself from the fad and 4chan).

As Giorno, Dio's son, uses "WRYYYYYY!" during one of his fights, it is possible that the battle cry may be hereditary, since Giorno is not a vampire. Another instance which supports this idea is when Dio's Steel Ball Run counterpart Diego also uses the WRYYYYYY battle cry, during his battle against Valentine.

Trivia

 * In Dio's first appearance of part 1, he can be seen holding a book titled Gorgeous Irene, a reference to Araki's earlier work of the same name.
 * Araki stated that Dio in part 1 is named for musician Ronnie James Dio, whereas Dio in part 3 is named for Ronnie James Dio's band DIO. Subsequently, in part 3 his name is almost always written "DIO", in English.
 * Dio has a birthmark on his ear that looks like three dots in a row.
 * In the OVA, Dio uses a oil tanker agains Jotaro instead of a steam roller like in the manga and the game.
 * The battle cry or WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY is a very popular fad on youtube.
 * In Heritage for the Future, when hit with Alessi's stand, he turns to Nukesaku, and as Shadow Dio, he turns to Wang Chan (who carries Dio's head in a glass jar).
 * Interestingly, "Dio" is pronounced similarly to "deo", which means "god" in Latin. This pun may mirror Pucci's relationship to Dio, about which he stated that he "loves Dio as he loves God".