List of cultural references and inspirations from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure


 * See also: JoJo Influence on Internet Culture; List of cultural references in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

This article lists references made in popular series and by popular artists to art or concepts defining to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

References range in nature from tribute to plagiarism. Many are comic, while the "JoJo pose" in particular crosses into greater cultural significance as reproduced by a handful of popular Japanese performing artists.

Music

 * Japanese model and artist, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, often references the series through the JoJo Pose. During an interview she has also mentioned having felt like a Stand user and has even named her dog JoJo. In her music video for "PONPONPON", she can be seen doing several different poses referencing different anime throughout the video. Before jumping into the air and ending the song, she performs one last pose, which happens to belong to JoJo.

Anime/Manga

 * Anasatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom):Chapter 50 of Assassination Classroom makes a reference to the opening song of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Phantom Blood anime, Sono Chi no Sadame (translated as That Blood's destiny), with the line "That blood's destiny is to dominate others...!!!". This was used to describe the board chairman's son, who could be seen as the antagonist of the series.

Video Games

 * World Heroes series: Dio and Neo Dio are based on Dio Brando and Araki's earlier work Baoh. Neo Dio's visual design is based on the protagonist of the manga, Baoh, while the dialogue in his first appearance (in World Heroes Perfect) is a reference to Dio Brando (in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, his dialogue is more like Santana's). Dio's dialogue from World Heroes is also a reference to Dio Brando's lines. He also takes inspiration from Kars as he can form blades from his arms in certain moves, as well as how said moves are named "Sonic Saber" and "Grand Saber" reminiscent of Kars' "Bright Saber" title.
 * Dark Souls: According to the interview in Design Works, the design of the Armor of Thorns originated from the concept of the 77 Rings Challenge. In the challenge, combatants must defeat each other and wear the metal rings from each foe, increasing the weight they bear as they continue. The team's idea was to use this design and try adding spikes to the rings.
 * Street Fighter series: The Nichirin Shou attack of the character Oro, its name coming to mean "Sun Disk Palm" and manifesting in a iridescent golden ball of light, is a throwback to the powers of the Hamon and its usage by Sennin, as Oro is an accomplished Sennin. Though the reference is small, it is only one of the many references to Jojo, and was put in by Capcom, the developers and producers of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fighting game.
 * Guilty Gear series: Dio Brando is referenced by the characters Robo-Ky and Justice, who both shout WRYYYYYYYYYYYY during certain attacks. Robo-Ky has an Overdrive move where he unleashes a rapid barrage of punches while the words "dame dame" (駄目駄目) appear repeatedly in comic text bubbles. In Japanese, "dame" and "muda" share the same meaning (useless).
 * Castlevania series: A stone mask can be found in Castlevania: Symphony of the Nights library, which is where Jonathan and Dio studied the properties of the mask. The game's lore and story also show several similarities with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja series: During Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu characters are forced to make Jonathan's famous pose with a matching SFX in the background.
 * Touhou Project: In the sixth game of the Touhou Project "The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil", the final boss Remilia Scarlet quotes Dio's famous bread phrase in Marisa's Scenario.
 * Also in the eleventh game Subterranean Animism, Yuugi, an oni, fights Marisa "without spilling a drop of sake" (stated by Patchouli).


 * Suikoden series: In the first Suikoden game king Barbarossa gives a sword named Pluck (mistranslated as "Prakk" in the English version) to one of his generals, Teo McDohl.
 * Bayonetta: In the final choreography video of the game, Bayoneta uses poses similar to Jonathan's, Risotto Nero's, Joseph's and others.
 * Mad Father: The character  Blond Youth resembles Young Dio in many ways (clothes, haircolor) and the author even cites in his profile: "Called Dio by some" implying is a tribute to Dio in some way.
 * Project X Zone: The character Kogoro Tenzai has a skill called Tenzai Style: Ripple (Hamon), which allows penetrating enemy defenses. The skill is a reference to the Ripple.

Sports



 * As noted by JoJo's Posing School, real-life runner Usain Bolt and figure skater Mao Asada may have influenced or have been influenced by poses featured in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Video Games

 * Guilty Gear series: Chip Zanuff has an arm-blade that looks and functions identically to the one used by Kars.
 * Ninja Gaiden: In the background of Round 6 in the arcade version of the game, small Stone Masks can be seen as wall decorations, as well as murals of all four Pillar Men.


 * Street Fighter series: Guile is based on Rudol von Stroheim. Although some surmise that Guile could also be based on Dire from Phantom Blood, Stroheim seems more logical given both characters' military backgrounds, extreme nationalistic ideals, and similar hairstyles.
 * Rose_Lisa.png's outfit is almost identical to that of Lisa Lisa, and she channels her "Soul Power" into her scarf to fight. One of Rose's alternate costumes in Street Fighter 4 is Lisa Lisa's outfit. Both characters also have a noted hobby of liking to take bubble baths. Rose also references Avdol in that she is a fortune teller and many of her animations Guile_stroheim.jpgre tarot cards. One of Rose's win poses features her waving her finger in a "Tch-tch-tch" manner, a favorite of Avdol's.
 * Both Necro and Dhalsim bear a striking resemblance to the prisoner that Stroheim uses to test Santana's abilities.


 * Kk_azteca.pngKaiser Knuckle series:  One of the boss characters, Azteca, wears a face mask that is very similar to the Stone Mask. Also of note, his character select portrait shows that he has 'DIO' tattooed on his arm.


 * Touhou Project: Two of Kaguya Houraisan's Spellcards have references to JoJo's Bizarre ACDCreference.pngture, the first one being Divine Treasure "Salamander Shield", wich has in it's comment a clearly reference to Esidisi. And the other one being New Impossible Request "Red Stone of Aja" referencing the valious stone in Part II, The Red Stone of Aja.


 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labirynth: An animated cutscene in the game introduces Persona 4 cast posing as different JoJo characters: Narukami as Jonathan, Yosuke as Dio, Chie as Jotaro, Yukiko as Josuke, Naoto as Giorno and Kanji as Joseph.

Anime/Manga

 * Hyperdimension Neptunia: In 6th episode Neptune makes fun out of Noire who was convinced that her security system is unbreakable. She does it by paraphrasing Stroheim's famous quote with JoJo SFX suddenly appearing.

Music

 * daishi_jotaro.jpgi, ex-vocalist of the former Japanese Visual Kei group Psycho le Cému, dressed like Jotaro in the group's last PV, "Love is Dead."

Video Games

 * Touhou Project: Sakuya Izayoi is a maid who is the servant of the vampires Remilia and Flandre Scarlet. It's generally assumed that she's a tribute to Dio, as she employs the same style of combat (stopping time and using throwing knives) and even has attacks named after Dio's Stand power: Illusion World "The World" and Sakuya's World. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has been referenced several times in the official games.
 * In Double Dealing Character, one of Sakuya's Spell Cards erases the time (respectively the present and future) of the surrounding bullets and thus erases the bullets. This might be a reference to Diavolo's Stand and implies that Sakuya might not be only a reference to Dio.PCBJoJoStand.png
 * In the seventh game Perfect Cherry Blossom, once Marisa defeats Ran (a shikigami), she asks her if she is a Long-distance Type, because her master is far away and she is quite strong. This is a clearly reference to the Stand Types in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * Castlevania series: In Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, if the Sacred Fist sub-weapon is used without a spellbook activated, the protagonist shouts "Ora ora ora!" and unleashes a flurry of extremely fast, blur-like punches (in reference to Star Platinum).
 * In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, a soul called "Cagnazzo" can be obtained that makes a demon appear behind the protagonist and punch wildly whilst shouting "Ora ora ora!" in another reference to Star Platinum.
 * In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, one of the boss characters, Zephyr, utilizes time stopping abilities in conjunction with knives (much like Dio). In the Japanese version of the game he shouts "Toki wo tomare (Time has stopped)." while he stops time. However, in the USA version when stopping time he shouts "Star Platinum!" just as Jotaro does in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure videogame. His fight on top of the clock tower is another reference to Part 3 of the manga.
 * Guilty Gear series: The main character of Guilty Gear, Sol Badguy, draws influence from Jotaro. Several of Sol's moves are influenced by Jotaro's moves from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future. Both of them also share the same "cooler-than-thou" attitude and the same catchphrase ("Yare yare daze.").
 * Other characters who draw influence from Jotaro are: an "alternate history" Sol Badguy who has an attack called Fafnir that shares the same animation as Jotaro's Star Finger attack from JoJo's Venture and Johnny, who has several moves that have similar animations to Jotaro's attacks from JoJo's Venture.
 * Zato-1/Eddie's in-game win pose is similar to Jotaro's. Eddie also fights by summoning a "living shadow" that sometimes takes over his body, similar to a Stand.
 * Zappa is a character whose clothing is a strange combination of outfits worn by Narancia, Vanilla Ice, and Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. His walking animation is also the same as Dio's walk animation from the game JoJo's Venture. In the Guilty Gear story, Zappa is possessed by multiple spirits and is seeking a doctor to help cure his condition. The spirits that possess him hover around him in wraith-like forms, similar to a Stand. Zappa's most powerful "summon", Raoh, looks very similar to Star Platinum. When Zappa is possessed, he twitches wildly and strikes increasingly bizarre poses, a subtle references to Araki's notable style of drawing his characters striking poses.
 * King of Fighters series: Benimaru's appearance was loosely based on Polnareff, right down to his outfit in The King of Fighters '94 and The King of Fighters '95. Even after Benimaru's name was decided, the game developers continued to refer to him as Polnareff. Additionally, his taunt in The King of Fighters XI mirrors Polnareff's stature from the manga.
 * Also from King of Fighters, the main villain of the first two games, wears an outfit which is clearly a toned-down version of Dio's final Stardust Crusaders get-up, with a black tank top, loose pants, and even belt loops which come down past his hips. Rugal does omit the headband, kneepads, and other elements of Dio's outfit which bore the heart insignia, however, as well as having more ordinary shoes.
 * Psychic Force series: Richard Wong is a Psychiccer with the power to control time. He naturally compliments this ability by swarming the enemy with summoned daggers (usually after immobilizing them with a large sword) and uses teleportation as a highly evasive maneuver and as a means to swarm the opponent with more attacks.
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja series: The character Asuma Sarutobi is voiced by the same VA as Jotaro (OVA). He says "Yare yare daze" in his Ougi and also shouts "Ora Ora" while attacking. In Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, his "Fist Blade: Swift Barrage" melee combo is a reference to Star Platinum's Barrage.
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (Series):  The Personas bear a huge similarity to Stands from Stardust Crusaders. In fact, the gun-evoker used to summon personas in Persona 3 are a huge resemblance as to how Jotaro shot himself in the head and was protected by Star-Platinum.
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: The Cursed Sarai is a weapon described as "The Sword of Anubis that drives people mad.
 * Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness: Noiamnotabdul.png The character Santana is a reference to mostly part 3, but also some of part 2 elements. Appearance-wise, he strongly resembles Mohammed Avdol, with his official artwork mimicking Avdol's 'YES I AM!' pose. His voice actor is also Kiyoyuki Yanada, who voiced Jotaro in the Capcom fighting game. Aside from this, his name is also possibly a reference to Santana and his hair also resembles Kars's.
 * Skullgirls: Two playable characters from Skullgirls, Valentine and Peacock, are homage to Dio. Valentine can stop time and throw knives similar to Dio, and Peacock can drop a steamroller on her opponents though it is very rare.
 * Another character, Big Band, which was later added as DLC, shouts in similar fashion to Star Platinum during one of his Blockbuster attacks though, Big Band shouts "Tuba Tuba Tuba" instead.
 * Jotaro can be seen sitting at the bar beside Dagonian(fish people) in the River King Casino Stage.
 * Rosenkreuzstillette: Sichte Meister is a homage to Dio . Like Dio, Sichte uses knives to attack and has the Maxresdefault.jpgty to manipulate time. She also shouts "Toki wo tomare!!" while freezing time and placing knives that zeros-in on the player in Rosenkreuzstilette.
 * In the sequel Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~, she crushes the character with a giant block similar to how Dio uses the steamroller.
 * Sichte also shares resemblance of Kakyoin Noriaki's signature Emerald Splash attack, referenced by her emerald-shooting. Her stage Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~ is a clock tower, refers to where Kakyoin dies.
 * Waku Waku 7: The character Dandy-J resembles Joseph's Part III appearance, sharing beard, hat, and pants and completes the Indiana Jones homage by using a whip.
 * Terraria: In Terraria, there is a weapon called "Vampire Knives" which are likely to be a reference to Dio Brando; Specifically, to Shadow Dio's knife throw from the arcade fighter of the same name, whose knives fan out in a manner similar to this weapon.
 * Steins;Gate: The protagonist, while talking with Suzuha Amane, references The World in an allusion that he sensed the time had stopped.
 * In the visual novel, the group built a device called "Is it, ORAORAORA?!" which is a very basic lie detector; so basic that in reality it can only read people's sweat levels. They also like using Rohan's "I refuse" quote, which eventually outed someone as an otaku.

Anime/Manga
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 * Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: As a gag-series, it features one of the highest amounts of references to JoJo.

Additionally, a character in the series named Fräulein Kreutune seems to loosely reference JoJo. Haimura, the character designer and artist of the light novels, comments on how she reminded him of the Pillar Men.
 * Toaru Majutsu no Index: In the First Volume of the Light Novel Part 4; when Kamijou Touma had destroyed Index's clothes, and she was trying to (futilely) bring her clothes to it's original state, he's thinking that there is a "dohhhh" sound effect dominating the room and then replies in his mind that is not like "a new Stand User had attacked".
 * Hozuki no Reitetsu: At the end of episode 9, during the next episode preview, Hozuki is heard using Star Platinum's battle cry "Ora Ora" while he punches Enma.
 * To Love Ru Darkness: In the 44.5th chapter of the series, the main protagonist, Rito Yuuki, is seen holding a bag of various bizarre items. The logo on the bag reads: Stardust Store - JOJO HAND, featuring pictures of hands similar to the one found on Jotaro's hat.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The main antagonist of season 2 (Saiou Takuma) uses a deck based around tarot cards. Most notably, his monster "Arcana force 21 - The world" has an effect that allows the player to skip the opponent's next turn. This could be a reference to dio's stand "The world".  Also, Saiou Takuma is voiced by DIO's voice actor (in the 2012 adaptation).
 * Space Dandy: In the first episode of the second season, Dandy, QT and Meow hop through different alternate universes until they reach the third Dandy, whom mentions he is looking for 8 people with star-shaped birthmarks.Space_dandy_star-shaped_birthmark.png

Comics

 * X-Man Annual Vol 1 1998 The Hulk gains armor HulkTheWorld.jpg is based off of The World.

Other

 * Heroes: In the NBC drama Heroes, a fictional Japanese salary-man named Hiro is a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. In his blog, he states that he wants to "be like JoJo and Vaan and go on adventures" and that Part III is his favorite, especially the fights against the D'Arby brothers. One of his powers includes time manipulation, a gift shared with both Jotaro and Dio Brando. In his blog he also mentions Joseph, Suzie Q and Boingo, whom he compares with Isaac. Isaac was an artist and comic book author whose works predicted the future just like Boingo's Thoth. Hiro later manages to stop time for more than 5 seconds and says that "JoJo was wrong" and posts on his blog under the pseudonym Jotaro Kujo. In the episode Lizards Hiro uses Dio & The World's battle cry "Muda Muda" during the Battle of Twelve Swords. He uses it again to taunt Daphne while using his time manipulation ability to escape after taking her medal.
 * The series, but most notably Part III, has been featured in a variety of Japanese art memes and parodies of other manga and anime works drawn in Araki's style. A collection of such can be found here.

Anime/Manga

 * Baka and Test: The series is littered with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure references, ranging from poses to art style and even plot aspects. During a specific scene, Akihisa is seen trying Himeji's bento, only to be dragged into the darkness by a bunch of hands. There is also a scene in episode 7 where an annoying man with joskue's hair and his girlfriend try to get married at the kisaragi park. He features JoJo like frames and even does Jonathan's famous pose, Jotaro's pose when he angels at the sky, and Killer Queens' rock and roll pose

Video Games

 * Danganronpa: During his initial introduction, the protagonist, Makoto Naegi, points out that he does not have a stand. Additionally, the Japanese delinquent, Mondo Oowada is an homage to Josuke Higashikata, sharing Josuke's hairstyle and is easily offended when people make fun of it. He is also the leader of a motorcycle gang named the Crazy Diamonds. The villain of the game, Junko Enoshima, has multiple personalities, with one of them constantly acting as Dio and saying "Muda, Muda, Muda" during her Machinegun Talk Battle. One of the items the player can gift is called the Meteorite Arrowhead, a blatant reference to the Arrow. The sequel, Super DanganRonpa 2, has the character Teruteru Hanamura mentioning that people can tell if others are lying by the taste of their sweat and Monokuma attacking Monomi with a Heaven's Door parody. Nekomaru Nidai's clothing and hair style are probably a reference to Jotaro Kujo


 * Monster Hunter 3G:CrazyD.jpg The game had an event in which you could unlock a hammer based off Crazy Diamond that can heal your allies, and a mask based off Harvest that can be equipped to your Shakalaka and constantly gain money.
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: An enemy-only ability is called Bites The Dust that inflicts the Bomb status on a target. Said target will explode and die instantly next time it is attacked.
 * The King of Fighters '99-'03: Leona Heidern's "Earring Bomb 2: Heart Attack sees her attaching a bomb to her opponent. Afterwards, she may either wait until it explodes on its own or detonate it with a secondary command, saying 負けて終わり ("Makete owari." ~ "Take this and be finished."), referencing Bites The Dust (transcribed in Japanese as, 負けて死ね, "Makete shine." = "Take this and die.").
 * Misao: Sen's earliest RPG Maker videogame features a kind teacher named Sohta who's is in fact the murderer and main antagonist of the game. Sohta presents the same fetish Kira had with young and attractive woman's hands, to the point of severing them and taking in it with him much like Kira did.
 * Skullgirls: Eliza, another DLC character, not only has a parasite named Sekhmet that highly resembles Killer Queen, but strikes several Jojo-Style poses in her animations. Eliza also has a color palette that strongly resembles Dio's part 3 outfit in both style and color.

Anime/Manga

 * Macademi Wasshoi!: In episode 4, in order to fight Baltia´s black giant, Eitaro Sakuma exclaims that he will fight her, meanwhile he makes a pose similar to Risotto Nero; and orders to his assistant Eineus to ´´launch the thing (a giant robot sized Eineus)!´´, making Joestar´s trademark facehand pose.

Comics

 * Thunderbolts Vol 1 110 2007 The scene when Norman Osborn licks the sweat off of Bullseye's face is nearly identical of when Bruno Buccellati checks if Giorno Giovanna is lying about what happened to Leaky Eyed Luca.

Video Games

 * Guilty Gear series: Zappa is a character whose clothing is a strange combination of outfits worn by Narancia, Vanilla Ice, and Dio. His walking animation is also the same as Dio's walk animation. In the Guilty Gear story, Zappa is possessed by multiple spirits and is seeking a doctor to help cure his condition. The spirits that possess him hover around him in wraith-like forms, similar to a Stand. Zappa's most powerful "summon", Raoh, looks very similar to Star Platinum. When Zappa is possessed, he twitches wildly and strikes increasingly bizarre poses, a subtle references to Araki's notable style of drawing his characters striking poses.
 * The King of Fighters '99-'02: Leona Heidern's Grateful Dead is a (Super) Desperation Move during which she drains the opponent of his/her life force while surrounded by wisps of steam or smoke.Littledevils.png
 * Bayonetta: Of the many Infernal Demons that can be summoned by Bayonetta during a Climax Attack, the Little Devils are an obscure reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, more specifically Guido Mista's Sex Pistols. Director Hideki Kamiya has mentioned during a commentary that, much like Sex Pistols, each of the five devils have their own personality, and have a number written on their foreheads, with the #4 missing as it may be considered very unlucky by Zero, the King of the Little Devils.

Anime/Manga

 * Lucky Star: The show has several JoJo references. One in particular appears when Hiyori trips and falls to the ground in a dramatic manner. Her art style changes to that of JoJo and the similar SFX appear around her as well.

Video Games

 * Street Fighter series: Juri from Super Street Fighter IV has hair and clothes similar to Jolyne's. She also uses the "Ora" battle cry.Juri_Jolyne_Kujo.jpg

Anime/manga

 * Hyakko: Jhonny-_hyakko_43.png chapter 43, a person cosplaying Johnny can be seen in the background.
 * Planetes (manga): In chapter 19 appears a french bulldog named Iggy.

Video Games

 * Gaia Online: In the popular pixel avatar site Gaia online, there is an obtainable item know as Roto's Hat. This item's first pose allows the avatar of the site to wear a hat identical to that of Gyro's, name Roto's hat. During a Halloween event on the same site, one of the NPCs is dressed in Gyro's outfit.
 * This item's second pose allows the avatar of the site to wear a hat identical to Johnny's, cleverly named Joey's hat.
 * The item called K.O. Star; one of the poses (Titled Spin) allows you to wear gloves similar to the Roto Hat's second pose. The other poses have the titles: Ballistic, Spirals, Steel Wind, Time Stop, and Za Warudo, each with designs relating to their respective name.
 * The item RIO Star has several iconic accessory references, including Dio's face, stop sign, roadroller, Jockey headgear, and a vague impersonation of The World (Titled Summoning Rapid Infinity). It also includes Josuke's lapel emblems, Giorno's hair, and Jotaro's face and an impersonation of Star Platinum (Titled Summoning Stardom).
 * WIN Star is another item with several accessories referencing the series. Of which, the most obvious being Jolyne's hairstyle, Giorno's ladybugs, and a dog resembling Iggy.