Dio Brando

Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō) is a character from the anime and manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure who was born in England in the 19th century. He is the most prominent villain in the series. Dio's full name is an homage to both actor Marlon Brando and heavy metal icon Ronnie James Dio.

Part I: Phantom Blood
Dio is the son of Dario Brando, an alcoholic and abusive father. Back when Dio was just a boy, he was brought into the household of George Joestar after the mysterious death of his father, so as to repay the debt He owed Dio's father for saving his life. But soon Dio's personality caused trouble for George's young son, Jonathan Joestar. Even more of a sociopath than his father, 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.

Initially, Dio is able earn the trust of the patriarch of the Joestar family through deceit (and at Jonathan's expense). However, his plans of taking over the Joestar household were discovered by Jonathan when he discovered 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 wears and activates the Stone Mask, becoming a nearly unstoppable vampire. His seemingly supernatural abilities are explained as the exercise of the full potential of the human body. He is able to walk on walls, and regenerate his body faster than fire can consume it. He is able to pressurize liquid in his eyeballs and then create small openings on pupils, eventually creating two fluid jets powerful enough to slice stone and kill living things. He is also able to vaporize his body fluid rapidly enough to freeze anything he touches. However, this is at the expense of having his body be 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.

At the end of Series 1, Dio's body was destroyed, but his severed head managed to kill Jonathan Joestar and together they sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Part III: Stardust Crusaders
The anime series and video game are based on this third arc, which occurs about 100 years later. At the bottom of the sea, Dio's severed head reattached itself to Jonathan Joestar's lifeless body (Giving Dio the same star birthmark as the members of the Joestar family ). Dio's casket is recovered by fishermen, who are implied to have been killed by Dio as he awakened. He finds that he is now in the year 1985. After he returns to land he develops a Stand, a sort of "ghost bodyguard", giving him new abilities on top of his vampire powers. For most of Series 3, Dio is off screen and in the shadows, and the question of exactly what his stand "The World" does is a mystery.

In Series 1, Dio's powers were more bio-organic and slimy, but for the most part in Series 3 he only utilizes the "evil implants"; a parasite that brainwashes Polnareff and Kakyoin and are generated from Dio's hair (In the fighting game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure it is the vector of attack when he does the move called "Charisma"). It is eventually discovered by Dio that "The World" is a sort of brother power to "Star Platinum", which has great strength and can stop time, making Dio seem to be teleporting or moving at impossible speed. 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 Joestar's body and take better control of World. Once he does this, his powers will gradually increase, until he is able to stop time for as long as he likes.

In the beginning of the story arc Dio's World, Dio mainly battles Kakyoin and Joseph. Kakyoin is able to use his Stand make a barrier in which Dio can't escape from without getting hurt. Dio uses The World to stop time and destroy this barrier and punch him through the stomach and back. Before dying, Kakyoin realizes the nature of World's time-stop power and uses his last strength to give Joseph a message. Joseph is able to tell Jotaro this before he also gets killed by Dio's Stand.

After a long and bloody battle between Dio and Jotaro, Jotaro is able to stop time just before Dio drops a steamroller on him, and wounds Dio's leg. Jotaro's plan was to keep on breaking Dio's leg whenever it regenerated until the sun came up and killed 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 World's leg as where Dio broke his. Because injuries to a stand and it's user will echo onto each other, this is where 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 (An oil and medicine company loyal to the Joestar family), are able to do a blood transfusion between Joseph Joestar's body and the lower half of Dio's body. The transfusion is able to revive Joseph, and later they lay Dio Brando's remains in the middle of the Sahara desert to evaporate with the rising sun.

Legacy
In Part 6, it is revealed to the Joestars that his re-emergance was planned to create a perfect world when the moon reached a certain angle and time. He stumbled upon Enrico Pucci not long before Part 3 and "healed" his disfigured foot for him. After piercing Pucci with a Stand arrow, the two spent considerable time together, plotting and scheming. He questioned Pucci's loyalty to him, wondering why he didn't use Whitesnake to remove The World from him. Pucci had explained that he loved Dio as he had loved God, and thus worshipped him too much to betray him. Ensuring that he wouldn't completely fade, he left one of his bones in Pucci's care. Dio's presence continues to haunt the series, emerging in flashbacks and his disfigured sons. His bone played a vital plot element for the first half of Part 6, an odd green baby inheriting a Stand to merge with it.

Personality
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, narcissist, arrogant and megalomaniacal. 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 of no consequence, 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.

Stands
See 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 playstyle 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 unblockable 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 unblockable and home 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 disposition of the 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.

In popular culture

 * Zephyr, one of the bosses in the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as well as Castlevania: 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 yo 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.
 * Dio would later appear as playable character in the Nintendo DS video game Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars.
 * Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou series is likely to be a homage to Dio. She is not a vampire, but the servant of one, and her main power is manipulation of time - usually demonstrated by stopping it completely. Her spell cards use lots of knives, and one of her cards is even named "The World".
 * The characters Robo-Ky and Justice from the 2D fighter series Guilty Gear 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.

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 "Muda" 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).

In addition, it is interesting to note that in Part Five of the manga, during the battle with Cioccolatta, the stand of Dio's son, Giorno Giovanna also cries "WRYYYYYY!" with an indefinite amount of Y's (the Ys continue beyond the page). This implies that the battle cry may be hereditary, since Giorno is not a vampire.