Here’s the Lowdown on the Joestars, Anime’s Most Dysfunctional Family
The Forgers may be the anime family that everyone’s talking about these days, but few fictional bloodlines can claim to have the idiosyncratic repute of the Joestars, the protagonists of Hirohiko Araki’s timeless JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series.
And with the plight of one Jolyne Cujoh having concluded with a continuity reset as of December 2022, the entire original timeline of JoJo’s has found its way to animation, meaning the original Joestar bloodline as we know it has come and gone before our very eyes, and it’s therefore high time that the six major pillars of the family were given a closer look
With that, here’s the lowdown on every member of the Joestar family to have headlined a JoJo’s story arc.
Jonathan Joestar
The Joestar story officially began with Jonathan, born in 1868 to George and Mary Joestar, and the protagonist of the Phantom Blood arc. He was the first to encounter Dio, who his parents adopted as Jonathan’s brother, and who proceeded to be the most insufferable human being possible, tormenting and framing Jonathan as a scoundrel every chance he got.
Jonathan eventually learns Ripple, an energy-based technique taught to him by Will A. Zeppeli, and uses it to defeat Dio, who eventually transforms into a world-threatening vampire, gifting Jonathan all the justification he needs to get that sweet payback.
He later married his longtime sweetheart Erina Pendleton and they had a son, George Joestar II. Unfortunately, Jonathan was forced to sacrifice himself to stop a disembodied Dio after he was attacked by the latter on the way to his honeymoon.
Joseph Joestar
George Joestar II would go on to father Joseph Joestar, the protagonist of Battle Tendency. A Ripple user just like his grandfather, Joseph faces off against the Pillar Men, the creators of the Stone Mask that turned Dio into a vampire in the first place.
Following his victory over the Pillar Men, Joseph later married Suzi Q, with whom he had a daughter named Holy. He also had an affair with a woman named Tomoko Higashikata, a union that would result in the birth of a boy named Josuke (More on him later.)
Joseph would later acquire a Stand called Hermit Purple. It manifested as a series of purple, thorny vines that Joseph could wield as a whip-like weapon, and also use to defensively cover his body in. It had the additional ability to fuse with a camera or television, and subsequently use it to project an image of one’s fortune. With this ability, Joseph aided his grandson Jotaro in his quest in Stardust Crusaders as one of his most prominent allies.
While visiting his son Josuke, an elderly Joseph also adopted an unnamed invisible baby, naming her Shizuka.
Jotaro Kujo
Joseph’s daughter Holy eventually gave birth to one Jotaro Kujo, the main protagonist of Stardust Crusaders. When Holy falls sick on account of her body being unable to handle the presence of a Stand, which Dio inadvertently created within the entire Joestar bloodline, Jotaro sets off with allies old and new to defeat Dio and save his mother.
Speaking of Stands, Jotaro possesses one of the most powerful in Star Platinum. It manifests as a humanoid figure with superhuman strength, speed, precision, and stretchy fingers that it can use for a devastating poke attack. In the climax of Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro figures out that Star Platinum also has the ability to stop time, much like how Dio’s Stand, The World, can.
Jotaro would later go on to assist his uncle Josuke in his own bizarre adventure, father a child of his own in his daughter Jolyne, and proceed to go and break said daughter out of prison later in life. Yare yare, indeed.
Josuke Higashikata
Josuke Higashikata is the illegitimate son of Joseph and the protagonist of Diamond is Unbreakable, in which he performs the ultimate power move by befriending pretty much all of his enemies before recruiting them to take down a bomb-wielding serial killer.
Josuke, like the rest of the Joestar family, possesses a Stand, this one by the name of Crazy Diamond, which boasts superhuman strength and speed, as well as the special ability to instantly repair anything it destroys. This allows him to perform such acts as trapping an opponent in a boulder by smashing it open and then rebuilding it around them. (And no, that’s not a hypothetical scenario.)
Josuke never had any children of his own, making him, along with his grand-niece Jolyne and half-great-uncle Giorno, amongst the Joestars who served as the end of the bloodline.
Giorno Giovanna
Back to Dio for a moment. Following his last-ditch attack on Jonathan, the dastardly antagonist of JoJo’s managed to possess the inaugural JoJo’s body, and with it would go on to impregnate four unnamed women.
One of these women gave birth to Giorno Giovanna, the protagonist of Golden Wind who makes it his mission to infiltrate and rise up the ranks of the influential Passione mafia, hoping to transform it into an organization that protects innocent people instead of exploiting them.
Giorno possesses the Stand known as Gold Experience, which, along with the trademark Joestar Stand combat prowess, has the ability to create and manipulate life, be it plants or animals. It takes the form of Gold Experience Requiem after being hit with the Stand-creating Arrow, which enhances its abilities magnificently and gives it the additional ability to trap anyone it kills into an eternal loop of dying without actually bringing the release of death to them. In other words, don’t piss off Giorno.
As previously mentioned, Giorno never had any children, and therefore never extended the Joestar bloodline beyond himself.
Jolyne Cujoh
Last up is Jolyne, the youngest biological member of the Joestar family and the spunky protagonist of Stone Ocean, in which she’s sent to prison for a crime she didn’t commit, only to later unravel a conspiracy involving her family and the prison’s priest, Enrico Pucci; a conflict that ended with a continuity reset of the entire JoJo’s universe.
Jolyne’s Stand is called Stone Free, which, again, in addition to being really good at punching stuff, also allows Jolyne to unravel her body like a string. This gifts her nearly limitless possibilities such as grappling, entering small spaces, and keeping wounds stabilized by creating a Mobius strip upon it (also not a hypothetical scenario).
Jolyne was killed before she and her friends could defeat Pucci but the surviving Emporio managed to finish the job, ultimately bringing Jolyne back to life, albeit as an alternate version of herself named Irene due to the aforementioned timeline warp.
That same timeline warp brought an end to the original bloodline, with one Johnny Joestar—protagonist of the yet-to-be-animated JoJo’s arc Steel Ball Run—filling Jonathan’s role in the alternate family tree.
(featured image: David Production)
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