In the long-running animated series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, based on the manga of the same name, the  Joestar family are the multi-generational "heroes" fans can root for. It starts with Jonathan Joestar in the 1880s, then Joseph in the late 1930s. Josuke Higashikata is Joseph's illegitimate son, growing up in the town of Morioh in the 1990s.

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Josuke is rather like his father; he's got a cool, punkish attitude and though he is quick to form rivalries or get into a fight, he's got a good heart underneath it all. He's also something of a trickster. His stand, Shining Diamond, can deliver devastating punches and repair objects or heal people, a flexible power to have. In many ways, Josuke is indeed a hero, but might he better off as a villain?

10 Hero: Healing Powers

Josuke may have been too late to save his grandfather, but his stand is a great healer — and that's not even all it does. Shining Diamond can revert nearly anything to its previous state, such as repairing broken walls or even uncooking food.

Anyone in grievous medical condition is fair game for this stand's healing punches, and Josuke can injure someone and heal them without them even realizing what happened. Healing is usually a good-guy trait, and Josuke certainly has it.

9 Villain: Frustrating Town Setting

Morioh looks like a fairly cozy place to grow up, but adolescents in any small town around the world tend to feel cooped up and bored in such places. They tend to make their own fun, often at the expense of their neighbors.

Josuke is a rambunctious sort, and a stifling place like Morioh is sure to bring out the worst in him and, in extreme cases, drive him to become a villain. Suppose he catches the "I must prove myself against the strongest" bug, and escapes Morioh to satisfy it? The rampage begins.

8 Hero: Friendship

koichi hirose

While JoJo's Bizarre Adventure isn't especially dedicated to the "power of friendship" theme, the Joestar heroes certainly know how to look after their own, and that includes Josuke. No one messes with his friends and gets away with it.

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Josuke is the type to tease his friends and mess with them, but if anyone (like an enemy stand user) hurts them, Josuke will go into a battle frenzy and make them pay the price. It's always a heroic trait to look after others.

7 Villain: Easily Snaps

jouske higashikata jojo

Josuke has a punk attitude, and sometimes he's pretty silly about it. He puts a lot of effort into styling his cool hair, which he's quite proud of, so anyone who makes fun of it is going to pay.

In fact, that's one of the first impressions anyone gets of Josuke: he unleashes sudden fury on anyone who even hints at criticism of that fabulous Joestar hair. Only a villain would fly off the handle like that.

6 Hero: Moral Outrage

Josuke from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Josuke is hardly a paragon of virtue, but he's a good guy when it counts. He may be a punk, but the real villains are truly despicable, and not only will Josuke confront them in a stand battle, but he denounces them, too.

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More than once, Josuke has said or thought any variation of "How dare you!" when the villains made their move, often in his friends' defense. A villain would just fight to protect their own interests, but Josuke makes sure that evildoers are taken care of and called out for it.

5 Villain: Spontaneous

Josuke Higashikata looking suspiciously at a scrap of paper.

Josuke is a stand-wielding high school student in a small town, so naturally, he's got to make his own fun. He, Koichi, and Okuyasu need more than the SNES to pass an afternoon; they will also get out there and make trouble.

If anyone has a halfway cool idea or scheme, Josuke is instantly on board, such as when Shigechi used his Harvest stand to collect spare change. Josuke and Okuyasu immediately tried to exploit that power without even thinking it through.

4 Hero: Minimize Collateral Damage

Stand battles can make a real mess sometimes, and the battles in Diamond is Unbreakable can certainly get messy, especially when Yoshikage Kira is around. But Josuke doesn't just fight; he also fights clean whenever possible.

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He can use Shining Diamond's repair ability to patch up any collateral damage, since he'd feel pretty guilty about busting the place up. He even used his power (while being chased by Highway Star) to avoid running into a baby stroller on the street. That's noble.

3 Villain: He Lies

Josuke and alien

Josuke thought he struck gold when he met what seemed to be an elf-eared, shapeshifting alien named Mikitaka Hazekura. Once he verified Mikitaka's abilities, his first thought was about how to use them unfairly.

In a classic scene, Josuke asked Mikitaka to morph into dice and create a loaded dice game with Rohan, just to gobble up all of Rohan's money. Josuke lied like crazy to keep up the illusion, and only a villain thinks like that. Imagine if he took things further as a dedicated villain with Mikitaka by his side.

2 Hero: Sheer Toughness

Extreme durability is a good trait for any villain or hero, but in the case of Josuke Higashikata, it's more of a heroic endurance. A proper hero is one who keeps getting back up despite the odds, and Josuke holds out that long for the sake of his friends and frontier justice, not himself.

A villain's endurance is often based on unethical powers or exploiting others or cheating the system. Josuke's endurance is more like "I can't give up until this guy pays for his wrongdoing!" He's got the inner strength of a stand-wielding hero.

1 Villain: Willing To Be Sneaky

When Joseph Joestar visited Morioh, he and Josuke kind-of-sort-of adopted an invisible baby girl, and Joseph accidentally spent all of Josuke's money on baby supplies. Josuke was pretty upset, like anyone would be.

As Joseph departed by boat, he used Shining Diamond's power to swipe Joseph's wallet and reclaim his money, just like that. Yes, he was owed that money, but it was pretty sneaky of him to use a damaged photograph to repair it and bring Joseph's wallet to him. Just imagine him using that power on other people's wallets or valuables as a stand-wielding pickpocket.

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