JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a show that relies on subverting shonen clichés by taking these conventions to the absolute extreme. It adds a level of humor to a show that can often take on a darker tone with its violence and death. However, sometimes these moments, where the show plays upon clichés, end up being just that, clichéd.
Many of the clichés can be traced to the characters within JoJo's Bizarre Adventures. Between the unique clothing styles and the eccentric personalities, some tropes can be found in most shonen anime.
10 Giorno Giovanna Is An Eccentric Italian Mob-Boss Wannabe
Giorno Giovanna, Golden Wind's protagonist, is an interesting protagonist for the JoJo franchise because he traces his lineage to both DIO and the Joestars. Giorno's goal throughout Golden Wind is to become Passione's boss, and to do this he has to confront the current leader, Diavolo.
While Giorno is eccentric and novel for both his appearance and his lineage, he feels like a crime-boss hopeful stereotype, especially since he is living in Italy, which has often been a stereotypical scene for mob stories.
9 Noriaki Kakyoin Is The Smart School-Kid Sidekick
Noriaki Kakyoin was originally mind-controlled to be part of DIO's army of evil Stand users, but Jotaro Kujo and the team saved him and invited him to join their quest to find and defeat DIO. Kakyoin was a stereotypical shonen protagonist, a high school kid complete with the school uniform, and he also served as a voice of reason in the show.
Smart schoolmates are often sidekicks who help the hot-headed heroes on their adventures. While Jotaro was not necessarily hot-headed, he certainly needed Kakyoin's help along the way.
8 Jean Pierre Polnareff Is A Frenchman With A Vendetta
Jean Pierre Polnareff, who joined Jotaro and his time early on in Stardust Crusaders, feels like a mash-up of a couple of stereotypes. First, he is a Frenchman with a love of ladies and a Stand (Silver Chariot) that wields a rapier-like appendage.
On top of that, he has a hot-headed personality and a desire for revenge that leads him to rush in without thinking and often accidentally throw a wrench in the plan. Characters like Polnareff are found across shonen anime. For example, characters like Kiba Inuzuka from Naruto are impulsive sidekicks who talk a big game but get in over their heads frequently.
7 Yukako Is The Scorned Love Interest Stereotype
Yukako Yamagishi is the school beauty, but her Stand is much more horrifying. She can control strands of her hair which can, in turn, control things they attach to. She becomes obsessed with Koichi Hirose and kidnaps him, trapping him in a house of horrors until he does better in school.
While this depiction is certainly a new take on the trope, the often problematic archetype of the scorned woman who is trying to capture or get back at her lover has been used for centuries.
6 Koichi Hirose Is The Average Student Sidekick
Koichi Hirose's character plays on one of the most common tropes in anime, especially shonen and isekai anime. That is the stereotype of the average school kid who stumbles across extraordinary power. This character is not particularly strong or smart, but they have willpower, heart, or a strong set of values.
Of course, Koichi is not the series protagonist (rather he is a supporting character), and his Stand is not necessarily the strongest in the series (that title goes to the Joestars). These archetypes are often used for the main character, but in this case, it is for the character who serves as the audience stand-in.
5 Okuyasu Nijimura Is The Fool With A Heart Of Gold
Okuyasu Nijimura is another character who fills two clichés in the series. First off, he is a goofy character who serves as the source for a lot of the humor in Diamond is Unbreakable, and thus he fulfills the role of comic relief.
On the other hand, he is also the delinquent with a heart of gold, not unlike Josuke Higashikata, Diamond is Unbreakable's protagonist. They both have delinquent hairstyles and they fight to prove their points. However, they still have a strong moral compass and genuinely want to protect their friends.
4 Caesar Zeppeli Is The Sacrificial Rival & Best Friend
The rival-turned-friend (or vice versa) is another archetype that can be found across anime. From Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki's famous rivalry that tore apart a friendship, to Bakugo and Deku's constant heroic competition, shonen anime is full of friends/rivals.
In Battle Tendency, protagonist Joseph Joestar meets Caesar Zeppeli, another Hamon user who at first appears more skilled at the art. The two immediately hate each other, but by the end of the series, they become best friends and allies in the fight against the Pillar Men.
3 Jotaro Kujo Is A Delinquent With A Super Power
There are a lot of delinquent characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which is funny because the first protagonist of the series and the progenitor of the Joestar line's supernatural abilities, Jonathan Joestar, was the furthest thing from a delinquent one could be. However, by the time the show gets to Jotaro Kujo, any notions of a kind and naive himbo go out the window.
Jotaro is not only a delinquent, but he is also rude to all the women in his life (including his mother), and he is a wielder of a powerful Stand. On top of all the other Stand having delinquents in the series, Jotaro is part of a line of anime characters that are delinquents with supernatural power, like Kuwabara from YuYuhakusho and Ichigo from Bleach.
2 Dio Brando Is Just Evil For Evil's Sake
Dio Brando, or just DIO, was a petty thief's son who convinced Jonathan Joestar's father that he was trying to save him not steal from him after a carriage wreck. As a result, DIO was ingratiated into the Joestar household, became rivals with Jonathan Joestar, became a vampire, and killed the Joestar patriarch that took him in.
Throughout the whole series, DIO is just a villain to be evil. His entire goal was to show his father that he could be more evil than his father ever could. DIO is the embodiment of every big bad guy that has ever existed.
1 Jonathan Joestar Is A Boring Ingénue
On the other side of the same coin is Jonathan Joestar, the embodiment of goodness and purity. Despite all DIO did to Jonathan and his loved ones, Jonathan always had compassion for the vampiric foe. However, this was just folly, as DIO eventually got what he wanted.
Jonathan is the stereotype of every "good guy" in media. He has a compassionate heart, he wants to save people, and he tries to believe in the best of people. Unfortunately, compared to the other Joestars, he is just bland.