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I think what makes Dio a great villain is that even tho he had a tragic childhood, he’s still an irredeemable, petty, charismatic monster. This dude tormented the joestars for generations. That’s a whole another level of pettiness
What strengthens it too is that we see Speedwagon, a man who grew up in similarly awful conditions, but after being shown mercy by Johnathan, was both a good man and ride or die for the Joestar family afterwards. Edit - also to add onto that, if Dio wasn't such a monster, he could have easily had the good life. Johnathan held no malice towards Dio even as he died, and clearly wanted a good relationship with his adoptive brother.
Yea so much this honestly I really miss it dont get me wrong I like a sympathetic villian but I'd rather they be the dragon to the main big bad, think the darth Vader to darth sidieous the lesser Villian can have that sympathetic arc and even redemption but some villians are just evil repulsive and I don't want to ever see them redeemed
I always found that funny because when they first meet Jonathan brings up that his friends call him Jojo and Dio really just settles for that nickname. Dio doesn't call Joseph or Jotaro by that nickname because that nickname isn't used for Joseph anymore and it gets dropped with Jotaro before the Crusaders reach Cairo. Still even if Jotaro and Joseph would have said their name was JoJo to him or of it was somehow brought up, I don't think he would use it with them. There is no personal relationship with either of them the way there was with Jonathan.
It's probably because he whooped his ass after the Erina thing. Jonathan jumped a entire Fountain, I'd respect someone who did that just to beat my ass aswell.
Something about his backstory I don't feel is brought up enough is there was one thing that showed there was a small spark of goodness in Dio...his mother. Dio makes it pretty clear above all he HATED his father for working his Mother to death, indicating that his Mother was likely the only person in the entire world Dio genuinely loved
I view it as Dio being fated to become a villain no matter the timeline(or at least oppose the Joestars) but his environment and upbringing dictates to what extreme.
It's in the second JOJO Magazine (the winter edition), in Araki's character sheet for Dio, that Dio hated his mother for being weak (maybe he resented her for not protecting him from Dario which really Dio's mom was just as much a victim as he was, but a child's mind often doesn't see that). That said he definitely did care for her because it did piss him off when Dario tells him to sell his mother's dress for booze and part of why he mentions he despises Dario is because he overworked his mother to death. However caring about his mom doesn't mean he wasn't evil. Dio is very much capable of forming relationships and attachments while still being a bad guy. Pucci and Jonathan are proof that Dio can form bonds with people. But it's like Araki said in the 2007 Eureka magazine interview: Dio cannot give all of his love to any person, and Dio's ambitions are what's most important to him. Meaning that in the long run Dio will sacrifice someone he cares about if it means it will further his own plans and ambitions. That's what really makes him evil.
@@Sarah12471 If you actually compare, deigo, dio, au diego, all three of them are similar, all of them did things so that the could achieve there goal, Diego fighting Valentine may make him look "good" but that's just because valentine was interrupting his goal of reaching the corpse, we were told what was right and wrong from Johnny and gyro's perspective which made us think that diego actually had a good side but it was all because of corpse, he was the same, from his perspective, he was doing good for his plan And that's why I love Sbr, the characters are so great that even if they do something out of character you can easily understand how, the story was just the best
To me, Dio is on par with Frieza on how to do irredeemable villains perfectly. He has such a massive presence, not only when he's on screen, but for the whole frnachise since without his actions, the series wouldn't be what it is today. However, whenever he's on screen, he's one of the most enjoyable characters to be ever be drawn to life thanks to his eccentric, bombastic aura coupled with his despicable actions.
I like your video, but there's a reason Dio didn't use his vampiric abilities again, Jonathan's body was rejecting and limited him of his vampire abilities. The freezing involves moisture and wouldn't work with certain stands; Space Ripper Stingy Eyes expels his bodily fluids, and that would take out the blood he needs for control of Jonathan's body. Also, Dio became so confident in the World that he wouldn't care his other abilities.
He definitely could have used his vampiric power after he absorbed Josephs blood, since Jonathan's body fully became his. After that, he probably just didn't use it because he was cocky. Although, now I wondering why he didn't use Spacer ripper stingy eyes after when Jotaro injured his leg again lmao. Like yeah, he used his blood, but the laser eyes + the blood probably would have been better
@@nok4799 if you mean after Jotaro became able to stop time, well what is laser eyes gonna do to a manifestation of the fighting spirit that’s light speed and can’t be hurt by non stand attacks, along with being able to stop time (and can do it while Dio stops time). At that point no vampire ability was gonna save him
@@nok4799 that’s if A: the laser is faster than Star Platinum can react to get in the way of it or B: faster than Jotaro can activate his time stop with a thought, and for both cases Star Platinum is around light speed (from being able to keep up with Polnareff possessed by Anubis for a while, and even then I doubt the eye laser is anywhere near light speed) so that is unlikely to get past Star Platinum, and if Jotaro’s reaction isn’t as good as Star Platinum’s it’s still likely fast enough to react to pressurized water beams to activate time stop with a thought. At that point the eye lasers just weren’t a viable option when the laser is likely slower than Dio’s own stand, so he’s likely to not use the attack slower than his fastest option. Sorry for the long type I’m a nerd for this a bit.
While visiting my mom, we binged Jojo. After we finished everything, she said this: "Dio is what happens if you gave a Hood dude the charisma of an dictator, the evil of a Shakespearean villian and the mind and cunning of a chess player."
Kono Dio Da! Dio is the biggest slap on the face of people who say "evil because its evil dont work nowadays unless is for comedic effect(ex: jack horner) " and its not even a slap is an entire "muda" beatdown
True. Like even with Jack Horner I'd say it's more a matter of general charm; the "comedic effect" was more or less a vehicle for Horner's charm Get what I'm saying?
Honestly, I love DIO, he was one of the reasons I got into Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, absolutely one of my favorite animes of all time. Seriously, this dude got beef with not only Jonathan BUT HIS ENTIRE BLOODLINE!
Also for the world's design, one of the songs sung by Ronnie James Dio, one of DIO's namesakes, is holy diver. Which perfectly describes the world's appearance. Also considering he was stuck in the ocean for 100 years, having some scuba gear might be like a safety blanket.
Like Daisuke Ono was born to be Jotaro, a strong and determinated voice full of strength. The same was for Takehito for Dio, an evil, sheer, charismatic voice that represents power, ambition to conquer and destroy everything. What a good time to have this two be on the same period!
I think that another villain that was done extremely well was Pucci, a normal person who through an encounter with Dio and the death of his sister becomes as much of a monster as Dio, even if it was slow at first. We see his entire path to villainy unfold right in front of our eyes, with him not even realizing what he is doing is wrong. As we saw with his fight with Weather report and Emporio, he thinks that he is righteous and saving humanity by following Dio's path, eventually becoming like him to the point of using the same tricks that Dio would use to overcome the Joestars, and even succeeding at his goal for a short period of time, but by underestimating Emporio and fate, ends up falling in the same way that dio once did. also KONODIO DA
I love how much more Pucci becomes like DIO after fusing with the green baby. He becomes way more arrogant and manipulative and condescending and all the traits of himself that he expressed only through White Snake now openly become part of his human personality.
@@emblemblade9245 he even goes on to mock jotaro right before killing him much like dio, while before when he still had ws he almost immediately took jotaro's disc.
Actually, now that you bring it up, yeah; the fact Polnareff never found out, or at least never commented on, Giorno being Dio's kid was a serious missed opportunity. I could picture his wallet falling out of his pocket or something during the confusion of the Chariot Requiem body swap, with Polnareff taking note of it only to stop as the realization of the picture inside being Dio sets in.
DIO is probably my favourite villain not only in Jojo but in all fiction. He is just what I look for in a villain narssasistic, powerful, uncaring to almost everyone and the way his shadow looms over the parts he’s not even in (even part 2 to a degree) shows how much influence he has over the world of Jojo he has. Along side that one thing I really like is how his name changes between parts 1 and 3. In part one it was Dio Brando but in part 3 it was just DIO showing off how he got a sort of god complex after his time in the ocean and dropping his last name because that part of his life doesn’t control him anymore.
@@ShiningAndStarstruck Honestly, Griffith is one of the most detestable characters in existence, and I love to hate him for it. He built a cult following around him in an attempt to become a nobleman, has a complete breakdown the moment one man questions his authority and decides to live an independent life, and blames Gut's eternally for his full breakdown. There's more to it than that, but the fact that he was always a deeply self-serving person that couldn't cope when encountering serious adversity was really instrumental in building up an absolute bastard. I don't really feel the same way about Dio. Sure, he's an effective villain, a fantastic part 1 antagonist but I don't feel as strongly about him. This is perhaps the point, by part 3 he really was a man out of time and didn't have a personal investment against the Joestars, but rather bore a grudge against their family spirit in general. This actually works; Jotaro hated Dio, but he isn't quite up there with Griff, who literally sold out all his followers without any remorse just so he could take what Gutts had and violated it out of spite, literally the worst character that I love to hate in my mind. Dio is just a fun time all round, aside from Danny...
@@lordbiscuitthetossable5352Johan liebert is in the conversation for detestable characters If you can even call johan human Johan is like a soulless being like a dementor almost the way he goes around ruining lives for no good reason and not even caring
@@allaboutthemurzic if it’s from the new part I haven’t started reading that yet. The name just isn’t connecting for me. I’ll take your word for it, as Johnny in part 7 starts off similarly bitter, just his actions Are constrained to a highly brutal/competitive section.
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What I got from Dio in parts 3 and 6, was that he was genially HAPPY!! He was able to live with more than just anger and make meaningful relationships. Of course, taking a note from Darth Bane, he was prepared to lose/kill all of them if needed without hesitation.
One thing that doesn't get discussed enough, if at all: Did Dio know about the Pillar Men? He was completely absent in Part 2, but did he ever learn about the events of Part 2 after awakening from the ocean? He had plenty of time to, but that information is pretty much exclusive to select members of the Joestar family itself, Smokey Brown could've been a source of information, but that's counting on whether he'd even be able to learn that Smokey was Joseph's friend.
Probably not, and I believe that if he knew he would try to become the Perfect Life Form, just in case that helps him achieve Heaven(or just to become imune to the Sun idk)
@@gustavosauro1882 There was only 1 Perfect Aja though, and that got destroyed, so even if he knew, he'd know that becoming the Perfect Lifeform is no longer possible.
Who knows, IIRC the whole Pillar Men stuff is not known to the general public and it's possible that the Speedwagon Foundation covered the whole Pillar Men events up. We know from Part 4 and Stone Ocean that Dio traveled around and kept up with current events. With Joseph being a well known real estate mogul I'm sure Dio heard of him enough for his curiosity to be piqued and do his own research on Jonathan's grandson. Whether he managed to find about the Pillar Men is a mystery but even then with them defeated and Stands being the new power I don't think he would care that much anyway.
Fun fact: Araki said in a character panel describing Jotaro that he is not purposely disclosing his emotions, simply that he just thinks other people (those that matter) can just see it.
Fun fact, although the in universe explanation for its diver gear is so it can breath in stopped time, the design reason is because the world is based on the song Holy Diver by DIO (the band) This means... The World is a Vampire, and The World is a HOLY DIVER!
Now that a friend actually got me into JoJo I have a shit ton of respect for Hirohiko Araki. Dio, Kars, DIO and Yoshikage Kira are some of the most entertaining bastards I’ve seen. Also we gotta remember. KONO DIO DA!
Dio’s dad Dario was the early influencer of his evil! His influence stayed with Dio even while living with the Joestars who tried to make him feel as welcome as can be! But Dio was all about becoming dominant and on top; using any trick and anyone he could to get to the top! You can thank Daddy Dario for starting him on this path!
17:12, just to explain rq. This is because something attaining to Jonathan’s body is preventing him from accessing every single ability he had as a full vampire. Dampening his strength, body manipulation, and hyper healing. After he goes full vampire in the end of part 3, he obviously gets this stuff back but decides at that point that he is much stronger than jotaro and doesn’t need eye beams or to freeze his whole body. He still lost though because he made the same mistakes he did in part one. And they are that he got too cocky and thought he was destined to win, holding back and just testing his limits only to crumble to the same bloodline a few generations down the line
If we wanna talk about depth with Dio, Over Heaven just gives such an interesting look into his psychology. As much as he claims to despise the saintly woman his mother was as he describes her, almost all of his actions are ironically dictated by his mother's influence on her in a way that it's possible he could've been a better person if not for his father. She planted the idea of "Heaven" in his head, she's the one the got him the education he used to earn money, she taught him how utterly "idiotic" people with morality like her were as he grew to resent her goodness that was often taken advantage of, and he inevitably wants to make "Heaven" a reality to prove whether or not she was correct. Even him finally killing his father was only because he sold his mother's only dress for alcohol, which removed any possibility in Dio's mind that Dario could change. It can even be said this last part is what set Dio's worldview fully in place, as the fact a part of him hoped Dario could change was the final line to the goodness his mother tried to impart. I like Over Heaven, if that isn't obvious.
I think DIO's past is similar to Voldemort's in one regard: the impact that the lack of a mother figure has. J. K. Rowling said that had Tom's mother raised him, he would have turned out to be very different, and I honestly see that DIO would have been the same. Keep it in mind that DIO, for all his flaws, loved his mother, as he was infuriated that Dario not only made her work until she died, but even sold her dress in order to buy alcohol.
Rowling also said that before plumbing wizards would just shit in the middle of the hallway and magic it away. So I doubt she put much thought into that statement.
Diego is a Dio abandoned by his father, but not his mother. He was actually a well adjusted child until in an act of pride-filled defiance against a man, Diego's mother burns herself to feed him to instill this sense of pride/self-preservation. Losing her afterwards, Diego was filled with a hunger for more, and a rage against the cruel world.
Have you seen the anime Monster? The main antagonist Johan Liebert is arguably the single greatest villain in not only anime and manga but fiction in general. He definitely deserves a video of his own.
The scariest part of Johan is the fact that he is... human. The plot of Monster occurs in the real world: no magic, no superpowers, no other races, no evil beings that lie in the shadows and corrupt others, etc. And yet Johan is a villain that is more threatening than several villains that live in universes that have those things.
Kono Dio da!! WRyYyyyYYyyYYyyy... Great video man, and yes Dio has an incredible amount of depth, and most of the time people don't actually talk much about it.. Geez so many animes have just flat and one dimensional characters easily forgotten, while Dio not just affected all parts of this series, the future events, all reality of that world, but also many other stories. He has simple goes, but was not made poorly, is not because someone has simple to understand actions, and not the most original motivations that everything about him is empty. He has a lot going on him, on personality, charisma, powers, ideals, story, motivations, and his own view of his entire reality... And you made a great job explaining everything... I kinda hate when people say that Jojo is just a random shonen anime with weird fights and just weird looks, but nothing more, Araki put a lot of effort thought and studies to create it, it may not be the most complex story, not the most rich in world building and w/e, but this piece of work was made with much effort, care, and love. Is such a great show, it's not meant to be political or informative, or so profound, but not every art is made to be, doesn't mean it was made to be a generic trash like some try to belive it. I love Jojo's Bizarre Adventure a lot!
There actually is a canon reason why Dio doesn’t use his vampire abilities, he still didn’t have full control over Johnathan’s body, which is why his left side healed slower
remember dio originally had a iconic mark not the joestars, until araki gave the joestars the star and never mentioned the 3 dots devils luck symbol again.
I appreciate villains like Dio. Sometimes, we just need assholes who are simply assholes regardless of backstory. Too often, especially nowadays, there are attempts to make villains tragic for the sake of redemption or to feel bad for them. Almost as if the writer(s) have a thing for tragic villains and view criminals as misunderstood angels (which is either delusion, disturbing, or a fetish of theirs). Dio was never meant to be redeemed nor for us to feel sorry for. We can understand him, but he does so much harm that we want to see him stopped. A proper sympathetic villain would be like Mr. Freeze from Batman TAS. Not characters like Cinder from RWBY or The Sorceress from MotU. (Maybe sympathetic villains can be a topic for a video.) Kono Dio da!
I feel like what makes Dio so good is his Clash with Jonathan. Jonathan is the only person that he knows had the resolve to try to stop him and could do so, theres a reason he emphasizes taking his body after part 1. He respects Jonathan, while also hating everything about him. That and Jonathan fed him the hands and jumped a fountain, id respect him too if that happened to me.
Excellent video! Another thing I really like about DIO is that the sources of power he draws on, being vampirism and stands, are essentially stolen from other powerful villains in the series. The stone masks were created by Kars to evolve himself and his people into superior beings to live without fear or limitation, and DIO took that power for himself when it was never intended for a lowly human such as him. On the stand side of things, Diavolo's discovery of the stand arrows that were eventually passed to Enya and then DIO was also a stroke of fate that DIO took full advantage of. (Now that I think about it, this stroke of fate from Diavolo fits even better with DIO's character considering the three moles on his ear are a sign of "the devil's luck" shining on him!) It's just so in-character for DIO to take power from others and make it his own to conquer the world.
Kono Dio da! This was a good video and introspect on Dio. That said I would argue Jonathan while the less complex of the Jojos wasn't boring but I'll refrain from text vomiting in this comment section.
DIO's powers were weakened due to Jonathan's body resisting DIO. He even shows that half of his body heals faster than the other, as his new body isnt fully his yet
Ya Dio is what makes a great villain, so many villains get back stories these days to explain the way they are that it's refreshing to see villains like Dio still around.
This is actually the sequel to the Yoshikage kira one - And if this video gets big, I would love to expand into other characters - Someone suggested DoFlamigo.
I happen to have a weak spot for "Ryo villians" or basically villians who suround they entire life by the hero of the story. For example Ryo from Devilman, Griffith from Berserk and obliviously Dio. A Villian that has this genuine need of appriciation by the hero is really intresting especially when we see them fail in the end and get what they deserved. Altrought for Dio and Johnathan it was only one scene it still make a really big impact on the whole of the character. (Sorry for my bad english as it's not my first language)
Another great part of DIO's portrayal in P3 is the philosophical conversations he has with Enya, like how he believes the meaning of his life is to conquer his fears. It's a small portion of the depths of thought he had at the bottom of the ocean, but it's a heck of a turn from the screaming freak show you're used to after watching part 1. Also, KONO DIO DA!!!
a thing that you can also see in dio wanting power were the creatures he spliced. Shown in one of scenes you put up, he spliced a cat with a bird...a bird is typically considered a free or a representation of freedom in story telling cause they can fly and go anywhere they want. Felines are considered powerful or strong due to a cats ability as a hunter: night vision, fast reflexes, sharp claws AND fangs, and for the most part, they hunt alone. put those two aspects together and its like a representation of Dio. Powerful and free.
what makes DIO a great villain to ME is simple. they built the HYPE and then DELIVERED on the HYPE. thats what matters most to me. You say the villain is this "dangerous" now you must deliver on it. And DIO does so.
@@Mangakamen Probably. He’s such an evil villain. So evil that the main villain from The Live Action Beauty and the Beast movie did the exact same things Doflamingo did.
I like how vampirism in the Jojo universe takes away all your redeeming qualities and leaves the grandiose manipulative "one above the world" that Dio thinks is the concept of being better A side note is that Puchi changed what happened with his brother and the fate of his home town, causing the whole plot of Puchi luring Jolyne and Jo boi to prison to never have happened in the second loop that Emporio woke up in (thus why the main cast is alive and very noticeably not imprisoned Stand users)
Just a heads up (hehe, head): DIO's vampiric abilities did not disappear after his slumber, but because he was now inhabiting Jonathan's body (which was full of Hamon energy) they were severely nerfed.
great video man, i was looking for insipration on how to write interesting and threatning villain, your videos show me the aspects that i need to think about to achieve this.
Cono Dio da. (I'm hoping i spelled that right) Another great video Kamen. Ever thought about doing something like ranking characters from different video games or series? Curious what your favorite persona characters or kamen rider series.
"KONO DIO DA!" Great video MangaKamen. I hope to one day write a villain as deadly, calculated, and evil as Dio Brando: One of my favorite villains in all of fiction.
21:30 When it comes to the design of The World, Araki stated that The World was designed to look like a scuba diver. The tanks on his back are oxygen tanks and are connected with cables up into the mask. He looks somewhat robotic and artificial because Araki wanted Dio's stand to contrast Jotaro's: a guardian spirit, something often concidered in cultures as a natural part of our world. As for why a scuba diver? I'm just going to remind you that between part 1 and 3, Dio spent around 100 years locked in a coffin at the ocean floor.
100% true. Again people forget the meanings of the names themselves. DIO in Italian means GOD, Diavolo is Devil and Giorno is Son of God. So God Spending 100 years buried in the ocean would make him the Holiest of Divers
Technically speaking, it was actually Kars and Diavolo. Kars created the mask that gave Dio his powers, and Diavolo is the one who found the arrows buried in Egypt and sold them to Enyaba. Diavolo and Kars are directly responsible for Dio's rise to power and Pucci eventually obtaining Made In Heaven. All three of them are entirely responsible for Yoshikage Kira obtaining Killer Queen as well.
KONO DIO DA. Your videos are always super interesting and while I did already gather most of this myself, seeing somewhat lay out it out in an easy to digest manner is quite nice
I did a Psychological Analysis on DIO for one of my College Classes, it was very dense, this video essentially brings up a lot of the same points but goes into more detail about his background. 10/10
Putting aside that Jojo has fate at play, usually the framework of "being born evil" is simply "born predisposed towards evil," which people absolutely are, always. Some more than others. The same way that someone can be born predisposed to being shy or outgoing, or athletic, there's a certain degree that people tend to lean towards either good or evil. That's not to say that there isn't a large impact that the environment and upbringing has on someone but the Rousseauean framework that no characteristics are attained from the nature of one's birth is an incredibly new concept and ever since its introduction all that's happened is that it's been proven wrong, time and time again. The concept of tabula rasa being generally accepted blindly by the mainstream is probably part of why the villains in newer works of culture that reject the concept of objective or inherent evil are so poorly done. When you deliberately choose to entirely deny an aspect of human nature in your writing, it makes the writing lose a sense of truth that people understand on an instinctive level.
