Highlights
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is known for its willingness to kill off characters, regardless of their importance, showcasing the dark and cruel nature of the series.
- The deaths in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure can be sad, shocking, and downright gruesome, with the author not holding back on portraying the painful and cruel demise of characters.
- The deaths in the series, such as the cannibalization of a baby, the kicking to death of a dog, and the merciless demise of a purely innocent character, highlight the ruthless and unforgiving storytelling style of Hirohiko Araki.
One of the reasons JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been so innovative in the Shonen demographic is the fact that it is one of the few anime and manga of its kind that isn’t scared of killing characters off, no matter how important they are. And it gets even more intense later down the line when the series turns to the Seinen demographic.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is not for the faint of heart, since creator Hirohiko Araki is a ruthless author who knows how to write dark death scenes, which can be seen in all the nine different parts. Some of these deaths can be sad or shocking, but many others are downright cruel, whether it’s because the character didn’t deserve it or because of the gruesome details.
8 The Vampire’s Baby (Phantom Blood)
Cannibalized By Its Own Mother
Araki didn’t take long to show the audience how evil Dio Brando truly is. Back in Part 1, a few days after getting his new vampire powers, Dio starts manipulating innocent civilians in order to get food and to create his new army of zombies.
When a helpless woman asks him to spare her baby’s life, Dio indulges her, only to turn her into a vampire and make her eat the poor child herself. This is a very dark scene, made even worse by the fact that this was a very young and innocent baby, who can even be heard crying as it’s being devoured by its own mother.
7 Iggy (Stardust Crusaders)
Kicked To Death
One of Araki’s main writing philosophies is to make a villain kill a dog in order to showcase how evil they are. This means there are obviously a lot of cruel dog deaths in the series that could’ve easily ended up on a list like this. But the most memorable one because of its cruelty was the death of Iggy.
Iggy was the mischievous canine partner of the Stardust Crusaders, who was suddenly and violently kicked to death by the villain Vanilla Ice. In a series filled with gruesome animal deaths, this one sticks out because the author didn’t hold back from showing the painful demise of one of the main characters of the story.
6 Shigekiyo Yangu (Diamond Is Unbreakable)
Nobody Tried To Help
As divisive as he was, Shigekiyo Yangu (also known as Shigechi) was one of the most memorable characters in Part 4. He was just a young and naive kid, which makes his encounter with Yoshikage Kira even more shocking. And even though he stood his ground, the antagonist managed to deal some fatal damage, which led to one of the harshest scenes in the series.
A bleeding Shigechi walks through his school, looking for his friends and asking for help. A group of girls come across him but decide not to help him out because of his looks. Even though Shigechi managed to find Josuke & Okuyasu, Kira gets the upper hand and makes him explode at the last minute while Shigechi is screaming Josuke’s name with his final breath. This was a slow and merciless demise for such an innocent character.
5 Narancia Ghirga (Vento Aureo)
Just One Day Before Retirement
In the final arc of Part 5, Bruno’s Gang finds themselves in a dire situation, since they swapped bodies with each other and the main villain, Diavolo. This confusion led to the sudden death of Narancia Ghirga inside Giorno’s body, who was impaled on some broken bars by King Crimson. Dying alone in someone else’s body is already dark enough, but the context behind Narancia’s final moments is also extremely important.
Minutes before Diavolo murdered him in cold blood, Narancia swore that he was going to quit his criminal life in order to go back to school. Diavolo robbed him of this opportunity, which is made even crueler by the fact that he didn’t deserve it, considering that Diavolo didn’t have any real motivation to kill him, aside from the fact that, unfortunately, Narancia was the closest to him.
4 Foo Fighters (Stone Ocean)
Unobtainable Freedom
Foo Fighters was a unique entity in the series since she was actually a colony of intelligent plankton that could live as a human thanks to her Stand, which she shared her name with. F.F. ended up being one of the most lovable characters in Part 6, which made her gruesome death and the context behind it hit even harder.
Pucci was cold-blooded, first boiling her alive and then splitting her head in half with a powerful attack. But the worst aspect of her death is the context since F.F. was the only main character in Part 6 who never got out of prison and managed to see the outside world she always wanted to see.
3 Marco (Steel Ball Run)
Couldn’t Be Saved After All
Throughout the plot of Steel Ball Run, Gyro Zeppeli’s main motivation to join the titular race was to win amnesty for a child named Marco, who was unfairly sentenced and supposed to be executed. Even though Gyro didn’t manage to win the race because he was killed by Funny Valentine, Naples did end up abolishing the monarchy, freeing Marco in the process.
This seems like a good ending at first until it is revealed that Marco died of a cold moments later. To have a character fighting for this kid’s life during the entire story, only to unceremoniously kill him off like that, feels like some sort of sick joke. But that’s the way Araki writes his stories, especially since this death ties in with the themes of fate that are scattered throughout the series.
2 Jobin Higashikata (JoJolion)
A Victim Of Calamity
Jobin was a complex character during the events of Part 8. While he was an antagonistic figure who did a lot of evil things to Josuke and his allies, he was ultimately just desperately trying to save his family, especially his son Tsurugi, who was suffering from the rock disease. But in the end, Jobin’s ambitions would be responsible for his own violent demise.
In JoJolion’s final arc, Jobin fell victim to Wonder of U’s calamity, as he was struck in the chest by the dip tube of a hair spray. He suddenly began losing an alarming amount of blood until he slowly passed away on the floor. This was a grisly demise that seemed like it could happen to anybody, similar to the demises seen in the Final Destination movies. As corrupt as Jobin was, he was just trying to save his son.
1 Wild Cat Size (The JOJOLands)
Failed To Do Their Job
One of the first battles in Part 9 is against Wild Cat Size, a trio of cats who can manipulate their fur with the power of their Stand. Jodio and his friends encounter them in the jungle but eventually manage to outsmart the feral animals. Everything seemed normal until a few hours later, when Paco finds the decapitated heads of the cats inside a bag of food, as some sort of ominous threat meant for the protagonists.
Not much is known about Wild Cat Size’s owner and exactly how he killed and dismembered the animals. But this is already a cruel death for this early in the story, as these cats were just following their owner’s orders, and when they failed, they were killed just to send a message.
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