Josuke Higashikata

Josuke Higashikata is a male character that features in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Biography

Josuke Higashikata (東方 仗助|Higashikata Jōsuke), also known as Josuke Joestar Higashikata (東方 ジョースター 仗助|Higashikata Jōsutā Jōsuke), was the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar who had an affair with young Japanese college student Tomoko Higashikata who was going to a college in Tokyo when she was 21 years old. As the 65 year old Joestar was married, they did not pursue a relationship and Tomoko did not tell him that she was pregnant with his son who was born in 1983 in the town of Moroih. She raised her son by herself with her father Ryohei Higashikata being present to help his daughter and grandson. In 1987, when he was 4 years old Josuke was struck with a fever due to an unknown cause where over the course of 50 days with no one knowing whether he would survive or not. The reality was that he actually developed his own Stand power that left in this condition. His mother attempted to take him to a doctor in the city but it was winter in that time and their car was trapped in the snow. It was then that they were approached by a mysterious young man who offered to help push the car which was freed from the snow and drove away. Both Josuke and his mother were incredibly grateful to the man but when they went to find him he was gone. Josuke was deeply affected by the kindness of the man that in his adult years he honoured him by modelling his hairstyle after his savior. In 1999, Jotaro Kujo travelled to Morioh after learning of Joseph's illegitimate child as the event had caused chaos in the Joestar Group over the matter of inheritance. However, a further issue was that Joseph Joestars Hermit Purple revealed the threat of other more malicious Stand users being present in Moroih with Kujo sent to warn Higashikata. Jotaro met with Josuke warning him of the threat of evil Stand users but Higashikata dismissed the threat as he believed it was none of his business. A Stand user by the name of Angelo was present in the town just as Joseph's spirit photograph had shown with this career criminal and murderer looking to kill Josuke but he managed to contain his foes Stand. He had the Stand contained at his house but his grandfather accidently opened the bottle containing the Stand which killed him. Despite Josuke's efforts, he was not able to heal his maternal grandfather who died as a result of Angelo's attack with him deciding to protect the people of the town in the place of his grand parent. He and Jotaro later prepared for Angelo's next attack after Josuke made sure his mother stayed at a friends place. After three days, there was no attack with the reason behind it being that Angelo waited for it to rain as his Stand was based on water and he sent it to kill the pair. Attempting to escape, Josuke entered into a room in the house where Angelo's Stand ambushed him and attempted to enter his body through his mouth. However, Higashikata had swallowed a plastic bag earlier and trapped the Stand inside of it whereupon Jotaro and him found Angelo hiding in the trees. They captured him with Josuke wounding his hand as they attempted to learn about his Stand power. From Angelo, they learnt that the criminal was not born a Stand user but rather was given them by a mysterious person in the uniform of a student who wielded a mystical Arrow that imparted the Stand powers on others. From the Speedwagon Foundations records, they found out that the Arrow had previously been used by the witch Enya and was used to keep Dio Brando his powers. The danger posed by this artefact meant that they sought to find and retrieve the Bow and Arrow before it could create more dangerous Stand users.

They track down and fight several Stand users in order to retrieve the Bow and Arrow, the object that creates Stand users. But eventually they learn of a serial killer Stand user, and after he kills one of their friends, vow to find him.

When they do find Yoshikage Kira a fight ensues, however he is able to flee and, using another person's Stand, changes his face and assumes someone else's identity. They eventually find him again and are able to kill him.

Overview

Personality and attributes

Josuke lives with his mom and did not know his father, Joseph Joestar. When they finally met, he did not want to have anything to do with him. But when he saw that Joseph was willing to give up his own life to save a baby he just found, Josuke's attitude changed. Josuke has a crafty personality and an affinity for money which is shown three times in the series. First was when he met Shigechi and came up with a plan to get money and other things from all over Morioh Cho. Second was when he met the "alien" Mikitaka and used his shape-shifting power to cheat money from Rohan. Finally was at the end when he used Crazy Diamond to 'restore' a piece of a picture his father gave him to steal his wallet. Josuke has an outdated pompadour hairdo, which several people point out and make fun of him for. However, when they do he mercilessly pummels them, as he wears it to honor a man with that hairstyle who saved both his mother and him in his youth.

He was shown to be extremely protective of his hair and did not tolerate anyone insulting it. This was because the hairdo was chosen to honor a man with the exact same hairstyle who saved his mother and himself during his youth. As such, he deemed anyone that made fun or insulted his hair style being an insult to the man that saved him. Josuke commented that he had no choice but to react regardless of whether the person was a friend or foe. On such occasions, he brutally and violently punished the person for saying the offending remarks despite him being polite before the fight. In one case, he attacked Jotaro for making fun of his hair and this required Kujo to knock him out to calm Higashikata down. In another case, he was so blinded by rage when Rohan insulted his hairstyle that he charged him and completely ignored his Stand that operated on visual sight of his Manga notes. Higashikata was then so overwhelmed with anger at the insult given to his savior that he had not noticed that his foe was trapped under a bookcase and was still looking for him in order to beat him up.

Higashikata for a time held a deep sense of resentment towards his biological father. This was because he felt that Joseph Joestar had abandoned both him and his mother for sixteen years. Josuke initially manifested this resentment with his reluctance to meet with Joseph. He later refused to call him father as he felt that it was odd to call someone his dad when he had not met them much of his life. This later became an issue in Morioh City when a baby that developed Stand powers caused herself to become invisible. During this time, Joseph attempted to save the child only to put the girl in even greater harm with this angering Josuke who believed that this symbolised how Joestar had hurt others. However, Josuke later came to accept his father more so in time with initially this appearing as a desire to save his life and later seeing the sacrifice Joseph was going to make for the baby Stand user that he grew to acknowledge him.

Powers and abilities

He developed his own Stand power that was known as Crazy Diamond which was a melee fighter with a short range of 3 meters. This stand had its own unique ability that was called restoration which could repair damage or heal injuries. This took the form of reversing the time state of the object or person to the time before the damage. However, he was not able to reverse restore his own injuries so bruises to himself he could not heal and attacks from Stands that entered into his body he could not reverse. He also could not bring back people that were killed though he could restore their bodies to the time prior to the injuries but it could not resurrect the individual. Josuke was able to use his Stand in interesting ways such as breaking walls and then restoring them to prevent his enemies from following him or using the time manipulation ability to seal people into rocks as he did with Angelo. In another case, he deflected and destroyed an enemy Stand that took the form of missiles only to use restoration to reforge them where their redirected course sent them back at the enemy. In another battle, he threw a bottle at his foe knowing it would be shattered but then used his Stand's power to reconstruct the bottle over the hand of his foe thus destroying the limb.

It can, however, restore an item to its raw materials (e.g., a table can be restored to timbers). This ability allows Crazy Diamond to perform a range of interesting feats, including trapping the enemy (by restoring pieces of a broken crate around the target) and tracking (e.g., restoring a torn piece of clothing so that it will seek out what it came from and reattach).

Notes

• Josuke Higashikata was created by Hirohiko Araki who was the protagonist in the Diamond is Unbreakable story arc.
• His stand's name was a reference to Pink Floyd's song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
• Josuke's Stand was referred to as Shining Diamond in the translations though the dialogue calls it Crazy Diamond.

Appearances

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable:

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