DIO
A Generational Hater
Now I'm ngl to you, years ago, my boy recommended me to watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (shout out to Jamie) and I took one look at it and said this is trash. It didn't help that my other friend thought the same thing (Daejarn watch JoJo FFS). I eventually ended up watching it and now I can say with my chest that it's one of the best anime, especially in Shonen.
Personality
Throughout the series, this man has shown a different level of cunning and villainy. He will do anything to reach his goal, ambitious is an understatement. It makes you wonder where this arrogance comes from, considering his background and how he first started out. He is not royalty. He’s not a well known individual and he’s not even someone with an important title. Yet somehow went from being the son of a poor, no life alcoholic to being one of if not the the most eccentric and cocky villain in the series.
In my opinion, his father, Dario is the main reason for Dio’s descent into evil. Suffering 12 years of abuse from your alcoholic father will turn anyone into a menace. All Dio knows is fending for himself and disregarding everyone else, leading him to be cruel and carry out unnecessary acts of violence. It’s almost like father like son tbh. There are too many examples of this but one that stands out is him turning the mother of a new-born baby into a vampire FOR NO REASON. She was holding the baby while this happened…so you can guess what happened next…
What I like the most about this character is how smart and cautious he is. I have never watched an anime villain try several times to confirm the kill before easing off and relaxing. Its actually refreshing, big “I’m not going to stop until I see with my own two eyes that the mc is dead dead” energy. I don’t blame him though, the Joestars are crazy.
Abilities
Part 1 Dio has really cool powers due to being a vampire. Its a shame we don’t see him use them more often in Part 3. I love how creative Araki is with vampires in JoJo. They have the typical cliché vampiric powers such as strength and regeneration but also have very unorthodox abilities you wouldn’t think a vampire would have. Here are a few I can think of while writing this:
- Freezing anything by touch
- Shooting lasers from their eyes
- Mind Control
- Turning people into zombie
Now, I can see why people prefer part 1 Dio over part 3 DIO but, I have a bias towards part 3 because stands are sick and part 3 DIO is my display picture on IG loool. DIO in part 3 has The World and you can’t tell me it’s not one of the coolest abilities ever. There’s just something different with how DIO screams the ability and the sound effect that comes with it. The anime did an excellent job with The World and its sound design. DIO’s stand (The World) allows him to stop time, what I like about JoJo villains in particular is that they know their ability is OP and they spam it (like why not). That’s not the case for a lot of other anime. Apart from stopping time, The World is a humanoid stand and is basically a ghost Dio can use to interact with things physically. Humanoid stands are the waviest stands in Jojo, you can’t tell me nothing.
Smoke
9/10, he does not hesitate to use his strongest move, I would like to say he always goes for the kill but I personally believe he could’ve easily taken out Jotaro and Joseph with ease on numerous occasions. That’s the only reason he doesn’t get a 10/10. Maybe it’s because they’re Joestars I guess.