Summary Renowned battle shonen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been published for almost forty years. For all that time, JoJo only afforded a marginal part to women in its narrative. One quote from series creator Hiroiko Araki, however, raises questions about the forces at play behind that.
Of course, I’ll always have a place in my heart for Jolyne. It was thanks to her that I was finally able to depict violent scenes, such as women getting punched in the face, and people having their arms cut off. Prior to then, that wasn’t something I could easily get away with. This is part of a double bind that prevented Araki from prominently featuring women without troping them as “damsels in distress” and the like. JoJo’s combat was designed for men with bodybuilder physiques; women were excluded by default. This doesn’t mean that, although limited, JoJo’s early representation of women was all bad; Erina’s presentation in Phantom Blood is laudable for realistically reflecting the period’s expectations of women while also making her defiant and self-sufficient.
Stands Made New Characters Possible Stands Gave JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Room To Grow Close Stands are soul manifestations that provide unique abilities to those who possess them. They offered a counterpoint to Hamon's strictly defined mechanics by allowing a more-or-less infinite range of powers to be manifested by virtually any living being. Their introduction would lead to a massive shift in storytelling, world-building, and characterization within the series.
Although Stands made it possible for characters to be less masculine, Stardust Crusaders was still defined by its super-buff cast. Characters like Rohan Kishibe and Koichi Hirose in Diamond is Unbreakable broke from this mold, but the towering Josuke Higashikata, lovable buffoon Okuyasu Nijimura, and returning titan Jotaro Kujo were the part's pivots. In Golden Wind, Araki shifted focus to depicting “beautiful men” , and he moved toward a more lifelike and notably androgynous cast.
While it could be played off as comic relief pandering to the shōnen audience, this viewpoint appears more insidious when put alongside moments like Jojolion's chapter #25, "Paper Moon Deception, Part 3". Yasuho Hirose falls under the sway of the Stand Paper Moon King and is sexually assaulted twice. On one hand, it could be read as an earnest critique of a predatory culture.