The Appeal Of Dio Brando
Whenever one mentions Jojo’s Bizarre adventures, memes tend to pop up. Regardless of whether you are an anime fan or not, you must have come across a Jojo meme at some point. At the heart and center of the majority of these memes is the main antagonist of Part 1 and Part 3 of the series, Dio Brando aka DIO.
The first meme that introduced me to this character was the Da Warudo one. I remember seeing this meme and asking, “Who the heck is this guy?” I also watched a video from an anime convention where they played footage of the second opening of Stardust Crusaders. The reaction from fangirls as soon as Dio popped up made me even more curious.
That prompted me to watch as much Jojo-related content as possible to discover and dissect the appeal of this character and his influence on not only the Jojo series as a whole but the entire anime and manga industry.
The Beginning
In order to understand Dio Brando as a character, it is important we take a couple of steps back in time to how the whole Jojo conflict began and that is Part 1, Phantom Blood.
Dio gave off this mysterious, yet sinister vibe to me. Some guy that is good-looking but at the same time, you are better off not getting too close to him. Why? Read on.
Dio came from an impoverished family. His mother died after getting overworked to death. His father Dario was an abusive alcoholic who maltreated both his wife and son and this is considered what led to Dio’s slow descent into darkness.
Now I find this toxic dynamic intriguing because of Part 6’s revelations about Dio which are part and parcel with this early phase. Why did I say that? Let us dive into his relationship with Joestars so that you understand what I mean.
Upon his father’s death (Dio was responsible for that), he was adopted by George Joestar. Dio begins to bully and hurt his adoptive brother and rival Jonathan Joestar. Why? Dio according to the light novel Over Heaven, developed a ‘Eat the Rich’ mentality from a young age and transferred that hatred to the Joestars as they represented everything he longed for and desired to take everything away from the Joestars, not just inherit things.
That made me pause for a second. How much of this is Dio’s actual mentality and how much of this is Dio subconsciously inheriting some of his father’s toxic mentality? It has been shown that his father hated rich folks and would lament and lambast them, especially the Joestars despite the fact that he was the irresponsible one in the family and would force his wife and then eventually his son to work only to spend all that cash on booze. It does not help that he never had proper friends growing up which explains his egoistical nature.
Moving along, Dio’s actions toward Jonathan worsen. For instance, he killed the Joestar family dog by burning it in a furnace and also he kissed Jonathan’s girlfriend Erina in the presence of Jonathan. That shocked me at first till I remembered Griffith from Berserk and what he did to Casca.
Dio turning into a vampire made things even more interesting as Dio cast aside whatever form of sanity and humanity he had and embraced his inner darkness. That also brought up more questions, was Dio always an evil incarnate right from birth like Speedwagon stated, or did he start off as a well-intentioned extremist at some point but eventually lost sight of his goals and descended down the dark path that he is currently in?
That brings me to the next part.
Stardust Dio
Whenever one mentions Dio, this is the Dio that pops to mind as Stardust Crusaders is responsible for majority of the Jojo memes. It is not hard to see why.
Dio in Part 3 is a lot more matured than his Part 1 self. A lot more polished and calculating and ever the mysterious villain. He is also quite charismatic and charming in a sinful way. The true epitome of the Evil is Sexy trope. No wonder fangirls love him.
He is also a lot more over the top and crazier than usual which makes him a pretty amusing villain. Make no mistake, the guy is still an unrepentant evil bastard. Yet, he is also so entertaining that you cannot help but respect and admire the abomination. The guy sticks to his goals no matter what and that is quite remarkable for a villain if you ask me. That is why the fans love him. Sure he has a sympathetic backstory but that does not excuse him in any shape or form. Most anime villains these days always have a redemption arc at some point.
Dio does not need that. If anything, the guy has already accepted that he was always destined to be evil no matter how hard he tries to fight that. A dark version of the You can’t fight fate trope. That brings to mind another anime character whom I shall discuss later.
I am glad for the Over Heaven light novel and also the Stone Ocean anime for expanding a lot more on Dio’s past and his reasoning for things. Dio comes across as the stereotypical cartoonish villain but Stone Ocean and Above Heaven add more layers to this character making him a lot more complex.
When you have a character that is that complex and well-written, debates abound to ensue especially if the character is as villainous as Dio is.
Conclusion
And there you have it. My opinion on the appeal of Dio Brando’s character and his influence on the anime industry. What do you all think?
