Highlights
- Araki's preference for changing settings and characters in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure allows him to explore different genres without starting from scratch.
- Jojo's strongest vampires, like Santana and Esidisi, have basic abilities compared to the more advanced Pillar Men.
- Dio Brando's range of powers, including hypnosis and time-stopping Stand ability, make him a formidable opponent and give him an advantage over other vampires.
One of the reasons Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure changes settings so much is that Araki doesn’t like to stick to one story and setting too long. His early career saw him shift from mangas about Westerns to sci-fi stories, bloody shōnen adventures like Baoh and Cool Shock B.T's mind games. Through Jojo, he could change settings and characters without having to start with an entirely clean slate.
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The series has covered so many genres across the past 36+ years. To think it all started with a Dickensian story about vampires. Parts 1 & 2, Phantom Blood & Battle Tendency, were practically all about fighting these bloodsuckers before Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, finished them off. Most of them were ordinary mooks, while others were much more formidable. But how do Jojo’s strongest vampires stand up against each other?
7 Straizo
Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency
- Powers: Super strength and agility, regeneration, Space Ripper Stingy Eyes.
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon.
Originally one of Tonpetty’s less interesting Hamon disciples, Straizo turned on his friends and followers in his old age in order to become a vampire. Despite opposing Dio as a youth, he wanted to follow in his footsteps to retain his youth for eternity. Though unlike him, he wouldn’t play with his enemies. He planned on taking them out immediately, starting with Joseph Joestar.
In practice, he ended up being a diet version of Dio for his estranged foster nephew to deal with. Straizo learned how to do Dio's Space Ripper Stingy Eyes ability, a high-pressure blast of fluid from the eyes, but not his ice powers. He could also dissipate Hamon energy with his Satoporoja Beetle cloth scarf, and reform himself after being blown up. But since an untrained Joseph could take him down, the other vampires would have little to no trouble with him.
6 Santana
Battle Tendency
- Powers: Super strength and agility, body manipulation, super senses, flesh absorption and manipulation, prehensile ribs.
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon, physically weaker and less smart than the other Pillar Men.
Just as Straizo was a mini-Dio, Santana is the generic template for the Pillar Men. He has no wind powers, burning blood, or other gimmicks beyond body horror. Revived by Stroheim and his Nazi guards, he broke out of captivity by folding himself until he was small enough to slip out through the air vents in his cell. Then he took control of a soldier’s body by slipping inside him in one of the series’ nastiest scenes.
He could also use his ribs to grab and crush his prey, and feed on others by absorbing them through his skin. However, by Pillar Men standards, these are basic abilities that any one of their species could do. Which is why his more advanced elders stuck to their unique skills. The Pillar Men are also weak to sunlight, but it turns them to stone instead of dust. It took everything an untrained Joseph had, and assistance from Stroheim, to reduce Santana to rubble.
5 Esidisi
Battle Tendency
- Powers: Super strength and agility, body manipulation, flesh absorption, prehensile blood vessels, 500 °C blood, keen intellect.
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon, getting out-thought.
There’s a considerable gulf between Santana and his superior, Esidisi. In the Pillar Men’s hierarchy, he’s second to Kars and above Wammu. He was strong enough to kill Loggins, one of Lisa Lisa’s most experienced Hamon users, alongside many more masters of the art in the past. He could manipulate his blood vessels to catch his prey and melt them from the inside-out with his magma-hot blood.
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It made him prone to emotional outbursts, bursting into floods of tears. Yet he'd use them as part of his mind games against his opponents, intimidating them with his sudden mood swings. Still, it wasn’t enough to overcome Joseph’s new training and quick thinking, as he ended up getting melted by his hidden net and Hamon-infused beatdown. His nervous system lived long enough to achieve his goal, but he fell short fisticuffs-wise.
4 Vanilla Ice
Stardust Crusaders
- Powers: Super strength, invisibility, Void (via Cream).
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, stand has limited range, blind in Void form
Dio’s loyal acolyte, Vanilla Ice, has an unfair advantage over every other vampire (beyond his master) through his Stand. Known as Cream, it’s strong enough to decapitate a person with one swipe of its hand, and it can render itself invisible by going into Void form. By carrying Ice and its body in its mouth, it can swirl around its foes undetected and swallow them whole. No one knows what happens to the stuff it eats, except oblivion.
The drawback is that neither it nor Ice can see in Void form. He either has to peek out of Cream’s mouth to see what’s going on or rely on his judgment to figure out his foe's position. Ice also didn’t know he was a vampire until it was too late. Polnareff inadvertently completed his transformation when his Silver Chariot stabbed him in the tongue. One taste of blood later, and he became vulnerable to sunlight, with Polnareff using it to turn him into dust.
3 Wamuu
Battle Tendency
- Powers: Super strength and agility, body manipulation, anti-Hamon wires, flesh absorption, wind manipulation.
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon, intolerance to unfair play.
Vanilla Ice’s Cream is essentially a giant black hole, warping from one place to another to obliterate his foes. It’s possibly strong enough to overcome Esidisi and Kars. But Ice would have a harder time against Wamuu. While loyally subservient to his elders, his abilities are more refined, varied, and developed than theirs. For example, he can use his wind powers to briefly render himself invisible, protecting him from the sun while keeping his senses intact.
They’re particularly sensitive too, as he can reflexively attack anything and anyone that steps in his shadow. Even after he blinds himself in his last bout against Joseph, he has no trouble stopping him with his wind channeling horn. It could've possibly detected other presences like Stands too, especially if they had a physical effect like Cream. Then they'd be vulnerable to his deadliest skills, like the Divine Sandstorm and Atmospheric Rift wind whip.
2 Dio Brando
Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders
- Powers: Super strength and agility, super senses, regeneration, hypnosis, flesh transmutation, Vaporizing Freeze (PB), Space Ripper Stingy Eyes (PB), The World (SC).
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon, stand has limited range.
Whether he or the other Pillar Men could’ve done this to Dio Brando is another matter. They’re supposed to be above ordinary vampires like Straizo and Ice, yet Dio took his new, undead status to a whole other level. The other vampires were more like slightly stronger zombies with a blood thirst and a sunlight allergy. Whereas Dio developed a whole range of new skills, like his Vaporizing Freeze that inhibits Hamon by freezing the user's limb to the bone.
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He could hypnotize people with a look or make them into his drones by planting a flesh bud in their heads. His Space Ripper Stingy Eyes can cut through stone from yards away. Then there’s his Stand ability, The World. With it, he can stop time and attack his foes without risking his life or limbs. As durable as the Pillar Men are, Dio would have plenty of time to exploit their weaknesses.
1 Kars
Part 2: Battle Tendency
- Powers: Super strength and agility, body manipulation, Light Blades (Normal). Shapeshifting, Hamon, reactive evolution, super senses, regeneration (Ultimate).
- Weaknesses: Sunlight, Hamon (Normal). None (Ultimate).
In his regular form, Kars would probably rank just above Wamuu. He doesn’t have his refined senses, yet his keen mind and tactics (like using body doubles) and Light Blades could possibly get around the likes of Vanilla Ice. But he’s still vulnerable to sunlight and Hamon and wouldn’t be able to detect Stands. So, Dio would still have the edge over him there. However, with the Stone Mask and Red Stone of Aja, he managed to become the Ultimate Lifeform.
In this form, he could use every ability and feature of the natural world at tenfold strength. He’s immortal, invulnerable, heals fast, survives in sunlight, and can use Hamon. He could’ve arguably used a Stand too, as it can develop as a natural ability too. Though even without one, he could detect threats with his improved senses, and endure any and all punishment. Unless Dio got as lucky as Joseph, or could throw him into space, Kars would stand above him.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
- Release Date
- October 6, 2012
- Seasons
- 6
- Studio
- David Production
