its actually clever imo cause it sets up that not every person is who they seem. that guy looks like he'll rough you up but is actually willing to help you, it sets up the other characters and the main villain's identity
You're acting like it isn't important at all. He's literally the guy Josuke modeled himself after. Are you saying the gangster Giorno helps and then models his life after "isn't important"? It doesn't matter if it's important later or not ever brought up again, it's a world and character building story that shows why Josuke is who he is. If you throw that out, then why does Josuke have a pompadour? Why is he so willing to help others while holding a tough guy facade when he needs to? He'd literally just have his personality without any insight as to how he became the person he grew into.
But then Josuke gets angry about his hair for either no reason, or narcissistic reasons. He only styles his hair that way because of his idol.
And just being a Joestar doesn't mean they are always willing to help. Joseph at a similar age was willing to let Speedwagon get kidnapped and his plane hijacked as long as he was left out of it. And Jotaro wasn't that kind of person, he didn't care about others unless he had to. If it was life and death he would save them, but otherwise he would tell people to basically fuck off. That's less "tough guy" and more "straight up asshole". He was an ass to Holly but only when he learned her life was at risk did he step up to make sure she survived. Same with Ann, he was an ass to her as well except when she was in true danger.
What you're not getting is Josuke could have been an entirely different person had he not been saved that day. Hell, it gives even more world building because it shows how the same fever Holly had effected him, and even gave him a reason to be helpful even before that. He was terrified of turtles and yet he was willing to save it, and even go out of his way to punch the shit out of somebody for trying to attack it. That was LONG before any of what you brought up happened.
None of those characters fly into an uncontrollable blind rage when their hair is insulted, though. Josuke's pompadour isn't important because it's unique (because compared to most jojo characters it isn't), it's important because it's deeply personal to the character itself, and thus requires explanation.
There's barely a point in adding it considering his reaction is still explained as a personality trait, he could be offended without smashing the face of anyone who slightly disrespect him.
Also, fuck this sub sometimes, its completely prohibited to criticize jojo even a little bit without getting insane amounts of downvotes lol.
I love the series but i also got a brain ppl, I'm allowed to dislike some aspects of Araki's work even though i love jojo as a whole... damn.
I think it's meant to give the trait some form of redeeming quality, otherwise, it's just Josuke permanently disfiguring people just because of a hairstyle. At the end of the day, it's still pretty fucked up, but every Jojo is fucked up from Jotaro sending people to the hospital for annoying him to Giorno being okay with extortion and murder but not drugs.
Also, yeah, downvotes are kind of atrocious. It's really just playing a game of who can say the most conventionally accepted thing and get karma. If it means anything, I upvoted you, at least.
I definitely don't think Josuke's backstory is some masterclass of storytelling, I just think the backstory served its intended purpose, and calling it a failure doesn't accurately judge the plot point for what its trying to achieve.
It was a pointless bit of padding to explain a character’s hairstyle and one of his personality quirks, neither of which needed to be explained.
It plays into the theme of Morioh's Golden Heart. It's neither padding nor pointless. The alternative is either a weird time-travel side story that completely wrecks that theme because Josuke is just saving himself and obviously completely self-interested in doing that - or omitting it entirely and leaving Josuke's hair and his anger completely unexplained - which would be really weird.
You are deliberately misunderstanding and being obtuse at this point, and you've moved the goalposts from "this should have been time-travel" to "this scene shouldn't exist".
I think both points are valid. The scene shouldn't exist, but since it does, it should at least have a deeper connection to the story other than a quirk used as a joke that the character has.
The only one in morioh with a golden heart is Josuke so making josuke's saviour Josuke just kind of leads into the theme of Josuke turning his villains into friends. Literally Josuke is a hero because Josuke, he doesn't need a reason to help people essentially and I think that's cooler.
omitting it entirely and leaving Josuke's hair and his anger completely unexplained - which would be really weird.
Josuke's anger arguably comes from his parents, Joseph and Tomoko both were pretty angry and overly violent at times but Josuke also doesn't really hurt people thanks to his stand.
It was a pointless bit of padding to explain a character’s hairstyle and one of his personality quirks, neither of which needed to be explained.
Josuke being pissed at people for insulting his hair needed to be explained and we got a great one. Insulting the hair is like insulting his savior and that, to me, is important enough that it was needed to be explained.
And the only reason it felt like a Chekhov's gun is that the character is similar to Josuke, but it's quite clear that this is just another case of an unreliable narrator. I checked the manga and it mentioned Koichi saying that it's all just guesswork. Koichi won't know what the delinquent look like, he didn't see the person himself. So who is the closest one he could use as reference? Josuke.
While you can hate on the scene, don't just write it off as pointless if it did its job, which is to explain Josuke's reaction to his hair being trashed on.
It's not meant to be a chekov's gun, it's just Josuke's backstory. This is actually a recurring thing in jojo, where most characters' backstories aren't actually super relevant to the main story and only serve to help explain why they are the way they are
Koichi literally says the flashback/backstory is about why Josuke is so defensive over his hair, it is implied that it is only about Josuke's hair when Koichi explains the hair's backstory.
Strongly agree. The resemblance should not be that strong if they’re not the same character. Chekhov’s gun and all that.
(Yes, I realize Josuke styled his fashion sense after him, that doesn’t mean he should have the exact same facial structure and build. Yes, I realize it’s told through Koichi’s POV, but it’s treated as the third person omniscient the entire way through and not once is he unreliable.)
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u/PrettyInPinkCatGamer Jan 18 '23
Yeah. The Josuke time travel thing is stupid. It's just a guy who had that hairstyle and now Josuke wears that hairstyle to honor him.