bracketier:

Here is a translated version of the interview with Araki from the second Stardust Crusaders Jojonium, focusing on Joseph Joestar.

“Readers often tell me they want to see previous characters appear again. Personally, though, I don’t really like that method of delivering nostalgia to people. There has to be a reason for them to appear again, otherwise it’s no good. Joseph had a clear motive. He’d happily stand up to an old evil in order to save his daughter’s life, as long as his body’s in working condition. Also, Jojo is the story of the Joestar bloodline. Therefore, I didn’t have any qualms about putting an old Jojo (Joseph) in Part 3. 50 years after the battle with the Pillar Men, when I was thinking about making him fight again, I was worried that I might have to make him retire halfway through, especially as the serialization went on. The first role I gave Joseph was that of navigator. I thought a previous Jojo would be the perfect person to pull the story from the battle between the Joestar family and Dio, Hamon vs. Stand, and the overall flow of the story from the world of Parts 1 and 2 into Part 3. But he’s already had his time to shine, so I made sure to make Joseph not look like a main character would. Jotaro was the main character of Part 3, so I wanted to make that clear and not confuse the readers. Luckily, 50 years had passed since Part 2, so I was able to completely change Joseph’s appearance without any problems. (LOL) Joseph’s Stand is Hermit Purple. It’s a support ability that uses thought photography and thought hearing. He used to be a main character, but the reason I didn’t give him an attack-based ability was because of his role as the navigator. He was was their access to the world, the navigator they needed, and the line that allowed them to gather data. Basically I had an image of telephone lines and network cables. If he connects to a camera, he gets pictures, if he connects to a TV, he gets video… I transposed the image of that ‘line’ onto vines. The image of the vine is also connected to Joseph’s Hamon ability. I’ve always wanted to make pictoral visualizations of supernatural abilities since Jojo began. Stands were based on this concept just like Hamon was, so when I thought about putting Joseph back in the story, I needed to decide how I would visualize Hamon as a Stand. Hamon is life energy that travels through the entire body through a special breathing method. Therefore, a concrete visualization of it would be some sort of wire wrapped around the entire body, like a vine. If Jotaro’s group time traveled to the world of Part 2, they would probably be able to see “Hermit Purple” wrapped around Joseph just like in Part 3.“

