Dio Brando

Origin

Young Devious Dio

Dio Brando was born as a son of lowlife thief. When his father was about to die from a mysterious illness, he gave him a letter addressed to a man named George Joestar, saying that George owes him his life, so Dio should be able to receive something from George Joestar. Few days later Dio's father passes away and Dio departs and heads to Joestar's mansion. Understanding what had happened to Dio and his father, George decides to adopt Dio as his son, without knowing that Dio is actually more treacherous and sinister than his father. George never found out that when Dio's father approached him when he was injured from an accident, he wasn't there to help him but to steal anything valuable he could find. Dio originally planned to poison George Joestar and inherit his estate, but his plan failed when Jonathan Joestar found out the truth and stopped him. With nowhere to hide Dio decides to use the stone mask he had found and become a vampire, and ever since that incident Dio becomes one of the most powerful antagonist in the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Creation

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Volume 1 JPN (Aug 1987)

Dio Brando was created by the series creator Hirohiko Araki, the author and illustrator of series, as main antagonist of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Phantom Arc. The original manga series was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1987, until it was transferred to monthly Ultra Jump. Its first volume was released in August 10, 1987, published by Shueisha and still running for more than 100 volumes. It is one of the longest manga series running.

His name is based on both actor Marlon Brando and Heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio. In the beginning of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, he appeared as well-built person, later when receiving his inhuman strength he gained enormous muscle. However in part 7 Steel Ball Run, he has younger appearance and smaller physique.

Dio made his first animated appearance on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, OVA that was release on 1993, voiced by Nobuo Tanaka. He made his second animated appearance in episode 1, Dio Intrudes of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The Animation on October 5, 2012. He is voiced by Takehito Koyasu.

Character Evolution

Dio Brando in OVA

In part 1 Phantom Blood, with the power of the stone mask Dio became a superhuman being that is similar to a vampire. His newly gained abilities includes, super strength, regeneration, immortality, freezing anything he touches by rapidly vaporizing his body fluid, shooting highly pressurized liquid through his eyeballs, and lastly sucking blood out of other living being.

In part 3 Stardust Crusaders he still had his superhuman abilities, but to make him even deadlier than before he has gain a new power called stand. The stand enabled Dio to stop time briefly just enough for Dio to either avoid the attack or killing an opponent without anybody realizing what had happened.

In part 7 Steel Ball Run, character named Dio appears but in a sense he is a different person. Dio in Steel Ball Run does not have superhuman powers or a stand like he did in previous parts of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Instead he is younger and have smaller physique and have a new stand named Scary Monster. Scary Monster enables Dio to transform himself into a dinosaur, and with it he also gains physical properties of a dinosaur such as super hearing and picking up scents. His ability also let Dio transform other living beings into raptors disregarding their sizes.

Dio Brando's popularity increased dramaticly ( along with the popularity of JJBA ) after the famous "WRRRRYYYYYYYYYY" meme started to spread to a large number of websites.

Major Story Arc

Part 1 : Phantom Blood

Born as a son of alcoholic commoner who ended letting his wife die, Dio despised his father. When his father died he spitted on his grave and swore that he will never be like him but Dio was far more evil than his father ever was. When Dio got his hands on the stone mask to become a vampire, he began consuming countless people and began to build his own empire with his vampire minions. He was later defeated by Jonathan Joestar with his Hamon/Ripple, but using only his head Dio chased down Jonathan and drown both of them under the deep sea.

Part 3 : Stardust Crusaders

Dio returns, however this time he comes back by using his arch-nemesis, Jonathan Joestar's body. When he'd obtained Jonathan's body, this causes other Joestar family members to be awaken to the power of stand including both Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo. However Holly Joestar/Kujo, daughter of Joseph Joestar and mother of Jotaro Kujo, could not handle power of stands and started to fall ill. In order to set her free from power of stand, The Joestar family sets on journey to defeat Dio Brando. Even though Dio was using a dead body of Jonathan Joestar as his host, he still had characteristic of vampire, meaning the sunlight was still his greatest weakness. Due to his stand's power of stopping time no one was match for Dio except Jotaro Kujo.

Part 5 : Vento Aureo

Dio Brando does not make an actual appearance, but as a flash back. The main character of part 5 is a man named Giorno Giovana, who is a son of Dio Brando.

Part 6 : Stone Ocean

Another appearance as a flash back, this time from a man named Enrico Pucci, antagonist of part 6. Some time go before the events of Stardust Crusaders, Dio met Enrico and when Dio found intriguing, Dio awakened Enrico's power by using the Stone Arrow. While traveling together, Dio thought Enrico how to create perfect world, and for trusting Dio, Enrico was presented with Dio's finger bone if he were to die one day.

Part 7 : Steel Ball Run

In Part 7 which takes in alternate universe/timeline, he is known as Diego "Dio" Brando. Diego's origin is similar to original Dio; he was born as commoner who loved his mom. However when his mother died from mistreatment they had received over the year, Diego also became vengeful person, and decide to become powerful man in the stated by winning the Steel Ball Race. During the race "Dio" was controlled by a stand named Scary Monster, which transformed him into a dinosaur. The stand's power wasn't really his but when he obtained The Saint's Eye, he was able to use it as his own. With the power of Scary Monster Diego can transform into a dinosaur whenever he wants and creates other dinosaurs.

Other Media

Dio Made an appearance as main antagonist of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA. He also made several appearance in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fighting games for Dreamcast and Playstation.