JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Creator Reveals How Stone Ocean Villain Changed The Manga

When push comes to shove, most JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans will state that the most memorable villain of the anime franchise is Dio Brando. Arriving as the first villain of the series, the nefarious vampire returned as a part of Stardust Crusaders and had a legacy that lasted for just as long as the Joestars themselves. With Dio’s influence having an effect on the Stone Ocean villain known as Pucci, Hirohiko Araki recently revealed how the diabolic priest had an effect on the franchise as a whole.

For those who might not be familiar with Pucci, his powers, and his motivations, the priest found himself striking up a friendship with Dio Brando that was explored in flashbacks as a part of Stone Ocean’s story. Being granted a Stand by Dio known as Whitesnake, Pucci found himself able to steal both the memories and powers of his targets, managing to transfer them into compact discs. Once Pucci found himself in possession of these discs, he could place them into others which helped in forming his army to hurl at Jotaro Kujo’s daughter Jolyne. While Pucci might not have hit the same level of popularity as Dio, Hirohiko Araki confirms that the villain’s presence made a major change to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s manga.

Pucci’s Bizarre Adventure

In the JoJo Magazine that was released during the winter season of 2022, Araki revealed that Pucci’s complex origins and personality had the mangaka rethink where the manga should be published. Believing that Pucci, and thus Stone Ocean, would work better for an older audience, Araki made the decision to have JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure printed in Ultra Jump versus Weekly Shonen Jump. Pucci himself is responsible for having the Joestars leap from a Shonen to a Seinen.

Considering how Stone Ocean ended, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Pucci make a comeback as fan-favorite Kishibe Rohan had done in the latest arc of the series, The JOJOLands. In the latest manga series, we have yet to have our main villain confirmed though it definitely seems as though Jodio and Dragona are going to have challenging times ahead. While David Production has been tight-lipped regarding JoJo’s anime future, fans are waiting for the next installment which will most likely be Steel Ball Run if the anime continues sticking to the manga.

Via Reddit