JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Creator Confirms Original Plans for Giorno
The son of Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Giorno Giovanna, was given his own part of the anime franchise created by Hirohiko Araki via the story of Golden Wind, but it seems as though the mangaka once had very different plans for the wielder of the Stand known as Gold Experience. With this year revealing that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure would be continuing with a new manga series titled JoJo Lands as well as seeing the release of the anime adaptation of Part Six, Stone Ocean, on Netflix, it definitely is a good time to be a fan of the Joestar clan.
Araki has revealed in the past that getting Jolyne Cujoh to be the star of Stone Ocean was an uphill battle, with women not traditionally taking the main role in Shonen manga series. As found by fans of the strange anime franchise, it seems that Hirohiko Araki was originally vying for Giorno to be a woman rather than the son of Dio Brando, but was eventually dissuaded by his editor at the time. Luckily, Araki was able to change things up with Stone Ocean and introduced the daughter of Jotaro Kujo in the adventures that take place mostly in a maximum-security prison in Florida.
The translation for the breakdown of the recent discovery regarding Giorno Giovanna and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure reads as such:
"Araki initially threw around the idea of making Part 5's protagonist a female character. However, he discussed it with his editor at the time, Hiroshi Sekiya, who thought that a female lead would be a tough sell for the Weekly Shonen Jump's readers, so the eventual protagonist ended up being a young man. Sekiya notes that Giorno's Japanese name "Haruno Shiobana" is feminine and that Gold Experience's power to give life is reminiscent of a woman's own ability to give life. Because Araki did wonder (apparently jokingly) about the possible reveal that Giorno was a woman looking like a man all along, Sekiya theorizes that Araki could have entertained the idea of a female Giorno."
While fans shouldn't expect Giorno to make an appearance in the upcoming Stone Ocean, expect some major revelations with regards to the villainous Dio, who has set a plan into motion from beyond the grave to exact revenge on the Joestars.
What do you think of the idea of Giorno being a woman in Golden Wind? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Joestars.