JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Why Does the Manga Change Up Its Stand Names?

For quite some time, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has needed to change the names of its Stands and characters. Stands such as Sticky Fingaz, Limp Bitzki, and Spice Girl had to be dubbed Zipper Man, Flaccid Pancake, and Spicy Lady respectively in the West. Now, reasons behind why the changes needed to be made have resurfaced from both Viz Media and Bandai Namco, who have been responsible for bringing the manga and video games of Hirohiko Araki’s franchise to the States.

To begin, Viz Media stated that copyright issues were the predominant reason behind changing the names in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s manga in the West, describing it as a “lawyer’s nightmare”, “The difficulty with Jojo is that it’s basically a lawyer’s nightmare with all the blatant references to real musicians and fashion designers. As such, it’s really difficult to release it at all, let alone uncensored. It’s an excellent series, but it’s one that requires even more work than the typical manga.”

Expanding on this point, Viz used a similar example of copyright to hammer home the need for change, “McDonald’s will sue anyone who uses an “M” for the logo, a golden letter on a red background, MacDonald’s or something similar in the restaurant name. In addition to the names, you also have to look at all the art. Off the top of my head, in Part 4 alone, there’s Red Hot Chilli Pepper, Echoes, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam, etc. It’s a lot of people that we have to contact and work with.”

JoJo’s Legal Adventure 

Bandai Namco, who has brought a handful of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure games to North America, also had previously stated that copyright issues were to blame for changing Stand and character names, “Names were changed because of copyright issues. Every single change has been submitted and approved by Araki-San. Thank you to all the fans who explained this choice with their words, your support is much appreciated.” 

While the copyright issues surrounding JoJo have been known, the fact that the changes are approved by Araki himself might not be as well known. In the latest manga arc, which has yet to officially make its way to the United States, there are Stands that might run into the same issues such as November Rain, Smooth Operator, and The Matte Kudasai to name a few.

Via JOJO_Wiki