JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Creator Reveals the Origins of ‘JoJo’

Back in 1987, Hirohiko Araki was finishing up work on one of his most ambitious projects. The artist found himself working tirelessly on a little series known as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. By this point in time, the creator had already found a name for the series, but it turns out Araki struggled with the title. During a recent convention panel, the creator talked about his indecisiveness and how he ultimately wound up with JoJo becoming its name.

Recently, Italy welcomed one of its biggest anime conventions thanks to the Lucca Convention. The event brought all sorts of fans together to celebrate otaku culture, and creators will make an appearance at the weekend show. Right now, Araki is present at the event, and one fan shared a summary of what he told the audience in his first panel.

According to Twitter user Omitaichi, Araki “said that when he first started planning JoJo he decided to go with a name that people would easily remember.”

Of course, there are new names easier to remember than JoJo. It has all the right alliteration while still being short, and Araki found himself falling for the name once he came up with it.

“He decided to just JJ as starting letters for his main character’s name, that’s where the ‘JoJo’ idea comes from.”

Obviously, the idea has stuck throughout the series. Each of the characters introduce in the franchise have used the JJ style save for a recent character. Rather than using the double consonant, the star of Golden Wind bucked tradition with his name. Giorno Giovanni does have its own alliteration fueling it, but did you really expect the son of Dio Brando to stick with tradition?

If you could pick a new name for JoJo, what would you pick? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was originally created by Hirohiko Araki for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1987. It follows the story of the Joestar family, who are each destined to take down various supernatural enemies. The series has been split up into eight parts, with each part following a different generation of the Joestar family. The series has sold over 100 million copies, and has been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media. The series has spawned multiple anime, video games, toys, and even jewelry. The series currently has an anime adaptation that initially began in 2012, and now has run for over 100 episodes spanning the first five major arcs of the series.