There have been a variety of unexplained plot points in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure over the course of its eight parts, but one change to a character in Part 6 is the most baffling of them all. The manga series, written by Hirohiko Araki, is well known for having many strange and nonsensical plot points and characters, many of which are not elaborated on further. While most of these seem like intentional choices in line with Araki’s personal style of storytelling, one change feels like it was prompted for completely different reasons.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean is the series’s sixth part and follows Jolyne Cujoh as she tries to save her father Jotaro from the villainous priest Enrico Pucci. The majority of the part takes place in the Green Dolphin Street Prison and most of the characters are inmates there. Since the prison is segregated by gender, the main cast is largely made up of women, which is a rarity in Shonen manga. However, as the part goes on more male characters are introduced, like the amnesiac Weather Report and the young boy Emporio who lives in the prison’s walls. One more male character also joins the main cast, although it initially doesn’t seem that way.
Narciso Anasui is a prisoner at Green Dolphin Street Prison who develops an obsessive crush on Jolyne. He is a strange character in his own right, as he is obsessed with disassembling objects. His Stand, Diver Down, is quite appropriate for him having the power to enter objects, including people, and change or rearrange their internal structure. Perhaps the strangest thing about him is that his original design is completely different from his final version. While in his final design he is a tall man with long, flowing pink hair, initially he had the appearance of a girl with short, spiky hair. This change in design is never actually mentioned in the story itself, leaving fans to speculate on the reason for the discrepancy.
An in-universe explanation could be that Anasui could have used Diver Down to alter his body’s structure and make him look like a woman. He could then use this disguise to freely enter the women’s side of the prison. However, this doesn’t explain the shift in his hair style, as his normal style would not look out of place on a woman’s body. Outside of the story itself, Araki has gone on record saying that he changed the design to transcend traditional standards of beauty. This doesn’t quite make complete sense either though, as Anasui’s appearance never actually has any impact on the story itself or ties into the overall themes of the narrative. And it seems weird that Araki would need to change the gender of the character in order to explore alternate beauty standards in his art. Another theory is that the editors of the series felt that the series needed more main male characters. However, it is unclear whether the editors would actually be able to get Araki to make such a change, as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure was fairly well established by the time Stone Ocean began serialization.
The true reason behind Anasui’s design retcon may never be fully confirmed. In fact, Anasui’s first appearance in the Stone Ocean anime used his later design, meaning the show clearly doesn’t want to worry about it. But Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fans deserve a proper explanation for one of the strangest unexplained mysteries in the series.
