Warning: Spoilers for JJBA: Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak, Chapter 11Dio Brando of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure belongs in the pantheon of anime’s most evil villains, but even considering that, his actions revealed in the JoJo spinoff Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak are somehow even worse than many of his other misdeeds.
Dio is the major focus of both the first and third parts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Dio is defeated in Egypt during JoJo’s part three, but his legacy lives on long after, even causing problems for part six’s Jolyne decades after his death. Dio has never been one to hold back on his evil impulses; the character’s introductory scene has him kicking a dog and harassing a woman, and it really only goes downhill from there. One of his darkest deeds, however, has only just been revealed, despite having taken place long ago.
At the end of chapter 10 of Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak, Josuke (and Mondatta) was forced to relive a confrontation with Dio due to the effects of Dio’s bird’s Stand. Chapter 11 reveals that these are the memories of the man who trained his birds, Pet Shop and Petsounds, from when Dio turned on him. Dio had Pet Shop, his hawk, attack the trainer with its Stand and impale him, a pain which Josuke felt as he relived the event. Dio then splashed the man in gasoline and set him on fire, only to put out the flame with Pet Shop’s ice Stand. Dio claims he’s doing this to help him decide whether to rule with fear or to show the occasional mercy, but it’s pretty clear he’s made up his mind already. Some quick but reckless thinking gets Josuke and Mondatta out of the situation, but the same can’t be said of the original memory, which did result in the death of the bird trainer by burning alive.
Dio Has Only Grown More Vicious Over the Years
With JoJo part six, Stone Ocean, still fresh in many fans’ minds due to its recent anime adaptation, there’s a stark difference between the Dio seen in Pucci’s flashbacks and the Dio seen here. While Dio might have been up all night talking philosophy with Pucci, he was also murdering people in cold blood in the cruelest ways imaginable. One can’t help but wonder if Pucci would have been so willing to follow Dio had he seen these cruel acts at the time–although it’s not as if Pucci was without sin, either. On the other hand, his talks with Pucci may well have been the result of this “decision” of his. In both scenarios, Dio takes his dominion over the world and all humanity as inevitable. Maybe he really did decide to be more merciful, but if so, it was only after burning this old man alive in an especially cruel way.
Dio’s callousness and cruelty has never been in doubt, but actions like this one place his villainy on a special level of evil. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has always been great about creating villains that fans can hate, and somehow Dio always finds a way to one-up even himself in that department.
