Spoilers for all of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
While most of the world has moved on from primogeniture, the patriarchal nature of tracing family lines remains baked deep into cultures across the world. It manifests in a number of ways, including in fiction. In genre fiction, stories that touch on lineage primarily concern themselves with the male line. Even outside of cultural biases, it makes a certain kind of sense, since in many places, children inherit the names of their fathers, which creates a nice continuity. However, it tends to disregard the role of mothers, who are often treated as little more than broodmares with little influence past early childhood. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by Araki Hirohiko, on the other hand, presents a very different attitude. Not only does the story conclude with Jolyne, the first female protagonist of the saga, but it’s clear that her very survival hinges on traits she inherited from her female predecessors.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure stands apart from other battle shonen series in a number of ways, but one of its greatest distinctions is the intergenerational nature of its conflict. While the story began in 1880’s England with Jonathan Joestar and his conniving adopted brother Dio Brando, it refuses to conclude with Jonathan’s death, instead following the Joestar line through six generations (and two offshoots), culminating with Jolyne Cujoh, Jonathan’s great-great-great granddaughter. This article is not about evaluating the quality of the female characters in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; there’s so much more to consider about the roles characters play in a narrative world. Araki creates a sense of progression not just through the continuing conflict, but by developing a clear sense of lineage where you can see how each generation is influenced by the previous one.