In our previous article, we took a look at the many ways that various anime have paid homage to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, from small sight-gags to extended visual parodies, the amount of creators who felt some love for the series was easy to find! But what about in non-anime media? It isn’t always easy to make a JoJo pose seem tonally correct in your video game, music video, live action  TV show, comic, or other media after all, but these creators we found had more creative and interesting ways of paying homage back to Hirohiko Araki and his amazing series. Much like our first article, we’ll be keeping these reference sightings up to Part 5 only to avoid spoiling any of the future fun, and do be warned that some of these references might be spoilers for past JoJo seasons. Overall, the range of these references varies from minor cameos and callbacks to characters and situations being developed with JoJo characters in mind, so let’s get right into it and take a look at the various non-anime JoJo references we’ve found!

It probably comes as no surprise, but musicians and JoJo go together pretty well. Many of the original names and influences for the series come from Araki’s love of various types of musical genres and artists, and it seems that they love him right back! Numerous singers and even idol groups in Japan have given the nod to their favorite JoJo poses and characters, with some even going as far as reaching out to meet Araki as superfans themselves. Hello! Project’s ANGERME and Iikubo Haruna have done various JoJo inspired poses in their blogs and choreography, even recreating the infamous “Go Go Go” SFX with their arms! The iconic Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a huge fan of the JoJo series, often making JoJo poses in her own videos, such as in "PONPONPON," and even wearing JoJo themed merchandise, going so far as to even name one of her pet dogs JoJo.

Perhaps one of the most famous idols, Shoko Nakagawa (AKA Shokotan) is a notoriously huge fan of the JoJo series, busting out JoJo poses so often that she even injured herself doing Narancia’s pose on stage, breaking her tailbone! Her devotion has paid off, however, as Shokotan got to meet Araki to interview him! Shoko’s interview even lead to Araki making a special stand, Love Note, with an interesting origin involving... Shokotan and Jotaro’s child?! Outside of Japan, the group Starbomb included Giorno’s “I have a dream” pose in their video for “SMASH!,” with Luigi of all characters striking the iconic pose!

Some of the most interesting homages to JoJo pop up in various video games, with some being blatantly obvious, and others needing developers to pull back the curtain and reveal their true intentions! Given the nature of JoJo’s storyline of vampires and supernatural powers, it might not be surprising at all to learn that the Castlevania series has featured numerous nods to the JoJo series throughout its legendary run. Castlevania Symphony of the Night features a Stone Mask, and it makes another appearance in Curse of Darkness. There are a few “Ora ora ora” references laced throughout various Castlevania equipments and attacks, and Dawn of Sorrow features a fight at a clock tower against an enemy named Zephyr who can stop time and throws knives… Now, where have we heard of someone like that before?

Speaking of stopped time, the DOTA 2 hero Faceless Void seems to have some JoJo influenced nods to everyone’s favorite vampire. His ultimate ability, Chronosphere, stops time for anyone caught in it but himself for a few seconds, sure seems coincidental, but his model also adopts a similar pose to DIO’s classic WRYYYYYY! pose while casting it. In a recent update to the game, Phantom Assassin got a new splash image featuring her in Jonathan’s pose for her unique cosmetic set, the Bloodroot Guard. In Persona 5, the main character is given a choice to answer the question “What is the name of the phenomenon where the second hand looks like it stops moving?,” with one of the choices being “The World.” And in the fighting game Skullgirls, DIO is referenced numerous times between characters Valentine, Peacock, and Eliza. Valentine can stop time, Peacock drops a steamroller on her foes, and Eliza features an obvious color palette reference to DIO’s classic Part 3 outfit! The game also features Big Band, a character who has a move where he shouts “Tuba Tuba Tuba,” similar to “ora ora ora” or “muda muda muda,” depending on how you hear that in your head. Night Warriors: Darkstalker’s Revenge has a few nods to DIO as well, with a design sketch of Donovan by Takenori Kimoto posing like DIO in one of the art books; more interesting, Donovan, known for his ability to summon various spirits to aid him in battle, also has a sketch where he summons Abbachio’s Moody Jazz!

In a series already filled with lots of crazy references and homages to other anime and video games, it probably comes as no surprise that the Danganronpa series has numerous JoJo references throughout its titles. Some of these appear in both the games and anime, such as Junko posing as DIO and her penchant for quoting “Muda muda muda,” while others are specific to the games, such as Super Danganronpa 2’s Hanamura saying he can taste if people are lying, Monokuma using a Heaven’s Door like ability, and there’s even a reference to the Bow & Arrow, called the Meteorite Arrowhead. Some other fun references include Mondo, whose hairstyle (and attitude regarding it) seem like they might be related to Josuke, a reference cemented in place when players learn that his biker gang is called Crazy Diamond! These JoJo references likely don’t come as much surprise, considering Naegi’s initial introductory comments about not having a Stand, but the dedication to weaving them into the various games, and in somewhat natural ways, is pretty impressive!

Speaking of Polnareff, video game designers must have loved him, because aside from poses and thematic references, Polnareff’s mere existence may have had the most influence on game design of the entire JoJo series! Katsuhiro Harada, the director of the Tekken series, directly cites Polnareff as inspiration for series mainstay Paul Phoenix’s iconic hairstyle and first name. Tekken features a few other nods to JoJo, with Jin and Kazuya having gloves similar to Star Platinum’s, and Tekken 7’s newcomer Claudio not only poses like DIO, but can even equip an “Ancient Mask.” In the King of Fighters series, Benimaru Nikaido is another clear homage to Polnareff, again sporting a unique and reminscient hair style and style of dress, and in fact, Benimaru looks so much like Polnareff that developers of the game referred to him internally as “Polnareff!”

A few other references pop up in King of Fighters, with Leona Heidern’s Earring Bomb 2: Heart Attack special move is an homage to Yoshikage Kira’s Heart Attack. Leona can either wait for the bomb to explode, or detonate it on her own, much like Kira’s Deadly Queen, and Leona’s voice line upon detonation, “You’ve lost in the end,” is similar Kira’s “You’ve lost in death” line. Another King of Fighter character, Mian, has an attack called Rangurenbu that has her shouting “Ariariariariari,” just like Bucciarati! Finally, Street Fighter’s Guile owes his creation to Polnareff, who started as the base model for the character, according to producer Noritaka Funamizu. Ironically, a dev decided to play with Guile’s sprite, and his hair spread to look a bit more like Stroeheim’s, which stuck! The name “Guile” is even a reference to “J. Geil,” Polnareff’s archenemy! Street Fighter has quite a few obvious nods, most notably Rose, who wears a nearly identical outfit to Lisa Lisa, who also hails from Venice.

There are many more one-off references to be found in various games. Persona Q has a quick segment where the Persona 4 cast pose as various JoJo characters. The original Ninja Gaiden game decorates a stage with Stone Masks and Pillar Men, while Senran Kagura 2 has a few clothing options for Mirai that directly reference Star Platinum and The World. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey has a reference to the Sword of Anubis with the equipment Cursed Sarai, stating that it is the “Sword of Anubis that drives victims mad,” and an attack ability called Bites the Dust, which inflicts Bomb status on a target who then explodes during their next activation!

The Touhou Project games have numerous soft references to JoJo sprinkled throughout, with characters such as Remilia and Yuugi making a few references to the series, but the most obvious is Sakuya Izayoi. Sakuya has the ability to stop time, and throw knives! Other references might be quick and hard to miss, such as Yakuza 0’s quick and cheeky nod to the JoJo series: During a fight with a secret boss whose first name is simply “Jo,” Goro Majima (the best boy in Yakuza, by the way), thinks to himself afterwards what that “Jo” guy’s deal was and what a “bizarre adventure” it was to fight him.