Character Analysis: Yoshikage Kira

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has a myriad of recognizable characters in its roster like Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Bruno Bucciarati, and Gyro Zeppeli.

 However, one could argue that the antagonists are even more recognizable, with the likes of DIO, Diavolo, Enrico Pucci, Funny Valentine, and today's topic Yoshikage Kira on why he is one of the best-written antagonists. 

Spoilers For Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4

Character Investment 

The best thing that Kira has going for him is the amount of time Hirohiko Araki dedicates to establishing his character. In his fight against Shigechi, he starts revealing information about himself, like his name, where he lives, his habits because he is set on murdering Shigechi.  

This monologue gives us enough information about how he thinks, and his confidence in himself. We learn his main objective in life, which is to live a quiet life. He doesn't want to rule the world like DIO or attain heaven like Pucci, but live a quiet life as a serial killer. 

To better characterize him after he brutally kills Shigechi, we see him walking away, not fazed at all by what he had just done and simply commenting on his lost button. 

This first encounter is very effective in giving the reader a reason to hate the main antagonist as we learned his motives and demeanor in a short five chapters. As part 4 continues we get more of Kira and we get to see him being even more deplorable. At a drop of a dime killing anyone who gets in his way. 

Later when he is found out he decides to take over the life of someone else, where he changes his face and hair to look like Kosaku Kawajiri. This is where we get many chapters focused on Kira trying to assimilate into a family, trying to find out the intricacies of Kosaku Kawajiri like his handwriting, or even going as far as taking a bath with Hayato, Kosaku's son, truly sickening. 

By the time of the climactic fight between Kira and Josuke, it feels as much as Kira's story as it is Josuke's. 

Killer Queen

Araki does a good job coming up with interesting abilities for his characters, but especially for his antagonist. This time around, however, he chose to give Kira a very simplistic stand. The ability to make things bombs, Killer Queen. 

Killer Queen Activates its First Bomb

Despite being a deadly stand, it is nowhere near as crazy as the other antagonist stands. Like The World that can stop time, King Crimson that can remove time, or any of Pucci's stands (all three are pretty crazy). 

 I think it fits perfectly for what his motivations are, killing people and living a quiet life. He doesn't need a crazy stand that can manipulate the world as a whole. 

Even when he combines his Killer Queen with Stray Cats ability it works well with his theme. As Josuke cannot see his attacks and has to find it before it detonates on him, it's an allegory for this part as a whole. 

And before you point it out, yes he also gets Bites the Dust, which allows him to reset time whenever someone finds out about his identity. Even still, this is a defensive ability that he cant wip out whenever he wants. It is very situational and leaves himself vulnerable to attacks and is only powerful as a sneak attack. 

By far the best thing about his ability is how it is the polar opposite of Josuke's stand Crazy Diamond. Crazy Diamond gives Josuke the ability to reverse the property of things to a previous state. He mainly uses his stand to heal other people as it does not work on himself. 

Kira's stand has the ability to make things into bombs, which allows him to kill and erase the evidence of his crimes away. Josuke likes to use his ability to help others, while Kira uses his ability purely for himself. 

As A Serial Killer Why He Is Scary

When looking at any fictional serial killer, usually they are heavily romanticized and given really exaggerated personalities. With Kira Araki created a blend of fiction and believability to Kira. 

Kira's main thing is that he has a hand fetish, and he murders women who he thinks have beautiful hands. Now what differentiates Kira from other fictional killers is how he acts when he isn't committing murders. 

We see his room, and in it is a bunch of second-place trophies and all of his pictures have him obscured. He tries his very best not to stand out and blend in with society. He works an average job, where he makes sure not to interact too much with his coworkers. Even when he takes over Kosaku's life he tries to do this, ultimately getting caught because he couldn't contain the urge to kill. 

That is what makes him scary and almost realistic, he actively tries to maintain a normal life, doing normal things up until he murders people. 

Take-Aways

• Dedicate time to your antagonist so your audience can get to know them better
• Is there any parallels you can draw between your antagonist and protagonist 
• What makes your antagonist unique or even similar to others

That's all I have for now, have a great day!