Draymorath
Destroyer of Destruction
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2011
- Location
- Probably in my room.
With the Diamond is Unbreakable anime having recently ended (and also this forum having just been conceived, and with some prompting from one of our members) I decided that I'd write a little piece on one of the best villains I've come across, one Yoshikage Kira.
I'd like to start off with all the quirks that make Kira an entertaining character. Most of this stuff is things you've likely noticed, or realized on your own, seeing as it's not exactly subtle, but I think it's important to lay the groundwork anyway. An entertaining villain has already succeeded as a character.
First is Kira's obsession with hands, which developed as a result of his unhealthy fascination with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa he attained at a young age. This is such a distinct and bizarre character trait. The main villain of the whole story arc is an extreme hand fetishist.
This is coupled with a dislike for attention and a severe case of OCD. When the Morioh Crew invades Kira's home to look for evidence, they discover that Kira has a penchant for purposely taking third place at everything, never entirely standing out. This was going on before Kira became a killer trying to avoid the authorities. It's a unique and interesting aspect of his personality that he's had since childhood and has stuck with him ever since, serving him quite well as a murderer. And of course they also found bottles of nail clippings he made and has neatly organized in his drawer. I think the best example of his absurd OCD can be found in his fight with Koichi. Just when he's about to deliver a finishing blow on the boy, he stops when he realizes that Koichi's socks are inside out. Like, sure there are people after him that could show up at any second, and Koichi's going to be completely disintegrated anyway... BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THOSE SOCKS BE ON THE RIGHT WAY! Naturally, Kira stops everything he's doing to fix Koichi's socks for him.
Yoshikage Kira is completely unhinged. However, not every psycho you come across in anime, or manga is as accurately and realistically depicted as he is (Think of every time you've seen some total maniac in anime running around slaughtering people just for lulz. Not... that I'm saying that can't be fun too. Just saying that it's more difficult to write a character like Kira.). His behavior is very typical of the average serial killer in many regards. This adds a layer of familiarity that feels raw and unnerving. Compare Kira's behavior to a villain like, say, Dio (I love Dio for the record. He plays the role of mustache twirler, but he does it so amazingly well it's entirely forgivable). Dio is completely unrealistic. Nobody in the world actually acts like Dio does. He's sadistic to a comical degree and you can tell he relishes every second he spends playing the bad guy. Kira on the other hand is calm and collected about his actions. He performs his crimes with a sort of nonchalance, as if going for an afternoon stroll. If you ask me, Kira's brand of evil is far more frightening than Dio's.
His Stand, Killer Queen, is also, in my opinion, one of the best Stands in the series, and he uses it to very great effect, to be touched on later.
Continuing with the theme of Kira feeling real, not only does he act like a real psychopath, but he also feels as though he could be a real person as well. He is astoundingly relatable. We know that Kira just wants to live a peaceful life. And really, who doesn't? Granted, Kira's idea of a peaceful life includes dismembering young women and dating their disembodied limbs, but... regardless. Point is, this desire to live a peaceful life is something nearly anyone can get behind. And it shows. Think of the main characters. Josuke, Koichi, Okuyasu... they all want the same thing as Kira. They, too, want to live out their days in the peaceful suburbs of Morioh. Think about that for a second. The motivation of the antagonist is the exact same as that of the protagonists (minus the murdery bits, of course). How often do you see that in any kind of media?
Anime and manga are chock full of super powered, often godlike beings aspiring for greater power, or world domination, or vengeance, or whatever. Here we have a villain who has no great aspirations and just wants to live his life the way he wants. This of course would be nearly impossible in a story with greater stakes, which makes DiU's small scale small-town murder mystery even more appropriate and effective for what Araki was going for.
In addition to his desire for a quiet life, we also get a peak into Kira's daily (less murdery) habits. Or as Kira put it,
"My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone."
BAM. We already know more about Kira than we would ever honestly need to. But it goes such a long way in making him feel like an actual person and not just some superpower toting asshole. There are plenty of other examples of this littered about, but I think I've dwelt on it enough (and they're explained very well in the video featured at the end anyway).
Next I'll talk about just how Goddamn cool Kira is, and his use of his powers. First off, Killer Queen. Killer Queen? That's ****ing badass as hell, not to mention a damn good song. Like I said before, Killer Queen is one of my absolute favorite Stands in the series. It's got a sick design, and a cool-as-hell ability. The first bomb is never clearly explained within the series, so I figure that I may as well explain it, and the others as well just to be thorough. If you don't think you need this explanation please feel free to skip it, but if you were at all confused about the specifics of Kira's abilities, then I recommend reading this.
First Bomb: Obviously, Killer Queen is a bomb Stand. Whatever it touches can be turned into a bomb set to explode at the click of a button. However, it can only be used on inanimate objects, nothing organic. He could use the clothes on your back, for example. If the object is not touching someone directly, it will go off like a regular bomb, with a limited blast radius. If it is in direct contact with someone, it will cause that person to sort of implode and be completely disintegrated, without a trace. The perfect power for a killer who wishes to erase evidence. The explosions seem to be completely silent (the noises in the anime added for dramatic effect, or perhaps only Kira's target can hear them).
Second Bomb: Sheer Heart Attack is actually explained pretty well in the show. It's basically a heat seeking tank-bomb that's completely indestructible. It has massive destructive potential, and the size of each explosion depends on the heat of the target. On the flip side, it's kind of stupid and is only capable of following heat signatures, which can put Kira at a great disadvantage, as it's connected to his left hand.
Third Bomb: Bites the Dust kicks it up a notch and has the ability to blow away time itself. Kira attaches it to someone (presumably limited to non-Stand users) and that person essentially becomes, as the JoJo's describes, a land-mine. If anybody asks the host about Kira, or if the host speaks about Kira of their own volition, they will instantly be blown up and time resets to an hour prior. Additionally, the bomb will protect the host from any harm in order to prevent suicide, and the host is the only one who remembers previous loops, and that excludes Kira as well. Any specific events that take place during the original timeline will continue to happen, regardless of attempts to prevent them, including the deaths of anyone killed by the bomb. Time will continue moving forward without them. If time moves past these events and Kira deactivates Bites the Dust, they become permanent. If he deactivates it before they take place, however, they won't happen at all. It seems that each initial activation of the ability is manually performed by Kira (as Hayato was dead the first time, Kira must have activated it himself to push time back an hour before Hayato was killed, and when he attempts to use it later to escape the Morioh Crew, he is clearly trying to use it manually), or perhaps it is simply possible for him to use it either manually, or automatically.
Ability explanations end here.
Kira uses these abilities with cunning. While Dio was an arrogant bastard who flaunted his power in shows of strength, Kira uses his great intellect to outsmart his enemies and take them out from a safe distance, which is very fitting given his personality (his aversion to attention). This style of fighting can be massively entertaining, perhaps more so than the more upfront (think Jotaro vs. Dio) approach if that's your preference.
Also worthy of note is that, as explained in the climactic fight, his ability runs parallel with protagonist, Josuke's. Josuke can fix everything he touches, while Kira destroys everything he touches. Somewhat on the nose, but ever the classic dichotomy, and fun.
Kira's natural talents also play a lot into his character. He has immense willpower, and extreme luck. He exhibits an almost admirable will to survive and achieve his ideal lifestyle. He was willing to sacrifice his own arm in an effort to escape capture. Which brings us to his abnormal amount of luck. Kira was incredibly lucky that Josuke used Crazy Diamond to fix his arm in an effort to find him. If not, it would have been a very simple task for them to look for a guy missing an arm. I think this particular case exemplifies both pretty well, but there are, of course, many other examples, to the point that it's a running theme with his character. My favorite case of this being the end of the final showdown, where he exhibits his massive will, continuing to delude himself into thinking that he's capable of winning and yet, unfortunately for him, he has finally runs out of luck. And of course this along with his intelligence results in his massive ego (though not quite as massive as Dio's), which often ends up as his Achilles Heel.
Something deserving of special mention is the Stray Cat arc, in which we follow Kira as he deals with a rogue Stand, a stray cat turned air-manipulating plant because it's muh fuggin JoJo. The whole arc is done from the point of view of none other than Yoshikage Kira himself. This in itself is rather rare, to take the villain's perspective for an entire arc, and the result is that we're kind of made to sympathize with him for the entire debacle. It's very intriguing (and entertaining) to watch the main antagonist whom we're supposed to despise, deal with his own Stando bull**** just like the main characters do. This is interesting enough in itself, but we also get to see him defend an innocent woman from harm. This is partly for self-preservation, yes, but also because he has grown fond of her.
Now, it's not at all unheard of for a villain to protect someone they care about, however in most cases it's because they are a sympathetic villain who's "doing bad things for a good reason", or is otherwise actually a good person at heart. Kira is not a sympathetic villain. He's a completely irredeemable asshole through and through. He's not undergoing some kind of great change of heart, he's the same person who makes it a hobby to murder women and cut off their hands. This is a small, but very effective humanization of his character. He's still for all intents and purposes, a bad person, but it allows the viewer to sympathize with him on a level that was previously impossible. The guy who we saw kill a child without even batting an eye is defending someone other than himself for entirely unselfish reasons. There are very few similar instances of characterization like this that come to mind, at least for me.
One last little detail regarding Kira's mindset that I think deserves mention is his views regarding conflict. When confronted by Josuke, he explains that he completely abhors any kind of conflict. He touches on it earlier, with Shigechi, about how he tries to avoid unnecessary stress, that each fight just leads to another and it becomes a vicious, endless cycle. This is a villain who sees fighting as irrational and annoying. As a fundamental problem with humanity. Something to be avoided at all costs. He'd rather stay completely hidden from his enemies than to eliminate them, even when he could do so with relative ease. His mindset is almost pacifistic in nature. That's so un-villain-like. This sounds like it should be coming from one of the good guys, and yet Araki makes it work so well in this context.
And of course, every great villain has a great end, and it doesn't get much better than Kira's untimely demise. I'd like to point out just how ironic Kira's death is on multiple levels. Firstly the whole "lol ambulances are supposed to save people!" bit, but remember that it was Kira's wish to live an entirely uneventful, normal life. Now here he is, being killed in a freak accident. His death is hilariously, and appropriately, mundane all things considered. Brutal, yes, but when you consider the JoJo universe and the ways in which most villains meet their ends, it's so very hilariously normal. A mundane death, for an evil man who wanted nothing more than a mundane life.
Then of course the way he finally meets his maker at the hands of his very first victim, and has his hand (ha!) torn off by her dog (who says Araki hates dogs?) and is then forcefully dragged into the afterlife (again by hands, appropriate amirite?).
Here's a really great video by a Youtuber that goes by the moniker Super Eyepatch Wolf on what makes a good villain that I probably stole a lot of my points from. He's really great at these kinds of things and I encourage people to check him out. His videos tend to be a bit on the spoilery side, but he's got really good opinions on things and he expresses them with an Irish accent. (Actually Az, don't watch this one, it has Berserk spoilers in it.)
Aaaaand that's about as in-depth of a character analysis as I dare go. If you read all of it, or even, like, half of it, you have my eternal gratitude. Feel free, and hopefully encouraged, to leave comments, or concerns below. If you think I've missed anything (which I have) please feel inclined to share it. Thanks a lot. Let us go on to make many a dumb JoJoke together.
P.S. You asked for an essay and I delivered.
I'd like to start off with all the quirks that make Kira an entertaining character. Most of this stuff is things you've likely noticed, or realized on your own, seeing as it's not exactly subtle, but I think it's important to lay the groundwork anyway. An entertaining villain has already succeeded as a character.
First is Kira's obsession with hands, which developed as a result of his unhealthy fascination with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa he attained at a young age. This is such a distinct and bizarre character trait. The main villain of the whole story arc is an extreme hand fetishist.
This is coupled with a dislike for attention and a severe case of OCD. When the Morioh Crew invades Kira's home to look for evidence, they discover that Kira has a penchant for purposely taking third place at everything, never entirely standing out. This was going on before Kira became a killer trying to avoid the authorities. It's a unique and interesting aspect of his personality that he's had since childhood and has stuck with him ever since, serving him quite well as a murderer. And of course they also found bottles of nail clippings he made and has neatly organized in his drawer. I think the best example of his absurd OCD can be found in his fight with Koichi. Just when he's about to deliver a finishing blow on the boy, he stops when he realizes that Koichi's socks are inside out. Like, sure there are people after him that could show up at any second, and Koichi's going to be completely disintegrated anyway... BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THOSE SOCKS BE ON THE RIGHT WAY! Naturally, Kira stops everything he's doing to fix Koichi's socks for him.
Yoshikage Kira is completely unhinged. However, not every psycho you come across in anime, or manga is as accurately and realistically depicted as he is (Think of every time you've seen some total maniac in anime running around slaughtering people just for lulz. Not... that I'm saying that can't be fun too. Just saying that it's more difficult to write a character like Kira.). His behavior is very typical of the average serial killer in many regards. This adds a layer of familiarity that feels raw and unnerving. Compare Kira's behavior to a villain like, say, Dio (I love Dio for the record. He plays the role of mustache twirler, but he does it so amazingly well it's entirely forgivable). Dio is completely unrealistic. Nobody in the world actually acts like Dio does. He's sadistic to a comical degree and you can tell he relishes every second he spends playing the bad guy. Kira on the other hand is calm and collected about his actions. He performs his crimes with a sort of nonchalance, as if going for an afternoon stroll. If you ask me, Kira's brand of evil is far more frightening than Dio's.
His Stand, Killer Queen, is also, in my opinion, one of the best Stands in the series, and he uses it to very great effect, to be touched on later.
Continuing with the theme of Kira feeling real, not only does he act like a real psychopath, but he also feels as though he could be a real person as well. He is astoundingly relatable. We know that Kira just wants to live a peaceful life. And really, who doesn't? Granted, Kira's idea of a peaceful life includes dismembering young women and dating their disembodied limbs, but... regardless. Point is, this desire to live a peaceful life is something nearly anyone can get behind. And it shows. Think of the main characters. Josuke, Koichi, Okuyasu... they all want the same thing as Kira. They, too, want to live out their days in the peaceful suburbs of Morioh. Think about that for a second. The motivation of the antagonist is the exact same as that of the protagonists (minus the murdery bits, of course). How often do you see that in any kind of media?
Anime and manga are chock full of super powered, often godlike beings aspiring for greater power, or world domination, or vengeance, or whatever. Here we have a villain who has no great aspirations and just wants to live his life the way he wants. This of course would be nearly impossible in a story with greater stakes, which makes DiU's small scale small-town murder mystery even more appropriate and effective for what Araki was going for.
In addition to his desire for a quiet life, we also get a peak into Kira's daily (less murdery) habits. Or as Kira put it,
"My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone."
BAM. We already know more about Kira than we would ever honestly need to. But it goes such a long way in making him feel like an actual person and not just some superpower toting asshole. There are plenty of other examples of this littered about, but I think I've dwelt on it enough (and they're explained very well in the video featured at the end anyway).
Next I'll talk about just how Goddamn cool Kira is, and his use of his powers. First off, Killer Queen. Killer Queen? That's ****ing badass as hell, not to mention a damn good song. Like I said before, Killer Queen is one of my absolute favorite Stands in the series. It's got a sick design, and a cool-as-hell ability. The first bomb is never clearly explained within the series, so I figure that I may as well explain it, and the others as well just to be thorough. If you don't think you need this explanation please feel free to skip it, but if you were at all confused about the specifics of Kira's abilities, then I recommend reading this.
First Bomb: Obviously, Killer Queen is a bomb Stand. Whatever it touches can be turned into a bomb set to explode at the click of a button. However, it can only be used on inanimate objects, nothing organic. He could use the clothes on your back, for example. If the object is not touching someone directly, it will go off like a regular bomb, with a limited blast radius. If it is in direct contact with someone, it will cause that person to sort of implode and be completely disintegrated, without a trace. The perfect power for a killer who wishes to erase evidence. The explosions seem to be completely silent (the noises in the anime added for dramatic effect, or perhaps only Kira's target can hear them).
Second Bomb: Sheer Heart Attack is actually explained pretty well in the show. It's basically a heat seeking tank-bomb that's completely indestructible. It has massive destructive potential, and the size of each explosion depends on the heat of the target. On the flip side, it's kind of stupid and is only capable of following heat signatures, which can put Kira at a great disadvantage, as it's connected to his left hand.
Third Bomb: Bites the Dust kicks it up a notch and has the ability to blow away time itself. Kira attaches it to someone (presumably limited to non-Stand users) and that person essentially becomes, as the JoJo's describes, a land-mine. If anybody asks the host about Kira, or if the host speaks about Kira of their own volition, they will instantly be blown up and time resets to an hour prior. Additionally, the bomb will protect the host from any harm in order to prevent suicide, and the host is the only one who remembers previous loops, and that excludes Kira as well. Any specific events that take place during the original timeline will continue to happen, regardless of attempts to prevent them, including the deaths of anyone killed by the bomb. Time will continue moving forward without them. If time moves past these events and Kira deactivates Bites the Dust, they become permanent. If he deactivates it before they take place, however, they won't happen at all. It seems that each initial activation of the ability is manually performed by Kira (as Hayato was dead the first time, Kira must have activated it himself to push time back an hour before Hayato was killed, and when he attempts to use it later to escape the Morioh Crew, he is clearly trying to use it manually), or perhaps it is simply possible for him to use it either manually, or automatically.
Ability explanations end here.
Kira uses these abilities with cunning. While Dio was an arrogant bastard who flaunted his power in shows of strength, Kira uses his great intellect to outsmart his enemies and take them out from a safe distance, which is very fitting given his personality (his aversion to attention). This style of fighting can be massively entertaining, perhaps more so than the more upfront (think Jotaro vs. Dio) approach if that's your preference.
Also worthy of note is that, as explained in the climactic fight, his ability runs parallel with protagonist, Josuke's. Josuke can fix everything he touches, while Kira destroys everything he touches. Somewhat on the nose, but ever the classic dichotomy, and fun.
Kira's natural talents also play a lot into his character. He has immense willpower, and extreme luck. He exhibits an almost admirable will to survive and achieve his ideal lifestyle. He was willing to sacrifice his own arm in an effort to escape capture. Which brings us to his abnormal amount of luck. Kira was incredibly lucky that Josuke used Crazy Diamond to fix his arm in an effort to find him. If not, it would have been a very simple task for them to look for a guy missing an arm. I think this particular case exemplifies both pretty well, but there are, of course, many other examples, to the point that it's a running theme with his character. My favorite case of this being the end of the final showdown, where he exhibits his massive will, continuing to delude himself into thinking that he's capable of winning and yet, unfortunately for him, he has finally runs out of luck. And of course this along with his intelligence results in his massive ego (though not quite as massive as Dio's), which often ends up as his Achilles Heel.
Something deserving of special mention is the Stray Cat arc, in which we follow Kira as he deals with a rogue Stand, a stray cat turned air-manipulating plant because it's muh fuggin JoJo. The whole arc is done from the point of view of none other than Yoshikage Kira himself. This in itself is rather rare, to take the villain's perspective for an entire arc, and the result is that we're kind of made to sympathize with him for the entire debacle. It's very intriguing (and entertaining) to watch the main antagonist whom we're supposed to despise, deal with his own Stando bull**** just like the main characters do. This is interesting enough in itself, but we also get to see him defend an innocent woman from harm. This is partly for self-preservation, yes, but also because he has grown fond of her.
Now, it's not at all unheard of for a villain to protect someone they care about, however in most cases it's because they are a sympathetic villain who's "doing bad things for a good reason", or is otherwise actually a good person at heart. Kira is not a sympathetic villain. He's a completely irredeemable asshole through and through. He's not undergoing some kind of great change of heart, he's the same person who makes it a hobby to murder women and cut off their hands. This is a small, but very effective humanization of his character. He's still for all intents and purposes, a bad person, but it allows the viewer to sympathize with him on a level that was previously impossible. The guy who we saw kill a child without even batting an eye is defending someone other than himself for entirely unselfish reasons. There are very few similar instances of characterization like this that come to mind, at least for me.
One last little detail regarding Kira's mindset that I think deserves mention is his views regarding conflict. When confronted by Josuke, he explains that he completely abhors any kind of conflict. He touches on it earlier, with Shigechi, about how he tries to avoid unnecessary stress, that each fight just leads to another and it becomes a vicious, endless cycle. This is a villain who sees fighting as irrational and annoying. As a fundamental problem with humanity. Something to be avoided at all costs. He'd rather stay completely hidden from his enemies than to eliminate them, even when he could do so with relative ease. His mindset is almost pacifistic in nature. That's so un-villain-like. This sounds like it should be coming from one of the good guys, and yet Araki makes it work so well in this context.
And of course, every great villain has a great end, and it doesn't get much better than Kira's untimely demise. I'd like to point out just how ironic Kira's death is on multiple levels. Firstly the whole "lol ambulances are supposed to save people!" bit, but remember that it was Kira's wish to live an entirely uneventful, normal life. Now here he is, being killed in a freak accident. His death is hilariously, and appropriately, mundane all things considered. Brutal, yes, but when you consider the JoJo universe and the ways in which most villains meet their ends, it's so very hilariously normal. A mundane death, for an evil man who wanted nothing more than a mundane life.
Then of course the way he finally meets his maker at the hands of his very first victim, and has his hand (ha!) torn off by her dog (who says Araki hates dogs?) and is then forcefully dragged into the afterlife (again by hands, appropriate amirite?).
Here's a really great video by a Youtuber that goes by the moniker Super Eyepatch Wolf on what makes a good villain that I probably stole a lot of my points from. He's really great at these kinds of things and I encourage people to check him out. His videos tend to be a bit on the spoilery side, but he's got really good opinions on things and he expresses them with an Irish accent. (Actually Az, don't watch this one, it has Berserk spoilers in it.)
Aaaaand that's about as in-depth of a character analysis as I dare go. If you read all of it, or even, like, half of it, you have my eternal gratitude. Feel free, and hopefully encouraged, to leave comments, or concerns below. If you think I've missed anything (which I have) please feel inclined to share it. Thanks a lot. Let us go on to make many a dumb JoJoke together.
P.S. You asked for an essay and I delivered.
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