Dio Brando

"Za Warudo!"

- Dio's famous catchphrase. "WRRRRYYYYYYYY!!"

- Dio's ecstatic scream after sucking bloods from his victims. "Muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda!!"

- Dio's battle cry. "Invincible! Immortal! Stand Power! This proves that no one can surpass me, DIO! Puny humans! I shall rule you all! Bow before my knowledge and might!"

- DIO after "defeating" Jotaro.

Dio Brando (in Japanese: ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō), known simply as "DIO" from Part 3-onwards, is the main antagonist of Parts 1 and 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, though his legacy causes repercussions throughout the rest of the series as well making the main villain of the whole series. He is also the father of Part 5's protagonist Giorno Giovanna. He has an alternative version of him called Diego Brando in Part 7. He also have three other sons in Part 6 under the rule of his friend Enrico Pucci.

In Eyes of Heaven, he has an ultimate form called Heaven Ascension Dio, which serves as the main villain of that game.

He is voiced by Takehito Koyasu.

Early Life
"Your upbringing made you a villain, you say? It didn't! You've been evil since your birth!"

- Speedwagon to Dio.

Dio was born the son of Dario Brando, an alcoholic and abusive father whom he deeply hated. Years before, his father had saved George Joestar, a nobleman, from a car accident, which George held a great debt with him. Dio poisoned his father, and was then adopted by the Joestars. Dio had already set up a plan to get all of the Joestar fortune to him: he would make George's son, Jonathan Joestar, go crazy and then poison George in the same way he did with his father, them claim all of the fortune for himself. Dio started off by introducing himself to Jonathan, moments before kicking his dog, Danny, in the face. When confronted about this, he lied and said that Danny "jumped at him". When Jonathan tried to help Dio with his suitcase, Dio grabbed his hand and warned him not to touch his stuff, and tells him that he hates dogs. Dio then acted innocent around George in order to get Jonathan jealous when George starts paying more attention to him. Dio then joins Jonathan's boxing club in order to fight with Jonathan. He managed to beat Jonathan with ease and started spreading rumors about him. Dio then started to notice that Jonathan was getting happier by spending time with Erina. Because of this, Dio confronts Erina and kisses forcefully kisses her before Jonathan can. Once Jonathan heard about this, he ran home to confront Dio. The two had a fight, in which Dio's blood splattered on a stone mask that was hanging on a wall, making the mask react, making some long spikes appear on it. Jonathan noticed it, as well as Dio, who stayed quiet about this. Dio decided to get revenge on Jonathan for beating him by putting Danny in a furnace and have a man unknowingly burn him alive.

Phantom Blood (1888-89)
"I'm going to extinguish your life!!"

- Dio to Jonathan.

Seven years later, both boys attend Hugh Hudson Academy, where Dio intends to graduate as a top law student. During that seven-year span, he had acted brotherly and friendly toward Jonathan to lull the latter into a false sense of security. He had thought the mask was a torture instrument, then decided to kill Jonathan with the mask. Jonathan discovered that Dio was poisoning his father, then went to find the person who sold him the poison. Dio decided to test the mask on some street thugs, and was shocked to discover the thug transformed into a vampire with incredible strength and who could regenerate himself and look younger. Dio was almost killed, but was saved as the sun rises, disintegrating the thug. Dio then changed his plan, deciding to become a vampire, but using Jonathan's blood. As he attempted to stab Jonathan with a knife, George jumped at him and took the blow. Dio thus became a vampire and killed all the policemen that Jonathan brought to arrest Dio. As the two fought, the mansion started to burn, and Jonathan somehow managed to defeat Dio, leaving him in the crumbling mansion, but sustaining serious wounds.

However, a few days later when Wang Chan visits the charred remains of the house to find items to sell for profit, Dio resurfaces and drains his blood while vowing vengeance against Jonathan. Wang Chan turned into a zombie servant of Dio, who started creating an army of vampire zombies, including Jack the Ripper, to conquer the world. Dio even went so far as to promise a mother that he wont harm her baby, only to then turn her into a vampire and have her eat her own baby. Meanwhile, Jonathan recovered and started practicing a technique known as the Ripple, or Hamon, which sends a blast of energy similar as the sun. Dio confronted Jonathan, who attacked him. Dio was able to easily defeat Jonathan and rose some vampires to kill him before taking his leave. Dio then kidnapped Poco's sister and began to threaten and flirt with her. One of Dio's comrades started laughing maniacally, which annoyed Dio to the point were Dio killed him. Just as Dio is about to turn her into a vampire, Jonathan interrupts after he defeated all the zombies. Dire decided to fight Dio before Jonathan could. Dio easily killed Dire by freezing then destroying his body, leaving only his head remaining. Jonathan then fought with Dio and after a fierce battle, Dio was defeated, but as he started disintegrating, he decapitated himself, so his head never disintegrated. His head was picked up by Wang Chan and guarded on a coffin. The coffin was hidden in a boat that Jonathan took with his wife. Dio managed to kill Jonathan and took his body, but the two sank to the bottom of the sea, where Dio slept for 100 years.

Pre-Stardust Crusaders (1983-87)
Dio's casket is recovered off the coast of Africa by fishermen, who are implied to have been killed by him shortly after. Now known simply as "DIO", the vampire starts traveling around the world, meeting with various people who would later become his henchmen, such as Enya Geil, who uses an arrow on him, which makes him gain his stand The World. Around this time, he learned about a prophecy to create the ultimate stand, who would have the power to recreate the world. DIO himself was part of this prophecy. He met with a priest called Enrico Pucci, who later became his most trusted friend. DIO gave him a bone from his own body. as a sign of friendship and an apology for trying to force Pucci to betray him and steal his stand.

Stardust Crusaders (1987-88)
"Don't you Joestars ever give up!"

- Dio to Jotaro after showing The World's superiority.

The anime series and vast majority of video games are based on this third arc, which occurs about 100 years after part 1 and begins in the later months of 1987. DIO's ambition shift from conquering the world to creating a perfect world for him and his servants. However, because of the fact that he was using Jonathan's body, Jonathan's descendants also developed stand powers. Despite the long time span in which DIO's been using Jonathan's body, he still hadn't fully synced with it and thus he needed the blood of Jonathan's descendants.

Both Joseph Joestar and his grandson Jotaro Kujo developed stands, as well as Jotaro's mother Holly, who due to her peaceful nature was unable to control her stand, getting sick and slowly dying as a result. Because of this the Joestars embark on a journey to find DIO and kill him before Holly perishes. Despite knowing the Joestars were after him, DIO makes no effort to go after them, deciding to avoid them and sending various stand users hired by him to go after them instead. He only appears occasionally as a shadowy figure, either taking with his servants or reading books on his mansion. However, at one point he sent a message to Joseph and Avdol through a television warning them about Kakyoin before making the television explode

He only appears to confront the heroes by the end, after all of his henchmen have been already defeated. After the defeat of his right hands, Terence T. D'Arby and Vanilla Ice, DIO finally shows his face and his stand, confronting Polnareff on the stairs and toying with him. He quickly flees when the rest of the heroes join Polnareff, hiding on the top of the mansion. The heroes force DIO's minion Nukesaku to open his casket, but suddenly Nukesaku appears on the inside with his body sliced to pieces. The heroes escape the room, but as the sun sets, DIO finally decides to give pursuit.

The group splits in two, so DIO chases Joseph and Kakyoin, who take on a truck to flee. DIO takes a limousine and forces his owner, a senator, to drive for him. After DIO knocks the truck by tossing the senator after it, Joseph and Kakyoin flee to the rooftops of Cairo, where Kakyoin prepares a trap for DIO, making him unable to move. However, DIO for the first time demonstrates his power to stop time, easily cutting over Kakyoin's trap and killing him with a punch. Before dying, Kakyoin uses his last strength to shoot a clock tower, so Joseph would understand that DIO could stop time. Joseph protects himself with his stand and his Hamon powers and tells Jotaro of DIO's powers, but DIO stops time and toss a knife on him, knocking him unconscious.

Jotaro confronts DIO and attempts to trick him into believing Jotaro couldn't move during his time stop, in an attempt to hit his head when he lowers his guard. DIO notices the trick, however, stopping time and tossing a salvo of knifes towards Jotaro, who is unable to dodge the attack and is then stabbed by them. Jotaro, who had put various books around his body to relieve his pain, survives the attack but starts pretending to be dead to once again try to get a hit on DIO's head, going so far as to use his stand to stop his heartbeat. Despite thinking Jotaro is really dead, DIO picks up a street sign to slice his head from a distance, but Polnareff appears just before DIO delivers the attack, giving Jotaro enough time to punch DIO's head. Because of the head trauma, DIO is unable to control his own body and attempts to flee by grabbing a passing car, but Jotaro stops him and pummels him.

As DIO is flung by Jotaro's attack, he realizes DIO was not actually trying to escape. He falls near Joseph's body and drains his blood, recovering and getting more powerful than before. DIO goes all out on Jotaro, who plans on stopping time just before DIO's time stop expires, but DIO drops a steamroller on him, pummeling it until it explodes. However, Jotaro escapes the attack and freezes time, breaking DIO's leg. Despite the wound, DIO squirts blood out of his leg wound and into Jotaro's eyes and attacks him with a kick, but Jotaro retaliates with a punch. The attacks connect with each other, with Jotaro's Star Platinum hand breaking, but since The World's leg is hit on the same spot where DIO's was broken, the stand shatters and DIO explodes, with only his lower half remaining. Jotaro takes it and does a blood transfusion, reviving Joseph, and leaves the body in the desert to disintegrate in the sun.

Legacy
Despite DIO's death his legacy still influences the later arcs.

In Part 4 some of the stand arrows were shipped to Kira's father and in Part 5 to Diavolo.

in Part 6 DIO appears in flashbacks and what remains of him is used by Pucci to carry out his last request with his three other sons aiding him.

in Part 7 even though it was a different universe, an alternative version of him called Diego Brando still antagonizes the Joestars and their allies with another version of Diego having The World.

Eyes of Heaven
In Eyes of Heaven, an alternative version of DIO becomes the main villain of its story mode and achieves Heaven with his stand evolving into the World over Heaven.

Heaven Ascension DIO originally existed in an alternate reality whereupon the events of Stardust Crusaders ended in tragedy for the Joestar Group. DIO succeeded in killing all members of the group along with Jotaro Kujo. Now free to pursue his original goals of "obtaining heaven", DIO collected the 36 sinners required alongside Enrico Pucci as he evolved his Stand and became the perfect being with godlike power, Heaven Ascension DIO. Now unrivaled and unstoppable, DIO proceeded to conquer the world and presumably carried out his desire to reveal the destiny of every human on Earth so they could live peacefully.

Around this time, during the ending of Steel Ball Run, President Funny Valentine tried desperately to escape from the "infinite spin" set on him by Johnny Joestar. In the process, Valentine skipped through dimensions until he eventually came to the reality belonging to Heaven Ascension DIO. DIO used the power of his Stand, The World Over Heaven to remove the infinite spin from Valentine and in return, Valentine told DIO of the Saint Corpse Parts and that his reality was merely an alternate branch of the main dimensional universe. Having already conquered his world and desiring the satisfaction of doing so to the original universe as well, DIO used his power to travel through dimensions; resurrecting his fallen acolytes and brainwashing new ones from other timelines to serve as his army.

DIO, armed with the Spine of the Holy Corpse, set his followers out to battle the Joestars and their allies. He patiently waited as his brainwashed minions were defeated one by one until the Joestars collected all of the remaining Corpse Parts. DIO then summoned the Joestar Group to his realm, where he easily defeated Gold Experience Requiem and Tusk ACT4. DIO stole the Corpse Parts from the group and planned on sacrificing them to perform the ritual of "obtaining heaven" all over again to increase his powers even further. However, Jotaro managed to hang on to his Corpse Part and escaped along with the others.

DIO, now irritated but still collected, spread out the Corpse Parts to his generals and sent them to eliminate the Joestar group. In the meantime, DIO managed to discover that Valentine was secretly a turncoat and was trying to discover which of the Joestars possessed the power to defeat DIO. Confronting Valentine about his treachery, Valentine fought DIO throughout many dimensions but in the end, lost. DIO, not wanting to waste such a powerful Stand user, offered Valentine forgiveness in exchange for his eternal loyalty. Valentine, however, retained his integrity and refused only to be swiftly killed by DIO. DIO then confided in his friend, Pucci about how he was troubled over the Joestars in this timeline being more problematic than he anticipated. Pucci reassured him that everything would go according to his plans and went off to confront the Joestars himself. Pucci ultimately lost to Jotaro and his daughter, Jolyne Cujoh. As Jotaro questioned Pucci about the secret to DIO's Stand, Pucci instead committed suicide while pledging his love and service to DIO even in death.

With Jotaro and the others having re-obtained the other Corpse Parts, they traveled to Cairo where DIO planned to face against them all in battle. DIO fought against Jotaro and Johnny and subsequently lost. However, he negated the damage done to him using The World Over Heaven. Jotaro, now witnessing DIO's power up close, discovered his Stand's ability to overwrite reality itself through the use of its fists. DIO claimed that Jotaro knowing his secret was futile and banished the other Joestars, excluding Jotaro and Jolyne, to other dimensions to stall for time to charge his Stand's power. As the others proceeded to battle their brainwashed allies, Giorno Giovanna realized too late that it was a trap. DIO unleashed the full power of The World Over Heaven and killed all of the Joestars and their allies before absorbing their souls into himself.

Now gloating over his victory to Jotaro and Jolyne, DIO combined the Saint Corpse Parts with the 36 souls to ascend to an even greater form of existence, causing the fabric of space itself to start crumbling away. Jotaro and Jolyne teamed up to take down DIO. While they managed to defeat him, it was a temporary victory as DIO healed himself once again and killed Jolyne before absorbing her soul as well. DIO proceeded to deliver a fatal punch to Jotaro as he gleefully relished in his victory. However, Jotaro mysteriously negated the damage done to himself which caused DIO to recoil in shock. DIO remembered that Star Platinum and The World Over Heaven are still the same type of Stand and by DIO evolving his Stand, he inadvertently caused Star Platinum to evolve as well.

Now armed with Star Platinum Over Heaven, Jotaro regained his composure as DIO began to break down. DIO, trying now to quickly kill Jotaro, let out an attack only to punch the armlets of the original timeline's DIO. Jotaro had secretly acquired these armlets after Valentine informed him that if two identical objects from different dimensions collide, they will violently cancel each other out. The armlets fused and exploded with DIO's current ones, resulting in both of his arms being destroyed and leaving him powerless. DIO desperately tried to use his blood to blind Jotaro, however the attempt proved futile; just as it did in the original timeline. Mirroring his original downfall, Jotaro delivered a single final punch to DIO, which caused his body to crumble and explode as hundreds of souls poured out of him.

With Heaven Ascension DIO dead, the timeline reversed itself into a new timeline where the events of Eyes of Heaven never took place, yet caused every heroic fatality throughout the original universe's Parts to be negated. This ultimately resulted in a universe where none of the Joestars and their allies died, bringing about an era of peace.

Personality
"Can a monkey reach a human? You are but a monkey, Jojo!"

- Dio, to Jonathan.

Dio Brando/DIO's treacherous, sadistic nature may be partially explained by his abusive upbringing at the hands of an alcoholic father, whom he later killed. He is also ambitious, narcissistic, arrogant and megalomaniac. He will do anything to get what he wants, even if it means trampling people, like he did to Jonathan Joestar when they were young, and relinquishing his humanity in favor of becoming a vampire. However, DIO is not entirely evil, although he tends to approach it. He shows a good side to those who are good to him. In particular, he has shown favorable attitudes towards Enrico Pucci, who also showed loyalty in return. DIO also has a passion for reading, as he is found in the library of his Egypt mansion at times.

Unless provoked or deemed an obstacle, DIO will normally not attack anything or anybody (although probably more out of regarding them as inconsequential, and so not worthy of attention, than anything akin to kindness). He will first try persuading people to work for him, then fight them, if they oppose.

Powers and Abilities
His vampiric powers include a superhuman strength, self-regeneration, immortality, ability to recover lost parts from his body, and to shoot high-pressure liquid from his eyes. He also learned to use a freezing punch to counter the Ripple force. When he gained his stand The World, he got the ability to stop time for a couple of seconds (5 seconds initially; extends to 9 seconds by the end of Stardust Crusaders. The duration of his timestop would have continued to increase had he not been killed).

DIO in his ascended form has the powers of teleportation, instantaneous regeneration, resurrecting the dead, mind control and can summon lightning bolts to attack and target his opponents. He also appears to have the ability of dimensional travel, similar to Valentine's D4C.

This form has a weakness of being connected to his self from Part 3's timeline. As no two versions of the same person or thing can co-exist in the same dimension, should Part 3 DIO or something connected to him, like his golden bracelet rings, come in contact with Heaven Ascension DIO or their matching item, both versions will collide and explode.

DIO's evolved Stand, The World Over Heaven, can overwrite reality itself through his fists and stop time indefinitely, as opposed to the mere nine seconds The World could handle. With this, DIO is able to trap his opponents within the stopped time for however long he pleases. This also allows him to rewrite anything within any timeline (except for changing his stands range), granting him godlike power.

The World Over Heaven also retains The World's original super strength, speed and incredible precision, but more enhanced than Part 4 Jotaro's Star Platinum: The World.

Trivia

 * His first name is the Italian word for "God".
 * The creator of the JoJo series, Hirohiko Araki, considers Dio Brando 'the true protagonist' of Phantom Blood Arc. Araki developed Dio in his character design before Jonathan Joestar. And Dio makes his debut first before Jonathan. Araki pondered in deciding what would be the scariest factor, and decided that "evil from the past" coming to get the present descendant would be the most frightening thing. Dio Brando was developed with this in mind. After Dio, Jonathan Joestar of 'light' was designed to counter Dio's 'darkness'. (from Hirohiko Araki's interview in JoJo-Menon).
 * Dio's Japanese voice actor, Takehito Koyasu, said in his interview he 'had a feeling' that Dio would be given to him to play.
 * His English voice actor is Patrick Seitz, who is best known as the voice of Laxus Dreyar from Fairy Tail, Franky from One Piece, Isshin Kurosaki from Bleach, Scorpion from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe onward and Uvogin from the 2011 version of Hunter x Hunter.