Dio Brando

"You thought your first kiss would be JoJo, but it was I, Dio!"

- Dio's most famous quote, the end also referred as "Kono Dio Da!".TheDio.ogg "The World!"

- Dio activating his Stand, "The World, often referred to by its Japanese pronunciation, "Za Warudo!".The_World.ogg "Muda, muda, muda, muda, muda, MUDA!"

- Dio's famous catchphrase.USELESS.ogg

Dio Brando (in Japanese: ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō), known simply as DIO from Part 3 onward, is the overall main antagonist of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, serving as the main antagonist of Parts 1 and 3. He fathered Giorno Giovanna and three other sons under the rule of his friend Enrico Pucci.

In Eyes of Heaven, he has an ultimate form called DIO, Gone To Heaven, which serves as the main antagonist of that game.

Portrayals
He was voiced by the following actors in the following works:
 * in the Drama CD.
 * in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future.
 * The late Nobuo Tanaka in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OVA.
 * in the film and PS2 adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood.
 * and in the anime, with the latter also voicing him in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.
 * in the English dub of the OVA.
 * in the English dub of the anime.

Personality
"He IS PURE EVIL, right down to his very bones! Is he a victim of circumstance, you're wondering? Not on your life! He's been evil since he drew his first breath!"

- Speedwagon, giving Jonathan his assessment on Dio

While Speedwagon claimed that he was born evil, Dio's treacherous and insane nature may be partially explained by his abusive upbringing at the hands of an alcoholic father, whom he later killed. He is shown to be an extremely arrogant and ambitious 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 also shows a good side to those who are good to him. In particular, he has shown extremely 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 unworthy 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
"The World's true power, as its name suggests, is to reign supreme over the entire world!"

- DIO

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 Hamon-empowered blows. 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 time stop would have continued to increase had he not been killed).

Quotes
"Your training avails you nothing... It's useless, useless, useless, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!!!! A mere monkey can never defeat a lion"

- Dio tauting Jonathan

Trivia

 * His first name is the Italian word for "God", but is also a reference to the heavy metal band DIO, fronted by the late Ronnie James Dio.
 * Dio actually had spawn at least three memes among fans, they are "It's useless/Muda", "Kono Dio da(I am Dio/It was I,Dio)" and "Za Warudo/WRYYYYYYY"; this become one of the reason that Dio become popular in JoJo series.
 * His last name is a reference to American actor Marlon Brando.
 * The creator of the JoJo series, Hirohiko Araki, considers Dio Brando "the true protagonist" of Phantom Blood. Araki developed Dio in his character design before Jonathan Joestar, and Dio makes his debut 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. He has also voiced Redda, Zeke Yeager, Zechs Merquise, Seifer Almasy, Takuma Saiou, Aokiji and Nobuyuki Sugou.
 * His English voice actor is Patrick Seitz, who has voiced various villains like Kunzite, Scorpion, Garrosh Hellscream and Uvogin. His anime character often overlaps with Takehito Koyasu.

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