Noriaki Kakyoin: The Power of Knowledge
There are not many characters where I can fully hold respect for, and that’s with
a lot of franchises. But Noriaki Kakyoin is one of the few that
can match up when in the big leagues. Kakyoin was originally our first sight of
a villain, and you also get Jotaro showing that “Hey, I’m a badass, but I’m a badass
with morals.” And due to Hierophant Green, I believe that
Kakyoin was made to be a very tactical and wise character. I’ll be going in depth on that later on,
but for now I’m going to focus on Kakyoin specifically. Welcome to another character analysis, I’m
Kaleb and we’re going to be going over one of the best Jobro’s. No need for a huge introduction so let’s
get into this. The first time we see Kakyoin in action against
a minion of Dio, it was the fight against Tower of Gray, which was the third fight in
Stardust Crusaders. When first watching it, I believed that Kakyoin
was about to be fodder. Ok, well that’s a lie. Kakyoin’s theme “Nobel Pope” made the
scene so much better and I thought he was cool. But when he was consistently missing the Emerald
Splashes, then yeah, I thought he was about to lose and someone else was going to save
him. That’s not Kakyoin though, he doesn’t
rely on others to save him. It turned out that Kakyoin didn’t use Emerald
Splash to hit Tower of Gray, but only to back him into a trap. So this had already shown the strategist that
Kakyoin is, and I liked him so much more for it. See, he might not have the actual power in
strength, but Kakyoin was the strongest character on the team of the Stardust Crusaders. Obviously, everyone works best in their strengths,
but Kakyoin has the ability to turn his very few weaknesses into strengths. Taking note of all of the fights where Kakyoin
was involved in, excluding his character introduction fight. Tower of Gray, J. Geil, Lovers, Death 13,
Telence T. D’Arby, and DIO. I want you to notice two things here. 1. Kakyoin won four of the 6 fights. 2. There aren’t that many Kakyoin fights. I mean why would I be surprised? Jotaro is Mr. Spotlight, so of course you’re
going to have him in most of the fights. I feel that Araki took note of this though,
and began to give a lot more credit to the other supporting characters. When it got even further on, then got Supporting
Protagonists and Deuteragonists. While there weren’t that many Kakyoin moments,
the ones that he had were pretty well done. Not fully in the anime, because I’m a believer
that some things just didn’t transfer well from manga to anime. The best moments of Kakyoin being the fights
of Tower of Gray, J. Geil, Death 13, and DIO. I had already gone over Tower of Gray, and
I went over J. Geil my Polnareff character analysis. To sum that one up, while it was Polnareff’s
drive, it was Kakyoin’s guidance. Polnareff was snowballing in his road of revenge,
and if it wasn’t for Kakyoin, he would’ve ended up being the first crusader lost. Kakyoin being the character that he is, was
based off the Hierophant tarot card. The tarot cards were a huge element in Part
3, and almost everything is based around them. A character’s traits, weaknesses, the direction
of fights, themes, and the list goes on. The Hierophant being Kakyoin puts him as this
wise consultant that you go to for help or mentorship. I like Kakyoin for being this type of person,
because I believe that fights are based more on strategy than brute strength. Even though part 3 really showed that sometimes
all you need is brute strength to get you through problems. Getting further on into Jojo parts, it’s
shown that there’s a lot more thinking going into fights and less focusing on strength. And when it came to Kakyoin, he meets all
the points required to be a great leader. The points created by the genius himself,
Sun-Tzu. You may have heard me talk about him before,
or remember the time that ACDC and Joseph talked about him in part 2. Araki is aware of a lot of history, and he
incorporates it into Jojo through his characters and how they work. While creating the characters of part 3, I
feel like he unintentionally made Kakyoin a leader. He has all the traits for it, but at the same
time he didn’t involve him too much in the fights. But now I believe after part 3, Araki had
given the ones who had leader traits, the role of the leader. Jotaro in part 4, Bruno in Part 5, and Gyro
in part 7. It’s not that difficult to follow the guidelines
to be a leader, but I guess it’s easier said than done for the most. 1. Control yourself, that way you can influence
others. 2. Adapt to your environment, it highlights your
strengths and improves on your weaknesses. 3. Never sell out your principles. This basically means don’t drop what you
came for, and you continue for the sake of all that’s good. I guess the best way to show this is, don’t
do what Polnareff was trying to do. Or well, he ended up getting Avdol faked killed
so he did something. Don’t be gray man, be green guy. There are also 5 factors for victory and 5
attributes of a great general, but let’s focus on the factors. Way, Heaven, Ground, General, and Law. Now, when looking at how this works, it’s
great and makes sense. But when you add Jojo into this, this is where
it all goes downhill for Kakyoin. He had 4 of the 5 factors, but missing a factor
had ended up being the end of Kakyoin. And, this is such an odd coincidence when
reading this over. The one factor he missed was Heaven, which
was environment outside of your control. You what was Heaven? Time stop. You know who had time stop and ideals of heaven? Who else, but our favorite temporal vampire,
DIO. Dio was a huge random factor introduced to
Kakyoin and honestly the whole cast of part 3. If we’re being real, it blew everyone away
when it happened. Think off all the villains we encounter in
part 3, none of them had an ability that matched up to what DIO had. The only one that had a somewhat alternate
and as strong ability was Vanilla Ice, and he killed two of the Crusaders. He could’ve killed three in one shot, but
you know we have to be all sneaky and spooky when killing people. So, all Kakyoin can do is figure out the range
of his stand, and hopefully set up something that would counter attack anything he has. Then, we’re introduced to Kakyoin’s checkmate
to DIO, the 20-meter Emerald Splash. Now, I believe I’m going to be going over
the strength of this ability in another video, but the 20-meter Emerald Splash is believed
to be a technique with no flaw. That’s until we’re introduced to DIO’s
ability to stop time, and that was the most secret of secret weapons sworn to secrecy. It was completely out of his control, and
was honestly not something he could’ve planned for. Therefore, knowledge is power, because not
knowing one thing can end up being the end of you. That was the case for Kakyoin, but don’t
disregard everything about him just because of this one thing. If Joseph never figured out DIO’s ability
to stop time, Jotaro wouldn’t know either. And then that means DIO wins, because Jotaro
would end up just like Kakyoin. Kakyoin was a genius, and I believe that he
was the strongest in group. Put anyone in the spot where DIO was when
the 20-meter Emerald splash was happening, not a single person in part 3 could get out
of that safely. Except for Vanilla Ice and DIO, because time
and space is busted. But everyone here watching this video, you
can ensure your victory. I’m not actually sure you can use this for
anything in life, but hey if you’re planning to lead a war then the 5 factors of victory
are for you. “If you know the enemy and know yourself,
you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for
every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle.” Thank you guys for watching, I hope you enjoyed this character analysis. Comment a major villain that isn’t DIO,
I’d really love to go over one. Subscribe to stay updated and for more content,
and follow me on twitter to see me retweet some art or something. I’ll see you all in the next one, until
then, peace out and God speed.
