By Carlyle Edmundson Published 20 minutes ago
Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Part 9 has just recruited a new ally to Jodio’s side, and his past gives him a striking similarity to a fan favorite ally.
Warning: Spoilers for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: The JoJoLands, Chapter 12
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Summary
- Charmingman in JoJo chapter 12 mirrors beloved ally Polnareff, forming a new twist on the classic Jojo tradition.
- Charmingman's past reveals his motivation: a connection between the lava rock and his missing brother, leading to an unexpected alliance.
- Jojo series often sees enemies turned into allies; Charmingman's evolution will be intriguing to watch in upcoming chapters.
After a tease of the idea in the previous chapter, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has officially recruited a new ally to Jodio's side, marking a return to the classic Jojo tradition of befriending an early adversary. In fact, this new ally has a fair amount in common with one of the most beloved examples of the trope in Jojo, Jean Pierre Polnareff.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: The JoJoLands chapter 12 opens with a surprise, diving into the backstory of the enemy that Jodio and his group had just been fighting. The character, who later reveals his name to be "Charmingman", is shown biking through a mountainous region in Hawaii, where the narration explains that almost no water can be found. Charmingman is accompanied by his younger brother, who soon disappears suddenly. Charmingman searches in a panicked state, and sees his brother pulled into a lava tube filled with water.
Despite seeking help from the authorities, Charmingman returns to find no sign of water, and suspicion of foul play begins to fall on the innocent man.
Charmingman is a New Take on a Jojo Classic
Charmingman's past shows that he lost a sibling, and further flashbacks prove that the Lava Rock which Jodio and co. stole from Rohan Kishibe is somehow related to this disappearance. That explains why Charmingman was so desperate to take the rock from Jodio, and why he might be willing to call a truce and work with them; he doesn't actually care about the rock's ability to bring wealth so much as its connection to his missing brother.
As a character who began as an enemy, but eventually joined the heroes due to a lost/dead sibling, Charmingman is actually quite similar to Polnareff from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 3, Stardust Crusaders. Polnareff was being controlled by Dio, rather than attacking Jotaro and friends out of his own will, but as soon as he was freed from that, he became a valuable ally. Polnareff wanted vengeance on a man with "two right hands," who turned out to be working for Dio, and agreed to accompany them for a shot at it.
Of course, many other Jojo allies began as enemies of their respective Jojos: Speedwagon is perhaps the most famous, but it also applies to Okuyasu in part 4, Bucciarati in part 5, and Foo Fighters (FF) in part 6. The trope went more or less unused in parts 7 and 8, which had more focused stories that didn't involve a large ensemble the way those previous parts did. Since part 9 has started off with a larger ensemble again, it should perhaps come as no surprise that this trope has returned as well.
These characters often go on to become popular, and despite their origins, can be quite different from one another. It will be interesting to see how Charmingman's character is developed now that he's aligned his interests with those of Jodio and his crew. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 9 may have been running for a year now, but it's still only just begun, so there's plenty of time for Charmingman to live up to the popularity of Polnareff.
