Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Why Lisa Lisa Deserves Better

Spoilers for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency follow

You may notice that this is a recurring trend for these blog entries. This blog entry will focus on another character who gets the short end of the stick- Lisa Lisa, one of the few prominent heroines in the saga of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and a major character in the second part, Battle Tendency.

Who Lisa Lisa Is

Lisa Lisa is actually Elizabeth Joestar, Joseph's mother, George's wife, and Jonathan and Erina's daughter-in-law. Her real name and true identity remain a secret for much of the series, especially from Joseph, who assumes that his mother died in the war. The reason is because George found out a zombie had infiltrated the Royal Flying Corps, but since he couldn't use Hamon, the zombie killed him. Elizabeth then set out to avenge her husband, and killed the zombie, but ended up being caught in the act. As a woman who killed a British army officer, she became an international fugitive, and had to change her name to Lisa Lisa and go into hiding.

At some point, Lisa Lisa met Caesar Zeppeli's father Mario, who told Caesar (whom he didn't recognize as his son) to seek Lisa Lisa out so he could learn Hamon and become able to fight the Pillar Men. Later, after the Pillar Men awakened, Caesar brought Joseph to meet Lisa Lisa so she could help him realize his potential. Just after Joseph's training was finished, the Pillar Men stole the Red Stone of Aja, so Lisa Lisa, Joseph, Caesar and Messina(the surviving half of Lisa Lisa's duo of trainers) set out to Switzerland recover the stone and defeat the Pillar Men.

Lisa Lisa is said to be one of the best users of Hamon in this part. Caesar deeply respects her as a mentor, and over time, Joseph comes to respect her. She has quite the reputation, but does she live up to it?

How Lisa Lisa Was Shortchanged

Unfortunately, the answer is no, since Lisa Lisa doesn't have much of a chance to show off her skills.

While she thrusts Joseph and Caesar into an intense training regimen, starting with the infamous Hell Climb Pillar, she's never actually shown teaching them anything. Joseph realizes that he needs to concentrate his Hamon in his fingertips after getting a lesson from Caesar, then gets the plan to get past the oil through a combination of a burst of inspiration and watching Caesar's method.

Lisa Lisa, as well as Messina and Caesar, is too far away to help when Esidisi kills Loggs and attacks Joseph, but fortunately, Joseph is able to rise to the occasion and defeat Esidisi. When Esidisi survives by clinging to Joseph's back and then possesses Lisa Lisa's maid Suzi Q, Lisa Lisa can only stand back and watch as Caesar and Joseph come up with a creative solution to save Suzi Q.

Lisa Lisa is in another room while Stroheim battles Kars, and, again, is too far away to help when Joseph and Kars battle over the stone. Joseph saves his own live through a combination of ingenuity, and some help from Caesar.

The next day, Caesar insists on going after the Pillar Men despite everyone else's objections, even though Lisa Lisa, his mentor and the person he respects most, orders him to stand down. By the time Lisa Lisa and Joseph catch up, Caesar is dead and Messina has lost an arm; Lisa Lisa being late to the action is a recurring trend here. Despite being the designated leader of the group, Lisa Lisa comes off as rather ineffectual. at times like these.

Since the group is now down to two fighters, Lisa Lisa finally gets a chance to step up. She kills Wired Beck, a vampire who had only just been introduced, by using her scarf as a conduit to send Hamon into his body, and manages to force Kars and Wamuu to agree to fight two one-on-one battles over the stone with a clever bluff. Under the terms of the agreement, Joseph will fight Wamuu while Lisa Lisa will fight Kars, and Lisa Lisa will stay behind as collateral while Joseph retrieves the stone.

Joseph manages to defeat Wamuu, leading to Kars facing Lisa Lisa. Lisa Lisa seemingly defeats Kars, only to realize that she only fought a body double, and the real Kars stabs her from behind. He then dangles Lisa Lisa, who is unconscious but not dead, over a forest of spikes, in order to force Joseph to fight him at a disadvantage, and Lisa Lisa remains unconscious for the rest of the climax. She's next seen attending Joseph's funeral, and apparently remarries in the epilogue. While it's said that she told Joseph about being his mother, what happens next is never shown onscreen, a disappointing outcome to a significant plot thread.

Analysis and Conclusion

Lisa Lisa is a classic case of the importance of "show, don't tell," or perhaps the dissonance between what the narrative wants viewers to accept and what viewers actually see.

The narrative presents Lisa Lisa as a great fighter. She kills at least two vampires and one zombie, and uses her Hamon skills to slow her aging. She's well-respected as a teacher, and even Joseph, who doesn't like her at first, is forced to acknowledge her skill.

In reality, Lisa Lisa accomplishes far less than either of her disciples. The zombie she defeated would likely have been trivially easy for any Hamon wielder, while Wired Beck barely puts up a fight, so her victories are hardly befitting someone of her reputation. Joseph is the one who plays the greatest role in the defeat of the Pillar Men, while Caesar helps thwart Esidisi's last-ditch attempt and nearly defeats Wamuu before dying. As I mentioned before, she's responsible for training Joseph and Caesar, but Caesar ends up being the one to show Joseph how to use his Hamon, and Messina and Loggs supervise their training. While Caesar respects Lisa Lisa enough to get offended when Joseph badmouths her, he still refuses to listen to her when she warns him against seeking revenge on the Pillar Men, a mistake that costs him his life. Essentially, Lisa Lisa's most significant accomplishments- killing the zombie Royal Flying Corps officer and training Caesar- happened offscreen, so she's not allowed to accomplish much.

I've heard that Araki's editors forced him to downplay Lisa Lisa's role, but that doesn't change how unfortunate it is- it only shows us who to blame. It would also explain why Lisa Lisa never quite lives up to her reputation, a fate that many seemingly accomplished female characters share in fiction.