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Dio Brando

Dio Brando

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure universe

Dio Brando makes arrogance feel like a spectator sport, with the uncomfortable catch that watching him can be a pleasure. I find him most absorbing when that pleasure starts to feel embarrassing: why am I enjoying someone so pleased with himself? He gives JoJo's Bizarre Adventure an abrasive charge, and I would recommend watching from the beginning to feel it properly. A collection of his loudest moments can sell the performance. Spending time with him makes the self-regard harder to laugh off.

By Mika Tanabe

Appearance

At 185 cm, Dio Brando has the height to make physical presence part of the experience, but a measurement hardly explains why he holds the eye. I read his appearance as an invitation to stare that comes with a faint feeling of being recruited. There is something unpleasantly persuasive about a character who looks so comfortable receiving attention. Enjoy the spectacle, certainly; I also like watching for the moment admiration starts to feel like a concession.

Personality

His certainty is the irritant I keep coming back to. Watching Dio Brando, I rarely feel invited into an honest exchange; I feel the pressure of a personality that would prefer agreement to conversation. That can be funny, especially if you enjoy extravagant self-importance, but I would not sand down the ugliness to make him easier to like. The friction is part of the appeal. You can appreciate how thoroughly he commands your attention and still want to deny him the satisfaction of having it.

Dio Brando’s Story

Spoiler-free introduction

At the beginning, give yourself permission to find Dio Brando unpleasant without immediately deciding whether that makes him entertaining. I think the early viewing experience benefits from that distinction. His presence asks you to spend time with a personality you might prefer to dismiss, and instant affection would be a strange standard to apply. Watch how your patience changes. For me, the interesting response is the uneasy mixture of wanting relief from him and wanting to see more of him. You do not need advance knowledge to recognise that tug.

Spoilers beyond the opening of the 2012 series

Dio Brando is a vampire, and that changes the scale on which I read his self-importance. The word gives his outsized presence a literal supernatural dimension. It is tempting to let that category do all the interpretive work, but I find him more uncomfortable when I keep the person in view. His occupation as a human was lawyer, a detail whose ordinary professional respectability sits awkwardly beside the vampire identity. I like that dissonance. It resists the comfortable distance of treating him purely as a creature, with nothing recognisable left to provoke a human response.

Watch Dio Brando’s Story

Start with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012). Dio Brando is a main character there, so it gives you room to form an opinion through sustained watching. Use the appearance cards below to choose a legal streaming service and follow his story onward. I would give the beginning priority even if a later clip brought you here: the gradual accumulation of irritation and fascination is a good deal of the pleasure.

Start here: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012) — on Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, Hoopla, Hulu, Netflix, Tubi TV

See the full watch order →

Questions

How tall is Dio Brando?
Dio Brando is 185 cm tall. That gives a useful sense of his physical scale, though I find his self-assurance does at least as much work in making him feel imposing.
Who voices Dio Brando in English?
Patrick Seitz voices Dio Brando in English; Takehito Koyasu is his Japanese voice actor. If you enjoy comparing performances, he is a rewarding character to revisit in the other language once you have settled into your preferred version.
Where can I legally watch Dio Brando's story?
The appearance cards on this page pair his anime appearances with their legal streaming options. Choose the starting entry recommended above, then select a service from that entry's card so you are watching the intended part of his story.
Is Dio Brando worth watching for?
Yes, if an overbearing personality can make a show more enjoyable for you. My recommendation comes with an aesthetic qualification: enjoying his presence and liking him are very different experiences, and the tension between them is exactly why I keep watching.
Spoilers: tap to reveal
Species
Vampire
Occupation
Lawyer as a human
Affiliation
Enrico Pucci, Agents of DIO
Family