Noriaki Kakyoin

"That's impossible... no one can just deflect the emerald splash!"

Noriaki Kakyoin is the deuteragonist in Stardust Crusaders and a Japanese student who was brainwashed by DIO during an earlier trip to Egypt and is sent to kill Jotaro Kujo. After being freed from DIO's influence, he decides to join Jotaro on his quest to Egypt to save Jotaro's mother and find redemption.

Kakyoin is a Stand User and wields the long-ranged Hierophant Green.

## Appearance

Kakyoin is a young man of average to above-average height and fit to slender build. His primary outfit is a proper, trench coat-length, green with gold accents and dress shoes typical for Japanese high schoolers. He is also shown wearing striped pajamas during his initial encounter with Death Thirteen. In the anime, he wears the pajamas when admitted to the hospital, along with bandages wrapped around his eyes. After he rejoins the rest of the group, he wears black sunglasses over his twin scars. He is always seen wearing cherry earrings.

Kakyoin keeps his red hair styled fluffed up in the back and longer around the nape of his neck, characterized by a large, twisting bang hanging to the side of his face. Strangely, the side the bang hangs at is inconsistent, changing depending on the way he's facing.

He is attractive and has captured the attention of several women. Some of Jotaro's own admirers commented on his appearance, and during the Tower of Gray encounter, he swooned two female stewardesses. He is also referred to as beautiful upon arriving in India by a man trying to sell him a tattoo.

Later, Kakyoin acquires two thin scars vertically crossing both eyes; which he often hides with a pair of dark sunglasses.

In his character cover for Jojonium, he is seen with light pink hair and a black uniform.

## Personality

Noriaki Kakyoin is first introduced as an evil and cruel teenager because of DIO's brainwashing. Thus he remorselessly attacks unrelated civilians and adopts a might makes right mindset. However, he reveals himself as a righteous, though blunt individual. Kakyoin is brutally ruthless with his enemies but endlessly loyal to his companions. He possesses a manipulative charisma in front of potential enemies, seen with Jotaro during their first meeting, the stewardesses before Tower of Grey, and the beggars during his encounter with J. Geil. In a flashback, his mother reveals that he was quiet and disassociated from his peers, turning away anyone who tries to approach him. His own ability to see stands led to a lonely childhood where he felt nobody could understand him, becoming depressive and cold.

His reason for joining the Joestar Group is for both fighting evil, as he mirrors Jotaro's own explanations for saving his life, and of course a sense of debt toward Jotaro for saving his life. Thus Kakyoin is also a brave individual, willingly participating in the dangerous journey to Egypt, and is also able to keep his nerves even in the direst situations such as having been punched through by The World.

He depicts having strange habits during the trip, licking cherries before eating them and sunbathing in his school uniform before brushing off Joseph and Avdol's skepticism.

Kakyoin is described to be "the honor student type", and thus can be described as haughty and somewhat introverted. Though he normally keeps a polite and somewhat formal behavior, Kakyoin is a rather cold and prideful man. In his character bio, Araki describes Kakyoin as effeminate, as he tends to speak in a softer dialect of Japanese and uses feminine diction in the manga. However, he is also noted to also be stern and blunt. He hates bowing down or kissing up to people. The humiliation of having been weak enough to bow to DIO was a part of his motivation for seeking redemption and revenge during Stardust Crusaders.

He thinks only respectable individuals are able to be friends of his. The Joestar Group is the only group with whom he has attached himself, but he cares very strongly for them. Araki himself mentions that if it weren't for their Stands, Kakyoin and Jotaro wouldn't have been friends. Kakyoin has shown to lighten up with Polnareff, although he can also be very brutal and vindictive, having elbowed Polnareff in the face as a "reconciliation". His attitude is notably worse with his enemies, whom he frequently threatens and belittles, and during his fights, he is very ruthless against them. Both as a hero and an antagonist, Kakyoin is particularly violent as he remorselessly kills all of his opponents Tower of Gray without qualm, arguing that they were evil beyond redemption; moreover, he viciously takes revenge on Mannish Boy by forcing him to eat excrement from a diaper, the first and only time he took exception.

Kakyoin has stated that if he were to ever fall in love, he would want it to be with someone like Holly, because she gives off the feeling that anything will be alright and can calm anyone's hearts, making them feel at ease.

Like Avdol, Kakyoin is quite knowledgeable about the nature of Stands—apparently more-so than Polnareff who was also born a Stand-User. He was for example, able to correctly hypothesize that Stands could shrink to a microscopic size. However, his knowledge is much more limited than Avdol’s; he didn’t know about the existence of colony type Stands, nor was he aware of Stands turning against their Users as was the case with Holly.

## Abilities

#### Intelligence

Kakyoin is the most quick-thinking of the group, being able to devise extensive strategies and plans on the spot, such as during with his fight with Death Thirteen, where he hid Hierophant Green for future use while in the process of being knocked unconscious, and tricking his way out of a hoard of greedy beggars with a single coin. He is brilliant at analyzing, piecing together the ability of DIO's stand while dying. He is also well informed on the behaviour of different cultures, explaining to Jotaro on how to order tea and thank the wait staff in Hong Kong.

#### Video Games

Kakyoin is shown to be excellent at video games, displaying confidence in his match with D'Arby and planning out a sequence of in-game attacks whilst playing.

#### Martial Arts

Kakyoin appears to be rather proficient at martial arts. During his fight against Tower of Gray, Kakyoin knocks out the Stand's User, shouting "*Atemi!"*. This is a reference to the Japanese art of *Atemi*, which targets points of weakness in the human anatomy. This may be why he is of such an athletic build.

#### Painting

Kakyoin is shown to be capable of painting in his introduction, albeit in a semi-abstract style. He paints a picture of Jotaro before slicing his leg with his Stand by drawing a red mark on the canvas. He is not seen using this ability again.

#### Marionette Puppetry

Kakyoin is able to manipulate marionette dolls well, using it as a controller for his potential vessel, like the nurse that attacked Jotaro. He is not seen using this ability again.

## Stand

Kakyoin's long-range humanoid Stand is Hierophant Green; able to extend tentacle-like limbs or unravel to a modest extent; as well as fire a barrage of hard projectiles (an "Emerald Splash"). He is often seen shouting his signature attack (like the Emerald Splash) in fights.

* Stand Mastery - Kakyoin is, due to a lifetime of possessing Hierophant Green, quite proficient at using it. Although it is mostly seen as a humanoid, Kakyoin states that its true form is that of a bunch of strings; as such one of his key tactics is to secretly unravel Hierophant Green's tentacles while keeping the main body as a distraction. Thanks to that, Kakyoin can avoid attacks by unraveling his Stand, use the strings as piercing weapons or ropes, and reach for things in the distance. It also gives him a distance advantage, being able to attack from far away with a flurry of sharp emerald shards.
* Possession - Kakyoin is capable of possessing living entities, seen with the school nurse and Death 13, by having his Stand's tentacles enter through a bodily orifice.
* Emerald Splash - Fire a barrage of hard emerald-like projectiles

## Trivia

* According to an interview in JoJonium Vol. 11, Kakyoin's first name was originally intended to be "Tenmei" and is still used by Araki himself, despite it officially being "Noriaki". The change was the result of a miscommunication between Araki and his editor as the kanji can be read both ways. This can also be seen in Enya's hotel register, where Kakyoin wrote "Tenmei Kakyoin".

* Mitsuaki MadonoW voices Kakyoin in the *Heritage for the Future* (along with several other characters in the revisions of the game) and *Part 8* Josuke Higashikata in *All Star Battle*.
* Kakyoin is seen wearing Polnareff's earrings several times throughout Part 3. This includes Chapter 160, Chapter 164, Chapter 172, Chapter 182, Chapter 183.
* Kakyoin is the only character whose color scheme across all games he has appeared in has had no significant changes, having consistently reddish hue for his hair, and green hues for his uniform.