How Does JoJo Native Languages Work?

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure handles language through an intentional narrative convention where characters communicate seamlessly despite linguistic barriers. The series, written in Japanese, spans eight story arcs set across England, Italy, Japan, and the United States, yet language differences rarely create obstacles. Each part operates under an assumed common language based on its setting—English for England and America, Italian for Italy, Japanese for Japan—though the manga itself remains entirely in Japanese. This approach prioritizes storytelling over linguistic realism, with a few in-universe explanations occasionally addressing the issue.

The Language Landscape Across JoJo Parts

Each part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure takes place in a distinct setting with its own linguistic reality.

Phantom Blood unfolds entirely in 19th century England. Jonathan Joestar, Dio Brando, and the supporting cast would realistically speak English throughout, given they’re English aristocrats and working-class Londoners. The story never addresses this because the setting makes it obvious.

Battle Tendency complicates matters by jumping between New York, Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland. Joseph Joestar starts in New York, travels to Mexico where he encounters Nazi soldiers, then moves to Italy where he trains with Caesar Zeppeli. The assumption here is English serves as the common language, particularly since Joseph is American and many scenes involve international military operations where English would be the logical choice.

Stardust Crusaders presents the most complex linguistic situation. The crusaders travel from Japan through Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Egypt, and various Middle Eastern locations. The team includes Japanese teenagers Jotaro and Kakyoin, American Joseph, French Polnareff, and Egyptian Avdol. One scene in the anime reveals this complexity: Joseph struggles ordering food in Japanese at a restaurant, demonstrating his limited Japanese skills. This suggests the group primarily communicates in English, the only language all five would reasonably share, though Jotaro and Kakyoin likely speak Japanese to each other occasionally.

Diamond is Unbreakable stays in the Japanese town of Morioh. Everyone speaks Japanese. When Joseph visits, his poor Japanese becomes a minor plot point—he can barely order at a restaurant, and his grandson Josuke appears to have no English ability at all.

Golden Wind takes place entirely in Italy. Giorno Giovanna, Bruno Bucciarati, and their team speak Italian throughout. Interestingly, when Japanese character Koichi Hirose visits Italy in the opening episode, he explicitly mentions he can speak Italian because his friend Rohan used the Stand Heaven’s Door to write “can speak Italian” into him. This rare acknowledgment of language barriers highlights how unusual such considerations are in the series.

Stone Ocean returns to America, specifically a Florida prison. Everyone speaks English, including Jolyne Cujoh, who was raised in the United States despite having a Japanese father. She may know minimal Japanese—she signs her name in Japanese characters in one scene—but English is clearly her primary language.

Steel Ball Run, set during an 1890s cross-continental horse race in America, assumes English as the primary language despite participants from multiple countries. Gyro Zeppeli from Italy would need English to function in America.

JoJolion returns to Morioh, Japan. Like Diamond is Unbreakable, everyone speaks Japanese throughout the part.

The “Plot Language” Convention

The JoJo fan community uses the term “plot language” to describe how the series handles communication. Characters speak whatever language the narrative requires them to speak at any given moment.

This convention appears across anime and manga, but JoJo’s global settings make it particularly noticeable. When the Stardust Crusaders arrive in India, they chat with locals without issue. When they reach Egypt, they converse with Egyptian civilians, enemy Stand users, and random bystanders. Nobody struggles with Arabic, Hindi, or Urdu.

The series written entirely in Japanese means Japanese readers experience everything in their language regardless of setting. English releases translate everything to English. Italian releases use Italian. The text on the page doesn’t differentiate—a conversation in Egypt reads the same as one in Japan.

Araki never directly addresses this in interviews, treating it as an accepted storytelling convention. Like how characters in historical dramas speak modern language, or how aliens in science fiction speak English, the series expects readers to accept that communication happens smoothly for narrative flow.

In-Universe Explanations That Do Exist

While the series generally ignores language barriers, a few canonical explanations address specific situations.

The Pillar Men from Battle Tendency possess superhuman intelligence allowing them to instantly learn languages. When Wamuu, Esidisi, and Kars awaken after 2,000 years of sleep, they initially speak Latin—the language of their last battle against Ripple users in ancient Rome. Within moments of hearing German soldiers speak, they understand and respond in the appropriate language. Santana, another Pillar Man, learned German within minutes of awakening by listening to his captors. Their cellular-level body control extends to instantly analyzing and replicating linguistic patterns.

Heaven’s Door, Rohan Kishibe’s Stand, can write commands and information directly into people’s minds. When Jotaro needs Koichi to investigate Giorno in Italy, Rohan writes “can speak Italian” into Koichi, giving him instant fluency. This ability could theoretically solve any language problem, but Rohan only uses it this once for this purpose. The series treats it as a special circumstance rather than a general solution.

Several characters demonstrate confirmed multilingual abilities through textual evidence. Joseph Joestar knows some Japanese, though not fluently—he admits he can’t read kanji well when asking Rohan about an English release of his manga. He also uses basic Arabic greetings, suggesting exposure to the language during his travels. Holy Kujo impresses a Japanese police officer with her Japanese skills in her first appearance, confirming she’s fluent despite having an American father. Jotaro, with an American mother and Japanese father, reasonably speaks both English and Japanese. Giorno, raised by a Japanese mother in Italy, likely speaks both Italian and Japanese, possibly English as well.

The series occasionally shows characters reading text in their native language. Avdol reads Japanese text in DIO’s mansion, though it’s unclear whether the text is actually in Japanese in-universe or simply appears that way for the Japanese manga reader’s convenience. These moments suggest some characters have broader language knowledge than explicitly stated.

How the Anime Adaptation Handles This

The anime maintains the manga’s approach—everyone speaks Japanese in the Japanese version, English in the dub, regardless of setting.

Voice direction occasionally adds subtle touches. In Golden Wind, some voice actors use slight Italian inflections or pepper in Italian words. The opening and ending themes use Italian lyrics. The series title appears as “Le Bizzarre Avventure di GioGio” during that part. These stylistic choices acknowledge the setting without fundamentally changing how dialogue works.

The English dub of early parts attempted regional accents—British accents for Phantom Blood, various accents for the international Stardust Crusaders cast. This created inconsistency issues and was eventually abandoned. Stardust Crusaders’ English dub removed the accents, having all characters speak standard English. Later parts maintained this approach.

Some fans wished for more authentic language handling. Imagine if Golden Wind’s anime featured Italian voice actors speaking Italian with subtitles, or if Stardust Crusaders had each character speak their native language with everyone somehow understanding. This would add realism but fundamentally change the viewing experience, requiring constant subtitle reading and potentially confusing viewers about who understands whom.

The anime’s musical choices sometimes acknowledge language. Araki listens to Western music while writing—he doesn’t understand English lyrics, experiencing them as pure sound. This inspired the series’ many Western music references. The anime uses Western songs as ending themes, creating an interesting parallel: Japanese viewers hear English lyrics they might not fully understand, just as Araki did while creating the series.

Why This Approach Works

JoJo prioritizes narrative momentum over linguistic realism, a choice that serves the story well.

Constantly addressing language barriers would slow pacing dramatically. Imagine if every encounter with a new character required finding a translator or struggling through broken communication. The Stardust Crusaders’ journey spans dozens of locations across three continents. Realistic language handling would mean either limiting locations to places where characters share languages, or spending significant screen time on translation logistics.

The series focuses on Stand battles, character development, and bizarre situations. Adding language complexity would distract from these core elements. When Jotaro faces DIO in their final battle, the tension comes from their conflict and the time-stopping Stand powers, not from whether they can understand each other.

This convention has precedent throughout fiction. Star Trek’s universal translator, Marvel comics showing aliens speaking English, historical dramas where ancient Romans speak modern language—all make the same choice. Readers and viewers accept these conventions because they understand the alternative would be tedious.

JoJo’s strong visual storytelling and character writing carry the narrative even without linguistic realism. The series’ appeal lies in creative Stand battles, memorable poses, unique art style, and character relationships. Language handling never becomes a focal point because the series offers so much else to engage with.

The rare moments when the series does address language—Joseph’s poor Japanese, Koichi needing Heaven’s Door to speak Italian, the Pillar Men’s instant language learning—stand out precisely because they’re unusual. These moments add flavor without burdening the entire narrative with constant linguistic considerations.

What Readers and Viewers Should Understand

When enjoying JoJo, accept that language works on narrative convenience rather than realism. Characters communicate when the story needs them to communicate.

Different translations may make different choices about how to present this. The English manga translation renders everything in English. Japanese readers experience everything in Japanese. Neither is more “authentic”—both are translations of a story where the characters aren’t really speaking the language you’re reading anyway.

Fan discussions about which language characters “actually” speak can be fun speculation, but lack definitive answers because Araki intentionally left this vague. Reasonable assumptions can be made based on setting and character backgrounds, but the text itself usually doesn’t specify.

This approach doesn’t make the series less sophisticated or well-crafted. It represents a conscious choice to prioritize storytelling elements that matter more to the narrative. JoJo’s strength lies in its creative battles, striking visual style, and character development, not in linguistic accuracy.

Understanding this convention helps viewers appreciate the series for what it does well rather than criticizing it for something it never attempted. The language handling serves the story by staying invisible, letting the truly important elements shine through.

So there you have it. JoJo handles languages by mostly not handling them at all, aside from a few clever in-universe tools when needed. The Pillar Men can learn instantly, Heaven’s Door can write in abilities, and a handful of characters are confirmed polyglots. Beyond that, everyone just understands everyone else because that’s how the story works best. It’s less about realism and more about keeping the focus on what makes JoJo special—the creative Stand battles, the memorable characters, and Araki’s unique storytelling style. Once you accept that language is just another background element that exists when convenient and disappears when not needed, you can focus on what really matters in this series: the bizarre adventures themselves.