Yoshikage Kira

Yoshikage Kira is a character from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventures anime and manga.

Yoshikage is a paraphilic serial killer who has been lurking unnoticed in Morioh for years. Having lived undisturbed all his life, Kira's routine is shaken when the ghost of his first victim Reimi Sugimoto begs the Joestar Group to look for him and he attracts unwanted attention by murdering Shigekiyo Yangu. Kira is a Stand User and wields Killer Queen to create deadly bombs.

Appearance
Yoshikage Kira adopts one face other than his original one in Part 4, and a ghostly body resembling his original, with a unique outfit, after this. He remains a man of average height and slim to athletic build.

Kira has light, loosely combed back hair with a few strands out of place. He wears a light Valentino suit and a dark tie patterned by a column of skull emblems with upright, cat-like ears, similar to those on his Stand, Killer Queen. As a salesman by profession, he wears a similar suit throughout the series, though he usually takes off his jacket at home.

When Kosaku Kawajiri is killed, Kira assumes his facial features, including his spiky black hair, thin, large dark irises, and higher cheekbones. He retains his suit, changing only his tie to his normal Skull tie.

After being hit by the Arrow and receiving Killer Queen's third bomb, Kira's hairstyle spontaneously changes, becoming perfectly combed back, light, and striped by black strands.

Immediately after his death, as a ghost, he retains Kosaku's features for a few moments before reverting to his original appearance, which he retains in Dead Man's Questions.

Henceforth, he adopts an elaborate outfit consisting of a dark bowler hat with an upturned rim and a tie, both patterned by concentric squares, and a shirtless, dark, lapelless suit.

Personality
Kira is a serial killer, characterized as highly egocentric and psychopathic, with a few obsessive-compulsive tendencies. He is also a hand fetishist.

Kira longs for a peaceful life, safe from any worry, and does not wish for it to be interrupted. Whenever that peaceful life seems assured, Kira adopts a jolly and confident demeanor. Although he is highly intelligent and possesses many talents, this yearning shows in his dislike of coming in first, and Jotaro theorizes from his many trophies that he even made it a point to never rank better than 3rd in any competition so as not to stand out. Since his youth, Kira has been avoiding standing out, living a healthy life and following a strict regimen. He becomes bothered when someone disrupts his habits and goes to extreme lengths to get it back. As his father pointed out, this will to stay in the background was so bad that if bullied or denied his favorite toy, Kira would bite his nails until they bled, being the only way he's found to express his frustration.

However, beneath his façade of a simple, humble salaryman, Kira is very abnormal. The most abnormal characteristic of Kira are his frequent and periodic murderous impulses. Kira targets women, or, more specifically, women with beautiful hands. Kira possesses a hand fetish, which he discovered when he found himself aroused by the Mona Lisa's hands. However, his desire has never extended to the rest of the female person and he otherwise shuns their presence. This results in murdering random women, not caring in the least how they look like or behave, in order to acquire their (severed) hands as "girlfriends", acting as if the severed hands were actually sentient and conversing with them, even offering them various gifts. When one "girlfriend" begins to decay, he disposes of it and goes off in search of a replacement. Kira is an opportunistic killer, his modus operandi being spotting a potential victim, following her to her house, and murdering her when both are isolated. His Stand erasing any proof, these murders are actually reported as missing persons. Moreover, Kira has expressed various other similarly violent impulses such as the desire to choke his victims to death and has horribly scarred at least Reimi Sugimoto.

Apart from his murders, Kira is particularly violent when someone threatens his way of life or publicly humiliates him. Since Kira doesn't want to be noticed, he will try everything to solve his problems without facing anyone directly. However, if he doesn't have any other choice, he will instantly try to kill whoever discovers his true nature. Kira is quick to drop his polite demeanor, rudely insulting his foes or violently beating them before killing them. After Koichi's Echoes ACT 3 results in Kira making a fool of himself in public and attracting unwanted attention, Kira went on his way to torture and humiliate Koichi, putting his shoe into his mouth and slamming his face against the ground. Kira has a hard time controlling these impulses, as seen when Hayato Kawajiri threatened to blackmail him. Kira lost his calm attitude and murdered him despite knowing he couldn't afford such a mistake.

Kira is also afflicted with a number of other quirks. Apart from his wish for a monotonous and tranquil life, Kira's OCD also makes him very meticulous and thorough. Kira has sophisticated tastes, notably buying his lunch at the best store in town as well as wearing Valentino suits. He doesn't tolerate any imperfection, and is even willing to lose time fixing Koichi's socks, becoming agitated when he sees them being worn inside-out. Furthermore, during his time as Kosaku Kawajiri, Kira made sure to perfectly mimic his new identity in every way, notably Kosaku's hand-writing, which he trained himself to do conscientiously. Kira's solitary nature is partially stemmed from his disgust of people who don't behave as properly as he does.

Kira is also an egocentric and selfish man, akin to a spoiled child. He doesn't care that is crimes involve murder and make his victim's relatives suffer. He only seeks to satisfy his basic instincts. In addition, Kira is determined to preserve his lifestyle, and being set back only increases his determination. Kira is also quick to shift the blame to someone else for his troubles, notably the Joestar group, for ruining his life. Kira possesses a twisted pride in having managed to mix his tranquil lifestyle and his serial murders for so long, and categorically refused to flee the town and live in fear, preferring to maintain a shaky façade of normal life with the Kawajiri's.

In addition, while normally a very cautious meticulous man who ensures he leaves no evidence behind, there are a few occasions where he becomes overconfident and lets his guard down, and each time has led him to confrontation with the Joestar group or defeat at their hands. He once put his "girlfriend hand" in a sandwich bag and failed to notice Shigechi's presence as he came to take the sandwich bag, thinking it was his. This would lead him to his first confrontation with the Joestar group. In addition, he left his jacket to a tailor at Centipede shoes and left his real name, forcing him to confront them[14]. He was overconfident in his Sheer Heart Attack, believing it was invincible and leaving the scene[15] but was forced to return to the scene of his crime when Koichi managed to subdue Sheer Heart Attack. In addition, he let his guard down near a wounded Jotaro, allowing Jotaro the opportunity to beat him. Finally, when he was overconfident he had beaten Hayato Kawajiri in his attempt to stop him, he blurted out his real name in front of Josuke by mistake, which Hayato had planned.

Kira believes that he has luck and fate on his side, exposing a superstitious façade, claiming that whenever faced with an obstacle he will be able to make it through with a combination of hard work and opportunity. He measures and collects his own fingernail clippings, using them to predict his murdering luck off of their length.

When Kira was pierced with the Arrow, his demeanor became much more relaxed and prone to elation due to his new-found power, which guaranteed that anyone approaching Hayato would be killed. Ecstatic to possess a power which would dispose of anyone who investigated him, Kira allowed himself one loud boast, which caused his downfall as Josuke overheard him claiming to be "Yoshikage Kira".

During his confrontation with the Stand Stray Cat, Kira expressed a desire to protect his "wife" Shinobu Kawajiriand even showed relief at her safety; A feeling that confused him, and Kira rationalized it as him merely not wanting to arouse suspicion. Whether these feelings were genuine or not is left unanswered.

As a ghost, Kira lost all memory of his previous life and has thus lost his temptation to kill. However, his desire for a peaceful existence and his latent brutality remained.

STAND

 * Main article: Killer Queen

Kira's Stand is Killer Queen, a humanoid, short-range Stand with the unique ability to cleanly and completely obliterate objects with targeted explosions. This ability takes three forms that Kira names Bomb #1, #2, and #3.
 * Bomb#1 (Bomb transmutation): By touch, Killer Queen may charge any object with explosive energy that is transferred into the first person to touch it. The Stand can then detonate the energy with a gesture, creating explosions of variable size and power.
 * Bomb#2 (Sheer Heart Attack): An autonomous entity that detaches from the Stand's left hand. It tracks and destroys targets with infrared homing.
 * Bomb#3 (Bites the Dust): Developed with the touch of the Arrow, this ability is a booby trap that, when triggered, permits Kira to loop time, resetting for up to one hour in order to outmaneuver attempts to investigate him.

AIR BOMB TRANSMUTATION ("STRAY CAT")

 * Main article: Stray Cat

After developing Bomb #3, Kira keeps Stray Cat in Killer Queen's abdomen. With Killer Queen's Primary Bomb charging Stray Cat's condensed air bubbles, Kira may create invisible, speedy air bombs (Kūki-dan)to use as projectiles. Although he cannot see these bombs, he is skilled in determining their trajectory using basic mathematical skills.

MASTERY
Despite the power of his Stand Killer Queen, Kira's passivity led to an overreliance on its powers to the detriment of actual mastery.

Up until his appearance, Kira has avoided fighting at all, leading to a laissez-faire approach to Stand battles. Although he did personally kill Shigekiyo Yangu and knows a great deal about the subtleties of Killer Queen, he then let Sheer Heart Attack take care of two Stand Users, leading to an unexpected defeat and almost leading to his capture. He then became overconfident in Bites the Dust's invincibility, again leaving ample opportunity for Hayato to seek a loophole. Kira's tendency to hide and avoid instead of confronting his foes has left him no time to show any imagination in using his Stand.

However thanks to his intellect and "lucky" meeting with Stray Cat, Kira could sublimate Killer Queen's power to create a deadly long range combination of Stand abilities.

Trivia

 * According to Kira himself, the total amount of women he's killed for their hands is 48.
 * He committed his first murder on August 13, 1983, at the age of 18.
 * According to a Top 10 List published in JOJO A-GO!GO!, released in 2000, Kira is Araki's favorite antagonist and 2nd favorite character overall.
 * According to an interview with Araki, the idea to have Kira takeover Kosaku's life while Hayato suspects his "father" of being replaced was inspired by the Philip K. Dick novel, The Father-thing.
 * In an ironic twist, Kira has his hands severed multiple times: His left hand twice (when he removed Sheer Heart Attack from his body and when the Cleansers attacked him) and his right hand once (when he was bitten by Arnold in Reimi's alley as a ghost).
 * Kira's favorite fashion brand is Gianfranco Ferré.
 * The story of Kira's first murder as told by the ghost of Reimi Sugimoto shares similarities with the "Humans Can Lick Too" horror story.
 * Kira's initial design is fairly notable among JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans due to its resemblance to the late British singer David Bowie (particularly how he appeared during his Serious Moonlight tour). Coincidentally, the finale of Diamond is Unbreakable, which featured Kira's death, aired in late December 2016, while Bowie himself had died in early January of that same year.


 * Despite being the main antagonist, Kira doesn't have an active role in Diamond is Unbreakable until halfway in the part. The anime attempts to build up Kira's presence before his first appearance by showing the aftermath of his murders and the severed hands he's collected along the way from the opening scene of the very first episode of the Part 4 anime, along with a quick cameo in episode 86 (DU episode 12).