JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is just that: an epic shonen tale about the Joestar family and their creative (and often silly battles) against myriad foes -- from the vampire overlord DIO to punks in the streets of Morioh Town or Italy. As well as all this, newcomers to this series also enter the world of Stands, physical manifestations of a character's personality and fighting spirit. Starting with Jotaro Kujo, all Joestar family heroes are Stand users.
Every JoJo fan has their own favorite story arc or Joestar hero, and there's no end to the friendly debates about which Joestar hero and Stand is the best. But there's more to it than sheer power level or body counts; when creativity, stealth, resourcefulness, courage and more, which of the animated Joestar heroes stands out the most as a Stand user in battle? Jotaro, Josuke and Giorno each make a strong case for themselves.
When the Stardust Crusaders story arc began, the entire franchise's combat system got overhauled, quickly swapping out Hamon/ripple and vampires for Stands. Jotaro Kujo, the grandson of Joseph Joestar, has a melee Stand named Star Platinum, which uses speed, reflexes, hitting power and endurance to overwhelm Jotaro's many enemies. In fact, Star Platinum can catch bullets in midair, and its beatdowns are legendary. For the most part, that's all Star Platinum can do, but later, it imitated The World's ability to temporarily freeze time, thus staying on par with DIO in the final battle. This helped Jotaro defeat DIO, but some fans might wonder if this last-minute development was a little too convenient. Compared to many other JoJo scenes, it didn't feel terribly creative.
On the plus side, Jotaro is a highly observant and crafty fighter who thinks on his feet, almost like a ninja, and he is also adept at games of all sorts. Jotaro defeated Daniel J. D'Arby when he realized that Daniel relied entirely on cheating and mind games to win in games of chance, and Jotaro turned this against him and psyched him into conceding defeat out of sheer terror and psychological pressure. Later in Egypt, Jotaro and his friends went up against the younger gamer brother, Terrence, and Jotaro won with some sly cheating to get around Terrence's mind-reading.
When the Diamond is Unbreakable story arc launched, the new hero was Josuke Higashikata, a home-grown hero with a Stand named Crazy Diamond. Josuke cannot freeze time as Jotaro can, but some might argue that borrowing DIO's time-freezing was a bit cheap and contrived anyway, and Josuke defeated the explosive Yoshikage Kira without such tricks. Crazy Diamond is a humanoid melee Stand that can hit hard like Star Platinum, and it has a remarkable ability that Jotaro can only dream of: the ability to fix/heal anything that it strikes, aside from Josuke's own body. More than once, Josuke saved a life by healing them with Crazy Diamond's fists, from Okuyasu to Koichi. He was, however, far too late to save Shigechi when Kira cornered him.
Josuke's repair ability isn't just for healing, though. He's incredibly resourceful with Crazy Diamond's biggest trick, demonstrated in a motorcycle chase scene, during which he came across an obstacle (a baby carriage) on the road. Instead of swerving, Josuke broke his motorcycle into pieces while keeping up his momentum and passed right through the baby carriage without harm. Just in time, Josuke fixed his motorcycle and resumed riding. And that's not all.
Josuke can also break a wall to form an escape route, then fix the wall behind him to block his enemy from pursuing him. Another time, Josuke broke an object and lured his enemy into that exact area, then fixed the item to trap the enemy inside. Finally, Josuke can track someone by breaking off a piece of their clothing, or some item on their person, and repair it. The broken-off piece will chase after the person, and thus Josuke can follow their trail. It's pretty useful, but not the best.
In the Golden Wind story arc, the new hero was Giorno Giovanna, who was both a Joestar and a Brando through unusual circumstances. Giorno's Stand is named Gold Experience, which is not only a melee specialist but also the master of organic life. With a strike, Gold Experience can turn a non-living object into an animal or plant and back again, and this has many uses. Giorno can make trees to quickly escape a foe vertically, and he also made a tree to catch Ciocolatta's helicopter later in the story. Giovanna even cured an incurable virus, creating a snake from a brick that was exposed to Purple Haze's viral attack.
That was incredibly resourceful, saving his very life. Giorno even tricked Polpo into killing himself by morphing a banana into a pistol, and he defeated powerful Stand users ranging from Ghiaccio to Melone and the aforementioned Ciocolatta with this Stand's diverse abilities. He can also scout with flies or frogs, and heal people by placing new flesh into the wound, or even track someone by turning an object of theirs into a housefly.
Star Platinum, Crazy Diamond and Gold Experience are all remarkable Stands: powerful melee fighters that also boast creative abilities on the side. Arguably, Gold Experience is the most resourceful and flexible of the three, however, even if Gold Experience Requiem isn't factored in. Gold Experience has many powers that are used once or twice each, from overcharging someone with life energy (such as Bruno Bucciarati) to scouting or tracking people with animals or creating an escape route in battle. All that, combined with healing and sneaking objects around like animals, makes Gold Experience the most remarkable Stand of the three.
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