Josuke Higashikata Vs. Ichiban Kasuga (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Vs. Yakuza) Blog

“Grind Hard, Shine Hard.”

-Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Josuke Higashikata, The Unbreakable Joestar of Morioh Cho

Ichiban Kasuga, The Rock Bottom Dragon of Isezaki Ijincho

These two crazy haired golden heart delinquents are the heroes they are now thanks to the influence of a strong and just man who saved their life when they were just a boy. These two represent the power of the very places they call home, and look great while doing it! Who will win, the Stylish Joestar of Morioh or the high EXP hero of Isezaki Ijincho?
Today, we’ll see how unbreakable their essences really are.

Soft composites will be used for both. Josuke will be drawing from the original Jojo Manga and Anime primarily, as well as JJBA light novels, CD dramas, video games (no Eyes of Heaven though) essentially any external media that doesn’t contradict the main canon and supports canon scaling. For info on what novels are being included, please check this handy reddit post, it sums up my thoughts on the canonicity of the novels. For Ichiban, Yakuza 1-7 will be the primary source, the Judgement and Ishin games will be included alongside Dead Souls and Yakuza Online. No crossover material will be included for either.

If everything goes to plan, this blog should be released on January 25th! The same day as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I’m super excited for the game, I’m probably playing it at this exact moment if you’re reading this early enough. I’m glad you took a break from this awesome game to read my little blog :)

(Before we start, massive shout out to Z1 for a majority of the calcs used, as well as the Jojo Encyclopedia for making this blog WAY easier to make.)

Background

Josuke Higashikata

Morioh Cho Japan is a small, unassuming town located in the M prefecture in S City. While it’s far from the biggest or classiest place around, it’s home to a wide variety of odd individuals, be it selfish spike head kids or award winning manga writers, and of course today’s subject, Josuke Higashikata. Josuke was conceived from a one night stand between Japanese girl Tomura Higashikata and large American tycoon Joseph Joestar, making Josuke a member of the Joestar lineage, a bloodline of heroes that span back to the 1800s. Josuke lived a fairly average life in Morioh Cho Japan where he was raised by his mother Tomoko Higashikata and grandfather Ryohei Higashikata. His mother instilled a steadfast tenacity into Josuke, while his grandfather inspired a will for justice and deep seeded kindness and respect for the lives of his fellow man.

Josuke’s appearance, stature and tendency for trouble lead to him being labeled as a delinquent, though there is a long story behind why Josuke has such a hairstyle. It was the winter of 1987. Josuke had been stricken with a high fever of unknown origins. His mom had taken the car out at night to bring him to the S City hospital. That night, Morioh had a record-breaking snowstorm, soon enough they found their car tires stuck in snow, leaving the desperately ill Josuke and his mother stuck. Josuke's condition was getting worse by the minute, all his mother saw around her were fields covered in snow. But then, the mother and son were saved by a lone high school boy.

A lone boy  wearing a school uniform looked like a delinquent with his hair up in a pompadour. Who knows what someone like him was doing out there in the middle of a farm road on that snowy night. The delinquent high school boy peeked into the car. His body was all beat up like he had just been in a fight; he had bruises and scratches all over.

Josuke's mom was immediately on guard. But he saw the four-year-old boy in pain sitting in the passenger seat and said, “That kid, he's sick, isn't he? I'll push the car.” Without hesitating, he took off his uniform jacket and put it under the wheel of the car. Then he went around to the back of the car and started pushing with both hands. Josuke, while in his dazed state, saw the boy. 'Okay, hit the accelerator. Once you start moving, don't stop, just keep going... You don't want your tires stuck in the snow again. Praying, Josuke's mom stepped on the accelerator. The chain-wrapped tire caught on the uniform and the car finally started moving. They made it safely to the hospital and Josuke was admitted for medical treatment right away. Starting that night, Josuke was hovering between life and death for five whole days. 

What sort of person would do something like let their own clothes get trampled in order to save a total stranger? Maybe he didn't see that uniform jacket as worth anything? No, that didn't seem likely. He did that out of pure good will. That act changed how Josuke lived his life after that point. Even now, that boy is someone Josuke admires. Josuke’s sheer determination and skill has led to him being the hero of Morioh, defeating several dangerous stand users and busting Yoshikage Kira, a serial killer who had killed 48 people and never been caught. Alongside the rest of the Morioh warriors, Josuke was able to put an end to Kira’s evil. Ever since then, Josuke has sworn to protect Morioh from any evil which comes its way. 

Ichiban Kasuga

Ichiban was born on January 1st, 1977. His mother was a Soapland worker and his father is a complete mystery to him. He was raised by his adoptive father, Jiro Kasuga, the kind owner of the Shangri-La Soapland alongside the hostesses. Given how busy his guardians were with work, Ichiban was commonly left neglected and lonely in his early childhood; he found comfort and escape in video games from a young age, his favorites being fighting games and RPGs, especially his personal favorite, Dragon Quest. This implanted a deep seeded imagination in Ichiban which followed him into his adult years.

After the death of Jiro Kasuga and the closing of Shangri-La, Ichiban was left as a teenage vagabond. He wandered the streets of Yokohama, picking fights whenever he needed money. Ichibans violent tendencies led to him accidentally picking a fight with a member of a local Yakuza family. After the members' co-workers tracked down, they tied him up and beat him viciously, they planned on killing Ichiban then and there until in a move of desperation, Ichiban claimed he was a member of the infamous Arakawa family. The Yakuza hearing this decided to call Arakawa himself, to the members surprised, and especially to the surprise of Ichiban, Arakawa actually shows up and stoically lies by saying Ichiban was one of his members. The Yakuza members expected some sort of retribution for the beating their member took, Arakawa proceeded to cut off his own finger without a second thought. Ichiban almost instantly asked why he bothered saving him, Arakawa said that he himself why he did this, perhaps he just wanted to impress a kid who knew his name. This instilled a great admiration of Arakawa in Ichiban, seeing Yakuza as real life RPG warriors who fight for those who can’t protect themself, that was the day Ichiban decided he wanted to be a Yakuza member.

Ichiban waited outside of Arakawa's family office for months through the rain and snow until Arakawa finally agreed to let him join the family. Ichiban was finally part of the family alongside his captain Jo Sawashiro and Arakawa’s own son, Masumi Arakawa. Ichiban worked as a low rank Yakuza member for years and one of Arakawa’s closest allies, Arakawa even told Ichiban the story of Masumi Arakawas birth, where they were on the run from the Yakuza and Masumi was hidden in a locker, which lead to his tragic crippling. After years of Ichiban being a loyal member of the Arakawa family, disaster strikes. A boss of the Arakawa family ended up shooting and killing another Yakuza member after a confrontation, Arakawa begs Ichiban to take the fall and go to prison for the crime, Ichiban surprisingly happily accepts as he saw this as a way to finally pay Arakawa back.

After eighteen years in prison, Ichiban is freed and comes back to see that the Tojo clan had fallen, with Arakawa’s being a high ranking member of the rival Omi Alliance. Ichibans quest sets off as he is determined to figure out this mystery. He meets several great allies such as the homeless mage Yu Nanba, the homeless disgraced cop Koichi Adachi, the beautiful, not homeless this time and determined Saeko Mukoda, the stoic and powerful Joon Gi-Hun, and finally the wild and free Tianyou Zhao. After a bizarre, tense, and dangerous adventure involving assassins, conspiracies and murders, Ichiban finally learns the truth. Arakawa was never Masumis biological father, while the story of the baby in the locker was true, there was a coincidental switch up, Ichiban and Masumi being were mixed up at birth as they were both put in lockers next to one another, bound to each other by destiny. After witnessing the death of Masumi in front of him, Ichiban swears to protect all the people of Isezaki Ijincho, and become the hero he always wished to be. 

Skills and Abilities

Josuke

Stand Power:

Josuke wields the shining power of Crazy Diamond, a stand he developed in his early teens. Crazy Diamond stands tall and has the appearance of a medieval knight equipped with diamond armor. Josuke usually controls Crazy Diamond directly, though most stands are capable of some form of sentience and subconscious acting. Josuke can also speak through Crazy Diamond, which is useful for either speaking underwater or having private conversations with other stand users. Josuke should also be capable of manipulating Crazy Diamonds form to some extent, as seen when Kakyoin and Polnareff were capable of manifesting their stands at a microscopic scale.

Restoration:
Crazy Diamonds main ability is to restore and recreate any object that would be considered broken no matter the distance between the pieces. Josuke has even shown to be able to restore objects to their raw ingredients such as when he turned a plate of spaghetti to raw noodles and tomatoes. Josuke also has a trick of holding onto broken objects he fixes in order to drag himself along with them.

Healing:
Crazy Diamond's restoration ability works on humans as well, Josuke is capable of bringing anybody back to top condition like it never happened. He has revived people from the brink of death with a single touch, be it being impaled, disemboweled, or even disintegrated. This generous ability has been labeled “The World’s Kindest Power”.

Construction:

Josuke is capable of breaking apart concrete be it walls or sidewalks in order to reconstruct them to form walls and barriers.

Distortion:

When enraged, anything Josuke attempts to fix will end up warped and misshapen, due to his own vision being warped. This implies that Josuke's personal view/idea of what the object looks like is how Crazy Diamond brings it together.

Source: “The Book: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 4th Another Day”

Fusion:

Crazy Diamond has the ability to break down objects and then combine their resources to form a new object. Depending on his mood, he can simply reform the object around the other or even fully combine them into a singular piece. (Yo, Angelo.)

Homing Attack:
Josuke has a special move where he can restore his own blood to the blood of his opponent in order to create his own makeshift homing missile.

Berserk Mode:

Due to his respect for the delinquent who saved his life, Josuke takes any insult of his own hair as an insult to that delinquent. Josuke will fly into a violent rage, his physical strength and speed alongside Crazy Diamonds is boosted greatly, as well as temporarily gaining unlimited stamina.

Rumble Mode:

When Josuke’s health is below 30% his resolve flies to insane levels, his physical and stand strength is increased by 10%, he takes 20% less damage and blocking takes 20% less stamina than usual.

Taunt:

Yes, the iconic posing of Jojo has an actual use in All Star Battle. When an opponent is down and Josuke taunts, he will strike a pose and fling an insult, this action leads to the enemy's Heart Heat being decreased by 10%.

*SNAP*:

An ability Josuke has in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Last Survivor, upon activation Josuke’s defense will increase greatly alongside his stamina recovering rapidly.

Resistances:
Josuke boasts a variety of resistances in the Stardust Shooters mobile game, such as resistances to 

-Vision based attacks, upon being enraged Josuke becomes literally blind with rage.

-Fear manipulation 

-Pain manipulation

-Confusion manipulation

Ichiban

Stat Amplification:
As Ichibans takes damage, his tenacity and adrenaline grow and grow, leading to his strikes becoming substantially stronger and more ferocious, to the point he can single handedly take on opponents which previously took his whole party to equal.

Debuff Application:

Ichiban has the ability to apply numerous status effects to his opponents including,

-Stun/Sleep/Charm, which leaves people unable to attack or move.

-Burn/Cold/Poison, which gradually deals damage to those afflicted with them.

-Paralyze, which leaves people stunned and unable to attack or defend themself.

-Drunk, which leaves the affected unable to properly attack and acting erratically.
-Fear, which leaves the affected too afraid to attack.

-Brainwash, leaves the affected hypnotized and forced to attack their allies. 

-Rage, forces the affected into attacking wildly without strategy. 

-Silence, leaves opponents unable to use special abilities.

(I just want you all to know, he’s carrying a garbage can full of cumrags in this image.)

Healing/Resurrection:

As the leader of his party, Ichiban naturally is the one who can pull them through the toughest of dungeons. With Hero’s Compassion/Hero’s Embrace he can fully heal himself and his allies, with Hero’s Vigor/Hero’s Embrace he can revive those who have been KO’d.

Self Recovery:

With his ability Peerless Resolve, Ichiban health will be fully recovered upon taking a blow that would K.O him otherwise.

Elemental Manipulation:

Ichiban has gained control over three mighty elements, being electricity, ice, and even fire… holy shid! He’s like a dragon!

Luck Manipulation:
With the Fortuneteller class, Ichiban has the ability to call upon misfortune to his opponents, even inducing ridiculously unlikely events like meteor and lightning strikes.

Battlefield Removal/Sealing:

Utilizing the Essence of R.I.P move, Ichiban is capable of forcing his enemies soul “to the great-beyond”. Given the Devil Rocker job is themed around devils and demons, he’s presumably sending these dudes to ACTUAL HELL.

Absorption:

As Devil Rocker, he can bite his opponent and drain their health, doing this will restore his own health.

Heightened Sense/Spirit Detection:

Ichiban is the only person capable of seeing and speaking with Kaede Tono, who is heavily implied to be a ghost who had watched Ichiban for almost two decades after he had saved her from a group of punks, it’s fairly common for ghosts or spirits to exist in the Yakuza world.

Freelancer:
Ichiban’s trusty fighting style he’s been honing since he was a child, it’s made up of street brawling techniques and wrestling moves to beat his opponents to a pulp.

Hero:

The epitome of Ichiban’s desire and motivation to become a real hero, Ichiban wields his signature bat like a mighty sword.

Host:
Ichiban works as a host at a host club, obviously, just look at him. Anyways, this allows Ichiban to utilize numerous party tricks and a variety of freezing cold drinks and liquors to fight.

Foreman:

Ichiban works as a construction worker, this entails covering the entire block in scaffolding for 7 months and putting down 2 bricks a day, but enough of koolguy complaining about construction. The Foreman job allows Ichiban to utilize mighty hammers and handheld explosives in combat, his Essense of Wrecking Ball attack even lets him bring in wrecking machines.

Breaker:

Ichiban may be a violent criminal, but he’s also got some funky fresh moves, his break dancing skills allow him to fight with flashy kicks and dancing. (What do you mean a 40 year old hobo breakdancing is lame?)

Musician:

Ichiban isn’t just a good guy, he’s a good singer too! So good he has a music career, apparently. His voice is so enjoyable that it can heal and boost his teammates, or he can just bash his enemies with his guitar, that’ll probably get him canceled.

Bodyguard:

This job gives Ichiban skill in all sorts of razor sharp katanas, this job focuses on high power slashes and impaling, a majority of the katana attacks lead to damage being afflicted to Ichiban.

Enforcer:

Ichiban works as a riot officer utilizing his shield, wrestling moves, and electrified tools to quell any opponent. He can even summon a helicopter to blow his opponents off the face of the earth with a fucking electricity bazooka. (take that protestors lmao)

Chef:

Who let this man cook? his bars are torture, stick to Arakawa, that’s an order! Ichiban can apparently cook with the best, this job allows Ichiban to utilize all sorts of kitchen tools to fight such as knives, pans, graters, even portable burners for making sure his enemies are well done.

Fortuneteller:

Ichiban utilizes fortune telling to determine the greatest position and way to attack his enemies, as well as the ability to call forth lightning strikes and meteors.

Devil Rocker:

Ichiban transforms into a wild and mad rocker, he attacks with his occult music spewing flames and electricity, he even has the power to seal away his enemies.

Resistances:

Ichiban also boasts a variety of resistances to numerous mechanics in Y:LAD. He is immune to every status effect, including all the ailments listed earlier. Ichiban also resists the three of the elements, as well as resisting blunt damage, bullet damage, and blade damage. Being able to lessen their damage by up to 50%. He also has resistances to fire, electricity and ice.

Arsenal

Josuke

All-Purpose Comb: 

A comb Josuke carries around for styling his hair. He’s gotta keep it pristine! He’s got an image to keep up, y’know.

Bearings: 

Small metal bearings given to Josuke by Jotaro. He uses these to increase Crazy Diamond range to about 20 meters by flicking the bearings at high speed; Josuke can do this with virtually any small solid object up to the size of a brick as seen in The Book: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 4th Another Day.

Rifle Rounds:
Very similar to the bearings but with an increased range of 60 meters, though they are slightly less accurate.

Heart-Shaped Glass:

A small bit of glass with a small amount of Josuke's blood on it that Josuke uses as a homing missile.

Recovery Card:

A glowing red card Josuke can find in Jojo Last Survivor, collecting it will heal his health substantially.

Shield Card:
A glowing blue card Josuke can find in Jojo Last Survivor, collecting it will protect Josuke from oncoming attacks.

See Through Card:
A glowing green card Josuke can find in Jojo Last Survivor, collecting it will point it to him in the direction of his opponents.

Coin:
A tool he has in Jojo Stardust Shooters, when placed on the ground he can pick it up and receive a 200% strength boost and 200% movement speed boost.

Ichiban

Self Proclaimed Hero’s Bat:
Ichibans signature baseball bat and weapon of choice symbolizes his determination to rise and become a hero. Ichiban mysteriously found it sticking out of the ground outside of his and Nanba’s home, Ichiban seems to be the only person capable of lifting it.

Other Bats:
Ichiban has wielded much more than just his signature legendary heroes bat, a number of these have various effects such as stat amplification and elemental attributes. 

-Wooden Bat    

-Iron Pipe    

-Nail Bat

-Metal Bat

-Massive Massage Machine

-Barbed Wire Bat

-Rough Lumber

-Classy Golf Club

-Flaming Lumber

-Superalloy Bat

-Thundercrack Bat    

-Steel Frame

-Iron Club    

-Fortified Steel Frame

-Heroic Soul Bat    

-Tranquility Bat    

-Legendary Hero's Bat

-Dragon Soul Bat

Sparkling Beverages:

Ichibans Host job can utilize a variety of sparkling beverages in combat, these attacks can leave his opponents drunk, as well as boosting his own elemental attacks.

-Sparkling Wine

-Magnum Bottle

-Table Sparkling    

-Hot Sparkling

-Original Sparkling    

-Country Sparkling    

-Vintage Cava    

-Dead Drunk Sparkling

-Crianza Sparkling

-Officer's Sparkling Wine    

-Passionate Sparkling

-Reserva Magnum

-Sparkling Rosé

-Voltaic Yellow Wine

-Gran Reserva

-Special Grade Xiang Bin Jiu    

-Prestige

-Snow Sapphire Wine

Hammers:

Ichibans Foreman job has him wield numerous heavy hammers which he uses to crush his opponents, as well as smashing through metal barricades in dungeons.
-Rubber Hammer

-Wooden Hammer

-100t Hammerc

-Nailed Hammer    

-Rusted Hammer

-Designer Hammer

-Steel Hammer

-Wonky Hammer    

-Tactical Hammer

-Spiky Hammer

-Massive Hammer

-Iron Hammer

-Coma Hammer

-Thrashing Hammer    

-Mallet of Fortune

-Starcrusher

-Heaven and Earth Hammer

Katanas:
Ichiban wields a variety of blades in the bodyguard job, these attacks deal great blade damage with a high chance to inflict bleeding through slashing and impaling.
-Wooden Gift Katana

-Ouchigatana

-Nameless Katana

-Mail-order Katana

-Weathered Katana

-Nodachi

-Sacred Wood Katana

-Red Hot Blade

-Cane Blade

-Dawning Daybreaker

-Poison Cane Sword

-Silhouette Katana

-Royal Sword Replica

-Restored Silhouette Katana

-Kiwami Demon Blade

-Taiji Dao

-Sakura Storm

-Demon Blade Muramasa 

Guitars:
As a Yakuza character, Ichiban is sporting an immaculate singing voice, he can utilize the power of song to pull at his opponents heart strings as well as healing himself and his party.

-Acoustic Guitar

-Vintage Guitar

-Mod Guitar

-Performer's Guitar

-Reinforced Guitar

-Beatdown Guitar

-Electric Acoustic Guitar    

-Mood Guitar

-Howling Guitar

-Bass Guitar    

-Violence Guitar

-The Symphonic 

Anklets:

Ichiban wears a variety of anklets in order to increase the style and strength of his breaker moves.
-Anklet    

-Red Anklet    

-Leather Anklet    

-Pearl Anklet

-Hard Leather Anklet    

-Light Anklet

-Gold Anklet    

-Feather Anklet

-Silver Anklet

-Titanium Anklet    

-Hard Silver Anklet

-Metal Anklet

-Cotton Anklet

-Blue Metal Anklet

-Platinum Anklet    

-Black Jade Anklet

-Beat Anklet

-Soul Anklet

Shields:

Ichiban wields numerous shields as an enforcer, these are great for defending and bashing his foes.
-All-Purpose Shield

-Bulletproof Shield

-Western Shield

-Impervious Shield

-Golden Shield

-Absolute Shield

-Special Ops Riot Shield

Cooking Utensils:
What is bro cooking? Ass beatings apparently. Looks like Ichiban is back in the kitchen, good for him. He uses these for a variety of cooking themed violence.
-Ladle    

-Wooden Flipper    

-All-Purpose Spatula    

-Armament Spatula    

-Professional's Whisk

-Stainless Ladle

-Killer Whisk

-Steel Flipper

-Chinese Ladle

-Damascus Ladle

-Scorching Spatula

Fortune Balls:
Ichiban wields a number of magic balls that he uses to predict and manipulate the very future.

-Crystal Ball    

-20-Pound Ball

-Steel Ball

-Stone Orb

-Jade Sphere

-Pure Gold Ball

-Diamond Orbuculum

Electric Guitars:
Ichiban weirds numerous enchanted axes, he rocks and rolls his enemies into submission.
-Modded Axe

-Thrallmaster's Axe

-Infernal Crasher

Street items:
Like any good Yakuza protagonist, Ichiban is capable of bashing your skull in with any random object he finds on the street. Be it bicycles, motorcycles, traffic cones, signs, and ENTIRE VENDING MACHINES.

Smartphone: 

Ichibans personal smartphone, it’s handy for calling taxis and finding various tips for his adventures. Its main use in combat is the Poundmates app which he uses to summon many powerful figures throughout the Yakuza world with various effects, be it massively healing his party, giving himself buffs or his opponents debuffs, or dealing massive damage.

Food:

 Ichiban carries a large variety of food and healing items, far too many to name. These items are also good for recovering his stamina and giving him various buffs.

Battle Items:

 Ichiban carries a variety of disposable weapons such as single shot pistols, knives, numerous types of grenades, and even rocket launchers (what the fuck?).

Sacrifice Stone: 

The Sacrifice Stone prevents death after receiving a fatal blow and fully restores Ichiban’s health. The stone is destroyed after use but Ichiban can carry two at a time.

Miracle Kimchi:

 A hyper spicy Kimchi that “lights a fire under your ass” whenever you eat it. Ichiban gives this to people who really need an extreme boost in energy and upon eating it they cartoonishly blast off at high speeds (This game makes no sense).

Weaknesses

Josuke

-Josuke is incapable of healing his own wounds with Crazy Diamond, as well as being incapable of curing diseases or bringing back the dead, not to mention his tendency to fly into a rage when his hair is insulted can cloud his mind and make him easily predictable. 

-Any damage dealt to Crazy Diamond will be reflected on Josuke’s own body. 

-Crazy Diamond's effective range for its punches is only 1-2 meters.

-Josuke has an irrational fear of turtles, as well as ghosts, ironically. 

-Araki forgot.
-The dumbest shit happens to him. (Seriously.)

Ichiban

-Ichiban’s laid back demeanor has gotten him into trouble before and leads to him being quite easy to trick by those willing to play dirty. 

-Ichiban has a limited amount of MP, if he runs out he’d need to use an item to restore his MP.

-He has given into anger which can lead into making foolish decisions and becoming easily distracted and tricked, like a raging bull. 

-His poundmates app can be shut down through a unique wave-length that can counteract and shut down his app.

-The Like a Dragon dub karaoke.

-The dumbest shit happens to him. (Seriously.)

Feats

Josuke

-One of the most beloved and praised protagonists in the Jojo franchise, starring in one of the most famous parts and still being relevant despite Diamond is Unbreakable ending 28 years ago. (Fun fact: the name “Jojo” was thought of in a Denny’s)

-Brought justice to Angelo, one of the most horrible criminals in Japanese history.

-Inspired confidence and heroism within Koichi Hirose.

-Struck up a bromance with Okuyasu Nijimura, who was trying to kill him less than 24 hours earlier.

-Defeated Akira Otoshi and Red Hot Chili Pepper in a one on one fight, possibly one of the most powerful stands at that point.

-Befriended Mikitaka, a TOTALLY real space alien!

-Went toe to toe with the legendary Jotaro Kujo and fared better than most.

-The Diamond is Unbreakable live action movie isn’t THAT bad.

-Friends Acquaintances with Rohan Kishibe.  

-Defeated Bug Eaten, as well as Not Bug Eaten (Real character.)

-Evaded Highway Star for a long period of time, as well as defeating Yuya Fugami and saving Rohan.

-Defeated Yoshikage Kira and brought him to justice after killing freely for decades.

Strength & Durability

-Elbowed Koichi hard enough to bust down a door (Wall level)
-Threw a heavy piece of brick REALLY far (Wall level)

-Casually reduced a brick wall to dust (Small building level)
-Stronger than Yukiko's Love Deluxe, which can crush a two-story house (Small building level)

-Comparable to Jotaro, who survived an oil tanker exploding on top of him (0.0094 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Petshop, who can freeze this huge chunk of ice (0.33 Tons of TNT)

-Can survive this plane door falling on him, the same door seen splitting the clouds (0.88 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Wheel of Fortune, which can dig a tunnel through the side of a cliff (0.9 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Stone Free, whose punches are comparable to small meteors (1.08 Tons of TNT)

- Comparable to Oingo, who survived this explosion (1.38 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Dark Blue Moon, which created a whirlpool (22.6 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Dio, who survived a ship exploding when just a disembodied head (64.7 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Joseph and Stroheim, who both survived a plane impact that created a huge explosion (642 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to Star Platinum, who inhaled Justice, a stand that takes the form of a fog that spread across to create an entire town (3.8 Kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Will Zeppeli, who in the Phantom Blood movie could move the clouds through unlocking his hamon (65 Kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Vladimir Kocaqi, whose stand Rainy Day Dream Away can conjure rainstorms over a wide area (91 Kilotons to 212 Kilotons of TNT)

-Took hits from Red Hot Chili Pepper while it was charged by the power from all of Morioh (427.3 kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Stone Free, which deflected relativistic meteors (196 to 441 Kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Ghiaccio, who claims to be able to freeze seas over an unspecified period of time (1.04 Megatons of TNT, see pre-verdict for more information) 

-Downscales the Spine Corpse Piece, which just being dug up created a storm that covered Kansas City (2.3 Megatons of TNT, see pre-verdict for more information)

Speed

-Comparable to Rohan Kishibe, who can think 6.4 seconds worth of thought in 0.200 milliseconds… somehow. It’s fun to include, alright? (Superhuman) 

-Blocked a point blank bullet with Crazy Diamond when caught off guard (Mach 1.7)
-Blocked a barrage of automatic rifle fire from 60 miniatures soldiers (Mach 160)
-Scales to Stone Free, who reacted to Planet Waves meteors (Mach 22231) 

-Comparable to other stand users with numerous lightspeed statements such as Star Platinum being stated to move at lightspeed, or Red Hot Chili Pepper being stated to move at lightspeed (Lightspeed)

-Comparable to Joseph Joestar, who dodged a beam of light (2.3c)
-Comparable to Kars, who blocked a beam of Ultraviolet light (40.3c) 

-Scales to Silver Chariot, who blocked beams of light from the sun (76.3c)

-Scales to Silver Chariot (again), who struck Hanged Man while he moved between reflections at lightspeed (24993c)

-Comparable to Mikitaka Hazekura, who (allegedly) piloted his (alleged) space ship from (allegedly) the magellanic cloud to Earth (158300c at minimum, though this is questionable to use for numerous obvious reasons if you’ve seen Jojo, see pre-verdict for more information) 

Ichiban

-Managed to follow up on Kazuma Kiryu and still be a beloved Yakuza protagonist in his own right. (Yes, this is an achievement, have you seen how fans usually react to change?)

-Led Ichiban Holdings to being the #1 company in Japan.

-Befriended Nanba, Adachi, Saeko, Eri, Joon Gi-Hun and Zhao as well as helping them all with their personal struggles. 

-Defeated Jo Sawashiro, Akira Mabuchi and Reiji Ishioda. 

-Exposed Ryo Aoki for his crimes and corruption.

-Faced off with Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima and Taiga Saejima and lived to tell the tale.
-Beat the hardest level in Virtua Fighter 3D.

-Has a degree in Math, History, Fashion, Manual Labor and Sega Trivia(?). 

-Ran to be Governor in order to face off with Kume and meet Ryo Aoki. He was decently popular too!

-Completed the Sujidex.

-Became the Champion of Dragon Kart.

-Improves the lives of the citizens of Kamurocho everyday. What a good guy!

Strength & Durability

-Single-handedly won a fight against 20 men in middle school

-Can take on bears and tigers in a physical fight (Wall level)

-Unfazed by a bootleg Michio figure exploding in his face (29 Megajoules)
-Comparable to Goro Majima, who can destroy a stone floor with one hit (0.3 Tons of TNT)

-Took hits from Saejima Taiga, who can smash large boulders to pieces (0.47 Tons of TNT)

-Comparable to this Dead Souls zombie, which can smash a large amount of concrete (0.7 Tons of TNT)
-Strong enough to physically fight excavators and wrecking balls (Building level)

-Comparable to a young Kazuma Kiryu, who survived the Millennium Tower exploding (2.3 Tons of TNT)

-Upscales from the Yellow Demon, who casually destroyed this large stone bridge  (7.7-10.77 Tons of TNT)
-Comparable to Kazuma Kiryu, who alongside a giant zombie, tanked this massive explosion (6.1 Kilotons of TNT)

-The previously mentioned excavator and wrecking ball are strong enough to cause minor earthquakes (15 Kilotons of TNT)

-Can fight on par with Tosanoyama, who is strong enough to cause earthquakes according to his Poundmates description (84.8 Kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Seong-hui, who is stated to be able to destroy Yokohama (937 Kilotons to 1.28 Megatons of TNT)

-Comparable to Kazuma Kiryu, who can charge with the force of a warhead

-Comparable to Goro Majima, who claims that he could end the world after being turned into a zombie and Kiryu is the only thing capable of stopping him, which implies Majima would be stronger than any weapon on Earth. (50 Megatons of TNT)

-Comparable to Taiga Saejima, who defeated a man possessed with the power of the mountain gods, these same gods having the power to create an entire mountain (56.9 to 96 Megatons of TNT)

RPG Animation Feats (See pre-verdict for proper explanation)

-Comparable to Saejima Taiga, who is capable of producing a tornado (717 Tons of TNT)

-Il Yu-jins Poundmate cutscene involves summoning a small snow storm (2.6 Kilotons of TNT)

-Can summon a meteor with Fortuneteller job (222 Kilotons of TNT)

-Comparable to Goro Majima, who made an imprint of his tattoo on the moon (1.4-246 Gigatons of TNT)

-Ichibans “Essence of Orbital Laser” move is powerful enough to move the clouds on a enormous scale (921 Teratons to 1.89 Petatons of TNT)

Speed

-Can drive Dragon Kart go-carts which are fast enough to ignite the floor (Mach 5)
-Comparable to Majima, who dodged a Chinese bullet (Mach 7.1)
-Comparable to Majima, who dodged another bullet (Mach 9.5)
-Comparable to GODDAMN MAJIMA, who dodged ANOTHER bullet (Mach 9.7)
-Comparable to Kiryu, who can slice cannonballs (Mach 19.4)

-Bullets sure don’t hit much in this series, huh? Kiryu dodged a point blank bullet (Mach 32.8)
-Kiryu in Dragon Heat mode can move a distance faster than a bullet (Mach 35.3)

-Capable of parrying a point blank bullet (Mach 225.9)

-Can parry point blank rapid fire (Mach 1062)

-Comparable to Kiryu, who can dodge beams fired from So Amons cannon, which was modified from his orbital cannon (Mach 1750 using orbital laser speed, 0.26c using lightspeed)

-Capable of perfect guarding the Lightspeed ball attack (Lightspeed)

-Capable of perfect guarding the Destruco Beam (he gets fucked in the clip but I've done it in the game trust me bro) (Lightspeed)

-Comparable to Yagami, who can move in tandem with the Guardian Spirit Extract orbs which are described to be “Balls of Light” (Lightspeed)

Before the Verdict…

Ichiban Imagination Shenanigans?

Yes, RPG animations were included in the attack potency section, while most people would consider these animations unusable as they are stated to be only in Ichiban's imagination a few times, there is an equal number of examples contradicting these statements to the point I believe it’s simply a matter of opinion on which you’d like to use. For the purposes of this blog, the physical feats seen in the attack animation will be excluded from the verdict. However, attributes such as abilities, status effects, lightspeed scaling, items and other game mechanics are backed up by previous Yakuza games and are undoubtedly real.

City level Yakuza?

Yes, while it may seem a bit fucked at first look, a deeper analysis and allowance of secondary material such as Dead Souls leads to city level Yakuza being consistent. Let’s start with the Yellow Demon feat, a casual feat done by a pretty low tier character which gets 10.77 Tons of TNT, and given this game takes place in the 16th century there would be several generations of upscaling upon this feat. This brings us to Kiryu tanking a 6.1 kiloton explosion in Dead Souls quite casually,  which leads into Tosanoyama, who’s a fairly low tier character, causing 15 kiloton earthquakes without much effort (this isn’t using the animation, him causing earthquakes is backed up by his Poundmates description). This leaves the low tiers of the Yakuza verse consistently casual in the town level range, and higher tiers can casually take on these common goons, sometimes even entire waves of low-mid tiers against a single higher tier fighter. While Ichiban isn’t 1 to 1 with Kiryu or Majima yet, he’s at least decently comparable being able to knock them over and take hits from them. The final piece solidifies these three statements, that being Seong-hui being capable of demolishing the city by herself, Kiryu attacking with the strength of a warhead and Majima being able to end the world. The context for the first one is Joon-gi Han stating that if Seong-Hui were to spot a cockroach would destroy all of Yokohama, Joon-gi Han being as level headed and straightforward as he is indicates that he likely isn’t being hyperbolic. The context of Majima's statement is also rather dire and would indicate that nothing in humanity's reservoir could really take him down which logically would include nuclear bombs, or even smaller explosives reaching similar yields, Kiryu being the only person capable of stopping him giving even more credence to Yakuza being city level. The final nail in the coffin against city level Yakuza is the mountain gods scaling, which is just blatantly city, pushing mountain level in fact. While Yakuza certainly has an assortment of anti-feats, so does JJBA. In fact, it’s a meme in both fandoms that the characters power and abilities fluctuate. It would be unfair to hold one verse to higher standards than the other.

Hold up, you missed some Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure feats!

Over the nearly four decades of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure they’ve had a number of insane feats, numerous of which reach the range of city and higher, so what gives? Why are we giving Yakuza city level but not Jojos? Well put simply, Josuke and others on his level do not scale to these feats.

Space Ripper Stingy Eyes?
As a vampire DIO wields a move he’s dubbed Space Ripper Stingy Eyes, in an anime exclusive shot we see this move parting the clouds, while this feat does have ends which get low megatons, the times DIO has utilized this attack it has ripped through whoever it hits like butter. Straizo has utilized the same move; Straizo is not DIO and has no showings on the megaton level scale. Even if we assume they’re even, Joseph also needed to avoid and reflect the beams.

The Sun?

The Sun is a stand that the Stardust Crusaders encounter in the middle of the desert, this stand takes the form of a small celestial body, this feat can get anywhere from 6.65 megatons to even 2.23 Gigatons at a highball. The simple issue with this feat is there is zero way to scale stand users such as Jotaro and Josuke to the sheer power of this stand. Jotaro and the rest of the Crusaders are completely baffled and in disbelief of the scale and power of this stand, before quickly dispatching of the stand via taking out the user. There is also zero evidence that stand users scale to the power of their stand through generating them.

Dark Mirage creating snowy mountains, large cities, huge forests and enormous lakes?

In the Jojo light novel “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Genesis of the Universe”, the stand Dark Mirage has the power to create a number of large scale illusions to terrorize and attack the Stardust Crusaders. While these ARE illusions, they’re stated to be so convincing that they truly become physical. While these feats ARE certainly impressive, they’re nature as purely words makes them a pain to actually quantify being anywhere from Small City to potentially Island level. Regardless of what end you believe, it doesn’t change the fact that this situation is a mirror of The Sun, in which all the Crusaders are baffled and mortified by the scale of this stand and can only defeat it through directly attacking the user, exactly as they previously did with The Sun.

But Star Platinum is the Strongest Stand!

The strongest stand ability, any other statements of SP being the strongest are also referring to its time stop ability. A stand being strong is much more complicated than just physical strength, the biggest factor in JJBA fights is the intelligence and strategy of the stand user and the advantages their stands ability has, of which Star Platinum is indeed supreme. Time stop is an insanely powerful ability, as time is a crucial component in practically every Jojo fight, being able to control this component and give yourself the freedom to attack your opponent or avoid any attacks easily. Many in JJBA consider this ability completely unbeatable, almost like it’s the strongest.

Why are the Ghiaccio Statement and Kansas City feats included then? 

They’re fun to include, not to mention it’s actually possible to partially scale people to them. It should be noted that Josuke likely would not scale to the entire output of these feats given we have no time frame for Ghiaccio freezing all that water and general downscaling from the Corpse Pieces, they are more so there to support the Large Town scaling than to push them to the Small City level range.

158300c Mikitaka?
Yeah this isn’t usable lmao. It will not be used for the actual verdict, it’s fun to include though! I tried to make this blog truly unique compared to other JJBA scaling presentations or blogs. For those who haven’t seen JJBA, Mikitakas character is that he claims to be an alien with no undeniable proof. Josuke and Okuyasu theorize he’s actually a stand user, but his inability to see Crazy Diamond and inability to hear stand talking are exclusive traits to him that are unlike a stand user. Mikitaka is either an alien or a VERY weird stand user. The series purposefully gives absolutely zero definitive answer on which is true.

Verdict

(Art by Galil)

(Art by JustTalia)

(Art by BLACKPENBP)

Josuke

Advantages:

+Faster.

+Better Strategy and Creativity.
+Counters a few of Ichibans status effects.

+Abilities such as Berserk Mode and Rumble Mode could close the strength gap slightly

+Mild range advantage if he decides to attack with his numerous projectiles. 

+Can decrease Ichibans MP gauge through his taunt move.

Disadvantages:

-Weaker and Less Durable.

-Less Stamina

-Ichibans physical resistance multiplies Josuke's already huge physical disadvantage.

-Less combat training and experience.

-Ichiban can see and work around Crazy Diamond.

-Significantly smaller and overall less useful arsenal.

-Is restricted to the Recovery Cards to heal himself.

-Fusion isn’t a viable wincon.

-Sacrifice Stones make Ichiban even harder to kill than he already is.

-Is still susceptible to numerous of Ichiban’s status effects.

Ichiban

Advantages:

+Stronger and more Durable.

+Superior Stamina and Pain Tolerance.

+Superior Battle IQ and Experience.
+Wider range of abilities

+Josuke has no counter to Ichibans physical resistances.
+Experience and Knowledge.

+Can likely see Crazy Diamond to some degree.

+Wider and more useful arsenal.

+Better self-healing.

+Healing and Durability means it’s unlikely that Josukes fusion would work.

+Sacrifice Stones mean Ichiban will come back if Josuke manages to KO him.

+While Josuke resists SOME of his status effects, he is still susceptible to most of them.

Disadvantages:

-Slower.

-A few of his status effects are null and void.

-Josuke has a few means to close the strength gap

-Mostly out ranged when it comes to projectiles

-Can have his weakness of needing MP be exploited.

Conclusion

Oh boy, oh boy. This is going to be a doozy.

To start off, Ichiban likely wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to see Crazy Diamond. Not only have Yakuza characters faced ghosts before, as well as having their own battle energy/essence not unlike stands, Ichiban’s friendship with Kaede Tono makes his casual interactions with spirits even more solid.

The most important part of most debates are stats, this MU being no exception with Ichiban holding a large AP and durability advantage being in the city level and Josuke holding a large speed advantage being in the MFTL+ range. Note that this isn’t Josuke's physical movement speed, but the speed of Crazy Diamonds attacks and Josuke's reaction speed. This means Ichiban should be able to punch through Josuke easily if he were to get his hands on him.

With Ichiban only needing one or two hits to win and Josuke having what he needs to avoid him, I believe stamina will be a big factor in this. Both have wills of steel but in a longevity battle Ichiban should pull ahead thanks to his arsenal of healing and mana items, higher pain tolerance and ESPECIALLY his Sacrifice Stones. While Josuke can heal himself with recovery cards, those aren’t nearly as reliable as Ichiban’s healing.

While Josuke DOES wield a variety of resistances which protect him from some of Ichiban’s inflictions such as fear. A majority of them won’t be useful against Ichibans status effects such as Stun, Sleep, Charm, and worst of all, Silence which may leave Josuke completely incapable of summoning Crazy Diamond, Josuke is REALLY fucked if that happens. If Ichiban uses rage it would likely just activate Josuke's rage buffs, which would be helpful in lessening the AP gap, but would also come with the downside of Josuke losing his strategic edge over Ichiban.

Ichiban being older and having more experience is helping him here as well, he’s been fighting and honing his skills ever since he was a young teen while Josuke has had Crazy Diamond for a significantly shorter time. Josuke does slightly catch up with being a far better strategist, Jojo characters being Jojo characters and all that.

While some would argue Josuke's fusion as a win condition, this is based on a misconception for this vague ability he only uses a small handful of times. It’s made pretty clear that Josuke can’t just manipulate anything, he requires the things Crazy Diamond warps to be “broken” in some variety, given Ichibans healing items and durability it’s unlikely Josuke can do enough damage to properly use his fusionism.

In conclusion, while the stand users skills were impressive, Ichiban’s power, arsenal, powers, and sheer tenacity won him this fight.

The winner is Ichiban Kasuga.