Why do JoJo characters pose like fashion models?
The poses, called JoJo dachi, JoJo standing, by Japanese fans, are one of the most recognizable signatures in manga: backs arched, hands sculpted mid gesture, bodies arranged in S curves that serve no physical purpose and total visual purpose. Araki has explained in interviews and in his book on manga technique that he builds poses from reference, chiefly fashion magazines, art books and photography, rather than inventing them from anatomy alone.
His taste in sources is specific and documented. He has cited Italian fashion photography and magazines such as Vogue Italia, the dramatic figures of Renaissance and classical sculpture, and the work of photographers and illustrators including Tony Viramontes, whose fashion illustration style echoes through Golden Wind especially. Album covers and music videos feed the same file: Araki is a deep music fan, and the series' names, covered in the Library's JoJo section, are only the visible half of that influence.
The poses also do narrative work. In a series built on Stands and bluffing, a pose is a threat display, a character poster and a chapter's exclamation point at once. Araki's posing lets him stage a confrontation as pure attitude before a blow is thrown, which is why the poses escaped the manga: fans photograph themselves in JoJo poses at conventions worldwide, and the series' exhibitions display the famous stances as art objects.
For this hub's purposes the poses are the clearest door into Araki's method. He is a collector of images before he is anything else, of fashion shoots, statues, paintings and record sleeves, and JoJo is what happens when a manga artist lets that collection onto the page without embarrassment. The fashion entry beside this one follows the clothing itself.
