Saturday, 17 March 2018

Death Battle Predictions: Jotaro VS Kenshiro


From the rapid fire strikes of Kung Fu to the focused and calculated blows of a boxer and even the wild haymakers of a back-alley brawler, the simple but deadly punch has helped formed the basis of hand-to-hand combat, and in turn, the art of fighting as a whole, shaping the way mankind has clashed for centuries. Death Battle’s next combatants, known since their first appearances in the 1980s as two of the manliest heroes in anime and manga history, have turned their fists into weapons of mass destruction in their careers as champions of justice:
Jotaro Kujo, the Heritage for the Future from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Kenshiro, the Savior of Century’s End from Fist of the North Star. Both of these Shonen Jump superstars have broken many a face on their warpaths and triumphed over insurmountable odds time and time again, but now, they face each other in a fight to the bitter end to find out whose resolve is greater, and which fists will reign supreme. Is the Man with Seven Scars going to meet his end because he pissed off the wrong guy, or will the Stardust Crusader discover too late that he is already dead?
Note: If you need a visual aid for this match, here’s one:


Background

Jotaro
Born as the half-Japanese, half-British only child of Sadao Kujo and Holly Joestar in 1970, Jotaro Kujo lived the life of a normal Japanese school boy as he grew up, later falling into delinquency in his teens; he often got into brawls and was generally rude and uninterested in everything around him. By the time he turned 17, Jotaro felt a surge of strength he had never felt before after seriously injuring four others in a fight, and turned himself in to the local authorities.
Jotaro had come to believe that he was possessed by some kind of “evil spirit”, and requested that he stay behind bars for the safety of others. A meeting with his grandfather Joseph Joestar and his travelling companion Mohammed Avdol revealed the truth: it was not an “evil spirit” that accompanied Jotaro, but rather a Stand - a physical manifestation of a person’s fighting spirit. Both Joseph and Avdol were Stand users themselves, and helped explain the circumstances behind their unique abilities.
The emergence of Stands was due to the return of DIO, a vampire who was the sworn enemy of the Joestars’ distant ancestor, Jonathan Joestar. Having grafted his head onto his nemesis’ body, DIO had hired numerous assassins to eliminate the remnants of the Joestar clan and empowered them with Stands to help them accomplish their task. With Holly later falling ill due to her lack of fighting spirit causing her Stand to slowly kill her, Joseph presented his grandson with a mission: to find and kill DIO to save Holly and protect their family from more trouble.
Jotaro and his allies - Joseph, Avdol, fellow Japanese high school student Noriaki Kakyoin, French swordsman Jean Pierre Polnareff and the Stand-using Boston terrier Iggy - travelled from Japan to DIO’s lair in Egypt, battling enemy Stand users throughout their journey. Despite casualties suffered along the way, the group succeeded in defeating DIO before going their separate ways. After graduating with a degree in Marine Biology, Jotaro often travelled to continue investigating various Stand-related phenomena around the world to ensure that none of their supernatural abilities are used for nefarious purposes.

Kenshiro
Kenshiro originated from the Land of Asura, a country off the coast of China dedicated to the glory of battle and bloodshed. As a child, he was sent to Japan where he was adopted by Ryuken, the master of Hokuto Shinken, a fighting style rooted in assassination techniques. Ryuken had long sought to find a disciple to pass on its lessons to future generations, and trained Kenshiro and his three other adopted sons - Raoh, Jagi and Toki - in the discipline. Despite being the youngest, Kenshiro caught on quick and ultimately surpassed his brothers to become the 64th successor of Hokuto Shinken.
However, Kenshiro instead to choose a life of peace with his fiance Yuria, and attempted to settle down. It would not last for long; a nuclear war in the year 199x caused widespread chaos, reducing the Earth to a barren wasteland where only the strong survive. In this new age, he was challenged by a rival martial artist named Shin, who wanted Yuria for himself. He successfully bested Kenshiro, leaving him with seven scars formed in the shape of the Big Dipper constellation, and forced Yuria to leave with him.
Battered and defeated, Kenshiro spent the following year honing his killer instinct to one day rescue his beloved, travelling the wastes and battling all sorts of foes in his path. His new strength allowed him to easily defeat Shin, who quickly revealed that Yuria had supposedly committed suicide to stop Shin’s murderous rampages. After his rival’s suicide, Kenshiro was consumed by sadness and committed himself to travelling through the land a lost soul. Despite his grief, he made it a point to always help those who needed his aid, eventually earning a reputation as a wandering savior.
In his travels, Kenshiro battled his adoptive brothers to stop their use of Hokuto Shinken to fuel their evil ambitions and in turn reaffirm his rule as their foster father’s true successor, reunited with Yuria and spent the last few years of her life together, and joined the Hokuto Army to combat the warlords of Shura alongside his friends Bat and Rin. Despite his many accomplishments, he continued to live the life of a vagabond, helping the citizens of this new world survive and rebuild as best he can.

Abilities

Jotaro

Star Platinum
A Stand is the physical manifestation of one’s fighting spirit, created from that individual’s psyche. While they all vary in different shapes, forms and functions, Stands are usually equipped with special abilities to aid their user in however they see fit. How one acquires a Stand in the first place also tends to vary as well. Outside of other Stands and their users, Stands are invisible and intangible to normal humans, although their effects can still be felt on their user’s command.
  1. Stands move according to their user’s commands.
  2. Stands can only be affected by other Stands; non-Stand users will not be able to see them entirely.
  3. When Stands are injured, their users are also injured in the same spot.
  4. Stands disappear when their users die. Conversely, destroying a Stand kills their user.
  5. A Stand’s effectiveness and power is inversely proportional to their operating range; Stands become more powerful the closer they are to their user.
  6. Stands can be inherited.
  7. Only one Stand can be assigned to a single user.
  8. Stands may evolve depending on their user.
Jotaro’s Stand is Star Platinum, a humanoid-esque familiar named after the Star Arcana from the Tarot. It was acquired when DIO stabbed himself with a Stand-granting Arrow after placing his head on Jonathan Joestar’s body; as such, several of Jonathan’s descendants have acquired Stands of their own with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Star Platinum is best known as a close-range Stand, boasting incredible strength, speed, durability and precision. One way for it to showcase such awesome power is with its Stand Rush - a series of fast and hard-hitting punches that can dent steel, destroy rocks and generally beat down helpless foes in an instant.
Outside of strikes, Star Platinum’s speed makes it nearly invisible to the naked eye, tank strikes from other similarly-powered Stands, and its self-preservation instincts allow it to defend attacks aimed at Jotaro directly, even when he isn’t aware of them. Its keen sense of precision allows it to perform focused strikes on specific targets, complimented by its excellent eyesight.


Star Platinum can also make up for its short 2 meter range with the Star Finger, a projectile where Jotaro extends two of Star Platinum’s fingers for a piercing attack. Star Platinum also has super-breath allowing it to breathe in the Stand Justice and choke the user Enya.


  • A - Destructive Capability
  • A - Speed
  • C - Range
  • A - Durability 
  • A - Precision 
  • A - Development Potential

Star Platinum: The World
Eventually, Jotaro learned of Star Platinum’s true power while fighting DIO in Cairo. After initially having no counter to The World, DIO’s time-stopping Stand, Jotaro learned that he too could wield that power due to Star Platinum and The World being the same type of Stand. With his newly enhanced Stand - Star Platinum: The World - Jotaro can halt the world around him but himself and his Stand, giving himself an opportunity to retreat, reposition or retaliate however he sees fit.


How long the time stop lasts varies between 1 to 5 seconds depending on Jotaro’s physical state, and the ability to do so cannot be used quickly between attempts. It has one major weakness to it - that being that Jotaro overusing his time stop will directly affect his heart (this is likely due to his age) so he only uses his time stop in small amounts when it is absolutely called for and does not overuse it to keep himself intact.


Overall, Star Platinum: The World’s Stats are:
  • A - Destructive Capability
  • A - Speed
  • C - Range
  • E - Durability 
  • A - Precision 
  • C - Development Potential (though in some versions, Star Platinum: The World’s Development Potential Stat is listed as complete)

Star Platinum: Over Heaven
In Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, Star Platinum is upgraded in the final confrontation against Heaven Ascension DIO; much like Jotaro’s original battle with DIO, Star Platinum’s connection to The World Over Heaven allowed it to gain its rival Stand’s signature ability: Overwrite Reality. By punching a target, the newly dubbed Star Platinum Over Heaven can bend the fabric of reality itself, which it used for things like to healing its own user and overwriting people's abilities.
While impressive, it’s unlikely that this form could play a role in the upcoming episode. Eyes of Heaven’s alternate canon, which involved time-travelling between the 8 current Parts of the JoJo universe that ends up a dramatically different story altogether, means that it might be excluded.

Flight
During his final fight against DIO, he gained the ability to fly. How he got this ability is never really explained it the manga but it allows him to outpace DIO and fight mid-air without much hassle.


Kenshiro

Hokuto Shinken
Translated as the Big Dipper God Fist, Hokuto Shinken is an ancient Chinese martial art formed during the Han dynasty, and further developed over the course of nearly 2000 years. Due to its dangerous use, only one practitioner can be considered the true successor to the discipline in what is referred to the Isshi Souden tradition. Those who fail to succeed their masters have to voluntarily renounce it lest their memories are erased and their fists are crushed.
Hokuto Shinken focuses on channeling one’s ki, or inner energy as per the beliefs of East Asian religions and philosophies. With it, they can strike one of the 708 Keiraku Hiko, or pressure points located throughout the body. Each pressure point, when attacked, causes different reactions depending on its purpose. Usually, this comes in the form of the target exploding, but it can also be used for non-lethal takedowns and even healing physical and psychological ailments.
Users of Hokuto Shinken are also able to use all of their body’s natural abilities using the Tenryu Kokyu Ho (Art of Dragon’s Breathing), by tapping into more than just the 30% used by common martial artists. They can also resist pressure point attacks by sealing them with the Hiko Fuji (Pressure Point Sealing) and copy attacks with Suieishin (Water Reflection Spirit). Most notably, users can tap into their aura, or Toki, to further harness their ki for ranged energy attacks or more defensive options.
As successor, Kenshiro has mastered Hokuto Shinken to his fullest potential, and uses it to swiftly eliminate foes in a near instant to the point they fail to realize that he landed multiple fatal blows to their pressure points in the blink of an eye.

Houkto Shinken Techqinues


  • Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken (Hundred Crack Fist) - Kenshiro’s most famous technique, he does a rapid fire punch with his signature catchphrase - "Atatatatatatatata!" before they most likely explode.
  • Goshi Retsu Dan (Five Finger Fury Bullets) - Causes an enemy’s fingers to explode.
  • Ryuusei Hagan Kyaku (Meteorite Face Breaking Kick) - Splits the enemy’s head with a kick.
  • Hokuto Koushu Gyakusetsu - Twists an enemy’s head around
  • Ganzan Ryouzan Ha (Mountain Split Fissure Wave) - Splits an enemy’s skull in half
  • Hokuto Zankai Ken (Fist of Remorse) - Gives the victim three seconds to feel remorse for their actions before killing them
  • Koushu Hagan Ken (Face Breaking Fist) - Breaks face in half
  • Hokuto Juuha Zan (Hokuto Soft-Breaking Slash) - With this technique he can penetrate the flesh
  • Hokuto Juuji Zan (Hokuto Cross Kill) - Hits pressure points in a Bloody Cross shape
  • Hokuto Goukin Bundan Kyaku (Hokuto Steel Muscle Cutting Kick) - Weakens Muscles
  • Hokuto Soukin Jizai Kyaku (Hokuto Tendon Pulling Will Kick) - Kick hits a pressure point
  • Hokuto Kaikotsu Ken (Bone Crushing Fist) - Two fingers to the forehead; Skeleton rips itself out through body
  • Hokuto Kyomu Shidan (Hokuto Nothingness Finger Snap) - Erases the memory of the victim
  • Hokuto Dankotsu Kin (Self-Destruction Muscles) - Causes muscle spasms in the body
  • Hokuto Senjukai Ken (Thousand Hand Destruction Fist) - Instant thousand hand punch
  • Hokuto Ryuu Geki Ko (Hokuto Dragon Attacks Tiger) - An attack that misses any pressure points
  • Hokuto Kouretsu Ha (Hokuto Steel-rending Grasp) - Destroys an enemy’s shoulder
  • Soryu Tenha (Fist of the Blue Style) - One of Hokuto Shinken’s secret techniques. Users transport themselves and their opponents into a world of nothingness.

Musou Tensei
The ultimate secret technique of Hokuto Shinken, Musou Tensei - the Nil-Thought Rebirth - is a state of nothingness which can only be mastered by those who have experienced true sadness. In his struggles against his friends, family, enemies and the world, Kenshiro became the first man in the history of the discipline to master such a technique, only being matched by Raoh not long after his encounters with Kenshiro.
Under the effects of Musou Tensei, Kenshiro becomes intangible and near impervious to damage. He gains the ability to use the techniques of fallen rivals, and all his strikes can cause opponents to spontaneously combust. Even if he’s otherwise physically incapacitated, he can fight on using his soul as an avatar.

Martial Arts
Although Hokuto Shinken is Kenshiro’s primary discipline, he is also knowledgeable in other fighting styles thanks to his experiences and Musou Tensei’s ability to commune with his rivals and use their moves. Through his career, he became proficient in the following martial arts:
Gento Ko Ken (Imperial Fist of the Original Dipper): This martial art was created to protect the Holy Emperor or Empress. Its star is the Celestial Emperor Star. It relies on projection ki which is physical energy in various manners, like forming a shield or creating a blast or wave of energy that destroys an opponent's body on a cellular level.
Taizan Tenrō Ken (Taishan Heavenly Wolf Fist): This martial art gives the user the ability to chop the flesh of an opponent, slicing the nerves so fast that a cold sensation is felt before death.
Nanto Seiken (South Dipper Holy Fist): The opposite of Hokuto Shinken; whereas the latter focuses on using pressure points and killing from within, Nanto Seiken is about killing in a much more direct manner via brute force. Various different sub-sects have their own different takes on these techniques, ranging from rapid kicks to using air pressure as blades and various weapons in combat.
Hokuto Ryuken (Big Dipper Lapis Lazuli Fist): Much like Hokuto Shinken, this fighting style uses pressure points to win battles. However, Hokuto Ryuken uses 1109 points as opposed to Hokuto Shinken’s 708, and is powered by their matoki, or demonic fighting spirit which is akin to toki but drives the user insane.

Feats

Jotaro

Overall

Strength

Speed

Durability

Kenshiro

Overall

Strength

Speed

Durability

  • Took hits from massive thugs
  • Survived Shin's Nanto Gokuto Ken
  • Survived getting his chest pierced seven times by Shin
  • Endured attacks from a gigantic man whose sheer strength destroyed large parts of a roof
  • Endured getting his chest pierced by Rei
  • Tanked getting a pillar smashed on him

Weaknesses

Jotaro
While Jotaro is at least a lot tougher and more physically capable than the average human being, he himself doesn’t actually have that many feats or showings of great strength and combat prowess outside of summoning Star Platinum. Even the User-Stand connection has its limits as well - Star Platinum can only stay away up to 2 meters from Jotaro, and any damage done to it is reflected on him immediately.
Also, Star Platinum: The World’s time stopping powers place a strain on Jotaro, leaving him unable to repeatedly spam the move in the same way DIO does.

Kenshiro
Even with his mastery of martial arts, Kenshiro has tasted a fair amount of losses through his adventures, mainly against other masters of his calibur and even greater.
It is worth pointing out that he does have one way of being harmed while in Musou Tensei. Those who can also channel the power of nothingness, or at least something close to it, can hurt him, with sufficient enough damage forcing him back into his base form.

Summary

Jotaro

"Nice watch. I'm going to break it so you can never tell time again. Your face, that is."
Advantages:
  • Star Platinum has a massive speed advantage against Kenshiro. Combined with its respectable strength and time stop, this could serve as one way for him to win via blitz
  • Kenshiro may possibly be unable to see Star Platinum
  • Kenshiro has no true counter to Star Platinum: The World
  • In the unlikely event Jotaro gets Star Platinum Over Heaven, its reality warping capabilities are more than enough to defeat Kenshiro
  • Arguably more intelligent and strategic, likely to use his cunning to find ways around Kenshiro’s moves
  • Star Platinum’s self-preservation and speed will ensure that it will prevent Jotaro from being directly harmed
Disadvantages:
  • Has no counter to the Hokuto Shinken’s multiple nerve-striking techniques, which could spell instant death
  • Lacks ranged attacks, even with Star Platinum
  • Damage dealt by Kenshiro onto Star Platinum is reflected onto Jotaro, and this could be used to trigger Jotaro’s pressure points without Kenshiro attacking him directly
  • His time stopping abilities cannot be repeated quickly, and may give Kenshiro an opening to study and adapt if not killed fast enough
  • Has no formal training of his own to counter Kenshiro’s martial arts mastery
  • Unlikely to possess anything that could hurt Kenshiro while in Musou Tensei

Kenshiro

"Is that panic I hear in your voice? Don't worry, it'll all be over soon."
Advantages:
  • Musou Tensei is a near-instant win condition, with Jotaro unlikely to find a way to kill him when he enters it
  • Much more skilled and experienced in actual combat
  • Has the superior strength and durability feats
  • Has ranged attacks, trumping Jotaro and Star Platinum’s short range
  • Has very little in terms of exploitable weaknesses and restrictions
  • Pressure point strikes can outright kill Jotaro, or at the very least debilitate him
Disadvantages:
  • Has no true counter against Star Platinum’s time stop
  • Trumped in terms of speed, and could easily be blitzed to death before activating Musou Tensei
  • Possibly unable to see Star Platinum, barring the possibility of Musou Tensei
  • Beaten by Jotaro in terms of intellect.
  • Outright fucked if for any reason he faces against Star Platinum Over Heaven.Verdicts

Verdicts

ramonzer0
Hey, look: an anime fight that I can actually talk about!
Not gonna lie, trying to call who wins this is probably one of the more difficult ones I've had to make on the blog thus far. Jotaro and Kenshiro are two guys who were long overdue for a fight on the show, and I'm pretty sure the eventual animation is going to give this slugfest the presentation it deserves. It also just so happens to be a fairly even match, at least in the sense that both fighters have their clear victory conditions ready from the outset, and that's why trying to get a pick for this episode has been pretty difficult….
...until recently. With research, this match looks downright ugly.
As usual, let's get the stat trinity out of the way and compare Ken to Jotes, or rather, Star Platinum. After all, SP's going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the former during this fight, and Jotaro obviously isn't going to have enough stuff by himself to win here. In terms of speed, Star Platinum takes this easily. Even discounting the sole statement from Stone Ocean which states that it moves at FTL speeds, stuff like scaling to Silver Chariot and being able to catch bullets in mid-air put it above what Kenshiro has.
On the other hand, durability and strength go to Kenshiro. Yes, Jotaro and Star Platinum do have a fair amount of feats like punching the High Priestess' giant diamond teeth, but Kenshiro can straight up no-sell bloody beatings like no tomorrow, shrug off attacks designed to hit his pressure points, and retaliate with the strength to punch a tank to death and beat guys like Raoh, who split apart clouds. By themselves though, stats alone aren't enough to give either side the win decisively - Kenshiro’s tougher, while Jotaro is hilariously faster -  so off to their haxes: Star Platinum: The World and Musou Tensei.
Under the right circumstances, both of them could net an easy kill for the win. Jotaro could blitz Kenshiro while time is frozen, and Kenshiro can effectively no-sell anything Jotaro has and blow him up. The question then becomes "Who can pull off that kill first?"
In my personal opinion, that goes to Kenshiro. Jotaro won't have anything that could hurt the guy, and given Ken's high spiritual awareness - something that gets buffed further while in Musou Tensei, he's likely to be aware of Star Platinum's presence, if he wasn't previously. There's also those aforementioned instant-kill attacks, which Jotaro has nothing to counter with either.


If we had to flip this around, it's theoretically possible for Jotaro to Stand Rush Kenshiro to death while in stopped time, but seeing as Kenshiro's the stronger and tougher of the two, it'll be likely that not only will Ken survive, but he'd be able to work around Jotes' time stops and go for the kill before another barrage comes in, not to mention that Jotaro can only perform so many of them in a row.
Even without Musou Tensei, Kenshiro has several advantages going into the fight. One could make the argument that his Toki aura could allow him to see Star Platinum without Musou Tensei, seeing as both Toki and Stands have the same definition of "fighting spirit". Add in various long-range attacks plus instant kill pressure point strikes and self-healing, and the advantage ball is definitely in Kenshiro's court given how many ways he can ultimately put Jotaro down. Jotes could try his time stop spam, or phasing through Ken's body to destroy vital organs before he can activate Musou Tensei, but as mentioned the former has limits, and Star Platinum's intangibility hasn't really been used to harm another person in the series given Jotaro's penchant for doing the "ORAORAORAORAORA" thing.
Also, this is literally without getting into really good detail about the stuff present in Fist of the North Star, which follows the Dragon Ball school of thought that martial arts can do almost anything. For me to argue on Jotaro's behalf by saying stuff like "damage done during the time stop stacks up", "Star Platinum phasing through to destroy Kenshiro from the inside", "Star Platinum can bypass Musou Tensei", etc. would require a lot of assumptions and mental gymnastics to pull off, and even if I somehow managed to prove some kind of solid case, those points would ultimately prove too complex and a lot less simple than saying "pressure points" and "Musou Tensei".
Ultimately, all of this leads me to conclude that Kenshiro should take this. Basically, both of them have the means to win, but Kenshiro ultimately has a lot more ways to kill Jotaro than the other way around, and the ways in which Jotaro could win are a lot more convoluted to try and actually prove true come the fight itself.


If you still need a visual image to portray how things’ll end:


Congratulations, you now know how Jotaro dies in Part 6! You’re welcome. I mean, he could win if he had Star Platinum Ov--- wait, what do you mean Eyes of Heaven isn’t canon?

Strunton
For a long time, I use to think Jotaro vs Kenshiro went a little something like this:
Kenshiro: “Omae wa mou-”
Jotaro: (*stops time*) “Yare Yare Daze! Star Platnium!”
(*Star Platinum proceeds to “ORAORAORA!” Kenshiro to death and the flow of time resumes*)
Kenshiro: “...Shinde-NANI?!”
(*Kenshiro explodes*)
But after researching this battle, I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Sure, Jotaro has the edge in speed, but Kenshiro has the edge in just about everything else. Kenshiro has tanked punishment way above anything Jotaro or Star Platinum has ever shown to deal out, and while Star Platinum can only be seen and interacted with other stand users in context of the JoJo series, Kenshiro’s Musou Tensei, which lets him use a stand-like being to fight (his soul), will give him awareness of Jotaro’s stand as well as the ability to fight back against it.


And in the end, all Kenshiro needs to win this fight is one hit, and considering his superior strength, durability, experience, martial arts training, adaptive nature, and pressure point techniques, he’s most likely getting that killing blow first.

“But what about Jotaro’s time stopping abilities?”

While I do admit it’s useful in dodging some attacks and staying in the fight longer, Jotaro can’t keep spamming this, and he lacks the offensive output to really hurt Kenshiro physically. And considering Kenshiro can heal himself, I feel it’s safe to say he’s definitely surviving long enough for Jotaro to reach his time stopping limit.
“But what if Jotaro phases through Kenshiro and attacks like his heart or something.”

Well, that’s pretty out of character for Jotaro to do in the first place and definitely would’ve helped a bunch of times throughout the series, but not only that, can an intangible being phase through an intangible being? That would cancel each other out, and nothing in either series has said otherwise.
“But Stands don’t have pressure points.”

Don’t remember that being confirmed anywhere, but even if that was true, tanks don’t have pressure points either but Kenshiro’s techniques still somehow work on them. And again considering Kenshiro’s far superior strength, that really doesn’t matter. And the fact any damage done on a Stand is reflected back on its user is not helping Jotaro.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned how Muso Tensei’s ability to create illusions makes it hard for Jotaro to track Kenshiro and increases the chances of Kenshiro getting in close and ending it all in one hit?

In the end, Jotaro is not an easy opponent to beat, but I don’t see how he can pull through. His speed and time stop will help, but in the end, Kenshiro’s superior strength, durability, adaptive nature, martial arts, experience, and hax is more than enough overwhelm Jotaro.
I guess you can say Jotaro couldn’t stand up Kenshiro. Ok, I’ll show myself out.

The Gaming News Guy
Ah, this fight. Being honest here - this has been the most anticipated i have been for a DEATH BATTLE for a long while. I am a huge fan of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for a while and it got me through a really bad period of my life. It’s my favourite franchise of all time - i love it so much but….i have to choose between my head and my heart. I would love to go with my heart and say that Jotaro wins without a doubt but looking at the information - at the end of the day this is a verdict on who would win based on each of the character's abilities - i can’t let bias or personal feelings get in the way of making the right call. At the end of the day - i am going to go with Kenshiro on this one
First of all there’s the issue with Stands. I am going under the assumption that DB will end up not allowing Kenshiro to affect Stands though based on information - it is very likely that Stands would be affected by Kenshiro despite the Stand Rule - Only Stands can affect Stands. Kenshiro’s Musou Tensei and Spirit based attacks should affect Stands. Despite Kenshiro having less speed since Star Platinum is Faster Than Light - during the Silver Chariot fight he was able to match Silver Chariot who could react to Hanged Man who was travelling at the speed of light so Star Platinum scales to that. Meaning that SP is definitely faster - but does Kenshiro have ways of getting around it - absolutely especially considering Kenshiro’s strength feats.
Star Platinum’s best feat is when he punched through teeth which were as strong as diamond or the time he is able to break through steel doors and snap metal.. While these feats are fairly impressive - they simply don’t compare to Kenshiro’s strength feats who is able to destroy buildings and tanks with relative ease - the difference is strength is so significant that even with the higher speed if Kenshiro gets a few solid hits on Jotaro which he can certain do especially with Musou Tensei i don’t see Jotaro surviving. Plus Jotaro has no way of killing Kenshiro with his durability being significantly higher than him.Let’s put it into perspective. Jotaro gets hurts by stabbings and bullets - Kenshiro just tanks it relative ease. Kenshiro has tanked way worse than both Jotaro and SP and there’s also something extremely noteworthy to consider - Kenshiro can heal himself so even if Jotaro gets a few solid hits in. Kenshiro will easily recover.


So in this fight - Kenshiro has the durability and strength but Jotaro has the speed to easily keep up with him. However there’s their trump cards.
Time Stop has significant advantages but also significant disadvantage. He can stop time for 5 seconds to easily inflict damage onto his enemy or dodge the way out of attacks - but he can spam it - he has to wait about 5 seconds before using it again. So what about Musou Tensei then - Musou Tensei is very powerful technique - making Kenshiro intallangable so the question that needs to be answered is that -  does Star Platinum manage to break through the Musou Tensei?. The Musou Tensei is a very powerful and Star Platinum honestly has no counter to it - even Jotaro tries punching Kenshiro during time stop it simply won’t work.Now there has been an argument that SP has a way to counter Musou Tensei and that not even mentioning the fact that Jotaro’s time stop only lasts for 5 seconds max and he can’t use it for another 5 seconds afterwards which is more than enough time for Kenshiro to kill him.


One of SP's less well known abilities is the fact that it can stop or revert heartbeats. Even while Jotaro can't hit Kenshiro while in Musou Tensei it still has the ability to phase through people and stop heartbeats or increase heartbeats as he has done on himself and Joseph which is true. He can SP to stop or slow down hearts. The problem is that even if Jotaro attempted to do so - Kenshiro would stop him. So even if this one way Jotaro could stop the Musou Tensei could happen - Kenshiro has many ways of stopping it including charging his own heart
Overall - Jotaro has no reliable means of killing Kenshiro while Kenshiro has so many methods of killing Jotaro it would take multiple pages. Even with Jotaro’s Intelligence, Speed,Precision and Time Stop he absolutely pales in comparison to Kenshiro's superior strength,speed.wider arsenal, fighting experience, and techniques.I have to go with my head with this one and as much as i would love to see him win - sorry ocean man - but you are not winning this.Looks like Kenshiro is going to take Jotaro to his Stairway to Heaven. “cries”

Grand Blazer
I spent way more time on that than I should have. I’m proud of it though.
So if you can’t tell by my Stand, I’ll be playing Devil’s Advocate for this match and giving the side of the argument for Totes McJotes.

So let’s see what I have to work with here... FTL speeds for blitz potential, “only Stand users can see and affect other Stands”, five seconds of time stop, intangibility... and just to be extra nice to Jotaro, let’s use things people will cite as “wtf trash verdict” and say damage stacks in time stop, breaking teeth as hard as diamonds, a trillion punches per second, and whatever other kind of phasing through people I’m missing.

So FTL speeds give Jotaro the ability to dodge most of Ken’s stuff and dish it back a lot faster than he can keep up, à la trillion punches per second. When that inevitable rush of punches comes, Jotaro’s gonna be throwing out way more, even if they’re using less power. Shattering diamond-tough teeth probably makes the DC gap smaller than that of the speed gap though.

Throw on top of that some maximum five seconds of time stop, stacking damage on each for when time returns since Dio and Jotaro are shown capable of controlling when things stop, and I’d say Jotaro could probably get Kenshiro bloodied and beaten faster than he can get out some pressure point combat, and faster than you can say “NANI”, giving Jojo a platinum victory.

But you guys can probably figure that 99% of people wouldn’t actually give him every benefit of a doubt like that. These other verdicts prove it. So I won’t say I’m absolutely wrong, since I do think a case can be made for the things I gave Jotes...

But there’s a reason Devil’s Advocate has low durability and potential.

NocturnBros
I’m gonna try to keep this brief because there’s not much to be discussed in this match, and the rest of peeps in the blog have already brought up a ton of good points.
Let’s start with the basics, Attack Potency/Destructive Capacity/Strength: This one is not even close. Kenshiro, at bare minimum, should be Large Island thanks to being able to beat Jagi with only four strikes. In the Jagi Gaiden manga, he was able to tank a Large Island level nuke (calc linked in the feats section). Considering that Jagi is basically fodder given how he’s one of the first major foes that Ken beats in the manga, it’s very easy to scale it to Kenshiro. If you take into account later buffs that Ken receives, you could argue that he gets to Small Country level, but I’m personally not too convinced about that logic.
On the other hand, Jotaro is underwhelmingly weak in comparison. The most you can argue for him is MCB with outdated calcs, and City Block+ with current calcs. The best feats on Jotaro’s end are: being able to beat Wheel of Fortune, who can plow through a cliff, and killing Dio Brando, who survived the explosion of a massive cruiser ship (aka the biggest plothole in the series). So unless you want to pull some shit like using Over Heaven, the strength advantage, and by extension, durability, undeniably belongs to Kenshiro.
As for speed, this one is also really simple to explain. Ken’s best speed feat would come from scaling to Liu Zongwu, who can dodge attacks from micrometres away. That feat would grant Ken Mach 80 reaction and combat speed. There’s also a Mach 178 feat from Raoh’s cloud splitting blast, but I’m not entirely sure it scales.
At this point, I’m pretty sure everyone and their mom knows about Jotaro’s best speed feat, which comes from directly scaling to Polnareff’s MFTL feat of intercepting Hanged Man in midair with his sword, which yields a speed of 365 times that of light. So no matter how you slice it (heh), the speed advantage goes to Jotaro.
Now, the big question is this: Can Jotaro blitz Kenshiro before he gets one-punched?
And the answer is no.
Let me explain. Having the speed advantage is good and all, but he literally couldn’t put a scratch on Ken no matter how he tried. You can try to stop time as much as you want, but if the gap between your AP and the opponent’s durability is as big as it is in this case, there’s just no way in hell for him to damage him, regardless of speed.
The only way that Jotaro would have to overcome Ken’s immense durability would be by phasing through his skin and targeting his inner organs. However, there is one fatal flaw with that argument. While Jotaro has used that technique on himself and to revive Joseph, he has never used it offensively, even with foes with great durability, like Dio Brando, Yoshikage Kira or Enrico Pucci. Jotaro’s combat strategies boil down to “punch the enemy very hard and hope that you’re strong enough”. Meanwhile, Kenshiro always manages to beat his opponents in just a few strikes because he hardly ever focuses on external damage, instead, the basics of Hokuto Shinken are all about hitting the enemies inner organs through pressure points. And it’s not like he only does that when he’s going all out. He literally uses it against almost all the foes he faces, even the weakest ones.
So realistically, Ken only needs to touch Jotaro once to end the fight, and given that Star Platinum’s punches are basically tickles to him, he could simply power through them despite their speed and deliver a single blow to Jotaro himself. No matter how many time Jotaro uses his time stop (which only lasts a couple of seconds and can’t be spammed), he’s completely and utterly screwed here, and that’s not even accounting for the potential counters for SP’s intangibility, like Muso Tensei.
Overall, I’m 100% sure that the victory rightfully belongs to Kenshiro, the tough boy.

BerialEdge

Jokerke12

(Insert fitting music for the fight here)
Well well well, it finally happened. The first JoJo fight in DEATH BATTLE, and as a JoJo fan I’m... not as hyped as I thought I would be. Probably because Jotaro isn’t one of my favourites. I don’t hate him, I just find him mostly uninteresting. Kenshiro is… the main character from Fist of the North Star… I only know of his series by reputation, so I’m not hyped about him either. Yeah, it’s cool to have one of the most influential and manly anime/manga of all time to appear in DB, but I have no personal feeling towards it. Still, this could be a very important episode of DB. If it does well, we might see more JoJo and other anime fights in the future (that isn’t Dragon Ball or HST). So, while I’m not hyped I’m definitely happy about this fight. Now, onto the verdict.
Let’s get the stat trinity out of the first:
Strength/DC: Both Kenshiro and Star Platinum can easily break steel bars, concrete, boulders, etc, but Jotaro’s best feats and scaling only put him only at around City Block Level, while Kenshiro’s put him at Island Level. This category goes to Kenshiro.
Durability: Jotaro got pummeled by Dio’s The World, which flung him through a billboard, the side of a building, onto a bridge and then got a road roller dropped on him. He also managed to stand up after getting blown up by Kira’s Sheer Heart Attack (though it knocked him out for a few minutes), which launched shrapnel through him. Kira even mentions he could almost see the through his wounds.The fact that he was able to survive that is very impressive. Kenshiro fought and surpassed Raoh, who’s punches can put a hole in the clouds, which puts his punches at around Island Level. Since Kenshiro can withstand those punches, it puts his durability in that same range. Durability goes to Kenshiro.


Speed: While Jotaro himself isn’t very impressive in terms of speed, his Star Platinum is capable of VERY high-speed combat. He’s been shown to keep up with Silver Chariot, a Stand that was capable of intercepting a Stand that moved at lightspeed. Yes, I am aware that he knew the route it took in advance, but that fact he actually managed to tag it is still more than impressive. There is also the WoG that states that Star Platinum is Faster Than Light. Kenshiro’s speed via scaling to his opponents is somewhere between High Hypersonic and Massively Hypersonic. Also, unlike Jotaro, Kenshiro is capable of moving around fast. At least faster than the human eye can track and can even make afterimages. However in the end the speed difference is so big, that it doesn’t matter if Ken is able to run circles around Jotaro. If he’s within range SP can dish out an entire ORAORA barrage before Ken could even land a single punch. The speed goes to Jotaro, without question.
That’s two for Kenshiro, one for Jotaro (but it’s a big one). However, if there is one thing I learned from watching/reading JoJo, is that sometimes special abilities and how they use them can be a lot more important in a fight than stats. So, let’s compare:

Jotaro‘s Star Platinum is an incorporeal spiritual entity. As such it is invisible and intangible for normal people, which normally would give a huge advantage to Jotaro, however Kenshiro can sense and see the aura/ki of others. Ki and aura are very similar to Stand energy in the sense that they are born from a person’s soul and psyche, just like Stands. Essentially, both Ki and Stands are spiritual energy, so interaction between the two is not impossible, which would mean that Ken can not only see Sp, but damage it as well with Ki based attacks, and if SP gets damaged, Jotaro gets too.

Doesn’t look too well for Jotaro so far. One of his biggest defenses just got taken out, but he can still turn this around. The next ability on the table: 5 second Time Stop (brought to you by Star Platinum: The World).

During his fight against Dio, both him and Jotaro realized that Star Platinum and The World are the same type of Stands, therefore SP also has the ability to stop time. The longest period of time Jotaro is capable of stopping time is 5 second, and while that doesn’t sound like much, for something that can move faster than the speed of light 5 seconds is more than enough to do anything. Since Kenshiro’s strength is a lot larger than SP (and by extension Jotaro’s) durability, Jotaro cannot afford to get hit. Even blocking might be too dangerous, so stopping time to dodge attacks is vital. It also allows him to get some free ORAORAs in while time is stopped. Kenshiro has no way of countering this. The only fault of this ability is that, unlike Dio, Jotaro cannot spam Time Stops. He needs to wait a couple of seconds before activating it again.
Now, onto Kenshiro. Kenshiro has superior Martial Arts skill. While that won’t help him close the gap in speed, it should give him a better chance at hitting Jotaro than if he didn’t know martial arts.

The Hokuto Shinken martial art gives Kenshiro the ability to hit the opponents’ pressure points for a variety of effects. There are a lot of things Kenshiro can use the pressure points for, but the most important ones are the instant explosion and controlling ones are. They do exactly what you think they do, kill you instantly and make you do things against you will respectively. The only way for Jotaro to avoid this is by dodging the attacks or MAYBE have SP try to fix things from the inside with his intangibility.

Lastly, for Jotaro, there is his intellect and the good old Joestar Secret Technique. Much like the JoJos before and after him, Jotaro is very good at coming up with plans to defeat opponents who could easily kill him. He would likely figure out that Kenshiro’s strength is no joke and he needs to use the Secret Technique to keep his distance, only to find out that Ken has long range Ki attacks, so he needs to constantly move to not get one-shotted.


In my opinion, the only viable option he has for winning is keeping his distance with Time Stop and using his Stand to push himself around for better speed and “flight”. By alternating these to allow Time Stop to recharge and use them to get close, ORAORA/Star Finger, get away and repeat, he could try a war of attrition to try to wear him down and hopefully kill him eventually. I believe Jotaro could pull this off, even if he wouldn’t win ten times out of ten or even seven times out of ten. Honestly, this could go either way. Either Jotaro wears Kenshiro down, or Kenshiro manages to land a shot and kill Jotaro instantly. Heck, even a tie is possible.

Or at least…
It would be…
There is one more thing I haven’t mentioned yet…
You probably know what it is.
Musou Tensei
Musou Tensei, the ultimate technique of the Hokuto Shinken. It allows the user to use the techniques of their lost comrades and turns the user intangible. It’s not even the same intangibility as that of a Stand. If we use follow the logic of “Kenshiro can see and hurt Stands via Ki”, then in this case Ki energy equals Stand energy. Ergo a Stand trying to hurt a Musou Tensei user leads to the same result as trying to hurt them with Ki attacks, and those attacks also pass through them.
So, in short, no matter what Jotaro tries to do, he cannot defeat Kenshiro. He has no way of getting past Musou Tensei. Since it has no time limit, a war of attrition would only benefit Kenshiro, as sooner or later he would land that hit, and after it lands…

Jotaro wa mou shindeiru.
---------------
Special announcement time! After a bit of deliberating between members, we’ve elected to make Strunton an official member of the G1 Death Battle Fan Blog. Round of applause for him!
We’d also like to thank both RadioactiveCaffeine and BerialEdge for their contributions to this blog. No verdicts from them, but they were a big help with the Fist of the North Star info, so we very much appreciate that of them. With that, we’ll see you guys in three weeks for whatever match we’re covering next.

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