Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Name Pronunciation Guide

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Alright, so. I’ve been considering making this post for a while now, but having recently experienced a photoshoot where dedicated Jojo fans were shouting out “AbbaCHio” and “Cake-yoin”, I think the time has come. Especially with the part 5 hype going on right now, it’s as good a time as any.

Disclaimer: I’m an American of Scottish and Puerto Rican descent. I have been studying Japanese for about 5 or 6 years now. I do not speak Italian, however, I have some basic understanding of the phonetic system and I’m very picky about making sure I pronounce things right, so hopefully I can get this right. If I do make any mistakes, please let me know.

First of all, I’d like to point out: You can get a pretty good idea of how to pronounce things if you honestly just listen to the voices in the anime and games. They scream “Jotaro” about 20 times an episode, guys, come on. But in any case, let’s get to it. Also, I’ll make a list of names at the end, so feel free to skip to that.

To start with, let’s talk about Japanese phonetics. Honestly, it’s basically like Spanish. In general, vowels are more or less like this:

“A” as in “Kars”
“E” as in “dead”
“I” as in “machine”
“O” as in “Jojo”
“U” as in “flu”

As for consonants, in most cases they’re more or less the same. If you want to get specific, the J sound is somewhere between our J and a “sh” sound, and the R is somewhere between “r”, “l”, and “d”. But tbh, imo it’s more important that you get the vowels right than anything. You don’t have to have a perfect Japanese R as long as you don’t pronounce “Jotaro” to rhyme with “tarot”.

Now, the other problem I notice with Japanese is that English speakers tend to place the accent on the wrong syllable. Our first instinct, for reasons I’m not quite certain of, is usually to place the emphasis on the second syllable- “Jo-TA-ro”, “Yu-KA-ko”, etc. But that’s incorrect.

In Japanese, if it’s a three-consonant word, the emphasis is pretty much never on the second syllable. It’s usually on the first. So it’s not “Jo-TA-ro”, it’s “JO-taro”.

Now let’s talk about Italian. Vowels are pretty much the same in Italian as they are in Japanese and Spanish. Consonants and certain combinations, however, are different. I’ll try to list the specifics here, but bear with me since as I mentioned, I don’t speak Italian. Somehow I usually know how to pronounce Italian words anyway, but I can’t always articulate the specifics of the entire language… I’ll do my best, but if you want more info, go on YouTube and look for some Italian pronunciation videos.

I also apologize profusely if I did, in fact, mess up any of the names or anything.

“Ch” - hard K as in Kars. This is NOT “ch” as in “cheese”, it’s “ch” as in “orchestra”.
“Ce” or “ci” - This one is “ch” as in “cheese”. Confusing, I know, but just remember the word cello. (Unless you pronounce it “sello” in which case… I… I can’t help you there buddy.)
“I” between a consonant and a vowel - In this case, the “i” usually becomes silent, as in “Ciao”. This isn’t always the case- you do want to pronounce the I in “Abbacchio”- but I’m not sure exactly what the specifics of that are.
“G” - If it’s before an O, A, or U, it’s a hard G as in “great”. If it’s before an I or E, it’s soft G as in “genius”.
“Gn” - Silent G.
“Gli” - Also a silent G.
“Sci” - “She”.

I feel like I’m probably forgetting something, but as I mentioned, you can always look up pronunciation videos online. So with all that said and done, I’m now going to provide a list of some Jojo character names and how to pronounce them.

Jotaro Kujo - JOE-tuh-roe COO-joe
Noriaki Kakyoin - NORRY-ahkee Kah-KYOE-win (As you may recall, Japanese uses a long “i” like “see”, but it tends to get shortened a bit sometimes, so in English it’s better to say “i” as in “win” to avoid saying “Kakyoween”, because that just sounds weird.)
Josuke Higashikata - JOE-skay Hee-gawsh-COT-a (”u” and “i” sounds are often shortened to be almost silent in Japanese. As a rule, you should never pronounce the U in “-suke” names. Just think of Sasuke Uchiha and you’re good.)
Okuyasu Nijimura - Oh-KYAH-soo Knee-zhee-MOO-ra
Koichi Hirose - KOE-ee-chee HEE-roe-say
Yukako Yamagishi - YOU-kah-koe YAH-muh-gee-shee
Yoshikage Kira - Yoesh-KAH-gay KEE-ruh
Akira Otoishi - AH-kee-ruh Oh-toe-EE-shee
Reimi Sugimoto - RAY-mee Soo-gee-MOE-toe
Rohan Kishibe - ROE-hawn KEE-shee-bay
Giorno Giovanna - JORE-noe Joe-VON-uh (Never say “jee-or-noe”. Just don’t. It’s “Jore-noe”.)
Guido Mista - GWEE-doe MIS-tuh
Bruno Bucciarati - BREW-noe Boo-chuh-RA-tee
Leone Abbacchio - Lee-OH-nay Uh-BAH-kee-yo (Again, the H is silent. Very important.)
Narancia Ghirga - Nuh-RON-chuh GEAR-guh
Pannacotta Fugo - Pah-nuh-KOE-tuh FOO-goe
Trish Una - Trish OOH-nuh
Diavolo - Dee-uh-VOE-loe
Vinegar Doppio - Vinegar DOPE-ee-yo
Ghiaccio - JAH-choe
Melone - Meh-LOE-nay
Cioccolata - Choe-koh-LA-tuh
Tiziano - Tits-AH-noe (Yep. Tits.)
Pesci - PEH-shee
Enrico Pucci - En-REE-coe POO-chee
Emporio Alniño - Em-PORE-ee-yo Al-NEEN-yoe (this one is technically Spanish, but that also means it’s the one I’m most likely to beat you up over, so don’t forget that ñ, ñ’all)
Miuccia Miuller - MYOO-chuh MYOO-lur