Koichi Hirose

Japanese Name: 広瀬 康一

Romanized Name: Hirose Kōichi

Namesake: The Hirose RiverW[1] Stand: Echoes

Profile: Age:

15: (Part 4) 18: (Part 5) 22: (Louvre)

Birthday: March 28, 1984

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Chinese Zodiac: Rat

Gender: Male

Height: 157 cm (5 ft 2 in)

Weight: 39.5 kg (87 lb) Nationality: Japanese

Hair Color: Grey (Anime)

Eye Color: Blue (Digital Color, Anime)

Koichi Hirose (広瀬 康一 Hirose Kōichi) is the deuteragonist of Diamond is Unbreakable and appears briefly as a minor character in Vento Aureo.

Koichi is a timid high-school first-year who befriends Josuke Higashikata and then finds himself entangled in the world of Stand users.

Skin (Fair) Hair (Gray) Eyes (Blue) Outfit (Part 4) (Green uniform with gold accessories. Brown shoes.)

Koichi is a teenage boy of below average height, 157 cm (5'2") He wears a notably unmodified student uniform, otherwise preferring leisure wear.

Koichi first keeps his light hair neatly combed back. During his confrontation with Tamami, it gains the tendency to rise into spikes when he is excited (producing a look similar to that of Dragon Ball Z character Gohan at Super Saiyan 2 during the Cell Games). Towards the end of his confrontation with Yukako, he suddenly cuts his hair, producing a flat top, which spontaneously grows out again into spikes during his battle with Yoshikage Kira. The color of his hair varies throughout the media, the most common schemes being blond, blue, or silver.

In Vento Aureo, Koichi's jacket is replaced with a much longer double-breasted variation featuring metallic wristbands and the Roman numeral for three (III) on each side of his collar.

Koichi is an amiable, but meek youth who undergoes an exceptional degree of character development over the course of Diamond is Unbreakable, becoming more assertive throughout many confrontations with evil Stand users. His greatest leaps are illustrated by the metamorphosis of his Stand, Echoes.

One of Koichi's constant traits is his friendliness and overall politeness toward any stranger and acquaintance. Having a gentle heart, Koichi usually doesn't seek to harm his opponents, notably having saved Yukako from death even though she wanted to kill him before, and briefly fighting Giorno Giovanna without using the strength to kill, which inadvertently saved him. However, Koichi's friendliness disappears on the rare occasions he is angered, and he becomes more abrasive, violent and vulgar.

Koichi also possesses a rather cheerful personality. He finds wonder in most things (such as his new bike, a famous mangaka living in town, finding an error in a map, etc.), and has little trouble befriending people. Because of this, he is usually easily pressured into an interlocutor's demands, taking Tamami Kobayashi as an example by effortlessly extorting him, or Rohan pushing him into spending time with him. Much like any ordinary teenager, Koichi is interested in more accessible distractions. He is a great fan of Rohan Kishibe's manga Pink Dark Boy and plans to visit Disneyland ParisW but expresses no interest in "old" countries such as Italy.

Another one of Koichi's primary characteristics is his courage and associated virtuousness. As revealed by Heaven's Door, Koichi is described as cowardly, but courageous when push comes to shove. True to that assertion, Koichi is very prone to express anxiety, fear, and despair at various setbacks, such as his battles against Yukako, Rohan or Sheer Heart Attack. Terunosuke states that when Koichi is scared he blinks twice. In addition, Koichi mentions during the Atom Heart Father arc that he has claustrophobia. Still, Koichi soldiers on and braves danger despite his fears. This content comes from JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (https://jojowiki.com), and must be attributed to its authors if you are using it on another wiki or web page, as specified in the license.

Initially weak-willed, acquiring a Stand and fighting others made him more confident in himself and assertive, going from being bullied by upperclassmen to facing down and taunting Yoshikage Kira while on the verge of death. By Vento Aureo, Koichi has grown into a confident teenager who, while still prone to bouts of panic, could enter a Stand fight without qualms.

The mix of his gentleness and courage make Koichi an extremely likable individual, earning the friendship and respect of the vast majority of the cast including Josuke Higashikata, Tamami Kobayashi, Toshikazu Hazamada, Rohan Kishibe, Yukako Yamagishi, Aya Tsuji, and Jotaro Kujo.

Koichi is a relatively perceptive individual, able to make quick and decisive moves in a fight, sometimes at the cost of being too imprudent. For the most part, Koichi tries to analyze his situation before acting, notably due to how weak his Stand is at the start of the series and the severe limitations of his powers, but sometimes misses a critical consequence of his actions.

After a difficult start in his relationship with Yukako, due to her kidnapping Koichi,[25] he eventually fell in love with Yukako's tough and unforgiving personality. His love was such that he was willing to be blinded forever in case Yukako became ugly, so as to ease her pain. This content comes from JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (https://jojowiki.com), and must be attributed to its authors if you are using it on another wiki or web page, as specified in the license.

Koichi's Stand, Echoes, starts off with ACT1, which hasn't come out of its egg yet. As Part Four progressed, Echoes hatches and evolves, giving Koichi new abilities to use. By the end of Part Four, Echoes gains ACT2 and ACT3. He is able to willingly call upon Echoes' previous ACT forms at will and utilize their unique abilities.

Echoes ACT0: an egg

ACT1: enables him to write on any surface, causing the words or onomatopoeia to continuously repeat at various volumes.

ACT2: enables him to write a sound effect on any surface. If the word is touched, a special effect related to the sound effect is activated.

ACT3: a humanoid Stand, facilitates conventional melee attack and the ability to "freeze" targets by ascribing them unbearable weight.

A Stand (スタンド Sutando) is a visual manifestation of life energy (in other words, the manifestation of the soul of the user).

A Stand is an entity psychically generated by its owner, referred to as a Stand User (スタンド使い Sutando Tsukai). It generally presents itself as a figure hovering over or near the user and possesses abilities beyond that of an ordinary human, which, depending on the Stand User, can be wielded for good or evil.

Echoes first appear as a large egg whose bottom is covered in swirling spots.

ACT1 takes the appearance of a three-sectioned alien larva. Its oversized first section serves as a head and two small shelled arms are attached to it. The head is covered with a shell on top of which a spike is visible, and the face is nearly entirely covered by metallic blinkers, only leaving a small beak visible. The second section is a shelled torso with a dark belly. The third section is equipped with a set of small wheels and a large serpentine tail with a dark underside and a clearer back covered in swirling spots and at whose end is a metallic rattle.

Echoes ACT2 is a developed form of Echoes ACT1, gained during the battle against Yukako. It takes on a more humanoid appearance but is much smaller than ACT1. It is fully clad in a shell-like armor decorated with metallic striped protrusions at the crotch and other places, the most prominent piece being a large high collar fused with shoulder weights with "S2" written on its rear covering the back of the head and the shoulders. ACT2's oversized head has a now-revealed face with metallic striped eyes, a nose, and a small robotic mouth. It still has a long organic tail with a dark underside and bright back, now equipped with a detachable kunai-like stinger. Araki stated that it represents a larva growing into a child creature and that its hand and feet are similar to a raccoon's, making it look like a standing raccoon.

Echoes ACT3 takes on a completely humanoid form but still retains features from its previous Acts, giving it an almost robot-like appearance. Its body is covered in multiple striped protrusions mimicking human muscles and several of them form a crest at the top of the head, which also has two X-shaped holes on its sides. ACT3 now possesses a cloth wrapped around its waist similar to shorts with the number 3 printed on the front and keeps ACT2's boots. Its tail is now vestigial, a single long spike protruding from its behind. ACT3 has been stated to be the image of Koichi made into a Stand.

Acts 1 through 2 don't possess a full-fledged personality. They obey its master's commands and sometimes let out a small growl.

Koichi develops Echoes ACT3 during his confrontation against Sheer Heart Attack when ACT2 proves too weak to battle the Stand.

ACT3 is now fully sentient and able to communicate with its master. ACT3 speaks politely when talking to Koichi, following his orders and referring to him as Master. However, he has a tendency to suddenly curse in English, in a manner seemingly inspired by rap music. In the original manga, its speech is often written in katakana to underline a mechanical tone. This content comes from JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (https://jojowiki.com), and must be attributed to its authors if you are using it on another wiki or web page, as specified in the license.

Echoes ACT1 can write anything on any surface or person. If it is an onomatopoeia, typically in Katakana, a sound related to the onomatopoeia in question will be produced. If it is a sentence written in Kanji, the words will influence the target's state of mind. For instance, Koichi could convince his mother, who was on the verge of suicide, to stop and trust him by using the sentence "Believe in me!" on her. The sound and words are said to not really be heard but to be as if they came from inside the person. The sounds vary in volume, but will increase the longer the sound is active and reverberates to a person more strongly if the sound is written directly on them.

The effect can be broken with enough willpower, as seen when Yukako dispels the writing that Koichi put on her.

“Because she touched the door with the 'whoosh' on it... the sound became a real entity! The 'whoosh' turned into a real sensation and blew her away!” —Koichi about Echoes ACT2, Chapter 300

Echoes's second form increases its sound abilities beyond its first form's capabilities. Echoes can write a sound effect on any surface. However, unlike ACT1, it is only able to shoot sound effects from its tail, limiting it to only one sound effect at a time. When the sound effect is touched, an effect related to the sound is produced, either affecting the person who touched it or the object which the words are inscribed on.

(ヒョオオ, Hyooo) - A strong wind is produced.

(ドグオン, Doguon) - The toucher is knocked back a great distance.

(ボョヨオン, Byoyon) - The object becomes extremely elastic and bouncy.

(ジュー, Jū) - The object radiates heat and will burn upon contact.

(ドラララ, Dorarara) - A rush of Crazy Diamond-shaped fists attack the enemy (Eyes of Heaven only).

“THREE FREEZE. I rhymed "THREE" with "FREE".” —ACT3 on its ability, Chapter 359

ACT3's signature ability, with which it applies a "freezing" or stopping effect by greatly increasing the weight of its target by punching it, typically adopting a fighting stance while joining the hands together while doing so and producing an aura. For example, Killer Queen's Sheer Heart Attack is forcibly sunk into the pavement by this ability, and, according to its user, the effects were as if there were 40-50 kilograms of weight on his left hand. The weight increase does have drawbacks: 3 Freeze can only affect one thing at a time, and the effect ceases if the target moves more than 5 meters away from ACT3. The closer the target is to ACT3, the heavier it feels.