Soft & Wet (ソフト・＆・ウェット Sofuto Ando Wetto) is the Stand of Josuke Higashikata, originally belonging to Josefumi Kujo, featured in JoJolion.
Appearance
Soft & Wet is a humanoid Stand of a streamlined, robotic form, light in color, and similar in height to Josuke.
On the top of its head is a five-pointed star bound with a circle. Horns roughly two-thirds the width of its head grow from the region of the ears, shaped as tapering pentagrammic prisms. It has round eyes, shaped as slotted screw heads; vertically dividing very small, slight, round pupils. Its face has a thick gap running from the top of the forehead past the bottom of the chin. Initially, Soft & Wet had large holes in the sides of its face, and shorter, lined "horns".
The front of two broad plates covering its torso is cut like its face in the shape of a large anchor; as well as in a line beneath both arms and between the base of its back and shoulders.
Its feet and hands are covered with plating, as are the sides of its hips and shoulders, both of which are shaped like sharp hearts, and bear a five-pointed star. It has fine arms and legs, with dark, exposed ball-and-socket joints supported by short exterior cables. Its pelvis is bare and mechanical. The gaps in its plating reveal a deeper surface, covered in a fine pattern of horizontal ridges. An internal structure is visible at its profile, showing blocks approximating human centers of mass.
The design was created to match up with Josuke's outfit, rather than its ability. Araki imagined a sailor's uniform combined with the flotation devices in a life vest.[1] In later chapters, its torso takes on a more 'heart-like' shape. It also gains a circular jewel under its neck, and its shoulder pads become triangular, jutting out of its shoulders perpendicularly. Its ears have also grown a bit longer since it first appeared.[1]
Josefumi's bubbles were initially featureless. After his fusion with Kira, Josuke's bubbles now bear a five-pointed star, similar to Kira's bubbles, and appear to be a sort of fusion between two bubbles of different sizes.
Personality
Soft & Wet's battle/Stand cry is "ORA ORA ORA ORA" similar to other members of the Joestar family, however every so often an "ORA" is switched to an "ARA". This could be the consequences of the fusion of Kira and Josefumi, being corrupted and altered.
Abilities
Soft & Wet is a humanoid close-range Stand. Although it has a rather small range of action, as it cannot go away from Josuke, Soft & Wet is an able fighter. It possesses enhanced strength, demonstrated first when it breaks a large portion of an apartment wall with a single back kick, and is also capable of extremely rapid hand-to-hand combat. However, Soft & Wet isn't capable of breaking rock.
Its strength in melee exchanges compared to other Stands has been further demonstrated in the brief encounter with Yotsuyu Yagiyama's Stand, I Am a Rock. Despite its volley of fast-paced strikes, Soft & Wet easily avoided and overcame it with a single 'Ora'-articulated strike.[2]
Plunder
According to its user, this Stand's primary ability is to "steal something from [an object] and take it for itself". Usually Josuke's bubbles must make contact with his target to do this.
Josuke can steal aspects or properties of inanimate and living things. Said properties seem to also be smaller objects that comes from a bigger object. The bubbles burst also seems to create some kind of momentum. Examples include:
- A human's sight: After bursting near his eyes, Josuke's bubble completely blinds Joshu for a few seconds.[3]
- The water contained in a human's body: With one bubble, Josuke covertly punctures several ~5mm holes in a woman's body in order to quickly drain her of water and provoke thirst.[4]
- Sound: Josuke steals the sound from a wall or a light switch, preventing any noise that would have been caused upon breaking it or turning it off.[5]
- His own facial hair: Josuke uses Soft & Wet while shaving his face when Hato and Joshu are in the bathroom as well. Soft & Wet's bubbles in the shaving foam pop onto Hato and Joshu's faces, planting Josuke's hair onto their faces instead.[6]
- A cat's fur: Seemingly without pain, Josuke removes the majority of a live cat's fur and relocates it, in the shape of a cat, in order to obscure the view of a security camera.[6]
- Friction: Josuke removes the friction from a floor, creating an ice-like slippery surface.[7]
- Small objects: Josuke when fighting the A. Phex Brothers filled his bubbles with screws and nuts to fire out upon bursting.[8]
The stolen objects can stay in the bubble and are still able to bust later (as shown with the bubble with the sound of the light switch).[5]
The exact quantity and type of object Josuke may steal, how long he may keep them, and how it is redistributed is currently undefined. Quantity-wise, Josuke has demonstrated the ability to maintain a great crowd of bubbles when shaving and length-wise, has displayed being able to store the sound of a light switch for the length of a battle. As the story has progressed Josuke has developed a greater potency in the use of his soap bubbles, now effortlessly able to conjure dozens upon dozens with a quick flurry of strikes.
Aside from the 'stealing' aspect of this power, he has also commented he is capable of using his bubbles 'offensively'. This is first demonstrated when he strikes Yotsuyu Yagiyama and generates a large soap bubble around him to lift him and carry him off to a desired location.[9]
So far the most destructive use of his powers has come in the form of striking an opponent and generating a bubble inside of their skin. When the bubble pops, it causes great damage and bleeding to the area in question. This was described by one of the A. Phex Brothers as being incredibly similar to Kira's ability.
Apparently Soft & Wet's ability cannot be applied to its own user.[7]
Fusion
In the hands of Josefumi Kujo, Soft & Wet demonstrated the ability to fuse objects together through its bubbles. Josefumi has used this ability to displace the cells of different plant species within each other in order to perform actions such as grafting branches in order to grow some stolen Rokakaka in secret.
History
In Chapter 17, Nijimura explains that the Stand may be a fusion between two other Stands; the first being Yoshikage Kira's Killer Queen, and the Stand of another, unknown person having some connection to the Higashikata family. This person is later revealed to be Josefumi Kujo, confirmed by the A. Phex Brothers after recognizing the abilities of Soft & Wet to be that of Josefumi's original Stand. It's eventually revealed that Soft & Wet was originally Josefumi's Stand, and after the fusion, may have retained some unknown portion of Kira's abilities.
Gallery
<gallery> Soft&Wet ASB.jpg|Soft & Wet's Render in All-Star Battle
S&W eoh.png|Soft & Wet's Render in Eyes of Heaven
Trivia
- Originally, Soft & Wet was planned to have the ability to attach screws to things, but the ability was ultimately given to Nut King Call instead.[10]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 JOJOVELLER: STANDS - Comments by Hirohiko Araki[1]
- ↑ JJL Chapter 32: "I Am a Rock" (2)
- ↑ JJL Chapter 1: Welcome to Morioh Town
- ↑ JJL Chapter 2: Soft & Wet (1)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 California King Bed story arc
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 JJL Chapter 12: "Paisley Park" and "Born This Way" (1)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 JJL Chapter 5: Soft & Wet (4)
- ↑ Love Love Deluxe story arc
- ↑ JJL Chapter 31: "I Am a Rock" (1)
- ↑ JOJOVELLER Mini - Stand Comments