Epic Games has released a new skin named Hana on Fortnite on Thursday. Usually the release of another Fortnite girly isn’t all that notable — the in-game shop rotates out several skins daily. But this time is a little different because as fans of the popular anime and manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure have pointed out, this “Hana” bears a striking resemblance to Jolyne Cujoh, one the protagonist of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean. Now, the skin has people in their feels and wishing for a real JoJo’s collab.
The new skin looks like it was heavily based off of Jolyne to the point of it just being a copycat. Both Hana and Jolyne wear neon yellow hair and wear a similarly styled pants and crop top outfit. Hana’s top even has a strap that connects to the pants, just like in Jolyne’s design. The Hana skin also comes with an alternate form that transforms her into a demon, which sort of resembles “Killer Queen,” the Stand avatar of Yoshikage Kira from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. (If you are new here, Stands are manifestations of psychic powers characters use to fight that look like demons.)
Polygon reached out to Epic Games for comment. We will update the article as we hear back.
It honestly takes guts (and you know, a whole lot of money and a giant legal team) to possibly rip off a character design from a series that has been revered for its visually distinct character designs. Fan reactions have varied. Some have turned it into a joke, and have edited Hana into JoJo’s visual style and have made memes about the reference. Others expressed disappointment over the absence of official JoJo’s skins. The popular battle royale has had no shortage of formal anime collaborations — we’ve gotten official skins for Naruto, Dragon Ball Super, and most recently, My Hero Academia. But for now it’s looking like fans will have to settle for knock-off Jolyne.
Fortnite has a rather significant track record of developers appropriating game ideas, characters, and dances. The game once included an “Imposters mode,” which the company retroactively credited to the creators of the hit mafia game Among Us. That matter appears to have been settled since Among Us back bling came to Fortnite, but it doesn’t present an encouraging track record for the company when examining cases of potential copy cats.
