Mojo Jojo (1998 TV series)

Mojo Jojo
Biographical information
Nickname(s)	Mojo, Mojesha (in "Slumbering with the Enemy")
Physical description
Gender	Male
Out of universe information
Created by	Professor Utonium

Mojo Jojo is a supervillain in the Cartoon Network animated series The Powerpuff Girls and its anime spin-off, Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z.

He is the series most recurring antagonist and serves as the main villain in The Powerpuff Girls Movie. He is constantly plotting to take over the world and/or destroy The Powerpuff Girls. Mojo is one of the more successful villains in the series, as he defeated the Powerpuff Girls in several episodes including Mr. Mojo's Rising, Los Dos Mojos and Mo Job, and managed rule the world in Monkey See, Doggie Do and The Powerpuff Girls Rule. Diabolical, cunning and menacing, Mojo is a genius mastermind who is determined to rule the world and destroy everything that stands in his way.

Biography

As seen in The Powerpuff Girls Movie and the episode "Mr. Mojo's Rising", Mojo was originally Jojo, the Professor's hyperactive lab assistant who always broke everything. During the event of the creation of the Powerpuff Girls he pushed the Professor towards a container of Chemical X, which caused an explosion, mutating his simian DNA, turning his skin green and causing his intelligence and brain to enlarge, growing out of his skull. It also gave him new emotions like envy and inferiority. The Powerpuff Girls Movie heavily borrowed the story line of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, which was about apes becoming superior like humans and overthrowing their civilization to be Earth's rulers. Mojo Jojo took on a role similar to the character to Caesar, the ape who started the revolution.

Mojo is closely associated with the Powerpuff Girls, being partially responsible for their creation and having the same creator. After Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were created, the Professor lost interest and/or attention of Mojo's existence and forgot about him. With newfound intelligence, he donned a tattered overcoat with a partially shredded scarf and a paper bag to cover his brain and ran away, setting his home up in an alley. Spending time on the street by himself with no one to care about him almost immediately turned him cold and emotionless providing a motive as to why he would care to destroy Townsville and conquer the world. He doesn't always do this or makes plans related to this as in one episode he fell asleep while doing nothing but reading a newspaper (but was still beaten up due to circumstances beyond his control). Mojo is shown to have a civilian life despite his criminal activities; he is often shown walking around Townsville without any citizens running in fear, and even buys groceries legally. The girls also tend to treat him as a friendly neighbor, often coming to his house to ask for favors without attacking him (they do sometimes).

He is both responsible for the accident that resulted in the girls' creation as well as his own mutation, as well as the Professor's desire to create the perfect little girl. He is frequently referred to as a monkey by himself and others (in reality, chimps are apes, not monkeys). Mojo is disliked by other monkeys and apes, who think he gives them a bad name. Mojo Jojo has been featured five times in the closing "So once again, the day is saved" sequence (including the episodes "Telephonies" and "Get Back Jojo"), making him the second largest day-saver in the series after the girls. In "Child Fearing," Mojo is shown to be a great (and rather artistic) Japanese chef. Another of Mojo's hobbies is building ships in bottles and other scale models, such as in the episodes "A Very Special Blossom" and "What's the Big Idea?". He is also known for his unique mode of speech. He has pale pink eyes, green skin and black fur and wears white gloves and boots, long dark blue tunic, and a long purple cape. He also wears a white belt with a purple triangle at the buckle and a large white helmet with purple pinstripes and spots of the same color at its rim. His exposure to Chemical X led to his brain growing to a ludicrous size, outgrowing his skull and necessitating the helmet to cover and protect it.

Later in the episode "Get Back Jojo," Jojo tried to prevent the creation of the Powerpuff Girls by going back in time and destroying Professor Utonium as a child (unaware that he himself would partially cease to exist.) Not only did the Powerpuff Girls foil this plot, but the incident inspired the Professor to take up science in the first place, making Mojo Jojo responsible for the creation of his archrivals once again.

Despite being a villain, he has saved the Earth before, when a giant alien overlord had come to destroy the entire planet and force the human race to surrender their pride and bow down to it, Mojo became so stressed over the alien copying all of his plans and crushing his dreams that he brutally attacked the overlord with his karate-chopping skills and finally slammed him with a really thick bread loaf before forcing the alien to admit he was the most evil by grabbing hold of one of its legs in which the alien eventually fled in terror, thus saving the Earth. Townsville, including the Powerpuff Girls then praised him and called him their hero, but he yelled out he was EVIL! He tried to remind them that he is still a villain, but replaced the Powerpuff Girls in the heart-shaped ending sequence, where he tries to negotiate with the Narrator.

Near the end of "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!", he finally took over the world but rather than ruling it with an iron fist like he always said he would, he actually solved all of the world's problems showing that he actually isn't evil. But he later got bored with peace and went back to his evil ways.

Personality

Mojo Jojo is a notorious genius chimpanzee mad scientist, whose main goal is to destroy the Powerpuff Girls, crush Townsville (or, in Powerpuff Girls Z, New Townsville), and conquer the world, in that order. In order to do this, he spends much of his time plotting and inventing new weapons or technology. This normally comes in the shape of giant robots or large energy weapons. He is the archenemy of the girls and the creator of the Rowdyruff Boys. Somehow, he is verbose and has high-vocabulary use and long-lasting sentences. He was the Powerpuff girls' first major villain that they ever fought, as explained in "The Powerpuff Girls Movie," and is arguably their archenemy because though he saved them from the Gangreen Gang and teamed up with them to build his lab on the Townsville volcano, using the girls' powers, he did it to take over the world, but didn't tell them. In the end, the girls fought against the onslaught of "monkey madness" and defeated Mojo JoJo.

Mojo Jojo is one of The Powerpuff Girls's toughest rivals. Despite usually failing, He has even managed to defeat them several times, or at least injure them badly. Mojo JoJo is also the most persistent one, and is determined in destroying them and ruling the world. Due to his high intelligence, Mojo sometimes discovers some of The Powerpuff Girls' weaknesses (As seen in Not So Awesome Blossom). Mojo is also magnificent and cunning, and often plays with the Powerpuff girls's naivety.

Despite being rather dark-natured, Mojo lives another life outside of seeking vengeance on The Powerpuff Girls. He is sometimes seen buying food instead of stealing it, building model ships, and is also generally cordial and respectful to other citizens and strangers when not committing crimes, and not openly hostile towards the Powerpuff Girls when they're not getting in his way. He's also surprisingly fine with them borrowing things from him. He is also seen going out on cinemas and other events with them in the CN Bumpers. Sometimes, he even manages to be polite towards his victims, as long as they remain their sanity.

Mojo also has a sense of honor. In the movie, He sought revenge on humans due to his race being discriminated by them, and stayed loyal to his ape army until they ganged up on him. Mojo also sometimes works with other villains without betraying them, and appears to have a friendship with most of them (though he finds Princess Morbucks annoying due to her spoiled and rude attitude).

Voice

Mojo speaks English somewhat quickly with a low, deep, sinister voice and a "bad" Japanese accent. Instead of using simple one word answers, Mojo always gives reasons and explanations in his sentences. He has a habit of repeating phrases over and over in the style of badly dubbed Japanese movies and anime series. Mojo seems to either be unaware of this habit (as stated in "Los Dos Mojos") or to think it the proper way to speak English (as stated in "Mo' Linguish") In the episode "Los Dos Mojos", Bubbles was hit on the head with an I-beam and thought that she was Mojo, and thus spoke redundantly just as Mojo does. However, Mojo accused her of repeating phrases nonsensically (ironically repeating himself in the process: "I do not talk like that! The way I communicate is much different! I do not reiterate, repeat, reinstate the same thing over and over again. I am clear, concise, to the point..."). The Powerpuff Girls Movie revealed Mojo had gained his repetitive speech when he tried to regain control of his monkey army, each wishing to become ruler of the world.

A considered influence may also be found from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which contains following speech:

"And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once at the number three, being the third number be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Compared to a speech by Mojo Jojo from "Los Dos Mojos":

"That's all just well enough because in reality there is only room enough in this world for one Mojo Jojo. One shall be the number of Mojo Jojos in the world, and the number of Mojo Jojos in the world shall be one. Two Mojo Jojos is too many and three is right out. So the only Mojo Jojo there is room for in the world shall be me, and being the only Mojo Jojo in the world, I will rule the world in which there is only one Mojo Jojo."

Mojo's design changed throughout the years. In the first four seasons, Mojo looks like a more realistic chimp. However, after the Powerpuff Girls Movie, he looks more evil and dangerous. For example, Mojo's ears are sharper and longer, his chin is longer and his brain is bigger.

Skills and Abilities

Due to his gigantic brain, Mojo is extremely talented, especially at building hi-tech objects and weapons. He is also cunning, able to manipulate the Girls through their naivety and discovering their weaknesses.

In the movie, Mojo was seen to have all sorts of powers, including fire breath, shooting spikes from his hand, Size-Shifting, and causing headaches by clapping, all until his powers got removed by the Antidote X. That is not to say that he still isn't strong, however.

Despite not having the same powers as the Girls, Mojo is otherwise seen being a strong, skilled, tactical, and experienced fighter. He even once defeated all the members of The Gangreen Gang by himself without moving a finger, and another time fought against them along with HIM and Fuzzy Lumpkins. Mojo Jojo also beat up a giant overlord (who even The Powerpuff Girls didn't know how to defeat) just by using his fist and a piece of bread, even to the point where the overlord started to fear him. He also teamed up with the other villains and eventually defeated the Powerpuff Girls in several episodes, but Mojo also fought all 3 of them by himself in "Mr. Mojo's Rising" and The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes

• To take over Townsville, and eventually the world (Possibly first episode)
• The Rowdyruff Boys
• Building model Ships
• Bananas
• Classical Music
• Fuzzy Lumpkins (as an ally in Telephonies)
• HIM (frankly as a friend and ally)

Dislikes

• Being annoyed
• The Powerpuff Girls (Especially during battle)
• Failure
• The Gangreen Gang
• HIM (at times)
• Bratty children

Episode Appearances

• Monkey See, Doggie Do
• Telephonies
• Mr. Mojo's Rising
• Bubblevicious
• The Bare Facts
• Just Another Manic Mojo
• The Rowdyruff Boys
• Uh Oh Dynamo (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Supper Villain
• Birthday Bash
• You Snooze, You Lose
• Los Dos Mojos
• A Very Special Blossom
• Daylight Savings (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Mo Job
• Cootie Gras
• The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Mojo Jonesin'
• Slumbering with the Enemy
• Child Fearing
• Criss Cross Crisis
• Bought and Scold (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Monkey See, Doggy Two
• Candy is Dandy
• Powerprof.
• Moral Decay
• Meet the Beat-Alls
• Film Flam (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Get Back Jojo
• Stray Bullet
• Forced Kin
• Not So Awesome Blossom
• Shotgun Wedding (Pictured)
• Octi-Gone
• Divide and Conquer (Pictured)
• Save Mojo
• 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• The Boys are Back in Town (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey
• Pee Pee G's
• The City of Clipsville
• Documentary
• Bang For Your Buck
• Sweet 'N Sour
• Prime Mates
• Makes Zen to Me
• Live and Let Dynamo
• Mo' Linguish
• A Made Up Story (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• Custody Battle
• Simian Says
• West in Pieces (As Mojo the Kid)
• Crazy Mixed-Up Puffs
• Roughing It Up (Non-Speaking Cameo)
• What's the Big Idea?
• The Powerpuff Girls Rule!

Appearances in other media

Mojo in an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends next to Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and an angry Eduardo.

• Mojo had a cameo appearance in the pilot movie of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: "House of Bloo's", which Wilt said he was an unimaginative friend (copied from TV).
• Mojo also appeared in one of TNT's "What is Drama?" segments.
• Mojo appears on the back cover of the band Gorillaz' B-Sides album "G-Sides." He is on the shirt of band member 2D.
• The 2000 CD The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains, released by Rhino Records, features a cut called "Go Monkey Go" by Devo. The corresponding music video was occasionally shown on Cartoon Network.
• In the Honest Trailer for 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes', one of the characters was jokingly renamed as Mojo Jojo.

Influences on design

• Mojo was reputedly inspired by Dr. Gori, the villain of the Japanese superhero show Spectreman (both are green-faced ape-like super geniuses prone to flamboyant monologues).
• Mojo's brain helmet resembles the head of the Japanese superhero "The Kagestar."
• Mojo's clothing also bears some resemblance and colour to that of Piccolo's from Dragonball Z. Both of them also have a stoic face expression.
• Despite being directly inspired by Dr. Gori, Mojo Jojo also embodies many World War II-era American stereotypes of the Japanese, who were perceived as diabolical specimens bent on taking over the world and were frequently portrayed as monkeys in political cartoons at the time.
• Mojo is also slightly inspired by Caesar from the 1960's Planet of the Apes tv series. They're both motivated by seeking veangence on humans and had planned a war for feeling that the humans have stolen their world.

In Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z

Mojo Jojo also appears in the anime version of the show, where he is simply called "Mojo." He was not a lab assistant in the anime, and as such had nothing to do with the creation of the Powerpuff Girls. Instead he was an ordinary zoo monkey who was made fun of by people and decided to seek revenge on humanity after the light from Chemical Z made him intelligent. He is physically more powerful than the original version of the character, able to fly and lay a dozen punches at one time. However, he acts more thoughtless and childish than the original Mojo does. Unlike his original incarnation, Mojo frequently displays an immature attitude and makes the most childish flaws throughout his plans. While the original Mojo was portrayed as one of the most competent and genuinely threatening villains in the series, the anime version is more of a rather inept comic relief and is seen by the Powerpuff Girls as more of an annoying nuisance than a dangerous enemy. The anime Mojo also does not repeat himself redundantly as the original Mojo does, instead ending most sentences with saying his name (in the English dub, he often talks in the third person point of view). He also repeatedly questions the girls on why they don't leave him alone apparently thinking that the powerpuffs are the bad girls and not him. He is also the same size as the original Mojo, but tends to wear a mechanized walking suit to make himself taller and more human in proportion to his giant head. The walking suit is never fully revealed in the show, but a sketch from the pre-production phase shows what it may look like (Or it maybe that he also have size alteration ability, since in Episode 50, Him's Big Plan: Part 2, he ate a lot of food and became fat, only to revert to normal shortly, and a walking suit cannot just simply become fatter along with the user, so size alteration is more likely to how Mojo can appear big and small at times).

Powers and abilities

Mojo's skills and superpowers include

• Advanced engineering and mechanics skills (just like his American counterpart)
• Temporarily given the Powerpuff Girl's powers, as well as a Super Brain Blast (one episode only)
• Flying (Powerpuff Girls Z)
• Roto Mojo (A technique in Powerpuff Girls Z, when he spins his cape like a rotor blade.)
• In the episode Forced Kin Mojo Jojo got so enraged that he could unleash a primal fury. This rage let him defeat a villain that was no match for the Powerpuff Girls, using only brute force delivered by his fists and a loaf of bread. During this time he appeared to be capable of flying as well. Two episodes have shown Mojo Jojo in this state, The Rowdyruff Boys besides this one.

Gallery

Click here to visit Mojo Jojo (1998 TV series)'s gallery.

Trivia

• Mojo's voice actor is Roger L. Jackson in the series, but in Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, it is Nolan North.
• Mojo is the most recurring villain in the entire series, appearing in 53 episodes.
• Mojo is the villain that gets beat up the most by The Powerpuff Girls, often brutally at that.
• Mojo has been featured 5 times on the heart-shaped ending sequence.
• In the Cartoon Network Fusionfall game, we learn that Mojo is afraid of Bubbles the most out of the Powerpuff Girls because of the one time in "Bubblevicious" where she beat him by herself out of immense rage.
• His plans fail sometimes.
• Mojo in Powerpuff Girls Z was bearing the Resemblance of Aku from Samurai Jack Series and Kaos from Skylanders Videogame Series.
• Mojo in the Powerpuff Girls Z Series was bearing the resemblance of Lelouch vi Britannia and Sauzku Kururugi as Twin Zeros in Code Geass Series.
• Ironically Mojo did two things leading to the creation of the Powerpuff Girls: first he gave the Professor motive to create them ("Get Back Jojo"), and second he pushed Professor Utonium which caused him to smash into the Chemical X that poured into the perfect girl formula, causing a giant explosion that resulted in the girls being born. ("Mr. Mojo's Rising", The Powerpuff Girls Movie)
• According to Craig McCracken's scale of the villains on The Powerpuff Girls, Mojo is right in the middle, so occasionally he could be both evil and dumb, despite being the most intelligent and strategic of the villains.
• Mojo has his own leitmotif, a snippet of which can be heard during the opening when the villains are shown.
• Undoubtedly, Mojo's greatest weakness is his constant cackling, which is enough of a distraction for anyone - including the girls - to kick his butt.
• Mojo Jojo peed himself once, towards the end of the episode Pee Pee G's.