Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Animation

For this week’s ABC Challenge J is for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I hate to admit this but prior to this week I had minimal knowledge of this series. I knew it was a long-lasting shounen series that had been referenced to in other shows I had seen, I just never read or watched any of the franchise prior to this week. And yes I know how bad that is. I mean literally the series has had over 900 chapters as a manga and a couple different anime series. I really decided to watch this when I saw that Toonami was going to air it. Technically, I’m only reviewing the first season of the Jojo anime, but it’s the only season that is complete in English. Just as an early indicator of my thoughts on this series, I’m probably going to watch the sub version of seasons 2 and 3 at some point. But without further ado I bring you my review of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Animation. Spoilers ahead and you have been warned.

General Overview

This is one of those cases that I thought it prudent to give a general overview of the series before going into specifics of the show itself. Basically Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is an anthology series where each story is separate but connected. The series follows a family over the course of generations fighting forces beyond human comprehension. Specifically in the first two parts they fought against zombies and vampires (both traditional and non-traditional). One commonality for the series is the main protagonist having the nickname Jojo. Another common trend throughout the series is members of the family dying by tragic circumstance, usually by the age of 40. The series makes a lot of references to music. Specifically, every main character’s name is a reference to either a song or a band. The series is both serious and comedic, which I know is an oxymoron, but hear me out. For the most part, the series has very serious undertones, however a lot of the characters are very over-the-top wacky. I mean we have characters that literally fight with bubbles, wine, hair, scarves, and clackers. Other examples of quirky things in the series are the ultimate family secret fighting technique: RUN AWAY, using hot abs to thaw out a frozen arm, or literally dropping an anvil on a villain’s head. I can’t even begin to make this up. But now that you have the basics let’s move on to the actual stories.

Part 1: Phantom Blood

As I mentioned previously, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is an anthology series. So the first third of the anime and the last two-thirds are two completely different stories. The first third is known as Phantom Blood.

Phantom Blood is at its essence a personal strife between two young men. Your main character is Jonathan Joestar. He is the young son of an aristocrat, who wants nothing more to be a perfect gentleman. Early in the series, his father years after falsely believing that he was saved by a man named Dario Brando adopts Dario’s young son Dio Brando. Jonathan and Dio are basically completely opposite. Jonathan is a kind respectful person that follows his gentlemanly code above all else. Physically, he is a tall, large, and strong man. His flaws are his lack of refinement and never being quite as smart or as skilled as Dio is. Dio is a cunning manipulative person that sees himself as a god among men. Physically, he is almost as tall as Jonathan but is skinnier and faster. In everything that he does he tries to one up Jonathan. When it comes to schooling, boxing, even just being a gentleman he has to be better than Jonathan. He even has to steal Jonathan’s girlfriend’s first kiss to prove he is better. Dio is basically a complete asshole. After the very first episode which is just him as a kid, he has already tried to ruin Jonathan’s life and then after he lost in a fist fight with Jonathan to get revenge puts Jonathan’s dog in an incinerator. I couldn’t talk about Dio after that episode without referring to him as Dio ‘f***ing’ Brando. Believe me, I love him as a character, but he is horrible.

Seven years later, both Jonathan and Dio are acting friendly towards one another. You discover that Jonathan’s father is bedridden. Jonathan is informed that Dio is the one that brings his father his medicine which leads him to believe he is poisoning him. Dio decides that he must kill Jonathan and decides to use a stone mask that reacted to his blood seven years earlier and sprouted spikes into the head. Dio tests this on another human that then turns into a vampire. When Dio comes back from his test Jonathan is there to reveal that he has proof that Dio has been poisoning his father. Dio with nothing to lose puts the mask on and attempts to have Jonathan’s blood start his transformation to a vampire. Jonathan’s father jumps in front of him to save him and he then dies. Dio takes the blood from Jonathan’s father and starts the reaction with the mask. As that is occurring he is shot several times by the police. After everyone has thought the situation has calmed down Dio gets back up and starts killing everyone. Jonathan figures out that fire can harm Dio. So in a desperate attempt to kill Dio, Jonathan burns down his ancestral home with Dio inside of it. Barely escaping with his life, Jonathan thinks himself victorious.

A short time later, Jonathan and his best friend, Robert E. O. Speedwagon, meet a character by the name of Baron William Antonio Zeppeli. Zeppeli explains that Dio is alive and hunting for blood and followers. Jonathan determines it is his responsibility to defeat Dio. Zeppeli introduces a way to fight and eventually kill Dio called Hamon. Hamon is an energy basically identical to the sun’s rays that is produced by breathing in a certain way. Hamon energy can be transferred from person to person or from person to object. This makes it so that you some flexibility in your Hamon fighting style. See the aforementioned bubbles, clackers, wine, etc. It’s main weaknesses are that the person has to have a concentrated breathing and flash freezing the blood makes it so that they can’t attack. Also inorganic objects cannot store Hamon energy unlike organic objects so you must physically be touching the object to be transferring your energy.

Jonathan and crew are then attacked by two zombies that were former guards for Mary, Queen of Scots. During these fights we see the full extent of Jonathan’s character. One of the zombie guards Jonathan sensed was not evil and he showed him compassion and was remorseful when his foe died again. Then he showed a strong ferocity against the other guard after he disrespected his fallen comrade and ripped Zeppeli in half. Jonathan then has the final confrontation with Dio. I know I said spoiler alert, but I’m not going to spoil the very ending of part 1 because it’s quite shocking.

Part 2: Battle Tendency

Battle Tendency picks up 50 years after the end of Phantom Blood. Your main protagonist is the young, arrogant, and hot-headed yet still kind-hearted, Joseph Joestar. Joseph is the grandson of Jonathan, but prior to the events of the story did not know much of the events of 50 years ago. Joseph is naturally gifted when it comes to Hamon, even though he does not fully understand it.

The story picks up as Speedwagon and few other former comrades find a tomb that has several of the stone masks as well as a man in a pillar. One of the former comrades, Straizo, killed all of his former comrades and nearly killed Speedwagon in order to gain eternal youth from the mask. After that he heads to New York City in order to kill the only other people who know of the masks, the Joestars. This is where he gets in conflict with Joseph. Eventually, he overloaded his own body with Hamon energy and died. Prior to dying he reveals the presence of the Pillar Man and that he dumped the bodies of his former comrades for fear of resurrecting said Pillar Man. Joseph then makes a trip down to Mexico to save Speedwagon.

In Mexico, Speedwagon has been captured by the Nazis. The Nazis have been interrogating Speedwagon about the Pillar Man. The Nazis then resurrect the Pillar Man and he proceeds to kill everyone except Speedwagon, a Nazi major by the name of Rudol von Stroheim, and Joseph who had just arrived. The Pillar Man which was named San Viento is shown to be highly intelligent, be able to absorb his victim from any body contact, be able to absorb vampires, and to freely manipulate his body structure. It is also revealed that like the vampires, sunlight will kill him. Joseph uses this knowledge that sunlight will harm him to attack him with Hamon energy. He does enough to tie San Viento up and attempt to drag him to the open air. San Viento puts up a pretty good fight which leads first to Stroheim sacrificing his leg and then blowing himself up. Joseph finally defeats San Viento when they both jump into a well and the high noon sun’s rays reflect on San Viento and he turns into stone. It is later shown that the stone remains were placed under a constant UV light. Also a snake turns to stone when it touches the remains proving that San Viento is still alive. His presence is never acknowledged from that point on.

After being informed that a second Pillar Man site is in Rome, Joseph is introduced to a Hamon expert to assist with dealing with the new Pillar Men. The Hamon expert happens to be Zeppeli’s grandson, Caesar Zeppeli. Caesar is a stuck up womanizer that values family pride above all else. He and Joseph initially clash due to their conflicting personalities. However over the course of the series, they develop a strong respect for one another. Caesar takes them to Pillar Men site, where to their horror everyone is dead. Their Nazi driver, who was one of Caesar’s good friends, is also nonchalantly killed in front of them. In a fit of rage, Caesar attacks one of the Pillar Men by the name of Wamuu. Wamuu defeats Caesar pretty easily and leaves him injured. Then Joseph attacks Wamuu and does manage to get a hit on him, however Wamuu overpowers him. Joseph then feigns cowardice in order to lead Wamuu away from Caesar and Speedwagon. Joseph, in a moment of sheer brilliance, momentarily saves his life by challenging Wamuu to a better fight in one month’s time. Wamuu and his superior, Esidisi accept the challenge and place rings around Joseph’s heart and trachea that would kill him in a month so that he wouldn’t back out from their challenge.

In order to train Joseph for the coming fight, Caesar takes him to his master Lisa Lisa. Lisa Lisa is a very strong, both physically and mentally, woman. She is a very calm and maintains her composure throughout most of the story. She is also the only character to show no fear in the face of the Pillar Men. Lisa Lisa and her comrades put Joseph and Caesar through a hellish month of training. Just they are about to graduate Esidisi shows up to take the Red Stone of Aja that Lisa Lisa has. The Red Stone of Aja basically can take the Pillar Men from their very strong but still somewhat vulnerable state to a near level of godhood. Literally they would have control over all organic life. Esidisi kills Joseph’s mentor and then Joseph fights him. Joseph eventually defeats him, however his brain and blood vessels survived. Esidisi takes over Lisa Lisa’s assistant’s body and ships the Red Stone of Aja to the Pillar Men leader, Kars. Joseph and Caesar save the assistant by using their Hamon energy to cancel each others’ out and forcing Esidisi out of her body. Esidisi is then killed by the sunlight.

The Red Stone of Aja is found during the shipping process by a revived Stroheim. Stroheim has received a cyborg body, complete with a full arsenal of weapons. Stroheim captures Joseph and the gang and they agree to assist each other in fighting the Pillar Men. Kars shows up to claim the stone. Stroheim challenges him to a duel and is soundly defeated. Kars stakes claim to the stone, however Joseph reclaims it and Kars goes to a local ancient castle. Caesar later decides he is fed up with inaction and goes to challenge Kars himself. You are given Caesars’ backstory which was that he despised his father for years thinking he abandoned him and his siblings. When he is a little older he meets his father again. Who has to save him from a trap set up by Wamuu and does not recognize his own son. Caesar then realizes that his father didn’t abandon them, he just knew he had to complete his family’s legacy. Also that his father was selflessly helping people around the world. Back to the present, Caesar challenges Wamuu. When going in for the final blow, Caesar inadvertently casts a shadow on Wamuu that gives him enough time to kill Caesar. Caesar in his last moments makes a blood ball of his Hamon energy to give to Joseph. Wamuu in respect of his foe allows the transfer of the Hamon energy.

Joseph and Lisa Lisa show up at the castle to find that Caesar has been killed. In a moment of lost composure, both of them cry at his death and vow to avenge it. Joseph and Lisa Lisa then find Kars and as they are about to be overrun by their vampire’s threaten to destroy the stone unless they have a one-on-one fight. Kars accepts. The fight between Joseph and Wamuu is a chariot death match. Eventually, Joseph defeats Wamuu but like his grandfather shows compassion for his fallen foe. Lisa Lisa then has her fight with Kars and appears to be victorious. It turned out however that he replaced himself with one of his vampires. Angered by Kars’s cheap shot, Joseph challenges Kars. After nearly being defeated, Joseph finally gains the upper hand in his fight with Kars when Speedwagon and Stroheim show up UV lights. Kars appears defeated and Joseph the victor. However, Kars had merged the Red Stone of Aja and the Stone Mask to make himself the ultimate being. Joseph then leads Kars on a chase to an active volcano. Joseph believes that the molten lava will kill Kars. This proves to not be the case as Kars encases himself in an air pocket armor and survives. Joseph uses the Red Stone of Aja to cause an eruption that sends Kars into space finally defeating him.

Overall comments and conclusions

Both parts of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure were each brilliant in their own way. Personally, I found the overall more personal story in Phantom Blood to be better than the more traditional beat-em up story from Battle Tendency. I thought that Dio was, by a nautical mile, the best villain, however I also thought that Joseph was, overall, a better main character. This is not to say I didn’t like Jonathan I just found Joseph’s personality more entertaining. Again both stories have their own great characters and moments. Each is worthy of praise.

I would highly recommend this series to anyone. It’s title is basically perfect because it is definitely bizarre, but it’s not so overbearing in its strangeness that it’s unwatchable. In fact, it is a fantastically written series. I appreciate how this series strives to not be just another cookie cutter shounen series. As I said, I’m probably going to watch a sub version of seasons 2 and 3. That’s actually saying a lot. Watch this series you will not be disappointed.