JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (part 4) Cover Art featuring Josuke, Jotaro, Koichi, and Okuyasu
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable Cover Art

Overview

I think it’s fair to say that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the most popular anime of all time. Its influence has grown so much that at this time basically everything is considered a JoJo’s reference even if it’s clearly not.

Part of JoJo’s success is probably due to the over-the-top nature of the show. All of the character designs and color choices are turned up to 11 and so is everything that happens in the series.

The anime follows the Joestar family and their eternal fight against Dio, a vampire. It’s split into parts, with each part following a new member of the Joestar bloodline. Each part has a slightly different art style and can even be a completely different genre of anime.

**Minor Spoilers Ahead**

Phantom Blood

The first part takes place in Great Britain in the 1880’s. Jonathan Joestar is the protagonist of this part and he is the one who starts the Joestar bloodline on their eternal path of fighting Dio. Jonathan and Dio grew up together, Dio always thought that it was he who should be the one on top rather than Jonathan.

This causes him to use a mysterious stone mask which turns him into a vampire, giving him supernatural powers and eternal life. However, Jonathan learns of a technique called Hamon which allows him to fight back against Dio.

Battle Tendency

Part two takes place in New York in 1938. The protagonist this time is Joseph Joestar, the grandson of Jonathan from part one. Like his grandfather, Joseph has an affinity for using Hamon which will come in handy because there are some ancient enemies called the Pillar Men who are awakened by Nazi scientists.

Like Dio, these Pillar Men seek immortality through the destruction of human life.

Stardust Crusaders

Part 3 starts off in Japan in 1989. Jotaro Kujo, the grandson of Joseph Joestar, is the protagonist this time.

Unlike the first two parts, Hamon is phased out and replaced with Stands. Stands are a physical manifestation of one’s power which becomes visible to other stand users when active. Jotaro’s stand is known as Star Platinum and has extreme strength, speed, and accuracy.

These Stands appear due to the re-emergence of Dio, who was thought to have been killed along with Jonathan Joestar. In order to defeat Dio once again, Jotaro teams up Joseph and some other allies to go on an adventure to Egypt where Dio is hiding.

Diamond is Unbreakable

Part four takes place in the fictional city of Morioh, Japan. Josuke Higashikata is the new protagonist and is the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar.

While Dio has been defeated, the Stands have not gone away and Jotaro travels to Morioh to tell Josuke that he has a stand as well and it part of the Joestar bloodline. Due to a mysterious bow and arrow, there are other Stand users being created in the city and Jotaro wants Josuke’s help to stop it.

The main antagonist of this part doesn’t come along until later in the season in the form of a serial killer named Yoshikage Kira who is also in possession of a stand.

Joseph Joestar (left) and Caesar Zeppeli (right)
Joseph Joestar (left) and Caesar Zeppeli (right)

Conclusion

While only the first four parts are currently animated, there are a total of eight parts written currently so the JoJo’s series won’t be coming to a close any time soon.

Personally, I enjoyed Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency the most and Diamond is Unbreakable the least so far. As the parts progressed the characters seemed to become more lean and less excessively muscular which is something I felt made the earlier parts more entertaining.

Overall, I would have to give the series a 7/10 so far even though I had parts three and four rated slightly lower than the first two.

My review for part 5: Golden Wind is available here.

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