JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012)

Overview: Nearly every review of JoJo 2012 praises it as a MASTERPIECE, because it represents a triumphant return for the macho manly anime of the past. I have a slightly different perspective than most critics on MAL, so unsurprisingly my conclusion was a little different as well. If I was born between 1995 and 2000 and grew up during the "sparkling kawaii desu moe" era of anime where every male protagonist is a whiny pussy, I too would be inclined to give Jojo a 10/10 out of sheer novelty alone. However, I was born in the 1980s and I actually remember the GAR days of manlyanime. In the 1990s, you watched anime largely by going to the video store and renting whatever anime was available. Almost ALL of it was cheaply licensed, ultraviolent OVAs from the late 80s and early 90s. Were those anime better? Well believe it or not...no, not really. There were indeed some awesome anime like Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken), but for every Fist of the North Star there was absolute garbage like: Genocyber, Violence Jack, MD Geist, Mad Bull 34, Angel Cop, etc. Simply being macho didn't make an anime good by default back in the 1990s, and that shouldn't be any different today! I am going to look at Jojo from a fair and objective view rather then simply heap praise on it based on principle alone. Story and Characters: 6/10 (SPOILERS!) The 2012 JoJo anime adapts the first 2 arcs of the manga, so this is the JoJo series you should watch first sequentially! JoJo is about the Joestar family and their epic feats of badassery over the generations. The first generation of Joestar asskicking takes place in Victorian England with Jonathan Joestar, whom I will call Johnny JoJo. The dumbass father of Johnny JoJo decides to adopt the blatantly evil son of a man who "saved his life" when he had a carriage accident. Even though it is later revealed that papa Joestar knew that Brando was a dishonest man and wasn't actually trying to save him, he adopts Dio anyway and continuously believes Dio over his own son despite the fact that Dio may as well have "evil" tattooed on his forehead. Dio is a 1 dimensional bully who exists to make Johnny JoJo miserable, steal his father's affection, and ultimately try steal his inheritance. Dio will perform some act of over the top evil like brutally murder Johnny's dog, and papa Joestar will instantly believe Dio's side of the story, simply to frustrate the viewers. This is like that Spongebob episode where Spongebob adopts an evil lamprey as a pet and keeps blaming the obviously innocent Gary the snail whenever anything goes wrong. The difference is that JoJo isn't a comedy cartoon for small children. It is a Shonen demographic anime that actually expects us to take this seriously! Johnny JoJo discovers that Dio is attempting to poison his father and inherit the fortune, so he goes to find the poison shop where Dio has been purchasing his product. Johnny JoJo proves Dio is guilty, but Dio uses a mystical artifact Johnny has been studying to transform himself into a vampire and start wrecking shit. Dio kills papa Joestar and seemingly gets killed in turn by Johnny, but it turns out Dio survived and wants to create a vampire army to take over the world. Johnny takes some mystical martial arts training to unleash sunlight with punches (just go with it) and goes on a crusade to take out Dio. Unfortunately, that son of a bitch simply won't stay down and eventually Johnny must sacrifice his own life in manly fashion to save his wife and unborn child. I'm going to come right out and say it, Dio is a SHIT excuse for a villain. There are many things that can make a great villain: complex motivations, based on a historical figure, or even being extremely evil in an interesting fashion that is fun and frightening to watch. Dio is a cliche bully archetype that gets turned into a vampire, then decides to take over the world because he wasn't already cliche enough. In a way, Dio does remind me of the villains from oldschool GAR anime like: the bullies in Genocyber that randomly decide to rape a homeless child, or the bully in Devilman who decides to butcher the class bunnies for no reason. However, those bullies were quickly and brutally dispatched because that kind of character isn't very interesting. They exist to piss off the audience and grant a cathartic revenge fantasy when they get killed. Dio just lingers on and on like a sulfurous fart that won't go away. Johnny JoJo is a gentlemen and a badass, but his character depth never goes beyond that. He doesn't have a strong internal struggle or ambiguous goals or anything that makes complex character. I know that isn't the point of JoJo, but a show aimed at older audiences should probably try to have SOME level of complexity unless the action is so awesome it doesn't matter. However, JoJo isn't a non-step action violence fest like Hellsing Ultimate. JoJo actually does take a LOT of time to focus on plot and characters, which is why it is disappointing that the plot isn't very good and the characters are paper thin archetypes. After a decent but certainly not masterful arc 1, we get to see the adventures of Johnny JoJo's grandson: Joey JoJo. Joey JoJo must go to Mexico to fight against the evil vampires that created the mystical mask from part 1. He teams up with the grandson of one his grandfather's old allies along with a surprisingly friendly Nazi dude named Rudol Von Stroheim. I guess the writer of JoJo meant to use the name "Rudolph" because "Rudol" isn't even a real German name. Rudol's catchphrase is German (insert whatever) is the best! Characters with goofy catchphrases can work like Korbowitz in Berserk or Armstrong in FMA, but I wasn't really feeling this one. Honestly I just found myself wishing this guy would be replaced with Captain Germany the manly werewolf from Hellsing. This second arc does have some pretty awesome action scenes including Joey JoJo punching the vampire leader into Outer fucking SPACE! However, the plot and characters still come WAY short of being called a masterpiece or anything approaching a masterpiece. Art: 7/10 The art and animation is heavily stylized and admittedly does a good job creating the look and feel of anime from yesteryear. There are lots of still-shots to recreate the look of cheap animation from the days where anime had extremely limited budgets. There are plenty of "action lines" that the old anime had in abundance especially pre-1990. I think my favorite part of JoJo might actually be the art because it really does recapture and recreate what anime used to look like and now no longer even resembles. Overall: 6/10 Does JoJo do a decent job capturing what old school anime used to look and feel like? Yeah, and that is why it isn't a bad show. Does being retro make it a masterpiece by default? Absolutely not. The story may not suffer from pointless "tournament arcs" like so many shonen anime, but the plot isn't honestly very good. Like the characters, the plot is very simplistic and doesn't exactly carry JoJo into the realms of truly great anime. The male characters are actually manly and don't resemble either Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina or Shinji Ikari from NGE, the 2 characters that basically convinced anime executives that Otaku identify more with Beta males and completely neutered anime. However, JoJo's mediocre action and old school animation doesn't quite make up for its simplistic and overall lackluster story and characters. At the end of the day, JoJo 2012 is a good anime, but is JUST a good anime. It doesn't nearly deserve the ratings it has received on MAL, or the praise it receives on 4chan. I WOULD recommend it to younger viewers who want to see what old anime was like, but I caution against the kind of blind praise that has already made this anime absurdly overrated.

It's time to take a trip back to the 1800s, an age of time when the Napoleonic era and the rise of many colonies took place among various empires. History isn't easy to trace with certain origins but Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has its origins traced back with its original series. The fantastic journey finally begins! Yup, it's here and and this series suddenly is one hell of an anime that will not only bring some nostologia but excitement to you. Join Jojo Joestar and his many bizarre adventures as he embarges on a journey and learn about the wonders of the world. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (2012)is a reboot in the title of the same name based on a collection of manga written by Hirohiko Araki. He has also collaborated in other works but Jojo is his most famous presentation. The series picks up its way from the 19th century focused on Jojo Joestar and...his bizarre adventures as he fights equally bizarre adversaries. I have not read or seen the original series but this reboot has made a strong impression on me. The premise of the series is based the Joestar family. He is the titular character and judging by the title, the adventures are based on his experiences. To me, I consider this series to be a classic, nostalgic, and exhilarating tale. It is nostalgic because the period of time the series takes place. Think about it: the 19th century. It's a time when technology is nothing compared to what we have today. Everything is realistic, artistic, and presented in a natural form. This setup is quite lucid and easy to understand with even new viewers to anime. Hell, if I could understand it, anyone probably can. The story starts off well and immediately wastes no time getting to the drama. In fact, we are already introduced some intense rivalry between Jonathan Joestar (Jojo) and Dio. It gets to the point and doesn't push itself to make any surprises. Well, I for one was surprised by how well the series executed its starting points and made a strong impression on me. On the surface, viewers can clearly see that Jonathan Joestar (Jojo) is a nobleman with a heart of gold and cares others above his well-being. This is proved through his actions, words, and his way of helping out others. He is also seen as a tough fellow who doesn't let anyone push him around, especially Dio. This clearly sets up the rivalry between Jojo and Dio as the two seems to be on the opposite side of things. We already know that Jojo is a noble man. However, Dio is far from that as viewers can see him as a selfish, impure, and ill-mannered individual. His behavior, dialogue, and actions makes him a dangerous adversary as he not only has the physical prowess but aptitude and brilliance to match his capacity. This combination makes the rivalry that more exciting. To add onto to the drama, we also have a love interest. Unfortunately, events becomes inevitable as a seemingly potential romance is ruined by Dio. Talk about being a spoiled brat. It is quite intense to watch the drama between the duo especially when we see the clear gap between the the two. It's almost like David vs. Goliath as Jojo plays the role of the underdog. Beyond the rivalry, there also exists a mysterious object that can seemingly turn the tide. It is a mysterious mask that seems to have ancient powers. These powers manifests by the spills of blood which leads to devastating results. It's definitely fun and exciting to see how far the rivalry will take now given that lives are also at stake. The story focuses on this mysterious object and among other artifacts later on. In fact, the story itself is actually divided into two separate arcs that follows a different generations of Jojo Joestar. The first arc known as Phantom Blood details on the rivalry between the duo. The second arc marks a glorious adventure starring Joseph Joestar (a descendent from the previous storyline) along with a new friend. Together, they embark on an adventure like never before taking on adversaries, improving themselves, and learning about the world and its wonders. In terms of the story, I found both arcs presented quite well. The first arc, also known as Phantom Blood, starts off in an explosive and dramatic action detailing the intense rivalry between Jojo and Dio. On the other hand, the second arc (known as Battle Tendency) follows on a more adventurous tale in contrast to Phantom Blood. We meet the next descendent of the Jojo generation. He meets Caesar and although their relationship starts off like oil and water, over time, the duo gains mutual respect for one and the other. Unfortunately though, there is more conflict than just that as a trio of powerful antagonists are introduced in the latter half. This threat puts Jojo and Caesar in jeopardy and forces them to train themselves like never before. Ultimately, the two arcs are separate entities but are quite an entertaining watch. Now, I probably haven't touched much on the topic of this as much as I should have been but perhaps the characters of the series are the most interesting aspects that connects the show together. Jojo is the dynamic titular character of the series which follows a generation pattern. I've already talked about the first generation but both Jonathan and Joseph Joestar shares many aspects in terms of personality. Both characters are fiercely loyal, passionate, courageous, loving, and always looks after other people's well-being above their own. Although lacking in depth initution or acumen, they both are often able to come up with strategies that catches their adversaries off on guard. In particular, it is their determination to protect what they hold dear that pushes them to be their best. Let's not get too attached though because the Jojo franchise also offers many other fascinating characters from its collection. Previous characters such as Erina and Speedweagon makes their returns to provide valuable assistance. More importantly though are the new characters that really makes this show shine. We have Caesar who viewers may see as a polar opposite of Joseph Joestar. Caesar is a man that is confident, casual, and often likes to hang around the ladies. In sharp contrast, he is a man that Jojo loathes at first. Yet later on, we can see that they get along quite well and even risks lives for one and the other. On a more mature side, there is also Lisa Lisa, a deadly beauty to the eye who provides invaluable aid to Jojo and Caesar. Like most battle shounens, there are the antagonists. In the first arc, there's Dio. The second half introduces a trio of antagonists known as the Pillar Men. Their elemental powers pushes the duo of Jojo and Caesar over the edge and presents an intense challenge like they never faced before. It's also humorous to watch some of their random gags sometimes even if they are randomly peculiar; i.e. Wham's tendency to reflexively attack others when someone steps on his shadow, AC/DC's crying, and Cars' passion to protect living things (other than humans of course). The action of the series is ridiculous. However, I mean 'ridiculous' in a good way because the over exaggerated way it is being portrayed. Every attack is spoken directly with dialogue and a stamp of dynamic that is humorous, entertaining, delightful, and grabs interest to viewers. Who wants to just watch characters shouting resolves like “I'm going to save you, I swear!” all the time? In this series, the characters presents their attacks in an enthralling way that stimulates attention while often making jokes about the dialogues themselves. Some of the characters' names are parodies as well such as AC/DC that is based off the Australia band of the same name. Most of the male characters also are manly with their flexed biceps and strong attitudes. It contrasts some of the shows I've seen and presented in a more old school way. The female characters in the show are also well portrayed with their maturity rather than being a stubborn, jealous, or tsundere as of many today's anime series. As for the animation, the series has a edgy way of production. The artwork might not be what people see nowadays. In fact, it's more classic, nostalgic, and holds that old 1900's style. David Production (Level E, Inu x Boku SS, Dogs: Bullets & Carnage) handles the artwork and they did a beautifully good job in my opinion. It protrays the old 1800s well with the old school vehicles, Victorian style architectures, and some of the ancient artifacts. It's like going back in time and relieving those old school memories. The soundtrack of the series is also well performed. The first and second OP songs are very well orchestrated that is classic to the ears. Hell, I could set "BLOODY STREAM" by Coda on repeat all night long. It's not only entertaining to watch but also artistic with those manly poses from the main characters. Its definite old school theme sticks well is adapted. Likely wise, the ED song produces a similar feeling of that nostologia of the 1800's where adventures and collecting treasures are a source of many people's inspirations. Overall, this series gets a score of “9” from me. It has gar characters, that old school feeling, and very entertaining dialogues. It doesn't force itself either because all of them are spoken with humor as opposed for a purpose. The characters are appealing with their personalities and their interactions. From what I see, they are natural and falls in the case of a glorious presentation. The nostalgic music and artwork also gives fresh breath of cool air. No random fan service, no confusing plot twists, no cheap humor, no regrets. This series is definitely one hell of an adventure and worth your time.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure isn't just about silly glitz and glamour that some people seem to assume upon viewing. When watching it, It almost gave me that first impression, but to my curiosity and interest it became something more than just this being a generic show. It is an undeniably fun series first of all. Secondly, it is a shounen that is unique and different to a hell of a lot of shounen animes out there today that I feel bring an interesting blend of Dark comical yet a wacky and serious tone to viewing and the thing I love the most about this show is thatits able to shift really well in between those elements where other shows seemingly get lost within those transition and after just give up its own originality of what it was and what it wanted it to be in the process. Thankfully JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a show that never loses its own identity or what its trying to be which is why its one of my favourite animes Its like to entertain in style which is why I appreciate this a lot. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga is something ongoing from this point on in its entirety to the story stretching back to 1986 when other well known shows like Hokuto no ken, Dragon ball, Sakigake!! Otokojuku etc so yeah it goes back a long time to the grand daddies of the shounen genres of the past. As I give my review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012) without spoilers please be aware that this anime only covers the events of 2 timeline within the story first being Part 1 Phantom Blood containing episodes from 1 - 9 and Part 2 Battle Tendency containing episodes from 10 - 26 showing the main characters each being a member of the Joestar family in different timelines along with a different story from the manga as you see the family tree starts to keep going and going embracing a previous heritage notion from their own. Now to get a look into about the main characters we begin our focus on the life of the very first Joestar of the bloodline and of course in the story of Part 1 in the year of 1887. Johnathan Joestar: The main protagonist of part 1 hes a decent physically strong british nobleman as well being a Manly son of a gun, he is always thinking positive about those around him and is very polite, he seems like an ordinary gentleman. But he has a dark cloud looming around him in the form of his step brother Dio who turns his world upside down and for the most part are always against one another forming a rocky yet typical rivalry between the 2 that later on becomes the very battle between good versus evil where johnathan has to match his demonic and vastly cunning step brother by learning about a power source known as The ripple which allows him to use a mystical ancient martial art that mixes in naturalistic elements to combat against Dio's power and speaking of Dio.. Dio Brando: The main antagonist of part 1 (as well as a my favourite character) He is not only a sinister human being at heart but also has a deep seeded hate towards his step brother Jonathan due to his social standing at the beginning of his childhood being raised by a poor Englishmen Dario Brando with a deceitful, uncaring personality who then became Dio's father after finding him in a wreckage of a carriage crash that had involve the father and mother of Jonathan. Dario raises Dio due to the circumstance that he did so only to gain profit off the joestar of some of their possessions resounding into a horrible upbringing of Dio in his childhood that grew with a passion to hate step father Dario and than later turns his attention to becoming part of the joestar family and tearing them apart from the inside. Dio is not only a constant threat to the joestar family in the series and within the manga itself but that he also later on is possessed by a strange stone mask that resides in the joestar's household that he later takes giving him deadly mysterious powers of a vampire. On top of that he has an unquenchable appetite for being ambitious and dangerous. what I like is how crafty his personality seems to be, he might seem like a stereotypical villain but he's someone I feel keeps part 1 very engaging to watch along with other characters in part 1 that also play a major key role for Johnathan Joestar and Dio Brando's progression and development. Part 2 Battle Tendency is the time skip way after the events that took place 50 years ago. The year is 1938 around the era of World War 2 we now are introduced to the other main character of the story at this time Joseph Joestar: He is the grandson of Jonathan Joestar, A very entertaining, funny and charming character to say the least, his mission becomes more similar to his grandfather where his actions take root to put a stop to the evil curse of the stone mask's own power that now has its creators resurrected to threaten all of humanity they are known as the pillar men, the 3 pillar men that go by the name of Esidisi (ACDC), Wamuu (Wham) and their Leader Cars (kars), they are pretty much the antagonists at this point of the story and are very dedicated and dangerous threat to anyone that tries to stop them which make the trio powerful villains also in their own right. The story and characters are really well done in this anime that becomes to the point where it feels so natural with a lot of the characters they have their strengths and weakness through the show as you see. And while the story and characters are engaging they are by no means picture perfect and what I mean by that is the way certain character's aspiration and motives sometimes look like they are trying too hard to amuse us the viewers, which might seem like the case or so? they either are represented just purposefully that way because the writing tries to portray the characters to be so in this manner of being either on the outrageous end of the spectrum or just trying to be forcefully entertaining in or both? and for me with some scenarios in the anime it doesn't seem that well balanced on those terms, which might indicate some certain scenes of being unbalanced due to its stylistic nature here and there in my opinion. It could also feel like a hit or miss to others while experiencing this since at times they can be some annoying sarcasms and while I do applaud them trying to explore these facets of the characters, it kinda gives me those in between moods of ''should I be taking this seriously or not?'' When I really want to know and understand about something in the series or just to decipher what certain characters have mentioned it leaves out certain explanation for logical understanding on some of the mad stuff that are going on in this anime that you will see while watching it which might not make a lot of sense, it is kinda hard to unravel some things that happen within those moments of the show. The animation is nicely handled by the studio behind this and for the most part its pretty colourful along with the art style of MANime!! that shows it clear as day which can be said the same of the manga that it carries itself from. The sound is clearly based of western music that is heard in the Opening and the Closings and it fits brilliantly which gives me that charismatic impression that Hirohiko Araki gets from his influence on these types of music artist and scores and funny enough its even shows with the names of the characters having an inspiration from these certain music artist or other establishments. The voice acting was also dramatically over the top which adds to the theme that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has this in abundance of manly troupes the anime goes along with, I really loved Koyasu Takehito performance as Dio. This series is enjoyable to say the least and feels really dynamic and worth your time if you want to be entertained in some ways depending on your preference of course and for me its no secret that its one of my favourite of all time simply put it deserves an overall score of 9 out of 10.

This adaptation of JoJo covers Part 1: Phantom Blood & Part 2:Battle Tendency. Both parts are unique 80's horror shonen filled with MANLINESS! The following will be split into two reviews per part below. The reason for this is that every JoJo part should NOT be skipped as each have their own tone. Examples include: Phantom Blood being a classical vampire hunter story while Battle Tendency feels very much like an Indiana Jones film. However, both animes are filled with stylish colors, great characters & outstanding music!! PART 1: PHANTOM BLOOD (EPS 1-9) The beginning of JoJo seems a bit rough at first but manages to givethe outline for its primary themes of the series. Taking place in the late 1880's in England, we are introduced to the Joestar family & the Brando Family. The story starts to move when Dio Brando is adopted into the Joestar family as Dio is an ambitious jerk who wishes to rob the family of its fortune & would resort to murder. Jonathan Joestar is our JoJo for the series whose life changes once Dio discovers the stone mask using it to make himself a vampire. The rest of the series involves Jonathan learning the Ripple martial art to battle against Dio & his vampire army & going on an adventure involving zombies, Jack The Ripper, martial artists, bizarre super powers, over the top dialogue & manly tears. Being inspired by Fist Of The North Star & possibly Bram Stroker's Dracula, Phantom Blood is a blend of manly characters & horror elements making it a unique short tale. To some people, Jonathan comes off a rather too "good hearted", however having experiencing Fist Of The North Star (specifically The Shin Arc chapters 1-10/episodes 1-22) the "corny moments" come off as very tragic to me. Part 1 feels more like a classical tale of vampire hunters especially with its location & time period as we have normal humans battling against the forces of darkness. This is further aided with its music as it has the feel of an epic tale & often resorts to something akin to immediate music. While the concepts of Stands & its much later "Bizarre" quality weren't developed yet, this story almost works as a stand alone with its tragic finale giving much highlight to fans of Manly series such as Sakigake Otokojuku, Riki-Oh, Cyber Blue, Kongo Bancho & Fist Of The North Star respectively. Phantom Blood may not be the best part of JoJo but serves as a teaser of what the series can become as it expresses the original themes Hirohiko Araki thought of: The struggle of humanity, the temptation of evil, the strive for perfection & the importance of family. PART 2: BATTLE TENDENCY (EPS 10-26) 50 years after the events of Phantom Blood, Joseph Joestar makes his debut as the grandson of Jonathan Joestar. The story begins once Straights uses the stone mask battling Joseph who then later encounters The Wermacht & the series villains; The Pillar Men who created The Stone Masks of Part 1. This story continues the original message of the importance of family as history repeats itself with the descendants of The Joestars & The Zeppelis having to face Aztec Vampires. Battle Tendency succeeds as a sequel as it vastly improves The Ripple technique along with having 3 major enemies this time around. Much like part 1, this sequel contains over the top dialogue, manly battles, creative abilities & flourishes more into comedy while still retaining its signature horror. Joseph Joestar is vastly different from his grandfather, as he comes off as more rebellious & comedic which more fans seem to like as a leading JoJo. Other differences in Part 2 is being more expressive in flamboyancy in ways serving as a contrast to the more masculine tone of part 1. This is aided by its opening & villains The Pillarmen as the fabulous colors pay homage to Araki's coloring style & foreshadows its future in Part 5. While it may deter to some viewers, this part does retain its masculine audience as the characters continue to carry various warrior ideologies. The tone for this series is more adventurous as it contains more locations than the 1st series as well as a bigger roster of leading characters. Aiding these characters are various theme music used in this anime as it ranges from 90's rap, upbeat pop, german lyrics, dubstep, electro, rock, classical & even Italian singing. Note the anime uses mostly instrumental tracks while the OST contain lyrics within their songs. Part 2 is about breaking The Joestar family curse & the passing of lineage as it displays how men learn to accept their pasts & discover the value of the next generation. Most of the content in Battle Tendency is greatly appreciated due to the tragic events that occurred in part 1 as it helps the viewer see the progress of not just a family but the author's writing style. Look forward to Part 3 Stardust Crusaders as it focuses more on horror & introduces its iconic STANDS creating the structure of the following parts of JoJo.