JoJo part 7: Steel Ball Run

 "It is good to have an end to journey towards,
  but it is the journey that matters, in the end"
- Ursula Le Guinn

At the end of the road: a masterpiece of visual storytelling

I haven't been posting about the other parts because I was very immersed to the story as they got better and better since part 4 but I've now finally finished JoJo part 7: Steel Ball Run... Hirohiko Araki's highly acclaimed masterpiece...

Steel Ball Run tells a story about two men journeying thousands of kilometers through the continent of America in the SBR race, in the new universe created by Pucci in part 6, so it goes without saying that there would be no older characters or plotlines, however, Hirohiko Araki managed to make this the best part for the older fans - dozens of references to older things exist in this story and I'd rather not spoil any of them but they are done in a fantastic way where it does not feel like a ripoff of the past.

And yeah, it was a very good part where the author focused on the story being written more professionally rather than it being just about bizarrely insane shit happening one after another but it's not untouchably above the earlier parts. It was mostly about surpassing all expectations and raising the stakes and tension and making the characters go at the most ridicilous odds but when Valentine personally started to go at them the story kind of fell off and there are some obvious pacing problems with 14 parts of D4C all of a sudden out of nowhere because of the corpse. The corpse and the story after that was done just like the Green Child and going out of prison in part 6, it's the "final stretch of the story" that just starts pretty damn randomly. It was "because of the corpse/GC falling into the villains hands and now there's nothing more to do- time to end the story"-type of deal. Even though we could have seen more of Gyro's and Johnnys adventure from the last 3-4 stages, aside from the final one which was also too short but I guess that was too late to have a slow pacing going on, those stages felt irrelevant despite the series's name. I don't think that utilizing the corpse of Jesse was handled that well in the end either.

Foreshadowing the end of SBR race.

There's alot of unpredictable foreshadowing Araki clearly took his time writing the story and rewriting how to constantly surprise the readers in crazy ways, although I think his twists were equal to 6's in this one. Funny was a decent villain with a nice power. Love Train I feel should have been more overpowered than that, didn't impress me. D4C did however because of the way Araki presented the story from 3 different angles. 
Fights were about as good as in Part 5 and 6 but 7 had some great characters like Ringo Roadagain that the earlier parts didn't. The problems arise when you are familiar with Araki's writing style though... SBR might be better for people who don't, and the end with Diego is more like nice fanservice for older fans.

The story of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure now evolves from a fight of the week type of series into having a real story. The main characters: our JoJo named Johnny Joestar  and the deuteragonist of the story Gyro Zeppeli are the two best characters in the series in my opinion.  They are very alive and I like most JoJo main characters and villains to begin with (considered P6 the best before this).
+Handling of Johnny and Gyro was obviously amazing. Araki gave them both alot of cringe moments that you don't normally see for a hero-type MC and because of that, them showing their badass sides felt all the better.
The art and the final fight were pretty fantastic. Araki's paneling and transitioning styles are out of this world. The fan coloring is also top tier. Best out of any manga I've seen to date.
Diego was a great "addition" to the story. There were alot of sidestories that made the whole thing feel more alive which was great.
Part 7 is by far the most emotional part of them all... It can feel too "safe"
-Handling of Wekapipo - lame/obvious, handling of Sandman who was made to be important in the first chapter - lame, he never even brought up Gyro training where he was from..
Didn't really like how Lucy was handled also her birthing the head of the corpse was unsettling even though I understand that Araki does that Bizarre stuff on purpose (that went nowhere either after the corpse became perfect after Valentine died).

Ringo Roadagain is my favourite JoJo underling villain to date. A very strong character.

I laughed my a** off at Diego appearing at the end. that felt random as hell just to have the Joestar vs Dio thing go on even in this universe (I know it was going on as a side story before this with Dinodiego). Hidden spoilers: Him getting taken out by a (XXX) was the same as what happened in last part except worse, because I sadly saw that coming a mile away. The story with Diego "Dio" appearing at the end was great because it was that "final stretch of the story" that goes at insane high pace that comes out of nowhere for the readers (makes sense when explained) - it makes the ending fascinating. It gives off a feeling that "the final villain was taken out but there's something else going on!?"

JoJo's Stardust Crusaders

"THE WORLD!!! - ZA WARUDO!!!"
-Dio Brando

Stardust Crusaders is the third story arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series by Hirohiko Araki. The animated version by David Production adapted part 3 of JoJo into two 24-episode seasons, making it the longest part of the series that has been animated so far.

 Part 3 is different from part 1 and 2 in a way that it's almost completely episodic villain of the week type of story.
It is revealed that Dio indeed did manage to get Jonathan's body and hide in the explosion-proof casket that he was in for a century until it was lifted up by some people. Dio's vampire blood and Jonathans lineage formed these things called stands. The way how they work isn't too clear to me but there are quite a few stand users around the world that the main cast has to fight against with their own stands as "only a stand can damage another stand." Probably because they're manifestations of the users soul or so, which mean that physical beings can't hurt them since they're spiritual beings.

The story of Stardust Crusaders goes like this (not in order):
We're introduced to the main character and the JoJo of part 3, Jotaro Kujo, the grandson of part 2's main character Joseph Joestar..
Jotaro got himself behind bars because he was afraid that a "ghost" that was protecting him would hurt Jotaro's mother. Jotaro's mother calls her grandfather to help Jotaro and sure enough Joseph comes as fast as he could, with company. Joseph explains the existence of stands that appeared with Dio's revival to everyone in the Joestar family with the help of a fire-type stand user called Muhammad Avdol. 
Later on Jotaro meets up with a person brainwashed by Dio to kill him called Noriaki Kakyoin, a stand user that Jotaro has to defeat. Kakyoin hates himself of getting caught up in Dio's pace and joins Jotaro's crusade to get Dio as Joseph's daughter, Jotaro's mother, Holly is revealed to have a stand also. However as stands can be useful, they can just as well be deadly. Holly's weak physique since childhood made her stand make her bedsick and get her killed in 50 days.
 From this point on the journey starts. The journey is spent in moving from one place to another and spending an episode there to fight against a stand user.
-The group takes a plane trip to make it to Dio as fast as possible as they believe that defeating Dio will make the stands disappear in the whole Joestar family. However Dio sent a kamikazer insect-type stand user to the plane.
The fight afterwards is an important one since once again, they have to fight a stand user that was being manipulated by Dio who realizes his own weakness and joins the party, a swordsman-stand user, Jean Pierre Polnareff.
-They fight a water-type stand user.
-They fight a nonhuman stand user with a special, huge and physical stand.
-They have to fight a grudge-type stand.
-They fight an impersonation-type stand user.
-They fight two stand users. A gun-type stand user and a light-type stand user. Polnareff gets plot progression and there might be something you can consider a twist.
-They have to fight an Empress stand user.
-They have to fight a car-type stand user. Another physical stand.
-They have to fight a Justice stand user, the mother of the light-type stand user.
-They have to fight a Lovers stand user.
-They have to figure out a way to defeat a Sun-type, large-scale stand.
-The group has to face against a dream-type stand user.
-They have to defeat a genie-type stand user. Another twist after this fight.
-They have to defeat a transforming stand while in a submarine.
-A new character, Iggy, sand-type stand user, joins the group and they have to defeat a water.type stand user that makes Kakyoin blind.
-They have to fight against a face-forming stand user and a future sight stand user.
-They have to defeat a physical sword-type stand.
-They have to defeat a magnet-type stand user.
-They have to defeat an anti-aging stand user.
-They have to defeat a gambling soul-type stand user. This fight is pretty intense.
-They have to face against the future seeing stand user and the gun-type stand user once again.
-Iggy the Dog vs Pet Shop the Falcon, an ice-type stand user. A good fight.
-They have to defeat the younger brother of the gambler they fought against, the brother's stand reads the souls of others.
-They easily get rid of an illusion-type stand user.

After all the other fights they have to face against a darkness/dimension-type stand user called Vanilla Ice and the 2nd to last fight in part 3. This fight is very crazy and Vanilla Ice was not to be taken lightly, sacrifices are to be made in order to defeat him. Vanilla is the most loyal to Dio out of them all, so much he'd kill himself for it.

After getting rid of Vanilla Ice, it's time for the main course of the series. The fight against Dio Brando, the stand user of The World, the most powerful stand of them all. This fight is the best in all of JoJo's that have been animated so far even though in order to defeat Dio, it had to be in a somewhat nonsensical way as I don't get why Jotaro would have practically the same stand just because he's a Joestar and Dio has Jonathans body etc. Anyway, the final, climax part of JoJo Stardust Crusaders is it's savior in my opinion. Dio was very powerful, smart and took all the possibilities of losing into account as long as he could keep his head calm.

The openings and endings of Stardust Crusaders didn't really stick with me, but once you reach episode 47 with Dio's stand's powers getting revealed, the studio pulls something amazing with the 4th opening (very subtle but 'he's' been there since episode 1).
Part 3 was a very monotonous series for me. I didn't really like most of the episodes after the beginning until D'Arby the Gambler. After that Iggy's fight was good and afterwards Vanilla Ice fight was good, and Dio's fight was the best. The series feels like a waste of time with season 1's first few episodes being spent on gathering the allies and arriving in the area where Dio is at somewhere in episode 24. The second season is spent on trying to find the place where Dio is hiding somewhere in the area but about last 9 episodes were very good and they spent a good deal of time with the fight against Dio, unlike the other fights in the series. The strength of Stardust Crusaders is it's ability to almost forcefully make you care about these characters, stick with them for a monotonous adventure and see the ridicilous stand abilities they. fight against, and in the end get a tremendous, very good pay-off from the whole story that doesn't really make you have bad aftertaste of the journey itself. The aftermath of the story post-Dio fight is just skimmed over which was a shame.
Season 1 of S.C. - 5/10 for me as I don't really care about villain-of-the-week fights, but the abilities of the stands are very creative, however the episodes overall felt very meh even then. Season 2 of S.C. - 8/10 for great finale fights. JoJo isn't story heavy series so I judge it by the fights and how well it keeps my interest during the episodes. JoJo part 3 the Stardust Crusaders is a story that I sort of disliked as I was watching it, but look back at the "journey" with a smile. That's one of the reasons why I prefer it over part 1 also aside from the final fights and a better main cast. 

And just like Holly, I'm physically weak right now and need some well earned rest. Meanwhile waiting for part 4.... The Diamond is Unbreakable!

JoJo's Battle Tendency

"Like a bloody storm
Heat up like a bloody stone
Carved into the bloody lineage of destiny  
Floating and indelible, bonds of pride~
Clasped together...!"
- Coda

Battle Tendency is the 2nd part of Hirohiko Araki's popular JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. The 2012 animated version of JoJo, created by David Production, adapts parts 1 and 2 in its first 24 episode season. Battle Tendency takes place 49 years after the end of Phantom Blood (part 1). It spans through episodes 10 to 24 of the first season.

What can I say? This part is by far my favourite out of the ones that have been adapted so far, and the one I'd consider overall the best.

The story
The main character and the JoJo of this part is a young adult male called Joseph Joestar, the grandson of the original JoJo, Jonathan Joestar. At the beginning of the story, characters from part 1 such as Speedwagon make an appearance and another character who turns corrupt. In this part of JoJo we learn that the stone mask that Dio Brando used to become a superhuman vampire is actually just one of many created by the antagonists of B.T. in order to conquer their own weakness one day- the Sun.
Joseph inherits Jonathans skill in using a power called Hamon that deals damage to vampires and is potentially much stronger at using it. The fights in Battle Tendency are written in a very clever and tense way, where the build-up from part 1, the shocking parts that Dio showed us to showcase just how unbeatable and strong vampires truly are when a simple slap on the face will blow half of a normal persons head off, works to create tension in part 2 because the readers/watchers at this point know of the power of Dio, so there's much more intensity in the writing when we get to see the characters face off against the creators of these masks. Crazy.
Let me tell something before I continue. Usually in shonen action series the tension is created by deaths that get nullified by later literal revivals. The final fights are usually world-scale Dragon Ball Z battles also where the enemy is an invincible immortal. The only way for the good guys to continue on with their lives is to do what, then? Well, ofcourse beat the invincible immortal god of their verse. How? By the author simply asspulling the answer. It doesn't matter what it is as the good guys will at one point pull a victory out of their back pockets.
Now what was the point of what I just said? JoJo part 2 is a battle series where Joseph tries to find three antagonists that created the vampire-creating masks. People that are affected by the masks become so horribly strong that they won't die from bullet wounds as they get regenerative abilities and superhuman strength. The creators of these masks, The Pillar Men, are on a tier of their own and it shows how much the scale of the fights can grow larger while the JoJo series parts switch from one to the other. However, even though the opposition seems impossible to defeat, the fights make sense as the powers aren't overly blown out of proportion and none of the characters can spam explosions or anything like that. "Where there's a will, there's a way" is a good way to put it.

 After the first three or so episodes of build-up and showing off the old and new characters of part 2, the actual story starts. A person that was taken to a Nazi lab around 5 years before the beginning of the story was still inside a pillar until Joseph arrived, and after the soldiers fed the pillar some blood, the pillar man, Santana, awakened. Joseph's fight against santana was very crazily executed, Santana could kill anyone but Joseph was planning around which is nice. Joseph is presented as a somewhat dumb, rebellious character with a big heart but while he's acting like that, in his mind he's always planning on what his next move is going to be. His motto is actually not a word or two, but his skill of being able to tell what the enemy is going to say next and being able to understand everyone's weakness.
After defeating Santana, things only get crazier as Joseph meets with a special type of person called Caesar Zeppeli. Caesar is the grandson of William Zeppeli, the mentor figure of Jonathan Joestar. Caesar, much like Joseph, has a strong personality and skill in using the power of Hamon. Joseph and Caesar go to where another pillar just like Santana's exist and the pillar that is the origin of the vampire-creating masks. In there, Joseph, Speedwagon and Caesar see a horrifying scene as a group of soldiers was turned to nothing but skin and their hands tied together and a friend of Caesar that was working in the army being split in two, all done by a pillar man, Whamuu. Right when Joseph and Caesar enter the cave, Whamuu goes to the pillar to revive two of his masters that are beings just like him, Kars and Esidisi. This turn of events lead to by far the most tense moment in the animated series that I've seen as Caesar and Joseph take on not just one, not just two, but three superhuman pillar men. It was absolutely crazy to witness and it felt insane.

 Santana, Whamuu, Esidisi and Kars are the pillar men villains of part 2 and the story is spent in training and trying to defeat them. None of them are particularly inspiring characters but they serve a completely different type of purpose with their presence. The final fight is, in my opinion, not that great but it still managed to do alot of crazy things as you could expect from it.
JoJo's biggest draw for me is its ability to create crazy, balls to the walls, wall of china-sized challenges for the main characters to surpass. Battle Tendency was the best at showing this and used it perfectly. The opening of part 2, "Bloody Stream" by Coda is my favourite of the 4 openings and I'd rate it equal to part 1's opening as far as objective ratings of easter eggs inside it go. I'll give JoJo part 2 the rating of  9/10. Better writing, clever and intense fights, the scale of the story was bigger and it had way better and more memorable characters than Phantom Blood. Battle Tendency was a damn good watch honestly.

JoJo's Phantom Blood

 "May fortune shine on future you bring
   ~The fate of that blood~
 JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJO!!!!!!"
Destiny of That Blood - TOMMY



Last month I finished watching a series that I've known of for many years now and with Diamond is Unbreakable coming up and all the hype surrounding it, I decided to tell my thoughts on what I've seen so far. The series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken by Hirohiko Araki) is well known for having a cast of muscular men doing fabulous-looking poses while in tight and serious situations, is an animated series adapted from a comic book series (started in 1986)  of the same name by the animation studio David Production. There are older versions from other studios but I didn't watch those in particular.
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure tells us a story that spans throughout generation after generation and the story of those generation's main characters is told in their own "parts" that the overall story is split into. In each part the main characters share two identical things in particular; they have the nickname JoJo and they have the Joestar bloodline. I mainly wanted to talk about normal novels instead of graphic novels in this blog, but JoJo gave me alot of inspiration on how to build up tense situations and how a story can always become better and perfected with experience, and in some parts worse.

I decided to split each part to a separate post as I need to figure out something to say for Stardust Crusaders...


JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part 1: Phantom Blood

JoJo part 1 spans the first 9 episodes of season 1 of JoJo (2012). It sets up the groundwork for later parts and introduces us to an overarching villain whose presence in the story doesn't waver even when he's buried in the sea for a century, and ofcourse we're introduced to the Joestar family. The original JoJo and the main character of part 1 is known as Jonathan Joestar. Jonathan comes from a wealthy family and is a prideful person with a great father. The other side of the coin of the story belongs to a characters called Dio Brando, whose father is a drunkard, jobless bum and who dies in the beginning of the story, giving Dio a letter that lets him join the Joestar family if he were to die as Dio's father "saved" Jonathan's father in the past. The first three episodes of the nine that belong to part one of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are spent in fleshing out the rivalry between JoJo and Dio. After certain events happen, the last six or so episodes are spent in running after Dio who had become massively more powerful than before. The hunt is very bloody and basic shounen-esq that might make you rip your hair off if you hate that type of thing.

Phantom Blood is definitely a very average and a cheesy series overall that feels like a cheap college movie they churn out constantly these days. I felt like it was hard to watch at times, but never did I think it was bad in any way. Aside from the great presentation, it simply used alot of ideas that aren't really anything but cliches these days. The reason for this is because it's done almost 30 years ago. Phantom Blood is definitely a 5/10 in my book when I compare it to other [better] works of fiction in this current era we live in, but in the 1980's the plot wasn't as old in the world because we didn't get information on writing styles and other such things in the blink of an eye like we do these days, so JoJo part 1 seems to me like an experimental work from a guy that wanted to create something original (nigh impossible nowadays if not completely, in my opinion). The opening of part 1 is great, and it condenses the story and shows subtle hints just like all 4 openings for JoJo, that were made by David Production atleast, do. Overall part 1 looked pretty stunning, the artwork was consistently great and Araki's style is very appealing in this modern era of sameface. The ending song and video is also great and it's used perfectly to set the mood up for the next episode. The ending song has also become a world-wide meme, #tobecontinued.