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.
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