Hanime’s Bizarre Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Phantom Blood Arc)
Hello, fellow readers! My ever popular Autism Awareness Month event
may have started yesterday, but that won’t stop me from dishing out
reviews-although I think I made that clear already. Anywho, this week’s review is on a show that
I have been dying to see for a while.
And now that I bought the English dub on DVD, I now get to review at
least one part of it (more on that in a minute)! So without further delay, let’s talk a little
about this week’s review on Jojo’s
Bizarre Adventure.
Now to clarify, I was only able to
get as far as the end of the Phantom Blood arc.
And given that this is supposed to be an anthology series, it would seem
unfair to look over the series as a whole.
So this review will only cover Phantom Blood. This brief arc introduces us to the Joestar
family, a well-to-do family in Victorian England, and the young protagonist
Jonathan Joestar, more commonly refered to as Jojo. Jojo’s life gets turned upside down when a
boy named Dio Brando comes to live with him and the Joestar family following
his father’s death. This arrangement
goes back to when Jojo was very young; having believed that Dio’s father Dario
Brando saved his life, Mr. Joestar felt indebted to him. So obviously there were no qualms in taking
Dio in, who becomes hell on earth for Jojo.
Seven years after Dio’s arrival, Jojo learns that Dio is trying to kill
Mr. Joestar and tries to find evidence to turn him in. And in that time, Dio finds a mysterious mask
that Jojo has been studying. Dio
originally planned to use the mask to kill Jojo, but after discovering that it
can turn the one who wears it into a vampire, he uses it on himself and tries
to kill Jojo, which almost happens.
While recovering from his injuries, Jojo stumbles upon the power of hamon,
an engery naturally produced by the body that can be used for a number of
things (particularly combat). And to
make this as non-spoiler and conclusive as possible, Jojo decides to use hamon
and his friend Robert E.O. Speedwagon and his mentor Baron Zepolli to defeat
Dio and his army of undead followers.
Like I said, this review strictly
covers Phantom Blood. But I have to
admit, I think I got a nice view of what the rest of the series will look like
past it. On the other hand, there were a
lot of things about it that could have been better. And so, I give Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood a perfect seven out of
ten. I think what I really liked about
this show was just the story. It was
really well put together. Plus, there
are many shows out there that like to start at a certain point and then explain
the origins of the show’s characters and terminology through flashbacks. It’s quick and easy entertainment, but it’s
not a very logical way of telling a story.
What’s nice about Jojo’s Bizarre
Adventure-as far as I can tell anyways- is that it starts from the
beginning. It explains every detail and
defines all the major elements of the show so that as the series progresses,
you understand what’s going on. Now this
may be an autistic quirk on my end, but it’s a nice touch. Also, I have to give the show kudos for being
true to its manga adaption. Believe it
or not, the show is pretty renowned for that, and I haven’t even read the
manga!
Speaking of which, that brings me
to some downsides. Now I know what you’re
thinking, “How could be faithful to the manga be bad?” Not all really. But there’s a fine line between being
faithful to the original manga and being entertaining, and being faithful to the
manga and just being cheesy. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure tends to fall
on the cheesy end. Sorry for all you Jojo fans reading this, but if you’ve created
an anime series that Watchmojo.com calls “a visual novel,” there’s something
wrong. It’s random enough when you’ve
got kanji popping up to describe an action or movement, but then you’ve got
moments where a narrator jumps in and narrates it, too. I remember watching an episode and said out
loud, “Would you shut the hell up?! I’m
trying to watch this fight scene!” Then
there was the ever popular, “Thank you Captain Obvious.” And oh yeah, there doesn’t seem to be one
quiet moment during a fight scene, but I think that’s mostly because Speedwagon
gives more unnecessary narration because
he’s pretty useless, useless, useless throughout much of his time in the arc
(see what I did there? HA!). So yeah, it
may have not been as spectacular as I expected, but it was still one bizarre
adventure-in a good way.
So overall, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is one bizarre show, and it still makes
for one awesome anime adventure. To
catch this show, Toonami has been airing all of the show, although they’ve
gotten past the Phantom Blood arc. As
far as buying it goes, I was able to find a copy on Amazon. I can’t really say if the show is available
wherever anime is sold, but I haven’t done any research into that. And so that wraps up this week’s review! Be sure to tune in next weekend for my next
review and for my first “Autism Story” this Saturday!
-Hanime
on Anime
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