7/13/2018 index.html What 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure' Means to Me
[Credit: David Production]
When I first started this #30in30 series for the anniversary, I had a lot of trouble finding my feet, trying to figure out where to start with it all. I had so much to say, so much love to give, so many different angles to attack from. So I ended up taking a step back, shelving it for a bit, and getting some perspective.
You see, my main issue when bringing up Jojo’s to the uninitiated isn’t trying to explain things rationally, or making salient points about craft or narrative arc – the series has that, but it’s one of those works that’s so absurd that you kind of have to let yourself get excited in the idea of how engrossing the bold stupidity is before you can commit, if you approach it in a classical sense. If I tell you, “Oh yeah, there’s this part where they fight Jack the Ripper as a zombie who rides around on an eviscerating trap made out of an over-sized human rib cage and they destroy him with the power of sunlight while balancing a wine glass,” it sounds like the dumbest mashup of The Walking Dead, My Little Pony, and a fever dream your crazy uncle went through in rehab. Maybe that kind of wackiness sells you, but, more likely, like I did when I first watched the anime adaptation, you just sit there going, “Okay, this is the most asinine thing I’ve ever seen, what the actual hell?”
So how did I go from utter revulsion at the sheer blunt stupidity of the setup to an overly-aggressive mega-fan pleading with everyone I know to have their lives changed by this series? Because I saw myself reflected in the characters and world. Let me block out just a few ways in which Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure spoke to me, and hopefully you’ll be able to take away some value of your own and make time for this truly stupendous undertaking from mastermind Hirohiko Araki. 1. Jojo’s Is About Beauty
[Credit: David Production]
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a series where the men are built like Greek gods, the women are fair, and everything is always dialed to 11. Well, at least for the first few arcs. Take the little clip above. Joseph is a mountain of a man, though he’s supposed to be in his late teens. I’m pretty sure he has more abs than there are digits in my bank account, and he simply towers over Suzie Q. But, even then, I still wouldn’t label Joseph or many other of the Jojo’s leads as traditionally “masculine.” They strike extremely effeminate poses, especially during poignant battle moments. Scenes play out like a David Bowie music video. All of the drawings are exaggerated, and the file:///C:/Users/Ben/Documents/Creators.co%20Articles/4327200/index.html 1/7 7/13/2018 index.html anime plays this up with such vivid colors and bouncy movements, not to mention their choice to do whole pallet-swaps for moments of true intensity.Then, once we hit Part 4 and Araki’s style does change, he further plays up the lithe side of his characters. We go from this:
[Credit: Shonen Jump]
To this:
[Credit: Shonen Jump]
Or, if we want to jump all the way to the current arc, this is the level of drastic-fantastic:
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[Credit: Shonen Jump]
Araki is taking male beauty to a whole new level, and continues to reinvent it. And that’s a major part of what drew me in. In the Jojo’s world, guys are allowed to be strong however they want to be. You can cry, you can take these wild poses and dress in ridiculous fashions. You can fight like a girl. There is no wrong way to be strong in Jojo, and that’s so uplifting, I can’t even describe it. But while we’re at it… 2. In Jojo, The Women Kick Ass, Too
[Credit: Shonen Jump]
You know that part where I said, “I wouldn’t label… many… of the Jojo’s leads as ‘masculine'”? Well there’s two I definitely would, and one of them is the series’ sole female lead to date, Jolyne Kujo (funnily enough, daughter of the other hyper-masculine lead, Jotaro Kujo). Jolyne leads an arc affectionately coined by the fanbase as the “WO-MANLY SAGA,” because between Jolyne, Ermes Costello, and Foo Fighters, you have three leading ladies who dish and take a hell of a beating and, honestly, show some of the biggest badassery of all of Jojo’s. We’re talking about a storyline in which Jolyne is wrongfully imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit, just so that the main villain can try to use her to get at her estranged father, so Jolyne and crew have to go through hell and back fighting through a maximum-security prison filled with super-powered inmates with some of the must screwed-up abilities to date in the series.
And Jolyne isn’t the only badass chick in the Jojo-verse: We’ve also got Lisa Lisa, the Hamon master from Part 2, Hot Pants in Part 7, Yasuho Hirose is developing into quite the interesting and powerful co-lead in Jojolion… there’s a lot to love, here!
And, yes, it’s true the series has its bumpy road. There’s womanizing, Part 1 literally hinges for a while on a “fight for the hand of the maiden” story with Erina, and there’s some strange characterizations of women throughout the other arcs. But it really appears that as Araki grows and continues to write, he’s experienced more and learned to better explore gender politics in his art. Hell, Part 8 even has a little cross-dressing kid as part of the main family, and it’s just a thing we take for granted now! Araki’s really trying here, and even when he doesn’t quite stick the landing, you have to give him credit for never falling to trope. It’ll be a cold day in hell before Jojo’s becomes a harem manga, I’ll tell you that much! 3. Jojo's Is About Overcoming Yourself
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[Credit: Shonen Jump]
Sure, you could probably say this about most anime, and a hell of a lot of fiction, in general, but I’d argue that Jojo makes this plot point an artform. It’s layered into the very structure of the world: you don’t become a Hamon master, develop your Stand, or perfect the Spin just by reading some books or finding a better weapon. No, in the Jojo world, it’s all about centering yourself and being the best version of you possible. Johnny masters the Spin and learns to see the Golden Rotation in the world around him by getting over his self-pitty and learning to care about others and focus in the moment. This is actually one of the most crucial moments of Part 7, Steel Ball Run, as when Gyro introduces the concept of the Infinite Spin to Johnny, we see that he’s still just a whiny, self-centered kid, lacking the will and determination to just put aside his ego and train.
[Credit: Ultra Jump]
Yet, by the end of the arc, after everything the pair have gone through together, Johnny’s all but been crushed and been reborn, finding the will to push himself further. He finds that he can see the Golden Ratio everywhere in nature, even in his horse, Slow Dancer.
And, honestly, it’s these kinds of struggles that have had the greatest impression on me. I’ll sell it to you straight: the past few months have not been kind to me. They’ve been straight hell. But they’ve also been a time of great growth and joy. And that’s because I’ve been able to look at them with fresh eyes, thanks in large part to Jojo’s. When I’m stuck, back against the wall, when I’m really ready to break, I look deep into my soul and say, “Okay, how would Joseph Joestar find a way out of this? What file:///C:/Users/Ben/Documents/Creators.co%20Articles/4327200/index.html 4/7 7/13/2018 index.html would Josuke do to use his powers to his advantage? What’s the angle that only Jotaro could see?” And it’s through that bolstering courage that I pick myself back up and Stand Proud, because I know that only through such trials can I be worthy of such greatness. 4. Jojo's Is Absurdly Creative
[Credit: David Production]
There’s one thing you can never take from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, like it or hate it: it’s a beast completely unlike any other. Sure, it started as just another Fist of the North Star macho-BS knock-off, but even in that first run, it went in a wildly different direction. You have sunlight-powered monks who can stretch their limbs Dhalsim- style fighting off a flamboyant ice-powered vampire who turns serial killers and ancient axemen into his zombie minions. Then round two says that Aztec-inspired godlike beings created the relic that made men into vampires, and… Okay, no, I can’t even describe it all. Just watch this:
Yeah… You just saw that. Now you have to know how that makes sense, right? Cuz the best part is: it does.
But Jojo’s isn’t all wackiness at any cost: the creativity in the series is also apparent in its writing and structure on a much more approachable level. Take, for instance, the entirety of the Stardust Crusaders arc. Araki has admitted that the whole adventure was structured to be like a video game, having the crew of five heroes come together in Japan, then travel around the world, fighting minor villains to accrue experience and information before the final showdown with the Big Bad, Dio, himself. The author layered out information and fights so that every little step pushes the team forward, but also tells a little more either about one of the members or the group, as a whole.
This is also why I think the change from Hamon to Stands was such an upgrade for Araki’s writing: it allowed him even more thematic creativity with his story and characters. Now, I’m a guy who really loved Part 2, and I’ll say Joseph is one of my all-time favorite Jojos. But I think I can use this example from the end of Part 4 to sum up pretty expressly why, even as cool as the Hamon fights were, Stands are on a whole other level.
So let’s set the stage: Josuke has finally tracked down the super-powered serial killer, Yoshikage Kira, but his allies are too far off to be of any help, and the one who is, his good friend Okuyasu, is in critical condition in the house they’re hiding out in. Kira has the Killer Queen Stand, which has the power to turn anything it touches into a bomb, and he’s also teamed up with a cat-turned-sentient-plant named Stray Cat who also has a Stand of the same name that lets it fire invisible air bubbles, so Kira can latch his bombs onto them completely undetected. Josuke’s Stand, Crazy Diamond, can only heal other people and objects – it has little to no offensive capabilities, and it can’t heal him, nor can it bring back the dead. Oh, and Josuke’s not doing well, himself. He’s just been hit by a really good blast from Killer Queen and Stray Cat. Then he pulls this off:
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[Credit: Shonen Jump]
Jojo’s fights are battles of wills, often playing out like the best roleplaying encounters. Here, Josuke lands a critical strike against Yoshikage by cleverly manipulating his powers: he knows that he doesn’t have any harmful techniques, he can only bring two separated pieces back together, but that reaction may have a violent side-effect. Also, the effect can’t be stopped just because he doesn’t know where the other piece is, or that it’s around a corner or otherwise out of reach: Crazy Diamond’s healing will always rebind the pieces, one way or another. So he has his Stand bind the blood on the glass that wounded him to the blood that struck Kira from the impact, causing the shard to drive itself into the murderer’s back.
Like a clever game designer, Araki always puts limits and flaws on his characters’ abilities (well, almost always, but we don’t talk about that, *cough cough* GIORNO *cough cough*). And as a designer and avid roleplayer, myself, I love this aspect of the series. You could honestly lift just about any Stand power set or protagonist or villain’s character traits and have a wonderfully built character with just minor tweaks for system and setting. The guy really has an innate sense for style and balance… most of the time. 5. Jojo's Knows How to Have Fun
[Credit: Shonen Jump]
And now, the pièce de résistance: Jojo’s is just about the wackiest thing running, it knows it, and it runs with it. You see, back in the day, I used to have a very strict rule about my anime: it either had to be extremely cerebral, like Ghost in the Shell, or it had to be stupid as hell, like Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. If it fell somewhere in the middle, I wouldn’t watch it. That’s why I didn’t finish shows like Avatar until this year. But Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure gets to be the best of both worlds, and I think that’s what drew me in. It was playing with high science and concepts of morality and legacy, but it was also a show where a guy could break a cop’s nose with a Coke bottle cap and then book it like a Looney Tunes character. I freaking love it.
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The series is constantly doing this deft waver between ultra-serious plot and complete ridiculousness, and, somehow, still manages to make it all work. If nothing else does, that should prove it’s a masterful piece of art, on its own. Seriously, in the same arc where we’re hunting a serial killer who kills women and takes their hands, we have an episode where the main two protagonists take a break to visit an Italian restaurant that mystically and hysterically heals all your ills. And. It. Works. Maybe it’s because it’s still sorta played darkly, and it’s still mysterious. I don’t know; I admittedly should probably dedicate an article of these thirty to trying to analyze how Araki can balance the stupid with the serious, because it’s magical.
Top that all off with the wacky poses that I can and do often steal for my modeling gigs, the simply amazing music for all of the animated series to date, the wonderful tie- ins and spin-offs, all the fun references in other pop culture (Seriously, Street Fighter, Persona, and even Pokemon either pay homage or straight-up owe their very existence to this to this legendary series)… the reasons to love this series are endless.
And, hopefully, I’ve passed some of that along to all of you. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure means a hell of a lot to me, so it’s one of my deepest wishes to bring it to more people, in the hopes that it can brighten a few more lives. Plus, I just really need more friends to gush with, I’ll be honest. So whether you pick up with the manga or dive into David Production's stellar anime adaptation, there’s really no wrong way, and no wrong reason, to start loving every wacky facet of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure!
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