Category: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

It’s episodes like this that finally show me why there have been no attempts at a full Jojo series before aside from a few OVAs: it’s just so damn hard to animate. In this episode there were quite a few moments of characters talking in mid-air, and having entire dialogues over a span that should have just taken up a bunch of seconds. Without the incredible over the top style of this series, it ust would not have worked at all.

But really, the fight in this episode was awesome. The voice actors in particular were really having a great time yelling all of their lines in fashion that was as overblown as possible. Even the narrator was yelling at the top of his voice. I love just how much testostherone there was in this episode.

The one striking part in this episode was that pendant sliding off the cliff, that indeed felt like it took ages. One moment characters were fighting and yelling over the top, the next they were running like crazy after this tiny gemstone in this hilarious fashion, all while narrating everything that was going on. I know that I’ve often complained about shounen series explaining way too much, breaking up the pacing. In this case, it didn’t. The explanation and the buildup fitted perfectly and you just keep waiting here for the series to pull its next twist while the characters explain as fast and loud as possible.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

First of all, I was warned about last week: do try to avoid looking at this week’s episode title.

It contains a pretty big spoiler. It’s a bit strange to have this one slip through, because this series seemed to have an excellent production team that has proven to be flexible, so I wonder why nobody who saw it thought “wait, that will spoil the surprise, let’s do something else”.

But first, brains. At the start of the episode I thought that Jojo will have to fight some kind of bizarre pair of walking brains with tentacles, but in the end the fight got once again pulled to the bizarre when he actually took over one of the maids. Brainwashing in anime is nothing new, but the way in which this was done. Seeing her body get nearly torn apart definitely added a different dimension to that, and once again it was a really intense fight.

I also loved the big spoiler of this episode. You should not read this if you haven’t watched the episode yet, but seriously. The way in which they revealed Stroheim as some kind of terminator was hilarious. I kept wondering why they kept hiding his face, but yeah. His new character designs rock.

This show loves to play with its characters: the tough guy suddenly breaks down into uncontrollable tears, the cute maid gets completely disturbing, the sadistic nazi becomes a terminator. I really wonder whether the creators are also planning such huge contrasts for the rest of the cast. I really hope so. Don’t spoil this please, the fun is in finding out whether this is really true.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Warning! Warning! Some people notified me in the shoutbox about this, and I’d like to say it here as well: apparently the next episode preview for this episode contains a massive spoiler. Avoid it at all costs.

Now, about this episode, it reminded me again why this show is completely crazy. Villains in shounen series that are really hard to kill are a staple. Regeneration and stuff. I’ve never seen it done so well as with this series, though. This series shows exactly how tough it is in order to kill these buggers, and these invincible people make optimal use of their bodies now that they have these powers. Holy crap, a guy attacking with his tendrils that contain superheated blood?!

AC/DC is… quite a character. He’s just the same as Jojo in how he’s cunningly thinking all ahead. Not to mention his over the top acting that was hilarious. I loved how he cried like a baby over his lost arm. His voice actor is also perfect for this role. Having him reduced to a brain at the end of this episode… this will be glorious…
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Shounen series on average have more female fanservice than male, particularly the blatant one. And here you have this series, in which a bunch of oiled up muscular men climb a giant pillar by using only their fingers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shounen series with so many yaoi-references…

Anyway, the training arc. Jojo had 33 days to train, at the end of this episode there are only 7 of them left. This was not the best Jojo episode, but as far as training episodes go it again was crazy compared to its peers. Most training arcs start of slow, only to find a major challenge at the end. This episode already threw the characters into a giant death trap. At least it doesn’t take its time as usual, although the end of the episode did not conclude this training arc…

Particularly intersting in this episode was everything that this show did with liquids. Especially that blast of oil was really creative, however what this episode failed to explain was why on earth it was all important. Again, what would have worked was a simple training episode. It rather braks up the momentum for this series to have it last longer.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

This episode poked fun at so many shounen cliches, before many of them even existed. Remember Dragonball Z? How it had the longest five minutes ever? This episode also had one minute that was much longer than usual, only for the characters to debunk this later because the character in question got distracted.

Or the part when Jojo bluffed himself out of his own death. In most shounen series this would feel like a complete cop-out because there are so many fights that end with just parties retreating without resolving anything. In this case it manages to pull it off though: before in the series nobody other than Dio retreated, and if Jojo didn’t bluff his way out, he would have died without question.

And then there was that incredibly silly part where Jojo played fake, like a child. It was so ridiculous, yet hilarious that it ended up working. In fact, all of Joseph’s ideas were just crazy in this episode, from grabbing a bunch of steel balls to attack with (oh, the symbolism….), to trying to use freaking dynamite again (not to mention how that dynamite was just shrugged off by that other guy). Also, did Jojo just get engaged to both of them?

By the way, I love the narrator in how incredibly cheesy he was in this episode. And this was to the point that he became awesome again: he just felt so sincere in his 80s cheese straight from an old cartoon, only taken even more over the top. Especially when he tried to comment on how Jojo was trying to run away while playing dead.

So next up will be the training arc. Be wise, Jojo: turn it into something interesting. Make the characters more powerful while also being as fun as you’ve ever been. Don’t get lost in your own exposition like this.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

How big is the soundtrack of this series anyway? This episode added italian flavours, and better middle eastern flavours than what Magi has been dealing to us. And in the meantime I just keep hearing more tracks I haven’t heard before. Also, is it just me or did this episode bring in yet another ED? Seriously, the producers from David Production… I love these guys.

Anyway, this epiode was meant to introduce a whole bunch of characters: the main antagonists (for real this time…. right?) and we finally get to see the guy who has been appearing all over the promotional material in this series: Zeppeli’s grandson. The latter especially was done with that great sense of humour, and I loved how it used the ripple for all kinds of bizarre effects, from slinging spaghetti to putting a dove in a woman’s mouth. Especially the latter…. how do you think of it?

And yeah, the creators did a good job of making the three new villains even worse than the previous one, making them look like a walk in the park in comparison. The trick will now be to keep up the momentum. My biggest fear is that they lack the humour that some of the other characters in this series have, because of how crazy the jokes here… it’s a large part of why this show is so incredibly entertaining now. They need to be more than just another stronger version of the same bad guys.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Holy crap man. The fights in this series just keep getting better. I mean, holy crap. This makes all other shounen battles just pale in comparison. How on earth does this series manage to be so epic in every single episode, and we’re talking about a shounen jump adaptation for goodness’ sake. Aren’t these things supposed to drag on forever before they get anywere!?

The fight between that Ultimate Life Form and Jojo and von Stroheim was amazing. It just kept surpassing itself: just when you think that things are done, it just gets even crazier. Now, Dragonball Z did this in a bad way: just when you thought things were over, it just kept finding new ways to drag on. The difference here is that it all happened in one episode. It just kept building up adrenaline and left no second wasted. This is the type of build-up that I love.

Stroheim indeed redeemed himself at the end here when he got his leg cut off in such an incredibly overblown fashion. He then proceeded to blow himself up, only for Joseph to finish things by throwing himself at the well at exactly the right time. That’s sortof like what happened in the third episode when Jonathan and Dio fell down in that burning building. And the soundtrack! it was perfect through all of this.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Seriously, this show is awesome!

I mean, it keeps finding new ways to stand out while being over the top. I thought that this was impossible. This one did it with nazis. Last episode kept emphasizing how they are everything that is evil. This episode took the nazi stereotypes so over the top that it became hilarious. The people here really did justice to the evil organization by making one that looked completely unlike the others in over the topness: these guys have an actual personality other than “I listen and do stuff like a mindless robot”.

Also, I did not expect the powers that that stone guy turned out to have: the ability to completely manipulate his body and absorb others. And he really used it in a brilliant way when he traveled through the ventilation shafts. The build-up of it all, especially in the beginning was great.

Oh, and I nearly fell off my chair with Joseph in this episode. That dress.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Normally I dislike using memes and all, but this is just one of those shows where OVER 9000! is entirely fitting. I mean, holy crap, this show just has gotten more crazy in just two episodes compared to the first arc. Joseph Joestar’s sense of fighting is just completely crazy. This show still has this habit of using tiny details and making an incredibly big deal out of them, but Joseph takes that, and adds tommy guns and hand grenades to the mix from out of nowhere.

And then there is the introduction of the villain for this arc. Now, there is being evil, and trying everything in your damn mind to try to be as evil as humanly possible. That’s that guy. He didn’t end up as a baby eater, but it really would have been close. I mean, Dio was evil and all, but he did not go through such lengths.

And is it also just me, or did the animation improve? I mean, I could be wrong, but there were even less still frames than usual in this episode. That makes it even more amazing by the way: the character designs in this show just are very complicated and hard to animate. And yet the creators did it. I could not have expected that.

Also, the new OP rocks.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

This show. This show is crazy. It’s completely out of its mind!

I mean, we knew that this show was over the top beyond belief. However, with this episode we see Jonathan Joestar’s grandson. And this guy is even manlier than his grandfather. His entrances in this episode were just nind-blowing beyond belief. I mean, there is doing the unexpected, and there is pulling a Joseph Joestar.

Just about every fight scene in which Joseph got himself involved in screamed awesome. They all just took being cool to the absolute ridiculous in their own ways: first by using such a silly thing as a coke bottle as a weapon, then by predicting his opponents moves so well that it gets scary, and then just pulling a freaking tomgun from out of nowhere without warning. I mean, this is awesome. Why did nobody make a full fledged series of this before?

But then again, it’s also David Production’s work on this that just makes this extra special. I mean christ: they came with a completely new soundtrack for the second part of this series. It’s completely different and composed by a completely different person. This time it’s done by Taku Iwasaki. And you know what? This is perfect. This is how you produce a series like this, and this is a cue that Madhouse really should have taken with their adaptation of Hunter X Hunter: make the first arc awesome to watch while you build up for the second arc. Make a soundtrack that fits the first arc perfectly and one that fits the second arc perfectly, rather than making a soundtrack for the second arc and using the leftovers for the first arc.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)