Category: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Just… what the hell, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Here I was thinking that this would quietly start off the next arc and another over the top clash between Jojo and Dio, and here they come and pull this episode. In just 20 minutes they go over 9000 again with this bizarre talking head of Dio, only to kill off the two most important characters in the series. What other shounen series does that?

This show really lives up to its name. What I especially like here is how helpless Jojo was: he was instantly disabled, hardly being able to use his ripple, and most of this episode was Dio monologueing about something, or zombies being evil. What a contrast with the previous episodes. Dio by the way was hilarious as talking head. The way in which he also used his veins as a weapon… how did they come up with that idea?

And then there is that zombie that on its own made that ship blow up, Elina who survived in the bomb-proof coffin that Dio brought on board both carrying a random child and being pregnant, there was just so much awesome stuff going on in this episode. I can only imagine how many chapters this part took, which makes it even more amazing that the creators managed to condense it to just 20 minutes. I really wonder what would have happened if David Production were handed the rights to remake Bleach ten years from now… it probably would not be as awesome as this series, but most definitely much more bearable than the normal Bleach series.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

I love what this show does to its hencmen: it only shows the battles against three of them in detail. Apart from that, all of them are instantly just slaughtered by Jojo as he refuses to waste any more time on this. The result was that this episode showed yet another incredibly over the top battle with Dio and Jojo.

And again, the adrenaline between those two. The incredibly crazy gore that this show has is just amazing. Usually when people with over the top powers and strengths fight, it just doesn’t have the impact as when the fights were done realistically. And yet here this show comes with such extreme details in its gore. I mean, did Dio really just pull out a bunch of arteries from Jojo’s neck? And then there are bizarre contraptioons that were supposed to be zombies. Seriously, the author of this thing had one sick mind.

But yeah, the past episodes have pretty much been Jojo punching zombies to death in a ridiculously elaborate fashion. If the rest of the series wil have this as well, it will get old fast, although I’ve heard enough times that the second arc will be completely different, and actually better on each level. Can’t wait!
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

I must praise David Production for this series, by the way. When the promo art of this series was first shown, there was one big fear I had: how on earth are they going to be able to animate those character-designs? It’s a problem that graces many series of its kind: having character-designs that are so complex that they become hard to animate. And well… they did it. They found a way to make these character-designs work. Sure, the animation is not fluid at all, and this show is full of distorted faces, but the camera work is fast enough that this hardly stands in your eye. I’ve seen so many series with elaborate character-designs that look weird, just because the animation can’t keep up, so it’s great to see a show actually succeed in this.

One point of criticism would be that the creators were really, really heavily hinting at Zeppeli’s death this episode. It was over the top and glorious as always, but my favorite kinds of deaths are the ones you don’t see coming: the kinds of accidents that just come out of nowhere, like what you’d expect death to do in these kinds of action series. I understand why the creators did it in this way though; this is just a personal pet peeve of mine. Either way though, his death was just brutal, geting cut in half like that.

This episode also was full of crazy powers, with the zombie with the giant tongue and the sadistic Dio that forced a mother to eat her own son. Seriously? Did this really air in Shounen Jump? The gore scenes unfortunately couldn’t make it fully into the anime, which makes me wonder what the difference is between the censorship laws: are the broadcaster more likely to get into legal trouble? Or was this just something that the animators couldn’t handle? In this show that’s something that I actually doubt, considering the detail they put in the rest of the frames. I also love the elaborate and crazy poses that were shown throughout this episode.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

After watching this series, so much has suddenly become clear. The influence that this series has had is unmistakable on some other series. Perhaps there has never been another series like it, but I really recognize its “anything can be awesome”-mentality. For example, something tells me that Death Note’s chips-eating scene took some of its inspiration from this series.

In the second half of this episode, it showed that even something as simple as opening a door can have impact if you just put enough passion into it. That scene was amazing due to all of the build-up it has gotten, and how badly everyone wanted to open that door (“Let me try to punch this iron door in!”), and how it caused Poco to do something.

Then there were things like turning a bunch of leaves in a large magnetic hang glider. Just… how did these guys think of this? I also love the ridiculously overblown symbolism, like when Bruford was defeated and suddenly flowers started growing around him. When pulled half-heartedly, this can get so incredibly cheesy, but here it just becomes awesome, especially accompanied by Speedwagon’s overly emotional and elaborate ways to state the obvious.

Though turning luck into pluck… that is one of the most bizarre uses of Engrish I’ve seen in a while…
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

The soundtrack for this series… I remember at the beginning of the season that I noted that the best soundtracks of the season were from Zetsuen no Tempest and Psycho Pass. Here’s the thing: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s soundtrack was awesome as well, but over the past episodes, it has actually improved, whereas Tempest and Psycho Pass mostly stayed with the same tracks. This episode also had a new track for the ED to work with. I’m amazed at how much work was put into this, because out of all the series this season, this is the show where the soundtrack plays the most prominent role here.

Also, the powers of the different characters just rock. Here is a kid who launches himself with a catapult, the ripple energy that can be used to tiptoe over water, a guy who uses his hair to attack and the most gigantic sword I have ever seen in an anime. It’s all so ridiculously overblown on one hand, yet so detailed on the other with fingers being the single most effective murdering weapon in the entire series. Or that “Let me heal your frozen arm with my burning body heat!”-scene. That was so ludicrous that it became awesome again.

This episode also brought back two famous figures from history back to life as incredibly badass zombies. Even their backstories were over the top, and I love the way how this was portrayed. It was another one of those moments where I nearly had the urge to yell along with the characters. It has been so long that I’ve seen an anime that had so much manliness in it. The previous attempt, Kaiji was horribly dragged out. This is the complete opposite: perfectly paced and I’m not feeling like I’m missing anything.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

This episode put the “Bizarre” in “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”. Jojo fights someone other than Dio this episode in this crazy serial killer that Dio brought over to the dark side. Even a minor villain like this guy is done completely over the top, with knives appearing all over his body, not to mention his ultimate weapon that is this gigantic row of scissors tied next to each other. And this came from more than 20 years ago.

I’m really beginning to understand why this series was so influential. I mean, this manga started two years after Dragon Ball, and aired right next to Dragonball Z, which looks even more boring in comparison here. It’s obviously inspired by Fist of the North Star, but even then it was its time far ahead.

Also, the basics behind the powers of this series really are imaginative, and I loved how over the top this episode was with something as delicate as breath control. I’ve practiced Karate for 13 years now, so I know how important breath is in fighting: it can make a world of difference in terms of the impact of your attacks. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure takes that concept, and just brings it over 9000 by giving it all sorts of powers and magic sparkles.

In fact, this huge power with delicate things seems to be a very big theme in this series. This episode also had that magician guy do all sorts of fancy stuff with his pinky finger, the behind Dio’s powers is also something that can probably be easily broken. And the way in which that magician used pepper when he was first introduced (and sneezed himself off the fence in result) probably also has to do with it.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

I’m still completely baffled by how over the top this show is, but here is the thing: if the pacing was any slower, this series would have been incredibly cheesy. There is so much over the top yelling going on. If this had the pacing of its contemporary Dragonball Z, it would have been an incredible flop. I cringe at the thought of what would hvave happened if this would had the pacing of a regular shounen series.

Instead though, the creators went for this really fast pacing, and they went for it all the way. It does have a few quiet moments that prevent it from being too fast-paced, but the action scenes are a complete delight, exactly because it jumps from one scene to the other without the endless padding. Because of that, the scene above the inferno worked, even though it took ages for two people to just fall. The characters yelling now fits perfectly here and it just continues to build up adrenaline. It’s also not like the voice actors do nothing but scream the same over and over. They simply talk with a lot of power and passion behind their voices.

Dio especially was brilliant in this episode in this. This is the point where he completely loses his humanity, and during his many rants he was just so enjoyable to watch. There is just something funny about how he goes “JOOOOJOOOOO!!!!”, or how he uses his fingers and toes to climb walls but he just keeps going! Once the action scene in this episode starts, there is just hardly any chance to catch a breather.

On a side-note: do you see the top-left image? I now know where some of Hunter X Hunter’s character designs came from.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

I love remakes! But even then, this show was by far the most pleasant surprise of the season. I mean, by far the biggest problem with this series would be animating the complex characters. When the first episode started off slowly, I had a few doubts, but after that, those doubts were completely turned around. This show is so delightful to watch.

I love what the creators did with this series. I mean, normally I don’t like overacting and all, but this show does the overacting with such force and consistency that it becomes awesome to watch. Once in a while, I just want to watch a show that’s full of testosterone that just makes me want to yell at my screen, and that’s exactly what the creators established here. This is so incredibly over the top, yet there is so much passion put in this show. Everything it does is larger than life. Oh, and the great news: I checked on amazon, and already 8 dvd volumes were listed. There is no way that this will be a short series of only 13 episodes!

And beyond that, it has a very inspired direction. Out of all shows this season, this series goes the most into its own direction, rather than following established conventions. The way this show uses its camera angles and character poses makes up wonderfully for the lack of animation, especially the use of colours. The manga-styled sound effects look a bit weird at first sight, but they definitely give a unique effect. The way it handles flashbacks by showing a number of key frames in quick succession also really works well. And the soundtrack! After Tempest and Psycho Pass it definitely stands as the best soundtrack of the season, and it works perfectly in making this show feel EPIC.

The show is rushed, but in fact, I believe that this show can manage where Zetman failed earlier this year: from my perspective it doesn’t look like important details are skimped over right now, and instead of a bit of a wonky pacing, it turned its incredibly fast pacing into its strength by keeping consistent with it, while at the same time finding a way to flesh out the cast by making the scenes that were supposed to be quiet also completely over the top.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)