There are a lot of ways to adapt something. Shounen battle series tend to very quickly fall into a very dull variation of that: really slow pacing that goes on forever with long boring drawn out battles that all look like each other. David Production looked at them, and just said “we can do better!”
They grabbed one of the most popular shounen series that hadn’t been fully adapted yet and gave it a kickass treatment that just screams epicness that fits the story perfectly. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure on its own is already a completely crazy story, but this anime actually throws in everything it has to amplify this insanity. The voice actors all yell out their lines with an incredible amount of passion and energy, the animation is full of weird and over the top poses and trippy colour effects, the soundtrack is completely epic with many different tracks (including even dubstep), the pacing is incredibly fast, yet nothing feels rushed. All dedicated to make the adrenaline rush as high as possible.
The plot of this series is basically a bunch of incredibly muscly guys punching zombies to death. That could have been so dull so fast, but beyond the incredibly over the top execution, the actual contents of the action scenes are really creative and fun to watch. This show knows how to keep itself fresh: every character is varied and unique (and really likable by the way, the best being Joseph and Stroheim), every villain has different powers and methods of fighting, and this show loves to use all sorts of props and powers to remain interesting. This series in particular loves to give huge powers to very tiny and weak things, to prevent things from being just one superpower after the other. It keeps fights with random goons really as short as possible, so that it can focus on the characters who actually matter.
Of course, this series is not for everyone. It is for those looking for over the top action, and in terms of shounen action it pretty much offers the best you can get. Having said that though: it is pretty simplistic at times. Some characters are quite one-sided and only work because the presentation is so good. Don’t expect the most complex character-development here, but instead huge heaps of energy and manliness.
One-Sentence Review: An excellent adaptation, full of incredibly over the top shounen action with a very creative plot and really likable, albeit simple, characters.
Suggestions:
– Baccano
– Shin Mazinger Z
– Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood
No love for Dio’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 1)?
They got half the review’s images 😛 I think he tries to avoid spoilers in the reviews.
Solid review, I don’t like the number 89 since I’m not a fan of prime numbers, but still, good stuff.
I like how the Mangaka solved the “Manga must be long, but how can I make it not get stretched?” issue by splitting it into parts, every dealing with a new main character and story. A good way to keep going while being able to finish your story(ies) and geting a fresh start again.
So sad now that fall has upped and left us completely, pretty cool season it was. Now that this is done, Hunter x Hunter will have to step up and be the best Shonen in town (I read the manga, so I know it will be)
Awesome series and by far the best Shounen I’ve seen in years.
slightly disappointing that it didn’t get above 90 score but I can also understand it because as good as a Shounen can be it’s not for everyone.
Now we only need the(pending)announcement of part 3 and hopefully the rest of the series so we can eagerly wait in anticipation for the things to come.
This was a lot of fun. I think David captured the manga’s unabashedly campy and over-the-top tone quite well compared to the older adaptations. Any show that has a sympathetic screaming nazi and ambiguously gay immortals named after 80’s rock bands deserves a noteworthy adaptation.
Thank you, psgels, for being the only animu blogger to cover and do justice to JoJo anime, just like David Productions have done it just adapting it in this spectacular way!
To the next 6 seasons!
The Cartdriver covered this series well too. But yeah, not enough folks blogged this one
For an animation of this quality, there was quite a lack of animation throughout, even for most key moments.
It’s not just the color palette, but the strong geometric patterns filling space, use of heavy shadows, drawn-in manga-style sound effects, soundtrack, plot twists, bizarre powers, combat tactics, and relentless voice acting all somehow fill the gaps and transform many key frames into something much more vibrant, energetic.
lol score of 89. looks like psgels noted Nunu’s guess last post.
love this show. looking forward to next season.
Well this got a higher rating then I expected but glad you enjoyed it so much.
(ironically I just finished Baccano last night too)
People need to appreciate the sexy of JoJo more.
Speaking of over the top, people should check out Sakigake Otokojuku.
Back to the topic in hand, Jojo was… well… bizarre, but it also was excellent. If only DBZ was this fun.
you should’ve given it 90 at least why so cheap(0.1 wont make a difference)
The Original Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that was animated a few years ago, “Project Arms” (more so season 1 then 2), “Kaiji” (Season 1 and 2), “Ninja Scroll Series and Movie”, “Flame of Recca”.
Whats stops this updated version of Jojo from getting a 100, it lacks the amount of passion found in the manga and original animated series of the same name, and slightly more fan service is found in this one too, I give it a 80 out of 100. Good but not as good as its predecessor.
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