JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Season 1, Episode 1: Dio, the Invader
[revised 10/2018 ]
So, by popular demand, I'm reviewing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. JJBA has been one of the longest-running manga in Japan, written and drawn by Hirohiko Araki in 1987 and have been going until right now -- and it operates in a decidedly unconventional manner. It swaps protagonists throughout its long, long run, and even changes art styles and genres every hundred chapters or so. This long-running saga is separated into several very distinct "Parts", each working as a perfectly serviceable standalone story of its own. It's well known for an art style that is extremely... unconventional among manga artist, being this strange fit between stylized and realistic, with muscle-bound men striking weird poses being the norm. Or, well, at least for the first three parts, anyway. JJBA wouldn't be quite as remembered until Part III, Stardust Crusaders, but in 2012 they began adapting the entirety of the series as an anime, starting with the first two Parts for its first season.
So, after that pretty long introduction, here's (a revised and tidied up version) of my review of the first Part, retroactively titled "Phantom Blood". Why the revision? I was reading through some of the backlog and I think it's high time that I revised some of these. I don't like going back and changing stuff, but at the same time, some of my reviews of Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency are clearly way below my standard, which is why I'm changing things up and clearing up some of the more embarrassingly hammy bits of my own reviews.
Plus, I've actually been rewatching the first season alongside a friend, which gives a neat little new insight to these re-reviews.
Phantom Blood as a whole isn't... isn't all that unique, but it does offer a pretty decent story. It's pretty basic manga stuff, throwing in a character into a situation of supernatural mumbo-jumbo, with a villain that's so obviously evil. Yet what makes JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually end up being pretty successful is its approach to everything. Everything is so played up and played straight, with our hero, goody-two-shoes gentleman-cum-muscleman Jonathan Joestar, and our villain, the scheming, dastardly Dio Brando, both being played up to the hilt.
The setting is pretty interesting for anime (especially anime of that period), being Victorian-era England. We are quickly thrown into a bit of a prequel as an ugly thief, Dario Brando, comes across the wreckage of a carriage crash -- and upon finding that the rich nobleman is actually alive, plays along with the misconception that he was here to help. Thus the families of the Brando and Joestar family are intertwined.
Oh, throw in the mysterious plot device, a mysterious creepy stone mask that shoots out spikes when in contact with blood, the trigger of the show's descent into supernatural horror. Take a drink for every time the first season zooms in on the stone mask being oh-so-spooky before its true nature is revealed.
And it's... it's definitely an interesting blend of art styles and storytelling. It's Gothic-era England and we're going to deal with shit like vampires and Jack the Ripper, but at the same time everyone is comprised of 95% muscle in an obviously Fist of the North Star inspired art style (or is it the other way around?) of MANLY MEN. Oh, and everyone pulls off flexing poses any time the manga or animation asks for a still shot.
And then the episode quickly blazes through the exposition, and cuts out a bunch of extraneous dialogue in the original manga where we get a bunch of extra scenes just showing 'normal' life. We quickly establish that Jonathan "JoJo" Joestar is the perfect, naive gentleman that will get into a fight to protect a maiden even if he doesn't quite know how to fight. Dio, on the other hand, is a bag of hate that spits on his (implied to be abusive, and at least useless) father's grave and worms his way into the Joestar household as an adopted ward, clearly wanting nothing to do with befriending Jonathan, and ends up showing up Jonathan in every conceivable way.
Oh, and Dio kicks Jonathan's poor dog, clearly establishing him as a huge, huge asshole. AND LATER PUTS THE POOR THING INSIDE AN INCINERATOR! This also sets up this series' tendency to do horrible, horrible things to poor, defenseless mutts. It's honestly reached running gag status that any dog that shows up in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure will end up being killed gruesomely. If you have any doubts that Dio isn't actually evil and is just a social climber, this is the scene that really shows how horrible he is.
Also, in an often-quoted and memetic scene, Dio ambushes Jonathan's girlfriend, Erina, and forces himself on her for a kiss. Just so that Jonathan can't be his first. To quote him, "KONO DIO DA!", translated to "it was me, Dio!" Nowhere as horrible as burning a dog alive, but still.
So, after that pretty long introduction, here's (a revised and tidied up version) of my review of the first Part, retroactively titled "Phantom Blood". Why the revision? I was reading through some of the backlog and I think it's high time that I revised some of these. I don't like going back and changing stuff, but at the same time, some of my reviews of Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency are clearly way below my standard, which is why I'm changing things up and clearing up some of the more embarrassingly hammy bits of my own reviews.
Plus, I've actually been rewatching the first season alongside a friend, which gives a neat little new insight to these re-reviews.
Phantom Blood as a whole isn't... isn't all that unique, but it does offer a pretty decent story. It's pretty basic manga stuff, throwing in a character into a situation of supernatural mumbo-jumbo, with a villain that's so obviously evil. Yet what makes JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually end up being pretty successful is its approach to everything. Everything is so played up and played straight, with our hero, goody-two-shoes gentleman-cum-muscleman Jonathan Joestar, and our villain, the scheming, dastardly Dio Brando, both being played up to the hilt.The setting is pretty interesting for anime (especially anime of that period), being Victorian-era England. We are quickly thrown into a bit of a prequel as an ugly thief, Dario Brando, comes across the wreckage of a carriage crash -- and upon finding that the rich nobleman is actually alive, plays along with the misconception that he was here to help. Thus the families of the Brando and Joestar family are intertwined.
Oh, throw in the mysterious plot device, a mysterious creepy stone mask that shoots out spikes when in contact with blood, the trigger of the show's descent into supernatural horror. Take a drink for every time the first season zooms in on the stone mask being oh-so-spooky before its true nature is revealed.
And it's... it's definitely an interesting blend of art styles and storytelling. It's Gothic-era England and we're going to deal with shit like vampires and Jack the Ripper, but at the same time everyone is comprised of 95% muscle in an obviously Fist of the North Star inspired art style (or is it the other way around?) of MANLY MEN. Oh, and everyone pulls off flexing poses any time the manga or animation asks for a still shot.
And then the episode quickly blazes through the exposition, and cuts out a bunch of extraneous dialogue in the original manga where we get a bunch of extra scenes just showing 'normal' life. We quickly establish that Jonathan "JoJo" Joestar is the perfect, naive gentleman that will get into a fight to protect a maiden even if he doesn't quite know how to fight. Dio, on the other hand, is a bag of hate that spits on his (implied to be abusive, and at least useless) father's grave and worms his way into the Joestar household as an adopted ward, clearly wanting nothing to do with befriending Jonathan, and ends up showing up Jonathan in every conceivable way.Oh, and Dio kicks Jonathan's poor dog, clearly establishing him as a huge, huge asshole. AND LATER PUTS THE POOR THING INSIDE AN INCINERATOR! This also sets up this series' tendency to do horrible, horrible things to poor, defenseless mutts. It's honestly reached running gag status that any dog that shows up in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure will end up being killed gruesomely. If you have any doubts that Dio isn't actually evil and is just a social climber, this is the scene that really shows how horrible he is.
Also, in an often-quoted and memetic scene, Dio ambushes Jonathan's girlfriend, Erina, and forces himself on her for a kiss. Just so that Jonathan can't be his first. To quote him, "KONO DIO DA!", translated to "it was me, Dio!" Nowhere as horrible as burning a dog alive, but still.Anyway, this entire episode honestly is just hammering down how much of a villain Dio is, and I'm genuinely not sure just why this didn't get ridiculous -- it really should be, but the pretty earnest writing and the over-acting on both sides of the party ends up making all of these enjoyable. Amazing voice-acting (I'm watching the Japanese version), especially from Dio's VA, Koyasu Takehito. The Phantom Blood part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is never actively bad, though I don't think it quite reaches the highs of storytelling as its later parts. And ultimately, that's how I felt about Phantom Blood -- it's not bad, but it's just so... so mundane and starts off so slowly. It's a good thing we do kind of blaze through a lot of the information dumps in this episode, though.
The JoJo Playlist:
One of the most memorable parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is how the author sneaks in the names of English bands and music titles (and later fashion brands) as character names or attack powers. It's a bit subtle in these early stages, but in subsequent series it's going to be pretty blatant.
- Dio's name, while clearly taking inspiration on the dude's god complex (Dio means "God" in Italian) it also is a partial reference to the band Dio and its main singer, Ronnie James Dio. Selected songs -- which I'll be doing for every one of these -- include Holy River and Metal Will Never Die. Dio's surname, Brando, is apparently taken from Marlon Brando, of Godfather fame. (Jonathan Joestar, on the other hand, borrows his name from a restaurant that the mangaka likes to go to.)
- The opening song , Sono Chi no Sadame (literally "Destiny of the Blood") is a fast-paced, glorious piece. Great one to give a listen to.
- The ending, Roundabout, is a 70's song from the British band Yes. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure will always have their ending songs be thematically-appropriate English songs from that period of time, which is something that I really do appreciate.
There is something understated about Jonathan, I think. When he comes to Erina's aid at the start, he gets beaten up and basically says to her "I didn't come to your aid for your sake. I did it because I'm a gentleman." The way this scene is written comes across to me like Jonathan is supposed to be in the wrong here, or at least naïve about what a gentleman really is. It's not until Dio shows up in his life and decides to assault Erina that Jonathan actually exhibits the positive qualities that go on to define him for the rest of his short life.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty clear that Dio is impacted by Jonathan continually thwarting his plans and continually evolves over the course of Phantom Blood in response to that, but I like to believe that Dio's influence also changed Jonathan for the better. It's entirely possible that without Dio, Jonathan could've just grow up a spoiled little boy that never really came to embody the virtues he admired.
Jonathan gets kind of ignored a lot, I think, in discussions about main JoJos -- his part was the shortest and the most experimental, it didn't quite have the over-the-top hamminess that Part II would codify, and Jonathan wasn't an anti-hero like Giorno or hammy like Joseph and Josuke. But... but like you said, his sheer heroism and how much he fights for his code of being a 'gentleman' flows through every fiber of his being. It's less about being a 'gentleman' specificlaly, but mor of him being a 'hero', or being 'good', or because it's 'the right thing to do'.
DeleteAnd, like you pointed out, it was a pretty nice read into Jonathan's childhood -- where he *was* already a good boy as a kid -- but just a bit spoiled. And he didn't realize how good he needed to be when there are dog-burning, dad-poisoning bastards like Dio in the world.