JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Season 1, Episode 8: Bloody Battle! JoJo & DIO!
[revised 10/2018]
Without much competition so far, this is easily my favourite segment of the first part of JJBA, Phantom Blood. And yes, it's slightly unfair since this is the big climactic action scene, but the raid on Dio's castle is pretty damn epic, starting off with a bunch of wacky zombie goons like Doobie the giant hulking snake-turban man and the man-headed dogs. We do get Dire, Straizo and Tonpetty actually doing something and joining in the fight, which is nice. The animation budget definitely got ramped up a fair bit in this episode, and they finally got a hang on keeping the colour palette swap to a minimal, saving those for only significant scenes.
The episode is bogged down by a bland subplot surrounding Poco's nameless sister, and it's genuinely pointless. It doesn't take too much screentime (and Poco's sister did more than Poco himself ever did, slapping Dio in the face), but I'm obligated to acknowledge it. At least it does lead to Jonathan's brutal dismemberment of the pretty rape-y Doobie, which involves an anvil thrown onto the fucker's head, no-selling Doobie's snakes by squeezing venom out of his blood by flexing, and then melting the sucker with hamon.
Also, got to love that Speedwagon, because his fight commentary of this fight includes this line: "He has poisonous snakes, like cobras and vipers, under his hood!" Didn't take you for a herpetologist, Speedwagon!
The actual fight between our heroes and Dio is definitely pretty epic. We've got a whole ton of badass lines that flowed a lot better compared to the Jojo-vs-Bruford and Jojo/Zeppeli-vs-Tarkus fights. It's not a matter of a whole glut of dialogue -- it's how you execute it! Also, just to show off Dio's freezing powers, Dio totally freezes Dire and his silly "Thunder Cross Split Attack" and then shatters the poor sod. It's a pretty badass scene for Dio, and I really don't feel much since Dire isn't exactly a character. (That's also a glorious pose Dio strikes as he crushes Dire)
That's a pretty stylish way to go out, though. I have zero respect for his stupid Thunder Split Cross Attack nonsense -- as much as Speedwagon talks it up, it exposes his crotch to Dio so even if Dio doesn't freeze him, there are a lot of horrible things that could happen there. Dire's head does remain alive long enough for him to spit a hamon-charged rose to Dio's face. That's pretty badass for a relatively one-note supporting character. Dio, for whatever reason, decides to compare Dire's hamon to a "frog's urine". That's not very nice to frogs, Dio!
With Dire out of the way, it's a pretty badass fight between Jonathan and Dio, with Jonathan using -- for the only time -- the Luck/Pluck swords Bruford gave him. The way Jonathan opens the battle -- "I'm back from hell, Dio" is also pretty damn badass.
Dio is also in tiptop hammy form, dropping a fuckton of WRYYYYY's and muda-muda-muda's throughout this fight. A particularly great bit of editing was when Jonathan cuts Dio in half from head to crotch, and the audio actually splits pretty well on the... audio channels or however you describe the different audio on your two headphones. It's a pretty badass scene, and while getting sliced in half was actually a ploy to get Jonathan within touch range, it doesn't really make it any less cool.
The fight does kind of hinge a bit too much on Dio's freezing powers, but the payoff of Jonathan setting his fists on fire to pummel Dio is pretty glorious, if predictable. Also involved is a flaming sword, but Jonathan makes a flaming fist barrage far more badass than a flaming sword. There is the question as to just how fast the heat was conducted from the flames to the sword or the fists to outmatch Dio's "freeze your blood in two seconds" powers, but eh, I can chalk that up to hamon magic.
Also, my favourite small segment of this episode -- Dio putting the two halves of his face together? Nothing special. Dio having to re-adjust his face-halves because they didn't line up properly? Precious!
The episode ends with what seems to be the final climax of this battle, with JoJo beating Dio so hard he turns into dust just as the sunlight comes in. Dio unleashes his last-ditch attack of squeezing eye fluid, the "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes"... which, tragically, didn't get named as an attack. God damn it, I was looking forward to that. Still, that is definitely an intense beatdown on both parts, with a pretty crisp set of animation, a lot of badass lines, and a genuinely epic showdown between the two. Jonathan even cries as he is forced to kill a childhood... friend-of-sorts-but-not-really-the-fucker-burned-your-dog, but Speedwagon's commentary -- "Jonathan is a good man, he cries because he spent his youth with Dio. Me, though? I'm happily smiling!" Got to love that Speedwagon.
Anyway, great episode all around.
The JoJo Playlist:
Without much competition so far, this is easily my favourite segment of the first part of JJBA, Phantom Blood. And yes, it's slightly unfair since this is the big climactic action scene, but the raid on Dio's castle is pretty damn epic, starting off with a bunch of wacky zombie goons like Doobie the giant hulking snake-turban man and the man-headed dogs. We do get Dire, Straizo and Tonpetty actually doing something and joining in the fight, which is nice. The animation budget definitely got ramped up a fair bit in this episode, and they finally got a hang on keeping the colour palette swap to a minimal, saving those for only significant scenes.The episode is bogged down by a bland subplot surrounding Poco's nameless sister, and it's genuinely pointless. It doesn't take too much screentime (and Poco's sister did more than Poco himself ever did, slapping Dio in the face), but I'm obligated to acknowledge it. At least it does lead to Jonathan's brutal dismemberment of the pretty rape-y Doobie, which involves an anvil thrown onto the fucker's head, no-selling Doobie's snakes by squeezing venom out of his blood by flexing, and then melting the sucker with hamon.
Also, got to love that Speedwagon, because his fight commentary of this fight includes this line: "He has poisonous snakes, like cobras and vipers, under his hood!" Didn't take you for a herpetologist, Speedwagon!
The actual fight between our heroes and Dio is definitely pretty epic. We've got a whole ton of badass lines that flowed a lot better compared to the Jojo-vs-Bruford and Jojo/Zeppeli-vs-Tarkus fights. It's not a matter of a whole glut of dialogue -- it's how you execute it! Also, just to show off Dio's freezing powers, Dio totally freezes Dire and his silly "Thunder Cross Split Attack" and then shatters the poor sod. It's a pretty badass scene for Dio, and I really don't feel much since Dire isn't exactly a character. (That's also a glorious pose Dio strikes as he crushes Dire)That's a pretty stylish way to go out, though. I have zero respect for his stupid Thunder Split Cross Attack nonsense -- as much as Speedwagon talks it up, it exposes his crotch to Dio so even if Dio doesn't freeze him, there are a lot of horrible things that could happen there. Dire's head does remain alive long enough for him to spit a hamon-charged rose to Dio's face. That's pretty badass for a relatively one-note supporting character. Dio, for whatever reason, decides to compare Dire's hamon to a "frog's urine". That's not very nice to frogs, Dio!
With Dire out of the way, it's a pretty badass fight between Jonathan and Dio, with Jonathan using -- for the only time -- the Luck/Pluck swords Bruford gave him. The way Jonathan opens the battle -- "I'm back from hell, Dio" is also pretty damn badass.Dio is also in tiptop hammy form, dropping a fuckton of WRYYYYY's and muda-muda-muda's throughout this fight. A particularly great bit of editing was when Jonathan cuts Dio in half from head to crotch, and the audio actually splits pretty well on the... audio channels or however you describe the different audio on your two headphones. It's a pretty badass scene, and while getting sliced in half was actually a ploy to get Jonathan within touch range, it doesn't really make it any less cool.
The fight does kind of hinge a bit too much on Dio's freezing powers, but the payoff of Jonathan setting his fists on fire to pummel Dio is pretty glorious, if predictable. Also involved is a flaming sword, but Jonathan makes a flaming fist barrage far more badass than a flaming sword. There is the question as to just how fast the heat was conducted from the flames to the sword or the fists to outmatch Dio's "freeze your blood in two seconds" powers, but eh, I can chalk that up to hamon magic.
Also, my favourite small segment of this episode -- Dio putting the two halves of his face together? Nothing special. Dio having to re-adjust his face-halves because they didn't line up properly? Precious!The episode ends with what seems to be the final climax of this battle, with JoJo beating Dio so hard he turns into dust just as the sunlight comes in. Dio unleashes his last-ditch attack of squeezing eye fluid, the "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes"... which, tragically, didn't get named as an attack. God damn it, I was looking forward to that. Still, that is definitely an intense beatdown on both parts, with a pretty crisp set of animation, a lot of badass lines, and a genuinely epic showdown between the two. Jonathan even cries as he is forced to kill a childhood... friend-of-sorts-but-not-really-the-fucker-burned-your-dog, but Speedwagon's commentary -- "Jonathan is a good man, he cries because he spent his youth with Dio. Me, though? I'm happily smiling!" Got to love that Speedwagon.
Anyway, great episode all around.The JoJo Playlist:
- The snake zombie is named Doobie, after either Doobie Wah, a song by Peter Frampton (and 'Doobie Wah' would later be used for a name way, way later in Part VIII), or the 70's band, the Doobie Brothers -- Long Train Runnin' is one of the better-known songs.
- The zombie quartet that Straizo kills with a chandelier, meanwhile, as they quickly say in an introdump, are named Page, Plant, Jones and Bornham, who, respectively, are named after the members of Led Zeppelin -- Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bornham.
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