Hey guys I'm back with a review. This time I'm looking at the first storyline for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, called Phantom Blood. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series that's been running for 25 years. It has a fighting game by Capcom that's been re-released recently on Playstation Network and Xbox Live and two OVA's based off it's third arc and one movie based on the first arc. In celebration for it's anniversary this year a video game for Playstation 3 will be released called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle that will feature characters from pretty much every arc and a t.v anime will be released this October that looks like it will animate every storyline.Phantom Blood is the first arc in the long running Jojo's manga and is pretty much the origin of the events that happen later. Since each arc stars a different Jojo each arc is pretty much it's own self contained story though they always have some sort of connection to the other Jojo arcs. Another thing, as you probably noticed in each Jojo's storyline every main characters name is Jojo. Usually by combining part of their first name and part of their last name. In the first character's case he is called Jojo because his name is Jonathan Joestar.
So how does the first storyline in Jojo's hold up? Let's find out.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Phantom Blood
by Hirohiko Araki
Review by Jeremias de Leon
Story
The story of the first Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is set during 19th century England and shows how a man named Dario Brando saved a man named George Joestar and his child from death, or so George though. When Dario is on his deathbed he tells his son Dio to go to George to raise him as George said he owed him for saving his life. Dio does go to George and meets his son Jonathan Joestar, to which he is immediately rude to and over the course of the next few weeks in an attempt to get Jonathan so angry that he'll go insane, and with him insane Dio can inherit George's wealth. Jonathan however through all the things Dio does, and Dio does some pretty cruel things, keeps his sanity and composure.
Jonathan then finally stands up to Dio and shows that he cannot be pushed around anymore and Dio doesn't pick on him for a few years. Then one day the real story starts as the "bizarre" part of Jojo's story kicks in and Dio becomes a vampire and the undead come into the picture. A man named Baron Zepelli shows up out of nowhere and teaches Jojo the "ripple" technique which is a way of basically using breathing to manifest spiritual energy, as a way to destroy the undead. Then there's some really interesting battles that happen. Even though there are big, muscular men and lots of fighting. The fights are not like a normal shonen manga. Since Jojo and his friends are basically normal humans, humans trained to use their spiritual energy, but still pretty much normal humans, their fights against these super humanly strong vampires are won mainly through wits and not strength.
The story is basically about Jonathan wanting to bring Dio to justice and having to train really hard with a man named Baron Zepelli to fight against Dio and the undead he was creating.
Characters
The characters are what makes this story go from "ok" to "good". Jonathan Joestar is a very strong willed young man, and in a dark story it's cool to see. Baron Zepelli is one unique character and as Jojo's teacher he works very well, having his own dark, tragic past. Robert E.O Speedwagon who ends up becoming a family friend of the Joestar family is basically a "commentator" during the battles but unlike other shonen fighting "commentator" characters he actually does help or try to help and when people tell him to basically shut and sit on the sidelines he'll argue that there's really no reason he shouldn't learn to fight too. Which is kind of nice to see, though still a bit annoying because he doesn't really learn to fight. Dio in this first arc though still awesome like he is in his more famous version as the wielder of "The World" stand is a bit of a one dimensional evil character. Even though you see he had a rough childhood it really doesn't explain why he is as evil as he is. It would explain being bad to a certain extent but not how he is as downright evil as he is, especially when he becomes a vampire.
Art
Hirohiko Araki has a very cool unique style in his manga, except just not at this point in time in the first Jojo's story. The art looks just like Buronson's from Fist Of The North Star, which at this time does make sense though, since it was an inspiration for making Jojo's. Still that isn't to say it's a complete copy of Buronson's style. The clothing designs for the characters especially Jojo's is definitely unique to Araki. Plus considering how the characters fight with using the ripple the art style does lend itself well to the battles. In a nutshell it's not where Araki will be in later story arcs. but it's still well done.
Verdict
Phantom Blood on it's own probably isn't the strongest Jojo's story but it's still really well done. There was even a point in the manga that I got a bit emotional over, so it's definitely not boring. The clever fights that will be a staple of the series are already really well done and the unique and quirky characters, though looking like Fist Of The North Star characters, are quite charming and do leave an impression on you.
Read it, even though the later series really show Araki becoming his own artist, the origins of the Joestar family and their fate with Dio shouldn't be missed.
I give the first part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Phantom Blood an 8 out of 10.
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