Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 25

Hirohiko Araki – Viz – 2009 – 100+ volumes
I use the Japanese numbering for the series, the English volume number is 13.

I had to wait to read this in order to be sure another volume would come out before my birthday so I could do the whole celebration thing again.  I’m reasonably positive volume 26/14 will be out in April, so it’s now safe to read this one.  We’re getting down to the end of the Stardust Crusaders arc, and we should see the final showdown with Dio by the end of the year.  Do we get Diamond is Unbreakable afterwards?  Or maybe Phantom Blood?  I am going to cross my fingers and hope desperately.  All the old volumes of Jojo from more than a year ago seem to be sold out and out of print, which must mean it is at least vaguely popular.  I hope this bodes well.

This entire volume covers the fight with D’arby the Gambler’s brother, D’arby the Gamer.  While this could have been way more ridiculous, I am still quite pleased with how things played out.  D’arby shares the ability to steal souls with his brother, except he traps them inside horrible dolls that beg for their lives back.  Neither Joseph or Jotaro are gamers, so Kakyoin takes D’arby’s challenge.  They play a rousing game of F-Zero (called something else, but clearly F-Zero), and have one of the most extreme contests you can possibly imagine.  D’arby purposely chooses the same racer as Kakyoin so that he can get just in front of him at the start of the race and make it impossible to accelerate around him, since they go the same speed.  There are all sorts of other little tricks the two men pull on one another throughout the contest, each more extreme and hilarious than the last.

Important note: Unlike D’arby the Gambler, D’arby the Gamer feels that cheating is unnecessary to get what he wants.  So it’s not that the characters are looking for ways to cheat each other and catch each other cheating, they’re just looking for insane ways to outdo one another.

Jotaro steps up to the plate next, citing Joseph’s age and the fact he’s never touched a video game before as a reason that he shouldn’t participate in the contest.  Jotaro leaves out the part where he mentions he hasn’t, either, but of course he has Star Platinum to help him.

This volume?  Best final scene in a volume of Jojo’s Bizarre adventure to date.  The last three pages had me absolutely rolling.

I don’t talk about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure as frequently as I do my other favorite series, like One Piece and From Eroica With Love, but that’s only because it comes out less frequently (and, to be fair, it sould be ashamed it’s coming out slower than Eroica).   But I still love it.  I may love it the most of any other series, period, including those two.  There’s a lot to like about it, and while I haven’t read all 100 volumes of it, every volume I have read is hilarious, extreme, action-packed, completely serious, and drawn with a skill you don’t see very frequently in a Shounen Jump series.  It’s everything a comic book should be.  Everything about Jojo is perfect, and there’s 100 volumes of perfection to love.  It’s a hard act to beat, and I’ll continue to praise it as one of the best comic series in the world until the day I die.