Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 18

I completely forgot I had a new volume of Jojo! It’s been languishing on the shelves all this time unread! Sinful.

The three stand fights in this volume are Lovers, Sun, and Death 13. All are pretty good fights… as I mentioned before, while this is the typical SJ tournament-style series, it gets around repetitive fights by making them extremely puzzle-y. Where a lot of series just have battles where the characters fight for awhile, perhaps train for the fights (or the games, whatever), and then eventually win by overpowering, outlasting, or perhaps outsmarting their opponent, the fights in Jojo are usually centered around how to approach the stand user or how to actually begin fighting the stand. There is no question that Star Platinum, Herophant Green, and Silver Chariot are stronger than the other stands, so once they figure things out the enemies are quickly dispatched, but the figuring out is the part I like the best.

For instance, in this volume we get the Sun, which the characters have to figure out before they are roasted alive. The Sun was one of the funnier battles, actually, because it was over so quickly. Death 13 is the next one they have to figure out, and it’s hard to approach this one because the stand only attacks in dreams, which means the characters can’t use their stands to fight it. They can only be awakened by someone else, and when they are awake, they can’t remember what they were dreaming about. Plus, the user is a baby. Kakyoin figures things out, but the others think he is batshit crazy and are discussing leaving him in the desert at the end of the volume.

There is regrettably less super violence in this volume, though Kakyoin does carve “Baby Stand” into his arm while he’s asleep. The one instance we do get is where a huge rat gets the top of its head severed most of the way off, leaving its face deformed and its brains spilling everywhere. This is towards the end of the volume, and it’s like Araki realized we hadn’t gotten enough ridiculous fighting this time around, because this rat is shown up close off and on for the rest of the volume in a hilarious way.

I’m so, so sad this series is quarterly. I could definitely go bimonthly and never get tired. I suspect this isn’t as popular as I’d like it to be, which is a shame because every red-blooded boy in America needs to be reading this.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 17

Add Immortal Rain 3 & 4 to the list from the below post. Immortal Rain is now the shit. But Jojo will always beat his way to the top.

This volume was a lot funnier than some of the other ones have been recently. Certainly we can all laugh at goofy fights where body parts got blown up, but there are actual jokes here. Not just the fact that Wheel of Fortune crows about ending Jojo series 3 already, but the stand user and the stand themselves. Let’s just say… he’s got big beefy arms. And let’s just think about how often Polnareff and toilets are brought up in each volume. There’s a good joke there, too.

But yes, I love this series. The Justice’s abilities were actually some of the coolest so far, and I really liked the way she worked. The end to the volume was kind of sad, and I wasn’t entirely sure what they were going to do with her anyway, but she didn’t deserve that.

The Lovers=TIGHT. I’d like to see how that situation resolves itself.

Still funny, still violent as hell, still Jojo.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 16

This volume was a bit slower than the other ones, but only because the stand battle in the second half was slightly less epic.

That’s a lie. There was two tremendously epic stand battles, then a third one with Wheel of Fortune that I didn’t like as much, but the first two was amazing. Polnareff v. J. Geil was pretty good, as it took some craft to fight the mirror stand, and I liked the strategies used… particularly since many of them involved the citizens of Calcutta once again (or whatever city they were in… I think it was Calcutta). It was pretty epic, but nowhere near as cool as Hermit Purple v. Empress. Hermit Purple is so worthless, and Mr. Joestar NEVER gets any screentime, so it was a good fight to see, not to mention that once again the way the fight went was inventive, so we’re not getting more of the same over and over again.

Joseph Joestar is definitely a hero, so yes. I’ve got volume 17 in now, so I’ll probably be reading that after I catch myself up on Death Note.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 15

This volume was censored. There was a panel where a dog got its head torn off, which was redrawn from a different angle. The dog still got his head blown off, a snake still got its head shot off, a guy still got the top of his head punched off at the jaw, a guy got his face sliced from his skull, and a guy also got his ankle sliced off. You know, I hardly noticed that dog getting its head torn off, I was too busy being grossed out by the man who got his ankle sliced off.

Still tournament-style, with a few enemies per issue, so I have no idea how this lasts any longer than 5 or 6 volumes. But it’ll be exciting to see, because this series kicks SO MUCH ASS. Each fight tops the last in terms of gore and over-the-top… shit, that it’s hilarious to read. Plus the sense of humor in the series is top notch. When Polnareff fights one of the stands, there’s a really long sequence where he’s trying to figure out how he got hurt while being stalked by the stand. At the beginning of the sequence, the stand user is hiding and Polnareff finds him right away… when the stand asks him how he found him in the fridge, Polnareff calls him and idiot and tells him he put everything on top of the fridge.

There’s also one of the best scenes in manga history when they wind up in India, running right up until Polnareff uses the pig toilet.

I’m pissed they changed Devo’s name though (the wielder of the Devil card). They could’ve changed it to something like D’bo, as was suggested on another site, but nooooo… it’s something generic, like “wielder of death” or something. Boo, Viz. I wanna whip it good.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 14

I’ll pout like a sullen child until I get the first two story arcs, because this series is just so damn good I want more. It’s also unfortunate that it’s quarterly instead of bi-monthly, because it’s also a good long series as well. I can’t tell you the hoops I jumped through to try and get my scanslations back (I deleted them when I heard about the license for space reasons, but this was before I knew about the jump forward in narrative), but for some reason, the first two story arcs are the only ones I couldn’t find… found near complete ones for the rest of the series. Naughty, naughty, on both my part and yours.

And the reason this series is good is for exchanges like “What?! It was Captain Tennille?! But we had him checked through the REO Speedwagon association!” Jesus Christ. It kills me every time I stumble onto a reference like that. Plus there’s the ultraviolence. Something insanely stupid happens violence-wise this volume… oh yeah, Jojo sliced the top of someone’s head off with Star Platinum’s two fingers. That may not be what struck me as totally unnecessary, but it was awesome all the same. The two stands they fought this time around were really good, and the story’s moving along at a decent clip, though it is a bit shounen-jump-battle-y for my taste. But the battles are so fucking violent and laced with American cultural references, it’s hard for me to complain.

I’m really surprised this series wasn’t licensed long ago. It may be because the beginning is just so fucking cheesy and bad, but otherwise (and maybe not even with that exception) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is about as American as Apple motherfucking Pie.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 13

We go by Japanese numbering system here, folks. While I’m extremely happy to be getting this in any form, and I’ll admit that this is where the series gets going with the stands, but the first twelve volumes still kick ass, and I’m holding onto the hope that this series will blow up like a star and we’ll see the first two story arcs.

God DAMN, it’s even better in English! While as I predicted some of the hilarious English sound effects are either tampered with or not as funny, and the names apparently stick to their Araki-isms (he spells it “Avdol,” but it should be Abdul, as in Paula… though LisaLisa escaped unscathed). The dialogue is still cheesy as fuck and the gore is still unprecedented. Notable scenes include an eyeball being snatched from someone’s head, a cable-thing burrowing under Jojo’s skin up his arm and into his brain, and a cable-thing drilling through Jojo’s hand and into his teeth.

The plot doesn’t matter. They fight with psychic powers that manifest themselves as visible people with names from colors and the major arcana, and they have to fight a resurrected vampire with the body of Jojo’s great-great-grandfather Jojo so that they can save Holly, Jojo’s mom. They all have star tattoos. Jojo #1 is a vampire, Jojo #2 is an old man.

Do you like action? Do you like violence? Do you hate sense? God, buy this RIGHT NOW and start writing in for the first twelve volumes.