JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Anime Review) Part 1

So, I know it's been a few months since my last anime review, but I'm finally back with them again. The reason I stopped was because I was beginning to watch a lot more new anime and I wanted to watch them before doing more of these reviews. But, now I'm back with them with my review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I haven't seen all of the parts of JoJo yet. I've only seen Phantom Blood up until Stardust Crusaders. So, this review will only be talking about the first three parts. That's why the title says Part 1. I'm hoping to start seeing Diamond Is Unbreakable and Golden Wind really soon, but, for now, I'm just doing Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency and Stardust Crusaders. So, anyway, yeah the JoJo series is insanely popular throughout the world and I myself have been curious to check it out for a while. I then decided to get the Blu-Rays for the first three parts because they were the only ones that were available here and I wanted to see what the all the hype was about. It's another Shonen Jump series created by Hirohiko Araki and the basic plot for all of them is that each part follows a member of the Joestar family as something happens in their lives that causes them to need to stop someone from doing something in some way. So, let's just get started with the original, Phantom Blood. I actually hadn't heard that many great things about this before starting, especially from one guy in particular who said he really didn't like it. So, I went into this first part curious, but also pretty hopeful because I knew this was such a huge series and I was excited to start it. And, in the end, yeah, I'm pretty much the same. I personally didn't like Phantom Blood. It's not bad and, as a whole, it is good, I suppose, but, I personally just found the vast majority of this first part really boring. I know the manga started in the late eighties, which was actually when Dragon Ball was still being made, but I really don't think it's aged well at all. There's so many parts of this that're really cheesy and I couldn't get behind this. The plot for this one is that a guy named Dio Brando is adopted into the Joestar family and he decides he wants to take their fortune for himself. In the family is a guy named Jonathan Joestar and Dio tries to make his life a nightmare so Jonathan has to try to stop him from killing his dad. So, I will admit, the set up for the series is actually interesting and I know how iconic a lot of these characters are, especially Dio as one of the most iconic Shonen Jump villains ever and he was probably my favourite part of this first part. As for the rest of it, I was honestly really bored while watching most of this. Jonathan himself in particular really bored me. He wasn't bad but he was just so uninteresting and bland. And, since we follow him for the whole time, I found it kinda hard to get through most of this. Like I said, everything to do with Dio was far more interesting because he was pretty fun to watch. It's kinda hard to explain but it's kinda like Frieza and Hisoka. They may be irredeemable villains who do horrible things, but they're just so much fun to watch and so charismatic that they're impossible to really hate. And the stuff with him was interesting to watch and I did find it cool when we learn about Hamon. That stuff was pretty cool, but, really, a large majority of this still did just bore me a lot. And, I know Phantom Blood in the anime was only nine episodes long, but it felt so much longer and the episodes were dragged out so much and the pacing was so slow that I wished the whole thing would just end. And, I will admit, the actual ending is pretty cool on that ship when Jonathan and Erina get married and then Dio attacks him with his zombie army. That whole part actually is really good. And it's interesting that this is a Shonen Jump property when the main protagonist is killed at the end like that. So, that whole part was probably my favourite sequence in the whole first part. But, really, as a whole, Phantom Blood is definitely my least favourite part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure so far. The same goes for the dubbing as well. I'm obviously referring to the recent anime that started in 2012 and so they tried to modernise it, but I really don't think it works very well. The writing and all that may have been good for the time when the manga started in the eighties, but not really nowadays. And, like I said, I don't think the dubbing really helps because the writing really hasn't aged well. I was pretty surprised when I found out that Johnny Yong Bosch played Jonathan and, while not bad, Johnny Yong Bosch can never do a bad performance, this is definitely my least favourite performance of his. It's not his fault, Jonathan is just really boring and it's honestly really weird hearing him doing a British accent. I'd say, next to Dio, Zeppeli was probably my favourite character. He's the guy who teaches Hamon to Jonathan and he was probably my second favourite character. But, overall, yeah, I mostly didn't enjoy watching Phantom Blood. It may have worked back when it was released, but I really don't think it's aged well at all and, really, I was mostly just really relieved when I finished watching it. It may be really short with just a few episodes, but they feel so slow and so long that it's such a drag to get through them. So, yeah, those are my thoughts on Phantom Blood. Now, let's move onto Part 2, Battle Tendency. Now, while this may have come right after Phantom Blood, this is a gigantic improvement. This was actually the part I knew the least about in terms of the first five parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. And I think that helped make the experience all the more enjoyable because, from the three parts of JoJo I've seen so far, this one is my favourite. Its story is way better thought out, its characters are infinitely more interesting and the progression of the plot is really genius. I just had an absolute blast with Battle Tendency. This one follows Jonathan's grandson, Joseph Joestar, as he tries to learn Hamon to fight a group of villains called the Pillar Men alongside Caesar Zeppeli, the grandson of Zeppeli from Phantom Blood. So, yeah, again, I just had so much fun with this part. I loved seeing the characters interacting and what they spoke about was really interesting. I also liked Joseph a lot more than Jonathan because he was actually really fun. I loved his smart mouth attitude and he was really funny. I also really liked Caesar, he and Joseph had a really fun dynamic and it was pretty sad when he was killed. The Pillar Men were also way better as villains than Dio was. I liked Dio in Part 1, but there were point where he was a bit much for me, but the Pillar Men were better. Well, kinda. The only one that really stood out to me was Wamuu. There were four in total but the only one who really stood out to me was the one named Wamuu. One part for that was the writing, but another part was also the fact that Paul St. Peter voiced him. As in the same guy who voices Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts. So, that was obviously awesome for me to hear. But, really, he felt like he was the best written. I don't remember much about the others aside from Kars, as in the main villain of Part 2, but he sometimes was too generic. But the rest of the characters are very fun to watch. I really like all the side characters like Caesar, Smokey, Lisa Lisa and it was cool that Erina came back as a supporting character in this again. And I liked the plotline of Lisa Lisa actually being Joseph's mom but also not wanting to tell him for his safety and then taking him and Caesar in as her students. And, I'm not gonna lie, a lot of the training Joseph and Caesar were doing with Hamon reminded me of the training in Naruto with them learning about Chakra from Kakashi. I just couldn't help but make that comparison while watching it. The journey as well overall is just so much fun and the ending when Joseph, Caesar and Lisa Lisa go to try to stop Kars is also cool with them fighting different opponents and them having some gladiator thing with them fighting monsters was really cool. And, the ending as well is just insane. Like, I've seen some really insane final fights in anime before, but this one is just madness. We have Joseph trying to fight Kars and he tries to make him fall into a volcano but they both keep surviving in the craziest ways until he somehow beats him by launching him into space to make him freeze. Again, it's just absolutely insane, but it works really well. And then the actual ending with all of them reuniting with Joseph having married Suzie Q is really nice and kinda funny. I also felt like a lot of moments in this that were trying to be satisfying worked a lot more than the ones in Phantom Blood because, even though it was almost twice the amount of episodes in the anime, I felt like it was structured so much better. Really, overall, I just loved Battle Tendency. I thought it was a ginormous improvement over Phantom Blood and it had a story that was super investing and I had a great time with it. I would definitely want to watch this again at some point and I do think it's the best part of JoJo I've seen so far. But, with those first two parts finished, let's move onto Part 3, Stardust Crusaders. This was honestly the part I was most excited to see and it's easily the most popular part in all of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I knew so much about this part and from what I saw, I was really excited. However, I'm not gonna lie, about 75-80% of this was a disappointment to me. Let's get to what I liked first though. First off, this has easily my favourite leading JoJo in it, Jotaro Kujo. Even before watching it, he was already my favourite JoJo from what I had seen in some clips beforehand. And watching the series confirmed that. He is easily my favourite character in this entire franchise so far. I loved Jotaro. I also loved the setup. In fact, the opening and ending to this part is amazing. This one follows Jotaro, who's Joseph's grandson, as he goes with Joseph and some other people to find and kill Dio who's after been resurrected and now Jotaro has to find and kill him to save his mom, who's also Joseph's daughter, Holly. So, the start of the series is really great when we're getting to know about what's happening and I also liked the inclusion of Stands, basically the main power system of the series which creates a being made of aura to fight for the person who wields it. And the Crusaders themselves were awesome. I loved all of them, Jotaro, Joseph, Polnareff, Avdol, Kakyoin and Iggy. I loved them all and the whole interactions with all of them was so much fun. I also felt like Joseph had more of a personality here. However, what I really, really disliked about this was the length. This whole part of the series is insanely long and so much of this does feel like a waste of time because the team is trying to get to Cairo to find and kill Dio but they keep running into people who're also Stand users and working for Dio and they would always just fight them and then move into the next episode and that was how every episode was. It was just them going somewhere and having a fight and then rinse and repeat. So much of this felt so much like filler. And, as you all know, I hate filler in anime. And considering so much of this felt like that was honestly kinda frustrating. It also kinda baffles me that this was all actually in the manga. I realise it would have been weird if they got to Cairo really fast so I do understand wanting to buy time to make it more like a proper story. But, this thing goes on for way too long and it just got boring for me. And the fact that it's ten volumes and 48 episodes long is just insane to me. I actually skipped most of the episodes after they got to Egypt because I knew what the vast majority of the episodes were gonna be. I will admit, there were some episodes that were kinda creative, but, for the most part, I was just waiting for them to get there. But, with all that being said, the actual ending of this part is absolutely phenomenal. When they actually get to Cairo and face off against Dio, it's honestly one of the best moments in anime I think I've ever seen. The whole part when Dio comes out at night and he starts chasing them through the city is amazing and the ending part with Jotaro finally taking him on is just the pinnacle of it all.

It's just anime perfection. So, the ending of Stardust Crusaders is easily the best moment in the entire series for me. And it's all the more tragic when Avdol, Iggy and Kakyoin all die. So, yeah, the ending of this is honestly one of the best pieces in anime I think I may have ever seen and it has a great setup with an amazing opening. However, the whole getting to that ending does feel hard to get to because of all the events that feel like filler. There was never really any where I felt super entertained and it really did just bore me a lot. But, the payoff for it all is totally worth it so I do totally recommend it for that. I also love the dub for this too, especially Matt Mercer as Jotaro. So, yeah, while not perfect at all, there's so many amazing things in this part and I definitely see why it's the most popular JoJo part. And, so, yeah, those are my thought on the first three parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I can easily see why people are huge fans of this series and I see why it's insanely popular. I'm really excited to get started on Diamond Is Unbreakable and Golden Wind soon along with Stone Ocean and so, one day, I'll do a Part 2 where I talk about those. And so, yeah, I do recommend this series to you and I'm glad I got into it myself and I'm excited to do more anime reviews soon. And so, everyone, those are my thoughts on Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency and Stardust Crusaders. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.