SolarKnight
Member
ANIME ONLY WATCHERS, YOU ARE WELCOMED, BUT ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK OF BEING SPOILED
(Credit to Jocchan for the banner)
What is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series created by Hirohiko Araki. It was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2004, and then switched to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump where it still runs today. It is currently the 9th longest manga ever with 107 volumes at the moment.
What is JJBA about?
JJBA narrates the story of the Joestar family's "bizarre adventures" across multiple generations, taking place in settings varying from the streets of Victorian England, to a horseback race across all of the US. There will also be plenty of posing and fabulousness.
The story is divided like this:
Part 1: Phantom Blood
This is where it all started. It is the story of Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando and during the late 19th century in England. After the death of Dio's father, he is adopted by the Joestar family. Despite being shown great hospitality, Dio's only goal is to one day become the sole heir to the Joestar fortune. When his plan didn't work out due to Jonathan finding out about his schemes, Dio uses an ancient stone mask that had been kept as a memento of Jonathan's mother to transform into a vampire. After a battle that left both badly hurt, Jonathan is found by Will A. Zepelli, an Italian master of a mystic power called the Ripple (also called Hamon by some), so that he can master those powers and then embark on a journey to defeat Dio and prevent him from ruling the world.
Part 2: Battle Tendency
50 years after the events of Phantom Blood, it follows Joseph Joestar, Jonathan's grandson. The story follows the quest of Joseph, Caesar Zepelli (Will's grandson), and their Ripple master Lisa Lisa to fight the Pillar Men, ancient super beings that are higher in the food chain than even vampires and creators of the stone mask, to prevent them from obtaining the Red Stone of Aja, which would allow them to perfect the stone mask and turn them into ultimate beings without any weaknesses at all.
It is a fan favorite and considered by many as one of the greatest battle shonen manga.
Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
By far the most popular and well known of all of the parts and it introduces the concept of Stands to the series, one its most iconic features. This time, the story focuses on Jotaro Kujo, Joseph's grandson. Having survived the ending of Phantom Blood, Dio returns and obtains the power of Stands. Due to Dio having stolen Jonathan's body after his death, this awakens a Stand in all of the living members of the Joestar bloodline. While this gives Jotaro and Joseph superpowers, it causes Holly, Jotaro's mother, to fall deathly ill because she does not have the ability to control it. With the only way of curing Holly being to kill Dio, Jotaro and Joseph, along with a group of allied stand users, embark on an adventure to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all.
Part 4: Diamon is Unbreakable (also known as Diamon is not Crash)
Taking place in the town of Morioh, the protagonist this time is Josuke Higashikata (the kanji for -suke can also be read as Jo), Joseph's illegitimate son. It introduces the concept of a special kind of Arrow, which gives whoever it pierces a stand ability. In the beginning, it could be said that it follows a "stand user of the week" formula while trying to find the arrow and destroy it. After that is accomplished, the serial killer Yoshikage Kira is introduced, and the objective switches to finding and defeating him for the safety of Morioh.
While it is currently receiving a retranslation, it originally had some really bad scanlations which the fandom has dubbed as "Duwang" due to a mistranslation of Morioh, and turned it into a meme.
Part 5: Vento Aureo (Golden Wind)
Before the events of part 3, Dio conceived a son called Haruno Shiobana, who changed his name to Giorno Giovanna when he moved to Italy. Giorno has a dream, and that dream is to be a Gang Star and gain control of Italy's mafia to change it into something that turns his home into a better place and help its people. To do so, he joins Passione, a mafia consisting of many stand users, with the intention of climbing up the ranks so that he can take over from the inside.
Part 6: Stone Ocean
It is the first story to star a female Jojo, Jolyne Kujo, daughter of Jotaro. In an attempt to bait Jotaro, Jolyne is framed for murder and thrown into the Green Dolphin Street Prison. While helping Jolyne to break out from prison, Jotaro gets attacked by the enemy stand White Snake while trying to protect Jolyne, and he gets both his stand and his sould and memories taken from him. Without both of those, Jotaro will eventually die, so she rejects her opportunity to escape from prison so that she can find White Snake and save her father.
Part 7: Steel Ball Run
We're back to the late 19th century, but this time in an alternate universe where you'll find new versions of the Jojo characters you know. While initially unrelated to JJBA during its run in Weekly Shonen Jump, it was announced as the 7th part of Jojo when it moved to Ultra Jump and changed to the seinin genre.
Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey that became a paraplegic, meets Gyro Zepelli. Convinced that Gyro's rotation abilities are the key to regaining the use of his legs, Johnny follows Gyro to compete in the Steel Ball Run race, a race by horse across the entire United States. While it starts as a gigantic, but otherwise normal race, it is soon found out that the actual purpose of the race is a plan to find and collect the parts of a holy corpse made by the president of the US.
Part 8: Jojolion
The current, on going story. After the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Morioh was devastated, and weird structures that got to be called Wall Eyes started appearing all over the town. One day, a girl called Yasuho Hirose finds a naked, unconscious man beneath one of the Wall Eyes. This man, our protagonist, has no memory of anything before he woke up, but it is shown that he has a stand that is able to remove things, and also that he has 4 testicles. He is adopted by the family of Yasuho's childhood friend, the Higashikata family, and given the name of Josuke Higashikata. Wishing to know more about himself, Josuke and Yasuho start investigating any clues that may lead to revealing his past.
Sounds interesting, how can I read this?
Unfortunately, unless you live in Japan or a couple of other countries, it is difficult if not impossible to find actual volumes of the series. Likely, your only choice will be to find scanlations. In the US, only Stardust Crusaders has been localized, while some European and Asian countries have most of the series localized.
Are there any adaptations of this story?
Yes, yes there are.
-Phantom Blood movie: In 2007, Phantom Blood received a theatrical animated movie. Unfortunately, it never received a home release. It is said that the reason for this is that Araki hated the movie and forbid it from being released on DVD.
-Phantom Blood videogame: A brawler for the PS2, it was the first time part 1 was released as something other than a manga. It wasn't that well received IIRC, but it allowed you to play pretty much any character that so much as threw a punch during the story arc.
-Stardust Crusaders drama CDs: Audio retellings of part of Stardust Crusaders. It has Norio Wakamoto as Dio.
-Stardust Crusaders RPG: Released for the SNES, it adapts part 3 and was the first Jojo videogame.
-Stardust Crusaders fighting game: Possibly the biggest exposure most people outside of Japan have to JJBA. Made by Capcom for the CPS3, it is considered a classic by many fighting game fans.
-Stardust Crusaders OVAs: Released simply as Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, these OVAs are an abridged retelling of part 3's story.
-Vento Aureo videogame: The first PS2 Jojo game. It is a brawler that retells most of part 5's story in its own way. It was planned to be released internationally as GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, but Araki's refusal to change the musical references prevented it from happening.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 2012 anime: It is the anime that is currently airing, and what Jojo GAF is most excited about along with the All Star Battle videogame. So far it's planned to have 26 episodes and covers both Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, with a possibility of it continuing and adapting more parts of the story.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle: A fighting game developed by CyberConnect2. It is the first time ever that characters from multiple parts appear in the same game and interact with each other. It will be released on August 29, 2013 in Japan, with no announced plans for localizing the game anywhere else (I'm not counting the trademarks as "announced plans").
-Light novels: There are a couple of light novels, however, none of them were written by Araki, so it's very likely that none of them are canon. For the most part, they are some sort of expansion to the story.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged: Ok, this isn't official at all, but it is too good for me to not give it a mention. It is a parody of the Stardust Crusaders OVAs.
Ok, now for a few guidelines for this topic:
-ALL SPOILERS WILL BE UNMARKED. The exception to this is Jojolion since it is still being serialized, and maybe the final arc of Steel Ball Run.
-IF YOU EVER POST FANART PLEASE SOURCE. It is just rude for the artist to not do so, so be sure to at least make a mention of the author.
-BE CIVIL. I'm sure this goes without saying, but I wanted to have 3 things here :T So, pretty much just follow the usual forum rules.
Ok, I think that's about it. If any of you have a better short, mostly spoiler-free summary of the stories you're welcomed to submit it, as well as anything that you guys think might need to be added.
*Roundabout starts playing to signify the end of the opening post*
(Credit to Jocchan for the banner)
What is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series created by Hirohiko Araki. It was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2004, and then switched to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump where it still runs today. It is currently the 9th longest manga ever with 107 volumes at the moment.
What is JJBA about?
JJBA narrates the story of the Joestar family's "bizarre adventures" across multiple generations, taking place in settings varying from the streets of Victorian England, to a horseback race across all of the US. There will also be plenty of posing and fabulousness.
The story is divided like this:
Part 1: Phantom Blood
This is where it all started. It is the story of Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando and during the late 19th century in England. After the death of Dio's father, he is adopted by the Joestar family. Despite being shown great hospitality, Dio's only goal is to one day become the sole heir to the Joestar fortune. When his plan didn't work out due to Jonathan finding out about his schemes, Dio uses an ancient stone mask that had been kept as a memento of Jonathan's mother to transform into a vampire. After a battle that left both badly hurt, Jonathan is found by Will A. Zepelli, an Italian master of a mystic power called the Ripple (also called Hamon by some), so that he can master those powers and then embark on a journey to defeat Dio and prevent him from ruling the world.
Part 2: Battle Tendency
50 years after the events of Phantom Blood, it follows Joseph Joestar, Jonathan's grandson. The story follows the quest of Joseph, Caesar Zepelli (Will's grandson), and their Ripple master Lisa Lisa to fight the Pillar Men, ancient super beings that are higher in the food chain than even vampires and creators of the stone mask, to prevent them from obtaining the Red Stone of Aja, which would allow them to perfect the stone mask and turn them into ultimate beings without any weaknesses at all.
It is a fan favorite and considered by many as one of the greatest battle shonen manga.
Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
By far the most popular and well known of all of the parts and it introduces the concept of Stands to the series, one its most iconic features. This time, the story focuses on Jotaro Kujo, Joseph's grandson. Having survived the ending of Phantom Blood, Dio returns and obtains the power of Stands. Due to Dio having stolen Jonathan's body after his death, this awakens a Stand in all of the living members of the Joestar bloodline. While this gives Jotaro and Joseph superpowers, it causes Holly, Jotaro's mother, to fall deathly ill because she does not have the ability to control it. With the only way of curing Holly being to kill Dio, Jotaro and Joseph, along with a group of allied stand users, embark on an adventure to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all.
Part 4: Diamon is Unbreakable (also known as Diamon is not Crash)
Taking place in the town of Morioh, the protagonist this time is Josuke Higashikata (the kanji for -suke can also be read as Jo), Joseph's illegitimate son. It introduces the concept of a special kind of Arrow, which gives whoever it pierces a stand ability. In the beginning, it could be said that it follows a "stand user of the week" formula while trying to find the arrow and destroy it. After that is accomplished, the serial killer Yoshikage Kira is introduced, and the objective switches to finding and defeating him for the safety of Morioh.
While it is currently receiving a retranslation, it originally had some really bad scanlations which the fandom has dubbed as "Duwang" due to a mistranslation of Morioh, and turned it into a meme.
Part 5: Vento Aureo (Golden Wind)
Before the events of part 3, Dio conceived a son called Haruno Shiobana, who changed his name to Giorno Giovanna when he moved to Italy. Giorno has a dream, and that dream is to be a Gang Star and gain control of Italy's mafia to change it into something that turns his home into a better place and help its people. To do so, he joins Passione, a mafia consisting of many stand users, with the intention of climbing up the ranks so that he can take over from the inside.
Part 6: Stone Ocean
It is the first story to star a female Jojo, Jolyne Kujo, daughter of Jotaro. In an attempt to bait Jotaro, Jolyne is framed for murder and thrown into the Green Dolphin Street Prison. While helping Jolyne to break out from prison, Jotaro gets attacked by the enemy stand White Snake while trying to protect Jolyne, and he gets both his stand and his sould and memories taken from him. Without both of those, Jotaro will eventually die, so she rejects her opportunity to escape from prison so that she can find White Snake and save her father.
Part 7: Steel Ball Run
We're back to the late 19th century, but this time in an alternate universe where you'll find new versions of the Jojo characters you know. While initially unrelated to JJBA during its run in Weekly Shonen Jump, it was announced as the 7th part of Jojo when it moved to Ultra Jump and changed to the seinin genre.
Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey that became a paraplegic, meets Gyro Zepelli. Convinced that Gyro's rotation abilities are the key to regaining the use of his legs, Johnny follows Gyro to compete in the Steel Ball Run race, a race by horse across the entire United States. While it starts as a gigantic, but otherwise normal race, it is soon found out that the actual purpose of the race is a plan to find and collect the parts of a holy corpse made by the president of the US.
Part 8: Jojolion
The current, on going story. After the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Morioh was devastated, and weird structures that got to be called Wall Eyes started appearing all over the town. One day, a girl called Yasuho Hirose finds a naked, unconscious man beneath one of the Wall Eyes. This man, our protagonist, has no memory of anything before he woke up, but it is shown that he has a stand that is able to remove things, and also that he has 4 testicles. He is adopted by the family of Yasuho's childhood friend, the Higashikata family, and given the name of Josuke Higashikata. Wishing to know more about himself, Josuke and Yasuho start investigating any clues that may lead to revealing his past.
Sounds interesting, how can I read this?
Unfortunately, unless you live in Japan or a couple of other countries, it is difficult if not impossible to find actual volumes of the series. Likely, your only choice will be to find scanlations. In the US, only Stardust Crusaders has been localized, while some European and Asian countries have most of the series localized.
Are there any adaptations of this story?
Yes, yes there are.
-Phantom Blood movie: In 2007, Phantom Blood received a theatrical animated movie. Unfortunately, it never received a home release. It is said that the reason for this is that Araki hated the movie and forbid it from being released on DVD.
-Phantom Blood videogame: A brawler for the PS2, it was the first time part 1 was released as something other than a manga. It wasn't that well received IIRC, but it allowed you to play pretty much any character that so much as threw a punch during the story arc.
-Stardust Crusaders drama CDs: Audio retellings of part of Stardust Crusaders. It has Norio Wakamoto as Dio.
-Stardust Crusaders RPG: Released for the SNES, it adapts part 3 and was the first Jojo videogame.
-Stardust Crusaders fighting game: Possibly the biggest exposure most people outside of Japan have to JJBA. Made by Capcom for the CPS3, it is considered a classic by many fighting game fans.
-Stardust Crusaders OVAs: Released simply as Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, these OVAs are an abridged retelling of part 3's story.
-Vento Aureo videogame: The first PS2 Jojo game. It is a brawler that retells most of part 5's story in its own way. It was planned to be released internationally as GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, but Araki's refusal to change the musical references prevented it from happening.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 2012 anime: It is the anime that is currently airing, and what Jojo GAF is most excited about along with the All Star Battle videogame. So far it's planned to have 26 episodes and covers both Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, with a possibility of it continuing and adapting more parts of the story.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle: A fighting game developed by CyberConnect2. It is the first time ever that characters from multiple parts appear in the same game and interact with each other. It will be released on August 29, 2013 in Japan, with no announced plans for localizing the game anywhere else (I'm not counting the trademarks as "announced plans").
-Light novels: There are a couple of light novels, however, none of them were written by Araki, so it's very likely that none of them are canon. For the most part, they are some sort of expansion to the story.
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged: Ok, this isn't official at all, but it is too good for me to not give it a mention. It is a parody of the Stardust Crusaders OVAs.
Ok, now for a few guidelines for this topic:
-ALL SPOILERS WILL BE UNMARKED. The exception to this is Jojolion since it is still being serialized, and maybe the final arc of Steel Ball Run.
-IF YOU EVER POST FANART PLEASE SOURCE. It is just rude for the artist to not do so, so be sure to at least make a mention of the author.
-BE CIVIL. I'm sure this goes without saying, but I wanted to have 3 things here :T So, pretty much just follow the usual forum rules.
Ok, I think that's about it. If any of you have a better short, mostly spoiler-free summary of the stories you're welcomed to submit it, as well as anything that you guys think might need to be added.
*Roundabout starts playing to signify the end of the opening post*
