It's common to view this Part more as Dio's story of how he began his path to evil rather than Jonathan's hero's journey, especially in the context of the manga as a whole with Dio's presence heavily affecting many future arcs while Jonathan was only important for this Part. This view is supported by Araki where, in the volume afterword of this part, he explains that the story he really wanted to tell was of Dio.
Tarkus the fallen knight doesn't have the honorable qualities that his partner, Bruford has, and shows disrespect towards him after he dies. Did Dio's corruption work too well on him, or was he like this even when he was still alive?
Tonpetty doesn't shake Jonathan's hand but rather greets him with a bow. While it could be the cultural differences as Tonpetty claims, perhaps he doesn't want to read Jonathan's own fate as he did when he shook Zeppeli's hand?
Better on DVD: The TV broadcast of the anime featured a lot of awkward facial animations that were fixed up in the Blu-ray and DVD release.
The accents in the English dub. Some found them to be a creative touch that gave the dub its own unique identity and even if they didn't feel authentic added to the campiness of the series. Others believed that the dub would have been better without or would have worked if the dub had hired actual British voice actors.
Johnny Yong Bosch voicing Jonathan was polarizing among viewers. Some felt it was a lazy casting choice seeing as how Johnny has already voiced many leads in anime and him as Jonathan felt like a default choice more than anything. He had also received criticism for his accent which was thought to be inconsistent. There's also the fact that many thought Johnny would have been a better fit for Giorno in Vento Aureo and a deeper voice would have worked for Jonathan such as Travis Willingham or Marc Diraison (the latter of whom instead voiced Jonathan's father). Others didn't mind Johnny's performance, with some being relieved to hear him in a leading role in such a long time. They also bring up to the point that despite his muscularity Jonathan is still a young guy. Johnny's performance has also received some praise for the energy that he put into the role.
How well this part holds up compared to the others is often a huge topic of discussion in many communities. Being the first part of the franchise, it's very clear Araki had yet to find a definitive style and most agree that it isn't very indicative of what it would become. For many it is the weakest part in the series, and some have found that Battle Tendency is a much better starting point. Others, while not claiming it as the best part in the series, see merit in it and praise the anime for giving it a much needed face-lift, giving it better art and making it feel more in line with the later parts.
Watching sweet-natured and meek Jonathan demolish Dio into a crying mess with his fists is a definitive wish-fulfillment moment for many similar little boys who also had to languish under the abuse of bullies.
Given what he does to Jonathan's dog, Dio himself being set on fire (more than once) is this for animal-lovers. Yeah, he survives; but it still ruins his day.
Common Knowledge: The unnamed woman who was with Dario when he discovered George Joestar's carriage accident is often assumed to be Dio's mother. She is actually just a woman that Dario met at a bar and Dio's mother is The Ghost.
Complete Monster: After murdering his abusive father, Dio Brando is taken in by the kind-hearted George Joestar and starts to covet his wealth, so Dio goes about ruining his adopted brother Jonathan's life, attempting to gouge out an eye, stealing the first kiss from his girlfriend Erina, and burning his beloved dog alive. Dio later poisons George in an attempt to claim his inheritance, and after being thwarted, stabs him fatally as a blood sacrifice to activate the Stone Mask and become a vampire. Dio then renounces his humanity and sets up a base in a nearby medieval town, draining its inhabitants of life one-by-one. When a mother agrees to let Dio zombify her on the condition that he doesn't lay a hand on her baby, he watches with amusement as the zombified woman eats her own child. After being defeated by Jonathan and reduced to a disembodied head, Dio stalks and murders Jonathan on his honeymoon cruise, before stealing Jonathan's body.
Crosses the Line Twice: Dio lives and breathes this trope, especially when he tries to make Jonathan's life a living hell. Kicking Jonathan's dog? Horrifying. Trying to gouge out Jonathan's eye? Brutal. Stealing Erina's first kiss from Jonathan and proudly proclaiming it in a scene that would lead to countless memes? Hilarious.
His infamous But for Me, It Was Tuesday moment can count as well. It would be considered unsettling on paper to show how callous Dio truly is, if not for how silly and out-of-place his euphemism was.
Cry for the Devil: Despite how horrible he is, it's easy to feel a bit bad for Dio in the beginning - he grew up poor and impoverished in the slums, his mother died when he was young, forcing him to grow up with a physically and verbally abusive father, and he often got into skirmishes with random thugs. Of course, any sympathy you might have for him immediately jumps out the window when he assaults Erina and immolates Jonathan's dog in the furnace at the end of the first episode.
Dio: Look at me, swilling it down! Nothing but a drunken fool just like my bastard father! Damn it!
Draco in Leather Pants: Dio Brando in many different ways, with many of his fans using his abusive childhood at the hands of his father as justification for the horrible things that he had done. This is despite Speedwagon making it abundantly clear that Dio's abusive childhood does not in anyway justify his crimes; Dio is evil to the core, no victim of circumstance here.
Robert E.O. Speedwagon is one of the most popular characters in the franchise ascending to memetic status; his popularity earned him a major role in Battle Tendency and Eyes of Heaven and his Demoted to Extra status in the 2007 movie adaptation was a common criticism among fans.
William A. Zeppeli too, with many considering him the best mentor character in the series.
Evil Is Cool: Dio Brando, of course! He's a hammy source of memes, even as a child, and despite his cruel deeds he's exceptionally charismatic, providing an excellent contrast to Jonathan's Messianic Archetype nature. There's a very good reason Dio would come to be the franchise's most recurring villain, and would cement himself as perhaps its most iconic character come his next appearance.
Fan Nickname: Jonathan is referred to as "Joey Jo-Jo" after the name given to him by a Gag Sub attempting to give other parts the DUWANG treatment.
Fan-Preferred Couple: While the canon pairing of Jonathan/Erina is well-liked, in Japan, Jonathan/Dio is a lot more popular due to their conflict being charged with perceived subtext, fueled by Dio's own bisexuality and obsession with Jonathan.
First Installment Wins: Not the Part, but the ending song used for both this Part and the following one, "Roundabout" by Yes, which is easily the most popular and memed of the ending songs. Unlike the licenced music from the later Parts, the opening section of "Roundabout" often plays over the ends of the episode before transitioning to the ending sequence, setting a solemn mood that suits the scenes perfectly. It even returned as the final ending in the finale of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean.
Foe Yay Shipping: Jonathan x Dio is a surprisingly popular, if controversial, pairing. Obviously, Dio's obsession with Jonathan is easy to read as romantic in nature, especially towards the end when he literally tries to take over Jonathan's body. Jonathan going out with a smile while cradling Dio's head in his arms doesn't help.
Dio is responsible for spawning a majority of memes in the entire franchise... or at least this part alone.
Speedwagon is no slouch himself in this part, partly because he's just as much of a Large Ham as Dio.
Growing the Beard: Phantom Blood really picks up when Dio turns into a vampire and Jonathan begins training under Zeppeli to use the Hamon in order to fight Dio's zombie henchmen.
Harsher in Hindsight: On the Toonami broadcast, the episode where Jonathan defeated Tarkus aired on December 3, 2016. A few days later on December 7, Greg Lake, the lead singer of the album where Tarkus got his namesake from, passed away.
During the climactic showdown between Dio and Jonathan, Dio taunts Jonathan by saying, "Could a monkey fight a man?" In Part 3, he proceeds to hire an orangutan to take out Jotaro and his companions.
When being attacked by a drunkard-turned-vampire, Dio quips "Must my last sight on Earth be this damnable sun?!". After being eviscerated and drained of his blood in Part 3, the sun is indeed what finishes him off.
In the Latin American Spanish dub, Jonathan's voice actor, Ricardo Bautista, previously voiced the vampire Ayato Sakamaki in the dub of Diabolik Lovers, whose main speciality is to force his love interest, Yui Komori, to kiss him. In this series, Jonathan's own love interest, Erina Pendleton, was force-kissed by Dio, through he did it before he became a vampire later on. This is even more hilarious (or worse) if you take into account Jonathan and Erina's voice actors in that dub are a couple in real life.
Iron Woobie: Jonathan has his entire life turned upside down after Dio comes into his life. From having his first kiss from his love stolen from him, Dio killing his beloved pet dog, and eventually his father and then the Joestar family manor burning down, life is anything but fair to him. Solidified in the finale where he dies on the boat intended for his and Erina's honeymoon and in spite of all that has happened, still forgives Dio and admits to having lived a complete life.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the main reasons why many fans consider it to be the series' weakest part is its short length. It's only 44 chapters long in the manga and 9 episodes long in the anime, and many fans feel that not enough is done with the characters in that short time.
It's quite well-known that Jonathan dies at the end of this part.
Considering how memetic he is during Part 3, it's a given that Dio survives the events of this part.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Despite all the atrocities Dio commits in Part 1 alone, he is still somehow less hateable than his asshole drunkard of a father, Dario, who physically and verbally abuses both his son and wife, even working the latter to death just so he could buy more booze for himself, and is possibly responsible for Dio being so horrible in the first place. No one misses him when Dio slowly poisons him to death.
Just Here for Godzilla: Most anime communities will have one person who watched or read this part (thus beginning the series) simply because they were drawn in by all the Dio memes.
Love to Hate: Dio already establishes himself as a nasty piece of work in the first episode alone. Yet at the same time, he's beloved by the fans for that very reason. His status as a Fountain of Memes only helped to skyrocket his popularity.
No Yay: Jonathan and Dio could be considered this, despite Jonathan's continued forgiveness of Dio and Part 3's scenes of Dio feeling up Jonathan's body. They are regardless adoptive siblings with George referring to them both as his children and Jonathan's love for Dio being more brotherly than anything.
Once Original, Now Common: Despite being the first part, Phantom Blood is often considered the weakest in the entire franchise. While no one finds it to be bad, a lot of the criticism comes from the fact that Araki still had yet to find a style for the series and the story and characters for each part would only get better from there. Though a lot of readers do agree that the artwork for the manga hasn't aged very well.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The PlayStation 2 game based off of Part 1 is generally less well received compared to either the Stardust Crusaders or Golden Wind games. The game's clunky combat system, where the lack of a lockon feature combined with Camera Screw means having to constantly redirect Jonathan and center the camera just by pressing block while enemies move around far faster and thrash the player, and the Heat move mechanic can't decide if rotating the stick just about fails to fill the entire bar or doesn't even make it budge. The difficulty curve is schizophrenic too with battles either being comically easy or horrid slogs. The game's slavish devotion to being an adaptation of Phantom Blood ultimately hurts it as not only does it reproduce manga panels with ingame graphics poorly, but half of the game's combat system, the Hamon mechanic, is locked out for the first half of the story for the sake of plot, making Jonathan feel extremely clunky, and making some battles far harder than they need to be (such as the bullies somehow being harder than Dio). While many characters are present, many of them are redundant as many are either alternate versions of Jonathan or Dio, or play identical to another character anyway (Sledgehammer Speedwagon and Spear Jonathan play exactly the same, for one) and its still let down by the lack of a free battle mode letting players really take advantage of the roster. Those, coupled with bland art and sound direction led to the game being panned compared to its predecessors.
Phantom Blood starts off as a seemingly normal Victorian-era period drama with elements of horror. But then, Dio turns himself into a vampire and Jonathan must train to use a special martial art known as Hamon in order to defeat zombies.
The final episode, if the title didn't clue you innote The episode was titled "The Final Hamon". With Jonathan having married Erina and set of on a honeymoon cruise with her, you may expect a One Piece style adventure from here on out, since the series is named JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, right? Dead wrong.Dio appears on the ship without a body, fatally shoots Jonathan in the neck with Eye Beams, sends zombies to kill everyone on the ship, and finally, has his Grand Theft Me plans foiled by Jonathan himself, who blows up the shipand dies holding Dio's head in his arms. Erina can only get away in a coffin with an orphaned baby from the ship, declaring her pregnancy and vow to remember Jonathan's story. In conclusion, a very quick way to establish the main story as a generational saga.
Dio stealing Erina's Sacred First Kiss from Jonathan in the first episode, then boasting about it with "You thought your first kiss would be JoJo, but it was I, Dio!". The scene became a hugememe, whose popularity helped draw attention to the anime when it started airing.
In the anime, the end of Episode 6, where Zeppeli steps up to fight Tarkus, knowing that he is prophesized to die during this battle, due to the way the opening section of "Roundabout" plays over it before transitioning to the end credits.
Slow-Paced Beginning: The opening of the part (and therefore, the series as a whole) is rather slow and mundane at first. It's generally agreed to pick up once Dio becomes a vampire and the more "bizarre" elements enter the story.
Starboarding: Speedwagon → Jonathan. Speedwagon's extraordinary devotion to Jonathan is obviously very commonly interpreted as Ho Yay, but Jonathan ends up in an Official Couple with Erina, and gets killed by Dio on the first night of their honeymoon, so there's no way that a relationship between the two can fit in canon. Because of this, fans commonly interpret Speedwagon as having a one-sided crush on Jonathan, who still supports his relationship with Erina despite the heartbreak. This is further supported by Battle Tendency's epilogue, which states that Speedwagon died of a heart attack at an old age, while having never married ("he never married/lifelong bachelor" was used in England as an euphemism for homosexuality), implying that Speedwagon was never able to move on from his feelings for Jonathan.
Stoic Woobie: Erina has lost her first kiss, her newlywed husband, her son (indirectly), and her daughter-in-law (though she did find her again eventually) to Dio by the time of Battle Tendency where she's in her 70s, yet keeps a stoic, but exceptionally kind personality that normally wouldn't be seen from women born in her time.
Too Cool to Live: William Zeppeli and Jonathan Joestar being the first examples of many in this long-running franchise.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: George may come off as this to some viewers. He knew full-well that Dario Brando was an awful human being, and yet still enabled him and should have known that he couldn't have raised Dio right. Then there was his tendency to condescend Jonathan while praising Dio.
A reason why George is such a divisive character is because of his strict treatment of Jonathan, which many viewers interpret as abuse. However, George's upbringing of Jonathan would actually be commonplace in his time, especially in a wealthy British family like the Joestars where values of gentlemanly conduct were strictly enforced. Interestingly enough, while George's more lenient attitude toward Dio would seem like a case of Parental Favoritism toward Dio, it was actually Jonathan who got the preferential treatment by virtue of being treated as George's actual son.
While Dio is treated well by his adoptive family, he's never considered George's son the same way that Jonathan is, which might come as a shock to modern viewers. Dio himself doesn't seem to mind his status in the family, possibly because he's planning to betray and murder his adoptive father.
Vindicated by History: While among long-time fans this part is an example of an old hat, it got a new appreciation among fans who were introduced to the series by the 2012 anime. In fact, there are some anime fans who prefer Phantom Blood to Stardust Crusaders. It also helps that the anime improved upon the outdated art of the manga.
The dub's script takes some liberties to lend the dialogue a poshness appropriate for the setting. For example, Speedwagon describes Dio as "reeking of brimstone and blood", and Dio references Hamlet after becoming a vampire.
In the Japanese script, Dio tells Jonathan to use his name with more reverence when Jonathan confronts Dio over stealing Erina's kiss. The dub ramps up Dio's narcissism by phrasing it as a warning against using Dio's name in vain, a reference to the Ten Commandments, as well as highlighting Dio's Meaningful Name (Dio means God in Italian).
The dub changes one of Dio's lines from "A monkey cannot stand against a human!" to "A mere monkey can never defeat a lion!" While the original line calls to mind an evolutionary hierarchy appropriate to Dio transcending humanity, primates certainly can stand against humans in a fight. Dio instead comparing himself to the King of Beasts is perfectly appropriate.
