Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

There is a pattern. Araki believes manipulating time is pretty OP, so he wants his main villains to look "unbeatable" by giving them powers like that. The only villain who's not main yet receives a time-based power only appears in Part 7, I believe.

Oh, so there is. I'm curious to see how many variations of that he can create… Maybe Part 6's villain will be able to prevent the enemy's birth in the past or something…

…You know you're reading Jojo when "There's a shark in my soup" is a line that makes perfect sense.

Hehehe, Part 6's is really something.

Yeah, part 7's villain weaponizes alternate dimensions instead which is still a pretty high-concept power.

edited 15th Jan '17 1:35:56 PM by Draghinazzo

Clash and Talking Head… TH has a weirdly specific power that is only useful in this exact kind of situation, but it was still great. You know antagonists are well done when the protags almost come off as villains for a second. I thought Squalo and Tiziano might be a bona-fide gay couple (which would have been incredibly daring in 1997) but you're never sure with Araki. >.>

And now they're trying to find a plane… *remembers SDC* You might want to reconsider that option, Bruno.

edited 15th Jan '17 2:28:20 PM by Lyendith

As long as Joseph Joestar doesn't show up on their plane, they're safe.

Hey, Joseph rode a plane at the end of Part 3 without incident.

… that we know of.

Part 7's villains still counts a time-related Stand imo.

YAAAAY! Finally Trish gets to do something. A non-antagonistic female stand user was something lacking, but that is now repaired (yeah, I don't count Yukako). It has quite a… personality too.

Notorious BIG was pretty scary... and all the more scary that those chapters were written just a few months afetr Biggie was shot dead. Talk about ripping your plot from the headlines... I actually wonder how the user even knew about his own ability if he had to die to activate it.

edit: Wow… Metallica might be my one of my favorite fights in the series so far… Making The Unfought fight the boss but make the heroes unwittingly finish him off while seriously injuring said boss, and the way Risotto chooses to go out… The execution (no pun intended) is just brilliant. You think it's a coincidence that the band Metallica called their album Death Magnetic a decade later? >.>

…And I'm already in the middle of volume 13 out of 17. This shit's captivating.

edited 15th Jan '17 5:37:03 PM by Lyendith

Tbh I think that after 7 and probably 8 when it's done V is my third favorite part. While it has some big and noticeable problems I think pretty much every Jojo part does as well, V at least has a defined goal and progression that makes sense and has very consistently entertaining and exciting fights, and pretty good minor antagonists like Prosciutto, Pesci, Cicciolata, Squalo and Tizziano. Even Diavolo I think is not as bad a villain as most people say he is (up to where I read anyway), his double personality gimmick is interesting and combined with his paranoia ad the cruel things he does make him pretty creepy and unsettling.

edited 15th Jan '17 6:57:48 PM by Draghinazzo

Imo, part 5 has the best hero cast, the best mook team (the Squadra), excellent fights, the second best Jojo, does the mafia setting pretty well and has the absolutely excellent Doppio, but it's my least favorite part because it's the only one that doesn't have a good final boss battle.

Diavolo is also less interesting than Doppio, even though the multiple personality thing is pretty neat.

I don't really make a distinction between the two to be honest since Doppio IS Diavolo.

Only not really. Its more like theyre two separate characters that can't be in the same room at the same time... until Silver Chariot Requiem happens.

edited 15th Jan '17 10:07:27 PM by Zeromaeus

Wut… Did Abbacchio… die? Just like that? Araki, you bastard.

Huh, so Green Day was already around in 98… I was pretty sure they debuted in the 2000's for some reason…

Isn't there some implication that Diavolo IS King Crimson?Like some sort of possession.

End of Bruno vs. Secco… err, sure…? I… don't get how Bruno won. He… hit a car and it turned into spikes and pierced Secco's eardrums...? That doesn't fit Sticky Fingers' powers at all, so I'm confuse. It rather looked like the kind of trick Crazy Diamond would pull off. And the fight felt overly long overall; Giorno vs. Ciocolatto (those names, seriously >.<) was cool though.

Oh hi, Polnareff. That's the last character I expected to see in this part but I'm kinda happy. =3

edited 16th Jan '17 5:36:24 PM by Lyendith

Bruno burst the car tire at point blank range to blow out Secco's eardrums with the loud noise, since he uses sound to track him under the earth. Bruno is already a zombie so losing his ears isn't a huge deal for him.

… Ooooooooh. That wasn't very clear on paper.

Requiem… oh… oh fuck… why do the deaths have to be so sudden and brutal in this arc? TT__TT I know they basically are in all arcs, but Abbacchio and Narancia were literally killed before the fight even began. And I doubt Buccelati will reach the end of the arc alive either.

I'm not to sure what to think of Diavolo as a character yet, but as an antagonist Araki sure did a good job at making him an unpredictable threat that can seem vulnerable at times, but strike out of nowhere at other times. I'm just waiting to learn a bit more about his motivations, 'cause they aren't very clear at the moment.

…I'm just remembering now that Fugo hasn't made his come back yet.

edited 16th Jan '17 5:45:00 PM by Lyendith

Uh, a bit spoilery, but Fugo was explicitly written out. Araki didn't like having to write around his powers.

edited 16th Jan '17 6:25:32 PM by Zeromaeus

Yeah, you aren't going to see Fugo again. You can read Purple Haze Feedback for some proper closure on his character, but he doesn't show up again in VA and honestly it's a waste.

I have heard that Araki was thinking about bringing him back as an enemy/mole type character, but Araki was going through some personal problems and thought Fugo being a traitor would be too dark.

Hmm, it's a shame indeed, but I can see why Araki didn't know what to do with his power… If he had been included, he would have either a) stayed on the sidelines to justify the non-use of his power b) actually fought and ended all his fights instantly. So keeping him away might have been the lesser evil.

So anyway, part 5 finished! …Hmm… Hmmm… =.= It left me hungry for more. I feel like there was a great buildup but no real climax. I don't know, as soon as Diavolo showed himself in Mista's body, he just kept failing at everything, and his defeat was weirdly unsatisfying. It's kinda the same problem I had with part 3's final fight (Jojo pulling a power-up out of his ass to counter the big bad's invincible ability), but there wasn't even a sense of scale or epicness here. And Diavolo's motives and past remained really blurry too. Though in terms of Fate Worse than Death, I gotta admit that his was a particularly nasty one.

Then there was this weird and frankly unnecessarily long flash-back that didn't really add much to this part's characters or themes.

Also disappointed by the fact that Giorno being Dio's son... didn't really lead to anything, outside of making him a Jojo. He could have been any random peasant for what it changed. Though it might be touched upon in later parts (or in Purple Haze Feedback?), I don't know.

So yeah… for the first 16 volumes it was my favorite part, but it probably had the worst ending. =[ The least conclusive at least. It was like riding on a high-speed train for 100km and then doing the last 2km in an old beat-up car. Or a French turtle.

Yeah, that's what I understood… When we see his spirit after Requiem, we don't see his face, only a Stand, as if he was the Stand itself…

edited 17th Jan '17 3:19:40 PM by Lyendith

Yeah, unfortunately there's no real payoff to Giorno being Dio's son which is more than a little disappointing.

I don't know if I can call the final showoff in part 6 "satisfying" either, but it's not really like V's.

Part 7 has a really great final battle if you ignore AU!Diego.

High Voltage was fine.

But yeah, Giorno being Dio's son should've meant more. He should've been paired with a Zeppeli just for how interesting that could have been. Instead it's just "Giorno, like his comrades, comes from a bad background but managed not to be so bad in the end."