History YMMV / JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood

* CommonKnowledge: The unnamed woman that was reluctantly helping Dario loot the wreckage of George Joestar's carriage accident and found a then infant Jonathan and his dead mother is often said to be Dio's mother. She is actually just a woman that Dario met at a bar and Dio's mother is TheGhost.

* CommonKnowledge: The unnamed woman that was with Dario after George Joestar's carriage accident and found a then infant Jonathan and his dead mother is often said to be Dio's mother. She is actually just a woman that Dario met at a bar and Dio's mother is TheGhost.

* CommonKnowledge: The unnamed woman that was with Dario after George Joestar's carriage accident and found a then infant Jonathan and his dead mother is often said to be Dio's mother. She is actually just a woman that Dario met at a bar and Dio's mother is TheGhost. Though the confusion is understandable as she's the only woman that Dario was ever seen with.

* CommonKnowledge: The unnamed woman that was with Dario after George Joestar's carriage accident and found a then infant Jonathan and his dead mother is often thought of as being Dio's mother. She is actually just a woman that Dario met at a bar and Dio's mother is TheGhost. Though the confusion is understandable as she's the only woman that Dario was ever seen with.

* CriticalBacklash: Considering how many fans view this part as either dull and unnecessary at best, boring and not worth the time at worst, readers who decide to start with this part find a perfectly servicable if maybe a bit too tropey story about revenge whose biggest crime is being the start of a series that would go on to feature [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable stands that can litterally turn someone into a book]] or [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind house entire hotel complexes outside of physical space]].

* VindicatedByHistory: While among long-time fans this part is an example of SeinfeldIsUnfunny, 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 It also helps that the anime improved upon the outdated art of the manga.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: 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.

* EvilIsSexy: Dio may be a CompleteMonster, but he's certainly a good-looking and charismatic one at that.

* {{Narm}}: The way Poco calls out [[TheNameless "MY SISTER!"]] after finding out she was taken by Dio. Even Poco doesn't know his sister's name, it seems.

** Watching sweet-natured Jonathan ''[[CurbStompBattle 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.

* StoicWoobie: 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.

** A reason why George is such a divisive character is because of his strict treatment of Jonathan, which a some viewers could 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 ParentalFavoritism toward Dio, it was actually ''Jonathan'' who got the preferential treatment by virtue of being treated as George's actual son.

** Watching sweet-natured and meek Jonathan ''[[CurbStompBattle 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.

* StoicWoobie: 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.

** A reason why George is such a divisive character is because of his strict treatment of Jonathan, which many viewers could 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 ParentalFavoritism toward Dio, it was actually ''Jonathan'' who got the preferential treatment by virtue of being treated as George's actual son.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Some fans were anticipating Dio's victory over Jonathan in this arc, mostly due to his charisma. [[spoiler:[[HeroKiller Well, he kills the hero, so, there you go.]]]]

** Jonathan Joestar is definitely this amongst the fanbase when it comes to ranking him amongst the other Jojos. Some fans admire him for being an AllLovingHero with a [[IncorruptiblePurePureness heart of gold]] [[spoiler: [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth whose death is absolutely heartbreaking,]]]] while his detractors see him as a [[VanillaProtagonist generic good guy]] whose descendants are much more entertaining to watch due to being [[GoodIsNotNice the exact opposite of him.]] That being said, nobody really ''dislikes'' Jonathan in the traditional sense of BaseBreakingCharacter (he's fairly well-liked), it's more an argument of how he stacks up against the other Jojos.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Dio was pretty awful from as soon as we met him, but the moment that first cements him as a true bastard is when after learning of Jonathan's budding relationship with Erina, Dio attempts to ruin Jonathan's chance for love by [[ForcefulKiss forcefully taking Erina's first kiss.]] When a humiliated Erina washes her lips from water in a muddy puddle, Dio responds by slapping her in the face. As a result, Erina leaves Jonathan out of fear, without ever saying a word about her encounter with Dio... but Jonathan quickly figures it out and goes to confront him... which leads to the moment that cements Dio as a remorseless psychopath. [[DisproportionateRetribution All because Jonathan managed to defy Dio's expectations and beat him in a fight (that resulted from his aforementioned forced kiss with Erina)]], Dio ties up Jonathan's beloved pet dog Danny in steel wire and puts him in a wooden box in the Joestar estate's incinerator, so that when the butler [[KillItWithFire lights it up]]... Well let's just say check out [[NightmareFuel/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Nightmare Fuel]] for details. Even though he does far worse after his transformation into a vampire, stealing an innocent girl's SacredFirstKiss ForTheEvulz and then horrifically killing an innocent dog for the sake of petty revenge is the first of Dio's acts that's truly unforgivable.
** Tarkus crushing the remains of his friend Bruford after his death and mocking his weakness, revealing that he'd given himself over to Dio's control entirely (whereas Bruford at least remained a NobleDemon) surely counts. Goes into an in-universe edition when he [[spoiler:killed Zeppeli]], so as far as Jonathan is concerned, all bets are off.
** Dario was no good right from the beginning, but working his wife to death just so he could have more money for booze tops everything he's done.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The [=PS2=] game handled by Anchor, Inc. and Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment (which is also the only remnant of the lost 2007 movie adaptation). A very shallow beat-em-up with extremely limited movesets, multiple instances of GuideDangIt over its mechanics, frustrating enemy encounters filled with FakeLongevity thanks to [[ScrappyMechanic the healthy recovery system]] that applies to you ''and'' bosses, and CameraScrew that makes it hard to keep track of everything in a single room, leading to Jonathan getting dog-piled more often than he should.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 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 CameraScrew 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.

!! ''YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' | '''''Phantom Blood''''' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]''

*** On Dio's relationship with his mother: on one hand, while he does show anger towards his father for what he did to him and his mother, he would later [[KickTheDog have a mother post-vampirism allowed to eat her own child]] and would later treat women as literal food or pawns. On the other hand, he would later in [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]] and [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]], allow himself have kids with women he spared. With this is mind, did he [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely care for his mother]], [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide but his initial vampiric state allowed to deny his scruples to indulge in monstrous acts]] [[WhatHaveIDone only to calm down enough to realized after his 100 year sleep to realize his mistake and try to not repeat the same lapse of judgment to allow his child-bearers to live out of some love for his mother]]. Alternatively, [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse after Speedwagon exposes his evils being natural and not from parental abuse, he abandons the notions to indulge in the evils he suppressed and admit that his mother was more of a secondary factor]] [[PragmaticVillainy and only had children for pragmatic purposes like continuing his plans]] [[ItAmusedMe or amusement]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Despite all the atrocities Dio commits in Part 1 alone, he is ''still'' somehow less hateable than [[AbusiveParents 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. No one misses him when [[SelfMadeOrphan Dio slowly poisons him to death]].

** Dio was pretty awful from as soon as we met him, but the moment that first cements him as a true bastard is when after learning of Jonathan's budding relationship with Erina, Dio attempts to ruin Jonathan's chance for love by [[ForcefulKiss forcefully taking Erina's first kiss.]] When a humiliated Erina washes her lips from water in a muddy puddle, Dio responds by slapping her in the face. As a result, Erina leaves Jonathan out of fear, without ever saying a word about her encounter with Dio... but Jonathan quickly figures it out and goes to confront him... which leads to the moment that cements Dio as a remorseless psychopath. [[DisproportionateRetribution All because Jonathan managed to defy Dio's expectations and beat him in a fight (that resulted from his aformentioned forced kiss with Erina)]], Dio ties up Jonathan's beloved pet dog Danny in steel wire and puts him in a wooden box in the Joestar estate's incinerator, so that when the butler [[KillItWithFire lights it up]]... Well let's just say check out [[NightmareFuel/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Nightmare Fuel]] for details. Even though he does far worse after his transformation into a vampire, stealing an innocent girl's SacredFirstKiss ForTheEvulz and then horrifically killing an innocent dog for the sake of petty revenge is the first of Dio's acts that's truly unforgivable.

* SpiritualLicensee: Vampires, Victorian Era London, lineage; this was the closest thing to a ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' manga or anime until [[WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017 the Netflix adaptation]]. In addition, the two vampire [[BigBad Big Bads]], Dio and Dracula, share a voice actor, ''Creator/PatrickSeitz''.

** The final episode, [[SpoilerTitle if the title didn't clue you in]] [[note]]The episode was titled "[[spoiler:The Final Hamon]]"[[/note]]. With Jonathan having married Erina and set of on a honeymoon cruise with her, you may expect a ''Manga/OnePiece'' style adventure from here on out, since the series is named ''[=JoJo=]'s Bizarre Adventure'', right? ''Dead wrong.'' [[spoiler:[[NotQuiteDead Dio appears on the ship without a body,]] fatally shoots Jonathan in the neck with EyeBeams, [[KillEmAll sends zombies to kill everyone on the ship,]] and finally, has his GrandTheftMe plans foiled by Jonathan himself, [[HeroicSacrifice who blows up the ship]] [[TheHeroDies and 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, [[AnyoneCanDie a very quick way]] to establish the main story as a generational saga.

!! ''YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' | '''''Phantom Blood''''' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'' | ''[[YMMV/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]''

* {{Narm}}: The way Poco calls out [[TheNameless "MY SISTER!"]] After finding out she was taken by Dio. Even Poco doesn't know his sister's name, it seems.

** Dio killing Danny by putting him in the Joestar family furnace.
** Dio stealing Erina's first kiss from Jonathan.
** Dio's first defeat at Jonathan's hands when they were both teenagers.

** The ending, with [[spoiler:Jonathan dying with Dio's head in his arms.]]

* CryForTheDevil: 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 [[AbusiveParents physically and verbally abusive father]], and he often got into skirmishes with random thugs. Of course, any sympathy you might have for him immediately flies out the window when he assaults Erina and [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals immolates Jonathan's dog in the furnace]] at the end of the first episode.

* CryForTheDevil: 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 [[AbusiveParents physically and verbally abusive father]], and he often got into skirmishes with random people. Of course, any sympathy you might have for him immediately flies out the window when he assaults Erina and [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals immolates Jonathan's dog in the furnace]] at the end of the first episode.