Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Let us discuss Araki's awesome (and fabulous) manga.

Yoshikage Kira was way cool.

Do you know where the chapter is that Dio has his spirit going "Mudamudamudamuda~"? Ever since I saw that particular clip from the anime on You Tube I've been curious to see if that really happened in the comic as well.

You know, I wanted to like this Manga; I really did. The tropes page intrigued me, and the powers sounded fantastical and weird and interesting.

Then I started reading.

And I can't get past how much the art looks like Rob 'no ankles' Liefeld's with anime-style heads stuck to it. Considering that I consider Liefeld one of the worst 'professional' artists still finding regular work, this is not a good thing. Everybody is so muscular that they look like they've been abusing steroids since infancy. And I mean everybody. The mangaka can't seem to draw male children; Flashback!Jojo looks like a midget wrestler.

The proportions are also wildly inconsistent- heads stretch and deform like crayons left in the sun.

And the dialogue, oh, Lord, the dialogue. Any character that isn't busy screaming or erupting into fountains of what is presumably gore but looks like ink spilled on the page, is busy summarizing the action, as if the mangaka is so unsure of his skills that he needs to describe all the action in text as well, just to make sure his thick-as-stumps readers get the point. And the stupid, stupid, stupid random names... "colour-vaguely-related-to-what-I-am-punching possible-mention-of-where-I-am-while-punching ripple overdrive!"

And if the character has roughly the same facial shape as another, they tend to be immensely difficult to tell apart, with only the hair colour and style serving as a clue... but even that's not especially reliable, since characters' hair colour will randomly change tint when experiencing a flash of revelation.

-*grumble*

Despite all this, I still kind of want to like this manga; does it get better? I only got up to about chapter 20-ish before giving up in irritation at the crappy dialogue and sloppy character art.

edited 2nd Apr '09 3:34:08 AM by TeChameleon

@TeCh: I saw all the same things you did, but I liked it anyway.

Obligatory link to the Abridged Series page.

I think I'll be going the anime route on this one, fellows. Looks to be better quality overall. Gomen ne.

edited 2nd Apr '09 4:03:05 AM by FurikoMaru

The manga gets better (and FAAAAAABULOUS) art progressively. Characters from part 5 look radically different than characters from parts 1 & 2. Part 4 is the transition stage between the art styles and part 3 is when the surreal glam elements start to really crawl in.

Also, I totally called the method Kakyoin was going to use to beat Death 13.

And Dio says "MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA" on the last battle of part 3. I can't remember the chapter number, though, but it's very close to the end of part 3.

Edit: Around chapter 360 I guess.

edited 2nd Apr '09 3:07:59 PM by TheAdversary

I seem to recall him saying "MUDAMUDAMUDA" on several occasions, some of which are in Part 1. Hmmm.

Stardust Crusaders (Part 3) is where the art style becomes more manageable. The guys were muscular but they were more evenly proportioned.

Also, Part 4 is underrated and Part 5 is overrated.

edited 8th Apr '09 8:51:38 PM by fhgfuyt

The part 4 escalations were handled by an English- language raping ape, that's why everyone hates that part.

Part 5 is more or less the same as part 4, only the text is more bearable.

Part 4 had a better bad guy and ending.

I just started it. I didn't expect much so its amusing at best so far. I'm sticking with it.

I don't understand the lack of love for Part 2. It's easily the best part, before Part 3+ went downhill. It's not that they were awful per-se, I liked Part 5 myself, it's just.. they weren't as entertaining as before because of the Loads And Loads Of Characters getting multiple focus.

Steel Ball Run, on the other hand, is a return to Part 2's greatness for me, since it's back to just 2 main characters.

Yeah, Joseph Joestar in his prime has got to be one of the best manga heroes I've ever seen. He manages to be the tough guy, the funny guy, the dumb guy, and the smart guy simultaneously. Combined with a genuinely interesting arc story (as opposed to the later parts, which often just seemed like an excuse to introduce "enemy Stand user of the month") and Part 2 is definitely where the awesome is at.

Plus, y'know, it has cyborg Nazis and killer squirrels.

P.S. Oh, and art-wise, the ridiculously over-muscled thing starts to go away pretty soon. I recommend reading at least until the Jo Jo vs. Dio battle around chapter 40. For me that's where the series first started to get really good.

edited 10th Aug '09 1:29:54 PM by Raven Wilder

I've only recently started reading this. It's so friggin awesome. The manliness and all.

It's HILARIOUS. Starting with the freaking TITLE. Bizarre doesn't even begin to describe it!

I got into the series 'round about Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, which is OK, because it's arguably the most well-known and popular of the parts of all of them. It's the first part to get animated, and have it's own videogame, after all.

I've read some of the manga from the beginning though, and I'm enjoying it, despite having to get used to the I Can't Believe It's Not Fist Of The North Star imitation art.

One thing that's always surprised me though... Considering how crappy the Part 4 translation is, I'm wondering why nobody's went back to try and do it better.

I started it recently and am only up to Part 2. I'm liking this better than Part 1 so far.

I just started reading Steel Ball Run.

It's like someone wanted to do a semi-serious manga of Wacky Racers or Mario Kart and decided to throw some Jo Jo in it. And it rocks.

I've read the first three parts so far, and just started on the fourth. And yeah, I'm loving it, but whoever did this 4th arc's translation is doing terrible terrible things to the English language. It's almost painful to read.

I wonder if maybe someone should do a translation of the translation, hehe.

But the bodies contor in such weird ways. Is ist suposed to be homoertoic?

Finally finished Battle Tendency (Part 2), hell yeah cyborg nazis!

The best part of part 2's final battle was was the death squirrell played cmpletely straight and humorlessy, adding it a new level of comedy.

That part was creepy, but I think the Cyborg Nazi was cooler.

edited 10th Nov '09 5:35:19 PM by Beta Ray

Can someone explain the FABULOUS meme to me? I have found out about WRYYYY, ZA WARUDO, MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA, Toki wa tomare, soshite toki wa ugokidasu.... But I can't find any mention of Fabulous anywhere. Also, is the manga supposed to be homoerotic or what? I mean, those poses, those lips, those muscles, the way they dress...

Additionally: I can't believe I'm still reading a manga that broke my Willing Suspension Of Disbilief from the first page on, and never recovered it. Even Osamu Tezuka's ultrasimplistic style doesn't do this to me... Even The Adventures Of Doctor Mc Ninja got more believable with time (whena re they going to be animated?) but this... this is even less beleiveable than zaRDoz!

They get more and more homoertic as the parts roll by. In part 1 and 2 not so much, but in part 3 there's a couple of moments and everyone looks like bodybuilders that came back from robbing Elton John's wardobe. Part 4 has the hero's stand wear a heart-shaped hemlet and part 5 is just overwhelming. It calms down by part 6 but the art style of part 5 sticks and it makes Jotaro look like a whiter Thriller-era Michael Jackson IMO.

The weird thing about the 4th series to me, now that I notice it.. am I imagining things or do some of the defeated villains shrink in height? Especially the guy with the "guilt lock" thing. When he first shows up he has to crouch down to be face to face with the kid, but later when he's all "Boss Koichi!" he's as short as Koichi is.

IS this just one of those artistic license sort of things?