Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Not Mark addressed a lot of the complaints about Part 3 in his reviews for it, and generally, it seems to be held by many as the worst Part with Stands, if not the worst part overall.

Ya know on further thought, SC suffers from the basic-ness of Phantom Blood but its overall worse because it overstays its welcome.

Like PB goes by pretty quickly, not even filling up an entire cour. But SD was comprised of 2 seasons and lasted a while.

I'm of the opinion that the OVAs covered around the perfect amount of SC. I'm glad the whole thing is animated now, but it's a long and repetitive story.

A while ago I saw someone make the observation that SDC is the kind of thing that must have been really fun to experience on a weekly basis in the 80's, but trying to read or watch it now when it's all finished is kind of a drag.

I'd consider it my least favorite part mostly because there's not that much in terms of interesting themes, characterization, etc. The individual members of the main cast have their moments (especially polnareff), but overall theyre not very interesting. It also suffers from being the first part that introduced stands and as such, a lot of the stand powers and the fights with them aren't terribly creative compared to later parts.

Funny how Mark seems to have a higher opinion of the parts SDC than you guys do lol.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Mar 4th 2021 at 2:57:21 PM

It's funny. In spite of that, Mark's one of the only people I know who shares my dislike of Hayato. ...I mean, my hatred for Hayato is more vitriolic than his, but I'm glad that there's at least one other person out there who felt like his impact on DiU was overly contrived in spite of how great it was otherwise.

I'll admit...I never cared much for Hayato; always felt his presence was a little bit contrived, and Mark explained why.

Funny that Mark said that it felt like the ending of Golden Wind was in service of the next arc, when Part 6 has absolutely literally nothing to do with Part 5 whatsoever. You can literally read Part 6 and not get spoiled on Part 5. I think he just didn't pick up on what the Sleeping Slaves episodes at the end were trying to say.

The whole thing felt pretty haphazard and rushed in all honesty.

Yeah, I actually skipped reading part 5 and read part 6 before it and I felt like I didn't miss out on anything whatsoever.

Saying something in Jojo's is too contrived honestly sounds a bit like saying there's too much water in the ocean. The series runs on absurd contrivances even more than most fiction does.

I mean. Ish? I'd say it more runs on over-the-top antics than contrivances.

And that doesn't exactly stop it from being over-the-top in a bad way at times. Like Heavy Weather.

But really this is exactly the thing about part 5 that makes it different from parts 1-4; the contrivances and plot holes start to feels like a problem instead of being part of the charm.

To be honest, I was mostly fine with part 5 (fugo's totally poorly handled departure aside) until the resolution to Diavolo, the ending of which was pretty bad and unsatisfying.

I'll always be one to defend Vento Aureo. My main reason for loving it is that it felt like it handled the Stand of the Week format with the most grace, getting me to care about nearly all of the characters introduced; even the antagonists. DiU came super close, but I felt like it started to fumble the ball with that starting with Highway Star and ending with Cheap Trick. The only exceptions prior to the end would be Luka, who was just a glorified plot device, Melone, who was too creepy for my liking, and Carne, but even he helped Trish gain the development she needed. I'll be honest, though, I don't care for Diavolo or Doppio as villains. Unlike Giorno, who I felt made up for his stoicism with his inspiring sense of idealism that made him into more of a badass than he had any right to be, the lack of characterization from Diavolo doesn't feel like it's made up for with any sort of decent motives. Heck, I don't think it's ever explained why he's the Boss of Passione. I'm also one to think that the ending was handled fine; my only gripe was that it took a really long time for me to figure out how Gold Experience Requiem actually worked. ...And I got how King Crimson worked rather easily, for the record.

I see Vento Aureo as a far better version of part 5, that unfortunately has a much worse ending.

You mean Part 3 right? Vento Aureo is Part 5

Oops, yes, I meant part 3, had a brainfart.

I think overall, Part 5 is a good part, but yea the ending isn't doing it any favors. And that's in addition to all of the other issues I kind of had with it.

Stardust Crusaders meanders a lot, and I mean, a LOT. But it ultimately led to a satisfying conclusion that tied up a story arc that was three parts in the making to that point.

At the very least Stone Ocean will have a Hell of a climax.

I'm honestly a person who thought Stardust Crusaders didn't have a satisfying conclusion. When it got around to DIO, I thought the fight was pretty good (even if it came at the cost of Kakyoin's life), but after DIO drank Joseph's blood, that's when I thought the fight became absolute bullshit. Not because of Star Platinum gaining the ability to stop time, but because of the way DIO was defeated. Even though I hated Dio back in Phantom Blood for how unambitious, yet monstrous he was as a person, I can at least give credit to how resilient he was against Jonathan, even considering Hamon was his natural weakness. It helped to make him be an actual, considerable threat. Stardust Crusaders, on the other hand? One punch to the leg, and poof. He's gone. It felt so... anticlimactic.

Eh, star platinum randomly getting a time stop out of nowhere is the only real problem of that fight to me. If it was something that was properly foreshadowed or developed i wouldn't have an issue with how the fight plays out otherwise.

If I had to rank the parts I've seen so far...

Battle Tendency > Vento Aureo > Diamond is Unbreakable > Phantom Blood > Stardust Crusaders

Though, based on the knowledge I have of the writing of Parts 6-8, if I had to predict how my final rankings would go...

Steel Ball Run > Battle Tendency > Vento Aureo > JoJolion > Diamond is Unbreakable > Stone Ocean > Phantom Blood > Stardust Crusaders

Wasn't it explicitly stated that DIO's vampire regeneration was weaker than his original body due to not 100% merging with Jonathan Joestars body. Drinking Joseph's blood was supposed to have fixed that but maybe DIO was overestimating how much of a boost he got from that.

I mean, sure, the lack of bonding on Jonathan's body would've hindered his regeneration and limb freezing capabilities, but you'd think that the high he got off of drinking Joseph's blood would've set off his eye lasers at some point. Maybe while he was punching down on the Road Roller?