Jojo is a property I've never really consumed but I've been aware just due to general osmosis of Japanese entertainment culture that happens when you watch alot of anime. I've seen the Dio vs. Jotaro OVA fight years back but without context all it was was a cool (very cool granted) spectacle. The fact that it's been going on for about 20 years, to my understanding, and is popular enough to leave its mark throughout Japanese entertainment culture has continued to peak my interest over the years. The whole IP seems to exude a sense of swag and hot-blood that makes it seem like it would be something I'd enjoy. I'm not one to read much manga so I never got around to actually reading it. Recently I started watching the 2012 anime and have recently finished the Phantom Blood arc.
I can see a lot of the groundwork that I think the series eventually builds upon and is well known for this this arc - Over the top villains, crazy action, lots of manly shouting, weird fighting style and techniques, etc. I know this was written back in the late 80s (I think) so I have to evaluate the series with that in mind. That is to say a lot of the shonen tropes you often see nowadays were much less worn out back when this was first written. What kind of struck me was how awkward the writing and pacing were and how awful the actual animation tended to be. The show had style in spades but the animation was often so bad I had a hard time making out the action from time to time. From my understanding, this is a pillar of the Japanese shonen genre. You'd think they'd spend the big bucks when making this, not cheap out :/
As for the writing, I often feel people would show up or know things with little explanation. Like
showing up just seemed super random.
sure liked taking their sweet time dying :/ Also, holy shit could the show drown you in exposition. Don't recall it being so "thick" in other shonen I've seen (but again I know this arc is very old so different standards and all that). Like from my understanding Speedwagon is a popular character right? I just found him annoying and overbearing. Like he means well but he barely contributed anything to the effort to fight Dio and I'm not chastising him for not being a fighter either. He just spends every episode explaining what I can plainly see and saying "I wish I could help"! Again, I know this is old school shonen but it was pretty annoying. At least with the time skip and continent change it means he's gone now
Now I know I've been very negative. After watching the Phantom Blood arc I found out they basically condensed 7 volumes into 9 episodes so I'm sure that negatively affected the writing. If this was all there was to Jojo's I could understand some of the appeal but would have a hard time figuring out why it ever became so popular. However, I'm aware there is more and while I don't know exact details it still exudes that aura of hot-blood and swag that looks appealing to me. Furthermore, everyone who is well versed in Jojo seems to consider the Phantom Blood arc mediocre to straight up bad so I suppose my feelings aren't unwarranted. I hear for example the protagonist of Part II, Joesph, is especially awesome. Long story short, I see the foundation of the franchise in Phantom Blood and while I wasn't super impressed with the arc, the show/IP still looks like something I'd grow to really enjoy and thus will push forward with Part II and if I like that make sure to catch Part III when it airs next year
