Why You Should Watch JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the most bizarre and joyful shows I’ve ever seen. It’s something you owe to yourself to do.

It’s considerably more difficult to describe what JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is about than it is to describe its lineage. It’s one of the most well-known and influential manga of all time, having been adapted into an anime in 2012 and now into its fifth season. Many of the character concepts, pictures, and ideas, such as “Stands,” a physical representation of mental force, have become cliches in other anime, manga, and even video games. CLAMP, a landmark manga group, started off generating fan comics based on JoJo characters, and the Persona series owes a lot to JoJo’s since the eponymous personas are basically Stands with a different name. JoJo’s writer and artist, Hirohiko Araki, is so well-known that his work has been shown at the Louvre. That latter element alone enticed me to see the show, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The Joestar family is the focus of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which begins with Jonathan, a mild-mannered Englishman who develops a feud with Dio Brando, his adoptive brother. Dio transforms into a strong vampire as a result of a cursed mask, and Jonathan resolves to stop him. Jonathan is on a journey to finally beat Dio after acquiring a combat style known as the “Ripple,” which allows him to kill vampires by punching the sun into them. How can an already strange thought get stranger, you might wonder? You’re in for a wild ride.

Each arc of the manga and anime recounts the experiences of a different member of the Joestar family through the generations. Following Jonathan is his grandson Joseph, who must combat the vampiric Pillar Men, and then his grandson Jotaro Kujo, who creates a Stand and embarks on an international journey to slay Dio. Each of the series’ eight arcs follows a new Joestar descendant on a dramatic new journey, each one delving further into a new and more innovative location and storytelling genre. After traveling the world with Jotaro, we join Joseph’s illegitimate son Josuke in the little village of Morioh to seek down a serial murderer who uses the Stand.

The mafia narrative of Giorno Giovanna in Italy follows, followed by Jolyne Cujoh’s jailbreak, a dangerous horse race set in another reality, and, most recently, the pygmalion narrative of another Josuke, who likewise has split eyes and two sets of balls. It’s a joy to see creator Araki uncover new heights of drama, new concepts for psychic capabilities, and new fashion limits to push with his wacky designs, my favorite of which is Jotaro’s cap that is also his hair, each time you meet a new JoJo and settle in for their new adventure.

You will never get bored when watching JoJo’s, which is a great treat. Even the most bizarre villain plans become intimate and relatable as you spend time with the current protagonist’s circle of friends and allies, watching them learn to work together, trust each other, and use their eccentric talents in inventive ways. On the surface, the concept of a serial murderer with psychic abilities in a peaceful village murdering women for their hands seems absolutely insane. It’s simply another day in JoJo’s universe, in terms of what happens.

This isn’t even getting into the beauty of Araki’s art and his references to high fashion, much alone his fascination with American pop music, which he honors by naming numerous characters and Stands after—my personal favorite being Robert E. O. Speedwagon. Araki’s clear infatuation with Italian culture, which he shoehorns in more and more as the series progresses, or the more outlandish individual episodes, such as the one where Josuke smashes a dish of spaghetti into its component components, are minor details that delight me about JoJo’s. Overall, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an invitation into a theatrical, technicolor universe, and you should treat yourself to the experience.