Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a series that works within the genre constraints of a Weekly Shonen Jump battle manga yet strives to defy the characterization by shocking and intriguing readers with beautifully ugly artwork and twisted story lines.
A Long and Bloody History
VIZ's translation of Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure begins with the last chapter of the Japanese volume 12, extracting the third (and most popular) part of the long running series. Followers of Jojo know this as the break out hit of the series which had slowly evolved from a Gothic horror story set in 19th century England to a supernatural, martial arts adventure set primarily in 1930's North America. The part VIZ has released is sort of a Japanese equivalent of the X-Men only much weirder.
The basic premise of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure up until this point is that the affluent Joestar lineage is opposed by the vampire Dio who wants to erase the Joestars so he can conquer the world safely. As the eight page introduction that comes with the VIZ version of Jojo informs the readers, each part focuses on a member of the Joestar bloodline (usually nicknamed Jojo) battling evil forces. At the beginning of this volume Dio rises from his ocean grave to face off with the Joestars once again.
And all of this happens before page one of volume 1 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. The series has a convoluted history that new fans will find difficult to penetrate. As each part in the series is self-contained, readers are better off ignoring the sparse references to past events in the Jojo timeline.
Enter the Stand
What separates this story arc with the two that came before it and the hook that eventually defines Jojo is the "stand." This volume introduces the stand, a personification of spiritual energy that can manipulate its environment. The stand acts as a psychic alter ego, usually a humanoid figure with special abilities that does a character's fighting for them.
The stand of the hero and latest descendant of the Joestar bloodline Jotaro Kujo is a monstrous representation of an Aztec warrior with flowing hair and the ability to move at incredible speeds. Understandably, Jotaro mistakes his stand for an evil spirit and willingly imprisons himself so he won't be a danger to others.
Low Art, High Fashion
Jotaro Kujo is an interesting example violent, silent hero archetype popularized in 80's manga. He bears more than a passing resemblance to Fist of the North Star's protagonist Kenshiro but dressed up in a Japanese school uniform adorned with belts, safety pins, and a large golden chain that hangs from his collar.
The character designs in Jojo are striking and make the series stand out among its contemporaries. The manga is very much influenced by the 80's and the characters have a glam rock sensibility in that, although they're superhuman warriors, they have a strong fashion sense.
Araki's style evolves over the course of Jojo and in volume 1 it still hasn't completely broke free from the Tetsuo Hara-like character designs established in the previous part. The art is often good with a strong focus on details, specifically the clothing of the characters, but the manga is stricken with numerous instances of bone-breaking poses and inconsistently-sized anatomy.
The Deadly World of Jojo
Jotaro's imprisonment is quickly interrupted by his grandfather Joseph Joestar, hero of Part 2, and his traveling companion Mohammed Avdol. The confrontation between Jotaro and his grandfather establishes Araki's ability to create tension. Jojo has been labeled a horror manga for its disturbing imagery but what it really takes from the genre is how Araki builds and maintains suspense.
The initial contest between stands is paced slowly for a battle with the action often "pausing" to focus on a large panel of a character's face washed over with dread. The fight between Jotaro' and Avdol's stand focuses not on the clashing between the two spiritual forces but the impacts they have on their users. Unlike a lot of battle manga, combat has very real effects on its participants. Avdol is nearly killed by Star Platinum crushing his throat which seems almost preposterous when many Weekly Shonen Jump characters routinely send each other crashing through mountains.
The scene is peppered with Araki's characteristic sound effects which are thankfully in Japanese so that the art is untouched. The use of sound in Jojo is interesting because it often acts more as a soundtrack to the imagery than to reflect the sounds made within the story. A character's sudden entrance is accompanied with a "fwooooom" and sequence of images establishing the strange interior of a prison is overlayed with a drum-like "rmb rmb rmb."
The volume continues with Jotaro's brutal battle and subsequent recruitment of Noriaki Kakyoin, the first enemy-turned-ally that is characteristic of shonen. Although Jotaro's stand Star Platinum and Avdol's Magician Red are often used creatively, their respective abilities of incredible speed and fire manipulation are fairly typical in battle manga.
Kakyoin's stand is more representative of the inventive stands that the series is known for with its ability to unravel and hide within human bodies. One of the volume's most memorable (and grisly) moments is when a school nurse possessed by Kakyoin's stand "examines" another student using a fountain pen she defiantly insists is a thermometer.
Conclusion
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure doesn't escape the formula set by the likes Dragonball and Fist of the North Star but works within its conventions to offer something completely different and most definitely bizarre.
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