An exhaustive look at Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Part 1: Phantom Blood) (The Jojospective)

[Music] totally controversial take that nobody has agreed with before jojo's bizarre adventure that's pretty good [Applause] [Music] why are you all booing me i'm right i think jojo's has gotten kind of a bad rep over the years due in part to its uh special fan base but that shouldn't detract from the actual quality of the content here jojo is fun your mom is fun my mother is a beautiful woman listen it's not my fault i'm here doing this okay i could have been making a video on dragon ball or more relevant things like among us and friday night funkin and yet here i am talking about the handsome men posing show you can tell it's peak fiction by the fact that i question my sexuality while watching listen i didn't choose this life okay it chose me picture this for a moment it's 2015 and i'm a senior in high school despite being so close to graduation i was still relatively immature i was edgy and still thought that this image of dj khaled was funny my main mode of social media at the time was tumblr since all my friends were using it i would scroll on my dashboard for hours on end looking at memes art and things tagged with some of my favorite media one day i came across this weird page oh wait no hold on ah there we go i found this strange post containing a gift from an anime i didn't recognize it pictured this guy with wavy red hair almost seductively licking a cherry it gave me a good laugh so i hit the reblog button in an effort to share with my friends and then proceeded to forget i saw it the next day i received a message from one of those said friends about the post it read something like this hey man i saw that clippy reposted you watched jojo to which i then responded what's a jojo little did i know at the time but this question would cause me to spiral into making one of the worst decisions of my entire life the decision to watch jojo's bizarre adventure [Music] like i said i love this series i think it's awesome but my god did it completely overtake my life after i started watching yeah i became one of those people the main reason behind me even wanting to make this video in the first place is because my friends are sick and tired of me recommending the show to them if i mention that i believe josuke higashikata to be the voice of a generation one more time i think he'll become the victim of numerous simultaneous homicides so yeah that's why i'm gonna do it in video form because you can't strangle a video i'm hoping to make this the first part in a series each tackling a major arc in jojo but it's pretty uncommon for me to do a lot of video essay stuff like this so i don't know we'll see at the very least i'm hoping that this video will help new potential fans to finally take the plunge into the show as well as having old fans take a moment to reflect with me on the series as a whole the good the bad and the stupid and hey if you're a long time fan like me welcome i see that you carry the mark of the devil as well if you don't know already i'm salty as in like that's my username people call me that very funny name haha yes and welcome to my in-depth jojo spective a bizarre look back on jjba [Music] jojo is an interesting case in comparison to other major anime and manga as it's split up into clear parts like legitimately each major arc in its story is split into things called parts like part 1 part 2 part 3 etc and with each part comes an interesting new scenario and characters where will jojo's adventure take them next what kind of characters and locations will we see how about the expansive wild west or maybe a quaint small town in the suburbs or how about just jail i like that one jail is always fun you know master nation so for the most part i'm going to format this video similarly to how i personally discovered jojo while i'll try my best to avoid spoiling you too much on what the future holds as you watch or read through expect some basic spoilers for part one i mean like let's be real here how can i talk about part one without bringing up the story it's like having a sandwich without the bread but on the topic of spoilers from later story arcs i wouldn't worry all that much most of the time jojo spoilers will make absolutely no sense out of context anyway and will more so fuel your interest in getting deeper and deeper into the series due to how weird some of these are like this panel what is this though before getting into the nitty-gritty of this video we have to first ask ourselves the same thing i regretfully asked that fateful day i took the plunge what is a jojo [Music] well jojo's bizarre adventure is an extremely successful japanese manga and anime series created by hirohiko araki if i had to describe it without giving too much away the main word i'd use is well bizarre just as the title may inform you it's a really weird series like get this you know how american media satirizes anime and japanese television as like super crazy bombastic colorful and well funny for all the wrong reasons that's exactly what jojo actually is but unironically as much as it might not seem the case at some points yet even with the description like that against all odds people still love it including myself for me getting into jojo's is a lot like smoking you try it for the first time and you gag a little bit it's gross you don't get why people like it but out of sheer morbid curiosity you try it again and again and again and again and bam you're a chain smoker or in this case an anime fan which depending on your point of view is a whole lot worse jojo's is by far not araki's first work he had plenty of previous experience in the manga industry before jojo was even a blip on the radar authoring lesser-known stories such as outlaw man gorgeous irene and bao that being said though the creation of jojo is what skyrocketed him into legend status with it not only being his most successful series but the longest running one having been started over 30 years ago and still ongoing to this very day my mans has been at this for a while and you can tell he loves working on it as much as the fans love reading and watching it speaking of the latter it was only until fairly recently that jojo was even given an anime adaptation despite its popularity and age being similar to that of other long-running shonens of the time it only became greenlit for the small screen back in 2012 animated by david productions which i can only hope is owned by a guy named david the anime became an absolute smash hit and to this day is preferred in many cases over the original manga it's based on by its fans in fact it was only because of the anime that the west was even properly exposed to jojo's at least in any official capacity in the first place previously despite its popularity english-speaking countries got limited access to jojo related media with the only notable entries being the part 3 ova series and their first fighting game heritage for the future both of which are some solid pieces of jojo content but aren't substitutions for the main series in an extreme example it's kind of like if the only mario content we got in the us was an off-brand coloring book and the super mario bros super show it's just sort of not the same as getting the actual thing i should quickly clarify that the part 3 ova has some pretty god tier animation and heritage for the future is one of the best jojo games just don't want to make it sound like i'm discounting those two so why couldn't jojo make the crusade across the globe sooner you might be asking or maybe you aren't asking that i just assume that you are well it has to do with a little something called copyright or at least that's what most fans think a lot and i mean a lot of characters abilities and locations in the manga are named after music specifically western music and many have come to believe that this is why it's taken so long you know how english-speaking people obsessed with anime and japanese culture are labeled as weeaboos well turns out japan has their own terminology for the opposite of that westaboos people obsessed with western culture and jojo's creator hirohiko araki is one of those people he has a very obvious love for western music and likes to portray that through his stories the reason he's allowed to do this in the first place [ __ ] if i know i'm pretty sure it's because it's hard to enforce copyright internationally but but i could be wrong copyright is weird and stupid dude i hate it what started as a few simple references here and there became a staple of jojo with nearly every character having some sort of association with music for god's sake he even references [ __ ] snoop dogg at one point you know funny haha weed guy people have theorized that many publishers were probably afraid to risk any legal action through so many blatant references to names of artists bands and songs as any form of lawsuit could [ __ ] them financially in one infamous example a video game covering its fifth story arc golden wind was set to release in north america sometime around 2003 in the game one character's ability was named gold experience a direct reference to the prince album named the gold experience while it isn't confirmed many fans speculate that prince and their legal team really didn't like the blatant references to their work and actively prevented the game from being released outside of japan meaning that for a long time the only real way to play this thing was to learn japanese fly to japan buy the game and buy a japanese ps2 because that [ __ ] is region locked thanks sony jojo media for english speakers just wasn't properly accessible fan translations of the manga started to pop up online for a while but many of these translations were initially kind of crappy and they only really gained major attention after the anime got popular to remedy these copyright issues when the anime began streaming on subscription services like hulu and crunchyroll groups tasked with subtitling the japanese dialogue made the decision to change each musical reference to something more ambiguous to what it was referencing for example we got some minor name changes like black sabbath to shadow sabbath you know stuff that doesn't really stand out but still sounds cool but then we got more obtuse name changes like sticky fingers to zipper man [ __ ] zipper man these sorts of name changes were later incorporated into the english dub of the show but we'll get to all that later i guess the main point here is that sonic had a hard time transitioning into 3d jojo had a hard time getting localized in the west damn freudian slips so with all that preliminary info out of the way what is jojo about or more specifically what is part one of jojo about liverpool england 1868 a couple stumbles upon the wreckage of a recently destroyed carriage as they happen to be walking on a road nearby this husband and wife are scavengers and see it as a clear chance to steal anything valuable from the presumably dead family that had fallen to an ill fate the woman hears something stir from the carriage softly as they approach with her discovering that a lone child had survived the crash unscathed the husband however pays no mind to this as he's too busy looting a nearby corpse that had fallen out of the wagon at least what he thought was a corpse as before a second's notice the body moves he's alive and his name is george jostar george mistakenly comes to the conclusion that this man by his side was trying to save his life and not rob his cold body blind this misunderstanding causes him to grant the man a spur of the moment favor as a token of his gratitude this filthy looking man the thief is named daario brando and he single-handedly and unknowingly causes the entirety of the plot of jojo to even happen so down the line as we get deeper into the story be sure to keep this dirty hobo in the back of your mind as it's all his fault even so this story isn't about him it's about the crying baby in the carriage it's about george's son jonathan jostar otherwise known by his nickname jojo we flash forward to the joestar estate nearly 12 years later learning that the joestars are a rich family owning huge acres of land as well as a mansion that towers over the property jonathan is a big boy now and is shown outside playing with his dog danny as we see a carriage approach the person inside is the one and only dio brando the son of the homeless man that quote unquote saved jojo's father's life dio had lived in poverty for practically his entire early years surviving only in part due to his incredible street smarts and cunning this way of life caused him to grow up bitter and harboring a grudge against humanity for not giving him the proper chance and treating him like garbage the reason that dio is arriving at the joestar manor is due to his remaining family having passed away leaving him to be orphaned and george taking it upon himself to adopt dio and accept him into his family that's right the favor granted to his father ages ago was that once his filthy looking ass dies dio would be raised by the joe stars the first to meet are jojo and dio and much like what many newfound stepbrothers do when meeting for the first time dio kicks jonathan's dog in the face as hard as he can oh wait no that's that is animal abuse sorry i get that confused i get that confused with brotherly love this is a certified brah moment can we uh can we get a bra sound effect number two please bruh thank you jojo is obviously pretty peeved about this but decides to give dio the benefit of the doubt surely he must have had a good reason to assault the family pet maybe he's a scorpio that being said though dio makes it very clear that he kicked the dog for shits and giggles and tells jonathan to know his place this is the start of the many conflicts between the two the pair always being opposite sides of the very same coin jojo is the more earnest of the duo a true gentleman as he calls himself trying his very best to fight for justice while dio on the other hand is the adverse having grown up in the slums the last thing he ever wants to do is be a gentleman using underhanded tactics and his twisted mind dio aims for one thing and one thing only sheer unadulterated power throughout his lifelong journey he craves the strength to assert his dominion over the world and authority to make even time itself kneel before him but as of now he simply lusts after the joestar family fortune what he believes to be the very first step towards his limitless conquest as the story continues we see some more similar clashes to the one between him and jonathan earlier dio destroys jojo in a boxing match gaslights his friends into hating him and even turns his own father against him surely at this point jonathan would have had enough maybe he'd fight back show his newfound brother who's boss maybe find some neutral territory some peace and uh friendship but then dio steals his girlfriend's first kiss smacks her upside the head and well uh hashtag respect women after a beating like that despite what you might think dio gives up he respects jonathan for standing up for what he believes in and the two find some much needed common ground psych of course not he reacts in a much more reasonable way he burns jonathan's dog to death in a furnace huh i'm pretty sure that that's not how you do that thus ends episode one yeah that's right everything i just summarized happened all in one episode most of them are like this actually packed to the brim with content and it's because of this that over time it shifts and changes so much episode to episode season to season more so in the first two parts but it still applies later too in my opinion judging by what you know so far you probably would have never guessed that this series features ancient vampires pasta that cures your constipation and mickey mouse but that's what's so great about this show you never know what you're gonna get like i said jojo is constantly moving and evolving in more ways than one especially in writing style and design but we'll talk more about that when we get to part two onwards for now let's just keep focus on part one as you can probably tell by my quick summary of the introduction jojo's part 1 is a period drama that focuses on the sibling rivalry of jojo and dio well that is of course until dio comes in contact with a magical stone mask that turns him into an immortal vampire oh did i mention that that happens trust me you're gonna want to buckle in for these next couple of bits so a couple of years passed and jonathan and dio are rugby players now and more specifically rugby players who are graduating college or maybe it's high school i don't really know but come on man you cannot convince me these guys are high schoolers look at these thick ass [ __ ] you see in a strange twist of fate dio discovers that one of the joestar family heirlooms a stone aztec mask shoots tendrils out of its back that pierce the brain of anyone who wears it when it comes in contact with blood upon learning about all this dio's plans of inheriting the jo star fortune take a much darker turn as instead of waiting on his newfound stepfather to die so he can steal his money he plans to use the stone mask to kill him as it leaves behind zero evidence that could potentially link him to the deed even so jonathan is already hot on dio's paper trail discovering his plans bit by bit and learning that dio's father didn't originally die due to natural causes but foul play poison the same poison that is keeping jonathan's father george sick bedridden and defenseless it's also at this point that jonathan meets and befriends a street thug by the name of speedwagon the way he befriends him you ask by kicking his ass dude i want to become friends with my mugger what the hell speedwagon doesn't really contribute much to the plot besides being a commentator for some future fights but i just thought i'd mention him because i think he's neat and despite being pretty much useless he has a special place in my heart for being an absolute doofus here's to you speedwagon you beautiful bastard distraught by this whole situation dio decides to go out drinking as he fears it may be his last night as a free man inebriated he ends up bumping into some rowdy old men who taunt him mercilessly calling him out on how much of a drunkard he is and ironically showing him how much he ended up becoming just like his failure of a father the realization of this pissing him off more and more until he snaps and decides to test his stone mask on a living being for the very first time on one of the older men who had made the mistake of heckling him once activated dio learns that the mask doesn't necessarily kill its wearer but instead inexplicably turns them into immortal vampires and after a close call near sunrise he heads home with a new scheme in mind before we keep going quick critique about this revelation that i want to come back to later in the anime there is barely any sort of foreshadowing that the mask does anything like this i mean sure the camera seems to linger on it a bit too long sometimes and it pops up more than once but there is no indication that it's magical at all the only thing we see it can do is shoot spikes out of its back when i first watched the show i definitely figured that it had some sort of significance but not like that this becomes a whole lot weirder of a narrative decision when you realize that the manga actually has a scene in its opening pages that super clearly shows that the mask has magical powers i'm unsure why this wasn't present in the anime whatsoever you could say that it was cut for time but like the scene is legit less than a couple of pages in the manga and works as a really good hook for the story then again without this scene the stone mask's powers are a lot more surprising which is what i think they were trying to go for but i personally feel the show would have benefited more from adapting the scene so yeah the stone mask can turn people into vampires where i want to suck your [ __ ] when dio arrives back at the joe star manor after all the shenanigans jojo and company are waiting to ambush him with the police as he arrives dio remaining cool-headed stabs jonathan's father and uses the power of the stone mask on himself this ladies and gentlemen this is where the real plot begins now as a powerful immortal crime against humanity dio no longer seeks the fortune he seeks the power i had brought up earlier the strength to claim his hold over the entire world eradicating those who may stand in his way speaking of people who stand in dio's way jonathan he stands in his way also all these police officers [ __ ] the police come straight from the underground but even with all that after a vicious fight jonathan still finally defeats dio but not without critically injuring himself in the process and uh setting fire to his childhood home oh my god jonathan cannot get a break holy [ __ ] now with his house burned to a crisp and his father having passed on all he has left is speedwagon but if we're being real here speedwagon has a big enough part to do the loving of like five families so jonathan will probably be fine after reuniting with his childhood love interest arena pendleton who helps nurse him back to health following the fight jonathan meets an enthusiastic italian man on his morning walk it's me mario here we go though of course this isn't your average italian man this is william a zeppeli a martial arts master the reason he's here is to inform jonathan that he done messed up that dio is still alive and that the only way to truly defeat him is through a martial arts form called hamon or in some cases the ripple hemon is the main fighting style in early jojo and is as the show states a martial art that focuses on meditative breathing forms that channel a similar energy to the sun through your body that you can use to disintegrate vampires so in short it's uh it's it's basically magical sun karate i i don't know man like i said jojo is weird and part one moves very fast when compared to later story arcs some people may call it rushed but i would call it eventful things move at such a fast pace that it's hard not to get into it if one part of the story bores you then there is no need to worry my friend because phantom blood will not dwell on it all that long and it's this pure momentum of its story that really makes you appreciate the time taken to develop and get to know characters later on in the series compared to the rest of jojo phantom blood's cast is largely built on one note characters jonathan has no real emotional conflicts or flaws making him the literal definition of a mary sue dio's main character trait is that he's evil and arena arena's just girl because story need girl given the future context of where the story of jojo goes there's a reason for jonathan to be portrayed as a one-note be-all and-all-good guy to serve as a model for other characters to be compared to later though in an isolated environment phantom blood's lack of character depth really hurts its quality it may be the shortest arc in jojo at only 9 episodes but that doesn't give it an excuse to make its cast of characters undefined and boring like i said though later storylines improve upon this and even give new life to some of the original cast if you're upset that some characters aren't given proper backstories and sort of show up out of nowhere i think that that may have been the point here part one is their backstory in part two characters don't need to flash back to their past to clarify their motives since for the most part you've already seen their past previous parts of jojo build a foundation a history for parts going forward watching phantom blood is a lot like watching the first iron man movie in the mcu not because there are any sort of similarities in their casts but mainly because both are a simple piece of a larger grander story used as a stepping stone to develop and improve on later arcs with both being even better watches with future context of the rest of the series the events of phantom blood are the classic good vs evil type deal and are simply used to tell a short story and set the stage for whatever the future may hold in this universe of characters for the people in the jojo world the story of phantom blood can be seen as one of legend like a folk tale being told to children before they go to sleep or at least that's the context i like to give it though this is more of a justification through its context in a larger narrative and not a defense for it does that make sense i'm probably not making any sense forget what i just said here's a picture of a funny monkey yeah that's a monkey funny i will now use this funny monkey to transition into talking about the fights segways are my passion being a shonen jojo is of course all about the action meaning that at least for me it needs to have three main components solid setups creative writing and in the case of the anime good animation in the case of setups part 1 is passable though most of the time fights either boil down to characters standing across from each other menacingly or flying there are a couple of neato scenarios like how in a later episode jonathan has to fight underwater in which he realizes that he can't use his hammond without breathing and of course the climactic final battle at the end of phantom blood that we'll get to later isn't too shabby either but like i said we'll get to that when we get to that these sort of creative setups are some of jojo's biggest strengths especially down the line beyond part one you can definitely tell that araki was testing the waters here and experimenting with stuff and i appreciate that though i'd say that a big problem with phantom blood is the way characters win those fights like i said araki's writing chops improved more and more as the manga went on and although this is evident in the lack of depth of his initial characters it's even more obvious in how he writes his fights a big part of later jojo is using one's excellence or expertise to outsmart their foe but in part one all jojo has to do to win is punch harder and i'm definitely not trying to say that other parts of the series don't suffer from this as well at some points but it's definitely most prominent in part one the usage of hemon is pretty limitless too being used as a deus ex machina more than once one of my favorite examples of this being this scene right here where jonathan and the gang are being chased by a powerful member of do's undead minions named tarkus being overpowered and backed onto a cliff the group need to think up a way to escape unscathed and fast so what exactly is the creative solution that they come up with well duh they obviously use their haman to glue a bunch of leaves together to make a hang glider wait what huh i i'm pretty sure that's not how you do that haman doesn't really have any clearly set rules and that becomes increasingly clear the more it's used it becomes less of a martial art style and more of a narrative tool something to get characters out of precarious situations in really obtuse ways like in my opinion don't put your characters in a compromising situation if you can't think of an idea to write them out of it in a clever way that actually makes in-universe sense some of the coolest writing ever comes from establishing clear rules for your narrative early on yet still coming up with creative solutions for problems that follow those same rules essentially you want your fans to say to themselves dang why didn't i think of that rather than what the actual [ __ ] that makes no sense once again this is a problem that is addressed by a rocky in later arcs but its existence in phantom blood really does hamper my enjoyment sometimes the absurdity of it isn't even played off as a joke in part one either yeah that's right this leaf hang glider is taken very seriously switching gears for a second in regards to the animation of the show it's pretty standard for the medium not really much to comment on here no bad stuff but just not anything crazy as of yet though since the animation isn't anything too crazy that does beg the question should a person read the manga or check out the anime for their first experience with the series well the anime and the manga are both pretty good in their own right they both represent the same core story and characters without really deviating too much from each other so the content you're getting is pretty much the same across both but the way it's presented is pretty different at times the anime although a fun watch does remove a couple of interesting scenes well i say interesting but the importance of these can range from that cut segment of the stone mask i discussed earlier a scene that could have properly foreshadowed later story beats or this scene of jonathan crying and eating chocolate in his bed like an absolute savage no idea why this scene was cut very important though besides all that i would still recommend the anime more i hate to be the bearer of obvious news but yes the art in this 30 year old manga has aged pretty poorly i know it's still pretty early into the series and araki was still trying to find his footing but come on man i like my boys big and beefy but seriously what is that not to mention that some scenes were actually added to the anime that weren't present in the original manga these scenes in particular being ones that helped give more context to who jonathan and dio are in the first episode like i said lack of any character depth was a major complaint for me so any additional scenes we have of our main boys to help establish their characters and motivations more is very welcomed one of my favorites being this one that shows how dia was treated living in the slums giving more information as to why his moral code is so twisted later on also a major benefit of the anime only recently having been adapted is that the art and design are a lot more stylized and consistent all across the board oh and lest we forget one of the coolest details in the adaptation the color palettes in the anime you get these really cool scenes where the colors of characters and set pieces change depending on the mood and this is unique only to the show since manga is originally produced in black and white jojo's creator hirohiko araki has no set color schemes for the characters he creates if you look at official art colored by him no one character has the same color scheme throughout all of their appearances so david productions took this trend in iraqi's art and incorporated it into their adaptation with various hues and color schemes they switched to being direct references to promotional art and designs by its original creator a youtube twitch streamer by the name of funk has a really good video dissecting the anime's usage of these color palettes so i don't want to reiterate his stuff too much but it's really cool the color swaps add impact to scenes reinforce themes and generally just look dope as hell speaking of stuff that's dope as hell the jojo's anime has something that its manga couldn't ever possibly have a badass opening animation [Music] if for some reason you've been living under a rock your entire life every tv show has some form of opening sequence and anime opening sequences which are usually just called ops for short are almost always just incredible and jojo's opening sequences well they are definitely no exception to that rule look at this [ __ ] please pardon me for the next couple of minutes as i fanboy about phantom blood's opening i think that everyone can agree that pretty much all jojo ops are just just beautiful the opener for part 1 is interesting when compared to the anime itself because it's animated completely in cgi with cell shading before jojo i'm gonna be honest i was not a big fan of 3d television animation like this but my god the mad lads did it they actually changed my mind this [ __ ] looks fantastic and the theme song oh my god sonochino sodome slaps it slaps so hard it gets me so pumped you never never skip a jojo's op when starting up an episode streaming services like netflix may have that nice little skip intro button but pushing that [ __ ] on sonochinosadome is straight sacrilege it's like the secret eighth deadly sin press that button dude and you are going straight to hell i'll make sure of it and it isn't just the music that slaps it's the visuals like i said these intros single-handedly made me change my mind on television cgi animation because like look at this [ __ ] look how freaking cool this is not only that though but the anime opening has a ton of cool little easter eggs and details that foreshadow later events in the series part 1's opening starts this trend of subtle foreshadowing through later adaptations as well since the anime started airing with nearly 30 years of story content to adapt it has the advantage of knowing the entirety of the plot of jojo in advance and david productions definitely uses that to their advantage i don't want to focus on it too much because i've said i wanted to avoid spoilers for the most part but my god this opening has references to parts two three four five six and seven to give some perspective on how far in advance this is getting in terms of foreshadowing the anime is currently sitting at 152 episodes as i'm recording this and still hasn't covered part 7. these aspects not only make earlier arcs way more rewatchable for anime fans but they make for cool surprises for those who have already read the manga it's super awesome i love that and oh my god how could i forget about the ending credits i definitely cannot play the audio here but all of jojo's ending sequences are accompanied by fully licensed western music remember what i said earlier about how araki is a huge westaboo for music well in the anime the ending music for each part is the same music he listened to when he was originally writing that given arc in the manga during the production of phantom blood he was listening to a lot of music by the band yes so the choice of music for phantom blood's ending credits is roundabout by yes it's so freaking cool and i'm sorry for flipping out so much but this is just something i absolutely adore about this series the anime adds so many little bits of flair that weren't needed but were absolutely appreciated and make jojo's stand out much more amongst the sea of other content like it plus the voice performances in the show are pretty good overall and you obviously won't be able to experience those in the manga although it can definitely be a bit hit or miss at some points which brings us to the age old question which is better the sub or the dub now this may come as a surprise to you but i'm of the opinion that subs and dubs are both more or less perfectly acceptable ways of watching a foreign show i know that there are plenty of people out there that loathe dubs with a burning passion for whatever stupid reason but i feel like that anger is misplaced listen sometimes when i pop open a show i don't feel like squinting at my tv in complete silence trying to keep up reading is for nerds and sometimes sometimes i want to pretend that i'm not in a [ __ ] literary class in middle school and come on some people are just straight up not able to read subtitles maybe they're hard at seeing or they're folks with reading disabilities are you saying that these people aren't allowed to enjoy anime eat [ __ ] [ __ ] fall off your high horse though i'd say for the most part that the hate for dubs really only comes from one word interpretation you see the way that dubs are recorded varies a lot from the original audio of any given anime with dialogue in particular having to be slightly tweaked from its original translation in order for the english voice actors to properly sync up their lines with the movement of characters on screen and their mouths as to be sure to at the very least not change any of the original visuals some changes are a lot more drastic than others but more often than not dubs usually try to stick as close to the original as they can that being the case though what version you decide to watch is really entirely up to you but when it comes to jojo and specific i've found that there are a couple of key differences to keep in mind depending on what you want out of the series for jojo's bizarre adventure sub vs dub is more of a gasp vs laugh type of thing and what i mean by this is that certain scenes in the anime are far more dramatic or accidentally hilarious depending on which version you watch jojo of course has purposefully comedic elements to it but certain scenes are far more hilarious in the sub than they are in the dub as an example check out this clip from episode 3. in this scene jonathan and dio are having a dramatic fight to the death in their burning childhood home dio has just murdered jonathan's father in cold blood and is now set to kill jonathan as well kicking him directly into the flames below the original line for this scene is goodbye jojo whilst the dub version for this line is die for nothing fool for comparison's sake i want to play the latter first in the dub this scene is played super serious following the intentions of the original script's tone die for nothing fool [Music] but in the sub the scene has a slightly different mood [Music] see what i mean see what i mean i can't make this [ __ ] up as native english speakers the subversion is inherently funnier due to the japanese actors trying their best to speak english in certain moments hey baby that being said though from my point of view the main drive of this scene is not to be funny it's supposed to be dramatic but the language barrier just makes it super comedic so in this case if you're striving to feel the same emotions that the writers and animators intended you should watch the dub because since it's already all in english you don't get the awkwardly funny voice takes that you would get otherwise however before everybody crucifies me listen listen i personally would still recommend the sub over the dub my first experience with the show was with the sub and that's what i find to be my favorite vocal representations of these characters even if it may have some unintentionally funny moments many fans believe these to be a part of the jojo experience and actually add to the show to which i have to agree the jojo experience as a westerner is all about the memes and a lot of the in-jokes in the community come from the sub rather than the dub also despite keeping some moments in the show serious the dub does have one major flaw in my opinion the super forced accents you must be dio brando right and you're jonathan heir to the joe stars yes please call me jojo cut you straight to the bone looks like granted i didn't think you'd hoof the shiv at me like that but my suppose still hit its mark it's me mario you've been planning to murder him for years now i knew it i knew that you were playing false with us but now your villainy is over like okay i get it giving the characters british accents makes sense on paper the story does take place in england so the english production crew has the chance to sort of sprinkle in this extra bit of historical accuracy but in my humble opinion it's super forced and doesn't sound natural at all it might be because i watched the japanese version first with no accents but yeah i'm not feeling this even if it's not geographically accurate i wouldn't mind it at all if they just did american accents i mean this was recorded in america after all and it shows future dubs of the series beyond part 1 don't have this issue that much but i just thought i'd bring it up because dang it sticks out like a sore thumb here on the other hand though i gotta give major props to patrick sates the english voice actor for dio his performance is a major highlight for me and in some cases even rivals the original japanese actor's performance of the character in both intensity and volume all in all i would still personally suggest the sub but the dub is good and unique in its own way despite its flaws so either option you pick you're in for a pretty good time and now with all that out of the way let's finally get back to the story the rest of the plot of phantom blood follows jojo zeppeli and speedwagon as they track down and find dio who has created a zombie army with his newfound vampiric powers and plans for world domination also there's a little boy who is this little boy does he matter not really we will henceforth ignore the boy sorry to all the boy fans out there i just he does nothing the gang proceed to have a couple of one-off fights discover how to properly harness the power of haman and zeppeli [ __ ] dies well that's not how you do it yeah so out of nowhere zeppeli gets his [ __ ] kicked in pretty damn hard he does die in a pretty admirable way though in a nasty battle against that deo minion i mentioned earlier tarkus though his death is not in vain because using his final breaths he transfers all of his remaining hammond energy into jojo and upon being cradled in jonathan's huge himbo arms zeppeli parts one final piece of wisdom onto his pupil before passing on so long bowser after a quick body burning jonathan and speedwagon make their way to a nearby town on the way there they're ambushed by a strange man capable of doing a cool mid-air split this strange man is named dyer he's another hammond user like zeppely and explains that the two were colleagues who learned of the fighting technique together under their master named tom petty speak of the devil tom petty and another pupil named straitso then proceed to appear as well the trio find themselves here in england due to a letter that they had received from zeppeli that was sent before jonathan had started his crusade to track down dio the reason they're here is to help kick some vampire ass joining up with jonathan for some much needed assistance now with four total hammond users gathered the group finally enters dio's domain and i think this might be a good time to talk about the man of the hour mr brando himself dio like i said earlier and similar to other characters dio lacks a lot of solid depth to his character but i absolutely love how evil he is it's the man's main character trait and he kind of rocks it i mean the first proper introduction we get is him kicking a dog that's like a universal no no and it only gets worse from there overall he's not that complex of a villain compared to what we get in other sorts of story-driven media today but that's where i feel his strengths lie he doesn't have some sort of convoluted moral compass where a viewer can kind of side by his actions at points and say you know what maybe dio is right no he's just the absolute worst he turned a single mother into an undead monster and then proceeded to make her devour her own child why did he do that you may ask because this man doesn't give a flying [ __ ] theo is just so unrealistically evil at points that he's always entertaining to watch you always want to see what cool tactic he's going to use next and by cool tactic i of course mean what new vampiric power he's going to pull out of his ass speaking of pulling out dio probably doesn't [Laughter] i'm very serious when i say this dio is extremely overpowered to an insane degree compared to every other character here since becoming a vampire in fact allow me to enlighten you on the many many abilities that dio has at his disposal count along at home kids let's see he has enhanced senses superhuman strength he can fly turn people into undead zombies turn corpses into undead zombies turn people into other vampires regenerate his body hypnotize people use things together teleport freeze anything he touches can boil his own blood can use his veins as extra appendages and he has laser eyes bro can you imagine for a second how [ __ ] cool the twilight movies would be if the vampires had access to laser eyes this arsenal of abilities makes dio a huge threat and because of that makes it pretty believable that jonathan might not even actually win against him in the end anyway jonathan wins regardless and dio gets decapitated yeah dio goes down pretty quickly in the final battle at his castle but not before killing dyer oh no everybody's favorite character dyer that we only knew about for less than one episode oh no [Music] if dyer was your favorite character please raise your hand yeah that's [ __ ] right it was nobody's because tire sucks but yeah the most important thing here is that dio is totally definitely dead and with that jonathan has finally won the day returning home to marry his betrothed and celebration arena pendleton from here onwards all the loose ends start to wrap themselves up peace returns to england as the remaining undead minions of dio begin to wither away ton petty and straitso return home to continue their training speedwagon finally destroys the stone mask that had started this whole hullabaloo and jonathan goes on a honeymoon cruise with his newfound wife a fresh beginning for their new lives together is what i would say if theo wasn't still alive this man has escaped death like two times already can i get a third as per fictional law regarding undead characters in media you either have to disintegrate the body or at least destroy the brain for them to fully die like i said jonathan only decapitated dio unbeknownst to the fact that he could still survive without a body amongst the rubble he landed in dio is found by one of the last remaining members of his undead army who secures his head in a glass case dio having been humiliated by jojo hatches a scheme to board the honeymoon crews that he and his wife are on by hiding within a sealed coffin hey coffin vampires i i got that reference i i got that once on board he secretly turns a large portion of the boat's crew into blood thirsty zombies and baits jonathan into the boiler room where dio finally reveals himself to still be alive and in a less than graceful state jonathan is obviously shocked but even more so when after all these years dio finally admits to respecting him his resolve and strength are that of a true gentleman and dio acknowledges this but it's in this twisted admiration that dio decides his new body will be that of jonathan's as dio finds that no other being deserves to be his vessel more than his arch enemy tendrils break out of dio's glass and begin attacking jojo with his undead minions but obviously since he's the main character jonathan loses in this final climactic battle to seal away the ultimate evil jonathan actually loses he can't beat dio and is overpowered realizing that he's fighting a losing battle he says his goodbyes to the love of his life and requests that she flee from the boat with the last surviving passenger a lone baby whose mother was brutally killed by the undead running amok does this setup sound familiar to you as the boiler room ignites into flames amid a malfunction jonathan makes one final effort to incapacitate dio leading him to cradle his disembodied head within his arms he laments on how their fates have been forever intertwined and that even with all of the horrible atrocities he's committed jonathan still feels a warmth for dio as even after everything is all said and done jonathan still considers them brothers with that the cruise ship explodes and proceeds to sink deep into the ocean luckily arena and the baby escape and use dio's coffin as a small flotation device living to see the light of the sun once more okay heads up i'm about to yell about this dude isn't that ending awesome only nine episodes in araki kills off his main character in such a crazy dramatic way to have your protagonist not only lose a big fight but also die it was unheard of to give you some perspective this was originally written 30 years ago during a time where protagonists were synonymous with the manga they existed in nobody ever killed off their main character in a permanent fashion especially not in a shonen manga and especially not within the first arc this was a huge deal when it first happened and i as well as many others got to experience it completely blind in the anime adaptation for the west i had no inkling that this would even happen i thought jonathan was going to remain as the main character of the series throughout its entire run it left me flabbergasted and full of questions where was the series going from this point onward who would be the protagonist with jonathan gone did dio finally die this was the point in the show that transitioned me from a viewer to a fan and the answers to all of my questions were hiding just around the corner in part two battle tendency so some final thoughts looking back as its own piece of media phantom blood isn't super remarkable though as i've said its importance grows when more so viewing it as the beginning of a grander narrative on its own phantom blood can be kind of interesting as its greatest strength lies in the fact that it's a story of a relationship between two brothers vampiric abilities and martial arts aside it's about the brotherhood of two people who have come from entirely different worlds how those worlds shaped the people they would become and how they have shaped each other and even though jonathan and dio are pretty clear-cut individuals it's obvious that their interactions are the focus here the dichotomy of the infinitely good guy and the infinitely bad guy and how that relationship plays out with certain conditions sprinkled in it does suck that because of this so many other characters are shafted or put to the side some of them would be developed later in upcoming arcs beyond phantom blood but for the most part characters like dyer the boy or barry the slinger are all just throwaway characters at the end of the day only servicing to progress the plot or illustrate the power of main characters this focus on the main duo doesn't have its own uneven footing however as overall jonathan is a pretty passive and reactionary character in comparison to dio this makes for a less interesting lead and one that is shown to have a pretty bland personality all things considered besides his vague goal of becoming a true gentleman being a good guy isn't really a character trait in comparison although pretty basic dio's personality of being an evil bastard is played up so much that he's always a pleasure to watch instead of being reserved and reactionary like jonathan dio is bombastic and comically villainous his involvement in the two's relationship is definitely the highlight here pacing wise phantom blood's nine episode run starts very eventful with its first three episodes being jam-packed with content afterward however i felt the plot sort of dragged a little bit until its final episode that's all okay though in my eyes because man did the final episode deliver subverting my expectations and setting up for the coming narrative in a beautifully masterful fashion again you can see that araki was experimenting and flinging as much [ __ ] at the wall as possible to see what's stuck with the finale serving as a sort of soft reset allowing him to take future stories in a new direction within the same canon i feel like a broken record at this point but it really should be emphasized that part 1 isn't really a high point of the series the story writing art and production of the anime have all gotten a lot better as they have gone on and i think that that's something to be happy about i'd much rather a series start out relatively okay and then get precedingly better rather than start on a super high note and then get increasingly worse overall phantom blood is a flawed but fun romp through this new and exciting fictional world if it isn't clear by now it's a high recommendation for me not only because of its good aspects but the impact it would later have on forming an entirely new and long-running universe of characters and as the sun rises from the horizon disintegrating all vampires in its path so does the new chapter of jojo rise as well [ __ ] i don't know how to end the video uh bring back the picture of the funny monkey [Music] you've got the will to get fit and trim

Channel: Saltydkdan

Views: 117,970

Keywords: jojos bizarre adventure, review, retrospective, manga, history, full review, dio brando, video essay, jojos bizarre adventure stone ocean

Id: Q9Z-RYSmkAw

Length: 56min 42sec (3402 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 23 2021