Greetings, Steemians and Steemettes.

In my last few posts, I talked about me reading books and the impressions they made on me. Today, I want to do the same, talking about something that left an impression on me, just recently. Instead of an actual book, I will talk about an Anime that has been suggested to me by a friend of mine for months. I used to watch Anime quite frequently when I was younger but gave it a pause as I grew up which is probably why I was so reluctant to follow her suggestion, but she did not keep quiet about it and as time went on, others joined in on her insistence, so I gave in.

Getting started

When I first started to watch Jojos Bizarre Adventure, I actually went in with some mild spoilers. There are several memes that originated from this Anime that exploded and were everywhere, so I new at least to an extend that I would see some of those. What I did know on top of that is that JoJos Bizarre Adventure is in serialization for almost three decades now over in Japan. And boy, oh boy, does this fanbase over there look dedicated and colorful! While not as big here in Europe or the US for the longest time, it has been in Japan and it is becoming more and more popular over here as well over the last couple of years.

With that being said, let me introduce you to the colorful, expressionistic and very bizarre world of JoJos bizarre adventure.

Where are we?

Set in a 19th centuries Liverpool, we are introduced to our main character Jonathan "JoJo" Joestar, a brash youth with a distinct sense for justice. Being raised in a household of wealth, he finds out that he will have a new adopted brother soon. Dio Brando is the son of Dario Brando, who helped JoJos father survive after an carriage accident during a storm when JoJo was still young. In this car accident, we also see that the family is in possession of a stone mask which has been used in ancient Aztec rituals.

As noble and just JoJo is, as cold and cunning is Dio. Dio plans to take over the entire family fortune off the Joestars by any means necessary. And his first step lies in making sure that JoJo is nothing more than a nervous wreck by any means necessary. He accomplishes that by kicking his dog, kissing his love interest, beating him in fist fights, making JoJos friends turn on him, you know, the usual. Kissing the love interest, Erina, ended up not being the smartest decision because that really ended up being what pushed JoJo over the edge, making him fight Dio again. This time, he won, showing that JoJo has a tenacity, a drive going for him that Dio heavily underestimated. In the process of this fight, some blood splatters on the mask to which it reacted by extending fangs. JoJo and Dio noticed that and both take an interest in the mask. JoJo goes on and starts to take studies in archaeology in order to figure out the masks secrets.

Of course, being the evil sod that Dio is, he took not kindly to this beating and ended up burning JoJos beloved dog Danny. Take note, if you want to show that your character is a real villain, have him lash out against animals. He will receive all the hate he needs and deserves.

7 years later

JoJo and Dio are now students and play rugby. Apparently, they managed to put their problems with one another to the side and became a loving brotherly duo. It probably helped that it was never proven that Dio killed Danny, but let us put that to the side.

All of this is of course only a front. JoJo doesn't trust Dio and Dio still wants the fortune, but after his initial exploits, he found out that going at it a bit more subtle might be a wise approach.

Mr. Joestar got sick over the years and is bedridden. It doesn't take long for conflict to restart between JoJo and Dio because by this time, JoJo learns that Dios father died shortly before he has been adopted, off of the same sickness Mr Joestar is suffering from at the moment. Noticing how Dio is the one who almost always gives Mr. Joestar his medicine, JoJo suspects that Dio is a father murderer and intends to commit the crime a second time. Taking a probe of what he suspects to be the poison, JoJo travels to London while Dio starts to be despaired. All the years of plotting are endangered and he takes plans on getting rid of JoJo altogether before he can ruin it all for him.

He plans on using the stone mask as the means of doing that. While JoJo was studying the mask, he was watching and he knows that fangs grow out of the masks back. Considering it an ancient execution tool, Dio intends to make it look like an accident. Jojo, dying by the mask while doing his research, nobody would suspect him.

Still a nervous wreck, Dio falls into an old habit of his fathers, drinking. Waiting for JoJo to return from his trip to London to make his plan come true, he get's mugged at night and decides on a whim that taking one of his muggers as a guinea pig would be a great idea. He uses the mask and.....well, let's just say that things did not go as Dio has planned.

Letting go of humanity

The Mugger dies, but rises up all the same. Oh, and he is thirsty. As it turns out, what the mask does is turning people into vampires. The only thing saving Dio here is the sun rising, which burned the newborn vampire down to a crisp. Not before Dio took note of the terrifying strength of the creature.

In London, JoJo meets a man called Speedwagon, that, after an initial scuffle, ends up being a lifelong and close friend for him. Together, they find the source of the poison used by Dio and go back to Liverpool together in order to confront Dio. Dio, now in the peak of his desperation and at the very bottom of his moral ground, intends to let go of his humanity and use the mask on himself, using JoJos blood. In the heat of the moment, JoJos father sacrifices himself in order to spare JoJo that fate, but Dio still managed to get blood on the mask after having put it on. Turned into a vampire, Dio now benefits from all the percs that come with that. Increased power, being very hard to kill, sucking blood to replenish his energy and heal wounds, you know vampires.

He quickly get's rid of all the police officers in the manor. Speedwagon manages to escape and JoJo has to fight on his own against Dio. Against all odds, JoJo ends up winning the fight by igniting the house and impaling Dio on the statue of the Joestar Families guardian angel, hoping that he would burn down with the manor.

My impressions so far

This prettty much marks the halfway point of the story. So far, I haven't enjoyed myself all that much. I never really enjoyed JoJo as a main character because he is just a goody two-shoes with no outstanding or redeeming qualities. Dio ended up being a satisfying villain towards the end and is actually what kept me watching at this point. Speedwagon was also rather cool, but I feel like he was a bit too eager to shout out exposition.

What has kept me watching so far have been the overall style of the Anime and the intro. In fact, the intro is one of the best things I have ever seen because it does a much better job than I did when it comes to summarizing the story in an entertaining way. Have a look

This intro also gives an Idea about the style this Anime has going for it. The colors, the animation, the characters, all are very vibrant and expressionistic. As I said before, a lot of memes stemmed from this show, so seeing the origins of these also made me go on. And that I did.

Another thing of note are the outros. The episodes usually end on some form of cliffhanger being cut by the words "To be continued", accompanied by the song "Roundabout".

What happens next?

The Story basically becomes a Shonen Manga/Anime after this point. That means that there will be a lot more fighting going on from this point onwards. The manor has burned down completly, we learn that Dio escaped and took the mask with him, JoJo is being patched up and meets a man called Will A. Zeppeli who tells him all this and teaches him a fictional martial art/breathing technique called "Hamon breathing" which imitates the energy of the sun and is thus a useful tool for taking on vampires and undead creatures.

Jojo, Zeppeli and Speedwagon move out in order to confront Dio a final time and save the world from his plans of turning everything into his undead kingdom. On their way, they fight some meaningless fights, one of them against Jack the Ripper, who also has been turned into a vampire by Dio. In another fight, Zeppeli dies, saving JoJo from certain death.

In the final confrontation, JoJo manages to defeat Dio after a long and gruesome fight, with Dio having found a lot more nuances to the power of a vampire while JoJo pretty much mastered the art of Hamon breathing. Dio get's decapitated and is believed to be dead.

The living dead Dio has created and risen are being taken out one after another, the stone mask is destroyed and we can enjoy this happy end for everyone. JoJo even managed meet his previous love interest Erina again after all these years and the two of them get married and intend to take a journey to America to celebrate the occasion.

A happy marriage

On the ship that takes them to america, we get some cute moments between JoJo and his Erina. I actually enjoyed these quite a bit. Hard to explain why, but these times on the journey with Erina made me think of JoJo like an actual human being for the first time. He and his newly wed wife are madly in love with one another, they share some laughter, some dinner and some wine with one another and apparently, they also managed to get Erina pregnant already. More on that later, this will be important.

All of this is sadly just the calm before the storm. Remember Dio? Turns out that being decapitated isn't enough for a Vampire to bite the dust. Dios head has been saved by the last faithful servant of his. Ironically the man who sold the poison to him that he used to slowly get rid of Mr. Joestar and his father, go figure. With the ship falling into chaos because of a small scale zombie apocalypse having broken out on board, JoJo does his best to protect his wife and stop JoJo. Dio, reduced to a head, had a change of mind regarding JoJo. Having developed a begrudging respect for his brother, he decided to have Jojo live on forever - as his new body. JoJo does his best to stop Dio from having this plan come to fruition. He urges his wife Erina to safe herself using a sturdy casket to save herself and a baby that was closeby, abandoning him in the process. Erina, willing to die by the side of her husband, is shaken by JoJos sense of self-sacrifice and nobility even in the face of death and follows his orders, as JoJo uses the last of his lifes energy to stop Dios plan and have the ship explode, with all the undead, Dio and himself with it.

Dio, being held by a dying JoJo, tries to convince him to safe the two of them and tempts him with eternal life, but to his own shock, he finds out that Jonathan has passed away.

And this marks the end of JoJos Bizarre Adventure Part 1 - Phantom Blood.
Erina went on and lived in the USA, raising her own child by herself while giving the orphan from the ship incident away to friends of the family. Speedwagon who was just a low-class criminal in the story started to travel the world, found some oil, became rich and founded the Speedwagon Foundation, which aims to better life through technology and research while also being on a look out for more activity of the kind we have witnessed.

My Final Verdict:

As a story, I really wasn't fond of Phantom Blood. Most characters were rather bland and boring except Speedwagon and Dio, it was all rather predictable and I never felt like I was truly invested. That is, until I saw the last few episodes. The moment I saw Jonathan Joestar, the hero of the story, the protagonist I have followed for so long, actually die came absolutely unexpected for me and even though I was never fond of him - no, because I was never fond of him, I was all the more surprised that his death actually left a mark on me. When Dio noticed that his brother was dead, he was in disbelief and I felt the same. We live in times where our heroes do not die and even when they do, they do not stay dead forever. The fact that Jonathan has died when he did was a very bold move coming from the author and one I can only applaud him for. It also takes a lot to make people care for people they did not actually care about originally.

With that being said, I give JoJos Bizarre Adventure - Phantom Blood a rating of 7/10.

The style of the anime will definitely draw you in and everything that comes after will make sure that you will become a part of the fandom.

To be continued?

So the main character is dead and the main villain is gone as well. Yet it says "Part 1", what more is there?

That, I will tell you more about in my next post, when I talk about

JoJos Bizarre Adventure Part 2 - Battle Tendency

Until then, thank you all for your loyalty and support.

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