4 min. read
Weebs are weird. We obsess over the most random things, like the way a character’s hair moves in the wind or the color of their eyes. But there’s one thing that unites us all (or most of us, hopefully), and that’s our love for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I frequently reference the popular anime on my website as a little easter egg, and those who know me personally know that I’m a huge fan. My 404 pages here and on my website also have a giant picture of Gyro Zeppeli, one of my favorite characters.
So why do I love JoJo so much? Well, there are a few reasons. First and foremost, the show is just plain fun. It’s a wild ride from start to finish, with each season bringing something new and exciting to the table. The characters are all unique and interesting, and the battles are some of the most creative I’ve ever seen in an anime. Plus, the art style is just so cool. I love the way the characters are drawn, and the animation is always top-notch. Hirohiko Araki, the creator of JoJo, is a genius, and it really shows in his work. Especially in the later parts of the series, the story gets really complex and interesting, and I love trying to piece together all the little details and clues. But what does all of this mean?
JoJo’s first two parts heavily rely on a power system called Hamon, or Ripple. This power system is based on the user’s breathing and the sun’s energy. It’s a really cool concept, and it leads to some really interesting battles. But it’s in the later parts of the series that things really start to get crazy.
Starting with Part 3, the power system changes to Stands, which are essentially psychic manifestations of a person’s fighting spirit. Each Stand has its own unique abilities, and the battles that result from these abilities are some of the most creative and intense I’ve ever seen in an anime. The fights are almost like puzzles, with each character trying to outsmart the other and use their Stand’s abilities to their advantage. It’s really cool to see how the characters come up with creative solutions to seemingly impossible situations, and it’s always exciting to see how each battle will play out. Some fans prefer the more complex and creative stands that come up in later parts like Diamond is Unbreakable, Golden Wind, Stone Ocean, Steel Ball Run, and so on, but I’ve always been a huge fan of Stardust Crusaders, specifically Star Platinum and Silver Chariot. I might just be simple, but the super-fast and super-strong physical abilities always appealed to me more than the more abstract abilities of later parts.
Even so, Tusk is my favorite stand in the series. I like Araki’s evolution concept with Acts, seeing it first in Diamond is Unbreakable with Echoes from Koichi Hirose, and then later with Tusk from Johnny Joestar. The idea of a stand evolving with its user is really cool, and it’s something that I wish we saw more of in the series. As a math person, Infinite Spin (and therefore Infinite Energy) is a really cool concept to me, and he demonstrated the Immovable Object (D4C Love Train) vs Unstoppable Force (Tusk Act 4) concept really well. My second favorite stand would be Star Platinum from Part 3 due to the broken time stop ability, and how useful that would be.
My favorite villan stand would be Made in Heaven from Part 6. Less of the time acceleration part, and more of the infinite speed aspect. I know he needs to accelerate time to achieve such a feat, but the idea of infinite speed is a really cool concept, and it made me think about how much we could break physics with these things.
Both stories in the series are really good. The original timeline from Part 1-6 pulled me in because of the chronology, and I stayed for the characters and the action. The alternate universe timeline from Part 7-8 is really interesting because of the new characters and the new abilities. I like how Araki is able to keep the series fresh by introducing new concepts and characters, like replacing Hamon with Spin, and being able to integrate both power concepts along with Stands into the new timeline. An entire bloodline having generational beef with a single person is not something anyone ever will come up with again.
I love the music of JoJo. I have an entire ass playlist of multiple OSTs on the show, along with multiple different remixes. It’s that good: the music, themes, and sound effects are one of my favorite aspects in the anime. Dio kicking Jotaro in the air and making it sound like a shotgun blast went off is part of why Stardust Crusaders is my favorite JoJo part. I never really fell for the hype over Giorno’s theme, and preferred Jotaro’s or the unofficial Johnny themes instead. This goes to show how good the fan music is too.
I love JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for many different, more detailed and intricate reasons, but these are the ones I could flesh out into words. Maybe now my frineds will stop being weirded out anytime I start talking about it for a good amount of time.