JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure had us on an extreme roller coaster ride. We laughed at the sometimes hilarious fight scenes, we felt anger with some of the characters, and we cried at a drop of a checkered hat. It’s one adventure that is beyond bizarre!
Unlike other anime that fall within the “shonen” category, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure says goodbye to all of the obvious cliches and bends the rules of traditional anime. Instead of following the main protagonist throughout the story, this adventure follows a family of Joestars each with their problems and unique qualities. There’s nothing more fulfilling than watching each member of the Joestar family go on a dramatic quest, each exploring a new setting and diverse genre of storytelling. Each time you settle into a story, the creator Hirohiko Araki finds a way to heighten up the drama by adding new psychic powers and spicing up the characters clothing with even more outlandish designs.
JoJo provides us with men with fabulous hair and quite revealing clothing. Their accessories, colors, patterns, and vibrancy suggests high fashion mixed with mainstream fashion. Which makes so much sense when you realize Araki collaborated with fashion house Gucci in late 2011 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Gucci. JJBA draws on gender exploration and allows all characters to be who they want to be, even if they cry a lot.
The creativeness of JoJo has made it one of the most influential series to come out of Japan coming close to Dragon Ball and One Piece. It has influenced some of the most popular anime series including One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, and Shaman King, and even some games such as Persona, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter! Street Fighter has some pretty obvious similarities between Rudol von Stroheim and Street Fighters II’s Guile, also, Street Fighter’s heroine, Rose has an uncanny resemblance to JoJo's Lisa Lisa.
The villains in JJBA draw on Western pop culture, and every major character is named after a rock or pop artist/band. Some of the references get even more amusing in the American dub version, as certain villains are renamed to avoid any copyright issues. Playing this name game was immensely fun and made us laugh.
JoJo has also made an enormous impact on internet culture, thanks to devoted fans creating memes, parodies, artwork and lots of other tributes to the fantastic series. From “yare yare daze” to “oraoraora” which is your favorite meme to come from the series?
Hirohiko Araki’s paintings and drawings have also made an enormous impact on art. He has had his original drawings and paintings exhibited at the Louvre and lots of other famous art galleries around the world. For the artwork alone we recommend that you give JoJo a watch, we’re sure you won’t regret it.
For a story created in the 80s, JoJo feels a lot newer than most contemporary anime. Hirohiko Araki is a creative genius who has always been several decades ahead of his competition. Whether you’re an anime lover or a simple showgoer, this animated series is too unique to pass by.
If you can’t get enough of Araki’s artwork and the characters, we recommend you check out some of the most beautiful action figures that are all welcomed by Hirohiko Araki himself. The Super Action Statues (SAS) are Medicos’ most popular series due to the life-like attention to details, movable joints, and other accessories that come with all the figures. Thanks to the cartilaginous joints you can make the figurines pose in several poses, yes, even the famous JoJo pose. The prices of these figures vary depending on the availability and release date. Medicos are continuing to release these extremely high-quality anime figures as the JJBA story continues.
Here’s an in-depth review of the Jotaro Kujo Super Action Statue by the hilarious YouTuber JobbytheHong:
