JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of our favourite franchises and boasts some of the best anime figures, here we look at the outline of the story and some of our favourite characters, if you’re looking to purchase any of the amazing JoJo figures then click here. The story of JoJo is divided between two instalments. The first starts with parts 1 to 6, detailed in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2003, while the second contains parts 7 and 8, described in the fantastic seinen magazine Ultra Jump from 2004 to the present. The series features a tremendous plot across multiple arcs that detail conflicts between parties defined both by each character unique supernatural powers, mainly by the versatile stand phenomenon. These stories provide gripping suspense and mystery but always have a splash of laughs and comedy. You can often find many references to film, TV and pop music in the JoJo series. We love how the show plays on examples of historical events.
The first parts of the story follow an intergenerational feud between the Joestar family and different evil forces, the most evil of which is Dio Brando and his followers.
So let’s look at the first part “Phantom Blood”, set in England in 1880, follows Jonathan Joestar as he grows up with and eventually fights his brother Dio Brando who then turns into a vampire by using an ancient stone mask. Jonathan goes on to be trained by Will Anthonio Zeppeli in the ripple energy, this energy is built in the human body and is transferred in hand-to-hand combat, Jonathan finds this is the only way apart from the sunlight of defeating vampires and zombies.
The second instalment “Battle Tendency” was set around the second world war in 1938 and we see Jonathan’s grandson Joseph Joestar as he fights the pillar men, an ancient race responsible for the creation of the famous stone mask. Just like his grandfather, Joseph has undergone the powerful ripple training alongside Zeppeli, Will’s grandson, by Lisa Lisa and needs to protect the Red Stone of Aja, a gem that is under high demand as the pillar men need it to complete the stone mask and grant them immunity to the Sun.
The third instalment “Stardust Crusaders” takes place in 1989 as Joseph’s grandson Jotaro Kujo carries on the journey with Joseph, Muhammad Avdol, Noriaki Kakyoin, Jean Pierre Polnareff, and Iggy from Tokyo to Cairo to fight DIO who has returned from deep under the sea and save his beloved mother from DIO’s terrible influence. As the story moves on, we see the allies and villains use stands, these are a humanoid representation of a person’s spirit, which has become one of the JoJo shows main features. The funny thing is Hirohiko Araki intended to end the series after this trilogy, but JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure continued nonetheless.
Ok so we move onto the fourth instalment “Diamond is Unbreakable” this storyline is set in Morioh, Japan, in 1999. We follow Joseph’s illegitimate son Josuke Higashikata as he encounters many friends and enemies and of course, lots of new stand users within the town of Morioh created with the Bow and Arrow, these are the two items which gave DIO his stand. Josuke, Okuyasu Nijimura, Koichi Hirose, Jotaro Kujo, and Rohan Kishibe eventually begin the chase of the evil killer Yoshikage Kira.
In the fifth part “Vento Aureo”, we see the show based in Italy 2001, DIO’s son Giorno Giovanna fights and earns his way to the top of the most powerful gang in Italy The Passione. Giorno plots to overthrow the gang’s leader to protect the people from the evil gang’s drug trade. To do so, Giorno teams up with gang member Bruno Bucciarati and his own crack team of Leone, Guido, Narancia, and Pannacotta Fugo. They are then given the task of protecting the Boss’ daughter Trish Una from the dangerous assassins Squadra Esecuzioni.
Part 6 is called “Stone Ocean” and is set in 2011 as Jotaro’s estranged daughter Jolyne Cujoh is set up for murder and incarcerated in green dolphin street prison. Jotaro then goes on to have both his memories and stand stolen by the stand Whitesnake after he tries to free Jolyne. She then decides to stay imprisoned in a bid to find out both who Whitesnake’s master is and try and work out what he plans to do with Jotaro’s memories and stand. Jolyne then goes on to gain the powerful allies that are Emporio Alniño, Ermes Costello, Foo Fighters, Narciso Anasui, and Weather Report.
Ok so we now move onto the final parts, the show is now set in 1890 in the USA, “Steel Ball Run” follows the popular American steel ball run horse race. Gyro Zeppeli, a master of the unique spin technique is seeking the cash prize and Johnny Joestar a paraplegic ex-jockey is trying to cure his legs through the use of Spin, they both cooperate to go on and win the race. Johnny and Gyro discover that the competition is, in fact, a cover-up that President Funny Valentine is using to uncover the powerful and priceless relics of Jesus Christ, they also go on to hunt for these fantastic relics while fighting off Valentine’s many evil agents and counterparts. We then jump to 2011 in “JoJolion”, college student Yasuho Hirose discovers a man named Josuke in Morioh after the massive great east Japan earthquake. Both then decided to dig deeper and investigate Josuke’s past identity, which they see to be that of the Yoshikage Kira who was a ship’s doctor, and also look into the circumstances of his why he was in town and more importantly leaving him in the care of the well respected Higashikata Family. They both go on to uncover the family’s darkest secrets and a drug trade involving a race of humanoid beings and an equally strange fruit.
