And here we are at last.
So. Let’s
go ahead and breakdown, breakdown JoJo’s
Bizarre Adventure one more time…for now, at least.
Part 9:
Intermission
(Or: When
Are They Gonna Get to Italy?)
I guess I should start by saying I feel like more
of an idiot than usual for waiting so long to get into this franchise. Like a ton of people, it was thanks to memes
that I even learned about it -- and for months (if not years) afterward, only
learned about it through/pared it down to memes. I’ve personally heard recommendations for the
anime since…I don’t know, at least 2013.
I didn’t step into the pool until years later, much to my
discredit. But now I’m on the same page
as everyone else. Well, I’m on the same
page as the anime-only audience, at least.
It does beg the question of whether or not I should try and get my hands
on as many manga chapters as possible, or if I should wait for the AV-rich
adaptation (and experience the plot/spoilers raw). I’ll have to think about it.
But until then?
I can say with absolute certainty that I’m glad I went on the JoJo journey. Incredibly glad. Is it my favorite thing ever? No. Is
it utterly flawless? God no. But now I understand why it has the fans that
it does. I know the story, the
characters, and the spirit that weaves through it. I can prove conclusively that it’s more than
a gigantic mass of memes and jokes ripe for posting across the internet. JoJo is
100% legitimate as an anime, as a manga, as a franchise, as a story, as a piece
of fiction, and as a work of art.
And to explain why, I’ll go ahead and say this: Josuke
is my new favorite JoJo, partly because he embodies everything I think makes
the franchise so great.
To be honest, though? Saying “Josuke best JoJo” is something that
pains me immensely. I’m a massive,
unrepentant Jonathan fanboy, and I still am.
Liking one doesn’t mean hating another, after all. But as biased as I am, I can still take a
step back on occasion to look at the bigger picture. While Jonathan is someone that appeals to me,
there’s a character out there that -- based on my line of reasoning, such as it
is -- does a better job at making a case for JoJo. Most people would say
that that’s Joseph, and they’re not wrong for doing it. But I have to give the crown to Josuke.
I was kind of worried about the man with the
shining pompadour, though. For a while,
it seemed like he would embody one of the franchise’s biggest issues (IMO): its
inconsistency. Josuke would have one
personality type in one scene, then swap to another as the plot demanded. Is he a tough-as-nails delinquent? Is he a kind and caring altruist who wants the
best for his mom and his town? Is he a
materialistic high school freshman who wants lots of cash and the chance to
look cool? There were times where any
given answer could fit in -- where he seemed less like a new lead and more like
a hodgepodge of JoJos past. Hell, one of
his most infamous traits -- the “what did you say about my hair?” gag -- pretty
much vanishes after the first half, and maybe earlier. Though to be fair, it vanishes after an
impossible-to-top high note.
It made me tug at my collar for a while. But as the show progressed, I had a thought:
maybe I had it wrong. Maybe it wasn’t
necessarily about making Josuke into the proverbial square peg in a round hole. Maybe it was about going down one of two (or
both) diverging paths. Path one: infuse
Josuke with the traits of his predecessors, because they’re absolutely good traits to have as a
hero, a character, and a person. Path
two: offer up a character that, despite his newness, is still more than worth
following because he cribs off of a trio of pre-established, much-adored
characters.
So if you ask me, Josuke at his worst -- if you
could even call it that -- is someone who has the best aspects of the three
leads before him. That’s to be expected
when he actively has the blood of said leads flowing through him. Still, it’s not hard to see the
parallels. From Jotaro, Josuke inherits
an unmistakable level of steely coolness and quiet determination. From Joseph, Josuke inherits a level of
cunning that would make Sun Tzu jealous, alongside a steadfast dedication to
whatever he holds dear. From Jonathan,
Josuke inherits the nobility to fight evil, the gentility to help his friends,
and the passion that lets his soul burn bright.
That’s not a bad deal; most people usually just inherit bad eyes or
baldness from their ancestors.
In any case, Josuke is a character that has all of
these positive qualities about him, which makes him the ideal guardian of the
“heart of justice”. I wouldn’t expect
any less, given the medium/genre/demographic Hirohiko Araki worked in, but
there’s a level of appeal that transcends all borders and definitions when it’s
done well. It’s why both little girls
and grown women (and little boys and grown men) can enjoy Disney fare, despite
-- or because of -- its mighty deluge of pretty princesses.
Certain ideals and values speak to all of us. And in a number of ways, JoJo and Josuke alike speak to those sensibilities. We want to believe in heroes, and guardians,
and everything in between. We want to
believe in goodness. JoJo isn’t all platitudes and good
feelings, given the mere presence of
guys like Dio, but that’s part of what maximizes its appeal. You can’t go full ham over justice without
going full ham over villainy.
The important thing is that there’s a single
question that needs answering: “How
bizarre is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?” For an outsider looking in, the level of
absurdity could be a barricade as tall as the Empire State Building. For a seasoned fan, it’s business as usual as
ridiculous superpowers are used and zany scenarios play out. For me, though? I’d say that even if you pull back and try to
explain the plot or individual scenes as starkly as possible, it doesn’t change
the fact that there is a universal
appeal that keeps it grounded. There is
a basic, simple, yet overall well-executed story -- a through line armored in
all of the essential elements -- that does what it should do. For that reason, the “bizarre” isn’t nearly
the repulsive force that you’d expect. JoJo is, at the end of the day, an everyday story.
It’s only fitting, then, that the franchise takes
a turn with its fourth installment to include an everyday hero. Josuke isn’t a genetically and financially
blessed heir with a murderous brother.
He’s not a scheming genius who struts through the streets of New York
City. He’s not an Adonis masquerading as
a high school boy who gets all the girls to fawn over him or fall headfirst into owning the single most powerful weapon in
his story of origin. No, part of what
makes Josuke special is that on the whole, he’s an average guy.
He does average things like go to school and play
video games. He has average desires like
a spiffy new pair of shoes. If not for
the plot, he would have had an average home with a mom who makes him breakfast
and a grandpa who tosses out good-natured jokes. The biggest sticking point is that Josuke
just so happens to have a pugilistic phantom at his beck and call -- a
juxtaposition of the normal and the abnormal that accents both. That extends to Diamond is Unbreakable at large, since it’s a sleepy little coastal
town inundated with superpowered individuals.
Most of them are (or are close to) insane, but it’s the grounded and
reasonable Josuke who ends up sorting out all of the issues as the star player
-- enforcing his will and his hope of average, yet great days on others.
With all of that in mind, there’s another reason
why I say Josuke is the best, or at least my new favorite: his greatest
strength, and the quality that elevates JoJo
into something more, is unpredictability.
Sure, if you only read about what happens in the
franchise through summaries -- or catch glimpses of it via YouTube clips --
then you’ll know how things play out.
You’ll probably barrel straight through a spoiler or two. But there’s a difference between knowing
which Stardust Crusader will die, and actively seeing who that Crusader was over the course of three dozen episodes
before his death. I say that as a guy
who likes to know exactly what’ll happen in a story ASAP, and spoiler warnings
be damned. I need info. I need details. I need closure before I’ve even got the
opening.
But watching JoJo
has shown me just how important it is to experience as much as possible
with a raw perspective. Reading up on
what Josuke does in this fight or that fight is one thing, but seeing his
unpredictable, volatile nature in action is another -- and vastly superior -- thing entirely.
I’ve said before that Josuke bashing Rohan’s brains in just for dissing
his hair became one of my favorite anime moments ever, and I mean it. The sheer potency of that scene made me feel
like I was on the receiving end of Crazy Diamond’s punch rush.
It goes beyond that, though. If you’re a good enough writer, then you’ll
be able to make characters that are bold, but still consistent. Even with a story arc in mind, the words and
actions in one chapter should sync up with words and actions in a later
chapter. That’s a given, and that’s
certainly respectable, but the drawback is that it can, on some level, put a
perfectly-decent hero in a rut. It’s the
same problem that Superman has, I think; you know he’s going to do the right
thing because that’s…well, his thing,
but it makes for a character that’s easy to deride. To generalize. Maybe that would explain why a lot of fiction
is
intent on turning him evil to “fix” him, but that just flings him out of
one rut and straight into another. But I
digress.
I’ll still contend that Jonathan is a good
character, yet that won’t stop me from acknowledging the likely complaints made
by others. Jonathan is a noble guy, so
you expect him to do noble things and say noble things and act noble. That’s consistent with our understanding of
him, almost from the first minute of his introduction. Conversely, Josuke is allowed to be more
things -- polite, apologetic, nervous, panicky, brash, furious, petty, greedy,
sneaky, cool-headed, hot-headed, and more.
It gives him a level of versatility that his three predecessors don’t
have quite so obviously. It makes him a
wild card -- and because he’s a wild card, he can make the unpredictable into a
daily occurrence.
Actions speak louder than words, so let me put it
this way. Jonathan is a man who, when
confronted with an undead knight, breaks free from his hair restraints and
punches him hundreds of times with the spirit of the sun. Josuke is a man who, when confronted with a
mad bombing serial killer, dupes said serial killer into blowing up his own
father. The level of variability leads
to a level of unpredictability; sure, neither one will decide to not beat the bad guy (or try, at least),
but the means to their ends are on different planes. Jonathan’s actions are entertaining, but
they’re on a stable line that matches with his character and our understanding
of them. If you were to graph Josuke’s
actions, there would be spikes sharp enough to skewer an elephant.
I’m wary of calling it “shock value” because of
the negative connotations. So,
alternatively, I’ll call it “stun value” (and to hell with semantics). Even if Joseph made some amazing plays in his
time, his son manages to do so much more in a fraction of the time. His solutions are stunning, his thoughts are
stunning, his victories are stunning, and even his very presence is
stunning. His delinquent poise makes him
stand out from the crowd and his fellow cast members, and that’s saying
something.
There are only two things about Josuke that are
predictable. One is that he’s
unpredictable. The other is that no
matter what he does, he’s always, always, always
going to entertain. So while the
other JoJo leads may have an audience
asking “How will ___________ get out of this one?” I feel like the question I
ask when Josuke is involved is “What will Josuke do next?” And for that reason, he’s the best character.
I wish it could’ve been Avdol, though. But there’s no sense in worrying about what
could’ve been. Besides, I can buck up
from here on out; it’s not as if anyone will ever die in JoJo again.
I…I, uh…I actually don’t know who dies in Part
5. I guess we’ll find out together.
You know, I have to be honest. Before I actually sat down to write this
post, I was thinking about having it go into a larger point -- a statement
headlined by the question of (in all caps, natch) “what the fuck happened to
anime”. If you’re reading this, then you
probably know about the issues. They’ve
been highlighted all over the net, and
even here on
this very blog on
multiple occasions. Oh, it’s all
just a bunch of moe fluff! It’s all
otaku pandering! It’s all lowest common
denominator garbage! And so on, and so
forth. And yeah, there are a ton of
legitimate complaints to make about anime in this modern era. Too many to count.
It doesn’t say kind things when JoJo -- which got its start back in the
80s -- has somehow managed to, in my eyes as well as the eyes of countless
others, dance circles around present-day fare that should know better. I would’ve thought that the lessons and
inspiration from the past combined with the savvy and technical know-how of the
present would create the awe-inspiring stories of the future. That hasn’t really happened. That’s
not to say we don’t get gems, but let’s not pretend like the landscape is
peachy-keen right now.
You know what, though? I’m not really that worried -- or at least,
I’m not so worried that I have to harp on the point I intended to. Yes, we have bad anime (and manga) out
there. But we have good stuff, too. JoJo is
proof of that. How big of an influence
did it have on anime and manga, if not an entire subculture of nerdom back in
its heyday? I wouldn’t know, but I’m
guessing it’s “more than a little bit”.
And because of its resurgence -- because of its popularity, especially
in the west -- how much of an influence will it have now? What future content creators have seen the
Joestar clan and been inspired, or have taken the exact lessons they need to
from its myriad arcs? Alternatively, how
will execs at home and abroad proceed, knowing that there’s a market for what JoJo is offering?
I’m not just talking about nostalgia-mining or OTT
poses. I’m talking about the non-bizarre
elements that make JoJo so
entertaining. At some point, people are
going to have something -- some story, like a bolt from the blue -- that shows
them what can be done in the infinite world of fiction. Is that JoJo? For some people, probably. And that’s a hell of a good place to
start. For some people, it won’t be JoJo. That’s fine, too. There’s no one road to a good story, but
people need to realize that there’s a road to begin with. I think, or at least hope, that JoJo -- a classic with a refreshed
sphere of influence -- shows people those roads. Likewise, I hope that people on all rungs of
the fandom ladder -- artists, writers, execs, fans, and more -- walk down those
roads with minds swimming in ideas.
As of this writing, there hasn’t been a formal
announcement of the anime adaptation for Part 5, Vento Aureo. I’m going to go
ahead and guess that it’s coming, though; leaving it hanging seems like leaving
a briefcase full of money out in the rain.
You can bet that I’ll be writing about it once every last episode has
gone up; I’m a JoJo fan, and it’s the
least I can do for a franchise that’s left me tickled pink. But I hope that from here on, its popularity
leads to more than just references, jokes, and memes. I want people to take the story seriously and
learn from it. To grow from it.
JoJo’s
Bizarre Adventure is something special.
I hope that people -- as many people as possible -- realize that, and
use it as a foundation from here on. If
a blast from the past has to make waves in the anime industry and show what can
be done, then so be it. Let the bridge
to the future be built by the efforts of yesteryear. And who knows? When it’s all done, and when we can all
appreciate every last supernatural punch, then we’ll have more than just a good
anime to feast on.
We’ll all be in for some great days.
That’s a really strong opening, but it’s still not
as…strong…as…
…
…Okay, you know what? “Great Days” is the best opening. “Sono Chi no Sadame” may be one of the
manliest, most hot-blooded songs in existence, but how often do you get a song
that touches the heart so purely and sincerely as “Great Days”?
The answer: you don’t. And to that end, I have one last thing to say
about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Let the voice of love take you higher.
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