#SPOILERS
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Some months ago I started watching Jojo's and I have just finished part 5 for the first time. Prior to watching it my expectations were.. mixed. On one hand I thought the character design looked extremely good and I knew about the soundtrack which is arguably one of, if not the most iconic Jojo's theme, but on the other hand I have also heard quite a few people claim that this is the weakest part. Now that I have seen it I can confidently say; no it's not, quite the opposite actually.
Part 5 has the in my opinion:
-best animation
-best character design
-best cast
-best stands
-best plot
-best writing
(so far of course, I have not seen or read any parts after 5 yet)
Now let me get into why:
I don't think I have to explain why the animation is the best out of the first 5 parts, it's just objectively true and while Jojo's doesn't necessarily need it as up until now most of the fights have either revolved around the characters shit-talking each other until either one manages to pull off some bullshit one shot move, or 2 incredibly fast stands punching each other at mach-3 speeds, it's still a welcome change regardless. Combined with the sheer style of part 5 (I'm talking character / stand design but also overall presentation) it's just significantly more pleasant to look at than any previous part. Granted, part 4 had an arguably more unique art-style and coloring, most likely due to the fact that it's a lot less serious, but that just boils down to personal preference.
As far as the characters are concerned, I also don't really think it's close. While part 2 Joseph is still my favorite Jojo, part 5's cast as a whole simply has so much chemistry and personality that I was genuinely surprised by how sad I was at Abbachio's death. Even if you might not like all of them, just seeing how much they care about each other and the sense of companionship you get from watching them deal with difficult situations, inevitably makes you (or at least in my case it did) care for them as well. The way that their backstories were introduced one episode after another like it's some kind of checklist wasn't the best way to do it in my opinion, but it's still infinitely better than just not having any at all (looking at part 3 if it wasn't obvious) and they really are unique, not incredibly deep, but deep enough for the type of show that Jojo's is, which is something that part 3 for example was definitely lacking where if you asked me who exactly Avdol and Kakyoin were I wouldn't be able to give you an actual answer aside from "guy with green stand and guy with fire stand". And finally, for the first time ever in Jojo's, the characters have real, functional brains and don't suddenly lose all critical thinking skills when confronted with an enemy, which also helps the pacing of the fights a lot, as before, you could usually divide most fights in Jojo's into two parts. The first being the protagonists IQ being halved out of nowhere causing them to lose almost completely, and the second where everything suddenly turns around because a switch was flicked in their head and they had some kind of epiphany making it extremely one-sided. Fortunately none of which really happens in part 5 anymore or at least a lot less often.
This character quality extends past just the main cast however, as even the villains occasionally have backstories and clear motivations instead of simply being evil for the sake of being evil, though those are still present as well. The boss specifically was easily the most interesting villain so far, while basically still being exactly what I just described, (being evil for the sake of being evil) his split personality and at first very mysterious appearances made him stand out significantly more than Dio or Kira, who only really showed up towards the later half or even just the end of their parts. King Crimson is also just a very cool stand for lack of better words. Sure, conceptually he is quite similar to Dio's "The World", but different enough to were the fights never really played out the same way. All stands of the main cast are also not only really well designed, but have some of the most unique abilities we've seen so far, Giorno's, Buccellati's and Abbachio's stood out to me in particular.
However, there are still some issues:
As I've mentioned the way that the character backstories were introduced seemed a bit forced and the final flashback in the last 2 episodes would have worked significantly better if we had seen it, or at least part of it, before the final fight as almost all the tension was essentially gone at that point so it didn't carry that much impact anymore. I also would have liked to see more of Fugo and Trish's stands and more of Fugo in general after he decided to stay behind. I honestly expected him to make a comeback out of nowhere one episode, but it just never happened.
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With all that said, part 5 is essentially what part 3 wanted to be: an engaging, slightly mysterious (bizarre you could even say) adventure, following a group of friends / companions on their way to beat the villain that threatens the world, or in this case Italy. It's not that part 3 failed at this, but part 5 is just a better version of it in every way imaginable which makes it my (so far) favorite part.
