JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an unusual series, and not just because it contains adventures that could be described as "bizarre." No, it's unusual in that it is difficult to provide an objective review on the show. There are several reasons for this. The first is that the season is divided into two separate arcs that are wildly different, with the first 9 episodes covering the Phantom Blood arc and the last 17 episodes covering Battle Tendency. The second is that it is a very direct translation of the manga, which means that elements that worked better on the page are unable to translate to the screen well. But most importantly, many elements in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are flat-out bad, but the show manages to be enjoyable despite--or even because of--them.

The first arc, Phantom Blood, tells the story of Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando. Jonathan (who goes by the nickname JoJo) is a young man who strives to become a true gentleman. Dio, meanwhile, can pretty much only be described as pure evil. After Jonathan's father takes Dio in after his own father's death, fulfilling a promise he had made to the man, Dio attempts to make JoJo's life hell for pretty much no real reason. The larger plot is kicked off by an ancient stone mask displayed in the house. When this mask comes into contact with blood, it grows spikes that, if worn, would pierce its wearer's brain. JoJo and Dio accidentally discover this and begin researching the mask on their own. Dio is the one to ultimately discover its true purpose and ends up using it to become a vampire. The rest of the story follows JoJo as he learns how to harness the energy of the sun through a martial art called Hamon and use it to stop Dio's vampire rampage.

Phantom Blood is a rocky start to the series. The first episode is so unpleasant to watch that I almost didn't continue on to the second one. It is just an extended sequence of Dio actively attempting to make JoJo's life miserable for no good reason. It's not as if JoJo did something that would warrant the sort of actions Dio takes. Dio's thought process is simply "how do I make JoJo's life as miserable as possible?" The series also suffers from underdeveloped or unmemorable characters. Apart from Dio, the villains are largely just generic vampires or ghouls that lack much personality. Will Zeppeli is a bit quirky, but he enters and leaves the story suddenly with no real sense of actually belonging. Erina, Jonathan's love interest, barely even speaks, and almost all the other characters are completely irrelevant to the plot. Some characters only seem to exist so that someone can stand on the sidelines and explain what's happening to manga readers--which makes the characters completely redundant in the anime. Our leads are not much better. Dio has very little character beyond being pure evil, and while Jonathan's nobility is conceptually interesting and makes him something of a badass, it also makes him seem one-note and bland.

Despite that, there are elements of a good story. JoJo and Dio have a Cain and Abel type of relationship, Hamon and the stone mask are interesting worldbuilding elements, and most events are framed in a melodramatic way that makes them engaging. It's enjoyable to watch, but the flaws keep it from being as gripping as it should.

The second arc, Battle Tendency, is a bit stronger. It focuses on Jonathan Joestar's grandson, Joseph Joestar (also nicknamed JoJo), as he encounters the Pillar Men, the creators of the stone mask in Phantom Blood. In order to combat this group of superhumans, he undergoes training alongside Caesar Zeppeli, Will Zeppeli's grandson, in order to properly master Hamon.

I found Joseph to be a much more interesting protagonist since he's a trickster character. He isn't as powerful as his grandfather was, so he uses guile to outwit his enemies. In addition, more characters seem to have more presence in the story. Speedwagon is the head of the Speedwagon foundation and is able to provide resources when need be. Erina is the matriarch of the Joestar family and is able to provide direction to the unfocused Joseph. Caesar is a friendly rival to Joseph and is actually more powerful than him, so he's able to fight alongside him and even have his own battles. Even the Nazis Joseph encounters early in the arc end up being valuable allies later on. Everything just ties together a little bit better.

This is not to say that Battle Tendency is not without its flaws. It too has its share of completely superfluous characters who only exist to do play-by-play of events we just saw, and a big revelation that shows up near the end is indirectly spelled out earlier in the series. The fact that it's not touched upon until later can lead the viewer to believe that there's a bit of a plot hole. And it's also dumb. It's very dumb. Due to Joseph's character, it's even dumber than Phantom Blood. But hey, while that's a turnoff to some, it's also a selling point to others.

If you're watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, it's probably not because it's good. It's just because it's fun. It's ridiculous, it's stupid, it's overblown...and yet it's fun. Usually, when bad shows take themselves seriously, they become worse. But when JoJo takes itself seriously, the act of taking itself seriously becomes a joke in and of itself. It's emotional, it's melodramatic, and it's dumb. So basically, it's a shounen anime, but it's so unique in how it's structured and the types of characters that it uses that it doesn't feel like a shounen anime--at least, not the type that people are used to. It's not going to be an anime for everyone, but it's one that fans of comedy or action should at least give it a shot. Four stars.