JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Hirohiko Araki's magnum opus, with the recent fantastic anime adaptions by David Production. JoJo has been receiving universal acclaim and fans from all over the world.
The stories can vary heavily, from the hero battling an evil but charming vampire (Part 1: Phantom Blood), to battling Aztec male stripper gods with the help of cyborg nazis (Part 2: Battle Tendency), to an adventure through Egypt to fight your family’s 100-year-old archenemy (Part 3: Stardust Crusaders), eventually leading to horseback ridding race to find the remnants of Jesus Christ (Part 7: Steel Ball Run). The franchise never grows stale even to this day and is still incredibly unique. Araki deserves all the respect in the world for the amazing stories he has created.
Part 1 Phantom Blood, which covers the first 44 chapters of the manga (volumes 1 - 5), is the weakest part in the entire series, but an important landmark for planting the seeds and much of the foundation for the future parts. During its publishing run in Weekly Shonen Jump, it was one of the many series inspired by Fist of the North Star, featuring lots of muscular men full of testosterone, but having the anomaly featuring a foreign protagonist and a setting outside of Japan.
Phantom Blood is set in England, between 1880-1889, following Jonathan "JoJo" Joestar as he attempts to stop his evil adoptive brother Dio Brando from taking over the world after the latter gained vampiric powers from a stone mask. JoJo uses the power of Hamon, a breathing technique that allows him to project "Ripple energy", energy that is similar to that of the sun. Hamon uses a lot of thought and it isn't just a power about destruction, Araki is creative with the use of it. Parts 1 and 2 are the only parts of JoJo to not feature Stands, the main fighting superpower from Part 3 onwards.
The story is simple yet entertaining to read through, starting out with 5 introduction chapters showing the relationship between JoJo and Dio, then a time skip where the core story unfolds and the ensuing madness begins. The issues with part 1 of JoJo are that it does not set a great representation of the absurdity that is to follow in the later parts, and you can tell that Araki still was setting up the foundations. Many people refer to Phantom Blood as the worst part of JoJo, I can understand all the criticism. The series does require a bit of time for its foundations to set in in order for it to pick up its pace, but if you require a sense of “wow” after hearing so much about this franchise and you wish to have a great first impression, then perhaps start with episode 1 of the phenomenal anime adaption by David Production.
Jonathan is not that great of a character; he is portrayed as a pure gentleman and is designed to be an intentional goody-two-shoes protagonist so that it would contrast with Dio, whose characterization is so stereotypically evil it is ridiculous. However, for Dio it works, especially in the later parts, despite his overly evil persona he has a great character design and so much charisma. While Jonathan’s character design and color scheme in the manga is like a Kenshiro clone, thankfully David Production in the anime decided to replace his color scheme.
The remaining characters in Part 1, just side characters. They fit in the story decently, but none are overly memorably besides Speedwagon and Zeppeli. The manga does keep your attention as any character could die at any moment, as Araki is not afraid to kill off his characters.
The art is very good and has many beautiful double-page spreads, environments, and facial details. It is no secret that JoJo is well known for its various poses of characters, it all contributes to Araki’s great understanding of the human figure. The art style is unique, later on, Araki’s art style has a large evolution change, as the characters change from a muscular/buff physique to a slim more gay design.
Overall Part 1 Phantom Blood, despite it being the worst part in the series I’m giving it a 7/10 just for the seeds it planted for the future arcs.
