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Return to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Review

Spoilers for Parts 1-6 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Hunter x Hunter.

After I finished Golden Wind / JoJo Part 5, and oh my goodness . . . this is one of the best and most fun story arcs I’ve watched in years. The plot is pretty simple, but the characters, strategic Stand battles, pacing, art, music, and basically everything just puts it on a level above anything else. I cannot fathom why anyone would waste their time arguing that Part 1 was in anyway comparable to how amazing Part 5 is. Araki made an important difference that put this above and beyond Part 3 in nearly everything; the setting is Italy instead of the attempt at a global story with Part 3. This limitation is important, because not only are the background infodumps more consistent and smoother for viewing pleasure to keep us engaged, but it still feels like a moving journey with a goal.

That being said, having marathoned all of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures Parts 1 – 6 this year, I am confident enough to say that every JoJo Part after Part 1 is completely superior to Hunter x Hunter to the point there is no comparison. The intellectual superiority of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure stands the test of time, especially compared to the drivel that is Hunter x Hunter or Trash x Trash as some of us Anime fans call it. The fact is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure does exactly what Hunter x Hunter fans claim that Hunter x Hunter does, but far superior in . . . everything. Even small issues like the characterization of female cast members is totally superior in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. JoJo is just completely superior to Hunter x Hunter in my opinion.

After watching Parts 2 – 6 via marathoning them throughout the entirety of this year . . . my views are the following: Part 1 remains utter trash that is only good for setting up the rest of the vastly superior plot. Part 2, Joseph is ungodly amazing but the plot was only alright, because the side characters were rushed and boring to the point I don’t even remember the blonde dude’s name. Part 3 was basically just Polnareff’s Bizarre Adventure after a point (i.e. the memes were completely true) but the final fight remains a 10 / 10 battle between Jotaro and Dio. I’m really disappointed we didn’t get more of Jotaro’s introspection throughout the story like we did in that final fight. Part 4 is a 10 / 10 for the most part, despite the slow set-up, the payoff was amazing. Josuke’s an amazing protagonist, Jotaro finally feels like he developed a personality, and the villain was better than Dio for sure. Part 5 is by far my absolute favorite in terms of characters (both protagonists and antagonists), setting, plot, Stand powers, and so forth. Giorno Giovanni was my absolute favorite protagonist out of the entire series. Part 6 was also really good, with only Episode 9 being boring, and the ending was an absolute shock because I was basically misinformed by both the Wiki and a video game story. Also, I only realized after finishing Part 6 that the entire visual novel, Dies Irae, is premised upon the shock-twist of the ending of Part 6 as a heavy inspiration.

What astounded me is that, despite its flaws (especially Part 1 being garbage and Part 3 having Avdol return in one of the poorest written non-explanations imaginable), JoJo’s Bizarre adventure really does break tropes and it is everything that HxH fans claim that HxH is. Characters permanently die off as early as Part 1 of JoJo in the most random manner possible, important main characters continue to permanently die off in every subsequent JoJo part, and the main character of Jolyne dies unceremoniously in JoJo Part 6. This really is a trope-killer through and through with the JoJo series. There are problems like questions of where Giorno was and what Giorno was doing in Part 6, Weather’s powers making no real sense with why he could rain down animals in Part 6, Avdol’s poorly explained return after his first supposed death in Part 3, and probably other issues that I can’t think about off-hand. However, the deaths always feel significant, every JoJo after the godawful Jonathan Joestar is at least a good character with the latter Parts having amazing characters like Giorno and Jolyne, and the vast majority of the characters have memorable conflicts, situations, and unique powers that usually make internal sense within each JoJo story. My favorites are Bruno Bucciarati, Trish Una, Narancia, Mista, Abbacchio, Weather, F.F., Weather Report, and Jotaro when he’s given a side-character role. By contrast with HunterxHunter, I barely remember most of the side characters in the Greed Island arc, the final arc with the voting, and the Phantom Troupe, as they barely left an impact on me. Even if we compare it by who writes better written female characters between the stories, Togashi hasn’t shown the same depth as his previous series, Yu Yu Hakusho. By contrast, Araki’s JoJo series has shown gradual improvement with several decently written female characters.

I’ve added JoJo Part 5 to my favorites, probably my favorite superpowered, mafia-esque story. With HxH… even after finishing the anime, I’m waiting for it to have an impact. There’s this interesting theory:

But in all honesty, HxH seems more liked because of its potential and the questions left unanswered from that potential like the entirety of the Dark Continent still remaining a mystery versus JoJo’s Parts 4, 5, and 6 actually delivering on its potential with its fights and Stand powers. I hope HunterxHunter eventually does well, but JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure far surpasses it in absolutely everything from what I see.