5 out of 5

Directed by: Naokatsu Tsuda, Ken’ichi Suzuki

covers seasons 1 through 3

At this point, I have an opinion on anime.  I watched, sampled enough from various genres and eras to have feelings on preferences, and to be able to sift through a description or a couple of episodes to weigh in on whether or not I might like something.  And just like any form of media, general or specific – American television, crime novels, hardcore music, etc. – you can start to bucket things based on other criteria: mood, or style, for example.

And then you’ll find things that are harder to break down, and in the most specialest of cases, the reason for that is because whatever you’re watching (or reading, or listening to…) is defining the definition.  I don’t know if I’ll again see something as soberingly bleak as the original Berserk; as committed to dream logic as Paranoia Agent.  And I know I’ll never see something quite like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anytime soon.

Now, credit due: the DNA for the show’s audacious style is absolutely in the source manga, which David Productions does a stellar job of porting over.  But there’s an extra level of urgency; of over-the-top JoJo-ness upon seeing Hirohiko Araki’s characters (and wild imagination) animated and voiced; JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is exactly that from the first episode onward, with any and everything hoped for to best adapt the series delivered upon: the fury and creativity of character’s powers are a visual (and aural feast); the costume design is a hilarious marvel; the score and opening and closing credits are inventive and, regarding the credits, a head-bobbing hoot; the voice work makes even bit parts engaging as heck.

In JJBA, the discovery of an enchanted mask in the late 19th century by the Joestar family leads to conflict between son Jonathan (‘JoJo’) and adopted son, Dio.  We then track the effects of this first row across generations, to Jonathan’s grandson, Joseph, to Joseph’s grandson, Jotaro, to, a decade later, Joseph’s son, Josuke… and while this might, as it did for me, trigger a gut reaction of feeling like this setup lessens the stakes (because you know the story “makes it” to another generation of Joestars), the wonderful surprise and endearing ability of the series is in its ridiculousness: the world is always teetering on the edge, but even when it’s not – such as in season 3’s ‘Diamond is Unbreakable’ arc – you can’t wait to get to the next episode to see what new craziness is tossed our hero’s way, and the hilariously overwrought fashions in which everyone responds in kind.

But we started with an enchanted mask; how does that translate to such wild, continual one-upmanship?  In part, the joy of the series is watching exactly that, but let it suffice to say that Araki built in to the series’ formula supernatural ‘powers’ that are personalized based on the individual.  And don’t think flying, or laser vision, think, like, the ability to create little holes in people’s skin that sucks up the air around them; to latch on to someone’s back in a manner such that if anyone sees their back, that person is destroyed.  They’re random, but always interesting, and animated / acted wonderfully.

And the generational thing becomes such an awesome love/hate component as well, with love always winning out.  Each new cast of characters, starting from your first introductions in season one, take a bit to warm up to, and you doubt you can watch such gregarious folk doing such outlandish things for X episodes.  But before you know it, you’ve warmed up to all of their eccentricities, and are then completely bummed out when you lose them to the next cast… until that process repeats once more.  It’s not that anyone ‘tops’ anyone else, either; each season is as uniquely defined as the show itself.

I watch JoJo for a couple of episodes, and my anime-senses tingled and told me it was probably too crazy for me.  (I was young; my sense weren’t so well honed then.)  A less-frequent anime-watching friend casually mentioned how wild the show would get, and so I decided to give it another go, and ‘rediscovered’ it immediately from the first episode as something fantastic.  I would later realize that said friend had stopped watching after season 1, and I could only shake my head in regret for what he was missing: it only gets crazier and better as things go on, and as you shift over to Araki’s twisted mindset, David Productions presentation of that, and directors Naokatsu Tsuda’s and Ken’ichi Suzuki’s energized handling of the same.