JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Parts I to V: (Volumes 001 to 063) An epic horror-action-adventure! Once there was a mighty bloodline of heroes: the Joestars. In the 1880s, Englishman Jonathan Joestar gave his life to defeat Dio, a megalomaniacal vampire. Now, 100 years later, Dio is back, and Jonathan’s descendants must travel to Egypt to destroy their ancestral enemy once and for all. On one side: Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo (“JoJo” for short)…a globetrotting martial artist and his delinquent Japanese-English grandson. On the other side: a vampire and an army of murderers possessed by evil spirits, the monstrous “Stands”. But Jotaro and Joseph have “Stands” too…and the stage is set for a terrifying battle as the heroes fight their way around the world! Adapted into anime, action figures and video games, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the weirdest, most influential Jump manga ever! Part VI: (Volumes 064 to 080) Time: Early 21st Century — Place: A Florida prison Set in and around the maximum-security Green Dolphin Street prison in Florida, surrounded by palm trees, swamps, and man-eating alligators, this storyline stars Jolyne Cujoh (Stand: Stone Free), the daughter of Jotaro Cujoh. After being falsely accused of a hit-and-run automobile accident, she is sentenced to 15 years in jail, a plot which may be orchestrated by some dark conspiracy, some unknown enemy. Series 6 is a weird prison story in which Jolyne discovers her own powers and other Stand Users while trying to escape the pen. Her dad Jotaro Cujoh returns for a cameo in the first few volumes, and Dio, the ultra-villain of the JoJo series, also shows up in several flashbacks, with a fragment of his corpse playing a major plot point. This series appears to be an attempt for Araki to relaunch the series for new readers (the graphic novels are numbered starting with “Vol. 1” with “JoJo Vol. 63”, and so forth, in small letters) by re-explaining the Stands and introducing a slinky, appealing female protagonist. And for the most part, it takes place within a literally confined environment — Araki had previously done some short manga stories set in jail, so maybe that’s where his current interests lie. Note also that Jolyne is the first American (specifically Japanese-American) JoJo protagonist. The sheer level of weirdness is also pretty mind-boggling, with all kinds of bizarre phenomena — rains of frogs, time distortion, and some extremely odd, conceptual Stands. And the ending is probably one of the strangest things ever to happen in the series. Part VII: (Volumes 081+) Going under the name Steel Ball Run it started out as a separate manga series but later became Part VII to JoJo, this installment takes place in the wild west in 1890 (about the same time period as the first arc of JoJo). Major noticeable difference’s from the previous 6 parts of JoJo is that the manga doesn’t bear the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure title and the main character’s name cannot be shortened to JoJo but rather a supporting character’s name can.