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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood
Author: Hirohiko Araki
Arc Episode Length: 9
Characters
Jonathan Joestar = The son of George Joestar, Jonathan’s goal in life is to be a true gentleman. His conflict with Dio Brando would spark a generation long struggle.
Dio Brando = A power-obsessed boy with the luck of the devil brought in by the Joestar Family after the death of his father. His conflict with Jonathan would affect the various Joestar descendants.
Robert E. O. Speedwagon = Initially a street thug, Speedwagon would go on to become a close friend of Jonathan and an observer throughout the years of the Joestar family’s conflicts with Dio.
Will A. Zepelli = A master of the use of the Hamon Breathing technique and Jonathan’s eventual teacher. Zepelli’s aid in the fight against Dio, as well as his connections to other Hamon users, was invaluable and had long-lasting implications.
Erina Pendleton = Jonathan’s initial love interest and eventual wife.
Plot
Apparantly indebted to the Brando family, George Joestar accepts Dio Brando into the Joestar home and family with the intent to raise him alongside his son Jonathan.
Dio and Jonathan form an early rivalry predicated on Dio’s nefarious actions and while this rivalry appears on the surface to disappear during college years, it never quite fades as Jonathan studies archaeology and Dio studies the law.
As an archaeologist, Jonathan begins to study a mysterious stone mask that reacts to blood. However, his studies are cut short when he realizes Dio has been poisoning his father. Thus, Jonathan sets out to get a cure while Dio, left unchecked in the Joestar Household, discovers that the stone mask can turn people into powerful vampires.
A confrontation with Dio concerning George Joestar’s poisoning results in George’s death, Dio’s ascension to Vampire-status, and the Joestar house burning down. Determined to get revenge, Jonathan learns the Hamon breathing technique from Will A. Zepelli and sets out to defeat Dio.
After a long battle resulting in many deaths, Dio is seemingly defeated by Jonathan. However, as the newly married Jonathan sets out
to America on a boat with his wife, it is revealed that Dio survived. Sacrificing his life to save his pregnant wife and an abandoned child, Jonathan sinks to the bottom of the ocean with Dio’s head and Erina, with both her own child and the orphaned one, escapes to America.
The Praise
Before watching the series I was told that Phantom Blood would be the part that I wouldn’t fully appreciate until later. This rings true as the strength of Phantom Blood lies in its ability to pack dense amounts of set up for later parts into 9 episodes relatively smoothly. The ridiculousness of absolutely huge teenage boys using vampiric powers and the power of the sun to combat each other truly embodies the
term “bizarre” as does the main cast of characters and their ideals. From Speedwagon deciding to follow Jonathan just because he is a “true gentleman” and Zepelli dedicating his life to the stone masks and Hamon, no character is the same and each has a memorable moment here and there. Even side characters or “mini bosses,” to use a video game term, have their own sense of justice and flair that make them highlights of the show. Tarkus’ brute strength and Blueford’s “pluck” proclamation are moments that my friends and I recite or reenact just because of the sheer spectacle behind it all. In fact, spectacle is the best way to describe this show. Colors are vibrant and ever changing, special attacks based on made up techniques pop out of nowhere, and dialogue has just enough cheese to be considered cool. Going even further to make things cool, if you couldn't tell already, is the fact that almost every character is a reference to some form of western music (a practice that never lets up and I would assume makes localization a legal nightmare). Essentially, Phantom Blood was only 9 episodes but having experienced the full brunt of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the series would not be the same without it.
The Critique
If anything I mentioned above didn’t sound like your cup of tea, I guarantee that you will not enjoy this series. This is especially true because it is nearly impossible to convey in words how over the top this show is. The ridiculous characters I praised? You have no idea how crazy they are until someone stabs another person with his pinky to correct the victim’s breathing and magically heal every broken bone and torn muscle. The flair I brought up? Saying that character poses in this part of the franchise are over the top is only the tip of the iceberg. The colors? Just wait until you are questioning whether Jonathan’s brown hat is actually purple or blue or green or pink. The point I’m getting at here is that JoJo’s Bizarre adventure is unlike any other anime out there in that, unless you’ve been exposed to it prior, it is impossible to comprehend how it is going to go for first time watchers. Phantom Blood is one of the more tame parts of the series when it comes to powers and character but it still does not hold anything back. If you are expecting a cookie-cutter series, you are not ready for this and if you are looking for a more modern series story-wise you will not likely enjoy this.
The Verdict
For as ridiculous Phantom Blood, and the series as a whole, is there is still a level of insane charm that it has. While Phantom Blood isn’t my favorite part of the series by a long shot and the cast of characters isn’t my preferred group, this part is one that is invaluable to the way everything after works out. In the end, this part was a dense watch but was fun and bizarre enough that it kept my attention for the short run. A quick side note: For Phantom Blood alone I will be giving two ratings. The first score will represent the series as a standalone series which, with how interconnected the parts are, is almost an unfair metric. The second, and fairer score, will represent the show’s score in the context of the entire series and how I felt looking back at what it set up.
Standalone Arc Rating: 7 gold nuggets out of 10
Contextual Arc Rating: 10 gold nuggets out of 10