Anime Reviews and Top 10s #1

Anime Highlight #1

I think for anime that I haven't finished yet, I'll do a "highlight" thing.

This one today is....

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

I had to do this one. For some reason, it isn't well known in America, but in Japan and, I think, in Europe it's well known and probably one of the most popular, if not the most popular, anime ever.

And their love for it is not without cause. I finally saw it about a couple weeks ago, and I immediately fell in love with it.

I was reluctant to watch it at first because seeing the art style, which is very weird, I didn't think that it would be good. My friend from school, who shall remain anonymous, pushed me to watch it. We have rather different tastes, he loves fast-paced action anime with great story, and he's a harsh critic. On the other hand, I like romance anime and even the thing most critics hate, most adaptations of light novels.

There are ones that critics like, like Durarara and NGNL, but things like Strike the Blood and The Irregular at Magic High School they think should have stayed as a light novel. In the case f the latter of the two, I agree with the critics.

As I was saying, even though we like different things, it doesn't mean that we completely disagree on everything. I'm just not as harsh a critic as he is, but on some anime, we both love, such as Akame ga Kill, No Game No Life.

And now JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

The story starts out with a carriage crash in the middle of a deserted road in late 19th century London. First off, it's an original setting. There's not many anime that take place outside of a fantasy world or Japan. They even take advantage of the setting later on: Jack the Ripper.

This scene sets up the main story in a very subtle way, the head of the Joestar family being indebted to the Brando family. At least, that's what Joestar thinks.

This then leads to the introduction of Dio Brando, with his dying father, the man who "saved" the Joestar family head, and Jonathan Joestar. When Dio's father died, because of the "debt" of the Joestar family to the Brando family, Dio moves in with the Joestars. Things are not what they seem.

From the very beginning, Jonathan learns to not trust Dio, who planned to make Jonathan's life a living hell in such a way that his own father turns on him the trust Dio more.

After a little while, however, Dio seemingly becomes more friendly, only to regain the trust of Jonathan. For seven years, they were close as friends and half-brothers.

Then things get tricky when Jonathan discovers Dio's plot to kill Jonathan's father. It was set in motion a while back, but he just saw it. His father's condition was worsened by a medicine given to him by Dio.

Jonathan did what he could to help him, but his father ended up dying not by the medicine, but by Dio in an attempt to kill Jonathan. His father protected him.

Dio and Jonathan fought it out with Jonathan emerging victorious, but with Dio in his new form, being taken over by a mask that was with Jonathan's father years ago, he wasn't truly dead.

How they set up the plot of this show was genius. You don't see many shows develop the main plot of the show like this much. It took several episodes to set up the true rivalry between Dio and Jonathan. At first, it was Dio trying to ruin his life, then it turned into Dio trying to take over the world for its wealth, and Jonathan stopping him.

It's a masterpiece of a show, and I've only seen about 7 episodes of season 1 :p .