JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Season 1
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 15
Running Time: 650 Mins
Audio: English and Japanese DD 5.1
Due Out: Out Now!
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
If you look at the manga of this anime, hero of the hour, Jonathan Joestar wouldn't look out of place in Brideshead revisited, but this would have to be a more violent version. In 1880's London, Dio Brando's father is seriously ill needing medicine, but only wants to down more booze. His son, Dio has to put up with his mood swings and endless demands, but as he is now on his deathbed, he gives Dio a letter, telling him to go visit a man he once saved from death saying he owes him a favour.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Dio leaves for the Joestar Estate, but before that, it's interesting to take a look back at what really happened when Dio's father saved George Joestar. This also gives us a good insight as to what kind of man he was.When Dio's father, Dario first sees a carriage fall near the edge of a cliff, he notices he is a rich man and wants to get something out of saving him.Being the man he is, he thinks nothing of trying to steal from the man he thinks is dead, only to find him alive. Unable to rob the man, he instead saves him and pretends he is the kind, selfless man he believes him to be. George immediately promises him that he will someday repay him as a Joestar always pays his debts.
In the anime version, a lot of the story is cut out and starts with Dario stood over George Joestar telling him his wife is dead, but the baby is alive, and leaves with him making his promise to him. We first get to see Jonathan Joestar helping out a young girl who two men are teasing. The opening animation is quite doom laden with the vampiric mask dominating the visuals as it is crucial to the story.
When Dario Brando saves George Joestar's life way back in the day, he asks Joestar make sure his son has a future. Dio ends up being the adopted brother to Josuke/Jonathan, but he soon realises that Dio isn't thankful for what his father did and has ideas of his own. Dio wants to make it so that he can inherit the Joestar fortune, putting Jonathan out of the way for good, seeing murder as a good way of doing it. Dio is the real cuckoo in the nest who doesn't know the value of honour. He is a ruffian who needs money for a good enough life, but he is the sort of man who doesn't mind ruining other people's lives in the process.
Just as Dario was a good for nothing man in the story, Dio proves how much of a cruel man he is; baiting Jonathan at every opportunity, killing his faithful hound, trying to kill his father and hoping to kill him. Though Jonathan is portrayed as a strong built man and good with his fists as well as intelligent, Dio has an inner madness that propels him to do evil things and his strength coupled with his evil intelligence have a good chance to beat him.
The main part of the story is that The members of the Joestar family are, Like the character of Subaru Sumeragi, destined to have supernatural powers they can use against evil. Attempts are made on his life by Dio, but they all go wrong, leading his hatred of him to escalate, which in turn has him find an ancient mask that gives him evil powers and turns him into a vampire. What happens next will have Josuke fighting for the sake of his family name and the life of the world.
Season 1 is made up of two parts, Phantom Blood and Battle Tendancy where Jonathan finds out more on his family's origins and the Pillar Men Stone Mask's creators. The series is an interesting one due to it having two opposites in it who will never get along, but it also shows the problems involved with helping others who aren't of your family - Dio being evil, Jonathan being the good guy. In Western animation, the good guys always win, but in anime, it can go either way. This is a dark anime with a true horror setting, unlike the manga where we see what Dio gets away with and when he dons that mask, what happens to him. Continued bad luck follows Jonathan, who is left to investigate a vampiric mask, time powers with laser eyes.
Season 1 sets us off and sets the scene for more horror to come - let the battle commence!
Bonus Material: Trailers for other anime series.
Summary: If you like period horror series, this will be perfect.
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