This review might contain minor spoilers and Hamon.
Bear in mind there are two parts in this anime part 1 following adventures of Johnathan Joestar and second one following adventures of Joseph Joestar. I'll say part 1 part 2 when I'm referring to them.
Jojo's bizarre adventure an anime I came in with the feeling of ,,ehh I'll probably dislike it,, my opinion changed from that to ,,well it's certainly captivating and I daresay fun,, during part 1 and eventually became ,, Horrry sheet,, during part 2.
Now I like the show that's a given but it's only fair to break it down so let's get on with it
Art and sound. Ah the amount of heart put into an anime can be seen purely based on it's art. I had to paraphrase it so it wouldn't sound like a cheesy rhyme. So how is it? Well I can't call the art unique because this manly muscular bonebuster look isn't new it's just not present nowadays. What I do like is the way it's executed which both invokes nostalgia by having structure of characters resemble those older anime and using our modern media magic to enhance it and give it a specific look. Again it's working off of a cheat sheet so it can't be called completely unique. First part seems to have a bit of a weirder character design with some faces looking like a Ken doll that got slammed with a frying pan, looking at you Jonathan. The art in first part is around 8 but part 2 makes it much better I'd say a solid 9. Sound? Sound is good yeah and as in every JoJo installment sound effects are used in many scenes to enhance the impact. I won't rag onto it too much here's a 10 because those openings made me grow chest hair.
Story. Story shmory it's just an excuse to have over the top fights. Okay that's a lie but both parts have magical McGuffins that drive the plot somewhat. Part 1: Johnathan travels to track down a guy he knew that became a vampire trough a stone mask and is joined by colorful characters.Part two is that pillar men,guys stronger than vampires,were awoken from their slumber and Joseph has to travel to track them down and is joined by colorful charaters.The part two does put a lot of spins on the formula and isn't strictly tied to it but the goal stays the same. Let me talk a bit about Hamon because it's a bit of a staple of first two parts,along with enormous manliness. So hamon is art of correct breathing but it can be used as a weapon against vampires. The thing that annoyed me slightly during first part is that they seem to make up rules of Hamon as they go, like metal conducting Hamon well, but in part two you can see that rules established in part 1 are consistent. There are a few parts that are questionable regarding the use of Hamon so I can't say that there aren't some minor plot holes but they are somewhat explainable.
Eight I feel isn't too harsh but the story isn't anything special and plot twists are mostly predictable. It gets an 8 because of some touching moments and some moments that made me touch myself, okay the latter is a lie I was touching myself the whole time.
Characters woohoo. Reason why I prefer 1 and 2 over part 3. So let's dive into them firstly part one:
Johnathan Joestar is a wonderful manly man with manners of a true gentleman and a body size of a miniature truck, the size comment goes for 90% of characters tho. Speedwagon is your classic 80s narrator dressed as a character and does his job pretty well. Barron Zeppeli is Johnathan's tutor in Hamon. All three of these characters have minor quirks but their main trait is enormous manliness they radiate with and are fun albeit not too complex. Okay now first parts characters are few degrees above generic which would land them at ,,actual human beings,, and part two has characters I'd classify as ,,interesting human beings,,. Second part has Joseph ,who is voiced by the Tomokazu Sugita whom I had to mention because he feels even better here than he does in Gintama, is a silly lil' munchkin. He's a bit less mannered than Johnathan but is a wise cracking smartass. There's Caesar Zeppelli who's your suave italian shmuck but nonetheless interesting one. His motivation is put out with a quick flashback but for some reason I didn't mind it. He does grow on you and also grows out of a classical womanizer into an actual character. There are few more and I've avoided describing villains because they are more enjoyable with as little knowledge beforehand.
Screw it here's an 8 for characters. If you write a character that is fun to follow then you deserve at least an 8. Do bear in mind part 2 is closer to 9 but I'll give it a lower grade regardless because I'm not that biased.
Enjoyment. Yes.
Okay I have to elaborate. Fights often turn into a battle of wits rather than strength. It is a bit of a downer that sometimes you can predict whether a planned move will work or not but it still shows a nice amount of imagination that creator had. I'd give it a 10 but it is understood that some people will mind these parts more so yeah here's a pretty 8.
