Introduction
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The consensus from a typical Jojo fan seems to be that Part 3 and beyond are the better parts of the story. However, as a new viewer to the franchise it seems completely the opposite to me. Part 1 & 2 were SIGNIFICANTLY better in terms of characters, the personality of the show, the intrigue it brought with the time periods, the mysteries of “Hamone”.
In Jojo part 3 the author decided to completely bury “Hamone” and pretend as best as possible it doesn’t exist, only referencing it when necessary, and pivoting to the new “stands” gimmick. It was poorly done, and this is where the problems begin.
From what I understand reading about it online the author when he was writing this series in the 80s/90s decided after writing Parts 1 & 2 that the powers his characters use are too similar to all other manga at the time thus he replaced “Hamone” with “Stands” and the popularity of the manga only increased after the change so I guess that speaks for itself.
However, from my view it is just lazy. Instead of planning the world and the powers his characters have and their limits from the beginning he seems to make it up as he goes and we end up with many continuity problems, power spiking and power regression. Not to mention the awful writing.
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TL; DR
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“Hamone” was removed from the story hastily and poorly, instead of combining it with “Stands” or giving an explanation to why it isn’t utilised anymore it is simply ignored. Even though it is still applicable in many situations Joseph encounters. This nonsense completely breaks my suspension of disbelief alone, there is no reason he should not use his powers.
Lisa Lisa is never mentioned again even though she could reasonably still be alive because of Hamone. Also, Joseph never asks for help from other Hamone masters to defeat Dio again? Surely he would be introduced to some by his Mother.
Then there is story continuity, Irina floated to safety from the ship wreck (Pt 1) on Dio’s coffin and Jonathon stopped Dio from stealing his body once and made sure he died in the wreck. Yet Dio managed to steal his body anyways, and somehow find the coffin again. That’s impossible, there isn’t a reasonable explanation for this other than “Unreliable Narrator” which means the Author changed his mind. Lazy writing.
The entirety of this cour of the anime barely advances the plot, every episode follows the same formula. Group is travelling to Egypt; they notice some strange stuff but ignore it and then they get surprise attacked by an enemy! Then either a single character is chosen to fight them, or the group does as a team and they win and travel a little farther. Also, if the single character is Jotaro he just waits until things look rough and then says, “good grief/gimme a break, I already won” and then haha Star platinum go brrrrr. Repeat this for 24 episodes.
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Stands & Hamone
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Did stands always exist? Where were they in Part 1 & 2? Why does the Joestar family (and Dio) receive stands because of Dio’s resurrection? “magic” I guess. Also, the narrative seems to imply stands came into existence once Dio was resurrected. At least nothing says otherwise.
Why does Joseph not combine “Hamone” and “Hermit Purple”? In Pt. 2 Joseph was likely one of the most powerful “Hamone” users alive (natural talent untrained). He killed 2 pillar men in solo combat and a 3rd evolved one (albeit mostly by luck). Joseph should be as powerful as Jotaro or more if he combined his Hamone and his Stand. Remember Hamone is a do-everything ability, you can heal yourself, walk on water, attack through objects etc…
What happened to Lisa Lisa? It’s impossible she died. She looked like she was in her late 20s when she was 50, and Ton Petty was incredibly old. She should still be alive thanks to her incredible Hamone energy.
Furthermore, what happened to other Hamone users? Lisa Lisa knew many masters of Hamone and trained with Straizo and others, surely there are new master “Hamone” users. Why does Joseph not call on them for aid? Surely his mother introduced him to her friends/mentors.
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Continuity Issues / Unexplained Issues
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How did Dio survive? Jonathon made certain he'd die along with him, that was the point of his sacrifice. Also, Irina floated to safety in Dio's coffin, how would it end up back in the ocean close enough that Dio found it and he took control of Jonathon's body even after a previous failed attempt?
This all makes no sense.
What happened to the remaining stone masks? There were dozens in the Mexico chamber where Santana was asleep. What about where the others slept surely there were more? Did the speed wagon foundation destroy them all? It wasn’t stated if so. Seems a silly oversight. The only masks explicitly destroyed were the one Dio used to transform and the one Kars used to transform.
Santana is still alive, where is he? He is shown in E14 of Part 1 (~4:30 or so). Why did he not become the next villain? Surely Joseph knows he is still alive too, Robert would have told him. Did he go back and finish the job? Is he still in the laboratory? I thought he must be the next villain for Pt. 3 but nope guess not.
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Poor Writing
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The show is written so poorly that instead of utilising tactics and interesting story telling to create conflicts enemies simply throw themselves at the group as they travel to defeat Dio. Every episode is the same thing, go somewhere overlook something obvious or strange and then OH NO we're under attack by the enemy!
The most frustrating part of this is the set-up is always the same. One-character notices something strange or discovers something but decides it's not suspicious enough or whatever and keeps the info to themselves. Or one character gets attacked the others realise something is odd and they take their sweet time to find the missing person and by the time they do they've already defeated their adversary! How convenient that they had all that time to show off their solo fighting skills.
Any battle that involves Jotaro is the same, he waits until things look dire and then pulls out the "good grief/gimme a break, I've already won" line and he just punches the enemy until their dead. haha Star Platinum go brrrrrrr!
When an anime is entirely centred around cool fights, I expect the fights to be interesting, full of tactics, interesting situations and environments. Not a group of idiots that can’t come to the realisation that anything suspicious should be suspicious.
Lastly, Jotaro's character development is awful. The only difference from the episode we meet him and the final one is he has finally accepted the fact that the people he is travelling with are not so bad. His entire character is just being a tough guy. Even caring for his family is not a development, it was made clear he already does care when he noticed his Mother didn't say goodbye to him when she fell sick in the first 2 episodes, so there wasn't any development there either.
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Conclusion 3/10
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Jojo Pt 3 is a huge downgrade from part 1 & 2. The author wrote himself into a corner, how can you top the pillar men? I guess he had no choice but to make a nonsensical decision like bringing Dio back and killing off “Hamone”. Why not just write a new manga at that point, it would probably have been easier and made a better story.
I’ll probably watch the next cour since I’ve committed this far to at least see what happens to Dio first hand but I have no hope left for this franchise. It’s incredibly overrated and consists of below average writing therefore I give a final score of 3/10 to reflect its utter mediocrity.
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Bonus! Things I enjoyed!
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First ~10 seconds of the OP Animation & music is pretty great. I loved seeing
Jonathon and Joseph in their primes and the animation quality there was pretty epic. Rest of it wasn't as exciting though LOL.
The ED was pretty great too, I loved the clap transition and the way the animation went with the music.
The special edit of the OP for the final episode with the extra SFX was pretty epic. However, I sadly just didn't care at this point. But it was a great idea.
