Lets talk about Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1 - Phantom Blood

 There are different parts to JoJo and I think there are 8 parts in the manga as of now and only 5 in the anime. Jojo gots its anime adaptation quite a while after its manga so it is quite reasonable that the anime is 3 parts behind. Nevertheless, today we are going to talk about Part 1 which is pretty small, only about 9 episodes but is an indispensable part of the Jojo franchise.

In the initial moment of the 1st episode, we are introduced to George Joestar, an extremely wealthy man during the gold rush era of Europe, 1868 to be exact, where we see an upturned carriage that has fallen down the valley, and George Joestar is on the brink of death. Then we are introduced to a looter namely Dario Brando who seeing this opportunity comes to steal his possessions. To his surprise, George Joestar wakes up and thinks that he helped him stay alive and is oblivious to the fact that he was looting him. Then we get to know that Ms. Joestar has died but the child survived. George Joestar promises Dario Brando that all of the Joestar resources are at his disposal and he can come and go out of their mansion as he wishes.

After that, we skip 20 years and come to 1888, where we now see a grown-up Jonathon Joestar i.e JoJo in his youth. On the other side, we also get introduced to the Brando Family and Dario Brando's son Dio Brando who is at the same age as Jonathon. Dario Brando is now on his death bed and has been using the Joestar fortune for booze.

After his demise, Dio Brando moves in with George and Jonathon Joestar in their house and Mr. Joestar welcomes him happily.

 Dio Brando is hell-bent on taking over the Joestar fortune and hence wants to take away everything Jonathon has and proceeds to do so by taking away his love, status, dog :( and frames him as incompetent in front of everybody.

On the other hand, there is Jonathon who does not have immoral intentions and wants to befriend Dio. He idolizes his father and strives to be a gentleman like him so much so that he'll fight anyone even though he sucks at it (at least at the start) and gets beaten pretty much every time. He is not a very social person but tries to be but nobody wants to befriend him as they think of him as a stupid, spoiled rich brat who hasn't come out of his dream life. 

 

Later we see Dio turning someone of his only friends against him and beating him in front of everyone and doing an illegal move. Not only does this damage Jojo position but also solidifies Dio's position in society.

After this, we are introduced to the stone mask

which has some mysterious powers and spike-like structures come out of it every time blood is spilled on it. Then there is a timelapse of 7 years where we see Jojo and Dio graduating from college and George Joestar's health deteriorating. Now for the real part.

Fast forward a couple of months and cliche happens, Dio tries to kill Mr. Joestar and he happened to kill his father SURPRISE SURPRISE. Then Jojo leaves to find a cure and Dio goes after him and "accidentally" uses a mask on someone who then turns into a vampire and starts whooping Dio's ass and then the sun comes, the cliche bane of vampires. I won't talk about the story further as I am just gonna spoil it.

Now to why should you watch it and what do I think. I really like the concept of Jojo as when you think of vampires you think of twilight which was meh. Jojo for me takes a totally different approach to vampires and zombies and manages to take something that has been a set in stone story for so long and gives it its own unique twist. This definitely starts off a bit cliche but then turns into something very stunning and new. 

I like the fast pace of the anime and how things turn out and that the main character is not very OP or too inadequate but is pretty mediocre. He is very determine and is ready to give his life for the cause due to his very strong resolve.

Regarding the setting of this story, its pretty accurate and I really like it. The animation used in Jojo can be overwhelming though as it is pretty bold but

 I think it goes pretty with the storyline and its character. This type of animation really is able to portray its characters to their absolute potential.

In the end for all you fantasy junkies out there who like the supernatural, there is no better anime than Jojo, and it is pretty long too so you won't get bored for a while.

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If you want to see this anime you can find it on Netflix or on 4anime