Crimson’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has currently become my own little obsession as of late. And good god, what an adventure that I got myself into. Literally every single episode is built upon the other like a building block, and further enhances the emotion that comes with it to new heights. There’s power, there’s passion, and there’s prestige in virtually every single moment the show brings. Flamboyance without looking idiotic, actions without pretense. JJBA was never meant to be designed to be complex nor complicated to watch, but the show is so ridiculously enjoyable to tag along with the adventure that it doesn’t really matter. This is going to be a four-part review along the modern anime adaptation of the famous shonen manga series illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, depicting every arc of the show in depth until the release of Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable this year, something that I’m extremely excited about.

So let’s get started!



Phantom Blood chronicles the struggles of the cursed Joestar bloodline against the forces of Evil. Our story goes way back to 1880 England, as we follow the young Jonathan Joestar as he matures with and eventually combats his adoptive brother, the cunning, merciless Dio Brando. The two of them are simply tied to one another and embody the perspectives of good and evil. Basically everything that Jonathan stands for is to be gentlemen-like, started from his desire to save other people to showing empathy and mercy to the enemy. He is not only a pure soul, but there is not even a single trace of evil in his character at all. He does not rely on trickery to fool other people, he is friendly and sincere and embodies the “Ultimate Good” that could be brought forth in the show. Dio, on the other hand, is a fantastic example of the true villain in the series. He isn’t a good guy in the slightest, there is no sort of redeeming goodness in his soul. Dio Brando is pure evil from beginning to the end, with a sense of evil and corruption around his character. You want to feel disgusted by him, yet you can’t help but be fascinated and attracted to him. He is ambitious, sadistic, arrogant, and megalomaniacal, yet he posses an almost uncanny charismatic and intelligent persona in his character. He is one of the worst people that you would ever meet, he is essentially the antichrist yet apart of you would want to follow him as a leader. Dio is easily my favourite character in the entire series because of these traits, and it’s really the conflict of these two values that the two main characters of the series that sets the stage for not only this entire Part, but the entire manga and anime. Sometimes you don’t need to make your characters too complicated, sometimes all you need is a simple clash of these two values.

The story begins in England, 1880 with young Jonathan Joestar, known to his friends as JoJo, living at his father George's wealthy estate. Another young man, Dio Brando, is adopted by them having recently lost his father, Dario Brando. George believed that he and his infant son were rescued by Dario during a stagecoach accident, in which his wife lost her life, when in fact Dario was trying to loot their corpses. Jonathan attempts to befriend Dio, unaware of his plan to drive him into discredit and earn George's trust so that he can become the sole heir to the Joestar fortune. As part of his scheme to torment Jonathan, Dio violently beats him in a boxing match, turns his friends against him, steals his girlfriend Erina's first kiss, and even burns his dog Danny to death in an incinerator, while presenting himself before Jonathan's father as a better gentleman and student than his adoptive brother. Normally, everything would go downhill from there. But overtime, roughly seven years passing, Jonathan has grown up and quickly begins to close the gap that Dio originally created. But as Dio begins to make his move to become the heir of the Joestar Fortune with a sinister plot, Jonathan tries his best to foil his adoptive brother’s plans, where things quickly escalate.


In a shellnut

To me, Phantom Blood could not hold such a high regard as a show from fans if it was to be solely carried by the simple concept of good and evil from the main characters. The side characters also have their own added spice to the series itself, and the fan favourite in the manga community would easily go to Speedwagon. “Why?” you ask? From the very start his loyalty to Jojo’s virtuous and heroic nature is second to none, and his narration provides extra hype and a nice touch to the rough nature of the fist fights. He isn’t a fighter, but he a special extra to make the show simply so fun to watch. At the same time, Zeppi acts as the ‘Obi-Wan’ to Jojo’s ‘Skywalker’, playing the role of the mentor extremely well to the young Jonathan. He is knowledgeable, caring and very quirky at the same time. Sadly, acting as the Obi-Wan eventually catches up to him and his departure from the party was enough to make you cry manly tears.


But that is a good thing especially when the anime embraces the crazy art style of the original manga, with an equally insane colour pallet to bring this bizarre adventure to life. The character design in the anime also takes a slight adjustment from the original material in the first arc to Araki’s evolving art throughout the show, which shows with strong art, masculine nature and a couple of signature poses now and then that make the show absolutely wonderful to watch. And especially from such a small studio such as David Production, which does not have a very big budget animation-wise. To compensate for this, the show is cleverly directed and animated strongly almost every damn time. Even a normal screenshot is just pretty to look at, it’s that damn good looking.

With the first Part being set in Victorian England, the BGM is filled with some very nice orchestral pieces, sometimes integrated so well that I had to rewind to notice what piece is actually playing. But in terms of audio, the voices of the characters themselves are arguably the best part about the show. Every character has some fairly strong performances, but the favourite would have to go to Koyasu Takehito as Dio Brando, with his voice is very well suited for a character that’s sexy yet pure evil. And you can tell that the voice actors had their fun in this project, and their raw energy and passion alone can be seen in the series itself.



When talking about Jojo, one must bring up the musical side of things. Araki’s affinity for music can be seen into how well the opening and ending songs are, with quick flashes from the original manga playing along with smooth CGI and professional directing in the OP. Its beautiful, in your face with high octane excitement and the lyrics talks about the endless rivalry between Jojo and Dio, alongside the human courage. Araki personally summaries that “the theme of this work is 'living'. Through the two main characters, I want to examine two ways of living. It's all about singing the hymn of the battle between 'human' and 'non-human'…” But I’m particularly impressed about how long the final line was held, where the lyrics follow as “Sono chi no Sadame, JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJO!” I mean seriously, he holds it for like 8 seconds. It’s incredible.


"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJO!"

If the OP shows the powerful storytelling side of the show, then the ED illustrated the nature of the series itself. Surprisingly enough, the song that was chosen was “Roundabout” by YES, an English band from the early 70’s. All doubts that I had about the song were instantly silenced as the intro guitar melody fits the tones the series had. You can almost put that song to anything, horror, action, you name it. The tune fit perfectly, and the dirty bassline was fantastic. The visuals in the ED also help explain the history of the part, which at the same time, was timed perfectly. I never skilled the OP or the ED, since it’s needed for the entire experience.

All and all, Part 1 is a true shonen revenge story. Despite the story not exactly being groundbreaking by today’s standards, the pacing is fantastic and nothing feels rushed at all. Emotions could be felt by the characters, and the fans loved it. In terms of style, nothing is being restrained to the visual representation at all. The first arc, tragic, and exciting all in a single bound.

And so, the journey is continued in Part 2
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Phantom Blood is rated 8.5 out of 10 Lionhearts