(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)

THE MAN! There was a time where the image of a man was this big muscular guy, sometimes even going around kicking ass, beating the hell out of bad guys, and saving the day. Oh yeah. What a time that was.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is a series most anime/manga fans have heard of. Whether it be because of, "ZA WARUDO", "Yare yare daze", Thunder Cross Split attack, what have you. Or just how you just caught onto it because of how popular it was. It is one of those series that has been engraved into defining the animanga culture as we know it today. However, as I started this series. I never expected it to have a simple but great start.


Narrative:
The story is interesting because it takes a rather important historical setting, Victorian Britain as well as a great piece of film history, being old school action, you know, big strong guys fighting people. The Stallone and Schwarzenegger times. In fact, the characters were actually based on their aesthetics. In any case, the fusion between the setting and style made for an interesting story to get into. In a time when light bulbs were being made, all kinds of new things came into knowledge, especially things that didn't make sense, such as magic. Who would have guessed punching and kicking people would make its way into the story? But even so, the use of old school action being brought as the way of life for these characters fit perfectly in the story. Everything connects together like some kind of puzzle. Apparently, butt-kicking action pretty much fits in everything.

On the other hand though. Jojo Part 1's story is very simple, and although it is obvious that there will be more to add onto there is still some dissatisfaction from it nonetheless. If I could sum it up for you then about 50% of the story is just, fighting the bad guys, the other moments are either character development or the plot moving forward without there being a fight, such as meeting new characters. I hate to be that guy who oversimplifies everything and uses that as an excuse for criticism, but it really does come off like that. Some of the longest fights I have seen in a while taking place. For something with a short story as itself. It doesn't make it look particularly interesting. The fights come off as slightly cheesy too, with patronising dialogue every time a special move is about to be pulled off. To be fair, you could use that as a reason to support the fact that it only adds to the classic elements the story tries to give out. Though, cheesy things are cheesy, though I won't exactly say that that is bad. If anything, it is to be expected, this came out in the 80s and was probably the hype to shout finishers at your Mario question box of a TV back then. I wouldn't exactly call cheesy things bad, but they are cheesy regardless.

Characters are very good. Jonathan in particular is the pinnacle person of whom is affected by the story atmosphere the most. He is shown to have excelled in his studies, which relates to the Victorian professors of their time, as well as always upholding his good morals, as a gentleman of his time should do, and enforcing them as so with his muscular MAN physique. Very unprecedented, but a cool combination to put together. His development is loveable too, like most movies (for example Karate Kid) where a character starts off as weak, then goes off to gain skills/powers from the foreign ancient times in order to defeat the evil that terrorises the world. It is very basic, but it works well with his British gentlemanly behaviour. It is so odd, but it works so well. Jonathan is pretty cool, seems like the kind of person people would look up to as well due to his contribution of "the age of muscles", wouldn't be surprised if people did as well.

Dio is an interesting guy. He is a classic villain, the "I will rule the world! Muhahaha!" kinda guy. Again, very cheesy, as well as the fact that there was probably not a great deal of thought put into his detail. Everything about him is what you would expect a villain of his kind to do. Though he is probably the best character foil for Jonathan because the style enforces it as so. There isn't really a lot to go on about Dio at this point of the series. Everything he does is already stated at the beginning and with him just sending out his minions to do what he pleads, then there isn't much I can say. He is your generic classical villain, but when this was peak character for its time, I must say he does a good job at being one.

Side characters are funny in Jojo Part 1, in that, they come and go faster than anything I have seen. The only noticeable exception is Speedwagon. They come, do whatever they must, and die off like they never exist, probably because the story was so short is why it happened. But to see a character like Zeppeli come and tell Jonathan one day that, "you must defeat Dio! It is your destiny!" wails nothing but a character plot device. Though with Zeppeli, he is that sensei type character that allows for the hero to progress on to their goal. But other characters I cannot say the same, I mean look at Dire… Side characters had their flaws and it would have been better if they had some more attention to them. Otherwise, on the whole, they were decent.


Art:
The art is great. It really does a good job of sparking out the MAN in characters with incredible detail, more so Jonathan than anyone. But even so, it does a good job at highlighting what makes a character in the story themself. Jonathan the MAN, Dio the villain, Speedwagon that one dude in the corner, Zeppeli the weird sensei. The art does so much in using the correct tone for each character attribute. Not anything I haven't seen before but that is a very creative way to go around things. Not anything I have seen in the past too.


Enjoyment:
Seeing a ton of MAN action has made me want to eat some iron now. But seriously, with all its old school, classic vintages squished into one action-packed story full of expected events but executed in a decent fashion anyways, it was going to be a good read. Another thing to enjoy is the references to pieces of history and cultures the story gives, such as Tudor England queens, Jack the Ripper makes an appearance, and the ancient techniques the Asians used and have passed down all the way to current world time in the story. I knew I was going to enjoy this a lot. And I so well did.

Overall - 7.75 (8)



TLDR Review:
Story - 7: Nice combo for the Victorian era and 80s action/martial arts
Art - 9: Art brings out the best in all characters relative to their personality, greatly detailed too. Aged very well.
Character - 7: Classic attributes to characters. Jonathan is a nice mix, Dio is a good old school villain played well. Side characters can be seen as plot devices, except Speedwagon.
Enjoyment - 8: THE MAN action is on point. History and culture references are good to see from too.

Overall - 7.75 (8)



Heh. I was expecting the essence of Jojo to be in the first part, but instead, I was greeted with some old school fun. I can't say that I am disappointed, because honestly, it is probably a great way to start the series. Now I will just venture on to see where the real fun is at.