DISCLAIMER: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a currently ongoing series with (at the moment of writing), 7 complete parts and one ongoing one. It's important to first make the distinction that this is NOT one ongoing story split into parts, but rather 8 stories in the same universe following the Joestar bloodline, that share similar elements, plot points, and even motivations in some cases.
Due to that, this and my other JoJo reviews will follow an unique JoJo rating system, since in my opinion it cannot be easily compared to other manga, done in a beginner-friendly way so as to illustrate whether or not it is worth it to get invested in the series, and how it compares to other parts of it.
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Being a rather short manga, it has a concise story that doesn't overstay its welcome and is perfectly summed up in the synopsis of it. Dio Brando is a rather complex character in this part, and seeing his desperation as he tries to become unstoppable is wholly enjoyable, even if the plot itself isn't anything new.


Phantom Blood deals with Ripple/Hamon, a technique which draws upon perfect breathing to imbue the user with a hell of a lot of supernatural energy that "ripples" across their body. This is the core of Phantom Blood's fighting and it's basically yoga-powered fist fights. Enjoyable, not very original, and definitely not used to its full extent.

Phantom Blood isn't too crazy, unlike later parts. If you can accept the Ripple as being a legit power, you can accept almost anything this manga throws at you. There are a few crazy moments that might have you questioning "how did that even happen?", but for those you just have to enjoy the spectacle and try to not think too hard.

Now the art, it's not very good. It takes inspiration from Fist of the North Star but the anatomy is all off, and some panels require a few extra moments to really understand what's going on. That said, it's still very iconic despite all that.


The protagonist, Jonathan Joestar, is the most standard shonen protagonist you could think of. He's a goody two-shoes with a love interest that gets betrayed and still forgives them and just wants to stop them and have them be fairly judged for their wrongdoings.

Compared to him, our antagonist, Dio Brando is just about the best character in the manga. You feel for him during his backstory, and just as you are about to warm up to him (like Jonathan), he does unspeakable things that make it really clear that he is the villain, and that he's a hell of a charismatic one at that. It's no surprise he is one of Shonen's most popular villains of all time.



Overall it's one of the craziest shonen works out there, featuring superpowered men fighting superpowered vampires and zombie-vampires in a desperate attempt to stop one of the most charismatic villains from winning over the world. For a five-volume manga, it's also surprisingly deep with its themes although you'll have to dive a bit deeper to get the most out of it.

I have it rated as a 5 simply because there are other works that did these concepts and characters better, but seeing as it is very short to read, it's at least worth a try, which you can do in a lazy afternoon.