I dunno, I haven't written anything creative or fun in a while, since most of my energy has been focused on this game. I would love to write a story again, but I'm a bit tapped out of ideas and what not, heh. Maybe when the inspiration and energy come back, I'll do a quick one off or somethin'.

But yeah, here's just my thoughts on Jojo's. Boyfriend is a huuuuuge fan of the series and I knew very little about it, so I decided to read the manga these past couple months. I am a big fan of shonen in general, particularly series like Naruto where characters defeat each other using their brains as well as brawn, so it sounded like I'd really enjoy this series. Did I? Well...

Phantom Blood: I think Part 1 is just alright. Not amazing, not terrible. I think the reason I've heard many people call it boring is because the pacing is a little slow and the stakes never get too high, and while I do agree to some extent, I never found it that bad. I LOVE the art style, I like Johnathan and Speedwagon a lot, although I thought Dio wasn't that good of a villain. A bit hard to understand why he's basically just a giant asshole, heh. Still, having main characters periodically dying off is a super ballsy move, especially when in most Shonen many characters feels practically immortal. That alone made Part 1 engaging and interesting, as I didn't know when anyone could die. Even more impressive is how old Part 1 is!

Battle Tendency: A HUGE improvement in every way. The characters, villains, pacing, stakes, everything is vastly superior in Part 2. I love Joseph's design and personality, he's a riot and extremely entertaining, which is great for the main character. Also I may or may not have a crush on Kars because I love his hair so much shut up. Hamon was introduced in part 1 but it's used far more practically in part 2. The creativity of it's applications were far more interesting, plus I loved the little training sequence in the middle. I love training sequences shut up. A bit strange that a nazi general was a good guy, but eh, it's a Bizarre adventure, right? The ending was a tad bit outlandish, I mean Joseph absolutely 100% should have died from that fall, but other than that, as well as how the story was a bit predictable, it's still a fantastic adventure to follow along with.

Stardust Crusaders: This was supposed to be the big turning point in Jojo's, since Hamon completely falls out in favor of Stands. And while I find Stands to be an interesting power mechanic (if a bit confusing and even contradictory at times) I...don't like Part 3 that much. The battles are fun and interesting, don't get me wrong, but...I feel like that's all Part 3 has going for it. It's just battle after battle, slowly progressing towards Egypt to fight Dio. Yes, the characters are great (except Polnareff, he's a moron), but outside of kakyoin and *maybe* Iggy, no one really develops or grows as a person? It feels less like an actual overarching story and more like a cartoon akin to something like Danny Phantom, with each "episode" being entirely self contained. It's somewhat why I didn't like Season 1 of Avatar compared to the later seasons.

Diamond is Unbreakable: Part 4 is even worse! The idea to have the entire part take place in the main character's hometown is interesting, but the situations these characters go through are, well, really fitting of the Jojo's BIZARRE adventure name! Josuke riding a motorcycle to avoid a stand, having to break it to avoid hitting a child, then fixing it midair before riding off was pretty awesome, I loved it! But outside of that, the issues I had with Part 3 are made even worse. The overarching story is a bit dynamic at least, but there are many "arcs" that just feel like filler. The Italian cooking guy is literally never brought up again after they see him one. It's literally filler, or something bizarre and silly for the sake of being bizarre and silly, and doesn't feel very organic. Heck, a lot of the story feels very relaxed, which is a bit out of place considering there are literal killers hidden within the city that the main characters know about. And don't get me started on Joseph suddenly being unable to use Purple Hermit to find the killer...

Golden Wind: Huuuuge improvement! Parts 3 and 4 left me skeptical, but I LOVED part 5! Yes, it does feel a bit "villain of the week" trope, but it's done in a much more organic and natural way to go along with the plot! Yes, the plot is actually super interesting and dynamic, just like Part 2 was, except it was also much less predictable (well, I had a hunch the boss was gonna be the big bad, I just wasn't sure how it was going to be presented). It was very, very enjoyable still, and I really like the main crew and their abilities (even if Purple Haze is only used once lol). My biggest complain is actually the main Jojo himself. Giorno is just...really boring. I genuinely don't know what his personality trait is. That he loves life? After he kills Doppio, he becomes very uninteresting, especially since he's always coming out on top, he's always figuring out the best strategies, etc. I thought Bucciarati was much more interesting.

Stone Ocean: I stopped reading about halfway through here. I really wanted to like Stone Ocean. I thought the setting and premise were really interesting, and I felt bad for Jolyne's situation and wanted to see her overcome it. But just...the sheer amount of body horror stuff Jojo's has started introducing made me want to stop reading. It's always been a feature in Jojo's, but I mean quite literally every fight is just...disgusting. Even Jolyne's stand is a little cringe inducing, the ability to turn herself into string. With her fighting a dude by ripping his toenail off, all the way up the foot, followed by several people having trees growing inside them until they explode WHILE THEY ARE STILL ALIVE was just...too much. It's just disgusting and makes me want to not read any more.

This was fun <3