Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Arc 2 by Hirohiko Araki

Synopsis: It is 1937 and Joseph Joestar is Jonathan Joestar’s grandson and as such he inherited his power to use the Ripple. But that is not all that Joseph inherited, he also inherited the curse of the Joestar Family that started 50 years into the past, when Dio Brando became a Vampire thanks to the Stone Mask. Now a recent discovery by Mr. Speedwagon will reveal that there are more Stone Masks in the world and that their creators are even stronger than Vampires, and now these creatures have recently been awaken. Now Joseph Joestar (Jojo) must overcome his curse as a Joestar and defeat these new and more powerful enemies.

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This is my favorite Jojo Arc that I have read (only the first 3). I am easily attracted toward violent and weird stories, and Jojo Arc 2 delivers both of them perfectly. Not only are the fighting scenes extremely violent, but they are weird themselves, along with the plot of the story. Plus this new Jojo packs a lot of wit, making not only all the fights unpredictable but insanely fun. He is also my favorite Jojo so far, even when the most popular one is Kujo Jotaro from Arc 3 because he is bad ass. You see this Jojo in particular is much more charismatic and three dimensional than the Jojo’s from Arc 1 and Arc 3, making him a whole lot more human and realistic, even in this entirely unrealistic story.

The art isn’t a lot more different from the previous arc. If anything it improved in two main areas making it a lot more enjoyable and pleasant. More enjoyable because the character design is much more complex, there is no spot that is overlooked by Hirohiko Araki when it comes to character design making it more enjoyable and, at the same time, more pleasant, because now all the bodies and extremities of the characters do keep a sense of proportion, so now instead of having arms as thick as a tree, their arms look more natural.

It is normal to overlook a few rough spots in the art, but these are easily detected on scenes that require lot of attention to deduct what is going on caused by a severe lack of detail, making the action scenes a bit confusing at times. Besides this, the only other problem I experienced while read Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Arc 2 was that the dialogs got tiresome at times, even Jojo’s. It was kind of boring to see the same trick and same lines be used over and over again.

As the difficult issues aren’t really something that prevents you from enjoying this great action manga, I can easily recommend it to anyone, even if you haven’t read the Arc before this one. Funny characters, awesome fighting sequences and great art all around a plot that only seems to get thicker and thicker overall with twists and turns every other chapter, I can only say that if you are not reading this, you are missing on the good stuff.