Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Arc 4 by Hirohiko Araki

Synopsis: Josuke Higashikata is a very cool dude, he is nice and quite popular at school, unless you make the big mistake of dissing his hair, that would get you beaten up and then healed almost at the same time. That is his stand ability; Crazy Dimond. It can kill you or heal you, destroy walls only to reconstruct them at different places. What he doesn’t know is that some one is increasing the numbers of stand users in his native town, each one more dangerous than the one that came before him. Now Josuke must stop this rapidly growing wave of stand users with evil goals, or his town will be corrupt for ever.

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At first Arc 4 can be a little deceiving. You think one thing and it ends up being a different thing, this is works for most of the fights, all of them, and the plot. I say the plot, because Arc 4 can be divided into two major stories, the rest are either filler or transitional chapters, if not volumes. The good thing is that both major stories are interesting, entertaining although you won’t be loosing sleeping hours because of them. If you are a fan of Hirohiko Araki’s action and art you will surely love this one too, and if you liked the previous arcs you won’t be disappointed with this one.

Unless you find some of the characters annoying and even sometimes useless. And if you hope to see a bad ass taking the lead role, well, consider yourselves warned that Josuke isn’t the bad ass that Jotaro was in Arc 3. In fact even thought Jotaro appears quite a lot in this arc his role is not as important or significant as that of Josuke. Hirohiko Araki following his tradition of inspiring character designs gives us a further taste of his inking and drawing skills that transport us to a world where everything is possible. It is as if he made a list of all the cool powers every human could have and decided to give one power from the list to all of his characters, people that can make bombs, or super sensitive smell, or healing, or freezing your opponent, or reading a person like a book, and all of them fitting their personalities. That is one of the great things about the Jojo saga, the abilities match the personalities making them quite believable, even if the powers are, for lack of a better word, bizarre.

But, you shouldn’t read Arc 4 if you didn’t like Arc 3 or if you haven’t read Arc 3. If you didn’t like Arc 3 you can avoid this one as they are quite similar in terms of characters, although, I preferred the characters in Arc 3 than in Arc 4 and if you haven’t read Arc 3, you will be thrown off your feet with the spoilers it gives since it is considering you have read it. If you have read Arc 3 and like it, then go ahead and read Arc 4 by all means. It is quite entertaining and will offer quite a bit of thrills, specially the second major story.

My real problem with Arc 4, is the ending, it did leave quite a bit number of question unanswered, leaving it to the readers interpretation, which can be good and can be bad. It is good because it gives a chance for further story lines to merge together giving it coherence to the whole saga, as thin and delicate as it may be. But giving the fact that the saga and Hirohiko Araki aren’t very well known for their coherence it might be a handicap in the future. Either way, I don’t see why you shouldn’t pick this one up, except for the reasons mentioned above, give it a try, it won’t disappoint.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Arc 3 by Hirohiko Araki

Hirohiko Araki
Synopsis: Kujo Jotaro is a high school student that has never meant anyone any harm. But recently Kujo is experiencing some changes, besides the normal ones for a teenager. He is seeing a ghost attached to his back that he can control, but little does he know that his ghost is actually a Stand, a powerful psychic ability that can only be defeated by other Stands. Worried by his grandson Joseph Joestar convinces him that this power is a legacy of the Joestar family and that with the power to control a Stand comes a curse. A curse that Johnathan Joestar, Kujo’s great-great-grandfather, fought and that needs to be stopped once again: Dio Brando.

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After reading the first few volumes of Arc 3 you find yourself thinking that the manga is going great and it keeps going great to the very end. And that is a problem. You see, when things don’t have a climax there is no real tension building up, there is no anticipation or excitement, it is just going great and even when it will remain so to the very end, it is just disappointing to have read all of the 16 volumes to have a very uninteresting ending.

This can be easily attributed to the inexistent personality of Kujo Jotaro. I found many of the supporting characters far more interesting than him and to make things worse, with much more development. In fact, the little personality he had frustrated me, he had this bad boy attitude that doesn’t hold up, simply because you know so little about him.

I guess that the only thing about Kujo Jotaro I actually like is his design. Although one of the simplest by Hirohiko Araki, it is surely one of the best, and probably for the same reason too. But then again, he isn’t the best design of the series, most of the best designs are found in the Stands, that have a higher level of relevance for the plot than the average psychic powers in psychic manga. But while all the Stands designs are creative and detailed, I can’t say the same off all the fights. Some are excellent and very innovative, there are a few ones that are just plain stupid and pointless too, making the manga drag a few more volumes than necessary.

But then again, the plot is great and the important fights are well paced and detailed, making the experience quite more enjoyable, and considering that this is an action manga, it does its job well enough to be worth it. I just wish it had a more appealing primary character, but don’t let that stop you, Arc 3 is a great follow up to the previous ones, although not as exciting.

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.