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Rating: << DIOOO! I'll make you cry like a baby! >>
First published in the shōnen Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine and later in seinen Ultra Jump, "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" is a manga written and illustrated by Hiroiko Araki. The work is divided into 8 distinct parts (the last concluded in 2021) and traces the extraordinary and absurd adventures of the Joestar Family, dealing with vampires, demonic creatures, paranormal powers (called Stand, which are spirit manifestations that grant peculiar powers to their holders), and dangerous serial killers. Above all, the nemesis of the Joestars, the ultimate villain, Dio Brando, a charismatic century-old vampire whose stand, The World, can stop time for 9 seconds.
Therefore, it's a true epic that knows no temporal or geographical boundaries: from the gloomy atmospheres of a Gothic London in the late 1800s to the cheerful (and fictional) town of Morio-Cho, passing through the South American coasts of the early 1900s and the night-time charm of Cairo, Araki adopts the entire world as the tapestry on which to weave these bizarre tales, even going so far as to rewrite history itself (the antagonist of the seventh series, Steel Ball Run, is none other than the twenty-third president of the United States, with his mad stand D4C, capable of floating among infinite parallel realities) and scribble as he pleases with quantum physics (terrible is the power of Enrico Pucci, the villain of the sixth part whose stand, Made In Heaven, can accelerate the flow of time to the end of the universe).
A rich and varied fauna populates the intriguing mythology of this work that, powered by a mighty dynamism, constantly jumps between various genres, from horror to western, from Thriller to Gangster-Movie, adopting significant style changes in the artwork, which from the Hellenic plasticism of the first three parts, with statuesque and imposing bodies (a fundamental inspiration, according to the author, was Renaissance works) shifts to an eager gender-fluid taste, with characters exhibiting more feminine features. Added to this is a varied and kaleidoscopic pop-folkloric imagery that unleashes in an excessive use of acrobatic citations, touching fashion (an eye for the clothing of his characters, mind you), music (stands are named after rock albums and bands), films, and books (the third series will be a sort of adaptation of "Around the World in 80 Days").
The essence of the journey, the centrality of the family core, the inescapability of destiny, and the obsession with time are the pillars of this multi-generational epic, which still seems far from its epilogue (the release of the ninth series is scheduled for February 17, 2023).
In short, an exciting and exhilarating saga that still manages to captivate millions of fans with its crazy insights. Suspend any form of rational logic and approach it with the curiosity of a child: only then will you be able to enjoy it to the fullest.
<< Impossible? We've done many impossible things on this journey. I'm tired of hearing that things are impossible or useless. Those words mean nothing to us! >>
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