[MANGA] Manga review - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

February 15, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a recent article of “Comics Review” for the Daily Yomiuri, Tom Baker wrote, “Zombie hordes, invisible assassins, homicidal orangutans, tongue-eating scarabs, brain-burrowing mites…It often seems that nothing can get the better of Jojo and his pals, the heroes of Hirohiko Araki’s aptly titled manga series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.”"As they make their way across Asia, traveling from Jojo’s home in Japan to the lair of villain Dio in Egypt, they battle a wide array of Dio’s supernatural allies. Through it all, one phenomenon constantly does get the better of them–and it’s anything but supernatural.”

“But first, a little background. Dio has been plaguing Jojo’s family since the 1880s, when he was adopted by Jojo’s great-great-great-grandfather, English nobleman George Joestar, who mistakenly believed he owed a deep debt of gratitude to Dio’s late father. When George’s son Jonathan Joestar exposed Dio as a murderous fortune-hunter, Dio used a cursed heirloom to turn himself into a seemingly immortal vampire.”

“The original Japanese version of this manga, Jojo no Kimyo na Boken, which began running in Shonen Jump magazine in 1987, traces several generations of the fallout from that incident. It is one of the longest-running manga series ever, and Volume 1 of the English version begins with the last chapter of the Japanese version’s Volume 12.”