Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33550676-20171103005210/@comment-28139390-20171108035549

Depends in what kind of similarity you're looking for.

The rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy (Rise, Dawn and War) has long periods of time pass in between movies, showing certain characters years older than they were in the previous film, with the first even showing a main character go from a young child to a strong adult (little similarity to how the first part of JoJo shows the main character grow from a boy to a man). Each movie tells a different story, with a new setting and new characters, but still continue off of events and themes from the previous ones (like Straitzo returning in Part 2, and themes of justice). It also has its funny moments as well as moments that will likely make you cry.

On the other hand, an anime that can be compared to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Gintama. They are nothing alike in plot and Gintama is one long (and very different) story, rather than numerous different stories, but it's got a similar structure to Diamond is Unbreakable, in the way that it spends many episodes being (often comedic) slice of life stories, getting you very close to the characters, before suddenly bringing the story back in certain episodes, and because you're attached to the (huge cast of) characters, the stakes feel a lot higher.

Gintama, even more than JoJo, explores every genre you could imagine. JoJo can go from a tragedy to a comedy, and eventually turn into a western and then a mystery. Gintama can similarly go from a comedy to a drama to an action to a tragedy. One episode will be about visiting an old acquaintance's funeral, and then right after it there's an arc that includes an idiot terrorist and his friends in a Gundam, fighting Dark Vader. So, like you can expect to laugh at Josuke attempting to cheat in gambling to get some money of Rohan, only to cry later when our favourite character dies, you can expect to laugh about the main character trying to reacheive his stolen penis, you can expect to cry when we see our favourite homeless guy make a selfless act.

As for the length, don't worry. If you catch up you'll think that it felt so short.

That being said, there isn't any series truly similar to JoJo, the same way there's no series that can be compared to Gintama. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has a buff man attacking one of the most powerful lifeforms with bubbles, fashionable mafia teenagers and men fighting with powers named after bands like Aerosmith and Spice Girl, and a paraplegic searching for the corpse parts of a holy figure, and yet the story is still able to manage to hit the audience in the feels thanks to its characters.

The two series I recommended are nothing alike in story or style, but they do have these little similarities, so hopefully you enjoy them.