JoJo's Bizarre Adventure



JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険) (often shortened to JoJo) is a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, and the main subject of this wikia project.

Profile
JoJo was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2004. In 2004, during the run of its seventh installment, it transferred to the monthly seinen magazine Ultra Jump, where the current story continues. The series has sold over 80 million copies in Japan, and is one of the overall best-selling Weekly Shonen Jump series. Numbering over 100 volumes (for a total of ~20,000 pages); it holds the record for Shueisha's second longest-running manga series. English publication of the earlier parts of the series is ongoing.

JoJo's genre spans Action, Adventure, Supernatural, Thriller/Suspense, Comedy, Mystery and Horror. It is perhaps most popularly known for its Stand phenomenon; the Stardust Crusaders arc and its characters and Dio and Jotaro Kujo; the expressive rendition of its proud, glamorous personalities; and its hundreds of nominal references to Western popular music.

Adding to the JoJo canon to varying degrees; Araki has authored several spin-offs and related artbooks; and several light novels have also been produced, all containing his illustrations.

JoJo is the longest Shueisha manga series not to have recieved an animated adaptation for television. However, the official TV anime finally made its debut on October 6, 2012 (separating the manga and anime debuts by twenty-five years); designed by animation studio David Production.

Its range of other merchandise includes several adaptations in video games, including two fighting games of international release; Heritage for the Future by Capcom (on the CPS-3 board), and All Star Battle by Bandai Namco Games for the PS3.

Guide

 * List of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure chapters
 * Episode Guide

Summary
The story in JoJo is divided between two universes; the first detailed in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2004; and the second primarily in seinen magazine Ultra Jump, from 2004 to the present.

The first begins with Part I: Phantom Blood; featuring the fraught and bloody relationship between usurper Dio Brando and hero Jonathan Joestar. Attrition between Jonathan's descendants (each identifiable as "JoJo") and their allies and Dio's followers characterizes a broad continuity to this series: In Part II, Jonathan's grandson Joseph combats the Pillar Men, creators of the Stone Mask which granted Dio his Vampiric powers; in Part III, Joseph's grandson Jotaro combats Dio's army of Stand users before Dio himself; in Part IV, Joseph's son Josuke faces a host of new Stand users in his community in Morioh, Japan; in Part V, Dio's son Giorno fights for his position atop the mafia hierarchy in Italy; and in Part VI, Jotaro's daughter Jolyne battles Enrico Pucci, Dio's acolyte.

The second universe begins with Part VII: Steel Ball Run; featuring many references to events in the former series. Set in 1890, SBR focuses on the fierce competition between dual protagonists Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar and various other agents for the acquisition of an invaluable, world-sustaining mystical object, under cover of the epic North American Steel Ball Run race. Leaping to the present day in Part VIII: JoJolion, secret implications to this history are investigated along with the mystery of the protagonist's ultimate identity and the paranormal circumstances surrounding his adoptive hometown.

Chapters and arcs in JoJo are diverse in tone, contributing to a span of genres including Action, Adventure, Comedy, Thriller, Mystery, Horror and Supernatural fiction. The thrust of the plot is met by precarious, melodramatic interactions between individuals defined by supernatural power and conflicting ambitions, attitudes or moral standards, along with a race among the emergent heroes of a given arc to intercept a powerful central antagonist. The signature mechanic of the series is provided in the first two episodes by the Ripple, wielded in the trained human body and transferred in hand-to-hand combat; and the supernatural, increasingly abstract Stand power thereafter. Recurrent subjects in the text of the manga may be condensed under themes of Fate, Fortunity, Justice and Redemption. Hirohiko Araki, asked in 2006 to summarize JoJo in a phrase, answered "the enigma of human beings".

Many references to modern film, television, fashion, popular music and fine art are readily identifiable throughout JoJo in many settings and the characterization and nomenclature of the cast. Examples of physical, mathematical and psychological theory, biology, technology, mythology, natural phenomena, historic events, and segments of other artistic work inform the design and functionality of JoJo 's multitude of unique Stands. The series occasionally makes fanciful developments upon contemporary scientific theory in creation of the routes by which certain Stands and other powers exert an influence on nature.

Morioh, fictional Japanese town and base of Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable and as a distinct incarnation in the ongoing Part VIII: JoJolion shares its geographic coordinates with Hirohiko Araki's hometown, Sendai, taking a more culturally detailed description and referencing more contemporary topics (such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake) than other settings. Stand-wielding mangaka Rohan Kishibe, a resident of Morioh introduced in Diamond is Unbreakable, returns as guide in a number of JoJo spin-offs.

Publication
Chapters are serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump and Ultra Jump, under Shueisha.

For Part III: Stardust Crusaders, there exists an English translation and publication in volumes by VIZ Media (Shueisha). Part I: Phantom Blood and Part II: Battle Tendency are also to be published by VIZ Media, from September 2014 for Part I, and March 2015 for Part II.

In Italy, the entire series is translated and published in volumes by Star Comics (Italy).

In France, the first four parts were published by J'ai lu and the rest is published by Tonkam since 2007.

Trivia

 * List of cultural references in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
 * List of cultural influences of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
 * JoJo 's Influence on Internet Culture
 * The 25th year of  JoJo' s continuous publication is commemorated in part by a booklet titled 25 Years With JoJo, featuring fan art by mangakas including Eiichiro Oda, Akira Toriyama and Osamu Akimoto.