JoJo's Bizarre Adventure



JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken), often shortened to JoJo, is a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, and the main subject of this wikia project.

Profile
JoJo holds the record for second longest-running manga series in shonen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, starting in 1987 and lasting til 2004; having changed to seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump in 2005 during the run of its seventh instalment. In May 2011, Ultra Jump published the first chapter of the current story, Part VIII: JoJolion. The series currently numbers over 100 volumes.

Its genre spans Action, Adventure, Supernatural and Thriller/Suspense; and in lesser proportion, Comedy, Mystery and Horror. It is perhaps most popularly known for its Stand phenomenon, the characters Jotaro Kujo and Dio Brando; its proud, glamorous personalities, and its hundreds of nominal references to Western popular music.

It was the longest manga not to have a TV adaptation (although there were two OVA adaptations), until the official TV anime made its debut on October 6, 2012; by David Production. Its range of mechandise 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. Detailed between 1987 and 2003, the first of these begins with Part I: Phantom Blood; featuring the tragic and bloody relationship between villain Dio Brando and hero Jonathan Joestar. Attrition between Jonathan's descendants (each identifiable as "JoJo") and their allies and Dio's subjects and followers characterizes a broad continuity to this series, which between 1880 and 2012 visits locales in England, the U.S., Italy and Japan.

Detailed from 2004 to the present, the second universe begins in analogous terms with Part VII: Steel Ball Run. Set in 1890, SBR focuses on the fierce competition between dual protagonists Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar and the agents of a proprietorial U.S. administration for the acquisition of an invaluable mystical object, under cover of the epic North American Steel Ball Run race. Leaping to the present day in Part VIII: JoJolion, obscure implications to this history are explored in increments along with the mystery of the protagonist's ultimate identity and the paranormal circumstances surrounding his adoptive hometown.

Arcs as well as chapters 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 competing 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 the supernatural 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 summarise JoJo, 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 background and nomenclature of the cast. Examples of physical, mathematical and psychological theory, biology, technology, myths, natural phenomena, historic events, and segments of other artistic work inspire and inform the design and functions 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 tends to take a more culturally detailed description and both reference and serve more contemporary topics (such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake) than settings in other episodes of JoJo, and shares its rough geographic coordinates with Hirohiko Araki's hometown, Sendai. Stand-wielding mangaka Rohan Kishibe, a resident of Morioh introduced in Diamond is Unbreakable and guide in a number of JoJo spin-offs, stands as a mild, parodical self-insert.

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; also owned by Shueisha.

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

Trivia

 * The titles of each Part reflect strongly on their stories.
 * Phantom Blood: The encounter between Jonathan and Dio generates a dark legacy wherein descendants of the Joestar family must fight against Dio again, and many individuals connected with him.
 * Battle Tendency: A climate of strife pervades the setting of Joseph's journey in his zero-sum battle against brutal police, gangsters, Nazis, Vampires, the apex predators of the Pillar Men, and the newly ultimate being, Kars.
 * Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro's group possess Stands named after cards in the Tarot's Major Arcana; a system purported to advise man by the authority of the stars. Their voyage from Japan to Egypt represents a journey vaguely comparable to that of the crusaders; medieval knights who journeyed to war in the Muslim world; although more innocently, Jotaro journeys to save his mother, Holy Joestar-Kujo.
 * Diamond is Unbreakable: Diamond is the hardest of any bulk material, whilst Josuke's strong, versatile Stand Crazy Diamond may anyway restore, heal, reconstruct, and remake things. Josuke's virtuous spirit and those of his allies shine and resist in a world of wide moral shade.
 * Golden Wind: Giorno's Gold Experience can give life to any object. In Genesis, "God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life". Giorno's righteous beliefs, actions and words shift Buccellati and his group to a way brave enough to overthrow the diabolical, death-dealing status quo managed by the mafia.
 * Stone Ocean: Made victim to a historic conspiracy; in prison, immersed in a rigid, metric world of masonry and absolute law, Jolyne fights and adapts to protect a plan to find life, hope and self-determination in a free and organic world.
 * Steel Ball Run: The Steel Ball Run race titles the mad, money-driven dash across the United States facilitating the journey of the story's central characters. Coincidentally, Gyro's weapon of choice is the Steel Ball, which channels the universal force of the Spin. It is also partly a reference to the film The Cannonball Run; also characterized by an American cross-country race of eccentrics.
 * JoJolion: According to a note by Araki in Vol. 2, the -lion is derived from the Ancient Greek εὐαγγέλιον (evangelion), in reference to the Gospel/s. "By combining this word with "JoJo", I've meant for the title to signify the existence of the protagonist "Josuke" in this world".