Jojo Bizarre adventure : Stardust Crusuader

For what should be measured, a manga today? For what it actually manages to give me now, for what it has offered in the past, for its encyclopedic value, for all these things together, or more?
It 'really unfair not to estimate the age of a work, but it is equally unfair to give the merits only because it has the bonus of coming first.














No one, for example never deny the contribution that Hirohiko Araki has given the world of manga with its Jojo, safe source of inspiration for many modern authors, the fact is that reading now Stardust Crusader come out all the limitations of a work single-issue, poor content and extremely rough, still far from the enthusiastic comments that you read a bit 'everywhere, who know a lot of lifetime achievement award more than the actual objective or subjective judgments that they are.
The main problem of this third series of Jojo is sacrificing any aspect of what may be the story of a manga, focusing solely on the fighting.
It does so very heavy, too heavy, no ifs, ands or buts: the entire manga seem actually a fighting game on paper, with fast-paced battles one after another, waiting to get to the "final boss", as tradition of old arcade cabinets.
And there's really nothing, because the characters seem precisely those of a fighting game, and as such are characterized (very well) only outwardly, but are little more than mannequins at the mercy of the fighting, and in the course of the volumes will not have one growth rag psychology but even reflection or character depth
The plot then a paucity disarming and is based on going from point A to point B in order to defeat the final boss magically risen compared to what we had learned in the first set, with half a whole series of henchmen disposable arriving and die within a maximum of two volumes.
Really exaggerated, in my humble way of seeing.

 




All this, we said, is to give carte blanche to the development of the fighting, and of course these are at least equal to the situation: at the time probably were like a bolt from the blue in the shonen manga world, as revolted as a sock everything in that area had seen so far.
It has in fact a mixture of technicalities, supernatural powers that do not necessarily rely on brute force but which often are based on the strategy, twists in the clash management and situations on the limit that can surely be of a certain appeal.
But personally I am not a lover of the fights, I like but only if it is running at a nobler motivation behind the physical confrontation only when there is also an ideological clash, and then they are willing to endure even entire volumes of blows, but so no, frankly, after a while 'I lose patience.
Here then the whole is sealed by what I call "enemy disposable": the face of the character characterization concept here, as already mentionedc the protagonist  face one by one seamless whole series of "specks" arriving, make 3 lines, a pair of provocations and then die in an often indecent.

And here's just another thing that I did not like: here the protagonist acquires a power in the first chapter and masterfully learns to use immediately, as if he were a veteran, there is no growth even from this point of view, and this for as for me and is a mandatory step in any battle shonen-respecting.






Graphically, however Araki can distinguish himself, and if in the first 2 parts  his design is very son of the standards, with simple big man full of muscles, here are beginning to be noticed strongly all the hallmarks of the style that made him famous , poised between the dirt, coarse and kitsch, and with great attention to the chara design and stylish clothing of various characters.
Even the stretch becomes more secure, as well as the proportions, and at least from this point of view   Stardust Crusaders represent the final maturation.
In conclusion, I find it hard to evaluate this work: it is true that Araki was the first to introduce some respects, but it is also true that those same issues are now part of the 90% of modern shonen, and therefore in the eyes of a reader today everything will be just as usual, far from the astonishment that caused the time of its serialization.
It should also be noted that in twenty years of shonen manga, the same stolen content to Araki have been enriched over time and context in modern manga and less crude, which maybe in addition to fighting manage to insert other aspects and make the manga of less monothematic what it is today Stardust Crusaders.
But I would not want my judgment to be interpreted as a criticism of the 80's manga , because it is not the point: I find for example that Kenshiro is the perfect example of a manga that, despite many years behind it and while still taking behind a now outdated style, still  manages to be more complete than Stardust Crusader, simply because it offers a product  based on the fighting, but also of dramatic situations, of mature content, to rich characters and partly also on the feelings.







The very first series of Jojo, even with its minimalism and its simplicity, is a manga that tries to develop more fully and which seeks above all to tell a story.
When I heard say that the third series of Jojo was absolutely the best, as well as a milestone in the history of manga, so it seemed reasonable to expect a completeness and maturity of content that instead I have not found, all in favor of fighting , albeit made of originality, however, they leave no room for criticism.

Ultimately, perhaps my experience with this manga has been ruined by too high expectations that I had( cuz people says so), because of a criticism that is this manga with too much reverence and with the usual abused motto of "it was better when it was worse."
Do however sufficiency, because after all it would be unfair not to also do so only for what is Jojo, but I can not quite frankly  go further.

Jojo bizarre adventure - Battle Tendency

New saga. New generation. New Jojo.

 


I found it much more exciting than the first, and I must say that the quality has risen, especially in designs that improve and begin to remember Ken the Warrior always less, volume after volume. The setting goes from England to America in the nineteenth-twentieth century, even taking us in Mexico, Italy and Switzerland. Hirohiko Araki mix reality and fiction, causing the historical setting has not only the role of background but actively participate in the plot, the reconstruction I thought that was good, and it is ironic that it is a Japanese author to having to remember the Italian values, doing Zeppeli say:

"For us Italians, the family is a sacred well. we are proud of and we are continuing what our parents started ..."

 The only thing I wonder is: possible that Mexicans, Americans, Italians and Germans speak to each other without any problems?
 Will that even the most ignorant of the characters knew English.

 
The protagonist of this new adventure is bizarre joestar Joseph, grandson of the first JoJo and definitely more impetuous and boastful compared to their ancestors; the generation of this JoJo, able to control the concentric waves to natural predisposition, has more than the fighters seen previously, and this characteristic represents the true evolution of "Battle Tendency" compared to "Phantom Blood", that is, the strategy: each duel that involves the hero will never be free to fulfill the scene and real stroke of genius by JoJo, a master at exploiting the battlefield and the objects that surround him, finding in this an appropriate way to keep head at enemies far more experienced and powerful than he, sometimes managing to save the day.


 
The style of Araki also undergo a major change; adjacent tables of this manga seem to form a narrative continuum, penetrate each other, giving the scene an often fundamental dynamism for excellent performance of the fighting. The design now becomes more proportionate: disappear the blunders in the perspective of the faces and while retaining the characteristic features of the first JoJo, for the pomp and apparel eccentricity, giving the characters, JoJo, and Caesar in particular, an air of 'dandy-fighters'.


 
If we add the poses, other novelties that will mark the entire series of Araki, the characters take in pronouncing almost every sentence, whether it is a terse ultimatum or a common phrase, the mix that comes out is something truly "remarkable". Even the characters have evolved with respect to the first set, where there was a clear opposition between 'good' and 'evil'. But here the protagonist does not always show a hero's character, typical instead of Jonathan, but it demonstrates sometimes arrogant, bully, prone to violence and anger, more interested in the women who in the training, and on the other hand, his aide Caesar Zeppeli, far from a model of virtue and moral rectitude of his grandfather, is quite a "Don Giovanni "and seducer.





 In this second series we will find a greater number of main characters, first Joseph, who is the exact opposite of his grandfather Jonathan, a Victorian hero by strong feelings, being more cocky, reckless, pragmatic and much stronger since the beginning of the manga . Caesar Zeppeli plays its role well shoulder also emerging in many situations, however, they are less convincing and Lisa Lisa Von Stroheim. However, the defect of the second series is the antagonist Kars. Araki in the forced research of something epic,has greatly neglected the psychological characterization of the antagonist, an element that had made great Dio Brando in Phantom Blood. In short, I can not find adjectives to describe Kars, if not anonymous. To say it all his aides, and especially Eisidisi and Whamoo are characterized and managed much better, because the reader can feel their motives and their ethics. the stretch of Araki is arguably less discontinuous than in "Phantom Blood", but otherwise nothing changes: the tables are always rough and sometimes difficult to understand, while the figures are disproportionate, anatomically unconvincing and far over the top as far as the outfits (again, welcome in the eighties!).



 However, you can forgive this and more because of their incredible eloquence, and the personal tastes of each. The biggest flaw is probably the final work. Too forced, for as I see it. By this I mean both the final battle (probably the author had created a too strong opponent and had to use the media exaggerated and not credible to drop it)