JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the shonen and seinen classics when it comes to anime and a changing point for the anime industry. There are a lot of changes that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure brought with it to the anime world. The anime stays true to its title in almost every aspect as it indeed is a bizarre adventure not just for JoJo(s) but for the audience too. It follows the story of various protagonists with the abbreviated name JoJo belonging to the Joestar family, showcasing a different JoJo for every different part of the anime franchise. JoJo(s) face adventures equivalent to a roller-coaster ride with over-the-top and sinister antagonists. As of now, the JoJo anime franchise has five seasons (six parts) released with the latest part being Stone Ocean which still has fourteen final episodes left to be released the next month.
Hirohiko Araki, the mangaka of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure announced the anime adaptation of the manga during its 25th anniversary in July 2012. David Production was the studio that animated the series. The manga has had three anime adaptations over the years. The first was an Original Video Animation (OVA) series with 13 episodes animated by A.P.P.P studio that ran from 1993 to 1994. The second was a feature film adaptation of the phantom blood arc also produced by A.P.P.P studio that was released in 2007. The third one is the anime series that is still going on.
Pop Culture References
The more recent anime series are filled with pop culture references and music, entertainment, literature, and art (MELA) references. Such aspects turn the art of anime richer in terms of artistic value and make it fun to watch too. This trend can be seen in the latest anime series like Chainsaw Man, etc. However, It was JoJo's Bizarre Adventures that introduced this popular trend in the anime world. This series is a pop-cultural reference fiesta. Hirohiko is a big-time nerd, a movie buff, and a western music enthusiast, all these personality traits of his are reflected in JoJo's bizarre adventure. He has filled almost every part of the manga with several interesting and fun pop culture references. There aren't many manga and anime with antagonists who have powers named after music bands. Yoshikage Kira, the main antagonist of the fourth part of the JoJo franchise, has a superpower (stand) named Killer Queen based on the name of a hit song by the British rock band, Queen.
With a strong reference game, the JoJo franchise goes on to the extent that it also has sneaky and fun references to many anime series as well. The design of the stand of Akira Otoishi, a deuteragonist in the fourth part of JoJo, is a mix between a dinosaur and Dragon Ball Z's villain Frieza. His stand's name is Red Hot Chili Pepper named after an American Rock Band. Besides this, JoJo has references from numerous other anime/manga series like Astro Boy, Perman, Ashita No Joe, etc. Araki has stated that the character of Jotaro is inspired by the Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood. There are a huge number of other pop culture references in all the parts of the JoJo franchise that make it even more interesting for the anime audience and pop culture enthusiasts in general.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has had a huge influence on internet culture. It started numerous meme trends like 'Is this a JoJo reference meme', 'Kakyoin memes', etc. There are a lot of fan-made adaptations of the JoJo franchise. Multiple games based on the series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, etc. have been released in the past years.
Flamboyancy
Characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are the definition of style and drip. Fashion is a core part of the JoJo franchise. Araki's design for the characters in the franchise is loved by fans and even several fashion designers. His art style extracts inspiration from the fusion of color manipulation of Paul Gauguin, Western pop culture, and fashion. The characters are flashy and wear vibrant colors. Bruno Bucciarati, a deuteragonist from the Golden Wind part of the JoJo franchise featured on the cover of Shueisha's UOMO magazine wearing Balenciaga's FW18 runway collection. To summarize, JoJo characters are style and fashion icons of the anime world.
Movies, shows, and even anime with over-the-top characters and flimsy storylines are often criticized for overdoing things, but it is the same thing from which JoJo's Bizarre Adventure derives its strength. The flimsy characters in the series are its core element. It cannot be imagined without the flashy, and flamboyant characters.
Art Style
What separates Araki from his contemporaries is his art style which is flexible like the arcs in his manga. During the initial days, Araki's art style was way different from what it is now. This is also the reason why the characters in the initial parts of JoJo look strikingly different from the characters in the later parts of the series. For instance, Araki was inspired by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone hence, the earlier characters like Jonathan Joestar and Joseph Joestar are quite buffed up. The later characters like Giorno Giovanna and Jolyne Cujoh are lean and not built like bodybuilders.
Araki has kept things flexible be it the story of his manga or his art style which gives him the liberty to explore several art zones and experiment with varying art methods. Even the fan base of the JoJo franchise is accepting and has commended Araki for expressing his art the way he wants to. His art style has evolved and gotten more refined with the release of newer parts. It's his newer art style characters that are getting more popular because of their character designs.
Continuous Story
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is bizarre for all the good reasons including its way of proceeding with the story. In the manga and anime, the story starts with Jonathan Joestar, the first JoJo, and it continues with another JoJo taking up the mantle of the protagonist of the next part. The story of manga continues this way. Had it not been for Araki's creative and engaging writing, the continuing plot of JoJo would have been a boring old tale. This structure of storytelling developed by Araki is highly efficient and complements JoJo's overall length and story style quite well.
Theme Songs
Anime theme songs work as icing on the cake and a good theme song helps in creating the hype for an anime series. It fills the viewers with excitement regarding the series. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has had multiple theme songs with every new part and each one bangs harder than the previous one. Not a single one of these theme songs is bad or mediocre, all of them fit so well with the parts they are made for. The theme songs for the five parts of the franchise have been composed by incredible artists like Hiroaki "TOMMY" Tominaga, Coda, Jin Hashimoto, THE DU, Daisuke Hasegawa, and Ichigo. The JoJo theme songs can be found in most of the top 10 anime theme song lists on the internet.
Fighting Sequences
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has got some of the best fight sequences in the anime universe. The credit for these brilliant fight sequences goes to the concepts of Hamon and Stands developed by Araki. The power abilities in the series revolve around the use of Hamon in the earlier parts and the use of Stands in the later parts. Fights between Wamuu and Joseph Joestar; Dio Brando and Jotaro Kujo; Josuke Higashkata and Yoshikage Kira; Giorno Giovanna and Diavlo are some of the best fights in the anime world.
It is not easy to craft a good fight sequence in anime, but authors like Araki have mastered this skill. Especially, the fight between Jotaro and Dio is so beautifully crafted and swiftly carried out in the final episodes of the third part of JoJo. An even bigger task than writing a good fight sequence is crafting an intriguing build-up to that fight with just the right length. There is no bigger rapture for the audience when the makers of a show build-up to the climax, and in the end, the hype matches the content that the audience is served with and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure surely delivers it every time.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a purely complete anime series in all senses, It has character developments, animation style refinement, constantly getting better arcs, etc. It is one of those anime that keeps getting better as the story proceeds. It introduced many firsts in the anime world and inspired newer mangakas and anime directors. As far as the anime adaptation of the Steel Ball Run part goes, there has been no official announcement from the David Production studio or Araki's team. Usually, every new season of JoJo drops two years after the release of the previous one, as per this pattern, Steel Ball Run's animated adaptation should be out sometime during the next year.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is available to stream on Netflix.