Looking at JoJo’s from a Fresh Perspective

Do you consider yourself a JoJo’s aficionado? If you’re here, then you probably do on some level. There’s a lot that we in even in this fairly self aware fandom, as in all fandoms, have just come to accept. So it’s worthwhile to appreciate someone looking at it from the start. Sometimes those are bigger deal people like this little video from Giant Bomb on the new English release of ASB. Well, “little” is a misnomer with this being an hour. It’s all just a little testing ground of the game. You’ll see a lot of Jonathan since he’s probably the easiest to pick up on the fly. Also the English. Some of them, like the above, are creative, let’s call it.

Like normal, the site is giving me crap about embedding something not from YouTube, so you can follow the link here to see it. Give it a look. It’s an interesting experience. And don’t take it too seriously.

Three Josephs All on One Side. That’s right. I’m a Certified Ge-ni-ous!

With this, we’ve now got two JoJo themed puzzle games. There were those jigsaws from way back when, and now we’ve got a Rubix Cube. There are two: a Phantom Blood one (Jonathan, Dio, Tarkus, Bruford, Zeppeli, Speedwagon) and a Battle Tendency one (Joseph, Caeser, Lisa Lisa, Cars, Stroheim, Red Stone of Aja.) The video is only them being on display presumably at Jump Fiesta. But don’t think you’re left out! If you’re interested in having another part of the JoJo’s Bizarre Toy Chest, AmiAmi has both of them on tentative preorder for ¥1,820 each. The page for the PB one is here, and the page for the BT one is here.

Still waiting on my JOJOpoly, Milton Bradley Japan branch. So long as I’m pretending you’re listening to my requests, I’d like the original Monopoly pieces to remain the same but with the JoJo character riding in them. Especially the thimble.

(Thanks to the post by Tsuntsnudio-kun Tumblr)

Through JoJo’s, There is True Victory! J-STARS Victory Vs. Announces Johnathan and Joseph Joestar!

I haven’t been following this game. Despite what you may get from my tastes via these posts, I’m not actually a big shonen guy. At least for anything released after 1985. JoJo’s is kind of an anomaly, so I’d just been letting this one float by. But if they’re willing to send in Jonathan and Joseph, then far be it from me to sit on the sidelines.There’s also Meisuke Nueno from Hell Teacher Nube, but I’ve never heard of that, so I’ll try to stick to what I know.

J-STARS Victory Vs. is a PS3/Vita NamcoBandai fighting game coming out March 19th in Japan. It’ll feature characters from far and wide in Jump like the super crossover fanfiction you wish would be real, except punching instead of shipping, so infinitely better. We probably owe the anime for getting us Jonathan and Joseph. I don’t know if that means Jotaro could be around the corner since it’s likely this and Stardust Crusaders the Animation will come out pretty close together. It would be nice to see, though I wouldn’t want this game to go down the super DLC route the ASB did.

You can also see a clean, non-video image of the announcement spread here on Silicon Era.

(Thanks to the Corey Underwood for sending me an email about the news with the SE link.)

JoJonium Shibuya Posters Collection

The last poster set we got was only a few samples. Someone on Naver was nice enough to get pictures of the entire poster set in the train. There are some really interesting character portraits.

Like Bruford who looks very correct drawn in modern Araki style.

Or like how this picture gets kind of dark once you realize it’s Dio carrying Danny somewhere.

But the one I’m really impressed with is this. I liked the chemical chains when they were done small, but this one goes through the first three Parts with some impressive attention to detail. It’s not that close up, but if you look, each character hexagon is properly connected to the characters they have relationships with according to how close they are or how similar they are. This may be why they had to do this so soon because working a Part 4 or 5 chain set into this would just be huge offshoots from Dio and Old Joseph, and that poster would be enormous, and I’d want a copy to put on my ceiling.

You can see the whole gallery here.

JoJo’s and Trains Part 2: JoJonium Leak in Shibuya Station

JoJonium 3 is the next one on the way. You know what that means. Once again, “JoJonium wants you” to write their binding band slogan. For 3, the band will feature Joseph and Santana, though this has Dio on the cover. This will be the last volume for Part 1, so I assume we’ll also be transitioning to Part 2. You can find the submission form here. Same rules as before. 30 character slogan limit, 10 character pen name limit.

Also, to promote JoJonium, this series of posters are going to be plastered all over Shibuya Station, the busiest of all stations, between December 2nd and 8th. I really do like the chemical chain model used for Dio and Jonathan. Those would get really complex if you started doing them for later Parts. I’d like to get a higher resolution version of the full table, but that’s all there was. I can only make out a few like An as Anubis and Jo for who looks like George the first.

If you’d like to see how the posters will be arranged, you can see the plan chart here.

(Images from Araki-JoJo)

[Edit: The image of the table now links to a bigger, clearer version of the poster from the train as gotten by volavolavola Tumblr. And SaberKatana in the comments was nice enough to offer a partial list of the characters in order from right to left starting at the top. Quoted:

S = Stone Mask
Jo = George Joestar
Mj = Mary Joestar
Jo = Jonathan Joestar
Da = Dario Brando
Di = Dio Brando
Dn = Danny
Ep = Erina
Ze = Will Zeppeli
Sw = Speedwagon

Pc = Poco
Ps = Peggy Scott-Adams (okay I had to look up her full name)
Wn = Wang Chung
Jr = Jack the Ripper maybe
Br = Bruford
Ta = Tarkus
Ms = OMG is that Mary Stuart?
To = Tonpeti
Dr = Dire
St = Straits
Do = Doobie
Pa = Page
Jn = Jones
Bo = Bonham
Sx = Styx
Jo = Joseph Joestar
Cz = Caesar
Li = Lisa Lisa
Sw = Speedwagon again
Ej = Erina Joestar

I’ll start working on the other half. There’s a few faces I don’t recognize outright, but I’ll be back with it soon.]

I, Dio, Will Look Incredible with I, Dio, Adorning my Nails

One step closer to the full body JoJo ensemble outfit. Creer Beaute has released a series of JoJo themed stick on nails. There are five total sets each based on a different color theme. They do seem to be anime tie in as they all seem to be based on Parts 1  and 2. Each nail set is going for ¥819, so they’re actually quite cheap.

Let’s see. We’ve got the suits on the way, the Converse shoes, the Part 5 watches, there were some themed stockings, the themed boxer briefs, and now these nails. If you’ve managed to keep pace, I believe the only thing you need for the full outfit is to convince everyone the Caeser painted on your cheeks is actually a form of blush.

JoJonium #1 and #2 Covers, Your JoJonium Primer, and Cover Slogan Contest 2 Now Open

The first covers of JoJonium have been revealed. I really like Jonathan on his cover because I’m so used to his anime and ASB hair now that my mind boggles at the amount of late 19 century English hair gel that must go to maintaining that shape. It does make him look younger, though, and this is Jonathan with Danny. Will looks like how he should at Araki’s current style. Remember that you can preorder these issues on Amazon Japan now.

By the way, if you still aren’t up on what exactly JoJonium is, Nenamartinez Tumblr posted a nice general FAQ for it. Directly quoted:

What is Jojonium?

• It’s a large-format reprinting of Jojo parts 1-3 (no info on whether or not later parts will be printed yet..).  This kind of collection is commonly called a “kanzenban” ( 完全版 – literally meaning “complete version”)    But in this case I’ve also seen it being called a “aizouban” ( 愛 蔵版 – literally meaning “Favorite edition” though best thought of as a “collector’s edition”) or —-on the Jojonium website itself, it’s a “Hakosouban” ( 函装版 – “box edition”)

Isn’t that the same as the Omnibus collection?

• Almost. Jojonium is A5 size  (148.5 × 210 cm  or 5.83 × 8.27). The omnibus collection is printed on cheap, magazine-quality paper.  Jojonium will be printed on high quality paper for archival purposes. The covers of Jojonium will also be new art and there will be some color pages, too.

How many volumes will there be?

• Parts 1-3 will be collected into 17 books. (So, there will be more pages per book to make it a lower number of books overall. That’s partially why the price of the books is higher, though quality is the bigger reason)

When will these be released?

• The first two books will be released on December 4th.

Are there any other special bonuses?

• There will be notes from Araki in the back about character creation. Color pages have been retouched. There may be more bonuses.

Will the rest of the parts be released in this edition?

• There is no guarantee, but I certainly hope so!

If you have any further questions, you can direct them to her ask page here. Just make sure to label that with JoJonium because questions like, “So tell me more about Dio,” would probably just be confusing.

Finally, with these two covers out, we’ve now moved to the next cover of the fan slogan submissions. This submission set is only for the band around JoJonium #3 which will feature Jonathan and Count of Devil’s Castle Dio. As before, your slogan is limited to 30 characters in your choice of Small (小) Medium (中) or Large (大) type size, and you are required to leave a pen name up to ten characters. There should not be a language limit, though 30 characters in English isn’t as robust as it would be in kanji. If you feel like trying your hand, you can do so at this link. The submission period for this band is from today, November 1st, until the 18th at noon JST.

(Images gathered by volavola Tumblr. © Hirohiko Araki, LUCKYLAND Communications, and Shueisha.)

JoJonium 1 and 2 Available for Preorder, and JoJonium 3 Starts Preparation Tomorrow

Quick note about JoJonium. The final touches are being put on JoJonium #1 and #2 as we move on to #3. That’s what that “11.1 Renewal OPEN” is all about. Tomorrow, the official site will change to reflect that we’ve moved issue and that we’ve started another cover slogan contest. Last time, we designed for Jonathan and Dio on #1 and Will and Bruford on #2. Next time, we’ll probably get Joseph and Cars then maybe Caeser and Wham?

As those are being prepared, preordering #1 and #2 is available from Amazon Japan. There’s no official images yet, because of the slogan contest I imagine, but you can order #1 on this link and #2 on this link. They’re actually quite cheap at only ¥1,400 a piece, though that’s due to the piecemeal way it’s coming out. If #1 and #2 are all about Part 1 and that’s a continuing trend, then this will come out to a hefty sum.

(Thanks to volavola Tumblr for the news. Image from JoJonium.com. © Hirohiko Araki, LUCKYLAND Communications, and Shueisha.)

“This is my son, Jonathan Joestar, and this is my daugter, Stone Mask.”

JoJo products are fun and numerous. I try not to talk about all of them because this would be a blog about cups and underwear, but there are plenty of products that catch my attention like the Seiko watches. Those caught my attention because they were cool.

And this catches my attention because I think it’s funny. These little Phantom Blood plaques/picture frames are going to be released by Medicos Entertainment as prizes in ¥300 capsule machines across Japan. I’m not sure if you’d be able to use a Japanese purchase service like Japan-Life to go around looking for them. I like these because they look like ornate picture frames you’d have on your mantle of pictures of your family. Considering they’re a figure, you probably can’t take the image out, but I’d love to be able to and put in pictures of maybe cosplayers or just have your pet dog be the new Speedwagon. Might want to keep that away from the Dio plaque, though.

(© Shueisha and Hirohiko Araki)

This Pose is my Heritage! All Star Battle Manga Comparisons

Did you ever end up playing the game with the ASB previews where you’d try to recognize moves from the manga? How about poses? This is JoJo after all. Well, wonder no more, at least for a few characters. Someone on Nico Video put out a comparison video showing where a lot of the poses for both super cutscenes and just general movement come from. It’s Polsy, so you’ll need to follow the link for the full video, but I grabbed a few pictures.

I couldn’t not put this one in .gif form

This is the best game. That Mista one just floored me. The really impressive ones to me, though, are Johnathan, Gyro, and sort of Will and Giorno because those are just normal moves and not part of any ultras. For Johnathan and Gyro, those are what they look like when dodging. This is the best game.

Make sure and check out the full video for even more comparisons.

(Thanks to Goon Kurtofan for posting this and also probably being the one that put it on Polsy)