Stardust Crusaders Episode 2 “Who’s Judgement?!” Teasers and “Stand Proud” TV Ver. Video!

“Oh, come on! That’s not even fridge material!”

There are more over on Yaraon including ones of the new OP sequence. But I imagine you’d like to see that one in motion.

You got it.

The Ultimate OP! JoJo’s the Animation OPs Nominated for CEDEC Award

How long has it been since you’ve watched the JoJo’s OPs? Not listened to the music, that I assume is on infinite loop around you at all times, but watched the sequences themselves? You might want to consider watching again because the sequences and Kamikaze Video are up for a CEDEC, the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference, award. The videos were considered because of their skill in blending 2D and 3D imagery as well as capturing the unique “JoJo’s World” look.

The award is specifically for the “Visual Arts” category, and it’s against 4 other entrants: NHK’s Tokyo Station Vision, Square-Enix’s Agni’s Philosophy Real Time Tech Demo, Giant Sparrow’s The Unfinished Swan, and Konami’s new FOX Engine. “Visual Arts” is a wide category, apparently. The tweet about this by Kamikaze mentions something about a voting poll, but I can’t find anything on the CEDEC page for the nomination list. Just in case, keep the site in mind in case they need some support.

“Some Poses are Physically Impossible” Making of the JoJo’s Opening Sequences

I’m glad they released this as a news article. It seems like the sort of thing that would be a Blu-ray extra, probably towards the last disc.

CGWorld has released an indepth look into the making of the Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency opening sequences. It’s a whole special about how it was made to the creative process behind certain chosen scenes. You even get to see Caeser’s motion points under his model.

There’s a lot of technical discussion, too. Plenty of information about what kinds of software were used to get the right effects. After Effects, Photoshop, certain video editors and all that. We get to get down to the grit of drawing a 2D scene and the layering of different parts of the drawing.

And that’s only a few of the steps

It’s cool to see where they had to get tricky with the models and lighting. There’s a whole section about the police shooting Dio scene and the difficulties of getting things like the lighting to work and playing with the models so they’d all function together. There’s even some things I would never guess. The arms that reach out for the Red Stone of Aja in the Part 2 sequence? Photoshopped picture of a real arm.

Still, the thing that caught my attention the most was Caeser’s pose when Joseph and he confront the Pillar Men on top of their rock.

Innocuous as this pose is for JoJo’s of all things, the article notes that this arm position is a little impossible for the human body. You can’t take it out, though, and swap it out for some pedestrian pose where his arms are just sort of around. Posing is part of “JoJo’s Charm” as they put it. So what do you do?

Break anatomy a little. It’s ok; this probably falls under the same position as Zoom Punch and Caeser’s able to do that because of the ripple. That or he’s a secret Pillar Man who already became an ultimate lifeform and is trying to stop the others because only one person can stand at the peak.

It’s a cool article. There are even more pictures, insights into the creative process, and weird models of characters they could recycle and probably make into an indie XBLA game.

I love the stretching boxes around the sound effects

Make sure and check out the full article here.

(Images Copyright Kamikaze Video, Luckyland, Hirohiko Araki, Warner Brothers, and CGWorld. Thanks to Graphic Jon, the guy who made the OPM Facebook page you should totally be a part of, for sending me the original)

JoJo Movie Collection for Ultra Jump March Issue

If anyone out there gets Ultra Jump, this month will be the month that pays off. Ultra Jump March Issue is going to come with a special DVD JoJo’s Movie Collection. The DVD will be a collection of videos that capture the themes and feelings of JoJo’s in a nice little package. It will include the first episode of JoJo’s The Animation, All Star Battle PV 3, some behind the scene’s footage at Kamikaze Video while they were making the openings of the anime, and a special 38 minute movie tour of the JOJOMenon exhibit.

I love the “try your own ripple” floor touchpad. I hope someone wins that in JoJo Royale even if that’s really unreasonable. I also like that visitors were able to get that close to some of the displays like the statue of Bruno and the zipped open wall.

It comes in March as a free bonus in Ultra Jump, so hopefully we’ll get a peek at it soon.

“Bloody Stream” Goes Live! Full Battle Tendency Opening Animation and Episode 11 Preview Images

Episode 11, “Game Master,” is out, and you know what that means.

Well, yes, but I was actually talking about that the new opening is out.

Official Single Album art from JoJo’s Twitter

This link will take you to the Nico Video version in case that YouTube video goes dead. You’ll need an account

Ohh, it’s good. “Sono Chi no Sadame” was awesome because it was hot blooded and really tailor made to be the theme of JoJo’s The Animation, but this is much lower key. May not seem appropriate at first considering how much hotter the blood gets in Battle Tendency, but it’s so smooth and stylish. They got a really excellent song out for this.

The animation is just glorious. Kamikaze went above and beyond my expeectations. I thought that the first OP had some good stuff, and it really did, but this is amazing. They did a great job keeping the CG separate from the 2D stuff, and both look fantastic. The charm of the characters, from Wham’s intensity when he uses his tornadoes to Cars’s arrogance when he poses in front of the moon to Joseph’s goofiness when he fucks up using JoJo Crackers while practicing with Caeser is all so well done. You look at it and just understand what Battle Tendency has in store for you style and tone wise.

Hope this tides you guys over until the sub. Hell, I hope it does until the single comes out because I’m not sure I’ll make it.

On top of that, Yaraon has released their preview shots of Episode 11.

Hey, they did end up putting it that in. Gross!

Wait, I think this might actually be a scene from Mad Bull 34.

You can view the rest of the preview images here at Yaraon, but spoiler warning of course.