If you haven’t heard, guess what? It’s real. Not only is the above real, but we will be getting official backlog for the first season. Not only are we getting both seasons in a simulcast, but to celebrate, Crunchyroll is putting up a whole load of JoJo’s figures from all across the series in their store.
The arguments around this are going to be palpable, but show your support however you can, everyone.
Did you get the JoJo blu-rays? If you’re kicking around that kind of money, I envy you quite a bit, but only from that angle. The BD/DVD angle we might be able to meet halfway on.
As Part 3 approaches, you have another chance to not only get the blu-rays, but to get them on the cheap with some bonuses. Warner Home Video is releasing 3 compilations of the first JoJo’s season and they are available for preorder through AmiAmi and Amazon JP. There are three total, 1 Phantom Blood and 2 Battle Tendency all for the low low price of about ¥5,500 for the BD version and ¥4,500 for the DVD version.
But that’s not all. These are the limited editions, and they come with some fabulous bonuses. These bonuses include complication CDs of JoJo raDIO, special illustration booklets, a clear sleeve and stand, all the previous commercials, a special label like the above picture, and cast and crew commentary on the show and JoJo. The only thing I haven’t been able to find is confirmation of the English subtitles the first BD set was supposed to have. No saying one way or the other, but give it a look all the same.
(Thanks Jason. Sorry it took me so long to follow you up on that.)
I don’t know how long this will stick, so drink it up now while you’ve got the chance. And you need to. Antfish is really good at pouring malice into his Dio voice. It’s going to be fun seeing where that goes when Dio is pulling MUDAMUDA on the castle balcony. At this rate, I could see it being one or two more before getting to Part 2. I can’t wait to see what Abridged Straights is like.
Oh, and just to let you know, the second episode is back up. It probably has been for a bit, but if you haven’t noticed like I didn’t, it’s ready to go.
I hadn’t noticed in the first episode, but Antfish is actually using the updated Blu-ray cuts for these episodes in at least a few places. That’s good, I suppose, since it’s higher quality and all, but I think I’m going to miss crazy eyes Johnathan.
This is also the first episode with Speedwagon, meaning that this is going to be the first major dividing point where people are going to jump ship or not. I would say the first one was going to be with Dio, but who really doubted the handling of abridged Dio. “Dio Torpedo” will probably tip a few more viewers in the show’s favor.
Edit: And it’s already gone. That video will give you the “Removed by the user” error message. When it goes up again, I’ll re-embed it or link you if it doesn’t get uploaded somewhere I can embed from.
Edit 2: And it’s back. Let’s hope it stays.
Edit 3: Nope. It didn’t.
Movic is releasing an animation sourcebook for the Battle Tendency anime. It contians sketches for the art used throughout the show. Some of the preview pictures they’ve released include concept sketches for Caeser, Joseph, Cars’s special Red Stone Stone Mask, and Lisa Lisa’s castle.
The book will launch sometime in August for ¥1,890 (~$20.) Preorders are already being accepted at the Movic official page for the book, so give it a look. There was also one for the Phantom Blood anime that I didn’t hear about when it launched back in March, but that one is available now for the same price.
(That image is from the JoJo Anime official site because I couldn’t get a clean picture of the book cover, but it uses the same image of Joseph and Caeser. Thanks for the post by Araki-JoJo.)
One of the NicoTube channels has put out two collections of all the JoJo Disc commercials. One for Part 1 and one for Part 2. They aren’t subtitled, but you can pick up on the context of Santana being confused and Stroheim being as loud as possible. I particularly like Lisa Lisa saying you can’t become stronger without buying JoJo Blu-rays. If you’re going to have fun with a series, you might as well go full on with the commercials too.
ZOZOTOWN is releasing a two new JoJo shirts. The graphics are cute in how straightforward they are. It’s also fun that they list Jonathan and Dio’s lifespans below their names. It might be hard to see on those pictures, but if you look at the close up of the graphics (Dio – Jonathan,) Dio’s is listed at 1867 – ∞.
Nice as the chance to walk around with burning, shonen spirit or Dio’s unrelentingly glorious visage on your chest, the real fun is on the back.
Really, I like the contrast. Jonathan’s is that nice, uplifting quote that I could see being a t-shirt slogan, but Dio’s is just, “Humans suck, so I’m going to become better than all of you could ever imagine.” It is as though he designed the shirt himself. I’m almost disappointed that it’s just Dio’s face and not that shot of him pulling the knife on Jonathan.
The shirts are both available through ZOZOTOWN in three sizes and three colors, black, gray, and white, for ¥5,040 ($49.24.) Jonathan’s shirt is here, Dio’s shirt is here. Walking around with “URRRRRRY” on your back is sure to grab some attention.
(Thanks to the post on Araki-JoJo. © Hirohiko Araki, Shueisha, The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Production Committee, and ZOZOTOWN)
JoJo’s product update. First off, a whole mess of Phantom Blood goods, mostly Johnathan focused. You’ve seen Johnathan Joecat before, and he also comes in a mini-form to make a key chain. For new things, we have:
A Stone Mask throw pillow. If you’re ever at one of those boring parties where people never shut up about things you could never care about, just roll over and say, “Fuck it, vampire time,” and then run away! Or just sleep on it. Pillows work that way.
Second is the official Johnathan handkerchief. If you ever have trouble talking to someone cute, give them this with a basket of grapes. If they get it, you know right off the bat you can marry them immediately forever because that’s not a common trait to share.
You can check out the product page for all four of those on the official Araki JoJo site. The Johnathan Joecats have already launched and are available on the Tobineko subsite. The handkerchief and pillow are launching later this month.
Those, however cool I might find the handkerchief, are trinkets. This next thing is the big news.
“Hirohiko Araki’s Favorites! The Laws of Film”
Suspense is the Key to Fun
A Hirohiko Araki special book about how he’s been influenced by movies, particularly Hollywood movies. It has seven chapters, and there is a chapter listing. I have no idea what some of them are supposed to be about. I’ll do my best in listing them here.
Chapter 1: “Best of the Best ‘Heat’ and ’96 Hours/Time'”
Chapter 2: “‘What makes a man cry’ is a True Condition for a Masterpiece”
Chapter 3: “Suspense is the Technique of Masters”
Chapter 4: “Love Affairs and Erotic Suspense”
Chapter 5: “Eastwood is a Genre”
Chapter 6: “I’m Not Watching this Movie Lightly!”
Chapter 7: “Urban Legends are Necessary to a Masterpiece”
It’s really only Chapters 1 and 7 that I’m not clear on what they should be because a lot of stuff, like “Eastwood” and “Genre” are written in katakana. I mostly don’t know what “96 Hours” is and was caught off guard by “Urban Legends.”
It’s a cool thing is what I’m trying to say. Learning about what influences Araki other than Italian fashion is always interesting because his work is so insane. The book is coming out this Friday for ¥777, and you can order from Shueisha’s book site once it launches.
(Images from the official Araki JoJo site. © LuckyLand Communication, Shueisha, Hirohiko Araki, and Takaratomy)
This is a picture of Naokatsu Tsuda. He was one of the series directors alongside Kenichi Suzuki working for davidproduction. The JoJo Anime twitter posted about him being interviewed, and so we’ve got a retrospective on the series by him presented by AnimeAnime.
Edit! And now you don’t have to worry about me trying to create a translation because there’s been an official one by SGCafe. It also has the whole of the interview that I didn’t see when I looked it up myself. It now includes the parts about favorite characters and picking the ending theme. Enjoy!
(Image from and ©AnimeAnime. Visit the original article to see it in general and also for some more picture.)
This is, according to the video, the full version of the Attack on Titan opening, “Guren no Yamiya” by Linked Horizon. Those of you coming in fresh may have seen the OP and gotten totally pumped for some sweet, giant busting action based on the powerful opening sequence. I know I did. Then the show revealed its true colors and let us know we weren’t getting any sweet, rocket/grappling hook belt vs. titan fights unless it got to smack us around and scare us straight with monster designs first.
Oh, that face is never going away
But that song is a really good pump up song. So let’s say you did want it for that without having to watch a mother on her way to a digestive system.
Now this is a crossover I can get behind. Well, JoJo’s is a lot more standard in it’s shonen tone, but I could get into a scene of Jotaro getting picked up by a 15m class, then, with an annoyed attitude, having Star Platinum uppercutting it through the palate causing the head to explode. That wouldn’t really fit with the tone of Attack on Titan in the slightest. The song meshes pretty well into the Phantom Blood opening sequence, though.
I wonder if there are any other JoJo + “Show X” mash-ups.
Huh. Well then.
(Thanks Titan thread for posting this and thanks to another great YouTube commenter for the title idea)
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