JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (TV)

This is where the famous JoJo story begins on screen. In 2012, the studio David Production started turning Hirohiko Araki's long-running manga into a TV anime. Araki first drew the story in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in 1987. This first season has 26 episodes. It aired in Japan from October 2012 to April 2013, and it covers the first two parts of the manga: Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. Each part has its own hero, but every hero comes from the same family, the Joestars. Many fans use the nickname "JoJo" for each of them.

The first part takes place in England in the late 1880s. Jonathan Joestar is the son of a rich family. He wants to grow up to be a true gentleman: kind, brave, and fair. His life changes when his father adopts a poor boy named Dio Brando to pay back an old debt. Dio is smart and cruel. He wants the Joestar money for himself, and he quietly works to turn the people Jonathan loves against him. Jonathan's sweetheart, Erina Pendleton, is one of the few people who stays on his side.

At the center of the story is an old stone mask. Long ago, the Aztecs (an ancient people of Mexico) used it in a way that gave its wearer endless life. When the mask touches blood, it reacts in a strange way, and this makes it very dangerous in the wrong hands. To stand against its power, Jonathan learns a special fighting skill called Hamon, also called the Ripple. Hamon uses careful breathing to create an energy like sunlight inside the body. His teacher is Will A. Zeppeli, a bold man with a big mustache. Jonathan also makes a loyal friend in Robert E. O. Speedwagon, a tough street fighter from a rough part of London.

The second part jumps ahead about fifty years, to 1938 and 1939. The new hero is Joseph Joestar, Jonathan's grandson. Joseph is very different from his grandfather. He is loud, funny, and full of tricks. Instead of only using strength, he wins by guessing what his enemy will do next. The story moves from New York to Mexico, and then to Italy and Switzerland. Joseph must face the Pillar Men, very old and very strong beings who made the stone masks in the first place. To get stronger, he trains in Venice with a Hamon master named Lisa Lisa, alongside Caesar Zeppeli, the grandson of Jonathan's old teacher. At first Joseph and Caesar do not get along at all.

The show mixes action, adventure, and horror. Some scenes are bloody, and the monsters can be scary. But it is also wild and often funny, with big poses, loud shouting, and very dramatic speeches. The adventure is all about family, courage, and good people standing up to evil across the years.

Critics liked how the anime kept the strange style of the manga. The opening song sequence even won an award in Japan in 2013. Many writers say this series helped make JoJo much more popular with fans outside Japan. It is a great starting point for anyone who wants to follow the whole Joestar family story.