Note how everything I have to say about this series boils down to "Viva las eighties!"

[petronia]

Yet another JoJo post in lieu of everything else I should be doing etc. you know the drill. (BTW, when do the scanlations get crappy/stop? Because there I have to start buying it in whatever language, I may as well know now.)

Now up to volume 24 (I turned the page and saw the next opponent was named "Pet Shop" - seemed as good a place to stop as any). Series only gets better. It reminds me of watching some episodes during the X-Files' third and fourth seasons, convinced by the end that I'd just seen classic television in the making.

Bast/Mariah: at least one good "I wish I knew how to quit you" LJ icon can be wrung from this episode.

Sethan/Alessi: while this is one of the more disturbing episodes due to Alessi's sheer vileness (oh, and nice Jack Nicholson impersonation there)...... *ded of cute* OMG SILVER CHARIOT. T___T

Osiris/D'Arcy: last night I dropped by Andrew's place during what turned out to be weekly D&D night. I told him I was reading JoJo and he was like "Seriously? That is one weird manga. :O" It turns out he had only read disparate chunks like volume 4 and 20 or something but that did not stop him from spoilering me for this 'fight' (only a little though). Basically, after 12 volumes Jotaro puts his poker face to good use. XD Tense as whoa but - you're going to hate me for this - I kept wondering if Araki liked The Gambler miniseries rather a lot. I mean, we know he's into Westerns. Then there's Kenny Rogers' hat and beard...

Hol Horse and Boingo: LOLOCAUST. That is all.

(Unrelatedly, it's been a month and a half in manga time and Dio has still not bothered to put on a shirt. Maybe he habitually doesn't? It must interfere with his appreciation of hi-- you know, I don't think I'm going to finish that sentence.)

Someone on that Japanese BBS posted a bunch of comparisons between actual 80s fashion illos/photos and JoJo frontispieces. FTR the wilds of 2ch/Jfan internets are obsessive about documenting who (may or may not have) gacked off whom, mostly in a condemnatory manner - actually speaking of Marxy I remember him tracing this to a supposed thirst for authenticity stemming from lack thereof in "corporate" Japanese pop culture. I have nothing to add to the argument: my attitude toward reappropriation is on the lax end of the scale so I'll probably never grok the indignation from a 'native' perspective, and the way Marxy lays it out makes me suspicious due to overtones of r--kism. XD Also it just seems to me like one of those slightly overboard net memes (in the original sense not the LJ quiz sense), yanno? Like how people go nuts over "feedback" and such in Wfandom. Online cultures construct their own ethical subsets that may or may not be 100% applicable to RL. I mean pop melodies is one thing but I can't picture serialising a weekly manga and never having recourse to reference images (OR STANDARD GENRE TROPES WHUT), pakuri-ing some other manga's poses and framing wholesale isn't kosher - which is not to say it isn't blatantly done by some - but otherwise...

...That wasn't what I wanted to discuss. XD What I wanted to say was that I thought this was pretty cool, because it foregrounds an intentional element of the artwork that the reader picks up on anyway, subconsciously (like the horror tropes). That is, you recognize with some part of your brain that you're seeing guys built like Arnold Schwarzenegger posing like Iman in a Helmut Lang fashion spread, because you've already encountered all these things and assigned them semiotic value - it just manifests nebulously, as an impression of overwhelming campness.

Araki stops mining the schtick eventually, though; his characters slim down progressively as their outfits get more outré, until they look like fashion models to begin with, if bogglingly fit ones. Part 3 outfits are not so bad, though Polnareff's top looks like he wound masking tape around his torso, and I keep worrying Jotaro is going to turn around too fast and whap someone in the face with that dangling chain.** Part 4 seems to slide down a slippery slope of heart-shaped doohickies, and when I see scans from parts 5-7 I can't decide whether the clothes are awesome or should be burnt at the earliest opportunity, so I just sit and blink in bafflement.


** Never let it be said that Jotaro doesn't know what he likes. I suspect if he woke up naked in a shopping bag factory he'd walk out of there wearing cap, coat, shirt, slacks and chain made out of brown paper origami. Star Platinum has unparalleled precision you say? May as well put it to use.

At my going rate of two tankoubon a night it will be another month before I finish reading the series. BUT AT LEAST IT'S NOT MIRAGE OF BLAZE.

Comments

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

They've translated all of part 4, and have gotten about halfway through part 5 (and still are going along at a decent pace). Part 6, they maybe did two volumes out of 15 and haven't proceeded in the past several months; part 7 is both ongoing and still being scanslated.

I think the funniest thing is how Jotaro's bling MORPHS as he grows older. XD As you'll see, in part 4, as a marine biology grad student (one presumes), all his bling is nautical and has dolphins and shit. XD There's something inherently hilarious in this 6'5" hulking menace wearing two dolphins entwined to form a heart.

And I think your comment on the part 5-6 fashions are a mental struggle that every reader of jojo has to go through. >D As I've said, once you've read JoJo, you could watch something like Zoolander and go, "man-corsets? garishly colored costumes made of cellophane or pleather? ....what, I don't see anything wrong with that! :D"

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

By the way, keep reading! You are so--------- close to the end! >D

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I finished part 3! In fact I started part 4, so I wouldn't have to go to bed all :O-like. (But I'm out of downloads and on dial-up at home, so the rest will have to wait a couple of days. XD;)

The HEARTS... it's like somewhere around volume 24 he decided PINK HEARTS are OTOKOMAE and KAKKOSUGI and versatile in that they will do for heroes and villains alike. I... I don't understand.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

I wanted to ask you a giant favor which is, would you be interested in writing short essays re: jojo nonsense that I could post on my site? XD I am writing some short essays about random jojo crap we've noticed (my theories on how stands are similar to personae/shadow self, a paper laying out the repeating themes of how parents are portrayed, etc) and your LJ entries are like, more insightful alreadY! XD;; I suck at lit analysis so I find them fascinating, maybe other people would too? Like how you noticed all those horror tropes... as I said to Charmian, I noticed in general a fun and familiar feel to the series, but that never occurred to me, though it was painfully obvious after you pointed it out...

Er, anyhow. XD Keep blogging! :D "Bad translations" start part 4 but, well, it's readable, I guess. XD I want to try my hand at translating... but I'm gonna start with part 4 since it was already done so I won't be, er, going it alone. I'll probably have grammar questions for you. XD; If you want jojo though the bunko sets of parts 1/2 and part 3 are not too bad at jamazon and also each set only counts as 1 item which is pretty awesome in terms of shipping/gaijin rape fees. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure! If, ah, you don't mind taking my blog entries warmed over. XD;

Bunko, jeebus, how much will that hurt my eyes. XD;; Maybe I should hold out for eventual Perfect Editions.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

The translations start getting 'special' at about part 4, although I'm still able to make it out. The part 5 translations are not that bad, although those aren't finished yet.

Really? That's fascinating. (the Japanese pakuri obsession. So the Jojo fans have been going insane pouring over fashion photography? XD ) That is odd that we've never heard of that. (So people don't give a damn about feedback in Japanese fancreations fandoms?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I've started part 4 and argh, these people have left proper nouns in Chinese all over the place. But I forge on.

I'm actually not sure how the Japanese handle the feedback issue (Cfandom is even more insane than Wfandom). I think they're more laid back, but it may be because all the better writers/artists put out physical doujinshi and what they have on their sites are oekaki and extras (coloured versions of dj insert illos etc.). In other words, they're not punctillious about feedback because they expect to get money for what they do. XD;;

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Yes... eventually though, they figure out what the Japanese reading is and start using it.

Hmm, but then what do the less good artists/writers do? (Also I imagine doujinshi would be a lot of work, and that some wouldn't have time to do it?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

As for pakuri there's a lot more pointing out of how other mangaka may or may not have gacked from JoJo. XD But the tone on these things vary - sometimes people take it seriously, sometimes it's funny (like when we talk about CLAMP XD), sometimes it's completely spurious.

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Oh, I saw that page! I...hmmm, let me check my links...curse it, I found a page some time ago which did panel-by-panel comparisons of stuff like Hikaru no Go, even, and the later parts of JoJo. It was pretty funny!

Also, let's see, other references...um....well, Togushi has said that Hisoka == Dio, in Watsuki's post-Kenshin series Busou Renkin, his hero's stated favorite mangaka in his profile is "Kishibe Rohan" which is Araki's Marty Stu from part 4 (you'll meet him...eventually...BOY IS HE SPECIAL XDDD)

Fooding

[kit-sin.livejournal.com]

Hey S, wanna go out for food tonight? XD
Andrew will play at ETS later XD XD love T XD

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

Yeah the latter half of Series 3 and all of Series 4 is pretty much uh, not great on the translation front. Understandable, but brain mushy-ing. If you need the raws, I was finally able to get them, though they're not very large? :x Haha, I was thinking of getting the entire series, but I've _seen_ all those photograpsh of the complete Jojo collection, and I'm not sure I would have a place to sleep if I went and got every issue.

I think I spent a week or three reading Jojo and nearly broke.