I'm backlogged by like five LJ entries

[petronia]

JoJo vol. 24-28, i.e. the last chunk of part 3: from Pet Shop on the battles get tough, as is basically the last dungeon in game parlance ("Dio's mansion"). Pet Shop itself was a nasty, dirty fight. It's finally confirmed that Iggy is self-aware more or less on the level of a human being - he covers his tracks well. XD (Animal stand-users seem to acquire superior intelligence as a side(?) effect thereof, as borne out later in the series.)

Man, I liked the ill-tempered little bugger. But dogs have a really low life expectancy in JoJo. D: They're always getting dismembered or set on fire or something.

This is also - grosso modo - the point at which the mangaka discovered nothing says cool and manly like ♥shaped accessories, as sported by heroes and villains alike. He proceeds to abuse the new-found knowledge for... well, I'm at volume 36 and still counting.

Atum/D'Arcy the Younger: I had an unexpected old-skool moment and was like, "You couldn't do that in F-Zero! ...Uh." Though come to think of it, this was supposed to take place in 1989. MYSTERY CONSOLE... Also, Joseph Joestar = WORST BACK-SEAT GAMER EVER. You get the feeling he'd be like that regardless of what's at stake. "What are you doing? What are you do--don't hit there! Ohhhh my god!"

Read the rest in one evening. Vanilla Ice - Araki-sensei, I hate you so much for your stupid naming schemes. D: This fight was brutal and heart-stopping and deadly serious, but the guy's name is VANILLA ICE, HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GET PAST THAT. ...Anyway, between this and the final multi-tankoubon battle against Dio I was completely flattened in a way I associate more with games than anime/manga - you know, "Holy shit I am so underleveled, goodbye cruel world." [1] YES I WAS TERRIFIED OF SEPHIROTH THE FIRST TIME I PLAYED FF7, SHUT UP. Dio is scary in that way, despite how he dresses kind of like a guy version of Sailor Venus. With pointy shoes. And my bafflement when he suddenly developed lipstick halfway through beating down on Jotaro. And I don't think there's anything left for me to say about the steam roller, other than to confirm it as an instant classic of brain-breakage.

Uhm...... you know, I can't think of a colloquial term for this sort of thing other than 'CLAMP!ending'. >_> But... at least some people survive... orz

Random notes on characters, up through part 4--

Jotaro: at one point I told naanima I suspected Jotaro was CLAMP's ideal seme (WAFF variety). The fact is... it's difficult to argue against. He's preposterously tall, handsome, morally righteous, stinking rich and can terminate with extreme prejudice anything that gets in his way. Oh, and he has a Ph.D., doesn't he? They don't really make them like that anymore. The odd thing is, unless you happen to grow irritated with his aura of invincibility (I tell you he is like Echizen Ryouma in certain ways - has Jotaro ever lost a fight? ~_~), he doesn't come across as over-perfect - possibly because the series is so out-there that the main character needs to be way larger than life as well.

And he just is the uber-seme of the family. Not that the other Joestars aren't STUDLY or anything but in purely imaginable terms it's like,

--------Josuke--Jonathan--Joseph----------Jotaro--> (seme)

It's because he has that brooding expression, whereas Josuke will go all round-eyed and bite his lip (his expressions are very reminiscent of Joseph sometimes) and immediately the effect is cute, even though he's six-foot something and a slave to the classic furyou dress code. XD When you meet Jotaro after the mercurial Joseph you wonder, is he really going to be >:| all the time? And the answer is yes, and you will grow to like it.

More on the famed Joestar pull: actually, I went and read the first few chapters of part 5, just to see if I could understand what's going on (I did, but then I was simultaneously on volume 33 or so). One thing I noticed was that GioGio is also v. popular with high school girls, even though in comparison with the Joestar line of descent he is a tiny, slender, questionably attired bishounen, and latent expression of vampiric arch-villain genes (?) has turned him blond - actually, I'm not sure what conclusion I'm attempting to draw here. XD It just strikes me as amusing because girls adore the JoJos but seem to find them completely non-threatening; it's like the hulking badass aspect fails to register. Jotaro is especially put-upon because he snaps at them and they don't even blink. XD

Joseph and Josuke: having made his magic wand wave Araki ran with it, which is rather admirable given that he could've elided the issue entirely, I think - then again family is really the single emotional constant of the series. So Joseph and Josuke meet, and it's uncomfortable and sad and touching, and they share an unlikely bonding experience in the form of an invisible baby stand-user [2] that sort of reminded me of Tokyo Godfathers.

Joseph is really old in part 4. T_T But in a way I love him more because he gets old and frail, because you don't get this kind of development in most manga characters. Joseph has SOUL.

Kishibe Rohan: this is the part I was tachiyomi-ing in the bookstore. Did... did anyone else feel worried for Araki-sensei after having read this? That is, more worried than one'd normally be on the evidence of 30-odd volumes of JoJo?

SUDDENLY SERIAL KILLER. ...Named 'Kira'. Hahaha. Ha. =___= ...Except it's written liked Kira Izuru out of Bleach.

[1] RPGs stress me out unduly, I think, and real-time battle systems are worse, which may be a reason I don't actually game all that much. Fighting games don't stress me at all, but I'm bad at them. XD

[2] 'Achtung Baby'. AND THUS THE INTERNET WAS WON. (Although Araki-sensei has won the internet already, due to the WRYYYYYY thing.)

Comments

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

yar, never get attached to animals or Italians, that's the message of Jojo. >D

And... hmm... some animal stand users do seem to become brighter, but I'm not sure if it's because they are already "special"? Later on there is a turtle stand user and it does not have any non-turtle intelligence to speak of... Whereas in Araki's world there are ghosts and other sorts of supernatural nonsense, so it's possible Iggy was born a stand user (and Petshop was made into one by Dio as shown in part 4?).

on jo-tato (I kept typoing, so that's his new name XD)

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! Well, although Joseph and Josuke are so much more lively and adorable, I still have a big soft spot for ol' stone-face. I think the reason that his stoicism doesn't grate is because:

1) he doesn't really have an air of superiority, or "I have a secret that is important to the plot that I am not going to tell you about because I am a needlessly cryptic mofo." He's just kind of...quiet, I guess, not smug.

2) he tends to play the tsukkomi to the rest of the group's boke. XD Either that, or he is so hilariously put-upon (like the stuff at the beginning of part 4, where he's like, "...why me? >_<")

3) Apart from not liking shrieking fangirls and being a rude brat to his mom and grandfather (which is...well...sort of normal in a way XD;) you see him being civil and polite and even friendly at times. Usually when you see him reappearing in an arc (especially when he's older), he's smacked into someone much smaller than himself, and then apologizes for not watching where he was going and helps them pick up their stuff. He's not the sort of character who's rude to everyone and supposedly still likeable just because he's so good at (whatever).

4) Although Araki keeps going on about how Starpla is the strongest stand with the strongest power, blah blah blah (even later on), Starpla's powers are actually visibly limited and he has to be clever to use them to maximum effect. So it's not like he's totally Captain Cheap (in the video game, Captain Cheap is Shadow Dio. Jeeeeeez.) It doesn't trigger my "WHAT THAT IS CHEATING YOU STUPID AUTHOR" bells.

5) Apparently Jotaro's just as retarded as the rest of them, as you overhear in the Boingo arc; he can swallow five lit cigarettes, and has apparently demonstrated this before?! XD; And then there's nonsense like:

Jotaro: Hey, Kakyoin, you like sumo?
Kakyoin: Yeah, but sumo doesn't involve punching the crap out of people, Jotaro! XD;
Jotaro: :| (his version of a smile)

Sadly, Josuke represents the wussying-up of the Joestar bloodline. He is only a shameful 180 or 185 cm! XD

But as you'll see in part 4 and 6, Jotaro is totally capable of losing a fight - although, generally it's because he got injured because the person he was fighting alongside wasn't listening to Jotaro's warnings to be cautious -

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"STFU I'LL DO IT IF I LIKE! YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO LOOK COOL AS USUAL! ...oh shit, he was right! Why didn't I listen to him? D:"
"....oh, goddammit, look what just happened."

So Jotaro almost gets killed trying to save them from their own stupidity. But---- there's also parts in part 6 where he just is outnumbered/outmaneuvered, too. In part 6, where he's 40, he can't instantaneously bust out a time stop the way he could when he was 18; he's out of practice!

Re: on jo-tato (I kept typoing, so that's his new name XD)

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Also, you just mentioned something else I forgot; NOBODY IS AFRAID OF HIM. He can yell at his fangirls all he wants and they'll ignore him and giggle, and when he's introduced, he's supposedly a bad boy who beats up bad teachers and gets in fights and has just been in jail, but when he goes to the school nurse and threatens her, she just giggles and tells him to take off his pants or she'll cut them off him. When he scrambles to obey, she laughs at how it's because he's such a cheapskate.

Jotaro, I don't know what you're doing wrong, but man. XD; No respect!

Re: on jo-tato (I kept typoing, so that's his new name XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

(I'm sort of continuously adding to this entry so it won't be too split up, and also my ruminations are random. XD)

The cigarettes!! In the Oingo-Boingo episode at first I was like, "Ah, this is a cunning yet hilarious plan of Polnareff's to test whether Jotaro is behaving out of character." And then I realised he was being perfectly serious. XD;;

I really need to compile examples of this (it keeps being brought home to me and I keep forgetting) but Jotaro... has a high level of pop culture knowledge. XD Like he talks about books and... what was it, Weird Al Yankovic?

Re: on jo-tato (I kept typoing, so that's his new name XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, an important point I forgot to mention in my write-up of Jotaro - what is with the back of his hat??? It looks like it sort of... turns into his hair. And when he takes it off the hair comes off with it, though it's not like he's missing a chunk. o_O;

randomly

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

No no, Josuke's only 16 (er, or something) in this arc, he's probably still growing... right? Right?

*runs*

Star Platinum and The World may seem like Godmode, but since they're short-range and limited, they'd be hard to use against the long-distance stands or the weird ones like Killer Queen or something. So uh. Yeah, agreement -- it's not annoying because it actually isn't an invincible stand.

I like that 40 year old Jotaro sort of looks younger than 18 year old Jotaro since the art style changes and makes him thinner. XD Bwahaha.

Hm, where does Johnny Joestar fit into all this, besides an alternate reality. *snork* (It's interesting that Gyro, despite being more the "main" character than Johnny, actually loses an awful lot... ^^; )

ps - Jotato. Someone needs to do fanart of that. And all his little friends. *DIES* And they have adventures! And run off cliffs. !_!

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's like the opposite of the normal movie thing, where the dog is the one that lives. ;_; Here the doggies die.

Haha, someone else had the exact same reaction to Vanilla Ice.

I think the reason Jotaro doesn't come off as annoying is because a) the Ryouma objection is because it's sports anime, and thus Jojo isn't really comparable, and even if it is, Jojo Part 3 gets by that barrier for the same reason there are no training scenes, b) the other characters get a lot of play, and Jotaro respects them/works as a team with them, and c) come on, he fights Dio, and I wasn't sure whether he would make it alive.

(33 already? My... where are you in part 4 now?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Actually it's hard for me to say because I'm not annoyed by Ryouma either. XD I like Ryouma! (I think the story would be more interesting if Rikkai etc. but in my mind it's not an objection vis a vis Ryouma himself, more the mangaka's storytelling.)

But yeah. When he fights Dio you just pray for him to win, because it's so :O-inducing. (The World really did freak me out, especially at first before you find out how it works. It's not until much later that you realise Dio must have actually gone down to Polnareff, picked him up, moved him a couple of steps and returned to the top of the stairs, trying had not to crack up laughing and lose precious seconds in the process. Dio, that was effing JUVENILE. XD)

I'm in volume 36. There is a serial killer in town! Also, Josuke and pals are trying to make money off discarded coupons.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I don't hate Ryouma either, but in fact, neither do I really see much similarity between him and Jotaro (cause to me Jotaro is implicitly not like Ryouma cause he is not bratty and upstartish).

Dio kind of reminds me of Akio, for some reason. It must be the shoujo-ness of the hearts.

Oh fun, you're about to meet Killer Queen, the cutest evil Stand evar, then.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Dio reminds one of Akio because of his AURA OF SLUTTISHNESS. Also, both their names end in -io. *no-prize*

It's difficult to recount the plot of this manga to people, because even the characters who aren't bands have somewhat ridiculous names. >_>

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

!!!! SO TRUE DAT.

(And I am sure that someone has done a crossover, somewhere....)

And yes an aura of pansexual slutness makes for a special breed of final boss. XD

(Heh, I'm saddened I don't know enough Japanese to figure out how the part 4 charas have ridiculous names...)

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Um, let's see....off the top of my head, he's said specifically that the two brothers, Okuyasu and Keicho, you know how they have "billions" and "trillions" written on their clothes? well, guess what one kanji of each of their respective names is, IIRC. >_>

As for their last names, he was like, 'rainbow, that's a nice image....and let's just use 'mura' for the last half.'

"Josuke" - both parts of his name can be read as "jo".

BTW, the name of Rohan's award-winning series is "Pink Dark Boy". And when Araki was asked what stand he'd like if he had a stand, he was like, 'Weeeell, Harvest would be good for getting money....no, who am I kidding, of course I want Heaven's Door! I'm really bad at coming up with story ideas, so...."

1) MARTY STU, DAMMIT XDDD
2) Y, you're bad at coming up with ideas? XD

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Another thought! Achtung Baby's stand user, whom Joseph adopts at the end (it's not a spoiler; when a fan asked Araki if she'd ever be back in a later arc, Araki was like, "schwa? who?") - she's named Shizuka Joestar (静). However, I'm sure you're not surprised to know that "shizuka" can also be read as "jo". >_> I wonder if that's coincidental, or....................................maybe not. orz

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha, that is weird. Well, at least he didn't make them dress in rainbow colored clothes?

1) Well, like we didn't all think there was Stu-ness going on there anyhow. XD [I mean, you were telling me that Rohan *goes to freakin Italy* in a one-shot, right?]

2) Bad at coming up with ideas....? 0_o I don't believe it either. Actually, I sort of would want to ask the boring, sick and tired question of "where do you get your ideas" but that is always a waste of time.

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Man, one of these times I should post what someone translated about his weekly drawing schedule. It's really amazing how he managed to draw so much on a WEEKLY basis, but then, it looks like he and his assistants would do crazy 18-hour marathon sessions XD

And as for his stu-ing - of course he's a Stu. At least he didn't put Rohan in his list of top ten favorite characters, though! XD He's not THAT shameless! (But his list IS kind of interesting, in a way...)

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'd read it. (18 hr marathons? Ouch. -_- Okay, that makes me concerned for him.)

Wait, so who ARE his top ten favorite characters, then? (Hey, you just can't tantalize us like this...)

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

From the JOJO-A-GOGO! (the damn artbook has THREE BOOKS; the artbook, a stand stats book, and an araki book which is SO WEIRD ♥) -

Most of these I could have guessed, based on...well...the way he treats them:

10. Dio
9. Fatty (you know, the kid from part 4 who used Harvest, wtf)
8. Jotaro
7. Guido Mista
6. Joseph Joestar
5. Giorno Giovanna
4. Diavolo (the boss from part 5, you'll see why eventually)
3. Bruno Buccellati (nyoho~)
2. Kira Yoshikage (he's said that he respects Kira for just trying to stay low and quietly do his thing, even if his "thing" happens to be serial killing XD)

and 1).....Higashikata Josuke

This was done sometime shortly after Arc 6 had started, so it's not like he was still working on 4!

This has a lot more of his top ten lists too, like his favorite 20 illustrations (with his reasons why...*SIGH*), the 10 songs that make him want to scream and change the radio dial, etc XD He also talks about the artists that inspire him, and I bet nobody is too inspired that he loves certain fashion designers and also Picasso. ("Cubism ♥")

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

9 is the only on the really surprises me. I'm loving Bruno too, and can't wait to see the part 5 boss.

Damn, these sound like neat artbooks.

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

Oo, has no-one done scans of Under Execution, Under Jailbreak yet? I mean I know the first chapter was scanslated. But uh. I could do bad scans of the Rohan goes to Italy story and the Return of Kira story if raws aren't available. :D (Okay though first I should try to pass school. Yes.)

Apropos of nothing, I want Kira's ties. >_< I think part of Killer Queen's ability is to make Kira REALLY COOL TIES.

re: 2) I dunno, I'd kind of want to ask where he got the idea of giving what's-his-face a thong. *cry*

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I wanna see!

(Return of Kira? 0_o He looked pretty decisively gone...)

Heheh, #4? (But yeah, those were really snazzy ties. But they were kind of a giant beacon showing he was the killer. -_- I mean, would't you find skulls on a tie somewhat noticable? I guess the wife didn't notice, or thought them to be part of the 'sexy hubby upgrade' change. XD)

2) You really want to know? 0_o

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Those ties RULED! BTW, when Kira returns he's wearing a bowler, a tie with no shirt, and a kind of strawberry suit (like fugo's swiss-cheese suit, except with tinier holes all over it. >D) One assumes he is also wearing a sexy-na T-BACK (thong).

BTW I am currently uploading both the raws for the rest of part 5 and for under execution, under jailbreak, I guess. Further bulletins as events warrant!

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I just don't see how Kira returns! It looked like he was pretty well pancaked.

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

Will try to scan soon then! Or maybe I'll buy that extra copy of the book and uh, cut it up. Har har har! *poor, and cheap, but also LAZY*

(Yeah, it's uh... ghost detective Kira! or something...)

I think part of having a Stand also means people don't notice that your hair is suddenly gelling itself up in little spikes without benefit of a hairdresser. Or that your pants are held up by inner taping.

2) No, but it's a better que-- okay you're right. I'll be huddling in a corner over here, whimpering to myself.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I saw this, but there was one site that had JoJo characters drawn in Peanuts roundhead style. XD I think this should be done more often.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Damn, now I want to go look at fanart, because I exhausted the translations... Is there a search engine?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Actually I just started with the stuff linked by angrybabble and went through the links of those sites, etc. *g* Here's one:

http://nyanyapu.sakura.ne.jp/P/PP/jojo-link1.htm

I'm looking at this one (http://giulivo.fc2web.com/top.html), which amuses me because she has the same taste in series as I do (just... watch out for the Monster yaoi >_>).

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you. ^_^ I'm prepared to scour the inside of my skull. :D

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

Monster as in Urasawa's Monster?

...

DX Then again, uke Zaraki was pretty funny -- I don't know where I'm going with this.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Waiiiit. What ever do you mean "feel worried" for Araki-sensei? He just uh, went on a meta-level, why should I worry about that? XD Dunno, taking out the spider-eating-for-realism and stealing people's weight/lives to make manga, aren't some of the complaints the same as ever? (Or do you mean that you now think CLAMP is brave to have wanted to visit their favorite mangaka?)

*uses spider-thing icon*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I feel worried for Araki-sensei because not two volumes after Kishibe Rohan is introduced, a new character appears whose stand consists of tiny spiders. And Araki-sensei knows very well how their articulations bend, and what they look like when they're scooshed.

I'm just sayin'.

CLAMP are safe, they have their own stands. You may have seen them, they sort of look like marshmallow peep bunnies. Comes in black and white.

Re: *uses spider-thing icon*

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, that's a good point. (You r more observant than me. ) Hey, isn't realism in manga wonderful! *g*

XDDDD