Review ~ JJBA: Phantom Blood

 

JJBA: Phantom Blood by Hirohiko Araki

• Publication: December 2, 1986 - October 13, 1987

• Edition: Standard Hardcover (English JoJonium)  

• Volumes: 3

• Chapters: 42

• Demographic: Shonen

• Genre: Action, Adventure, Supernatural

• Adaptation: 2007 Animated Film (Limited Theatrical Release), 2012 Animated TV Series

A Tale as Old as Time

I am beginning to understand that there is a process to uncovering what JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure really is. Starting the series you are aware that this is going to be an unconventional read in every sense of the word. JJBA doesn’t shy away from uncharacteristic shifts in plot, tone and theme. Perhaps what's even more strange is that despite how nonsensical it all seems at first glance, that only makes you even more curious and even more interested, you begin to ask questions about this manga.

“What is this even about?” “Why are there vampires?” “Why is everybody dressed so fashionably?” “There are spirit beings now?” “What the hell is going on?!?”

 

This is JoJo’s trap, its ridiculous presentation is the very first snare that catches your eye and your interest. Sure you might say that you have plenty of other things to read, other manga that are more interesting, without needing to seem so complicated and over-the-top. Yet the more you read and the more time you spend learning about the manga landscape, JoJo stands looming ahead, unignorable, demanding you take note of its presence. That’s exactly what happened to me after all. 

JJBA is split into various parts, neatly sequencing the overarching segments of the greater story in this large-scale series. Phantom Blood starts off the now 9 part long manga with a surprisingly humble beginning. That’s what is actually most strange about Phantom Blood. It’s much more tame than what you have likely heard and seen from the series. An important note to consider is that much of what JoJo would come to be known for begins in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders. However, that isn’t to say those elements aren’t present prior to the third part. Phantom Blood shows glimpses of outlandish concepts and ideas, but holds itself back to perhaps feel a bit more grounded and familiar. 

 

The story is centered around a young, noble man. His treacherous adoptive brother, and an ancient stone mask that would forever change the course of their lives and the lives of future generations. It’s far from being as complex and thought provoking as many other manga, but the clash between good versus evil that Phantom Blood is portraying is still a fun read. Jonathan Joestar (or JoJo) is pure of heart, in his youth he’s somewhat of a well meaning oaf and as he matures, turns into a symbol of goodness, prevailing against all odds and perseverance. Dio Brando on the other hand, is comically evil. He is so unapologetically evil that his first act upon arriving to meet the Joestar’s is to kick the family dog as hard as he physically can. Dio makes use of every dirty trick, awful scheme and malicious act to achieve his ever-changing goals. Surprisingly, Dio actually steals the show in Part 1, I find that his unwavering bravado and ridiculously villainous attitude is highly entertaining. Jonathan is a decent main character, he’s fun to root for and you’ll find yourself excited at the points when he does turn the table, but he’s overly reliant on Dio to actually provide the story with engaging moments. Dio drives Phantom Blood forward, nothing would happen if he wasn’t always making some new scheme to get ahead of JoJo. 

To summarise Part 1, A seemingly low-life thief finds his luck turned around when he discovers the recent wreckage of a carriage on the outskirts of England. Hoping to find treasures from the corpses of the wealthy, the thief finds a survivor, that being George Joestar, who mistakes the thief’s intentions as him coming to the rescue. He states that he owes the thief his life. 

Now, years into the future, George’s son Jonathan is introduced to the son of that same thief, who comes to live with them in their enormous estate as an act of debt to the now passed on thief. This adopted son Dio plans to inherit the wealth of the Joestar family and sets into motion what will become a generational conflict. 

 

Part 1 starts very simple actually, it keeps things safe and its best moments come from fun action sequences with solid art to back it up, but it's not something most people would even consider reading if it weren’t tied to the JoJo name. It didn’t take long for me to realise just how dated Phantom Blood felt, and how it became noticeable in its art, plot and how the story continued and progressed. Araki was still feeling out what kind of author he wanted to be, it's reflected in the feeling you get reading through Part 1.  

I think what made the reading of this introduction to such an iconic series actually quite enjoyable, is that the kind of story on display for you here is best enjoyed if you lean into the campiness.

Phantom Blood takes itself very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that you begin to wonder if Araki is actually playing into the overly serious tone of the manga, which makes these qualities quite comedic. If you can get into the groove of Phantom Blood and go along with what would otherwise be an easy to mock story, you’ll find yourself having a lot more fun with its moments of world-ending severity.

 

In one of my favourite moments of the beginning of Phantom Blood, Jonathan begins to develop a bond with a young girl named Erina. The two begin a close friendship and their bond together flourishes into a charming relationship. The two are so sincere that after finding Jonathan carving their initials onto the bark of a tree, calls him a scoundrel for such an indecent act. Something I couldn’t help but laugh at when I first read. Dio begins to catch on to their budding romance and intervenes in an absurd way. Dio catches Erina by herself and asks her if she’s shared a kiss with JoJo yet. Convinced that they have yet to share such intimacy, forces a kiss with her, claiming to have stolen their first kiss. You can now add sexual harassment to the list of Dio’s crimes. This list will eventually become enormous, as you might guess.

JoJo hears of Dio’s actions and is fueled with a burning rage to take revenge and reclaim Erina’s honour by, you guessed it, beating his adoptive brother to a pulp. Prior to this particular engagement between the two, their last spar was a friendly one and ended with JoJo being made a mockery of by Dio’s quick reflexes and devastating punches. Finally, in this encounter, JoJo finds the upper hand and delivers an immensely satisfying headbutt to the fiend before unleashing a flurry of punches. It's the first moment in Phantom Blood where I got pumped to watch the chapter unfold, and in retrospect it's absolutely the feud between Jonathan and Dio that drives Part 1 forward. Many other aspects of the manga are close to being an engaging factor, but feel incomplete in a number of ways. 

 

 

There is a noticeable stagnation in Phantom Blood’s middle section, specifically during the portion where William Zeppeli is introduced, until the final confrontation and conclusion. I won’t deny that there are exciting moments without a doubt, but the issue once again arises where the story can’t help but fall into genre conventions and loses its weirdness, that driving energy the series is being powered with.

I think something that downplays the quality of specific scenes, particularly fighting sequences and encounters, is how the power system works for the heroes of early JJBA. After his first meeting with who would become Jonathan’s mentor for the manga, Baron Zeppeli, he is introduced to the art of Hamon. It is a sort of breathing based powering of the human body that harnesses air and blood flow to create energy not too unlike that of the sun. While it has a few creative qualities - like its strange frog demonstration - (Baron Zeppeli shows how the Hamon energy can pass through living things and then destroy other objects) Hamon falls into the trap of becoming a convenient scapegoat of abilities. JoJo uses Hamon like a 4 in 1 shampoo and can get out of so many dangerous situations by just using it in some new way we didn’t know it could be used. This is why it's ultimately a boring power system, one that would eventually be swapped out for a far more interesting set of abilities in the later parts of JoJo. Hamon is simply a vague, somewhat generic and uninteresting tool for the characters to use in the writing of combat encounters, and its lack of properly defined rules of use make the moments where JoJo does finally get the upper hand on his enemies feel less rewarding than they should.

Himbo Hieroglyphs

Phantom Blood was serialised 7 years into Araki’s career as a mangaka, he already had a good grasp on the process of drawing and writing manga, but it would be a bad-faith review to not mention that Part One has its fair share of inconsistencies regarding the artwork. Perhaps at what is most noticeable, is the variation in anatomy quality, you’ll find a number of panels with Jonathan being in some downright nonsensical positions, plus his proportions look like something out of a 2000s game character creator, it’s laughable once you notice it and can really pull you out of the story at times. 

 

It’s quite easy to criticise the art of Part 1, especially when you are aware of just how much Araki will improve in such a short time, but that isn't to say that there is nothing of merit here. Phantom Blood is still a visually exciting read, even with its strange looking characters and frightening anatomy. There is a sort of bulkiness with which the characters throw their punches, and those connected punches are weighty, crunchy and impactful. Araki doesn’t shy away from getting gruesome either, with some particularly nasty panels that show busted jaws, bashed skulls and ripped flesh. I find myself coming back to stare at Araki’s intense motion lines across the manga, and just how much volatility he can charge them with. Even the more tame moments of this tame portion of the greater JoJo story has absolutely electric panels. 

I find the character designs of this portion of JoJo to be fairly tame, these characters look well sketched and drawn but don’t impress me a great deal either. It’s well done work, but yet to truly amaze. I find that Erina is actually the character that’s given the most eye catching design. Araki put a great deal of care into giving her the look of the kind of features you would find in a painting, much like those artists he used to learn about from his father’s art books. But outside of Erina, there aren’t any who capture that quality very much.

 

There are however, some close ups or even 2 page spreads that let Araki show off his skill and experience, and those are a treat to find, with good detail and a great sense of scale to them. These give me the best impression of what this mangaka is eager to show to his readers, with such elaborate setpieces of a panel composition. The kind of stuff that is made to feel like when a movie shot lingers on a specific moment. 

I actually remember that during my read through Phantom Blood I found myself drawing a lot of comparisons to Bruce Lee films, with their outlandish fights and stoic main characters. This kind of comparison provides a much better picture as to what Phantom Blood’s personal style ends up being as a complete read.

 

 

 

The Knight and the Thief

 

I’ve been having a hard time finding the right way to present this manga. Phantom Blood is still a worthwhile read for those who are interested in starting the JJBA series, but it makes for a fairly weak first impression. There’s not much to latch on to besides some mildly entertaining combat, yet you can see the makings of something a bit more captivating deep under the rock. Like a sculpture that has yet to be fully carved out of its rocky exterior. 

 

The crux of this story, Jonathan and Dio’s bitter rivalry, might be straightforward and stale to most. Yet I couldn’t help but see that even with such a generic setup for these characters. Araki wanted to show how you could shift your mentality to face the future. Jonathan is struck with grief and hardship at a number of moments in his life. He has been given a life of luxury and could resign to a spiteful existence, but he chooses each time to respect everybody he meets and wants only to stop those who would seek to bring harm to others. Dio on the other hand was handed a troubled upbringing, with a pitiful father and no mother to care for him, he has let hatred consume him and even when met with the opportunity to start anew and live a far more comfortably life with a family who would support and truly care for him, he spits at the notion of such a thing and only seeks to to take. He couldn’t stand the thief of a father he had, yet the only sensible course of action for him is to continue to steal what others deserve and even lives, as a thief, just like his father. 

 

Phantom Blood ends in a surprising way. There’s a bit of a shock to seeing how this kind of story wraps itself up and it felt powerful and enticing to speculate how things would follow up in Part 2. It may not have been the most engaging read, but Phantom Blood is an honest manga. It knows that it can’t quite keep up with its younger siblings and still stands proud with its quirky characteristics and you can’t help but smile

Thank You So Much for Reading!

Final Score ~ 6/10