Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (2012) is based off the 63 volume manga of the same name. To date, the Jojo series has received very spread out and non-chronological adaptations of the 8 part series with the first adaptation in 1993-1994, which animated the second half of the third part of the series: Stardust Crusaders. The 2012 anime adaptation animates the first 2 parts of the manga (volumes 1 through 12), featuring Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. Phantom Blood had received a film adaptation in 2007. In essence, this is the tale that begins all of Jojo. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 2012 premiered during the Fall 2012 and Winter 2012/2013 anime seasons.
The Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga has long finished (1999) and similar to the Joestar family's curse, the earlier adaptations between in the last 20 years were all generally poor and long forgotten, mostly due to lack of chronology and jumping half way into a story. The 2007 anime film adaptation was a step in the right direction but not widely well known due to poor advertising. Luckily, Jojo returns in 2012 with an adaptation that begins appropriately from the beginning of the series allowing for many new audience members to join in on the party. As stated above, the 2012 series adapts the first 12 volumes of the manga and thus first 2 parts of the series to completion. The plot is spaced out very nicely with a strong narrative that explained a lot of the various terminology in the series. The premise is great as the story continues on for generations to come so that no one protagonist is infinitely strong. The one big flaw in this show is the skipping of most of the training regiments. Granted that adapting the entire menu would double the length of the series, it would be helpful to see (even if a little bit) how the characters actually progress to their next level. The magical appearance of "new techniques" in a showdown is nice and all but diverges from plausibility even for a shounen action title. Character wise is a mixed bag. Jonathan is generally a boring character while Joseph on the other hand is amusing. People also seem to chatter about the amount of plot twists...generally speaking, I find it rather expected for this show. It likes to build up some suspense to these moments that make it blatantly obvious over time. On the other hand, I love the dialogue in this show more than anything else and really glad they flushed that aspect out from the manga along with an appropriate cast.
Art is very well done. Detailed and has a nice classic feel that truly brings out a historical like setting along with the manga style from the 80s and 90s. Animation is by David Production and feels a lot like Tatakau Shisho -The Book of Bantorra-, which had decent animation. The quality definitely improved since then and fits with the premise of the series. I also enjoyed how the manga effects and color changing shots were incorporated in to the series. It really highlighted certain moments of the series.
OP and ED are generally stuff I didn't care about in this show. The jazz OP themes definitely fit with the series while the ED felt out of place at times. Background music was amazing and most definitely sound effects. Seiyuu was also fantastic for this title. Great cast, especially Joseph's seiyuu.
Enjoyment? Phantom Blood is arguably one of the more boring bits until the final showdown. Granted, it sets up the ultimate premise for the rest of the series so I'm glad the staff chose to start here instead of somewhere else. The adaptation leaves room for potential (proper) sequels in the future now that the manga is long done and that the industry has finally come to terms with giving this series a proper adaptation (or so I hope). Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is definitely one of the better series to kick off the year with and it has a different setup than most shows nowadays, not to mention one of the better action anime adaptations as of late. There is only one show that rivals the Jojo series and that is Hokuto no Ken. Seriously speaking, nothing else can even compare.
Overall, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 2012 is the best anime adaptation for the Jojo franchise to date. If you're new to the franchise, I suggest you start watching here as it does a great job at sticking with the key points of the manga. It gets the message across in a very concise manner.
Preliminary Score: 7/10
Final Score: 8/10
first all Joestars also vs Wham then vs Dio and vs zeppeli, well this episode was Lisa Lisa's turn showing how smooth and fast she is to defeat her opponent (maybe she inspired Rose from Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series ¬¬)- ...weak vampires like Wired Beck can't stand a chance (namesake from Jeff Beck and his band) but Jojo is starting to suspect who she really is to him so most likely, it'll be too late for her until he finds out -.- about the new Blu-rays I found some re-designed and uncensored pics comparing with TV screenshots (click to enlarge) ^^
