Rank the Jojo's parts
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#1 - Part 7: Steel Ball Run
#2 - Part 2: Battle Tendency
#3 - Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable
#4 - Part 6: Stone Ocean
#5 - Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
#6 - Part 1: Phantom Blood
#7 - Part 5: Golden Wind
#8 - Part 8: JoJolion
#2 - Part 2: Battle Tendency
#3 - Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable
#4 - Part 6: Stone Ocean
#5 - Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
#6 - Part 1: Phantom Blood
#7 - Part 5: Golden Wind
#8 - Part 8: JoJolion
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1. Part 7
2. Part 8
3. Part 8
4. Part 4
5. Part 3
6. Part 2
7. Part 5
8. Part 1
2. Part 8
3. Part 8
4. Part 4
5. Part 3
6. Part 2
7. Part 5
8. Part 1
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Pocket-Gog~ said:
You've got part 8 on the list twice. As for me so far I'd go with 4 > 5 > 1.
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Pocket-God said:Pocket-Gog~ said:
As for me so far I'd go with 4 > 5 > 1.
My bad 3 should've been part 6.
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It's set in an alternate universe that starts a new continuity, so no. You could avoid all other parts and just read Part 7 if you felt like it, especially since it basically combines all the positive elements of the previous parts whilst severely limiting the amount of writing flaws.ahill1 said:
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Yeah, the ending doesn't have has much impact if you haven't read Part 3, so I'd say waiting until you've finished that might be best [mention]ahill1[/mention].
Guess I might as well post my analysis on each part too. I'll add spoiler tags past Part 2 for SSJ2 and ahill.
Part 1: Phantom Blood
Whilst not the absolute worst of the series, it is easily the blandest. It plays out primarily as Hokuto no Ken with a Dracula atmosphere with nowhere near as much time spent developing the cast and far more melodrama in character deaths. The contrast Jonathan and Dio had with each other was well done and the ending was unexpected for a Shonen (even if nowhere near that of something like Ashita no Joe) and Dio worked well as a villain, though was still far too 1-dimensional to be called great. Overall, its main appeal is just acting as the introduction to the series and nothing else. 5/10
Part 2: Battle Tendency
This was a big improvement in most aspects from Part 1. The protagonist has far more personality and less cliched conventions, the support cast are far more than just cardboard cutouts and the fighting is far more tactical. It's far from excellent, however, as a lot of Joseph tactics require some level of suspension of disbelief and his luck in the Kars fight was just pure plot armour. Caesar's backstory being added on just before his death reeked a lot of "Walking Dead syndrome" in how it's all added at once for sympathy rather than being evenly paced throughout the arc. Also, the link between Joseph and the Pillar Men is probably the weakest out of any parts between their JoJo and the antagonist as Joseph only had much personal stakes with Wammu and rather than it being due to thematic opposition, it was purely revenge based. Still a unique action series for its time with fast pacing that allows it to be an entertaining ride. 6.5/10
Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
This is probably the most formulaic part, or at least tied with JoJolion. The majority of it is just a villain of the week formula which is unnecessarily extended at the expense of continuity once Araki ran out of tarot cards to use as a basis for villains and wanted to save ZA WARUDO. Whilst the character deaths were less melodramatic than before
some were ruined by prior events such as
The introduction of Stands made combat far more interesting and tactical and had far more potential than Hamon for variation. Still, it was implemented rather clunky in how Hamon takes a complete back seat and brings forth questions such as why didn't Joseph keep up his Hamon training, why Lisa Lisa didn't make sure to keep that in check or why Joseph never trained Jotaro in Hamon?
However, I wouldn't cite it as bad or average. Stardust Crusaders at least seemed more self aware that it was just a dumb action-comedy with campy horror elements that make it well executed as a dumb fun kind of series, along with having good chemistry between members of the cast and some level of subtlety in character development, such as how Jotaro's actions in his introduction contrast with his actions in Egypt or how Kakyoin's relationship to the rest of the cast is understandable when learning of his past. Overall, whilst highly flawed, still executed its good ideas well enough to rank as just above average. 5.5/10
Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable
DiU is often praised as the best of the first 4, which is definitely true, though the claim of it being the best of the original continuity is more questionable. The idea of bringing the scale of the plot down to being contained inside one town worked out surprisingly well and helped make its antagonist far more of an original villain. However, the plot structure presented some clear problems such as a lot of the Stand battles adding nothing to the plot (eg. Janken Boy), the Shonen idea of reforming past villains was highly overplayed
and the insistence of having this tone in the later sections of the part seemed inconsistent with character motivations when considering
The plot can seem a little formulaic as well with how throughout half of it the cast are searching for the Stand Arrow as it passes from person to person before needing to find the main villain, not to mention the latter would've been resolved fairly quickly if
The character writing is fairly good for the cast. Some can seem to be a little too unmotivated for their role in the plot (eg. Josuke), but the character development for characters such as Koichi, Rohan and Hayato is very well done.
Overall, it was still probably better than the previous parts, or at least tied with Part 2, though still had a lot of glaring flaws that would become more apparent with the next part. 6.5/10
Part 5: Golden Wind
This is easily the worst of the original 6 parts. It does contain some positives such as a proactive protagonist unlike Part 4, the thematic and ability ties/opposites between protagonist and antagonist being very strong, Stand abilities being a good way of characterising certain characters with subtlety such as
and the cast having no hesitation to kill being fitting with the setting and context, though the flaws of the part definitely overshadow these. First of all, the plot armour is thicker than ever before with characters shrugging off severe injuries to their throat and the like to the point the Black Knight from Monty Python and The Holy Grail would think this is silly, especially when contrasting it with how such injuries were realistically treat as severe in previous parts. Jonathan would be really jealous to see how much damage to the neck you ca endure with a little STANDO POWA, especially when the later main character deaths in the part once the group get to Sardinia make the previous plot armouring even more jarring. Whilst characterisation is OK amongst the main cast, the villains are all very one-note except perhaps Prosciutto and the later conflict of [spoiler[the three way war between Bruno's group, Passione and the Hitman Team was made hollow when the only member of the Hitman Team left at that point was Risotto.[/spoiler[ Along with that, the antagonist
is a huge disappointment. He's nothing but a huge mystery box with so many questions surrounding him that never get a solid answer, making him feel far more vapid than any of the other antagonists when it comes to characterisation.
Simply put. a part with poor villains and tonally inconsistent plot armour. 4/10
Part 6: Stone Ocean
Stone Ocean is perhaps the most divisive part of the series. On one hand, its protagonist has great development, its support cast are fairly interesting, Pucci has the most fleshed out backstory of any JoJo villain and the ending is both creative and well done. On the other hand, a lot of the events leading up to the conflict with Pucci are episodic Stand battles that serve less purpose than even the worst of Parts 3 and 4, the retcons of DIO's personality in flashbacks was obvious and the later plot point of
Still, when the part gets good, we do see the best that the original universe had to offer, though it's a shame that the retcons required for it to work bog it down. Also, Ermes is a worse version of Polnareff and Weather Report's character writing is limited by him
6/10
Part 7: Steel Ball Run
This is easily Araki's magnum opus, as he combines all the good qualities of previous parts whilst limiting the flaws to a trace amount. The main cast are morally complex, Valentine is perhaps the most justified villain in the franchise, having the Spin replace Hamon allowed for variation from Stand fights far more so and the way of achieving Stands in general was made far more concise.
Really, the only aspects I have to complain about are that luck could be such a deciding factor in a lot of battles, and
The ending is not only subversion done right, but a great tribute to the original conflict with Dio that helps tie the series as a whole together. This really should've been the conclusion of the franchise as SBR acts as an excellent tribute and send off to all that came before. 8/10
Part 8: JoJolion
JoJolion is divisive, and I stand in the camp of it being the worst part of the series. This lies in the slow pacing and lack of real focus. Even after over 80 chapters, the series is no further in bringing forth a staple antagonist and wastes time with conflicts that only half the time offer much to the plot and at other times are just Part 4 battles done poorly. The characters hardly really even have arcs here, with the awakening of new Stand abilities and the like that would usually offer development for past characters like Koichi and Trish are now just there for the plot. The equivalent exchange idea was interesting, though in terms of comparitive evaluation, Fullmetal Alchemist did it far better. Overall, JoJolion is a part without any real sense of direction or personal identity, something that even the previous worst parts of JoJo had. When it comes to the "Araki forgot" meme, one thing he definitely forgot here was proper story structure. 3/10
Guess I might as well post my analysis on each part too. I'll add spoiler tags past Part 2 for SSJ2 and ahill.
Part 1: Phantom Blood
Whilst not the absolute worst of the series, it is easily the blandest. It plays out primarily as Hokuto no Ken with a Dracula atmosphere with nowhere near as much time spent developing the cast and far more melodrama in character deaths. The contrast Jonathan and Dio had with each other was well done and the ending was unexpected for a Shonen (even if nowhere near that of something like Ashita no Joe) and Dio worked well as a villain, though was still far too 1-dimensional to be called great. Overall, its main appeal is just acting as the introduction to the series and nothing else. 5/10
Part 2: Battle Tendency
This was a big improvement in most aspects from Part 1. The protagonist has far more personality and less cliched conventions, the support cast are far more than just cardboard cutouts and the fighting is far more tactical. It's far from excellent, however, as a lot of Joseph tactics require some level of suspension of disbelief and his luck in the Kars fight was just pure plot armour. Caesar's backstory being added on just before his death reeked a lot of "Walking Dead syndrome" in how it's all added at once for sympathy rather than being evenly paced throughout the arc. Also, the link between Joseph and the Pillar Men is probably the weakest out of any parts between their JoJo and the antagonist as Joseph only had much personal stakes with Wammu and rather than it being due to thematic opposition, it was purely revenge based. Still a unique action series for its time with fast pacing that allows it to be an entertaining ride. 6.5/10
Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
This is probably the most formulaic part, or at least tied with JoJolion. The majority of it is just a villain of the week formula which is unnecessarily extended at the expense of continuity once Araki ran out of tarot cards to use as a basis for villains and wanted to save ZA WARUDO. Whilst the character deaths were less melodramatic than before
(other than maybe Iggy's)
Avdol's first "death" being retconned and Kakyoin having similar problems to Caesar.
However, I wouldn't cite it as bad or average. Stardust Crusaders at least seemed more self aware that it was just a dumb action-comedy with campy horror elements that make it well executed as a dumb fun kind of series, along with having good chemistry between members of the cast and some level of subtlety in character development, such as how Jotaro's actions in his introduction contrast with his actions in Egypt or how Kakyoin's relationship to the rest of the cast is understandable when learning of his past. Overall, whilst highly flawed, still executed its good ideas well enough to rank as just above average. 5.5/10
Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable
DiU is often praised as the best of the first 4, which is definitely true, though the claim of it being the best of the original continuity is more questionable. The idea of bringing the scale of the plot down to being contained inside one town worked out surprisingly well and helped make its antagonist far more of an original villain. However, the plot structure presented some clear problems such as a lot of the Stand battles adding nothing to the plot (eg. Janken Boy), the Shonen idea of reforming past villains was highly overplayed
(especially when doing so for Kobayashi and Hazamada offered nothing to the plot)
we have easygoing arcs for characters such as Josuke and Rohan with the "I am an alien" when they should've been focused on tracking down Kira.
Jotaro had tried to make Joseph use Hermit Purple properly to find Kira.
The main stand out for Part 4 is its main villain of Kira Yoshikage, with how fleshed out his personality is and how unconventional his motivations were in contrast to the likes of Dio or Kars. Moreover, the way in which he contrasts with Josuke in both their opposing Stand abilities and their desires in terms of both wanting a quiet life and needing to defeat the other to do so. Still, Kira is far from a perfect villain when you think closer, with how his actions for years in Morioh not affecting the happy tone of the setting seeming very inconsistent with the narrative. On the subject of Josuke and Kira's opposition, Okuyasu's survival in the climactic fight was poorly explained and just plot armouring.
Part 5: Golden Wind
This is easily the worst of the original 6 parts. It does contain some positives such as a proactive protagonist unlike Part 4, the thematic and ability ties/opposites between protagonist and antagonist being very strong, Stand abilities being a good way of characterising certain characters with subtlety such as
Moody blues showing how much Abacchio reflects on his past regret or Purple Haze manifesting Fugo's bottled-up rage
Diavlo
Also, Gold Experience Requiem being what beats him was a pretty huge copout in how much of a deus ex machina it was.
Part 6: Stone Ocean
Stone Ocean is perhaps the most divisive part of the series. On one hand, its protagonist has great development, its support cast are fairly interesting, Pucci has the most fleshed out backstory of any JoJo villain and the ending is both creative and well done. On the other hand, a lot of the events leading up to the conflict with Pucci are episodic Stand battles that serve less purpose than even the worst of Parts 3 and 4, the retcons of DIO's personality in flashbacks was obvious and the later plot point of
his sons seemed forced and opened up the question of why wasn't Giorno there, something Araki gave the poorest explanation for.
relying on an amnesia gimmick.
Part 7: Steel Ball Run
This is easily Araki's magnum opus, as he combines all the good qualities of previous parts whilst limiting the flaws to a trace amount. The main cast are morally complex, Valentine is perhaps the most justified villain in the franchise, having the Spin replace Hamon allowed for variation from Stand fights far more so and the way of achieving Stands in general was made far more concise.
Even when the protagonist gets a hax power up to compete with the antagonist's hax, it's a lot more limited in terms of how it can be used compared to Star Platinum: The World or GER.
Jesus talking Johnny into killing Valentine was a little hypocritical when he found Valentine worthy enough to offer the corpse part.
Part 8: JoJolion
JoJolion is divisive, and I stand in the camp of it being the worst part of the series. This lies in the slow pacing and lack of real focus. Even after over 80 chapters, the series is no further in bringing forth a staple antagonist and wastes time with conflicts that only half the time offer much to the plot and at other times are just Part 4 battles done poorly. The characters hardly really even have arcs here, with the awakening of new Stand abilities and the like that would usually offer development for past characters like Koichi and Trish are now just there for the plot. The equivalent exchange idea was interesting, though in terms of comparitive evaluation, Fullmetal Alchemist did it far better. Overall, JoJolion is a part without any real sense of direction or personal identity, something that even the previous worst parts of JoJo had. When it comes to the "Araki forgot" meme, one thing he definitely forgot here was proper story structure. 3/10
