We talk about the conclusion to the Phantom Blood arc and how author Hirohiko Araki avoids "resetting to zero" in order to have a handle on the power creep of his heroes and villains. Skip synopsis @ 5:29
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107: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure vol. 5
By Hirohiko Araki
Chapters 38 to 44, The Three from a Faraway part Land part 3 and Fire and Ice part 6
Translation by Evan Galloway
Lettering by Mark Mcmurray
In the final volume of Phantom Blood, the Joestar group including new members Dire, Straizo and Tonpetty confront Dio. Dire makes his first strike only to be flash frozen and dismembered by Dio. Dire's head is thrown away and lands near a rose, in his final moment a conscious Dire uses his mouth to sling a Hamon infused rose at Dio and blind him in one eye.
Jojo then strikes Dio with a sword, splitting the body in twain, yet Dio reforms his body and grabs Jojo by the carotid artery, with the sword still attached. Dio attempts to freeze Jojo's feet in place as he uses his vampire venom on Jojo and keep him alive so to leach Jojo's life energy. The two form an impasse of physical dominance over each other. Yet the fast-thinking Jojo twists the sword towards a naked flame behind Dio. The thermal energy is channelled as Hamon and is used to free Jojo and defeat Dio, blasting the vampire out into the ocean. Jojo uses Hamon to push Dio's venom from out of his neck whilst Tonpetty and Straizo fight off the rest of Dio's zombies and save Pocco's sister in the process. Afterwards they destroy the stone mask that gave Dio his vampire powers.
Time passes and Jojo is on a cruise ship to America with his new wife Erina. He is alarmed when he sees Dio's servant Wang Chan on board, soon he discovers that Dio is on the ship now surviving as a head in a jar. Dio reveals his plan to turn everyone on the ship into his zombies and behead Jojo so that he can gain a new body. Believing that if destiny forces him not to beat Jojo then he may as well literally join him, Dio's brain to Jojo's flesh!
A desperate and cornered Jojo manages to infuse Hamon into Wang Chan, making the Chinaman a puppet to Jojo's will. Wang Chan's body is then used to block up the steam engine on the boat with Jojo's plan being to blow the ship with Dio and himself on it. Erina wishes to die with Jojo until Jojo asks Erina to live so that she may save the life of an orphan baby on board. This is Jojo's dying wish as an orphan whose mother also died cradling her child.
Jojo dies on the ship with Dio's head in his arms. Their fight finally at its conclusion.
Topics:
· Impressions and technical aspects of the manga.
· Original scene in the studio David anime, the chess scene.
· The "man vs man" conflict of shonen manga compared to the "vs nature" style of plot.
· "Never return to Zero" Hirohiko Araki's rule on storytelling, and how he compromises this by having his "heroes pass on the torch" a clever way on avoiding "power creep" settling in on his heroes and villains.
· Spin offs and media tie ins:
- The 2007 animated movie based on the manga has parts of the story, power element explanations, famous lines, and characters omitted from it. Since there are too many to list here you can instead read up on the differences on the dedicated Jojo Wiki.
- In 2006 there was a videogame adaptation for the Playstation 2, a sort of spiritual sequel to the previous 2003 game that was an adaptation of part 5 of the manga series. Considering the release date, it is fair to say that this was meant to tie in with the film release.
- A 2013 videogame, 'All Star Battle' originally for the Playstation 3 features characters from Phantom Blood as well as the rest of the series.
- A 2015 videogame called 'Eyes of Heaven' was originally released for both PS3 and PS4 Playstation platforms. The main antagonist of the game is "Heavenly Ascension Dio" a Dio from another reality that is able to use interdimensional travel as he fights multiple generations of the Joestar family. This version of Dio was made specifically for the story of this videogame.
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