Speaking of tropes…
Considering how often we see shonen heroes inevitably run through various martial arts mentors, it’s a nice novelty to see Jojo have some romantic tension with Lisa Lisa. Or, is it more accurately a love triangle - - or love quadrangle? - - with Caesar and Suzy Q involved? The more complication, the better, in this case. When you watch however many shows run through their heroes through the requisite paces of anti-bad-guy-training, you start to appreciate the slightest amount of added intrigue. Again, even if you took away all the outrageous and parodic elements, JOJO’s would still be a deftly woven pulp adventure.
== TEASER ==
As the show establishes its lore further, I find it interesting that Araki has designed Hamon to be so comprehensively associated with every positive option in life. Jojo and Caesar’s powers come from sunlight, and breathing, and blood flow, and even flowing water (as opposed to frozen ice). Then you have the Pillar Men, and all their minions, who take their power from every negative inverse. From darkness, death and, of course, stagnate water.
That’s the most basic cliché in superheroic fiction - - pitting darkness against light - - but again, I admire this show for taking that concept to heart instead of relying on the surface details. There always seem to be some inherent contradiction in the concept of pacifistic warrior monks preaching peace, even while as they identify with the violent arts they study, day in, and day out. This show finds a more reasonable explanation for that, identifying chi/hammon/breathing as a positive force that is admittedly destructive - - but one that only destroys negative threats.
Well, this is an awful lot of thematic subtext for a show that seems to be a total goof fest at first appearance, isn’t it?
Watch "A Race Towards the Brink" and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episodes.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1oOFRuX
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