A shark gets flung straight out of the sea by an invisible uppercut - - only to then be pummeled into a bloody pulp, in mid-air, by that same invisible assailant. This, friends, is why I keep coming back to JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE. This is why I love anime.
== TEASER ==
You know, there’s an odd dichotomy to this show. The events unfold at a manic clip - - with a bizarre ideas being thrown at the wall constantly - - yet the tone and rendering style is really more deadpan than any other self-serious shonen. Araki once again demonstrates that there’s definite method to his madness in the way he earns sympathy points for Jojo #3.
It’s pretty much the same trick he did for Jojo #2. You can get away with as many episodes as you want where your hero is a petulant brat… as long as you show him sticking his neck out for somebody at some point. Araki takes that a step further by having these guys do right turns for kids who’ve just wronged them. Forgiving somebody who’s stowed away on your ship isn’t as big doing it for somebody who’s just grabbed your wallet (like Jojo #2 did for Smoky), but the principle’s still the same. It’s quite deft.
Of course, Jojo #3 isn’t saving a cat out of a tree here; he’s a saving a kid from a shark. So... that makes up sympathy points.
Said sympathy point address the show’s other unique dichotomy. I don’t know how old Anne is intended to be, but her introduction works enough like Susie Q’s that I could easily see her becoming a love interest for Jojo #3. In comparison to other major shonen, JOJO’s is unusual for giving its leads girlfriends, and consummating their romance rather quickly (I mean, no joke, there’s a lot of reproduction going on).
You juxtapose that most character’s… er… metrosexual fashion, and the show’s overall admiration with the male form, and it really seems like this whole series might a be Araki’s epic, ridiculing comment on that hyper-macho FIST OF THE NORTH STAR. It’s playing with gender roles aggressively, as if to say that a hero can be manly while still having a very feminine sense of style.
Watch "Dark Blue Moon" and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous batch of episodes.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1ljp0hs
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