Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Robbie checks in with “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6 — Stone Ocean, Chapter 24
Written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
“Hold the heck up,” you might be saying. “This manga came out in the late 90’s, why are you reviewing it now?”
Well, dear hypothetical reader, there are two reasons. Firstly, it’s because this column is “This Week in Shonen Jump,” and this chapter is clearly available this week in the Shonen Jump app. Secondly… I like this manga and want to talk about it.
(However, I feel like I must also give a content warning for these current chapters, because there’s an antagonist whose powers are activated by him trying to kill himself. So if that would be traumatic to you in any way, now you can be aware before reading it.)
So, this chapter of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” picks up following not Jolyne, but supporting character Ermes Costello, who has just begun developing her Stand power: Smack. Okay, so it’s actually “Kiss” in Japanese, but the manga makes a lot of references to music and bands, many of which have to be changed when localized to avoid dealing with copyright issues. (That’s also why another Stand in this chapter is called “Freeway Thru Hell,” although that name makes it pretty obvious what it’s originally called.)
As Ermes tries to make her way back to her prison cell, and away from the effects of Freeway Thru Hell, she encounters Emporio, the young boy with a baseball that Jolyne kept seeing pop up mysteriously around the prison. And that’s where the story begins.
This issue is, in large part, explaining the plot and Stand abilities to Ermes, but that also makes it a good point for readers to catch up on the story. But at the same time, it expands the world by introducing Emporio’s ghost room and giving readers their first look at two new characters.
In short, it’s a bit of a breather chapter to get everyone up to speed before Ermes’ first Stand battle continues, but since this is “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” there’s still plenty to talk about.
This is a manga that does not do “subtle.” Everything, and I mean everything, is over the top. Characters will exclaim every last detail about what’s happening to them, everything they do or say is accompanied by a dramatic pose, and even the appearance of a glass of water is accentuated by dramatic sound effects.
And it is all the more glorious for it.
Hirohiko Araki’s art makes all the difference. His character designs, which draw heavily from fashion designs and have a very unique fashion of their own, are absolutely brimming with a distinctness and personality you will never see anywhere else (aside from Emporio’s baseball uniform, I suppose). To call the linework “bold” would be an understatement, with detailed creases and contours to everything from the characters’ faces to the folds in their clothes.
And, true to the name of the series, it can absolutely get bizarre. We get an amazing panel of characters turning into flat, two-dimensional shapes to enter the ghost room, strange moments of a child trying to drink the ghostly remnants of a soda that passes through his face, and silent characters lounging about in a piano. Yes, not by a piano, but in it.
Each of those moments is given enough attention, care, and detail to make them pop. There’s a reason Hirohiko Araki’s art was on display in the Louvre.
In short: “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” has absolutely earned its lengthy run, and reprinting it in the Shonen Jump app gives new readers a great opportunity to read a classic manga, while we wait for the next episode of its long overdue anime adaptation. Even in the exposition-heavy chapters, it’s still filled with some good worldbuilding and excellent artwork. Yes, the way everything is intense, exaggerated, and over-the-top isn’t everyone’s taste, but that’s one of the things that makes the “JoJo” manga a series like none other.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – This isn’t the most exciting chapter, but it helps move the story forward, and good grief does the artwork look great.
