Jojo’s Bizarre Training Adventure
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Hirohiko Araki
Translation: Evan Galloway
Touch-Up Art & Lettering: Mark McMurray
Design: Fawn Lau
Editor: Urian Brown
What They Say:
The battle against evil takes a diabolical twist as more Pillar Men awaken! Now it is up to Joseph Joestar and his new ally Caesar Zeppeli to try and stop their nefarious plan! But these are creatures of unimaginable power, and JoJo and Caesar will have to get a lot stronger to even stand a chance in volume 2 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Jojo has gotten himself into a bit of a predicament, first with Zeppeli’s grandson Caesar and then with more Pillar Men, Wamuu, Kars, and Esidisi (named after the bands Wham!, The Cars, and AC/DC). The personalities of Jojo and Caesar simply don’t meld together. Jojo is a joker whose seriousness comes out in retrospect, but hardly ever at the moment. Caesar prefers to keep a serious profile and waves Jojo off as a joker before they even fought against each other. But when a pigeon flew into Caesar’s mouth, he realized that Jojo was more than he ever let on.
This really sets up for the rest of the character relation in what is largely a montage training arc that follows. Both men are trying to get better to defeat Wamuu, Kars, and Esidisi and to protect the Red Stone of Aja, but neither have that on their minds during their three weeks of training. Both of them are trying to best the other because of how competitive they are and their contrasting personalities. With Caesar, Araki has created a great foil for Jojo and a quick friend in someone that neither would expect in different circumstances.
The beginning of what seems to be the main arc of Battle Tendency, and what was set up with Santviento, is the Pillar Men that come to life in Italy. They prove much stronger than either Caesar or Jojo when they awaken and make quick work of both before running off to find the Red Stone of Aja. But before they leave, they place rings with poison in them that will release in 33 days. Through Jojo’s own natural 20 charisma check, he convinced the three Pillar Men to give Caesar and Jojo a month to train and face off against the Pillar Men in a fair fight.
Herein lays the Pillar Men’s flaw (character flaw, not flaw in the content): They’re a little cocky. And after 2,000 years of dormancy, they (fighting beings) are likely itching for a good fight. They give Jojo the time EVEN THOUGH the book said he’s the main character. It’s like they weren’t even paying attention to the fourth wall breaking. But in seriousness, they’re goaded into this by their own hubris. They would have left Jojo to die if not for his words and brain. Jojo fights with his fists, sure, but his real weapons aren’t physical.
But to defeat these Pillar Men, Jojo will need not just brains, but also Hamon. He and Caesar go to Caesar’s master, Lisa Lisa. Araki himself said Lisa Lisa was out of the mold of normal characters of the time (the late 80’s) there weren’t women characters that fought, or that had brawn at all, or were the master of anything except the stereotypical womanly things. Araki turned the formula and made Caesar’s master a girl to, in his words, even out the gender distribution in the manga.
Her “teaching” isn’t as much teaching as it is literally throwing them into a pit to climb out of using Hamon. The rest of the book is spent with her assistants, Meshina (named after Jim Messina) and Loggs (named after Kenny Loggins), and in montages, so her role as a character, at least thus far, is severely limited. Though I hear she’s really cool, so she’s bound to have more stuff coming.
The excitement comes in the final pages when, on the day of their last test, Loggs is killed by Esidisi, who has found the location of the Red Stone of Aja. Instead of testing Jojo’s strength by fighting Loggs, he has a real test against the Pillar Man who could have beaten him down and killed him just three weeks ago.
In Summary:
This Jojo’s is much different from Phantom Blood. Phantom Blood was driven by Jojo’s desire to defeat his adopted brother Dio. Battle Tendency is driven by a necessity to get stronger for the safety of the world. There’s also a sense of challenge to everything. Jojo doesn’t necessarily only want to save the world from the Pillar Men; he also wants to test his strength against these great beings. But there’s more at stake than the world or tests of strength. There’s also the poison Wamuu put into Jojo that’s not yet cured.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: February 2, 2016
MSRP: $19.99
