Canon review: Phantom Blood: Dio Brando the Invader

[tropicsbear]

Welcome to the first canon community review post!

Today's canon arc is Dio Brando the Invader, which covers Phantom Blood Chapters 01–05 or Episode 01, depending on the media you've chosen to review.

Which was your favorite scene in this arc? Did you prefer how the manga handled this arc or how the anime did? Anything in one media that you wished also appeared in the other? Let us know in the comments below!

(Sorry about the delay; I tried to set this up for scheduled posting, but I messed up one of the settings.)

Comments

[blueshiftofdeath]

Whew... finally got around to re-reading the manga for this! I've watched the first episode literally over 1 dozen times, so I have that down pretty much beat for beat, but I forgot a ton from the manga.

I totally forgot about the opening being a flashback to ancient times. I remember Araki explaining the rationale behind it in his "How to Write Manga" book; as per usual, it was about getting people interested in "turning the next page." It makes sense... I do find this opening more intriguing than the first scenes in the anime. (It opens with Dio's dad, who is not a charismatic character to say the least...) I assume the sexy lady picture at the start was a smart move on Araki's part in getting the target readers (boys) interested.

...buuut, as someone that's already seen the series multiple times, I'm still glad this opening scene was excluded from the anime. First of all, opening with the sexy lady turns me off immediately, for the classic reason of it makes it feel like it's not for me. One thing I really love about Jojo is the lack of overly-sexualized women and waifu characters in general, really... people can criticize how there's not enough women in Jojo, but I'd much rather have a series of only men than a series with men and waifu characters. (The few women that do appear in Jojo, I tend to enjoy immensely.)

Second of all, now that I'm already a fan, what interests me about Jojo is the characters and absurd shenanigans they go through. I know the "mystery" behind the mask and the stuff that's getting portrayed in the opening, so it's really just something I want to flip past... it makes sense that the anime dropped it, considering how much later it was made, at which point they could reliably assume people would watch it (whereas Araki had to be much more concerned about getting dropped when he was initially getting published).

I think Araki did a great job of setting expectations right away-- you quickly realize reading that this is going to be the story of Dio and Jonathan's relationship by the time you hit that one page after Dio gets out of the carriage and they introduce themselves. I feel like that panelling (the entire bottom half of the page dedicated to them facing each other and introducing themselves) is so iconic.

Dio kicking Danny is STILL so legendary and out of pocket. I've again watched the first episode literally one dozen times and it still makes me go 🙈 every time. If you hadn't read/watched it before, I really don't think you'd see it coming, and even knowing it's coming, it's like 🙈 It's just so shocking!! And again I think the pacing is great that it feel like such a hit out of nowhere.

I didn't notice before that was the end of the first chapter in the manga; it really does set the stage of what's to come!!

There's a bunch of random stupid stuff I wish they kept in, like Jonathan eating his chocolate and Dio pulling out a firecracker after the boxing match, but I get that the pacing was already insane as it was.

I didn't remember Jonathan liked spinning frogs around after tying their feet together... how totally un-gentleman-like lmao... And I know this is so stupid to say about something in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but Erina feeds Danny grapes which would kill him in real life.

In any case, Jonathan and Erina are so cute, and I think their relationship was a little more believable in the manga with the bit of extra time they got.

"It was me, Dio!"... LITERALLY ICONIC!!!!

The backstory with Danny is interesting... I figure the primary purpose is to give you a greater sense of Danny and Jonathan's bond to make Danny's later death all the worse, but it also gives a bit of an explanation for why Jonathan forgives so much shit from Dio; just like Danny was ultimately kind to him despite Jonathan's "fear and anger" driving him to be needlessly cruel, Jonathan continuously gives Dio the benefit of the doubt and always assumes he can turn over a new leaf, and that his life is valuable. You could say that was a lesson he learned from Danny... too bad Dio is Dio though 😆

Danny's death is awful in both the manga and anime, but I think it's so much sadder in the manga... wtf! 😧 Die, Dio!!!!!!!!!!

[tropicsbear]

I feel like the anime definitely got rid of a lot of Jonathan's ungentlemanly behavior, but I don't know if that was a deliberate choice to lean into the "Jonathan is the most uwu JoJo" trope (still true even with the frog thing and the smoking imo 😂) or if it was all cut for improved pacing.

The backstory with Danny is interesting... I figure the primary purpose is to give you a greater sense of Danny and Jonathan's bond to make Danny's later death all the worse, but it also gives a bit of an explanation for why Jonathan forgives so much shit from Dio

A galaxy brain moment! This never occurred to me until now and it makes so much sense?? Jonathan's not just a naive, kind baby; he also learned from Danny, his first friend. Danny deserved better, he was the best boi.