Mastodawn

Why do people recommend Jojo's when it's so slow paced and bad? Like Dio is an asshole and he's fun to watch, but that's about it for me. Nothing happens. It's just action figures going bonk, and the author doesn't even provide any groin based bonking.

But like it's just a guy and another guy! And the one guy punches the other guy. And sometimes it gets weird like with the little guy in the other guy's ear and a third guy has to punch him reeeeeeally carefully, but. It's just plot. It's just things happening. Do people care about the things happening? Is it supposed to be funny?

What do people see in this show???

blobcatgooglynotlikethis

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

I watched most of the first 3 arcs.
The series peaked when Dio killed Jojo's dog.
That was hilarious.
It was also like five episodes in.

_______________________
Okay I'm leaving the above unedited because I just wanted to be snarky and write something funny that also gets across how I feel about the show. But I just looked it up to see when Dio killed the dog and had an out-of-body experience.

I found the Jojowiki page for Danny, the dog.
List of manga appearances: chapter 1-4, appeared - chapter 5, death.
List of anime appearances: episode 1: death

WHAT

HOW

cirno_for_reals

You're telling me it was all one episode from Dio showing up to him killing the dog? I thought it was at least a couple hours of footage! How!? How did the series peak on episode ONE? IT WAS TRULY ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE!? What else even happened in season 1? I guess he had to learn the water punching thing and save the kid, and there was something with Jack the Ripper? Okay maybe it makes sense. But the show never did anything that funny OR compelling after that point! And this is a massive show! Enormously popular! It's less entertaining than the average soap opera!

yelling jackal 8h ago

@CheetahFluff I heard this happen in real time and it was glorious to overhear the anguished wailing

big bappy pawbs 8h ago

@CheetahFluff ... wait, shit ... what???

Oh gods, how fucking long was that first episode? I thought I got through full SEASONS before they talked to water punch lady or what the heck ever.

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

@itspomf Yes! I became a different person in the time it took for Dio to take over the house.

This was an agonizing discovery, I'll be reeling for days. Days I say!

princess pancake

@[email protected]

weird taste

First part is forgettable yeah, and the third one is very procedural (right until where you stopped roughly)

But I think it's very Matter of Preference based, and while I don't know if I'd call part 5 my favorite, it's definitely up there

Depends what you expected really

princess pancake

@[email protected] The slow start of Stardust Crusaders is actually pain and fails the Chekhov's Gun test so! many! damn! TIMES!

Araki hyperfocused and then forgor 💀

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

@natty I really was told it was this big amazing thing that I had to see if I like anime, but also that it was weird and off-kilter. I was getting to it a bit earlier in the thread, but I was sold one thing, and got another. I know at least a few examples of shows with great fights or zany characters, so I was comparing against those the whole time.

My first understanding of the show was that it'd have high quality storytelling and character work to make the silly combat I'd seen in memes have any weight whatsoever. It did not. It was like Totally Spies with boys, lol.

But genuinely the first episode had me interested. Evil Dio promised a lot of very personal conflicts, but the show just... doesn't remember to do that.

princess pancake

@[email protected] Yeaah not really it's a chore, the OVA of Stardust Crusaders entirely skips the first half of SC

Expect to completely forget the power scaling thing

Characters don't really recur till the end of SC and even later it's kinda
leaning on fanservice (every part spans like a few weeks with years to decades inbetween

neofox_googly_shocked

)

The goofiness (and mischief!) does have its charm though, and you might like the part 4 villain

princess pancake

@[email protected] The narrative dead ends never disappear though (I don't think I can really count self-references as a part of the narrative now can I)

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

This has been a very fun thread to spend an hour on

@CheetahFluff which one?

Cheetah Fluff 9h ago

@lilacperegrine I watched through most of season 3 before I got over my cold and could enjoy life again. Everyone who recommended the series said it was so good, and amazing, and cool. But no. It was just a bit silly and very slow. Humanity lied to me!

I asked my friends when it gets good, after I stopped watching, and they said season 3. To which I said, "no it didn't lmao." And one friend said season 4 was her favorite because it was quite different, but she said it was somehow even slower than the other seasons.

So I'm talking about everything that I watched. Why would anyone slog through three seasons of that show?

@CheetahFluff
huh, i would say S3 is my fav - i like the various powers, their interactions, and how often than not brains come in to save the day (as in they think something is unbeatable until they come up with a way to solve the issue)

but yeah, at the end of the day it is dudes beating up other dudes.

Cheetah Fluff 9h ago

@lilacperegrine I feel like if you want dudes beating up other dudes, with some clever problem solving, Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty darn good. I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of that show. There were fights so good I stood up and clapped! If Jojo's had way more of Dio being a Horrible Evil Bastard, I think I'd like it a lot more. Have him trick every Joestar into kicking their dog or whatever, that was great.

I do want to make clear I have nothing against people who like Jojo's, I just really want to understand!

@CheetahFluff for a second i thought you were talking about jojos are in the battered fried potato wedge variety and I was really confused, just like "wait wait wait, people recommend them because they're delicious--- oh. oh. ohhhh."

i might need more coffee

Cheetah Fluff 9h ago

@Chel Chel, bunny, no X'3
Go get your coffee and find a creature to pet.

(I kind of want to try one of those now, they sound good.)

@CheetahFluff done and done!

and 10/10, highly recommend!

Cadey Bunny 9h ago

@CheetahFluff honestly, I really liked part 1 and 2, but then part 3 was really annoying to me. And, I guess I just never saw anything exciting enough that really got over the annoying bit.
I liked part 2's villains and protagonist. There was a certain level of absurdity of predicting what the opponent would say or do, too. It was genuinely pretty funny and cool.

Cheetah Fluff 9h ago

@cadeybunny I liked the second Joestar as well, he was a bit of a scamp. Fully agreed on part 3 being hard to get through. That's where I stopped. x_x

big bappy pawbs 9h ago

@CheetahFluff I tried watching the original JJBA and uh ... yeah, I agree? It's vaguely amusing because you're trying to figure out WHY you're watching, but ... it never actually gets better???

I dunno. I'm probably not the target audience of Menacing Pose Shounen Fashion Runway Show Twonks but you're not wrong that even the plot is "and then we punch them."

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

@itspomf That's exactly it! That was my experience! Like, "why am I supposed to like this????" I was watching it while sick with my spouse, so we couldn't do much else, lol. It was so confusing.

And like, I like menacing fashion boyz beating each other up! One Piece fills that niche for me a little, but it has a lot more going on. There are so many other anime out there that do absurdity better, that do action better, and that have an actual plot at the same time! They don't do aggressive posing as well as Jojo's, but surely that's not the biggest selling point of this show. Surely that's not why this series got so popular. Maybe it got popular for ending episodes on "Roundabout." That was a pretty good choice.

I just can't imagine someone approaching Jojo's and enjoying it for absurd action, and not also enjoying a bunch of other anime.

big bappy pawbs 8h ago

@CheetahFluff total segue, but I kind of felt the same way about Deathnote when everyone I knew was insistent that it was some amazing thing.

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

@itspomf Deathnote was amazing when I watched it as a teenager. It was just a bit of silly fun when I rewatched it as an adult, but it also became something I wouldn't easily recommend to others after that point.

Someone else in the thread agreed I got into Jojo's a bit late and that that probably affected my ability to enjoy it. Getting into Deathnote after it was big, or after a certain age, would definitely affect one's ability to enjoy it. You have to suspend you disbelief in some big ways to have fun with it.

I will say, as confused as I am by Jojo's, I've never had a more intense aversion to a popular show than in Re:Zero. I truly hated that one.

big bappy pawbs 8h ago

@CheetahFluff oh jeez, I think I saw that one on ANN and noped out real hard, since all the other video game isekais burned me hard.

Cheetah Fluff 7h ago

@itspomf I had only seen SAO by that point. So I'd seen one bad isekai, and wanted to know what people thought a good isekai was. It did at least manage to do something interesting, unlike SAO.

But the interesting thing it did was make me distrust my male peers. The protagonist is supposed to be relatable but he's just evil. This is what they thought relatable was? This guy who treats other people like tools? He gets a redemption arc! But I don't care! Way too many lines were crossed! His shame should lead him away from these poor people forever!

In the end, I did not see a good isekai.
(until reincarnated as a slime, that was a decently fun little thing about community and togetherness and the protagonist was a lot more mature)

big bappy pawbs 6h ago

@CheetahFluff I think you nailed it at that last bit there: too many isekais are for extremely immature (and insecure) little shits with behavioral problems, and I get turned off from them so quickly.

Maybe it's slime time.

NaClKnight 🧂⚔️🥊8h ago

Ok, as a certified JoJo enjoyer, i can't make anyone else like it but i can explain why i do.

Jojo casts vary enough that i have definite favorites (Part 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable and Part - Stone Ocean).

In my favorite seasons, the humor is irreverent and the powers are interesting. Good Jojo fights have this "kids in a sandbox" quality to them where the powers are made up but they are consistent and you're arguing over who has the most creative application of a simple power. At its best they feel like detective cases or logic puzzles.

Kira in Part 4 has a very fun "if then" condition that creates excellent tension.

Josuke and Jotaro both have clear win conditions (Get close enough to punch the shit out of someone) but have to navigate the environment and the opponent's powers first, usually under extreme duress. Their friends help in real tangible ways that keep it from feeling like only JoJo gets to be cool.

The monster of the week format ensures that the whole team gets to do a cool. The designs are flamboyant and ridiculous in a way that lampoons masculinity. Everything is exaggerated. Everyone is exaggerated.

I like the designs and the powers and the bombast and the irreverence and so JoJoBA largely works for me. I think Stardust Crusaders is a low point in the series to me because it feels more like ab 80s action movie played straight and it has a villain of the week series in the desert that feels like it goes on FOREVER.

Like i said, i can't make anyone else like it but i can explain Why i do. I'm gonna check w my wife and see if she has any points i missed.

Cheetah Fluff 8h ago

@NaClKnight This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

I had a good laugh reading that, honestly.

Some other people here have said Stardust Crusaders is a low point as well. I had a friend say that was the best arc, and it was the only arc name I recognized when I went into the show, so I thought it was just the famous, good arc. It was rough. I did like the outfits and designs and how standoffish Jotaro was. There are parts of the show that work, and the new seasonal cast with some leftovers was the thing I enjoyed most. Monster of the week and season of the... generation, I guess, haha.

Len said earlier that if we get terribly ill again, maybe we should just skip to arc 4, and after reading this, I think that's just what we'll do. Since everyone is saying I dropped in the low part, I might as well give it a shot when it's doing better.

Thanks for the thoughts!

NaClKnight 🧂⚔️🥊7h ago

@CheetahFluff I'm glad that conveyed the appeal. Jotaro and Jospeh both are supporting cast members in Part 4, but Jotaro there works great as the serious straight man among a cast of delinquent high schoolers and an old man.

Stardust Crusaders is the most famous arc because it's where the series debuted its "Stands" concept, and because Dio is great. Before Part 3 they use an entirely different power called Harmon that isn't nearly as creative or fun.

Stardust Crusaders is also the straightest, least transgressive arc with the simplest powers. I think 4 is tonally distant enough that i appreciate you and @len being willing to give it a try.

I will warn that it's not till Part 5 that the show gets its first full time female cast member, and Part 6 has a female lead and mostly female team. But Part 4 is distinctly less "cool dudebro" than Stardust Crusaders

yelling jackal 8h ago

@NaClKnight @CheetahFluff that desert thing was where we bailed, not even being sick and having nothing else to do could save that. It felt exactly as you describe it

cirno_for_reals

This is exactly answering what I was wondering, though, and I think we'll have to give it a go starting from part 4! (Stardust Crusaders will be left in the dust. I don't want to watch 80s He-Man.)

Space Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪6h ago

@CheetahFluff I watched everything up to the end of Stone Ocean, and I still can't decide if I hate watched it or not. I like to refer to it as "Jojo's Fucking Stupid Adventure."

I feel like it doesn't know how funny it is, like the supernatural stuff is portrayed so seriously, but it's as silly as the daydreams in Calvin And Hobbes.

And the characters are SO COOL AND TOUGH!!1!!, but with homoerotic levels even more over the top than the action, seemingly with absolutely no self awareness. Like Scott Thompson's suburban dad character in Brain Candy, the guy who's in the closet is the only person on the planet who doesn't know he's gay. But again, it's played completely straight? How? Just make them kiss already!

So yes, I found it compelling, I was entertained, but I also thought is was incredibly stupid.

But then, when I look at the stuff that I unironically enjoyed when I was 14, a lot of it could be described the same way, so maybe it's an age thing.

Luna Lactea 4h ago

@CheetahFluff they are on a journey

It doesn't seem too slow to me. It seems simple, but simple doesn't mean bad.