JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE

Review by Matthew Anderson

7 Episode OVA series

Company: Super Techno Arts

Running Time: 90 Minutes (3 episodes)

Region: 1

Rating:R (Language, Graphic Violence, Sexual situations)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Jotaro is possessed by an evil spirit.

His mother, concerned for his well being, calls her father Joseph Joestar to figure out what is going on.

Joseph knows exactly what is going on. He knows that Jotaro is not possessed by an evil spirit, but a power called a "Stand", the spectral manifestation of his psychic powers. Along with his friend Advol, they managed to convince Jotaro to join them in their quest to find and destroy the evil immortal, Dio.

Dio, is very much aware of this and sends assassins to stop the Joestar family from discovering the truth.

Thing is, Jotaro is such a bad ass, no one can stop him!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: Wow, this is one of the sharpest looking transfers I have seen. There are no pixels, wrinkles, or blemishes anywhere to be found. This is the benefit of digital based animation. Many of the technical errors of the past are nonexistent when you are transferring from a digital source to a digital medium.

AUDIO: Of the four audio tracks, the English 5.1 is truly the best. Very powerful, with tons of surround sound to hit you from every angle. The subwoofer will bounce due the heavy metal soundtrack. The Japanese 5.1 is also pretty much the same, just a little softer. The English 2.0 and Japanese 2.0 are evenly matched, and are almost as good as the 5.1! The only difference with the 2.0's is that most of the audio comes from the center speakers.

EDITS: No edits. By using the angle button to see the original Japanese credits instead of the English credits!

EXTRAS: You have the episode one storyboards, image gallery, JoJo History time line (very handy), production interview, and the teaser for Vol 2. You also get two cool Tarot cards!

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Don't buy JoJo for an in-depth story. Like "Street Fighter" this is pretty much a typical "Bad Ass vs. Bad Ass" anime. The screenplay by Kenichi Takashima and Takao Kawaguchi is pretty straight forward, much like the JoJo manga by Hirohiko Ari. As the Japanese actor for Jojo says "He just grunts a lot"

ACTING: Pretty good on both tracks. Jurota Kosugi, who played JoJo in the first OVA, returns to the character that made him famous. His deep manly man voice is perfect for JoJo, who makes Captian Harlock sound like a wuss. The same can be said for Abie Hadjitarkhani. Again, his deep voice is perfect. At first, I thought it was John Dimaggio (Golgo 13) only clearer.

The rest of the cast fits the characters they play. No one really stands out, but then again, it's the visuals that do the talking.

FAN SERVICE: None to really speak of, except for a couple of brief nudie scenes involving Dio and his latest victim. There are some non-too subtle references to 80's rock groups like Dio, REO Speedwagon, and J. Geils Band.

FINAL EXAM

Absolutely bad ass!

That one simple phrase sums it up.

Absolutely bad ass!

Okay, now for the grown up review.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is 90 minutes of violence and butt whopin. There is very little plot, even less character development, and dialogue so macho, I felt inadequate. So why watch it?

Because it's absolutely bad ass! (I know, I have got to stop saying that.)

As the opening of the first episode began, it felt very much like the opening to a Kawajiri (Wicked City) movie . There was good vs. evil, and of course, good lost. The animation was detailed and powerful (I would say beautiful, but that would not be the macho thing to say). By recording the animation on a digital medium, you can really see the level of work that went into this. From there, I was hooked.

As we got to the first fight between Jotaro and Advol, we get an idea on how things are going to go. For the most part, the fights are better than the ones in "Street Fighter". Of the four fights on this disc, the one in episode two is the wildest. Talk about a snake tongue. The fouth fight between Jojo and the Orangutan was a little...well bizarre.

As you may know, the release of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has undergone some serious delays. It was coming out, then it wasn't. Then it was, but the company that was making it ran into some difficulties. It seemed that Super Techno Art's first release was going to fail before it had a chance.

Don't bet on it.

For a first release, Super Techno Arts has hit a home run. The level of quality is better than with most DVD's. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find any digital garbage. The audio was fantastic, and the only differences were mostly in volume. The extras were better than most, with the Joestar verbal history/Translators notes the most interesting of the extras. If the rest of the releases by STA are this good, they will have a loyal fan base sooner than you can say....absolutely bad ass!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an awesome testosterone fueled man's anime. The squeamish and the sensitive need not apply. With the love and care that STA has put into this DVD, you won't go wrong with this great first effort

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