Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 3--Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 2

I had already read this Manga in Japanese before reading this one in English. I think the translation is good, so you can enjoy it as it is in Japanese.

I was never interested in this manga because the title gave me the impression that it was a hyper series meant for kids. A friend loaned me the first volume recently and I felt obligated to give it a try. I was very pleasantly surprised! Initially, I was a little skeptical. The idea of the Joestar family whose duty it is to stand against the evil vampire Dios seemed a big formulaic and contrived, not to mention lame. Also, I wasn't too into the Western setting. Noblemen riding around in carriages just doesn't appeal to my imagination.. In addition, I couldn't get used to the art, which is extremely unique; the men are ridiculously huge (really tall, with huge shoulders and chests), and the women are very full-bodied and curvy. I found the design unappealing and awkward. I wasn't too fond of the main character's outfit, either; it's all black, with chains that don't have any purpose and what appears to be an extra belt. Even now that I've been won over and love the story, I still don't like his cap. Despite my misgivings, I was enjoying the story by page 22. The action scenes are a lot of fun and the story is definitely compelling. I even started enjoying the art. The concept behind the characters' supernatural abilities is pretty original, and the abilities that each individual has are well thought out. By the end of the volume, I was very ready to read more, and the story has grown on me a lot since then. The characters, especially the main character and his grandfather, are larger than life. In a way, that's good, but it also means that they're hard to relate to. Also, there's some grossness and gore; in one scene, a woman possessed by a parasite suddenly jabs a pen deep into a student's eye. However, as long as you like hardcore action stories with supernatural elements including vampires and super powers and don't mind the gore, this is an excellent choice.

When I first discovered JoJo 7 years ago, the only way I could get the whole (pictoral) story of the manga was buying the Mandarin version - since I could not locate the Japanese version anywhere. But now, Hirohiko Araki's 1987 classic has finally arrived, thanks to the wonderful folks at Viz. Since most U.S. JoJo fans are familiar only with the 3rd generation of the series (through either the Capcom videogame or the anime distributed by Super Techno Arts), Viz naturally began with it. Appropriately so, this story was where Araki first introduced what would become the signature of JoJo - The Stand. In a unique way of illustrating psychic battles of ego and will, each of the heroes and villains' powers are personified in the (often humanoid) form of a Stand - usually reflecting their own inner nature. Yet even with their incredible talents, the heroes still use their wits to apply their abilties in clever ways to defeat their opponents. Like Super Techno Arts's anime translation, Viz's translation remains faithful to that of Capcom's videogame. Araki is particularly fond of naming his characters after Western music icons. Thus, to avoid copyright infringement, names were slightly altered. Nevertheless, U.S. JoJo fans can rejoice now that this long underappreciated classic has, almost 20 years later, finally made it to our shores.