JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Japanese: ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, Hepburn: JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump in 2005. The series is divided into eight story arcs, each following the adventures of a new protagonist bearing the "JoJo" nickname; the eighth, JoJolion, began its ongoing serialization in May 2011. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Shueisha's second largest manga by volume count, with its chapters collected in 127 tankōbon volumes as of April 2020.

A 13-episode original video animation series adapting the manga's third part, Stardust Crusaders, was produced by A.P.P.P. and released from 1993 to 2002. The studio later produced an anime film adapting the first part, Phantom Blood, which was released in theaters in Japan in 2007. In October 2012, an anime television series produced by David Production adapting Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency began broadcast on Tokyo MX. As of July 2019, the studio has produced four seasons adapting through the manga's fifth part, Golden Wind. A live-action film based on the fourth part, Diamond Is Unbreakable, was released in Japan in 2017.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is well-known for its iconic art style and poses, frequent references to Western popular music and fashion, and creative battles centered around Stands, psycho-spiritual manifestations with unique supernatural abilities. The series has sold over 100 million copies in print to date, making it one of the best-selling manga series in history, and it has spawned a media franchise including one-shot manga, light novels, and video games. The manga, TV anime, and live-action film are licensed in North America by Viz Media, which has produced various English-language releases of the series since 2005.

Plot
Each of the series' eight protagonists is a member of the Joestar family, whose mainline descendants possess a star-shaped birthmark above their left shoulder blade and a name that can be abbreviated to the titular "JoJo". The first six parts take place within a single continuity whose generational conflict stems from the rivalry between Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando, while the latter two parts take place in an alternate universe where the Joestar family tree is heavily altered.


 * Part 1 : Phantom Blood (ファントムブラッド, Fantomu Buraddo)
 * Volumes 1-5, 44 chapters. In late 19th-century England, the young Jonathan Joestar meets his new adopted brother Dio Brando, who loathes him and plans to usurp him as heir to the Joestar family. When Dio's attempts are thwarted, he uses an ancient Stone Mask that transforms him into a vampire. Phantom Blood introduces Hamon (波紋, "Ripple"), a martial arts technique that allows its user to focus bodily energy into sunlight via controlled breathing. With Italian Hamon master Will A. Zeppeli and former street thug Robert E. O. Speedwagon at his side, Jonathan uses his new affinity for Hamon to stop Dio, who has made world domination his new goal.


 * Part 2 : Battle Tendency (戦闘潮流, Sentō Chōryū)
 * Volumes 5-12, 69 chapters. The series is set in North America and Europe in 1938−39. Jonathan's grandson, Joseph Joestar, has a natural affinity for Hamon. After hearing Speedwagon supposedly died investigating the Stone Mask during an excavation in Mexico, Joseph goes to Mexico to investigate the awakening of a Pillar Man, a powerful humanoid whose race created the Stone Mask. When three more Pillar Men awaken in Rome seeking the powerful Red Stone of Aja that would make them into ultimate beings, Joseph and Will's grandson Caesar Zeppeli train in Hamon to defeat the Pillar Men. They are taught by Lisa Lisa, who possesses the Stone.


 * Part 3 : Stardust Crusaders (スターダストクルセイダース, Sutādasuto Kuruseidāsu)
 * Volumes 13-28, 152 chapters. In 1989, Japanese high school student Jotaro Kujo places himself in jail because he believes he is possessed by an evil spirit. His mother Holly calls on her father, Joseph Joestar, to talk sense into him. With the help of his ally, Egyptian fortune teller Mohammed Avdol, Joseph reveals that Jotaro has developed a supernatural ability known as a Stand (スタンド, Sutando), so named because they are the manifestation of the user's powers in the form of a spiritual familiar that stands with them. Jotaro learns that the phenomenon has run through his family due to a newly resurfaced Dio Brando (now referred to as "DIO"), who has fused his head to Jonathan's headless body. After thwarting an assassination attempt by transfer student Noriaki Kakyoin, who is under DIO's thrall, Jotaro and Joseph discover that Holly is dying from her own Stand. Jotaro resolves to hunt down DIO, and Joseph leads him, Avdol, and a reformed Kakyoin to Egypt, using their Stands to battle more Stand-wielding assassins along the way before 50 days elapse and Holly dies. In their travels, they gain allies in the French swordsman Jean Pierre Polnareff, who wishes to avenge his sister's death, and the Boston Terrier Iggy, who begrudgingly accompanies the group on the way to Cairo to permanently defeat DIO.


 * Part 4 : Diamond Is Unbreakable (ダイヤモンドは砕けない, Daiyamondo wa Kudakenai)
 * Volumes 29-47, 174 chapters. In the fictional Japanese town of Morioh in 1999, Jotaro arrives to tell Josuke Higashikata that he is the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar and to warn him that the town is becoming filled with Stand users; he learns of a mystical Bow and Arrow that bestows Stands upon those struck by its arrowheads. After Josuke takes revenge on a Stand user that kills his grandfather, he agrees to help Jotaro hunt down the holder of the Bow and Arrow, Akira Otoishi. The pair gains allies in Josuke's friend Koichi Hirose, who is hit by the arrow; Okuyasu Nijimura, whose brother Keicho was using the Arrow until it was stolen from him; Rohan Kishibe, a famous manga artist; and his estranged father Joseph Joestar. Along the way, the group battles the various new Stand users throughout Morioh, including several of Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu's classmates. Eventually, the death of one of their friends leads to the discovery that one of the new Stand users is the serial killer Yoshikage Kira.


 * Part 5 : Golden Wind (黄金の風, Ōgon no Kaze)
 * Volumes 47-63, 155 chapters. In 2001, Koichi Hirose is sent by Jotaro to Naples to investigate Giorno Giovanna, whom Jotaro has discovered is DIO's son fathered via Jonathan's body before his defeat, to see if the boy has a Stand and if he is evil. Koichi ultimately discovers Giorno's Stand and his pure goals for reforming a mafia organization from the inside out, and Jotaro lets Giorno live his life uninterrupted. Giorno joins Bruno Bucciarati's squad within Passione, the Stand-using mafia, which sends Giorno, Leone Abbacchio, Guido Mista, Narancia Ghirga, and Pannacotta Fugo on a mission to Capri to retrieve Bruno's former superior's riches. In addition to being attacked by rival Stand-using mafioso along the way, they are tasked by Passione's mysterious boss to escort his daughter Trish Una throughout Italy and protect her from others in the gang who wish to use her to find out the boss's identity.


 * Part 6 : Stone Ocean (ストーンオーシャン, Sutōn Ōshan)
 * Volumes 64-80, 158 chapters. In 2011 near Port St. Lucie, Florida, Jolyne Cujoh is arrested and sent to the Green Dolphin St. Prison for murder. Her estranged father Jotaro visits her and reveals that she has been set up in order for one of DIO's disciples to kill her within the prison. After revealing that a gift he gave her has awoken her latent Stand powers to protect her, Jotaro is attacked, and his Stand and memories are stolen from him by the prison chaplain Enrico Pucci, a disciple of DIO. To retrieve her father's Stand, Jolyne allies with fellow inmates Ermes Costello, Narciso Anasui, Weather Report, a boy Emporio Alniño, and the sentient Stand-using plankton colony "Foo Fighters" to save her father and stop Pucci before he uses his Stand to recreate the universe in DIO's image.


 * Part 7 : Steel Ball Run (スティール・ボール・ラン, Sutīru Bōru Ran)
 * Volumes 81-104, 95 chapters. In an alternate timeline's 1890, Gyro Zeppeli travels to the United States to participate in a cross-country horse race known as the Steel Ball Run. His skill in a mystical martial art known as the Spin, which he controls with steel balls, garners the interest of former jockey-turned-paraplegic Johnny Joestar, particularly after a ball briefly restores his ability to walk. Johnny travels with Gyro on the race to learn the art of Spin from him, but they soon discover that the race is a ploy set up by Funny Valentine, the President of the United States, to search the country for the scattered parts of a holy corpse for his own patriotic ends. Gyro and Johnny work together, along with fellow racers Mountain Tim and Hot Pants, and race organizer Stephen Steel and his wife Lucy to stop the President from achieving his plans which threaten the world. They fight against Valentine's hired assassins in the race, including the charismatic racer Diego Brando.


 * Part 8 : JoJolion (ジョジョリオン, Jojorion)
 * Volumes 105-127, 100 chapters. In the same universe as Steel Ball Run in 2012, the town of Morioh has been devastated by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which has caused mysterious faults colloquially known as the "Wall Eyes" to appear in town. Local college student Yasuho Hirose is near one of the Wall Eyes when she discovers a young man buried in the rubble and a strange bite mark on him. She nicknames him "Josuke", as he cannot remember his own name, and after following a lead that he may be "Yoshikage Kira", an attack by a Stand user leads them to find the real Yoshikage Kira's corpse. Josuke is put in the care of the Higashikata family, whose patriarch Norisuke IV seems to know more about Josuke than he initially lets on, but Josuke himself discovers that the Higashikata family and Yoshikage Kira's family are linked due to Johnny Joestar's marriage to Rina Higashikata in the late 19th century. Josuke and Yasuho ultimately discover that Josuke is in fact Yoshikage Kira, mysteriously fused with another person, and Yoshikage Kira possessed the knowledge to cure a curse that has plagued the Higashikata family for centuries. Norisuke IV wants that knowledge back to save his grandchild from the same fate he and his family has suffered, but a mysterious race known as the rock men and Norisuke IV's son Jobin seem to be conspiring against them to both prevent Josuke from regaining his memories and from lifting the curse on the Higashikata family.