Here we are again with JoJo’s! I love how this show is so easy to talk about, unlike some choice others of the season. Either way, here we are with the resolution to the ever so annoying Chili Pepper!
Introducing Akira, the crazy guitar wielding stand user! How electrifying. Anyways, he is pretty much what you would expect given his stand: narcissistic, arrogant, and zero chill. I suppose that description was within the degrees of freedom I used last week. Regardless, Akira is pretty much a playbook JoJo villain. Unlike some of the duds of Stardust Crusaders, I actually hope to see Akira again. He adds a lot of energy to a cast that would be very bland (without Okuyasu). I find it interesting how this series is keeping the villains in town (hospital mostly) as they mentioned last episode. Given how many of them appear in the opening, I expect more appearances.
I also love the three JoJos reunited. Family pride has actually been a fairly prevalent theme throughout all the seasons, but draws little attention from critics, which is surprising considering the premise is based on following the Joestar family. The family theme has a multitude of implications. First of all, the majority of issues faced in the series center around protecting, saving, or avenging a family member. Just to name a few: Jonathan pursued Dio in part because of his father’s death by Dio, Jonathan also sacrificed himself for his son, Joseph fights the idols to protect his grandmother, and later Jotaro and Joseph fight to save Holly, and now Josuke fights to protect his mother. But this is not just true of the JoJo line. For example, Polnareff fights to avenge his sister, Ceasar fights for the honor of his late father, and Okuyasu fights to avenge his father.
Another thing I have noted about the family pride theme is that characters, especially male protagonists, feel an extraordinary responsibility towards protecting their family. Also, if their family meets harm in any way, then the males feel responsible for what happened. You see this a lot in characters like Polnareff and Jotaro, who are both left enraged when the women in their life (sister and mother) are harmed.
Another common theme, with exception to Lisa Lisa (Joseph’s mother), is that the men most always protect women. Even with Lisa Lisa, Joseph had to come save her when Kars tried to kill her. As far as my understanding, there is only one female JoJo to date (Jotaro’s daughter) who is the main protagonist of the sixth story. Although this does come off as a bit sexist, given the gender equality realities in Japan, especially when the books were written, this doesn’t surprise me.
The last thing I want to mention right now (on this theme) is that the “goodness” of any given character directly correlates with how much the character loves/tries to protect their family. At one end of the spectrum, the JoJo’s are big on family, and are the protagonists. Alternatively, Dio is the ultimate villain, and he always wished his family harm and only valued himself. Okuyasu and his brother are also great examples; Okuyasu loved his brother, but his brother always claimed him to be a menace and held little concern for Okuyasu’s safety. Consequently, Big brother bit the dust, while Okuyasu, who retained his love, is left standing and is now a protagonist. Similarly, Ceasar used to want to kill his father, and was going down a dark gang-filled path, that is until his father risked his life to save Ceasar, which made Ceasar regain respect and love for his father (boom, protagonist!).
Well I hoped you enjoyed my JoJo family centric blog today! Here is a little touch of the ever so hilarious Okuyasu to tie things up:
SLOANER ANIME 