JoJo's is one of my favorite anime series. In fact, it's in my TOP 10 favorite anime list and that's a hard list to get into. At first, I wasn't really interested in JoJo's. At least not when I first saw it and that happened to be with a boyfriend at the time; so after we broke up, I was definitely disinterested in it. Years later, I ended up giving JoJo's a try one day because I was on Netflix and I was looking for something to watch.
Literally, ever since that moment, I've been hooked on JoJo's ever since then and I only regret not getting into it sooner. However, if I did get into it earlier, then I would have had to wait longer for Part 6, so I'd say I got the better end of the deal. Anyway, Part 6 is coming out this year and that has inspired me to do this new additional series: The Best of The Best! Basically, we're going to take a look at arcs, sagas, or parts in this case - and dissect them a bit and pick the best one! There are five animated parts: Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable, and lastly Golden Wind.
Along the way, we meet several Joestars: Jonathan Joestar, Joesph Joestar, Jotaro Joestar, Josuke Joestar, and Giorno Giovanna!
Part I - Phantom Blood
Part one pretty much lays the foundation for everything to come. In this part, we are first introduced to Jonathan's father; he's a fairly rich man and was involved in an accident of sorts. We also meet Dario Brando who ends up conveniently being nearby and saves the life the George Joestar. After this, George becomes indebted to Dario Brando and grants Dario an IOU; the Brando and Joestar bloodline intertwine from this point onwards. Right out the gate, I noticed two things in this part: I loved how the storyline was going and that Dio was an evil piece of shit.
From the moment Dio was shown on screen, he was trouble and it was even revealed to us later on that he had poisoned his own father. And while I understand that Dio had a pretty rough childhood, I was still more on Jonathan's side, to be honest. Jonathan was very kind and continuously tried his best to accept Dio, but Dio kept doing evil things like offing his dog in the cruelest way possible, kissing Erina, and even trying to poison George and steal the inheritance. This part is also where we see the mask and is the reason why Dio becomes eternal and thus an eternal problem, even stealing Jonathan's body later on his wedding night. Dio was completely disrespectful! And Dio did nothing but continue to make problems for other Joestars from this point on. Anyway, as I said, this first part did a really good job of cementing the backstories and storylines. It's still a really good part, but I'd personally rate this part 3rd.
Part II - Battle Tendency
So years later, we're introduced to Joesph Joestar. This is a really good part because here we had the concept of Hamon, learned that Dio was still a threat, and Joseph learned more about his heritage and his mother. Much like Jonathan, Joseph was a pretty decent guy. While he definitely isn't as kind and as forgiving as Jonathan, Joesph is arguably one of my favorite Joestars because of his personality and charisma. Every time Joesph was on screen, I found myself either laughing at him or rooting for him. We were also introduced to Ceasar Zeppeli, Lisa Lisa, and the Pillar Men. I thoroughly enjoyed this Part. If you're as big of a fan as I am of the JoJo series, then choosing between parts is probably just as hard for you as it is for me. Nevertheless, this part for me is a very very close second for me and I'm glad we got to see a healthy rivalry (Ceaser and Joseph).
Part III - Stardust Crusaders
At first, I wasn't too keen on the concept of Stands, but it quickly grew on me once I saw that Joesph still used Hamon. This is the part where we are introduced to Jotaro and he was completely different from the previous Joestars. He was edgy and I LOVED it. He was dressed in all black, he had dark hair and the personality to boot.
I loved seeing the gang on an adventure together and traveling the world while besting really strong villains and opponents. I loved seeing the character development (namely Iggy) and the adventure aspect in this part. I also loved the build-up to Dio and I was not disappointed when Dio finally came on screen. Dio became one of my favorite villains during this part and for some reason, it kinda became hard not to like him. I guess I was going through some weird phase here; I'm not sure.
This is definitely my favorite part (number 1) in my opinion.
Part IIII - Diamond is Unbreakable
The animation kind of threw me off a bit because it seemed drastically different from the last part, but it eventually grew on me. I was saddened to find out that Joseph cheated on his wife and I think I disliked that the most about this part, to be honest. I loved Kira as a villain and how he infiltrated a family to hide amongst them and I thought that was pretty clever. But Dio is still and will always be the absolute best villain ever in JoJo's - maybe overall. For Dio to be such a villain, I have no idea why I like him so much. Maybe that's just well he is written because I started off not liking him. I was even surprised when they brought him back in both Part 2 and Part 3, but I'm glad that they did it now that I'm looking back. I don't think those parts would have been the same if they left Dio out.
Even though this is the fourth part, I'd rank this part number 5.
Part IV - Golden Wind
I like this part because it's a bit morbid and dark; it has more of a gang/mafia feel to it and I think this part stands out from all of the rest because of this aspect. Again, I think the animation threw me off slightly here, but I think that was because I prefer the older animation (in part 3) for some reason. Anyway, looking past that, I loved how different it was from the other parts. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce the names from this part, but I will say that I loved the development with Buccarati's gang and I liked how Giorno had to work for everyone's respect and admiration.
I would rank this part number 4, so above Diamond in Unbreakable only because I feel like this part stood out a smidge more.
Overall
As you can see, I really don't have anything too horrible to say about any of the parts; I hardly complained. Honestly, I liked them all because they each brought something to the table that separates it from the previous arc. Like I mentioned earlier, Part II is a very close second, but part III takes the cake for me. I felt so many emotions during this part and I loved the adventures the gang went on as well. I was more impressed with how I originally didn't like Iggy, but I quickly ended up liking him because of how he came around. While this part did introduce a new concept, the Stands, it didn't take long for me to accept it and that's also something that's impressive to me.
Either way, I'm a massive JoJo's fan and I enjoyed all of the parts. I can't wait to see what is done with Part 6 and I'm hoping to see more of Jotaro and who he ended up marrying. I prevented myself from reading ahead, so I could be surprised. I haven't been this excited about something in a long time and I know I won't be disappointed. It'll definitely be interesting to see what the next villain will be like as well.
Thanks for reading and the support! For anyone that prefers more visuals, the full video is on my youtube called "Dio is different different."