Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

[Kanon]

These covers look great. Jonathan looks a bit weird but Will A is perfect.

[ellifeedn]

"Jojonium" sounds a bit odd. Sounds like an element.

[marvelB]

It's that time of the month again, guys:

Spoiler for Jojolion 26:

The chapter begins with Yasuho resting in the room in the underground cellar. Tsurugi comes to check in on her, and the two chat for a bit. Tsurugi reveals that his stand's name is Paper Moon, and as was demonstrated throughout the last couple of chapters, makes anyone who touches the origami figures unable to distinguish faces/designs/etc. from each other. Also, if I'm making things out correctly, Tsurugi says that the rest of her family has stands, as well! I think he's also aware that Yasuho has an ability of her own (again, not sure here). After their talk, the child leaves the room, and Yasuho takes a nap. However, she's still not alone:

Spoiler:

This new mystery man (yes, MAN) then creates what seems to be a sheet of plastic with his eyes, covers it over the sleeping Yasuho's face, grabs a container of water, and.... proceeds to WATERBOARD her! The poor woman then suddenly has a rude awakening, as she's suddenly suffocating! She tries to cut the plastic with broken glass, but it seems it's no use. Apparently, the mystery enemy is torturing her like this in order to draw out her stand power! Paisley Park then comes out from Yasuho's shadow, and the mystery man grabs it, and examines it. However, the stand escapes his grasp and leaves the room through an air vent, where it finds Josuke. It just so happens that Josuke is right outside of the Higashikata estate.....


As Yasuho is still suffering from the waterboarding, the enemy finally introduces himself: His name is Yagiyama Yotsuyu, a 28-year old architect. He says where he lives is a secret, but says something about how his social standing depends on not letting 'that guy' regain his memories, and he'll die again anyway. As he's talking, Yasuho places some banana-shaped origami figures under his feet, which flip him over. She finally uses this chance to tear the plastic material from her face, but..... the man called Yagiyama has completely vanished. She then escapes the room, full of confusion.....




Boy, this sure wasn't the best of days for poor Yasuho, huh? Getting sexually assaulted on at least 3 different occasions, getting targeted by creepy stand users, nearly getting killed by waterboarding.... wow. On the other hand, it seems she may finally be aware of her stand ability now, so maybe she'll soon know how to defend herself against these would-be rapists and murderers.....


Also, about that Yagiyama guy, I've seen some folks at other forums say that he may actually be the "Rohan" of Jojolion. I don't really see much of a similarity myself, but I'll wait and see. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being a major character (or villain) considering that he was also talking about preventing Josuke from regaining his memories.....

[Kanon]

We got some more info about the Higashikata family. It turns out the illness of Johnny's wife is something the first borns of the Higashikata family have been dying of for generations. What is weird is that Rina got it even though she wasn't the first born (I checked the family tree). It would have made more sense for Johnny's son to get it instead.

The new character seems interesting. I wonder how he fits in all this. Man, poor Yasuho can't catch a break...

[Kanon]

New Jojonium cover

[marvelB]

^My, Dio is looking mighty..... perhaps classy is the adjective I'm looking for? - on that cover. And I still find it even weirder to see a thinner Joseph than a thinner Jonathan.....

[marvelB]

Bumping to mention that Jojolion won grand prize for the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival's manga division! Congratulations once again, Araki!

[Kanon]

Awesome. Good to see Jojo get the recognition it deserves.

[marvelB]

Next Jojolion raw is out! Quite an interesting chapter, as well:

Spoiler for Jojolion 27:

Chapter starts with Josuke at the Higashikata residence, keeping an eye on Tsurugi. However, he ends up getting caught up in the rest of the family's antics. It turns out that Joushuu's memories got mixed up with his own delusions, thanks to the huge bump Yasuho left on his head, lol. Outside in the garden, Josuke has a chat with Norisuke. Interestingly, he straight-up asks Norisuke if he killed Kira. The old man denies the accusations, but he does reveal that he knows quite a lot of other things: About the wall eyes, stand abilities, and the fact that Josuke himself is "half" Kira! It also turns out that he believes Kira know how to cure the disease, which was why he adopted Josuke in the first place. Interestingly, when Josuke asks him how he managed to cure the disease on his own when he caught it, he refused to answer.....


The two of them are near the entrance to the underground cellar. Interestingly, Norisuke reveals his stand ability to Josuke: It's a remote-type stand that seems to be made of jigsaw puzzle pieces! However, right after the reveal, the two of them are suddenly attacked by that Yotsuyu fellow from last chapter! He first touches Josuke's foot, and soon the two men are attacked by flower pots! Yotsuyu then says that the the protagonist only arrived to "die" a second time.....




Like I said, very interesting chapter! I especially like that we got a glimpse of Norisuke's stand! BTW, something amusing to mention is that he compared stand powers to porn DVDs in the sense that they're not something that you brazenly show off to other people, heh. Also, Yotsuyu's ability seems to work differently than it did in the previous chapter, unless those flower pots are wrapped in that plastic stuff he used on Yasuho or something.....

[Kanon]

Very interesting chapter indeed. Norisuke doesn't seem like such a bad guy anymore. His answers to Josuke's questions seemed sincere. He said his parents sacrificed their lives to save him, so I guess they used the corpse to cure his illness, as Johnny did in the past.

I wonder how Kira fits into all this.

[marvelB]

And now, the first new Jojo chapter of the year is here (or at least the raw, anyway:

Spoiler for Jojoion 28:

Not a whole lot happens this chapter. Basically, Josuke uses his stand to release Norisuke and himself from Yagiyama's trap. Soon after Tsurugi opens the trap door and asks his grandfather why he's helping Josuke so much, and asks him to leave. Norisuke is upset since he thinks Tsurugi has some sort of connection to the mysterious enemy (Yagiyama), and thinks that said enemy was involved in Kira's death in some fashion. While searching for their enemy, Josuke says he wants to rescue Yasuho, as he cares for her and is worried. Interestingly enough, Norisuke says he cares for Josuke, as well. But during their search and chat, the two of them get touched by Yagiyama, and are soon attacked by his latest weapon: killer chestnuts! As the two are attacked, they rush for the hatch and yell for Tsurugi to open it for them.....



Like I said, not very eventful. But at least it's neat that we're getting a bit more development from Norisuke this time around (at least, if he's not trying to trick Josuke, that is). Still, I do hope they catch Yagiyama next chapter and beat him up already, lol.

[Kanon]

The chapter is translated.

Not much to say since not much happened. Jousuke and Norisuke haven't even started fighting back yet.

[marvelB]

Raw for the next Jojolion is out:

Spoiler for JJL 29:

Unfortunately, this chapter is pretty uneventful, just like the previous one. However, it does at least start on an interesting note, where we see a brief flashback of Norisuke in his childhood (I like how he still had those ball things in his hair even as a kid, lol ). Naturally, he was shown being afflicted with the mystery illness. Back in the present, both Norisuke and Josuke are assaulted by Yagiyama's chestnut avalanche. Norisuke tries to convince Tsurugi to open the cellar door, but he refuses to open it unless the old man leaves Josuke behind. Apparently, Yagiyama promised to cure Tsurugi of the hereditary illness if he allowed him to finish off Josuke.....

Gappy then tells the old man to use his jigsaw stand to open the hatch, but it's no good as Tsurugi had chained it down. So the backup plan is to crush the chain with a rock! The thorns of the chestnuts makes it difficult for Norisuke to make out what he's doing at first, but Josuke uses S&W to remove the thorns from their bodies. After destroying the chain, both men are finally able to escape to safety! And not to mention that right before closing the hatch, Josuke managed to catch a glimpse of their enemy.....

In the cellar, Norisuke tells Tsurugi that he'll forgive him if he reveals the identity of the enemy to them. The frightened child tells them it's Yagiyama Yotsuyu, who Norisuke realizes is the architect that built the Higashikata mansion....!




Like I said, another uneventful chapter. Araki sure is taking his sweet time with this arc, huh? Also, I really kinda hoped that Gappy or Norisuke would give Tsurugi a good spanking for, y'know, nearly letting them get killed in a trap.

[marvelB]

And now for the latest Jojo raw:

Spoiler for JJL 30:

FINALLY the plot seems to be moving along! The chapter starts with Tsurugi telling Josuke that Yasuho is in that room in the cellar, where she's seen sleeping soundly. Afterwards, he explains that the reason why he was helping Yotsuyu was because he saw him "heal" a dog that had the mystery rock disease. However, shortly after Tsurugi's story, Yasuho disappears! Josuke is about to rush off to find her, but Norisuke says she can be tracked down with his stand ability:

Images

stand

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King Nothing is a long-range stand that has the ability to track people by their scent. During the search, they arrive near the ocean, and Norisuke explains that his own mother died there long ago. He then reveals that while a cure for the mystery illness hasn't been discovered, it's possible to swap the disease to another person through a sort of "equivalent exchange" (think FMA), and so Norisuke survived the illness by transferring it to his mother. He also believes that Yotsuyu was deceiving Tsurugi with his claim to cure the disease. Soon enough, Yasuho is found, who's laying between some rocks. As Josuke reaches out to her, Yotsuyu (who's camouflaged as part of the rock himself) is about to attack him again, when.....

Images

ORAORAORAORA

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Unfortunately, our enemy stand user disappears once again after getting pummeled by Josuke. Norisuke wonders if Yotsuyu has a second stand ability that makes him transform into rocks, but Josuke debunks that idea, saying that somehow it's an ability their enemy can use without the aid of a stand.....



Very interesting chapter! So now we know a bit more about the mystery illness, and Norisuke's stand is now fully unveiled! Hmm, very curious that most of the Higashikata's stands have "King" in their name (though King Nothing resembles a Joker more than a King, IMO). And I really do wonder what's up with Yotsuyu's rock transformations. Can he control the "illness" somehow....?


Speaking of Yotsuyu, here's one more treat: The color splash pages fully reveal what his stand looks like:

Images

stand

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^Unfortunately, we haven't gotten the stand's name yet. It sure looks interesting, though....

[Kanon]

30 is translated. It was a very informative chapter, but I wish this fight would just end already. This is really drawn out. I hope all this wait will be worth and that we'll get some revelation at the end of this arc.

[marvelB]

So sure, there's all this hubbub over the SC anime, but we can't forget about the ongoing manga, right? That being said, the raw for Jojolion 31 is out!

Spoiler for JJL 31:

Sorry Kanon, but the fight still continues! Anyway, the chapter begins on a rather interesting note.... another flashback of Norisuke's past. It looks like it shows the moment where his mother passes away after getting the disease transferred to her. Back in the present, Norisuke uses his stand to find Yotsuyu, and Josuke proceeds to ORAORA the rocks, although he hurt his hands in the process. So instead he uses a normal rock to smash part of Yutsuyu's shoulder.... which is seen bleeding. However, the enemy sends yet another deadly attack at our protagonists: Containers full of pesticide! Yotsuyu then returns to a semi-human form (he's still part rock) and taunts Josuke. Gappy attacks him, but he dodges and merges with the rocks again. Nonetheless, our hero has a plan: He uses his stand to encase the still-disguised Yotsuyu in a bubble, and move him out of the range of his power! But unfortunately, things don't go as planned, as the enemy user activates his power, and uses more rocks to pop the bubble! Josuke's gang then get assaulted by the containers of pesticide......




Man, that Yotsuyu sure is one tricky opponent. BTW, I think we actually get the name of his stand this chapter! Though if that is the case, then he's a unique case like Oyecomova in that his stand's name is in Japanese. Translated, its name should be I Am a Rock, I Am an Island. Heh, sweet, another Simon & Garfunkel reference in Jojo!

[ellifeedn]

Do we get an explanation on what this guy's Stand ability is?

[Kanon]

So the fight continues...

Josuke has started to fight back, about damn time. His counterattack was ineffective, but at least he finally did something. Yotsuyu is one tough opponent, I'll give him that. The toughest Josuke has faced so far. His power seem pretty simple, but it's tricky to counter.

[Awrya]

Finally caught up with the whole series, what a read.
But now that I've caught up, it's just one chapter per month now.

[Kanon]

Be grateful you're even getting one chapter per month. A few years ago, we had to wait months to get our dose of Jojo. We even had to wait years to get part 6.

I've been into Jojo since 2006-2007 I believe, it's been nice watching the English fanbase grow. I'm infinitely grateful to the people who worked on bringing Jojo to us non-Japanese readers, even if the translations were iffy sometimes, eh. Also really grateful to Tonkam for releasing part 5 to 7 in France. They're currently publishing part 3 as well, and I really hope they're going to do part 4 so I can rediscover it with non-Duwang translations. I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot better.