Jojolion is the 8th series of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, a story about breaking a family curse caused by an ancestor’s mistake The story begins with an average teenage girl named Yasuho Hirose encountering a man buried in the ground. The man buried in that soil is named Josuke, who has lost all of his memories. He then goes on a journey to discover who he was in the past and answer the question: “Who am I?”
Jojolion is really a fever dream of a story in terms of the plot, focusing on discovering Josuke Higashikata’s past. With questions from chapter after chapter each being answered per chapter, with new questions added to the plot. However, this story is a fever dream because the second half of the story is confusing with the amount of complicated enemies and the arcs not having that direct focus on discovering Josuke’s past. Overall, it is recommended if your interest is about wacky but serious stories, or if you are already a Jojo fan.
This story also uses the special ability called, Stands, being the physical manifestation of the soul. Stands can make people Stand Users, which give a person universal powers that can aid them with unique battles. They can be either a humanoid spirit or a manifested tool. A popular example of a Stand and its user is from the Stardust Crusaders series, Star Platinum and Jotaro Kujo. Star Platinum is a humanoid spirit that has incredible strength, capable of fast movements, and has the ability to stop time for five seconds. Jotaro Kujo is able to use these abilities to their fullest potential.
Jojolion also has a special fruit called the Locacaca Fruit. This fruit is able to perform an equivalent exchange. This fruit allows you to sacrifice parts of your body to recover a body part that is damaged. A perfect example is shown in Doobie Wah Part 1, where an old man eats the fruit which made his eyesight turned into stone and his lost leg grows back.
Josuke Higashikata, being the protagonist of Jojolion, is the main focus of the theme — accepting one’s past. His character development is discovering his own past and finding who he was. Each arc of fighting against a Stand user from his journey is able to give him information from different characters that know info on who he was. Like with the Soft and Wet arc, where he faces off against a man, Ojiro Sasame. He is a surfer, a person riding the waters with a surfboard. This person had a grudge against a previous identity that Josuke had: Yoshikage Kira.
One of my favorite quotes from Josuke Higashikata in the chapter, “The Lemon and The Tangerine,” the Higashikata maid named Kei Nijimura told him that he is one-half of his brother, Yoshikage Kira. He uncovers the truth that he is a fusion of two people, Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo. This is shown when her sister, Kei Neijimura, shows a lemon and a tangerine having parts mixed together with each other. Kei later tells him that he is his own self, like any person. This part is where he says a line that I think perfectly describes his character development,
“I’m me! I’m definitely here right now! There’s no way I’m anybody but me…! I’m sure as hell that I’m me! The me that’s thinking right now…Is definitely me!”
This is showing how he’s denying that truth, he believes he is any identity but himself and he needs to accept that he is his own person at the end of the chapter.
Besides all of those important characteristics, he is a goofy and a wacky character. He sleeps under the mattress on the bed, saying, “How do they put pressure on their body if they do that?” When he learns from Yasuho Hirose that people sleep on the top of the mattress.
Yasuho Hirose is also another of the many cool characters in ”Jojolion.” A stand user that is a supporting character to Josuke Higashikata.
Yasuho works well with Josuke because Josuke helps her with the conflicts approaching her. Her tramatic past of an organism disguised as a hair clip who tricks her to suicide illusions of her father, it puts her in a lot tragic places. Being the first person that Josuke remembers is what makes Josuke willing to protect and aid her in times of these tragic calamities.
Yasuho, in return, also helps Josuke discover who he was. This single motivation of her’s leads to fully awakening her own Stand, Paisley Park. Paisley Park is a long-raged Stand that helps her allies and supports her with decision-making by using her phone as a tool. Paisley Park is very versatile and can also help direct people to the right path by using the person’s map in the phone. She can even hack into other electronics like a Lamborghini or an X-ray. Though this Stand is very good at being useful, it is very puzzling of what it could do and her level of stand because of the concept alone is very amazing.
Her sweet moments with Josuke are adorable, providing this sense of calmness and relief from the wackiness of “Jojolion.” It is especially wholesome when Josuke and Yasuho reunite and Yasuho listens to Josuke sing about chicken and fries, it is really silly and wholesome. Despite this, their relationship never progressed, even at the end. It is a pretty strange ending — the reader never gets the answer on whether they end up together or not.
Jojolion’s main antagonist is bittersweet. Toru, the main villain of this story, is the Stand user of Wonder of U. This Stand has the power to redirect bad luck which he calls calamities in the form of events towards anyone who pursues the Stand or the Stand user. This spirit also holds the identity of Satoru Akefu, an 89-year old head doctor of the TG University Hospital. This Stand is a cool concept, and having the ability of turning bad luck or misfortune into a tool for the villain is terrifying. Though, with that said, the final battle feels rushed. His character’s introduction could have been done a lot earlier.
Toru is also a Rock Human — a silicon-based species that values nature over humans. Rock Humans have a longer lifespan than humans. Toru’s main goal in life is to find a way to make sure that his species is above humans. Toru leads an organization called the Locacaca Organization to help him achieve that goal by selling Locacaca fruit to people who need it.
Toru’s introduction is really interesting because he is introduced as this normal employee who works part-time and seems to be unaware of the situations, so when he is revealed as the main villain, it is incredibly unexpected.
In short, this manga is bizarre and confusing, but the characters and the plot development make Jojolion an overall interesting read.
