My Review of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Season One"

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Season One came out back in 2012. it took me a good 10 years to finally start watching it. To be fair, I heard of this series a long time ago. I just to think it was just this weird Capcom fighting game on the PlayStation 1 and 2. We didn't get much advertising for this franchise as it was mainly in Japan.

Years later my friends finally convinced me to check it out. They knew my absurd sense of humor would understand what this show was getting at. So I reluctantly got into it and I'm kind of glad I did.

The show starts off with an aristocratic family called the Jostars in Victorian England. An unfortunate incident involving a mysterious mask had resulted in the patriarch of the family, George, saved by a con artist. This also resulted in the demise of this con artist. To pay back this street urchin for his good deed, George adopts the con artist's son Dio. Over the years Dio and George's own son Jojo live in somewhat harmony with one another.

There's always been tension between Dio and Jojo from the get go. Dio's been taught by his father to take advantage of every situation as he can. I takes decades but Dio has masterminded an evil takeover of the Jostar empire.

Not understanding the situation Jojo is of course conflicted with the whole scenario but ultimately learns of what to do in the end. The mask from the very beginning of the series rears its ugly head again as Dio finds the true power of the mask.

After a few escalating series of fights between these rivals the two are ultimately killed but this then brings on a new generation of Jostars. We then jump decades later for the next Jojo who is Jojo's grandson. The mask again reappears and this time the new younger Jojo has to save to world from it.

The description doesn't really do it justice because essentially it is a one note storyline. What this animated series really excels in is the absurdity. They really call it a bizarre adventure for a reason. Not only is it super cheesy but it's really over the top.

Each episode takes place in the 19-20th century Europe and they've all got terrible European accents. This kind of adds to the charm of this show. We're all in on the joke that is this show. There is always some weird ex machina situation that will either cause some sort of obstacle or suddenly resolve the life or death situation. It's definitely obvious that the show is aware of itself. They play off this serious tone when you know it's all a joke.

There are tons of inside jokes and fun gags throughout the show as well. A lot of the characters of the show are named after rock bands like AC-DC and REO Speed wagon. Those that are up to date with pop culture will gravitate to a lot of these laughs.

Even the art style of the animation and color palette are in the extremes. At certain scenes it goes back to the comic book look with crazy amounts of contrasts to grab your attention.

Essentially this is a kids cartoon but adults will enjoy it for the pure absurdity with tongue in cheek delivery of the show. I honestly didn't get it at first but after watching two episodes I got it. It is very fun but you really have to be in a mood to understand what's going on in the beginning.

Overall, I thought this was a fun show. This season was done well enough to have me engage in the second season. I can only imagine how much weird content is going to be added in the next season. It does seem to be ramping up its ridiculousness really fast especially closer to the end of this season. I have to give this season a 7.5 out of 10. I can see really good things happening in future seasons. I commend them on not giving us too much filler.