I'm going to admit that I am one of them, even though I am going to rag on it here. I have nowhere else to turn to bitch about this so I am going to bitch here since my other option is starting a YouTube channel to rant in my room.
Let me preface this, I am not being ironic with saying I am a Jojolion fan. There is a ton of stuff I loved about Part 8 but unlike Star Wars fans, I won't pretend it is perfect just because I like it. Bear with me here, if you have read my autismo before you know I can get deep with it, so I predict at least half of this post will be hidden for spoiler sake, even though I am pretty sure everyone here is up to date with the manga. This is way less of a review and more petty ramblings from someone with little to complain about. I am not going to sit on my fat arse pretending I am a better writer than Araki because at the ned of the day he is one of the best to ever do it and I am the cunt talking about his work.
Admittedly is easier to explain what is great about Jojolion rather than what is a little bit extra. Gappy
(at least until the Wonder of U arc) is a very solid protagonist that despite being a literal blank slate develops his own persona. Yasuho, much in the same vibe as his original universe counterpart, exceeds her role as deuteragonist and becomes a true protagonist. The Higashikatas are probably the most human characters Araki has ever written. The two characters that round our Rokakagang have stakes on the story and leave you wanting more.
The setting and tone are superb. When people said Jojolion was "Jojo through Ito's lense" they weren't joking, even Ito's signature move "the turning page" is integrated and there are certain elements that are as close as it gets to Part 4 fused with Ito's one-shots.
And yet, here we are. We knew what we were getting into and still feeling somewhat empty-handed.
We can winch and complain about the Wall Eyes, the bite marks or [Flashback Man] but that stuff you can get it anywhere. I want to bitch about other stuff. Let's start with unrealised potential which in the universe of Jojolion has so many names and faces it makes me mad.
Let's start with the obvious: Kei Nijimura. God fucking damn it, this one hurt on so many levels. Kei goes from being one of the first meaningful allies of Gappy to disappear for half of the story even in scenarios where it would make sense for her to be involved.
She is Gappy's sister, one of the few links between Yoshikage Kira, Josefumi Kujo and Josuke Higashikata and Gappy barely pays mind to her. So why is Kei working for the Higashikatas? To uncover info and help her family. My first suspicion was that Kei found her bro's body and seeing the mark in his hand concluded the Higashikatas was behind it all and hence decided to infiltrate. Then comes the moment when Norisuke is revealed to be an ally to Gappy and wanting to help not only his own family but the Joestar side of the family tree. Kei never gets involved in this. We can only assume off-screen the two talked and Kei has spent all this time at the hospital taking care of Holly (which is the retroactive explanation to an extent). Either Norisuke knows Kei's identity and is cooperating or Gappy decided to be an amnesic cunt and make things more difficult for everyone. Then comes the triumphal return of Kei in the story and even though her actions are instrumental in defeating Tooru, she is just a couple of panels on-screen. And yeah she is dead, go figure. Holly might also be dead as well, yay.
The other side of the coin would be Haato.
The Vitamin C arc, that's all we get. We know her stand's name and I'm not sure we even got to properly know what it did. Do you know what would have been a nice change of pace? A Higashikata other than Norisuke doing something for someone outside their family. Just imagine Haato tagging along with Gappy just to rub it on Joshuu's face. We could get a character arc for a pampered model that represents everything Kei dislikes about the Higashikatas. They are a reflection of one another. Just imagine a Rokakagang that is, before Mamezuku joins and besides the main Jojo, entirely female and with drastically different stands. What could have happened with Haato if she did anything? What if she, as the eldest daughter and influenced by her friends, decides to make a stand against Joubin? She is the only one amongst the Higashikatas that could press a challenge to Speed King based on match-ups alone. Either she or Mitsuba, with whom is more of the same story difference being that Mitsuba's reason for staying loyal to Joubin is addressed in the story while Haato cowers in the corner doing nothing. Instead, it seems that Araki wanted us to believe Joshuu could be the ally of Gappy.
Fucking Joshuu. God almighty, I fucking hate this guy. Yes, I know he has reasons to act like a twat
but he is such a horny idiot it becomes unbearable to me to have him survive. I will never forget how his only contribution to the story was the equivalent exchange with Yasuho. He tried to be a hero for fucking once, he acted creepy while doing it and he regrets it right afterward. He wasn't in a single battle, he didn't help anyone, it was just him hating Gappy and lusting after Yasuho with not one moment of character growth. And yes, none of the Higashikatas change over the story but at least none of them gets plastered in the art of Jojolion as if they were a meaningful ally to Gappy. Only Norisuke does shit and thank God for that.
Now let me sperg about the rock humans. Fuck, they are such a perfect antithesis of humanity I still get chills and even nightmares just thinking about the possibility of their existence. However, there's a problem in my opinion.
Tamaki's gang seems to be the peak of character they have because until Tooru shows up (maybe with the exception of Wu Tomoki) they just don't do it for me. Is like in Vento Aureo, once Team Buccerati beats La Squadra everything until the Requiem arc feels like filler to me because none of the minor villains come close. Maybe that's why we got Golden Heart, Golden Ring, to add a bit more personal stakes. The Blue Hawaii arc is easily the worst offender by taking one of Josuke's best moments before the final battle and taking everything good about it. Everything about that arc feels like it occurs in a vacuum. The Hospital staff have far more dangerous stands than anyone else yet they barely track. The Wonder of U is broken as fuck but I honestly don't feel like I know shit about Tooru. You can say that was Araki's intention but at points, it feels like he was inserted as the final villain as the most obvious twist since Lady in the Water. Hell, by how Tooru is set up in the story of several characters he might be the closest thing to DIO in this universe. Do you know what's cool? All the lore Araki built around the rock humans. Do you know what's not cool? That it feels at times that Jojolion was undermined to set them up for Jojo Lands and God knows how it is going to be applied in the anime. Imagine Gappy at some point finds this intel and realises he can just throw mangoes at Tooru or set them up in the Rokakaka lab (what I expected to be the case when Wonder of U mentioned sensing a trap).
I remember when the fucking plane door was falling and thinking Yasuho would play a Hail Mary by trying to approach Tooru so they both would die. How stupid I was, I don't think the door ever mattered at all other than to give urgency to everything else. I remember thinking that Tooru was a fuckboy from the get-go and how he tried to get back to Yasuho, I was expecting her to play him. How stupid I was. But hey, we got the spin back, that's cool.
Now I can talk about Gappy during the Wonder of U arc.
I really liked how Holly put herself in the line to warn him, I liked how he applied everything he knew so he could play the calamities on Wonder of U. I liked how Gappy's demeanor overall changed to fit the situation, he became almost feral and wanting his friends out of a situation he knew was going to claim lives. And then the arc started to take shape and I knew this was going to be like that meme of Jojo being like a pretend battle in the playground in which kids invent power-ups. I know Tooru also has fans but I don't give a fuck at this point. At this point, Gappy knows only two things: he is the equivalent exchange and someone is going to die, tragically it didn't go down the way anyone anticipated. It was crushing, bittersweet, and almost hopeless. We now happen to know there is probably someone with a stand even more broken than Wonder of U and we might see it in a decade or so.
Surely if I devote myself to him and do every dumb thing he says he'll love me. Maybe he doesn't talk to me at any other time except when he wants me to risk my life so he can achieve some goal he forgets about 15 chapters from now. but SURELY if I get molested and/or nearly killed for him enough times, then he won't go for the big titty teenager who tried to steal all his memories so he'd fuck her right? Right?!
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Y'know, I feel very stupid that I didn't notice it the first time I read it. I really hope it doesn't end that way but Daiya definitely had more luck getting to know Gappy than Yasuho. Imagine setting a couple for ten years and then you play the Rina card again. Yasuho IS the JoBro, got cucked badly and survived by getting Joshuu to top her. Can this poor woman catch a break? She had to see his steel balls and it seems Morioh-Cho isn't exactly populated by good bachelors.
Also, Daiya's design in the California King Bed arc was way better than the redesign. She looks like shit and has the Araki face tenfold.
Araki's biggest mistake was not naming the final chapter this:
This seals the deal for me that Gappy is into big tiddied autistic girls.
