| JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (OAV) | Good | Apparently, the '90s OVA is supposed to be the superior OVA. But after having watched through both, I actually prefer the '00s OVA. I've also heard complaints about releasing them in chronological order but I think it was a good thing (STA could have had more episodes per disk though). For those who haven't read the manga, the '90s OVA doesn't make much sense. It's just a bunch of beefy dudes duking it out with some other beefy dude with not much of an explanation as to why. Without the background provided with the '00s OVA, I might not have watched past the first episode of the '90s one if I didn't already have all of the show.
And you better like big beefy dudes duking it out, because even with the background provided by the '00s OVA, I found it hard to care much for the characters themselves beyond Avdol. He's the main reason why I liked the '00s OVA better as their was more Avdol goodness. I liked his calm, collected personality and that he is a talented Stand user but not so much that his fights are a forgone conclusion which is one of Jotoro's problems. Even when he has no clue what this Stand power is, he is so powerful and talented that he's able to put up a decent fight against Avdol, a more experienced Stand user. It takes some of the interest out of his fights. They don't have anything to replace it with as Jotaro is too much of the stoic to connect with his personal reasons for fighting and Holly isn't developed enough to root for Jo for her sake. I do think he's hot, though. Mr. Joestar doesn't do much beyond being Mr. Exposition. Kakyoin is severely underutilized. He gets the one fight at his intro but after that he's just kind of there. In the '90s OVA, he's taken out of commission in the first episode and doesn't reappear until the Dio fight. But what an entrance! His entrance into the fight was awesome and he actually manages to figure out Dio's Stand's power. It's too bad Kakyoin doesn't do more as his personality is similar to Avdol's. I liked Polnareff in his introduction with his chivalrous, if somewhat arrogant, attitude but after, his personality just degenerates into this brash, loudmouthed character who never learns. I'm not much of a fan of those character types and is another reason why I prefer the '00s OVA as it has a whole episode that doesn't make me want to punch Polnareff. His grating personality didn't stop me from liking his contribution to the Dio fight though and I like the design of his Stand. And speaking of Polnareff's intro, I'm disappointed we didn't get more with the Strength stand. I mean, he was an orangutan! With a pipe! And a captain's coat and hat! How cool is that?!
Thankfully, I do like big beefy men duking it out, so the show's characterization failures don't harm it in the end. And what fights they are! Characters win because they use strategy, not due to constant one-up man-ship of power. The "fight" with D'Arby doesn't even involve physical combat or Stand powers for that matter beyond the collecting of the wager. It's all about how to outwit D'Arby and the stakes are more dire then just death. This make Jotaro's defeat of Dio disappointing. He doesn't defeat him because of wits but because Jo develops a new power within a short amount of time with no training whatsoever with the barest hint that he has this power.
The '90s OVA needs a restoration. At times it would look fine: not too grainy, coloring looked decent. At other times it wouldn't: grainy, faded, and/or washed out looking. Their was even a couple of times where the characters would have this outline around them making it look like they were using cheap green screen effects, which is rather impressive (and not in a good way) considering this is animation and would have no need for such. I liked that S.T.A. included tarot cards for most of the Stands that show up in the show (no cards for D'Arby or Vanilla Ice unfortunately). And speaking of Vanilla Ice, if they had to give him another name, couldn't they have come up with a better one then Iced? Why not just Vanilla or Ice? It's interesting how S.T.A. handled the honorifics for the subtitles. Only Kakyoin, the Japanese character, has honorifics for his dialogue. I didn't watch the dub so I can't say if this holds true there also.
Overall, I found the OVAs an enjoyable way to waste a few hours of my day due too the execution of the fights (for the most part) and Avdol's character but nothing really beyond that. |
Robert's Anime Corner Store
Visit AniplexUSA.com
Rightstuf
