Specs
More Information
Reviews
(4/5)We Can Sail With the Orinoco Flow
Some people start with Stardust Crusaders (Part 3), so this review is with that in mind. Like other JoJo Parts, it stands on its own, you don't have to have read the other Parts. Characters from a previous Parts are reintroduced. JoJo as a whole series follows members of the Joestar bloodline. Part 3's JoJo is Jotaro Kujo, the great-grandson of the first JoJo protagonist.
As far as language goes, Part 3 is a mixed bag. Some characters have speech quirks, some of which might be to indicate that they are less skilled at the language being spoken in the media. The nice thing though is that there's far less of the slang style speech that you see in most native texts. There's just a lot of odd words and phrasings (intentionally).
As for the plot of Part 3 specifically, it's very monster of the week up until the final battle. The final battle of Part 3 is absolutely amazing though. If you slog through the beginning, the last 3-4 volumes make up for it imo.
If Part 3 doesn't capture your attention, I recommend trying out another Part. Part 1 is great for beginners and Part 5 is probably the second most popular Part after 3. Each Part of JoJo gives nods to various other genres, so each of them have much different moods. Part 3 is a bit of Around the World in 80 Days meets Dracula. Part 1 is more straight up Dracula and Part 5 is a gangster/mafia story.
As far as content warnings go... Part 3 has a considerable amount of body horror. It's not in every arc/fight, but it's in probably somewhere between 1/3-2/3 of them I'd estimate. Some of the pages featuring it can be text heavy, so it might be a bit hard to avoid if that's a turn off for you.
uniquely bizarre, bit dated
Continuing a 100-year old grudge against his family, Jotaro Kujo and his ensemble of friends head to Egypt to defeat an undead, unhinged vampire. Throw in some unique powers and overall bizarreness and you got yourself Stardust Crusaders.
I'm largely biased as I watched the anime before reading it and already was in love with this part, but trying to come from a fresh perspective I do think that the manga version does hold up on its own quite well, and better in a lot of ways over the adaption. While the anime was 48 episodes the manga clocks in at 16 volumes, making it a quicker read compared to later parts (and feeling a lot faster in its pacing).
If you're coming here without the anime experience, then I gotta say that in a modern perspective it feels a little bland at parts. The battles are fun but, as the other reviewer mentioned, are very monster-of-the-week format. With some exceptions, most fights end in a rather predictable way. Was probably a lot more impressive on release but in a modern context it can be a bit lame at times.
That isn't to discredit the writing at all, experiencing the manga will have you understand why it's unique style took off and became a cult classic, there's plenty of panels and story arcs that made me excited and pumped, despite it not being the first time experiencing the story. But especially with the context of later parts, I think that the story hovers around a "decent", supported by its cast and style.
Speaking of the cast, I quite enjoyed the ensemble, even though certain ones weren't given enough spotlight. The enemies were fun too, although there were some forgettable ones, and the main antagonist is one of my favourites in all animanga. The protagonist is alright, not particularly anything too positive or negative from me.
As for the language: It's easier than expected. With some strange slang occasionally, it's fairly easy to understand, fit for an N3 level. There's never any overly complex ideas or concepts that present themselves, it's mostly just with some strange contractions or the occasional joke that one could find themselves confused. There is full furigana, save for some basic words such as 行く in the first few volumes.
Finally, the art is amazing. No other way to put it, it's just great, and makes reading every page a delight. If you've already seen the anime, then I think some of the art alone is justification enough for reading the manga as well.
Overall: Entertainment 4/5 (with some bias), language learning 4/5