JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has had a fairly large journey.
At this moment, we have 8 parts, five parts with stands.
Now over this timespan, the abilities of the franchise have grown in so many ways.
And since JoJolion is where we are in the evolution, I'd like to make a video on it
here.
I'm also doing it since I'm in between some large video projects, I gave twitter the option
to pick the part I do in my next video.
And it was JoJolion!
Now, a common thing that I hear from some of, well, the earlier parts, is that Stands
aren't like how they used to be.
And, they don't mean Stands like Crazy Diamond, Sticky Fingers, or Underworld.
They mean Star Platinum, Silver Chariot, and The World.
The big boys!
But, I like to think about what Araki had said when he got the same criticism for the
stands of Part 4.
"I constructed Part 4 around the theme of mental and emotional weakness.
The Stands were created by exaggerating the viewpoints of characters consumed by their
own flaws.
I was thinking about how strong enemies show up in manga.
After them, an even stronger enemy shows up, and after them, an even stronger one... so
what happens at the very end?
It's kind of like thinking about the edges of the universe.
Once you look about the world, you realize that what it really means to be a "strong"
person is not to do bad things.
"An enemy who does bad things" is a person who has "a spiritual weakness," and what's
truly scary is when someone takes that weakness and uses it to lash out against others."
That quote is one I hope that sticks with you because that design philosophy massively
impacts JoJo to this day.
Stands took a completely different route once he introduced Diamond is Unbreakable.
And at the end of that branch, is JoJolion and its "stands.
" Let's find our examples in some of our enemy "stands."
Let's use Tamaki Damo and his stand Vitamin C first.
Each aspect of the stand will connect back to his manipulative character.
Close-ranged Stand?
Because he's more powerful, the closer he is to you.
He was able to get closer to Norisuke Higashikata through dating his daughter Hato.
In doing so, he was able to infiltrate the family household and pick everyone off one
by one using Vitamin C.
This is his strength.
He couldn’t have just ran up on Norisuke anywhere, that’s why he got him where he
stays.
And since his personality is normally manipulative, Araki most likely wanted to go this route
since it’s what makes the most sense to his character.
Now let’s consider another factor of being Close-ranged.
He's weaker when you keep your distance from him.
Look to Hato when she had found out his true nature.
She was so distressed and disappointed, so she had two reasons to keep her distance.
Because of his stand ability, and because she was disgusted with who Damo truly was.
Then, there’s the final piece to this.
With being close-ranged, he's entirely powerless when he can't get to you at all.
Physically and mentally, and you can refer to Walking Heart, Breaking Heart with this.
Damo consistently tries to get Hato to hear him out so he can go about manipulating her
further.
That’s the only way he can get his ability off, because he’s powerless when she has
this distance between them.
But he can’t.
They are no longer close, that tie was severed.
We can even look at how his stand gets to functioning.
Anyone who touches the fingerprints will be softened, right?
It's a simple function, and everyone got hit by it.
Why?
Because it's like Damo.
It looks harmless, up until it's true purpose gets going.
Damo, when introduced, was a man of very few words.
He seemed quiet and reserved, and that stayed the same until his plan got the gears turning.
I think outside comparison works great for what I'm going for here too.
Consider Spice Girl and how that stand works.
Vitamin C doesn't attack by itself.
It relies on Damo setting everything up in a secretive way to get his "stand" to work
(i.e., the Higashikata household and the Boat).
Spice Girl and Trish can fight on their own.
They don't rely on the type of methodology that Damo requires to function.
And that's key when considering the design of this stand and character.
Oh yeah, Vitamin C's ability to soften categorizes into manipulation type of power.
It manipulates organic matter, precisely the properties of it.
So, yeah.
We can also use Dolomite and his stand Blue Hawaii.
Look at Dolomite's introduction with Jobin.
Jobin explains his need to climb in life to be happy.
From when you're born, you're at zero, and you have to go upwards.
Dolomite from when you first meet him tells you that he's comfortable with just living
out his days in the pond.
There's no upwards movement for him.
He's alright with living linearly.
That reflects in his stand's ability.
Blue Hawaii's "ability" is "Mind Control Contagion."
The fact that it spreads isn't what I'm connecting, because I don't see what I'd connect there.
It's the fact that anyone infected only moves in a linear path to get to its enemy.
That, in and of itself, is a weakness.
We could also draw parallels for how Dolomite follows a "linear" way of thinking even in
his attacks.
Yasuho had defeated him, and that wasn't a thought he could even consider because his
only goal was to get to Josuke.
Now, this isn't to say that the previous parts didn't have that unique and parallel aligning
type of stand design, because they did.
This way is just JoJolion's version.
Though I think the biggest thing to focus on is the design of the stand abilities in
specific, without connection to the user.
These abilities are "different" for the lack of a better term.
You can see elements of previous stand abilities in some of them, but the ones in JoJolion
will have more to it or be more specific.
For example, California King Bed.
If there were branches to a stand design type of tree, you would see this stand at the end
of the D'Arby branch.
Along with "stands" like Boyz II Men and Marilyn Manson.
I feel like the intricacies of stand design has a fantastic average now when compared
to when we had first started with this concept.
It's seen more on important character, but when it comes to Jojolion, the abilities are
still very unique.
"Brain Storm," "Paisley Park," "Speed King," "Soft & Wet," the Head Doctor, and whatever
the hell he is.
These "stands" are very different, and I love it!
Thank you all for watching.
I want to cover some of the general things in JoJolion, like Art Direction too, but that's
for later notice.
Many people ask me why I don't do the newer "parts" often, and the reason is because I
feel like I haven't even fully covered a lot of the earlier parts still.
Like, look at my playlists of all the parts of JoJo.
Ideally, I'd like to have at least 20 to 30 videos in each playlist.
But, if you all want to see more videos on the later parts of JoJo, show the support
for it, and I'll deliver.
Make sure you like the video if you haven't already.
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Alright, that's enough YouTuber talk.
Thank you all again, because out of all of the places you could've been, you were here
with me.
And that means a lot.
Hopefully, I'll see you all in the next one.
Until then, peace out, and godspeed.