Jonathan Joestar once said, "A true gentleman has to be brave enough to go
into a fight he knows he'll lose." JoDio says, "One more thing: Price of the brick going up."
Now, I never once in my life would have expected to use a
clip from The Wire in a JoJo video, but hey, never says never I guess.
The first chapter of Part 9, the JOJOLands, dropped last Thursday. And my goodness,
we have a lot to talk about.
Jodio Joestar and their sibling Dragona Joestar work as movers for Meryl May Qi (their school
principal). But do not get it misconstrued they are not moving furniture. Understand that
they are pushing that work, we got powder, but that is not for baking. When they hit the lab,
they aren't talking about Dexter. They got pounds in the trunk and I am not talking
about Dr. Miami! You feel me?! Aight, I wanna chill, but give me a moment.
Jodio's goal in this part? Get filthy rich. He's talking about stacking bread,
money phone to the head, all blues on him like he Mac's friend. Come on now. And he's plans to
keep his people good in his circle, with this green, on green, on green, on green, like a -.
Come on man, stop playing with me.
[Plot] Now, while yes, you hear me having fun here,
of course, it's a hilarious premise considering the goals and themes of the JoJo parts. A zoomer
protagonist the same age as my siblings. But this is some real ish that Araki is working
with. TV Shows that have a clear point involving drugs make a point to tell the world that you,
the regular person, doesn't get it. This is a whole different world you're getting into with
completely different dangers than the average joe is used to. There is a reason why I showed
The Wire clip, because as funny as the clip is now and how I can use it as a meme, The Wire
is a real ass show that tells us the multiple sides of drugs and everyone it affects. So,
when a manga that I very much like is getting into this territory, I do want to know what's
going to be the stance made here. Ideally, it goes well, I think that since Araki is a big media head
and he's most likely watched all those popular shows that were happening in the 2000's like The
Wire and Breaking Bad, he has a lot of material to pull from. So, there's that. If it sounds that
I'm worried about how it's handled, it's more so about the sensitivity that the topic brings
and how people like me for the most part want to see the right message promoted. I'm not worried
about someone reading chapter 1 and thinking, "Oh I want to be a trapstar now too!" We have
an education problem sure, but if you're making decisions based on a 15 year old in a manga,
look.. It was already cooked for you brodie, let's be honest.
As for the goal of Jodio, I love that his goal is this simple. But, I also love how we all know
that you damn well that's not bout to be the true character theme. Come on y'all. So I can't wait
to see what that's about to be. If it focuses on the 'mechanism' concept referred to multiple
times in the chapter, it would be about how Jodio learns to understand the world. The intricacies
of our interpersonal relationships and the ones outside - why we do what we do and the mechanisms
that cause them. I plan to explain further what Jodio is getting at in a later video.
Next, I'd like to discuss our two JoJos and their characterization.
Jodio Joestar: Words to describe his character, confident,
steadfast, perceptive/strategic, self-assured, and potentially a bit performative.
Now, what do I mean by that? What's my evidence? Well, it's based on how
he got straight into defending Dragona regardless of what they've said and how
Jodio explains who he is and what's about to happen with the part. So not only did he
dismantle the situation, he knew what to do with the evidence. That's for the strategy.
For confidence and all, it's more so how he holds himself and compares himself to
the other kid. It isn't baseless; he understands the game and knows why his
cards fall into place. Meanwhile, the other kid's life falls apart.
As of the rest of what I'm thinking about - I think regardless of the fact they're both
moving work, Dragona already develops a familiar basis of supervisor of sorts with Jodio. I think
we're going to see a lot of them trying to look out for Jodio. In addition to that,
I kind of want to figure out what to refer to them as asap. Because I understand that Jodio will
use aniki, but that's a lot more different than allowing anyone to use he/him pronouns for that.
To some, it might look like I'm putting on because it's a fictional character,
but it's like dawg, if there's a way to refer to anything, be it person or anything, would you not
refer to it in the way that it's meant to be? Like it's a principle thing. Oh, also, I get that Araki
does that thing where to establish someone being bad, they have to do especially heinous things,
but opening up like that? Alongside it being a POC and cop interaction?
Like that's pretty insane work to hit us with that so fast, but yeah. Of course they get their
wrathful comeuppance, but you gotta admit that was a wild opening. I know that some of people
out there will be like, "Oh I've seen worse happening in the beginning of my mangas." Yeah,
probably dawg, that's why I ain't asking you questions. Keep that over there.
Anyways, Meryl May Qi is moving just like Gus from Breaking Bad, so I'm telling y'all to watch
out for them even if they're fine. And the fact that the upperclassman is tagging along after
Jodio had sold to them means that we probably should be worried to some extent. Either that,
or maybe this upperclass man was pretending, and this was their way of trying to watch how
Jodio moves around in the school. Let's double up on the theories, either they're going to try
to steal and something goes wrong because of the upperclassman, or the stealing plan was
just someway for Meryl to get rid of Jodio and Dragona. Ooooh very interesting right?
But yeah! Good pacing too, great chapter, and I can't wait to see more. Also looking
like Jodio and Dragon are like Weather and Pucci with being bi-racial siblings.