JoJo's Homoerotic Adventure is an anime based on a very successful manga that started in 1989, and holy fuck can you tell, even though the anime itself is only a couple of years old.
This anime is fucking crazy, in a brilliant way - so brilliant in fact that even though I am only part of the way through season two (or 'Stardust Crusaders' as it is also known), I feel compelled to write about the first season already.
If I had to sum up JoJo's Camp Adventure in one word it would be the word 'fabulous'. From the fact that one of the main objectives is to beat semi naked musclebound hunks with 80's rock hairdos and steal their body jewelry, to the beautiful eye make up on the Big Bad, who is named after The Cars. You know, that band that did that song that goes 'who's gonna drive you home - - - tonight?' that was always on the after dark radio shows when your dad was driving you somewhere late at night back in the day, when dads always played the radio in their cars.
I'm not kidding, Lord Kars really was named after that band. This is a major theme in JoJo's character naming - nearly every character's name is a hilariously distorted version of a 70's or 80's artist or band's name.
The first one I saw (Robert EO Speedwagon), I was like, 'haha, they named him after REO Speedwagon and I guess they thought nobody would notice'. But no, that's actually a thing in JoJo, you begin to really puzzle over the ones that aren't obvious. Like, sure, Dire and Straizo make up Dire Straits, and Suzi Q makes sense, but what the hell band is Esidisi? When I figured out it was AC/DC I wanted to fist bump myself. Working out that Waamu was meant to be Wham! involved some Googling, however, not because Waamu doesn't sound like Wham!, but because all the other music references were, well, cooler than Wham!. That and the fact the story and character design seemed a bit gayer than anything a George Michael fan would have come up with.
In fact, the only moment in JoJo that isn't homoerotic (or a reference to classic rock) is basically the bit when Joseph Joestar, the second generation JoJo (well, he's the grandson of the first JoJo having the titular Bizarre Adventure, but the second one you actually see doing anything - which means his dad was probably boring as fuck, or at least born in a time when the writers didn't have an excuse to put Jack The Ripper or Nazi cyborgs in the story... Oh yeah, there are Nazi cyborgs, but guess what - they're good guys!) is perving on his coach in the in-world martial art/superpower of 'hamon' when she takes a bath. It turns out later that this coach, Lisa Lisa (after Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, some band that apparently once existed) is his mother, but looks half her age because her mastery of hamon slowed down her aging.
It is literally never addressed that he perved on his mother naked through a keyhole. Not even a hint of 'Luke and Leia' unintentional incest awkwardness.
Sure, the posturing and character design and the fact the friendships between the JoJos and their besties seem to go way beyond the usual shounen anime 'friendship is magic' level of gayness make this the campest anime I've ever seen, but the writers are really having fun with this aspect of the thing. There is a scene where JoJo and his companion are forced by their trainer to climb a large pillar soaked in oil using only their hands. This is innuendo dialled up to 11!
This season covers Jonathan Joestar, the first JoJo, and then later his grandson Joseph. The first part is set in old timey England, where Jonathan meets long term enemy Dio. Dio is literally the worst person ever. Seriously I hated him more than any anime villain I've ever seen before by the second episode, where he is just sort of a jerk kid with no powers or anything. That is how much of a wanker Dio is. Dio makes Prince Joffrey look like an affable sort of a bloke who you'd trust to look after your cat while you went on vacation.
Even though the setting is Dickensian, don't expect anybody to be acting like an English gentleman - everyone is as dramatic and over the top as you would want in a very dramatic and over the top example of anime, which is a medium that favours massively intense characters. When the series moves onto Joseph's story, we are taken to Italy but everyone there is pretty intense and Japanese too. Lisa Lisa is JoJo's mother, but she never once in the series forces him to eat three servings of lasagna, so I call bullshit on that version of Italy. The last bit, I'm not sure, is it meant to be Switzerland? Eh, I lost track because of all the sparkles and hair and body jewelry.
I really enjoyed JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It was fucking ridiculous, but it still genuinely had an engaging story and some good action. It is a fun show that is hilarious without actually being a comedy, and will have you questioning how much of the innuendo the writers did on purpose and how much is just your own sick mind...
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