Tizoc
Member
With Halloween a few days away and inspired by another thread I decided to revisit a favourite Dracula adaptation of mine.
The beginning of Dracula begins not with the first chapter, but rather 200 years ago in real life, for you see Dracula was not written in a fortnight; it was the end result of years of research and rewrites until it was presented before us in all it's Fabulous, Explosive, Manly Exposition-ary Posing greatness.
A great turning point during the progress of writing this story came in 1981
Little did the author know how much of an impact Mad Max 2 would have on this story.
...and then finally on January 1987, privileged readers in certain corner of the world had their first look at the completed story.
I am of course talking about
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood
Over time more would learn of it and it would become a cult classic, spoken only among the few open minded enough to appreciate its over the top absurdity.
The greatest moment for JoJo would come in 2012 when FINALLY it would receive an ongoing, faithful as possible, animated adaptation, a thing UNHEARD of and never before would've been fathomed-
Having recently rewatched all 9 episodes adapting Phantom Blood (Part 1 of a series that now spans 8 parts) I still think it a decent self contained story and the adaptation attempts to bring out the story's explosive elements and over the top craziness (which for the writer was at its infancy) as well as it could for the time.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1, inspired by Hokuto no Ken and the author's knack for absurdity and horror films, decided to take Dracula and FABULOUSLY manly it the fuck up.
One thing I liked by the time I finished it is the sense of 'tragedy' as the plot went on; Jonathan lost Danny, then his father, his mentor until finally he lost one he once thought of as brother. The ending is quite uncommon esp. at the time and the last time a series ever did sucha thing was with Ashita no Joe way back when.
It was a joy to see GAFfers experience this series (and adaptation of Dracula) in a serial form; from the fabulous assholery of Dio
To the bro-tastic hot blooded exposition of REO Speedwagon, aka Quick Caravan, aka Speedbump
...and the fabulous dandyness of Will. A. Zeppeli
Now granted Jonathan ranks low among my fav. JoJo protags but you gotta give his badass gentleman aura some credit-
He IS after all the Lion that would bring hope for the future.
Mention should also be said for the kickass intro.
For long has anime failed to capture that explosive hot bloodedness of 80s metal as fuck anime intros but all were merely pale imitations, but then in 2012, blasting in our ears came the greatest tribute to that long lost age-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF00xX-p28Y
So no Chi no Sadame will never get old, and you can tell Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga put his soul and passion into it as seen by the Live performance he did-
https://youtu.be/azcDW5vyQcE?t=12
Finally, and leaving best for last, is Roundabout by Yes that plays as an episode ends, and the track is used fantastically in certain scenes as the music plays and leads into the screen freeze ending the episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M
All in all it's a fun adaptation of Dracula and is def. worth a watch if you're looking for something fun and weird to watch this Halloween alongside your usual Halloween watchings.
I should give David Pro some credit and praise as they would really put excellent effort in the later adaptations of JoJo while also throwing in fun teasings here and there (one such example is topless Dio which WASN'T in the original manga and a nice shout out to Part 3)
It is fitting with the big H..!