In honor of this memorable demo and the disappointment of knowing the official game has been cancelled as of yesterday, I decided that now was the perfect time to stream this. It is being taken off of the Playstation Store after tomorrow. Whether or not downloaded copies of the demo will even work prior to this date is still a mystery, and I just couldn't take the chance. So here's the full demo in all of it's scary splendor. My voice was raised quite a few times during this one!!! Enjoy!!!
Five years ago, I would have never imagined seeing the first two story arcs of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure come to the States, especially in its original manga form. What Hirohiko Araki started in 1986 eventually became one of the highest-selling manga throughout all of Japan. To this day, the series has sold over 80 million copies in Japan alone, and that number continues to grow every day. It began to have some footing in the US, when Viz licensed and released all 16 volumes of JoJo's third story arc, Stardust Crusaders. But this left out the original (1-5) volumes of the first arc, Phantom Blood, and the following story (5-12), Battle Tendency. So just what is this strangely-titled series, why is it so iconic in Japan, and why did it take so long for us to get the first two story arcs here in the States?
Let's take it from the top. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure revolves around different members of the Joestar family; Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, etc. (hence the name, JoJo). Each story arc centers on one of these family members taking down supernatural enemies and saving the world, using special and unique powers they each possess. The major appeal of the series is something else entirely. While being very strange and unpredictable, this show is also known for all of the crazy poses and techniques all of the characters in the show demonstrate. People in Japan especially have turned these poses into a fashion statement. So the last question to ask once again is, why the difference in the States? Why only give us the third story arc of JoJo and nothing else?
Do you remember Yu-Gi-Oh? The popular anime series/card game that garnered such a large following, due to its success with Kids WB (back when that was still a thing) and card sharks all around the world? Well, you may or may not remember that the Yu-Gi-Oh series was not always about the card game. The first seven volumes of Kazuki Takahashi's now famous manga revolved around the main character Yugi Mutou; a boy who loved to play games. One day, Yugi solved an ancient puzzle, which allowed a spirit trapped inside to come out and actually possess Yugi's body. And this was all we really knew about the series at the time. It was quite unpredictable, and nobody really knew where the story was going. But it wasn't until volume 8 of the manga forward that everything became more clear. That duel monsters (the name of said card game) was actually a reproduction of battles from the days of ancient Egypt, and that the spirit of the puzzle was none other than the pharaoh himself. But the majority only care about what the series is famous for: the card game.
So why am I bringing all this up? Well JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually draws some similarities here. The first two story arcs of JoJo did not garner the same amount of popularity that the third arc and beyond did. The first serial covered Jonathan Joestar, rich and good, and Dio Brando, poor and evil. Dio tries to work his way into the Joestar family, so he can murder Jonathan's father and claim the family fortune. This plot went completely sideways after an ancient mask gets involved, turning Dio into a vampire-like being, while Jonathan learned the ways of Hamon in order to combat him and his forces. What made the third story arc so different from the first two was the use of beings known as "Stands." These Stands were like avatars to the character's personalities that would fight alongside them. They were possessed by both the main characters and the villains of the show, and became a staple for the manga ever since. This is one of the reasons why I believe Viz chose to start with Stardust Crusaders, instead of Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. It is to this day the best-selling chapter of the entire series, and it appeared that Viz was iffy on whether or not they should risk the title coming to the states. This was further evidenced by poor sales in the States for another manga of Araki's, Baoh. Prior to the release of Baoh, Viz had actually stated in a newsletter that they were planning to localize JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to the States in the early 90's. It's pretty obvious what happened next.
One other factor that Viz became more open about in 2013, was that localizing the early chapters was more or less a legal nightmare. Taken from Viz Media's official Facebook page:
This certainly makes sense when you consider the numerous character names, such as Robert E. O. Speedwagon, Poco, Tonpetty, Asidisi, and Dio himself. Despite all odds, we finally saw the release of the rebooted JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime from 2012-2013, as well as the current season (at the time of writing this), Stardust Crusaders. In the US, we were finally able to stream the series on Crunchyroll in April, 2014. Why it took so long for us to get a proper anime adaptation when the manga is so hugely popular in Japan is still a mystery to me. We received an OVA for Stardust Crusaders and a movie for Phantom Blood in Japan, but that was about it. Though it is quite irksome that it took so long for these things to come out, it is still a relief (and in some ways, a miracle) that they finally did.
My only hope now is that the series becomes popular enough stateside, so that we may get to see a growing trend of people making the iconic poses and talking about all of the unexpected things we see/read from this amazing title. This one has been kept in the shadows for way too long in the US, and I can only dream of it finally getting the recognition it deserves.
A lot of people hesitated to try this game because of mixed reviews. You no longer have to wonder what you'd think of it, because now you can watch the game played in its entirety! Enjoy!!!
I had first heard about The Great Philadelphia Comic Con after my girlfriend and I started looking for more local conventions to attend. While New York Comic Con and other larger events are great, it's sometimes nice to relax at the smaller venues and breathe once in a while too! While a bit far from where I live, The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center is still a pretty straightforward drive and easy to get to from my town in New Jersey. The website looked to be pretty well-made, along with a surprising amount of big guests (such as George Takei, Nicehelle Nichols, Austin St. John, Jim Steranko, Seth Gilliam, and many others). My friend and I also still had a bitter taste in our mouths after the experience we had with Walker Stalker Con last winter, so we kind of crossed our fingers in the hopes this one would be better. So how did it do?
I'll start by saying that things went surprisingly well overall. The setup is about what you would expect from any type of convention (including a dealers section, artist alley, rooms for panels, autographing tables, a photo op booth, etc.), and even included a kid's corner for the little ones to get in the fun. Unlike Walker Stalker Con, space wasn't an issue either. Everywhere my friend and I walked, we never felt claustrophobic or like we were being pushed around at all. We were also greeted by a very friendly staff, who was happy to answer any questions we had.
While there were not a large amount of cosplays (as this was not a large convention in that sense), the ones my friend and I saw were quite good, ranging from Spider-Man to Lemongrab from Adventure Time. When you come to a smaller venue like this one, you get to see pretty much everyone and everything, so it's immediately more personable. Bigger conventions like New York and San Diego Comic Con have so much to do, it's almost impossible to cover all grounds, even over the course of the entire weekend. Here, you can pretty much experience everything in the same day and still have time to talk about it afterwards. But that's OKAY. You don't have to have a million things to try to plan in order to have fun. Instead, it's nice to take in the little things once in a while.
One of the first things we did was head over by the photo op booth to get some details before I took my picture with George Takei. Just as we were standing there, who else but Jonathan Frakes (of Star Trek Next Generation, and directing fame) walks right past us and shouts "I need to escort this woman out, because she's about to deliver a baby!" We couldn't stop laughing over the fact that A. Jonathan Frakes just walked right past us, and B. He sounded completely "Number 1" as he said it. Good way to start things off.
The photo op results were a bit mixed, but this was due to the actual photo op people; not the convention or Mr. Takei himself. It also didn't help that the actual handing out of our photos was so unorganized and not timely in the slightest bit. This is the second time this particular photo op group has irked me in this regard, and I don't think I intend to put up with it a third time if they don't get their act together. But enough about that. I got to meet George Takei and he was every bit of a gentleman as one would expect! When I asked him if we could do the "Vulcan" pose with our hands, he said "Oh yes, absolutely!" and told me to "Live long and prosper!" with complete sincerity. That already made my day, and we were just getting started!
There was a pretty generous amount of convention hall space devoted to dealers and artists, and that's a great thing. Some of the more popular Comic Con's (especially New York and San Diego) focus on all aspects of pop culture and media. While this is also a great thing, one may get caught up in that fold and forget it was originally all about the comics! In the artist alley area, my friend and I met Scott Hanna of both Marvel and DC fame. If you have ever read any comics from Marvel and DC in the last 28 years, you have likely seen work of his. I personally could not remember what particular work of his I had loved in the past, until he went over a few titles with me. Then I remembered he was the inker during JM Straczynski's original run on Amazing Spider-Man, with John Romita Jr. on the pencils. This was literally the arc that got me back into comic books in general, and it was killing me that I didn't have my signed issue #34 (Vol. 2) to bring to him. He also agreed that it's nicer to have local conventions like this for really sitting down and talking with people.
Outside of walking around the dealers and artist sections, we decided to give some panels a try. Despite the setup being overall very simple (3 panel rooms and set times for each), there seemed to be some major scheduling conflicts with this. We ended up missing the Power Rangers panel because it went on at 3:00 instead of 5:00 like it said on the pamphlets. There were no posts on the wall or anything stating that the time (and room) changed, so this really bothered me. With that said, the two panels we did attend were very fun and entertaining. The first one my friend and I went to was The Walking Dead, with Seth Gilliam (who plays Father Gabriel), talking about his role on the show, as well as what he envisions for Father Gabriel's character in the show at this point. Probably the best thing about the panel was Seth Gilliam is actually very nice and hilarious. When asked if he had seen the show before getting the part of Gabriel, Seth talked about he originally auditioned for the part of Morgan when the show was just starting, and how his initial reaction to not getting picked was "Well, f#$k this show then!" Once he did begin binge-watching it, he said he couldn't get enough, and cursed Netflix for not having season 4 posted at the time he was viewing. He also expressed his own disdain for the actions of his character in the show, making things even more hilarious in that regard.
The second (and last) panel my friend and I attended was Star Trek: The Next Generation with Jonathan Frakes. What made this panel so interesting is the fact that Frakes (for those who don't know) is also a director, just as much as an actor. This puts a very different perspective on the film industry, and gave us a point of view we didn't really have before. Most people will say that they were either an actor or a director in their career; not usually both. Questions ranged from thoughts on the cartoon Gargoyles (of which he voiced the character Xanatos), all the way to what it's like to film a love scene with an actress when you're already married. The crowd for this panel ranged from people my age, to people my dad's age. I thought that was perfect since I feel it was both my and his generations that really appreciated Star Trek: The Next Generation most of all.
After this panel, and by about 5:00, my friend and I realized we had more or less done everything there was to do at this convention. That's the thing though. We were completely okay with that. Unlike the overwhelming giant conventions, where it's impossible to do everything you want, this one actually felt just right. While we couldn't see ourselves going for another day to do anything else, we came out very satisfied. Even with the panel scheduling issues and the mixed photo op results, things turned out pretty nicely. I could definitely see myself attending this again next year, and am very glad that we took the chance to drive out and give it a shot. Easily one of the better local conventions I've visited.
