JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, Jojo no Kimyō na Bōken) is a lengthy Japanese shōnen–seinen manga series authored by Hirohiko Araki that began in 1987, doing business with Shueisha. The franchise's name is commonly shortened to JoJo (ジョジョ) or JJBA.

1. Phantom Blood (ファントムブラッド, Fantomu Buraddo)
   Jonathan Joestar masters 'hamon' (波紋) to defeat Dio Brando, his adopted brother who attempted to steal his family's fortune, but gets cornered and abandons 'humanity' by becoming a vampire.
2. Battle Tendency (戦闘潮流, Sentō Chōryū)
   Joseph Joestar ends up discovering the stone mask's origins, but he has to master 'hamon' within a month to defeat an ancient tribe of super-humans dubbed the Pillar Men.
3. Stardust Crusaders (スターダストクルセイダース, Sutādasuto Kuruseidāsu)
   Jotaro Kujo gains a supernatural power called a 'stand' (スタンド), learns about DIO's return, and gets tasked with reaching Egypt in 50 days to defeat DIO or his mother dies.
4. Diamond is Unbreakable (ダイヤモンドは砕けない, Daiyamondo wa Kudakenai)¹⁾
   Josuke Higashikara finds out that new stand users have been emerging in Morioh, learns about the stand-producing arrows, then focuses on hunting down a reclusive serial killer.
5. Golden Wind / Vento Aureo (黄金の風, Ougon no Kaze)²⁾
   Giorno Giovanna infiltrates the mafia with hopes to reform them, but things take a sharp turn as they decide to betray the boss's final orders and make an attempt to uncover his true identity.
6. Stone Ocean (ストーンオーシャン, Sutōn Ōshan)
   Jolyne Cujoh gets wrongfully imprisoned in a priest's convoluted plan to lure her father in, using his memories of DIO's diary to attain 'heaven' and unlock the ultimate stand.
7. Steel Ball Run (スティール・ボール・ラン, Sutīru Bōru Ran)
   Johnny Joestar runs into a mysterious man named Gyro Zeppeli and enters the 'Steel Ball Run' race, which secretly turns out to be a plot by the president to gather the corpse parts of a 'saint'.
8. Jojolion (ジョジョリオン, Jojorion)
   Josuke Higashikata³⁾ attempts to uncover his true identity, then learns about the Rock Disease, the Rock Organisms, and the incredibly valuable Locacaca fruit's significance.
9. The Jojolands (ザ・ジョジョランズ, Za Jojoranzu)
   (Currently in progress…)

In the past, localization efforts were extremely rare or limited to select countries, so most international fans were stuck with fan-made or pirated translations of varying quality. This section covers some of them for amusement purposes. With the anime's international success, localization is no longer an issue, but we now have to deal with name changes that were done to avoid potential copyright issues.

For the Chinese community, JoJo de Qímiào Màoxiǎn (JOJO(乔乔)的奇妙冒险) had several different names and publishers depending on what region you were from, vaguely charted below:

For the English community, fans were mostly stuck with fan-made translations until the 2010s, though we did get a localization of the Capcom game and the Stardust Crusaders manga. Honestly, this subject has been done to death before and I won't go into extreme detail. The first two parts were done extremely well, then we had a rough spot, then we get into the modern translations of the more recent parts.

• Stardust Crusaders - The page quality took a nosedive after the first few chapters, forcing you to read on TINY, COFFEE-STAINED, PISS YELLOW pages. This has since been replaced.
• Diamond is Unbreakable - The infamous indirect translation of the 'Da Ran' translation, which fans called 'Duwang' nowadays.⁴⁾ This has since been replaced, though some people take issue with the fact that it was technically a 'proofread' translation, not that this matters now.
• Vento Aureo - The other indirect translation. It's implied that the old Chinese translation was so rushed that the finer details are lost, which made it feel bland. This has since been replaced.

For the Korean community, South Korea still upheld its ban on Japanese media, so fans were stuck with bootleg translations like Megaton Man (메가톤맨) which changed the tone of some scenes and subtly altered plot details to hide its Japanese origins.⁵⁾ These laws were eventually relaxed, so the franchise had a proper localization as Jyojyoui Gimyohan Moheom (죠죠의 기묘한 모험).

• The franchise has unique poses, inspired by existing sculptures and fashion magazines, that fans dub 'JoJo poses' or 'JoJotachi' (ジョジョ立ち). Araki is aware that the fans imitate them.⁶⁾
• Back in Phantom Blood, it was mentioned that Dio was expected to graduate as the No. 1 student of Hugh Hudson Academy's law department,⁷⁾ implicating that Dio sought legal ways to seize the Joestar estate, but he presumably 'dropped out' considering his subsequent actions.
• Starting with Battle Tendency, some antagonists start being labeled 'retired' after they're defeated, no longer pose a threat, or lose their 'willpower'. The exact yojijukugo is 'saiki funou' (再起不能, lit. “recovery unlikely” or “out of commission”), but the ruby indicates that 'retire' (リタイヤ) is meant to be the intended reading, further backed by the use of 'retire' in the numerous video games.
• In Chapter 106 (371) of Diamond is Unbreakable, there is a scene where Joseph asked Rohan if Pink Dark Boy had an English translation. Rohan replies “There is a Taiwanese and a European⁸⁾ version. But for some reason, it hasn't had an English translation. I guess Americans don't appreciate my work since their tastes are outdated…”.⁹⁾ Quite rude, yet in-character.
  • When the chapter was initially published in 1994, the franchise only had licensed translations in France and Taiwan, but no official English-language media until JoJo's Venture in 1998. Obviously, the anime adaptation cuts out their off-topic conversation from DU Episode 26 in 2016.
• King Crimson has the ability to 'erase time', while Epitaph has the ability to project the future and see what 'fate' intends to happen. These two abilities combined grant the user a ten-second window to move, while everything in range will follow their 'fate' but won't be able to recall anything in the skipped time and can't be interacted with unless they were pulled into the ten-second window.
  • Yes, even the Japanese wiki calls this 'difficult to explain'¹⁰⁾ in case you were interested.¹¹⁾
  • The ending of Vento Aureo involves Gold Experience Requiem having the ability to 'nullify' attacks made against the user, nullifying the attack and the attacker's 'willpower'. Diavolo dies an infinite death because Gold Experience Requiem's abilities keeps nullifying his death, which forces Diavolo to infinitely experience death over and over again.
• In Chapter 34 of Stone Ocean, there is a scene where Jolyne banters with F.F. and describes her pitching stance as 'Okama-like' (オカマっぽい). This would later be changed to 'Gay-like' (ゲイっぽい) in the bunkoban, and the anime adaptation cuts this scene out from SO Episode 9.
• The ending of Stone Ocean invokes the cyclic model, and we learn that DIO's concept of 'heaven' involved everybody learning about their 'fate' after the universe resets and coming to terms with this. With this, it is implicated that DIO planned to achieve world domination by exempting himself from 'fate', but Pucci's own experiences with 'fate' causes him to interpret this as 'salvation'.
  • As the story goes, Emporio manages to manipulate Pucci's ability to change 'fate' and kill him while Made in Heaven is active, removing Pucci's influence over the second reset. Emporio is sent to a universe where the Joestar bloodline finds peace with no looming threats, and Jolyne becomes Irene because she is no longer fated to become a JoJo that has their bizarre adventure.
  • With this in mind, the original continuity is continued in spin-offs like Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, subsequent parts obviously takes place in the new continuity, then you have Eyes of Heaven which expands on a version of DIO's plan if he hadn't died in Stardust Crusaders.
• For reference, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure becomes a seinen after Chapter 23 of Steel Ball Run, the last chapter that was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump before the move to Ultra Jump.

• Polnareff AA - “I-I'll tell you exactly what just happened!”

• JoJo Portal Site [JA] - The official homepage for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
• JoJo's Questions Thread Matome Wiki [JA] - A fan wiki that is intended to resolve frequently asked questions about the franchise. It is vaguely related to the 2channel thread.¹²⁾
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Niconico Encyclopedia [JA]
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Moegirl Encyclopedia [ZH]
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Namu Wiki [KO]
• JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia [EN] - English-language fan wiki.

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