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May 26, 2018
Anyone who ever got into Jojo decided which part was their favorite, at some point. Some people like the sleepy and hometown-y feeling of Part 4, some people enjoy the over-the-top bravado and the bizarre race of the Pillar Men from Part 2, some people really enjoy Part 7 for his "going back to the roots" idea of basically rebooting Part 1 and Part 3.
And then comes Jojolion, the 8th part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, an installment in the series that is for those who want a little bit of all of the above, taking the best from Part 2 and Part 4, using the
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iconic formula and style that Araki achieved in the past decade.
We're back to a familiar city, Morio-cho, where a young, naked boy with no name and no memories of his past emerges from a rocky hill after the Tōhoku earthquake, happened in 2011. As he discovers his power of "stealing" (and it's not mere stealing, we're talking about stealing immaterial things, like people's eyesight, or ground's friction), he's quickly introduced to his new life, his new family, his new love interest and a series of deadly foes that want his and his new family's heads, as he tries to bring back his past and to find out who he truly is.
The art style and the designs are masterful, probably the best Araki ever made. While we still have a little "same face syndrome" from Part 7 and a couple too many blank backgrounds, we can't deny the breathtaking designs of the characters, the stands and the overall sleepy world of a more country-sided Morio-cho. Like a true Rohan Kishibe follower, Araki takes what he can from the real world and twists it into a new, personal and fascinating universe.
Josuke, or as I like to call him, Gappy, the new Jojo, is really different from the one we've seen in the past. While he still recalls a couple of important traits from his ancestors, he's his own character: a cute, innocent and sometimes awkward teenager whose unusual personality (for the Jojo standards) breathes new air in a series that always saw violent macho-men and merciless, fabulous criminals as main characters.
We could divide the manga into three different "phases": the one where Gappy and his newfound family and friends fight with their stands, the one where Gappy explores Morio-cho and tries to found out clues about his past and the one where he just hangs out and interacts with the other characters. These three phases blend perfectly into each other, giving us the right amount of action and strategy from the fights but also enough time to learn and get attached to the characters, both the good ones and the evil ones.
The story isn't finished yet, but what else is there to say?
Jojolion is a new, fantastic installment in the +30 years running shonen masterpiece that is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, that is both able of attracting new fans and keeping the old ones stuck to the most recent tankobons.
Like I said in the introduction, every Jojo fan has their favorite part. But despite which one is yours, you will love Jojolion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 20, 2018
Meeting deadlines and expectations, facing stress and anxiety, enduring unlikable coworkers and tedious tasks ... It's all part of being an adult and a member of society. But when too much has been piling up and you reach your boiling point, you got to know how to let some steam off.
This is the story of Retsuko. 25 years old, single, Scorpio, blood type A, just your average positive, kind and uncertain young female employee, who bears a forbidden passion alongside her heart-attack-inducing stressful daily routine.
What comes immediately to attention while watching Aggressive Retsuko (or Aggretsuko for the western audience) are the peculiar pacing and overall
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atmosphere of the show: it almost feels like we're watching the daily struggles of a dear friend we cheer for. The events of the story follow smoothly while the humor, extremely "grounded" (you laugh because you can relate to the situations, which are far from being unusual) but never lazy nor trivial hits the mark almost every time.
It's surely an odd experience (but a welcome one, too) to watch something so rooted in reality yet funny and wholesome, where there are no power-ups, plot twists or deus ex machinas to save the situation, instead we can only count on the strength and the determination of a cast of extremely (and ironically, since they're anthropomorphized animals) human characters.
As expected, it's really hard to review this show without comparing it to its previous incarnation.
We've come a long way since the original Aggressive Retsuko shorts of roughly one minute each. What the franchise gained the most from this change in format to a more commonly used 20 minutes run time is surely the character development: again, it sounds ironic and cheesy, but it is surprising to see a cast of 2D, Flash animated characters with minimal design being so well characterised; it's almost like they're people from your same office department. Sure, just like in the previous version of AR they all fall into their respective archetypes (the doormat-to-his-superiors, the old creepy superiors, the unlikable rookies, the distracted/incompetent guys, the "senpais" you perceive as gods etc.), but they're also full of little quirks that define who they are and what part they have in Retsuko's story, giving them much more layer.
To add a note about the art, it's undebatable that it has improved. It's Flash, so you can't expect much, but it sure was in capable hands, and apart from a couple of little tweaks and animation errors here and there the show goes really smoothly with its adorable, iconic art style and concept designs, really simple and polygon-based but also really pleasant, almost comfy.
As of any other show, however, Aggressive Retsuko is not exempt from mistakes or poor direction choices. If you come for the original death metal songs the show won't match your expectations: it's really a pity that despite the longer run time and much more valuable sponsor (the big Netflixeroni maccheroni guys) they weren't able to fully develop the "death metal chants" parts of the episodes in something more unique or "advanced", remaining just really loud rants accompanied by generic death metal stock music. Even the original songs that appear in the second half of the show are really "meh", and I won't hide that I skipped over them with immeasurable violence.
In conclusion, Aggressive Retsuko is a cozy, relaxing and light-hearted ONA about a red panda dealing with daily struggles such as love, stress, social awkwardness, uncomfortable work settings and the pursuit of her own dreams. Not a masterpiece, but surely a recommended on my list.
Final vote: 8/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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