Have never seen or read Jojo's but have heard its fantastic and all that. And I saw one of the parts was number 2 best manga on here below BERSERK! So i thought alright I'll read it because each part should stand on its own right?
Well it definitely did. Araki is a very good writer, the way it introduced Gyro and Johnny was very stylishly done and I like that the main character Johnny isn't the most morally good guy, he is a bit of a jerk and has a selfish reason for wanting to be in the race while his new mentor Gyro who is a trained executioner is far nobler as he wants to save a young boy from being executed. And they develop and go through some of the best friendship and relationship writing I have seen in any media (coming pretty close to stuff like Gon and Killua or Ed and Al). I won't spoil much more about them but let me tell ya these two are fantastic for main characters, they have interesting motives, have fun personalities and their growing bond is such a thrill to read through.
The villain is of course the american president who is named Funny Valentine? Sounds very silly but it just rolls with it and he actually has a very noble and understandable motive. He wants to collect all of Jesus body parts (stay with me) to gain ultimate power so no misfortune will ever come to America and it will become a dominant country and very safe. It makes sense considering the job of a president is to protect their country no matter what and for a villain he is quite noble and altruistic (as you'll see very later on in this manga) and his backstory helps a lot and he has one of the best speeches I have ever heard the pleasure of seeing. The napkin speech.
The art is well...fantastic! Not much of an art expert but it's very nice to look at, the horses anatomy is really well done and it's so dynamic and creative most of the time especially during the insane stand fights.
What's a stand you say? That is basically the power system of this series. Like Hunter x Hunter has Nen and Fullmetal Alchemist has Alchemy, Jojo's has Stands. Basically your spirit energy manifesting into whatever the hell Araki wants, each person has got a unique looking stand and abilities and you get it from being near Jesus' corpse (sounds very weird I know but you get used to it). And for some reason their stands are always named after either bands or songs (one of them's called Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, you know the AC/DC song). To name some stands and their abilities I'll name Blackmore and his stand: Catch the Rainbow! It's ability is to control and manipulate raindrops and to be able to walk on them. And another one like Scary Monsters that can turn people into dinosaurs and make them henchmen of yours or Mandom which can rewind 6 seconds back into the past so you can try again to kill an enemy, all stands have fun abilities that of course lead to some very bizarre and creative fights. Unlike most shonen where power is the only thing that matters, in Jojo's you only win if you outsmart or use your abilities or theirs to your advantage (like one stand called Cream Starter is literally a spray that sprays skin that can suffocate or heal you, the creativity man!). Also the main characters Gyro and Johnny don't actually use stands that much (well Johnny later gains one pretty early that he later uses a lot) and practice the art of steel balls that can use stuff like friction, rotations, aerodynamics and life energy to use and Gyro basically teaches Johnny the ropes on how to use this art and it's quite interesting to see them use it and seeing Johnny improve with it. Also one of my favorites was the True Man's World fight where Gyro battled the guy who could rewind back 6 seconds and had to think of ways around that and to use that to his advantage even sacrificing himself and all that jazz in duel fights, very good stuff and the final two fights are absolutely insane but I won't spoil. And fights like Civil War help us delve into the characters psyche more so we can learn more about them and to see them develop.
The designs are very weird and bizarre (check for instance Mrs Robinson or Gyro's) but don't come off to annoying or off putting, they fit the world that Araki has created which at first seems impossible considering you see a pretty dark wild west but it grows on you.
Araki uses the genre of western very well. The story is actually centered around a race across America on horseback to win lots of money and that's how Gyro and Johnny meet and the race goes on for the whole manga until the very end but throughout the manga stuff happens and the race kinda subsides into the background to focus on Johnny and Gyro going up against Funny Valentine over Jesus' body. Don't worry it sounds insane but it flows naturally and doesn't feel forced.
Alright after explaining why I love this manga to death I guess it's only fair if I list my problems with it: Araki introduces some really interesting side characters that are awesome to like Hot Pants and Diego and Wekapipo and Sandman but most of them don't get used too much and are pretty discarded pretty quickly (it isn't the case for all of them don't worry but only some) especially poor Sandman who seemed he was going to play a big part but was screwed. And characters like Poco Loco don't get enough screen time to care about them at all and leave you a bit disappointed. And another one is although most of the time stand fights are great Araki sometime has an issue of too much going on where it's really hard to tell what's actually going and some fights leave a lot too be desired like Tomb of the Boom which was dreadful involving a man who can turn himself into a rope? And the first twenty or so chapters while having some high points are also quite slow and drag but it picks up a lot I say around the Scary Monsters fight (so when you see Diego lying down bloodied that's the sign).
But that's it, 95 long chapters and I only really have less than a handful of cons and this is the only Jojo part I have seen! Which is great that this part stands on its own and satisfies a non Jojo fan and a new audience and you don't need to read any other part.
I can see now why it's rated so high up (I love Berserk and FMA to death so seeing it between them was very interesting), Araki you are fantastic and it was such a fun thrill ride this manga.
Great power system, fights, characters, villain, art was great, Johnny and Gyro have the best friendship dynamic ever etc. I am definitely checking out the rest of Jojo's now after reading Steel Ball Run (apparently this is the seventh part and there is a new eighth part out now so I got a lot of catching up to do!)
I highly highly recommend. Please read this manga I implore you. You don't even have had to have seen any of the other Jojo parts to love this manga as I am proof. It stands on its own and it is great.
So that's why I give it a 9/10 (almost perfect)