Recap: Fifty years after the final battle with Dio, Jonathan’s grandson, Joseph, is moving to America. Meanwhile, Speedwagon has discovered something ominous in the jungles of Mexico.

Iro’s Thoughts:
Enter our new protagonist, Joseph Joestar – fresh off the boat from England, leaving the tumultuous pre-WWII Europe. He’s nothing like the gentleman Jonathan was, instead being an amusingly crazy jerkass – perhaps fitting for the change in location and time period (though even the crazy Tommy gun wielding youth loves his granny). Either way, he fights more cleverly than his grandfather, demonstrating Sherlock-like prediction skills throughout the episode. “Your next line will be X” is practically this guy’s catchphrase.

JoJo has always had a fair bit of, shall we say, unnecessary narration, but this episode kind of runs with it as Smokey tells the audience what’s going on as it’s happening in front of us. This would probably be less egregious if there had been a larger break between arcs, since much of his monologue is about meeting the Joestar family and learning about them, but we saw what happened 50 years ago only last week.

And speaking of 50 years ago, we get eased into the new setting with some of the old characters: namely, Speedwagon, Erina, and Straits. Straits in particular might be unexpected to some, considering he showed up out of blue only a couple episodes ago and did absolutely nothing of worth back in the first arc. From an in-context point of view, this guy would be an old family friend, so his sudden betrayal and murder of Speedwagon is treated with gravitas even though it comes out of nowhere for the viewer. As for Speedwagon, he was too cool to live anyway.

What’s coming up next? As the next episode preview showed, we’re going to be seeing some Nazis and their GERMAN SCIENCE. Stroheim is one of the crazier characters in this arc full of crazy characters, so look forward to it.

Zigg’s Thoughts:
It’s a whole new world for JoJo. I must admit I actually wasn’t expecting any of the old cast to stick around, but the time jump was a little less than I thought and so we still have a few lingering remains of the old order in the form of Speedwagon and and Erina. One doesn’t last long though, and I’d be surprised if Erina lives for more than a few episodes – killing parent figures is always an excellent way to get your hero fired up, as the first arc ably proved.  Still, it’s a bit of a shame Speedwagon goes out the way he does – he deserved better.

Who is this new hero anyway? On the basis of this first episode, Joseph Joestar  might be an even bigger badass than his grandfather.  He’s got all of Jonathan’s swagger, his ripple skills have become some sort of in the blood (no pun intended) inheritance and he’s a much cooler, more analytical fighter. The scene where he takes apart the racist restaurant goer is an absolute delight, and its an unexpected bonus that JoJo has no issues tackling the thorny racial issues of the period, albeit in a typically bluff style.

Elsewhere, it’s something of a struggle to adapt, what with the incredibly radical changes. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, more just an observation of how comfortable the old setting became and how much of an uplift this new one is. The urbane bustle of Thirties New York is nothing like the windswept highlands of Victorian Britain, but has its own charm and there’s great flashes of style, like JoJo’s Tommy gun assault on straits through a window, which has echoes of Dick Tracy and similar gangster drama.

Speaking of Straits, he’s an unusual choice for an antagonist. His motive is sort of believable, and you can’t even call his actions out of character because he never really had a character before, but it still seems something of a stretch to believe he’s our new big bad, and I’m betting that position will be rapidly taken by whoever the man entombed in stone is.

Overall, this new JoJo looks to have transplanted all of the charm and strangeness of the original story to a fresh setting.  There’s still a little awkwardness as the show finds its feet once more, but the foundations laid here are very intriguing.  With the promise of a step up in craziness to come (Nazis!) the start of this new Bizarre Adventure is an encouraging one.

Gee’s Thoughts:
Here it is folks, the beginning of the truly insane Part 2 and its equally insane Jojo, Joseph Joestar. In typical Jojo fashion, we get a fair bit of exposition as Smokey serves to be our Speedwagon this time around, explaining and narrating everything that goes on. And just like Jojo, we jump straight to the action as Speedwagon, the greatest bro to ever live is tragically slain by Straits. It’s sudden and tragic that such a man should die with so little fanfare.

Joseph himself marks a distinct departure from Jonathan, but in the end, Joseph is the one who will define the future descendants of the Joestar family. Whereas Jonathan was  a classic hero, straight as an arrow and honest to a fault, Joseph is  a bratty jerk, but one with good intentions and an intelligent mind which we’ll get to see very soon. We’ll also get to see how utterly insane Joseph is. Jonathan was the ultimate straight man, but Joseph is undeniably the goofy one here. Whether he’s punching out cops or gunning down vampires in the middle of the street, Joseph is an entirely different breed of Jojo, and for those used to Jonathan’s honorable personality, Joseph will either be a fresh of breath air or a little of an abrupt change.

Still, this is Jojo we’re talking about and we’re all in for a treat. Not only does it look like the animation and art has gotten better, but the soundtrack for this new 1930’s Jojo is already off to a great start. I personally am eagerly anticipating the reveal of the new Jojo OP, performed by none other than Lotus Juice, famous for doing a great number of the Persona OPs. Considering how similar Persona is to Jojo, it’s as if the two were meant for each other, which I can appreciate. And with next episode’s Nazi antics and more craziness, things only get wilder and crazier from here.