When I first heard about JoJos Bizzare Adventure this was a fairly underground manga in the West. It was a known series but there definitely were more people that knew the name but never bothered reading than the ones that did. Things started to change however in 2012 when a new anime adaptation of Jojo started and as it adapted more and more parts of the story the amount of fans grew and grew. Its hard to be an anime fan now and not have heard of Jojo or met a fan of the series. It was only recently that I decided to cave in and check what the hype was all about so join me as I go through the series and tell you what I think. Put your seat belts on as we go all the way back to 1986. 220https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/WeeklyShC58DnenJump1987issue12.jpg Now Jojo is huge and theres a lot of people that love it to death but lets be fair most of them will tell you that Part 1 is weak compared to the rest of the series. Sure theres a lot of fans of it and even people who prefer it but the consensus is that its not the best part and I can see why. When I first started reading I liked a couple of things I like the atmosphere that Castlevaniaesque vibe it had its definitely different than most manga that I tend to read and I think thats probably because its not a Japanese setting. It had this mysterious and Gothic aura to it that I really appreciated. https://cineastro.net.br//upload/thumbs900/upload/diversas/jojosbizarreadventurepart1phantombloodmangareview52.jpg Its in this setting in Victorian England that we meet our main characters the titular JoJo Jonathan Joestar who was very happy boy until the day his father introduces him to the newest member of the family It was me Dio Brando who is basically Satan. Phantom Blood works around the fact that these two characters are the basic opposites of one another natural enemies in a battle between morally good and morally bad. This is very cool in concept but in reality Dio is somehow the best character in the manga and even then he is just evil and Jonathan is the most bland main character I think Ive read. Its easily the worst character in the Jojo parts Ive read and its probably the worst character Ive ever encountered. And this is my main problem. I definitely have more gripes with part 1 that Ill talk about in a bit but I wouldve excused it if I enjoyed the characters. If you read my reviews or just know me you may notice that I like works that have a good cast in it and maybe I give it more importance than other people might give depending on the story told but I still think its a very important aspect regardless. Because the story itself isnt bad I like the setting I like the mask a lot I think its interesting the story around it is probably the best part of the first two parts of Jojos but alone it cant save it. And the main character is the one that I have more problems with but I cant say that I found any of the supporting cast interesting. Really didnt care for Zeppeli or Speedwagon and much less for characters like Dire or Straits. https://www.zonanegativa.com/imagenes/2017/07/JojoPhantomBlood1DioJojo.jpg Plus its not just the characters theres a lot of points that to be fair happen in a lot of other manga that I read from the time like Devilman and Saint Seya so one could blame its age but Ive also read other manga from the same time that doesnt really have these flaws. Im mostly talking about the dialogues they are clunky they feel unnatural which doesnt help the characters either because now theyre not only bland but every time they talk I feel a disconnect from the series because people just dont talk like that. The art too I appreciate the designs I think that amidst everything that Im criticizing about the characters their designs are unique and it helps them look varied but the art itself is not that great. The poses they do I know its a meme now and part of the appeal to some people but they dont look good to me they are just... well... bizarre and look very ridiculous and nonhuman. Before I read Part 1 Ive seen some artwork of Araki so I know that he is good that his art is amazing but its amazing now definitely wasnt in 1986 and thats fine I appreciate that he improved a lot but were judging Phantom Blood for what it is and while its not the worst art that Ive come across or course not but its quite ugly. 400https://i.pin.com/originals/39/e3/82/39e3825e0098073dc0771dccc9424316.jpg Ultimately even knowing that the first part was probably the weakest I still got considerably disappointed. It has a good concept but theres too many flaws to make this an enjoyable experience. Thankfully a lot of problems I talk about would be improved in later parts but talking about Phantom Blood on its own is it a mark on manga history? Yes definitely But is it good? Well in my opinion not so much.