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Hey, let’s do something a little bit differently! Bizarre, you could say. We’re gonna be talking about each JoJo’s part (so far), in my opinion, from the worst to the best. Because JoJo’s is an anthology series, so we must rank them.

Also, I'll put in pictures later, I spent like a full day wiriting all if this I'm I'm going to sleep lol

Part 1: Phantom Blood

If we’re being completely honest here, Phantom Blood is kind of garbage. What makes Phantom Blood kind of interesting though, is the fact that it’s split down the middle, starting the series off with Dio Brando as the true protagonist before passing the baton down to Jonathan Joestar in the second half.

This first half is Part 1’s greatest strength. Dio is the polar opposite to Jonathan, the fact that he grew up with this awful upbringing and is willing to do anything to get on top is interesting and kind of sympathetic in a way. However, after he witnesses the immense power of the stone mask, no longer are the Joestar’s privileges enough, now he wants to rule the world.

What’s funny is that Dio had to work harder than Jonathan to get ahead in the world on account of his poor upbringing. He grew up hating Jonathan just because he was rich and lazy, but after he gains power, he doesn’t seem to do anything with it other than serve his own desires.

Jonathan, on the other hand, had to work extremely hard to perfect his own abilities. If hard work should be rewarded, then Jonathan deserves to be above Dio, and not him. And this all feels like a writing experiment where the two protagonists mirror, oppose, and ultimately merge with one another.

In terms of side characters, Speedwagon was a fun and helpful guy and all, but ultimately he doesn’t really matter, at least not in this saga that he was introduced in. Baron Zeppeli is more interesting, serving as a second father figure to Jonathan in a way, but he comes in far too late for his death to have any impact.

Now, Phantom Blood isn’t so bad in it’s beginning and at the very end, but a lot of what fills up the middle feels way too much like “let the bullshit flow through you”. I think where my brain fully melted was when we were shown this random flashback to Queen Elisabeth the 1st that doesn’t matter at all.

But the ending was still phenomenal. The way Jonathan held Dio in his final moments, despite everything, he was just too nice for his own good, believing that Dio was still human deep down.

Phandom Blood isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, it has it’s merits, but ultimately I came out of it feeling pretty sour after finishing it. This is still the worst JoJo’s part and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing because it’s only up from here, but it’s also a shame because it leaves a poor first impression.

Part 6: Stone Ocean

How do we feel about Stone Ocean these days? Because Part 6 is undeniably the most disliked part, outside of maybe Part 1. There are reasons more valid than others, so let’s talk about some of them.

The first is that I think having Part 6 star a female main character and a generally female cast felt pretty organic. We’re entering the 00s now and Hirohiko Araki had been diversifying outside of the whole muscle man thing for a long while now, so now it just feels like the right place at the right time. I don’t think it was politically motivated or whatever, don’t worry, calm your ass.

This is another one of those parts I feel like, perhaps similar to Part 1, where it’s peaks were at the beginning and at the end. And it takes a similar approach to Part 3 where it hypes up the Heaven Plan very early on, but you don’t get to see it until the end. This creates a phenomena that I can only describe as:

Now, if we were ranking all of the JoJo’s then I think Jolyne is competing for my favourite. She begins the part angry and apathetic to everyone around her, she thinks the world is against her and there’s nothing she can do about it. However, being sent to prison begins to toughen her mindset and her abilities. There’s a clear sense of growth for Jolyne, zero to hero, and I kind of live for it.

It’s here where it gets difficult because it fluctuates between some of the best fights, and then follows them up with some of the worst. I will say that starting from Chapter 690 it’s almost perfect. All of the fights from this point seem to have a story meaning or they’re just well-fought.

Actually, let’s just cut to the chase, the final two arcs leading up to the end is phenomenal, it’s... yeah, it’s the best ending to any of the parts. It’s the perfect amount of happiness and sadness, you feel me?

Overall, I loved Part 6, probably more than I should have, but I can’t justify ranking it any higher. It has it’s high highs and low lows, but I do think the highs are typically worth it. And an outstanding end for the original timeline.

Part 3: Stardust Crusaders

Hey guys, don't you think Stardust Crusaders has shown it’s age? The thing about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as an entity is that it’s difficult to get into and in several ways, but Part 3 is able to serve as an easy access point for the average human being. If you’re not into JoJo’s, you at least know about Part 3.

I will say, I felt that Part 3 took a minute to get going and for Hirohiko Araki to find his footing. This applies to the Stand battles, which is to be expected seeing as this was a whole new power system, but if we’re being honest, the fights before Egypt are significantly worse than the ones that come after.

I don’t know if I would rank Jotaro very high if we were to compare all of the JoJo’s? I get that he was supposed to be 17 when he was introduced, but him being really mean to his Mom didn’t win me over at the beginning. That’s not to say he didn’t grow on me, becoming a sort of Clint Eastwood archetype (put a pin in that), but he’s not my personal favourite.

The Crusaders are a bit of a mixed bag, if not downright disappointing. I’m sorry, but Kakyoin was almost entirely defined by his death, and I’m not saying that he had no character, but I felt that he wasn’t unique enough to keep me interested. I just didn’t feel it for him.

I really wanted to like Avdol because he was just overall a fun guy, and his stand is extremely arousing, but he just really suffers from being gone for like a third of the story for no good reason. No backstory, no intense character motivation, and yet again, that just leaves his best moment for him to be his death.

Joseph returns and he doesn’t change much throughout the story, and I’m okay with that because we saw him frequently throughout the last part, but I do miss his trickster fighting style. We kind of saw it like once or twice, maybe, but besides that he pretty much just uses his Stand completely normally.

Polnareff is arguably the best and most developed crusader. He gets like an actual motivation, a clear backstory, and even a nice albeit sad sendoff. Woah, I know right, the bare minimum!

In terms of Stands, I don’t mind that a lot of them were pretty straightforward in this part, especially since they were brand new, but I think my issue was that we would often see an ability used once and then never again. Polnareff’s can take off his armour, for example, but then it never does. I also feel it would’ve been nice to have just one more scene of Dio using Jonathan’s Stand, or even just some clarification on what that scene even was, right?

The big highlight was the end. Dio Brando makes a return as the main villain for this part, and thankfully, I think he lived up to the hype. You’re pretty much reading this part just for that final fight, and his abilities are really cool and interesting. There are so many moments and they’re all great. It was a perfect ending.

I know it sounds like I’m being super critical here, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. This part is just super episodic, so you’re not gonna get much in the way of depth, but it is fun while it lasts and all the characters are still enjoyable in the moment. It’s laid back and comical and that’s all in good fun.

There is so much to love here, just don’t go looking for like a whole lot of character development or a real overarching narrative. You’re just expected to sit back and enjoy what plays out in front of you, and that’s perfectly fine... it’s just... well, there is better on the horizon.

Part 8: JoJolion

JoJolion is by far the longest part and is what encompasses the entirety of the new 10s. I noticed that it was very strict with it’s arcs, you can go from one arc to the other and there will be a very clean transition, they all have a fight within them and usually a small story beat at the beginning and at the end.

This is a difficult one because there seems to be no real consensus on whether it’s any good or not. It differs in quality throughout, similarly to Part 6, and while it doesn’t reach the same heights that Part 6 did, it’s also far more consistency good... I think? Yeah, sure.

The thing is, Part 8’s fights will fluctuate from being amazing to borderline unreadable. And I think it’s here where I can finally state that JoJo’s has become too complicated, particularly with it’s Stands. This complication of Stands sometimes works, but it sometimes doesn’t. I hope past this point, it doesn’t feel like we’ve broken containment, but I think it’s here where we’re starting to see the cracks.

I think another issue is that it’s excruciatingly long, but it doesn’t use it’s time correctly. Many of it’s characters feel like they should be way more developed, particularly with it’s female characters and most of the villains in the second half. Yasuho in particular is present all the way through, and yet she still feels underdeveloped. I was hoping that we had moved on from this.

Josuke on the other hand, it’s difficult to say because we’re so in deep and there’s been plenty of great Jojo’s by this point, but Josuke is really good. The fact that he doesn’t know who he is allows us to explore the world with him, seeing things from an outsiders perspective. The mystery of Part 8 and the mystery of who Josuke even is, it’s very interesting.

However, another problem with Part 8 is it’s weak villain. I would even go as far to say that this is the weakest villain in the whole series thus far. They’re really boring and has motives that ether don’t make sense or are just extremely surface-level. It’s funny because Wonder of U is a good stand and is frankly a better villain than it’s user.

The ending to Part 8 was frankly a little bit contrived and I kind of wish that the Go Beyond arc were handed differently, and while Radio Gaga wasn’t bad, the final panel left me feeling underwhelmed.

If we’re speaking just in terms of the art, Part 8 is one of my favourites, if not my favourite. Hirohiko Araki at this point has basically mastered this style of semi-realism, his detail and cross-hatching are on another fucking level. Every panel looks like a masterpiece, and contains some of the best panels of the whole series.

I know it sounds like I’ve been hard on Part 8, but there is a lot to like about it. It’s got a strong beginning, beautiful art, the mystery aspects, the character designs – so much of it feels really fresh and it’s a miracle JoJo’s is still as good as it is after all these years. It’s also pretty much a fresh start for JoJo’s, it's very different, so if it looks cool to you then I think it’s safe to jump in.

Part 5: Golden Wind

Golden Wind seems to have had been wildly divisive for the longest time. It used to be the most disliked part internationally, before the anime, despite being one of the most liked parts in Japan, as is my understanding.

Now, I feel similarly the way I did about Part 2. Whereas Part 2 significantly improved upon the groundwork laid out by Part 1, Part 5 does something similarly with Part 3. The consistency I'll talk about in Part 2, also applies here in Part 5, excluding maybe one arc but we’ll talk about it.

Golden Wind expands it’s scope a little from Part 4, not to the entire world again, but it all takes place entirely within Italy, in the near future of 2001. Dramatic chord. The amount of Italian locations, the mafia, the culture, everything just screams Italy.

I think a reason why this part seems to be so divisive, is just Giorno himself. Many seem to think that he’s the most boring or goes though no development. Which... is technically true? Giorno begins with a goal and he ends up having accomplished that goal, sure, it’s just that it seems like throughout, his opinions don’t really change. He already knows what he wants and he spends the whole thing trying to accomplish it.

One of the things that makes Giorno stand out at least, is his status as the illegitimate son of Dio Brando. Giorno is possibly the cruellest JoJo, killing people without a second thought, and does not give mercy to the people he doesn’t like. The difference here is he uses that resolve for good.

Regardless of your opinion, the rest of the gang are pretty great. There’s a lot of them, but they all feel pretty well developed, they’re all given motivations and dynamics that are explained pretty well (except for Fugo). The Stands in this part are also some of my favourites. The villains are also amazing, even minor ones, they’re all memorable to me.

It’s here where I feel Hirohiko Araki’s art style locks the fuck in. We’ve been seeing it start to form throughout Part 4, but now we’re fucking in it. This is also where he starts to give his characters... clothing, not that he didn’t do that already, but again, we’re locked the fuck in.

Let’s mention Chapters 572-579, The Requiem Quietly Plays arc. The thing about Part 5 is that some things are a bit complicated, another reason why it seems to be divisive, and I think this arc in particular was a bit confusing. I get that the whole point was that we as readers are supposed to be confused because the gang are also confused, but still, I felt that the confusion went on for a little too long.

But after that, the following arcs wrap up Part 5 pretty well. I felt that it was a lot of fun and is massively underrated. I loved Part 5, I would even go as far to say that it’s better than Part 3. Also, there’s even several pages where Giorno punches a dude, so there.

Part 2: Battle Tendency

When it comes to 80s JoJo’s, I think Battle Tendency might be my favourite? Joseph won me over almost immediately, seeing him suddenly crack jokes and one-liners during battle, using these weird strategies, and even his hilarious fear of his grandmother, it all feels like Hirohiko Araki made sure to think as autistically as possible in order to craft the most fun protagonist possible.

His whole battle style of being something of a trickster with something always up his sleeve, it’s great.

The side characters were also a huge step up. I felt that Caesar was a great partner to Joseph because despite being polar opposites, they both learn things from each other. Lisa Lisa was also a great addition, she gets some really good development and the reveal of her being Joseph’s Mom was a nice tie-in, both to the group and to the ending of Part 1.

I don’t remember if Lisa Lisa gets like, a fight all to herself or anything, and while her absurdist teaching style was similar to Zeppeli’s, I still felt that she meshed really well with Joseph and Caesar.

I’m not really one for complicated villains, so the Pillar Men just being extremely powerful was enough for me. It leads to some interesting interactions and all of their fights were great. It’s something that the story commits to too, it’s not like they just become really weak or something.

Long story short, the horse race between Joseph and Wamuu was done really well (put a pin in that) and the final trick Joseph plays is great. And Kars’s fate of being trapped forever in space is kind of scary to think about.

Part 2 isn’t a work of genius or anything, but I still felt that it was one of the more fun and consistent parts from beginning to end. There isn’t really any arc or fight scene that goes on for too long or too short. Now, you could also make the argument that the part in of itself is too short, but if it’s that’s my only bugbear, then I think that’s a good sign. Much better!

Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable

It’s here where we start to get immersed in 90s JoJo’s and maybe this is just personal bias seeing as I was actually born this decade, but it’s here where I feel like the series has finally grown it’s beard. This is one of those parts that vetoes the grand adventure that takes place all over the world, in favour of a smaller, slice-of-life narrative that takes place all in one crazy, bizarre town.

I felt that Josuke was an improvement over Jotaro and he has a great Stand, the ability to heal other objects and people, but not himself, is a fitting manifestation for his tough yet caring nature. Josuke was a lot of fun and is just a great and caring main character overall, and Jotaro works here as a person to tell the cast what they’re meant to be doing, similar to Joseph in the last part.

This town was also a great setting and it’s interesting how Hirohiko Araki showed us how Stands are used in normal life. And because Part 4 all takes place within a small town, it’s able to introduce a lot of characters that continue to come back, even small antagonists are able to come back a couple times.

Kira is a great villain... once he is introduced. Before we’ve got Akira, who is just much, much worse than him. And to be honest, Part 4 does feel a little directionless before Kira. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, it’s not that it’s not good, it just doesn’t feel like all the parts previously where the main characters all have something they’re constantly working towards.

Okay, so, Part 4’s got a bit of a rocky start, and that’s reflected in it’s changing art style, but once it gets going it really cements itself as being one of the best parts so far, and maybe even one of my favourites overall.

Part 7: Steel Ball Run

We’re kicking off the rest of the 00s with Steel Ball Run and... oh boy, I think Part 7 might just be my favourite. And that’s pretty commendable considering we’re so deep in the series now. I asked you all earlier to “put a pin in that” and now we’re here, we’re finally doing a Western.

The funny thing about certain shonen is that they’ll have a time skip, but JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure instead opted to completely reset the universe. We’re in a different timeline now, and it’s completely disconnected from all the previous parts other than some shared names and Stands.

Part 7 makes the main JoJo and the “Jo-Bro” equally important. Hirohiko Araki gave both of them phenomenally told backstories, interesting abilities, and different character motivations that both feel realized. And importantly, they feel like they each have a very natural bond.

The characters are all pretty fun to follow, we’ve got some new friends, some old friends... and a literal bear. Every single character fills a role and they all feel important and needed. And Steel Ball Run includes some of the best fights that aren’t the final battle, not only are they good in isolation, but they also add something to the characters, they leave the fights different people.

I’ve spoken before about how JoJo’s at this point can get a bit complicated here and there, but for what it’s worth I understood pretty much all of Part 7 on the first read. President Valentine was also a very well-developed villain who has an understandable backstory and, in theory, noble intentions.

Part 7 is just that bitch, be that Johnny, Gyro, both of these characters both showed so much growth throughout the series. And that ending was pretty much perfect and it’s battling with Part 6 for the best ending, and those panels were just so beautifully drawn man. Part 7 is all perfect, and I would even go as far to say that it’s in the running for one of the best Manga of all time...

...except the High Voltage arc, god, what the fuck was that? No! Phew, I was worried there for a second.