Jojo 3 (Part 6 and Steel Ball Run)

[sub_divided]

Right, so, Jojo. I can only talk about the first two volumes, because otherwise I'd be working from summaries (meaning I'd only be repeating what others have said already).

Part 6
The protagonist of this part, Jolyne Kujo (only her mom is allowed to call her Jojo), is Jotaro's daughter and generally a good kid, though she was involved in some minor gang stuff in middle school. She and her boyfriend run over this random person and he talks her into dumping the (she thinks) dead body in a nearby swamp. (I like the part of this scene where the boyfriend says if she really loves him, she'll help him hide the evidence, and she protests that loving him and thinking they should notify the police are two different things. She capitulates eventually, though, after he lays on some more emotional blackmail.) Jolyne is only an accessory to involuntary manslaughter (with a side of conspiracy to hide the evidence), but Romeo (this is really his name!) refuses to tell the truth at the trial, and Jolyne refuses to accuse him, and she has an evil lawyer, so in the end she's sentenced to fifteen years in a maximum-security prison.


Later it comes out that the body was a set-up, and her boyfriend and the lawyer were in on it. Jotaro thinks this is the work of one of Dio's former henchmen, who wants revenge on him (Jotaro) for killing the Boss, but really it was a trap for luring Jotaro into the prison. Some other stuff happens, and now Jolyne is trying to track down the Stand user who removed her father's memories and Stand abilities, who is operating from somewhere inside the prison. Also Jolyne has an amulet Jotaro told her mother (from whom he is divorced) to give her if she ever got in trouble, though naturally he neglected to explain that it has a piece of rock in it that turns people into Stand users. So now Jolyne has Stand powers, and all the prisoners who came into contact with the amulet after she threw it away cursing her uncaring absentee father have Stand powers, plus the villains have Stand powers given to them by Dio/Dio's henchmen. So there are a lot of people running around with Stand powers who don't even know what Stands are.

And there's prison life stuff. Like, in the first chapter, Jolyne laments that she was caught masturbating by a guard. It took me a little while to notice, but this part takes place after Jolyne gets her powers. So the reason she can tell when you're lying is the old myth of the string tied around the finger, and when you lie, the string breaks. Nope, see comment.

In summary: no regulation haircuts! XD (Well, there are, but you can bribe the barber into letting you keep yours.)

...God, I'm getting bored just writing this out. The thing about most of Jojo is that you don't have to work to be bizarre or entertaining, just recounting the plot is enough (ie "but before they could reach Dio's secret base, they were attacked by vampire zombies"). But this arc has a very standard set-up, I mean the way Jolyne goes to jail is typical (I had afternoon-special flashbacks), and many of the enemies have backstories I recognize (from urban legends). I guess it's like Four, where you can say the arc is about living in a small town full of WEIRDOS WITH STANDS, and this one is about being in trapped in a maximum-security prison full of WEIRDOS WITH STANDS, though it's a very different brand of weirdo. (^^; never has it been more obvious that Stand powers grow out of your deepest darkest desires, because in the case of violent convicted criminals, "deepest" is right there on the surface, not deep at all (plenty dark, though).




Here's what my notes say:

1. What the heck, there's no way a miniature person forced to wear a dead parrot suit will be able to fly, even from shoulder to extended finger.

2. ATTACK OF THE REVENGE OF THE OVERLY-LITERAL STAND NAMES. Witness:
Goo Goo Dolls (makes people small, like dolls)
Green Day (covers you in flesh-eating mold, which I can only assume is green)
Aerosmith (an aeroplane)
Sex Pistols (the bullets of a gun...)
Plus who knows however many more I am forgetting/don't know about yet.

3. And she just STANDS THERE through all the ranting and raving, and then punches her in the face! She's so much like Jotaro AHHHHH. (Srsly, the scene where Jolyne stops trying to work within DA RULZ as laid out by Guess, and basically says YOU WILL DO AS I SAY BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T I WILL BEAT YOU is, like, the greatest thing ever.)

4. HOW ABOUT THAT FATHER/DAUGHTER TEAMWORK EH? Even though it consisted of Jotaro punching Jolyne in the face XDXDXD.

5. Ahaha McQueen. I am way too amused by his short-lived episodes of seeming to recover, followed by even greater depths of suicidal depression. Hermes says he can go on Saturdays, McQueen looks thoughtful...and then replies, "I was arrested on a Saturday." XD classic. Hermes and Jolyne deal with people the same way, they try working with them for a little while, but as soon as it becomes obvious that there's nothing they can do their reaction switches, JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME, I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.

6. You know I think the bracelets that blow your hand off if you wander too far away are the first sign we've had so far that this series is set in the FUTURE. (Apparently in the future it is not a big deal for the State to maim its prisoners, just as it's not a big deal for them to not serve food to all of them.)

...this is about as far as I got.



Steel Ball Run

What is there to say about this? I am still waiting for the Joestar genetic predisposition toward righteousness to manifest in Johnny. If you have seen signs, plz tell me.

***

It occured to me that more people might read this series if linked to where the scans are.

Boxtorrent for Part 1
Boxtorrent for Part 2
Or you can download parts 1 and 2 direct from here
I got Part 3 from angrybabble without her knowledge. ^^; It is also availible in English!
Site with Parts 4 though 6
Steel Ball Run

Summaries of the parts I can't read (because they haven't been translated):

PART 6 (petronia)
One
Two
Three
STEEL BALL RUN (worldserpent)
Volumes 4-5

***

I am no longer in General Relativity because I no longer need it for my major, which no longer exists. :O! Luckily it's been a replaced by a new, EASIER major whose requirements I have already fulfilled -- and then some. Of course, what the hell I'm going to do with a History/Interdisciplinary Physics double-major and no work experience is a totally different story. Beg my father to put in a good word, I suppose. XD; I'd like to go on to grad school because I'd like to NOT LEAVE SCHOOL anytime soon, but I can't think of any program I am actually qualified to apply for.