The Jojolands Chapter One: Mechanism Reviw

 I don't want to get ahead of myself, So I could start at the beginning, I could explain what you probably already know.

But there is a defined place to start, August 2021 is when Jojolion (The 8th part of long running manga series “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”) ended, Jojolion ran for about 10 years and was in my opinion the greatest part in the series, Its final chapter explored the life of Joseph Joestar, an ancestor of the parts main character Josuke Higashikata, and the authors note teased a new part tentatively title Jojolands, a name that would slightly change before its release.

The longest hiatus the series had seen was a 9 month hiatus in between Part 6 and 7, Part 7 “Steel Ball Run” is an entirely fresh start with no direct connections to the first 6, and thus it needed to be planned out even further, But the hiatus in between Part 8 and Part 9 was over a year long, which definitely set up that this part would be a very important one.

Small pieces of information got revealed over time, like the part focusing on the descendants of Joseph Joestar, but like the rest of the series, it's hard to really get an understanding from such early details of what the part is really about.

The part was eventually renamed to “The Jojolands” a very minor change most likely done to prevent it from having the same initials as Jojolion.

And from that point on more and more details came out, mostly for character designs with no attached information.

And on February 17 2023 the first chapter was finally released, and as I have been keeping up with information on The Jojolands since it was first announced it feels necessary to talk about it now.

The chapter is called “Mechanism” which will make sense later.

The first page apart from the cover is a page introducing the concept of Stands. It includes the stands of some of the Jojo’s,Allies, and Main Villains, as well as Ebony Devil and Black Sabbath?

This Page is important in connecting this part to previous ones through the appearance of well known Stands from the past.

After this we are introduced to the Jojo and Location. This part's main Jojo is named Jodio Joestar, the location is Hawaii, something I never expected, but will try to understand.

We are then shown a true introduction to Jodio as well as his older Sibling Dragona Joestar, the two of them are driving when they get pulled over by some Police officers who assault Dragona, Which rightfully upsets Jodio and brings us the introduction of the first new Stand in this part to be fully shown, November Rain, unlike most of the previous Stands a Jojo has had November Rain appears to be an anthropomorphized sprinkler as opposed to a Stand with a humanoid body, the ability of November Rain is just vague right now, but with its form being a sprinkler, it causes rain that may be acidic or weight a lot, or may be spinning, which we can tell by the injuries of the Police it kills, during this scene we are also introduced to Smooth Operators which is the stand of Dragona, It seems to be activated by scratching an object, and is able to reorganize things, it takes the form of a colony type stand, which is somewhat similar to Sex Pistols.

After this we see that Jodio and Dragona were driving to deliver drugs to some thugs, this scene is very brief but is the first introduction to a recurring idea that Crime will be very important to this part.

After this Jodio narrates about the people in his life we are introduced to Barbara Ann, the mother of Jodio and Dragona and given some details about her which don't seem to be very important currently, but it may be worth noting that she is the only named character that doesn't seem to be involved in the crime world, perhaps this could become a major thing later on.

Next we hear a little bit about Dragona, leaks for this part that released in the day before have been mostly accurate, and one detail predicted was Dragona being Intersex or Trans, It is not yet entirely clear what Dragona’s gender is so for now I will be referring to Dragona as They/Them, Sibling etc.

Mainly because I feel like Dragona’s gender identity will be further explored over time, Dragona is interested in fashion, much like Hirohiko Araki himself, And works at a Boutique called “Iko Iko” which at first seems unimportant but is clearly not with the rest of the chapter in mind.

We also get a look at the updated family tree, I have difficulty reading Family Trees, but it seems that Barbera Ann is the sister of Holly Kira, a character who was dying at the end of part 8, and after what seems to be a 12 year jump forwards in time, it seems hard not to wonder what happened to Holly, what we hear about her here is likely the first of several references to her through the part.

And finally there is Jodio Joestar, we see an interaction between Jodio and a character I will refer to as Onesie Dog until the end of time, At first they have a violent encounter, but afterwards Jodio hides some Drugs for Onesie Dog to find, and another Character “Paco” helps Onesie Dog find them.

There is also a brief introduction to Meryle Me Qui, the principal of the school that Jodio and company attend.

Jodio then Narrates himself, and this part makes me understand where the “Dio” in Jodio comes from, Like Dio, Jodio has been involved in crime from a young age, and he sees himself as better than most other people, and once again like Dio, the only people he seems to have any love for are his mother and sibling. 

We are also introduced to the idea of “Mechanisms” an idea Jodio seems to have created himself, the idea of Mechanisms is similar to the Flow and Fate from previous parts, and Jodio says he will use “Mechanisms” to become extremely rich.

Jodio also seems to think very highly of himself, something that I hope he overcomes through the story. But for now he seems pretty cool.

I get the feeling that parts of Giorno have been split between Jodio and Dragona, Jodio gets Giorno's more Dio like attributes, On Dragona, They are able to stretch Paco’s ear, which reminds me of Giorno’s ear tricks.

Next we get to see a full introduction to Paco within the previously mentioned Iko Iko Boutique, His stand “The Hustle” can manipulate his muscles, and can ever grab things with his muscles, we also learn that Paco is a victim of Domestic Abuse, something that may come up again at some point, In the Authors note Araki noted that Paco is his favorite character to draw so far in Part 9.

After this Meryle Me Qui walks through the door, and takes Jodio, Dragona, and Paco to a room, Meryle is actually working multiple jobs for reasons that are not entirely clear yet, the Boutique is Meryle’s as well and is a front for tax evasion, this group of four are actually working together to do crime, Meryle is the boss of the group and instructs them to steal a diamond, apparently a Japanese person brought it over a flight, i'm gonna be honest this is probably someone from Part 8, It could be Yasuho, Josuke, Karera, whoever.

Then the group discusses payment, and we get some character bits, including this one with Dragona that I am considering using as a profile picture somewhere.

Jodio, Dragona, and Paco assume they will be doing the heist as a group of three, but Meryle announces that there will actually be four.

It's Onesie Dog.

Jodio think’s that the appearance of Onesie Dog is a “Mechanism” and believes he will be the “Oddball of the group” notably Onesie Dog doesn't seem to have a Stand at all, something that will make him a very interesting addition as we see him either develop a Stand or fight without one, or perhaps he just hasn't demonstrated it yet.

And that’s Chapter One of The Jojolands.

As the first Chapter of the new part it is extremely different to the first chapter of Jojolion, which was extremely cryptic and introduced very little about the world, But in comparison so much happens in the first chapter of The Jojolands, It introduces 6 characters, 3 Stands, Multiple Locations, And the theme of crime.

Jojolands was focused on Mystery for the majority of its run, but it seems as if The Jojolands will be more focused on a fast moving story.

Also it is worth noting that while Steel Ball Run was heavily themed around Father’s, And Jojolion was heavily themed around Mothers, This part seems to be themed around siblings.

And that is all I have to say about the first chapter, and it's honestly quite a lot, see you again in a month for Chapter 2.