#// well well well dio. if it isn’t the consequences of your own actions (being an evil bastard with a reputation for lying)

[rejectshumanity]

all dio’s saying is that if it were him handing out “victorian remedies” like candy, y’all would never let him live it down, but when jonathan goody two shoes joestar is slinging drugs, everyone’s all for it. you get some opium! and you get some opium! and you get some cocaine! no questions asked 🙄

[aion-rsa]

The Horror Influences of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan

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This article contains spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is beloved by shounen anime fans for its nonstop action, absurd and over-the-top showdowns, and creative Stands (physical manifestations of one’s true self). It’s a bombastic series that defies predictions. We’re still waiting for the fifth part of the manga, Stone Ocean, to be released as an anime adaptation, and the story is still ongoing. Strangely, there’s still no confirmation that a fifth season is even coming yet.

In the meantime, however, we got something of a holdover: Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan. An adaptation of a series of one-shot chapters from JoJo creator Hirohiko Araki, it bridges the gap between the fourth season, Diamond is Unbreakable, and the fifth season, Vento Aureo. But while it follows manga artist Kishibe Rohan and what he’s been up to between both seasons, it takes on a decidedly different slant than the vanilla anime. Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan takes more inspiration from episodic horror anthologies, like that of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. It is, by all counts, a horror series. 

It’s a new direction for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, though not completely unexpected. The thing is, JoJo has always been riddled with disturbing, horrific, and downright chilling moments. They’ve just been couched between action-packed showdowns and bombastic character design so that the terror creeps in without you even realizing it’s there. Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan approaches the genre in a much more straightforward manner, though, wearing its influences on its sleeve. Both series, including JoJo to a staggering degree, are inherently spine-tingling properties, even if they don’t seem so at first blush.

Creator Hirohiko Araki is a ravenous horror fan, after all, and makes no secret of his passion for the genre. In his book, Hirohiko Araki’s Bizarre Horror Movie Analysis, he cites some of his top 20 favorite films as Misery, Alien, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The work itself is divided into several parts, each exploring a different branch of chilling media, such as “Bizarre Murderers,” “Animal Horror,” or “Sci-Fi Horror.” It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to think that, despite Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan originally being meant to be unrelated to JoJo, Araki created it to satisfy his love for the macabre.

The episode “Mutsu-kabe Hill” follows a woman named Naoko Osato, who belongs to a well-to-do family. She’s living in a house that belongs to said family along with boyfriend Gunpei Kamafusa. But she can’t be with Gunpei, as she’s already betrothed to a man her father has chosen. Plus, Gunpei is a family gardener, a profession her father won’t abide. The two end up arguing, and Nao tries to pay off Gunpei to get him to leave, as she knows her father and fiancé are on their way to the home. But tensions escalate as the two become violent. 

Nao pushes him into a set of golf clubs and Gunpei dies instantly. He’s bleeding, and while Nao struggles to figure out what to do with his body, her father and fiancé are approaching her home. No matter what she does, she can’t get Gunpei’s corpse to stop bleeding. In the end, she lives with this bizarre phenomenon, telling no one about her plight, and doting on Gunpei’s corpse, disposing of the blood he continues to generate for the rest of her life.

Several comparisons can be drawn from this episode to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” in which the narrator commits a murder, dismembers a body, and hides it beneath some floorboards. Despite having seemingly gotten away with the perfect crime, the narrator is driven insane by the sound of his victim’s heartbeat. He ends up confessing to the authorities as he believes they can hear it, too. It’s the story of an unreliable narrator whose sanity is slipping. 

Though the narrator in that story ended up confessing to ease his suffering, Nao chose to live with the consequences of her crime, succumbing to a monster that lives off of people’s affection. The stories are quite similar in tone, though with very different outcomes. 

In “At a Confessional,” Rohan recounts a story of how he met a man who confided in him while in an Italian confessional. The man spoke of a beggar to whom he refused food and instead forced to work until he died. The beggar returned as a ghost, swearing revenge on the man who wronged him, promising he’d return on the happiest day of the man’s life. Return he does, as the man has enjoyed riches beyond belief, a beautiful marriage, and the birth of a daughter. 

The beggar appears in the form of an apparition in the man’s daughter’s tongue. He forces the man to toss pieces of popcorn his daughter was eating into the air and catch them with his mouth three times in a row in an absurd challenge. If the man succeeds, his life will be spared. If not, he’s beheaded instantly.

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This tale immediately recalls Stephen King’s Thinner, a similar story about a man who’s committed several wrongs, cursed the father of someone he’s murdered — this time, because he runs over a woman while driving and engaged in a sexual act with his wife. The curse finds the man, who is obese, becoming thinner and thinner at an uncontrollable rate. 

Eventually, there are options available to the man, who pleads for a resolution. He’s informed by the same person who cursed him that he can eat a strawberry pie with his blood in it and die, or give it to someone else for him to be spared. It’s just as gruesome as forcing the rich victim in Kishibe Rohan to munch popcorn or die. 

In JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the scares seem to come directly from a series of inspirations for Araki instead of new stories based on the media he’s obviously consumed. 

The first JoJo arc, Phantom Blood, sets the stage by introducing a swath of Gothic horror elements. It introduces the eventual vampiric rise of DIO in a Victorian society, which directly references classic novels like Dracula and Frankenstein. There’s even a serial killer named Jack the Ripper, who faces off against Jonathan and his allies, pulled straight out of history — a perpetrator of grisly murders who ends up transformed into a zombie. The undead are also a major component of Phantom Blood, likely due in part to Araki’s love for classic zombie cinema.

In the arc Stardust Crusaders, Jean-Paul Polnareff finds himself de-aged by a Stand user named Alessi. A young woman named Malèna nurses him back to health, up until Alessi uses his Stand, Sethan, unceremoniously de-ages her to that of a fetus outside of the womb. A few of Araki’s favorite horror movies of all time, including Basket Case, center on body horror, which doesn’t make this narrative decision surprising. But for those reaching that point in the story for the first time, it’s chilling in a way that even some of the most nightmarish films can’t even touch. 

While the visual of a fetus itself isn’t as offensive as some gnarled, disfigured victim, its implications are disturbing, to say the least. A fetus outside of a mother’s womb will eventually succumb to a slow death, especially one of Malèna’s apparent age. That makes Polnareff’s eventual victory over Alessi and his Stand so bittersweet.

The entirety of the fourth arc, Diamond is Unbreakable, plays out like a classic slasher flick with the introduction of Yoshikage Kira, a man with a powerful obsession with hands to the point of fetishism. He murders women with “beautiful hands,” then keeps the hands as his “girlfriends.” It wouldn’t be a stretch to compare Kira to classic killers like Psycho‘s Norman Bates or The Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter, as Kira is believable and charming when he isn’t committing grisly murders.

Most of JoJo’s Stands are horrific on their own, and even though their story arcs enhance their terrifying power, there’s a fair amount of fridge horror to be found in these beings. The Freddy Krueger-like Death 13 can kill you in a nightmarish dream world while you sleep. Metallica (yes, named after the heavy metal band) forces you to cough up razor blades or have scissors burst from your chest. 

Another Stand, Green Day, can secrete a deadly mold that will rot and destroy the flesh of anything it touches in an instant. Lastly, Rohan Kishibe himself has a fairly disconcerting Stand: Heaven’s Door. It allows him to literally read someone like a book, then erase parts of their being, or add in what he pleases, like the ability to learn a new language as his pal Koichi asks in Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan.

It’s easy to see how Araki has masterfully melded horror into every space when it comes to both JoJo as well as Kishibe Rohan. With that in mind, it’s strange that the former has been relegated only to a series of one-shots when it shows so much potential as its own project, in which Araki gets to stretch his Rod Serling-esque legs or impart some very Argento-like stylings into his works. For now, we can appreciate what’s there — and continue finding parallels to additional well-loved classics in the genre. 

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Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post The Horror Influences of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[recentanimenews]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Invading Your Home!

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Why It Works. I’ve been greatly enjoying the latest season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and am appreciating how both Giorno specifically and Golden Wind’s mafia focus more generally are giving this arc a unique flavor within the JoJo canon. There's a sense of purpose and forward momentum to this story that seems to merge the ambitious quest focus of Stardust Crusaders with the charming, character-focused appeal of Diamond is Unbreakable, resulting in a narrative that feels both true to JoJo's roots and entirely its own animal. That said, the moment Buccarreti and his men stepped onto an isolated boat, I felt a familiar and welcome trill of JoJo-based recognition. Trapped in an isolated, seemingly safe location while being tormented by unknown or unexpected attackers is JoJo’s bread and butter; the show has employed similar conflicts to great success all throughout its arcs. Today, I’d like to explore JoJo’s love affair with this specific subgenre; let’s discuss the art of the home invasion!

  Home invasion narratives are common in both action and horror stories, and don’t always necessarily focus on a literal home. The larger concept is basically “a place of assumed safety now being challenged by some menacing attacker,” a concept that’s inspired classics ranging from Assault on Precinct 13 to Friday the 13th. People naturally consider their homes both a place of safety and an extension of themselves, making them ripe targets for stories that want to challenge our feeling of security and constancy. Taking away our presumption of safety is a classic trick for creating dramatic tension, and as an action narrative that’s also heavily inspired by horror films, it’s become a JoJo staple. JoJo’s arcs are a wild and inventive bunch, but you can pretty much always count on a home invasion or two.

The show’s debt to this subgenre is clear even from its very beginning. Though home invasions echoing specific horror films would become more common in Diamond is Unbreakable, JoJo’s very first conflict focuses on Jonathan Joestar’s home being invaded by the nefarious Dio. This arc plays into the classic fears of some intruder whose menace is visible only to you not just invading your home, but slowly poisoning the people you love against you, and ultimately replacing you in your own life. Dio’s menace isn’t a direct consequence of his physical strength; it’s a reflection of his gleeful violation, and his confidence that he will ultimately steal Jonathan’s very life. After a tense childhood full of underhanded personal attacks, Dio’s invasion ultimately culminates in him literally storming Jonathan’s home, and fighting for supremacy in a battle that, in spite of ending in victory for Jonathan, still leaves his home a scorched ruin.

  �� After JoJo’s next two arcs focus more on globe-trotting adventures, Diamond is Unbreakable’s consistent suburban setting offers the perfect venue for more stories playing on our fear of danger scratching at our door. With the invention of Stands, Hirohiko Araki is able to ever more directly undercut our presumption of safety. Angelo’s Stand being able to travel through water means locking doors and windows is no longer enough; every pipe and faucet is a potential vehicle for the danger, and a rainy day means you are literally, permanently surrounded by the enemy, with only a flimsy roof separating you from ruin. Presenting Josuke’s house as an imposing fish-eye monolith and emphasizing Angelo’s perpetual surveillance, Diamond is Unbreakable’s first arc feels like an intentional statement of purpose, Araki offering his most dedicated and well-executed home invasion yet.

Of course, Diamond is Unbreakable takes place entirely within the suburbs of Morioh, and “quiet, idyllic suburbs” are basically the home invasion narrative’s natural habitat. Suburbs have a long history of hiding dark secrets beneath a veneer of civility, and their spiraling lines of houses and shuttered windows naturally imply the sense of being watched or followed. In light of this, Diamond is Unbreakable is utterly stuffed with home invasions, from the tragic backstory of Reimi Sugimoto to Yukako Yamagishi’s perhaps misguided efforts to earn Koichi’s love. Each of these stories present their own unique take on the home invasion, while the overarching “there’s a serial killer in Morioh” narrative acts as a sort of meta-invasion of Morioh in its entirety.

  All of these nail-biting arcs culminate in JoJo’s most lengthy and gripping home invasion so far: Kira’s assault on the Kawajiri household. The idea of having your home invaded by some self-declared antagonist is one thing, but when that antagonist takes the form of your old father, and even starts to turn your mother against you, that’s something else. Acting as a sort of next-level reprise of Dio’s original attack, Kira’s saga nails not just the terror of having your home attacked, but also the hopelessness of knowing that all the barriers and guardians who’re meant to keep you safe have been defeated. Kira’s invasion sets one of JoJo’s most terrifying foes against one of its most helpless heroes, as the young Hayato is forced to fight a serial killer with no Stand or allies at all.

Ultimately, that arc ends on a cross between a gunslinger showdown and one more home invasion, as Kira attempts to invade yet another house in order to kill both Josuke and Hayato. Diamond is Unbreakable’s conclusion thus acts as a beautiful nested tribute to the home invasion, reveling in the narrative shell’s tactical and dramatic power.

  Golden Wind’s urban setting and mafia focus might not seem to lend themselves to more home invasion narratives, but this recent boat ride demonstrates that Araki is still very much in love with the format. Araki has demonstrated a profound gift for mixing genres to arrive at thrilling new combinations, and Golden Wind is showing off just how much he’s learned over the JoJo narrative. Wherever JoJo goes next, I look forward to seeing Araki interrogate more and more classic horror modes as he continues to develop his formidable storytelling strengths.

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Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[aion-rsa]

Lucifer Season 5 Episode 12 Review – Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid

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This Lucifer review contains spoilers.

Lucifer Season 5 Episode 12

“Sometimes it feels as if the entire universe is against me.”

I’m going to say up front that I honestly don’t know what to make of this episode, and from the opening scenes, something just feels off in this chapter of Lucifer. At the moment, no one fears the power of the celestials more than Daniel Espinoza, and remembering past history, it’s understandable why he feels this way. While the participants of Lucifer’s highly orchestrated charade may contend they did it for Dan, the truth revealed in “Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid” is that most of them did it for themselves.

There’s no question that it’s long overdue for Dan to have an episode to himself, and even though “Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid” provides a number of perfectly entertaining elements and moments, it seems to fall outside the more serious, introspective approach much of the season has presented thus far. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there’s something about the exaggerated theatrics particularly involving Dan’s former police colleague Luis Navarro (Wilmer Calderon) and the overstated organized crime stereotypes that leaves us wondering when someone’s going to break out with a tune from West Side Story. 

About this time you’re probably thinking that “Lucifer’s a show that can still explore serious themes without taking itself too seriously,” and I agree with that sentiment one hundred percent. What bothers me most about this episode, and it’s the fault of the characters, not the writers, is that Daniel deserves so much more from those who claim to care about him. He’s terrified of the consequences his life choices will have on him in the afterlife, yet his supposed friends agree to an elaborate ruse that in the end makes him feel even worse about himself. 

Apparently, there is no crime to investigate this time, and Dan is sent to retrieve a Los X gangbanger who’s been extradited back to Los Angeles. At the end of the story, Lucifer comments that Chloe needed to be left out of the loop since she’s a detective and would likely see through the entire escapade. Of course, Daniel’s a detective too, and though we understand that Lucifer looks for any opportunity to humiliate Dan, here, the situation becomes a bit more complicated.

“You would have had to know every single decision I would make,” Daniel concedes about his role in this theatrical farce, but it’s unclear whether Lucifer understands that his response not only pays the detective a compliment, but should somewhat assuage his fears about being sent to Hell once he dies. It’s true Lucifer doesn’t understand the depths of Daniel’s anguish, but Mazikeen and Amenadiel should. Still, Lucifer’s explanation that Dan’s perseverance and steadfast desire to always do the right thing are what make him so predictable also represent the qualities that generally keep individuals OUT of Hell. 

Ordinarily, we might accuse the writers of engaging in emotional pandering, and while they do to a certain extent here, this approach works within the context of the pretense around which the episode is constructed. Maze offers to bring her Russian contacts to help Dan out of the jam in which he finds himself, but she can’t resist getting a dig in a la Lucifer. “Don’t screw up,” she warns him, and then to mock the desperate detective even further falsely admits “I’m only helping you because it’s you.” No, Maze, you’re helping yourself cope with your own feelings of inadequacy. After the big reveal at the end, this scene becomes even more meaningful when we consider Mazikeen’s willingness to abandon any shred of empathy she might possess. One moment she pleads with God to give her a soul, and the next she acts like the demon she claims to abhor. 

Nevertheless, as we sift through the details of “Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid,” one thing becomes exceedingly problematic – what Lucifer hopes to accomplish with his plan remains a mystery. Is this supposed to simply be an elaborate practical joke at Daniel’s expense, or in some twisted way remind Chloe’s ex that everyone’s actually on his side? Even before Lucifer reveals his true nature to Dan, the detective struggles to find meaning in his life, and after Charlotte’s death, he comes dangerously close to reaching rock bottom. Now, however, he has a more complete picture of the celestial realities which instead of providing clarity, confuses him all the more. As he explains to Luis when they first meet, learning the Devil and God are real “makes you worry more, not less.”

Taken within its totality, Lucifer’s master plan, while costing him a financial outlay in the nine figures, requires an attention to detail and precise execution that defies reality. Should Daniel have seen through this elaborate ruse and made better decisions along the way? Let’s look past the night of excessive drinking on the eve of his assignment to execute an extradition order and move right to the dead body he finds in his bed. He’s a detective who doesn’t really do much detecting here. Deliver a package of money to the Russian mafia? No problem. Oh wait, it’s not money, it’s a severed head. Except it’s not really. At what point should Dan’s detective spidey sense kick in and put a halt to all of this nonsense?

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I suppose we could look at things from a different perspective and hone in on the showdown at Lux during which Los X, the Russian mob, and Dan’s improv crew engage in a well executed standoff that leaves everyone dead on the floor. Except they’re not. Okay fine. Maybe this is all an elaborate metaphor for the existential crisis Dan experiences amidst the apparent knowledge that God is fallible and nothing really matters. That said, once the gun battle begins and the sound drops out, “Vaya con Dios” embellishes an otherwise first rate action sequence. But does Dan “go with God?” Isn’t that what Dan should take away from this experience?

I have to admit that after the shooting stops and the smoke clears, I was momentarily taken aback by the apparent loss of two core characters. Again, I have to be honest; the mass resurrection feels like a bit of a cheat, and when we consider the unlikelihood that anything like this could even possibly be pulled off in real life, my thoughts go back to Lucifer’s intentions. He doesn’t intend to help Daniel, but rather humiliate him yet again, driving home the idea that Detective Douche is as incompetent as Lucifer wishes him to be. In retrospect, it might have worked to have the resurrection scene turn out to be Dan’s dying wish, and while it would be a shame to lose Kevin Alejandro’s likeable character, there’s something about this that just doesn’t sit right.

With all of that out in the open, this really is an enjoyable Lucifer episode. Once we learn the reality of Dan’s journey, the overplayed, amusing performances make much more sense and succeed within the unfamiliar context. With Chloe and Lucifer’s father noticeably absent from the story, Maze, Amenadiel, and Linda step up to fill in any narrative gaps. The unexpected nature of Linda’s punch to Dan’s jaw followed by the classic water in the face routine feels real at the time precisely because of their shared history within the LAPD family. It’s always strangely gratifying to see Amenadiel spread his commanding wings, and even though we don’t visually experience him carrying Dan back to LA, it’s still fun picturing the physical humor that inherently exists. And let’s not forget the gangbanger support group at the bicycle shop. Again, classic.

Lucifer’s issues with his family obviously occupy much of the narrative space in the overall Lucifer arc, but “Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid” powerfully exposes the fears and insecurities of the Everyman. There’s a certain complexity here that drives the episode, and as critics, perhaps we try to be too clever at times. So I’m just going to sit back with the knowledge that I was clearly entertained by this chapter in the story and pleased that we’ll still have Dan in the picture. And that’s enough.

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Lucifer season 5 is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Lucifer Season 5 Episode 12 Review – Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid appeared first on Den of Geek.

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