#i've decided to live inside this turtle as a ghost for a while

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Can we get your quick take on each Jojo part?

Sure thing. I'll try to keep it punchy (spoiler for every Jojo part, obviously):

Phantom Blood

It's so sick that Araki just started drawing like Tetsuo Hara while Fist of the North Star was at the crest of its popularity. Never underestimate the viability of naked imitation in feeling out your style. I love Phantom Blood. Really cool to see him work in a more traditional vernacular with reasonable pacing. Back in yon day people would try to turn you onto the series by suggesting you skip the first two parts and go straight into Stardust Crusaders. I always thought that was psychotic. Luck... and pluck??

Highlights: The rugby match cold open.

Battle Tendency

Araki was getting really into Antonio Lopez around this time and it paid off in a big way. Joseph Joestar is a top-tier protagonist. He's such a dumb piece of shit. The Pillar Men reveal spread is a watershed moment in the history of manga. Lisa Lisa rules but Araki was simply too Kojima-brained to make good. The last proper training arc in the series is Joseph and Caesar trying to climb up a big greasy pole. Hey, not bad.

Highlights: Kars doing pro skater 3 moves to avoid landing on a flower, Joseph and Caesar threatening to shoot up a post office.

Stardust Crusaders

Joseph Joestar is back, and his piece of shit grandson won't stop smoking Malboro reds as the Joestar bloodline's most bisexual nemesis reappears from beyond time. Everything from D'arby on is golden, but until then the pacing struggles as Araki feels out the structure of those succesive tournament-style battles that define the series from here on. Really fun cast. Jotaro delivers one-liners like someone who was very recently diagnosed with CTE. Kakyoin can only do that puppet thing when he's evil?

Highlights: All the luxuriously rendered close-up panels from the final act. Araki was pushing this practice to the absolute limit before transitioning to the new idiom in DIU.

Diamond is Unbreakable

Joseph Joestar is back again and ready to face his most fearsome opponent yet: age-related cognitive decline. Killer cast and tone. Kira is probably the most compelling overall antagonist. I think Jotaro as mentor is generally more compelling than Jotaro as Clint Eastwood. Him getting finessed by a rat undermines any conversation you can have about power-scaling in this series, which is pretty good. Read the original Duwang scans back when they were the only viable English language source and loved it.

Highlights: That thing Josuke does with the motorcycle, any time Rohan has to interact with any other character.

Golden Wind

Jean Pierre Polnareff (French Joseph Joestar) is back, and buddy, it is so joever. It was joever before it even jarted. I don't dislike this one nearly as much after revisiting it fairly recently. Funniest concept and setting in the series. The Squadra goons are great and the Diavolo sweater bimbofication reveal is one of the hardest transitions in the series. Giorno having the personality of a root vegetable is a real drag on the whole affair, as is Diavolo shedding most of the interest to his character post-Doppio.

Highlights: I wish I loved anything as much as Guido Mista loves shooting himself in the head.

Stone Ocean

Jotaro Kujo is back, and his emotional constipation is finally about to pay off in a way that will make him wish it was his soul in that fucking turtle. In contention for my favorite part. Planet Waves is the strongest martial arts sequence in the series. Very refreshing that Jolyne is an insane Florida sukeban- the coolest thing the last guy did was pretend to drink someone's piss. Best climax of any Shonen. 'Anakiss' macking on Jolyne in the new world is really bad. I'll just assume this incarnation isn't a huge fucking freak.

Highlights: Everything from C-Moon on, Dio's insanely ugly children.

Steel Ball Run

Intimate male relationships are back, and the revelation of the empty tomb? Total bullshit, apparently. My other favorite arc. I think Araki's character writing excels when he allows himself to focus on a smaller cast and set of relationships. Artwork is breathtaking, a late peak that the series will probably never rebound from. No one has ever been more committed to the bit than Mountain Tim. Blackmore, kill this man.

Highlights: Mandom, Hot Pants & Diego vs. Valentine, the little blurb at the end that tells you about how the kid Gyro was trying to save died of a head cold.

Jojolion

I really need to do a proper archival read of this. My impression is that it's very muddled and unfocused. The 'mystery' never really compensates for the lack of a compelling antagonistic force, and I refuse to learn this much about plant husbandry. The bad guy's motivation was that basically he wanted to make a bunch of money. Is it a crime to grind?

Some high-highs and low-lows. Curious to see how it all flows when read together, since monthly the pace was incredibly plodding. Think everything I've mentioned is exacberated by this being by far the longest part. Still, Araki starts to lean into these luxurious double spreads to push the action here, and it's some of his best work in that compositional mold.

Highlights: Flashback arc, beetle fight, the one-off chapter where Joshu balls out insanely and doesn't learn a lesson.

man you really have to work for it if you want the original scans and not these ugly fucking digitally colored things. one of my least favorite things about the modern era of manga. nerds want this to be anime so bad