JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency 1

Battle Tendency Deluxe #1

by Hirohiko Araki (Translator), Josef Shanel (Translator)

50 Jahre nach den aufregenden Ereignissen von Phantom Blood bahnt sich eine neue Gefahr an: einer der vier unsterblichen Säulenmänner ist aus seinem 2000 Jahre langen Schlaf erwacht! Und ausgerechnet Jonathan Joestars Enkel Joseph wird in den Kampf von Gut und Böse hineingezogen …

Bühne frei für Joseph Joestars spektakuläre Abenteuer!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Fiction, Adventure, Action, Shonen

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Hirohiko Araki ( 荒木飛呂彦) is a Japanese manga artist. He left school before graduation from Miyagi University of Education.

He enjoys the baseball manga Kyojin No Hoshii (Star of the Giants); the video games Mario Kart and Bomberman; and likes Prince and other African-American singers, as well as jazz, rock, and rap.

He is a recipient the Tezuka Award for manga.

Reviews

[Thomas Joyner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An ancient Mexican vampire eating shapeshifter super intellect is imprisoned by a strangely likable Nazi.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the first 5 Jojos parts I've encountered, to this day nothing tops part 2 for me. It's unfortunate that the anime condensed so much of part 2. There are so many gems here that could have just made it better. (if it could be any better). This ends just as we meet the illustrious, charming Caesar Zeppeli. Full review to come on Sunday/Monday.

[maddie ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

joseph could’ve killed hitler if he wanted to and for that a star is removed

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars.

 

JoJo Bizarre Adventures is a landmark adventure series so I read it dutifully. Reminded me I should finish reading Wind of Gold one day…

 

I can’t say I am a fan of the mangaka’s art style ---the style is so 1990s, all these ridiculous muscles and the battle scenes are confusing and tiring at times, still…a lot of crazy shit happened in the story they made me LOL so hard, especially when those Nazi guys showed up (Nazi and their weird experiments have always been a hot topic in Japanese crime and mystery pop culture).

 

I like the main character Joseph Joestar well enough, the guy is down to earth and has a sense of humour going for him, and when the mangaka turned on his own sense of humour, things worked very well as well! Plus I do like in the last scene, there is a sweet-talking Italian guy who is seemingly going to be Joseph’s alliance!?

 

[Monsour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indiana Jones with super powers.
A hot chick whose a master/trainer instead of a love interest


Villains that both creepy and fabulous at the same time. That also reminds me of the custodes from TTS show in youtube.


and a extremely likable NAZI.


I haven't read Phantom Blood, Star Dust & DIA but I did finish Vento Aureo & currently reading JoJolion because I become a fan of Araki because of the anime. I could confidently say that this is better than Vento.

[bee ⭑.ᐟ · Rating 5 out of 5]

why is joseph so funny

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ależ ja się wspaniale bawię podczas czytania!

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite JoJo arc in the anime. Joseph is just such an over-the-top jerk of a character, and I love him so, so, SO much. Really looking forward to reading Battle Tendency in its entirety!

Just as with Phantom Blood, the art style is beautiful! The situations depicted can be horrendously graphic, but the characters themselves are wonderful to look at! I love the story, I love the art style...this is just a GREAT series!

UPDATE 8/15/17:
After having watched Stardust Crusaders, I'm seriously reconsidering which Jojo series is my favorite. However, that does not change the fact that this was an awesome arc and a lot of fun to read. Reading volume 1 again has been a blast!

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant quality hardback for one of the most bizarre adventures imaginable. Battle Tendency is an easier part to get into (Phantom Blood is great but can be a little off putting at times for newbies to the series, you still need to read it though) and the development of Araki's storytelling and illustration skill is showing from his starting point.

[Elina Mäkitalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 ehkä. Ihan vähän parempi kuin edellinen osa mutta ei kyllä voi kolmostakaan antaa. Edelleen samoja ongelmia kuin aikaisemmissakin osissa eli kuvat ovat epäselvät, liikaa tappeluja ja niin edelleen. Muutama kohta tekstissä nosti karvat pystyyn. Jotenkin vaikea päästä kirjassa selvyyteen aina missä mennään kun yhtäkkiä ollaankin ihan muualla.

[Olly · Rating 3 out of 5]

iniziato alla grande, ottimo proseguimento.

[Manal (✿◡‿◡) منال · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this is better than part 1. Joseph is funny, smart, well-aware of the societal struggles of others. He tested my patience with two mysoginistic lines but seems like he's living up to his mistakes. I also need Stronheim gone from the story. I know what the author is trying to show with his character, i'm just scared he'll be a heroic influence or some shit. Stronheim is a literal racist nazi i dont care for him.

How i wish older male authors were normal. Because to an extent, i know that this is "expected" from older cis male writers in the 90's, but i'm not lenient enough even if it should be expected.

Side-eyeing all the jojo fans to be real honest.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the verge of four stars. This time we jump fifty years into the future with a new Jojo—an intelligent and arrogant Jojo who has to fight first against an old friend who has become a vampire because he can’t stand getting older (I can relate a little, heh). And then gets entangled with Nazis and a strange entity known as the pillar man. The proceedings are about as insane as usual, though they feel a bit warmed over since Jojo already defeated Dio, another more famous vampire in the first story arc. Still this volume has a lot of insane moments which make the story quite entertaining,

[Alex Richey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I watched 3 episodes of part one and gave up on enjoying Jojo because of how horrible the story line was, but this is so much better. The poses are out-of-this-world ridiculous and it's clear from the art just how much this creator loves the male body. Dancing on cactus needles while punching Nazis is not something I knew I wanted, but here we are. Curious to see where the story goes from here, so I'll definitely be reading the next volume.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tras un primer arco serio y trágico, este comienzo del segundo con un personaje como Joseph Joestar es un soplo de aire fresco pero sin quitar unos combates dignos de alabar. La verdad es que los primeros capítulos están muy bien llevados a pesar de ser introductorios haciéndolos mucho más amenos e interesantes respecto al primer arco.

Un gran comienzo del segundo arco de Jojo, veremos si el autor es capaz de mantener el nivel en el resto de tomos.

[Radwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

- at the start of part 2, we see a familar face as the next arc/era starts in the USA instead of England
- set 49 years after part 1, it follow's jonathan's grandson: joestar, joesph joestar (cringe but cool), and the repeating patterns of characters introduction are already there
- i'm still skeptical of how it's actually possible to inherit hamon, and i also need to know why we skipped jonathan's son and went straight to his grandson
- smokey to joseph is speedwagon to jonathan
- the fights are silly but i won't deny the intricate details
- the diversity of foes: tibetan monks, nazi germany and fossilized mexican men
- a new super evil and the return of the stone mask, will it be something to haunt the generations of joestar family?
- mamma mia!

[Hazel West · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is my most recent obsession and I can't get enough of it. Also these deluxe reprint editions are absolutely gorgeous. I loved the anime but there's something about seeing Araki's original art that puts it to another level of epicness.

[Torti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well well well, what to say about Battle Tendency, it is a big improvement from Phantom Blood, I must say I've been surprised for the first time I read this rollercoaster of emotions and comedy.

The story is indeed again, good guys and bad guys, good guys must stop the bad guys, but in this part, it is executed so well, it has a deepnes in it, not every good guy is really good and not every bad guy is really a bad guy, the story has something that part 1's story missed. There are some character development, relations between characters are developing, and it all works.

Speaking of characters let's talk about our Main protagonist of this part, Joseph Joestar, son of George Joestar II, which was son of Jonathan Joestar, so we moved 2 generations in the story. He is quite a character, total opposite of Jonathan's righteousness, he fights dirty, using tricks and
acts really smart, he is full of jokes. He also carries some ego which he pays for later, there is no stuff like being strong just like how Jonathan became in matter of seconds, Joseph had to train and combine his trickery with hamon, I actually cannot imagine someone not loving Joseph. And then the biggest shame, the main Villains, don't get me wrong, they have some reasons but they are sooo plain expect one of them, esidisi was the worst, no actuall character, and his role was to just be a villain, Kars has some deepnes, he loved nature and hated humanity so much, he had his little backstory but still I couldn't find him an enjoyable character, but Wamuu saved the day, his motives and fairness in fights were awesome, he respected our protagonists, Wammu was the type of a villain you don't hate even when he did something really bad.

Move onto side characters, we have back our old good Speedwagon and Erina Pendleton from Part 1, having the exact same role, expect Erina doesn't take care of Jonathan, but Joseph now. Let's talk about Ceasar Zeppeli, the rival of Joseph, being better in hamon and overall fighting, his character has some depth in it, and even so we didn't have much of his backstory, his goals were reasonable, he carried an interesting role in Battle Tendency and in Joseph development. Next we have our favorite Nazi General Stroheim, not many were sure if he is a good or bad guy, his character is so enjoyable and you must love his moves in story, actually a character that trully changed during the story. Next we have Lisa Lisa, a master and teacher of Hamon, but in compare to Will Zeppeli from part 1, she actually a good character which takes a big part in the story, and of course we cannot unsee her beauty, overall she is very enjoyable and also takes big part of Joseph developing character.

Speaking of Hamon, the power that was introduced back in part 1, it's thousend times better ! It's nothing like the boring Hamon of part 1, it got so creative and fun, really enjoyable to see this power in action this part, and Joseph just using it every way possible is pure enjoyement.

This part has really showed how good and creative can JoJo's bizzare adventures be, of course it ain't perfect, neither because the plain villains, or some weird asspuls in story that clearly screamed PLOT ARMOR, but overall this part was excellent. The only reason the rating is 4/5 is because of the plain villains and the story being pretty basic BUT damn well executed. Thanks if you made it this far.

I recommend you to check other parts of JoJo's bizarre adventure of this amazing manga artist Hirohiko Araki.

My review on the previous part of JoJo's bizarre adventures, Phantom Blood can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So begins the second, and final, Part of the "Hamon Arc" of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: "Battle Tendency." As is "necessary" for battle manga, the stakes must be escalated. In "Phantom Blood," we had a single major vampire born of the Stone Mask. In "Battle Tendency," we take on the creators of the Stone Masks, the Pillar Men. Araki-sensei will kind of course-correct moving forward with the introduction of Stands; while it's true many "final boss" Stand Users have powers far greater than previous foes, the gap between say Kira versus Diavolo versus Pucci isn't quite so wide a gulf as that between Dio and the Pillar Men. The "Stand Arc" Parts will offer a bit more of a "reset" between each other. Not that it's a bad thing that Battle Tendency escalates beyond Phantom Blood by immediately having Joseph's first foe being a Hamon User vampire! It makes sense, kind of, that Joseph would be born with Hamon aptitude because of his grandfather, so it's not absurd that he can win this first big fight, especially considering the circumstances of the victory, and of course there is room to train his Hamon later before facing the other Pillar Men.

Continuing the tradition of these "Jojonium" editions, Araki ends the volume with a brief essay describing Joseph's character versus that of his grandfather. I don't want to repeat too much of what the author already said, but the basic thing is that Joseph is designed more as a trickster (Araki says "swindler"), which allows his Hamon techniques a wider range and variety than Jonathan's. As Araki says, this was a step toward more "cerebral" battles. You can see how Stands will evolve from this. Hell, I could be a jackass and say Joseph pulling a Tommy gun out of nowhere could be set-up for Emperor in the next Part...! Well, maybe that's a stretch. Anyway, I think when I first read this Part I didn't exactly love how Joseph didn't have a singular "signature" technique. He will get the clackers later on, but still freestyles most of his attacks. The whole thing made me think of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, actually, where Bo-bobo's basic ability is a nose-hair parody of Hokuto Shinken, but Bo-bobo otherwise does all kinds of random shit to defeat opponents, his manga being an absurdist spoof gag series. Battle Tendency is more "serious," but could in some ways be viewed as self-parody of Phantom Blood. And so Joseph takes the piss out of Jonathan's moveset!

"Your next line is..."

****

Censored, copyright-friendly names continue to be absurd. "Santviento" and "Donobang." Santviento kinda works, since if you know there are music references in this manga, and you see the name "Santana," you can easily see where the name comes from. But "Santana," like "Bruford" before it, is a rather common surname in general. "Donobang" is just fucking r*tarded. The character is named after musician "Donovan," which is just that musician's own first name. "Donovan" itself is a rather common first name, and I'm sure not everyone named "Donovan" is named after the "Mellow Yellow" singer. And, like "Santana" and "Bruford," it can just be a surname. I mean, I doubt you'd find any real Nazis with the name Donovan, first or last, since it's not a German name, but still! I guess what bugs me the most is Smokey keeps his name even though it's the most overt reference. Who the fuck else is named "Smokey"?

a) I'd totally forgotten Straits was in Part 2 as the first major enemy, and b) I forgot how cool the fight was, especially Straits's body parts crawling together after the grenade attack.

"What's wrong with this cactus? Let me take a closer look..."

"Damn these Nazis! They saw right through my crossdressing disguise!"

[O. U. · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can read my review of JJBA Part 1 right here!

I mentioned in the Part 1 review that JJBA really starts coming into its own in this Part, and I stand by that statement. I feel like you really glean from both the story and the art that the author was having fun writing this series. The artwork in this part felt very energetic to me, whereas the art in Part 1 struck me as very weighty, deliberate, etc.

To summarize the plot, in the 1930's a rich guy from New York pulls off stunts that get more and more ridiculous with each passing enemy vampire he fights. Also, the Nazi's constantly make an appearance alongside the character Stroheim and while the story stays far away from the ideals and actions of the Nazi party, it does put them on the "Good Guy" side in the Humans vs. Vampires/Pillar Men fight which really didn't sit well with me.

The story was fine, it's one of those cases where the characters are what keep you interested and the plot is more of just something the characters are going through. It's interesting, sure, and the stakes/scope have risen far above the stakes/scope of Part 1, but it feels almost cold and impersonal. The Pillar Men are just generic bad guy archetypes, everything about them is surface level. I think this story has an incredible final arc though, and the the ending/plot twist was really well earned/deserved. (This doesn't include the epilogue, which I thought should've just been the prologue to Part 3)

On its own, this part is fine, and acts as a great pairing with part 1, but as part of the whole, the story is possibly the weakest of the batch. Which is ironic since I consider Joseph to be my favorite Jojo other than Part 4 Josuke which I think really shows how strong he is as a character.

The art is exceptional though, everything about the presentation is top notch. The pages are filled to brim with crisp detailing, exaggerated motions, and a deep range of emotion. It also helps that this is the last part to be under 5 volumes. The quick pacing and the shorter length really help.

Though I think the series really starts coming into itself with this part, it fully becomes itself with the next part "Stardust Crusaders". I think while this part is fun, it ends up becoming a distant memory pretty quickly while Parts 3 - 8 move onto bigger and brighter things.

3/5. Obligatory Tommy Gun reference.

LAST THREE REVIEWS:
The Warden - Daniel M. Ford
The Angel Maker - Alex North
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie

[jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

BATTLE TENDENCY TIME!!!!

God Joseph really does go hard. Re-reading part 1 had me wondering if I was always a little too hard on it but the Straizo and Santviento fights are just simply too good and are an immediate reminder of how much of an absolute banger the rest of the series ends up being. Admittedly, Joseph does start the time honoured Joestar tradition of hating women, which Jonathan would absolutely NEVER stand for (and tbh I think only is really true for him and Jotaro - we'll see about Josuke when I get to that part, Giorno is too busy becoming a Gangstar to have time for anyone, and part 6 is quite literally FOR. THE. GIRLS.). But how can I NOT give Joseph 5 stars for covering a vampire in hand grenades after unloading an entire tommy gun clip into him in the middle of a busy city street!?

To be fair to Phantom Blood, this volume and I think the rest of this part does lack a little bit of the symbolism that part 1 had to progress the thematic elements of the Jojo's plot. Joseph is literally just lucky as fuck, which is certainly his own approach to fate but just like with EVERYTHING Joseph related, its turned up to 11 on the meme scale, perhaps to the detriment of the meaningfulness or sincerity of the content. That being said, the memes ARE what really makes Jojo's great at the end of the day - if it took itself as seriously as Phantom Blood did throughout all the parts it just wouldn't be what it is today!

Quote of the Volume:

"If you don't moisturize, you'll be bald one day, nazi man!"

- Joseph Joestar

[Tom Garback · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Critical Score: B
Personal Score: C-
Reading Experience: 📘📘/5

It was cool to see how a new arc starts, but otherwise this was more of the same, and I’ve decided this isn’t the series for me. My curiosity itch has been scratched, I think.

Kind of cool to jump to a new era for a new arc. Almost as problematic towards race and women as you’d expect. The new Jojo is kind of horrendous; he’s so vile, in a kind of amusing way?

I also want to acknowledge the charmingly erotic nature of the body art. This is beefcake material through and through. I got a kick out of that. Felt very 80s arcade-core.

I sort of like the narrative between the long fights, but I’m not crazy about it, and this is just too long of a franchise to pursue when I’m not enthusiastic about it.

[Chihoe Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

From this arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on, I'm going in clueless having not watched the anime prior, and what a thrill ride it was! I knew the series was multigenerational and would therefore involved some sort of time jump, but with the way the Phantom Blood arc ended, I wasn't sure just how they would continue the plot surrounding the mystery of the mask.

I think what I particularly liked about this volume was the historical context the beginning of this arc drew from... we are two generations down from Jonathan Joestar and are introduced to his grandson, Joseph, coming to age in the time of the rise of Nazis and the Axis powers. It's with this hook, that the mask and the evilness it is shrouded in comes into play. And let's just say this boisterous JoJo is a 180 degrees switchup from his predecessor so I can only imagine the hijinks he's going to get into.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading it. It was pretty interesting to see hownthe fights go down. Only giving it such a low score because most of Joseph's dialogue was absolutely diabolical. Any page he was on, he had my mouth agape. It's even worse if he's with a female. How smokey was illustrated was also slightly suspect but I let it slide once he was drawn a bit more.

[Goober Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Battle Tendency is definitely the part that really made me fall in love with JoJo and reading it again I still love it. Joseph is just great, such a fun character and the smartest dumbass. A lot of really cool body horror in this volume. I really love the Straits and Santana fights.

The beginning does make me wish we got to see more of Smokey and Joseph’s friendship, I just like them sharing a brain cell over bra padding.

[Абрахам Хосебр · Rating 5 out of 5]

Якби Мікеланджело малював манґу, то це було б Джо Джо, а точніше - другий том "Забіякуватої схильності".
Одна епічна сцена з перезбиранням Стейца, чого вартує.

І взагалі, я надихнувся і зробив собі з цього стикер пак:

https://t.me/addstickers/JoJo_Hosebr

Enjoy!

[I. Merey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cleaning up my reads as we get to the end of the year. I won't mark every single Jojo volume, but the main arcs. Battle Tendency brought us the infamous Kars and CEASER! Probably my least fave of all the JOJO arcs, but still crucial.

[Matthew Kuns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a little excited and read it all in one day. It’s every bit as good as the anime and is a very nice work of art.

[Walberto Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um Inglês bombado batalhando com um vampiro asteca dentro de um laboratório nazista no México. Bizarramente bom.

[sapquaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

buenísimo, me muero