JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part II: Battle Tendency Anime Review

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part II: Battle Tendency 

[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure episodes 10-26]

Genre: Action, Supernatural, Comedy, Shounen

Synopsis

The second JJBA series takes place in the 1930s, and follows the misadventures of Joseph Joestar, the grandson of Jonathan Joestar, as he fights vampires and ancient super beings with some help from a cybernetically-enhanced Nazi and an Italian man he has a lot in common with.

Preface 

Alright so I admit, the first part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Phantom Blood, made me fidget throughout most of the anime except towards the last segment of it. I mean, it's pretty understandable for Hirohiko Araki's earliest works, but Battle Tendency is guaranteed to keep you glued to your seat (or bed). David Production did an excellent job in adapting the first 2 parts of the series, even with a low budget, but what made the first part less enjoyable than the second was solely because of the source material (the manga) they had to work with. Battle Tendency is crazy, and in a good way, and it also started the flamboyant pose trend.

You never see poses like these anymore.

What more reason do you need to watch Battle Tendency? The opening itself is what sums up the show; Battle Tendency is flamboyant, crazy, and very entertaining.

Because of the low budget David Production had for Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, I am not going to criticize anything caused by the tight budget as it's amazing what they did for a series that hadn't seen an anime adaptation in 2 decades. What do I mean flaws caused by the tight budget? Well in the video that I've shown, the animation quality isn't the best; the animation is a little rigid if you know what I mean. It's all very minor problems that require you to have a trained eye in order to spot these technical flaws, but even thenyou'll forget about them because this show is crazy entertaining.

Characters

Joseph Joestar

Joseph Joestar is a brash, rowdy trickster who hates egotistical people, but ironically is egotistical himself. He might seem stupid, but it's all a part of his plan in deceiving his opponents. Joseph is a tactical genius, which is one of the main reasons why this show is so entertaining. The complete polar opposite of his gentleman grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, this guy is wild, rude, and will always insult his opponents. This guy is my personal favorite JoJo because he's such a crazy character; everything he does is nothing you'd expect to happen. Just watching this guy is outrageously hilarious, especially his secret move.

Even Speedwagon is here.

Speedwagon is an uncle-like figure to Joseph and is respected by him, which is rare because Joseph rarely respects anyone. The man of many memes, this guy is what started the Speedwagon trend (a character is screaming out on the side about the crazy thing that's happening at the moment) and the Speedwagon Foundation. Highly lovable character because even Speedwagon agrees.

Shizaaaaa!

Caesar Zepelli is the pompous playboy who is charismatic and charming. This guy is die-hard prideful in his Italian heritage and Zepelli lineage. He is way more reserved than his fighting partner, Joseph. Saying anything more about him is a spoiler and I don't want to spoil anything about Caesar because he's a great and memorable character.

Note: You guys might wonder why I haven't wrote much about the other characters, well it's because I don't want to spoil anything and Joseph Joestar is basically the star of the show.

Animation

Despite the low budget, David Production is able to make use of what they have. The animation is colorful throughout and resembles the art style of the manga very well.

All these colors lol.

I also really like how they change the color scheme during scenes to highlight specific moments. It's a style that David Production frequently uses in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series and I think that it's an excellent idea as it looks great. 

Yup.

What got me into the entire JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series was basically this video that sums up the colorful animation style of David Production:

The moment that I saw this video, I quickly decided to watch the series.

The most beautifully animated scene is towards the end, and trust me, David Production did not skimp out on that scene at all, but I won't spoil anything because it's a Goddamn beautiful scene.

Music

Like I said about David Production and their low budget, they really know how to optimize their low budget. Most of the music that you'll hear is an intense electronic music (a lot of dubstep as well), which pretty much characterizes how energetic the show is. Here's an example a track that I'm talking about, minus the vocals.

Only during the most important or emotional scenes will they use a very beautiful operatic song or a triumphant orchestral fanfare. You know how sometimes when you're reading a tragic scene in a manga and your eyes are dryer than California, but when you watch it animated with music, a rain never stops from your eyes. The most beautiful and tragic scene of the show utilizes the most beautiful song in the soundtrack, but you should hear it for yourself when that scene happens.

Voice Acting

Now normally I wouldn't write about the voice acting in a review because people have preferences in what language they want to hear their anime in, regardless of quality. But because there was no English dub at the time of this review and a phenomenal performance from the cast, I just had to mention something about the voice acting. The voice acting is gold. You will not hear anything of this caliber in most animes out there, except for Gintama and Dragon Ball Z (Japanese dub). There is so much energy within the voices that you feel pumped up for certain scenes. Usually poor English pronunciation is cringe-worthy and sounds unprofessional, but the voice actors create magic with broken English because the energy in the voice acting is invigorating. You'll notice this in the Stardust Crusaders' anime especially. Tomokazu Sugita's voice performance perfectly captures the personality of Joseph Joestar and makes the character even more enjoyable.

Plot

The plot is a crazy thrill ride. A continuation from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part I: Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency features Jonathan Joestar's grandson, Joseph Joestar. The first fight scene that you'll witness is Joseph beating up corrupt cops in New York in order to defend a thief that just robbed him. The moment when you see Joseph demonstrate his Hamon is when you realize that this show is going to be damn good. Joseph Joestar is the show as he brings so much energy to the table because of his unorthodox battle tactics that are highly entertaining and unpredictable.  This show consists of mostly action. The action scenes are great because of the unpredictable twists that come along with Joseph's calculating fighting style. So don't expect a mind-boggling plot with layers of complexities; the plot straightforwardly progresses as the mysteries of the Stone Mask are uncovered. Expect the unexpected when it comes to plot twists though. There isn't really much to criticize about the plot except for the lack of character development with 2 supporting characters, Messina and Loggins, due to a timeskip (but blame that on the source material, the manga). Any unanswered questions is resolved at the conclusion of the story. The last scene basically foreshadows Stardust Crusaders, and you're going to want to watch Stardust Crusaders after watching Battle Tendency.

Conclusion

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part II: Battle Tendency is a crazy, bizarre, flamboyant, and exciting anime that will keep you on your toes with unpredictable plot twists and fight scenes. Despite the low budget that David Production had with this anime, the technical flaws are greatly overshadowed by how great this anime is. The animation, music, and voice acting adds to the exciting and energetic tone to the anime. The ending is satisfying and you'll want to move on to the next part in the series. Overall, this anime is fantastic and I highly recommend it. If you like battle anime, what are you waiting for? You're missing out if you're not watching Battle Tendency.

Rating

9/10