Summary
Hirohiko Arakihas been drawing manga for 44 years and counting, with most of that time spent drawing his seminal seriesJojo’s Bizarre Adventure.It’s a rather unique strip as, in addition to living up to the ‘bizarre’ part of the title, it changes protagonists and settings with each part. Araki puts this down to getting quickly bored with the formula and wanting to do something different.
It shows in his other non-Jojomanga, as they tend to be short stories that would only fit an OVA. But some of these works have been adapted to other forms of media, have had mini-revivals of their own, or may be animated someday. Until then, these are Hirohiko Araki’s unanimated manga strips.
10Cool Shock B.T
A Jojo-Like Protagonist
Born from his one-shot,B.T The Wicked Boy,Cool Shock B.Tis about a boy who uses his intelligence and tricks to swindle bullies, soldiers, and other rivals along with his friend and reluctant accomplice Koichi. Sometimes he helps others avoid murder charges. Other times, he tricks one bully into stabbing another.
B.T is what fans would get if Joseph Joestar and Dio merged. He’s as sly as theJojo Part 2protagonist, with a wicked streaklike the vampire. Araki ended it after two months, but it’s since been revived asCool Shock Old B.Tby Nisio Isin (Monogatari,Medaka Box) and Posuka Demizu (The Promised Neverland). The revival follows B.T and Koichi as old men continuing their tricks, with a bunch of Araki andJojoreferences along the way.
An Unassuming Lady Assassin
Irene Rapona is a sweet young woman who’s bullied for her timid personality. But when she puts on her special makeup, she becomes Gorgeous Irene, an assassin who uses cosmetics against her foes. It has many of the hallmarks Araki would use forJojo, from the fashionable poses to the musically themed characters.
However, it only lasted 2 chapters, as Araki didn’t feel too keen on doing a full-lengthshōnen story about a woman. It would take him another 13 years to do that inJojo Part 6: Stone Ocean.
8The Lives of Eccentrics
A Look At Historical Figures
The Lives of Eccentricsstands out as, while every story in the series is written by Araki, he didn’t draw every page. Many of the eccentrics’ lives were illustrated by Hirohisa Onikubo, Araki’s chief assistant during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
As the title suggests, it follows the lives of famous, often controversial figures from history. However, it’s less of a deep dive into the truth behind them, and more of a manga retelling of the urban legends surrounding them. Examples include Nikola Tesla’s rivalry with Thomas Edison, or Yoshio Kou’s attempts to make a human-chimpanzee hybrid.
7Under Execution, Under Jailbreak
A Horrific Imprisonment
Under Execution, Under Jailbreakwas inspiring enough to get adapted into a stage play, combined with another Araki short story. It’s a part of Araki’s ownThus Spoke Kishibe Rohananthology series. It’s a prison thriller with a twist, as Prisoner 27 is sentenced to death with a unique execution.
He’s locked in a cell full of different traps. If he turns the light on, he gets attacked by bees. He tries to eat his food, but it’s a fish full of bones. His chair breaks into pieces, and his spork is full of holes. The sofa is a secret electric chair, and the floorboards are hiding nails. He’ll either live a life of torture, or die trying to escape.
A Cat And A Madman Lost At Sea
In the stage play ofUEUJ, the prisoner manages to escape via a boat, which leads into its second story adaptation,Dolce, and His Master. It was printed in the same short-story compendium asUEUJ. But it follows a different lead called Masago, an architect left adrift on a yacht with only the body of a drowned woman and his cat, Dolce, for company.
Masago is at first happy to have the cat around, only to slowly succumb to madness. He fights with Dolce over candy, then tries to eat him. Their situation gets more dire as the yacht starts to capsize, and the sharks eat the woman’s corpse. The cat must choose between getting eaten by Masago, getting eaten by the sharks, or finding a way to avoid either fate.
Spinoff For A Jojo Villain
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohanmanaged to get a few stories animated. That said, it’s not the only spin-off fromJojo Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable. In fact, it might have the most spin-offs out of all the chapters.
Deadman’s Questionsreveals what happened to Yoshikage Kira after the end of Part 4. He became a ghost, unaware of his previous life. He must spend his afterlife doing missions for a monk, like killing a child murderer, or investigating a mansion linked to multiple deaths in the area. It’s a curious, fitting fate for the villain, as he’ll never find the peace he sought in life.
4Oingo Boingo Brothers’ Adventure
A Different Perspective On Jojo Part 3
This one is a bit of a cheat, as it has technically been animated.Oingo Boingo Brothers’ Adventureis all the chapters ofPart 3: Stardust Crusadersinvolving Oingo and Boingo, but told from their perspective and in the art style of Boingo’s comic-based Stand Tohth. It’s also meant to be a published book within theJojouniverse.
The last few pages feature commentary from Rohan on how it got published, and what he thinks of its ‘unique artwork.’ As such, it could work as aThus Spoke Kishibe Rohanepisode, though it might not offer much for viewers that they didn’t already getfrom their EDs.
3Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run
The Next Part In The Jojo Saga
Considering Parts 1-6 have now been animated, it seems obvious thatthe nextJojoanime adaptationwill bePart 7: Steel Ball Run. It follows a new continuity, starting a new multipart arc. It acts like an odd, Western-themed retelling ofPart 1: Phantom Blood, as a Joestar learns a special ability from an Italian called Zeppeli to beat Dio.
Except the said Joestar is a paraplegic horse racer called Johnny. The ability is Spin, mastered by the quirky Neapolitan Gyro Zeppeli, and Diego ‘DIO’ Brando isn’t the main villain. He’s just a power-hungry jerk who, like everyone else, is racing for the $50 million prize in the titular Steel Ball Run. Also, like the other racers, they’re pawns in a wider scheme.
2Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8: Jojolion
The Most Recently Completed Part
Part 7ended around the time the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami struck Japan in 2011, close to Araki’s home city of Sendai. He wasted no time returning to the area inJojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8: Jojolion, which has the disaster striking Morioh. This reveals a curious anomaly called Wall Eyes, the body of Yoshikage Kira, and a naked amnesiac.
LikePart 7,Part 8takes inspiration fromPart 4.Instead of a murder mystery, the amnesiac, taking on the name Josuke, is trying to figure out who he is. He ends up coming across a smuggling ring involving the Rokaka fruit, which can cure conditions via equivalent exchange. This part of the manga has recently been completed, though it’s unlikely to be animated withoutPart 7getting first dibs.
1Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 9: The JOJOLands
Araki’s Manga Is Still Ongoing
The most recentJojoentryis unlikely to be animated anytime soon, since Araki started it relatively recently. It might not be completed for a while, givenPart 7took 7 years to reach its conclusion, andPart 8took 10 years. As of this writing,Part 9is a year and a half into its run, and takesPart 5: Golden Windas its inspiration.
Instead of being about Italian gangsters,Part 9sees Jodio Joestar on his way to becoming the richest person in Hawaii. He aims to do this via mastering the world’s ‘mechanisms’: abstract rules that govern power and wealth. For now, that involves running in a gang, but it takes an interesting turn when he comes across the Lava Rocks, stones that attract wealth. There may be more to those ‘mechanisms’ than Jodio thinks.
