The day has arrived Joestar fans as the next chapter of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has launched in Japan with The JOJOLands. Introducing the newest protagonist to the ever-expanding realm of the Joestars, the latest chapter takes place in Hawaii with creator Hirohiko Araki returning to write and pen the ninth story arc of the long-running series. With the new chapter running over seventy pages in length, there’s plenty of new information to dig into with this opening salvo.
The JOJOLands follows the story of two Joestars, Jodio Joestar and Dragona Joestar, who are currently in high school while already having Stands of their own. The preliminary chapter sees the brothers introduced while being pulled over by some shady police officers, allowing them the perfect opportunity to show off their respective Stands in “November Rain” and “Smooth Operator”, who have some of the wildest abilities that we’ve seen from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure protagonists to date. Of course, the fact that the new star of the series is named “JoDIO” has many fans starting to wonder if there might be a connection between this alternate Joestar and the most popular villain of the franchise, Dio Brando.
The Stands of The JOJOLands
November Rain is unlike any Stand that a Joestar has had in the past, specifically thanks to the fact that it looks like an amalgam between the more humanoid Stands and a spider, not having fists to deliver machine-gun-like blows as previous protagonists had. While the full extent of its powers is a mystery, Jodio has used it to seemingly create a torrent of deadly rain that drops a flurry of ball bearings on opponents. With Dragona’s “Smooth Operator”, her Stand is a collection of tiny beings that are able to move objects along a smooth surface, which created a horrifying effect for the police officer threatening them as the Joestar was able to move his eyes to a different location on his face.
Araki sets up this new JoJo as the story of how Jodio becomes rich on this tropical island, and while this might not be the most altruistic mission for a Joestar, it will be interesting to see where the story goes all the same.
While the latest chapter has landed in Japan as part of the publication, “Ultra Jump”, an official release via Viz Media for North America has yet to be confirmed, though considering the popularity of the series, we might just see it officially hit North America in the future.
Are you excited about the continuing adventures of Jodio and Dragona? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Joestars.
