JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – “Phantom Blood” Episodes Ranked

I’ve been trying to get more into anime recently, and one of the ones at the top of my list was “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”. It seemed odd and off-beat, which I hoped would help distinguish it from its contemporaries.

The first arc, “Phantom Blood”, follows the adventures of Jonathan Joestar and his sworn enemy Dio Brando … and it was a slog to get through. How would I rank these nine mediocre episodes? Oh, and beware of SPOILERS if you haven’t watched the series already.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Meh

9 – The Dark Knights (Ep 5)

JoJo, Speedwagon and Zeppeli arrive in a new town and immediately come face to face with Dio. That didn’t take long …

Dio summons two formidable foes – Bruford and Tarkus – to do the dirty work for him, but that fight has barely begun by the time the credits roll. This episode is a whole lotta talking and a whole lotta nothing.

8 – Dio The Invader (Ep 1)

The first episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure doesn’t exactly hook new viewers – I actually took a break for a few months after finishing the pilot!

Jonathan begins his generational rivalry with Dio, but none of the characters or conflicts are that interesting yet.

7 – Overdrive (Ep 4)

After “defeating” Dio, JoJo and Erina randomly come across a man named Baron Zeppeli. He teaches JoJo how to use a power called “Hamon”, a generic magical ability that can broadly save the hero from any situation. Suffice it to say, I like the Stands from “Stardust Crusaders” onwards a lot more.

There’s also a brief tussle with Jack The Ripper where JoJo finally figures out how to use Hamon, but that battle is quite tame in the grand scheme of things.

OK

6 – Tomorrow’s Courage (Ep 6)

JoJo defeats Bruford, but that’s only the beginning of his troubles.

Tarkus pursues him and eventually entraps him in the Chain Neck Deathmatch, a seemingly inescapable device. The good part doesn’t start until next episode.

5 – A Letter From The Past (Ep 2)

“A Letter From The Past” is a slightly better episode than the pilot, but not by much.

It does introduce one of the better characters of this arc – Speedwagon – as well as the Stone Mask that would play a major role in Dio’s dark turn in the next episode.

4 – Sorrowful Successor (Ep 7)

One of the dramatic highpoints of “Phantom Blood” comes in “Sorrowful Successor” when Zeppeli sacrifices himself to save JoJo from Tarkus.

Zeppeli’s backstory is fairly interesting, I suppose, but it’s his knowledge of his upcoming demise that struck me as an heroic end to a quite off-beat character.

The final part of the episode, however, tarnishes its goodwill. JoJo and Speedwagon meet with Zeppeli’s master – Tonpetti – and his associates to plan an attack on Dio, and it’s slow and overly dramatic.

3 – Bloody Battle! JoJo & Dio (Ep 8)

This is it! The final battle between JoJo and Dio! The very thing “Phantom Blood” had been not-so-slowly and not-so-meticulously building to!

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, it comes off rushed and anticlimactic. I was low-key kinda pissed when this was the big ending to the JoJo and Dio storyline … so I’m glad the following episode rectified that.

Good

2 – Youth with Dio (Ep 3)

There were only two episodes in the first batch of nine that I actually liked. This series got off to a rough start …

Dio’s ungodly powers finally awaken in one of the best scenes of the arc, and I was actually quite surprised when he murdered Jonathan’s dad. JoJo and Dio fight in the burning mansion, which is quite a striking visual but quite a mundane battle.

Great

1 – The Final Ripple (Ep 9)

Considering Dio had bit the dust in the previous episode, I was intrigued to see where “The Final Ripple” would take us – and I wasn’t disappointed.

JoJo and Dio have one final battle on the sinking ship, but the fact that Dio actually managed to defeat Jonathan really threw me for a loop. This was the first episode to truly get me excited for the future of the show, and I was interested to see how they’d build up a new protagonist moving forwards.

Aaaand that’s my list! Despite my complaints I kept watching this series, and there are much better episodes in store for me to rank … but until then, you can check out some of my latest blog posts below: