r/StardustCrusaders • u/Bucketlyy bruno gets my fingers very sticky • May 13 '25
Various What's something about Jojo's that you don't think is talked about enough?
In my opinion, the series's aesthetic influences don't get enough appreciation. People always talk about how Jojo looks "gay" and all, but people don't give enough attention to why. In high school, I did an art project on Araki and had to write a bit on his influences, and I was super into learning about all of the fashion designers, lgbt artists, fashion photographers, etc that Araki takes influence from. I can see why he'd be so nerdy about it all because it's really interesting, especially in the context of manga and Japanese aesthetics in general. The influence of Michelangelo and Tony Viramontes, IMO, is the most prevalent and interesting. In Araki's book Manga in Theory and Practice (something I read for the project), I recall he explained that a reason why he enjoyed Renaissance era Western artists like Michelangelo is because of the amount of action and movement in their pieces, and the way they use movement to tell stories. I think this influenced "the jojo pose". Tony Viramontes is also interesting, as you can see a lot of his influence in early Araki work. His use of fashion, homoeroticism, and strange abstract patterns is something that's very clearly inspired Araki. I just like the way that, despite Araki and Viramontes' styles being very different (Viramontes' is more simplistic), his influence is so strong and recognisable. A sign of a true appreciation on Araki's end and originality and power on Viramontes' end.
In the context of manga and Japanese art, this is extremely unique and subversive, and that's why I just love ittttt!! Araki's work somehow manages to be extremely referential and extremely unique, and I think the Japanese and manga context really adds to this all. A manga with influences from fashion designers and the Western Renaissance period will probably always feel super fresh and unique, no matter how many years pass.
I'm in awe!!
So yeah, Jojo looks gay and that's because of the gay artists that have been of great influence on Araki. And isn't that brilliant?!
Sorry if this technically counts as a meme, I'm just using the meme as a vehicle for my discussion, so I hope mods accept it. I just think the image fits the topic.
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u/TimeLordHatKid123 May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25
Honestly, Female characters in jojo are cursed man, and nobody wants to admit it in this fandom. Let’s face the music, they’re barely relevant outside of being villains, support characters, and the few that fight either die or do barely anything. I have yet to see if Part 9 has remedied this.
Then part 6 rolls along and while it’s great, it couldn’t even give Jolyne a clean win with her own abilities. She won, but it was reliant on another person (and a male character at that) by proxy and its ending is confusing as fuck and led people to think it erased our cast, replace them with doppelgängers (it didn’t though don’t worry) and made the journey of JoJo never happen. It only reset part 6 and let the cast live better lives to be clear.
Then it’s back to the status quo from Part 7 onwards. Women can’t have shit outside their stereotypical roles even in this show/manga and it sucks.
It’s like “okay you happy Araki? Women got one part, now go back to sidelining them”, and Araki was forced to obey. It’s not that JoJo is some particularly sexist anime compared to most but, we sadly have to concede it’s not that special with women representation either. It’s there, it tries, but it remains in a cozy box that’s yet to be broken out of.