Phantom Blood (film)

"Their stories will become legend once the mysteries of the Stone Mask are revealed."

- Tagline

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 ファントム ブラッド) is an animated film produced by Studio A.P.P.P., which was given a limited theatrical release in Japan starting on February 17, 2007. It adapts the first part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Phantom Blood.

Phantom Blood was produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, as well as the 25th anniversary of Hirohiko Araki's career as a manga artist. A PS2 game based on the Phantom Blood manga was also released a couple of months prior to the film, with a few characters sharing the same voice actors.

The film's home video release was delayed due to controversy surrounding the studio's previous adaptation and has since then been considered.

Summary
The story opens in the Tibetan mountains with monks chanting inside a temple. On the edge of a cliff near the temple, a young Zeppeli asks Tonpetty to read his destiny by holding his hand. As soon as their hands connect, a giant burst of yellow light appears and encompasses the mountains, causing the skies to clear and turn blue. Tonpetty then sternly reveals to Zeppeli his fate, which is that if he continues down the path he has chosen, he will be met with a gruesome death.

In England, Dario Brando walks at night accompanied by a young woman in the pouring rain. As the two continue down a muddy road, Dario spots the wreckage of a carriage that had crashed. Dario smerks and decides to loot the carriage for valuables, only to find a strange Stone Mask. Dario then goes to rob the corpse of a well-dressed gentleman, only him to wake up. The man mistakes Dario for having saved his life and asks him if his wife and son are still alive. Upon learning that his son was the only one to survive the crash, he closes his eyes again in relief.

Years later, in 1880, Dio Brando is seen standing in front of the grave of his late father, Dario Brando, spitting on it before leaving. Dio then travels by carriage to the house of George Joestar, the gentleman whose life his father saved. To repay the debt to his father, George offered to adopt Dio and accept him into his home. As the carriage draws closer, George's son Jonathan can be seen playing with his dog, Danny. Once the carriage stops, Dio bursts out and locks eyes with Jonathan as the two stare back at each other. The two promptly introduce themselves, however, Dio bursts into a fit of rage as Jonathan tries to help him carry his bags. Dio then proceeds to walk away, right before kicking Danny in the face much to Jonathan's dismay.

In the entrance of the mansion, Dio is lovingly welcomed into the family by his adopted father, George, alongside his servants. In the reading room, Jonathan meets with Dio again and tries to make amends with him by shaking his hand. Just as he reaches his arm out, Dio grabs it and angrily tells Jonathan never to look down upon him, before elbowing him in the stomach. Somewhere outside the mansion, Jonathan goes to talk to his friends, however, they suspiciously ignore him and walk away. Jonathan confronts them, but is pushed away.

Returning home, he finds that his room as been ransacked and that the pocket watch he kept in his drawer is missing. He also finds the photo of his late mother, Mary Joestar, smashed on the floor. A sudden knock on the door reveals Dio, who is smugly holding the pocket watch in his hand, saying that he'll be borrowing it. Jonathan then follows Dio outside, angry at him for going into his drawer without permission. Dio responds by dropping the pocket watch on the floor and crushing it with his foot. That following the night, Jonathan was pricked by a needle that Dio had hid under the pillow in his bed. Inside the mansion, Dio spots the Stone Mask and takes it off the wall. George approaches Dio and tells him that the mask was excavated from Mexico.

As Jonathan sits outside with Danny thinking about all the terrible things Dio has done to him, Erina suddenly appears to cheer him up and the two romantically carve their names into the tree.

2004 Tokyo International Pilot
A test pilot doubling as an announcement trailer for the film was shown at the 2004. The animation and character designs are entirely unique to the trailer and were not used in the final product. Some scenes and characters, including Robert Speedwagon, were present but did not make it into the actual film.

Much like the film, the pilot had been considered until September 14, 2019, when a Youtube User named MangoMation uploaded it to his channel with the description: "I found this pilot on an old DVD-RW, with the help of Notelu, who restored and upscaled the pilot: Notelu's Channel. A comparison of the raw file and the restored version of this pilot can be found here: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood Pilot", which links to a restoration comparison.

Phantom Blood PS2 Event
This event was held on September 13, 2006 to promote the upcoming Phantom Blood PS2 game that was set to release on October 26, 2006.

Hirohiko Araki, Junichi Hayama, Hikaru Midorikawa, Jun Itoda, and Kazuhiro Ozawa attended this event, where it was revealed that the movie was currently being worked on. Hikaru Midorikawa, the voice actor of Dio Brando in the PS2 game, reprised his role in the movie. The comedy duo named Speedwagon, comprised of Jun Itoda and Kazuhiro Ozawa, voiced Wang Chan and Dario Brando respectively.

Those who were present at this event were given a sneak peek of a 47 second trailer as to what the movie was expected to look like. This exact trailer came on a bonus disc for those who pre-ordered the PS2 Phantom Blood game.

Two unused/rare posters were displayed in the hallways of this event, which weren't used for the final movie except in promotional material.

16 Minute Workprint
On May 19, 2012, a Youtube User by the name Erik Zamora uploaded a 16 minute version of movie footage which was a production workprint, this workprint was missing some scenes and had storyboards layered into cuts to serve as a basis for how a scene would play out into animation. Students at the in San Francisco, would've been tasked to use the footage for a sound design project where they could have added their own sound effects, Erik mentioned in the description of his video that while the SFX were not originally from the workprint the music playing in scenes was. The University project didn't last long however, as Marco d'Ambrosio dropped out from the class meaning it did not progress any further.

Trivia

 * Despite the character's own lack of involvement in the movie, the Japanese comedy duo "Speedwagon", comprised of Jun Idota and Kazuhiro Ozawa, voiced Wang Chan and Dario Brando respectively.
 * In the Teaser Trailer the music is remixed of 2 tracks from the 1993 OVA's
 * Dio's Dervish OST Vol. 2
 * Going Home - (Dio's Dervish remix) OST Vol. 3
 * In the theatrical trailer, the music is remixed of 2 tracks from the 2000 OVA Soundtrack
 * Polanreff's Feelings
 * Polnareff's Anger
 * There have been unproven rumors regarding Araki's opinions on the film since its release;
 * Hirohiko Araki "hating" the movie started from a poorly circulated rumour online long before the 16 Minute Workprint surfaced.
 * Him wanting the movie "burnt" stemmed from another defunct rumour with no source to prove his claim.
 * On the movie's poster, Jonathan is modeled after Joseph from the cover of Volume 8. Whether or not this was intentional is unknown.
 * Jonathan's jewellery on the movie poster is referenced from the Cover of Volume 3.
 * Dio is modeled after two poses from the manga: one from Chapter 13 when he is standing on the broken window ledge, and another from a Chapter 36 panel spread.