Episode 1/es

Dio, el invasor (侵略者ディオ) es el primer episodio del JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. Adémas es el primer episodio de Phantom Blood. Cubre Capítulo 1 a Capítulo 5 de la manga.

Después de un accidente de carruaje, George Joestar confunde al ladrón Dario Brando con su salvador y le promete un favor. Doce años más tarde, Dario acepta la oferta de George y hace que George adoptara su hijo malicioso, Dio, después su muerte. Cuando Dio llega a la Mansión Joestar, procede a atormentar al propio hijo de George, Jonathan.

Sumario
En el año 1868, un carruaje que transportaba a una pareja y su hijo bebé se cayó por un precipicio a causa del continuo aguacero. Un ladrón llamado Dario Brando y sus compañeros observan el choque y deciden robar cualquier enseres de valor que hay de los cadáveres, dejando primero una fea Máscara de Piedra. El caballero George Joestar y su hijo bebé han sobrevivido al choque, pero su esposa había muerto. Pensando que Dario había venido para salvarlo, George le ofrece permiso pedir su "ayuda" en el futuro. Dario acepta la oferta.

Doce años más tarde, George mira desde su balcón a su hijo, Jonathan Joestar (alias JoJo), quien había crecido en un niño pequeño durante los últimos años. Mientras tanto en los tugurios, un Dario que es postrado en cama ordena a su hijo, Dio Brando, que le dé alcohol y le comanda que traiga un poco de cerveza. En algún lugar en los tugurios, Dio juga un juego de ajedrez con un hombre de aspecto rudo. Dio gana y le pide al hombre el dinero que habían apostado, pero justo después de dejar caer el dinero, el hombre mete la cara de Dio en su comida. Dio solo puede luchar mientras toma el dinero de la mesa.

En una área diferente, dos chicos están acosando a una niña pequeña llamada Erina Pendleton al quitarle su muñeca. Jonathan intervene y ayuda la chica. Mientras los bravucones aporrean a Jonathan, logra recuperar la muñeca. Erina intenta a agradecerle a Jonathan, pero él declina, dice que no ayudó por su gratitud, pero porque está entrenando para volverse a un caballero auténtico; uno que ayudaría a los necesitados. Corre afuera, pero sin querer deja su pañuelo en el que Erina puede ver su nombre.

Dario, apunto de fallecer, le cuenta a Dio del favor que George le debe. Le da a Dio una carta y le dice que vaya a la Joestar Mansion para que crezca en mejores condiciones. No mucho tiempo despues, Dario muere y es enterrado. Dio se para al frente de la tumba y como una "despedida", escupe en la tumba. Entonces se promete a si mismo utilizar a los Joestars.

Soon after, Dio arrives at the Joestar Mansion and meets Jonathan. Jonathan's dog, Danny, comes running towards them but, without a thought, Dio knees Danny in the jaw, which gets on Jonathan's nerves. Dio then thinks to himself that he now must destroy Jonathan mentally in order to gain the Joestar's wealth. Dio proceeds to bully Jonathan and assert his domination over him.

Since then, Dio continuously tries to completely destroy Jonathan's social life. At home, he has gained George's favor, as he not only has better marks than Jonathan, but he shows much better table manners than him. During a local boxing match, Jonathan has to fight Dio, who demonstrates his superior fighting skill and manages to sneakily stick his thumb in Jonathan's eye. Jonathan is defeated, and Dio uses the popularity his victory gives him to tell everyone that Jonathan will rat them out.

Since then, nobody in the area includes Jonathan in their activities due to him being a "tattle-tale." However, he meets up with Erina again. The two quickly become friends and eventually start going out. At one point, Jonathan carves his and her name into a tree. Dio finds out about Jonathan's relationship thus, as Erina is walking home one day, Dio appears and forcibly kisses her, knowing full well that he had stolen Erina's first kiss from Jonathan. Later on, Jonathan finds out about this from Dio's peers and runs to the mansion to confront him.

At first, Jonathan cannot beat Dio, but his rage allows him to overpower finally and Jonathan gets the upper hand. As Jonathan punches Dio repeatedly, some of Dio's blood sprays onto the Stone Mask causing it to grow tentacles and fall to the floor. Dio attempts to pull out a knife, but George appears and tells them to stop and sends them both to their rooms.

The next day, one of the butlers ignites an incinerator in which there is a large box, soon after the butler is shocked by what appears to be banging sounds coming from inside the incinerator. Jonathan, who had not been able to talk to Erina at all that day, comes home to find his dog buried: Danny was the one inside the box and had burned to death. Jonathan instantly thinks of Dio, but there's no proof. Later that night, Dio is seen standing under a streetlight thinking to himself. He realizes he had underestimated Jonathan and decides to change his tactics.

Comentario
"Since the whole production began with this episode, a lot of work has been put in it. No doubt it was the one that took the longest to do because of its neverending storyboard. Initially, 400 scenes were planned, but they didn't fit in the given time. We reluctantly had to cut a lot of scenes. The one where Jonathan eats his chocolate bar and the one where Dio stole the watch are simply absent.

Regarding the animation, our team wasn't familiar with the selected aesthetic; sometimes the lines are too thin or aren't dynamic enough. However, I think we did well for the boxing fight scene. It may be not obvious with the booklet, but one of JoJo's particularities are the wide angle poses. A too proper or prosaic style would have considerably lessened their charm. Thus we have reached for a restitution of the original material's vigor."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Curiosidades



 * The arrows featured during the internal monologue scenes are an homage to one of Araki's other works, namely Cool Shock B.T. In the manga, they appear whenever B.T. (the main character) is scheming.
 * Kazuyuki Okitsu and Yoji Ueda reveal that the producers were very particular about a specific line in episode 1: the "Wow Dio! He does without blinking something we never could! What a guy! (さすが ディオ! おれたひにできない事を平然とやってのけるッそこにシビれる! あこがれるゥ!) that is shouted by one of Dio's cronies and asked that it be done a specific way. They called it the line they worked the hardest on.