Phantom Blood
Phantom Blood is the first part of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It spans the first 44 chapters of the series, which were collected in Vols. 1 to 5 of the Jump Comics collected editions.
Plot
{C}{C}The story begins in Victorian England with young Jonathan Joestar living at his father George's wealthy estate. Another young man, Dio Brando, is adopted by them having recently lost his father, Dario Brando, whom George falsely believed once saved him from an accident.
Jonathan attempts to befriend Dio, but Dio's plan from the start is to drive JoJo to madness and earn George's trust so that he can become the heir to the Jostar fortune. Dio violently beats JoJo in a boxing match, turns his friends against him, steals his girlfriend Erina's first kiss, and even burns his dog Danny to death in an incinerator. Meanwhile, he gains the trust of JoJo's father through his etiquette and manners.
Seven years later Jonathan's father falls ill. Dio is very attentive and brings him his medicine every day. Jonathan is suspicious as he is certain Dio is up to no good. Jonathan discovers an old letter written by Dario Brando on his deathbed requesting Lord Joestar care for Dio. In his letter, Dario describes his symptoms, which are identical to Lord Joestar's mystery ailment. Jonathan believes that Dio must have poisoned his own father and is now trying to do the same thing to Lord Joestar. Dio discovers Jonathan with the letter and Jonathan accuses Dio of poisoning Lord Joestar. Dio decides that he must kill Jonathan before he is exposed.
In order for Dio to kill Jonathan, he puts on a cursed mask that transforms its user into a vampire permanently. Fighting ensues and Jonathan is able to burn down their house with Dio inside. However, Dio survives, and takes off to plot his revenge. At this time, Jonathan meets a man called Will Anthonio Zeppeli with a strange power called the ripple (波紋 hamon) which is most effective against vampires. It is basically a martial arts technique that allows the user to focus bodily energy into other kinds of energy via proper breathing (obviously they focus it into the energy of sunlight, which is effective against vampires). After teaching Jonathan how to use the ripple they set out, along with Jonathan's good friend Robert E. O. Speedwagon, to seek out and defeat Dio.
{C}Their chase takes them to a village in Europe where most of the villagers have been turned into vampires by Dio. They fight their way to Dio; William Zeppeli loses his life in battle on the way. Zeppeli's master in hamon, Tonpeti, and his two disciples ,Dire and Straights, then show up to help Jonathan and Speedwagon go on. Eventually, a fight between Dio's eye beams and Jonathan's ripple ends with a loss for Dio, but not before Dire is killed.
Somehow Dio's head is still intact, and when Jonathan is on a cruise ship for his honeymoon, he is ambushed by Dio. Dio manages to sink the ship and take Jonathan's body with him to the bottom. Jonathan's young wife (who is pregnant) manages to escape, along with a baby she saved from the ship.
Chapters
| No. | Title | Release date | ISBN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Dio the Invader
Shinryakusha Dio (侵略者ディオ) |
August 10, 1987[1] | ISBN 978-4-08-851126-9 | |
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| 02 | The Thirst for Blood
Chi no Kawaki (血の渇き) |
January 8, 1988[2] | ISBN 978-4-08-851127-6 | |
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| 03 | The Dark Knights
Ankoku no Kishitachi (暗黒の騎士達) |
April 8, 1988[3] | ISBN 978-4-08-851128-3 | |
| ||||
| 04 | Chamber of the Two-Headed Dragon
Sōshuryū no Ma (双首竜の間) |
June 10, 1988[4] | ISBN 978-4-08-851129-0 | |
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| 05 | The Final Ripple
Saigo no Hamon (最後の波紋) |
August 10, 1988[5] | ISBN 978-4-08-851130-6 | |
| ||||
Characters
| Character name | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Jonathan Joestar | Protagonist |
| George Joestar | Ally |
| Danny | Ally |
| Erina Pendleton | Ally |
| Robert Edward O Speedwagon | Ally |
| William Antonio Zeppeli | Ally |
| Tonpeti | Ally |
| Straights | Ally |
| Dire | Ally |
| Poco | Ally |
| Peggy | Ally |
| Dario Brando | Neutral |
| Dio Brando | Villain |
| Wang Chan | Villain |
| Jack the Ripper | Villain |
| Tarkus | Villain |
| Bruford | Villain |
| Doobie | Villain |
| Page, Jones, Plant, and Bonham | Villains |
Media
This arc was made into a videogame for the Playstation 2 by Bandai. A movie version has been made and was released on February 17, 2007 in Japan.
