I haven’t read this, so I don’t think I can provide much insight into what I would do while reading it.
I’ll just hang back untill you get to Part 5!
I think they mean in general
It does depend on what one is reading. And why. I don’t know much about this to take a guess at what kind of experience it is.
That’ll be the day! Part 5 starts on, like, volume 50!
Really excited to start this in January. Last reminder to get ya’ll books. Inspired by the kitty detective project, I’ll start a google sheets vocab list for people to edit. This thread will resurrect next month. Also, this has been added to the Master Book Club List, which I’m happy about. See you in 1880’s England!

That’s great! All of my books are the original tankobon releases, are there any colored pages in that set? I love Araki’s art, but man this manga thrives in full color.
Have fun with this manga!
It looks to be all black-and-white.
It’s so hard to get a hold of volume 1 at book-off
the only times I’ve seen it, it was part of a full set (63? volumes). Even if I was ready to commit to that, (1) there’s no way I can bring it home on my bicycle and (2) I don’t have the shelf space for it all ![]()
Just found this really good price for phantom blood and battle tendency in mandarake (1800 yen!).
Time to cart off mangas again ![]()
Merry Christmas to the Jojo book club members! Enjoy your wonderful holidays! Did anyone else get their manga in?
Yeah, many times I’ve seen the lot of 63 volumes (all of that is parts 1-5, not even the entire series), and never for less than $250. No pressure to accumulate all of that to be honest, especially if you lack the space. Besides, many fans consider part 7 the best of the manga, and that alone is 24 volumes long. Crazy stuff. I recall a funny conversation with one of my host families in Japan. The father said he was a huge fan of JoJo around the time part 3 finished, and he had no idea that the series hasn’t stopped, assumed that it went up to 5 and finished.
I’m not very familiar with the story, should I start watching the anime now to avoid misunderstanding some things while reading? (And, uhm, if yes, which anime/season?)
Before answering that, I’ll go a little in-depth into the plot, for those that are a little out of the loop:
The first five volumes of JoJo’s follows the life of Jonathan Joestar, the son of George Joestar, a filthy rich aristocrat in Victorian England. The story starts with Dario Brando and his wife robbing George Joestar in the scene of a carriage wreck. Unfortunately George wakes up and assumes that Dario was attempting to save his life, so George grants the Brandos a ticket into the family. As Dario passes in his death bed, he passes a letter from George to his son Dio and tells him to bring it to the Joestar mansion to be inducted in as a family member, and to seize the Joestar fortune. After Dario dies of an illness, the charming and witty Dio becomes acquainted with Jonathan, and the conflict between them brews as Dio tries to inherit the Joestar fortune.
All of this is communicated in the first two chapters. Plot is real simple, it transitions from this soap opera-ish plot to Jonathan learning sunlight karate to kill vampires and zombies, but I’d hate to spoil how it gets there.
Each part of the series concerns a different member of the Joestar family and their fight against the consequences of the Brandos.
As for watching the anime prior to the book club, it isn’t absolutely necessary. It’s a good anime and a few passages of backstory are tricky to read, so if you fear you’ll be lost in select chapters, you could go ahead and start watching. The first episode is called “Dio the Invader” (The author isn’t being coy about the fact that you’re meant to hate Dio and pitty Jonathan), so don’t accidentally start from an odd part like I did for an episode. I got confused and started with part 4 episode 1 and was wildly confused.
Thank you so much for the summary of the plot! That’ll be a great help while reading.
The anime has been on my watch-list for a long time now, so I think I’ll check it out if a part of the manga is unclear to me.
Seems like a good idea to me. If I recall correctly, the part 1 anime is 9 episodes long, and part 2 is episodes 10-26, but both parts are labeled as one season on Crunchyroll, Netflix, etc.
Alright, about book club matters, I want to organize by one thread per volume. I’ve heard of doing it per chapter, but for this read that seems a little excessive to me. Hope this is cool with you guys.
According to the original poll, a lot of people were interested in the idea. Who is planning to start reading on January 15?
Gee, isn’t voting fun?
- Yes, I can start on the 15th
- Yes, but will join in later
- Not reading
Thanks for your input, all. And have a wonderful New Years!

I’ve already been pre-reading a few pages just to get a feel for the series. So I’m definitely in for day one.
I’ll probably join much later. My favorite parts are 4 and 5 so if the group gets to that point I’ll join
That would be a huge much later lol, I doubt anyone would commit to buying and reading 47 volumes (part 4 is volumes 29-47) as apart of a club. And this club is going at a rate of 2 chapters a week, and part 1 alone is 44 chapters. It would take ridiculously long to get to parts 4 and 5, and I don’t even care to buy all the manga for those parts. I’m glad you’re a fellow fan of part 4 though!
My current plan is to rent the manga from Tsutaya. That means that I will be reading each volume in a single sitting, so I won’t be going at the exact speed of the club.
I am an absolute beginner and slow, but I will try my best. I also have read the English version of the manga, so maybe that helps a little.
It’s not possible for me to resist reading JoJo, even though I am just a very smol durtle. ![]()
Guess I’ll crash and burn. ![]()


