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It's just a idea for now, but I'm thinking of making a Jojo's Bizzare Adventure RPG. Since people are sort of unfamiliar with the series overall, it's the classic, definitive action manga by Hirohiko Araki. It's famous for its unusual art style, and invented many conventions of action anime today, such as the "streaming lines in the background to convey movement" during a special attack, and also is extremely violent, but not in the conventional sense. The first vol. had plain normal ultraviolence, but the latter volumes, which introduced more and more "Bizzare" abilities, brought about novel and creative ways of dispatching one's foe. It's a great comic for its action, classic music references in the names of characters and powers, and is also sometimes just funny as hell to look at, because the characters and artwork, as well done as they are, have such exaggerated postures and ridiculous looks in a way that walks the line between metrosexual and homosexual. (Araki is one of the world's biggest Prince fans.)
The series is called "Jojo" because the main character always has two "Jo" syllables in his/her name. The first comic was a vampire horror story about a son and an adopted son of the British Joestar family. The good natural son, Jonathan, was your typical goodie goodie two shoes hero, but the adopted son, Dio Brando, whose name becomes infamous in vol. 3, is just plain bad. This comic is a real throwback to the days when villians were just evil to the bone, none of that shades of grey crap. Dio gets turned into a vampire by an ancient Mayan mask, which created vampires as their lords, and was responsible for the downfall of their civilization, and then tries to kill off the Joestars and inherit their considerable fortune. Jojo learns how to use chi from a traveller named Zepelli, referred to as "ripple energy" or Hamon in this comic. Apparently vampires don't like this, and a punch to the face augumented with the ripple will likely kill or mangle them horribly. So it's a pretty typical action comic.
The series however really gets ridiculous, it's main claim to fame, in vol. 2, where the new Jojo, Joseph Joestar comes to power. Here we have another hamon user who is infamous for predicting what the enemy is going to say and then killing them right afterwards in a very cool fasion. This volume has all sorts of ridiculous but cool stunts. Joseph uses the ripple to supercharge a coke bottle, launching off the cap and breaking a corrupt New York cop's finger. (This first takes place in New York, then moves to Europe, mainly Italy, Araki's favorite country.) He leaps off a Tommy Gun and in one fluid motion stabs a vampire's eyes out with his toes. This is the kind of ridiculous crap that happens in Jojo, but it's so fun and funny at the same time that I thought it would be interesting to put it into an RPG.
Most people who know of Jojo basically only know volume 3, which is the most famous one. THis volume introduces the mainstay of characters' powers in all future Jojo comics: the "Stand." The stand is a psychic power, but that's not a good description really. It's more like an extension of the user's persona that takes physical form. Visible only to other Stand users, a Stand can look like basically anything and have virtually any power; it all depends on the user and what kind of person they are. For example, the main character, Jotaro Kujo from Japan, has a Stand called Star Platinum. (All of the stands in this volume are named after Tarot cards and usually a color after their name.) Star Platinum is a ridiculous Aztec looking superman-like stand, with absurd speed and power, and an amazing ability to pick out small details with its highly focused vision and precision. It also gains a ridiculously powerful ability later in the series: It can stop time. Other stands include Heirophant Green, which shoots emerald-shaped blasts of energy and is actually able to uncoil all of its body as if you were to unwrap someone's intestines, and use itself as a rope or a web-like trap, each strand of its body able to shoot its patented "Emerald Splash." Most Stands look humanoid, but other Stands look like amorphous blobs, animals, or even inanimate objects, like a gun or a sword. Later in the series, after volume 3, Stands became even more and more ridiculous, and started picking up music references as names. Whitesnake is a Stand that removes another user's Stand and their soul in the shape of a CD, out of their head. Perl Jam is a microscopic stand that hides in food and then forces the person who eats them to become healthier in various disgusting ways, but all are beneficial. The Stand Metallica does damage through the iron in a person's blood, and the Stand Sticky Fingers can create a large zipper in anything and walk through, hiding in walls, street light poles, and even people. One of my favorites, Crazy Diamond has Star Platinum's strength, but is able to put anything it smashes back together again.
It would be pretty interesting to think up characters for such an absurd series. But then again, it might be a bit too weird for most people.
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FUKKATSU
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. Anyone interested in an AvP RP? It would be like the games, not the movie.
