Thursday 29 November 2012

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 08 – Blood Match! JoJo & Dio!


The final battle between JoJo and Dio begins but first they must save Poco's sister, fight some of Dio's zombie minions before JoJo faces the man whom he grew up with.


But before talking about the final battle between JoJo and Dio, we have this scene featuring Dio and Poco's sister where we see that her courage and that she is not afraid to slap a vampire. We also saw more of Dio's ruthlessness that he doesn't care if he kicks his man-cat hybrid pet because he is just being too disrespectful towards a girl. Well at least his beating to the pet makes sense. Now comes the fun part in the exchange, JoJo leaves her with one of her zombies and thankfully, JoJo comes to rescue her!

The fight between the zombie and JoJo is short, which is expected because he is just named foot soldier A and that the running time for this episode is more focus on the final battle between JoJo and Dio. One thing to note about the fight between the zombie and JoJo is that JoJo has better control of his blood that is why he can just release the poison out of his body easily. Another thing to note is how Dire, Straits and Tompeti are too confident with JoJo's skill even if it's their first time seeing the two. As for Speedwagon and Poco, they are panicking on how JoJo can escape from this predicament!


JoJo finally defeats the zombie by using his own Ripple against them and finally, he enters the deeper part of the castle and face Dio one-on-one but first, Dire must have revenge on the man who is indirectly responsible to the death of his friend, Zeppeli. Aside from the amazing animation quality of the fight, Dire's attacks are useless against Dio who just freezes his legs, disabling his ability to flow Ripple in his legs. At the end, Dio crushed his body and only his head remain but before he died, his head (!) spit a rose filled with his remaining Ripple energy on Dio's eye!

This move gave JoJo the idea to flow his Ripple on the sword given to him by Bruford and with that he plans to defeat Dio with it. While they are busy fighting, Straits, Tompeti and if he can, Speedwagon fights the zombies that are running amok! Straits is just one good Ripple user as he easily defeated four zombie who introduced themselves (!) before Straits can step on them and destroy them completely. As for Tompeti, he is that confident master who easily protected Poco and her sister with ease. As for Speedwagon... well, he is doing his best.


Here comes the highlight of this episode, the fight between JoJo and Dio. All I can say is the fight is really amazing. It is amazing because it is hard to tell who will win at the end. Both are equally great fighters in their own right and the only way to determine who wins at the end is their own will to win at the end. Granted, JoJo sucks in using the sword given to him by Bruford, at least he made an effort to land a couple of blows on Dio's body. For starters, he cut one of Dio's arms and second, he cut Dio's body in half! But nope, Dio didn't surrender even though his body is cut in half as he freezes JoJo's sword and arms! Dio used this opportunity to try and turn JoJo into a zombie but since this is Dio we are talking about, he wants to have more fun in making JoJo suffer by playing with one of his veins.

Now comes the fun part in this episode, the sword is close to one of the torches found in Dio's castle and he use that torch to defrost his sword and his arm at the same time! Guess luck is indeed on his side during that moment! Now that his hands are free, he punches Dio's face! But nope, JoJo's attack is ineffective as it only freeze JoJo's hand. If there is one thing that is memorable in this scene aside from Speedwagon's reaction is Dio fixing his cleanly cut face. Thankfully, they retained it in the anime because I was amazed the first time I saw that scene in the manga.


Here comes the part where we saw JoJo's adaptability in combat, because touching Dio's face can freeze anything it touches, JoJo decides to burn his glove, apply some Ripple and punch Dio with it! It's ridiculous but at least this move works! Because it works, it slowly disintegrated Dio's body but before he fades away into oblivion he did something a bit unexpected and that is, shoots an energy fluid beam from his eyes. To be honest, I find this move of his a bit futile, it's useless, useless, useless, especially if he is about to die and fall from a cliff.

At the end, JoJo wins and is exhausting because he fights the entire night, lost some friends along the way and gained some friends while we are at it. JoJo also cried after losing Dio because hey, he grow up with the guy and while we are at it, the two has some fun memories together even though Dio is just faking his friendship with JoJo. One final note in the episode, Speedwagon added the intensity and the much needed flavor of the final battle between JoJo and Dio. He is a great friend and at the same time, a great commentator. After Dio's death, what's next for JoJo and his friends?