A very outlandish show that has the most ridiculous settings, but somehow sets up the most epic fights and memorable moments as a series. This is a show with a watch order that has no frills no extras. Just pure, unadulterated testosterone action. No, no, we’re not talking about Baki.
Instead, that is what you should expect with a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure watch order. There is quite a span of timeline between at least the first three major series. But that is all. Oh, and the number of episodes is also kind of weird, since you technically could just skip the original series. But we think that would do a disservice to the first attempt at bringing it to the colored screen.
Because as much as we loved the Evangelion watch order for the handholding, the Gintama watch order for being timeline friendly, and KonoSuba watch order for its clear path, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a series you simply have to sit back, and enjoy the entirety of its absurdity.
Recommended watch order
We start at the beginning of a budding rivalry. Flashbacks are bound to appear here and there. But to our knowledge, the experience is pretty much straightforward. Watch it from the very first series that started in 2012, up to the latest season that was concluded. If you are coming from the very first series last 1993, we still highly recommend that you do a manual “reset”, and start watching the anime adaptation once again at the start of the 2012 version.
1. Chronological order
The default order to watch Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. As mentioned, there are no complications here. At least not within the main episodes (non-OVAs). Just start with the 2012 reboot, and you will eventually get to the latest adapted release.
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Phantom Blood, Episodes 1-9)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Battle Tendency: Episodes 10-26)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Stardust Crusaders Season 1: Episodes 1-24)
- Jojos Bizarre Adventure (Stardust Crusaders Season 2: Episodes 25-48)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Diamond is Unbreakable: All 39 Episodes)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Golden Wind: All 39 Episodes)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Stone Ocean Season 1? All 12 Episodes)
2. Release date order
Same listed series, but with labeled release years. This will also include the very first run, which is a 6-episode OVA series from 1993, and a subsequent 7-episode OVA series in 2000.
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (1993)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2000)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood (2012)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 2: Battle Tendency (2012)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders (2014)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable (2016)
- Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe (2018)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind (2019)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean (2021)
Plot of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
The initial focus of the story goes on the Joestar family, a rather aristocratic household who is somehow always destined to achieve greatness using special powers and taking on various foes if similar superhuman caliber.
The very first protagonist Jonathan Joestar, takes on his adoptive brother Dio Brando, who has been plotting various schemes to achieve and acquire things. This includes the Joestar fortune, of which he eventually formed a bitter enmity against the entire bloodline.
The second protagonist Joseph Joestar, continues his grandfather’s legacy, albeit with a bit too much of his personal flair for grandiosity. Nevertheless, he takes on the challenge of even crazier supernatural foes, although the odds are won more by brains instead of just brute strength.
The rest of the series follows other protagonists in their own adventures, following a very loose trail of legacy that the previous protagonists have left behind. Joseph, for example, would go on to be one of the main fighters in Stardust Crusaders, despite his grandson, Jotaro Joestar, as the main protagonist for that story. He even reappears in Diamond is Unbreakable, although at that point he is way too old be a significant player in the main story.
In a nutshell, the initial setting only with the events of the first few series. Characters drastically change as it gets further down the line, even if the overall shared universe remains the same.
Embrace the absurdity, take all the memes
Even if you are not familiar with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (yet), as an anime fan you most likely have already been exposed to a lot of its memes throughout the years. One good point of the series is that like Gintama, it has a perfect balance of taking itself very seriously, and being strangely lackadaisical in its efforts to make sense of the world. It is as wacky as it can get, but the interactions of the characters make every single moment very worthwhile. Plus one can never really get enough of them using their Stand abilities in either the most epic or weirdest (most innovative?) way possible.
Not exactly getting the hype of long generation arc anime series? Then you might want to check out our best short anime series list instead!
