Just like last year, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure held a talk session during the Anime Expo 2017 convention in Los Angeles on 1 July 2017! The manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure starts with the story of Jonathan Joestar and his fight against his rival Dio but continues to tell the story of the next generation of Joestars and their fights. The series has sold more than 100 million copies and is Hirohiko Araki’s most popular work. This year, Hisashi Sasaki, former editor at Weekly Shonen Jump for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in 1992-1993, was invited as a guest to answer questions from fans.
The talk event started with the guest coming on stage with the sound of ‘Ora ora ora’ of Jotaro Kujo’s stand Star Platinum. The audience joined in, chanting ‘Ora ora ora’ and making the whole venue become one. A video message of original author Hirohiko Araki then started playing. He talked about how thankful he is that he has been able to write this story for 30 years already and that the book ‘Hirohiko Araki’s Manga Art’, which was released in Japan last year, would also be released in North America. He then told the audience a few things about the book.
Next was the Q&A corner with Hisashi Sasaki. Before the event, fans could send in their questions via Twitter and other social media platforms. One of them was ‘As a manga editor, if you could use one stand, which would it be?’ to which he answered, ‘That must be Star Platinum. The ability The World, where you can stop time would come in handy to extend deadlines. However, for Araki I didn’t need The World as Araki is a very fast worker.”
Just when one thought he was expressing a certain admiration toward Araki’s work, he was asked ‘Which character would you think you are from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures?’ to which he answered, ‘Well, I am not Dio. I am not as bad as he is.’ The venue laughed at that and the whole event went on with this kind of relaxed atmosphere.
After the talk session, Sasaki left the stage and the anime part began. For this segment, the English voice of Joseph Joestar in Diamond is Unbreakable, Benjamin Diskin, came on stage, as well as some staff from VIZ MEDIA, to share with the audience some of their memories from the recording and talk about the production in general. They also announced the English cast for Iggy and other things.
At the end of this talk segment, they let a few fans compete in a ‘Jojo Standing contest’, where they had to strike poses for certain characters. Three members of VIZ MEDIA were the judges and chose ‘Star Platinum’, ‘Dio’, and ‘Kars’. All of them were presented with a Blu-ray set and a poster signed by director Naokatsu Tsuda.
At this point, a surprise guest appeared. Patrick Seitz, the voice of Dio in the first season, jumped on stage. He made the fans happy by striking a Dio pose, dancing, and saying some of Dio’s most famous lines. Furthermore, he announced that the second JoJo series, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders, would start airing in the Adult Swim block on 29 July 2017. The fans who were waiting for the anime for a long time answered with applause.
Can you already smell the sea? Can you feel the sun on your skin? Have you already had your first slice of watermelon? Well, the only certain thing is that the summer anime season is coming this July!
