JoJo's Bizarre Adventure The ANIMATION - 04

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Now if only all senseis in shonen battle series could be as cool as this new guy!

I've already stated on a number of occasions how much I love JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for being old school and feeling like a satirical piece that mocks several shonen battle series that exist nowadays. Instead of bringing this up again - what you read just now doesn't count - I'd thought we'd talk about how the episode is refreshing in other ways.

After the beginning, which can only be described as something out a classic romantic novel with added commentary of Speedwagon (which I still love), we're introduced to JoJo's sensei. Now if you're an avid fan of shonen manga or anime, you'll know that in an adventure/action series there will always be a sensei. The sensei's purpose to guide their pupil to a level of higher understanding, strength and essentially sole.

By today's standards William Antonio Zeppeli is far from the perfect sensei, but he's definitely the coolest. When was the last time that we saw a flamboyant character this manly with all that swag Answer: never. Zeppeli as a character pretty much embodies why I love the series and his over-the-top personality just makes me smile. Hard to believe that as a sensei he would do all of this but that doesn't actually matter.

Unlike the norm, the training episode didn't focus all that much on the training. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has never been a series that believes in the importance of training to power up and instead embraces the old school and often ignorant approach of learning in real life situations. Ordinarily something like this would make me wonder about the series' quality, although in my case, with all those memories of training arcs still fresh in my mind, I was happy to embrace it for it was.

The animation actually took a leap with all that ripple we saw in the episode. I wasn't really expecting that since I'm used to and loving the current style but it was a nice touch. For all of you wondering if a better explanation for what Ripple energy is exists, it actually doesn't. If you don't believe me, ask any one and they'll tell you that lack of detailed explanations is a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure trademark.

Funnily enough, this quick resolution of the battle also invoked another trademark of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: the quick battle. It may seem like it was a little redundant for us to be introduced to Jack the Ripper or for Dio to go through the trouble of recruiting him and to that all I can say is, "That's just the series' style." Jack the Ripper's appearance may have come off as a cameo gone wrong yet it still works because its strange and I don't have to remind people that this is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and not JoJo's Plain Adventure.

The story is progressing as is my enjoyment.