Courtesy of the local library system, powerful knowledge:
Well, having read it, it is very much How To Draw Comics The Shonen Jump Way. (though Araki does acknowledge this and that it doesn't apply everywhere). Some of the more unexpected quotes: (there's a bunch of potentially useful advice in there as well, he's really keen on filling in a lot of background info on characters to make sure they're consistent, for example)
If you want to create manga, I hope that you will learn the royal road to manga and that you will pursue the golden way with awareness. The royal road to manga will lead you to creating works that will be beloved and thus passed down across the generations. Those who would be satisfied with a single, temporary hit -- even if they end up striking upon several successes -- will not truly understand the royal road to manga. As a word of advance warning: that attitude won't keep a mangaka going for long. Manga is not so lenient.
When an evil character freely exhibits those normally hidden desires and acts in a way the readers could not, the readers can find great catharsis. In the first story arc of Jojo, I always intended to make Dio look cool as he charged headlong down the villain's path, but I think it's due to that catharsis that some readers took to the character with incredible zeal.
This is mostly disturbing because Dio is The Worst and I find it hard to believe anyone thinks otherwise, but maybe?
Whether you're working in long form or short, when it comes to the story, the two ironclad rules are that you follow the ki-sho-ten-ketsu structure [introduction-development-twist-resolution] and that your protagonist is always rising.
. . .
In Stardust Crusaders, I changed up the battles by not having every opponent be strong, and instead used weaker adversaries on occasion. Because there's no thrill in an easy victory, I compensated for physical weakness by making them extra devious and frightening. The idea was to make these battles offer a different challenge than just might struggling against might. . . . By defeating a more varied roster of enemies, Jotaro and his allies grow mentally as well as physically.
. . .
So what about the pattern where the protagonist is on a positive trajectory, then hits a wall and loses, and takes a step back just once? I think this is also no good. ... The trope of a superhero deciding to quit is my least favorite story, and it's not limited to that movie [Kick-Ass 2] alone. For someone who is lucky enough to be a superhero to decide to quit is, in my opinion, a fatal negative turn. When a reader sees a character like that, they're only going to think "What, you're not going to do anything? We all know you're going to return for the end, so just hurry up and do it already."
Actually, that seems fair enough to me, even if it's only subconscious.
It Was All A Dream
This is my absolute least favorite literary device. "[The protagonist] was the criminal all along!" is in a similar vein. These resolutions only betray the reader, who has become deeply invested in the story and has been living it alongside the protagonist. "Was it all a dream?" is a question with only one response: "Give me back the part of my life I wasted on reading this."
If I suddenly walked into a desk, I'd probably say something like "Fucking hell!" or "What the hell is a desk doing here?". Those are the kinds of lines that would come natural to me if I were in that situation. I wouldn't say "I hope I didn't hurt that desk" or "Wow, that was something else". I'm often told that the dialogue in my manga is distinctive, but I'm only writing lines based on the way I actually think and talk in real life.
He talks a bunch about drawing style; two of the real-world things he says were important to him for inspiration for poses are: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne
and The Discobolus of Myron
which, yeah, I can see that.
[he recommends going places you're going to write about; in particular, he's talking about Steel Ball Run at this point]Without going there, it's impossible to comprehend the sense of scale in the midwestern United States, where the scenery stretches on forever and is unchanging. . . . Travel there is mostly done by car. When you drive across those vast plains, the scenery is mostly devoid of any ups and downs, and is dotted only by the occasional town with nothing to claim but chain stores, seemingly little to provide amusement aside from watching movies, and you hardly ever see anyone else about. Rather than inspire thoughts of enjoying nature, it felt empty and lifeless and made me wonder if there was any fun to living there at all.
and here's some notes from discussion with his editor about the starting of JoJolion -- which I haven't read yet myself, but which seems like the stands will be fascinating based on these notes, at least:
I've been playing Eyes of Heaven and whoops the second chapter of the story mode opens with just telling you how Golden Wind ends, so good thing I got to it now and not a few weeks earlier
I've been playing Eyes of Heaven and whoops the second chapter of the story mode opens with just telling you how Golden Wind ends, so good thing I got to it now and not a few weeks earlier
IIRC it'll spoil pretty much every part
Except for 8, which hasn't ended
0
Options
miscellaneousinsanitygrass grows, birds fly, sun shines,and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered Userregular
yeah i remember when All Star Battle came out and it was like welp hope you read the manga!!!!
I mean to be fair, those games are all like celebration cross-over events of all the Jojo's parts... so it shouldn't be surprising that they are filled to the brim with spoilers.
I think I like All-Star Battle a lot more than this, the weird arena fighter aspect doesn't work very well for me and the fighting just feels super clunky
The problem with translating JoJo into an actual game is that... I mean, JoJo plays so extremely loose with its rules, it's difficult to convey that into one specific genre. Like think of all the novel stupid bullshit ways they've defeated their antagonists in the various series, that seems like you'd have to come up with very specific gameplay bullshit for it to really feel like JoJo.
I like Eyes Of Heaven but it is just straight up stand fights, which aren't the most super interesting part of JoJo to me! When am I gonna get a QTE where (part 3 spoilers)
Star Platinum has to stop Jotaro's heart from beating so Dio thinks he killed him
Character deck game with an abstract life meter that doesn’t necessarily represent physical health, but whatever is important for the current fight. The enemy Stand user has a special card that denotes the rules of the fight. For example, Kakyoin’s would designate a life bar for the nurse, and have her HP tick down over time; you lose if you or she dies. D’Arby’s would necessitate that all players throw out any Attack cards for the fight, and describe the rules of the gamble. Players and the enemy take turns using action cards they drew to perform attacks or tricks with their stands. Jotaro’s deck would have a bunch of Punch cards, but also a few copies of Star Finger, Bluff*, and Grapple. Evasion would probably be a major stat, and you’d roll a die with modifiers based on that for any direct attack.
Yeah, this could work. And iou could expand the game with new boss decks.
*actually, Jotaro would have quite a few Bluffs. He fools a LOT of Stand users.
+1
Options
miscellaneousinsanitygrass grows, birds fly, sun shines,and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered Userregular
Killer Queen: Bites The Dust: continuous trap. When damage is inflicted to you by an opponent’s monster, destroy it, and also destroy any copies in your opponent’s hand or deck. Banish this card from the graveyard to set your life points to 8000 and draw one “killer Queen” card from your deck.
If cowardly and non combative shits like Alessei, the two brothers and Steely Dan can have manefestations of their fighting spirit why is Holly punished for being a housewife?
Oingo and Boingo are cowards, but they’ll cut your shit. Tobin is a super nice guy, but he’ll bash you with a block of soap for not cleaning up. Holly apparently doesn’t have a violent bone in her body. She’s too nice.
If cowardly and non combative shits like Alessei, the two brothers and Steely Dan can have manefestations of their fighting spirit why is Holly punished for being a housewife?
there's a rat in part 4 that has a stand
actually, there's kind of a lot of animals with stands in the series now that I think of it?
Holly's situation is extremely dumb and probably mostly an artifact of being from way back before he'd nailed down what stands actually were
The problem with translating JoJo into an actual game is that... I mean, JoJo plays so extremely loose with its rules, it's difficult to convey that into one specific genre. Like think of all the novel stupid bullshit ways they've defeated their antagonists in the various series, that seems like you'd have to come up with very specific gameplay bullshit for it to really feel like JoJo.
I like Eyes Of Heaven but it is just straight up stand fights, which aren't the most super interesting part of JoJo to me! When am I gonna get a QTE where (part 3 spoilers)
Star Platinum has to stop Jotaro's heart from beating so Dio thinks he killed him
I feel like what you'd want would be either a visual novel or, like, a Telltale/Quantic Dream/Asura's Wrath movie-with-QTEs thing. Maybe a combination of both, I dunno.
Although different parts probably warrant different mechanics. You could get away with a typical third-person brawler for Part 1 and perhaps Part 2, for instance, since the protagonists don't have that much going on.
Excuse me, her will isn't strong enough to... handle the Stand powers. Or something.
Yeah it's like... why did Josuke get to keep his stand? Or another question would be if killing DIO got rid of holly's stand this logically shouldn't it have followed that it have gotten rid of all of the Joestar's stands since they only got them to begin with via their connection to DIO.
I get that they wanted to have a motivator that none of their Stands or Joseph's Hamon could cure, that seemed to have a time limit, and that involved somebody that a punk like Jotaro would care about.
But it definitely smacks of "we really haven't thought this all the way through", just like a whole bunch of powers that were shown and discarded early in every part with stands part 3.
Posts
look at me for example!
hyuk hyuk hyuk
Everyone in part 5 is horny.
Well, having read it, it is very much How To Draw Comics The Shonen Jump Way. (though Araki does acknowledge this and that it doesn't apply everywhere). Some of the more unexpected quotes: (there's a bunch of potentially useful advice in there as well, he's really keen on filling in a lot of background info on characters to make sure they're consistent, for example)
This is mostly disturbing because Dio is The Worst and I find it hard to believe anyone thinks otherwise, but maybe?
Actually, that seems fair enough to me, even if it's only subconscious.
He talks a bunch about drawing style; two of the real-world things he says were important to him for inspiration for poses are:
Bernini's Apollo and Daphne
and The Discobolus of Myron
which, yeah, I can see that.
and here's some notes from discussion with his editor about the starting of JoJolion -- which I haven't read yet myself, but which seems like the stands will be fascinating based on these notes, at least:
IIRC it'll spoil pretty much every part
Except for 8, which hasn't ended
I like Eyes Of Heaven but it is just straight up stand fights, which aren't the most super interesting part of JoJo to me! When am I gonna get a QTE where (part 3 spoilers)
No a tabletop roleplaying game.
That has to already exist right?
The random enemy grinding is a bit annoying, though.
A tabletop character-deck card game would be neat. Note to self; make Jojo custom deck for Red Dragon Inn.
Yeah, this could work. And iou could expand the game with new boss decks.
*actually, Jotaro would have quite a few Bluffs. He fools a LOT of Stand users.
ftfy
I actually meant for you to attack me with your enormous dragon, JoJo
Calvinball.
and it's not like they haven't fought with baseball playing ghosts before, either
Excuse me, her will isn't strong enough to... handle the Stand powers. Or something.
i looked pretty hard a while ago and couldn't find one
which is why i'm currently editing and comissioning illustrations for an 80+ page PbtA jojo game me and a friend wrote
http://www.audioentropy.com/
there's a rat in part 4 that has a stand
actually, there's kind of a lot of animals with stands in the series now that I think of it?
Holly's situation is extremely dumb and probably mostly an artifact of being from way back before he'd nailed down what stands actually were
I feel like what you'd want would be either a visual novel or, like, a Telltale/Quantic Dream/Asura's Wrath movie-with-QTEs thing. Maybe a combination of both, I dunno.
Although different parts probably warrant different mechanics. You could get away with a typical third-person brawler for Part 1 and perhaps Part 2, for instance, since the protagonists don't have that much going on.
Yeah it's like... why did Josuke get to keep his stand? Or another question would be if killing DIO got rid of holly's stand this logically shouldn't it have followed that it have gotten rid of all of the Joestar's stands since they only got them to begin with via their connection to DIO.
But it definitely smacks of "we really haven't thought this all the way through", just like a whole bunch of powers that were shown and discarded early in every part with stands part 3.
I do not. You could call it Ki or Energy or Spirit and nothing would be lost.
Oh thank god I'm not the only one
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
PSN: Robo_Wizard1