The JoJoLands explained

Type:	manga
Author:	Hirohiko Araki
Publisher:	Shueisha
Imprint:	Jump Comics
Magazine:	Ultra Jump
First:	February 17, 2023
Volumes:	4

Chronology
Content:	Preceded by: JoJolion

The JoJoLands (stylized as The JOJOLands) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, and the ninth part of the larger JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, as part of the rebooted continuity depicted in Steel Ball Run (2004–2011) and JoJolion (2011–2021). Set in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the early 2020s, it follows Jodio Joestar, a teenage gangster intent on becoming wealthy in the tropics. It is serialized by Shueisha in the manga magazine Ultra Jump since February 17, 2023.

Plot

Jodio Joestar is a high schooler and gofer living with his family on Oahu, Hawaii. One day, his school principal and boss Meryl Mei Qi instructs Jodio, his older brother Dragona, and their kleptomaniac classmate Paco Laburantes to perform a heist alongside suspicious client Usagi Alohaoe.^[1]

The four arrive to Big Island to steal an expensive blue diamond from Japanese manga artist Rohan Kishibe and discover a lava rock that can attract anything of value that its holder touches. Jodio incapacitates Rohan and convinces him to let the team leave with both the diamond and the lava rock. After getting into a fight with a trio of cats and their owner Charming Man, Paco suggests offering a spot on the team to the latter and the gang return to Oahu without further incident. Charming, who wanted the lava rock to investigate his brother's disappearance at Hualālai, warns Jodio of the potential consequences of using the rock solely to pursue riches.

As the team of five explains the lava rock to Meryl Mei, Charming mentions his inability to investigate his brother's disappearance on his own due to the location of his brother's disappearance being private property. Meryl Mei notes that the property in question belongs to the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure company Howler, owned by its CEO Acca Howler, and suggests that the group use the lava rock to gain control of the company and their profits. The five are ordered to visit the Hawaii State Land Registry Office to obtain Howler's deeds with the help of an unassuming office employee. Howler agents Lulu and Bobby Jean arrive shortly after upon being notified that the deeds were being accessed.

Usagi, Charming, and Dragona fall ill after leaving the building, and the office employee is rushed out by paramedics soon after. Jodio concludes the attack is via an automatic Stand owned by Lulu and the gang arrive to the hospital in an attempt to save Usagi's life. Arriving to the ICU wing, the gang encounter the now-incapacitated employee and her father, a congressman currently investigating Howler, tearfully debating on signing the order to seize the land on Hualālai. While distracted by his daughter flatlining, Dragona manipulates the congressman's tablet to complete the order and the land is immediately taken while Acca returns from a trip to Hokkaido. The order causes Howler's lender Dolphin Bank to confiscate the company's remaining properties and Acca speculates the events that occurred are related to the lava rock. Shortly after arriving to the hospital, Lulu receives secret orders from Acca to retrieve the rock and she then orders Bobby Jean to kill the gang.

Characters

• Jodio Joestar is a 15-year-old gangster living with his family on Oahu, Hawaii, where he acts as a gofer for the state's underground drug trade. Despite his popularity among his peers, Jodio finds it difficult to be truly happy and is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder by his school's psychotherapist. He doesn't intend to make friends, and his goal is to become incredibly rich by all means. Using his Stand, November Rain, he can generate raindrops and freely manipulate their weight.
• Dragona Joestar is Jodio's 18-year-old brother who works with him in the underground drug trade. Dragona is biologically male but presents feminine, having breast implants and wearing women's clothing. They work at Iko Iko, a fashion boutique run by their boss Meryl Mei Qi. Dragona wields the Stand Smooth Operators, a group of small robots that have the ability to displace anything, and slide things along the surfaces they are attached to. It can also apply to severe wounds.
• Paco Laburantes is a 19-year-old classmate of Jodio's and former military personnel. He comes from an abusive household, having one of his ears partially bitten off by his father, and engages in theft as if it were a sport. He is considered the de facto leader of the gang and is rather fond of Jodio and Dragona. Using his Stand, The Hustle, he has expert control over his own musculature, but also those of others; he can bulge and vibrate his muscles along with those of anyone he touches, aiding him in both sleights of hand and combat.
• Usagi Alohaoe is a 17-year-old classmate of Jodio's and takes part in the heist under Meryl Mei Qi's request. A frequent customer for drugs, the rest of the gang see him as a hinderance and an addict. Despite this, he attempts to be helpful and friendly towards each member at every opportunity. Usagi wields the Stand The Mattekudasai, which can take the form of another object upon the request of anyone besides himself.
• Charming Man is a 21-year-old resident of Big Island and new ally of Jodio. Believing there is a connection between the lava rock and his missing brother Mauka, Charming Man initially pursues the gang to find answers about his brother's disappearance. He is the owner of Wild Cat Size, a trio of cats that can manifest wire strings from their fur that latch on to anything near them and constrict themselves until they crush the trapped thing, via their Stand Cat Size. His own Stand, Bigmouth Strikes Again, gives him the ability to transform his body into sand fragments that not only disguise himself but also manipulate people's perception of depth. He can also blend in the scenery and create false images using the sand fragments.
• Meryl Mei Qi is the principal of Jodio's school and owner of fashion boutique Iko Iko. Using the boutique as a front for her criminal business, she acts as the gang's boss and has networks in places such as the airport and police. She instructs the gang to perform a heist on Big Island and requests they take Usagi Alohaoe with them. Following the group's return, she decides to have them take control of the Howler company using the lava rock.
• Barbara Ann Joestar is the daughter of Joseph Joestar from JoJolion and the mother of Jodio and Dragona Joestar. Everyone in the neighborhood respects and assists her due to her sons' reputation in crime. After her husband abandons the family, Barbara Ann is forced to raise Jodio and Dragona alone, leading the brothers to become involved in criminal activities for her sake without her knowledge.
• Rohan Kishibe is a successful Japanese manga artist visiting Big Island. Under the pretense of a 15-day vacation, Rohan conducts experiments using the wealth-attracting properties of certain lava rocks. Jodio and his gang's first task in the story is to steal a diamond from his villa. Like in Diamond Is Unbreakable and Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, Rohan wields the Stand Heaven's Door, which allows him to temporarily turn living beings into books that he can freely read or write commands into.
• Howler Company is an infrastructure development company in Honolulu that own several areas of land all across Hawaii. Though they claim to be a nature conservational, it is believed that the company is involved in money laundering, yet no proof of this has publicly come up due to employing Stand users to get rid of those investigate too deeply into the company. Meryl Mei send Jodio’s group to get ahold of the company’s land deeds in order to steal the company’s land properties, including an area of Mount Hualalai where the mysterious Lava Rocks come from.
  • Acca Howler is the head of the Howler Company, responsible for control of water resource-based lands across Hawaii. Wealthy and arrogant, he indulges in his luxuries and enjoys showing off his vast wealth and power, even admitting his own actions are considered villainous. As a child, he found a Lava Rock that suddenly changed his flow of money. Years later, he founded the Howler Company in Honolulu after receiving a 38 billion dollar loan from Dolphin Bank, with the remaining 20 billion being used to acquire other areas on Oahu, as well as a lease for a private jet for tax purposes. He is a Stand user, and the Stand and its abilities are currently unknown.
  • Lulu is a demanding yet intelligent young girl affiliated with the Howler Company under Acca Howler’s orders. She, and another worker, Bobby Jean, are assigned to get rid of Jodio’s gang when they attempt to get the deeds to the company and its land. Her Stand is Bags Groove, a group of microscopic bug-like humanoid creatures that can inflict lesions and other symptoms such as rashes, pulmonary edema and tumors onto victims who interfere in the company’s activities.
  • Bobby Jean is a investigative agent for the Howler Company, tracking down Jodio’s group after they viewed the company’s land deeds. As a respectable member of the company, he is straight-forwardly secretive; able to pressure a Land Registry Office guard with bribes, but is constantly bossed by his partner Lulu, who has higher authority over him to the point of concealing knowledge of the Lava Rock from him. With his Stand, Glory Days, he can control the movement and speed of the bullets he shoots from his FN FNX-45 Tactical semi-automatic pistol, equipped with a silencer.

Production and release

The JoJoLands is written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was announced in August 2021 following the conclusion of JoJolion, the previous part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,^{[2] [3]} and began serialization in Shueisha's monthly manga magazine Ultra Jump on February 17, 2023.^[4]

Volumes

The first chapter title of each pair is the title used in the collected volumes. The second is the title used in the original serialization in Ultra Jump.

Chapters not in tankōbon format

The following chapters have not yet been released in collected volumes:

• 17.
• 18.

Reception

Interest in the series' launch was enough to prompt a second printing of its debut issue of Ultra Jump – only the fourth time this had happened in Ultra Jump history, and the first time in eleven years.^[5] The first tankōbon volume debuted at the top of Oricon's weekly Japanese sales charts for print comics,^[6] and was reported by Comic Natalie to have been the week's highest and fourth-highest selling comic at the bookstores Tsutaya and Comic Zin, respectively.^[7] The second volume was Shueisha's eleventh highest first print run manga volume of 2023–2024 (period from April 2023–March 2024), with 350,000 copies printed.^[8]

It ranked fifteenth, along with The Ramparts of Ice, on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2024 for male readers.^[9]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Harding . Daryl . February 16, 2023 . JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Manga Names Part 9 Protagonist Jodio Joestar . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230218114342/https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2023/02/16-1/jojos-bizarre-adventure-manga-names-part-9-protagonist-jodio-joestar . 2023-02-18 . 2023-02-19 . Crunchyroll.
2. Web site: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Series Teases JoJoLands Title, Announces 1st Spinoff Manga. August 18, 2021. Mateo, Alex. 2021-08-18. Anime News Network. https://web.archive.org/web/20210818155230/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-08-18/jojo-bizarre-adventure-series-teases-jojolands-title-announces-1st-spinoff-manga/.176402. 2021-08-18. live.
3. Web site: Valentine. Evan. August 18, 2021. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Confirms Part 9, JoJo Lands. 2023-02-18. ComicBook.com. 2022-12-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20221226025613/https://comicbook.com/anime/news/jojos-bizarre-adventure-part-9-jojo-lands-confirmed/. live.
4. Web site: Valentine. Evan. February 16, 2023. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JoJoLands Launches Chapter 1. 2023-02-18. ComicBook.com. 2023-02-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20230217073809/https://comicbook.com/anime/news/the-jojolands-chapter-one-where-to-read/. live.
5. Web site: Ultra Jump Gets 1st Reprint in 11 Years Due to New The JoJoLands Manga. Pineda, Rafael Antonio. 2023-02-27. Anime News Network. 2023-02-27. 2023-02-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20230227155348/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-02-27/ultra-jump-gets-1st-reprint-in-11-years-due-to-new-the-jojolands-manga/.195360. live.
6. Web site: https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/obc/w/2023-08-28/. ja:オリコン週間 コミックランキング 2023年08月14日～2023年08月20日. ja. 2023-08-28. Oricon. 2023-08-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20230825082048/https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/obc/w/2023-08-28/. 2023-08-25. dead.
7. Web site: https://natalie.mu/comic/news/537838. ja:【8月14日～8月20日】週間単行本売り上げランキング. ja. 2023-08-22. Comic Natalie. Natasha, Inc.. 2023-08-26. August 23, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230823091040/https://natalie.mu/comic/news/537838. live.
8. Web site: Hodgkins. Crystalyn. Manga With Biggest 1st Printings from Kodansha, Shogakukan, Shueisha: 2023–2024. Anime News Network. April 7, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240407173159/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2024-04-07/manga-with-biggest-1st-printings-from-kodansha-shogakukan-shueisha-2023-2024/.209605. April 7, 2024. April 7, 2024. live.
9. Web site: Pineda. Rafael. Cayanan. Joanna. Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Editors Unveil 2024 Rankings (Updated). Anime News Network. December 11, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20231213100334/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-12-11/kono-manga-ga-sugoi-editors-unveil-2024-rankings/.205367. December 13, 2023. December 13, 2023. live.