character who;s doomed form the start but not because of tragedy or anything but because they're a woman and their writer is a misogynist

Jonathan saw Dio as his brother and nothing but that, cared for him as strictly platonically as any other member of the joestar family; however Dio did not reciprocate that at ALL. It's an uncomfortable topic to broach, but if he is not the textbook example of "anime villain with a weird homoerotic obsession with the protagonist" I don't know who is. He didn't spout all that shit about intertwining their souls and literally stealing Jonathan's entire body or whateva for people to not acknowledge this.

These concepts can coexist.

Yes this is weird and immoral. Dio is weird and bad for thinking that way, he is a villain and he does weird evil things.

Acknowledging it doesn't make you weird or wrong, it just means you have eyes and can see. it doesn't mean you condone it or support it, it just means you understand nuance in media. in ANY media, not just jojo or anime in general or anything.

happy women's day here's jolyne 🦋💚✨

DIO BRANDO JOJO BIZARRE’S ADVENTURES STONE OCEAN

when the gag manga gives more info on their relationship than actual canon 

the ken/lin thing was the fucking worst. it’s not even like ken had romantic feelings for lin (which thank god) and even lin’s feelings toward ken weren’t all that deep; at most a crush which fine I guess (reluctant). it was more like ppl around them thought they should get together. and I dont even think her and bat should have gotten together esp with the whole ‘kaioh pressed her pressure point which causes her to fall in love with the first man she sees’ (which is a fucking weird pressure point to have but you know 🙄). it was a mess 

I'm dying

Death by Glamour

Y’all thought that you have seen the last of these, didn’t you? Fortunately, Fist of the North Star is an infinite source of inspiration and thus we decided to revive this project and provide you a brand new set of stickers. Embrace sophistication of epic moments featured in them and use them as you see fit – imagination is the only limit!

Hokuto no Ken SEGA MARK III (1986)

シバとシュウ

Toh says to Raoh, "Seems to me that you see your mother in Yuria-sama. ... A woman's true image is maternal. The image of a mother and the last general of the South Star Six Sacred Fists, Yuria-sama's star represents care, love, maternal figure, and merciful mother. You grew up without a mother during your youth so you expect that motherly figure from Yuria-sama."

I'm currently making the same face Raoh is.

The downside to the antiquated treatment of women in this series is that I feel like some things become missed opportunities for added drama and tension. Like whether Yuria fights back or not, Raoh is still a definite threat to her, but I feel like by taking the track of "Yuria's star is maternal, caring, etc..." and forgetting part of "maternal" can be a side that will fight fiercely to protect others, there's kind of like this resignation to the scene. Of course Yuria can do nothing. Of course she doesn't even try to do anything. There is no fight to her. And while that's kind of sad and kind of disappointing (though I wouldn't expect her to win against Raoh but it'd be nice to see her at least try to fight the fate of the situation), it does make me glad that shounen is moving on from stuff like this slowly but surely.

I mean I know I know I know cultural differences and Japan's always being the USA in terms of stuff like this (I mean they can't even allow women to wear flats to the office and it's 2021 ffs), so given that the franchise is pushing 40 it makes sense things like this happen, but still a bummer time and time again especially the more I can anticipate the general direction such moments might go when they occur.

Finished Fist of the North Star tonight. There was a lot to like about it. It was a well-crafted dark fantasy with compelling characters and period-typical melodrama that I enjoy because I’m an 80’s baby so this is the kind of nonsense I grew up with. I also liked how while each fight had time to play out, it didn’t overtake the narrative like some fights in Dragon Ball can.

Another interesting aspect was the obvious influence it’s had on series that followed it and which aspects of it other mangaka decided to retain. Like how Goku has the drama of a powerful, warring older brother. Or like the aesthetic choices of landscapes in Dragon Ball or burly fighters in early Jojo. Or even some aspects that have since been rejected like the lack of women who also fight.

There were some downsides and a lot of them boiled down to the time period it was written in and the age of the writer himself (though it did surprise me he was born in the late 40’s because I’d have thought he’d have been a bit older, but maybe that’s the influence of the Jump editing staff). There are a lot of antiquated notions of what makes a man a man and what women are. Yuria is elevated as kind of a virginal mother figure and it’s just so weird how a mother’s instinct to protect at all costs just gets thrown away. It’s one of those stories in which you kind of wonder if the creators have ever like seen women as people, though in some ways I get it because women are used as a way to offset the main fighting men, which again is part of that kind of antiquated dichotomy of what makes someone masculine or feminine. There’s also quite a bit of racism in the use of brown skin tones not just with enemies in general (be it skin tone or caricature) but especially with Raoh and Kaioh whose skin begins lighter and darkens as their hearts give into darker emotions, which seems to be a recurring theme with occasional exception.

Like Jojo, it’s a hodgepodge of what did which character look like when, oh this sounds good let’s do that now, and a lot of twists that keep things interesting as long as you don’t like remember some of the previous backstory at times. That’s not too much of a detractor though.

Overall, I did like it and I had fun watching it even at times I was like “Are you serious?” Definitely will eventually watch the movies when given a chance.