Nov 11, 2022
Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak is by far the most solid jojo spin-off that has released to date, it's got the same style as Purple Haze Feedback does, where it feels like you're just getting jojo if Araki wasn't being a menace to strangeness at every chance he gets. As would be expected, since Kouhei Kadano is back as the lead writer.
And honestly, it turns out it's not far off from something you'd see in jojo itself, with its approach being really creative, as it attempts to mix the sort of fights you could see in parts 3-6 with the rhythm and phasing of the storytelling
...
in Part 7 and 8, honestly, I believe their "attempt" was extremely successful!
So that's for you all who are asking about how this compares to actual jojo; It's a more grounded version of jojo, led by a writer who tried their best to match the style and personality of jojo but doesn't quite get there only because the style it's mimicking derives a lot from the author's personality.
Now onto the actual manga, besides comparisons (tho I will mention things about the callbacks they make to part 3/4).
The story is fairly simple, the surviving members of Dio's henchmen, several years after the events of part 3, take up the job of finding a parrot that was trained alongside Dio's very own Pet Shop. As it turns out, not only does the parrot have a stand capable of creating extremely realistic illusions, but it's also residing in part 4's Morioh, leading to an unlikely team up between Josuke Higashikata and Hol Horse. And for how basic it seems, just putting together two characters that Araki himself wished to write more about, the result ends up being a really cool dynamic between the two.
The story isn't really that crazy, and it doesn't have a lot of plot points, but that's something which definitely works on its favor; They focus on the character interactions rather than some complex stand dynamics. The fights are absolutely solid in giving a tactical yet fun experience, with the character abilities being used in many creative ways, so it's interesting. But I must say the plot and fights are somewhat predictable, particularly because they are straightforward. It seems like the quaint duration of the chapters and overall manga is leading to some things being far too simplified, perhaps so in favor of the fan service.
On that note, a positive and negative thing about this comic is that it sorta expects you to be familiar with jojo and the characters, so new audiences might have trouble really understanding what's going on, while, on the flip side, old audiences don't have to get through redundant explanations. They do explain stands, there was an attempt, but they give you the most bare-bones explanations, and that's fine for what it is, to be fair.
The characters all really shine though, they avoided this sense of "the jojo part team" by having the characters be strangers with the same goal, it leads to unique interactions and drama being created. The new set of characters created exclusively for this comic are incredibly interesting, such as Ryoko Kakyoin, who is, in fact, good ol' Kakyoin's cousin. She's totally a highlight character in this comic, not only is she SUPER fun to read, but she's also filling in that void that has been filled for all the other part 3 character's, by showing their legacy and futures somewhat. I absolutely adore her design to boot. She's trying to figure out what the heck happened to kakyoin, and I think they have done an amazing job at making this a mystery, even when part 3 writers/viewers already know what it was about.
The focus here is not kakyoin, but rather, Dio. Dio is an important part of this manga, as the old members from his team live in perpetual fear of him, even if they are aware of his death. This built a fascinating approach to revisiting these characters, some feeling remorse over their own weakness when confronted by him, others feeling regret at how following Dio turned out. So the characters are really cool, they are just like you might remember them, but with a few new traits to highlight how 12 years have passed.
There's a few minor part 4 characters here that didn't get enough time in part 4, so it's nice to see the writer being mindful of those characters and details.
Tasuku Karasuma of No Guns Life fame is the illustrator for this comic, and while the images he's drawing for Demonic Heartbreak aren't as impressive as his work on his own comics, I think he did a fantastic job overall though, the fusion between his own style and the jojo style was really pinpointed, and some panels and scenes look more than amazing. The way the environments and characters are drawn is incredibly detailed and precise, oftentimes capturing the essence of the scene and characters perfectly.
I particularly enjoyed that the panels are made with some cinematography in mind, giving the readers some unique pieces. I like that the panels help make it all easy to follow by not jumping too broadly, but the lack of movement dynamics do affect the fluidity of the manga. Besides some occasionally misplaced bubbles, there are no mayor mistakes.
It's just gorgeous to look at in general, the artist gets to shine through while giving us a different way to look at the jojo art style.
So yeah, of all the jojo spinoffs, I'd recommend this one, partially for having an overarching plot, partially because it feels genuine to the source material. I would not be surprised if people started taking this as potentially cannon, it's that clean.
I love the fan service, we really are getting more content on stuff we've always wanted to see, and the writer being a clear fan of jojo can help make this a memorable experience.
TLDR: No Kars in the moon so far, so I'd say give it a go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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