JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Over Heaven

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As with any of my light novel reviews of this series, I will begin with a location to read the English localization for yourself, given that at the time of writing this there is no official translation that can be purchased.
https://archive.org/details/manga_Jojos_Bizarre_Adventure_Over_Heaven

Also, it should be noted that there was somewhat of a pause for my reading of this book, as I began reading it as I would retread my way through the Stardust Crusaders manga (I had already seen the anime in its entirety), I discovered that a significant portion of this book is in reference to plot regarding as well as the main antagonist ... of Part 6: Stone Ocean. Therefore, I would recommend (from experience) reading this as side-material after having already progressed through the entirety of the main Jojo canon, Parts 1-6.

As for the plot, it was nothing mind-blowing, but an interesting read. It is in a diary format, in very many short, digestible chapters. It is from the perspective of Dio who is using the notebook to jot down various thoughts. Some of it is his history with Jonathan, some of it is his discussions with Pucci about "Heaven", and along we way we make note of where the Stardust Crusaders are along their journey.

Personally, there are some aspects to "Heaven" and the creation of what would later become to Stand "Made in Heaven" that remain unclear to me in how Dio came to these conclusions, but it does provide drive and information to Pucci himself during the later arcs of Part 6 and expands on some of the ideas somewhat, so there is purpose to how it is brought up here.

As I very much blew through the latter two-thirds of this book, it may have been my easiest read of the series yet and my favorite light novel so far.

Otherwise known as "The Dio Novel", Jojo's Over Heaven is one of the two translated Jojo novels, the other being Purple Haze Feedback. However, unlike the other, Over Heaven doesn't end up being a significant addition to the series.

Over Heaven takes place during Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, but the perspective is now Dio Brando writing a diary. So what exactly does Dio write about? Well, it's a mixture of him about his life during Part 1, describing his meetings with the priest Pucci that set up the events of Part 6, and describing events currently happening in Part 3. This novel tries its best to ... tie all of these past, present, and future events together, and it works well enough. The problem here is that there's really no new content as a result. If you've read Phantom Blood, Stardust Crusaders, and Stone Ocean, then you're not going to learn much, except for maybe a better explanation of Dio's childhood.

Even though Part 6 was clearly not planned when Araki was writing parts 1 and 3, this book really tries its hardest to connect it. The idea of "going to heaven", a pretty central idea in Part 6, is incessantly repeated. Seriously, it's mentioned every few pages. It gets annoying fast.

Overall, Over Heaven certainly doesn't tarnish the Jojo series, nor does it add much interesting. Still, it's a pretty quick read, so if you're a diehard Jojo fan looking for something to do before Part 4 anime comes out, or if you didn't really "get" part 6, then maybe you'll get some kicks out of this.

I’ll assume anyone wanting to read this has read up to the end of Stone Ocean, and as such this review has some spoilers for parts 3 and 6.

It was certainly entertaining. Not my favourite version of Dio and doesn’t feel like canon but for the most part the changes could work out or are interesting aspects to consider.

The story ends up following the plot of part 3, however the plot relevant for part 6 seems to have been altered. I always had the notion that Pucci and Dio met well before the crusaders’ trip started but that’s not the case in here.

What I do ... appreciate the most in this fake diary however, is all the theories that were created to explain various plot points. Why those specific requirements for achieving ‘heaven’, what ‘heaven’ is really meant to be and why Dio wants it, how the fleshbuds actually affect people. Although I don’t agree with many of these bizarre explanations and would rather leave such things unexplained, they nonetheless spark theories of my own.

And, if it’s worth anything, I had a good laugh with this novel. Be it due to some especially outlandish explanation for something better left a mystery, or Dio getting unexpectedly emotional over some petty thing.