JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood

Jonathan Joestar is the gentle, well-mannered heir to a wealthy English estate in the late nineteenth century, a young man who values fair play and family honor above all else. His comfortable life is upended when his father takes in Dio Brando, the orphaned son of a man who once saved the elder Joestar's life. Dio is charming in public and vicious in private, and he sets out to humiliate and isolate Jonathan while maneuvering for the position of favored son.

What begins as a bitter household rivalry grows into something far more dangerous. Dio's ambition is not satisfied by inheritance or social standing, and his scheming draws both young men toward a sinister relic tied to the family's past, one that promises power at a terrible price. Jonathan finds himself forced to fight for his home, his loved ones, and eventually the wider world against an adversary whose cruelty has been transformed into something inhuman.

To stand a chance, Jonathan must seek out teachers and allies who understand the supernatural threat that has taken root, and he must learn a demanding discipline that turns his own life energy into a weapon. Set in a gothic Victorian England of fog, mansions, and old ruins, this first part of the saga tells a self-contained story of brotherhood turned to hatred, of courage answering malice, and of the tragic resolve that opens the long conflict to come.

Phantom Blood is the first story arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki and published by Shueisha in the shonen magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. The work is an original manga rather than an adaptation of another source, and it ran for 44 chapters collected across five volumes. Serialization began in December 1986 and concluded in October 1987, introducing Jonathan Joestar and his adoptive brother Dio, whose rivalry sets the tone for the arc.

As the opening installment of a longer franchise, Phantom Blood established the serialized format and publishing home that later parts would continue, appearing in a weekly shonen anthology aimed at a young male readership. The manga carries a strong content rating, with action, adventure, and supernatural elements mixed with historical settings, vampires, martial arts, and tragedy. Its original status means the storyline was conceived directly for the page rather than adapted from a novel, game, or earlier work.

Phantom Blood later became the basis for a theatrical anime film adaptation produced by A.P.P.P., the studio that had previously handled a 13-episode original video animation adapting the manga's third part, Stardust Crusaders, between 1993 and 2002. The Phantom Blood film was released in Japanese theaters in February 2007. English-language readers can find the manga through VIZ Media, and it is also available on the MANGA Plus and MANGA MILLION platforms.

Phantom Blood is the opening installment of Hirohiko Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the first of nine main story arcs that together make up the long-running series. It was serialized in 1986 and 1987 across 44 chapters, later collected in five volumes, and it established the shape that later arcs would follow: a new lead character bearing the JoJo nickname, a fresh setting and supporting cast, and a self-contained story that still feeds into the wider continuity. As the earliest part, this entry is a beginning rather than a continuation, spin-off, or alternate version of an earlier work, and its source material is original rather than an adaptation of something else.

Later arcs move away from this part's historical backdrop and introduce different protagonists and conflicts, but they stay connected to the events and bloodlines first presented here. The franchise has also expanded beyond the page. An anime film adapting this first part reached Japanese theaters in 2007, an earlier OVA handled the third part, and a television anime began in 2012. Readers may enter the series at this point or at any later arc, though Phantom Blood remains the chronological starting point and the foundation on which the rest of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is built.