The JoJoLands


The JoJoLands is the ninth main story arc of the Japanese manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It takes place within the rebooted continuity depicted in Steel Ball Run and JoJolion. 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. He works for his principal Meryl Mei Qi alongside his older brother Dragona and their kleptomaniac classmate Paco Laburantes. Together with client-turned partner Usagi Alohaoe, they travel to Big Island to perform a heist against manga artist Rohan Kishibe. During their mission, the gang discovers a Lava Rock with the ability to attract anything of value that its user touches with the rock. They become allies with Big Island resident Charming Man, who hopes to use the rock to investigate his younger brother's disappearance on the slopes of Hualālai.
The gang tells Meryl Mei about the Lava Rock, and she decides to use it to gain all the assets of the infrastructure development company Howler, including its land on Hualālai. She sends them to touch Howler's land deed with the Lava Rock. Subsequently, Howler's lender Dolphin Bank moves to seize Howler's assets in response to a government plan to seize its Hualālai land due to accusations of illegal activities. The current head of the Howler company, Hacca Howler, speculates that this was caused by the Lava Rock, and sends agents Bobby Jean and Lulu to take it for him. They chase Jodio's gang to a nearby hospital, but Jodio kills Bobby Jean and captures Lulu.
Meryl Mei orders the gang to trick Hacca into transferring the Hualālai land to them, declaring they have one week to take Howler's land before it is too late. Meanwhile, agents Key West, Laem Chabang, and Ningbo begin to work for Hacca to investigate Bobby Jean's death, speculating that it was connected to Paco. Jodio, Dragona, and Charming Man, disguised as Dolphin Bank employees, arrange a meeting with Hacca on his yacht. With Key West by his side, Hacca tries to bribe the disguised Charming Man into not collecting his assets, but Charming Man refuses and tries to trick him into transferring the land. However, the Lava Rock in Dragona's possession begins to deteriorate in the presence of the bribery money, raising Hacca's suspicions.
Hacca interrogates the gang about the Lava Rock, accidentally starting an electrical fire. Firefighters surround the yacht, accompanied by FBI agents, so Charming Man urges Hacca to finalize the deal. Instead, Hacca retreats into the yacht's private chapel, where he recalls his grandfather explaining the destruction of the Howler family's own Lava Rock. He reads his ancestor's diary while examining a fulgurite crucifix, causing him to realize that his ancestor found the Howler Lava Rock where lightning had struck Hualālai during a new moon.
Meanwhile, Laem Chabang and Ningbo investigate Bobby Jean's death, which leads them to Meryl Mei. They capture her and bring her to her boutique, but she sends a coded message to the gang. Paco and Usagi rush to her aid, and manage to kill Ningbo while Laem retreats into a saferoom housing Lulu. Laem interrogates Lulu, who reveals the gang's deception and the existence of the Lava Rock, so Laem informs Key West and urges her to betray Howler and find the rock. Lulu then uses her Stand on Laem, suffocating her.
Key West uses her Stand to attack the gang, steal the Lava Rock, and attempt to kill Jodio and Dragona, but the two manage to incapacitate her and take it back. Hacca returns and spots the Lava Rock; he threatens the gang and summons his Stand, but the US Navy boards the yacht on orders from the President and arrests him on suspicion of manufacturing ICBMs. In response, he tells Jodio he will sign the document to transfer the Hualālai land, and he uses his Stand to simultaneously kill a Navy operative, escape custody, sign the document, and disappear. Jodio, Dragona, and Charming Man then leave the yacht with the document, and the Lava Rock disintegrates, its ability expended.

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 does not 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, while also working at Iko Iko, a fashion boutique run by Meryl Mei Qi. Dragona was born male but presents feminine, having breast implants and wearing women's clothing. 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. 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 hindrance 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. His Stand, Bigmouth Strikes Again, gives him the ability to transform his body into sand fragments, which he uses to disguise himself as other people, detach and remotely control body parts, manipulate people's perception of depth, blend into the scenery, and create illusions.
  • 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 the police. She instructs the gang to perform a heist on the 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 son's reputation in crime. After her husband abandons the family, Barbara Ann is forced to raise Jodio and Dragona alone, leading the siblings 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 he found on Hualālai's slopes. Jodio and his gang are initially tasked to steal an expensive diamond from his villa after info about it is leaked to Meryl Mei. 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 a water resource and water-power generation infrastructure company headquartered in Honolulu and owns several areas of land all across Hawaii. Originally Howler Farms, it was established by an Italian sailor shipwrecked in Hawaii in 1843 whose original surname was Latrato and changed to Howler after Hawaii joined the United States. At some point, Latrato discovered a Lava Rock. After marrying a local woman and being granted verbal approval by the Hawaiian royal family to own land, Latrato's discovery of hidden underground water on the northern mountainside slopes of Hualālai turned the barren, volcanic grounds into fertile meadows. Descendants of the Howler family eventually turned the farm into the Howler Company and amassed 50 billion dollars in assets from port rights, transportation, arms industries, etc. Although they claim to be nature conservationists, it is believed that the company is involved in illegal activities. No proof of this has publicly come up due to Howler employing Stand users to get rid of those who investigate too deeply into the company. Meryl sends Jodio's gang to aid her in taking all of the company's assets via the Lava Rock.
  • *Hacca Howler is the current 8th head of the Howler family and CEO of the Howler Company. Wealthy and arrogant, he indulges in his luxuries and enjoys showing off his vast wealth and power. As a child, Hacca was shown the destroyed remnants of Latrato's Lava Rock by his grandfather, who told him about how it saved the family from destitution. Years later, he inherited the Howler Company and established a head office in Honolulu after receiving a 38 billion dollar loan from Dolphin Bank. He is a Stand user, and the Stand and its abilities are currently unknown.
  • * Lulu is a demanding but intelligent orphaned girl affiliated with the Howler Company under Hacca Howler's orders. She and Bobby Jean are assigned to get rid of Jodio's gang when they attempt to get the company land deeds but is later held hostage in Iko Iko. 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. She believes that Hacca is her biological father.
  • * Bobby Jean is an 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 straightforwardly secretive and respected by others but constantly bossed by his partner Lulu. He is later killed by Jodio after pursuing the gang at the hospital. With his Stand, Glory Days, he can control the movement and speed of the bullets he shoots from his USP45 semi-automatic pistol, equipped with a silencer.
  • * Key West, Laem Chabang, and Ningbo are a lawyer, police officer, and firefighter respectively hired by Howler to find Lulu. Former associates of Bobby Jean, they align themselves with Hacca to investigate Bobby Jean's mysterious death. Key West stays by Hacca's side while Laem Chabang and Ningbo visit Meryl Mei to investigate Paco Laburantes, believing he was responsible for their former ally's demise. Laem Chabang's Stand, Lyin' Eyes, uses the nematodes she raises in her glasses to detect stress like a polygraph, and make an olfactive map of people through their 'fear'. Ningbo's Stand, 200 Balloons, allows him to inflate anything he touches until it bursts like a balloon. Key West's Stand, West End Girl, can appear in gaps between objects to obstruct and attack with crushing pressure using its many hands.

    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, and began serialization in Shueisha's monthly manga magazine Ultra Jump on February 17, 2023.

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:
  • 29. "Lulu-Chan and Laem Chabang"
  • 30. ”West End Girl, Part 1”
  • 31. ”West End Girl, Part 2”
  • 32. ”Sinking Howler”

    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. The first tankōbon volume debuted at the top of Oricon's weekly Japanese sales charts for print comics, 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. The second volume was Shueisha's eleventh highest first print run manga volume of 2023–2024, with 350,000 copies printed.
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.