Considering how half the characters in this show are named after rock
bands, I’ll guess that Will A. Zeppeli’s name probably alludes to Led Zeppelin
in an especially obtuse way. I really can’t imagine the thought process that
ciphered one into the other, though. It’s
not the neatest anagram.
The chain of inspiration behind ‘the ripple’ is quite clear, and very
fascinating, though. From what I understand, the whole preposterous concept of ‘chi’
which FIST OF THE NORTH STAR, DRAGON BALL, HUNTER X HUNTER and STREET FIGHTER,
et al, run so far with is actually rooted in a real martial arts principle.
‘Qi’
means ‘air’ in Mandarin, and that’s exactly what we’re talking. Learn to master
your breathing so totally as a practitioner of ‘internal’ styles of Kung Fu,
for example, and you can time your inhaling/exhaling so precisely with your
strikes that their physical force will be significantly more powerful. It requires
several layers of imagination to turn that into heroes throwing energy balls at
planets, of course, but there’s the root.
JOJO takes this thought train a few tracks further. Fantastical chi is
linked more explicitly with breathing; breathing is linked with the
cardiovascular system; that system is linked with blood; blood is then linked
with all other sources of life, like sunlight. The show’s already got vampires,
and who better to embody the antithesis of all that than creatures who are repulsed
by sunlight and who ostensibly don’t breath or have blood flowing through their veins?
I used to have a little in-joke with friends about Rorion Gracie’s
famous/infamous self-defense instruction videos. The man was so confident in
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s power to solve all problems, I wouldn’t have been
surprised if he said it enabled practitioners to defeat ghosts or other
creatures of the night. Well, hats off to JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE for actually
realizing that idle thought. Not only do we have anti-vampire martial art here - -
it’s an anti-vampire martial art with an actual ethos behind it.
Watch "Overdrive"
and decide for yourself, then read my comments about the previous episode.
About the Author
 | Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk |
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