JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Shift-JIS Arts

About

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Shift-JIS arts, known as “JoJo Ascii Arts” (Japanese: ジョジョAA) on the Japanese web, is a series of Shift-JIS arts inspired by the Japanese manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (JJBA). Those Shif-JIS arts have been well-used fixed phrases or reaction faces in the Japanese text board community 2channel since around 2005.

Origin

Threads for talking about topics by JJBA’s unique wording style had been occasionally posted to 2channel’s each boards since early 2000s. And Shift-JIS arts of characters or panels became to be put together with users’ posts in late 2004 or early 2005 by the technical progress of 2channel Shift-JIS arts. In this background, there is the huge demand for Shift-JIS arts which have been playing the role of exploitables or reaction faces in that pure text board community which isn’t able to upload images.

Many famous scenes/characters in the manga were given its Shift-JIS art version in those days. Among them, what has been leading the popularity of the JJBA Shift-JIS arts since quite early days is the Shift-JIS art for Jean Pierre Polnareff^[1], one of the main characters in the 3rd & 5th arc of JJBA. It’s also known as “Polnareff Shift-JIS Art” (ポルナレフAA) or called by its most famous line “Let me tell you what happened!” (ありのまま起こった事を話すぜ!, Arinomama Okottakoto wo Hanasuze!). This Shift-JIS art is consisting of citing 2 panels in the 249th chapter titled “Dio’s World Pt. 3” where Polnareff is trying to explain Dio’s stand power that he experienced. This episode is included in the 27th volume of JJBA comic book series released in 1992.

This is the most well-used Shift-JIS art among those JJBA Shift-JIS arts because his wording in this scene is quite easy to fit to explain various situations, or to ridicule other silly users in the threads.

Spread

By getting characters’ iconic Shift-JIS arts, threads for talking by JJBA’s wording style became much popular amongst many boards in 2channel. As a reflection of its popularity, a series of threads specializing for collecting the derivatives of JJBA Shift-JIS arts, mainly Polnareff’s Shift-JIS art, started in 2channel’s /gline/ (guideline) board in September 2005.^[2] As of April 2014, this series has still continued for more than 8 years while spending over 240 threads. Many user-made archive pages for those creations were launched in late 2005 or 2006.^[3][4][5][6] These are hosting many hundreds of JJBA Shift-JIS arts in each.

Notable Examples

But I Refuse / Rohan Kishibe

Rohan Kishibe^[7], known as the character representing the creator’s philosophy, has one of the most famous catchphrases in the JJBA series: “But I Refuse” (だが断る, Daga Kotowaru). The spread of this phrase on the Japanese web was largely helped by the Shift-JIS art reproducing this scene in “Highway Star Pt.3”, the 386th chapter included in the 41st volume released in 1995.

Instead, Think That… / George Joestar I

A remark of George Joestar I^[8] who appeared on a flashback of his son Jonathan Joestar, “Instead, Think That…” (逆に考えるんだ, Gyaku ni Kangaerunda) is often used for replying. The original scene appears in “The Hero of the 77 Rings”, the 28th chapter included in the 4th volume of the comic book released in 1988.

I Dare Say That… ! / Noriaki Kakyoin

A panel of Noriaki Kakyoin^[9] which is taken from “Dio’s the World Pt.4”, the 250th chapter included in the 27th volume of the comic book is utilized simply to yell something. But its wording, “I dare say that…”, refers to his remark in other episode.

Exactly / Telence T. D’Arby

An icily-polite English utterance by Telence T. D’Arby^[10], “Exactly”, is often used for responses for agreement. The original scene apears in “D’arby the Gamer Pt.3”, the 229th chapter included in the 25th volume of the comic book series released in 1992.

The subtitle text in the parentheses (そのとおりでございます, Sonotoori de Gozaimasu) is also a subject for parody.

Search Interest

External References