Summary

David Production used decades of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga foresight to add scenes that tighten continuity and boost emotion.
Some added iconic moments include: Part 2's epilogue, Part 3's photograph scene and Yoshikage Kira's cameos throughout Part 4.
Some manga beats were cut or rushed, notably Jolyne's prison scenes and Jonathan's interesting childhood memories.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure may be one of the most iconic and most popular anime in the industry right now, but it’s important to remember it started airing in 2011, whereas Hirohiko Araki’s original manga began its serialization over twenty-five years before that, back in 1986. This means that the animation studio, David Production, had a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to adapt every Part of this beloved series with prior knowledge of future events.

This ended up working perfectly, because the six Parts that have been animated so far feature many big changes that elevated the entire experience and made everything feel much more seamlessly connected. The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime is undoubtedly one of the best adaptations out there and is significantly different from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga, with the following changes being the biggest ones in the entire show.

Jonathan Joestar’s Childhood

Part 1 Had A Bigger Focus On Jonathan’s Early Years

Part 1: Phantom Blood

The tumultuous relationship between Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando is the heart and soul of Part 1, Phantom Blood. But at times, it felt like the anime adaptation tried to speed run through their shared childhood as quickly as possible in order to reach their climactic confrontation as adults as quickly as possible, so it ended up cutting a lot of interesting scenes as a result.

The original Phantom Blood manga spent a lot more time showing readers how Jonathan used to act when he was a kid, and it worked very well at making him much more humane and less one-dimensional. Some cut scenes include: a young Jonathan smoking a pipe by a tree, him eating a piece of chocolate after being dismissed from the dining table and a flashback sequence that showed how he met and befriended his dog, Danny. On top of that, the anime heavily censored the scene of Danny’s death, which was much more graphic and gruesome in the manga.

Extended Part 2 Epilogue

The Anime Showed What Happened To The Cast After The Ending

Part 2: Battle Tendency

The ending of Battle Tendency in the anime is absolutely legendary, as it shows what happened to pretty much every important character during the time gap between Parts 2 and 3: Erina passes away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones, Smokey runs for mayor, Stroheim charges into battle before his death and there’s even a small cameo of Jotaro Kujo to tease his introduction in the next season.

This is a really exciting and interesting epilogue that closes off the plot of the first two JoJo parts in a satisfying way but, in case it wasn’t obvious already, it’s mostly original to the anime. The ending of Part 2 is surprisingly abrupt in the manga, and it just explains what happened to the main cast in the future via text, instead of actually showing it. Of course, the Jotaro cameo was a completely new addition as well, as the Battle Tendency anime came out decades after the Stardust Crusaders manga had already ended.

The Stardust Crusaders Photograph

One Of The Most Iconic Part 3 Moments Wasn’t Even In The Manga

Part 3: Stardust Crusaders

Stardust Crusaders is the Part that made JoJo's Bizarre Adventure into a worldwide phenomenon, as this is a globe-trotting adventure with lovable characters and a creative new power system called Stands. One of the smaller but most significant moments of the story happens shortly after the cast arrives in Egypt, as they decide to take a photograph of themselves as a keepsake.

This one photo would go on to become a huge part of Stardust Crusaders’ identity, and it was made even more emotional by the deaths of Avdol, Iggy and Kakyoin at the end. But, shockingly enough, this scene and this photo didn’t even appear in the original Stardust Crusaders manga, as it was actually first seen in the Vento Aureo manga, in which Jotaro can be seen holding a framed version in his office while he’s talking to Koichi on the phone. David Production had the brilliant idea of retroactively adding this legendary scene to the Part 3 anime in order to explain where that photo came from, years before it even got to adapt Part 5.

Yoshikage Kira’s Subtle Cameos

The Main Villain Of Part 4 Was Hiding In The Background All Along

Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable

The original manga version of Diamond is Unbreakable was really fun, but it admittedly felt a bit directionless at the beginning, as a new villain-of-the-week was introduced in every chapter. This completely changed at its midway point, when the main villain of Part 4 was finally revealed: the serial murderer with a Stand, Yoshikage Kira.

As always, David Production took advantage of the fact that it made its adaptation literal decades after the manga had already ended, and thus decided to include many new brief scenes starring Kira before he was formally introduced. The most notorious one takes place at the very beginning of the season, in which a mysterious person can be seen cooking breakfast with a severed hand while listening to the radio. But he can also be seen randomly walking around Morioh at many points throughout the anime, which fits perfectly with his personal philosophy of trying to blend in as an unremarkable member of society.

The Anime Added New Scenes Of La Squadra Esecuzioni

The Most Beloved Villain Group In The Series Had Their Time To Shine

Part 5: Vento Aureo

Passione’s assassination team, known as La Squadra Esecuzioni has been extremely popular among JoJo fans ever since the original Vento Aureo manga was serialized. It makes a lot of sense, however, since all of its members have interesting personalities, striking designs and fascinating Stands, which is really impressive for a group of minor, one-off villains.

For many years, fans have been asking to see more about La Squadra and their interactions with each other before they faced Team Bucciarati and, fortunately for them, David Production delivered on that promise when they adapted Vento Aureo in 2018. The scenes of La Squadra gathering at a restaurant and searching Trish’s house for information about the boss are anime-original, and they helped flesh out this group of charismatic antagonists (who were barely seen together in the original manga).

Scenes Of Jolyne In Prison Were Cut From The Anime

Jolyne’s Arrival At Green Dolphin Street Was Much More Interesting In The Manga

Part 6: Stone Ocean

The first third of the anime adaptation of Stone Ocean was highly controversial among fans, not only due to Netflix’s questionable release format, but also due to the fact that it cut and rushed many important scenes of Jolyne Cujoh’s arrival at Green Dolphin Street Prison that both humanized her and fleshed out the main setting of her story.

The process of Jolyne entering the prison was much longer, interesting and comedic in the manga, with multiple memorable scenes that were needlessly cut in the anime: she originally interacted a lot more with Hermes, her physical exam was a lot more explicit and, at one point, she was even fascinated by the sight of a transgender person who was being imprisoned alongside her. Later on in the story, there’s a popular meme panel known as “Tray Jolyne” that was nowhere to be seen in the anime, much to the disappointment of longtime fans of the manga.

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