Warning: Spoilers for The JoJoLands, Chapter #13

Content warning: sexual assault, bullying, and harassment

Summary

• Chapter #13 of The JoJoLands delves into the harsh reality of bullying and assault faced by trans individuals like Dragona Joestar.
• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has never shied away from difficult topics, tackling issues like infidelity, dementia, racism, and the justice system.
• The series has matured to cater to an older audience, shifting from shonen to seinen to handle darker themes with more complexity.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part 9, The JoJoLands, has been dealing with some heavy topics, particularly surrounding its new trans character, Dragona Joestar. Chapter #13 of the new storyline took this to a new level, however, with a flashback to Dragona's past that provides a glimpse at the unfortunate daily reality for far too many trans people.

Chapter #13 starts with a flashback to 4 years before the series, showing Dragona at school in a swim class, where they accidentally hit another student with a volleyball while playing the game. While everyone laughs, Dragona is immediately threatened by the girl, and ends up walking back to the bus, where none of the other students will sit with them. Dragona then accidentally sits on a cup of ice cream that shouldn't have even been on the bus, drawing even more negative attention.

The girl, who happens to have wealthy parents who let her get away with anything, begins to touch Dragona in an unwelcome way, and things quickly get a lot darker. The whole scene is disturbing in its crudeness, but it also shows that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is still a revolutionary series that is not afraid of tackling controversial themes.

Dragona Joestar's Public Assault Shows the Maturity of The JOJOLands

The Franchise Is Now Truly a Seinen Manga, Targeted at a More Adult Audience

Despite insisting that it's a joke, the girl goes way too far, grabbing at Dragona's genitals and questioning what exactly their biological sex is. The girl makes sexual propositions as other students watch, some even filming the assault seemingly for their own amusement. The girl declares her intention to "draw a bra" onto Dragona and gets another student to hold them down, using an eyelash curler on Dragona's chest. That's when Dragona's brother, Jodio, appears, saving them using his stand, November Rain.

Things, however, get even darker. Perceiving that Dragona's soul is about to break forever, Jodio decides to act, and he uses his stand to lock the other students, along with a teacher and the driver, inside the bus, while causing a fire. The chapter heavily implies that the only reason why Jodio stops the attack is because he sees a parrot trapped inside, and has mercy for the pet. Still, the bus fire badly injures many of the students, including the girl who had been assaulting Dragona. This ruthless depiction confirms that Jodio is very different from all the other JoJos who came before.

The scene of Dragona's assault is genuinely quite disturbing, and the sad fact of the matter is that incidents like this aren't exclusively the domain of fiction. According to the Office for Victims of Crimes, one in two transgendered people are sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, so Dragona's experience is unfortunately common. It's the type of scene one wouldn't typically expect to see in manga, but JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has never been one to shy away from difficult topics.

By portraying even the harsh realities of life for Dragona, Jojo is drawing attention to the kind of indignities trans people suffer every day. As dark as it is, the scene proves that series creator Hirohiko Araki is dedicated to portraying the real issues that people like Dragona face, and by including it in the manga, forces fans to acknowledge that these kinds of problems can affect anyone.

JoJo Has Dealt with Difficult Topics Before

JoJo faces infidelity, dementia, racism, and the prison system

Of course, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has dealt with many topics that other manga like to avoid over the years. Going back to part 4, past hero Joseph Joestar is exposed as having cheated on his wife, causing a massive stir within the family that prompts Jotaro to go out and visit his previously unknown "uncle," the high-school-aged Josuke. By this time, though, Joseph is a dementia-addled old man, who can hardly be held responsible for the repercussions that his actions have had on his family.

Many fans were no doubt displeased to see the ever-popular Joseph reduced to such a weak, addle-minded figure, but such a fate lies in store for almost anyone who lives long enough. In a sense, Joseph was quite lucky to make it that far, having dodged death many times throughout parts 2 and 3. Even a strong patriarch like Joseph will fall to old age eventually, and many fans lament that Josuke never got to properly know the man who saved the world from the Pillar Men in his youth.

Part 6, Stone Ocean, also deals with the difficult subject of prisons and the justice system. Jolyne is framed by her wealthy boyfriend and sent away to jail, unable to do anything to escape. She deals with sexism and humiliation from the guards, who don't treat the prisoners with any kind of respect or basic humanity. Jolyne is also aggressively taunted and intimidated by the other prisoners, who attempt to bend her to their will.

Part 6 also dealt heavily with racism, up to and including a scene where Weather Forecast was attacked by a private detective agency that turned out to be a front for the KKK, who lynched him and came very close to killing him for the crime of going out with a white girl. Left without a memory by Pucci, Weather Forecast ends up accused of murder and winds up in jail as well, where Pucci is able to watch over him and (theoretically) ensure that he can't stand in his way.

JoJo Grew and Matured with its Audience

JoJo began very black and white as a shonen series, with Dio as the most evil villain and Jonathan as the most heroic possible character. However, the series grew to become much more nuanced over time, even showing different sides of Dio by the time of part 6. While serializing part 7, Jojo moved from Weekly Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump, where Araki felt that he could have more complex villains and deeper meaning to his writing. Ultra Jump is primarily aimed at the older "seinen" demographic, and is much more appropriate for dealing with heavy issues.

Part 7 and 8 were much more adult than their proceeding parts as a result, and were set in a new continuity, which was a decision that was likely made at least in part due to the series' new home. Part 9, The JOJOLands, is certainly the most diverse and modern JoJo that fans have ever seen. This latest chapter has perhaps been the ultimate proof that JoJo now belongs firmly to that older demographic. While the shonen demographic may be better off shielded from such harsh realities, those in the older seinen group are more equipped to handle such dark themes.

If JoJo's Bizarre Adventure wants to tackle these difficult social topics, then a seinen classification is almost mandatory, so it's definitely for the best that the series was able to grow beyond its shonen roots. Fans of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure have grown a lot since that first chapter was released way back in 1986, and it's fitting that the series has grown with them, now willing to face difficult subjects in the name of providing a realistic take on life.