Caption / Jojo's Wonderful Adventure Text / Hellven
If you've been in the ACG circle for years, whether you've seen "Jojo's Wonderful Adventures" or not, you've more or less heard of it. This masterpiece, which has been serialized since 1987 and has attracted countless hardcore fans around the world, has finally launched the fifth season of "Jojo's Wonderful Adventure: Golden Wind" two years after the broadcast of the last "Jojo's Wonderful Adventure: Immortal Diamond", and the world's jo chefs have reached the highest level.
This article is about a 50-second "gangster shake" (called "torture dance" by foreign fans) that appeared in the seventh episode of the fifth season, "Sexy Pistol Debut", which is almost enough to make everyone crazy to the point of cerebral hemorrhage. Whether it's music, dance, or storyboard design, every detail is rife with the toxicity of "lethality.".
People in the jojo circle have long been unaware of how many times this dance has been looped, and have said that even if they watch it again a hundred million times, they can't get out of this brainwashing cycle, and even jojo fans have put their imitation videos on the Internet. Although the dance style is slightly inferior, it has captured the essence.
How did this seemingly abrupt and "unsimilar" dance attract so many jo chefs? To answer this question we first need to mention one person– Prince Rogers Nelson. Prince is a popular singer hailed as a genius in the last century, and his reputation is almost the same level as Michael Jackson and David Bowie, and he is known for his all-round musical talent, gorgeous and exaggerated costumes and stage performances, bold and eccentric personality.
The background music for "Gangster Shake" is the remix version of prince's single "Pussy Control".
"Pussy Control" belongs to the typical funkrock, this song is melodic jumping, the rhythm is very strong, the mix is also avant-garde, telling the growth of a playful girl. In order to make the song more suitable for the animation content, the lyrics in the original song were replaced by the animation producer David production to the "Golden Wind" plot-related content.
Interestingly, the title of the album to which Pussy Control belongs, "The Golden Experience," is the name of the stand-in messenger for the protagonist of the Golden Wind, Joruno.
In fact, this is not the first time that Araki has incorporated European and American popular elements into his manga. The season one ending song "Roundabout" of "Jojo's Wonderful Adventure" is from the European avant-garde rock band Yes, and the ending song of the second season, "Walk Like an Egyptian", comes from the American band bracelet band composed of four beautiful women in the 80s. Araki himself has mentioned that he loves rock 'n' roll and is deeply influenced by it.
There's no reason why the production team inserted "pussy control" in "Golden Winds": Araki Hiruhiko made it clear in a 2014 interview that Prince's other album, sign of the times, inspired his own creation.
"The melody of Prince's song gives me more inspiration than the superficial visual impact. Its melody can be described as weird, the kind of song that is the hardest to sing in karaoke. Just when you think he's trying to keep the music calm, he suddenly turns around. I also try to make this change when I draw comics. For example, the story seems to end in the first chapter, but suddenly has a completely different beginning in the second chapter, and this style is very similar to prince's for me. Readers will also be amazed by this. ”
This interview not only illustrates prince's influence on Araki, but also why there are so many god twists in Jojo's Bizarre Adventures. "Gangster shake" is actually a typical example of this kind of turn, I believe that no one would have thought that three gangsters would suddenly dance awkwardly when interrogating the enemy.
In the dance part, the dance style of "Gangster Shake" is also obviously related to another American superstar, Michael Jackson. Some of the movements of the trio are highly similar to MJ's "beat it", "thriller", "bad" and other mv, as well as the dance in the 1995 awards scene, and some dance steps are even quite similar to "seve", which has only become popular in recent years. It seems that Araki Sensei not only has an ageless face, but has also remained young in his heart.
In addition to excellent music and dance, this 50-second animation is also quite exquisite in the design of the storyboard. It stands to reason that using low frame rate animation to perform a smooth dance can be a disaster, but David Production basically overcomes this problem.
From the beginning of the music, the "gangster shake" lasted a total of 45 seconds, of which the full-body dance shot accounted for only 1/4, and the rest of the shots played an indispensable role in each frame, such as the interspersed with local body movement shots to enhance the rhythm of the dance; the psychedelic shot of the interrogator's eyeballs burned by the sun, which raised the magic of the whole picture to a higher level; and the propulsion shot before Fu Gao joined the dance with the movements of the next three people, perfectly pushing the "gangster shake" to the climax.
In the following three shots full of pop atmosphere and great color tension, the distorted face changes and brainwashing background music blend together perfectly, and have a violent impact on the most primitive and crazy aesthetic impulses of human beings again and again. From left to right, they symbolize the stand-in abilities of the three dancers: Mista's "Sexy Pistol"; Naranga's "Smith Spaceship"; and Fogo's "Purple Smoke", reflecting the production team's careful thinking on plot hints. Believe me, staring at this dynamic picture, you will find it difficult for you to look away. If you don't pay attention to jojo but exclaim something like ,"What am I looking at, why does this thing look so good?", then congratulations, you are also a jo chef.
Overall, the style of "Jojo's Wonderful Adventure" is a large collection of Araki's own aesthetic tastes, and "Gangster Shake" is a highly condensed embodiment of the style of this work. These niche and unique styles have accumulated highly sticky "hardcore" fans for "jojo" around the world.
Many excellent works will carry the aesthetics and values of the author himself, and the creators often bring their daily hobbies into the works. As far as music is concerned, such as the end of "Evangelion Theater Edition: Air/True Heart for You", the famous soundtrack singer Shiro Heronchao mixed "Cannon in D major" and "Hey Jude" to mix and transpose, and Hideaki Anno filled in the words of "come on, sweet death", this touching gentle tune, interpreting the most desperate emotions, sublimating the theme of the theater version.
In addition to the music, master Toshishi Imamoto's "Red Hot Chili Peppers", the stunning montage at the beginning of the film, integrates the film and anime to a new height. Ghost in the Shell, which carried cyberpunk forward, was inspired by Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner. All of the above is the embodiment of the author's integration of his own taste into the work, and basically created a generation of divine works.
There are not many works that dare to insist on their own style and do not please the mainstream aesthetic, and works like "jojo" that have been serialized since the 1980s and still adhere to their own style are even fewer. As Araki himself said, "The prince who dares to break through is a truly fearless person." This is the main reason why Jojo has endured.