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First image from live action JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure live action movie released!

Kay Jan 5, 2017
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Fans were treated to a first look at an image from the JoJo live action movie over New Year’s, but it seems the response wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.

2017 looks to be a big year for long-running hit manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, with the series celebrating its 30th anniversary (with total sales of the comics having recently surpassed 100 million copies!) and a live action movie of the manga’s fourth story arc, Diamond is Unbreakable, coming out this summer. Normally you would expect fans to be excited about a live-action adaptation, but as we previously reported, the difficulty of recreating such an aesthetically spectacular comic on-screen with real-life actors seems to have caused more anxiety than excitement among fans in this case.

Well, JoJo fans just might have more reason to be worried now, after seeing the very first official image for the movie, which was recently released.

＼謹賀新年！2017年はジョジョイヤー／
東方仗助ビジュアル解禁！
『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険ダイヤモンドは砕けない第一章』は8月4日（金）公開です！#ジョジョ映画 pic.twitter.com/d2d0QJ9PhA

— 映画『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』DVD&BD好評発売中！ (@jojomovie_jp) December 31, 2016

The above picture is the first look we’ve gotten of actor Kento Yamazaki as punk high schooler Josuke Higashikata, the protagonist of Diamond is Unbreakable. And yes, it looks like they’ve at least tried to recreate his larger-than-life pompadour hairdo and customized school uniform, but fans of the manga apparently feel they didn’t quite get it right.

To be fair, we guess you can’t really expect any movie crew and cast to bring JoJo series creator Hirohiko Araki’s characters to life in a completely faithful manner, which we think you’ll agree with if you’re familiar with Araki’s stunning artwork. The sense of suspense conveyed by Araki’s portrayal of the central characters’ supernatural powers and their extraordinary physiques could simply be too huge a challenge to recreate in live-action form.

Based on the reaction on the Japanese internet, fans who’ve seen the picture seem to have been quite strongly put off by the image, posting comments such as “It’s just not right, the uniform is all wrong,” “It looks like a cheap cosplay,” and “Nooo … why did they have to show us this travesty on New Year’s Day?”

The live-action movie is scheduled for release on August 4, so we’ll just have to wait until then to pass judgement on this “ambitious” film project. What do you think? Does the picture make you afraid to watch the movie, or would you be willing to give it a try?

Source: JoJo Soku, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbrekable Chapter 1 official website