JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (partially found anime film based on manga; 2007)

File:Jojo bizarre adventure.jpg

The film's theatrical poster.

Status: Partially Found

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood was an 100 minute animated feature film released on February 17th 2007 that was based off the first part of Hirohiko Araki's long running manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It was produced by Studio APPP, with Junichi Hayama serving as director, sound design by Tom Myers of Skywalker Sound, and an end theme/promo song titled "Voodoo Kingdom" by Japanese hip-hop band SOUL'd OUT. The film itself was made in celebration of both the 25th anniversary of Araki's career as a manga artist and the 20th anniversary of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Phantom Blood was only ever publicly shown in Japanese cinemas, with its last known screening taking place on the 24th of February 2007, before being promptly and indefinitely shelved. The reason behind this has never been officially revealed, though it is largely assumed to have been the result of Studio APPP neglecting to give a number of characters enough screen time, including Speedwagon, one of Araki's favorites, as well as the film generally not doing the story justice, which ultimately led to negative reception from both fans and the creator.

Notably, the shell of the film's now-defunct official website can still be accessed via The Wayback Machine, although most of the site's content appears to be inaccessible. The website can still be accessed today with the same link, but be warned as it is now a NSFW Japanese site and does not feature the same contents someone would think.

Availability

While the film remains unreleased, several dozen screenshots exist as well as roughly 18 minutes of footage in the form of two trailers and a 16 minute collection of various scenes without dialogue. The collection surfaced online in 2012 after allegedly being given out to an Academy of Art University student by their professor (who apparently had connections to those who worked on the film) as part of a sound design project.

Possible Jump Festa short preview

In 2007 and 2008, before the film became infamous for its unavailability, several screenshots rumoured to have been taken from a screening of the film circulated on fan forums. In one thread, user BlackHoleSun claims that the screenshots, including one showing fan-favourite Robert Speedwagon, were actually from a short animated for a Jump Festa preview, and that Speedwagon was excluded from the actual film.

Though the claim would normally not be credible on its own, there are several severe discrepancies between the batch of screenshots purported to be the short and the final film, including different character designs and outfits. This, along with the images only cover a very small and specific selection of scenes, lend some credibility to the existence of at least some compilation of animation that was not used in the final film.

• JojoFestShort1.jpeg

  William Zeppeli (left) confronts villain Dio Brando, who wears a red scarf not present in the film.

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  Jonathan Joestar (centre) blocks Dio's blow to Zeppeli from below, instead of from the side.

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  Image from official movie guide, displaying lack of scarf and Jonathan blocking from the side.

• JojoFestShort5.jpeg

  Jonathan Joestar stands by his dying father. He wears a red bowtie and black jacket, and the carpet is red. In the film, his jacket is grey, with a normal tie, and the carpet is yellow.

• JojoFestShort4.jpeg

  The disputed image of Speedwagon.

Videos

~16 minutes of footage without dialogue.

Theatrical trailer.

Teaser trailer.

Gallery

• Phantom Blood 07 Background.png
• Erina Phantom Blood 07 1.png
• Erina and Dio Phantom Blood 07.png
• Erina Phantom Blood 07 2.png

External Links

• SOUL'd OUT's "Voodoo Kingdom" (used as Phantom Blood’s ending theme), via YouTube; 21 Mar 2014. Retrieved 09 Mar 2015.