‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’ Live-Action Movie Licensed By Viz Media

During the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure panel at Anime Expo 2018, Viz Media announced that they have licensed Takashi Miike’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable – Chapter 1 for an English release.

First released in Japan last year, fans will soon get to see how Hirohiko Araki’s landmark series made the jump to live-action.

There were no further details for the release beyond the announcement, unfortunately, but it’s still a good time to be a fan of the series as not only will Part 4 make its way to television with Toonami airing Diamond is Unbreakable, the long awaited Part 5 anime adaptation, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, is currently scheduled for a release later this October.

For those unfamiliar with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the series was originally created by Hirohiko Araki. It follows the story of the Joestar family, who are each destined to take down various supernatural enemies. The series has been split up into eight parts, with each part following a different generation of the Joestar family. The series was first published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1987, and is currently the second longest running series in the magazine with over 121 volumes.

The series has sold over 100 million copies and is the best-selling manga series in history and has been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media. The series has spawned multiple anime, video games, toys, and even jewelry. The series currently has an anime adaptation that began in 2012 and has run for over 100 episodes and spans the first four major arcs of the series.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been running for so long, it’s no stranger to bizarre censorship either with one recent anime censoring Jotaro’s cigarette smoking from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. There are even more bizarre fan projects such as this oddly fitting mash-up of Seinfeld and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure into Jerry’s Bizarro Adventure.

The series is also getting a special exhibit in Japan titled “Hirohiko Araki JoJo Exhibition: Ripples of Adventure,” will be held at the National Art Center in Tokyo beginning August 24. The exhibit will display many images of his famous characters over the years and Araki announced that he will produced new work for the exhibit as well along with collaborative works from artists like such as Motohiko Odani, Kunihiko Morinaga, and WOW. This exhibit is only the second time a single manga author has had an exhibit in the National Art Center, with the last exhibit celebrating the works of the influential Osamu Tezuka 28 years ago.