The Phantom Blood storyline of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga series is inspiring a musical adaptation.
Titled Musical Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood, the musical will premiere at the Imperial Theatre in February 2024. Ney Hasegawa is serving as its director with Tsuneyasu Motoyoshi (My Hero Academia The “Ultra” Stage OKUS ULTRA ver. director) as scriptwriter and Dove Attia (CASANOVA [2019 play], Mozart, l’opéra rock co-composer) as music composer.
One of Hasegawa’s previous works was a 2015 stage adaptation of the Shikei Shikkouchuu Datsugoku Shinkouchuu one shot by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki, which he also choreographed.
Phantom Blood is the first part of Araki’s Shueisha-published Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga series, which debuted its ninth part The JOJOLands in February 2023. Phantom Blood ran from 1986 to 1987 and was collected into five tankoubon volumes.
Viz Media describes the manga as:
Young Jonathan Joestar’s life is forever changed when he meets his new adopted brother, Dio. For some reason, Dio has a smoldering grudge against him and derives pleasure from seeing him suffer. But every man has his limits, as Dio finds out. This is the beginning of a long and hateful relationship!
Phantom Blood previously inspired a (now largely lost) 2007 anime movie produced by A.P.P.P. and directed by Junichi Hayama (character designer of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Adventure OVA series). It was adapted into anime form again with the 2012 first season of the David Production-produced JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime series, where it served as the basis of the season’s first nine episodes.
Sources: Jojo Portal Site, Comic Natalie
