Hirohiko Araki's JoJo Timeline: How Eight Parts Across 38 Years Actually Connect

Hirohiko Araki has been writing JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in Shueisha publications since January 1987. The manga is now in its ninth part, has spanned three different magazines (Weekly Shonen Jump, Ultra Jump, and currently Ultra Jump again), and has produced 130 volumes of collected manga. By page count, it is one of the largest single-author serial works in Japanese publishing history. By cultural reach, it is the manga that most directly defined the visual aesthetic of modern shonen and seinen action.

The structural challenge of JoJo for new readers is that the manga is not one continuous story. It is eight (now nine) distinct stories that share thematic DNA, character lineages, and — until Part 7 — a single continuity. After Part 7, the manga’s universe partially resets. The continuity becomes harder to track. This is the issue most new readers run into.

This is the actual map of how JoJo’s parts connect, what the universe reset means, and what reading order makes the most sense for someone starting in 2026.

The premise that makes JoJo work

JoJo’s basic structural conceit, established in Part 1 (Phantom Blood, 1987-88), is that each part follows a different protagonist named “JoJo” — typically with a name containing the syllables “Jo” — and that the protagonists are connected by the Joestar family bloodline. Part 1 follows Jonathan Joestar in 1880s England. Part 2 follows Joseph Joestar (Jonathan’s grandson) in the 1930s. Part 3 follows Jotaro Kujo (Joseph’s grandson) in 1989. And so on.

This generational structure does two things. First, it lets Araki tell completely different stories in completely different settings while maintaining a unified family-saga frame. Part 1 is gothic Victorian horror. Part 2 is World War II pulp adventure. Part 3 is global travelogue with supernatural action. Part 4 is small-town slice-of-life mystery. Part 5 is Italian mafia thriller. Each part can have its own genre, art style, and tone, and the Joestar lineage holds it all together.

Second, it allows for genuine consequences. Major characters die. Heroes from one part appear briefly in subsequent parts as elderly or dead. Joseph Joestar appears in Parts 2, 3, and 4 across roughly 50 in-universe years; by Part 4, he is a confused old man. Jotaro, the lead of Part 3, is the secondary lead of Part 4, an absent mentor figure in Part 5, and dies in Part 6. This sense of continuity is, for many readers, the manga’s signature emotional accomplishment.

The Stand revolution (Part 3 onward)

The most important structural change in JoJo’s history happens at the start of Part 3 (Stardust Crusaders, 1989-92). Through Parts 1 and 2, the manga’s supernatural power system was “Hamon” — a kind of solar energy meditation/martial art that the heroes used against vampires and other ancient evils. Hamon worked but it was thematically limited. You couldn’t easily extend it to new villains without re-explaining the system.

In Part 3, Araki invented Stands. A Stand is a supernatural manifestation of a character’s inner self — visualized as a humanoid spirit standing next to the character — with unique powers. Each Stand has a name (usually derived from a song or band), a specific ability, and a personality that reflects the user.

The Stand system was an immediate structural improvement. Each new arc could introduce new villains with completely different powers without re-explaining the rules. The system gave Araki room to invent — Star Platinum stops time, The World stops time differently, Made in Heaven accelerates time, Bites the Dust loops time. The conceptual space of “what can a Stand do” turned out to be effectively infinite.

Stands are also, structurally, how JoJo became the manga that influenced everything else. The “supernatural manifestation with a name and an ability that fights other manifestations” template is the foundation of half of modern shonen. Hunter x Hunter’s Nen system is JoJo-derived. The personae of Persona 5 are JoJo-derived. Jujutsu Kaisen’s curses are JoJo-derived. The genre owes Araki for the framework.

Part 6 and the universe reset

Part 6 (Stone Ocean, 1999-2003) is the structural turning point of the entire serial. The Stone Ocean protagonist is Jolyne Cujoh, Jotaro’s daughter, in a Florida women’s prison. The arc culminates with an antagonist named Father Pucci using a Stand called Made in Heaven that accelerates the speed of the universe until time itself loops and the universe is, effectively, replaced with a new one.

In the new universe, the Joestar bloodline still exists, but Jolyne and Jotaro from the original continuity are dead. New versions of the Joestar family exist in this new universe, including new versions of some of the part 1-6 characters with different fates and relationships.

This is the universe reset. Parts 7, 8, and 9 take place in this post-reset universe, not in the universe of Parts 1-6.

What this means structurally:

• Parts 1-6 are one continuous story with one continuity.
• Parts 7-9 are a different continuity that runs parallel to (and is partially set after) Parts 1-6, but with different versions of the characters.

The post-reset characters are not the same as the pre-reset characters. Johnny Joestar (Part 7’s protagonist) is not Jonathan Joestar from Part 1, even though both characters have similar names and similar Joestar lineage features. They are alternate-universe versions.

This is where new readers get confused. The naming conventions and the family-tree structure encourage the assumption that everything is one continuity. It isn’t.

Reading order in 2026

The straightforward reading order, accepting the manga’s own intended structure, is:

Parts 1-6 in order (Phantom Blood → Battle Tendency → Stardust Crusaders → Diamond Is Unbreakable → Vento Aureo / Golden Wind → Stone Ocean). This is one continuous story across 1880s-2010s. Total manga length: ~600 chapters.

Parts 7-9 in order (Steel Ball Run → JoJolion → The JOJOLands). This is the post-reset continuity. Total manga length so far: ~280 chapters.

Some readers recommend skipping Parts 1-2 because the art style is dated (it’s late-1980s shonen art) and starting at Part 3. This is not a terrible recommendation — Parts 3+ are visually and structurally more accessible — but you lose the emotional impact of seeing Jonathan and Joseph’s grandsons reckon with their grandfathers’ legacy in Parts 3-4.

The most common reader complaint about jumping straight to Part 3 is that Part 3 references Parts 1-2 frequently in early chapters, and the references are confusing without the foundation.

The anime adaptation and where it stands

The David Production JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime has been running since October 2012. It has adapted Parts 1 through 6 across the following structure:

• Phantom Blood + Battle Tendency (Parts 1-2): 26 episodes in 2012-13
• Stardust Crusaders (Part 3): 48 episodes across 2014-15
• Diamond Is Unbreakable (Part 4): 39 episodes in 2016
• Golden Wind (Part 5): 39 episodes in 2018-19
• Stone Ocean (Part 6): 38 episodes released on Netflix between 2021 and 2022

The anime adaptation is, by general consensus, among the most faithful long-running anime adaptations of a manga in modern production. David Production maintained consistent staff and visual approach across all six parts despite a decade of production. The Stone Ocean adaptation, released on Netflix in batches, was a slight departure from the previous broadcast model and was met with mixed reception (the binge model worked for some viewers, broke pacing for others).

Part 7 (Steel Ball Run) has not been adapted as of early 2026. There is widespread expectation in the fan community that it will be eventually, but no formal announcement has been made. The production challenge for Steel Ball Run specifically is that it includes a major character in a wheelchair who fights from horseback, which requires sustained equine animation that anime studios rarely attempt.

Where Araki’s career stands now

Araki is 65 years old as of 2026. He continues to draw The JOJOLands in Ultra Jump. The current pace is roughly one chapter per month, occasionally with longer breaks. The series is approximately three years into publication and is, by Araki’s stated planning, mid-arc.

Araki’s working method has not changed in the way it has for some long-running mangaka. He continues to use a relatively small assistant team. He continues to do his own character work and panel design. The art style has evolved noticeably across the parts — early Araki is heavily inspired by 1980s western comics like Jim Lee’s X-Men work, while modern Araki is more painterly with European fashion-illustration influences — but the evolution has been continuous.

What Araki has consistently done across the manga’s full run is decline to extend storylines beyond their natural ending. JoJo parts end. Characters die. The manga doesn’t drag on. This is structurally rare among long-running shonen, and it is part of why JoJo’s individual parts hold up better than many comparable serials.

The Araki paradox

The longest-running structural curiosity in JoJo is what fans call “the Araki paradox”: Araki himself appears to age very slowly. Public photographs of him from 1987 and from 2026 look broadly similar. He has joked about this in interviews. It has no actual significance, but it has become part of the manga’s cultural footprint.

What this points to, more meaningfully, is that Araki has done what very few long-running mangaka manage: he has stayed creatively engaged with his own work across 38 years without burning out or coasting on past accomplishments. Each part of JoJo has felt like a deliberate creative project rather than a continuation of a successful franchise.

The encyclopedia entry on Otakira covers the full JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series, with publication history, ratings from MyAnimeList and AniList, and licensed availability across 15+ Arab markets, on the JoJo manga page.

What JoJo means in 2026

If you have not read JoJo and are starting in 2026, the manga is in roughly the same position it has occupied for the last decade: a long, structurally distinctive serial that rewards close reading and a willingness to engage with its peculiar generational structure. Each part can be read more or less on its own. The system as a whole is genuinely original even after four decades.

What’s particularly worth noticing in 2026 is that JoJo’s influence on modern shonen has now produced multiple generations of derivative work. Hunter x Hunter’s Nen is JoJo-derived. Jujutsu Kaisen’s cursed energy is Nen-derived (and thus JoJo-derived). The “named-ability supernatural fight” template is now genre-defining. Reading JoJo Part 3 in 2026 is reading the source code for most of modern action manga.

That alone is worth the time investment.