The second of eight parts in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Battle Tendency is set in a time when battles were fought with the Hamon technique and not with Stands. Set in the 1930s, the plucky Joseph Joestar, descendant of the first JoJo, Jonathan Joestar, is caught in a bizarre journey through Europe involving ancient warriors and Nazis!

Following their grueling Hamon training at Lisa Lisa's estate, Joseph and Caesar Zeppeli have very little time to spare before a rematch with the Pillar Men, Esidisi, Kars and Wamuu. After besting Esidisi in battle, Joseph scores the antidote needed to remove one of the poison rings that is slowly killing him inside. However, Esidisi was one step ahead and had the Red Stone of Aja sent off via parcel to Switzerland. Joseph has five days until the poison implanted inside him will dissolve, so he and his party follow the mail train to St. Moritz, Switzerland.

When Joseph and his party arrive in Switzerland, they meet an old adversary who gets “upgraded” and starts firing on Kars, who now possesses the Red Stone of Aja. Both this cybernetic adversary and Joseph desire the stone for their own needs so they team up to take down Kars. Meanwhile, Caesar visits a lone mansion by himself to fight Wamuu for his own personal motivations. I'll just say this: Caesar is a tragic character through and through. You'll know more about his motivations and tragedies as you read along.

Araki-sensei's art continues to evolve throughout the series and it's very noticeable in this volume. Although his art (and poses!) are developing the Araki touch, it still retains elements from the super-manly 1980s Weekly Shonen Jump style. In addition, there are some very unorthodox layouts in battle scenes that are pretty wild by today's standards. Still, there is a lot of energy and technique to be found in these pages and as I keep saying, the bi-chrome color pages are really nice to look at and that's something I miss seeing in modern Jump. And these hardcover deluxe editions are beautiful. Oh and some good news, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders will be published in the same format later this year. 

Battle Tendency Vol. 3 is available in print and digital at your local bookstore and on viz.com. 

by Ray n.