Preview: in this post you will read about:
Introduction
Data - Chronological order of release
My Opinion
Conclusion
Source: Internet - Araki Sensei being Eternally Young
Introduction
One of the questions that is often mentioned a lot within Jojo's fandom, is whether part 9, “The Jojolands”, will be the last part written by Araki. In this post, I am going to analyze a couple of relevant data and to take into account, to give my opinion on this topic, as many of you Instagram followers ask me this question on a recurring basis. It must be said, of course, that I would love to say that The Jojolands is not going to be the last thing Araki writes in Jojo's literary universe, but before jumping to any hasty conclusions, let's take a look at a few interesting facts about Araki Sensei and his career as a mangaka.
Chronological order of release
Hirohiko Araki is a Japanese mangaka (something I presume all of you reading this already know) who was born in Sendai in 1960. Today and despite looking as young as ever (you know the meme of his eternal youth), Araki is already 64 years old, a fairly advanced age in the manga industry. The first thing to keep in mind is that we are lucky, since there are many mangakas who die much younger (Kazuki Takahashi, Kentaro Miura), end up injured due to their workload (Yoshihiro Togashi) or simply decide to stop writing manga once they have hit the big time (Hajime Isayama). Fortunately for us, Araki is not in any of these groups and continues to draw continuously and recurrently.
However, we must take into account how long it has taken him to write each of the published parts and see at what pace he has done it to take into consideration, if it is possible to see a part 10.
Part 1. Phantom Blood: From December 1986 to October 1987 - with a total of 5 tankobon volumes. That is, in less than 1 year he published the equivalent of 5 tankobon volumes.
Part 2. Battle Tendency: From November 1987 to March 1989 - with a total of 7 tankobon volumes. That is, a year and a half published 7 volumes, the equivalent of 4 and a half tankobon volumes per year.
Part 3. Stardust Crusaders: From March 1989 to April 1992 - with a total of 16 tankobon volumes. In other words, it published the equivalent of slightly more than 5 tankobon volumes per year.
Part 4. Diamond is Unbreakable: From May 1992 to December 1995 - with a total of 18 tankobon volumes. That is, it published the equivalent of 5 tankobon volumes per year.
Part 5. Vento Aureo: From December 1995 to April 1999 - with a total of 16 tankobon volumes. That is, it published the equivalent of 4.5 tankobon volumes per year.
Part 6. Stone Ocean: From December 7, 1999 to April 8, 2003 - with a total of 17 tankobon volumes. In other words, it published the equivalent of almost 5 tankobon volumes per year.
Part 7. Steel Ball Run: From January 19, 2004 to April 19, 2011 - with a total of 24 tankobon volumes. In this case, we can see that the average number of tankobon volumes published is about 3.2 per year.
Part 8. Jojolion: From May 19, 2011, to August 19, 2021 - with a total of 27 tankobon volumes. In this case, we can see that the average number of tankobon volumes published is about 2.6 per year.
Part 9. The Jojolands. From March 2023 - Ongoing - with a total of 5 tankobon volumes through December 2024. This is equivalent to approximately 2.7 tankobons per year.
Source: Internet - Araki Sensei being Eternally Young
My Opinion
One thing that has become clear is that after the jump from Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump, Araki has reduced his publication rate by half, going from publishing almost 5 volumes a year to an average of just over 2.5. I think this data is very important for two reasons. The first is that Araki has been able to focus on working well, without his health being drastically affected, something that is really appreciated. On the other hand, we see that Araki's tendency is to tell longer stories and write more slowly. Considering that The Jojolands has a similar length to Steel Ball Run or Jojolion (his works in the last 20 years), we would be talking about Jojo's part 9 ending (provided there are no setbacks or hiatus) in the year 2033, where Araki would be 73 years old.
Araki at 73 years old starting a new part? If you ask me, I would say it's difficult, but not impossible. I think that at such an old age, writing a whole new part would be a huge challenge. I don't doubt that Araki, when the time comes and being in good health, will decide to continue drawing, because we all know that in Japan, there is a culture of working until practically death. On the other hand, I consider that Araki loves his work, if he wanted to, he could retire whenever he wanted, he has money to live several lives, but he continues drawing.
Conclusion
Although I would love to see a part 10 that would be the culmination of Araki's career, I think it is really difficult to start a new part with guarantees of finishing it at that age, although this will be something we will see in the future, I have no doubt. That said, I think the most important thing is to be able to enjoy the moment and the great work that is Jojo's and that Araki Sensei continues to write today.
Thank you all for reading me!
Article By Josué Joestar - The True Man's World