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i got into jojo in the last year of high school. part 3 of the anime was just beginning to air. on the recommendation of someone i like on twitter, i watched the very first episode of the show (ep 1 of part 1). i was hooked very quickly.
before then i had never really been a "fan" of something, and i still think that giving too much of yourself over to a fictional property can be damaging. but i began to understand why it is possible to get super invested into something and want to spend time with it, because that was happening to me now.
i believe that what makes jojo work is that it is written by an author who, early on, became "unafraid" in a way that most writers, myself included, /are/ afraid. he began to do things most authors would refuse to even think about doing - he revised backstories and ability explanations constantly, rewrote character arcs midway in, scrapped entire plot points - usually very visibly and almost /proudly/, because he had just thought of a more interesting direction to take the story. he (hirohiko araki) stops in the middle of dramatic moments to shove in wikipedia-like explanations of rats or cryptids. he lets characters who have come face to face with ultimate evil get absolutely wrecked by cats or kids. he is the only author i have ever read who has this weird paradoxical respect and disrespect for the rules of narrative - as someone who's always been interested in the craft of creating a story, that's super interesting to me. but beyond me talking it up, it's also just fun to read.
it took me years and many breaks to catch up with the current manga, because even jojo burns me out if i read too much at once (and the series has been published since the 80s, too, so there's a lot of it). i think i was about 2/3 of the way through undergrad when i caught up to part 8 (milagro man part 2 was the first chapter i read "live" if i remember right).
right now my interest in jojo is in a lull, but i'm always excited to suddenly be inspired to pick it back up again and read some of it, and go back into that world.
any other floundlings out there into jojo? i suggest checking it out!
the first 3 parts are on netflix (start with phantom blood). i know everyone says this about every show, but i think it begins to take off at episode 10.
my part ranking:
tier A: 4,7,8
tier B: 2,5,6
tier C: 3
tier D: 1