As it is now 2023 in Japan, the official @araki_jojo account on Twitter has posted a New Year greeting card from Hirohiko Araki.
Araki’s New Year cards have been a tradition since the 90s, which he sent to fans as postcards. Since 2013, he started drawing them with the animal that represents the year in the Chinese zodiac. All of the cards from 2013 to 2021 featured Josuke Higashikata, the protagonist of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure‘s eighth part, JoJolion. After JoJolion concluded, 2022’s card only had an illustration of a tiger by itself.
Araki’s New Year 2023 Card and Message
2023 is the year of the rabbit. In this case, Araki’s illustration features a character’s side portrait on the body of a rabbit. “THE JOJO” is written on the rabbit, with the character pointing to the word “JOJO”. The character has a mop cut hairstyle with a side tendril wearing a star-shaped hairpin. The bottom of the card has “LANDS” written with palm trees sticking out. Thus, the character is most likely a glimpse of the main protagonist of JoJo’s ninth part, The JOJOLands.
Happy New Year
Reiwa 5
Thank you for all your support during the past year.
I sincerely wish you all the best in your health and happiness.
I look forward to your continuous support this year as well.
Hirohiko Araki – Source
Araki’s Previous New Year Cards
About The JOJOLands
The details of Part 9 are currently unknown. It was recently announced that the first chapter releases on February 17, 2023 in the March 2023 issue of Ultra Jump.
It will take place in the same continuity as the seventh and eighth parts of the series, Steel Ball Run and JoJolion. Araki recently teased in a Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! interview that the story would feature Joseph Joestar’s descendants. Joseph appeared in the final two chapters of JoJolion in a flashback, which Araki claimed was foreshadowing for Part 9.
Araki previously mentioned in an interview at the start of Steel Ball Run that he had already planned out the general outlines for each part up to Part 9. In 2007, Araki mentioned wanting to depict Morioh in Part 9, which ended up being the setting for Part 8. In March 2016, Araki stated that he would like to write a future story in Northern Europe or the Scottish Highlands. Additionally, in October 2019, he stated that he might feature Italy in the story after a fan suggested it.
About Hirohiko Araki and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Hirohiko Araki is a manga artist from Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is his most successful series being in serialization for 36 years and highly regarded internationally. The eighth part of the series concluded in August 2021. The series currently has 957 chapters in total.
Araki switched magazines from Weekly Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump on March 19, 2005. At the time, the seventh part of the series, Steel Ball Run, was on its 24th chapter. Ultra Jump has published JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure monthly since then.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has an anime adaptation that began in 2012 and recently completed up to the sixth part of the series in December 2022. The series also has an older OVA adaptation, several video games, and many light novel spin-offs.
