(the) Road to the Deep East

As some new sites reported, a scene from a famous Japanese comic, JoJo's bizarre adventure was considered to be insulting the Holy Koran. In this scene, the enemy of this series, DIO, ordered his fellows to kill human beings while he is reading the Holy Koran.

The publisher, Shuei-sha apologized for this situation and stop the circulation of the comics of Part3 of JoJo's bizarre adventure which include this scene.

(detailed article from Japan Prove)
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4661

As Shueisha explains, actually, this scene is not included in the original comic. In the original comic, it is just depicted as a book written in Arabic, but the staffs of animation of this series thought it is Koran because he couldn't read Arabic, so they used the image of Koran.

Not only Shueiha, but also Japanese government and the Ministry of Foreign Affair warned the manga industry to understand other religions and pay respects to them on May 23rd.

(article from Nikkan spports.)
http://www.nikkansports.com/general/news/f-gn-tp3-20080523-363622.html

This explanation might be true, or HAS TO BE TRUE, and it's sure manga industry should be careful about religious matters, learning from this accident.

But as a JoJo fan who is reading this series for over 20 years since Part1, I don't think it is strange that this enemy, DIO reads the Holy Koran, even if it was in its original series. And importantly, even if this enemy reads the Holy Koran, I don't think it's insulting the Muslims.

Why? Well, let's begin with his short biography.

*Just in case, of course, I don't have any hostile feeling against the Holy Koran, even after the circulation of the part of the series I loved was stopped. But I just think the idea : 'The scene DIO reads Koran and kills somebody is related to the Koran itself' is not based on the right knowledge of JoJo series, or this enemy, DIO, so I can't help saying something.

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DIO, or Dio Brando, was born in England, as a son of abusive alcoholic jobless father, Dario Brando. His mother died young, and he was raised up by father under his violence, but later, after his father's death, he was adopted to a noble man, George Joester. Dio was clever, and cunning, and had an ambition to take over Joester's estate instead of the main character of the part 1 of this series,sone of George, Jonathan Joester.(JoJo) But he was enough clever not to show off his real intention. First, JoJo thought he is a nasty person, but later he thought he had misunderstood him, and they became close friends.

But when Dio and Jojo became adult and became students of Hugh Hudson Univ, Dio poisoned his step father and killed him. JoJo finally noticed his conspiracy , and cornered him with the Police. Then, Dio wor a stone mask called 'Ishikamen' , which has special power to make the human beings vampires, and becomes vampire, saying,

'俺は人間をやめるぞジョジョオオオオオ'(I'll stop being a human being, Jojoooooo!!')

Then, he escaped from the burning house using the miraculous power of vampire, and disappear. Weeks later, he gathered his fellows and establishes the empire of vampire in a local village in England. JoJo mastered the special technique to kill vampires called 'hamon'. Jojo beat Dio somehow, but Dio was still alive, and attacked Jojo during his honeymoon to America. The ship Jojo went by sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, and Dio lost his body under his neck, but he took over JoJo's body and could survive.

He was sleeping in a coffin under the sea , but and 80 years later, he was discovered in the sunk ship and he resurrected in the 20th century. That's the start of Part3, which includes the scene he reads the Holy Koran.
--
There is an apparent thing we can learn from this biogrpahy.

He is English vampire, not the man from Egypt . And Of course, he is not a Muslim. He is originally a clever and sophisticated person, who could enter Hugh Hudson University.

In addition, in this manga, vampires have an intellectual interest on human beings and human beings' culture, as the existence who rules them. In Part2 of this series, other vampires quote from a Chinese classic book, the Art of War from Sun Tzu.

This gap - the intelligence and cruelty, is one of the charm of DIO or other vampires in this manga, as villains. They are just reading books to understand the human beings, just to satisfy his intellectual demand, while they kill us ruthlessly. So, the Holy Koran is just one of examples, he just chose Koran because it has a lot to learn about human beings, and it is the one of the most important books to understand human beings.

And the content of the books NEVER influence the personality of vampires in this manga. There is a one famous phrase: '頂点はただ一つ' (there is only one top.) They have already had a certain policy and philosophy as the existence who rules human beings.

Of course, if some people think this scene is insulting even after reading all comics of JoJo , their feeling should be took in to the consideration. But at least, I have to say as a fan of this series: This is not the satire of terrorism , nor this scene doesn't mean the Koran makes human beings evil..

He read the Koran because he was in Egypt. If he were in Vatican, he would have read the Holy Bible. If he were in India or Thailand, he would have read sutta, and raised another kind of controversy.