JoJo's Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki took part in a series of virtual reality experiments made to emulate the "Stand" superpowers from his manga series. Araki spoke at Tohoku University where virtual reality researchers showed off two of their latest experiments in Augmented Reality (AR) and Substitute Reality (SR) technology.

The first experiment helmed by Tom Kawada of the three-member technology development team AR Brothers took augmented technology, like the ones used on game systems like the Nintendo 3DS, a step further. Kawada showed an image on a screen of an object in the venue room. He then bounced a light beam off the image to knock it over on screen. The real-life counterpart also fell over at the same time as the digital image.

Even more impressive was the SR experiment conducted by Naotaka Fujii, who leads an Adaptive Intelligence team at Riken's Brain Science Institute, Fujii showed a video of Araki wearing a headset that allowed him to see the room through a mounted display. Araki witnessed a woman entering the room and was able to have a real-time conversation with her; despite the fact she was made of previously recorded footage.

“I lost track of what was past and what was present,” Araki said. “I think we can create new concepts and stories using these technologies.”

In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure , characters have supernatural "Stand" powers made of the user's focused energy. The manga series was adapted into an anime series last year and its sequel JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders will premiere next year.

Source: The Asahi Shimbun