Recap: Joseph continues his battle with Straits in the streets of New York. Meanwhile, a Nazi base in the Mexican desert examines the strange man who seems entombed in a pillar.

Iro’s Thoughts:
I suppose special mention this week should go to the show’s new OP sequence – it’s psychedelic and crazy and all-around pretty great. I rather liked the first OP and its manly anthem, but a colorful, jazzed up drug trip is a perfect fit for the silliness that’ll be going down in the Battle Tendency arc. Those lyrics are great, too.

Anyway, we continue off of last week’s cliffhanger, where Joseph whipped a Tommy gun out of nowhere and riddled Straits full of bullets. Not that it works, as we know. Dio’s first act after turning into a vampire was getting shot up, too. Actually, I’d say there’s a definite sense of progression through this episode. Vampire Dio was the Big Bad last season and the entire plot arc was based around how powerful and dangerous he was. Now, we have a vampire perhaps more powerful than him showing up in the first two episodes, and being overcome in fairly short order. It’s a quick way to show that the stakes are going to be way ramped up during this arc, and the villains will be much more dangerous. And perhaps sillier, as we see with Strait’s SPACE RIPPER STINGY EYES.

The battle also gives us a chance to get a look at our new protagonist and how exactly he fights. Jonathan was resourceful, but he was also straightforward to a fault. Joseph is perfectly willing to fight dirty to win – he uses silly strategies based on trickery and deceit, pulling gadgets out of his ass at every opportunity. That said, he is a good person at heart, willing to risk himself for the innocent – but only when the danger is real.

Lastly, we have the revelations in the Nazi base – yes, our old bro Speedwagon survived thanks to the intervention of GERMAN SCIENCE! Major Stroheim is super hammy and among the most amusing characters this arc. And if you were expecting unnecessary cruelty from the Nazis (since, well, they’re Nazis after all) there’s plenty of that too as they murder some locals in order to feed blood to the man in the pillar. As you may expect however, the Nazis will play a fairly large part in the rest of the plot to come.

Gee’s Thoughts:
Let me be the first to apologize to anybody who was excitedly anticipating Lotus Juice to be performing Part 2’s OP. Turns out my information was faulty and he’s doing an insert song, not the OP itself. Regardless though, the new OP is everything I could ever hope for. It’s flashy, it’s campy, it’s jazzy, it’s everything that Part 2 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure represents. Just like the first OP, I’ll definitely be looking forward to watching and listening to this one every week.

Indeed, just watching the fight between Joseph and Straits is a defining moment for anybody unsure of what kind of Jojo Joesph is. He’s snarky, smart,  a trickster, but just like Jonathan before him, he has an unyielding sense of justice and will fight anybody who threatens the innocent. While he might try and bluff or feign apathy, when the cards are on the table, he’ll step up, tear his shirt off, and jump right into the fray. Even if he’s going to accomplish the fight through his same old tricks and bluffs, he’ll do it in the name of justice.

With Straits’ rather quick and somewhat anticlimactic defeat/suicide, we learn that the Nazi party has learned of the strange dig site in South America and is already on their way to discovering the secrets of the pillar man. So obviously, it’s time for a trip down South to go fight some Nazis. God I love Jojo.

In addition, Speedwagon is revealed to be well and fine (no way such a guy would go out so easily) though in the custody of the Nazis. While he tries to resist, the fact that he’s and old man at this point combined with the issue of him being captured by the Nazis has me worrying for his safety. Obviously with the next episode, it looks like the pillar man is going to be revived thanks to Nazi antics and we’ll also get to see one of Joesph’s more…”ingenious” plans. Look forward to it, things are starting to get especially crazy soon.

Zigg’s Thoughts:
Gotta love that new OP. Fabulous and full of jazzy soul, it’s the perfect counterpart to its predecessor. And hey, the episode itself wasn’t that bad either. The JoJo/Straits fight might be the best one we’ve seen yet, Straits showing off his near Dio-level powers, and JoJo countering with some smart (or possibly dumb) tricks that show he’s a very different kind of fighter than his grandfather was. To prove it, he dispatches Straits pretty easily, although not before a few twists and some revelations. Straits unveiling of his ripple-proof scarf made from beetle bowels is so stupid it even feels goofy by JoJo standards – a high watermark indeed – but it provides a reasonably decent obstacle, countered only by JoJo’s subsequent use of high explosives. I loved the way this scene was shot, the reveal of the single grenade initially the surprise, Straits casual dismissal raising a brief worry, before the ultimate discovery that he’s peppered with them. It shows the excitement and episode of JoJo’s can conjure isn’t all about the silliness – there’s also smart pacing and direction underneath the tomfoolery.

That tomfoolery though…it’s like (author) Araki was hungover at 2am and needed something to spin the story out and just said “FUCK IT, NAZIS”. It’s certainly a bold move, although I’m not sure how I feel about this sudden intrusion of ‘real world’ politics into JoJo. On the other hand, if you need an eminently evil villain to battle, there’s not many better, and if the show can strike the proper, camp, ‘putting on the Reich’ tone then it could be great.  Certainly they’re off to a strong start with Stroheim, whose voice actor appears to be having far, far too much fun. Judging by the hinting in the new OP though, it seems the Nazis too will be shortly relegated to side-villain after the emergence of the mysterious Man in the Pillar. Oh, and it was great to see that Speedwagon lived, though I get the feeling he still may not survive this entire arc.

As Gee mentioned, I think one of the key scenes in this episode is the Straits/JoJo showdown on the bridge. JoJo tries to act, casual, nonchalant and even rude about the hostage crisis, but when Straits proves he isn’t bluffing then it’s time for the shirt to come off and things to get serious. There were strong echoes of Jonathan in this scene, and not just because I dig the sleeveless look – at the end of the day, both JoJos are heroes who protect the innocent and beat the living crap out of evil vampires. Straits’ suicide was a nicely dark touch to finish the character on too, one that almost gets him the last laugh. Combined with his gruesome reassembly of his body, and the uncomfortable ‘Nazis kill a bunch of Mexican people’ scene, it all adds up to the darkest episode of JoJo yet. While that’s still a relative term (it’s a show where you can use shot glasses to deflect laser eye beams after all) I’ll be interested to see if JoJo aims for more drama in this arc. For now, a fine scene has been set for the arrival of our true big bads. Bring it.