Recap

Joseph and Avdol are ambushed by the coquettish Mariah and her Stand of magnetism, Bast.

Iro’s thoughts

I freely admit that this has been one of my favorite fights in Stardust Crusaders since I first read the manga, if only because of how completely moronic it is. In particular, there were a great number of silly panels with Joseph screaming in Engrish, which have been faithfully recreated via the anime’s voice acting. Araki’s humor is never particularly subtle, particularly when it’s venturing into toilet humor territory, but Joseph’s wild reactions and Avdol’s repeated insistence that he’s totally not comic relief still make for some pretty great moments.

Mariah (named after Mariah Carey, in the continuing JoJo tradition of musical references) is a decent one-off villain, stepping into the femme fatale role with the typical lack of finesse that we all expect from Araki’s writing, complete with plenty of butt/leg shots and a joke about weaponized boobs. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, weirder and less directly confrontational Stands are appearing more frequently, and Bast’s manifestation as a mysterious power outlet is so stupid that it loops around to being totally acceptable. Turning people into magnets is certainly a bizarre power, and it’s enjoyable to see more fights that aren’t about just pummeling the bad guy into submission. Avdol digging a hole under the train tracks with Magician’s Red was a highlight, as was seeing Joseph formulate a plan via Hermit Purple’s psychic maps like when he fought Empress.

In the last post I talked about how there were more Polnareff centered fights than I remember, and next week’s episode is going to be yet another one of those, as he and Jotaro are ambushed by yet another enemy Stand-user. Still, the fact that I’m remembering these fights from the manga at all should be a good sign, considering Stardust Crusader‘s rather lackluster first half. It should be another mostly silly adventure, so look forward to it.