“Josuke Higashikata! meets Angelo”

Fridays at 12:30 pm EST on Crunchyroll

Notorious serial killer Angelo and his water-based Stand – Aqua Necklace – attack on a rainy day, trapping Josuke and Jotaro indoors.

Iro’s thoughts

Aaaaaand we’re back! I somehow managed to put up a post for (almost) every major battle in Stardust Crusaders, and I see no reason to break tradition just because we’re in Diamond is Unbreakable. Granted, these posts are usually too short to even bother with, but whatever! It’s the thought that counts. The important thing is that Part 4 is finally on a roll, complete with incredible OP (the first one in 2D, which probably means David Production got a budget bump, woooo) and a new classic rock song for the ED; in this case, we have “I Want You” by Savage Garden. I was probably too young at the time to know about them, but Jel and company have assured me that as a flash-in-the-pan 90’s hit, it is an inspired choice.

The chief purpose of the fight with Angelo and Aqua Necklace is to establish Crazy Diamond’s powers and some of the applications thereof. First of all, it punches guys; would we expect anything less? More importantly, it can heal/restore people and objects. We saw Josuke punch directly through people in the premiere and have them come out unscathed, and here he does it with inanimate objects, shattering bottles and having them reform to trap Aqua Necklace inside. We’re also shown its limitations, in that it can’t bring people back from the dead and it can’t heal Josuke’s own wounds. It’s honestly one of my favorite Stand powers out of the entire JoJo super-series, and we’ll get many creative uses out of it in the coming episodes.

Despite both being made of water, Aqua Necklace nicely avoids being a retread of Geb, with its chief power being possession. There’s a a great siege mentality going on in this episode, with the JoJos being trapped indoors and forced to be wary of any and all liquids. Both sides get the chance to be clever, which I think is the hallmark of a good fight. It’s not all just a “haha, look at my New Powerup!” back-and-forth, but instead we establish everyone’s powers and they use those established powers to one-up each other in clever ways. As I’ve mentioned time and time again, this creativity is the great strength of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as it moves forward, and I can’t be more excited to show the rest of Diamond is Unbreakable to everyone else.

Dorarara-bservations

• I couldn’t really mention this properly in the First Look, but there are several cameos scattered about that refer to later battles in Part 4.
• Josuke’s playing the same baseball game that Jotaro played against D’arby in Part 3, but this time it’s on a faux-N64 instead of a faux-SNES.
• Considering certain things coming up, it looks like we’re going to get evolving credits for Part 4.

Zigg’s Thoughts

A very strong and enjoyable follow-up to the first episode, this is also in slightly more familiar territory as our heroes battle against a Stand that has them trapped in a location. It’s definitely not as straightforward as many of Stardust Crusaders‘s battles though and I really enjoy the up and down pace that the episode maintains. having Josuke capture the Stand before it can even strike is a great demonstration of how smart and powerful he can be, and Angelo’s response to escape is classic JoJo, both clever and incredibly dumb at the same time. Everyone has told me this is the arc where the Stand powers start actually coming into their own and the twist ending of this episode made me believe it – Josuke’s gambit is incredibly clever and a magnificently creative use of Crazy Diamond’s powers, and I’m looking forward to more last minutes escapes like that.

One thing this episode did remind me of is that JoJo is often subject to weird tonal whiplash. Going from ‘jokes about stepping in dog poop’ to ‘tearing off your dogs face with my teeth and spitting it at you’ is kind of an awkward transition no matter how you slice it and I’ll admit I was a bit shocked by the level of gore, particularly since it felt like Diamond Is Unbreakable had largely abandoned the Fist of the North Star theatrical violence that parts 1 to 3 so reveled in. It’s a reminder that the show is still very much a shifting, growing beast and there are always going to be some truly odd twists along the way. But then, would we want anything else from a Bizarre Adventure?