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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable
Episode 27

by Sam Leach,

How would you rate episode 27 of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable ?
Community score: 4.5

I feel like I should have expected a new JoJo opening at the beginning of the Fall anime season, but I didn't! This new opening, ‘Great Days’, is just wonderful from top to bottom. There's very little character animation, but an astounding amount of movement and creativity connecting us between each graphic. The song has a cheery rock choir going for it that never lets up as we cycle through an impressively large range of visual ideas. This is the most emotionally connected I've felt to a JoJo opening, if only because we get to hear that happy music constantly juxtaposed against bittersweet and tragic images like the cast of dead characters in the sky or the ennui of Kira's new family. It's a song that's sad, fun, and big all at the same time.

As for the episode itself, we're being introduced to a brand new character. This time, he's a space alien of all things. This long-haired, elf-eared, nose-piercing of a young man is Mikitaka Hazekura, and our heroes discover him covered in grass at the center of a crop circle. Of course, they assume that he's simply pranking them, but they let him tag along with them through town regardless. Eventually Josuke discovers Mikitaka's shape-shifting abilities, as well as his inability to see other Stands. Maybe he really is an alien, or maybe he's just a weirdo.

So I never really pegged Josuke as the type to constantly be inventing new money-making schemes, but between the Shigekiyo episodes and this, apparently I misjudged him. Upon the discovery of Mikikata's shapeshifting, Josuke's first idea is to ask him to transform into a loaded gambling die in an attempt to cheat Rohan Kishibe out of some money. I mean, it's not like they're going to randomly stumble into Kira, so why bother looking for him, right? The episode ends in the middle of Josuke and Rohan's game, just as Josuke's cheating is working so well for him that it starts to look suspicious. Since Mikitaka is an alien, the nuances of holding back probably never occurred to him.

One last story element to cover is Kira's continued life as a family man. The new opening has made it pretty clear that both the wife and child will be core to the remaining episodes of Diamond is Unbreakable, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes. Kira is tempted to show his true colors and just kill his wife, but he decides that it's just not the right time. Of course, his wife only finds his new dominating personality so much more attractive than the man that used to be her husband. This woman is pretty cute, and she's got this air of sadness to her that makes me want to know more, though she came off like kind of a jerk before, so who knows.

The thing that's surprised me the most about this episode is how much of a fresh start it feels like. We're two-thirds of the way through Part Four of JoJo, and I was prepared to see things tumble along as they always have, but this really feels like a new chapter of the story. We've got a new opening, a new alien character, and all these questions about where the story intends to go. It's all wrapped up in the familiar JoJo template (we've got characters playing a dice game, trying to out-cheat each other) but there's still that air of something new. I'm really excited about what's to come, and even more excited to see if Hirohiko Araki has any more authorial commentary amongst all this horror, death, and goofing off.

Rating: B+

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach writes and records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw


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