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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable
Episode 5

by Sam Leach,

How would you rate episode 5 of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable ?
Community score: 4.6

I assumed the Nijimura Brothers arc had concluded as a two-parter, considering that Keicho had been victoriously defeated at the end of last week, but lo and behold this episode is titled “The Nijimura Brothers, Part 3”. The fight itself is cleanly over, but there's still some fallout as the story connects us to Morioh's continued adventures of the Stand-granting bow and arrow, as well as planting Okuyasu firmly as one of our main heroes.

I keep underestimating how much Diamond is Unbreakable seems to draw from horror stories, as now we straight up have a monster sneaking around this creaking house. Keicho is defeated, bloody and on the ground, but now there's some kind of warty green creature defending the the attic where the bow and arrow is being held, getting in the way of Josuke and Koichi breaking the thing once and for all. Even using Crazy Diamond to punch its arm off is ineffectual, as it regenerates all on its own.

This monster is not a Stand, but rather the Nijimura brothers' father, of all things. Keicho returns, thankfully too beaten to start another fight, and this episode's sob story begins. Dad's condition: infected by one of Dio's forehead buds last seen in Stardust Crusaders. Apparently Dio thought that the Nijimura brothers' father would have been a potential candidate as a Stand-user, but when Dio died his mind control buds consumed their victims. Keicho's goal is to use the bow and arrow to find a Stand user strong enough to “let him die normally” despite Dio's immortal cells having taken control.

This sequence is a strange mix of a genuinely tender family story and the show's usual morbid sensibilities. Keicho has given up on his dad ever returning to normal, and even shows a great deal of resentment and hostility towards him. We learn as the episode goes on that the father/monster has been pining at a torn up photograph of his family over the past ten years, indicating that Keicho's anger may be misplaced. However, even when Josuke offers to help Keicho, under the condition that they find a cure (as opposed to an end to the monster's life), he hesitates long enough for another surprise Stand (the "Red Hot Cilli Pepper"!!) to swoop in from outside the house and steal the bow and arrow for themselves.

So Keicho is sucked through an electrical outlet and left for dead on the telephone wires outside. Even in his dying seconds he's cursing his own family, Okuyasu, for getting in his way. Though, once the new villain has made their clean break, Josuke confirms a mourning Okuyasu's belief that his older brother was just defending him. I honestly can't tell if that was truly the case or if the characters were just lying to each other to soften the loss. There are a lot of ways to read this scene, and I think my favorite is the delusional one, where Keicho was just bitter to his core. It really shows Josuke's softness. He's the kind of guy who knows when a friend just needs to hear the easy answer.

The Nijimura Brothers arc concludes, allowing us to see see the sunny town of Morioh again. For the most part, it has served as a pretty solid JoJo adventure. Between this and the Angelo fight (my favorite episode of Part Four thus far) there's been a definite pattern of conflict within enclosed spaces. I'm not sure if that's going to continue, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of Morioh, since the setting has been one of my favorite aspects of Diamond is Unbreakable so far. This is hammered home further after being locked inside such a low-light house for a few episodes, and every time they cut back to the outside it felt like a breath of fresh air.

The thing that got accomplished the most by the Nijimura Brothers arc was the establishing our main leads. I shamelessly just think Jotaro is pretty cool so I let him hold my hand for the first few episodes, but now I'm really starting to get these new guys, especially Josuke and Okuyasu. I've had a few friends butter me up for this cast, highlighting the amount that they're just simply buds who look out for each other and I'm definitely seeing that. I really loved seeing Okuyasu invite himself into Josuke's home at the end of the episode, and I got a big laugh out of realizing that the Nijimura house that we had just spent the last few episodes in was basically across the street from Josuke's this whole time.

Honestly, I don't even need a new monster to fight next week. If it's just getting to know these guys as they hang around plain ol' suburbia, doing 90s teenager things, I think I could be pretty happy with that.

Rating: B+

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

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


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