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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable
Episode 17

by Sam Leach,

How would you rate episode 17 of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable ?
Community score: 4.6

Morioh's a strange place, so it shouldn't come as a surprise when strange things like undocumented ghost streets appear between the local shops. This episode focus on Koichi stumbling once again into the path of mangaka extraordinaire, Rohan Kishibe. However, Rohan's turn as the villain has ended, and now he's simply an ordinary citizen who selfishly pushes young teenagers like Koichi into helping him find his childhood home. "It's a manga artist's job to remember their childhood," he says. Their search brings them to the aforementioned ghost street.

When the new opening started to run a few episodes ago, the foreshadowed character that intrigued me the most was the pink-haired girl and her dog. Well, now I know that her name is Reimi Sugimoto, and that she's a ghost who lives in this mysterious corner of town. I'll admit that I find her character design to be a tiny bit absurdly attractive. And she's a dog person too! Reimi is not a Stand user, as Koichi and Rohan soon find out. She's a a regular tried-and-true ghost. She tells the spooky story about the death of herself and her dog, and that her soul is trapped in Morioh because she's waiting for her killer to be brought to justice. She claims that the town's rate of disappearances is eight times that of the national average, and at least most of it is thanks to this one nameless serial killer.

This episode is titled "Rohan Kishibe's Adventure", as Koichi is the only member of Josuke's friends to be seen for most of it. This is likely because Rohan is the character with the strongest connection to the murderer. He finds out at the end of the episode that he was being babysat by Reimi and her family when the murders happened, and that he was the only survivor thanks to Reimi's sacrifice. Since the killer has been around Morioh for years, and we've been given little evidence that he's a Stand user, Josuke and company have little investment in this story for the time being.

Just from general osmosis, I've picked up that this serial killer character is a big deal in the story later on, so this episode is the beginning of something much larger. In the very last scene, we get to meet the man in question: a blond guy romancing a disembodied hand. We've been getting teases of this guy and his everyday life since the beginning of Diamond is Unbreakable, so it feels like all the little things this series has been setting up are getting into motion.

Overall, this episode serves as a nice little ghost story. I really love Reimi and her dog already, so I'm eager to see them find peace as spirits and cross over to the other side one day. It's also cool to see Rohan as a regular supporting character now that he's been "defeated" as a sort-of villain. Though that doesn't stop him from having an absurd ego and having trouble respecting people's boundaries, as we see when he strings Koichi along on his quest and starts to read Reimi's very personal info out loud with his Heaven's Door. This is a modest episode, but the show is clearly gearing up for something very significant on the horizon.

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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