JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

Episode 21

If I remember correctly, one of the first images we were introduced to in Diamond is Unbreakable was that of a severed hand. Ever since day one, the show has been teasing the eventual inclusion of Yoshikage Kira, an otherwise normal-looking human being who enjoys the company of a certain dead body part. Putting two and two together, he is most likely the serial killer mentioned in the Reimi episode and one of the most important characters to exist within Part Four of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Right off the bat, one of the most notable things about this episode is the music. The insert song at the beginning, where we see Kira going about his morning with his "lover," reminds me of one of the somber slow rock songs you might hear in something like Silent Hill. Beyond that, the entirety of the soundtrack is unlike anything I can remember hearing in this show. It almost sounds like it was actually scored moment to moment, a rare thing to hear in anime. Regardless of whether or not that was the case, the focus of this soundtrack this week lies in the strings, punctuating otherwise quiet moments with sudden rhythmic screeches.

This week, Kira is stalking Shigekiyo. He would prefer not to kill him, if only for convenience's sake, but after a lunchtime date with the woman who used to be more than just a severed hand goes wrong (because why wouldn't it), Kira's gal finds herself in Shigekiyo's sandwich bag on accident. Kira carefully follows him, looking for the ideal time to steal it back before the poor kid can discover it and cause a hubbub, but there's no way it's going to be easy. Kira's adventure out on the town even has him dodging the likes of Josuke and Okuyasu, since Shigekiyo seems to be keeping in contact with them.

Kira's main challenge, at least in the first episode of this multi-parter, comes when he follows Shigekiyo into a back room of the high school and ends up having to hide under a vaulting box, as Josuke and Okuyasu barge in to share lunchtime with their new stout little friend.The score keeps the intensity up as Kira tries to stealthily nab the lunch bag using a loose clothes hanger he found laying around. Things obviously don't go easy for him, but as the comedy of errors continues, he eventually nabs the bag and makes off with it. Not happy to find his lunch disappear, Shigekiyo is deftly able to track his thief down, meaning Kira is given little choice but to summon his Stand "Killer Queen" (or "Deadly Queen" in the localized subtitles) and threaten death on Shigekiyo just as the episode ends.

It's nice to see Shigekiyo again in the show so soon, continuing to have something of a functional acquaintanceship with Josuke and Okuyasu, though I'm starting to worry for his safety when I remember that this show isn't above killing off characters, especially since we've now been introduced to the primary antagonist of the season. It's hard to form any particular opinions on Kira himself quite yet. This is another situation where I'm sensing a lot of "legendary" status out of him from my manga-reading friends, but I don't feel like I have much to work with yet as an audience member. He's definitely a creep, and his fixation on living a private, healthy lifestyle that happens to coincide with his much darker hobby of murders and romances with disembodied hands is interesting for sure. So I'm definitely excited to find out what happens next.

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