JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

Episode 4

Since we're diving into a new JoJo story with a new cast of main characters, it's about time that I start to get to know these people. In my last review I mentioned not feeling very strongly about Josuke one way or another and I did find myself falling back on Jotaro as my anchor. Well, Jotaro isn't around for the second half of this two-parter and now it's all about about the Morioh crew front and center. I take it it that Josuke, Koichi and Okuyasu are our trio-to-be, considering the show's opening prominently features them.

The episode beings with the continued confrontation with the Nijimura brothers. The older brother, Keicho, has the bow and arrow as well as Koichi bleeding out on the floor. Frustrated to be underestimated by Keicho, Okuyasu barges back into the scene, only to get struck by Keicho's Stand in an attack meant for Josuke. It becomes clear that Keicho has little concern to Okuyasu's well-being, finding his brashness and stupidity more of an inconvenience to his plotting more than anything.

Josuke's Stand, Crazy Diamond (or “Shining Diamond” in the localized subtitles), is good at two things: punching and healing. So far we've seen this used to break solid objects (read: people's bodies) and reconstruct them in ways that gives our hero some kind of strategic advantage. As we see in this episode, it's also useful for healing wounded allies, which is what he does for Okuyasu in spite of the truly evil brother of the duo. Of course, as has been stated before, he is unable to heal any wound inflicted upon himself, meaning that it's an exclusively altruistic power. This is a nice quirk for a character who otherwise looks like a greaser punk.

“Because I'm stupid I act on what's in my heart,” Okuyasu responds after helping Josuke save Koichi from a trap. “Just this once I'll repay my debt to you.” Yeah, right. I see you all over the opening, you doof. It'll be more than once.

So Keicho Nijimura's stand is named after rock group Bad Company (though honestly, “Worse Company” is a localization I can live with) and is made up of an army of small toy soldier looking men. The mysterious attack that had been raining down on Josuke and friends throughout the episode was a product of these soldiers shooting their little machine guns from the shadows. They've also got little helicopters and tanks, as you do.

The action halts when Keicho suspects Koichi of having a Stand, now that he's suffered the tip of the Arrow. Apparently Keicho is looking for a very specific power, implying there exists a finite number of Stands and one of them has some sort of be-all-end-all power that any villain would want on his side. Jotaro mentioned earlier on that there was a risk of an enemy greater than Dio being produced by the Arrow.

One of my favorite details in the episode is Josuke having to explain to Koichi how to activate his Stand. “You just need to feel like you want to protect yourself, or you want to kick ass.” As a viewer of any kind of fantasy entertainment, you do find yourself wondering what it feels like to activate a superpower. Does it feel like flexing a muscle? Do you have to make a conscious decision? Josuke's explanation feels hilariously blunt but it also makes about as much sense as you could hope for.

What Kochi summons is simply a mysterious glowing egg that manages to crack some before retreating back to its user, so I imagine his real Stand will hatch at some point in the future. Unfortunately for now, he's left out of the fight as Josuke is the much more confident attacker and Keicho seems to have something planned for whatever he thinks is inside that egg.

I had a hard time following the finale of the fight, however. Josuke uses his Crazy Diamond to reconstruct a pair of missile that hit him earlier (I think?) and redirects them back at his opponent (somehow?). I do love how cool Josuke gets when he simply sits down and crosses his legs as he waits for his plan to go into effect, all the while Keicho is unleashing his biggest attack, but trying to make heads or tails of what happened is a no-go. It's like reading a battle manga where the strategy goes all nuts and the art gets so hectic you just have to take the author's word on it that it makes sense. Though the anime is so clean in its presentation that we shouldn't be having this problem.

This is the episode of the batch so far that feels the most reminiscent of Stardust Crusaders. It's now purely about the Part Four cast, with Jotaro nowhere to be seen to make it feel like we're still transitioning between seasons. I'm sure Jotaro will be back, but we're really starting to get Diamond is Unbreakable's monster-of-the week, hey-let's-watch-these-characters-solve-crazy-problems groove into place.

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