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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable
Episode 8

by Sam Leach,

How would you rate episode 8 of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable ?
Community score: 4.3

So judging by my Twitter feed, the entire planet has a crush on Yukako Yamagishi. She's the mysterious pretty girl who's been hanging out in the background for the last few episodes, so obviously I figured she was a noteworthy side character, but I was not expecting her to be marched into the show like royalty. Yukako is apparently so special that she gets her own two-parter and a new remixed edition of the opening.

Oh yeah, new opening. I've been growing really fond of 'Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town' lately. As it stands, I'd probably put it just behind 'Bloody Stream' for the best JoJo opening. It's become that friendly face that greets you at the beginning of each episode, which is what the best openings tend to do, in my opinion. I wish I knew music terminology better to critique this new version, but I guess it's dance-ier? More electronic? Hard to say exactly why we're getting this in the middle of the season (unless it really is to mark the Yukako-shaped occasion) but nothing can beat the big band original.

Anyway, Josuke and friends are no closer to solving Morioh's Stand infestation. A hospitalized Hazamada makes it clear that the man currently in possession of the bow and arrow is after the heads of the two JoJos, but he has no info to share beyond that. Meanwhile, poor Koichi once again finds himself in trouble with a local Stand user. However, instead of getting caught in the clutches of a trickster like Tamami, he's suffering an arguably much more pleasant fate: he's the apple of the beautiful Yukako's eye.

Yukako is a textbook yandere. At some point, she decided Koichi was "the one" and started showering him with affection and psychotic attention. She's making him lunch, making him ugly sweaters, and even making devious murder attempts on perceived competition with her devilish Stand-controlled hair. We've got a scene where one of their classmates is being tied up, strangled, and set on fire for daring to take some of Koichi's school chores on his behalf.

Love is a tough battle. Sometimes you've got to fight to earn affection, and sometimes you've got to fight to avoid affection. The cast is pretty quick to accept that lil' Koichi is just too handsome and lovable to be free from any woman's heart, but his bros Josuke and Okuyasu are there to offer him advice. The solution? Have Koichi let himself go and become a repugnant slob. They also try to spread some rumors that Koichi is a dishonest cheat who will never amount to anything in his life. Hopefully, this will make him less attractive to the likes of Yukako.

Obviously, it doesn't. Instead, Yukako kidnaps him and tries to provide for him in the comfort of her own home. She sees the best in him, and she'll be damned if he lets himself fail a test or two or continue to hang out with the bad influences he calls friends. "You'll see you need a woman like me in your life" is the chilling note that the episode ends on, though the intention is undercut a bit when apparently every person I know agrees with her and would love to trade places with Koichi. Such is the way of the yandere, I suppose.

Yukako is an enchanting character, that's for sure. There's something weirdly eventful about her arrival within the execution of the show. Again, that's partly due to the remixed opening, as well as the show's choice to forgo the usual ending credits in favor of juicing a bit more story out of the allotted time.

You just can't say no to a pretty girl sometimes. I mean, unless she's keen to murder somebody. Then you should probably say no.

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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