JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc

Episode 6

"OH NOOOO!!!!" Joseph Joestar's animal magnetism has put him in a real bind this week after the sultry Bastet, a kitty-cat themed goddess stand, turns JoJo the 2nd's body into an electromagnet with one shocking touch. Now Grandpa Joseph sleeps facing south, can't seem to work his mechanical hand properly, and everywhere he goes, metal objects hurl themselves toward him. The stand's mistress Mariah giggles to herself, "People always want to touch what is forbidden to them," and this establishes the tenor for the whole very silly episode.

While it's true that the Egyptian god stands are stronger than the Tarot stands, as Polnareff observes during a team lunch break, it hasn't made confrontations with them any less lighthearted. Bastet's magnet-curse results in an extremely goofy adventure with Joseph and Avdol, where the double meaning of "magnetism" both scientific and sexual is embraced wholeheartedly, putting both Joseph's life and his reputation as a gentleman in hot water.

Plenty of women have metal snaps and baubles on their clothes, so when Joseph walks past them emanating his magnetic vibes...Oh No. Of course, he also has to pursue his attacker through a hotel and into the ladies' room...Oh No. It would be hilarious all on its own, but the addition of the equally "respectable" Avdol to the mix kicks the entire comedy adventure up a notch as the two eldest members of the Stardust Crusaders become "dirty old men" completely by accident over and over again. As stupid as the whole romp can be, it does take a healthy amount of cleverness to pull this much voyeuristic humor out of a technically unrelated electromagnetism curse. (Of course, they're all frumpy or aged women, and seeing one granny get all hot and bothered over Joseph's "daring advances" helps make the stints much funnier than if they had been played for fanservice against buxom young lasses.) After feeling up a busty (metal) statue and then being forcibly ejected from the ladies' room, Avdol laments, "This is inconsistent with my image! Bathroom disaster is supposed to be Polnareff's thing!" JJBA's gleeful self-awareness elevates every episode, no matter how dorky, (and the dorky ones are wonderful, anyway.)

Unfortunately, because of its light and frothy nature (even by Jojo's standards!) there's not much more to say about the show this week. There's a healthy heaping of horrible violence mixed in with all the PG sex antics of Joseph and Avdol, but most of the episode is devoted to realizing just what kind of curse they're dealing with in the first place, so the real confrontation with Bastet and Mariah has yet to arrive. It's a simple pleasure, but a great episode nonetheless, and liable to get more intense now that Araki's gotten (most of) the silly sex jokes out of his system. Whatever else happens, Mariah has successfully incapacitated two Stardust Crusaders with almost no effort whatsoever, so the boys are bound to have their hands full when she starts getting serious next week.

Rating: B+

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.