JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc

Episodes 1-2

(Note: since I've already written up the first episode of Battle in Egypt in detail during the Winter Preview Guide, this writeup will be focused more on episode two. As much as I adore Iggy, I won't bother to sing his praises twice.)

Now that the Stardust Crusaders' team is complete and they've at last made landfall in Egypt, the real fight to save Holly Joestar (and all Joestars to follow her!) can begin in earnest. With no more Tarot cards left on the table, the enemy Stands have entered a new naming scheme, based on the fabled occultic roots of the Tarot: The Egyptian Pantheon. It's a fantastic twist for the story, giving our heroes an epic Ten Big Bads to conquer, (nine egyptian gods + The World,) and adding an unspoken weight to the next level of the game. "Egyptian Gods" are forces that came before the creation of the tarot deck and have an almighty power beyond its scope. The threat of facing meaner and more experienced opponents is conveyed just through the new naming convention, and combining that with a two-week countdown to Holly's death ups the danger level even more. The six of them will have to defeat 10 super-villains in 14 days (and their sixth member is not very helpful.) The deck is officially stacked against them.

That said, these two episodes suffer from the necessary introduction of all these new elements, and aren't as wacky or high-stakes in the moment as most episodes that have come before. The show's strongest element is the lovable interplay between its heroes, and that's almost completely absent as Jotaro faces down and defeats their frightening opponent alone. (His battle is also sadly conventional by JJBA standards.) The blind, water-controlling seer N'doul is certainly threatening, but not fun or bizarre in the way we've come to expect from the villains in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and the show's goofiness is sorely missed with the other Crusaders hiding in the dunes. The humor has to be supplied entirely by the nasty little Iggy, but since he still has no desire to help our heroes out, The Fool is forced to take a backseat to Jotaro's manipulation and strategizing (for now.) And yes, no matter how much of a "shitty little dog" Iggy is, it's still not much fun to see Jotaro threaten and shove him around. (Iggy will get him back for it later, thankfully.)

Ultimately, the strongest moment of these episodes outside of Iggy's introduction is not a silly one, but a rare and potent serious scene. After the Stand of Geb (god of earth) is defeated, N'doul takes his own life rather than accept failure. Sure, this has happened with Dio's minions before (and will happen again,) but it's N'doul's dying speech that sticks with the audience and gives the "cult of Dio" a greater context. For many of Dio's stooges, the choice to die rather than admit defeat is not a choice borne out of fear or shame, but of all things love. "I was proud of my skills as a thief and a murderer, and I was proud of what I accomplished, but no one else saw the beauty in it," N'doul explains. "Dio was powerful and beautiful, but he still saw great value in my wickedness. The evils of the world need an evil savior." Not all of Dio's followers will feel this way, (and he has so many that it would get repetitive if they did,) but the many that adore him help paint Dio in a terrifying new light. He's not just a bad vampire who hypnotizes people or forces them to do his bidding. He is the Perfect Evil, worshipped by the monsters of the world in the way that "normal" people might worship a Perfect Good. It's a great concept, and while these two episodes were a little dryer than they could have been, N'doul's last moments are a standout scene.

Now that all the fresh season setup is out of the way, I'm eager to get back to what makes Stardust Crusaders great: the interplay between the heroes themselves. Episode 2 is already pointing us in that direction as the Oingo Boingo brothers (oh wait, the "Zenyatta Mondatta" brothers) make their chilling debut after the credits...

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.