As of this week I’ll be switching to a bi-weekly schedule with my Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure coverage. The pace is pretty damn slow in Stardust Crusaders, and most of us watching this are speculating that we’re getting at least 3 (and most probably 4) cours of Stardust Crusaders, and they’re going to adapt every single part of the 16 volumes. I guess it makes sense on a commercial standpoint, actual quality aside Stardust Crusaders is the most well-known and loved part of the entire franchise, so David Production would want to milk it dry. So until things really pick up in Stardust Crusaders (which is a given), I’ll be sticking to two posts a month.
Also, if you’re keeping up with some of the other series I’m covering (Soresekai, Haikyuu and Baby Steps) I’ve been late with posts lately. I was expecting to have a pretty free schedule this season but it turns out that college applications and whatnot take up more time than I would expect, so the change in schedule is to be expected…I’ll also be dropping my coverage of Haikyuu because I’m running out of things to say, and having to blog 2-3 series in one day is tough on my schedule. Of course, I’ll try to make up for it with as many overall reviews as possible at the end of the season. I’m watching quite a bit of stuff this Spring.
If you were too lazy to check out the link:
You guys can expect to read my overall reviews for Ping Pong, Haikyuu, Jojo (when it ends before Fall begins), Soresekai, Baby Steps, Hitsugi No Chaika, Mushishi as well as Ace Of Diamond (and maybe Escha & Logy if I haven’t dropped it by then.)
That was a super long announcement, but I think it’s time we get to the meat of the post!
As I’ve mentioned, the pacing in Stardust crusaders is (expectedly) much slower than Battle Tendency and Phantom Blood, but while it means I won’t be getting the extreme amounts of adrenaline shot through my body as I watch Jojo’s (for now), I’m still having a crap ton of fun with the series. Episode 4 focused on Avdol and Polnareff’s battle, but surprisingly it isn’t very interesting to watch, as much as I’ve been loving Polnareff’s poses. Seriously, his poses are definitely the most ridiculous ones I’ve seen thus far, and it’s cracking me up. He obviously loses to the good guys (a common thing about Jojo battles in Stardust Crusaders so far is knowing the exact outcome of each battle so there isn’t much at stake) and what to do we know! He’s been controlled by Dio as well, although he has his own motives for trying to get in Jojo’s way, he wants to search for a stand user with two left (or was it right idk) hands that murdered his sister in cold blood, but in the end decides to join the crew. Yeah, he’s a pretty entertaining fellow, as Joseph would put it – “His upper and lower half of his body are completely separated”. The dude’s pretty damn funny. I’d like to see Polnareff interact with Joseph much more. Those two idiots are going to have a ball of a time together I just know it!
This week’s episode then focuses on a brand new stand user, the captain of the ship that Jotaro and the crew are on – his stand Dark Blue Moon manages to nearly finish off Jotaro as Dark Blue Moon and Star Platinum duke it out in the waters where DBM (stand name is too long) holds a significant advantage. Of course, Jotaro manages to beat him after quite the struggle, and boy was that battle pretty funny to watch.
The most entertaining part of Jojo so far is the fact that we are literally watching a bunch of over-dramatic, impossibly muscular men pose and do weird shit while trying not to ‘stand out’ too much to avoid attracting attention, but completely failing and being stupidly endearing with their weird catchphrases and whatnot. It is pure joy to watch. Just look at Jotaro, he basically said that “it would be gross if you (the captain) pissed after losing, since we’re both in the water”. And when he’s out of the water after winning he wants Avdol to make a cheesy one-liner too so it wouldn’t feel awkward (and Polnareff joins in so naturally too! He was meant to be a Jojo). That is basically what happened. How could you not love these losers?
Also, Joseph, being his racist and angry self, asks Jotaro and Kakyoin why they’re still wearing their uniforms while on a fucking ship and Noriaki just goes all “well, we are students after all. Students should act like students”. I cannot believe this. I was basically in tears at just how ridiculously stupid everyone is. The battles may not have that much at stake any more, but David Production knows how to keep things interesting by ensuring the cast and their interactions stay gleefully cheesy and stupid. Thank you, David Pro, you’re on your way to become one of my favourite anime studios.
