The first half of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders is already a step up. Sure, weird things happen in Parts 1 and 2, but this is where the show goes from weird to Bizarre.
The introduction of Stands is a much-needed refreshing of the magic system; they do interesting things with Ripple energy (or Hamon, if you prefer), but it felt like they were running out of creative ideas by the end of Part 2. Naming them after Tarot cards is an easy way to create a wide variety of crazy characters with unique Stands and powersets. In true JoJo fashion, they establish concrete rules that the magic system obeys, then proceed to take a jackhammer to them with every passing episode. From rules that are slightly broken to using powers that we never see again, this is part of the charm of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. We saw it to a lesser degree in Parts 1 and 2, and now they've tipped into the deep end, and I love it.
At first, I didn't connect with the OP, but it grew on me the more I watched it (though I didn't watch it with every episode). The guitar riff at the beginning and end is fantastic, and the sort of downtempo chorus actually works well in this one. The visuals are great, too. The CGI is the best we've seen in a JoJo Opening at this point. That being said, it's my least favourite JoJo OP so far, but that's not necessarily a bad thing considering it's still in my Top 3. Speaking of which...
TOP 3 BEST EPISODES:
Contrary to the title of the show, Jotaro doesn't actually participate in a lot of the fights; out of all the Stand battles, Star Platinum fights in just under half of them. Granted, he doesn't fight any Stands in this one either, but this episode is all about him. There are a ton of great character moments for him, and I hope he gets more like this later in Part 3.
Despite how utterly absurd this show is, it manages to masterfully pay off an arc for one of the main characters. The emotional stakes feel real, and as much as I enjoy JJBA's contrived resolutions, the resolution in this one is genuinely clever, especially considering how deadly The Hanged Man is.
This episode boasts one of the most unique Stands in this half of the show, and even though the characters are consistently in mortal peril, Joseph is in serious danger when he's separated from the group. Plus, it was super cool to see Ripple Energy again! In the beginning, I'd assumed Stands and Ripple were somehow linked, but I guess this disproves that.
(Honourable mention to Strength for having my favourite combination of Stand and User. If it weren't so perverted, it would probably make my top 3. Also to Yellow Temperance for giving us the cherry eating scene.)
TOP 3 WORST EPISODES:
It goes on for far too long without doing anything, and at one point, you can clearly tell they're padding for time. Meaningless and unmotivated shots make the tension slip away. And it has the poorest excuse for a Stand fight, resolving the issue in a matter of seconds in a very anticlimactic way.
I liked how we get to see Hierophant Green's power where his tendrils secretly flank the enemy, but the rest of it is not interesting. A pretty underwhelming Stand battle, especially for the first one after the journey begins.
This one is very take-it-or-leave-it. We get introduced to the little girl who tags along for a while afterwards, and the resolution of the episode is very "JoJo", but it's nothing impressive.
It was honestly really tough to pick these six episodes because, for the most part, they're all 7 out of 10 across the board. They're all pretty good to some degree. Except Sun.
If I had anything bad to say, it would have to be that a handful of the episodes focused too much on the Stand to the point where some episodes either don't show the User until the Stand is defeated, or they refuse to show the User at all. But overall, it's pretty consistently good. I suppose the pacing is pretty slow considering they feel the need to have a Stand User for every card in the deck show up every 500 feet, but it's a monster-of-the-week type show, so I don't fault it.
38 out of 43 users liked this review
