"Avdol, say something cool."
-Jotaro Joestar
After all, this is going to be my first review on this franchise, so I need to explain this franchise as if the reader hasn't seen it, but how the hell am I supposed to do that? JoJo's is something so unique, so impossibly different than anything else that comes out in a given season, so irreparably a trailblazer for the anime medium that whatever words came to mind never seemed to give the experience proper accurate articulation. But articulate it I must, because that's my job as a reviewer, and since it's my only one, I might as well try to do it well. So if you're reading this review with absolutely no idea what the JoJo franchise is or how it has affected the medium for a little more than 30 years, allow me to instruct you in how to act. I'm about to take you on an impossibly cool and often nonsensical journey to Egypt, and on the way, you're going to see a couple of things that might confuse you. You also might experience random outbursts of fist-pumping, chuckling at poorly pronounced explicit language, and many other symptoms, but don't worry, such a reaction is normal for people who aren't used to this franchise. Just know this: you're on the JoJo train now, and that's a train nobody departs once they're fully aboard. I suppose my duty here is to encourage you to step aboard, and by-Joseph I am going to try my hardest to do that.
Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and today, I'm here to ram a train through the wall of your goddamn living room (and no, I won't apologize for it). Today, I review JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. Now then, let's ORAORAORA.
Started way back in 1987 by now legendary mangaka/immortal vampire Hirohiko Araki, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an epic tale that currently is totaling eight separate distinct parts. While there are certain overlaps, each arc of JoJo's contains for the most part an entirely different setting and cast of characters, each telling a chapter of the bizarre history of the Joestar family, whether that be their aristocratic origins in 19th century England, or their descendants' exploits in Japan. Regardless, if it's the first installment Phantom Blood, the latest and currently running installment JoJolion, or any part in between, you can expect a different main character(or JoJo, who is somehow related to the Joestar family), different crazy situations, and each and every time, a truly bizarre adventure.
Today's review focuses on the franchise's third installment: Stardust Crusaders, mostly just because I felt like it and also that I feel it makes a good introduction for the franchise. If you're feeling tentative about skipping the first two parts (Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency respectfully), don't, because remember, each part has little to do with each other, and especially since Phantom Blood is an iffy introduction to the franchise as a whole, and Battle Tendency is probably best viewed after Stardust Crusaders, at least in my opinion. You can watch the series chronologically if you want, what with the first four parts now all fully adapted into anime form, but there is nothing wrong with Stardust Crusaders serving as your first exposure to the franchise. I may get back to reviewing Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency together, or maybe even part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, but for now, we're sticking to Egypt.
Started in 2014, Stardust Crusaders was animated, of course, by David Production, a studio who seems to have made it their life-goal to adapt as much JoJos into anime form as they possibly can, in-between, of course, producing mediocre light-novel and visual-novel adaptations. Technically they are the second studio to attempt this, as A.P.P.P released a 7-episode OVA in 2000 following the events of the last half of Stardust Crusaders, as well as a 90-minute compilation film of Phantom Blood in 2007. However, if you're feeling a little confused about what to watch now, don't, because I don't think many would argue that the David Production versions of JoJo's aren't the definitive ones, not just because they actually fully adapt the first four parts, but because, as we'll get to, they do a hell of a job with it. The directors were Kenichi Suzuki and Naokatsu Tsuda, who are notably for their respective works on shows like Drifters, Inu x Boku SS and planetarian ~Chiisana Hoshi no Yume~. The script was actually handled by many writers, but I think most credit can be given to Shinichi Inotsume, Shogo Yasukawa and Yasuko Kobayashi, who all handled the majority of the episodes, and have worked on notable projects like Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Attack on Titan and The Pilot's Love Song. Totalling a grand total of 48 episodes, Stardust Crusaders ran from April 4th 2014 to the 19th of June in 2015, with a mid-season break in the middle which divides it into two sections of 24 episodes. Now then, let's get on with this Stardust Crusade.
Story
It's the year 1989, and resident teenage delinquent emo-master extraordinaire/part-time misogynist Jotaro Kujo sits alone in a damp prison cell, believing himself to be cursed, as suddenly he is able to summon a corporeal figure that he can control at will, and by control I mean punch the ever-loving-shit out of whatever he wants. He has locked himself up so he cannot harm others with his power, however, it's only when his estranged grandfather Joseph Joestar and his friend Avdol appear does he find out the inconvenient truth behind his condition. Suddenly, and for no discernible reason, people all around the world have awakened to a power known as a "Stand", an extension of themselves that wields some sort of strange power, whether that be something as generic as incredible aim, or something as wacky as capturing people's souls in an elaborate poker gamer. Whatever the reason, as Joseph is soon to inform Jotaro, this couldn't have happened at a worse time, because as it turns out, there's a lot more to his family's history than he had been let on, and it's coming around to bite him in the ass in a major way.
His family: the Joestars, have been at odds with an ancient evil since the 19th century; an extremely powerful vampire with an insatiable thirst for power named Dio Brando. Dio had been thought to be imprisoned indefinitely after Jotaro's great-great grandfather Jonathan Joestar sacrificed his life to trap him at the bottom of the ocean, but because some idiots fished out the chest Dio's head had been contained in, the vampire has reawakened. Worse yet, he's got his own stupidly overpowered Stand and has somehow obtained a band of evil Stand users that are trying to kill Jotaro, his mother, Joseph, and any other Joestar they can find. So, as Joseph is quick to point out, it'll probably be best to get out of that goddamn cell now, because shit is about to hit the fan, and it's going to get everywhere.
Joining his grandfather, Avdol, his classmate Kakyoin, and eventually resident french-person Polnareff plus a Stand-wielding dog named Iggy, Jotaro sets out on a life-changing journey to Dio's lair in Egypt. But if these Stardust Crusaders are going to make it there alive, they're going to have to beat every single one of Dio's minions one by one, a mountainous task that will take all of their skills and knowledge to surpass. But they'll need to climb this mountain fast, because if they can't find and defeat Dio within fifty days, Jotaro's mother: Holly, will die from her own Stand slowly sucking the life out of her body.
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| "Ready to go on an adventure, bro?" |
The race is on to stop Dio and save Holly, and so the stage is set and the pieces are in place for the third act of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Stand users from all around the world are set to collide in a battle over the next two months that will determine the fate of the entire world, because if the crusaders can't stop Dio before he becomes too powerful, nobody will be able to, and then it's game over for everyone.
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| An enemy Stand User whose legs are in great shape. |
The important thing to understand about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is its unique personality and overall tonal identity, and this is where words start running dry for me, because Araki has crafted such a fantastical universe that it's hard to describe if you haven't seen the show. It would be easy to call the show such generic adjectives like "unapologetically cheesy", or "infectiously camp", and while the show is definitely both of those things, just saying what it "is", doesn't give "it" justice. It's at times like this where I wonder whether JoJo's could almost be considered its own genre, and indeed, once I think about it like that, it becomes a little easier to describe.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders is a thrill-ride from start to finish, one that rarely stops for character moments or anything that isn't inherently bad-ass. Most shows would just seem "stupid" for acting this way, and while JoJo's is indeed stupid, it embraces its own stupidity so wholeheartedly that you completely forgive it. The whole show seems to exist in an alternate world governed by its own rules, rules firmly established to deliver the most blood-pumping experience possible. All of the men are hulk-like figures with jawlines seemingly crafted out marble, with crazy hairstyles that push the boundaries of what seems possible according to the laws of physics. All the women are impossibly sexy, all the villains are comically evil, and every single stupid thing is treated as a world-defining event judging from how dramatic it is presented (whether that be a fight for the fate of the world or going to bathroom). It's this kind of stupid that somehow turns things that should be weaknesses into things that just end up elevating everything onto yet another level of ironic-yet-still-unironic enjoyment. Of course our protagonist Jotaro has a haircut that seems to inexplicably morph into a hat. Of course one of the most threatening Stand users our heroes come across turns out to be a freaking bird who can fire deadly icicles. Of course every time the narrative pokes in to see what Dio is doing, he is posing dramatically as sound effects that absolutely nobody acknowledges hover around him, as if the anime if ripping manga panels directly out of Araki's original work. JoJo's is a stupid show that doesn't really make any sense, but the beauty of it is that if wasn't stupid, that if it made sense, it just wouldn't be JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anymore. So... of course I love this dumb show.
Obviously, the only real way to know if you'll enjoy the sort of atmosphere that JoJos creates is if you watch the first episode, so if you decide to take my word for it by the end of this review and watch this insanity, there's two things I can leave you with to help navigate it. Firstly, this is adapted from the manga that basically invented anime's version of "rule-of-cool", and as you know, that takes some getting used to, so I would urge getting at least through the first few episodes until the actual stardust crusade begins in order to get acclimated. If you know what I mean but would still like a measuring stick, Araki has openly said that much of his inspiration for the original manga came from 1980's action films featuring stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, a time where the genre overflowed the cinema with buddy-cop movies, and snarky military specialists blowing up foreign dictatorships. In short, if you enjoy the type of movie where a car can get shot by a single bullet and somehow explode in a gloriously awesome ball of fire, I think you'll be fine with the JoJo formula. And even if you're not, this franchise almost has a way of sucking you into its insanity. This is a show, after all, that has one of the most passionate and expansive fan-bases in the medium. One moment you could be scoffing like "that's stupid" or "this is impossible according to the laws of physics and every law enacted since", and the next, you're doradora-ing with the rest. That's another reason I feel it's prudent to start with Part 3. Many long-running shounen manga end up drastically different from how they start, usually because the mangaka finds the style and things they want to concentrate on, and JoJos as one of the longest of those manga, is no exception. While all 8 parts are baffling and... bizarre, Stardust Crusaders is the utmost version of what JoJo would be known as and what its reputation would be built around, and that's why it's where you should start.
Recommended Anime:
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Obviously, the only real way to know if you'll enjoy the sort of atmosphere that JoJos creates is if you watch the first episode, so if you decide to take my word for it by the end of this review and watch this insanity, there's two things I can leave you with to help navigate it. Firstly, this is adapted from the manga that basically invented anime's version of "rule-of-cool", and as you know, that takes some getting used to, so I would urge getting at least through the first few episodes until the actual stardust crusade begins in order to get acclimated. If you know what I mean but would still like a measuring stick, Araki has openly said that much of his inspiration for the original manga came from 1980's action films featuring stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, a time where the genre overflowed the cinema with buddy-cop movies, and snarky military specialists blowing up foreign dictatorships. In short, if you enjoy the type of movie where a car can get shot by a single bullet and somehow explode in a gloriously awesome ball of fire, I think you'll be fine with the JoJo formula. And even if you're not, this franchise almost has a way of sucking you into its insanity. This is a show, after all, that has one of the most passionate and expansive fan-bases in the medium. One moment you could be scoffing like "that's stupid" or "this is impossible according to the laws of physics and every law enacted since", and the next, you're doradora-ing with the rest. That's another reason I feel it's prudent to start with Part 3. Many long-running shounen manga end up drastically different from how they start, usually because the mangaka finds the style and things they want to concentrate on, and JoJos as one of the longest of those manga, is no exception. While all 8 parts are baffling and... bizarre, Stardust Crusaders is the utmost version of what JoJo would be known as and what its reputation would be built around, and that's why it's where you should start.
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| Oh my god. |
Flaws, huh? The thing about the story of Stardust Crusaders is that even by JoJo standards, the story is pretty bare-bone; mostly acting as an episodic road-trip adventure story that has our heroes facing off against a new Stand user every week. There are more pressing and substantial issues in Part 1 and Part 4 to be talked about, but the worst you can say about Stardust Crusaders, besides the other "issues" we've already established are paradoxically working towards the show's benefit, is that it is probably a little too long which leads to the consistency occasionally suffering. Especially towards the mid-section, it becomes increasingly rare that any given Stand user is given less than 2 episodes, sometimes 3, and if that Stand user or the story surrounding them isn't very interesting, you're stuck with them until the end of the arc. It doesn't help that some Stand users are infinitely more fun to watch than others, and the worst parts of the show comes when you just watched a mediocre episode and then learn there's going to be a part 2 next episode. What's equally frustrating is that there doesn't even seem to be a need for these arcs to be as long as they are besides the fact that the show wants to fill up the 48 episodes of content, leading to a few episodes that you would probably be better ending up skipping. There's one especially boring Stand user near the end of the second half whose powers could maybe fill one relatively entertaining episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but the damn thing goes on for 3 episodes, and by the end you just want Jotaro to punch the guy's stupid face so we can move on from this plot detour.
But if all this is starting to dissuade you from watching the show, I assure that these occasionally spots of frustration is more than worth it just to get to the end. The last 8 or so episodes, with only a few spots where things slow down, is a nonstop thrill ride that contains some of the best, creative, and hell, even emotional fights of the entire franchise, culminating in a truly epic final confrontation against Dio that is probably one of the best final battles of any anime that I can remember, making any temporary annoyances getting there more than worth it. This is the zenith of shounen anime's appeal, and you'll be doing yourself a discredit not to witness this legendary battle just because the road getting there isn't always smooth.
But if all this is starting to dissuade you from watching the show, I assure that these occasionally spots of frustration is more than worth it just to get to the end. The last 8 or so episodes, with only a few spots where things slow down, is a nonstop thrill ride that contains some of the best, creative, and hell, even emotional fights of the entire franchise, culminating in a truly epic final confrontation against Dio that is probably one of the best final battles of any anime that I can remember, making any temporary annoyances getting there more than worth it. This is the zenith of shounen anime's appeal, and you'll be doing yourself a discredit not to witness this legendary battle just because the road getting there isn't always smooth.
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| From left to right, Top Row: Jotaro, Kakyoin, Avdol. Bottom Row: Polnareff, Joseph, Iggy (in Joseph's arms). |
Characters
I'm not going to pretend that the appeal of the cast of Stardust Crusaders, or really any of the JoJo arcs, isn't purely the superficiality of their inherent coolness. All these characters are super-manly badasses to which justifying their awesome actions with character development is neither necessary nor called for. These characters are cool because they are cool, and learning why they are cool would take away from their coolness, which of course, is the last thing JoJos as a franchise would ever want to do. However, there are a couple of things here, so let's get into it.
Each protagonist of each part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are referred to as "JoJo" both by fandom and in-universe (in reference to their alliterate names), which has led to a long and passionate decades-long debate by fans arguing which "JoJo" is the best, and everyone has a favorite. Jotaro Joestar is mine. Joseph Joestar might be inclined to take this special place in my heart, but he already got his chance to shine in the franchise's previous entry: "Battle Tendency", and the fact of the matter is that he's mostly just reduced to comic relief during the duration of Stardust Crusaders. Not only does Jotaro steal the spotlight when he's given the chance during Stardust Crusaders, he goes on to steal it in the subsequent part: Diamond is Unbreakable, even more so than the protagonist of that story. But that's another matter. This has a lot to do with his personality, and when you first meet him, that sentiment might seem a little misguided. My first impression of Jotaro Joestar was that he was an emo, too-cool-for-school typical teenage protagonist, very different than the eccentric Joseph Joestar, who I had just watched be awesomely inept for 17 episodes during Battle Tendency. Honestly, I kind of hated Jotaro at first. However, as I began to watch him more, the little eccentricities of his personality started to really grow on me. It's not just that Jotaro seems like he's too cool for school, he actually is too cool school, having all the bravado, confidence and enormous brass balls to back up his demeanor. Usually a character like this would end up being shallow and forgettable, but Jotaro somehow defies that expectation by sheer force of personality, being simultaneously always the coolest guy in the room while having inexplicable character quirks that somehow endear you to him. His almost unfair amount of skill and awareness in battle, plus a tendency to be amazing at everything he does, is humorously contrasted with the fact that his dream-career is a marine biologist of all-things, and all he offers up as an explanation for the incredible deductive skills he shows off on more than one occasion is that he "watched a lot of Columbo as a kid". It's stuff like this that turns Jotaro from a character that seems like a pure Gary Stu, (though he totally is) to a character which also gives off the impression that he is just this way because he's that bad-ass, and doesn't need another reason. Pair this with his deadpan reactions to even the most ridiculous situations, his baffling haircut that seems to morph directly into his hat, and him once complimenting an opponent for knocking off said hat because apparently not "even the sea could manage that", and this third incarnation of "JoJo" ended up being my favorite by the end.
The other characters that make up the main cast are mostly there just so we have a "squad" to cheer on for 48 episodes, so you can't really expect much from them besides some cool powers and the occasional line of badassery, but the chemistry the entire cast has makes it hard regardless to not develop some sort of fondness for all of the characters. Whether you like stoic Avdol, cherry-slurping Kakyoin, Frenchman Polnareff, the crude Iggy, or senile grandfather Joseph Joestar, everyone gets a chance to shine, and everyone receives a satisfactory end to their arc. In that regard, they almost fare better than Jotaro himself, the story of whom spans three parts, one of which hasn't been animated yet, because they all get individual endings, all of which ends up fueling what might be my favorite fight of the entire franchise at the back end of the series. Whether happy or sad, you'll be sad to see them go, and if any show can make you feel that way about characters whose roles are entirely and undoubtedly supporting, then that should count for a success in my book.
In the role of the franchise-spanning big-bad, Dio Brando is an absolute delight. As far as I see it, there is really only two ways to do a great villain in a story. One is to play up their duality with the protagonist, making the audience question the differences between the two which lead organically into a more nuanced discussion about the definition of evil and all that good stuff. These are your Shogo Makishima's, your Squealer's, almost any "bad-guy" from Gintama, antagonists who really make you think that if they had been raised in a different situation, weren't given such desolate hands by fate, hadn't made one bad decision at one particular time, maybe they wouldn't have turned out so bad. And then, there is the second type of villain. These are the gleeful baddies who aren't so much characters as they are raging forces of nature, that delight in their villainy while they exceed such charisma that even the audience finds themselves rooting for them, who don't need tragic backstories or complex motivations to justify their insatiable lust for destruction. All this, of course, makes them an absolute blast to watch. This is the manipulating love of Izaya Orihara, the brazen violence of Ladd Russo, the beautifully simple despair of Junko Enoshima, and of course, the overwhelming evil of a character like Dio Brando. I wouldn't go as far as to say Dio was the first to establish this kind of character in anime and manga, but I do think as far as "shounen final bosses" go, Dio is definitely the one who everyone has been copying for over three decades. Everything about him is so damn iconic, his hair, his catchphrases, his tendency to drop steamrollers on people, that he becomes the kind of infamy even within his own story that he doesn't even need to appear that much to establish such an overwhelming presence, a constant feeling throughout for our heroes that "this is the guy we need to beat up". It's this sparsity within the narrative that allows the final confrontation with Dio to be so goddamn epic, a fight we've wanting to see for 48 episodes, and unlike so many shounen before it, Dio and the battle against him are able to live up to the hype, thoroughly finishing the painting of inarguably one of the most unforgettable villains of any medium.
Presentation & Sound
Each protagonist of each part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are referred to as "JoJo" both by fandom and in-universe (in reference to their alliterate names), which has led to a long and passionate decades-long debate by fans arguing which "JoJo" is the best, and everyone has a favorite. Jotaro Joestar is mine. Joseph Joestar might be inclined to take this special place in my heart, but he already got his chance to shine in the franchise's previous entry: "Battle Tendency", and the fact of the matter is that he's mostly just reduced to comic relief during the duration of Stardust Crusaders. Not only does Jotaro steal the spotlight when he's given the chance during Stardust Crusaders, he goes on to steal it in the subsequent part: Diamond is Unbreakable, even more so than the protagonist of that story. But that's another matter. This has a lot to do with his personality, and when you first meet him, that sentiment might seem a little misguided. My first impression of Jotaro Joestar was that he was an emo, too-cool-for-school typical teenage protagonist, very different than the eccentric Joseph Joestar, who I had just watched be awesomely inept for 17 episodes during Battle Tendency. Honestly, I kind of hated Jotaro at first. However, as I began to watch him more, the little eccentricities of his personality started to really grow on me. It's not just that Jotaro seems like he's too cool for school, he actually is too cool school, having all the bravado, confidence and enormous brass balls to back up his demeanor. Usually a character like this would end up being shallow and forgettable, but Jotaro somehow defies that expectation by sheer force of personality, being simultaneously always the coolest guy in the room while having inexplicable character quirks that somehow endear you to him. His almost unfair amount of skill and awareness in battle, plus a tendency to be amazing at everything he does, is humorously contrasted with the fact that his dream-career is a marine biologist of all-things, and all he offers up as an explanation for the incredible deductive skills he shows off on more than one occasion is that he "watched a lot of Columbo as a kid". It's stuff like this that turns Jotaro from a character that seems like a pure Gary Stu, (though he totally is) to a character which also gives off the impression that he is just this way because he's that bad-ass, and doesn't need another reason. Pair this with his deadpan reactions to even the most ridiculous situations, his baffling haircut that seems to morph directly into his hat, and him once complimenting an opponent for knocking off said hat because apparently not "even the sea could manage that", and this third incarnation of "JoJo" ended up being my favorite by the end.
The other characters that make up the main cast are mostly there just so we have a "squad" to cheer on for 48 episodes, so you can't really expect much from them besides some cool powers and the occasional line of badassery, but the chemistry the entire cast has makes it hard regardless to not develop some sort of fondness for all of the characters. Whether you like stoic Avdol, cherry-slurping Kakyoin, Frenchman Polnareff, the crude Iggy, or senile grandfather Joseph Joestar, everyone gets a chance to shine, and everyone receives a satisfactory end to their arc. In that regard, they almost fare better than Jotaro himself, the story of whom spans three parts, one of which hasn't been animated yet, because they all get individual endings, all of which ends up fueling what might be my favorite fight of the entire franchise at the back end of the series. Whether happy or sad, you'll be sad to see them go, and if any show can make you feel that way about characters whose roles are entirely and undoubtedly supporting, then that should count for a success in my book.
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| *poses dramatically* "The villain has arrived." |
In the role of the franchise-spanning big-bad, Dio Brando is an absolute delight. As far as I see it, there is really only two ways to do a great villain in a story. One is to play up their duality with the protagonist, making the audience question the differences between the two which lead organically into a more nuanced discussion about the definition of evil and all that good stuff. These are your Shogo Makishima's, your Squealer's, almost any "bad-guy" from Gintama, antagonists who really make you think that if they had been raised in a different situation, weren't given such desolate hands by fate, hadn't made one bad decision at one particular time, maybe they wouldn't have turned out so bad. And then, there is the second type of villain. These are the gleeful baddies who aren't so much characters as they are raging forces of nature, that delight in their villainy while they exceed such charisma that even the audience finds themselves rooting for them, who don't need tragic backstories or complex motivations to justify their insatiable lust for destruction. All this, of course, makes them an absolute blast to watch. This is the manipulating love of Izaya Orihara, the brazen violence of Ladd Russo, the beautifully simple despair of Junko Enoshima, and of course, the overwhelming evil of a character like Dio Brando. I wouldn't go as far as to say Dio was the first to establish this kind of character in anime and manga, but I do think as far as "shounen final bosses" go, Dio is definitely the one who everyone has been copying for over three decades. Everything about him is so damn iconic, his hair, his catchphrases, his tendency to drop steamrollers on people, that he becomes the kind of infamy even within his own story that he doesn't even need to appear that much to establish such an overwhelming presence, a constant feeling throughout for our heroes that "this is the guy we need to beat up". It's this sparsity within the narrative that allows the final confrontation with Dio to be so goddamn epic, a fight we've wanting to see for 48 episodes, and unlike so many shounen before it, Dio and the battle against him are able to live up to the hype, thoroughly finishing the painting of inarguably one of the most unforgettable villains of any medium.
Before we actually get into the animation, I probably should address something that first time viewers of the show are going to notice pretty early on: that Stardust Crusaders, and really the entire franchise, has a pretty unique approach to how things are colored. You might notice, for example, that at opportune points, the entire color palate of a scene will just entirely switch (sometimes to a purple like pictured above, sometimes to an entirely different tint) and stay like that for a couple moments before reverting back to the default colors like nothing happened at all. While it might be easy to assume, considering the content of this show, the animators just happened to buy some drugs one day from a shady Italian mafia representative, these schizophrenic complections are actually intentional, and the reasons for them can be traced back to Araki's influence as an artist, Araki himself citing artist Paul Gauguin and his philosophy to color as a direct inspiration. To make a very complicated and very interesting branch of color theory simple and dull, Gauguin was of the mind that color wasn't so much a constant as it was a feeling; the color of something shouldn't be dictated by reality but by what is more likely to stimulate the imagination. For example, snow might always be white in real life whether you live in Quebec or Finland, but painting it red to suite an atmosphere of horror or dread is not only fair game but openly encouraged.
Look, I don't want to get too into this, this could easily be its own post, but what you can take away from it is that the colors of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure somewhat operates on a similiar philosophy. The color of the character designs will frequently change to suite the mood of a given scene, and while it might take a little getting used to, I promise it eventually becomes a part of the show, only adding to the eccentric style that punctuates the series. Besides, this ends up creating a sort of cool anomaly within the various character designs: whether you draw a young Joseph Joestar with green hair or purple hair, it still seems like it could be ripped straight from the show, and for lack of a better word, that's kind of cool.
Final Verdict: 7/10
P.S: Okay, but seriously, Part 5 when?
Look, I don't want to get too into this, this could easily be its own post, but what you can take away from it is that the colors of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure somewhat operates on a similiar philosophy. The color of the character designs will frequently change to suite the mood of a given scene, and while it might take a little getting used to, I promise it eventually becomes a part of the show, only adding to the eccentric style that punctuates the series. Besides, this ends up creating a sort of cool anomaly within the various character designs: whether you draw a young Joseph Joestar with green hair or purple hair, it still seems like it could be ripped straight from the show, and for lack of a better word, that's kind of cool.
As for the actual nitty-gritty of the animation, I honestly don't think I can give enough credit for the work David Production have put into adapting Stardust Crusaders and the rest of the JoJo canon. There's a reason why it took 25 years to adapt Part 1 and Part 2 into a full length anime TV series, and almost 30 years to properly adapt Stardust Crusaders, despite it being by far the most popular entry in the franchise and doing extremely successfully in the West. Put simply, it's for all the reasons I mentioned in the introduction. JoJo is something that is really hard to describe, nevermind adapt into a different medium, so after A.P.P.P's sub-par attempts, it was probably just accepted for a long time that JoJo would never work in a format that wasn't manga panels. That's why I have so much respect for this adaptation. It's not just because of the animation (though don't get me wrong, the animation is still pretty damn good, especially for something 48-episodes long), it's because of its ability to somehow translate the insanity of Araki's original work into anime format without missing a beat, and the result is as bizarre as it is delightful.
If you give them a listen, you'll realize that the OSTs for all four of the adapted JoJo parts are all pretty damn good, and luckily for me, who has to listen to them while writing this review, Stardust Crusaders is no exception. That's actually pretty impressive, since the OST for Part 2: Battle Tendency, was composed by Taku Iwasaki, who in my opinion is one of the best composers working in the industry today. Needless to say, Yugo Kanno: the composer for Stardust Crusaders (and would later handle the music for Diamond is Unbreakable) had his work cut out of him, since up until that point, the most impressive mark on his resume was his work on Psycho-Pass, so I'm really that glad that the music turned out as well as it did. Part 3's OST is a weird but very addicting mix of electropop and small vignettes of other instruments: whether the gentle sounds of Setting Off, the exciting Danger Draws Near and Noble Pope, or the somewhat disconcerting rhythms of Approach. However, the MVP of the soundtrack is undoubtedly Jotaro's theme: Stardust Crusaders, a crazy fun and thrilling tune that lets you now some badass sh*t is about to go down. There's not many modern songs in anime that I'd call "iconic", but it's the kind of song that could definitely be nostalgia fuel for me in the future, and I can see it being forever the song I associate with the entirety of Part 3. It's that good, acting as the pinnacle to an already fantastic OST.
Moving on to opening and ending themes, it's a little more of a mixed bag than one would typically be used to when concerning JoJo as an anime franchise. Since the first series in 2012, JoJo anime have sort of made it a tradition of having badass and memorable credit themes, but unfortunately, Stardust Crusaders as an entry is probably the most mixed bag in those terms. The first opening theme: "STAND PROUD" isn't bad by any means, but it's pretty lackluster when you compare it to the second opening "end of THE WORLD", a truly epic melody of all of the series opening theme singers up until that point simultaneously roaring into a microphone in the most manly way possible. Undoubtedly, it's a perfect compliment once the fight with Dio starts, and just in case you don't know how they suite it to one of the best final fights in shounen anime, well, I'll just leave that for you to enjoy. Including Diamond is Unbreakable which came afterwards, "end of THE WORLD" is easily the best JoJo opening thus far and easily in the top four of the year it was released in. Whether that balances out the mediocrity of "STAND PROUD", I don't know, but I'm glad we got it anyways. As for the two ending themes, it's still inconsistent, but overall a little bit better. The show uses the 1986 pop song "Walk Like an Egyptian" by an American band named The Bangles as its first ED, which may not be the most creative choice for the staff to have made, but hey, you got to admit, the song is still pretty damn catchy after all these years. Stardust Crusaders uses the slow and solemn "Last Train Home" as the ending theme for the anime's second half, and while I can see they were going for a change of pace, it only really fits with the final episodes. Otherwise, amidst the crazy Stand battles and sound effects drifting through the air, the song's melancholy and soft piano keys were soothing but never really seem earned, and I mostly just skipped it so I could get to the next episode.
End of THE WORLD
Jotaro's Theme
Verdict
I've spent a lot of words talking about an anime that is very simple. JoJos is not complicated, the appeal of it is not complicated, yet here I am, over 5,000 words into a review that I still feel doesn't quite capture the full picture of what makes JoJo so JoJo, because JoJo's Bizarre Adventure isn't just an anime, it's a feeling, a tone, a way of life to some. JoJo is an avalanche of dumb memes, making weird "dorarara" sounds as you punch the air, saying "is that a motherf*cking JoJo's reference?!" about absolutely everything and anything at absolutely every and any opportunity. It has been around for over three decades and could easily continue for three decades more, fueled by one of the most astonishingly passionate and supportive fanbases of the medium.
I'm not here to say it's the best anime of all time, because it really isn't. Like anime itself, I have no doubt I'd hate JoJo if I didn't love it so much, between the impossible physics, questionable decision-making, and characters who you can't help but feel must be complete morons for not just assuming that every single shady person or strange occurance they encounter is probably another goddamn Stand user. But in the end, those are not the things that one should focus on, because diving into every single story inconsistency of the anime is never going to get you anywhere in a franchise where such inconsistencies somehow only heighten the collective hype-level of a given scene. Instead, it's probably just best to acknowledge and appreciate what it represents as a whole. Admittedly, depending on who you ask, the answer to that could change drastically: from a dumb-fun show, to a lifestyle, to something you never really understood the appeal of. Any of those answers are equally understandable and equally correct. But for me, no matter which part of the story is being told, no matter which protagonist is punching the shit out of which villain, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has always been one thing: endlessly entertaining, unreasonably manly, and more epic than epic could be. Now, I realize that reading all this nonsense for what must feel like forever is a large and exhausting bill to pay, so let's put this bizarre adventure to an end, shall we? Here's your receipt.
P.S: Okay, but seriously, Part 5 when?
Recommended Anime:
Fist of the North Star
I confess that I've never actually watched Fist of the North Star myself on account of it being over a 100 episodes, but I don't really need to in order to recommend it here. Araki has openly cited this legendary post-apocalyptic shounen as one of JoJo's main influencers, so if you want to see where the spine of not only Araki's work but also the shounen genre in general came into form, this 1984 classic is the perfect history lesson.
Ushio and Tora
There are some pretty obvious things to fill this second recommendation spot, anyone of the classic shounen titles that came from the same era as JoJo's like Yuu Yuu Hakasho or Dragon Ball Z would do fine in being a bridge to Araki's work, but for the interest of not being so obvious, I'll go for a lesser title from those days. While it only got its adaption recently, Ushio and Tora is a product of its time, a romping road-trip fight anime somewhat similiar to the format of Stardust Crusaders that checks many of the same basic boxes that you'd expect from the genre.
After much digressing and fanboying, my review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders is finally complete, years after I first typed out the introduction. If you've taken my advice and are looking to watch this crazy cartoon for yourself, Stardust Crusaders in its entirety is free to watch on Crunchyroll, as well as the entire rest of the JoJo lineup, so that's cool. Hulu also has the entire franchise available, however you will need to get a subscription or free trial to view it. I'll leave which method you decide to ultimately watch it, however, your own personal crusade.
Goodbye for now guys.
Goodbye for now guys.
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