JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Stand Culture

• Titles: Dai San Bu Kujo Jotaro: Mirai e no Isan, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
• Genre: Action, adventure, comedy
• Episodes: 48
• Studio: David Production

Although it’s been years since Jonathan Joestar passed away and no one has heard anything from Dio since it seems that the discovery of an ancient coffin may start things off again. Jonathan’s grandson Joeseph has had a daughter of his own now and she has had a son. Although Jotaro may be a Kujo, he carries in his the blood of the Joestars and therefore must contend with both their legacy and their curse. Thankfully, grandpa Joseph is still around to lend him a hand. And they’re going to need all the help they can get to deal with a new and improved Dio.

I many ways I could just copy-paste my review for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Absolutely everything I said in that post applies to Stardust Crusaders. And that’s not a bad thing. When you have a show that works, why mess with it. And besides, JoJo is such a hectic and weird show that it’s not like most people would get bored of it that quickly.

So yeah, go read my review for JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure. See you, tomorrow folks!

Ok, ok, I guess I could say some new things. But not really about the production. It’s just as over the top as it always was. I guess you could say that Stardust Crusaders is a bit better production-wise. I mean it is better. Not in the sense that there have been any great changes or improvements. In the sense that JoJo was an unexpected success and they obviously had a lot more funds to play with this time around.

As such, the character models are still the same but they get a few more accessories. The crazy colour palettes are still crazy but they change more often now and you get an array of hues. And the art is way WAY more consistent. In fact, it is superbly consistent.

The vice acting remains delightfully intense. There is a signature JoJo sound and you can recognize it even without looking at the screen. I’ve always liked the OPs and EDs in this show but I will give the first 24 episodes of Stardust Crusaders extra points because they used Walk Like an Egyptian for the ED. First time I heard it I lost my ish! Spontaneous dance party in the living room? You bet!

The sad part is, I had seen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders before. I guess I forgot about that part. Or never stuck around for the closing credits. Obviously a huge loss for me!

Stardust Crusaders introduces the concept of Stands in the JoJo universe. Powerful supernatural incarnations of a person’s will which are also loosely associated with tarot cards for some reason. I watched JoJo in English. One of the very few shows I happen to really enjoy dubbed. So I didn’t have subtitles. And for the longest part, I kept hearing “stan” instead of “stand”. I’ve gotten so used to hearing people referring to themselves or others as a stan of so and so that I really didn’t think anything of it. I just thought the evil spirits are super big fans of the people they possess. It seemed like a funny tongue in cheek stab at pop culture.

I gotta say, in my headcannon they’re all still stans. And I kind of am as well.

I really liked Stardust Crusaders, as much as I liked JoJo’s Bizarre adventure. Which is quite a lot. This said, and this is possibly an unpopular opinion, of the three JoJo’s that I know, Jotaro is my least favourite. Don’t get me wrong, I think he works brilliantly as part of an ensemble. He is a great parody of the stoic but violent way to cool leading man. I get it. But I also think that by himself, he is less entertaining than Jonathan who is a parody of the Holier than Thou hero or Joseph who is the Wiseguy type. At least to me, both of these are more fun to watch in isolation, with Joseph being my favourite.

This is a nonissue, however. Jotaro isn’t supposed to work as a solo hero. He is clearly written to balance out an ensemble cast. Much more than before JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders is the story of a group of heroes and it’s actually difficult to single one out. Jotaro simply gets top billing for being the title character and the cool guy everyone talks about. I’m really not sure that he’s the one with the most screentime though. There are several episodes in which he hardly shows up.

Look at that, I found one thing to sort of gripe about then immediately dismissed it. Useful!

OK, here are some slightly more concrete criticisms. Although I did end up really liking Polnareff, he can be a bit annoying. He’s the overexcited type and he gets a lot of screentime. If you were annoyed by the Demon Slayer characters, for example, he’s a similar archetype. His strong personality, combined with the two JoJo’s equally strong personalities meant that Kakyoin and Avdol were sort of stuck playing the same role. Namely the calm voice of reason and/or wisdom. In my opinion, Kakyoin did it a little better but that’s a personal preference.

Another matter of personal preference, there are a lot of scenes that I had to skip because of brutality towards animals. And they get pretty graphic. I understand that due to censorship laws they could probably show more gore in animal characters than in human ones. I have no doubt that without restrictions, human violence would have been just as graphic. If you have issues with such things as I do, consider this a warning.

This said, I still enjoyed the series a lot and I am very sensitive towards violence towards animals so take that for what it’s worth. The violence is graphic but it’s also often cartoonish. After all, JoJo is and remains first and foremost a comedy. You can’t take any of it too seriously.

So what can I say that I didn’t already say in my first post? It’s a really fun show and there’s a reason so many people enjoyed it. I will now take a short break before moving onto unknown territory. I have never watched Diamond is Unbreakable but it certainly looks amazing!