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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Part 1
Author: Hirohiko Araki
Arc Episode Length: 24 (of 48)
Characters
Jotaro Kujo: As Joseph Joestar’s half-Japanese grandson, it falls to him and his friends to defeat a reawakened DIO. His Stand, Star Platinum, has immense speed and strength as well as the potential to awaken an even greater power…
Holly Kujo: Jotaro’s mother. She is unable to control her stand and thus only has 50 days to live unless DIO is killed,
Joseph Joestar: Now an old man, Joseph journeys to Japan and later to Egypt to battle DIO and lay the body of his grandfather Jonathan to rest. His stand, Hermit Purple, allows him to extend vines from his hand and use cameras to reveal faraway foes.
Mohammed Avdol: Joseph’s friend and a fortuneteller that aids Jotaro in his quest. His stand, Magician’s Red, allows him to manipulate fire in various ways.
Noriaki Kakyoin: An early rival turned friend, Kakyoin joins Jotaro in part to get revenge against DIO for taking control of him. His stand, Hierophant Green, is a long-ranged stand that can be used for reconnaissance and has an attack that allows it to shoot emeralds.
Jeanne Pierre Polnareff: A Frenchman who joins Jotaro in order to find the stand user that killed his sister. Polnareff’s stand, Silver Chariot, wields a French rapier and has extreme speed when attacking.
DIO: A revived Dio Brando that attached his head to Jonathan Joestar’s body. His stand, throughout the first part, is a mystery but is called the strongest stand by his followers.
Plot
A group of fishermen find what they believe to be a treasure chest in the ocean bearing the word DIO on its lock. The ship is later found with the chest opened and the crew missing.
In Japan, a young Jotaro Kujo is imprisoned and refuses to leave the prison because he believes he is haunted by an evil spirit. Travelling from America with his associate, Avdol, Joseph Joestar informs his grandson that the evil spirit is actually a manifestation of his willpower called a stand.
Joseph and Avdol tell Jotaro and Holly of the aforementioned treasure chest, revealing that it was actually a coffin housing the body of Jonathan Joestar and the head of Dio Brando. Joseph tries to convince Jotaro to help him defeat the reborn DIO but Jotaro refuses.
A series of events, including an attack from classmate Kakyoin and the awakening of Holly’s stand, leads Jotaro to accompany Joseph and Avdol on a trip to Egypt to defeat DIO. Kakyoin joins the group as well.
On the way to Singapore, the group battles a stand user on their flight. Upon landing, another stand user going by the name of Polnareff attacks the group. Realizing that he misunderstood their intentions, Polnareff joins the group.
After fighting various stand users on the road to Egypt, Avdol is killed. After pushing past Avdol's death and fighting more stand users, it is revealed that Avdol's death was all a ruse as he faked his death to purchase a submarine for the group. Using the submarine, the group travels to Egypt successfully despite being ambushed underwater.
This part ends with the Speedwagon foundation shipping out an unusual ally to aid the team as they arrive in Egypt and push towards a final confrontation with DIO.
The Praise
Before I get into the story beats of this part I have to get into one stylistic technique. The author of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki, has relatively recently published a book titled “Manga in Theory and Practice” that gives insights into his writing style and, most importantly, outlines one of my favorite things about Stardust Crusaders: This part is one big tournament arc made to not look like one. If you’ve ever watched any shonen series, you will inevitably encounter a tournament because it is an easy way to introduce stronger and stronger characters that build to the ultimate climax. That is exactly what is happening in this part of the series but, rather than being an explicit tournament, the escalating power structure and gauntlet of fights is disguised as one long journey. To watch a series that so cleverly hides a common trope was refreshing.
Story wise, I enjoyed two main things: The side characters and the continuity with the rest of the universe. To start, the side characters and the different abilities of their stands made their individual encounters with enemies a joy to watch. How was Joseph, who could only shoot vines, going to defeat stand user x? How was Avdol with his fire powers going to defeat stand user y? How each character dealt with an enemy in a smart way felt like an evolution to Joseph’s wit from Battle Tendency, and the differences in abilities added a whole new layer to battles. On that note, the differences in stands across the board had me enthralled. You had Tower of Grey (what was in essence a strong bug), Strength (which was a ship controlled by an orangutan), Ebony Devil (a Chucky-like doll), and The Sun (literally a sun) just to name a few. Whereas the previous parts had enemies that had defined strengths and weaknesses, Stardust Crusaders featured seemingly infinite possibilities for enemy skills.
Though I enjoyed the structure, side characters, and powers, nothing could defeat my love for how this fell into the continuity. By bringing DIO back into the fold, I felt the weight of the continuing legacy of the Joestar bloodline as well as the dread that Jonathan’s presumed successful sacrifice at the end of Phantom Blood was in vain. Whereas I felt that Battle Tendency was a fitting end to the story, Stardust Crusaders made me realize that there was more to be done. As an plotline, DIO’s return brought me back to feelings from Phantom Blood and that was a special moment.
The Critique
I’ve hammered the fact that this series might be too bizarre for people in my other reviews so I’ll change it up this time and talk about two aspects that did not immediately grip me: The abandoning of Hamon for Stands and Jotaro himself. While I understand that Stands brought a more mental and less physical side to Hamon, the immediate abandonment of the technique and how obsolete it became in the face of Stands felt a bit weird to me. It was if the show shunned all of the effort put in by prior JoJos. While I eventually came to accept that, a bigger problem I had was with the main JoJo himself. From the start, Jotaro and Star Platinum are far and away the strongest stands shown on screen. From insane speed to indomitable strength and weird techniques, Jotaro felt like the emergency button of the series that any character could press to defeat a strong enemy. Though he was held back at times by clever enemies or factors out of his control, whenever Jotaro was involved in a battle it was clear who would win and how fast the fight would be. Compared to Jonathan’s passion-fueled effort and Joseph’s reliance on wit and untapped skill, Jotaro’s overwhelming strength made it feel like he never grew throughout the series. Although the show mitigated this by having more secondary characters be more heavily involved, I couldn’t help but think to myself that Jotaro could easily solve the issues presented.
The Verdict
The first half of Stardust Crusaders was one that was wildly uneven in my opinion. I grew to love Stands, I enjoyed the side characters, and I really loved how this worked into the mythos of the series. However, I couldn’t get over the dominance of Jotaro and a lack of growth on his part. Being a tournament arc in disguise, a lot of this part felt like filler (especially when weaker opponents were being dealt with) but some of the fights shown really gripped me. In the end, Stardust Crusaders’ first half was an enjoyable one that I liked a bit more than Phantom Blood because of the variety and plot implications yet this part could not tough the levels of enjoyment or hype I felt watching Battle tendency.
Rating: 8 gold nuggets out of 10