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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable Part 2 (Kira)
Author: Hirohiko Araki
Arc Episode Length: 19 (of 39)
Characters
Josuke Higashikata: The high-school aged, hair-obsessed, illegitimate child of Joseph Joestar that becomes heavily involved in the hunt for Kira. His Stand, Crazy Diamond, has extreme strength, speed, and the ability to repair or rearrange the structure of an object.
Yoshikage Kira: The main antagonist of Part 4, Kira is an established murderer in the town of Morioh that keeps the hands of his victims. His Stand, Killer Queen, has multiple abilities including turning anything it touches into a bomb and sending out a heat-seeking long-range bomb. Kira also has a secondary stand of sorts, Stray Cat, that has the ability to shoot air bubbles.
Kawajiri Hayato: The son of the man who Kira disguises himself as. Hayato suspects Kira from the start and ends up in an infinite time loop thanks to Kira’s third stand ability. His efforts to expose Kira ultimately help lead to Kira’s defeat.
Koichi Hirose: Josuke’s friend that gained confidence through the acquisition of his stand and helps in the hunt for Kira.. His stand, Echoes, is the lone stand in the series thus far to have multiple forms: Act 1 can write any word on any surface and that word will either gain its innate effect or repeat constantly within whatever it is applied to; Act 2 keeps the ability of Act 1 but can shoot words out of its tail and apply their effects to a stronger degree; Act 3 allows him to increase the weight of an object within its range through the “3 Freeze” technique..
Okuyasu Nijimura: Initially an enemy to Josuke, Okuyasu joins him in his shenanigangs around Morioh after their battle. His Stand, The Hand, has the ability to erase anything it touches to include being able to swipe away space itself.
Jotaro Kujo: The protagonist of Stardust Crusaders. Now older and wiser, Jotaro travels to Morioh to find Joseph’s illegitimate child in order to ensure that he gets his inheritance. Jotaro’s stand, Star Platinum (and unofficially referred to as Star Platinum: The World until this name was officially adopted in Part 6) maintains its immense speed and power but also has mastered the time-stop ability that was used against DIO.
Joseph Joestar: The protagonist of Battle Tendency. Now an old and a borderline senile man, Joseph is the father of Josuke. His stand, Hermit Purple, can extend purple vines from his hands.
Rohan Kishibe: A famous manga artist that moves to Morioh and becomes heavily involved in the search for Kira. His stand, Heaven’s Door, can turn someone into a book allowing Rohan to read their life history and abilities as well as insert his own commands.
Shigekiyo Yangu: Dubbed “Shigechi” by Josuke and Okuyasu, Shigekiyo is a middle school student that is killed by Kira. His Stand, Harvest, lets him send out multiple bug-like beings to gather or attack.
Reimi Sugimoto: A mysterious ghost girl inhabiting a mysterious dark alleyway in Morioh. She was the first victim of Yoshikage Kira.
Plot
Looking to buy a sandwich, Shigechi encounters Kira and accidentally switches bags with him. Kira vows to get his bag back, as it contained a severed hand, and pursues Shigechi. After a stand battle dominated by Kira, Shigechi flees to warn Josuke only to get vaporized by Killer Queen before he could. However, before dying, he is able to deliver a button off of Kira’s jacket.
With Reimi confirming Shigechi’s death to the team, they vow to get revenge and end the killings. Koichi and Jotaro trace the button to a certain store and encounter Kira’s second stand ability, Sheer Heart attack, which is impervious to all attacks. Koichi’s stand evolves, though, and uses its powers to immobilize Sheer Heart Attack and draw Kira out.
Although Kira easily defeats Koichi, his name is revealed to the team in the process. Kira then gets pummeled by Jotaro and Star Platinum and attempts to escape by cutting his own hand off. Josuke and Okuyasu arrive to heal Koichi and decide to use Josuke’s ability on the severed hand of Kira, which attempts to reform with the fleeing Kira.
Following the hand, the team arrives at the shop of a stand user that can swap the faces of people. Their arrival was too late, though, as Kira had already swapped faces and turned the stand user into a bomb.
With Kira living a new life as Kawajiri Kosaku, the team decides to look for clues to his identity. Along the way, they encounter and defeat various stand users. Kira has his own stand encounter, too, and tames the cat-like and stand-using plant, Stray Cat,
During the team’s search, the son of the Kawajiri’s, Hayato, becomes ever suspicious of his “father” and is able to catch his differences and plans on tape and camera. As a result, Kira kills Hayato in a panic. However, Hayato is brought back to life thanks to Kira’s new stand ability.
Wondering how he is alive, Hayato is confronted by Rohan, who recognizes Hayato from his investigations into Kira’s identity. Using Heaven’s door, Rohan is able to discover Kira’s identity but, thanks to Kira’s new stand ability dubbed “Bites the Dust,” Rohan is killed and time resets.
Reliving the same day, Hayato launches an attack on Kira in the streets instead of meeting with Rohan. Although he is unsuccessful, he gets Kira to reveal his identity to the waiting Josuke and to recall Bites The Dust in order to defend himself.
Having been outed, Kira decides to finally confront the team and dispatches Okuyasu, leaving Josuke to fight Kira alone. A prolonged battle begins, with each side using their abilities to launch both ranged attacks and close range attacks. Ultimately, Kira’s luck allows him to gain the upper hand over Josuke but Okuyasu, who was thought to be killed earlier, wakes back up and uses his stand to aid in Kira’s defeat.
As a last ditch effort, Kira attempts to reset the day by Using Bites the Dust on a nearby Nurse. Waking up thinking that it was a success, it is revealed by a present Reimi that he actually failed and was in the ghost alley, having been stopped by Koichi’s “3 Freeze” and Jotaro’s time stop. In the alley, Kira is dragged away by the hands of the dead.
With Morioh freed from the curse of Kira, Reimi bids the group farewell and moves on to the afterlife. Joseph and Jotaro also leave Morioh and are seen off by Josuke, who steals Joseph wallet as a final prank.
The Praise
This half of the show was very dense, with all of the side characters still playing some sort of role and all of the events foreshadowed coming to pass, but it was able to navigate the plot very well. In fact, it’s amazing what a little bit of focus did for Diamond is Unbreakable. Whereas the first half felt like a shotgun blast of random characters, like Yukako and Aya, the second half brought everyone together through the shared threat of Kira. Were there still moments that felt like filler? Of course. The episodes with Mikitaka and Highway Star, for example, were all interesting but still felt inconsequential in the long run. Such episodes were definitely cut down, though, and were way more enjoyable than the last thanks to the idea that Kira could be manipulating things behind the scenes.
On the topic of Kira, I have to say that I loved him as a villain. Though not nearly as strong or world-threatening as DIO (after all, he just wanted to live a quiet life), his cunning and stand abilities made him a completely different threat. He was the small town killer that thought he would never get caught and, even when confronted with situations where he could get caught, he could think himself out of it. Even though his various power-ups that he gained or showed off throughout the series felt like ways to extend his use beyond Killer Queen’s basic ability, I didn’t mind them and by the end was enthralled by their interplay. Just watching Kira and Josuke duke it out using long ranged techniques knowing full well that they were more suited to close range battle was a joy and it made their close range encounter towards the end even better. And speaking of encounters, the fact that Kira had more of a long-term presence with the main cast than other enemies from the series was a refreshing change. Instead of holing himself up in a castle until the end, Kira fought against pretty much every member of the main cast throughout the second half of the show and even killed off some characters early enough that it felt as though more deaths were to come. One last point on the fights: I know I complained before about how overpowered Jotaro was in Part 3, but I loved the fact that he gave what was essentially the finishing blow in Part 4. With how naïve and childish the main cast was at times, having Jotaro finish it off felt like a master showing his disciples how to act moving forward. For as much as Jotaro interacted with the cast throughout the series, his final time stop felt like the passing of the torch that is town protector to Josuke and the gang.
Part 4’s second half success, then, can be defined simply by one word: Focus. There was minimum filler, the filler that existed was able to weave in hints of Kira here and there, and the existence of one long-term enemy actually gave the cast something to rally around without losing the charm of the hometown feel.
The Critique
For some reason, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure cannot shake the idea of having random encounters with random characters. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed how whacky some of the stand powers were in this part (superfly and janken boy especially) and I loved the way that battles played in a more mental way than anything else, but with how cool Kira was and how focused the second half got on him the filler-type fights felt more out of place. Also, I know I praised the fact that Jotaro dealt the finishing blow to Kira but I have to say that his presence alone made me feel like Kira wasn’t that much of a threat. Again, I know I said that I loved that Kira wasn’t necessarily as strong or dangerous as DIO but having the guy that beat DIO there and having said guy have a better handle on stopping time made me wonder why Jotaro just didn’t ultimately finish Kira off sooner.
The Verdict
The second half of Diamond is Unbreakable brought the focus that I was waiting for during the first half, thanks in large part to the unveiling of Kira. As I said earlier, it’s a wonder what a good villain can do and having such a small villain in a small town fighting small-town boys gave the series a very welcoming feel. Did I think the first half was a slog? Yes, but as I said in my review of that part the introduction of all of those characters and the filler-feel was necessary to get one emotionally invested in the town of Morioh. Ultimately, as a half, Diamond is Unbreakable’s second half was worth the wait: It brought everyone together in a town that felt filled with life. As a part, while not my favorite, it was a fun ride with stakes that felt higher than they actually were.
Rating:
Second Half - 9 gold nuggets out of 10
Diamond Is Unbreakable - 8 gold nuggets out of 10