Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders is the follow-up season to the original Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Releasing in April of 2014, Stardust Crusaders introduces Joutarou Kuujou, who is NOT your everyday typical Japanese high schooler; in fact, he may be the furthest thing from it. He begins his story locked up in a jail cell demanding not to be set free, the reason being is that he believes he has been possessed by a spirit, and not the friendly variety.
Joutarou’s mother, Holly contacts her father, Joseph Joestar (the main Jojo from part 2) out of concern for her son. Joseph agrees to travel to Japan to attempt to convince Joutarou to leave his cell. When Joseph arrives, he goes to meet Joutarou and attempt to explain the situation behind the “spirit”, explaining that Joutarou is not in fact possessed by a spirit, but rather that the spirit is the manifestation of his fighting spirit. Reluctant to believe such a theory Joutarou remains defiant but when one of Josephs friends, Mohammed Avodl forces Joutarou into a fight, he is forced out of his cell.
It is soon after this encounter that Holly begins to manifest her own stand, however, her peaceful nature prevents her from being able to control it and as such she falls terminally ill with little more than 50 days to survive. And so Joutarou, Joseph, and their new companions set out to save Holly, to do so the group must track down and defeat the believed dead Lord Dio Brando, an immortal vampire with terrifying power. The band must travel half the world across to the city of Cairo in Egypt. However, it will not be smooth sailing as Dio has employed the aid of many other villainous Stand users who are set on preventing the group from reaching Dio.
As I previously stated Stardust Crusaders introduces the concept of “Stands”, deciding to chuck Harmon out the window altogether (pretty much). Stands are described as the physical embodiment of one fighting spirit and can take many different forms such as a giant fire chicken, zombie fog, and even just a gun, however, most people think of Jotarou’s iconic Star Platinum, the purple punching ghost. It is really these stands that make JJBA so Bizarre in the first place. The abilities (while nowhere near as outlandish as later parts) are very unusual.
Much like the previous season of JJBA, we see the continuation of the resplendent art style which I thought was used to even greater extent than before, really changing bringing deeper contrast to the events and never failing to capture my interest.
Stardust Crusaders (Part 3) is arguably the most popular part of the JJBA series and the favorite part for many fans, but I would have to disagree. I very much enjoyed part three but I found that after the point where the group leaves Singapore, the show very much becomes a “villain of the week” scenario with two episodes per enemy and this format continues right up until the end of this season. I just found that this format was too repetitive and dragged out the fights much more than was needed. When I read the manga I found that this problem wasn’t present because I was able to read through the parts much faster and so the fights never seem to outstay their welcome. I think that this is just a result of the conversion of manga to anime.
I rate this anime 7.5/10.
H
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First airing in October of 2012, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure tells the story of two intertwined fates. The first of Dio Brando a young boy who – through the passing of his father- becomes the benefactor of the Joestar house. Unsatisfied with the hand he was dealt in life, Dio sets about attaining all the power he can, seeing the benevolent Joestar household as his first stepping stone. Meanwhile, with Dio’s arrival, Jonathan Joestar (the titular Jojo) soon finds that his life of youth and chivalry is about to be flipped upside down. Dio will take everything from Jojo, even turning his own father against him. When Dio gets his hands on a mysterious stone mask with the power to resurrect the dead, Jonathan will have to learn the power of hamon to defeat his adopted brother. Their differences will result in the beginning of a never ending war between the immortal Dio Brando and the proud Joestar family.
The story of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is full of many ridiculous twists and turn with a comedic absurdity, but also full of really emotionally powerful moments that really tug on the heart strings. I really liked how the series was also split into two separate, yet interconnected character arcs, on for Jonathan and another for his grandson Joseph Joestar.
As I previously mention, the art style of the show is incredibly unique. You’ve all probably seen the impossibly defined muscles and jaws so chiselled you could use them to draw straight lines, but this is only the very surface of the art style. There are always strong shading lines giving the show a very comic bookie vibe, the other thing that makes the are stand out so much is the colour change I mention earlier. At particular moments during the show, all or most of the colours make a dramatic shift to a different colour, yellow will become green and red will become blue. These changes always coincide with a tonal sift, like a new danger appearing or when someone is suddenly murdered. Its really cool stuff and I love it.
Its summer vacation time and Yuuta and the rest have agreed to join Rikka on her trip to visit her grandparents. During the course of the trip, Yuuta notices that Rikka has been acting quite out of the ordinary, being far quieter than usual. It is not long until Yuuta learns of Rikka’s life in her past home, including her grandfather disapproval of her Chynebu tendencies and of how her father succumb to illness three years prior.
It takes some time but the pair eventually reaches Rikka’s old house, only to discover that the house was demolished and the lot now stands empty. It is not long, however, until Toka catches up to the pair determined to get Rikka to realise the reality of their situation.
Continuing right after the events of the previous episode Toka is trying her best to force Rikka to come to terms with the fact that their old house is gone and their father is dead. At this point Rikka runs away again, meaning that Yuuta must chase her down. He runs all over the area searching both the grandparent’s house and the beach (where he finds his friends lighting of sprinklers).
After arriving home Rikka discovers that she has forgotten the key to her apartment, so Yuuta offers her to stay at his for the night. He soon discovers that his own family is away for the night, so we all know what that means. The two decide to go to the convenience store to buy some food, as the night passes Yuuta feels himself falling for Rikka, but while he tries to ignore those feelings, it seems Rikka may be feeling the same way about him. 
Rikka suggests that if the club were to clean the school’s pool perhaps there would be reason enough to not disband the group, however, in typical fashion the club members spend the whole time playing around rather than cleaning. For some reason, I just can’t shake the feeling that this scene may have been for the purposes of fan service rather than plot, but hey who am I to say.
After the test, Rikka ends up scoring quite poorly, fortunately for her, however, so does the entire class, lowering the needed average and therefore allowing the FEMS club to stay together.
This episode takes time away from Rikka and her shenanigans to focus more on Yutta and his other friend, Makoto Isshiki, the wannabe lady killer. Makoto receives what he assumes is a love note and thinking that is might be from Shinka, decides that it would be best if he talked to Yuuta.
It is not long before the notebook is discovered and the entire class goes into interrogation mode, grilling all the boys in an attempt to find the culprit. In an effort to save the other boys from punishment Makoto claims ownership of the notebook, naming himself as the sole culprit. Mistakenly offering to shave his head as penance for his crime, but it’s too little too late as Makoto is reluctantly forced to shave all his hair off.
Time is passing and Yuuta and Rikka continue to grow as friends. But now the time has come to chose a club for school activities, because what sort of anime high school would this be without a club. 
This episode is also when we are introduced to Sanae Dekomori, Rikka’s underling and fellow delusional. She doesn’t play much of a role in the events, merely serving a supporter for Rikka, although she has more character than Kumin and does add to the humour of the show so I’m not too miffed.
Yuuta finds himself pondering why Shinka, one of the most popular girls in the school would want to join the “Far Eastern Magic Society”, especially when she is already part of the cheerleading club. She asks Yuuta if she can visit his house for some unexplained reason, so naturally, Yuuta agrees and comes up with a plan to keep Rikka and Sanae off his back for some time.
This is a turning point for this character, much like Kumin, Shinka goes from being a nice, friendly person to an outright jerk. Thus cementing her personality for the rest of the series and quickly becoming a very unlikeable character. However, I do have to admit that I like the dynamic of her being an Ex-Chunibyo like Yuuta, adding just that bit more diversity to the cast.
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