Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders S2 – 12

Tremble in fear at Dio’s perfect glutes!

The winter shows may be ending, but Jojo will keep on trucking. So that’s one show already decided for what I’m blogging next season! I don’t mind sticking with Jojo since I’m only “eh” about the next season. But I’m usually wrong so don’t listen to me.

Sometimes I think that once a creator knows a certain character is popular, they will purposely do whatever they can to bring that character back to appease the audience. Dead or not, if giving a side character more time in the spotlight means better ratings, then it’s not out of the question. I heard (I don’t even remember where so this might be totally wrong) that Araki brought back Avdol because apparently he had a surprising fan following and they got upset when he died. And if that example is totally wrong, just think of how they killed Brian in Family Guy only to revive him immediately after because pretty much all the fans rebelled against that decision.

I’m just surprised all his hair fit in there.

Boingo and Hol Horse aren’t dead, but I’m pretty sure it follows the trend of a creator bringing back certain characters to please the fans. The only problem is that I can’t think of a worse combo to bring back than Hol Horse and Boingo. It’s a match made in hell. It makes me stop and wonder if these guys are actually popular and I’m just out of the loop. Are you guys happy to see Boingo and Hol Horse back? Is this what you wanted? Because it’s definitely not what I wanted. To me, Hol Horse is the douchebag playboy coward whose power I don’t even remember. He has a gun? It shoots real fast, I guess? Whatever. Then there’s Boingo whose future-telling manga gimmick was clever, but the problem is that it’s still a gimmick. His Stand wears thin once you understand how it works and know what to expect, and that takes all the fun out of it by trying to use it in another episode. This is like trying to bring an inside joke you had with your friend a year ago – it’s just not funny anymore.

So now I’m stuck watching these two weirdos try and kill Jotaro together. I can’t help but feel it’s a waste to go back and reuse villains instead of giving us new ones. A new baddy could potentially be boring, but at least it’s something different and I would feel like Jotaro and the gang are getting closer to Dio. I hate to say it, but I just couldn’t get into this week’s episode. The scorpion killing thing was supposed to remind us how Boingo’s power works, but we already know so it doesn’t have the intended “shocker” effect that it should. I’m also not too jazzed about Avdol’s killer being reintroduced to Polnareff in the least dramatic way possible – shoving his fingers up Polnareff’s nose in a alley. It was an amusing scene, but I’m not sure if it’s what I’m looking for…

Do yourself a favour and look at the expressions of the couple to the right observing this unholy act.

The fact that this will take up another episode is disappointing. My reaction is further worsened by the fact that this is airing at the same time as all of these great 1-cour anime finales. I watched this after the final episode of Shirobako and Garo. The contrast is too great!

On the bright side…there’s Dio. The saving grace of this episode is seeing Dio and his terrifying charm in action. I love how he’s depicted as being both breath-takingly beautiful and back-breakingly powerful. The whole atmosphere of the scene really goes a long way in showing off these two traits, to the point where even I’m a little worried that I’ll fall under his control. It’s a very chilling scene even though no one actually gets hurt. It’s the promise of a violent possibility that keeps you on edge, waiting for it to happen. And when we finally see Dio snap, it’s going to be intense.

Dio is waiting…

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.