-Dio Brando
Stardust Crusaders is the third story arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series by Hirohiko Araki. The animated version by David Production adapted part 3 of JoJo into two 24-episode seasons, making it the longest part of the series that has been animated so far.
Part 3 is different from part 1 and 2 in a way that it's almost completely episodic villain of the week type of story.
It is revealed that Dio indeed did manage to get Jonathan's body and hide in the explosion-proof casket that he was in for a century until it was lifted up by some people. Dio's vampire blood and Jonathans lineage formed these things called stands. The way how they work isn't too clear to me but there are quite a few stand users around the world that the main cast has to fight against with their own stands as "only a stand can damage another stand." Probably because they're manifestations of the users soul or so, which mean that physical beings can't hurt them since they're spiritual beings.
The story of Stardust Crusaders goes like this (not in order):
We're introduced to the main character and the JoJo of part 3, Jotaro Kujo, the grandson of part 2's main character Joseph Joestar..
Jotaro got himself behind bars because he was afraid that a "ghost" that was protecting him would hurt Jotaro's mother. Jotaro's mother calls her grandfather to help Jotaro and sure enough Joseph comes as fast as he could, with company. Joseph explains the existence of stands that appeared with Dio's revival to everyone in the Joestar family with the help of a fire-type stand user called Muhammad Avdol.
Later on Jotaro meets up with a person brainwashed by Dio to kill him called Noriaki Kakyoin, a stand user that Jotaro has to defeat. Kakyoin hates himself of getting caught up in Dio's pace and joins Jotaro's crusade to get Dio as Joseph's daughter, Jotaro's mother, Holly is revealed to have a stand also. However as stands can be useful, they can just as well be deadly. Holly's weak physique since childhood made her stand make her bedsick and get her killed in 50 days.
From this point on the journey starts. The journey is spent in moving from one place to another and spending an episode there to fight against a stand user.
-The group takes a plane trip to make it to Dio as fast as possible as they believe that defeating Dio will make the stands disappear in the whole Joestar family. However Dio sent a kamikazer insect-type stand user to the plane.
The fight afterwards is an important one since once again, they have to fight a stand user that was being manipulated by Dio who realizes his own weakness and joins the party, a swordsman-stand user, Jean Pierre Polnareff.
-They fight a water-type stand user.
-They fight a nonhuman stand user with a special, huge and physical stand.
-They have to fight a grudge-type stand.
-They fight an impersonation-type stand user.
-They fight two stand users. A gun-type stand user and a light-type stand user. Polnareff gets plot progression and there might be something you can consider a twist.
-They have to fight an Empress stand user.
-They have to fight a car-type stand user. Another physical stand.
-They have to fight a Justice stand user, the mother of the light-type stand user.
-They have to fight a Lovers stand user.
-They have to figure out a way to defeat a Sun-type, large-scale stand.
-The group has to face against a dream-type stand user.
-They have to defeat a genie-type stand user. Another twist after this fight.
-They have to defeat a transforming stand while in a submarine.
-A new character, Iggy, sand-type stand user, joins the group and they have to defeat a water.type stand user that makes Kakyoin blind.
-They have to fight against a face-forming stand user and a future sight stand user.
-They have to defeat a physical sword-type stand.
-They have to defeat a magnet-type stand user.
-They have to defeat an anti-aging stand user.
-They have to defeat a gambling soul-type stand user. This fight is pretty intense.
-They have to face against the future seeing stand user and the gun-type stand user once again.
-Iggy the Dog vs Pet Shop the Falcon, an ice-type stand user. A good fight.
-They have to defeat the younger brother of the gambler they fought against, the brother's stand reads the souls of others.
-They easily get rid of an illusion-type stand user.
After all the other fights they have to face against a darkness/dimension-type stand user called Vanilla Ice and the 2nd to last fight in part 3. This fight is very crazy and Vanilla Ice was not to be taken lightly, sacrifices are to be made in order to defeat him. Vanilla is the most loyal to Dio out of them all, so much he'd kill himself for it.
After getting rid of Vanilla Ice, it's time for the main course of the series. The fight against Dio Brando, the stand user of The World, the most powerful stand of them all. This fight is the best in all of JoJo's that have been animated so far even though in order to defeat Dio, it had to be in a somewhat nonsensical way as I don't get why Jotaro would have practically the same stand just because he's a Joestar and Dio has Jonathans body etc. Anyway, the final, climax part of JoJo Stardust Crusaders is it's savior in my opinion. Dio was very powerful, smart and took all the possibilities of losing into account as long as he could keep his head calm.
The openings and endings of Stardust Crusaders didn't really stick with me, but once you reach episode 47 with Dio's stand's powers getting revealed, the studio pulls something amazing with the 4th opening (very subtle but 'he's' been there since episode 1).
Part 3 was a very monotonous series for me. I didn't really like most of the episodes after the beginning until D'Arby the Gambler. After that Iggy's fight was good and afterwards Vanilla Ice fight was good, and Dio's fight was the best. The series feels like a waste of time with season 1's first few episodes being spent on gathering the allies and arriving in the area where Dio is at somewhere in episode 24. The second season is spent on trying to find the place where Dio is hiding somewhere in the area but about last 9 episodes were very good and they spent a good deal of time with the fight against Dio, unlike the other fights in the series. The strength of Stardust Crusaders is it's ability to almost forcefully make you care about these characters, stick with them for a monotonous adventure and see the ridicilous stand abilities they. fight against, and in the end get a tremendous, very good pay-off from the whole story that doesn't really make you have bad aftertaste of the journey itself. The aftermath of the story post-Dio fight is just skimmed over which was a shame.
Season 1 of S.C. - 5/10 for me as I don't really care about villain-of-the-week fights, but the abilities of the stands are very creative, however the episodes overall felt very meh even then. Season 2 of S.C. - 8/10 for great finale fights. JoJo isn't story heavy series so I judge it by the fights and how well it keeps my interest during the episodes. JoJo part 3 the Stardust Crusaders is a story that I sort of disliked as I was watching it, but look back at the "journey" with a smile. That's one of the reasons why I prefer it over part 1 also aside from the final fights and a better main cast.
And just like Holly, I'm physically weak right now and need some well earned rest. Meanwhile waiting for part 4.... The Diamond is Unbreakable!
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