This is where this arc gets weird. We’re still in adventure modus, however in these two episodes Jotaro not only meets some of the most bizarre Stand users, it’s also done in the most camp way possible. You can see a clear difference with the first two seasons of Jojo: there it was all about the ridiculous poses that the characters made. This season is all about poker faces: the most ridiculous things happening and the characters don’t even flinch.
Or take for example the point where, just after defeating a stand and being left in a small boat, one of the characters decides to comb his hair to get it in perfect model again. Jotaro gets stabbed in the shoulder by a giant fan and doesn’t even seem to feel it, or just lights up a cigarette or whatever (censoring THAT? Really?), or coming up with the most ridiculously cool plans like it’s nothing.
And then we have this giant horny ape that controls an entire container ship. Jojo is always about contrasts: combining two huge opposites with each other. This time it’s Jotaro’s pokerface with some completely outrageous stand users.
It’s such a monster of the week, however so far it’s done things right: it’s not boring yet and these two episodes definitely brought in some much-needed variety. I like the adventure part of this series a lot (you hardly see that in modern series anymore: an actual journey). Episode 07 also had some weird horror elements. Overall I liked it a lot.
When watching episodes 6 and 7 I wasn’t even thinking like that, about the characters reactions to these crazy situations, I guess that is pretty interesting. Well the good things about these last 2 episodes were definitely how good the show trolled us in the preview for episode 6. I swore the whole stand and cigarette thing was an actual plot point, only to find out it it was jotaro bluffing the whole time.
Episode 7 was a mixed bag for me. I really liked Dio’s speech in the beginning, only he could make a speech that’s not only cocky but also cowardly at the same time. The reveal of the ape as the the stand user was great, showing him in that awesome captain uniform playing with with a rubix cube was just great. Besides that I thought the episode played out very predictably, the fight was pretty bad (he beat the ape in the exact sameasame as the last guy), and didn’t like how useless Joseph Joestar was. Last season he was basically known for getting out of sticky situations, this season he’s just another damsel in distress. I know he’s 70 but a 70 year ripple user is actually in really good shape, and he should be more wise than he was a teenager.
Also I hope this show gives us a reason for why Joseph isn’t teaching Jotaro the Ripple. I mean Dio is a vampire and is weak to it, it only makes sense that he would (not to mention Joseph is the closest thing to a ripple master now that everyone is dead). I just don’t think it’s a good idea to completely get rid of the ripple in the third arc when you’re characters are facing a vampire is all.
I think it was mentioned in the earlier episode than Stand is basically a Ripple energy that manifested into a being.
Is that so? I don’t remember that at all. But what does it mean exactly? Does that make Dio exceptionally weak to stands since they are just ripple energy?
a bunch of reasons why Joseph isn’t teaching ripple
Only 1-10 000 people can use it
It’s really hard to master and they only have 50 days tops
Most of their enemies aren’t vampires (Dio is the only vampire we’ve seen thus far, flesh buds are better since they won’t make his minions crumble to dust in the sun)
Stands are already quite powerful and get the job done anyway
“Only 1 out of 10,000”
Considering Jotaro is part of the Joestar bloodline, I think the idds that he can learn the Ripple is quite high.
“It’s really hard to master and they only have 50 days”
Didn’t Joseph learn it in like 30? I know he already knew some of the basics, but it can’t be that hard to learn for Jotaro considering his bloodline and that Joseph and Jonathan both learned it quite quickly.
“Most of their enemies aren’t vampires'”
But Dio is, and he is their main enemy. The strongest one.
I get what you’re saying and all, and you have a point, I just think it’s weird that Joseph wouldn’t at least teach the basics to Jotaro to help in the fight against Dio. I just feel like it could still be useful.
It’s also possible that Joseph was just so out of practice with using his own Ripple that he’d have to remaster his own before he could teach Jotaro. They are strapped for time and have be constantly on the move. While when Joseph trained in 30 days, he had a master, her two assistants, and Ceasar to help teach him and got to stay in a training facility for teaching people Ripple mastery. So it isn’t really a fair comparison.
Of all of the stupid things to censor. Pilots getting their tongues ripped out, ok. Jotaro lighting up a cigarette (as a gambit to draw out Stand user), censored. Granted, Jotaro is only 17, but still, that was pretty stupid.
Jotaro’s smoking parts got censored because he’s underage. They also changed the drink he was holding in episode 1 from Heinken to some kind of soda for the anime. It’ll probably be uncensored in the Blurays, like they’ve done before.
The interesting part is that the ape smoking was not censored but Jotaro yes… Does that mean it’s ok for the ape to smoke if it is not underage?
I am disappointed at Joseph too. He gives up too quickly.
I vaguely remember someone saying it’s illegal to portray teenagers smoking on Japanese TV. Anyway, the Ripple is largely useless when everyone can use Stands. Trying to fight Dio with only the Ripple would be suicide as you guys will see later on. The only reason Joseph seems so “useless” is because the writer chooses to “power down” the previous JoJo in order to make the current JoJo stand out. Pun not intended. Maybe.
It isn’t about teenagers smoking so much as it is about students smoking. Had he been a teenager in anything but a school uniform, it might’ve been okay, but he’s wearing a school uniform, so he is portrayed as a student and cannot be seen smoking. It’s censored everywhere else in Japan, so this is just standard procedure. I’m just really glad they still animated it anyway. It’ll be uncensored in the BD version, at least, so it’s not a huge problem that it’s censored on television. I mean, it’s not like we actually don’t know what he’s doing.
That’s so weird. Thanks for the informative reply.
Good Review. This is one of the best anime in all time