English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “Judgement, Part 1”

“Hail 2 U!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Arriving on an island by the Red Sea, Joseph reveals to the rest of Team Joestar that the Individual they need to meet just happens to be Avdol’s father who lives life as a hermit. As they approach his home, Avdol’s father is less than thrilled to see anyone because to him, it’s bad news when people come to his doorstep. As Joseph tries to comfort Polnareff on the matter, Polnareff himself still feels extreme amounts of guilt out of all of this. If you’ve followed the show at this point his feelings on the matter are both understandable and genuine as he blames himself for what happened during their first battle with Hol Horse and runs away to contemplate, while Joseph tries to sort things out with Avdol’s father in private.

On the shore of the island, Polnareff discovers an aged lamp that, while trying to clean off, causes a Genie calling itself “Cameo” to appear which at first, Polnareff approaches with skepticism, thinking it’s a Stand given its towering mechanical design and like any sane person would, demands the Genie’s legitimacy. While Cameo remains vague in giving him answers other than the claim of granting Polnareff three wishes, As a test, Polnareff’s first wish is to be super wealthy which is granted as Cameo spouts out his catchphrase “Hail 2U!” before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Polnareff after this random encounter at first decides to tell Joseph about this until a treasure chest full of gold to appears before Polnareff’s eyes. At night-time, Polnareff tries to comprehend what just happened and thinks about the other two wishes carefully leading to a comedic scene where it almost goes off topic until he finally figures out what to wish for, while Team Joestar decides to look for him.

In the third act, things take a very emotional direction as Polnareff wonders if Cameo’s wishes can also extend to reviving the dead and proceeds to wish for his long-dead sister Sherry along with Avdol were brought back to life. It’s a quiet yet somber scene very little music is played and spends most of the running time devoted to Polnareff experiencing some well-established flashbacks that do an excellent job reminding us how much Sherry meant to him. After chasing after her while crossing some island fields at night, Polnareff disturbingly learns the hard way that it isn’t her at all… As Cameo reveals himself to be a Stand known as “Judgement” who can create zombie-like creatures from clay & mud based on the specific desires of that person’s wish. Much to Polnareff’s horror, he tries to use his final wish to make this fake Sherry disappear, but the episode ends on one hell of a cliffhanger as Cameo tells Polnareff he had already used his third wish… to revive Avdol!

Our Take

The pacing of this episode was very well handled in terms of making us care more about Polnareff. Much like the Wishmaster movie franchise, the Cameo Stand preys on the insecurities and weaknesses of the human heart and turns their own wishes against them. But unlike the Djinn Demons from Wishmaster, Cameo’s power only seems limited to creating living mud statues out your deepest desires. From that perspective, it’s new levels of cruelty, as it not only does give a false sense of hope to the victim but being ravaged by something that impersonates a loved one only makes the proceedings even more brutal. Compared to Polnareff in his vulnerable state, I’m sure this would’ve been a much shorter episode if Cameo tried this on Jotaro.

You’d think after Polnareff’s past experiences with fighting other Stand’s that are out to kill him and Team Joestar, he’d instantly see through the bullshit with absolute ease. But for how good this episode was at selling the drama, it does make me wonder how will Polnareff get out of this jam and face his inner demons?

I guess we’ll find out in Part 2.