English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “Koichi Hirose (Reverb)”

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words leave psychological wounds that never heal!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Koichi takes his brand spanking new bike to school when he accidentally runs over a bag in the middle of the road, supposedly containing a now dead cat. The cat’s owner, Tamami Kobayashi, tries making him feel guilty and extorts him for money, which forms a giant lock on his chest. When Tamami is surprised he can see it, Koichi realizes this is a Stand, The Lock, which Tamami says was given to him by Keicho Nijimura, and will keep growing as Koichi’s guilt grows. Josuke and Okuyasu arrive to save him, but Okuyasu also gets tricked when the guy pretends his front tooth got knocked out. Luckily, Josuke reverses the “damage” and reveals the “cat” was really a stuffed animal, relieving the guilt and getting rid of the locks. With his true colors exposed, Tamami runs away, though not before swiping Koichi’s sneaker money.

Koichi’s certain he’s seen the last of the guy until he finds him talking to his mom in his own home. While he’s subtle at first, he begins heavily pushing the narrative that Koichi switched their wallets to make Koichi’s mom feel guilty, made worse when Koichi finds Tamami’s wallet in his pocket. Soon enough, the lock appears on her (and had already appeared on his sister earlier), and now Tamami’s talking about taking the house to satisfy the guilt.

Luckily, this is the point Koichi’s Stand activates, emerging from the egg as some sort of green robot worm thing. It goes to sock Tamami in the jaw but does no damage. What it DOES leave behind is the sound effect of the punch on Tamami’s arm, which Koichi touches and causes sound echoes to reverberate throughout his body. As a last resort, he takes out a knife to shallowly cut himself and throw the knife to Koichi just as his mom and sister walk in. The guilt in the locks becomes too much for the mother, who almost kills herself, but Koichi reveals another power of his Stand: He tells his mother to believe him, which causes a similar effect to happen to her and negate the effects of the lock by restoring her faith in her son.

In the aftermath, Tamami becomes Koichi’s servant, much to the confusion of his friends.

OUR TAKE

And like that, the last of the main cast finally gets their Stand! This seemed like the more or less perfect time to hatch Koichi’s egg after the events of last week. More importantly, it’s also the first story of the season that focuses on neither Josuke or Jotaro, but someone who is basically a bystander in all of this until now. It took Stardust Crusaders until a little later than this point to have an episode that didn’t require Jotaro’s presence, but it was still about someone in the main group. While Koichi is definitely the main protagonist, this episode establishes that there’s life outside of the Joestar’s own conflicts, as well as showing that the town of Morioh is full of fleshed out people with their own motivations and goals that also happen to be manifesting oddly specific superpowers.

Speaking of which, the “battle” with The Lock is the first of the many niche Stand abilities that Diamond is Unbreakable would go on to be known for, resulting in battles that are highly unconventional compared to standard Shonen manga fare. Unlike DIO’s minions in Stardust Crusaders, who were mainly about lethal attacks in one form or another, or even Angelo and Keicho’s Stands from a few episodes ago, The Lock is the Stand of a guy who doesn’t want to kill, just a mooch who wants to take advantage of people with blackmail and guilt tripping. Aside from straight up killing him, which is something nice people like Koichi would never do, physically attacking Tamami does nothing at best and only increases the guilt at worst. Thus, the only way to really fight it is by dispelling the lies that caused the guilt (assuming there are any to do that too, because if not, you’re really screwed), or by just having faith in people and yourself.

Similarly, Koichi’s Stand (which I’m not naming until it’s named in the show!) also has a rather odd form of attack that seems pretty unrefined, at least for now. It’s definitely an interesting power, causing sound effects to play on repeat and even hypnotically control people with commands. Two abilities that seem pretty separate but blend pretty well as they’re seen here. That said, if I had one complaint, it’s that this seemed like almost TOO fitting a fight for Koichi’s ability like they picked something that would only be able to be beaten by his power. I realize that’s a weird complaint, but compared to Josuke’s fights with Angelo and Keicho, that felt like fights that just showed off Shining Diamond’s versatility, this seemed just a bit too…perfect. I imagine we’ll see what I’m hoping for very soon, though. This is still early days for the season, so some growing pains are to be expected.