English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “Heart Attack, Part 1”

Real cardiac!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jotaro and Koichi stare in horror as Killer Queen’s second bomb, Heart Attack, explodes the shop owner’s body but emerges unscathed. Kira flees with the jacket, but Jotaro’s already putting together details about him just from this encounter, while Koichi’s realized that an exploding Stand explains why they couldn’t find Shigechi’s body. Heart Attack…ATTACKS again, but Jotaro uses Star Platinum’s time stopping ability to pummel it to try and get rid of it…which does nothing. Pulling it from the inside seems to do some damage, but it explodes before they can hurt it enough. As Koichi starts fretting, the bomb approaches him first, leading Jotaro to suspect it’s attracted to whichever target is hottest. Once more, he uses Star Platinum to stop time in order to quickly make a fire to lure it in, but underestimates the power of the explosion and is severely injured.

As Koichi is still the hottest thing in the room (I mean someone must think that considering the harem he’s attracted), Heart Attack continues to pursue him, so Koichi uses Reverb Act 2 to create a heated lure to keep it occupied. With that buying time, Koichi calls Josuke for help, only to be caught in another explosion and injured too. Even worse, Reverb Act 2 is just a shell of his former self…again! But wait, this happened before, meaning it’s time for another transformation: Reverb Act 3, who talks! Unfortunately, his moveset is considerably less than Act 2, only allowing him to slow down Heart Attack and leave it stuck in the ground. Still, that’ll do for now, and the effects are even beginning to impact Kira by making his left hand too heavy to lift, forcing him to cause a scene. He must take care of this personally.

OUR TAKE

Once again, Diamond is Unbreakable plays to the strengths of what make Stand battles so intricate and intense. Like the battle with the rats several episodes ago, fighting Heart Attack is a chess match of calculated moves and feints. Jotaro and Koichi are up against a very tiny opponent with large and devastating power, meaning that every step counts in learning how it works, where it goes, and what can be done to stop it. The menacing voice beckoning their attention also doesn’t help matters, showing this is as much a mind game as it is a test of will or strength. Being in a place neither of them is familiar with also forces them to be on their toes in order to get ahead, and with Shigechi’s death still fresh in everyone’s mind, it feels almost certain they could be next to bite the dust (assuming you haven’t read or watched ahead and haven’t looked up spoilers).

But even without that, this is honestly I pretty neat match up, putting Koichi and Jotaro together. There’s nothing especially significant about having these two specifically, but I have really enjoyed the pairings that the story has done with the last few Stand encounters. We’ve had Josuke and Joseph finding that baby, Josuke and Jotaro fighting the rats, Josuke and Okuyasu fighting Shigechi…huh. Actually, this is probably the first time they’ve had Koichi pairing up with someone from the main group that also didn’t involve Josuke. And as much as I’m excited to see more of Reverb Act 3, I’m also glad to see Jotaro being given another chance to show his skills off as the big brother/technically-nephew of the group. As I’ve probably said before, using prior main characters like this is a good balance of showing why they were so great in the first place while also not overshadowing the current cast, making it the best of both worlds. Now if only Polnareff could come back!

That said, obviously the fight isn’t over yet, as Kira can’t sit idly by anymore sipping his tea. We’ve seen what his Stand can do now when he’s being serious and even his diversions are lethal, so it’s looking like the Joestar group is in for something pretty deadly when he gets there. But for now, this was a great fight and a great episode. I can’t wait to see how it wraps up next week. I just hope I don’t die of a heart attack before then.