English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “Let’s Go Hunting!”

Despite all his rage, he was still just a rat in a cage.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jotaro invites Josuke on a hunting trip for a rat that Akira Otoishi shot with the Bow and Arrow, meaning it has a Stand now too. Given their own Stands’ similar shape, Jotaro also teaches Josuke a bit about flicking projectiles from Shining Diamond’s hands, the purpose of which is to know how to shoot special bullets at their rat quarry when they find it because they may not get a second shot. Soon enough, they come across a ton of rats…but all merged together in a cube made of meat jelly. Seems the rat’s Stand can melt living beings from the inside out.

They follow tracks to a nearby abandoned house, with Jotaro surmising the rat has already killed its owners. They split up upon entering, with Josuke being the first to find it…as well as the owners, who the rat has melted and stored in the fridge for food. With the element of surprise, he manages to injure it, as well as getting a good look at its Stand, Ratt (with two T’s!). The Stand fires little needle bullets that cause the melting, but the rat dies from its injuries soon after. So, case closed, right?

Well, it seems Jotaro ran into a different rat with the same ability, messing up one of his hands real bad before Josuke heals it. Their targets have been halved, but now the other one is going to be on guard. Luckily, tracking it is just a matter of looking for bite marks. Upon getting a good look at it on security footage, Jotaro names the second rat Bug-Eaten. Now equipped with live rifle rounds, they go in for the kill…only to get tricked and almost melted by Bug-Eaten. Jotaro gives Josuke the rounds and plays decoy, knowing he can be healed but Josuke can’t.

Bug-Eaten proves to be even smarter than planned, landing several shots on Jotaro while Josuke lines up his shot. In a last ditch effort, Josuke fires…and misses. However, this was simply his plan to get Bug-Eaten to reveal its location and finish it off. Josuke’s proven he can handle the pressure placed on him.

OUR TAKE

Finally, we got some proper quality time between Jojos young and old! Sure, we had Josuke with Joseph a few weeks ago, but this Joseph is pretty different from either of the versions I’d rather see interact with his son. Josuke and Jotaro’s familial relationship is an interesting one, considering Jotaro is technically the nephew here, but it wasn’t something we’ve seen much done with since the first fight with Angelo. Now, we get a chance to have a story with just the two of them, highlighting Josuke’s growing maturity in the face of increasing danger, as well as Jotaro’s role as a mentor compared to when he was the lead in Part 3. He’s always been a pretty cool customer, but it’s here we see him far more knowledgeable, composed, and willing to sacrifice himself to protect his young uncle.

Josuke himself is no slouch either, slowly but surely growing in maturity and level-headedness (something we know he still has a ways to go on), as well as taking on more of his father’s signature chess-like battle strategies to lure out his prey. Maybe this is just my experience, but sometimes I see protagonists left behind in development by their supporting casts, as if having the main character role is development enough. I like where Koichi seems to be going and Okuyasu’s taking some fine steps himself, but Josuke needs some time to shine too every now and then.

And what a time to shine this was. Animals with Stands aren’t exactly anything new in this franchise, with Part 3 having an orangutan, dog, and bird who all had Stands of their own. But unlike those, this story becomes much more like a horror movie than any of the other fights since…well, Angelo, which was also a Josuke/Jotaro affair. The difference here being that, due to the rat being unable to speak or communicate in any other way except snarls and glares, the scares get ratcheted up when the thing that could melt you and feast on your flesh might just be around any corner. Like many of Jojo’s good horror stories, this plays on a fear many people have about rats but given an even more disturbing twist

I said before how I was kind of disappointed how this section of the story was more about buying time so they could come up with the next antagonist, but now I’m suddenly not so sure. The last few stories have been genuinely intriguing ones with very surprising and unique takes on what would normally be really standard padding fights, so now I’m basically all in on whatever this series can throw at me next. I guess we’ll have to wait until the new year for that, but it will be worth the wait.

Score
9/10