English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “Shining D (Diamond) is Unbreakable, Part 1”

Let’s NOT do the time warp again, huh? How about THAT?

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kira gloats about his apparent victory over Hayato, Josuke, and the rest, even admitting he’s really Yoshikage Kira. Little does he know that the call the Kawajiri’s got that morning was actually Hayato calling Josuke to meet him, meaning Kira’s just given himself away in front of Josuke and Okuyasu. Josuke begins attacking him with Shining Diamond, forcing Kira to use Deadly Queen in defense. But because he can only use one ability at a time, this undoes Bites the Dust right before Rohan explodes, breaking the loop. He’s not out of moves yet, however, as he makes use of Stray Cat by putting it in a compartment of Deadly Queen’s stomach (somehow), meaning that he can further weaponize Stray Cat’s air bubbles by turning them into bombs. Bombs that are nearly undetectable, can squeeze through tight spaces, and take everyone by surprise.

Okuyasu attempts to lend a hand with…The Hand, but this puts him right in front of the bubbles, mortally wounding him. Josuke goes to help heal him, but Hayato tells him that Kira might have just turned Okuyasu into a bomb, meaning touching him could be fatal. The only way to know for sure is to get Kira to use another bomb, seeing how, as mentioned, he can only use one bomb at a time. Josuke won’t dare to make a call either way, so Hayato sacrifices himself to show the bomb to Josuke, which Josuke follows up by instantly reforming Hayato from being blown up (even though he shouldn’t be able to revive the dead and Hayato most definitely died there, but whatever).

The two of them make a run for it with an unconscious Okuyasu in tow, although he still doesn’t wake up even after Josuke heals him. In his panic, Josuke almost doesn’t notice that Kira is sending a bubble straight at him, but at the last minute uses the blood from an injury to slice the bubble in two…which does nothing to make it less of a threat. They still manage to get away with some quick thinking, but Kira is hot on their tail.

OUR TAKE

The final battle against Yoshikage Kira begins with a major victory in breaking Bites the Dust. I guess you could say Bites the Dust bit the dust…if you were a hack, which I am not! More importantly, it also gives Josuke a chance to really show his talents as both a fighter and tactician for the first time since the battle against Superfly. He really is a pretty even combination of the previous Jojo protagonists so far, having Jonathan’s sense of honor, Joseph’s clever mind, and being close to Jotaro in offensive capability. It’s no wonder a key moment of the episode is at the end when Kira starts to acknowledge Josuke as his major threat instead of Jotaro, and having Josuke being the main hero of this final fight that shows Josuke has truly been handed the torch…two episodes before the end of his story, but still.

It may also have to do with the fact that Shining Diamond and Deadly Queen are polar opposites when it comes to abilities. Kira can harm anyone except himself while Josuke can HEAL anyone except himself…and harm them by punching them, but besides that, TOTAL OPPOSITES. And it becomes that much clearer as part of Josuke’s defense in fighting Kira’s increased firepower is “healing” things around him as a cover or even transportation. Though even that power of his has limits, as it looks like Okuyasu might have truly bit the big one from the last attack, and even Josuke can’t revive the dead. He CAN revive someone who has been completely vaporized, but someone who only has a damaged body part and is unconscious seems to be outside of his depth. I might just have to let that one slide, but it is pretty weird.

So hard to believe that this season only has two episodes left after everything that’s happened. One of the major benefits of Toonami starting this Jojo streak back in 2016 was it allowed us to watch every available episode in a row back when Diamond is Unbreakable was just wrapping up in Japan, but it looks like we’ll be in for a dry spell until the next season, Golden Wind, is finished dubbing. It’s definitely going to be odd not having something Jojo-related to watch every week for at least a little while. For now, though, let’s just savor what we have as we break the last two bits of this season in the coming weeks.