English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “The Nijimura Brothers Part 1”

Talk to The Hand!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Josuke and Jotaro continue interrogating the now petrified Angelo, who spills that, in the recent past of 1998, someone in a school uniform came to him in prison a month before his execution and shot him in the mouth with an odd bow and arrow that made him manifest his Stand. The man also apparently referred to DIO by name, which perks up Jotaro’s ears. Angelo uses this chance to threaten a nearby child and make fun of Josuke’s hair again. Josuke responds by completely sealing him in stone. I know he said he wasn’t going to kill him, but this seems worse.

Jotaro fills Josuke in on the Joestar rivalry with DIO, then goes back to his hotel to do further research about the man behind Angelo. He also stops by Josuke’s house and runs into his mom, who mistakes him for Joseph (kinda hard to do that considering she met him when he was 62). Josuke returns to his normal life, much to the relief of Koichi. On their way home from school that day, Koichi notices people watching him from the window of an abandoned house. Curious, he sticks his head instead of the gate, only to get his neck stuck by Okuyasu Nijimura (Jalen K. Cassell), and then gets shot there by Okuyasu’s brother, Keicho (Jason Marnocha), who turns out to be the guy Angelo was talking about.

Before Josuke can heal Koichi with Shining Diamond (which he has named his Stand suddenly), he has to deal with Okuyasu and his own Stand, The Hand. Luckily, he’s pretty dumb, so Josuke gets a handle on both his fighting style and the Stand’s power: erasing whatever its right-hand touches. That includes the air between them, meaning that Josuke can’t get the distance between them for very long. Thinking quickly, he lines up in front of some flower pots, which get tossed into Okuyasu’s head, knocking him out. Unfortunately, his brother pulls Koichi into the house and retrieves the arrow, leading Josuke inside.

OUR TAKE

I guess it was to be expected that Angelo wasn’t the end of the threat, though I can’t say we’ve really stepped up. I’ve heard one of the ways this story arc differentiates itself from the previous ones is that there isn’t really a grand mastermind or major central villain for at least the first half, but going from Angelo’s methodic strategizing and multi-use water powers to two brothers who I honestly can’t believe are related and have a really unclear plan of just shooting people with one arrow to give them super powers is a bit of a let down. I guess it’s good that I have a feeling we won’t be focusing on them long since Keicho isn’t in the OP while Okuyasu seems to have almost main character status. Beating villains and making them into friends is a common shonen manga trope, and one Jojo’s is familiar with.

I feel like I should be putting this off till we have more info, or at least until the end of this three-episode arc, but it is interesting how Okuyasu’s potentially frightening power is undercut by how dumb he is. Going through Stardust Crusaders, we saw all kinds of Stand abilities like stopping time, killing someone in their dreams, betting souls through card games and video games, and turning enemies into children. There was even a similar power in Cool Ice’s Cream. With each one, their respective users had to have their own warranted level of intelligence in order make full use of those abilities in the handful of chapters/episodes they appeared in. In Okuyasu’s case, The Hand’s ability could easily make him a prolific serial killer like Angelo or help him rob banks or maybe even a world leader, but he’s just so stupid that he could never dream of going that far. Maybe the fact that this is the first of many appearances means he’ll get cleverer with its uses over time. And yes, I was somewhat disappointed they didn’t get him a Kuwabara voice like a lot of people wanted, but I think we all knew it wasn’t going to happen.

But this episode did fall victim to some of the more infamous shonen tropes, such as two characters talking and talking for long periods of time during a fight when they should be…y’know, FIGHTING. I realize this was probably more prominent in the 90’s when this Part was first published, and the datedness is usually part of the charm with these 80’s and 90’s anime revivals, but poorly paced fights are still poor paced fights.