English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “The Nijimura Brothers Part 3”

That’s some “Scar Tissue” I wish I HADN’T seen!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After putting down Keicho, Josuke and Koichi go looking for the Bow and Arrow upstairs, only to find small green man covered in horrible lumps. A severely injured Keicho arrives and explains that this is his and Okuyasu’s father. Back during the events of Part 3, he made a shadowy deal with DIO and had a flesh bud implanted in his head in exchange for money and jewels. But once DIO was killed, the flesh bud mutated his body into what he is now. He wasn’t a great dad by any stretch, beating his sons regularly, but Keicho has been using the Bow and Arrow to try and find Stand users that can properly kill his father and end his suffering. Or at least to stop him from rummaging around in one specific box full of paper scraps.

Josuke notices the scraps fit together like a puzzle, so he uses Shining Diamond to reconstruct it into a picture of the whole Nijimura from before things went off the deep end. Josuke tries to mediate things, offering to help Keicho out if he changes his goal from murder to healing, and even Okuyasu tries to plead for this. But Keicho has done so much awful stuff that it could be impossible for him to turn back now.

Unfortunately, as they deliberate this, Josuke notices someone peaking in from a window, followed by a sentient lightning…gremlin(?) popping out of an electrical outlet. It goes for Okuyasu, but Keicho punches him out of the way and takes a giant punch through his gut. The user of the Stand, which is called (Red Hot) Chili Pepper, mocks Keicho for underestimating him before pulling them both through the outlet and taking the Bow and Arrow. Josuke and Okuyasu search from the roof and find Keicho’s charred corpse on the power lines. Okuyasu is heartbroken but tries to remind himself that his brother’s last act was to save his life.

Chili Pepper’s user calls Jotaro at the hotel and tells him to leave town, but let’s slip that he’s a high school student. Keicho is buried and Okuyasu starts going to school, as well as coming to pick Josuke up in the morning and noting how hot his mom is. The spirit of Kakyoin truly lives on in him.

OUR TAKE

Another arc ended, another family member dead, huh? Sure hope that isn’t the start of a trend. But otherwise, this was an interesting way to end this segment, as well as set up potential threats for the foreseeable future. Feels kind of like a sort of Flash/Smallville plot generator of “this big sci-fi thing happened and now a bunch of people have superpowers and one fights us each week” like with the Kryptofreaks or the Dark Matter Wave that made the metahumans. In terms of anime related examples, the shattering of the Shikon Jewel in Inuyasha probably also fits pretty well.

Though for a story that was mainly about setting up other stories, it was nice to also get some closure to Keicho, who turned in a pretty good performance changing from menacing to sympathetic for what was a pretty effed up tragic backstory. From what I can tell, this is only the first of several aftershocks that DIO’s schemes cause in this and later parts (one being the next season’s protagonist, in fact), so these are ways that longtime viewers and readers continue to have the assurance that this is all connected. That said, I wonder if this isn’t just a bit alienating for newcomers, since any mention of DIO is going to require a big pause and a lot of at least cursory research from previous seasons to remotely understand. I know this is Part 4, but I value accessibility just as much as I do rewarding loyal viewers with references. Still, I guess that answers what happens if you don’t take the flesh buds out. Makes me wonder if all the surviving former members of DIO’s group from Part 3 have also ended up like this. Sorry, Mariah fans.

Plus, while this isn’t by any means meant to be the conclusion to the story, I’m not sure I like how this progression is going. We started with one vengeful serial killer who led us to these two brothers who are now being replaced by some electric type guy who named his Stand “Red Hot Chili Pepper” when it looks like neither a chili pepper nor is it red. I guess it might be hot considering the voltage, but that’s about it on fitting the name, and I like “Dani California” as much as the next guy, but there’s a limit. I just hope this isn’t going to turn into a whole “your Bow and Arrow are in another castle” type deal every time we get close.

Overall, a shocking turn of events, but it makes me worry if the circuits are working correctly.