English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable “Yoshikage Kira Just Wants to Live Quietly, Part 1”

He is full of Sandvich, and he is coming for you.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Yoshikage Kira, age 33, leads a very unassuming life, barely making an impression at his place of work and generally trying to avoid being noticed. The reason for this is, in fact, because he is the culprit behind the series of murders in town, including the one that claimed Reimi’s life. He also takes trophies of his victims in the form of their severed hands, which he becomes romantically involved with. While enjoying his beautiful duwang (not a typo), his lunch bag is mixed up with Shigechi’s, who’s had his own stolen by a dog, not knowing Kira’s bag contains his most recent victim’s hand with his fingerprints all over it.

Not wanting to have his quiet life be exposed after all this time, he chases Shigechi in secret across town and even into his secret hideout in the school’s storage room. Against all odds, Kira manages to snatch the bag, but is caught by Shigechi before he can escape campus, leading to the bag being torn open to reveal the hand. With no other options remaining, he plans to kill his only witness with his own Stand, Killer…er, DEADLY Queen.

OUR TAKE

Kira, enter stage right. This episode begins a major shift in the tone of the series as it gives its antagonist, Yoshikage Kira, his first proper appearance in the plot. Unlike villains like DIO or Kars from previous seasons, Kira is not someone is seeking world domination goals or grand aspirations. He only wishes to keep his comfortable quiet life going without any interference, even though that life involves the murder of several women and treating their hands like his girlfriends. He’s a legitimately deranged individual who, now that he has a chance to really shine as one, has at least a few genuinely uncomfortable scenes this episode, particularly where he licks sandwich insides of the fingers of his current hand gal.

And yet this is quite the odd introduction for an antagonist like him, as we mostly follow his point of view chasing after evidence of his crimes and only revealing himself as a legitimate threat once he’s caught. His monologue is a good way to summarize his worldview and how he’s come this far in his murder spree, but it still doesn’t make up for how almost comedic he seems trying to grab a sandwich bag. I’m hoping next week will show him in his true terror, though that probably doesn’t mean good things for Shigechi.

Also of note is selected English voice actor, D.C. Douglas a veteran actor who’s been working since the late 70’s across both live action and voice acting in both animation and video games. This dude as minor credits across several franchises like Star Trek, Family Guy, Gundam IBO and Thunderbolt, as well as the .hack and Resident Evil video game series. Point is, they picked a very talented voice to bring arguably one of this show’s best villains to life, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how they accomplish that for the remainder of Diamond is Unbreakable.

But again, I have to say this episode was a bit of a step down from the last few of strong installments. Certainly miles better than last week’s Yukako spotlight episode, but not quite up to snuff of the previous ones before that. Though with that in mind, I have been told this is the beginning of a major uptick in tension now that we have a real enemy to focus the show, so I’m expecting great things in the remaining third of this season.