English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “D’Arby the Gambler, Part 2”

“P pp poker face, p pp poker face!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After Jotaro steps-up against D’Arby in a game of Poker in an effort to save Polnareff and Joseph, he proceeds to use Star Platinum’s sharp senses to detect any of D’Arby’s underhanded tactics whilst dealing their cards, which is a badass scene as Jotaro at one point brutally disables D’Arby’s hand because he saw him cheating during the deal, and to keep things fair & earnest, they call a random child to serve as a dealer. But of course, despite Jotaro’s attempts to keep D’Arby from trying anything else, Team Joestar doesn’t know that everyone within the Cafe is on D’Arby’s payroll, and D’Arby wins the first hand. During the second hand, Jotaro doesn’t even bother looking at his cards, which agitates D’Arby to some degree, and this is important given the pre-established nature of how D’Arby does things.

As the tension rises due to the sense of urgency going on with D’Arby, Jotaro manages to counter this possible disadvantage with comedic yet ballsy moments as somehow repeatedly making objects appear in his hands, from a lit cigarette to a random drink while keeping his quiet composure on a consistent level. Progressively, Jotaro proceeds to raise the stakes, by placing bets on the souls of people within his circle (Including Kakyoin and Avdol). In response to this, D’Arby suspects that Jotaro has cheated somehow, having a perfect hand and suspects that as being the reason why he acts so calm & collected.

However, Jotaro’s ballsy fortitude is taken a step further when he places a bet on his mother’s soul in exchange for info on Dio’s Stand, D’Arby becomes angry from the pressure, believing that he has no way to win. This makes him lose all hope, causing his Osiris stand to release the souls of everyone he had trapped before. However, he’s too unstable to answer any question, defeated. In the end, Jotaro reveals to Avdol that his hand was a terrible one. He admits to having been playing only with the gambler’s mind, not even knowing which cards he had, but having faith that his extreme confidence would make the gambler feel uneasy. Although they didn’t get any answers, the Episode ends with Team Joestar’s Dog Iggy in front of the camera making a goofy face, while Joseph randomly breaks the fourth wall.

Our Take

Damn, that was crazy even by JoJo standards! Up until the last moment, I thought he switched cards or something, but I couldn’t imagine D’Arby would be scared shitless. But it’s clear that D’arby even had some doubts about his own skills. The scenes of D’Arby losing his shit turned out to be the most entertaining parts to watch as well as having the unnerving fears of actually losing.

While most of the other enemies within Stardust Crusaders are often remembered for their Stand powers, rather than the individual Users themselves, It’s the exact opposite with D’Arby. In combination with the memorable vocal talents of Cam Clarke, D’Arby was definitely the star of the show, at least until Jotaro Psychologically dicked with him. It’s also noted that during its original run in Japan, this episode was infamously censored due to several scenes of Jotaro smoking, So I commend Toonami for having the balls to fix this issue.

As Team Joestar ventures back into the Unknown in Cairo Egypt, who knows what other dangers they’ll stumble across before they encounter the despicable fiend himself, Dio Brando.