English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “D’Arby the Player, Part 1”

“Game-On!”

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

As Team Joestar enter’s enemy territory, The “Butler” who approached them from the last episode shows up and introduces himself to be D’Arby’s younger brother Terrence T. D’Arby, (Voiced by Xander Mobus) who’s Older Brother, Daniel was previously defeated by Jotaro, but holds no grudge for his brother losing against Team Joestar. After the introductions, Terrance proceeds to bring out his Stand “Atum” to drag Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Joseph into an illusionary world but tells Avdol, Iggy, and Polnareff to torch the place if they don’t return in “10 mins” so points to Joseph for a quick backup plan. Much like his older brother, Terrance’s stand is bound by its own set of rules which involve challenging people in video games, as opposed to Daniel’s old-school gambling.

While the three decide to play along to a series of video games with their souls on the line in order to have him relinquish Jotaro, they all privately agree to figure out how Atum’s Stand-powers work since it managed to grab Star Platinum’s right arm when he attempted to attack earlier, but Terrance assures them he won’t do anything underhanded unlike his older brother, but instead of trapping the loser’s souls in Poker chips, Terrance likes to trap them in creepy-ass dolls when defeated, but gives them assurance that they will all return unharmed if they defeat him. And to make sure they don’t just whoop his ass immediately, Jotaro is bound to Atum’s hand to make sure they don’t do anything stupid on their end.

Terrance’s first challenge is against Kakyoin in a racing game called “F*Mega”, and it switches up the animation-style of the proceedings to a different direction as the video game footage that’s shown is entirely in a 3d Cel-shaded animation style that’s impressively animated, in combination with the well-paced race and the stakes being raised, it knows how to keep things exciting. As both racers even go as far as to use their Stands to perform advanced techniques. With the two reaching neck-and-neck throughout most of the course, the pair soon enters a dark tunnel, but it’s here where the episode ends on an intensely suspenseful note with Terrance gaining a slight lead.

Our Take

Damn, that was intense! The gaming segments were easily the highlight of this episode, in combination with the stakes raised half of Team Joestar being forced into a dimensional prison against their will to play video games with their lives on the line. The show’s creator Hirohiko Araki keeps finding new ways to keep the show fresh, different and at times scary as hell, but also making the villains equally as compelling as our lead protagonists in different ways.

The Doll’s themselves that Terrance collects are also pretty damn creepy and remind me too much of the Puppet Master Franchise in terms of designs, But the only difference is, none of the puppets in Puppet Master ever talked or said a word, so when the Puppets give off a distorted painful look on their face, It’s more shocking when you keep in mind that these use to be actual people who are struggling for their freedom while their souls are trapped in such a restrained container as a wooden doll.

Above all, this episode was fun, and despite the dangerous odds against Kakyoin & Team Joestar, I look forward to seeing what happens next.