English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “Dio’s World, Part 1”

Worst Joyride ever!

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

As Polnareff attempts to climb up the stairs leading towards Dio, The Sociopathic Vampire himself offers Polnareff a chance to join his side again. Of course, Polnareff refuses in an epic speech about resisting temptation, but despite Polnareff’s hostile efforts, he’s unable to further run up the stairs which leads to a random scene where Polnareff keeps finding himself further down as if he’s being teleported back down the stairs.

Slowly, Polnareff realizes the disadvantage he’s in as him being stuck in this constant loop, might have something to do with Dio’s Stand, simply called “The World”. But before Polnareff and Dio even clash, the rest of Team Joestar arrive on the scene, learning about Dio’s power and in a brief yet sad moment, learn about the deaths of Avdol & Iggy. The scene itself is short but does a good job by saying so much with so little…

As they pursue Dio up to the top of his mansion, what’s left of Team Joestar have that low-level vampire servant Jotaro whopped the ass of earlier open up Dio’s coffin, only for him to suddenly be inside in an instant. Feeling a genuine sense of unease from inside the mansion, Team Joestar are forced to flee as the sun sets. While Polnareff, refusing to run away, is joined by Jotaro in pursuing Dio despite not even knowing what kind of Stand powers they’re dealing with. Dio in a terrifying scene hijacks a limousine by manipulating a politician into being his driver, and pursues both Joseph & Kakyoin, managing to block each of Kakyoin’s attacks. Determining that Dio’s Stand powers only work at close-range like Jotaro’s Star Platinum, The episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when Kakyoin comes up with a plan to expose the secrets of Dio’s Stand powers.

Our Take

The Intensity of this episode was cranked up to 11 now that Team Joestar is up against the Joestar family’s greatest foe since Season 1. The brutal, sadistic and sociopathic Vampire Dio Brando. Everything seems to consistently excel for this episode in terms of drama, suspense and urgency now that they’re up against the “Final Boss”, yet the last four members of Team Joestar have split into two teams in the hopes of gaining an advantage.

I think the scene that stood out for me the most would have to be how Dio hijacked a Limo. The more I thought about it, the more it makes sense that a Vampire who’s been imprisoned in a coffin since the 1800’s and woke up in the 1980’s would, of course, be fascinated by automobiles and various forms of technology. In previous episodes leading up to this moment, you often catch Dio reading history books to keep himself updated on how much the world has changed which not only adds another layer to Dio’s character but further reminds the audience on how much of a proverbial and literal monster he is.