English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “Guardian of Hell, Pet Shop, Part 2”

Pet shop boy.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Having been caught by one of Pet Shop’s ice attacks, Iggy is forced to do something disturbingly unthinkable out of survival in order to escape the sewers through its water supply, using his “Fool” Stand powers to hide at the bottom of the river. However, even when hiding underwater, Iggy is not safe from Pet Shop, who dives into the river after him and uses his ice attacks in an attempt to crush Iggy’s dome. You’d think all of this sounds implausible even for birds in general, but the narration does a good job to explain how it’s more plausible than you can imagine. Upon research, Several species of predatory birds (including Falcons) have been known to dive into rivers and lakes to pursue their prey, and aren’t afraid to get a little wet when necessary.

While Iggy’s dire situation becomes the focus of this two-parter making their battle feel like a bloody & suspenseful game of “Cat & Mouse” (or in this case, “Dog & Bird”), we do have scenes focusing on Team Joestar who have so far, waited “3 hours” for results on the location of Dio’s place, but Avdol comes to the realization that the person they sent out, may not have survived (which he isn’t wrong about). When we cut back to Iggy’s struggle for survival, he begins to dig underground using his Stand Powers to maintain the shape of a water-free dome that’s still partially damaged from Pet Shops earlier attack. As Iggy attempts to dig away from danger, it leads to one of the most effectively scary scenes, when he proceeds to Dig downwards to safety, only to find out that Pet Shop didn’t retreat at all. Knowing that the Dome can’t last much longer due to the combination of intense water-pressure & Pet Shop’s Ice Powers, Iggy uses the pressure from the collapsing dome behind him to his advantage and rushes himself forward killing the murder-falcon literally by the skin of his teeth which cause Pet Shop to destroy himself mid-attack.

With no strength left to swim back ashore, Iggy begins to reflect on the events in his dog-life that lead up to the current mess he’s in a small montage that effectively says so much with so little. But just as Iggy thinks his number is up, good karma begins to come his way. When we cut back to Team Joestar, they find Iggy heavily injured, but it leads to the grandiose return of Kakyoin who’s back and fully recovered from his eye injuries along with getting Iggy’s injuries treated thanks to a Speedwagon Foundation Doctor. Following Iggy’s lead, the tension & suspense begins to rise as Team Joestar finally arrives at Dio’s hideout, where the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger as when they approach the entrance and proceed with caution, they’re confronted by the “Resident Butler” of the mansion.

Our Take

Holy shit! This was one of the most intense episodes yet. You really feel Iggy’s desperation when Pet Shop came diving after him. But you gotta hand it Derek Stephen Prince for properly conveying such a strong performance in the Dub as a small Brooklyn-speaking dog that’s ballsy enough to stand up against such a murderous & relentless force that a Falcon with Ice Powers turned out to be. While the battle itself moved at a brisk pace, it was still easy to follow and the scenes that effectively invoked terror were well-handled despite the absurdity of the situation.

As for Kakyoin’s return, I kinda knew he’d come back at some point given that he’s part of Team Joestar, and picked the best time to as well since they’ll need all the help they can get as the series feels like it’s nearing a potential finale since all 6 of our protagonists have now entered enemy territory and in a race against time to save Jotaro’s Mother, who knows what other obstacles they’ll encounter before they finally get to Dio.