Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders
Plot Summary of Part 3
My Personal Thoughts on Part 3 Overall
I really like Part 3! Part 3 has Noriaki Kakyoin, for starters, who's one of my favorite characters in the entire series. I think Part 3 has its issues, and it's not my favorite, but I really enjoy it! It's a story that has me giggling throughout it, crying, and then giggling more. What more could you possibly need from a story!
My Thoughts on the Manga
The manga of Part 3 is such a fun romp, basically up until the horrors begin. Both times I've read through the manga, I read through it all in under two weeks. There's something very charming about Part 3 and it's a very endearing read. I enjoy watching Araki figure out what he wants stands to be in real time it makes me laugh. People say later stands are weirder, but SDC has some pretty strange ones. Did we all collectively forget the Wheel of Fortune and Sun stands or something?
I love how Part 3 is colored as well. Everything is so bold and vibrant, it really helps sell the idea that Part 3 is a group of people traveling and experiencing new things. I love how bright it always is.
My Thoughts on the Anime
I think the anime adaptation of Part 3 is kindof dogshit. I don't really like being mean about it but I just really did not enjoy the anime at all. It totally makes sense to me why so many people drop the anime somewhere around Part 3, because it's a pain to watch.
The pacing is the most glaring problem, it feels like a fucking drag to watch because it's 2 seasons long--so over half of the episodes are 2-parters when they absolutely don't need to be. It becomes a really slow watch and kills the momentum Part 3 carries in the manga, and this is only really fixed when they get to DIO's mansion. It's really unfortunate because I think Part 3 has some really interesting stands, but it's hard to want to pay attention on account of how everything feels like it moves at a snail's pace.
I hate how Jotaro looks like a... 40-year-old man. I get that in the manga, Jojo is built like a fucking brick shithouse, but his face stays pretty youthful throughout the series unless he's actively fighting someone or the DIO's mansion. I also dislike how the anime makes Jotaro and Kakyoin so much less expressive... Jotaro is at least excusable, but Kakyoin is a character that is intentionally drawn to have lots of silly expressions, so it makes me sad that people who don't read the manga don't know about the characterization.
At least the episodes with Oingo + Boingo are fun and do something interesting with the material! The bar is underground, but those episodes really clear it. I enjoy it greatly.
My Thoughts on the OVA
As of right now, I have not finished the OVA, but from the 4 or 5 episodes I have seen, I really liked it! I love the art style of the OVA, how it's distinctly original but still retains a lot of the charm of Jojo's, I love how the cast looks in the OVA, everyone's slightly different from the manga counterpart in a way I really enjoy. Star Platinum is so cute in the OVA :). I love Star Platinum.I'll add more when I have seen more!!
Themes of Part 3
By this point, discussing the themes of inheretence within Jojo's seems a bit like beating a dead horse, which is a little funny considering it is only part 3 and this will get referenced again for at least 5 more parts. Sorry!
Themes of inheretance are prevalent in every part of JJBA, but in Part 3, a lot of it feels very pivotal. Jonathan is Jotaro's great-great-grandfather, far enough removed that none of these things should be of any concern to him. At the start of the story, he had no idea who DIO was, had no stakes in this, and yet gets trapped by fate all the same. If it weren't for Holly falling so ill from stand sickness, Jotaro may very well have not ended up on the journey to stop DIO, instead leaving it up to his grandfather. That does not happen, though, because his life is entirely dictated by fate, and fate will create circumstances that force him to confront his inheretance (fighting DIO). Jotaro is a tragedy of a character because he does not have the option to try and outrun fate like Joseph, he can only brace himself for impact and accept it.
Interestingly, I think these themes of inheretance--or more accurately fate--can also be applied to the people around the Joestars as well. Though the hamon-weilding Zeppelis died out with Caesar, stand user companions become the new target of fate in this regard. Much like Ceasar in Part 2, Kakyoin dies in service to Jotaro, helping in the final hours. To know the Joestars is, in many ways, to be trapped within the Joestar curse with them.
Part 3 also focuses a lot of attention on the interconnectedness of the cast being friends, which in turn makes it a story about the people in your life.
Without meeting Jotaro and the others, Kakyoin would have remained lonely and isolated, stuck working for DIO. Even if Kakyoin only got to know friendship and people genuinely understanding him for 50 days, are those 50 days not still important? Was he not changed by finding companionship and community? Kakyoin's growth comes from accepting that he ultiimately has no regrets about joining the Joestar's, that having people in his life who understood him and didn't judge him was the most important thing in the world to him.
And what of Polnareff, who learns to accept the death of his sister, who gets revenge and subsequent closure, through meeting the others? Polnareff's life was undoubtedly improved by meeting Avdol. He goes from borderline suicidal on a mission to get revenge on the person who killed his sister to realizing that people want him to live too, that he needs to think about his own value in the world. Without meeting the other members of the Stardust Crusaders, who knows where Polnareff would be. He was very deeply impacted by the people he grew close to!
This is the theme that interests me the most, because it creates the most interesting parallel between DIO and the Joestars. DIO, ultimately, desires to give themselves a sense of security through controlling the entire universe and eventually ending it, but especially because of their stand The World. Having a stand that stops time in its entirety, one where they believe they are the only ones who can move within that stopped time, becomes a very obvious desire to protect oneself and keep oneself safe.
This is contrasted by the Joestars, who are trying, ultimately, to keep their family safe. Their sense of security is broken multiple times by DIO, first by being brought back from the coffin he was in in the ocean, then by developing stands (Jotaro locking himself away in jail believing to be followed by an evil spirit, thus breaking Jojo's sense of security), and then finally when Holly develops stand sickness and is at risk of dying because her body can't contain her stand power. These things put DIO and the Joestars implicitly against each other in a struggle to create a personal sense of security.
You've all heard of stands as a metaphor for neurodivergence, so obligatory That I Guess.
I feel like anything I say here will just be stating the obvious, but I want to talk about it anyway, because I'm neurodivergent and love reading things as an allegory for being autistic! Sue me!
[MORE HERE]
Jotaro Kujo
Joseph Joestar
Noriaki Kakyoin
Muhammad Avdol
Jean Pierre Polnareff
Holly/Seiko Kujo
DIO
Iggy. I Guess
