JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders 2nd Season

When you're in the world of anime and manga, there are these popular and trending materials that are too long and big to take up and follow. No matter how hard you try to ignore these trends, they keep popping up, and it almost feels like it is impossible to stay up to date in the anime world without watching/reading them. At least for me, not staying up to date is like being dead in this world of anime.
JoJo was one of these trending things, and I tried real hard to ignore it, because getting myself in the JoJo world would only fatten up ... my backlog. However, then back in 2012, I heard JoJo manga (which is quite old) is getting animated, and thought this was a good chance for me to get myself into the series.
May be I was crazy or something, but I thought at that time, it would be better for me to finish the manga before I watch the anime. This doesn't mean you have to do the same thing and read the entire manga before watching the show! I mean, I loved the manga, but it's really your choice, because the anime has done an excellent job faithfully adapting the source material.
The entire JoJo show is 26+48 episodes. I know it is a daunting task to watch all that, but the show is a fun-ride that is fast and satisfying.
My point it that JoJo is quite an old franchise, which is still very popular in modern times, so if you want to stop wondering what all the JoJo hype is all about, this fun show is an excellent starting point. I recommend you start watching this now if you are interested, because sequels might come flying in soon in the future (meaning your backlog will only get greater....yuck)

So, if you are looking for:
Meticulously animated fun, swift, merciless, cathartic actions
Silly, over-the-top but clever thrills
Character interactions grotesquely fun
Ridiculously Faithful adaptation of the source material
Shows without silly unnecessary soap opera-esque romances and fillers
Manly Men full of manliness

and/or if you are just curious what all this JoJo is about...

This show is for you.
(so if you decide to watch this, be sure to start from Parts 1 and 2 from 2012~)

Definitely some spoilers, don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

Story: 3
The story became very repetitive at this point. Most of the episodes were: Go from current point to next point, encounter enemy Stand user, defeat stand user, repeat until we reach Dio. It became a monster-of-the-week series and it just felt really bland. The fights varied somewhat but in the end I was expecting a little more than what was essentially an RPG grind until you hit max level and go do an end game boss.



Art: 9
The art style definitely made everything feel more dramatic and dark, while the backgrounds gave a really ... good view of what Egypt looks like (at least from someone who hasn't been there). The characters themselves are very detailed with proper shadings of clothing which makes them look 'realistic'.



Sound: 7
The op of the first season was really good and it got you pumped up and it made you feel manlier just by listening to it. But this second season's op just reminded me of Rozen Maiden, it doesn't fit. The voice acting is the same as the first season so if you liked it there, you'll like it here, especially hearing Jonathan yell "AWEEE MAIII GAWDDDDD" or "SHIIIIITTTT".



Character: 5
The villains felt very cliched in that they're always over the top sadistic with no redeeming qualities. Each one was basically just 'bad guy with certain bad trait' repeated over and over every episode until we got to Dio.

Dio - Dio maintains his arrogance and threatening nature which definitely made him feel like an end raid boss and reinforces his antagonistic role.

Joutarou - If you can call standing around, posing 'cool' and saying "Yare Yare Daze" as being a character... well... he's a character for you then. Initially, this was kind of cool, the nonchalant, tough without overtness attitude, but after two seasons of this composure, it starts to become dull and repetitive. Any encounters that involve Joutarou is basically resolved before it even begins and all you're left doing is thinking how far his legs are going to be apart this time and how angled is his body going to face.

Jonathan - Not as cool as when he was younger with all his predictions but still a staple character that is hilarious when he swears/yells in Engrish.

Polnareff - Basically the comic relief of the show but his character really shines during his emotional moments with his comrades, especially Iggy.

Iggy - I initially didn't like him as his existence felt out of place most of the time as he didn't do very much, but in later episodes his character really develops and I liked him near the end.

Avdol - A firm, stable character that really cares for his friends and even sacrifices himself. Things actually happen to him which makes him feel mortal and human.

Kakyouin - Really stayed the same from the first season though his bonds with his comrades grows stronger.



Enjoyment: 7
Definitely wasn't as enjoyable as the first season as the encounters with the other Stand users felt very repetitive and monster-of-the-week.



Overall: 6
At this point, it just became repetitive until we came to the final showdown between Dio and JoJo.

Jojo Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Second Season is pretty much the same thing that you experienced in the first season, however unlike the first season where practically every episode the group had a new enemy to fight, on this season they basically put 2 episodes for each new enemy, which makes the pace of the episodes much better than the first season.

This new enemies are bland though - just like the first season -, unlike before where the Stands were based on Tarot Cards, now the enemies are related to the Egyptian Gods that, for some reason, are the origin of the Tarot Cards? ... I didn't get that and it seems like they threw the idea away just as quickly as it was shown, another thing that was thrown was the Egyptian Mythology behind each stand. Earlier Stands this season were somewhat related to the Egyptian Mythology, but as the episodes progressed they stopped making sense - this might be nitpicking, but why use the Egyptian Mythology then, it is clear to me that the creator doesn't give much thought on building the story and he writes as he goes, something that could be noticed by now, when he either discard OP powers or he introduce news powers that could have been convenient in earlier episodes.

The story is the same thing again, the group is still trying to find Dio to solve Holly's problem and only later on we are given a "reason" of why Dio wasn't taking care of the problem himself, and if you noticed the author writing you won't be satisfied by the reason given by Dio.

Our protagonists continue to be as deep as a puddle, Jotaro wears the thickest plot armour, Joseph is still a clown, Polnareff after his interesting motives on season one became a bland character, Kakyoin is a smart guy but we don't get to see his wits often, Avdol is 50/50 the author seemed to want to change his character a bit, but other times his changes disappear, Iggy is a new character that has no development whatsoever, only later on the author decides to develop him but it was too late, meanwhile you will only see him farting on Polnareff's face.

Jojo is a series that is quite popular, but its popularity doesn't reflect quality overall, its story is poor, superficial and even dumb.