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.

Part three is perhaps the most iconic season of JoJo which despite leaving an undeniable impact on anime as a whole, fails to live up to modern anime standards and suffers from poor pacing and an inconsistent tone.

For what it’s worth, part three starts out fine. The premise is interesting enough and stands are a unique power system that bring a good level of tension and excitement to the fights.

The main issue this series suffers from is the pacing. The series starts out with Jotaro's mom, Holly, being afflicted with a serious, time sensitive, and life-threatening Stand which sets the plot in motion. You ... feel a sense of urgency, Jotaro and Joseph have to save Holly before time runs out. The show even makes a big point to say that she doesn’t have much time. So what does the rest of the show spend its time doing?? If you guessed dilly-dallying in every city between Japan and Egypt without giving hardly a thought to Holly’s problem, you’d be right. It’s really tough to believe that the characters actually care about Holly and her condition with how slow they move and the lack of urgency they have. It seems like they forget about her immediately after starting their journey despite her being the whole reason they set out in the first place. The series turns into a villain of the week style show, which isn’t in itself a bad thing, but it definitely isn’t suited for the central conflict. Most of part three drags on and outside of small amounts of character development here and there - and I mean small, you really don’t get a lot from the middle 40 episodes or so.

Now there are some highlights to this part. Of course, the fight with Dio at the end is very entertaining, and the clear STANDout of the series. Plus the beginning is interesting enough and does a good job of establishing the world, the characters, plus a new power system.

Quite frankly, the Stardust Crusaders would hugely benefit from cutting out most of its episodes. Keep some of the heavier character development episodes in the middle and pick the best villain fights sandwiched between the beginning and the end and you have a pretty solid anime.

However, that is not the show we got. Jojo‘s part three suffers from incredibly sluggish pacing and largely boring villain of the week episodes that betrays the sense of urgency established at the beginning of the series making for a true slog of a show. Trim the fat and you have a good anime. But the peaks are not worth the valleys in the case of JoJos. I recommend watching the first handful of episodes and the last handful of episodes (from the gambler episode on) - do that, and you’ve seen everything you need to from part 3.

First few episodes - 6/10
Middle Chunk of episodes - 2/10
Last several episodes - 7-8/10

Overall - 4/10