JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Pretty satisfying episode of Jojo this time around. Shigechi is one conniving little troll for sure. At first I sympathized with him and thought maybe Josuke&co were overreacting (since he is a kid and they were all involved in a somewhat illicit, albeit harmless, operation) but then he straight up threatened to kill them and used Harvest to freaking brutalize the pair (that eye-punch, *shudders*). Then I had not the slightest reservations on seeing his stupid face getting punched out.

I have to admit, the gag at the end where (seemingly after a moment of contrition) Shigechi asked the gang to split the money by their number of Stands (so, his 500 Harvest against their two), along with their incredulous reaction, managed to get an actual laugh out of me. Jojo style comedy (when it's deliberately trying to be funny, as opposed to just over-the-top ridiculous) rarely does it for me, but this was genuinely pretty amusing.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

Harvest's strength kinda lies in its lack of restrictions.
There don't seem to be any limits on what its commands can be (bring me an eye, find tiny pieces of paper all over town, instantly unscrew these pipes, etc.), it always seems to have more than enough Harvests to fulfill the task (it didn't seem like JoJokuyasu could really prevent a single thing it did with physical means, be it the speed or just pushing Josuke's arm out of the way), superb city-wide range, it can attack from all angles at once, Shigechi is not harmed even when a dozen Harvests are completely killed and there's infinite replacements.

I'm pretty sure part 3 would've went over a lot better if they just had Shigechi instead of Jotaro for everything up to the Dio fight, Harvest beats Star Platinum in every field lol.

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Yeah, Harvest is scarily powerful when you think about it. Probably one of the most versatile 'simple' (i.e no conceptual hax) Stands in the series, at least that I can easily recall.

I don't remember it ever being implied that the number of Harvests was unlimited, though. To be sure, from a narrative point-of-view, Shigechi always had enough for whatever task he had in mind but I always thought there was some (large) finite number of them. Not sure what happens to destroyed Harvests in that case, or how many would need to be destroyed before Shigechi himself was affected. Can anybody who watched the Jokuyasu (a great acronym, by the way) VS Shigechi fight remember if Harvests were ever explicitly destroyed, as opposed to just knocked out of commission?

Update: Looking over my old posts for fun I found a reference where Shigechi explicitly states 500 as the number of Harvests he has. Which means that it's not unlimited. Still unclear if Harvests that get destroyed are 'restocked' in some way, though.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

Crazy Diamond punches and dismembers a good portion of the Harvests ripping apart Okuyasu's legs.
And yeah they aren't unlimited, but given that we only saw him use like 30 in combat, 500 is a pretty good amount (probably better for the collecting part).

I don't think he permanently loses any Harvests, doubt he would use them so carelessly if that was the case.

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This was another really strange (dare I say 'bizarre'?) episode. Apparently getting your 'face' stolen means you look exactly the same but with a rectangular cut-out over your eyes. In terms of what it can do, I'd say Cinderella is easily one of the weirder Stands to come out of part 4 (replacing body parts somehow means you get luckier and if you don't put on a special lipstick your face evaporates?).

Also funny how Yukako looked exactly the same after her 'full body cosmetics' and it was obvious that Koichi's attraction to her was less because of that and more how she wasn't acting like a jealous psycho stalker around him for once. He wasn't attracted to the cosmetics but just the naturally softer, sweeter side she showed when not feeling like she had to 'compete' for his affections.

Koichi saying he'd be willing to let Yukako gouge out his eyes if he picked the wrong face was pretty freaking hardcore. I fancy himself a romantic, but I doubt I'd go that far for a girl in that kind of situation. I'll keep my eyesight, thanks. Now, if her life was on the line that's another thing... but if it's just a matter of her living with a rectangular cut-out over her face (which didn't even make her look that much less attractive IMO) then... *shrugs*. In any case, it ended happily so... hurray for the power of love, I guess?

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

Kira from this episode was a really effective villain. What's so scary about him is that he's basically just an ordinary guy except with one incredibly disturbing obsession. The episode being presented from his POV is also effective for showing the audience how messed up and creepy he is, plus perversely leading you to root for him escaping the various situations he gets into. As someone with a very strong attachment to privacy himself, I can actually sympathize with that aspect of Kira quite a bit, though I lack any murderous secrets.

Kind of funny though how he says that 'he's never left any evidence of his crimes' even though he walks around openly carrying a severed hand in public stores. Wouldn't that end up on security cameras and stuff? Also, ew, that sandwitch had a dead hand touching it. Groooo~oooos! *barfs*

In general, supernatural powers or not, it's hard to believe the guy hasn't been caught with his attitude.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

His ability is a good explanation for that, coupled with the high disappearance rate of the town.
And I don't even mean using , his ability in general is pretty good for getting away with a lot of shit without leaving traces.

Also Killer Queen looks a lot less cute than in the manga, probably due to lack of shading.

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Another funny thing I just remembered was when one of Kira's coworkers comments on how he 'isn't noticeable' or 'doesn't like drawing attention' or something to that effect, even though the guy's walking around in a freaking David Bowie-esque purple suit.

Guess it's sort of like how the Mafia protagonists in part 4 were described as 'dressing like ordinary people' at one point even though they actually look like garish fashion stars.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

Yeah, you gotta suspend your disbelief for that stuff hard, JoJo likes to act like the people with SUPER noticeable clothing styles are just normal looking people.

Also I remembered earlier that Kira slipping up like this all of a sudden might also just be because of the good old "stand users naturally attract each other" plot cop-out.
I call it a cop-out but the story would be kinda boring if that didn't happen.

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Well, this was one crazy episode of Jojo (in a good way). .

Seriously though, wasn't it kind of strange how when was stumbling through the school to get help everybody was just like "Oh, what's with that weird guy?" even though he was obviously severely injured and gushing blood in multiple places? I don't think even highschool kids are that callous...

Kira is one scarily effective and methodical villain. A line about touching a doorknob has never been more terrifying. *shiver* It's certainly effective paranoia fuel to think that there's an insanely persistent and thoughtful serial killer after you who can turn any common object you touch into a lethal bomb. getting so close to Josuke&co who could save him before just makes it so much worse.

I have to admit, I first thought Sheer Heart Attack was Cheap Trick when it first showed up. I also thought Josuke was going to use Crazy Diamond to send the button back to its original source and follow it along the way, rather then Jotaro using conventional analysis instead. Though that'd be pretty risky, since there's no guarantee they could follow the button fast enough and otherwise would have lost their only lead.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

This was a usual thrilling episode of Jojo all around I'd say, with lots of clever strategies and tense moments. Sheer Heart Attack is a pretty scary Stand, when you think about it. With no range limit, it can literally pursue its targets until the end of the world if necessary, with no escape unless you manage to somehow immobilize it. Interesting how Koichi's seems to have far more of an independent being he can command rather then an extension of himself like most other Stands.

There were also one good comedic moments, with Kira at the restaurant after Sheer Heart Attack got caught. Not quite sure if that was intended to be funny, but it certainly got a chuckle out of me when he accidentally ripped that waiter's shirt off. Next episode it looks like Kira himself will be coming by to try and retrieve his Stand. Wonder how much of a threat he'll be with only one really usable arm, but he still has Killer Queen so... we'll see, I guess.

Update: Omigod, when browsing the Reddit page for the latest episode I just found something absolutely hilarious added to Wikipedia under the Sheer Heart Attack album entry.



Somebody's a Jojo fan, I see!

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

Yeah, Echoes Act. 2 didn't get nearly enough screen-time for how versatile its power was. In a series that thrives off of finding deadly uses for weird or trivial superpowers, ditching Act. 2's sound effect manifestation in favor of Act. 3 gravity/weight powers, a much more common Shonen staple, was a bit of a disappointing choice IMO.

Albeit, it's still early on so there's plenty of chances for Araki to show off how many cool uses he can think for Act. 3, but I still think Act. 2 should've gotten more attention before the inevitable power-up. I mean, Koichi gets pretty much all of one real fight with it (against Yukako) and then it's replaced by Act. 3. Given how broad Act. 2's power-set was (how about writing 'crack' on someone's arm to break it? Writing 'boom' on something to blow it up Kira-style?), it really does feel underused.

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!

There is a stand with a extremely similar power in part 7 but it also get barely any screen-time.

Another great episode of Jojo. Suspense, desperate ploys and last-minute reversals aplenty here.

Kira is a creepy villain as ever, and what's shown this time was a more outright sadistic side to his personality then before. Well, obviously he is a serial killer so sadism kind of comes with the package, but usually other then with his designated victims Kira's very cold, methodic and calculating whereas here he outright delayed blowing up Koichi so he could enjoy his suffering, increasing his chances of getting interrupted (which is exactly what happened). Looks like that might be a potential weakness of his, since Kira's calculating nature is part of what makes him so dangerous amongst Jojo villains.

Was really satisfying to see Kira get the good old "ORAORAORAORA!!" treatment courtesy of Jotaro, though unfortunately he managed to escape. Thinking about it, does that make Kira one of the few Jojo baddies to actually come back and keep on being a villain after a full-scale punching finisher from Star Platinum? (Most either get killed, crippled, turn good or are otherwise put out of the fight)

While it was necessary for the plot to unfold, I found it more then a bit implausible how Kira managed to, while severely beaten up and missing one hand, , all in what could've only been a few minutes it took Josuke&co to chase him down. Even granting he knew Aya had a Stand in the first place and what its powers were (not much of a stretch since he seems to have been obsessively keeping tabs on Stand users in the city ever since the Shigechi encounter) it still comes off as a little contrived IMO.

In any case, it was still a very good episode. Looks like after this a new 'arc' will begin of trying to track down Kira in his .

Josuke's one-liners were also deliciously corny. "Nice watch. Too bad you won't be able to tell time after I break it. Your face, that is."

...Jotaro? You might wanna work on those badass one-liners a little bit more. That talent seems to have atrophied a bit since Egypt... Then again, it was still badass, but pretty much anything Jotaro says sounds badass. (Either that or goofy, when he says mundane things with his usual incredibly stoic demeanor)

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Evil flower of Pure Illusion... we're going to pluck you out!