veemonjosh
Stone free, do what I please
Opening theme: “Great Days” by Karen Aoki and Daisuke Hasegawa
Ending theme: “I Want You” by Savage Garden
Characters
Josuke Higashikata
Voiced by: Billy Kametz
Stand: Shining Diamond (JP: Crazy Diamond)
Ability: Strength, Speed, Precision, and Restoration
Stats: Destructive Power - A / Speed - A / Range - D / Durability - B / Precision - B / Developmental Potential - C
Namesake: “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” (Pink Floyd song)
Josuke is a high school student in the small Japanese town of Morioh, a kind teenager towards those he cares about and a badass toward those who get him angry (especially when insulting his hair). The son of Joseph Joestar from an affair, Josuke was tracked down by Jotaro to inform him of being included in Joseph’s will, but is now caught up in the family business of dealing with bizarre threats. More recently, he is now on the hunt for a serial killer lurking in Morioh who murdered his friend Shigechi. Josuke’s Stand, Crazy Diamond, fits his personality to a T, being a destructive force similar to Star Platinum, but also capable of compassion by healing as well. However, it cannot heal Josuke, cannot revive the dead or heal illness. Also, if Josuke tries to “fix” something while upset, it may come out looking a bit weird.
Koichi Hirose
Voiced by: Zach Aguilar
Stand: Reverb (JP: Echoes)
Ability: Sound Generation, Sound Effect, and 3 Freeze
Stats: Destructive Power - E (ACT 1) C (ACT 2) B (ACT 3)/ Speed - E (ACT 1) D (ACT 2) B (ACT 3)/ Range - B (ACTs 1 & 2) C (ACT 3)/ Durability - B / Precision - C / Developmental Potential - A
Namesake: The Hirose River (a river in Sendai, Hirohiko Araki’s hometown and the real life basis for Morioh) / “Echoes” (song by Pink Floyd)
A classmate of Josuke, Koichi is friendly and courageous, polite towards others, and possesses a gentle heart. This allows him to see the good side of people, even his girlfriend Yukako, who thought kidnapping and holding him hostage was a romantic gesture. Unique among Stands, his Stand, Reverb, can alternate between three different “Acts”, each progressively more powerful than the last. ACT 1 can generate physical words that can be used to create sounds (examples include creating a simulated dial sound to use a payphone or influencing someone to believe Koichi). ACT 2 takes this one step further by creating physical sound effects that create an effect similar to the sound produced when touched (such as the word “hot” creating a hot surface). The strongest, ACT 3, his the ability “3 Freeze”, which greatly increases the weight of whatever it punches.
Okuyasu Nijimura
Voiced by: Jalen K. Cassell
Stand: The Hand
Ability: Elimination
Stats: Destructive Power - B / Speed - B / Range - D / Durability - C / Precision - C / Developmental Potential - C
Namesake: The Band (band)
Okuyasu Nijimura met Josuke under rocky circumstances involving his brother Keicho, but they’ve become fast friends. He’s not too smart, but has a strong heart. His Stand, The Hand, is an extremely dangerous one capable of erasing space with its hand and closing the gap between, with its user having no knowledge where the erased material goes. While this Stand seems overpowered, it’s balanced out by the fact that Okuyasu is an idiot.
Rohan Kishibe
Voiced by: Vic Mignogna
Stand: Heaven’s Door
Abilities: Book Transmutation, Memory Removal, Written-In Commands
Stats: Destructive Power - D / Speed - B / Range - B / Durability - B / Precision - C / Developmental Potential - A
Namesakes: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan song)
Rohan Kishibe is a manga artist, passionate and dedicated to his craft, with his wish being to have as many people as possible experience his work. As a teenager, he became the author of the popular Shonen Jump series, “Pink Dark Boy”, which Koichi is a fan of. For those who do manage to meet the man himself, they’ll find he is generally unpleasant to be around, being rather arrogant and impolite towards others. He actively seeks new experiences and information, in an effort to gain inspiration for his manga. His Stand, “Heaven’s Door”, helps him do this by turning a person into a living book of sorts, with their skin peeling away like pages to reveal written information detailing their life, including their darkest secrets. Rohan can also write information on the inside to make someone do what he wants, or to erase their memory of an event.
Jotaro Kujo
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
Stand: Star Platinum The World
Abilities: Strength, Speed, Precision, and Time Stop
Stats: Destructive Power - A / Speed - A / Range - C / Durability - A / Precision - A / Developmental Potential - A
Namesakes: The Star and The World (tarot cards)
The previous JoJo, Jotaro Kujo was a high school student when his grandfather Joseph took him on a global trek from Japan to Egypt in order to take down the vampire DIO, who had been a plague on his family’s bloodline for over a century. On the journey, he came to learn and master his Stand, Star Platinum, eventually gaining the same time-stopping abilities as DIO’s own Stand, The World, which he used to put an end to the demon once and for all. Now, a decade later, Jotaro is a marine biologist, and was helping his grandfather put together his will, when the discovery of his illegitimate son Josuke brought Jotaro to the small town of Morioh. Currently, he is helping to deal with an elusive killer with an extremely dangerous Stand. Jotaro’s Stand, Star Platinum, has amazing strength, speed, and precision, which on its own makes it one of the most powerful Stands around. On top of this, with its added ability The World, which Jotaro learned during his fight with DIO, he can stop time for a second.
Mikitaka Hazekura
Voiced by: Mark Whitten
Stand(?): Earth Wind and Fire
Ability: Shapeshifting
Stats: Destructive Power - C / Speed - C / Range - N/A / Durability - A / Precision - C / Developmental Potential - C
Namesake: Earth, Wind & Fire (American R&B band)
Eccentric high schooler or extraterrestrial? Stand user or shapeshifting alien? Mikitaka is one of the oddest of Morioh’s residents, claiming to be a 216 year old alien who’s come to Earth to observe humans, breaking out into horrible rashes when he hears sirens and being fond of eating tissues. He seemingly can’t see Stands and the Stand Arrow bounced right off his neck when it was fired at him, leaving him with only a scratch. Despite this, he has the ability to transform on a cellular level into any inanimate object he chooses as well as any size he chooses, though whether this is a Stand ability or some sort of natural alien ability is up for debate.
Stand: Highway Go Go (JP: Highway Star)
Voiced by: Phillip Reich
Abilities: Room Creation, Enhanced Sense of Smell, Body Displacement, Life Force Theft
Stats: Destructive Power - C / Speed - B / Range - A / Durability - A / Precision - E / Developmental Potential - C
Namesake: Highway Star (song by Deep Purple)
A strange yet powerful Stand, Highway Go Go has the ability to create a room in any empty space, such as a tunnel. When someone enters the room, the Stand picks up that person’s scent, and after breaking up into numerous foot-shaped segments, will endlessly chase them at terrifying speeds, up to 60 km an hour, until it catches them. Once the Stand has caught its target, it begins to drain the life force of the victim, sending that energy back to its user. The user of Highway Go Go is presently unknown, but due to its nature as a long-ranged Stand, the user could theoretically be anywhere in Morioh.
Yoshikage Kira
Voiced by: D.C. Douglas
Stand: Deadly Queen (JP: Killer Queen)
Ability: Bomb Transmutation
Stats: Destructive Power - A / Speed - B / Range - D / Durability - B / Precision - B / Developmental Potential - A
Namesakes: “Killer Queen” (song by Queen) / “Sheer Heart Attack” (song/album by Queen)
Yoshikage Kira was an office worker who lead the most ordinary life possible, something he intentionally strived for in order to maintain a quiet peaceful lifestyle. This facade he had created masked his true nature, a serial killer with a sexual fixation on women’s hands, and he will go to any lengths to hide it and eliminate those who discover it. He maintained this cover for decades, until a run-in with (and subsequent murdering of) Shigechi brought him to the attention of Morioh’s Stand community. After they uncovered his name, he managed to change his appearance and successfully took on the identity of another man, Kosaku Kawajiri, as well as his family. His Stand, Deadly Queen, has the power to turn any surface into a bomb which detonates when someone touches it, vaporizing the victim to the atomic level with an explosion completely silent to those around them.
Yoshihiro Kira
Voiced by: Steve Kramer
Stand: Heart Father (JP: Atom Heart Father)
Ability: Supernatural Photography
Stats: Destructive Power - E / Speed - E / Range - Null / Durability - A / Precision - E / Developmental Potential - E
Namesake: “Atom Heart Mother” (song/album by Pink Floyd)
Yoshihiro is the father of Yoshikage, an elderly man who passed away several years ago. However, his spirit never departed, with his love for his son and concern that Yoshikage’s murderous tendencies would eventually catching up to him keeping him bound to the land of the living. To this end, he possesses one of the Stand-granting Arrows, which gave both him and his son abilities. Yoshihiro’s Stand, Heart Father, takes the form of a polaroid camera; Yoshihiro exists in whatever the latest image taken by the photo is, sealing off the area within the photo and allowing him to manipulate objects shown in the photo. If anyone attempts to destroy one of these images, it will kill anyone shown within the photo. However, Jotaro managed to trap Yoshihiro within a photo of himself, essentially negating his Stand. But Yoshihiro still managed to escape with the Arrow, determined to make a slew of new Stand users to distract Josuke and his friends from tracking down Yoshikage.
Hayato Kawajiri
Voiced by: Laura Stahl
The son of Kosaku Kawajiri, the man who Kira killed and stole the identity of. He’s a quiet boy who has a strained relationship with his parents.
Shinobu Kawajiri
Voiced by: Jennifer Losi
The wife of Kosaku Kawajiri. She met her husband in junior high and dated him because her friends thought he was cool, and they got married when she became pregnant with Hayato. However, they only stuck together because of their son, and the marriage had become completely void of passion for years. That all changed recently, as her husband’s personality seemed to suddenly change into someone she found attractive, not suspecting that her husband is quite literally a different man now.
Episode 29 (103)
“Highway Go Go, Part 2”
Chapters adapted: 387-391
Previously on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure:
During a game of Cee-lo with Rohan, Josuke started piquing the former's interest with a series of rolls that suspiciously kept ending up in the latter's favor. Convinced that Josuke was cheating, Rohan stabbed his own pinky with a pen and bet 200 million yen and his own pinky that he could figure out how Josuke was cheating in the next round. Additionally, he brought over Tamami Kobayashi to use The Lock as a lie detector of sorts. Meanwhile, Mikitaka's dice disguise began to slip, first when he vomitted from motion sickness, and later when he developed a rash from the sound of nearby firetruck sirens.
When Josuke tried to hide these signs, Rohan further caught onto him and his suspicions were further proven when The Lock detected Josuke's foul play. However, the game ended up being cut short when Rohan discovered that he accidentally set his own house on fire, hence the firetrucks from earlier. Josuke took this as an opportunity to bail out with Rohan's money, healing the latter's finger on the way out, as Mikitaka's disguise fell completely apart behind Rohan and Tamami's backs. The next day, Josuke ran into Mikitaka and his mother, who claimed that his self-identification as an extraterrestrial is a joke that he frequently pulls off on his peers; however, Mikitaka asserted that he brainwashed the woman into believing that she was his mother, leaving the issue of his true nature unresolved. Meanwhile, Yoshihiro Kira, who too was baffled at the strange student's real nature, was also angered at how things had turned out and then flew off to create more Stand users and protect his son.
Meanwhile, at the Kawajiri's residence, Hayato Kawajiri returned home from school and replayed the tape he secretly recorded of his parents, noting how this was the first time in a while that Shinobu bared herself to Kosaku. Looking over his recording, he noticeed his father acting suspicious at his desk and turned up the volume, hearing the angry ramblings of the disguised Yoshikage Kira.
Some time passed after Rohan's house burned down, and he eventually met up with Josuke on the bus. The two were visibly irritated at each other's presence, with Rohan being particularly angry at Josuke for the 700 million yen property damage the fire caused. When the bus passed through a tunnel, Rohan noticed a room with what looked to be Yoshikage Kira severing a dead woman's hand inside. Josuke refused to believe Rohan's warnings, mistaking them for a means of getting back at him for the events of their Cee-Lo game, much to the latter's fury at the former's disbelief.
Rohan decided to investigate the tunnel himself and happened upon the mysterious room, only to find it empty. However, upon leaving, he found himself being chased by a group of disembodied feet, though they could only go up to 60 km/pH, which allowed Rohan to escape on his motorcycle by going 10 km/pH faster. But when Rohan was forced to slow down to avoid an oncoming truck, the feet latched onto him and started sucking away his energy; at that point, the feet formed into the Stand known as Highway Go Go, who explained that he was feeding off of Rohan for his nutrients.
Josuke decided to investigate the tunnel despite having had a falling out with Rohan on the bus; he came across Rohan's motorcycle, which zoomed out of the tunnel before falling apart. Later, Josuke saw Highway Go Go latched onto Rohan before the two of them disappeared. Josuke chased them down to the room in the tunnel, which Highway Go Go uses as a trap to lure in prey. Highway Go Gotried to coax Rohan into asking Josuke for help as a form of live bait, but Rohan refused, citing the feeling of power that comes from denying the requests of someone strong, and warned Josuke of Highway Go Go's plan. However, Josuke stepped in anyways out of sheer arrogance, at which point Highway Go Go began chasing him down. Hearing Rohan's warnings about Highway Go Go's 60 kph speed limit, Josuke used Shining Diamond to fix Rohan's motorcycle before driving off, with Highway Go Go in hot pursuit.
When Josuke tried to hide these signs, Rohan further caught onto him and his suspicions were further proven when The Lock detected Josuke's foul play. However, the game ended up being cut short when Rohan discovered that he accidentally set his own house on fire, hence the firetrucks from earlier. Josuke took this as an opportunity to bail out with Rohan's money, healing the latter's finger on the way out, as Mikitaka's disguise fell completely apart behind Rohan and Tamami's backs. The next day, Josuke ran into Mikitaka and his mother, who claimed that his self-identification as an extraterrestrial is a joke that he frequently pulls off on his peers; however, Mikitaka asserted that he brainwashed the woman into believing that she was his mother, leaving the issue of his true nature unresolved. Meanwhile, Yoshihiro Kira, who too was baffled at the strange student's real nature, was also angered at how things had turned out and then flew off to create more Stand users and protect his son.
Meanwhile, at the Kawajiri's residence, Hayato Kawajiri returned home from school and replayed the tape he secretly recorded of his parents, noting how this was the first time in a while that Shinobu bared herself to Kosaku. Looking over his recording, he noticeed his father acting suspicious at his desk and turned up the volume, hearing the angry ramblings of the disguised Yoshikage Kira.
Some time passed after Rohan's house burned down, and he eventually met up with Josuke on the bus. The two were visibly irritated at each other's presence, with Rohan being particularly angry at Josuke for the 700 million yen property damage the fire caused. When the bus passed through a tunnel, Rohan noticed a room with what looked to be Yoshikage Kira severing a dead woman's hand inside. Josuke refused to believe Rohan's warnings, mistaking them for a means of getting back at him for the events of their Cee-Lo game, much to the latter's fury at the former's disbelief.
Rohan decided to investigate the tunnel himself and happened upon the mysterious room, only to find it empty. However, upon leaving, he found himself being chased by a group of disembodied feet, though they could only go up to 60 km/pH, which allowed Rohan to escape on his motorcycle by going 10 km/pH faster. But when Rohan was forced to slow down to avoid an oncoming truck, the feet latched onto him and started sucking away his energy; at that point, the feet formed into the Stand known as Highway Go Go, who explained that he was feeding off of Rohan for his nutrients.
Josuke decided to investigate the tunnel despite having had a falling out with Rohan on the bus; he came across Rohan's motorcycle, which zoomed out of the tunnel before falling apart. Later, Josuke saw Highway Go Go latched onto Rohan before the two of them disappeared. Josuke chased them down to the room in the tunnel, which Highway Go Go uses as a trap to lure in prey. Highway Go Gotried to coax Rohan into asking Josuke for help as a form of live bait, but Rohan refused, citing the feeling of power that comes from denying the requests of someone strong, and warned Josuke of Highway Go Go's plan. However, Josuke stepped in anyways out of sheer arrogance, at which point Highway Go Go began chasing him down. Hearing Rohan's warnings about Highway Go Go's 60 kph speed limit, Josuke used Shining Diamond to fix Rohan's motorcycle before driving off, with Highway Go Go in hot pursuit.
Now:
On a wild chase through Morioh to outrun Highway Go Go, Josuke devises a way to figure out who the Stand’s user is.
JOJO'S JUKEBOX
This week’s Jukebox song is “Speed King” by Deep Purple.
Notes:
- The chapters which this episode covers can be found in volumes 41 and 42 of the Japanese manga release.
- Parts 1-3 are all now available on Bluray and DVD from Viz Media.
- Please, no spoilers about upcoming events and future arcs. If you’d like to discuss Part 5, Golden Wind, there’s a discussion thread on the Anime board.
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