JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Diamond is Unbreakable Ep. 34 Thoughts

This is perhaps the longest arc out of everything we see in Diamond is Unbreakable. I honestly can’t recall anything in this series, or in Stardust Crusaders, with an arc lasting more than 4 episodes. Nevertheless, the Day of July 15th has finally reached its conclusion.

We begin with Rohan’s dealing with the Stand, Cheap Trick (weirdly, the sub version I watched correctly used the name rather than alternative “Cheap Trap”. Either Cheap Trick has no issues using his name in the anime and lets it slide, or I’m watching the version that uses the names correctly regardless of the copyright issue).  We learn that Cheap Trick isn’t really much and just annoys the user with his banter, and any attempts to physically remove him forcefully would result in Cheap Trick literally ripping the user’s back. Unfortunately, due to the several bad encounters Rohan has made with Josuke and co., none seems eager to help him with his predicament, even with Koichi.  Rohan has no choice but to make his way to the Morioh Grand Hotel and seek help from Jotaro (who we know is out looking for Yoshikage Kira).

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki has somehow mastered the art of misdirection, which has become one of the staples of the series. In my experience, as the plot unfolds, I never really gave notice on the misdirection the show makes, even though it has been pretty commonplace. Araki does it again when Rohan made Cheap Trick believe he was going to see Jotaro, but in fact he went to the Ghost Alley where Reimi Sugimoto is, and used one of the forbidden rules of the alley (never look back when leaving the area) to have Cheap Trick trapped and free Rohan. As a bonus, Reimi provided clues as to Yoshikage’s new identity.

In the second half of the episode, Yoshikage, as Kosaku Kawajiri, gives in to his murderous urge after being harassed by a local couple. We are then reminded as to why he’s one of the most feared antagonists throughout JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, even more frightening than Dio himself, after he kills off the boyfriend using Killer Queen and, by just conversation and gesture alone, scares the living hell out of the girlfriend, and the audience. Anime has struggled with horror because of the format being mostly 2D and could not be as convincing as live-action. But the way Yoshikage deals with the woman before ‘poofing’ her is far more frightening than any of the horror films I’ve seen this year.

But Yoshikage’s urge may be his undoing as his latest murder has been caught on tape by the young Hayato Kawajiri. This leads to a scary and somewhat awkward situation, of Yoshikage and Hayato sharing a bath together with the latter intent on killing him there. But Hayato reveals he has ANOTHER camera filing them in the shower and caught Yoshikakge’s intent on killing him, giving Hayato the leverage he needs to survive.

This episode is an example of the strangeness of Japan’s censorship policy towards certain scenes. Much of the graphic scenery has been blackened out if not done off-screen. But nudity, at least in Hayato’s case, is not an issue and we get to see him full frontal, compared to Yoshikage, who is censored. There have been other anime where graphic violence is ok to show, but not nudity. How times have changed from decades ago, I guess.

At any rate, the show is inching closer to its eventual conclusion. I’m curious as to how Hayato can keep himself alive, not knowing anything about Stands, and how Josuke and the gang finally catch up on Yoshikage. The suspense is another thing that makes JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure a great series and the next episode just can’t come soon enough.