JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc

Episode 23

The moment we've all been waiting for has finally arrived: an alternate opening theme appears! While past seasons of JJBA have altered the opening theme song in minor ways, by adding action-packed sound effects into the song, Battle in Egypt does us one better. Now that we know how The World works, we get to see it in action even during the OP, as Dio stops time and stops the song to sashay around Jotaro and make his grand CG appearance. Oh, Dio. You've already sashayed into my heart.

Following on the heels of last week, david production continues to bring their A-game to Jotaro and Dio's fight both visually and aurally. Even Dio's pompous bloviating is kept light and frothy thanks to sharp direction, some exciting new musical motifs, and the triple-decker ham sandwich of Takehito Koyasu's performance. The episode goes by in a flash, and just when it seems like good will triumph by the end, Dio pulls out one last devastating trick to come back out on top. Star Platinum and The World are two sides of the same coin, the exact same stand in every way, and all that Jotaro lacks is the skill and experience that Dio has been honing for the past several months. All Jotaro has to do to save the world from The World is learn fast and act even faster. The fight has only just begun, and the fight is glorious!

As much as I've loved watching and discussing Stardust Crusaders, this episode is somewhat review-proof. It's also emblematic of the show itself, so I'm glad we'll finally be winding down the adventure next week. What is there to be said about the Jojo's experience in plain text? It's Pure Violent Fun, Lightning in a Bottle, a Fascinating Relic of its Time Somehow Brought to Life in the Modern Day. Copy and paste that at the top of every review I've written up to this point, and I feel as if I've done justice to every episode. Jojo's must be experienced (preferably with a group of hooting and hollering fellow fans) rather than described, and all that can be said about this first half of the final battle between Jojo the Third and Dio the Eternal is that it completely fulfills the promise of its premise. There are no cheap tricks or copouts employed by Jotaro to trick the audience out of a fight between a human and a king of vampires that can stop time. There's no waiting around until the sun comes up or retreating to make long-tail plans that rely on the villain's contrived stupidity. It's a head-on, reactionary knuckle-brawler from start to finish, where Jotaro has to use his own powers to move one inch for every yard Dio can move in stopped time and somehow use this micro-struggle to survive. If he has to play dead to survive against Dio, he has to go so far as to stop his own heartbeat. This show is not playing around, and the victor in this match will take down the other only by the skin of their teeth.

If anything, this episode's only problem is the exclusion of all other characters to Jotaro and Dio's mighty skirmish. Polnareff shows up for a deus ex rescue at the perfect moment, but he's down for the count again inside of a minute. Without the other Stardust Crusaders to round out the field, Jotaro has such a reserved personality that Dio almost steamrolls him. To some extent, we're cheering for the good side to win less for Jotaro's sake and more for the sake of Joseph and Polnareff, who might still be alive. (Might.) Ultimately, it's an easily forgivable minor problem, since Jotaro's eventual beatdown of the villainous vampire is so cathartic, and he does get off a couple awesome zingers despite his stone-faced persona. ("I do feel bad for kicking a guy while he's down, but...no, I don't feel bad about this at all.")

Unfortunately, after sucking Joseph's blood (hang in there Grandpa Jojo!) Dio is more muscular and less clothed than ever before. Jotaro will have to pull out all the stops to beat Dio 3.0 next week, and I can't wait to see how it shakes out.

Rating: A

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.