JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Season 1, Episode 7: Sorrowful Successor
[revised 10/2018]
Yeah, the pacing's still not that good with Tarkus's death sort of being a weird, misplaced epilogue at the beginning of this episode. Throw in some of the worst and most disorienting colour-palette shifts around, and this episode isn't the most enjoyable one to watch through. The fight basically reaches its climax and mentor occupational hazard syndrome(tm) strikes again, with Will A. Zeppeli dying and being bisected in half by Tarkus's chain. I really, really felt that the death would have had such a better impact if we didn't have another redundant flashback to the silly death foreshadowing-flashback. Yeah the whole "accept my death even though I know it's coming" is a neat bit, but it's not as well executed as it could've been.
The episode also introduces the Hamon monks that Zeppeli trained under -- Tonpetty, Dire and Straizo (or Straits/Straights depending on your preferred romanization) -- has always felt pretty underwhelming, kind of unnecessary and it's not like any of these guys really do anything. We get a bit of a silly bit where Dire tries to 'test' Jonathan's ability by attacking him, and some exchange of exposition, but it's ultimately pretty bland and these three are some of the least memorable supporting characters in the entire franchise. They've got neat designs, though.
Yeah, the pacing's still not that good with Tarkus's death sort of being a weird, misplaced epilogue at the beginning of this episode. Throw in some of the worst and most disorienting colour-palette shifts around, and this episode isn't the most enjoyable one to watch through. The fight basically reaches its climax and mentor occupational hazard syndrome(tm) strikes again, with Will A. Zeppeli dying and being bisected in half by Tarkus's chain. I really, really felt that the death would have had such a better impact if we didn't have another redundant flashback to the silly death foreshadowing-flashback. Yeah the whole "accept my death even though I know it's coming" is a neat bit, but it's not as well executed as it could've been.
The voice actors' earnest deliveries of their lines do help out this scene a lot, though -- after the pretty brutal injury that cuts Zeppeli in half, Zeppeli sends his "final Hamon" to Jonathan to power him up, and then Jonathan absolutely pulverizes Tarkus and literally melts his skull away, probably the only time in the series Jonathan actually unleashes all his might in an outright malicious way. The fight's not paced as well, though, with the scenes where Jonathan and Zeppeli talk to each other while Tarkus is presumably swinging around on the chain in the background going on and on and on. It's a lot less noticeable in a single manga panel, but here it really does distract from the fight that's going on.
Tarkus' delivery of "HELL HEAVEN SNAKE KILL!" is pretty glorious, though. I have to admit that.
And we do get a brief foreshadowing about how Zeppeli notes how he's married with a son, but has abandoned his family in his quest for revenge -- which is a piece of foreshadowing I definitely didn't realize during my first read-through of Phantom Blood! Also pretty cool is Speedwagon taking Zeppeli's checker hat for his own. It doesn't quite have the same spinning blade as his Ogre Street hat, but that's a pretty sweet moment.
The episode also introduces the Hamon monks that Zeppeli trained under -- Tonpetty, Dire and Straizo (or Straits/Straights depending on your preferred romanization) -- has always felt pretty underwhelming, kind of unnecessary and it's not like any of these guys really do anything. We get a bit of a silly bit where Dire tries to 'test' Jonathan's ability by attacking him, and some exchange of exposition, but it's ultimately pretty bland and these three are some of the least memorable supporting characters in the entire franchise. They've got neat designs, though.
We get a brief bit of horror as the heroes investigate the nearby town, and apparently Dio has vampirized a good chunk of the town -- with Mr. Adams and his creepy spin-around head and long demon tongue being a pretty fun highlight. Also equally great is Dio's scene with the mother and her child -- the mother begging for Dio to spare her child, and Dio promises that, yes, he's going to do that, but vampirizes the mother who eats her own child due to hunger anyway. It's such a far more interesting set of scenes that make use of the gothic horror setting that really would've made for a more interesting story if expanded upon compared to the genuinely underwhelming Bruford/Tarkus glut.
It's overall kind of a weak, disjointed episode that's clearly meant to just be a breather between the Bruford/Tarkus arc and the final confrontation with Dio atop his vampire castle, but it's honestly a pretty underwhelming episode. We do get a couple of fun moments -- as much as I decried it as being slow-paced, some of Jonathan and Zeppeli's monologues are pretty fun. It's still pretty weak, though, and while, again, Phantom Blood does have the excuse of the author still figuring things out and trying to see what works and what doesn't, the anime really could've cut this episode a whole lot differently.
The JoJo Playlist:
- Dire and Straizo (a.k.a. Straights/Straits/Straitzo depending on how you want to romanize it) is obviously a reference to Dire Straits, a 70's rock band. One of their more memorable songs is Money for Nothing.
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