JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E03 Review: Talk To The Hand

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 3: The Nijimura Brothers, Pt. 1

I tended to group multi-part episodes together, but I'm going to separate episode 3 from its subsequent parts because I'm going to split them up based on the antagonists. This episode has a whole lot for me to unpack as well, with a whole ton of information dump.

The first chunk of the episode is a "once more with clarity" vesrion of Angelo's transformation into a rock human (it's a little funny comparing Angelo to a rock human considering Part VIII), where we get to see the actual interrogation that Jotaro and Josuke has with Angelo as he's still got a human face. Angelo sneers that the two Jojos shouldn't get cocky, because "he'll get you. The man in the school uniform will get you!" which has got to be the most stupid-sounding taunt ever.

Angelo then reveals that the man in the school uniform was the same one who gave him the power of a Stand, and Angelo was not a Stand user from birth -- he was given the power of a Stand in 1998, a month before execution. In the prison, Angelo is visited by some kid in a school uniform with a bow and arrow, who seems to be affiliated with Dio in some capacity. And the name-drop instantly shocks Jotaro.

And as Jotaro is distracted by this and Josuke is combing his hair, Angelo uses his Aqua Necklace stand to attack a random kid...  and in the process, insults Josuke's hair, causing Josuke to unleash Crazy Diamond, break the rock and the human apart, fusing them together into a rock with a very human-like face, which is how Angelo is trapped in.

And then it's time for Jotaro to research, with the members of Speedwagon foundation that worked ten years ago during the time of Stardust Crusaders finding a picture of Enya-baa with the bow and arrow, confirming what Angelo has told him. And considering Stardust Crusaders  has consistently shown that all of the Joestar members -- Jotaro, Joseph, Holly and Josuke -- have developed a Stand at around the same time, activated seemingly by Dio's own activation of a Stand which affected them due to their powerful blood... Jotaro asks himself just how did Dio acquire said Stand in 1987. He (and the audience) simply didn't think to question it, just that Dio-in-Jonathan has just managed to activate it.

It also adds to a nice detail that both Polnareff and Kakyoin have been shown to have the Stand since they were at least children. Polnareff having a Stand as a kid and Jotaro not having one is a plot point during the Set fight, whereas Kakyoin is apparently ostracized for having Hierophant Green as a child (although this detail may or may not have been exclusive to the anime). I'm not quite sure if this lines up with everyone, or if everyone that isn't shot with the bow needs to have their Stands develop since childhood... but it's actually a nice bit of detail that doesn't actually contradict anything from Crusaders.

We also have a bit of Koichi researching Angelo's claim, and since the beginning of the year 1999, around 81 people have disappeared in Morioh, which is a pretty high number.

We also have a little nice fluff scene where Jotaro arrives at the Higashikata household, causing a bit of a misunderstanding when Tomoko walks out and thinks that Jotaro is Joseph returned... which is genuinely hilarious since Joseph and Jotaro doesn't really have that  much of a resemblance, and even then Joseph courted Tomoko when he was already wrinkled and bearded.

And then Josuke and Koichi walk around the neighbourhood, with Koichi finding something interesting about an abandoned building near Josuke's house. He sticks his neck in-between the main gates, which has got to be the most un-safe things you could do to peek around. The seemingly-abandoned building turns out to be not so abandoned, of course, as the same dude from Angelo's flashback makes himself known in the top floor, while his thug-like little brother, dressed with dollar bills and yen bills on his body, kicks the gate to trap Koichi's neck and considering how thick the metal gates are, I'm surprised Koichi's not dead after his larynx was crushed like that.

And then Koichi gets shot in the chest with the bow! Well it's not a good day for Koichi, it seems.

The elder of the Nijimura brothers,  the one inside the mansion, clearly knows who Josuke is, and tells his little brother Nijimura Okuyasu to deal with Josuke with the strength of his powerful Stand. And Okuyasu's Stand is called The Hand, (ZA! HANDO!) which is actually a pretty dang stylish-looking Stand, what with those dollar bill chest-pieces,  spikes on the shoulders and a pretty wacky-looking cylindrical head with a fun expression. Okuyasu himself is also a blast with his hammy, rough voice -- he's voiced by Uchiha Obito's voice actor, if I recall correctly.

And after a couple of brief Stand-to-Stand clashes between The Hand against Crazy Diamond, we get the older Nijimura brother being a huge dick to Okuyasu, telling him that The Hand is an immensely powerful Stand, and Okuyasu's being a hindrance for not utilizing it properly. And that's the whole point of Okuyasu's character -- he's kinda dumb. Not so much that he's a complete moron, but it's pretty hilarious how Okuyasu just flat-out ignores Josuke while he argues with his brother, allowing Josuke to knock him aside to walk up to Koichi.

And then the Stand fight resumes, and Josuke quickly realizes that Okuyasu prioritizes attacking with his right hand. Josuke ends up grappling for The Hand's right hand, and Okuyasu straight-up just goes "Oy! Let go of my right hand, that's how I attack!" The Hand's ability is using the right hand to 'scrape' away anything its right hand slashes through,  completely wiping it out from existence and deleting it to a dimension that "not even [Okuyasu] knows"... and guess what? The older Nijimura isn't wrong. That's a pretty damn powerful Stand power, comparable as a less-versatile version of Vanilla Ice's Stand, and that is easily the second most deadly Stand in Stardust Crusaders. The only real difference in how it works  is that Cream just makes holes in buildings and the like, whereas the Hand wipes out space itself, instantly fusing things like the remnants of the gate together (which made Josuke figure out how it works) or to wipe out the space in-between combatants to allow Okuyasu to essentially drag Josuke in front of him.

Of course, a properly smart combatant would do what Vanilla Ice did, and try to instantly eliminate the enemy. But no, instead of wiping out Josuke, Okuyasu just drags Josuke close to him, and physically punch him in the face.

This ends up with Josuke maneuvering himself to stand in front of a couple of plant pots,  and when The Hand drags him back in front of Okuyasu, Josuke ducks and this powerful Stand and its user... gets knocked out by a bunch of potted plants to the face, which are sent flying his way due to the Hand. Yep!

It's overall actually a pretty fun variation of a power we've seen before, with a different way of utilizing it compared to Vanilla Ice. We also get a not-insignificant amount of world-building and foreshadowing. Overall, not a bad episode at all.

The JoJo Playlist:

• I wouldn't have been able to guess it, but The Hand is apparently stated by the author to be a reference to Canadian rock band called The Band. They're known for songs like The Weight, The Shape I'm In and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. I genuinely thought The Hand was just an English word used for a Stand.