JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E07 Review: Attack of the Clones

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 7: Hazamada Toshikazu [Surface]

It seems that a huge majority of the Diamond is Unbreakable mini-arcs  are just going to be condensed into single standalone episodes, which is definitely a huge factor in how easy it is to go through Diamond is Unbreakable. This episode starts off with Kobayashi, the Lock dude, apparently now working as an informant about other Stand users created by Nijimura Keicho. "Defeat means friendship" is in full force in Diamond is Unbreakable, which isn't a trope I'm keen with especially with how utterly unlikable Kobayashi is. At least he's going to be good for some cheap laughs at his expense.

Kobayashi tells Josuke and Koichi about our villain of the week, some dude called Hazamada Toshikazu, a douchebag with messy hair who somehow caused a friend who argued about him over anime to gouge out his own eye. (A scene that serves as this episode's cold open) What the hell, man?

Josuke and Koichi's investigation quickly reveals that in Hazamada's locker is a huge sketch anatomy doll, and that's the Stand, Surface -- which transforms into Josuke. Hazamada shows up and reveals that his Stand is like "Per-man copy robot", referencing the old comic of the same name... and Josuke goes "the fuck's that?", causing Hazamada to flip because how dare this man not know a classic manga. The episode doesn't actually do a super-good-job of explaining Surface's abilities, at least for the first half of the episode -- and I don't think our heroes ever have a scene of realizing that Surface requires face-to-face contact to force Josuke to mimic its movements.

Anyway, the initial confrontation has Surface completely overwhelm Josuke, forcing him to backslap Koichi so hard he bleeds all over the place, then stays out of Crazy Diamond's range and forces Josuke to stab himself in the eye, but it merely knocks him out? And Hazamada just... leaves Josuke there? Okay then. Kinda weird that Hazamada has no compunctions of forcing Random McNobody to gouge his eyes out, but doesn't actually confirm Josuke being maimed.

Hazamada wants to go and take out Jotaro for... for reasons, and he just goes off with Surface-Josuke behind him. Oh, and Surface-Josuke can speak with Hazamada no problem, and the two hold several conversations as they go around -- Surface is probably the first Stand to actually show some sort of sentience independent of its user (Anubis is sentient, but he doesn't really have a user), and one of the very rare ones to do so. Surface-Josuke gets to call Jotaro and draw him out of his hotel, beats up Kobayashi and leaves him for dead (he gets better), and we get a fun bit where Hazamada is straight-up jealous at how Josuke (or a Stand with Josuke's face) is so popular with girls.

Ultimately, the rest of the episode is a bit of a fun chase throughout town, with the thing that ends up being Hazamada's downfall being his excessive brutality -- stopping to brutalize the bikers with Surface and a cutter knife ends up allowing Josuke and Koichi to catch up to him and break Josuke throws a shard of glass and reforms it, cutting off Surface's hand. For whatever reason, Surface is one of those few Stands that doesn't actually hurt its owner when it gets hurt -- is it because it has a physical form of its own? Yeah, Part 4 does play fast and loose with Stand rules, although I guess we have a precedent with Thoth and Wheel of Fortune, where the Stand is a physical object that doesn't hurt its owner when it's attacked.

Koichi uses his Stand to make a fake train sound to cause Hazamada to take a longer route, and later on when Hazamada finally catches up to Josuke and has him try to kill Jotaro, the punks that Hazamada brutalizes shows up, healed by Josuke, and drag him away to beat him up. Oh, and throughout the episode we have scenes of Yukako watching our heroes, as well as Red Hot Chili Pepper at the end.

Ultimately,  while the concept of Surface is certainly an interesting one, I don't think this particular storyline is all that exciting, and probably one of the weaker ones in these earlier Part 4 episodes. I'm not sure if that's because Hazamada is utterly unlikable and petty, or if his motivations is just so unexplored, or the pretty bland confrontations, but this episode feels particularly weak.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Surface borrows its name from the 90's American band Surface.