JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E18-19 Review: Happy Money Bug Swarm

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 18-19: Shigechi's Harvest, Parts 1-2 

This two-parter ended up being a bit... repetitive, honestly, and I've never really been enamoured with the portrayal of Shigechi as a character, as well as the pretty long-winded way that they handled this story. The story starts with a brief recap of the killer from the previous episode (which we don't really touch upon in this story) before re-establishing the plot hook for this story by noting the fact that Josuke is broke -- Joseph did pay him back after the whole baby supplies thing, but that ended up with him over-spending instead.

Josuke and the also-broke Okuyasu then end up finding a bunch of tiny little four-armed bee gremlin-things running around gathering chump change, and after following these new Stands, end up finding the owner, a fellow student Yangu "Shigechi" Shigeiyo (a  pretty grotesque-faced dude with... spikes on his head for some reason)... and it's all but stated from Shigechi's mannerisms and very, very simple outlook and childishness on life that the kid's probably on the autism spectrum in some degree. And moreso than any other antagonist in Diamond is Unbreakable, Shigechi's probably the most sympathetic, with the entire events of this two-parter being more of a bunch of friends having an angry spat over money.

Shigechi is pretty friendly, quickly accepts Josuke and Okuyasu as his friends for simply having the same power, and even offers to give him part of his collected money just because they're friends -- and the writing makes Josuke and Okuyasu very likable as well, firmly establishing that while they are willing to get Shigechi to help them make money, they're not going to take Shigechi's own money, isn't going to do anything illegal and is going to split up the rewards in a way that favours Shigechi.


Josuke ends up coming up with a scheme to get Shigechi's Stand, Harvest, to collect stamps and other coupons instead (with Crazy Diamond on paper restoration duty) so that they can change it for cash rewards.... and when they do hit the payday, Shigechi suddenly ends up being big-headed, and refuses to pay half as agreed, only giving Josuke and Okuyasu 10K yen out of the 60K they obtained, with Josuke noting just how much getting a lot of money has changed Shigechi. Josuke and Okuyasu decide to be 'adults' and be mature about it, taking solace that they still get some money... but things end up getting a bit crazy when Okuyasu ends up finding a winning lottery ticket for 5 million yen among the scraps that Harvest collected.


That's how the second episode begins -- we start off with a pretty fun sequence as they go to the bank to collect their winnings and have to face off against a rightfully-suspicious bank teller, especially when Josuke and company apparently forget to look at the name at the back of the winning ticket. Some ink-fiddling with Crazy Diamond, and they end up getting the money...  but, once more, Shigechi refuses to give Josuke and Okuyasu's share to them, causing Okuyasu to lose his temper and punch Shigechi in the face. While Josuke and Okuyasu are still very much willing to split it 50-25-25 as agreed, albeit Josuke's holding the bank note, this ends up causing Shigechi to lose his temper, and we get our Stand battle.

Harvest ends up being pretty damn horrifying -- it's essentially kind of the same thing as Bad Company, which we saw earlier in this season, but also a bit better considering just how fast Harvest seems to be, and the fact that each Harvest have enough power to gouge out flesh. We also get a fun bit where Shigechi just lies down and have a whole ton of Harvest just move him around like a travelator. Shigechi isn't actually going to kill them, mind you, but he does manage to do some really fun and horrifying applications with Harvest like going immediately for the eye, or to inject alcohol straight into Josuke and Okuyasu's blood to make them tipsy.

Josuke and Okuyasu end up managing to beat Shigechi by capitalizing on his greed, ripping up the 5 million yen note and then throwing the pieces into the wind. Shigechi immediately sends Harvest to gather the pieces... but that leaves him defenseless and at the mercy of the two drunken dudes... but Shigechi then immediately reverts back to his earlier nicer self, realizing that he's been a huge, huge asshole thanks to his greed, and decides to split the money equally.

It's a pretty simple storyline with a simple moral message, honestly, although Shigechi and Harvest are a pretty interesting combination. If not for Shigechi's important roles later on in the series, however, this probably would've been one of the less-memorable stories, if a pretty fun and light-hearted one, in Diamond is Unbreakable.

The JoJo Playlist: 

• Shigechi's Stand, Harvest,  is apparently named after Neil Young's song and album, Harvest.