JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E20 Review: Plastic Surgery

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 20: Yamagishi Yukako Dreams of Cinderella

Yamagishi Yukako's a... complicated character. After her initial defeat during her original story arc, Yukako's apparently developed a more healthy crush on Koichi instead of an obsession, although just why she ended up dropping so much of her yandere insanity is never really adequately explained -- a bit of the problem with how the redemption of the side-characters in Diamond is Unbreakable is done. Still, it's definitely a bit of an interesting decision to focus this episode on Yukako actually trying to win Koichi's heart in a way that doesn't involve kidnapping him.

To this end, a depressed and confused Yukako end up finding a beauty salon, Salon Cinderella, which notes that it will "help you find true love". Yukako also sees some random lady running out happy that her boyfriend has proposed to her. In the shop, Yukako meets Tsuji Aya, a rather quirky beautician who exhales after every other sentence, and notes that she's going to make use of physiognomy, a wacky bit of pseudo-science that claims the shape of one's facial structure decides fate and fortune -- something that's mostly just superstition, of course, but with the power of Stands, anything is possible. Aya quickly deduces that Yukako's been having love problems due to how she's way too forward with the boy she likes. She can't do plastic surgery, but she will give Yukako a change in her eyebrows (something that the art style doesn't really manage to show off well) with massage and makeup, something that will only last 30 minutes, but has guaranteed effects... and there's even a money-back guarantee. We then get the revelation that Tsuji Aya is the beautician equivalent of Tonio Trussardi, using a Stand in a non-malicious way to deliver insane psuedo-science healing.

We also get a brief cameo from Kira walking past the shop, but, again, he isn't relevant for this episode. Worth noting that in the manga, this particular story arc actually happens after the huge Kira events that's going to take place in the next episode, but the re-ordering definitely makes a lot of sense to get the less-tense episodes out of the way and prevent mood whiplash.

Anyway, Cinderella's effect ends up causing Yukako to immediately bump into Koichi. It's not very clear just how much of this is Cinderella's doing, as the episode does place emphasis on Koichi noticing Yukako looking flustered earlier in the episode, which is the reason why he ended up running after Yukako -- and it is Yukako who ended up getting enough self-confidence to essentially ask Koichi out for a date. 30 minutes later, however, Koichi gets a convenient stomachache and runs home. (Dude, cafes tend to have pretty clean toilets)

Yukako confronts Aya about the effect only lasting for 30 minutes, while Aya notes that that's just how things work, comparing her own methods to that of the story of Cinderella, where she sees herself as more of a fairy godmother that complements appearances and gives opportunity. There's also a bit of a weird bit where she fondles Yukako's boobs. Aya then proceeds to use Cinderella to modify nearly the entirety of Yukako's body, with the condition that Yukako has to use a special lipstick every 30 minutes. Also somewhere during this, Yukako quickly figures out that Aya is a Stand-user... but a non-malicious one.


Yukako ends up literally sparkling after this and, of course, meets Koichi again, but the encounter gets interrupted by fucking Rohan of all people all but dragging Koichi away to photograph things in a department store. Cockblocker! But then quite literally the entire supporting cast, even the elusive Joseph Joestar (who's been MIA for like more than a half-dozen episodes) shows up, much to Yukako's frustration.... but one thing leads to another, going from flash photography to the invisible baby going invisible to everyone scrambling to get out... and then Koichi falls into Yukako's embrace and they kiss.

We get a brief time-skip, and Koichi ends up telling Josuke and Okuyasu that he's actually starting to fall for Yukako, and I absolutely love the physical gag of Josuke very nearly falling out of the window until he summons Crazy Diamond to catch him. I also like how Josuke and Okuyasu quickly assuming the worst, and then going "oh, if you like each other, then it's fine!"


Koichi goes off to find Yukako, whose face is apparently falling apart and deteriorating because somewhere off-screen she forgot to put on her lipstick? That is probably the weakest part of this episode, this pretty weird non-sequitur with a pretty important event that happens offscreen. How hard is it to add a simple scene of Yukako being too excited by the kiss to put on the lipstick?

After confronting Aya, she notes how Yukako's going to lose her face and fingers because she 'broke the rules', but Koichi then shows up, noting that Yukako's stubborn personality confirms that despite wearing a different (not that different, thanks to the art style) face, he recognizes her. It's a neat bit of Koichi falling for the person and not the face, and Aya uses Cinderella to show off like a bajillion different sets of face-segments to let Yukako choose which one is her real face... when it's a trick and a test from Aya. It's a neat bit where Yukako then decides to let Koichi pick, because she'll be fine with anything that pleases Koichi, while Koichi ends up asking Aya to blind him should he pick the wrong one, because "Yukako wouldn't want me to look at a face that's not hers". This moves Aya enough that she ends up restoring Yukako even though Koichi picks just a random face out of many.

Not my favourite episode, because there are some segments that didn't flow all that well, and I kind of wished that they had done more to make Koichi's attraction to Yukako (and Yukako mellowing out) grow more organically throughout the series. The anime at least added a bunch of random scenes of Koichi and Yukako meeting each other and locking eyes as filler scenes in previous episodes,  but I dunno... I think the story ends up leaning towards a bit too much towards being uncomfortably playing out like Stockholm Syndrome, and I kinda wished that they had developed Yukako a bit more as a character removed from her intensity in chasing love. I think it's paced and flows a bit better as a single episode of anime, because I remembered being quite put off by this arc's equivalent in the manga (its placement in the story is also a contributing factor, admittedly).

I'm also not quite sure if I like Tsuji Aya, who honestly seems pretty much running by her own rules as to just how much of Yukako's fate she's willing to interfere. But eh, at least Yukako and Koichi end up being adorable together, and that's neat. One thing that I definitely appreciated in this episode (which I don't think is present in the source material) is the usage of traditional fairy tale painting art (google tells me the art-style is called Nouveau) during some stills. I thought that was appropriate.

The JoJo Playlist:

• While Cinderella's role in this episode and Tsuji Aya's motivations are clearly based off of the folktale of Cinderella, there is a 80's rock/metal band called Cinderella, known for Don't Know What You Got and Nobody's Fool.