JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E23 Review: Real Cardiac

JoJo's Bizarre Attack: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 23: Sheer Heart Attack, Pt. 1

So this episode is basically Jotaro and Koichi dealing with the secondary ability (or "second bomb", as Kira calls it) of Kira's Killer Queen, "Sheer Heart Attack", which is... a creepy little dome-like tank with an open-mouthed skull in front of it that keeps repeating the same lines of "look over here!" as it drives around and charges everywhere, intent on blowing the fuck up.

The dynamic this time around is Jotaro as a very protective adult who tells Koichi to not chase down the murderer or to unleash his Stand to fight Sheer Heart Attack, repeated multiple times throughout this episode. It's easy to be on either side of the argument -- on one hand, while Koichi is a kid, he is a Stand wielder as well, and they could have perhaps dealt with Sheer Heart Attack faster if they had worked together. On the other hand, considering the amount of friends Jotaro has lost in battle against Stand users -- some of whom are pretty young when they died, like Kakyoin -- it's a bit hard to blame Jotaro for being a bit protective of Koichi.

Jotaro also tells Koichi a reason why they can afford to let this unknown murderer get free -- he's clearly being pretty calm and calculated, wanting to observe this unknown Stand (you get the impression that Jotaro really, really remembers the huge amount of sacrifice required to figure out Dio's Stand) while also noting that judging by the size and type of jacket, they have significantly narrowed down who the mysterious killer could be -- plus, he's likely to be living alone since he doesn't have a wife/girlfriend/mom to sew up the button. Jotaro also very quickly surmises that the killer is likely to be an expert in getting rid of all evidence.

And while we've seen some 'automated' Stands before, Sheer Heart Attack is perhaps the most explicit one that we encounter. Throughout the battle, Jotaro and Koichi notes how Sheer Heart Attack defies the "stronger power = shorter range" rule that governs Stands, and Sheer Heart Attack manages to bypass that by being a remote-controlled Stand. It's powerful, and can move at a far range from its user, but it only follows simple instructions -- and as implied by Kira's behaviour at the end of this episode, it can't be instantly dismissed.

And it's just such a fun bit of brief nostalgia back to Stardust Crusaders  as Jotaro unleashes Star Platinum and goes through the ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA OOOORAHHHHH sequence, with the Part 3 riff that tends to accompany Jotaro when he beats down an enemy to boot... but Sheer Heart Attack remains undamaged through two different Ora Ora barrages, and we even get a point where Jotaro uses The World's powers to stop time and unleash even more Ora-Ora's and at one point try to rip it apart instead of crushing it. I don't think we've really ever seen a Stand that's been utterly impervious to Star Platinum's barrage, and that definitely makes Sheer Heart Attack extra scary precisely because we knew Star Platinum's capabilities.

Also, is it just me that's a bit disoriented because Star Platinum's gotten a lot of extra blue in his face? I mean, I know that Star Platinum's evolved into Star Platinum: The World between Part 3 and Part 4, but still...

While Jotaro is trying to gauge the power of Sheer Heart Attack with his punches, Koichi, meanwhile, tries to do something productive, and uses his own wide-range Stand, Echoes, to zip up and try to follow Kira, reasoning that such a powerful Stand would be around 10 meters away... but, of course, Kira has moved way outside of Koichi's range, and this leaves Koichi defenseless when Sheer Heart Attack launches itself towards Koichi.

It's at that point that Jotaro figures out that Sheer Heart Attack goes for body heat, uses The World to make some fire to distract Sheer Heart Attack, and ends up being taken out in an explosion. It's honestly very likely for a previous JoJo, even a fighter like Jotaro, to be taken out in the subsequent arc just to ramp up the sheer badassery of the main villain (look at how Joseph was manhandled in Part 3!) and I remembered reading this arc in the comic and feeling very, very tense because I thought that Jotaro would be killed and/or so wounded he's out of the count, making it imperative that Josuke step up.

Interestingly, though, this time around, it's Koichi that ends up stepping up, and it's not unfair to note that Koichi's basically as much the main character in Diamond is Unbreakable as Josuke, having around as many character spotlight arcs as Josuke does, and being pretty damn well fleshed out. Is that the effect of anyone with white hair and a flat top hairstyle?

Koichi ends up using his brains to try and distract Sheer Heart Attack, first by using some lights (that apparently are super hot?), drags Jotaro away and gets stuck in a kitchen...

And as Sheer Heart Attack zooms into the kitchen to blow up Koichi and Jotaro, Koichi gets dangerous and activates Super Saiyan Koichi mode, and starts ranting about why the fuck he should be scared of the killer "like someone with diarrhea looking for a toilet" (I love JJBA's non-sequiturs) before declaring that the murderer should be the one that runs away. Koichi unleashes Echoes Act II... and pastes a little bubble of "sizzle sizzle" in front of Sheer Heart Attack, causing it to run around the room like a donkey chasing the carrot dangled in front of it. It's hilarious! All the while, the episode cuts away to Kira on a cafe smugly declaring how "Sheer Heart Attack has no weaknesses!" (something he repeats like five times throughout the episode)

However, after Koichi calls Josuke, Sheer Heart Attack ends up attacking the electric oven that takes some time to heat up,  freeing it from the Act II sizzle-bubble. I'm not 100% sure why Koichi claims that he can't do the Act II trick again... was there some limitation I'm not aware of? But during the ensuing explosion, Echoes Act II blows up again, seemingly dying... and then emerges as Act III, who is a little robot midget-man. It's interesting how Echoes evolves every time Koichi resolves to do something, since Act II was born when he resolves to not take shit when fighting Yukako and fight for himself instead of just waiting for backup.

And Echoes Act III is a bit of a rarity among Stands in that it actually can hold a conversation with Koichi, asking for orders from Koichi, and Koichi has to actually verbally say what he wants Echoes to do instead of just thinking about it.

And after Echoes Act III moves really quickly and does the Shonen trope of unleashing a shockwave when he moves quickly, and unleashes his "Hissatsu: Act Three Freeze!" attack and goes for his own (sadly silent) version of an ORA ORA barrage... it ends up getting knocked away by Sheer Heart Attack with an "ugah." It's hilarious. Apparently, Echoes Act III... is still pretty damn weak, physically.

The way it swears, though, is hilarious. S.H.I.T. indeed. Like, he spells out the English word "SHIT" letter by letter. Ess-aitch-eye-tee. Echoes Act III gives Joseph Joestar a run for dropping random English profanities here and there, although I'm pretty sure they censored Echoes a fair bit.

Of course, Echoes' ability ends up actually doing something, as Sheer Heart Attack ends up sinking into the ground, something that is transferred to Kira, whose left hand (which is where Sheer Heart Attack corresponds to on Killer Queen) starts slamming onto the ground as well, and Kira ends up deciding to return to the scene of crime to retrieve Sheer Heart Attack himself. Apparently, where Echoes Act I unleashes sound effects, and Echoes Act II makes sound effects into reality, Echoes Act III... works on puns? Act III notes that he has rhymed three (suri) and freeze (furi-zu), a pun that barely makes sense in Japanese, and doesn't really make sense in English... but also it causes gravity to be increased in a localized area. Act III never does any other puns outside of Three Freeze in the entire series, though, so we don't exactly know how this works.

Regardless, that little oddity aside, the entire episode's pretty tense, showing off both Jortaro and Koichi's respective strengths and resourcefulness against a pretty damn powerful and horrifying Stand, and it's a pretty good showing for both characters involved, including the birth of the final form of Echoes.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Killer Queen's attack, Sheer Heart Attack, is based on yet another Queen song, and was the album in which the single Killer Queen debuted in.