JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E36 Review: Plenty Of Ways That You Can Hurt A Man And Bring Him To The Ground

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 36: Another One Bites the Dust, Part 2

We continue with the climax of Diamond is Unbreakable as we follow Hayato while he tries to make heads and tails of this groundhog day loop he's captured in... and as he repeats the same morning that we saw in the previous episode, suddenly Hayato's face opens up due to Heaven's Door -- without him even reaching Rohan. And Kira drops the bombshell that while Bites the Dust will rewind the timeline... everything else that happens will still happen. And we get to learn the true terror of Bites the Dust -- any time its "trigger" is triggered, which, in this case, is Hayato letting Kira's identity slip in any way, shape or form, Bites the Dust will blow up the offending person and rewind time. And then time will continue to take place... other than the whole fact of Kira's identity being known.

It's a pretty complex ability, but the way that it was delivered to the audience -- through an episode and a half of us going "what the hell, what's going on?" as we see the Stand's powers work... and then Kira explains it to Hayato (and us) is definitely far, far more preferable as a show-don't-tell. Or rather, show-then-tell. I don't really have an issue with Stand powers being complex if they're adequately shown without resorting to a long exposition.

And it's a horrifyingly sad scene. If the previous episode of Rohan failing to deliver the news of Kira's identity to Jotaro and Koichi (a.k.a. the Kira Beatdown Squad) last episode isn't enough of a kick in the gut, this episode has Rohan blowing up without even realizing what's going on or why he's dying, and the extra scene of him flying into heaven as Reimi watches in horror is definitely a gut-punch.

Kira then tells Hayato that if he "undoes" the ability, he can make Hayato kill everyone else before he undoes Bites the Dust, which will make everyone's deaths permanent. This throws in an extra wrench into Hayato's whole deal -- not only does he not sufficiently understand anything that's going on, he also knows that he's quite literally the only one who knows how Bites the Dust works.

And, of course, Hayato runs away -- straight into Josuke and Okuyasu. The Joestar squad recognizes who Hayato is, and Hayato's attempts to sneak away gets blocked off by the good guys -- who are nothing but kind to Hayato, with Josuke even healing the kid's nosebleed. Hayato's utterly desperate to stop any more people from dying that he tries to stab himself in the neck. God damn, that's a cold, cold scene for sure, showing a little kid attempting suicide to stop the bad guy from killing people.

But Bites the Dust protects Hayato from any attempt at self-harm, clutching the blade, meaning that Hayato truly is unable to do anything but be used as a pawn by Kira. We get the heroes trying to take out Bites the Dust with their own Stands... but, of course, Bites the Dust has already jumped into their eyes, and everyone dies. Everyone gets blown the fuck up....

(There's a neat little detail of how Josuke's specific explosion seems to recall his prophecized "deaeth" during the Oingo-Boingo arc, although I guess that's a coincidence?)

And we actually finally see with clarity as Bites the Dust sucks everything into its eye as it rewinds time... and we start off in the same morning, with Hayato awakening from his nightmare. But the sheer power of Bites the Dust ends up having its own weakness -- it's technically an automatic Stand ability, similar to Sheer Heart Attack before, and Hayato plans to make use of the fact that Kira himself doesn't remember the alternate timeline to try and get one-up over him. It's a genuinely interesting pitch as this ends up making the story revolve around Hayato and Kira, something that is certainly an unconventional angle to take, and one that proves to be pretty damn interesting.

And as the morning repeats -- with Hayato observing "the same events" happening in a different way, including him picking up the phone, stopping his mother from tripping, and smirking as Kira's teacup cracks while he's drinking -- Hayato brings around the sleeping Stray Cat in his bag, trying to make use of a moment where Kira will place a hat on his head to get the drop on him. Again, it's a pretty dark place to take a little kid into planning a murder, but as this episode really establishes -- Hayato's been through some shit.

Of course, Kira himself ends up being suspicious, noting Hayato's sudden confidence and determination as evidence that Bites the Dust has rewinded the same morning a couple of times (we saw twice, as well as an implied one prior to episode 35 that altered the memories within Heaven's Door), and is very, very suspicious of Hayato. The little "one step forwards/one step back" bit with Kira stalking Hayato from behind a tree isn't as tense as I would've liked, although Kira ends up underestimating Hayato's desperation and determination enough to take a step closer....

And then Hayato unleashes Stray Cat, hitting Kira straight in the chest... and then Kira gets up and punches Hayato in the face, revealing that the little bit of spite Hayato did earlier in the morning -- causing the teacup to spill on Kira's arm -- has caused him to take off his watch and place it on his breast pocket, which took the brunt of the Stray Cat bubble.

(That custom Killer Queen tie is cool, by the way)

Overall, this episode ends up being more of a showcase as to how Bites the Dust work, and how Hayato is quite literally in a unique position where he's the only one who's able to stop Kira's newfound ability before the fateful time that Rohan is killed. It's a badass moment of desperation and genuine creativity on Hayato's part to use Stray Cat... but it seems that, once more, Kira got the upper hand. It's definitely a very tense, tense climax, and I'm definitely a huge fan of this entire arc.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Throughout these next couple of episodes, Kira's Bites the Dust ability fucks with the opening, leading to a pretty interesting take as the opening is played with the different chords and animations playing in reverse order.