JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S03E37 Review: And Another One Gone, And Another One Gone

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Episode 37: Crazy Diamond is Unbreakable, Part 1

The episode picks up from the cliffhanger of the previous episode, with Kira noting how he's going to undo Bites the Dust, because Hayato's seen through his trick one too many times, and letting him return again is going to be dangerous. The thing is, Hayato gives the revelation that... he's picked up the phone last episode for a specific reason -- to remind someone to not oversleep. And, of course, that person is Higashikata Josuke, who shows up just in time to hear Kira monologue "I, Kira Yoshikage!" before Hayato.

It's... it's definitely a bit of an ass-pull, but I honestly think that it's done relatively well, with there being a noticeable cut when Hayato picks up the telephone in the previous episode, as well as him going "I'll protect my mother" as he picks up the telephone.

And as Josuke unleashes Crazy Diamond upon Kira, Kira ends up being forced to recall Bites the Dust from Hayato to defend himself -- thereby undoing the "assured" death of Rohan, which apparently will only take place if Bites the Dust is active. Again, all of this is a bit complex, and is going to sadly be the start of a trend of villains with ultra-complex superpowers and multiple conditions... I think Kira's Killer Queen/Bites the Dust is one that balances complexity and "balance", though.

Josuke and Kira then engage in a pretty damn glorious Stand-off, and then a Stand fight, which is easily one of the best-animated fights in the series. It's probably to the show's advantage that the past couple of episodes hasn't been too complex, mostly centering on Hayato and making usage of repeated visual assets. We get a pretty badass "dora" one-liner from Josuke as he kicks Killer Queen in the face... and even Okuyasu, after standing there like a fool for part of the fight, manages to use The Hand to misdirect Kira's Killer Queen attacks. But then Kira shows off another ability -- apparently, he took Stray Cat from the bag and into Killer Queen (those abs are... apparently just retractable) and is now able to weaponize Stray Cat's air bubbles and turn them into a ranged bomb.

It's, again, somewhat out of nowhere, but it is kind of foreshadowed that Kira definitely kept Stray Cat around for something. And apparently that's to put Stray Cat into Killer Queen's retractable abs and utilize it as a ranged attack to offset his previous weaknesses -- Sheer Heart Attack's singlemindedness and Killer Queen's relatively short range.


Also, after that explosion that knocks Okuyasu out and turns him into a bloody mess, we get a brief acknowledgement of the rest of the fighters -- Jotaro, Rohan and Koichi have met up, but are far enough from the Josuke/Kira fight to realize that it's happening. It's a bit unfortunate as they'll miss out the rest of the fight, but since Jotaro and Koichi did fight Kira the first time around (and made a pretty damn good showing, too), leaving the final fight as a mostly-Josuke affair is definitely a neat choice.

The combination of Kira and Stray Cat is pretty interesting -- Kira can selectively choose when he wants to detonate the bubble, so even Josuke's attempt to 'repair' a wall with Crazy Diamond ends up failing as the bubble just bloops through cracks before exploding in front of Josuke. Kira then plays some dangerous mind games, going into a "did I, or didn't I?" mentality with whether he's touched Okuyasu's body or not. Kira then appeals to Josuke, noting that he can at least restore Okuyasu and save his friend, even at the cost of Josuke's own life.

And then Hayato... Hayato jumps and touches Okuyasu, because... Killer Queen's bombs can be transferred that way? It's a bit jarring, and I don't think that Hayato really had the time to learn how the first Killer Queen bombs work (nor did I realize that the bomb-state will be transferred) but the bomb is transferred from Okuyasu to Hayato... who blows up and immediately gets resurrected and restored by Crazy Diamond.


Josuke and Hayato then drag the unconscious Okuyasu away as Kira unleashes an invisible bubble and sort of hams it up, striking JoJo poses as he does a countdown. Meanwhile, Josuke is in full on denial at the possibility of Okuyasu dying. It's definitely a powerful scene as Josuke refuses to even acknowledge the fact that Okuyasu's not moving at all, and considering how utterly protective Josuke has been of his friends and how this is the final battle of the Part, I definitely bought that Okuyasu has died at this point when I first read the manga -- and Josuke seems to imply such at the end of the episode.

We get a badass bit of Josuke refusing to leave Okuyasu's side, and then using his own blood as a knife to slice Kira's bubble apart... only for the two halves of the bubble to just continue moving forward, because apparently Killer Queen's ability will keep  the bubble halves stable? Josuke then repairs the debris in his wounds, propelling him backwards as the debris is fixed onto the road, allowing him and Hayato to escape while Kira sort of monologues.

Overall, it's definitely a "our hero is in danger!" segment of a final confrontation, and one that, while allowing both Josuke and Okuyasu some badass moments, does really make it look like Kira's in control. Josuke's wounded and dragging around a possibly-dead Okuyasu, the other heroes are distracted, and Kira's got a selection of powers ranging from Bites the Dust and the newfound combo with Stray Cat. There are definitely a couple of points in this fight that didn't go over well with me, though -- I can buy that Bites the Dust is mostly unexplained and we're just discovering how it can be activated and deactivated, as well as it being mutually exclusive with Killer Queen. But the whole "bomb transferring" bit feels genuinely off, as is the ability to kep the air bubbles stable. It does make for a pretty entertaining battle, and oh boy, the budget for that Stand fight is certainly glorious, but at the same time I really wished that Kira's abilities were kept or presented in a more consistent way.