English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “The Lovers, Part 1”

“Come along and ride on a fantastic voyage!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode kicks-off when Team Joestar manages to get their hands on a horse carriage and makes it to the Indian village of Karachi, along with an unconscious Enyaba who they plan to later interrogate after Jotaro defeated her last episode. When they enter the village, they decide to stop at a Kebob shop but after a long & comedic scene where Joseph convinces the merchant to cut down the price, Joseph notices something is off when Enyaba wakes up convulsing in pain from Dio’s “flesh buds” that were implanted in her body to keep her from telling them anything. It turns out that the Kebob merchant is another assassin who calls himself “Dan of Steel” that wields a Stand called “The Lovers” and gloats as Enyaba dies with unfaltering devotion to Dio rather than be interrogated.

Dan explains that when she already had the flesh bud in her body, all he did was use his Stand to speed up the process of its growth and brags about killing her with such gleeful sadism that Jotaro uses his “Star Platinum” attack, Dan, only for Joseph to be simultaneously thrown back. Dan further reveals that his “Lovers” Stand is a microscopic entity that implanted itself in Joseph’s ear during Enyaba’s violent death. So, in a nutshell, Dan’s body functions like a voodoo doll which means if any specific pain that’s inflicted on Dan’s body will be redirected to Joseph, and further demonstrates this in a scene where he pays a random kid to hit him with a stick to prove he isn’t bullshitting while telling Team Joestar that his “Lovers” Stand will begin implanting a flesh bud to kill Joseph in “10 minutes”.

Under Kakyoin’s advisement, Jotaro is left with no choice but to restrain himself as he’s forced to cater to Dan’s sadistic whims to prevent him from doing any further damage to his grandfather Joseph. While Joseph, Kakyoin, and Polnareff keep their distance from Dan and seek out a random television so Joseph can use his Hermit Purple Stand to make an image of the inside of his brain, with Kakyoin explaining to Polnareff that since stands are Images created from the user’s psychic energy, it’ll allow Kakyoin & Polnareff to sort-of take the fantastic voyage method of shrinking their Stands down to microscopic size and entering through Joseph’s ear in an effort to save Joseph while the episode ends on a cliffhanger as Jotaro is forced to look after Dan with begrudging disdain.

Our Take

It’s clear that we’ve jumped from one 2-part special into another. As with many past episodes, the show has often taken inspiration from various horror films, but this episode somewhat pays homage to classic sci-fi films such as “Fantastic Voyage” & “InnerSpace” which both entertained the idea of people shrinking down and entering a person’s body.

Dan’s “Lovers” Stand has proven to be a legit threat that’s on the same level as Enyaba’s “Justice” Stand in terms of suspense & urgency but with Jotaro subjected to being Dan’s unwilling adult babysitter, It’ll be a race against to time for Kakyoin & Polnareff to foil Dan’s plan.