English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “Tower of Gray”

“I have had it with these Motherfucking Stands on this Motherfucking plane!”

The episode begins with a random scene where Dio drains the life of a young lady we don’t know while being informed by a short elderly hag that Jotaro, Joseph and the rest of Team Joestar are approaching, but reassures him that one of their assassins are already on standby for further orders. We cut back on the plane as Jotaro and the others wake up from their mid-flight slumber while the plane reaches airspace over Taiwan but notice the sound of a flying insect from the “last episode” which grotesquely resembles a stag beetle, But Avdol quickly identifies it as an evil Stand called “Tower of Gray” which has a gruesome reputation for causing mass murders that look like tragic accidents in a Final Destination kinda way. Jotaro decides to take a shot against Gray, but is put at a disadvantage because its speed shockingly outmatches even Star Platinum’s fists then Gray attempts to rip out Star Platinum’s tongue and suddenly kills a row of passengers while gruesomely using their tongues to spell out the word “Massacre!” which wakes up a short elderly passenger who’s in shock from seeing blood on the wall but somehow escaped the attack unscathed, until Kakyoin knocks him out with a Karate-chop behind his neck Much to Avdol’s anger. Kakyoin decides to take on the Stand himself, stating that it’s the most logical choice when you consider that the destructive power of Avdol & Jotaro’s Stand’s could potentially put everyone within the enclosed space of the plane in mortal danger.

Deciding to face the Gray against his “Hierophant Green” Stand, Kakyoin proceeds to use his “Emerald Splash” attack which at first seems to have no effect on the Insect Stand’s Speed, but it turns out to be a trap laid out by Kakyoin, who used Emerald Splash to pin down Gray’s movements in one spot to where Hierophant Green can secretly impale it from all directions using spikes laid out while distracting Gray. With the Insect Stand immobilized, Gray’s user turns out to be the elderly man Kakyoin Karate-chopped earlier who is now fatally wounded as a result. Upon noticing that the plane isn’t flying properly, Joseph discovers to find the pilots were murdered by Gray in advance and the plane begins to descend at an alarming rate. Gray’s user briefly appears again to simply taunt them in his last breath that even if they survive the crash, they are still over “10,000 kilometers” away from Egypt and would not make it in time while also bragging about how god-like Dio is. At this point, Gray’s user dies immediately while Joseph tries to land the plane in the ocean (Despite comically having a history of crashing at least two planes previously during his youth in Season 1.).

Joseph manages to safely land the plane off the coast of Hong Kong, where the group decides on an alternative route to reach Egypt. At a nearby restaurant, Joseph & Avdol decide that the safest route to Egypt would be on a boat with just them in an effort to avoid putting other innocent lives at risk. As the group further talk about this solution, They get interrupted by a spiky-haired French tourist who asks them for help reading the menu. Joseph decides to let the man join them as Joseph accidentally orders the wrong food due to the language barrier. When the Frenchman waves around a piece of carrot that’s “shaped like a star”, he reveals himself to be another assassin sent by Dio and immediately attempts to attack Joseph when he summons a Stand of his own which resembles a mechanical knight with a Rapier named “Silver Chariot”. In retaliation, Avdol summons “Magician’s Red” firing a projectile attack at Chariot but it’s quickly deflected. The Episode ends in cliffhanger fashion when Avdol’s deflected flames hit a random table and turn it into a fiery circular clock, at which point, Silver Chariot’s user proclaims that Avdol will die first “before the clock strikes twelve”.

Our Take.

Episode 4 was filled with the right amount of dramatic tension and suspense without feeling like complete filler. It also gave Kakyoin his moment to prove himself after being freed from Dio’s mind control last episode. And finally, that Spikey-Haired Frenchman is pretty damn ballsy to pull a surprise attack in the middle of Team Joestar’s meal but it just shows how ruthless Dio’s Assassins can get. Let’s see where this will lead with Avdol’s battle in the next episode.