English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “The Sun”

“The Sun Sucks!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Having crossed the Gulf Straight from Karachi after their battle with “Dan of Steel”, Team Joestar arrive in the city of Abu Dhabi, though Kakyoin is getting paranoid that they’re being watched & followed thanks in part to their previous encounters with Dio’s hit-men during their ongoing quest. After purchasing a car at a dealership, Joseph says their next stop is to travel 100 kilometers northwest to the village of Yarpline by Cessna, as it would take two days to reach it by car due to the mountains and deserts between them. But of course, given Joseph’s terrible track-record at flying a plane and having survived 3 plane crashes, Jotaro isn’t thrilled at the idea of his Grandfather in the cockpit once more which results in Joseph re-thinking their plans to cross the desert on camel much to Polnareff’s disgust. When they get to the Camel merchant, it leads to some of the funniest scenes that take up most of the running time from Joseph’s unusual way of paying the merchant, to his attempt to teach the rest of his team how to ride a camel which excels the most in slapstick comedy.

Kakyoin and now Jotaro both feel like they’re being watched yet are unable to see anything, But it’s here when we get to the meat of the story as the heat intensifies and the weird shit becomes apparent when Polnareff notices that the sun is rising from the west despite their synchronized watches claiming it’s supposed to be sunset already, leading the group to believe that the smouldering sun hovering over them is an enemy Stand as it looks more like a glowing black fireball. Out of instinct, Team Joestar takes cover behind a rock while figuring out that since the Sun is so damn large, that it’s user must be close. But Jotaro uses Star Platinum to punch a hole in the ground and creates a cave for everyone to stay in the shade but are put into an extreme disadvantage as their water supply dwindles and their camels are collapse dead from the heat.

At first, things seem decidedly bleak when we reach the third act as everyone but Joseph begins laughing which starts to become unnerving, as we the audience aren’t used to seeing calm & collected characters like Kakyoin & Jotaro laugh like stoned idiots. Of course, Joseph thinks they’ve gone batshit insane from the heat, But Kakyoin assures him that they’re only laughing because they noticed two identical rocks close by in the scenery. In a clever twist, Jotaro gets Star Platinum to throw a stone at the second rock, that not only creates a hole in open space knocking out Sun’s user, but the sky becomes dark in the process. It turns out that Sun’s user (despite being a short individual) was smart enough to hide while not being caught by using a giant mirror to blend into the terrain and thought he could wait out killing Team Joestar while he stayed comfy away from danger, but the episode ends on a comedic note when they decide to camp out for the night and enjoy the cold climate of the desert before resuming their journey.

Our Take

For a slow-paced filler episode, I can’t help but think that in any other scenario, how Sun’s user could’ve been unbeatable. I’m sure, like a lot of the other Stand User-assassins hired by Dio, It’s easy to assume that this strategy could’ve worked out for him in the past, but failed hard when he underestimated how perceptive most of Team Joestar was.

I do give props to the David Production animation team for trying their best to condense this into a half-hour mind-fuck of an episode. When it didn’t drag in places, It had a good balance of showing the desert setting as being a cruel & unforgiving place mixed with the surreal, colorful imagery that Jojo creator Hikohiro Araki is often known for while bringing unexpected levity & humor to the episode’s proceedings.