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

-Insert “Yellow Submarine” Jokes here-

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After Team Joestar enters the exploration sub that was purchased by Avdol, to end their journey by crossing the Red Sea. Along the way, Joseph makes a call to a character we haven’t see or heard from since Season 1. Joseph’s wife and Holly’s mom Suzy Q. Suzy is staying in New York but is currently unaware about Joseph’s circumstances, making sure she doesn’t travel to Japan to check up on Holly, whose condition continues to worsen while the Speedwagon Foundation looks after her. It’s a well-established scene given that the previous episodes almost never showed how bad Holly’s condition was since Team Joestar left on their journey half-way across the world.

Just as they approach the Egyptian shore, Jotaro makes an observation that leads to Joseph being attacked by a small yet grotesque enemy Stand knocking him unconscious. It turns out the Stand was disguising itself and soon transforms itself to hide in the submarine’s interior. As they go to help Joseph, Avdol recognizes the Stand as that of the High Priestess, wielded from far away by a Stand User named Rose, who’s Stand has the ability to transform into any glass, mineral or metallic substance it blends in with, and chances are, Rose is most likely up at the surface. As the Sub is put into chaos from the Stand’s attacks, the submarine begins to leak and sink. Jotaro answers another call from Suzy, who at first becomes concerned about the background noise, but Jotaro assures her that they’ll call back when things calm down.

When we get to the third act, the Sub begins to run low on oxygen, and Jotaro decides to figure out where the Enemy Stand is oncemore after it injured Kakyoin, but when Jotaro finally grabs hold of the annoying shit, it escapes by transforming into a tiny razor blade and while it hides oncemore with Jotaro vowing to get payback against her. After Joseph finally wakes up and is given a status report, they attempt to escape to the surface as they’re “40 meters” below sea level, but the episode ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger as Team Joestar decides to escape from the sub using scuba gear, while Suzy and her butler head to Japan.

Our Take

This was very different compared to other episodes. The pacing was slower but it worked to build quiet tension as they’re in a confined space under the deep ocean depths. I kinda liked the fact that High Priestess hasn’t spoken a word like some rabid sadistic animal that seems determined to finish the job.

The scenes with Suzy while they felt like filler, made sense to the proceedings. This is Holly’s Mother & Jotaro’s Grandmother after all, and I always wondered what happened to her long after the events of Season 1. It was also a nice touch to see in the background the magazine article with Smokey Brown (Another supporting character from Season 1) which is a subtle way to show that he’s doing ok for himself as an adult since he got into politics.