English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders “Set’s Alessi, Part 2″

“Stranger Danger!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

As Alessi attempts to sneak-attack kid-Polnareff, with an Axe, it’s out of sheer dumb luck that his Silver Chariot Stand is able to hold off the enemy’s strike, but it doesn’t exactly go well… Upon realizing that he’s at a total disadvantage due to being stuck in a child’s body, Polnareff notices the absence of the beautiful stranger who brought him to this house and Alessi uses this moment of distraction to drown Polnareff in the bathtub, only for something unexpectedly disgusting yet effective to happen which not only helped him get out of danger temporarily, but I do give points to Adult Swim for having the consistent courtesy of also censoring that particular moment, along with the random child nudity with a series of well-placed mosaics.

Discovering that Alessi had used his Stand powers to give that beautiful stranger the most extreme case of Benjamin Button disease ever, Polnareff attempts to escape with her, turning Polnareff even younger every time he touches Alessi’s Shadow-Stand and proceeds to run the fuck away from the Pauly Shore looking sicko by running to a bedroom and locking it, but this is where the tension & suspense really kick into high gear as Alessi crashes through the door with an Axe Jack Torrance-style and while searching for the two, Polnareff in a badass & clever scene, manages to get the drop on Alessi in one of the most well-written character moments for Polnareff ever, causing the bastard to jump out the window where he soon winds up in front of Jotaro, while Polnareff who’s now reduced to a 2-year old.

As Jotaro makes an interesting observation about Alessi’s injuries, Alessi manages to hit Jotaro with Set’s shadow. But just when things seem decidedly bleak for the two, Jotaro even fucks with my expectations when even as a child, Jotaro unleashes one hell of a beatdown against Alessi that knocks Alessi the fuck out, undoing Set’s age curse on both him and Polnareff and the two proceed to exact their revenge against the child-beating Shit-bag in a cathartic burst of violence that even brought me to tears for its epicness alone. Long after giving Alessi the beatdown of his life, Polnareff is relieved to find out that the beautiful stranger who took him in the previous episode is back to normal as well, But despite past episodes establishing Polnareff as a ladies man who normally wouldn’t pass up this chance, Polnareff in a bittersweet kinda way, decides to keep his identity a secret from her before he and Jotaro reunite with the rest of Team Joestar. And so the episode ends when Joseph uses his Stand-Powers to determine the location of Dio’s hideout which turns out to be a building in Cairo.

Our Take

Damn, that was an intense episode! While the “Stranger Danger” shit from the last episode was thankfully downplayed here, I’m at least glad Adult Swim kept things consistent with it’s censoring of specific child body parts, along with its censorship of feces. The tension & suspense knew how to keep me engaged to a degree. While part of me was actually terrified by Alessi, he also lacked the imagination to use his Stand to its full potential in ways that would’ve made him an actual threat.

In theory, all Alessi had to do was plan ahead to where his Shadow-Stand made contact with Jotaro or Polnareff for longer periods of time so they would turn into newborn babies which would’ve made his job a lot easier. As for Polnareff, I can understand why he did such a thing, but I guess it was for the best. Her life, in theory, would’ve been in danger if she had a relationship with one of Dio’s primary targets.

Now that most of Team Joestar is once again reunited, and Joseph figuring out where Dio possibly is, their journey continues!