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Old 05-08-2013, 10:09 PM   #101
Talon87
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What's 2x weak to Flying, 2x weak to Ground, and 4x weak to Rock?

Spoiler: show


I'm sorely considering running a team in which Volcarona would be a good fit just so I can name mine Caesar just so I can scream "CAEEEEEEEEEEEEESAAAAAAAAAAAR!", link my opponent to "Il mare eterno nella mia anima", and cry manly tears whenever he gets OHKO'd by Stone Edge, Rock Slide, or perhaps most appropriately of all ...

Rock Tomb.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, definitely going to Hell for that one. ^^;

But I mean, hey! They even both have the sun theme going on!

Disclaimer: post was written for the Going to Hell thread but I decided against posting it there in the end for several reasons. For starters, who would get the joke but for people who are already clear to read this thread anyway? ^^;
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Old 10-15-2013, 07:16 AM   #102
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Stardust Crusaders confirmed for Winter 2014!

We'll have a very entertaining Christmas, that much is sure.
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Old 10-15-2013, 03:24 PM   #103
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Stardust Crusaders confirmed for Winter 2014!

We'll have a very entertaining Christmas, that much is sure.
SO NO CHI NO SA DA ME! JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JO!

Sailor Moon and Stardust Crusaders ... throw one more onto the pile and Winter 2014 would be a true parade of blockbuster blasts from the past. In before Touch or Marmalade Boy are confirmed for re-animations. Oh my gosh I just looked and it turns out that the author of Marmalade Boy really did just start a sequel to the original from March 2013 forward.
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Old 11-01-2013, 08:46 PM   #104
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So as we all know, most of the characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are named after rock stars or bands from the 1970s and '80s. But while I recognized Speedwagon's and Zeppeli's sources, I never realized that Dio Brando himself is named after a band, the American heavy metal band Dio and/or its namesake member who was previously a member of famous band Black Sabbath. I only just found this out tonight when someone mentioned the name "Dio" and in the very same sentence offered these lyrics from one of the band's songs. Spoilers for the end of Phantom Blood a.k.a. Story Arc 1 and/or for the very beginning of Stardust Crusaders a.k.a. Story Arc 3:

Spoiler: show
The name of the song is "Holy Diver" and the lyric in question is:

"You've been down too long in the midnight sea."

What the hell. It may only just be the one line, but still! Made me do a double-take. "Am I sure he's talking about a band and not simply being poetic about Dio Brando?" I wonder if there are any other Easter eggs or tie-ins like this in the series.
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Old 11-01-2013, 11:27 PM   #105
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There are TONS. EVERYWHERE. Keep your eyes peeled because they'll hit you when you don't expect it, Araki loves his musical references.
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Old 11-16-2013, 09:55 AM   #106
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Stardust Crusaders confirmed for Winter 2014!

We'll have a very entertaining Christmas, that much is sure.
I'm officially in heaven right now
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Old 12-22-2013, 01:40 AM   #107
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A trailer for the new anime was released at Jump Festa. Some news:

-all of the CVs save for Jotaro (Daisuke Ono) and Dio (Takehito Koyasu) have been replaced. That means no more Grandpa Kyon-Itsuki banter. The stated reason was cost; since this anime is going to be a lot longer, David Production can't afford the game's A-list CVs.
-airing April 2014
-looks to be 24 episodes long (unconfirmed)
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Old 03-19-2014, 09:53 PM   #108
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So this is about to air, so I'll announce a rumour that's been floating around. No idea how true it'll be until the anime actually airs.

Araki apparently wants to do different things in Stardust Crusaders than what he did in the manga. A character who "remained a villain" he wants to "make a hero". Not saying who it is, but if it IS who I think it is, it'll be pretty fudging awesome.
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Old 03-22-2014, 09:36 AM   #109
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So this is about to air, so I'll announce a rumour that's been floating around. No idea how true it'll be until the anime actually airs.

Araki apparently wants to do different things in Stardust Crusaders than what he did in the manga. A character who "remained a villain" he wants to "make a hero". Not saying who it is, but if it IS who I think it is, it'll be pretty fudging awesome.
I hope it's not who I think it is.

Also look at the shiny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=WoQ8hARdG78
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Old 04-04-2014, 10:00 PM   #110
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New Episode's out.

I haven't watched it because I'm busy writing. But the excitement is percolating!
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Old 04-05-2014, 01:23 AM   #111
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New Episode's out.

I haven't watched it because I'm busy writing. But the excitement is percolating!
Watched it. Will write up more detailed post tomorrow. For now suffice to say: I think Stands are silly but I am digging Avdol. The animation is much improved but still noticeably Studio David. Disappointed to have lost Sugita Tomokazu but we've known about that for ages. Still, he will forever be Joseph Joestar to me.
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Old 04-05-2014, 01:51 AM   #112
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Stands are effectively how Araki was going to dig himself out of the dead-end concept that was "Ripple". With Ripple, he was stuck with vampire plots, but you'll find stands (which written in kanji is "yuuhamon") is much more flexible.
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Old 04-10-2014, 07:20 AM   #113
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I'm onto the third episode of the 2012 series and I don't think I've ever hated a villain as quickly as I have with Dio.
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Old 04-10-2014, 03:38 PM   #114
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A lot of people hate Dio in Part I. I feel it's the opposite in Part III.
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Old 04-10-2014, 04:39 PM   #115
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There's a really good reason for that. Dio in part 1 is a plain and utter jerk. The part that made me hate him involved smoked meat. (those of you that watched part 1 will know what I'm talking about, I think...)
For those that don't:
Spoiler: show

Danny being cooked alive.
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Old 04-10-2014, 04:59 PM   #116
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I cannot imagine loving Dio Brando. Granted, I've yet to see Stardust Crusaders. But it is hard to envision him as a sympathetic villain at this point. There was a time when that might have still been possible, very early in Phantom Blood ... but once we get to Tarkus and Bruford territory, I think Dio is way past being someone we can sympathize with.

Spoilers for the finale of Phantom Blood; don't click until you have met Smokey.

Spoiler: show
While his respect for Jonathan Joestar is something, it seems to be more of a respect for Jonathan as Dio's own equal -- and frankly seems to be little more than Dio's egotistical attempts to rationalize his defeat at Jonathan's hands. Dio doesn't seem to express respect for Jonathan's lifestyle, for his mission in life, etc. He simply respect Jonathan as an equal in power. That's hardly grounds for the audience to sympathize with Dio. It'll take much more than his fascination with the Joestars and respect for Jonathan to make me like him.
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Old 04-10-2014, 05:45 PM   #117
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I mean most of the characters love him!

In Part I, everyone was victimized by Dio and he was pretty much by himself. This time, it's the Jojo superfriends who are outnumbered and un-loved.

Part 2/3 comparison:

Spoiler: show
It's been said that Part 2 is kind of the opposite of Part 3 in approach. In Part 2, Joseph was severely underpowered compared to his enemies and had to outsmart them to win. In Part 3, it's the reverse: Jotaro is simply a monster and the enemies have to go Joseph Joestar on him to be successful. Even considering the original Joseph is right there with his grandson!
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Old 04-29-2014, 12:31 AM   #118
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The first four episodes of Stardust Crusaders have aired and I've enjoyed each and every one of them. Unfortunately, I've put off posting about Episodes 01 and 02 for so long that I can't be arsed to revisit them now and write "01-only knowledge" and "02-only knowledge" posts. Furthermore, I'm not really up for writing four enormous posts, one for each episode, and the problem would only get worse the longer I put it off. So I've decided to go ahead and just write up a general thoughts & feelings post that covers everything we've seen so far.

I don't plan for the post to become too long. And I think it'd serve a better purpose as something outsiders could read than something hidden from view. That stated, there are obviously unavoidable spoilers in this post for the previous two seasons. So if you haven't seen those seasons yet and are already planning to, back away from the post now! Otherwise, go ahead, expand the spoiler box below, and read on.

Spoiler: show

One of the things I'm really enjoying about JJBA SD so far is this idea that we have a sentai squad. I'm not saying we should always have one. In fact, I think it'd get boring to always have a group of 5+ main characters who do everything together. But I have to say -- I think Araki perfectly set this up.
  • In JJBA Phantom Blood, we had a trio of heroes (Jonathan, Will A. Zeppeli, and Speedwagon) but the relationship was not one of equals. We had the protagonist who was the prodigal student (JoJo), the wise master (Zeppeli), and the cheerleader (Speedwagon). This was especially clear in the earliest and latest arcs of Phantom Blood, where Jonathan was either all by himself or else only accompanied by powerless Speedwagon. Essentially, JJBA PB felt like the story of one main character who had two side character allies.
  • In JJBA Battle Tendency, we had a clear duo: Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli. This duo was established very early on in the story and remained all the way up until Caesar's death. And even then, Caesar was still with JoJo -- and with us -- right on up until those ending credits rolled for the first season of the television series.
  • But in JJBA Stardust Crusaders, we've got our first bonafide quintet of heroes. The previous two arcs had many supporting characters that helped the heroes out, but few of them would go out and adventure with the main characters. Few of them were on the same exact quest as the main characters. Lisa Lisa (Battle Tendency) fulfills a role similar to Will A. Zeppeli's. Smokey Robinson is like an even more worthless Speedwagon. But here in Stardust Crusaders, we've got Joutarou, Grandpa Joe, Avdol, Kakyouin, and this new as-yet unnamed guy with the silver hair. Five guys who are all Stand users. Five guys who can all clearly fight well. And I think best of all, each member of the team brings something to the table that is much valued. Joseph brings years of experience and knowledge about a wide array of subjects and his Stand's ability to reveal Dio's immediate physical location. Avdol brings his expertise on fortune telling and his Stand's ability to do heat-related things. Joutarou brings raw muscle and super-fast reflexes. Kakyouin brings ... for lack of a better word I guess I'll call it "tricksy fighting". And as for the silver-haired guy, we don't know yet but I'm sure he'll be bringing some unique assets to the team too. I love this. I love how none of them appear to be butt monkeys. I love how each of them seems to matter to both the story and to the group's survival. Some more than others, of course (like, clearly we'd rank them Joutarou > Joseph > Avdol > the other two in terms of their importance to the plot), but still. They all matter. And they all kick ass.

Another thing I'm really loving about Stardust Crusaders is the Indiana Jones feel of it. It feels like we're going on a grand globetrotting quest. The OP credits are the basis for where I get most of this feeling, but Episodes 03 and 04 help to support this impression as well. Episode 04 especially, what with Araki quickly writing out of the plot the notion that the team can simply charter a flight to Egypt and confront Dio. No, Araki reasons, they'll have to go by land or sea if they want to minimize the risks to theirs and to others' lives.


If Araki has taken a step forward with Stardust Crusader's ensemble premise, I feel like he's taken a step backwards with Kujou Joutarou. The newest star of the JJBA franchise isn't horrible ... but he's easily my least favorite yet of the three main Joestars. It's hard to say whether I like Jonathan more or Joseph more -- both have their selling points -- but I think if I had to choose I'd probably have to go with Joseph. Part of it's probably Sugita Tomokazu selling the role so well in Battle Tendency, but part of it's just how Joseph grows on you with time. Anyway, while I find it hard to pick between Jonathan and Joseph, I'd easily pick either one of them before picking Joutarou. Joutarou is ... well, to simply put it, he's kind of a stick in the mud. I realize that that's the point with his character, but ... meh? ^^; I can't be persuaded to like a stick in the mud more than either choir boy Jonathan, the model shounen hero, or troublemaker Joseph, the Spider-Man to Joseph's Superman. One of the things I find least endearing about Joutarou is his verbal abuse towards women. It's pretty horrendous that he calls his own mother a bitch to her face. And it's pretty audacious that he dares to pull that stunt with strangers. Yet dare to pull it he does, and he's gotten away with it every single time. We know from earlier arcs that Araki is no misogynist, so I'm not really sure what the deal is here with Joutarou.

My favorite characters so far in Stardust Crusaders are Grandpa Joseph (obviously with the bias of emotions carried over from watching Battle Tendency) and Mohammad Avdol. I can't really say what it is, but I just really love Avdol. His Stand is probably one of the most unappealing looks-wise ^^; but element-wise I love that Avdol controls the power of fire/heat as it's a fun element with so much potential.

Like I said, I didn't plan for the post to become too long, so I think this is a good length to give some introductory thoughts and to give Doppel and others a chance to write me back if they wish. I still haven't written much about what I think about Stands in general or about the villain for this arc. Perhaps next time.

Last edited by Talon87; 04-29-2014 at 12:37 AM.
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Old 04-29-2014, 02:35 AM   #119
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Quote:
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Kakyouin brings ... for lack of a better word I guess I'll call it "tricksy fighting". And as for the silver-haired guy, we don't know yet but I'm sure he'll be bringing some unique assets to the team too. I love this. I love how none of them appear to be butt monkeys. I love how each of them seems to matter to both the story and to the group's survival. Some more than others, of course (like, clearly we'd rank them Joutarou > Joseph > Avdol > the other two in terms of their importance to the plot), but still. They all matter. And they all kick ass.
Kakyouin is smart and cool-headed. Jotaro is the only one else on the team who also keeps a cool head, but he isn't as cunning as Kakyouin, and that provides a good contrast, because silver-hair, Abdul and Joseph are all a bit hot-headed and impulsive. Kakyouin works well with Joseph because they're both capable of running out plans.

He's also the only long-ranged fighter of the group. Star Platinum is exclusively a close-range Stand, and Magician's Red is mid range.

And yeah, you hit the bullseye with this team. Stardust Crusaders is the only one where the Jojo squad is competent from top to bottom, where even the designated "comic relief" guy is actually pretty strong and useful.

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Another thing I'm really loving about Stardust Crusaders is the Indiana Jones feel of it. It feels like we're going on a grand globetrotting quest. The OP credits are the basis for where I get most of this feeling, but Episodes 03 and 04 help to support this impression as well. Episode 04 especially, what with Araki quickly writing out of the plot the notion that the team can simply charter a flight to Egypt and confront Dio. No, Araki reasons, they'll have to go by land or sea if they want to minimize the risks to theirs and to others' lives.
Very astute! Joseph's garb should also evoke Indiana Jones, and I think the journey to the middle east definitely took some inspiration from it.

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If Araki has taken a step forward with Stardust Crusader's ensemble premise, I feel like he's taken a step backwards with Kujou Joutarou. The newest star of the JJBA franchise isn't horrible ... but he's easily my least favorite yet of the three main Joestars. It's hard to say whether I like Jonathan more or Joseph more -- both have their selling points -- but I think if I had to choose I'd probably have to go with Joseph. Part of it's probably Sugita Tomokazu selling the role so well in Battle Tendency, but part of it's just how Joseph grows on you with time. Anyway, while I find it hard to pick between Jonathan and Joseph, I'd easily pick either one of them before picking Joutarou. Joutarou is ... well, to simply put it, he's kind of a stick in the mud. I realize that that's the point with his character, but ... meh? ^^; I can't be persuaded to like a stick in the mud more than either choir boy Jonathan, the model shounen hero, or troublemaker Joseph, the Spider-Man to Joseph's Superman. One of the things I find least endearing about Joutarou is his verbal abuse towards women. It's pretty horrendous that he calls his own mother a bitch to her face. And it's pretty audacious that he dares to pull that stunt with strangers. Yet dare to pull it he does, and he's gotten away with it every single time. We know from earlier arcs that Araki is no misogynist, so I'm not really sure what the deal is here with Joutarou.
A bit of background - in the '80s, when Stardust Crusaders came out, the popular hero was the stoic badarse or delinquent with a heart of gold, and Jotaro is both. Joseph and Jonathan were considered dated in their own time (remember Araki's early drawings were based on Buronson's), but anime preference has swung around wildly since the manga was first penned and now they are back in fashion, while Jotaro just comes across as bland. That hasn't stopped Japan from loving him unconditionally, though.

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My favorite characters so far in Stardust Crusaders are Grandpa Joseph (obviously with the bias of emotions carried over from watching Battle Tendency) and Mohammad Avdol. I can't really say what it is, but I just really love Avdol. His Stand is probably one of the most unappealing looks-wise ^^; but element-wise I love that Avdol controls the power of fire/heat as it's a fun element with so much potential.
Abdul and silver-hair are two of my favourites as well, and Abdul was quite popular in Japan during his day. He's just a very sincere guy, and quite powerful, and comes across as more of a person than a character. Joseph is a bit too much of a caricature for me now, he and his "OH. MY. GAAAAWDs" are buttered cheese.
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Old 05-03-2014, 06:13 PM   #120
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Stardust Crusaders Episode 05:

Spoiler: show
This was not a bad episode. In fact, at times it was downright great. Things deserving to be called "great" include the animation and the fight between Avdol and Polnareff. Things I'm less fond of are little minor details about Polnareff's character. Let's get the bad out of the way first, shall we?

I wasn't too thrilled with Polnareff's character design or his Stand. The same complaint applies to Kakyouin. And I'm not thrilled with Avdol's or Grandpa Joseph's Stands either.
  • Avdol: love the guy, love what his stand can do, but man if his Stand doesn't look silly. A muscular man with the head of a red crow.
  • Joseph: love the guy, think his Stand looks just fine, but man if it doesn't feel inappropriately limited for the Joseph Joestar. Don't get me wrong: I totally appreciate how pivotal Joseph's Stand proved to be for the group's success. But it often feels like Joseph may as well not even have a Stand.
  • Kakyouin: he looks like some throwaway Clamp character. And Hierophant Green still feels like a bit of a throwaway Stand. I love how he uses it, and how he uses it isn't throwaway at all. I just don't like how it looks or what its official powers are, I guess.
  • Polnareff: I can't really say what it is but I guess it's the whole package combination of his skin tone, hair color, hair style, and eye color that all together kinda put me off slightly. Not too bad! Just slightly. As for his Stand, the design is fine (if a little silly; almost anything I could say negative about Hierophant Green's design applies to Silver Chariot just as well) but it's the power level that I'm disappointed in. The episode makes it seem like it's through the roof (hurray!) but then the commercial break card comes on screen and it explains that Silver Chariot is basically the Lancer of this group of heroes -- nothing but B and C-rank skills across the board save for one A-rank skill in Speed.
But I have to stress that this complaint's pretty nitpicky and ... well, small's not the right word, but it isn't large either. It's a nitpicky and average-sized complaint, I guess I'd say. Not the end of the world. I just kinda wish the designs and the powers fit the grandiose feeling of the story arc. Oh well. If it's one thing Hunter x Hunter has shown me, it's that an author can come up with powers that strike me as underwhelming only to really impress me with them later. I'm very much hoping to see Araki do the same with the Stardust Crusaders' powers.

Another minor complaint I have with the episode is that Polnareff claims to have been training with his Stand for the past ten years. Has Dio seriously been out and about for ten years already? I thought he'd only been out for maybe three years. Furthermore, shouldn't Polnareff be a fair deal better with his Stand than someone like Kakyouin or Avdol? I mean, it's not a contest -- he can still be worse than them so long as he's top-of-the-line material. But given the low scores Polnareff's Stand has, I just can't believe that he's been training day and night with it for ten years.


That's pretty much it for negatives. I enjoyed most everything else. Starting off with something that I wouldn't necessarily call great but it was still good: Polnareff's backstory and his quest for revenge. This is a staple of adventure stories, true, but normally it's something we see attached to the main character. This time it's attached to the guy who is arguably the least or second least important of the group. That kind of lends an old favorite a refreshing taste. Furthermore, I like the Treasure Island feel Araki's gone for here with Polnareff's target. "Beware ... the seafaring man ... with one ... leg ..." you can practically hear Billy Bones saying as Polnareff explains that his sister's friend told him about "the man with two right arms." I won't lie: the first time I watched the episode, I couldn't even tell he had two right arms! I had to go back and watch it again ... and then again! I missed it twice, and once even when looking for it! It wasn't until one particular shot of the guy was shown that suddenly the light bulb went off in my head and I was like "OH YEAAAAH! He's got two back-of-the-hand-facing-us thumbs on the left side!" Hahahaha, whoops. ^^; I think it's sad that Polnareff's sister died but I appreciate Araki for once again not allowing sentimentality to get in the way of storytelling.

Another thing I enjoyed about this episode, brief though it was, was Polnareff's encounter with Dio Brando. I feel like Stardust Crusaders is doing a bang-up job of showing just how mesmerizing Dio Brando is. We didn't really get this impression in Phantom Blood but that was arguably because everyone Dio surrounded himself with he either 1) converted into a monster or 2) brought back from the dead. There were no Kakyouins or Polnareffs in Phantom Blood. (Closest things we had were Jack the Ripper and the Chinese druggist, and I'd say that both of them had more in common with Dio's other vampires than they do with Kakyouin or Polnareff.) Straits could've been one, given how he fell to the dark side and made himself a vampire in Battle Tendency, but he didn't submit to Dio -- Dio was out of the picture by the time Straits fell. But Araki is doing a good job here in Stardust Crusaders of showing just how much raw animal magnetism Dio Brando has. It'll be interesting to see how each member of the quintet responds to Dio Brando once they're in his presence.


Now on to the greats. The first great thing about this episode which stood out to me was the animation. Oh good lord, the animation! This was amazing. This was as good as the time in Season 1 when we saw the flashback where Will A. Zeppeli is training in the Himalayas with Tonpetty and is learning to master the Ripple. When that scene came on my monitor, I noticed immediately what an improvement it was over the animation we'd had in all the previous episodes. The same "Buh-HUH!? " reaction happened with this episode. While Episodes 01 thru 04 were fine for Studio David, Episode 05 was frequently as good as Madhouse's Hunter x Hunter at its best. No exaggeration, it was that good. Not always, but frequently! It was really, really beautiful to behold. Studio David has a clear love for bringing the manga to life and boy did it show in this week's episode. So vibrant, so crisp, so fluid, and still so unmistakably manga -- the manga camera angles, the manga SFX text, all of it. It was great.

Second great thing about this episode for me was the actual fight between Polnareff and Avdol. Most shounen manga fights tend to be foregone conclusions, but this was a genuinely exciting one from start to finish. The only things I really knew for certain were that neither Avdol nor Polnareff would die -- or that if they did die they would have to be brought back to life. Beyond that, all bets were off as to who would win the fight, how, etc. It was wonderful to get to see Avdol get serious -- I prefer Sweetheart Avdol to Pissed Off Avdol, but it's precisely because we almost never get to see Pissed Off Avdol that when he finally showed up in this week's episode it was really impressive! Polnareff was just as spellbinding -- the entire time he was fighting I had to keep reminding myself that he was under Dio's hypnotic influence, so chivalrous and heroic was he. Even Avdol comments on this! I had feared that Polnareff would be the obligatory butt monkey of the quintet; and while his revealed weakness for ladies at the end of the episode did not instill confidence in me that he won't be the butt monkey, the rest of the episode did. He was powerful, brave, noble, competent: if Jean Pierre Polnareff is the "fool" for our group, then god damn if we haven't got the best JJBA group yet. It's great.
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Old 05-04-2014, 12:40 PM   #121
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Avdol: love the guy, love what his stand can do, but man if his Stand doesn't look silly. A muscular man with the head of a red crow.
The stands are meant to evoke some aspect of the character's history or background. Star Platinum, for example, is dressed as an Aztec, evoking the history the Jojos have with the Stone Mask (or alternatively, it's Brueford, as Brueford's design looks JUST like Star Platinum). In Abdul's case, Magician's Red is meant to conjure association with Horus, since Abdul is Egyptian.

Polnareff by extension is French, so Silver Chariot is meant to resemble a medieval knight.

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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Joseph: love the guy, think his Stand looks just fine, but man if it doesn't feel inappropriately limited for the Joseph Joestar. Don't get me wrong: I totally appreciate how pivotal Joseph's Stand proved to be for the group's success. But it often feels like Joseph may as well not even have a Stand.
This is a cultural thing with Japan. "inherited will" and all that. The concept is that immortality can be achieved for individuals if their will lives on through their descendants, so the 'hero' never truly dies but merely changes form. Said concept is applied a bit more liberally in shounen titles but that's where we get the "Jojo" part from.

In most shows that use this concept, such as Mazinger, it usually involves the original hero being destroyed and a successor taking his place. Similarly, in every Jojo part that features multiple Jojo, the one from the previous generation is always nerfed to heck and/or caricatured. It's meant to show the mantle of "Jojo" has already passed on.

Joseph was/is awesome, but Araki is going to poop on him a lot in Stardust Crusaders. He's still cool and does awesome things, but combat wise he's there to get jobbed. He has the worst Stand, almost a non-stand, to relegate him to the background and not upstage Jotaro.


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Polnareff: I can't really say what it is but I guess it's the whole package combination of his skin tone, hair color, hair style, and eye color that all together kinda put me off slightly. Not too bad! Just slightly. As for his Stand, the design is fine (if a little silly; almost anything I could say negative about Hierophant Green's design applies to Silver Chariot just as well) but it's the power level that I'm disappointed in. The episode makes it seem like it's through the roof (hurray!) but then the commercial break card comes on screen and it explains that Silver Chariot is basically the Lancer of this group of heroes -- nothing but B and C-rank skills across the board save for one A-rank skill in Speed.
I feel like you're underrating it a bit, one thing about the Jojo squad in Stardust Crusaders is most of them have combat oriented stands, and Star Platinum is ridiculously over-powered even within that class, but is limited by its small range. So there's some inherent bias when looking at this group of warriors armed with Servants, and then they go up against Dio's minions who don't even have humanoid stands, and are more involved with deception or non-combat offense.

Silver Chariot, while not as powerful as Star Platinum in one on one, has better range and more importantly the ability to multiply its offense when it moves at full speed. Not to mention its armour protects Polnareff from harm, while most other stands transmit damage felt by the stand to the user. I guess you could call it Lancer, but it's more like Lancer wielding both a lance and a machine gun, and not just a lance only.

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Another minor complaint I have with the episode is that Polnareff claims to have been training with his Stand for the past ten years. Has Dio seriously been out and about for ten years already? I thought he'd only been out for maybe three years. Furthermore, shouldn't Polnareff be a fair deal better with his Stand than someone like Kakyouin or Avdol? I mean, it's not a contest -- he can still be worse than them so long as he's top-of-the-line material. But given the low scores Polnareff's Stand has, I just can't believe that he's been training day and night with it for ten years.
This might have not been clear in the manga (and Part IV was actually created to address this, which Araki also felt was unclear) but stands have existed for centuries both naturally and induced. Abdul for example is a natural stand user, and thought Magician's Red was an evil spirit possessing him before Joseph trained him. Dio has both been collecting stand users across the globe, and has the ability to give certain minions stands. Similarly, when he gave himself a stand, that awoke stands in all living Jojo descendants,

Also something I need to point out - stands ('yuuhamon') are bound to the spirit and not the body, unlike true ripple which was absolutely a body/breathing ability. Some people seem to think that Dio is actually using Jonathan's stand based on its similarity to Hermit Purple, but actually Joseph's Hermit Purple is like it is because he got it from Dio.

Speaking of that, time to reference my mischievous efforts earlier in the year!

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I think it's sad that Polnareff's sister died but I appreciate Araki for once again not allowing sentimentality to get in the way of storytelling.
Yep, the '80s is pretty cutthroat and merciless. It does lend itself well to unpredictability - Jonathan and Caesar dying were probably not obvious, and Stardust Crusaders continues in that vein. Just because we have main characters doesn't mean that everyone is protected by plot armour, especially if Araki intends to add another character to the group!

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Another thing I enjoyed about this episode, brief though it was, was Polnareff's encounter with Dio Brando. I feel like Stardust Crusaders is doing a bang-up job of showing just how mesmerizing Dio Brando is. We didn't really get this impression in Phantom Blood but that was arguably because everyone Dio surrounded himself with he either 1) converted into a monster or 2) brought back from the dead. There were no Kakyouins or Polnareffs in Phantom Blood. (Closest things we had were Jack the Ripper and the Chinese druggist, and I'd say that both of them had more in common with Dio's other vampires than they do with Kakyouin or Polnareff.) Straits could've been one, given how he fell to the dark side and made himself a vampire in Battle Tendency, but he didn't submit to Dio -- Dio was out of the picture by the time Straits fell. But Araki is doing a good job here in Stardust Crusaders of showing just how much raw animal magnetism Dio Brando has. It'll be interesting to see how each member of the quintet responds to Dio Brando once they're in his presence.
For a similar reason I didn't like it, although I have a theory as to what. Dio is very charismatic and clever, as we saw in Phantom Blood, but he didn't have this "supernatural charisma" that beguiled everyone he met. Jonathan and George weren't mesmerized by Dio, and neither was that girl who was kidnapped by him or Erina. Suddenly Dio is Charlie Manson? I think he's using his vampire powers somehow to make it easier to beguile (and it's shown later he has other methods of control) but his presence is a bit too much for me to buy as 'supernatural charisma'.

It's also funny later, maybe it's already been mentioned, one of the enemies mentions Dio having a luxurious body, "like a Grecian statue" to the Joestars. Talk about faint praise.

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He was powerful, brave, noble, competent: if Jean Pierre Polnareff is the "fool" for our group, then god damn if we haven't got the best JJBA group yet. It's great.
Yep. He shares duties with Joseph sometimes, but the whole squad is thoroughly competent. It'll be reeeeeeeally interesting if that one guy joins up too.
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Old 05-12-2014, 12:45 PM   #122
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Stardust Crusaders Episode 06:

Spoiler: show
This was an entertaining episode with a number of little surprises. I had not expected Araki to sabotage these men's efforts to get to Egypt at every possible corner as, to my mind, that would seem insane to do. It would beg the question, "How are they ever to get to Egypt if every single time they try to set out their vessel -- be it boat, plane, train, whatever -- gets demolished?" But I love how Araki isn't afraid to tiptoe the line of insanity in the interests of telling a logically compelling story. By threatening the impossible -- the quintet reaching Egypt despite Dio Brando's sincerely best efforts to stop them -- Araki promises an adventure we won't soon forget. Or at least, that has been my experience thus far and continues to be my hope going forward.


One of the bigger surprises of the episode, though, didn't surprise me at all. ^^; The moment they showed the stowaway, I couldn't help but to think how "he" seemed to look rather effeminate and could possibly be a girl concealing her true gender. These thoughts were quite distracting in the early minutes of the episode, before it's revealed that she is in fact a girl, and I kept chastising myself for getting distracted by them. In fact, it made me feel downright uncomfortable to keep looking at this androgynous boy and thinking thoughts that he might be a girl! But I couldn't help but wonder, right on up until it was confirmed that she was indeed a girl. So yeah, sorry Araki, but whether it was Studio David's fault for making it too obvious visually or whether it's no one's fault and I've just seen this plot twist one too many times for you to successfully sneak it past me, I called that "he" was in fact a she. We still don't know her name though, something which makes writing about her kind of difficult. ^^;

I like her so far. She seems like, if she's going to stick around for even two more episodes, let alone ten or more, she could be an upgraded version of Smokey Robinson from Battle Tendency. My only real complaint with our mysterious new friend is that she's very young: and that disappoints me simply as far as the potential for romance goes between Joutarou and her. Obviously it isn't going to happen. Even if age-wise they're not that far apart (say she's 13 and say Joutarou's 17), Araki draws his older teens like full-grown men while he draws his younger teens like small children. It would just look super wrong to pair those two together. Guess we'll have to see how long she's sticking around in the first place before I worry about these concerns any further.


Censorship has unfortunately reared its ugly head again with Studio David's latest installment of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure franchise. And while I haven't written about it until now, it has been a minor annoyance in nearly all of the previous episodes. So far, it's been grotesque visuals which have been censored. The old man on the airplane was censored when it was implied that he lost his lower jaw. IIRC the student who lost an eye in Episode 02 had his eye socket area censored. Stuff like that I don't mind quite as badly, though I do still wish it weren't censored. But when they censor stuff like blood, it annoys me ...

... and when they censor stuff like Joutarou smoking a cigarette, it's like COME FUCKING ON. If the cigarette thing were going to be a long-running plot device -- if Araki really had written it such that Joutarou uses tobacco to tell apart Stand users from regular people -- then sure, I could understand why Studio David had to include the cigarettes but also had to censor them. But since it seems like the cigarette was a one-time thing that will never come up again ... and since I can't even recall Joutarou smoking in any of the previous episodes ... it seriously begs the question of why they couldn't have just left the cigarette out entirely and written up some new experiment for JoJo to use to out the fake captain. I hate made-for-television changes to the script, yes, but I hate even more this ridiculously distracting level of black bar censorship.


The villain of the week was kind of typical of shounen manga chump villains: insufferably cheesy and annoying, partnered with a Stand that didn't really impress, but not too too bad either. What I liked best about the boat captain was how Araki made it look like the captain had genuinely died at first when he hadn't. There's two reasons I liked this. First, when you're thinking that this is really how he's just died, I appreciated Araki for bucking shounen manga trends in writing. Normally you know that a villain of the week is protected by plot armor until we reach the near end of the episode. So it was refreshing to see all this buildup for the villain, him talking a huge talk about how amazing his Stand is in the water, and then to have Joutarou kill the guy in the seconds between him jumping off the boat and his body reaching the water. That was awesome. And I'm sad that that didn't stay the canon ending for the impostor captain. ^^; But the second thing I liked about this scene was that given that it was a plot twist and given that the captain was in fact still alive, it was one which really caught me by surprise. It's increasingly difficult for shounen manga to be able to surprise me anymore, so for Araki to surprise me with such a classic plot twist -- the You-Think-He's-Dead-But-He-Isn't-Dead-Yet plot twist -- was appreciated. Studio David really helped by depicting the boat captain's arms all mangled and claw-ey and whatnot as his body drifted away.

It may be too early to say such things, but I'm tempted to claim six episodes in that this is my favorite of the three story arcs so far. Studio David seems to have let off the gas somewhat -- we don't seem to be making quite as much progress plot-wise now as we did in Phantom Blood, for instance -- but that doesn't seem to have compromised the richness of the individual episodes either. I feel like most of the episodes have really given us our half hour's worth of entertainment. That's good. I was really worried that if they let off the gas we would wind up with infuriatingly sparse episodes, like most Naruto episodes and many Hunter x Hunter episodes. But that doesn't seem to have happened so far. Instead, what we've lost in speedy progression through the plot we've made up for in (if I can use such generous language) rich development of the finer points of the plot. And it should be stated that the episodes are still going at a generous speed compared with many Shounen Jump properties -- I think this week's episode, for example, was probably no fewer than two chapters in the manga and quite possibly three or more.
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Old 05-12-2014, 12:53 PM   #123
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Jotaro doesn't kill most of the enemies Dio throws at him. The cast isn't shy from bloodshed, but most of the Stand users are 1) Either scared of Dio, 2) Mind-controlled by Dio or 3) Hypnotized by Dio, Jotaro only has to beat them to a sufficient pulp that they're afraid of the Joestar party and keep away. You will see Jotaro pummeling guys, but it will be more apparent when someone actually dies.

Dio attempts to sabotage the Joestars at every corner, his army is rather huge and diffuse around the world. Not every stop is waylaid, but there are many Stand users of varying power and ability on the path toward Egypt. Inadvertently, they're giving Jotaro the experience he lacks with his Stand the others already have.
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Old 05-17-2014, 11:50 PM   #124
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Eight minutes into Episode 07 of Stardust Crusaders, I noticed a certain little stowaway. "Could it be?" I asked myself. "Could it really be her?" Did a Google search for the voice actress's name and JJBA. And ...

Spoiler: show
Holy shit, that's Kugimiya Rie voicing the stowaway girl! She let her Shana timbre slip in a little this week, but last week she honestly passed by me completely unnoticed. Well done, Rie! In fact, I'm slightly disappointed you didn't keep the ruse up longer! Would've been all the more amazing!

But yeah, eight minutes into Episode 07, you can easily hear the Louise / Shana in there. Is what tipped me off.
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Old 05-17-2014, 11:52 PM   #125
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There's been a ton of doujins lately involving Jotaro and that stowaway. I daresay it'll be the runaway smash hit of the next Comiket!
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