JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 34 – GOOOOOOOOOD

Meet D’Arby and his cat, D’Awwwwwwwwwby.

I and others familiar with the story hyped this arc in particular when we realized it was coming up. Admittedly I became a bit concerned about backlash, because I didn’t want to give people the wrong idea about this fight. It’s not exactly a knockout, drag out brawl. What it is, however, is emblematic of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure at its best, a fight that’s just a bit off from expectations and turns the story into something else entirely.

My favorite arcs in JoJo are the ones that turn into a different type of story viewed through the lens of JoJo. Most often in Stardust Crusaders, it ends up that the not-as-straightforward Stand battles end up as horror pastiches, because Hirohiko Araki was still testing the limits of this concept. Here, we get a fight that’s all mental. The weapons are mind games, character, and charisma. Misdirection is your ally. How well can you fool your opponent into thinking something inconsequential matters and mask your true intentions?

What makes this episode so fun is that D’Arby is such a performer; he delights in pulling the curtain back just enough to let you know it’s all an act, and nonetheless finding a way to fool people. The cat bet is as much a way for D’Arby to amuse himself as it is a way to get the jump on the heroes. He’s showing them his tricks to make it that much more fun when he ambles to the edge of the cliff and survives another day. D’Arby cheats and insinuates that he’ll continue to cheat until he’s caught. If you don’t catch him, then you probably weren’t good enough to win in the first place, right?

Of course Joseph Joestar would end up challenging D’Arby. Many of his victories in Battle Tendency came as a result of bluffing, improvisation, and straight-up cheating, after all. It’s a great showcase for Joseph, because this is a fight where physicality doesn’t matter — it’s how sharp one’s mind is that determines the victor. Watching Joseph and D’Arby attempt to out-macho each other and throw each other off with mind games is great fun. Joseph has wonderful old man tricks: deliberately mispronouncing D’Arby’s name, adding that extra squeeze of liquid to the glass to ensure the next coin would overflow the glass. It’s all part of the performance. Who can put on the best show and intimidate the opponent the most?

It’s unfortunate that old man Joseph has grown just a bit too soft in his old age. He has concerns other than swindling people day-in and day-out. (Well, maybe. He might be swindling people every damn day in real estate deals or however the hell he made his money.) Joseph’s against a gamblin’ man who spends all his time in the underworld stealing souls. I wonder which of them has the steeliest nerves? Probably the one bragging about his collection of soul pogs.

Poor Avdol is on the other side of the spectrum here. He’d be a bad gambler, unfortunately. I guess he can keep his cool when he’s presented with a straight-up fight situation, but once he has to deal with all the subterfuge and people being sneaky bastards, then he can’t help himself. Avdol is just too good a dude. He can’t operate on the level of people undermining each other to get ahead in life.

This is but the start, of course. The poker battle between D’Arby and Jotaro is where the real fun is at. Not to further push hype down everyone’s throats, but one of my favorite moments in Stardust Crusaders is in this arc. I’m looking forward to it!