AKA: Daiyamondo wa Kudakenai, ダイヤモンドは砕けない

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Supernatural

Studio: David Production

Episodes: 39

We have done it! We as Core Review nation (patent impending) have made it to the fourth season of the JJBA series. It took me a while to finish the last season since so much was going on. I thought it would never end. Also, I was watching so many other shows in between. If anyone is ever wondering why it takes me so long sometimes to get through a season or series, it’s because I’m watching 90 other shows at the same time and I can’t focus haha.

But we have done it, we made it to the near end. Something you might notice about this season is the blatant art style change. This JoJo is, and I didn’t think it’d be possible, way flashier than the previous ones. And I’m not talking about attitude. With the vibrant colors and the sleek character designs, it was like I was watching an entirely different series altogether. I loved it.

Production

One major change was the studio. We had been used to A.P.P.P but around 2012 production was changed to a different studio, David Production. They are responsible for some of my favorite shows; Fire Force (season 2), Inu x Boku SS, and Cells at Work! One key feature of them is having the ability to create good animation with great storytelling and characters and they are actually a very small studio with less than 100 workers (as of 2021).

Summary

Now, this story takes place in 1999 so we are about 10 years past Stardust Crusaders. Jotaro Kujo and Joseph Joestar are traveling to this place called Morioh which will be the main setting for this season. Jotaro is looking for Joseph’s illegitimate son, Josuke Higashikata. This means Josuke is Jotaro’s uncle. Okay, now that we got that messy family timeline out the way, let me get to the actual story.

They are looking for him because if you remember in the last season, we were slightly introduced to the origin of Stand powers. The old lady by the name of Enya had said the bow and arrow “find” people it deems worthy and shoots them which gives them their powers. Jotaro wants to track down the bow and arrow but he figures he can’t do it alone like he’s been trying and Joseph is getting old and senile aka no help.

On top of that, there has been a string of murders and disappearances happening in Morioh which may or may not have anything to do with the bow and arrow.

Characters

The main characters of the series are who I will be focusing on.

Josuke Higashikata

I can say this with the utmost confidence. Josuke has the most SAUCE out of all the JoJo MCs. Don’t hate me, hate the sauciness. First of all, look at the pose? The hair? The face? Anyway, Josuke is our MC for this season. He is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar, who had an affair with his mother. He’s very protective of his friends and has mercy on your soul if you insult his hair. His stand is also one of my favorites, Crazy Diamond. It has the power to restore objects back to their original state. This means it can heal, it can erase written texts, reverting things back to their original nature.

Jotaro Kujo

The GOAT is back. I was so happy to see him again, it was a welcome reunion. At first, I was going to say he hadn’t aged but I keep forgetting we’re supposed to delude ourselves into thinking this GROWN man was 10 years ago. He was just as badass as ever and look at the drip 😤I really loved the change from last season of him in the black trenchcoat looking jacked on steroids to this more lively, slimmer version. Now if they said he was 18, I could buy that. His stand also makes an appearance and to refresh your minds he carries Star Platinum which technically now is able to use Star Platinum: The World.

Koichi Hirose

My son, Koichi, is my second favorite character. I know, a lot of people didn’t like him and thought he was too weak and was a crybaby but honestly, I liked him. He also has my favorite stand because it was so cute and small just like him. In the beginning, he immediately becomes friends with Josuke and I enjoyed their friendship a lot. He came in clutch many times, so that is one of the reasons I love him so much as a character. His stand, Echoes, has three different “acts”. At first, his stand is able to copy and then attach sound effects to anything.

Okuyasu Nijimura

Now he was my least favorite character in the main cast. It’s not that I didn’t like his stand, it was pretty neat. I just did not really care for him as a character. To me, he served as more of a character relief but didn’t really hold much weight. If he wasn’t there…I wouldn’t have noticed. In the beginning, he is an antagonist along with his elder brother Keicho. They have this sad backstory involving their father and eventually, Okuyasu starts following Josuke around and they become friends. His stand is called The Hand which can literally erase anything it touches with its right hand.

Rohan Kishibe

My favorite character is this man right here. He is so sassy so immediately he became my favorite. Rohan is actually a famous manga artist when we meet him. He and Josuke start off hating each other and that slightly improves by the end of the show. He speaks his mind and comes off as rude but his heart is in a good place. Also his stand? Quite possibly one of the most creative. His stand is Heaven’s Door which allows him to temporarily turn a person into a book. This in turn allows him to view the person’s memories where he can learn their weaknesses and can even insert his own commands. It’s the perfect stand for the mangaka.

Kosaku Kawajiri/Yoshikage Kira

Kira is my favorite villain after Dio. He wins by a very small margin. The man was just so evil. If it weren’t for his odd obsession with hands, he’d take the top spot but that was part of his downfall. So he actually starts off as Kosaku, a serial killer who has been on the run for 15 years. It gets a little confusing because he “dies” and becomes the Yoshikage Kira person who was his original persona. He checks all the boxes for the “Is your husband a serial killer?” survey.

He has a hand fetish, is very egocentric, and psychopathic with a little OCD thrown in on the side. His stand is another one of my favorites because it’s very OP if done correctly. In fact, I didn’t know how Josuke and his friends would defeat him. Killer Queen is the name of his stand and it has the ability to wipe out targets cleanly with an explosion.

Pros

Vibrant character styles
New villain
Amazing OST
Creatively introduces new characters

Cons

Never really explained much about Shizuka Joestar.
Some characters were focused on then seemingly dropped or forgotten about

My Thoughts

This would be my top contender for “Favorite JJBA Series” because I can honestly say I was entertained and tuned in from episode 1 to 39. The villain Kira is up there with my favorites. Now, I can appreciate a villain just wanting to be evil because it’s Tuesday but when they slowly reveal a tiny side of humanity I fangirl. I loved the idea of a serial killer villain to shake things up and his stand is absolutely one of my favorites.

There were several conflicts happening throughout the story and I love that because they all tied in together. We were having to figure out who was going around murdering people, who had the bow and arrow, who was shooting people and giving them stand powers, etc.

If I had any complaints they are more focused on characters we were introduced to and they just didn’t revisit them. But for the most part, this series does a good job at either tying up loose ends or long-term storytelling. All of the stands keep getting better and better each season and overall the plot was just *chefs kiss* so don’t be surprised to know this is getting a perfect rating of;

🍙🍙🍙🍙🍙

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