Just a quick note: this review assumes that youre already familiar with Parts 1 and 2 of JoJos Bizarre Adventure Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. Consequently it may contain some light spoilers from those arcs. Stardust Crusaders is by far the most iconic and wellknown part of JoJos Bizarre Adventure perhaps because its the one that truly began to set the tone for all the parts to follow. However being iconic doesnt necessarily mean its the best. In a lot of ways Stardust Crusaders takes one step forward one step back and two steps sideways. First the biggest change from the previous two parts is the introduction of Stands. Stands are a unique variety of physical manifestations of fighting ability usually taking the form of a humanoid. Basically theyre magic ghosts you use to punch people. These stands manifest in a variety of people and animals in a variety of ways. For example while the protagonist Jotaro has a very straightforward Stand i.e. it punches people the Stands encountered in the series do a variety of things from possessing people to attacking them through their dreams. Its important to set this up now because Stands are vital to explaining the plot of Stardust Crusaders. The Stands only begin to manifest in the Joestar line due to Dio taking over Jonathan Joestars body and Jotaros mother/Josephs daughter begins to develop a Stand that is slowly killing her because she cant control it. As a result Jotaro and Joseph are joined by three others Avdol Kakyoin and Polnareff as they journey to Egypt to defeat Dio. From this point on the show becomes a series of battles as this group of five known as the Stardust Crusaders encounter Stand user after Stand user interrupting their progress on their way to Egypt. The first part sees them fighting their way through all the tarotbased Stands minus Dio and ultimately arriving in Egypt. As with the last season the anime is very well produced with fantastic art good music solid directing and beautifully hammy voice acting. The introduction of Stands however brings a drastic shift in things. For example Hamon is completely irrelevant making only one appearance in this first half and failing to be of any use. While its a shame to lose the magic system weve had for the previous two parts its kind of a necessity since Hamon is really only useful for fighting the undead and having to constantly fall back on that limits the places the series can go. The drawback is that Hamon incorporated the users entire body and took a lot of training and skill to use whereas Stands seem to be innate and until you see a lot of them in action and really start to grasp how exactly the Stands and users are linked it seems like the Stands do all the fighting and render the users themselves completely irrelevant. The introduction of Stands also allows for much more absurd fights. Yes Battle Tendency may have had a Nazi cyborg but the enemies in the first half of Stardust Crusaders includes an orangutan pedophile dressed in an admirals outfit an enraged car and a genius baby. As a result the series itself takes on a much sillier tone. The voice acting is blatantly overthetop which fits the new tone perfectly. Joseph added a bit of levity to Battle Tendency but in Stardust Crusaders his exaggerated yells and Engrish phrases instantly steal the scene in the best way possible. On the flip side because this arc doesnt take itself near as seriously it also incorporates a lot more toilet humor. If the idea of our heroes feeding a baby its own poo peeing in a mans mouth or being forced to lick a toilet turns you off well youre probably not going to be considering this arc one of your favorites. Its also worth noting that this arc fixes a major problem from the previous arcs. While Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency only really had one hero and consequently had to sideline everyone else and have them shout out commentary like theyre sportscasters Stardust Crusaders uses a team of capable people who all get their chances to shine. Finally the pacing of this arc is absolutely terrible. Its a travel story and while in some ways that makes it feel more epic it also turns it into a very episodic show with they fighting one stand per every episode or two episodes. Most of these fights end up being completely irrelevant. They dont cause character development and they dont advance the plot. All they do is provide another obstacle for the Stardust Crusaders to face. Theres a reason why the two halves of this adaptation have a total of 48 episodes while the OVAs from 1993 and 2000 that cover the same arc are able to condense it to 13. While its exciting when watched weekly it becomes a pain to watch all in one go. Due to the two halves of this arc being divided into two different seasons Im going to have to rate them individually and the first half is by far the weaker one. Its a few episodes of setup followed by what is essentially a lot of filler. The episodes may be fun but theyre not as compelling as what came before or what will come in the second half of Stardust Crusaders. On top of that its incomplete so it loses a few points when judging it on its own. Despite that this season is able to set up the new direction the series starts to take in a satisfactory way and while its not the same as Phantom Blood or Battle Tendency I think its just about on par with them. In the end its just good pure fun with absolutely no substance to it. But really isnt that what youre watching JoJo for anyway? Four stars.