SC Episode 31

"Bastet" Mariah, Part 2 (「バステト女神」のマライア　その②) is the fifty-seventh episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime, the thirty-first episode of Stardust Crusaders and the seventh episode of the Egypt Arc. It covers Chapter 202 through Chapter 204 of the manga.

The fight against Mariah continues. Joseph and Avdol team up to pursue Mariah but they are both magnetized and are stuck to each other. This causes no short amount of embarrassment.

Summary
Joseph and Avdol have uncovered a new enemy in Mariah of the Egypt 9 Glory Gods but her Bastet has magnetized the both of them, resulting in the two getting stuck to each other. In trying to detach themselves, the two end up in many suggestive positions in public until their struggle makes them fall down a hill onto a railroad track as a train approaches. While Mariah gloats as there is no way to escape and the heroes would surely not cause a train crash to escape, Avdol has Magician's Red burn a hole underneath the tracks before they are run over, frustrating Mariah to no end.

Avdol and Joseph, stuck to a sectioned railroad track, confront Mariah. However, she throws a handful of nuts and bolt at the two to escape and adds that the magnetism will only grow stronger with time. Joseph and Avdol manage to pull out of each other and guess that Mariah still has to keep a certain distance from them in order to maintain her Stand ability, seeing her tendency to be close to them. Joseph thus formulates a plan to surround her and thanks to a map drawn by Hermit Purple, predicts the best course. The two separate, collecting a great many metallic objects along the way, but eventually surround Mariah. However, the woman sets off several loose power cables that are drawn to their magnetism, threatening to shock Joseph, just as a truck threatens to crush Avdol. Joseph tries a last plea which Mariah obviously refuses; at that moment, the duo uses their magnetism to their own advantage and let go to fly at each other, with Mariah between them. All of the bones in Mariah's body are crushed by the mass of objects coming at her and Joseph and Avdol are freed.

Meanwhile, another Stand user, Alessi, sets his sights on Jotaro, Polnareff, and Iggy.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * A scene of Polnareff wondering who would be stupid enough to cut off a train line (unaware that Avdol was forced to do it) was added.

Commentary
"This is the direct sequel to Episode 30, but with a lot more small objects on screen, because of the magnetism. Yuta Takamura found the direction rather difficult to sort out.

The old lady gets a third appearance while Joseph and Avdol are locked into each other. Will she appreciate the show? (laughs)

Just like the last episode, Joseph is a thrown around by Mariah's magnetism in a comical scale. It's only at the very end that he feels cool and brings down his adversary once and for all, as expected of a Joestar.

The scene of the final attack teaming up with Avdol is formidably well rendered, the one in charge of the animation gave full disclosure to the teams and didn't really need to make modifications.

Mariah is a female character, which is priceless in JoJo. We poured all our heart into showing her sexy side every time she appeared.

The episode finished on a mysterious guy stalking Jotaro and Polnareff... It's a way of inviting the audience to watch the next episode.

Note that in the manga, there's no precise indication of the chornology of the events. But in the anime, we made it so you could understand that the fights against Mariah and Alessi were roughly happening at the same time."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * The English Dub of the episode was set to air on April 1, 2018 at 12:00am, but as an April Fool's joke, Toonami premiered a sneak peek of in its place. The episode aired later at 2:45am in Japanese with English subtitles.
 * The English version was eventually aired the following week, on April 7, 2018, at midnight.