SC Episode 35

D'Arby the Gambler, Part 2 (ダービー·ザ·ギャンブラー その2) is the thirty-fifth episode of Stardust Crusaders, the eleventh episode of the Egypt Arc, and the sixty-first episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers last four pages of Chapter 213 through Chapter 216 of the manga.

Summary
D'Arby prepares his and Jotaro's game of poker by splitting up Polnareff and Joseph's souls into six poker chips each that he will use to bet with, giving Jotaro a set of six to represent his own soul. Jotaro shows off how precise Star Platinum's eyesight is by predicting the deal of the cards, and catches D'Arby as he is about to cheat by second dealing, leading Jotaro to pick a 🇺🇳 near the café to deal for them. Jotaro loses three chips in his first hand against D'Arby, and in the second hand D'Arby is dealt four kings, but Jotaro appears to have not once looked at his cards. D'Arby begins to worry, as he knows the boy and everyone else in the café are in his employ, and the boy is sure he has dealt Jotaro a bum hand, but Jotaro raises all of his soul and Avdol's soul on his bet, while using Star Platinum to get himself a cigarette and a drink. D'Arby is surprised and caught off-guard at the speed Jotaro gets these items, and believes he is bluffing; seeing his bet and raising it, betting the rest of Jotaro's soul and all of Joseph and Polnareff's souls. Jotaro sees his bet with Kakyoin's soul and then raises with the soul of his mother Holy. D'Arby soon takes notices of Jotaro's steely and unflinching composure, which made himself unsure if Jotaro has managed to use Star Platinum to change out all of his cards to a better hand. Annoyed by what he perceives as Jotaro's showboating of his power, he dares for a showdown for all their cards, but Jotaro demands D'Arby matches his bets, and proposes that he put the secret to DIO's Stand at stake. For unexplained reasons, he mentally folds as he goes catatonic and utterly terrified. Avdol comments that D'Arby knows DIO's Stand, from the terrified reaction of the gambler. As his mental capacity collapses, D'Arby still wants to go on, but couldn't, out of the fear that Jotaro might've indeed pulled a fast one, or that DIO will go after him and kill him in retaliation. In the end, all of the souls he won in bets are released, allowing Joseph and Polnareff to recover as Avdol looks at Jotaro's cards, realizing that he had been dealt a bad hand. Jotaro admits he never once looked at his cards to keep his cool, but laments that they will not be able to interrogate the now-insane D'Arby for information on DIO. The boy accomplice runs away from the scene, screaming in terror after witnessing his boss being reduced to a loon after the game.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * D'Arby's cracking-under-pressure and subsequent defeat are extended.

Commentary
"With everything happening while sitting in the same location, the layout was apparently more troublesome than ever.

Our chief animation director, Masahiko Komino, directly managed the episode. It's a part of the story he particularly appreciates and he's effectively put everything in it.

I liked Daniel's transformation, who's all bleached at the end of the game. Also there's the ending where Iggy then looks from the corner of his eye, that's him all right. He's really well made for this, it's easy to use this dog to punctuate a scene as we like (laughs).

Daniel's ability is really fearsome. Had he not bent to Jotaro's bluff, he would have annihilated the group in one move with a disconcerting ease. It's a really powerful enemy. There wasn't a Stand fight properly speaking, but the situation was more critical than ever. A struggle that has taken a form different than usual, but where the tension was real."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * In the first round, D’Arby wagers three chips of Polnareff’s soul, however, the third chip has red stripes when he holds it in his hand, the color of Joseph’s chips.
 * D'Arby's internal monologue says that Jotaro would have had to secretly swap out all five of his cards to make a hand that could beat his own. However, based on the bad hands Jotaro got, he would have only needed to swap three cards to make 4 Aces, or four cards to make a Straight Flush or Five of a Kind.
 * The entire episode was greatly updated in the Blu-Ray release; featuring animation touch-ups, Jotaro's smoking being uncensored and several scenes change entirely.