SC Episode 23

High Priestess, Part 1 (その1) is the twenty-third episode of Stardust Crusaders and the forty-ninth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers most of Chapter 179 through Chapter 180 of the manga.

Summary
The group begins their underwater journey beneath the Red Sea via submarine. Along the way, Joseph makes a call to his wife Suzi Q, who is unaware about his circumstances, making sure she does not travel to Japan to check up on Holy, whose condition continues to worsen. Just as the group approaches the Egyptian shore, Joseph is suddenly attacked by a Stand, which had been disguising itself as a mug and soon transforms itself to hide in the submarine. Avdol recognizes the Stand as that of the High Priestess, wielded from far away by a woman named Midler, which has the ability to transform into any mineral substance.

As the submarine is put into chaos from the Stand's attacks, the submarine begins to leak and sink. Jotaro answers another call from Suzi Q, who becomes concerned about what she hears. With the submarine at the bottom of the ocean and running low on oxygen, Jotaro attempts to crush High Priestess with Star Platinum, but it escapes by transforming into a razor. Unable to directly attack High Priestess, the group attempts to escape to the surface while Suzi Q and her butler Roses head to Japan.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * Several scenes featuring Suzi conversing with Joseph and displaying concern were added.
 * This also marks the only time Suzi and Jotaro have had an on-screen conversation.

Commentary
"This is the penultimate episode and last adversary, we had added a lot to the original scenario.

We wanted to talk about Holy again, even if the group was battling High Priestess. We had to bring news of her as a red string since she's the reason for this journey after all. To do so, we had used Suzi Q. Since she doesn't want to stay on the side and do nothing as her daughter is agonizing, adding her in this submarine episode is justified and allowed us to show her before her trip to Japan, as well as inform us about Holy's condition at the same time. I think it was appropriate to have all these scenes whose atmosphere is reminiscent of sitcoms, where all these exchanges and interactions happen at the same place.

In principle, a submarine is a lot more cramped than here. This one is decidedly too big, a typical anime direction.

We took care to include the time difference with New York. The Joestars live in a big tower, real-estate tycoon style. In my mind, they only live in one floor, the others being apartments as well.

I like High Priestess' sudden attack in the submarine, she intervenes in the middle of a simple conversation, that's an unexpected twist. She skillfully provokes urgency, even more in such a confined space."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * Smokey Brown can be seen on the newspaper cover laying on Suzi Q's coffee table.