DU Episode 20

Yukako Yamagishi Dreams of Cinderella (山岸由花子はシンデレラに憧れる) is the twentieth episode of Diamond is Unbreakable and the ninety-fourth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers Chapter 348 through Chapter 353 of the manga.

Summary
Yukako, unable to approach Koichi, is depressed. She stumbles upon the Cinderella Beauty Salon. Aya Tsuji, a beautician by trade, invites her inside, explaining that physiognomy affects how one is loved by people, and claims that she can improve Yukako's face, and by extension her love life. Yukako is skeptical but has nothing to lose, thus accepts a 30 minutes trial. When she closes her eyes, the beautician summons her Stand Cinderella and modifies her face. In the streets, Yukako coincidentally meets Koichi, who wishes to put aside their past fight and make peace, to Yukako's joy. Although Koichi and Yukako go as far as touching each other's hand, the time limit has passed. Koichi begins to have stomachaches and runs away. Dismayed, Yukako rushes back to Aya's salon and demands to be upgraded further. Aya accepts to modify Yukako's whole body, but drawing a parallel with the story of Cinderella, warns her that she would need to use a special lipstick every 30 minutes from now on. Yukako accepts. Meanwhile, Koichi suddenly feels better, and noticing that he is holding Yukako's bag, runs back to give it to her. When he sees Yukako, Koichi's heart is enthralled by her beauty. However, Rohan appears and pressures him into following him. Yukako, who pictured both of them having an intimate moment, is taken aback. Finally, events conspire to make them hug each other; Yukako and Koichi share a passionate kiss as the time limit of 30 minutes passes.

Several days later, Koichi finds it strange that after their kiss, Yukako never contacted him again. In the streets, he sees a woman resembling Yukako, but the hideous woman denies being her. It is indeed Yukako, who crashes Aya's salon, ordering her to fix her face. However, Aya reveals that Yukako's face is gone forever and her features begin to progressively disappear as a result of tampering with Fate. Koichi suddenly enters the salon, having recognized Yukako by her personality alone. Impressed, Aya decides to give Yukako a second chance and spawns several faces, saying that she can choose whichever feels like hers, but choosing incorrectly would make her incredibly ugly forever. The truth is that had Aya lied, and that none of the faces belonged Yukako; only if she realizes this would Aya fix her face. Yukako is unable to decide, and asks Koichi to choose for her, saying that she will be satisfied with his choice, surprising Aya. Furthermore, when Koichi requests to be blinded in case Yukako ends up ugly to ease her pain, Aya is so moved by the couple's love for each other that she restores Yukako's features anyways. Everyone ends up happy.

Commentary
"Here's another episode that I particularly enjoy. Much like episode 16, I would have liked to handle the storyboard myself, but it was impossible with my schedule. Therefore, Jiro Fujimoto helped me out while also doing the directing. That said, the parts largely inspired by were still directed by me.

The narrative thread is obviously the love story between Koichi and Yukako. Koichi seems cooler than ever and we come to appreciate Yukako's crazy personality a little more. She seems more humane than before and I can honestly say that I don’t hate her...though it’s not like I want to be her friend either (laughs)…

Aya Tsuji’s first appearance goes hand in hand with Sayaka’s Oohara’s first time behind the mic, which after recording, we can confirm was a correct casting choice. She has a certain charm that goes perfectly with the character.

The decorated scenes in the style of Alphonse Mucha are the result of Mr. Soejima’s work, he’s the one in charge of the layouts. The results exceeded in surpassing my most optimistic expectations and I think that we can all be satisfied with how they turned out.

Note that Morioh’s sky is truly blue in this episode. In a way, it marks Yukako's change of heart."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * In the original publication of Diamond is Unbreakable, the chapters this episode was based on come after the Yoshikage Kira Just Wants to Live Quietly chapters.
 * The episode frequently uses frames featuring an art-style mimicking the illustrations of classic fairy tales, such as . This style is known as.