SC Episode 1

A Man Possessed by an Evil Spirit (悪霊にとりつかれた男) is the first episode of Stardust Crusaders and the twenty-seventh episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers Chapter 114 through half of Chapter 117 of the manga.

In the year 1987, Joseph's Japanese grandson Jotaro Kujo discovers that he is "possessed" by an evil spirit. Joseph and the fortune-teller Muhammad Avdol visit him in Tokyo and reveal to him the existence of the power called "Stand". Meanwhile, an ancient evil has returned from Phantom Blood

Summary
Several years after the events of Part 2, a group of treasure hunters retrieve a coffin from the ocean off the coast of Africa with the name DIO written on it. Sometime later, the boat is discovered by the Speedwagon Foundation void of its passengers, with the coffin too being empty.



In the year 1987, 17-year-old delinquent, Jotaro Kujo, grandson of Joseph Joestar, is sent to prison after beating up three armed men and a trained boxer. Despite Holy's insistence, he refuses to leave, claiming that he is possessed by an evil spirit. To demonstrate, he takes a prison guard's gun and shoots himself in the head, but the bullet is stopped by a mysterious floating arm that only he and his mother can see. Holy mentions that his grandfather also possessed similar powers.

Joseph arrives in Japan with a mysterious partner and is greeted by Holy. The three head to the prison, where Joseph confronts Jotaro and asks him to leave the jail cell. Jotaro refuses at first due to his "evil spirit" and takes the pinky off Joseph's prosthetic hand to prove its danger. Joseph reveals his partner to be an Egyptian fortune teller by the name of Muhammad Avdol, who also reveals a spirit of his own. Avdol's spirit manifests itself as a humanoid with a bird-like head and the ability to produce flames, which he calls Magician's Red. The spirit launches a projectile of flames that pin Jotaro against the back wall of the jail cell. Having no other choice, Jotaro releases his spirit and overpowers Magician's Red, grabbing it around the throat which causes visible marks on Avdol's own neck. Joseph exclaims that the clarity of Jotaro's spirit's appearance shows that it is of great power. In response, Avdol proclaims that he would have no choice but to hospitalise Jotaro, and proceeds to use a particular move dubbed "Red Bind". This wraps Jotaro in hot, coil-like flames which aim to suffocate him. This leads to another statement from Joseph, explaining how suffocation – edging to unconsciousness – causes a person's 'spirit' to dampen and fade. However, Jotaro smartly kicks a table towards the cell's toilet, causing an eruption of water which puts out Magician's Red's fire. Jotaro is free, and leaves his cell to finish off Avdol, but not before the latter halts the fight after pointing out that he had accomplished his goal of removing Jotaro from said cell.



The group leaves the prison and, at a local cafe, Joseph demonstrates using his Stand, Hermit Purple, by creating an image of DIO by smashing a camera. He tells the group that the sudden appearance of their strange manifestations had erupted from the recent resurrection of the Joestar arch-nemesis, Dio Brando, who is now referred to simply as DIO. Joseph also reveals that this link is likely due to the fact that DIO had managed to take over Jonathan Joestar's body, causing a "curse" to fall on the Jonathan's living descendants.

Somewhere else, DIO lies in the shadows, sensing that the group had been watching him with Joseph's Stand. As one of DIO's victims is dead on the stairs, DIO testifies that this may be fate, and that he must erase such an unfortunate destiny for himself. He then walks into the darkness, proclaiming that he has already made his move to stop the Joestars from reaching him.

Commentary
"In this first episode, I am the director. Frankly, it is quite dense, beginning with the minor characters in the boat scene. We had the same tension from the previous series. The making of this episode took more time than most.

To be precise, one must know that an anime uses three different frames for lips synchronization. For this episode, we went up to four frames. This is extra work for the key animator, for an ultimately discrete result. We then went back to normal for the remainder of the series, except the close-ups chosen by the director.

With this series, we sought to reach a Western aesthetic by observing animation processes used in foreign series and movies. In fact, to apply too many "anime-esque" tropes would have worked against JoJo. It was already the case in the first series, but some motions were still not realistic enough. The goal of this season was thus to improve this aspect as much as possible.

Regarding the animation, we had to manage 12,000 drawings like madmen. That was crazy. (laughs) But the benefit (if there was any?) was mainly towards Magician's Red's flames. In the end, everyone survived (laughs), and I am very satisfied with the first episode. It is a major work and a long series, and we had to jump into the fray and have a good start. Mission accomplished."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia



 * The books that Jotaro read in his cells are inspired by real life books and real-life people.
 * The Book of the Dead (死者の書) by Ginobu Orikuchi (折口疑夫). It is inspired by by.
 * ESP: esper's counterattack (ESP エスパーの逆襲), authored by W. Shatner (W・シャトナ) and translated by Joji Takei (武井乗児). The author and translator are inspired by and  who played in the TV series . The title of the book itself is inspired by the movie 's Japanese title: "スタートレックII カーンの逆襲".
 * Mysteries and Magic (神秘と魔術) by James Houdini (ジェイムズ・フーディニ) and translated by Atsuko Amarata (粗股宏子). James Houdini is inspired by.
 * Occult Science (オカルト科学) by Issac Houston (アイザック・ヒューストン) translated by Junsan Nirasawa (韮沢潤三). The author and translator are inspired by inspired by and.