Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak

"This is the story of a boy and those who seek what they have lost."

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 クレイジー・の悪霊的失恋) is a spin-off manga written by Kouhei Kadono, author of Purple Haze Feedback, and illustrated by Tasuku Karasuma, author of . It is the first official JoJo's Bizarre Adventure spin-off in a manga format that is not illustrated by Hirohiko Araki.

Announced on August 19, 2021, it started serialization in the January 2022 issue of Ultra Jump on December 18, 2021, and ended serialization in the June 2023 issue on May 19, 2023.

The story is set between Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable. A decade after DIO's death, Hol Horse accepts a request from an old acquaintance's mother to find and bring back her missing parrot, who was raised with Pet Shop. He travels to Morioh with Boingo after seeing a prediction from Tohth, where the two encounter Josuke Higashikata and Ryoko Kakyoin. The four of them are psychologically tortured by illusions of DIO's presence and memories of the past, due to the parrot's Stand and a mysterious assailant.

Due to time constraints, several chapters worth of content couldn't be included in the manga. Those details were later included in the novelization by Kadono, which released on June 19, 2023, with the cover illustrated by Araki.

Journey to Morioh
In Cairo, Egypt, March 1999, an elderly woman asks Hol Horse to find her missing parrot. The woman is the mother of an animal trainer who notably owned Pet Shop but had been killed by DIO. Since the parrot was trained alongside Pet Shop, there is the possibility that it is a Stand user, so the Speedwagon Foundation might try to eliminate it. Hol Horse accepts the old woman's request out of kindness.

After a heated meeting with fellow ex-agent of DIO, Mariah, Hol Horse enlists Boingo in his mission to find the parrot. Using Tohth's power of prediction to divine their path, Hol Horse and Boingo see that they must go to Morioh, Japan.

In Morioh, a young girl named Ryoko pays her respects to Noriaki Kakyoin's grave. It is revealed that she is Kakyoin's cousin and that she saw DIO when she was younger but somehow escaped from him. On her way back to university, she finds Tohth and reads DIO's name inside. Realizing that it must have some importance, Ryoko takes the book. On the streets, Hol Horse witnesses a car driven by a possessed man surging towards him. Reminded of DIO and paralyzed by fear, Hol Horse is saved by Josuke Higashikata's intervention. However, Josuke sees Hol Horse's Stand Emperor. Initially wary of each other, Josuke and Hol Horse nonetheless become acquainted as fellow Stand users. Guided by Tohth's predictions, Ryoko also meets Hol Horse and Josuke.

Meanwhile, Ryohei Higashikata talks to Boingo at Budogaoka Police Station and learns about his predicament: Boingo had dropped Tohth somewhere and got lost while searching for it. Ryohei asks his co-worker, Karaiya, to take Boingo back to his hotel. Josuke and Ryoko start on the wrong foot since she implicitly insulted his haircut and Hol Horse has to get between them. Josuke and Hol Horse asks whether she has seen Boingo. Hearing about Boingo's comic book, Ryoko decides to keep Tohth secretly with her until she finds out the cause of Noriaki's death. After Hol Horse leaves to ask about Boingo's whereabouts at a police station, Josuke and Ryoko argue again. As Tohth predicts, Ryoko eventually slaps Josuke. Meanwhile, Hol Horse falls under the control of the parrot's Stand.

Ghosts of the Past
Hol Horse is forced to reenact a meeting he had with DIO a decade ago. However, he luckily escapes the ability's clutches before he hurts someone when he sees something that reminds him of Kakyoin's final emerald splash instead. Then, a group of knife-wielding women controlled by the parrot's Stand cause a commotion in the street. The chaos is observed by a mysterious figure who is the real culprit behind the parrot's attacks, and he reveals the parrot's name to be Pet Sounds. Fortunately, Josuke and Hol Horse manage to stop the chefs. After the battle, Hol Horse explains the truth about the Stand attacks to Josuke. Ryoko eavesdrops on them and hears the name "DIO". She realizes that she's getting closer to the truth, but Tohth ominously warns her to look for a fuse and to ignite it to find the answer to her questions while everyone is screaming.

In his hotel room, Boingo ponders on what Tohth predicted. The book itself told Boingo to leave it to get over his fear of DIO. Meanwhile, Hol Horse and Josuke talk in a subway station to avoid the parrot. Nonetheless, the crowd in the station is forced to relive a memory of a mob being mowed down by a helicopter, causing chaos. Worse, an attacker hidden in the crowd is shooting at them with a crossbow. Seeing a kid being hurt by a crossbow bolt, Josuke angrily snaps out of the memory. Hol Horse also overcomes the memory and helps Josuke apprehend the crossbow wielder, and Hol Horse seemingly shoots down Pet Sounds. It is revealed that the crossbow wielder is a mere thug under the thumb of the real culprit, Kazuki Karaiya, a policeman working in Morioh with Ryohei. Karaiya is the grandson of a Vampire created by Kars and he's been raised to think he was fated to stand over the rest of humanity.

Searching for Tohth
All that is seemingly left for Hol Horse, Josuke, and Boingo is to find Tohth. Josuke remembers he saw the book in Ryoko's hands and thus, he confronts her about it. With nowhere to run, she reveals that she can't give the book back yet because she is trying to find out the truth about what happened to her cousin. She tells Josuke about how Noriaki became a servant to DIO ten years ago and then mysteriously died.

Meanwhile, Karaiya captures Boingo. A dispute between Josuke and Hol Horse ensues about Ryoko keeping Tohth, as Hol Horse wants it back immediately while Josuke wants to give Ryoko time to find the answers to her question. Josuke traps Hol Horse in a dumpster, and then he and Ryoko eventually run away. However, Ryoko also runs away from Josuke. While struggling with her inner conflicts, Ryoko finds out that she is the metaphorical fuse Tohth showed her. The stress of wanting to learn the truth about Noriaki gets to her, giving Pet Sounds the chance to possess her with a memory. Karaiya soon comes to pick up Tohth, and he reads he needs to give Ryoko a gun to shoot a hole right through Hol Horse's head.

Battling the Mastermind
Hol Horse manages to free himself from the dumpster. Reminiscing about the aftermath of his defeat against the Joestar Group, Hol Horse remembers he witnessed Noriaki's final moments and praises Noriaki for having overcome his fear of DIO.

A few minutes earlier, Josuke is looking for Ryoko. Drawn into the construction site of an unfinished building, Josuke discovers too late that Pet Sounds is still alive. Josuke is lured into a trap as he approaches Boingo, tied and disguised as Ryoko by the enemy. After Josuke sees the person is Boingo and not Ryoko, Pet Sounds's Stand plays a memory of Pet Sounds's trainer being murdered by DIO and Pet Shop in Egypt. Josuke relives the memory as the trainer, and experiences the illusion like he's really in Egypt. Josuke and Boingo are forced to live through an attack by DIO and Pet Shop. The latter shoots them with icicles and also douses them with gas to light them on fire. The sheer pain threatens to kill them but Josuke manages to escape the memory by choking himself and Boingo with a rope so the asphyxiation snaps them back to reality.

Shocked at them being alive, Karaiya grinds his teeth in anger wondering what kind of ability Josuke has. Karaiya internally thinks about how he's given the parrot a piece of his earlobe, linking their souls together. Thus, they share the same Stand but with Karaiya's knowledge and willpower guiding Pet Sounds's attacks, empowering them at the same time.

Josuke and Boingo meet with Hol Horse, and Josuke tells him the parrot is still alive. However, they split from each other trying to pursue what appear to be Pet Sounds flying down the stairs as well as Ryoko running up the stairs. Going down, Hol Horse sees that he's been tricked by a paper model of a bird. He also sees Ryoko, still possessed and with a gun in her hand, about to shoot herself. Meanwhile, Josuke reaches the roof. There, he is placed into another illusion, this time reliving Daniel J. D'Arby's encounter with DIO. Reliving their poker match and how DIO utterly terrified D'Arby into submission, Josuke is unable to escape the terror he feels. While Josuke is defenseless, Karaiya appears behind him with a cutting torch.

Ryoko thinks back to what happened to her after she split from Josuke. She was put into an illusion by Pet Sounds, and relived being trapped in a doll by Atum. Noriaki's soul is able to see Ryoko's soul within the doll. Ryoko blames herself for getting Noriaki possessed by DIO, but he comforts Ryoko and blames his own immaturity for getting possessed. He believes that if he had a strong enough will, DIO wouldn't have been able to control him with a flesh bud. Ryoko tries telling him that he isn't weak, but Noriaki claims he was able to forgive himself by accepting his own weakness. Noriaki is glad to know his journey wasn’t meaningless because Ryoko grew up safely. As he leaves the doll, Ryoko still has something to tell him.

Meanwhile, Josuke thinks to free himself from the illusion by punching toward the chair DIO was sitting on during D'Arby's poker match. Josuke punches using his Stand and punches Pet Sounds, freeing him from the illusion. Pet Sounds was in front of Josuke to make the illusion more realistic. After Pet Sounds is defeated and collapses on the ground, Karaiya acts like he's a normal cop checking on Josuke. However, Josuke sees through his act and punches him with his Stand.

Hol Horse feels useless for not being able to handle his current situation like how Devo the Cursed once told him in the past that he wasn't suited to have The Emperor card. Ryoko breaks free from the illusion and assumes Hol Horse is related to DIO because she saw him in Tohth. She points a gun at him, demanding to know what he did to her cousin. Meanwhile, Karaiya attempts to have Josuke experience the most powerful Stand rush, The World's, from Pet Sounds's memories, but it ends up being ineffective. Josuke had broken Pet Sounds's beak when he punched the bird earlier to escape from the illusion. Thus, Pet Sounds could no longer accurately replay sounds for its ability. Moreover, Josuke realizes the bird ate a part of Karaiya's earlobe, so he reattaches the piece to Karaiya's ear using his Stand. Finally, Josuke pummels Karaiya with a barrage of punches, tangling the cutting torch around Karaiya's body and fusing it with his skin, and also fusing his arms to a curtain behind him. As Karaiya flies off the building, the curtain floats above him like a parachute, and the cutting torch attached to his cheek shoots up fire. Thus, Karaiya has become a hot air balloon drifting over the skies of Morioh.

Finally, Hol Horse decides to tell Ryoko the truth and confesses that he once was an assassin working for DIO who tried to kill Kakyoin but was defeated. He expects Ryoko to shoot him but she eventually lowers her gun, having made peace with her cousin's passing.

Aftermath
Ryohei and his coworkers find Karaiya strung up in a tree near the construction site, but he is not mentally fit to answer any of their questions. Josuke informs Hol Horse of the aftermath, though Hol Horse regrets that they'll never find out how Karaiya managed to steal Pet Sounds. Josuke sees Ryoko on the street and says his goodbyes to Hol Horse, as he wants to catch up to her. Meanwhile, Boingo goes to the police station to thank Ryohei for helping him earlier, since he recovered his book now. While he tries mentioning how Josuke helped him, he accidentally drops Tohth, which opens to reveal new pages. Ryohei sees pages in the book depicting that he will end up dying soon. Judging by Boingo's reaction, he doesn't believe it's a bad joke, but also doesn't take it too seriously. Hol Horse arrives and also gives his thanks to Ryohei, before dragging Boingo away since they have to head back to Egypt to help Oingo, who is dealing with debt collectors. Ryohei realizes that if he really will die soon, then he must call Josuke's father, Joseph Joestar.

Josuke catches up to Ryoko, who is waiting at a bus stop to go to Kyoto. While Ryoko complains about the misconceptions she had and that she can't cling to her cousin forever, Josuke thinks it's fine to be attached to your heroes. He slices off her bang, asking if that makes her feel relieved. Instead, she angrily slaps him. However, Josuke restores the bang using his ability, causing Ryoko to understand what he was trying to prove to her. Josuke cheers her up and offers to be her boyfriend, but she instantly rejects him because he lives too far away and is younger than her. Josuke's reaction makes her start laughing a lot. She thanks him and Josuke wishes her good luck in Kyoto. As they say their goodbyes, Ryoko praises Josuke's hair by calling it cool, to which Josuke agrees.

Publication
The first volume of the series released in Japan on June 17, 2022, the second volume released on December 19, 2022, and the third volume is set to release in June 2023.

In France, an officially translated version of the series titled "Crazy D - Demonic Heartbreak" will be published by Delcourt/Tonkam. The first volume will release September 2023.

A Spanish translation of the series will be published by Ivrea in Spain. The first volume will release in July 2023 and the second volume will release in autumn.

Star Comics is publishing an Italian translation of the series which will release in Fall 2023.

Reception
Volume 1 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak debuted with an estimated number of 35,356 copies sold within three days according to the Japanese sales charts, ranking in 17th place overall on the week of June 13, 2022 to June 19, 2022. Its second volume debuted higher with an estimated number of 54,090 copies sold, ranking in 9th place overall on the week of December 19, 2022 to December 25, 2022. Its third and final volume debuted with an estimated number of 42,812 copies sold, ranking in 2nd place overall on the week of June 19, 2023 to June 25, 2023. In the following week on June 26, 2023 to July 2, 2023, the third volume had an estimated number of 14,662 copies sold, ranking in 24th place overall. Thus, the third volume sold approximately 57,474 copies within the first two weeks.

Ultra Jump reported that as of December 2022, the series reached over 300,000 copies in circulation for its first two volumes, including print and digital copies. In May 2023, the series reached over 500,000 copies in its total circulation for all three volumes.

Trivia

 * Kouhei Kadono first mentioned the title of the manga in January 2013, stating that he is planning to work on it and hopes not to get carried away.
 * The word "Demonic" (悪霊的) in the title uses the same kanji as Jotaro's "Evil Spirit" (悪霊) from Part 3.
 * The scooters on the postcard illustrations included with Volume 1 or the July 2022 issue of Ultra Jump appear to be scooters, possibly chosen as a subtle reference to DIO due to the shared names.