Episode 12

The Pillar Man (柱の男) is the twelfth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It is also the third episode of Battle Tendency. It covers Chapter 54 through Chapter 57 of the manga.

Joseph heads in Mexico to find Speedwagon while the Nazis experiment on the Pillar Man. While Joseph works his way towards the Nazis' laboratory, the Pillar Man named Santana awakens and attacks the Nazis.

Summary
In the middle of the Mexican desert, Joseph is confronted by one of Stroheim's men, Donovan. Donovan is a trained militant but Joseph makes short of work of him thanks to the Ripple: he remotely makes chollas explode near Donovan's face and then takes him down before interrogating the soldier. JoJo thus learns that Speedwagon is still alive and imprisoned in a hacienda near their position. Leaving Donovan to his fate, Joseph then reaches the base where Speedwagon is kept prisoner. Ensues a comical scene during which Joseph tries to infiltrate the compound, poorly disguised as a woman. Caught, Joseph then knocks out the guards.

Meanwhile, Stroheim manages to awaken the Pillar Man, naming him Santana after the winds of Mexico. To test him, Stroheim sends a Vampire. At first, it seems that Santana is defenseless, but then the Pillar Man effortlessly absorbs the monster into his body to feed himself. Moreover, Santana's superior intellect begins to manifest as he easily masters the contemporary language. To Stroheim's shock, Santana manages to escape his cell by twisting his body through the air vents and launches himself into the body of one of his men. When the guards riddle the man with bullets, the possessed Nazi then simply fires them back with his fingers.

Just as Santana reveals himself and begins to fire bullets in Speedwagon's direction, Joseph finally comes out of his disguise and uses some hair to block the bullets, puzzling the Pillar Man as to how this man could stop the bullets. The battle between Joseph Joestar and Santana begins.

Commentary
"This is the tacos episode (laughs)! The story itself doesn't really move forward since it's mainly about Santana slaughtering the German army, but a lot of stuff is worth seeing.

Notably, Joseph disguising as a woman in an oh so crazy scene. He's walking with an up and down motion, a little like a character from an old video game. You also find out fabulous Stroheim's famed shouts in episode 11 (laughs). He's voiced by Atsushi Imaruoka who gave everything at work, just like the rest of the cast. The recording sessions are as always vivacious "He is in the air duct!"

A good notable animation sequence: the time when the German soldier possessed by Santana gets shot.

Globally, Episode 12 works because of the diversity of the cast's personalities; everything ties together well. For the physical releases, we had to remake several plans so that the experience will be different than that of the TV broadcast."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * The intro to the song played during Joseph's Ripple hair attack is similar to the intro of the song, Owner of a Lonely Heart, by Yes.