DU Episode 22

Yoshikage Kira Just Wants to Live Quietly, Part 2 (吉良吉影は静かに暮らしたい その2) is the twenty-second episode of Diamond is Unbreakable and the ninety-sixth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers the second half of Chapter 345 through Chapter 347, and Chapter 354 through first few pages of Chapter 355 of the manga.

After Shigechi discovers the severed hand of a woman in his lunch bag, the serial-killer has no choice but to reveal his Stand Killer Queen and dispose of the boy.

Summary
Having been discovered by Shigechi, Kira sends out his Stand, Killer Queen, to eliminate him before word gets out. However, Shigechi summons his own Stand, Harvest, to try and incapacitate him. Kira deduces from his incident in the school that Josuke and Okuyasu are also Stand users while revealing a 100 yen coin. Shigechi orders Harvest to take the coin, right before Kira reveals Killer Queen's ability to turn anything it touches into a bomb. The coin explodes, maiming Shigechi but not killing him. After revealing his knowledge of Reimi, Shigechi uses Harvest to distract Kira and hide. He then hobbles to the high school section of the school, aiming to warn Josuke & Okuyasu, but the moment he touches Josuke's classroom's doorknob, Kira detonates the bomb he planted on it, causing Shigechi to explode from the inside-out without leaving a trace. Josuke hears his cries for help and is greeted by the last member of Harvest, who delivers a before disintegrating. Josuke & Okuyasu note that the way Harvest disappeared was atypical of a Stand and investigate Shigechi's whereabouts, only finding his possessions on his classroom desk. Meanwhile, Reimi witnesses Shigechi's ghost disintegrating in agony while ascending to Heaven, immediately realizing that this was Kira's doing. Josuke organizes a meeting consisting of himself, Okuyasu & his dad, Koichi, Jotaro, Joseph and Shizuka, Yukako, Hazamada, Tonio, Aya, and Rohan and brings them to meet Reimi. They are all informed about the killer and deduce that he must be a Stand user. The deduction prompts Jotaro to decide tracking down the culprit using his button. While Josuke leaves, he briefly crosses paths with Kira. Four days pass with no results before Koichi runs into Jotaro and accompanies him on his search for someone who may have repaired a jacket with similar buttons. The two find a shoe store that also specializes in tailoring. Jotaro admits that while he did check every tailor in Morioh, he did not consider a place like this, and goes in to try and find some leads. There, they learn that the store owner recognizes the button, pointing out the recently-repaired purple jacket that the button came from. However, the store owner decides to check the tag on the jacket to ensure that he's remembering the owner's name right, only to have his right hand suddenly blown off. As it turns out, Kira had been hiding in the back room and had deployed another bomb in the event that someone would use his lost button to track him down. Killer Queen's second bomb, a miniature tank-like object, rushes into the unconscious store owner's mouth before Kira grabs and shakes his jacket to bait Jotaro & Koichi within the bomb's range. Koichi runs up to try and take the coat back, but is pulled away by Jotaro as the bomb goes off.

Commentary
"This is the episode where Shigechi meets an unfortunate end. The series director, Toshiyuki Kato, handled the storyboard this time, we're pretty familiar with his style. Seeing Shigechi being pulverized in the corridor was so sad I was tearing up. I was also touched by the scene where all the Stand Users gather after Shigechi goes to heaven.

The drawing of Shigechi’s father and mother on his desk was an idea from Mr. Kato. It was here that I realized that Kato was an expert when it came to making the audience cry.

We designed Killer Queen’s explosions to be out of the ordinary, that's why the colors are different. We returned to an effect that was often used back in the day: explosions with black smoke.

In this episode, Jotaro changes clothes. This signifies the day changing as well.

For the record, we asked permission from the manufacturer to use their brand of children's biscuits that the shoemaker eats. I believe that it was starting from this episode that we’ve done this more and more."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * In the original publication of Diamond is Unbreakable, the chapters Yukako Yamagishi Dreams of Cinderella chapters happened during two scenes of this episode.
 * Tamami Kobayashi is the only Stand User not present when everyone meets up to discuss Shigechi's death. Aya is also added into the list of Stand Users as the Cinderella arc happened before the Kira arcs in the anime.