SC Episode 43

The Mist of Emptiness, Vanilla Ice, Part 2 (亜空の瘴気 ヴァニラ·アイス その2) is the forty-third episode of Stardust Crusaders, the nineteenth episode of the Egypt Arc, and the sixty-ninth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers the second half of Chapter 240 through half of Chapter 244 of the manga.

Summary
Believing that Avdol's will is urging him to keep on living, Polnareff and Iggy flee from Vanilla Ice and head straight towards DIO. However, they are cut off by Vanilla Ice, who bites off Polnareff's toes, limiting his movement.

Hiding in the confusion, Iggy attempts to use a sand clone of DIO to attack Vanilla Ice from behind, but he sees through their plan, choosing to attack Iggy himself as punishment for insulting DIO. Polnareff manages to make use of Iggy's leftover sand to determine Vanilla Ice's location and stab him in his mouth, but he fights back deals heavy damage to Polnareff's leg through Silver Chariot.

Unable to dodge out of the way as Vanilla Ice's attack closes in on him, Polnareff is left with no choice but to accept the harsh reality and is seemingly destroyed in Vanilla Ice's path.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * Vanilla Ice's demented assault on Iggy is extended, with Ice commenting on how Iggy lacks a "proud soul" and is nothing more than a mutt.

Commentary
"Mr. Ishimoto was one of the key animators for this episode, hence the distinctive dark lines. Overall, it's a real success.

Iggy and Polnareff are presented at their most chivalrous, in a fight to the death against Vanilla Ice. I believe we can say without exaggeration that he is the most dangerous Stand user we've met until now. He is truly cruel and formidable, has a strong aura and has a knack for making everything tense. It's truly impressive.

We had particularly worked on Cream's appearances, and they ended up especially good. The Stand is very beautiful but also perfectly terrifying, a real fatal beauty. The poor Iggy has suffered a lot. Against an imposing adult who repeatedly kicks at full strength, the result can only be horrible. As an animal lover, I find this scene sickening.

In the scene where Vanilla Ice blindly closes up on Polnareff, some neat concentric circles would have been great. But because of the layout of the room, we had to content ourselves with ovals, a shame. Polnareff then pronounces his last words and we see an earring falling to the ground, as an invitation for the next episode. Mr. Kato was in charge of the storyboard and it's his style to finish like this. Cutting at this moment was a good idea. In the end, it was really an intense episode, we don't have time to be bored. Half an hour passes in an instant."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries