Stardust Crusaders
- For the TV Anime adaption, see JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. For the OVA, see JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (OVA).
Stardust Crusaders (スターダストクルセイダース, Sutādasuto Kuruseidāsu) is the third part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1989 and 1992. Originally titled as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3 Jotaro Kujo: Heritage for the Future (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 第三部 空条承太郎 ―未来への遺産―, JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken Dai San Bu Kūjō Jōtarō -Mirai e no Isan-), the arc is preceded by Battle Tendency and spans 152 chapters.
From 1988 to 1989,[1] the story follows Jotaro Kujo and his friends as they journey from Tokyo to Cairo to save his mother's life by defeating his family's resurrected archenemy, DIO.
Plot Summary
Jotaro Kujo
Holy Kujo is visiting her son, Jotaro Kujo, who sits in a prison cell after a brutal fight during which he's sent his four opponent to the hospital. He is discharged but refuses to exit his cell, explaining that an "evil spirit" is possessing him. He frightens everyone present when he steals a policeman's revolver by invoking an invisible arm, then shoots himself and stops the bullet mid-air.
A brief flashback relates how a team of treasure hunters retrieved a mysterious coffin from the bottom of the Atlantic. The crew was never found.
In the present, Holy welcomes her father Joseph at the airport and a friend of his. Joseph then visits his son too and tells his companion, the fortune teller Muhammad Avdol to step forward and demonstrate the nature of Jotaro's "evil spirit". As Joseph reveals that what Jotaro has is actually a Stand, a manifestation of someone's psychic power.
A brief clash ensues between Avdol, who can create and control fire through his Magician's Red and Jotaro's Stand who possesses incredible strength. However, the fortune teller stops their fight. Later, Joseph reveals the reason of his visit: the Joestar Family's mortal enemy, DIO, has returned.
The Man with the Star
photograph Joseph reveals that Jotaro's and his own Stand, the thorn-like Hermit Purple having both manifested recently, appeared because of the reemergence of Dio Brando. More shockingly, DIO has stolen the body of their ancestor Jonathan Joestar. DIO is thus linked through this body to the Joestar. Although Joseph tries to recruit his grandson against the Vampire, Jotaro hardly believes Joseph's story.
Meanwhile, DIO senses the Joestar watching him. The next day, Jotaro heads out to school, but one student stalks him
Noriaki Kakyoin
In his hideout, DIO plots to destroy the Joestar family. Jotaro's stalker Noriaki Kakyoin attacks with his Hierophant Green. The enemy Stand is able to unravel into strings able to possess a nurse to attack Jotaro and then tie him up, but Jotaro's Stand easily overpowers Kakyoin. Jotaro then takes him to his house and discovers that he has been brainwashed with a spore created by DIO. At the peril of his life, Jotaro has his Stand extract the sport and saves Kakyoin.
The Power Called a "Stand"; Head To Egypt; Tower of Gray
Holy's condition worsened and everyone discovers that as feared, DIO's influence has made Holy manifest her own Stand. But without the necessary willpower, that same Stand is slowly killing Holy. Joseph and Avdol determine that unless they kill DIO within fifty days and thus break his Stand's influence, Holy will die.
Motivated by his mother's condition, Jotaro uses his Stand keen eyesight, helping the three determine that DIO is somewhere in Egypt. Kakyoin, freed by Jotaro from DIO's mind control, comes along to help the group. As the group, composed of Joseph, Jotaro, Avdol and Kakyoin departs, Avdol names Jotaro's Stand Star Platinum.
On a jetliner, the group is ambushed by an insectoid Stand, Tower of Gray, forcing Kakyoin to prove his worth. Although Tower of Gray can avoid everyone's attacks, Hierophant Green ambushes the Stand and kills it. Unfortunately, the user Gray Fly has already killed the pilots. The jetliner crashes near Hong Kong.
Silver Chariot
In Hong Kong, the group is challenged by another of DIO's henchmen, Jean Pierre Polnareff and swordsman Stand Silver Chariot. Avdol manages to defeat Polnareff and the group also frees him of DIO's spore. Willing to avenge his sister Sherry, murdered by a Stand user, Polnareff joins the group to find him.
Dark Blue Moon
The heroes take a ship to Singapore and meet a stowaway little girl. The group is soon attacked by the aquatic Stand Dark Blue Moon, controlled by an assassin who has murdered and impersonated Captain Tennille. Jotaro is forced to jump into the sea. Although Dark Blue Moon has the advantage in the middle of the ocean, Jotaro manages to land a decisive blow against the Stand and defeat the impostor. Nonetheless, the ship is sabotaged and sinks, forcing the group to use a lifeboat.
Strength
The group and the surviving crew drifts for some time before they encounter a freighter. When they board it, everyone realizes that the ship seems empty save for an orangutan. Soon, accidents happen to kill the seamen one by one, and the Joestar Group understand that they are under attack. However, they do not know where the user is nor what the Stand looks like. When Jotaro rescues the stowaway from being molested by the orangutan, he realizes that he is the user and the whole ship his Stand. The orangutan manages to bind everyone, but Jotaro defeats the enemy Stand user in close quarter.
The Devil
Forever is defeated, and the freighter begins to sink, forcing the group to use the lifeboat once again. They eventually reach Singapore.
In here, they decide to rest a little and check at a hotel. However, Polnareff discovers in his room Devo the Cursed. The enemy Stand user then uses his Ebony Devil to attack but Polnareff wounds him and makes him flee. Although he calls his companions for help, Polnareff is soon attacked again by a possessed doll which ties him under the bed when it baits Joseph to crawl under it. Blinded, Polnareff breaks the room's mirror to see the doll and stabs it repeatedly, killing Devo.
Yellow Temperance
While Polnareff rests from his fight and Jotaro and Kakyoin decide to take a walk with the stowaway girl, Joseph and Avdol decide to spy on DIO using their room's television's set. DIO psychically detects Joseph, and the TV is destroyed, but not before Joseph receives a warning about Kakyoin being a traitor.
Meanwhile, Kakyoin is acting odd, more violent and cocky than usual. When the three decide to take a cable car, Jotaro discovers that Kakyoin is in reality Rubber Soul, who has disguised himself with his blob-like Yellow Temperance. Jotaro is at a disadvantage because of the restrained space and Star Platinum's inability to damage Yellow Temperance. Jotaro decides to jump into the ocean below the cable car and forces Rubber Soul to deactivate his Stand to breathe, making him vulnerable. After an attempt to beg his way out of a beating and a subsequent sneak attack that Star Platinum foils, the mercenary is pummeled by Star Platinum and definitely defeated. In addition, Rubber Soul reveals information about the next Stand users on the heroes' trail, users of respectively Death, Emperor, Hanged Man and Empress. Hanged Man's user being Sherry Polnareff's murderer and using mirrors to attack. The group then heads for Calcutta by train.
Emperor and Hanged Man
In Calcutta, Polnareff is approached and confronted by Hanged Man who taunts him from inside a mirror before fleeing. Polnareff, eager to pursue his enemy despite Avdol's counsel, begins to fight with the fortune teller and leaves alone.
Meanwhile, Hol Horse, user of the gun Stand called the Emperor, meets with J. Geil, the man with two right hands and the user of Hanged Man. Hol Horse eventually confronts Polnareff and surprise the Frenchman because of his homing bullets, but Avdol saves him at the last moment. Unfortunately, Hanged Man stabs Avdol from behind and Hol Horse shoots the Egyptian in the head, killing him.
Kakyoin arrives to see Avdol's demise and cooperates with Polnareff to fight. Put at a disadvantage, both flee on a car, pursued by Hanged Man and leaving Hol Horse behind. The car crashes because of Hanged Man, but Polnareff manages to realize that it is a Stand of light that moves between reflective surfaces. He traps the Stand in his eye and wounds it, revealing that J.Geil is near.
Although J. Geil baits the duo into a trap and gathers a group of beggars toward them, Kakyoin makes them focus on one shiny coin and tosses it into the air. Polnareff then blinds the one beggar with Hanged Man in his eye and forces the Stand to come out, defeating it with a slash. Polnareff then avenges Sherry by finishing off J. Geil.
Empress
When Hol Horse find Polnareff and Kakyoin, he challenges them again, confident that J. Geil is still here to support him. However, he understands soon that he is alone, and is surrounded by the Joestar Group. Only the intervention of Nena, a pretty Indian girl Hol Horse has seduced, allows the cowboy to flee. Jotaro and Joseph tell Polnareff that they have already buried Avdol and that they should move on.
Meanwhile, Enya the Hag senses that her son has died.
On the way to Varanasi, Joseph notices a boil on his arm. In town, he and Polnareff separate themselves from the group to get it treated at a clinic but the boil turns out to be Empress. Empress frames Joseph as a murderer to sic the police on him and oblige him to flee while Nena, the user, distracts Polnareff. Although Empress grows enough to physically threaten Joseph, the old man uses his Hermit Purple to find a barrel of coal-tar and plunge Empress into it, immobilizing the enemy Stand. Then, Joseph manages to shred it with Hermit Purple, killing Nena who is revealed to be a short obese woman. The group then leaves Varanasi.
Wheel of Fortune
En route to Pakistan the party meet the stowaway girl again and take her with them. However, a mysterious car driver stalks them and eventually leads them to a cliff where he ambushes them. The enemy user is revealed to be Wheel of Fortune the car, which battles Jotaro. Wheel of Fortune sprays Jotaro with gasoline and sets him on fire. It seemingly kills the protagonist, but Jotaro has dug a tunnel to approach the car undetected and destroys it.
Justice
ZZ, user of Wheel of Fortune, is revealed. The group tie him to a rock and leave him.
After a lengthy lamentation, Enya decides to run off to personally kill the Joestar.
After dropping the stowaway girl in a plane back to Hong Kong, the Joestar Group reaches Pakistan. On their way to Karachi, the group's travel is jeopardized by the heavy fog and they find a town inhabited by strangely hostile people. Enya Geil appears, faking being a gentle hotel owner, then persuades the group to rest for the night at her establishment.
Hol Horse meets with Enya in the lobby, but the woman uses her Stand, Justice the fog Stand, to control him through a wound and nearly kills him. Polnareff's entrance interrupts Enya, who focuses her killing intent on the Frenchman, using zombies under her control, Enya manages to take control of Polnareff, but Jotaro suddenly intervenes. He unmasks Enya who is confident that Star Platinum cannot defeat the fog. However, Star Platinum suck up the fog with its powerful lungs and suffocates Enya, who is defeated and unconscious. Afterward, Hol Horse flees again.
Lovers
In Karachi, Steely Dan executes Enya by activating a spore DIO has planted in her brain because she knows the Vampire's power. Despite the betrayal of her master, she refuses to help the Joestar group and dies. Steely Dan then uses Lovers a tiny Stand able to enter someone's brain, to hold Joseph hostage, forcing Jotaro into the role of a personal manservant.
Meanwhile, Joseph, Polnareff and Kakyoin try to defeat Lovers. They shrink Silver Chariot and Hierophant Green and have the Stands enter Joseph's brain, guided by a television. Despite Lovers' ability to create clones of itself, Hierophant Green stealthily deploys its tentacles and unmasks the real Lovers who is attacked by Silver Chariot. Lovers has to flee. Meanwhile, Jotaro notices that Steely Dan is injured and proceeds to threaten him with a beating.
Steely Dan attempts to first enter Jotaro's brain and then a little girl's head to take her as a hostage, but Star Platinum foils both attempts. Jotaro repays his humiliation with a long pummeling.
Sun
The group reaches the United Arab Emirates. They decide to try crossing the desert on camelback.
However, soon after their departure, the group realizes that the Sun is not the real one but a powerful Stand mimicking the star. It shoots powerful blasts of energy down on the group and forces them to hide under a rock. The long wait under the scorching heat proves difficult to bear, and Joseph witnesses with horror his companion begin to madly laugh. In truth, they have spotted the Stand user hidden behind a mirror. With a pebble, the enemy is defeated.
Death Thirteen
Kakyoin finds himself trapped in a nightmarish theme park where Death Thirteen attacks him. However, Polnareff wakes him up; Kakyoin somehow completely forgets about his dream.
The group buys a Cessna to cross the desert and are saddled with a baby. Kakyoin and Polnareff doze off and are attacked in their shared dream by Death XIII again. They realize with horror that they cannot summon their Stands to defend themselves and are powerless. Kakyoin engraves the words "baby stand" on his arms and struggles so violently it translates into the real world, and his agitation eventually causes a crash.
The group sets up camp for the night, something the baby waits eagerly to be free to kill them. Kakyoin rightfully suspects the baby but only convinces his companions that he's delirious. When he summons Hierophant Green to attack the baby, Polnareff knocks him down. Everyone falls asleep and finds himself in the dream, unable to fight Death XIII. Fortunately, knocking down Kakyoin with his Stand still summoned allowed him to keep it in the dream, and Hierophant Green manages to defeat the enemy Stand. All finally wake, having forgotten about the dream except Kakyoin who intimidates the baby into leaving them alone.
Judgement
On an island in the Red Sea, the group meets Muhammad Avdol's father, who doesn't want to see them because of his son's death. Afterward, Polnareff wanders alone and finds an Arabic oil lamp. Rubbing it, the Frenchman summons Judgement and is convinced that he's encountered a real genie. He wishes for his sister Sherry and for Avdol to come back to life, but he is attacked by their zombies instead. However, the real Avdol intervenes, destroys Judgement's clay structure who passed themselves as revenants, and defeats the enemy Stand. Avdol then discovers Judgement's user and defeats him.
High Priestess
When Polnareff reunites with the group, he learns that Avdol merely has faked his death, and everyone hid the truth from him for fear he revealed it to an enemy. Free to act, Avdol reveals a submarine which the group board in order to enter Egypt unnoticed.
However, they soon come under attack as High Priestess, a Stand that can take the form of anything metallic. It destroys the submarine, forcing the Joestar Group to equip diving gear and swim to the surface of the Red Sea. High Priestess then takes the form of a giant head made out of the sea's bedrock and sucks the group inside its mouth. Jotaro is seemingly crushed between High Priestess's teeth, but Star Platinum destroys them all, defeating and disfiguring the user. The Joestar Group has finally reached Egypt.
'The Fool' Iggy and 'God Geb' N'Doul
Upon arriving in Abu Simbel the heroes are joined by Iggy, a Boston Terrier and the user of The Fool, a simple but powerful Stand of sand.
They are immediately attacked by the blind Stand user N'Doul, who attacks with Geb, a Stand of water and the first of the nine Egyptian god Stands; he is able to slash through Kakyoin's eyes before he is defeated by Jotaro and Iggy.
'God Khnum' Oingo and 'God Tohth' Boingo
Oingo and Boingo (Zenyatta and Mondatta in the American version, respectively), users of the face-altering Stand Khnum and the future-predicting comic book Tohth respectively, attempt to defeat the heroes, but Oingo is incapacitated without the heroes even knowing he was there.
'God Anubis'
Anubis, a sword inhabited by a Stand, possesses a farmer named Chaka, a barber named Khan, and then Polnareff, nearly killing Jotaro.
'Goddess Bastet' Mariah
Mariah, the sultry user of Bastet, magnetizes Joseph and Avdol and leads them on a wild goose chase.
'God Sethan' Alessi
Polnareff and Silver Chariot are reduced to children by Sethan, the Stand of the child-abuser Alessi.
Shooting DIO?!
Hol Horse reports to DIO. When Hol Horse attempts to shoot him, DIO reveals a sense of the nature of his Stand.
D'Arby the Gambler
Later, the group encounters Daniel J. D'Arby, who offers information if they gamble with him, but when Polnareff and Joseph lose, D'Arby's Stand, Osiris, transforms their souls into poker chips. Only by laying everything on the line can Jotaro hope to defeat the gambler.
Hol Horse and Boingo
In Cairo the group meets Hol Horse again, who has partnered himself with Boingo, resulting in one memorable chapter revolving on the concept of a "prophecy going awry without contradicting itself".
The Gatekeeper of Hell, Pet Shop
Later, Iggy battles Pet Shop, DIO's pet falcon and the user of the ice-slinging Stand Horus. Kakyoin returns soon afterward, his eyesight mostly recovered.
D'Arby the Player
The doorway to DIO's mansion is guarded by Telence T. D'Arby, younger brother of D'Arby the Gambler. His Stand, Atum, steals Kakyoin's soul after a round of video games, but despite D'Arby's mind games Jotaro is able to outwit him.
Meanwhile, Polnareff, Iggy, and Avdol easily dispose of Kenny G., whose Tenore Sax Stand creates an illusory maze.
The Mist of Emptiness, Vanilla Ice
Avdol is then killed by an invisible force that is revealed as DIO's henchman, Vanilla Ice, whose Stand, Cream, swallows itself into another dimension and instantly obliterates anything its sphere of destruction touches.
Ice, who killed himself for DIO but was revived by DIO's blood, kills Avdol and is able to nearly eliminate Polnareff, but a valiant maneuver by Iggy allows Polnareff to ultimately win. Unfortunately, this results in Iggy's death.
Suzi Q Joestar Visits Her Daughter
Suzi Q arrives in Tokyo from New York City to visit Holy and wish for her husband and grandson's success.
DIO's World
Meanwhile, Jotaro, Joseph, and Kakyoin encounter Nukesaku, but easily defeat him.
Though wounded and alone, Polnareff confronts DIO but is confounded by the vampire's powers. When the four surviving heroes are reunited they climb to DIO's tower with Nukesaku in tow, but when he opens the casket he inexplicably ends up mutilated inside it.
DIO chases Joseph and Kakyoin across Cairo until Kakyoin, at the price of his life, discovers that DIO's Stand, The World, is able to stop time.
With most of his friends dead or injured, Jotaro confronts DIO. Though The World has a huge advantage in the ability to stop time, Jotaro nearly defeats DIO, but the vampire restores himself by draining Joseph's blood, becoming even stronger.
Finally DIO attempts to finish off Jotaro by crushing him with a steamroller, after which Jotaro reveals the ability to also stop time.
The Faraway Journey, Farewell Friends
After DIO is defeated, Jotaro oversees a blood transfusion from his remains and the newly deceased Joseph. As a result, Joseph is resurrected. Afterwards, Jotaro and Joseph lay DIO's body out in the desert at dawn, where the Egyptian sun disintegrates the vampire's body completely.
Sometime later, Jotaro, Joseph and Polnareff say their goodbyes to one another and promise to fly over and lend assistance to each other should they call for it before going their separate ways, while Holy finally awakens back in Japan and eagerly awaits her son and her father's return.
Characters
For others, see Minor Characters and Unnamed Characters.
Major Battles
Publication
Volumes are published in English by VIZ Media, and in Italian by Star Comics (Italy).
English Language Edition
Stardust Crusaders was the first part to be officially released in English. The series is edited by Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide.
Some names were altered for the English release, presumably for copyright reasons. Additionally, the character Devo was changed entirely.[citation needed]
Minor edits were made to artwork where certain scenes of animal violence were redrawn by Hirohiko Araki for the English release. Japanese volume 15 (English volume 3) featured a single panel of a dog being decapitated which was redrawn from an alternate angle, and Japanese volume 18 (English volume 6) has several redrawn panels where a mutilated dog was changed into a large rat.
Due to a controversy regarding one scene involving DIO apparently reading the Qur'an in the OVA, Viz Media and Shueisha paused publication for a year, even though the manga did not feature that specific scene. However, Shueisha had Araki (or his assistants) redraw scenes that depicted characters fighting on top of or destroying buildings resembling mosques. Viz resumed publication on April 7, 2009 with Volume 11.
Adaptations
Animation
- The official TV anime began airing in Japan on April 4, 2014.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (OVA), produced by Studio APPP; 1993 and 2001
Video Games
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Super Famicom), 1993
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future; Capcom, 1998
- The cast of Stardust Crusaders has the highest representation in All Star Battle(PS3).
Other
Gallery
Volume 1 through 29 spine art
Current "The End" page for Part 3: Joseph and Jotaro on board a plane to Japan.
Trivia
- This story was initially titled "Dai San Bu Kūjō Jōtarō: Mirai e no Isan" / "第三部 空条承太郎 ―未来への遺産" / (lit.) "Part 3 Kūjō Jōtarō: Heritage for the Future".
- Stardust Crusaders contains the most popularly known characters and episodes of the series; introducing JoJo's distinctive Stand phenomenon, and the emblematic protagonist Jotaro Kujo.
- Many characters were not named until the release of additional materials like the artbooks.
- Araki describes the basis for Part 3 as like a board game, travelling between a series of stops; and further inspiration from the film Around the World in 80 Days.[2]
- While he began plotting for this part, Araki first pitched it as a modern retelling of Dracula. There was only one person in the room who thought it was a good idea; the rest were utterly confused. His editors told him to have at least one Japanese character/story arc prior to this part, as they felt the story had too many foreign characters and settings for the comic's target audience.[3]
- Clamp in Wonderland represents a popular, classic tribute/doujinshi to Part 3.
- Part 3 is the last part to feature any vampires or the Ripple ability.
References
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