DU Episode 7
Summary
It is evening in Morioh, a student in his room is reading magazines while listening to the radio, and suddenly cannot stop himself from piercing his eye with a mechanical pencil. Tamami meets Josuke and Koichi at their school to inform them of another Stand user in town. He shows them a photograph of Toshikazu Hazamada, a student at the same school as Josuke, and tells them what happened to one of Hazamada's classmate. Intrigued, Josuke decides to investigate Hazamada accompanied with Koichi. Josuke and Koichi head first to Hazamada's classroom where they do not find him, but are noticed by him nonetheless. They then investigate his locker, where a doll which transforms into Josuke as soon as he touches it attacks them. Surface, which is able to transform into someone and control their movements as long as they are in eye contact, takes out Koichi by having Josuke violently elbow him, and effortlessly evades Crazy Diamond's attacks. It then tosses a pen to Josuke and forces him to pierces his eye with it. Hazamada then reveals himself and, satisfied, decides to go for Jotaro. However Echoes mimicked the sound of Josuke's eye being pierced, fooling Hazamada, as Josuke secretly healed Koichi when he elbowed him. They decide to pursue Hazamada and are seen by a mysterious blushing girl. They then call Jotaro's hotel room, but Surface has already called a meeting for Jotaro.
While Josuke and Koichi pursue Hazamada, the latter is being distracted by the numerous girls approaching Surface, mistaking it for Josuke. He then dirties a motorcycle, antagonizing two bikers. However Surface quickly takes out one of them and holds the second. Hazamada then threatens to cut the biker's mouth with a box cutter but is interrupted when a glass shard is thrown toward him. Surface catches the shard, and Josuke repairs the shard into a bottle which cuts off Surface's right hand, then leaves. Realizing that his plan is in danger, Hazamada decides to hurry toward his meeting place with Jotaro. At a railway, he hears the siren announcing an oncoming train and decides to take a detour, but in fact has been tricked by Echoes' ability. Josuke and Koichi manage to meet Jotaro first and warn him about Hazamada and Surface, but suddenly, Josuke takes a pen out of Jotaro's coat. He sees Surface controlling his movement from behind a window, and almost stabs Jotaro in the neck. Fortunately the two bikers Hazamada has antagonized earlier knock him out and drag him to be beaten elsewhere, saving Jotaro. Meanwhile, Josuke takes out his frustration on the doll. Later, Jotaro, Josuke and Koichi oversee Hazamada being transported to the hospital but are being observed by Red Hot Chili Pepper.
Appearances
Characters
Stands
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Manga/Anime Differences
- A scene depicting Toshikazu's friend stabbing his eye out is added, along with another radio show from Kai Harada.
- Toshikazu is introduced already slimmed down and short, as opposed to his tall muscular build and subsequent shrinking after being beaten by Josuke in the manga.
- One of the mangas in Toshikazu's locker is changed to Pink Dark Boy.
- The moment where Surface scratches its face and causes Josuke to do the same now focuses on Surface's deranged face, rather than Josuke whose face begins to bleed.
- A scene introducing Yukako Yamagishi early, with her admiring Koichi from afar is added.
- Red Hot Chili Pepper spying on Jotaro and Josuke is added.
- A scene in which Josuke asks some highschool girls which way "he" went during the chase is omitted.
Commentary
I heard that animating Josuke was somewhat difficult as he was constantly running, but the chase itself can actually be seen as a guided tour of the town. As soon as the characters leave the school, they pass by a number of places in Morioh before eventually reaching the episode's climax. I'm hoping some of you will take time to carefully observe and listen to the surroundings. During this trip, we discover details such as the railroad crossing that never let's you through, or the building overlooking the train station.
The fight against Hazamada marks the first time Josuke and Koichi cooperate, the latter finally having some experience with Stands. Starting from the making of the storyboard, I also noticed that it really was the first time Josuke is accompanied by a 'friend'; they investigate things together and do fist bumps like buddies. As Rohan Kishibe says later, it’s not rare for the main character of a manga to be loved by all, being able to bond with everyone, and these two are a great example of it. Regarding Koichi, he’s clearly a nice boy, but his exacerbated sense of justice would be a bit scary in reality; as if it's hiding something else. I would be suspicious (laughs).
We can see one of Hazamada’s friends at the beginning. He really has the physiognomy of someone who you'd picture as “Hazamada’s friend”. Nothing more nothing less, we didn’t even have a precise model to be faithful to.Trivia
- In the official English subs, this episode's title is changed to "Toshikazu Hazamada (Show Off)" to match Surface's name change to "Show Off".
- This is the first episode to feature Koichi's Stand, Echoes in the opening.
- The introduction of Pink Dark Boy as one of Hazamada's favorite manga foreshadows his usage in introducing the series' creator later.
