Warning: contains spoilers for Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak chapter 5!
The Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure spin-off Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak has gotten its story moving pretty quickly, in part because of its experienced protagonist in the form of Stardust Crusaders‘ Hol Horse. And while the story’s heroes aren’t keeping a low profile with their Stands, Josuke has the perfect cover story to explain why normal people aren’t more disturbed by seeing the effects of their abilities.
Set just before Diamond Is Unbreakable, this latest entry has followed Hol Horse on a mission to retrieve a Stand-wielding bird that once belonged to Dio, known as Pet Sounds. While Jojo villains are often not particularly subtle in the way that they go about their attacks, Pet Sounds (as an animal) is even less concerned about creating a scene. In just these first five chapters, it’s already been responsible for crashing cars, forcing a hostage situation, and now, possessing women and using them to attack. This amount of attention is a problem for the heroes, especially since regular people can’t see Stands – just their effects.
Since Hol Horse’s Stand the Emperor is his gun, it can make it pretty difficult for him to attack non-lethally, especially when dealing with ordinary humans. Fortunately, with its capacity to repair damage, Josuke’s Stand is much better suited to such a situation. Just as he would often do in Diamond is Unbreakable, Josuke attacks recklessly until the possession is broken, then heals the women back to the way they were. All that the gathering crowd has seen is a group of women with knives approaching Josuke, before an inexplicable whirlwind pushes them all to the ground. As they get to their feet and gather their senses, Josuke announces that their street performance has come to an end before both he and Hol Horse take off.
How normal people perceive Stand battles is a question that fans have long asked, but which the series has often left unanswered; events like Dio’s defeat in Egypt would be difficult to explain in this context. A performance art street show is not only a hilarious excuse, but actually one of the most believable reasons he could give. It suggests that everyone is involved and has practiced it quite a bit, explaining how they’re so in sync, and excuses the strange outfits of Hol Horse (already standing out for being an American in Japan) and others. Since Josuke can heal the damage he inflicted, there are also no real injuries to concern anyone, further reinforcing the idea that it’s a bit.
As Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure protagonists go, Josuke is certainly one of the quickest thinkers and one of the best at dealing with people, so he’s been a surprisingly good partner for Hol Horse so far. The scene also goes to show how well Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak‘s writer, Kouhei Kadono, understands the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure characters that he’s chosen to use, which bodes well for further exploration as the series continues.
