Warning: Spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak, Chapter 11
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure‘s Dio has menaced many a Joestar in his life, and in some cases even afterward. Now Josuke’s name can be added to that list, and his disturbing method of evading Dio’s attack shows he’s already taken a page out of Jotaro’s book before they even met.
The JoJo spinoff Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak has followed part four’s Josuke and the recurring character from part three, Hol Horse, as they search for a Stand-wielding parrot that once belonged to Dio. The bird, named Pet Sounds, has the ability to force people to relive memories it has witnessed, causing them to feel every sensation that the person in the memory did without leaving a trace. Breaking the illusion is incredibly difficult, even if one knows that it’s an illusion, and the pain it causes is genuine regardless.
Chapter 10 saw Josuke being forced to relive the memory of Dio attacking the man who trained the birds, using another bird he trained, Pet Shop, to do it. Josuke has already had to relive a terrible helicopter attack where he was shot, so he knows all too well how real the pain of these memories can be. As he and Mondatta are trapped and pierced by Pet Shop’s icicle spears, they begin to smell the scent of gasoline–Dio intends to burn the man alive, and both will have to endure that if the memory isn’t disrupted. Josuke realizes there’s no way to fight back against an illusion, and that the memory will play out just as it did the first time–and the first time, the bird trainer died. To avoid this fate, Josuke uses the ropes that Mondatta was tied up with to essentially hang himself and Mondatta, momentarily cutting off the blood flow to their brains. That meant they both passed out right before being burned alive and weren’t conscious to experience it. Fortunately, the memory ended before they awoke, and the pair were spared that horrific fate.
Josuke Takes After Jotaro
In Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro pulls a similarly dangerous trick on Dio, stopping his own heart with his Stand in order to convince Dio that he was dead. While Crazy Diamond is set before JoJo’s part four, and thus Josuke has yet to meet Jotaro, the two Joestars clearly have some similarities in how reckless they can be in a fight. There wasn’t anyone around to help Josuke and Mondatta had the nooses not released properly. Still, given the circumstances, it’s not hard to see how hanging might be a preferable death to immolation. That Joestar luck happened to be working in Josuke’s favor, apparently, but this parrot has surely seen many horrific acts of Dio’s, so the danger isn’t over.
Josuke’s insane recklessness may have saved him this time, but he can’t keep up these crazy moves every time the parrot whips out a new and terrible memory. Once again, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is left with its heroes being shadowed by Dio, and this time every horrible act of his could be turned against them at any time.
