I'm not dead. I tend to watch anime on and off. So I'm back. Again, this is all for posterity. I want to be able to look back at these and remember why I like or (more likely) what I dislike about a series. There is going to be full spoilers for both parts of Stardust Crusaders so if you're some weird stranger that's reading this, be warned.
I really wanted to like Stardust Crusaders but it was clear that this show just isn't for me. The first season had the first two arcs and while the first arc wasn't very good, the second was quite enjoyable with pretty good pacing and characters. In contrast, Stardust Crusaders turns into a monster of the week type show and consequently the pacing grinds to a halt for practically forty something episodes.
This new format's ability to keep my interest then becomes entirely reliant on how interesting the villain and his stand is. More than half the time, the villains really weren't interesting at all. You can tell the author really tried but for me it's just so difficult to retain my interest in something like this.
There were a few good villains. That dream baby had a really cool concept and both Darby brothers were engaging though once the episode was done I pretty much forgot about the fight entirely. They were pretty much forgettable. A lot of the time the concepts were interesting but not really capitalized on perfectly either. An orangutan whose stand is a boat? Cool idea. A guy who can make people magnetized? Sounds fun and yet I still found myself uninterested as the episode slogged on.
What makes matters worse is the fact that practically every villain got their own two episodes making things drag on even more. The only hint we get at the plot progressing is our characters saying they're in a new place and the setting changes a bit sometimes.
It would have probably been alright if the final fight with Dio was as fantastic as it was hyped up to be throughout the entire fifty something episodes and it started that way with Dio's stand.
This ability to stop time is a really cool concept only because it presents the challenge of how our main characters are going to overcome it. I was excited to see how Jotaro and our main cast we're going to take down Dio. Out of the three characters that actually survived to the Dio fight, the answer is that they just lose. They either don't participate in the fight much or straight up die. That's perfectly fine of course it just serves to hype up the fight even more. It raises the stakes even farther. Unfortunately the solution that our last character, Jotaro, finds is such an awful cop out. In the end, Jotaro has the same power. What a disappointment. He doesn't outsmart Dio in anyway, the only reason he wins the fight is because he realizes that he has the same powers. Awful.
They clearly tried to make it more than just that and really exciting and such but that whole situation in general just detracts so much and it's really a shame. I really want to like Stardust Crusaders simply because of the clout behind all of it but I can't bring myself to give it more than a five out of ten. Seriously disappointing. It's clear that this show just maybe isn't for me. I'll probably continue it later anyways though and hope for a miracle.
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