These two episodes of Jojo mark the beginnings of new roads for both of the lead characters. Dio puts his humanity aside to become ”something more” in “Youth with Dio.” It should come as little surprise that Dio dons the mask and sacrifices one of the Joestars blood to become, for lack of a better term, a vampire. This episode ends the first portion of ‘Phantom Blood’ with the apparently climatic battle with Dio, as he embraces what he sees as his density to dominate and rule. In the wake of that brawl that costs Jonathan dearly to win, “Overdrive” opens the next stage in his life, bringing an old friend back into his sphere in addition to cementing the relationship with Speedwagon. It also introduces an unorthodox and unlikely mentor for Jojo.
1. Fist of the Joestar
Dio and Jojo have fought multiple times over the course of the first two episodes, but here we get the Victorian brawl to settle it all. Well, maybe. After everything that has happened leading up to this, it us hard to believe that Jonathan is still naive enough to fall for Dio’s hysterics and tears at being caught. His father, as shown in this episode, had a deep belief in the goodness of people and it seems he also holds that belief.
This episode costs him nearly everything, including his life. The fight itself is pretty epic, even for the sprawling, unsophisticated brawl that it actually is. It ranges bottom to top as Joestar mansion burns. David Productions executed a brilliantly adapted version of the fight from the manga beat for beat. Sadly, the animation exposes the length talking takes versus the speed of falling. Their faithfulness to the manga makes certain scenes expose just how dragged out things get when you add dialogue and inner monologue. I do think the drama still works, as the end still has impact, but wow, that had to be a very tall mansion, like skyscraper tall, to allow for the fall to take near that long.
2. Scary Monsters
Araki’s version of vampire is a little familiar and a lot a creation of his fertile imagination. His take removes a lot of the romance of the European vampire and adds a lot of creepy body horror. Created through the use of the mask, the sexy only exists because Dio is comely to begin with. Dio was casually and often brutally violent in life, but in un-life he can survive hails of bullets, giant spears, knives, bend metal, drink blood and life-force through his fingertips, and create zombies out of his victims. Supernaturally strong and resilient Dio is likely more then Jojo should be able to take. The scene that really stands out, both in the show and the opening credits, is the image of Dio walking strait up the wall by sinking his feet into it. In “Overdrive,” we see that Dio, in the week’s of Jojo’s recovery, has been anything but lax. He’s recovering from the burnings, stabbing and supposed dissolution in the fire, and is collecting minions to prey on people as people prey on sheep and pigs.
3. Sacrifice
Self-sacrifice is repeating theme, and “Youth with Dio” is the initial incident of it with George Joestar. Who knows how this man, still recovering from repeated poisoning by Dio, was able to cross the room in a moment to save Jonathan? Unfortunately, he takes the knife meant for Jojo. The flashback we get in the episode reveals a lot about the character of the Joestars, and George in particular. He’s obviously a man who believes in the innate goodness in humankind, and is trusting and generous to a fault. Even his friend(?), the constable, wishes he was a little less trusting and generous. It’s that action, the belief and trust of Dario Brando, that faithfully caused a lot of these things to be possible.
4. Fated to meet
As in any story, coincidences do pile up and “Overdrive” is certainly no exception. Speedwagon himself sees it and makes the above statement statement to soften the “blow” of Erina’s reappearance to the tale. Her feelings obviously have remained as strong for Jojo as they were before the whole assault from Dio that wrecked it near a decade before. They at least get a few moments before being interrupted by an eccentric man in White who has a perchance for pepper on his food. Also in that fated to meet category is Dio, as the convalescing vampire villain is seen in the company of the now undead Chinese medicine vender and meeting the historical mass murderer Jack the Ripper. As he was mentioned in passing previously episode, it should be no surprise that he returns here, like Chekhov’s gun in the final act.
5. Stairway to Hamon
Baron Will Antonio Zeppeli makes his entrance into Jojo’s story in “Overdrive,” and brings so much weirdness along with him. The weird baron, who loves pepper a bit too much, is named, like many Araki characters, after an obvious legendary band, as well as a fried Italian desert. His arrival after marks a change in the story and the way that fights go for many episodes to come. You may think that it was another “fated” meeting, but it’s clear after a few scenes that Zeppeli has been investigating the happenings at Joestar mansion and has learned a whole hell of a lot about Jonathan Joestar. The Baron is flamboyant, quirky, and eccentric, both in appearance and action. Araki deliberately made him odd and gave have him an ostentatious mustache to make him an unlikely mentor. He tells Jojo about his connections to the mask, and he’s learned a way to combat the unholy things it creates. In addition to fixing the crippling damage Dio had done to Jojo, Hamon, and Sendo, his esoteric martial arts techniques is the flip side of the energy tapped into by the mask. He awakes in Jojo the basis for the ability, and then takes him as a student and miraculously teaches him the “basics” in a mere week. It stretches the bounds of credulity, but as Dio is building his own army, the haste is necessary.
