Part 3: Stardust Crusaders



Part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, subtitled Stardust Crusaders, is preceded by Battle Tendency and followed by Diamond is Unbreakable. Jotaro Kujo is the JoJo of this part and DIO is the main antagonist. The Agents of DIO and Egypt 9 Glory Gods serve as the villainous factions.

This part introduces Stands and concludes the first major saga of the series with DIO's ultimate demise.

Originally titled Jotaro Kujo: Heritage for the Future, the manga was released in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1989 to 1992.

In March of 1993 a video game RPG adaptation of Part 3 was released for the Super Famicon in Japan.

In November of 1993 an OVA adaptation of Part 3 was released. The first 13 episodes focused on Jotaro and the group in the desert on their way to fight with DIO. In 2000, seven more episodes were released as a prequel showing the start of their journey up to the battle in Egypt.

In December of 1993, an audio drama was released adapting certain arcs of Part 3. It included two new arcs that inlcuded a fight between Jotaro and Hol Horse and a Stand battle against an unknown Stand User and his music box Stand, Strange Relation.

In 1998, a video game based on Part 3 titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage of the Future was released in arcades and on the PlayStation and Dreamcast.

Stardust Crusaders was adapted into a TV anime as the second season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The Animation in 2014. The part is split into two arcs, the Road to Egypt Arc and the Battle in Egypt Arc.

Stardust Crusaders was the first JoJo part to be released in English from 2005-2010 but had poor sales. It was officially rereleased in hardcover in 2016.

Official Description
Part 3, set in 1989, follows Jotaro Kujo, who has acquired the power of Stand, and his allies as they journey from Tokyo to Cairo to save his mother's life by defeating his family's archenemy, DIO.

Summary
The third part, set in 1989, follows Joseph's grandson Jotaro Kujo as he journeys across the globe in 50 days in order to save his mother from a curse. This part introduces the concept of Stands, supernatural abilities that manifest as the form of the user's fighting spirit. Because DIO has been revived, he has unlocked his own Stand, giving everyone in the Joestar family an ability as well due to their psychic connection to Jonathan's body, which DIO now inhabits. The part concludes with the defeat of DIO at the hands of Jotaro and his Stand, Star Platinum, however at the cost of losing several allies on the long journey.

Characters

 * -|English =
 * Jotaro Kujo - Mathew Mercer
 * Joseph Joestar - Richard Epcar
 * Muhammad Avdol - Chris Tergliafera
 * Noriaki Kakyoin - Kyle Hebert
 * Jean Pierre Polnareff - Doug Erholtz
 * Iggy - Derek Stephen Prince
 * DIO - Patrick Seitz
 * -|Japanese =
 * Jotaro Kujo - Daisuko Ono
 * Joseph Joestar - Unsho Ishizuka
 * Muhammad Avdol - Kenta Miyake
 * Noriaki Kakyoin - Daisuke Hirakawa
 * Jean Pierre Polnareff - Fuminori Komatsu
 * Iggy - Misato Fukuen
 * DIO - Takehito Koyasu

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Genesis of the Universe
A non-canon light novel written by Mayori Sekijima & Hiroshi Yamaguchi in 1993 that takes place in the middle of Part 3 right after the Geb fight. It introduces two new arcs with three new Stand Users to fight against. The first arc is One-Way Trip from the Desert to Hell City, featuring a Stand battle between the Crusaders and two Stands, Demonic Coupler and Dark Mirage. The second story, The Gravestone of Red-Hot Sand, features a Stand battle between the Crusaders and a Stand called Ptah.

While it is non-canon, as it is not written by Araki, it does not conflict with existing canon, and could exist in the timeline.

Clamp in Wonderland: JoJo's Bizarre Married Life
Two doujinshi's were released for the 1994 Clamp event. The first, JoJo's Bizarre Married Life, is set some time after the end of Stardust Crusaders in a reality where Kakyoin never died. It focuses on Kakyoin becoming a housewife to Jotaro. The two of them exist at home, Kakyoin does work around the house and cooks for Jotaro. DIO even appears, though obviously this is non-canon.

The second one, released sometime after titled Clamp in Wonderland 1994 Summer, begins with Kakyoin laying an egg that hatches into Jota Kujo, the son of Kakyoin and Jotaro. The doujinshi focuses on the strange child's childhood, including the awakening of his Stand Charmy Green, which is named after an in-universe dish soap. Charmy Green is a fusion Stand of both Star Platinum and Hierophant Green, as it has a combination of both of their powers. Later in the doujinshi, Jota fully grows up and meets Josuke Higashikata.

Oingo Boingo Brothers Adventures
In 2002 a compilation of the Stand Tohth's predictions were released. They are a physical book form of the book that Boingo uses in Part 3 and show the entirety of its predictions as shown in the original manga. It is written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki but does not feature any new stories, only what has already been seen during Stardust Crusaders.

Iggy the Stray Dog
A light novel featuring the origin of Iggy's relationship with Mohammad Avdol. It is set in 1980's New York City and the fateful battle between the two of them. A snippet of it released in JOJO Magazine in March 2022, with the full novel being released in May of the same year. It was written by Otsuichi for JoJo's 35th Anniversary.

Trivia

 * This is the first JoJo part to have Stands. At first, they are introduced as a sort of evolution from Hamon, but it distances it from that quite a bit as the part goes on.
 * This part was possibly inspired by the novel "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne.
 * This part has the longest anime adaptation so far, with 48 episodes, even though it is the third shortest part by chapter count. It is longer than the Parts 4 and 5 anime adaptations even though they are significantly longer by page count.
 * The minor villain Hol Horse was originally meant to become a full member of the Stardust Crusaders, but Araki scrapped the idea because he felt that his personality was too similar to Polnareff's. This may serve as an inspiration for the premise of the spin-off series Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.
 * When planning this series initially, Araki intended Part 3 to be the final part.

Continuity

 * The Joestar Birthmark is formally introduced in this part. While the original manga did not include the birthmarks in Parts 1 and 2, the anime adaptations of those parts added them to their respective protagonists retroactively. The original manga retcons Joseph to have had it the entire time, as well as his father and grandfather. George Joestar I remains the only member of the Joestar family not to be shown with the birthmark in the original continuity.
 * Joseph Joestar returns in this part 50 years later as the deuteragonist.
 * Smokey Brown and Suzi Q also return in this part. Suzi Q being Joseph's wife, she is shown off to a decent extent living in New York and dealing with the news of her husband and grandson travelling the world, and Smokey Brown is mentioned to be the mayor of Georgia, which was previously mentioned at the end of Part 2.
 * While the Stand Arrow was not revealed officially until Part 4, it can be seen hung up on the walls of DIO's mansion in an episode of the anime adaptation.
 * The parrot that appears on DIO's shoulder in a chapter of the manga is retconned to be Pet Shop, the bird Stand User in DIO's Army in the anime. The spin-off manga Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak attempts to explain this by introducing the actual parrot, who was trained under DIO by the same person as Pet Shop, and who is, in turn, also a Stand User.
 * This is the last part to feature Hamon to a certain degree, as Joseph uses it to deal with the Stand Empress and against DIO during the final battle.
 * Instead of using any of his wide arrange of attacks, he has resulted only to using the "Overdrive" attack.
 * Joseph appears 50 years older in this part, although he is a Hamon User like his mother, he has aged physically, unlike her. This is because he did not practice in Hamon training extensively like his mother or Straizo did in Part 2.
 * Joseph's Stand, Hermit Purple, is described as being the "Hamon User's Stand," and Araki claims that if the Crusaders were to go back in time and see Joseph during the events of Part 2, they would see him with purple vines wrapped around him, implying that his Stand has always been a dormant part of him.
 * This also is meant to explain why DIO is able to seemingly use Hermit Purple. This is actually Jonathan Joestar's Stand which DIO is able to manipulate because he is in the body of a Hamon User.
 * The non-canon spin-off novel Jorge Joestar gives Jonathan's unnamed Stand the name The Passion.
 * It is incorrectly theorized that DIO was able to use Jonathan's Stand because Araki's original plan for DIO's Stand was that he was able to use all of the Stands of the arcana variant.
 * During the fight with Empress, Joseph uses his catchphrase from Part 2 where he correctly guesses his opponents next words to intimidate them.
 * The kanji for the word "Stand" in Japanese mean "ghostly ripple," which implies a connection between the two powers.
 * Most of the Stands in this part are named after tarot card arcana and Egyptian mythology, with the exception of Tenore Sax and Cream, which are named after songs. This will later become the staple for Stand naming in future parts.
 * The Speedwagon Foundation appears once again in this part as an aid to the Joestars after having been mentioned in Part 2. With Speedwagon gone, they are still fully operational and give support to the Joestars many times throughout the series.
 * The photo that the Crusaders take together when the first meet Iggy, and the same one Jotaro looks at reminiscing on his plane home at the end of the part, was originally first see in the Part 5 manga. The origins for the photo were added in the anime adaptation.