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 begins to discard Hamon from the story. This is the final part with Hamon involved at all.

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 gang 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 a new arc that featured a Stand battle between 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 the United States 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.

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.