Crazy Heartbreakers

Crazy Heartbreakers is an official spin-off of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, the first not to be written by Hirohiko Araki. It is a midquel that takes place between Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable. Josuke Higashikata and Hol Horse are the protagonists, and Kazuki Karaiya is the main antagonist. Petsounds' puppets are this series' villainous faction.

The story takes place in Morioh, one month before the events of Diamond is Unbreakable. Josuke Higashikata and Hol Horse have a chance encounter when Hol Horse visits Morioh in search of a parrot belonging to the same handler as Pet Shop, trained under DIO.

Known as Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak in Japan, it was written by Kohei Kodono, the writer behind Purple Haze Feedback, and illustrated by Tasuka Karasuma, who is the artist behind the manga series No Guns Life. The series began serialization in monthly Ultra Jump starting in December 2021 and concluded on May 18th, 2023 with its 16th chapter.

On June 18th, 2023, a novel adaptation featuring art drawn by Araki on the front cover released. The novel features the full version of the story that had to be cut down in order to be released in the form of a serialized manga.

As of now there is no official English release for this series.

Ultra Jump January 2022
''Cairo, Egypt, March 1999. Hol Horse is asked by an old woman to find a parrot. When he visits Boingo with Mariah to get a hit, Mariah says that even 10 years after DIO's death, the effects cannot be erased. Hol Horse treats the story lightly, but at a later date, he realized that the existence of DIO was engraved in his soul. Hol Horse heads for Morioh Town, the land indicated by the prophecy of Tohth God !!''

The Chance Encounter
In Cairo, 1999, Hol Horse speaks to an old woman about her son, a bird handler who worked for DIO, and the trainer of Pet Shop and a parrot. The woman tells Hol Horse that the parrot has gone missing, and she fears that the Speedwagon Foundation will kill it if it happens to be a Stand User.

Hol Horse accepts the job and heads out to find Mariah and other previous minions of DIO. He enters their hideout and discusses with Mariah the impact that DIO still has on them, 10 years after his death. He then meets with Boingo, who uses his Stand Tohth to show their future. The book describes the two of them journeying to the town of Morioh in Japan to hunt down the missing parrot.

With the two of them in Morioh, Hol Horse roams the street asking passerby if they've seen the parrot. Meanwhile, a woman named Ryoko visits the grave of Noriaki Kakyoin, her cousin, and discovers the book of Tohth lying on the ground. She puts it in her bag as she passes by Hol Horse, unaware of its importance.

While Hol Horse is in the middle of the street, he suddenly hears DIO's words, and struggles to remind himself that he is in fact dead. He then sees a hypnotized man riding a car through the sidewalk plow through pedestrians, in the same exact manner as Wilson Phillips did when he was under DIO's control 10 years ago. Hol Horse only barely manages to knock the car out of the way with his Stand, when the car is pushed back by the Stand of a young boy with a pompadour.

The boy meets eyes with Hol Horse and recognizes that the gun in his hand materialized out of thin air and comes to the conclusion that they share similar abilities. He then notes that just because they both have special abilities doesn't mean they're meant to be friendly.

Hol Horse looks at Josuke with astonishment, as he was able to crush that entire car which means his Stand is a close-range power type.

Josuke makes a comment on Hol Horse's outfit, to which he replies something about his hair, which angers Josuke a lot. He then uses Crazy Diamond on the people on the street who were all hurt by the man hypnotized. The man driving the car's nose is slightly off, but then he starts puking up what looks like film reels from his mouth onto Josuke's shoes.

Scared shitless of Josuke's attitude and ridiculously powerful Stand, Hol Horse makes a run for it, but is followed by Josuke soon after. Josuke decides to stick around Hol Horse because of something he said that he bases his style on what other people think. They introduce each other properly, and Hol Horse wonders what else Tohth predicted. Meanwhile, the parrot is seen perched on a branch with its Stand visible behind it.

Ryoko Meets Josuke
Elsewhere, Ryoko looks over the book of Tohth and wonders why she saw her cousins name in it, and wonders if it has answers in it about his death. She opens to the most recent page and witnesses the future be written in it. She suddenly realizes what it means and heads off somewhere.

In the streets, a gang of delinquents are driving around recklessly, when they happen upon Ryoko. She asks them not to part in the middle of the street when one of them insults her hair. From behind them, Josuke Higashikata appears, assuming they're talking to him, and uses his Stand to turn their car into a bird cage. Ryoko reveals that she saw this come true in the book, and Hol Horse and Josuke appear next to her.

Josuke goes on about if she insulted his hair or not, and she tries to find a clever way of saving face by asking if it was inspired by a movie of sorts. She reveals that she recently graduated high school, making her older than Josuke, and that her hairstyle is based on her deceased cousin, Noriaki.

Elsewhere, at the Budogoaka Police Station, Boingo hides under a desk and is consulted by Ryohei Higashikata, Josuke's grandfather. Boingo's thoughts reveal that the book told him to drop Tohth in the street, but he worries about its whereabouts, and Ryohei promises to help him look for it. The police get a phone call saying that a man named Inspector Hiroaka was seen crashing through a crowd of people, however somehow everyone was unharmed. It is also said that Ryohei's grandson was seen at the scene, and he takes off on his bike to investigate.

Back with Josuke, Ryoko, and Hol Horse, Ryoko sticks around with Josuke while peering into the Book of Tohth. The book tells her that Josuke is linked to the death of her cousin, and that the first hint will be revealed if she slaps him across the face and kicks him in the ass. She is reluctant to do so, but when Josuke unintentionally badmouths Noriaki, she does so anyway.

The Parrot's Counterattacks
Meanwhile, Hol Horse goes off to search for Boingo and the parrot at the police station, but spots Hiroaka in there, pleading to the other officers that it wasn't him that crashed through that crowd of people. Hol Horse is scared to enter and turns around to see the parrot perched on a landline wire. Its Stand manifests behind it, spooking Hol Horse, who then realizes that it was the parrot's Stand attack that was after them earlier.

The Stand lifts its rolls of tape on its wings and sends them shooting at Hol Horse. Hol Horse has no time to react, and they enter his body, hypnotizing him in the same way that Hiraoka was earlier. He draws his gun, being controlled by this Stand, and hears the voice of DIO in his head, persuading him to make a shot at him. This mimics one of their encounters when Hol Horse went to betray him, putting a gun to the back of his head. At the time, DIO used his Stand to evade the attack, but in the present, Hol Horse sticks his gun on the back of someone else's head.

Hol Horse recalls the moment that he is reliving with DIO and tries to snap himself out of it. The glimmer on Hiraoka's cufflinks catch his eye, and he recalls another memory of the past. He and Boingo are running through Egypt trying to escape DIO's grasp wearing hospital gowns. In the sky they see an Emerald Splash, the signature move of Noriaki Kakyoin's Hierophant Green.

This snaps Hol Horse out of his trance, and he throws up the punch cards out of his mouth. He leaves the police station and considers the situation. This bird has been quiet for 10 years, and all of a sudden now it's making a move. He realizes now that this isn't just some wild bird chase, someone brought it here.

Suddenly he hears screaming as four women approach him talking about serving their lord DIO. They have the same vacant look in their eyes as Hol Horse when he was under the parrot's control, and he realizes that it can control more than one person at a time. One of the women pledges her allegiance to DIO and slices an old woman's throat right in front of Hol Horse. Because of his love for women, he realizes he can't use his gun on these women and that perhaps he has met his match.

Meanwhile in a dark alleyway, an obscured man watches as the battle ensues. He makes note that there were Stand Users in Morioh after all, and that Hol Horse has yet to see the parrot's true power. He speaks the parrot's name: Petsounds.

The women continue to attack Hol Horse, and he ends up stabbed and on the ground.

Elsewhere, Josuke talks with Ryoko and finds out that the Kakyoin that she mentioned is dead. Ryoko is reminded that Tohth told her to slap Josuke and kick him in the ass, and then the truth about Kakyoin will be revealed. While she is contemplating this, Josuke hears the sound of gunshots when the group of hypnotized women who attacked Hol Horse attempt to stab him, and Ryoko kicks him out of the way. Seeing that the prediction came true, she realizes that the first clue will come to her soon.

Down the street from where the women came, Hol Horse calls to Josuke and informs him of the situation at hand. Now knowing that the women are under a trance, Josuke says he'll go easy on them as he draws his Stand out and knocks them all to the ground, healing them in the process. Their trance wears off and the women run back to work, meanwhile Josuke announces to the crowd forming around him that this was just a show, and no one was actually hurt.

Josuke runs to wear Hol Horse is laying on the ground and heals his wound. Hol Horse reveals to him that the parrot he came to find in Morioh is actually a Stand User, and it's being controlled by someone who's using its powers to attack whoever he pleases. He theorizes that he is after him for some reason but says that he needs to keep the bird alive so he can return it to its handler. Josuke reveals that he thought he was the only person with this type of ability, but he is even more surprised that a parrot could possess one as well.

Hol Horse goes into more detail and reveals that the parrot once belonged to DIO, but since he was defeated, the parrot hasn't used its ability once in the past 10 years. Because he needs to take care of this situation and leave the bird alive, he enlists Josuke's help in tracking it down, to which he obliges. The two walk off together to find the bird, now allied for the time being.

Meanwhile, Ryoko listens in on their conversation from behind a corner and is shocked to hear Hol Horse say DIO's name. She realizes that the book has been correct all along, and that this was the first hint to finding out what happened to her cousin. Hol Horse has the answers she's looking for.

Meanwhile, Boingo is huddled under some blankets in a Morioh Hotel, thinking about his past and contemplating being alone from Tohth. He recalls the time he and his brother lived with their father, and the day they discovered Tohth. His father attempted to sell the book for more booze money, but the book kept coming back to Boingo. Boingo says that even though DIO and Enya suggest that Tohth is just his Stand ability, he believes that Tohth himself really exists in this world, and he is protecting him.

Back with Hol Horse and Josuke, the two of them are discussing Petsounds' Stand ability in an underground passageway in an effort to ensure they are not attacked. Hol Horse concludes that the parrot's Stand uses sounds to trick people into returning to past events, essentially "parroting" them to his victims. His range is probably as far as any particular sound can reach someone. The only problem now is they don't know how to deactivate the parrot's ability quite yet, even though Hol Horse has been knocked out of the trance once, he can't figure out how or why.

While discussing these hypotheticals, they suddenly hear the murmuring of a helicopter in the underground walkway, eventually becoming so loud that Hol Horse can't even hear Josuke's voice over it. They look around and Hol Horse realizes they are once again under the spell of Petsounds, as Josuke and his own eyes are shiny and filmy, as the parrot's victims usually appear. The two of them turn to see hundreds of citizens fleeing from a helicopter shooting at them. The pair are forced to run away as people are ripped apart by bullets, but then seemingly healed immediately after.

They realize that Petsounds must be simulating an air raid the parrot must have witnessed during its time in Egypt, and the citizens of Morioh are acting as the people the helicopters are gunning down. Suddenly, a little boy right in front of them is struck with an arrow, and Josuke's right shoulder is also pierced. They realize that this is no illusion, and Josuke spots the archer after he quickly heals the little boy.

Thrown into a fit of rage after seeing the archer attack an innocent young boy, Josuke is knocked out of Petsounds' trance and runs after the archer himself. He runs through the crowd, knocking arrows out of the way and healing people who are caught in the crossfire, meanwhile the archer becomes unnerved.

Hol Horse on the other hand is frantically trying to break free of Petsounds' trance, and finally manages to after he remembers the fear he felt in the presence of DIO. Not wanting to wallow in his fear, he too manages to break free from the Stand attack and fires his gun at the assailant. The archer is spooked and runs in the opposite direction, and Josuke and Hol Horse notice that Petsounds flies right by him.

Josuke and Hol Horse meet back up and Josuke uses his Stand to "fix" the remains of the archer's bow, which will lead them straight to him. They split up after the archer and the bird; Hol Horse goes after the bird while Josuke goes after the archer.

As they leave the subway, Hol Horse spots Petsounds in the distance and fires his gun, remembering how he told its handler that he'd bring it in alive, he says he always regrets letting a woman down. His bullet hits the parrot, and its wing gets clipped, causing it to fall out of the sky.

Meanwhile, the archer hides in some bushes in the middle of a park, boasting to himself how he made the others follow a dead trail, when all of a sudden, his weapon is fixed and Josuke appears behind him. Josuke unleashes Crazy Diamond on him, knocking him into a wall, which causes him to drop his belongings. Josuke reads his ID and finds out that his name is Koji Kiyohara, and he is a university student. He wonders why he got into this mess, and is relieved that the incident is over, when his grandfather arrives to arrest the perp.

Search for Tohth
Ryohei, Hol Horse, Josuke, and Boingo sit and discuss what has just transpired. Thankfully, nobody was injured in Koji's attack, but he is still in custody and is to be sent out to have a psych evaluation. With the parrot apparently dead, Hol Horse and Boingo now must remain in Morioh to find Boingo's lost comic book, to which Josuke agrees to help them out with.

The three of them head out into the town with "missing" posters of a crudely drawn version of the book on it, asking people around if they've seen it. Josuke studies the drawing and suddenly remembers that he has seen it before and runs off alone to find it.

He ends up meeting with Ryoko, who is by herself wondering about Tohth's next instructions, which are to light a fuse. She comes to the conclusion that Josuke may be the fuse when he tries to get the book back from her. She tries to run away, but she's cornered, and reveals to Josuke why she is obsessed with deciphering this book: She wants to know once and for all how her cousin died, because she feels responsible for him meeting DIO.

It is shown in a flashback that Kakyoin actually went out alone to find Ryoko in Egypt, which led to his fateful encounter with the immortal DIO.

Meanwhile, in the holding cell where Koji Kiyohara is being kept, an officer approaches the bars in front of him, and Koji suddenly appears to be sitting in the back of a police car. Kazuki Karaiya appears next to him and threatens him by telling him he is trash and is easy to dispose of. Koji doesn't recognize Karaiya, which upsets them, causing them to sick Petsounds on Koji, which makes him scream in his cell, catching the attention of one of the actual guards.

Following this, Karaiya walks the streets of Morioh, remembering the words of his grandfather to him. It is revealed that he was a servant of Kars during World War II, and believes that those with abilities such as them should be at the apex of the world. At Karaiya's 18th birthday, his grandfather bestowed upon him some of his "essence," which gave him supernatural abilities. Years later now he is able to employ the abilities of Petsounds to reach his ultimate goal.

As he is walking, he stumbles upon Boingo, who is alone in the rain.

Meanwhile, Hol Horse catches up to Josuke and demands that Ryoko give the book back to them. Josuke implores that Hol Horse hear her story out before taking it from her, but he doesn't want to hear it. In her defense, Josuke seals Hol Horse inside a garbage can using his Stand and runs off taking Ryoko by the hand.

They stop running and find cover from the rain, with Josuke telling her that he will definitely be needing the book back, but it's important for her side to be heard, especially considering how upset she got. Hearing from Josuke that he thinks she was upset, Ryoko gets spooked and runs off into the rain. She stops at a street corner and ponders how important it is for her to find out the truth of her cousin's death.

All her life she has been haunted by this curse of the possibility she is at fault for his death and decides that with this book her anger and sadness will go away. She suddenly realizes that the "spark" that must be ignited was not in fact Josuke, it was herself. At this realization, she drops the book, and is suddenly taken over by the power of Petsounds' Stand. Her eyes get filmy and take a new shape, and she runs off into the rain.

As she runs off, the wind flips the pages of Tohth, revealing a new premonition. Ryoko is to take Hol Horse's gun and shoot him square through the head. Karaiya now stands above it, holding Boingo by his hips. Petsounds perches on his shoulders and he rejoices in finally finding this book, now possessing the "future" and the "past," in the abilities of Petsounds and Tohth.

Back with Hol Horse, he manages to get himself out of the garbage and runs in the direction he thinks Josuke is. As he's running, he notices his watch is broken, and vividly recalls the moment that he and Boingo evaded DIO in Egypt. Back then, he awoke in the hospital scared the DIO would come after them but realized that he can't because he's dealing with the Joestar Group. Taking this opportunity, he grabs Boingo's arm and hightails it out of there. Seeing Kakyoin's final Emerald Splash, he realizes that he used his dying attack to reveal DIO's secret to the Joestars, and they might have a fighting chance.

After reliving this memory, he suddenly hears Josuke's attacks in a building not far away. Meanwhile, Josuke appears in an abandoned building searching for Ryoko. He seemingly finds her on the ground, and being weary of traps, picks her up using a rope. He finds out that this is not in fact Ryoko, but Boingo dressed as her. Having fallen for the trap, Josuke and Boingo are suddenly placed under Petsounds' ability, and are brought to Egypt.

The two of them come face to face with DIO ten years in the past and have taken the place of Petsounds' handler. DIO readies an attack on them, using the powers of both Pet Shop and Petsounds. Unable to use his Stand in defense, Josuke realizes that he is forced to live this Hell at the hands of DIO due to Petsounds' ability. The two of them are attacked by Pet Shop, while DIO boasts about trying to extract the fear out of people's hearts.

First Boingo and Josuke are frozen by Horus, then they are lit aflame by gasoline poured on them. Boingo cowers in fear, completely defeated, but Josuke realizes that there is absolutely nothing they can do to change the past events they are reliving, so they have to escape the illusion. Josuke uses his Stand to repair the rope around Boingo and cuts off their air supply with it, snapping them out of the illusion.

Final Confrontation
Karaiya watches nearby, furious that they were able to break free from his attack. He reveals that he shares the same Stand with Petsounds due to him sharing a piece of his earlobe with him, which means that he is able to precisely use the Stand, as opposed to a bird who only relies on instinct. He swears that his next attack will kill Josuke, and reveals Ryoko to be near, under the effects of his Stand.

Hol Horse, Josuke, and Boingo all meet up, and they see Ryoko run up the stairs, and Petsounds flying down. Hol Horse goes after the bird, only to find that it was a trap, and Ryoko is there waiting for him with a gun to her head. Meanwhile, Josuke chases "Ryoko" up the stairs to discover he's under the effects of Petsounds's Stand. He relives the recruitment of DIO's minion, Daniel D'Arby, and becomes immobilized, while Karaiya comes to the unprotected Josuke with a flamethrower. Josuke wakes up from his trance and attacks Karaiya and Petsounds, removing Petsounds's ability to actually parrot, and sending Karaiya high flying in the air with no Stand.

Meanwhile, Hol Horse snaps Ryoko out of her trance, and Ryoko points the gun at him asking what really happened to her cousin. Hol Horse contemplates, and remembers that he is the emperor, and how he saved four of the women that DIO had held captive in his lair way back when. He snaps out of it and reveals the truth to Ryoko, and she puts the gun down.

After all of the commotion ends, the group goes their separate ways.

Iconography
There are many different pieces of imagery that is used to represent this spin-off. There is not one theme or icon that most represents it, and there are multiple things that give it its own identity. Similar to Part 4, the part this story is based on, it uses hearts, peace signs, and stars to represent Josuke Higashikata. The heart and diamond icons are used in the logo for the Crazy Heartbreakers novel, and they are depicted in multiple artworks such as the one of Hol Horse sitting on his golden throne from Chapter 5.

A unique icon in Crazy Heartbreakers is the spray paint affect used over the logo and some typography. Black spray paint is used over the subtitle in the main logo and over the volume and chapter numbers. This can be representative of Josuke's juvenileness, or his relationship with Hol Horse being immature. It may be representative of Josuke's lack of character development due to the spin-off taking place before Part 4 before he matures in any way.

Continuity

 * This spin-off reveals information on DIO's minions from Part 3 and their lives after DIO's death.
 * Hol Horse now wears three watches and obsesses over keeping them all in sync because of the time he didn't set his watch correctly and was shot in the head.
 * Oingo and Boingo still travel together and were freeloading at Mariah's place.
 * Boingo and Hol Horse escaped Egypt together after leaving the hospital and saw Hierophant Green's last Emerald Splash in the sky. During their escape, Hol Horse was terrified that DIO would come after them, but realized that he would after he's dealt with the Joestar Group.
 * Pet Shop's owner was killed by DIO, and a parrot who was trained by the same man went missing.
 * Mariah married Kenny G.
 * Both Mariah and Hol Horse are still haunted by nightmares and visions of DIO, ten years after his death.
 * While he was never seen in the main Part 3, it is shown through Petsounds's visions that Pet Shop's handler was killed by DIO using the abilities of the birds he trained.
 * This series shows what Oingo and Boingo's father looks like for the first time and offers the possibility that he was a drunk and abusive, making his sons scared of him.
 * It also details information on what certain Part 4 characters were up to before it began.
 * Ryohei Higashikata is revealed to never have been promoted (a detail mentioned in Part 4,) because of the stigma surrounding his daughter mothering a bastard child to an American man.
 * Josuke apparently wore his school uniform the month before school started just because he wanted to feel older. It also explains why he rarely takes it off during the events of Part 4.
 * It's revealed that Josuke felt that his Stand ability was some kind of sickness and felt isolated because he didn't know anyone with this type of ability.
 * The scene of DIO abducting Kakyoin into his army is shown in Chapter 8, revealing that the reason he was in Egypt in the first place was orchestrated by DIO, and Kakyoin met him in the first place because he was off looking for Ryoko alone.
 * It is revealed in Chapter 9 that Karaiya's grandfather was once a servant of Kars, and having survived Part 2, he was able to pass on his "essence," to his grandson.
 * In Chapter 11, Karaiya states that animal Stand Users are not able to use their Stands to the fullest potential, as they are held back by their instinctual animal brains. It is because of this that he shared some of his body with Petsounds, allowing both of them to share the same Stand.
 * It's possible there are a few continuity errors in this spin-off.
 * Josuke meets Hol Horse and sees his Stand, as well as the Stand of Petsounds, meaning that he was introduced to the concept of Stands before Jotaro introduced them to him during Part 4. It isn't possibly contradictory because Josuke never mentions in Part 4 any confusion about the concept, and it's Jotaro that tells him, Josuke doesn't ask.
 * In Chapter 5, Josuke learns of the identity of DIO from Hol Horse, yet expresses no confusion or declaration of already knowing who he is when Jotaro brings him up in Part 4.
 * In Chapter 12, we are shown Daniel D'Arby's recruitment into DIO's ranks. He toys with him in a Poker game and intimidates him by using his Stand to cheat. D'Arby joins out of fear, and DIO tells him that the next time he loses in a game, it will be his downfall (foreshadowing D'Arby's eventual game with Jotaro.)
 * During this flashback DIO asks if D'Arby was ever called "Danny" when he was a kid, and gets increasingly angry until he says he was always just called D'Arby.
 * Chapter 15 reveals that Hol Horse saved three women from DIO's mansion after leaving his encounter with him. This may possibly be the reveal for how DIO's son's mothers survived, as that question was always unanswered all this time. That means that the women he saved could have been Donatello, Ungalo, and Versus's mothers, respectively.
 * The final chapter reveals that the Book of Tohth shows a prediction for Ryohei Higashikata's death, foreshadowing this event in Part 4. Ryohei catches a glimpse of this, and says that something may happen to him soon, and he won't be able to protect his family anymore, so he calls Josuke's father, Joseph Joestar.
 * This seemingly is supposed to explain what exactly drew Joseph to seek out Josuke in the beginning of Part 4 anyway.
 * Before Hol Horse and Josuke part ways, Hol Horse warns him that there may yet be other Stand Users in Morioh, foreshadowing the eventual threat of Anjuro Katagiri and Yoshikage Kira.