During the “Stand” (special ability) battle in the previous episode, Josuke defeated Okuyasu – the younger one of the Nijimura brothers. In this episode, Josuke faces the older brother, named Keicho. Their “Stand” battle is the highlight of the show, as well as the unexpected change in Koichi after having sustained the cursed arrow damage. All right. Let’s look at episode four.
The episode starts from a heated exchange between Josuke and Keicho. After having defeated Okuyasu at the front gate, Josuke steps inside the dark, deserted house, and confronts Keicho, who is about to pull out the bloody arrow from the limp body of Koichi. Josuke quickly motions to stop Keicho, shouting it’s risky, Koichi might lose too much blood if the arrow is extracted from the wound. Keicho replies in a controlled voice; He needs the arrow back, as it is a precious tool for him to achieve his vision, he must have it. “If you finish listening to a music CD, you certainly put the CD back into the case first, before you open the next CD, do you not? Of course, that is how I do it.”
With that remarkable statement, he pulls the arrow out of Koichi’s body.
Josuke chases Keicho further into the dark house. When he’s ready to strike, he’s got destructed by an unexpected person’s arrival. It is Okuyasu. He apparently came around from the concussion and trailed behind Josuke.
The next moment, Josuke senses something quickly coming at him from the darkest corner of the room, and with great reflex, he avoids that thing. And then, he realizes that he has just dodged a deadly blow coming from Keicho’s “Stand.” As a matter of fact, Okuyasu steps right into the trajectory of Keicho’s attack and gets fully hit, collapsing on the floor covered in blood.
Keicho snarls in disdain that Okuyasu has always been stupid an incompetent sibling.
Josuke wants a time out; he hoists the seriously injured Okuyasu and knocks down the wall to get outside.
Once they are safely away from Keicho’s reach, Josuke interrogates Okuyasu, hoping to gain more information on Keicho and his “Stand” ability. Okuyasu refuses to talk. Josuke spats, “Fine, if you want to be that way.” It sounds like Josuke lets Okuyasu suffer, but on the contrary, he heals Okuyasu using his “Stand” ability, and quickly sets off once again to the house, to rescue far more important person; his friend, Koichi.
Okuyasu just can’t understand the reason why Josuke healed him. It doesn’t make any sense. Okuyasu follows after Josuke to ask the straightforward question. “Why did you do that?” Josuke replies curtly, “There is no reason that you should die.” With those words, Okuyasu feels shocked, and also, moved. He follows Josuke to jump inside the house.
Inside the house, Josuke ascends to the upper floor and steps into one of the several rooms. In the middle of the room, Koichi lay flat. Of course, this is a trap. Josuke knows that too well. He doesn’t want to go inside the room, but, if he doesn’t, he has no other access to rescue Koichi. He decides to go in. That precise moment, Okuyasu catches up with Josuke, and stops him. Using his “Stand” ability “The Hand,” Okuyasu slices up the physical space before him and the room, in order to pull Koichi closer to Josuke’s reaching range.
Okuyasu explains his helping hand that he’s just paid off the debt. This is it, he says, after this point and beyond, he’s not going to help Keicho nor Josuke, and, he leaves the scene.
Josuke heals Koichi’s wound, and to his relief, Koichi restores his full strength.
Now, Josuke’s mission is to retreat from this house, with Koichi in tow, without sustaining any more damage. But, Keicho is a dangerous guy. Josuke is unable to move as quickly as he wants to. Again, he senses something is hiding in the upper corner of the room, but it’s too dark to see. Josuke strikes his cigarette lighter, which reveals a nimble midget running across the beam. Josuke smiles in relief, as he judges that the enemy is not as mighty as he had suspected. But no, he was wrong on this one. Soon he discovers that his enemy is not one, not two, it is a whole army.
Keicho’s special ability is called “Bad Company,” which is a miniature army consisting of 60 foot soldiers, 7 armed tanks, 4 units of AH-64 Apache. Everything is mini-scaled. The soldiers are midget, their weapons are scaled appropriately to their hands, the armed vehicles are mini sized as well, however, the impact of their attack is deadly. Josuke realizes that if he gets hit, he will be in real big trouble.
Josuke launches his “Stand” ability to repel the foot soldiers attacks, but, soon feels that this is a battle of one to many. Even if he knocks out one or two of them, it doesn’t affect the offense power of the whole army much. At this point, Josuke shifts his focus to the commander in chief, Keicho. He attempts to single out Keicho but the entire Bad Company guards him and won’t let Josuke go near Keicho.
Under Keicho’s command, the pack of armed forces gradually shorten the distance between themselves and Josuke. To make matters worse, a group of four Apache sweeps in right in front of Josuke and Koichi, who can’t advance, nor go back.
The “Stand” – in this case the miniature army force – is not visible to layman’s eyes. Only the “Stand” users can see them. Koichi claims that he can see them. Keicho’s cursed arrow that had penetrated Koichi earlier converted Koichi to a “Stand” user.
Suddenly, Keicho jumps right in front of surprised Josuke and Koichi. He says he wants to see Koichi’s special ability, and demands Koichi to make his “Stand” manifest right at this moment. He insists, because for long time he’s been looking for a very specific type of “Stand” user. So, naturally he is piqued to witness Koichi’s special ability.
Looking for a specific special ability … So that was his motive to lay his hands on the magical bow and arrow, I guess?
Koichi is put on a spot to manifest his special ability, and when he manages to do that, everyone gets amazed to see an eggshell popping up from nowhere. That’s … it? Koichi himself has no idea what to do with the egg. In the end, no one gets to see what Koichi can really do with that eff.
Keicho decides that he lets Koichi live a little longer, as he is still curious about his ability yet to be unveiled. But, he doesn’t need Josuke any longer; he decides to finish off Josuke and launches a full-fledged assault on him. Josuke’s special ability, “Shining Diamond” is an extremely powerful “Stand” among others, but, in a one-to-many combat situation, Josuke is definitely at disadvantage. Josuke quickly finds the fierce mini army enclosing him, ready to fire at any moment. A dire situation – Josuke announces, “My strategy worked well.”
What he meant is that, his special ability “Shining Diamond” can fix up broken objects. He has used his “Stand” to fix the missile that was aimed at his arm, and reset the missile’s course back at Keicho. His strategy definitely worked! The missile strikes Keicho and knocks him out. The battle ends in Josuke’s victory.
Well, now. Do you think the Nijimura Bros are gone for good? No no no, not so fast. Be sure to come back here for the next episode.
第4話のあらすじを公開ッ！本日TOKYO MXにて24:30より放送です！形兆はどんなスタンドを操るのか！？楽しみにご覧ください！ https://t.co/cqiZcLbxFN #jojo_anime すーじー pic.twitter.com/7QPRsfUXSw
— TVアニメ『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』公式 (@anime_jojo) April 22, 2016
The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
