The Sun (Episode)

Sun is the eighteenth episode of Stardust Crusaders and the forty-fourth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers Chapter 166 and Chapter 167 of the manga.

Summary
The Joestar Group has reached the United Arab Emirates, a small country that has become extremely rich thanks to its oil. Joseph purchases an expensive car only to ride it to a village and trade it for a group of camels. That way, he plans to cross a part of the Arabian Desert and arrive in Yarpline where he can buy a Cessna and fly over Araby. Bragging about knowing how to ride camels, Joseph continuously ridicules himself trying to even got one to sit, eventually confessing that he only knows about camels through the Lawrence of Arabia movie.

After the group eventually manages to get on their way, Jotaro and Kakyoin feel like someone is watching them, but cannot find anyone suspicious. The group eventually realizes that the sun is still in the sky even though it is 8 o'clock in the evening, with the temperature rapidly increasing. In truth, the group is under attack from an enemy Stand, Sun, which replicates the heat of the star. When Kakyoin attempts to investigate Sun by sending Hierophant Green, Sun bombards the group with lasers, killing the camels, destroying their water supply, and forcing the group to hide under a rock.

Although the User must be close, the group can only see the plain desert around them and a few rocks scattered here and there. Worse, the heat is beginning to take its toll on the group's sanity. All seems lost, particularly to Joseph when his companions all begin to laugh, which he worries is a heat stroke-induced delirium, but Kakyoin clues him in on their discovery. He has found a rock in the middle of the desert identical to another, and when Jotaro throws a rock in its direction, a crack seemingly appears in the sky, and Sun is defeated, restoring the night sky. The group goes over to the crack to find Sun's user, Arabia Fats, out cold, having been hiding behind a mirrored duck blind to keep the group from spotting him.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * A prologue explaining the origins of the group's car and camels was added in the anime.
 * At the end of the episode, Polnareff comments about having good dreams, foreshadowing the following arc.

Commentary
"I had personally overseen this episode, beginning with the script, and there is a lot to say. But before anything else, did you honestly think that the confrontation would take the entirety of the episode?

It could have been shorter, but I had to try this approach (laughs). Effectively, I think that stretching the whole battle into a whole episode was the best way to represent this suffocating and unbearable heat. The characters put up with it for a long time and begin to lose their minds little by little.

Mr. Soejima was in charge of the direction of the scene where their heads are spinning, literally, with rotation and distortion effects onscreen. He's always full of ideas, and I knew that he'd propose something interesting: I am happy to have followed his advice. The sun looks like it is in 3D, but it was entirely animated by hand by Mr. Kouta. The supplementary arrangements of the image then gave it this striking impression of power. We added original scenes, like the one where Joseph undoes Polnareff's hair after having bought a luxurious car. The dromedaries were a challenge, nobody among us had drawn these before. So we mutinously watch Lawrence of Arabia, just like Joseph, three times and even more. One difference: we didn't fall asleep (laughs).

To conclude, the animation director Satoru Nakaya had accomplished a genuine exploit with the scene where everyone begins to madly laugh, it was as strange and creepy as could be. A real treat."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries