The Curse of Dio (Episode)

DIO's Curse (DIOの呪縛) is the twenty-ninth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime and the third episode of Stardust Crusaders. It covers Chapter 120 through half of Chapter 122 of the manga.

Summary
According to Joseph, the flesh bud attached to Kakyoin's brain allowed DIO to force allegiance from him through charisma. Avdol recalls having almost fell victim to one back in Egypt where he met DIO, though was fortunate enough to escape. Despite the odds, Jotaro takes it upon himself to surgically remove the bud from Kakyoin's head, claiming that Star Platinum's sharp precision would give him an advantage. Jotaro successfully the removes the bud after some effort, and Joseph finishes it off with the Ripple.

The next day, as Avdol walks to the kitchen, he stumbles upon a spoon on the ground, and soon after Holy's unconscious body slumped in front of the refrigerator. He discovers translucent rose vines growing from her backside and concludes it to be a Stand. Though due to Holy's kind nature, she lacked the willpower to manifest it properly and it was slowly killing her instead. Jotaro and Joseph arrive at the scene, where Joseph acts out in rage having his worst fears assured. Taking the initiative, Jotaro asks for a way to save her, but apparently the only way to do so was to kill DIO. Using a photo previously taken with Hermit Purple, Jotaro uses Star Platinum to identify a fly lingering in the darkness behind DIO. Avdol recognizes this fly and determines it to be of a certain species found only in the Aswan region of Egypt, thus leading them to assume DIO was in that location. Kakyoin appears and confirms their suspicions, stating that he had met DIO in that area on a family vacation. With approximately 50 days before Holy dies, Joseph calls in the Speedwagon Foundation to watch over her while the group sets off for Egypt by plane.

In another location, DIO uses a power similar to Hermit Purple to take a photograph of the Joestar group. Joseph becomes cautious after sensing them being watched and tells Jotaro to stay alert for any trouble. At that point, a small insect flies into the open.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * In the manga, Avdol discusses Holy's condition with Kakyoin outside after discovering DIO's location. In the anime, he does so while searching for the encyclopedia in the library.

Commentary
"The direction and storyboard were in Toshiyuki Kato's care, one of the main members of the JoJo team. Because it was a calm transitory episode, the director had to be skilled enough to make it interesting. Seeing the end result, choosing Kato was clearly a good call. If I had to choose a memorable scene, it would be the one with a braless Holy and Avdol's explanations about the origin of the curse. That was quite a strange sequence (laughs).

I like the atmosphere of the big traditional Japanese house, especially the sound of the (scaredeer). Let's note that the sliding doors are only 1.8 meter tall in this house. But Jotaro and his companions stand above 1.9 meters, and must bow a little to walk around. Joseph is confronted with Japanese culture, that's a first. Mr. Kato's directing underlines all these details remarkably well.

This episode is a prelude to the journey, with the reason for the departure, the objective and the preparations. We had to set up everything well here before really getting to business in the next episode. We had mutinously prepared the content of the first two episodes to do anything we pleased for this last introductory episode."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries