High Priestess, Part 1 (Episode)

High Priestess, Part 1 (その1) is the twenty-third episode of Stardust Crusaders and the forty-ninth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers most of Chapter 179 through Chapter 180 of the manga.

Summary
A small recap explains how Avdol actually survived the fight against Hol Horse and J. Geil and how the group is now boarding a submarine to cross the Red Sea. The Joestar Group begins their underwater journey beneath the Red Sea, reputed to be the most beautiful sea in the world and plentiful fauna and no pollution. The group can rest easy in this unreachable vessel, and enjoy their stay in the submarine while Polnareff is being explained the details about the submarine although Jotaro is wary. As the ship is equipped with a satellite phone, Joseph makes a call to his wife Suzi Q in New York, who is unaware about his circumstances, making sure she does not travel to Japan to check up on Holy.

Just as Polnareff takes the wheel, something bumps into the submarine. The Egyptian shore is in sight, but their planning of the next step in their journey is interrupted when Jotaro sees that there are six mugs. A new enemy Stand, which had been disguising itself as a mug, attacks Joseph and proves to be agile enough to evade Star Platinum's punches. The Stand transforms itself to hide in the submarine, cuing Avdol who recognizes the Stand as the High Priestess, wielded from far away by a woman named Midler. As it has the ability to transform into any mineral substance, the group is in deep trouble and it begins to sabotage the submarine.

Incidentally, Suzi Q recalls the submarine and Jotaro answers. Suzi Q is shocked to hear Jotaro so far away from Japan but is reassured when Jotaro tells her to not worry. On the other hand, the submarine has sunk to the bottom of the sea because of High Priestess and the group is low on oxygen. Ensues a tense battle as the evasive High Priestess evades each of the group's Stands, and the heroes are forced to evacuate the submarine. As Avdol opens the door, he realizes too late that High Priestess had disguised as the handle but is saved by Star Platinum who grabs it. But it then turns into a razor blade and forces Jotaro to let it go. Unable to directly attack High Priestess, the group attempts to escape to the surface, but Jotaro takes the time to declare that he will personally defeat High Priestess. Meanwhile, Suzi Q and her butler Roses head to Japan.

Commentary
"This is the penultimate episode and last adversary, we had added a lot to the original scenario.

We wanted to talk about Holy again, even if the group was battling High Priestess. We had to bring news of her as a red string since she's the reason for this journey after all. To do so, we had used Suzi Q. Since she doesn't want to stay on the side and do nothing as her daughter is agonizing, adding her in this submarine episode is justified and allowed us to show her before her trip to Japan, as well as inform us about Holy's condition at the same time. I think it was appropriate to have all these scenes whose atmosphere is reminiscent of sitcoms, where all these exchanges and interactions happen at the same place.

In principle, a submarine is a lot more cramped than here. This one is decidedly too big, a typical anime direction.

We took care to include the time difference with New York. The Joestars live in a big tower, real-estate tycoon style. In my mind, they only live in one floor, the others being apartments as well.

I like High Priestess' sudden attack in the submarine, she intervenes in the middle of a simple conversation, that's an unexpected twist. She skillfully provokes urgency, even more in such a confined space."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * Smokey Brown can be seen on the newspaper cover laying on Suzi Q's coffee table.