Chili Pepper, Part 1 (Episode)

Red Hot Chili Pepper, Part 1 (レッド・ホット・チリ・ペッパー その1) is the eleventh episode of Diamond is Unbreakable and the eighty-fifth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers Chapter 307 through Chapter 310 of the manga.

Summary
It is evening in Morioh; at the Higashikata's, Tomoko angrily orders Josuke to stop playing video games, repeatedly kicking him in order to disturb him. When he eventually loses, Tomoko leaves while telling him to do his homework and a disappointed Josuke turns off the television. However it turns on by itself, and Red Hot Chili Pepper appears out of it to confront Josuke. Josuke asks Red Hot Chili Pepper what is it doing in his family room, to which the Stand answers that it's been spying on every known Stand user in town and feels confident enough to take Josuke on. Wanting to test itself before fighting Star Platinum, Red Hot Chili Pepper is still taken by surprise by Crazy Diamond's might but manages to punch Josuke across the room before fleeing to muster more strength. Josuke, having repaired the whole room before Tomoko comes to investigate the ruckus caused by the brief fight, sees how dangerous the enemy Stand is. The next day, Josuke, Jotaro, Koichi and Okuyasu meet in the middle of a deserted field. With Red Hot Chili Pepper being able to sneak through the electrical grid of the entire town and to spy on or assassinate anyone, there is an urge to find the user. Jotaro explains that a certain person able to find him will arrive in Morioh Port at noon and that their protection is a priority since he is old and frail, and his Hermit Purple will be dangerous for the enemy Stand user. Before Koichi and Josuke properly understand who is coming, Okuyasu's motorcycle starts up and Red Hot Chili Pepper appears on it, having heard the whole conversation. Having sneaked into the battery of the motorbike, Red Hot Chili Pepper takes off toward that Port. Okuyasu intervenes, and with The Hand, teleports onto the bike then erases a part of it. The bike crashes and Red Hot Chili Pepper is now trapped away from any energy source, yet Jotaro is still careful about what it will do. Okuyasu, upon being asked if he wants to avenge his brother Keicho, refutes the possibility as he knows that Keicho deserved his murder, but is still considerably enraged at Red Hot Chili Pepper. It clashes The Hand, which manages to overwhelm it as Red Hot Chili Pepper depletes its energy reserves. Now truly powerless and at the mercy of Okuyasu while Jotaro and the rest close in on them, it resorts to psyching up Okuyasu by telling him that he may be faking weakness to attack Jotaro by surprise. Okuyasu makes the mistake of attacking Red Hot Chili Pepper, erasing the ground beneath it at the same time, and revealing an electrical cable which powers the electrical Stand up. Red Hot Chili Pepper's gambit and use of its intimate knowledge of Morioh's electrical grid has paid off, and after cutting Okuyasu's arms drags him into the cable. While Koichi is shocked by Okuyasu's apparent death, Josuke simply uses Crazy Diamond on Okuyasu's arm to drag him back into the field, saving him. While Josuke and Jotaro head to the port, Okuyasu ponders on his mistakes.

In the Speedwagon Foundation boat, Joseph Joestar's imminent arrival is announced.

Commentary
"This episode is here to show how dangerous Chili Pepper can be. It's quite frankly invincible as long as there’s electricity nearby. A part of its electric sparks is drawn by hand, but the rest comes from compositing effects. The animation of the motorcycle took a lot of time, especially if we take into account the various corrections made by the director.

There is a shot where Okuyasu stomps on Chili Pepper with his Stand's foot. We redid it after the voiceover in order to increase the impact of the strikes. The original consisted of only two stomps (*geshi, geshi*), but we retouched it to create a real flurry of blows (*geshigeshigeshigeshi*). We had to do this much in order to match Mr. Takagi’s hell of an acting job. There are times when you should know how to do things excessively.

My favorite part is still the opening scene with Josuke struggling on his console. He’s really into it, but eventually loses to the game. Concretely, the game isn't what matters, it’s the reaction that’s important. With a little more time, we could have worked on the scene more, because it deserves it. (laughs).

Even if it has nothing to do with the story, I especially love how Chili Pepper invades a TV series and just sits peacefully in the background. It’s one of those "only in JoJo" moments."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * In the official English sub and dub, this episode's title is changed to "Chili Pepper, Part 1" to match Red Hot Chili Pepper's name change to "Chili Pepper".