Tower of Gray (Episode)

Tower of Gray is the fourth episode of Stardust Crusaders and the thirtieth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers the second half of Chapter 122 through Chapter 124 of the manga.

Summary
As DIO drains the life essence of a young woman, he is informed by one of his subordinates, an old hag by the name of Enya, that the Joestar group was on their way, but reassures him that one of their assassins was already in position. Back on the plane, the group discovers a large stag beetle flying about, which Avdol recognizes as the Tower of Gray, a Stand known for causing numerous mass murders and disasters in the past. Jotaro engages the Stand first, but is overwhelmed by its incredible speed. The user of the Stand taunts the group by ripping out the tongues of several passengers in a row and uses it to write "massacre" on the plane wall.

Kakyoin decides to take on the Stand himself, claiming that it was the most logical choice given the destructive power of both Avdol and Jotaro's Stands. The battle begins with Kakyoin releasing a healthy barrage of Emerald Splash, though these too were easily dodged by the Tower of Gray. The enemy Stand manages to strike Hierophant Green just before Kakyoin reveals the previous attacks were a diversion as several of Hierophant's tentacles sprout forth from the plane seats and impale Tower of Gray from all sides. With the Stand mutilated, the user of the Stand, Gray Fly, is revealed to be an old man Kakyoin had knocked out earlier. Upon further inspection, the group discovers the old man was not under DIO's control and was inherently evil. Joseph then realizes that the plane appeared to be tilting and so the group heads towards the cockpit.

At the cockpit, they find all of the pilots murdered and the plane was descending at an alarming rate. Gray Fly briefly appears again to warn the group that even if they survive the crash, they would not make it in time. At this point, Gray Fly falls backward and dies, while Joseph tries to land the plane. (Despite having crashed at least two planes previously.)

The plane lands off the coast of Hong Kong, where the group decides on an alternative route to reach Egypt. At a nearby restaurant, Joseph and Avdol decide that the safest route to Egypt would be by boat. They are then interrupted by a French tourist who asks them for help reading the menu. Joseph decides to let the man join them as he orders the wrong food. The French man reveals himself to be another assassin sent by DIO and is immediately attacked by Avdol's Magician's Red. The French swordsman summons a Stand of his own, by the name of Silver Chariot, and deflects the attack at a turned over table. The flames hit the table and turn into a clock, at which point the Silver Chariot's user claims he would defeat Avdol before the clock strikes twelve.

Commentary
"We find ourselves inside a plane in the middle of the night, so the episode is in general somewhat dark, for sure (laughs).

The layout of the aircraft cabin was made though 3D, but goes well with the rest of the characters. Because the place was cramped with very complex angles, to do everything by hand would likely result in composition errors.

Here is the first true Stand attack. Tower of Gray is a rather weak Stand for a first battle, but it's perfectly repulsive, with the second mouth jaw coming out of its mouth.

Kakyoin enters the scene to "properly and calmly deal with it". His strategy is rather interesting: shooting Emerald Splashes everywhere (laughs).

Kenichi Suzuki, the series' director, took care to portray Hong Kong in the second half of the episode as true to life as possible. Drawing the food ate up a lot of time, but the essential was to be able to look at the table and think that the food looked delicious. This is also the beginning of the "cultural" scenes accompanying every step of the journey.

At the end, we get Polnareff's first appearance. His Stand springing out of the bowl was a brilliant idea, hats off to Mr. Araki. The fire clock drawn by Silver Chariot is also beautiful."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries