D'Arby the Player, Part 2 (Episode)

D'Arby the Player, Part 2 (ダービー·ザ·プレイヤー その2) is the forty-first episode of Stardust Crusaders, the seventeenth episode of the Egypt Arc, and the sixty-seventh episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers the last few pages of Chapter 232 through half of Chapter 236 of the manga.

Summary
Kakyoin uses his higher power level to knock D'Arby off the course, but this turns out to be D'Arby's plan, who uses the push to land further ahead on the course, resulting in Kakyoin losing the match and having his soul trapped in one of D'Arby's dolls. D'Arby also warns if he were to die like slip on a banana peel and fracture his skull, choke to death on gum, or suffer a heart attack from the shock of a popcorn bag opening, Kakyoin's soul follows him to the afterworld.

Jotaro steps up to face against D'Arby in a baseball video game, wagering his soul against Kakyoin's, despite having never played a video game in his life. Although Jotaro gets two of his batters knocked out at the start, he soon figures out the controls by his third batter and scores four home runs, though D'Arby uses a change of pitcher to catch Jotaro's third batter out. As D'Arby goes on the offensive, managing to predict Jotaro's moves after declaring his bats and scoring three home runs, Joseph assumes that D'Arby has the power to read people's minds, though Jotaro decides to face D'Arby at his own game by declaring his next pitch.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * Three scenes where Telence hits his elder brother were added.

Commentary
"Episode 41 begins with the end of the car race. Kakyoin loses rapidly and gets his soul stolen as soon as he admits defeat. It is Jotaro's turn, who chooses to fight with a base-ball game. The ball throwing shots were realized by the action animation director, Fumiaki Kota, who had notably made research by observing real games. Let's add that one of the animators for this episode, Hirotaka Ito, is a genuine base-ball fan. He's made all sorts of verifications. I think it made for a rather dynamic result onscreen... That said, there are only home-runs and you can find the match a little bland on the sports side.

Again, Jotaro shows really impressive bluffing skills. Thinking about it, I even feel that he only wins his battles through bluffs (laughs). Of course he has his physical strength, but he also has nerves of steel, and thus all the qualities of a great protagonist.

Finally, the games with Telence do not last two but three episodes. Like in the manga, everyone has their little tactics we must develop one at a time, and everything takes up more screen time than we imagined. I think only a few of us had thought we would use three episodes for the video game part."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries