Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26873003-20150815171419/@comment-40261920-20200307073117

I am a huge DiU fanboy, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I'm not going to go as far as to say that part 4 has the best fights in the series, but when compared to the parts that come before it, it definitely has the best quality fights. The reason for that is because Araki was still figuring out stands for a while, and we see near the end of Stardust that he was starting to figure out how to write really good stand battles, but he really nails the general formula by the time that DiU starts, making all of the part 4 fights pretty damn good.

What really makes me love part 4 the most is the characters and the setting. The characters are all really well written, and each of them is memorable in their own right. The main crew are all so much fun to watch, and they have much more believable chemistry than the Crusaders did (a fact that I will go into more detail about later). As for the minor characters, all of them has a memorable personality, and all but one of them leave a lasting impact on the plot. Even the worst minor characters in this part like Hazamada end up having an important and irreplacable impact on the plot. Having all of these defeated minor villains really fills out the town and makes it feel like a real place.

Which leads me into the setting. Morioh is so much fun to read about, and the landmarks really give off a sort of small town tourist attraction feeling. All of the bizarre, minior characters feed into the paranormal nature of Morioh, the idea that weirdos like people who may or may not be aliens and invisible babies and girls with magical hair are just lurking about, which is part of the reason why its okay that some mysteries like Mikitaka or Shizuka are left unsolved, it contributes to the setting. Many people complain about how long it takes to get to the hunt for Kira, but all of that stuff at the begining is setting up the town of Morioh. The stakes of the part revolve around the peace and security of this small town, and the begining part makes you care about the safety of Morioh. Beyond all of that, having this part take place in a static location really helps to make character dynamics. In part 3, the characters were always on the move, which is normally fine, but combine that with that fact that they literally never talk about anything that isn't related directly to their mission, and it makes it hard to feel like the Crusaders knew anything about eachother, or had any semblance of a friendship together. But by having DiU in a static location, suddenly it becomes more reasonable that bonding between characters happens in the downtime between chapters, and the group dynamics become so much more beliveable.