Dio's World, Part 3 (Episode)

DIO's World, Part 3 (DIOの世界 その3) is the forty-seventh episode of Stardust Crusaders, the twenty-third episode of the Egypt Arc, and the seventy-third episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers the second half of Chapter 256 through the first page of Chapter 262 of the manga.

Summary
The clash between Jotaro Kujo and DIO continues. As The World and Star Platinum exchange blows, their Users begin to emit so much power that they start to float. The World eventually beats Star Platinum; a satisfied thus proceeds to stop time to try and finish Jotaro. However, when Jotaro's finger briefly twitches in the stopped time, DIO is taken by surprise and begins to suspect that Star Platinum could have the same ability. Time resumes, and DIO asks Jotaro if he's seen him, but Jotaro plays dumb. The Vampire recalls the day he discovered his timestop ability and his belief in his supremacy. Stopping time again, DIO then discovers a small magnet that Jotaro had slipped on his bracelets. Believing it to be a simple trick, DIO rushes to kill Jotaro, but Star Platinum then moves for a split second, impaling The World in the gut. DIO is send flying into a shop but regenerates with the blood of a nearby vendor. DIO halts the battle and wonders how much Jotaro can accomplish in the stopped time. Jotaro tries to hide the fact that he can only briefly move, but then DIO devises a plan to make this irrelevant as he shows his hands full of knives. Worried, Jotaro tries to jump to safety but DIO stops time while he's in mid-air. With no way to escape, Jotaro sees DIO throwing dozens of knives from all directions and Star Platinum can only deflects some of them. When time resumes, Star Platinum does its best to punch all the knives but a few still land on Jotaro. For good measure, The World throws a last knife into Jotaro's hat, seemingly killing him as the srudent falls into the street.

Jotaro crashes into the concrete but is still alive, the books he's stuffed into his clothes and hat having stopped the knives from reaching too far in his body. He decides to play dead as DIO approaches, and the Vampire too is aware of the resilience of the Joestar. Breaking a road sign and wielding it like a halberd, DIO leaps to execute Jotaro but Polnareff then intervenes to stab DIO in the head with Silver Chariot's sword.

DIO stops time and easily swathes Polnareff aside. However, DIO now approaches the Frenchman, forcing Joseph to diverts his attention to himself to save Polnareff. He willingly twitches his finger to catch the Vampire's attention. Suspicious, DIO shoots in Jotaro's corpse and then tries to listen for any breathing or even heartbeat; Jotaro must stop his heartbeat and almost dies as a result. Thankfully, DIO drops his guard and closes in to kill Jotaro, allowing Star Platinum to restart Jotaro's heart and then attack DIO. The punch is so swift DIO has no time to activate the timestop and his head is bashed in. Now heavily injured, DIO tries to crawl to safety but Jotaro catches up and plans to burn him with some oil. A taxi passes nearby, allowing DIO to get dragged behind it but then Jotaro makes it crash with one of the knives stuck on him. DIO then crawls into a sewer but Jotaro is already under the cover. DIO is then pummelled away by Star Platinum. However, DIO has outsmarted Jotaro: he's manipulated Jotaro into sending him back near JOseph's corpse, and the old man's blood allows him to not only fully recover, but also completely synch his body with that of Jonathan Joestar.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * Some lines from the narrator and DIO in the manga are not in this episode.
 * In the manga, the man who fires the shotgun only shows his two hands. In the anime, that man is Nukesaku.

Commentary
"In this episode, time stops during the opening itself. At Kamikaze Douga, which is the studio in charge of the animation, it was something that Junpei Mizusaki wanted to direct ever since the beginning of the Egypt Arc.

The confrontation between Jotaro and DIO is full of power. The animation is striking in the power it conveys, and the casting was just as good, they were both remarkable.

Mr. Mimuro, our key animator, had bought a model of a human heart to use as reference for the scene where Jotaro manually stops his own heart. To this day, this model stands on my desk. (laughs).

The second part of the episode is dedicated to Jotaro's furious counter-attack against DIO. But at the very end, a sudden twist reverses the situation, next stop: the last episode for the conclusion...

This episode being dedicated to the fight, it was surely one of the heaviest episodes in terms of production. It is full of action scenes which will be impossible to reuse. The number of shots is also well above the average of the season. I want to deeply thank the whole team for having held the line despite this considerable work."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * This episode has a different ending to the opening credits. Rather than Star Platinum punching the screen, The World punches it instead - stopping time. A fully revealed DIO then walks past Jotaro and unfreezes time. As Jotaro turns, The World and Star Platinum begin their attack rushes as both of their users look on.
 * In addition, the English dubbed version removes Dio's The World! shouting in the intro.
 * Footage of the first season of the anime is shown as flashbacks.