Youth with Dio (Episode)

"JoJo, hubris has led me to this end. This fall from grace has taught me a valuable lesson. However one may scheme or assemble, my downfall tonight is part of the human condition...A condition that I now forsake."

- Dio, before attempting to kill Jonathan while using the Stone Mask on himself

Youth with Dio (ディオとの青春) is the third episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It is also the third episode of Phantom Blood. It covers Chapter 11 through Chapter 16 of the manga.

Summary
Jonathan reveals he has already found the antidote to the poison and has given it to his father. He apologizes for having to hand Dio over to the police. To Jonathan's astonishment, Dio pleads that he be given more time before being arrested and claims that the actions he had committed had been due to being born as a poor man. Dio tries to prove his remorse by explaining that he went back to the mansion to surrender, when he could have easily run away before then.

From the shadows, Speedwagon appears and warns Jonathan not to trust Dio. Having been living in the slums all his life and having met many villains, Speedwagon could easily tell a bad person from a good person just by their smell. He argues that Dio's upbringing was not why he was a villain, but rather, he had been evil since birth. With that said, Speedwagon pulls from behind a curtain the man who had sold Dio the oriental poison, Wang Chan. The same curtain swings open revealing George, as well as several police officers. George is saddened at Dio's betrayal and walks back to his room not wanting to watch his son go to jail.

Wang Chan says that Dio won't be caught. As a fortune-teller he can tell that by Dio's face that he was gifted with good luck.

Dio begs for Jonathan to handcuff him, and when the latter is about to do so, Dio explains how his life as a human has been a failure. Suddenly, Dio pulls from his robe the Stone Mask and wields it in the air, exclaiming that he rejects his humanity. He then pulls out a knife and attempts to stab Jonathan, but hits George instead who jumped in to protect his son. Dio dons the mask and wipes the blood from George onto it. The mask glows red and he begins to laugh as the tentacles impale the sides of his head. The police immediately begin shooting at him, causing Dio to fly out the window where he lie presumably dead on the ground.

While dying in Jonathan's arms, George gives Jonathan the ring on his finger, which apparently belonged to his dead mother. The 🇺🇳 becomes alarmed by the ring's presence and begins to insult himself for something he did a long time ago. Back when he first became a policeman, a man was arrested who was trying to sell that very ring. That man was none other than Dario Brando, who had taken then ring from George during the carriage accident. George had been brought forth to the jail cell where Dario was and upon realizing who it was, George tells the policemen that he actually gave the ring to him. The policeman is confused why George would lie about this, but he explains that if had been born into poverty he would have done the same thing.

The flashback ends and George tells JoJo not to have a grudge against Dio, despite all he had done. He claims that his strictness may have been the cause to Dio's scorn and asked that Dio be buried with his father. Just before he dies he says that it is not bad for one to die in the arms of his son.

Speedwagon looks backs at the place where Dio lay dead, only to find that his body is gone. He tells the police to begin searching, but suddenly the head policeman's head is completely lobbed off by Dio, who had been hiding outside, above the window by clinging to the wall.

Dio had turned into a vampire, and begins killing all the policemen. He jumps into the air and grabs one of the police men's head and begins sucking the blood from his body while clinging to the ceiling using his vampire ability. He throws the corpse at the rest of the guards who are completely torn apart from the impact. A flying body part flies into Speedwagon, fatally injuring him in the process.

Jonathan grabs a massive spear from a nearby suit of armor and attempts to stab Dio. Dio takes the spear head on, and lets it impale through his hand. He bends the spear with supernatural strength and causes the sharp end of it to impale into Jonathan's right shoulder. Dio lands elegantly onto the ground, only to realize both Jonathan and Speedwagon have disappeared. He is able to find them behind a curtain via the smell of their blood. However, when he pulls open the curtain, it instantly lights on fire due to a lantern Jonathan found. The fire begins to spread and the entire house is engulfed in flames. Dio appears to be unharmed from the fire. Jonathan pushes Speedwagon out of the way first, before blocking a desk thrown by Dio, using a sword. He stabs the sword into the ground and then jumps off the hilt, so as to be able to grab the ledge of the second floor. He tells Dio to follow him to lure him away from Speedwagon; Dio obliges by walking up the wall.

On the roof, Jonathan blocks a kick from Dio, and then tackles him. The two go spiraling down the flaming house, but Dio manages to stab the wall and stops falling. Jonathan finds the same spear head from earlier and stabs it into the wall. He's able to grab it, flip onto it, and launch himself towards Dio. He uses his belt to grab Dio's leg and pulls him downward. The two begin to fall to the house's burning first floor again, and this time Jonathan grabs Dio's knife and stabs him with it. Dio retaliates by breaking both of Jonathan's arms. With the last of his strength, Jonathan holds onto Dio and pushes against the wall with his foot, causing their trajectory to change. This forces Dio to land on the pointed end of the Statue of Venus where he is unable to move, and thus burns to nothing with the house. Jonathan is blasted out of the house and is tended to by Speedwagon whom claims that he won.

After the fires had died the next day, the man who sold Dio the poison is seen rummaging through the debris. He finds the Stone Mask and attempts to pick it up, only to be stopped and drained of his life by Dio, who apparently had survived the fire.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * In the manga, Dario was lying on a bed in his jail cell. The inspector also talks a bit more in the manga like how he joined with the police recently, that it happened in Scotland, and that it happened 20 years ago.
 * When Jonathan is holding onto Dio during the falling scene, Dio breaks Jonathan's ribs by crushing them in between his knees. In the anime, he simply knees him in the stomach.
 * In the anime, Dio does not mention his worry that if he falls to the first floor with his burns not fully healed, his immortality might not be able to keep up.

Commentary
"Episode 3 is on fire, in every sense of of the term (laughs). Just like the first episode, we had to modify the storyboard several times and cut some scenes. It's also this episode that introduces the sight of mangled corpses, in scenes with several characters at that, which further complicates our work.

In this episode, Dio uses the Stone Mask to transform into a Vampire, but the animation in the first part is rather slow. It's in the second part that the action truly starts. I particularly love the expressions Dio gives, as well as Jonathan's father and his appearance of a majestic gentleman.

The plot is not to be outdone, everything is very cool. Speedwagon is overreacting, as it should be. I hope that you enjoy how a freshly vampirized Dio's famous "URYYYYY !!" was rendered. We separated the last two scenes by including the ending credits which was absent in the TV version, for a striking lengthening effect."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries