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
At the exit of the tunnel, D'Arby's car is still ahead of Kakyoin's car and the butler declares his victory. Determined to win, Kakyoin exploits the fact that D'Arby has now less energy on his car to spin and make it fly out off the tracks while he lands safely. Kakyoin has accomplished his plan, but D'Arby was prepared: he purposefully let himself get knocked aside to gain an insurmountable advantage for the race. At the revelation, Kakyoin subconsciously recognizes defeat and Atum steals his soul. D'Arby adds Kakyoin to his collection and explains that should he die, Kakyoin will die for good, forcing Jotaro and Joseph to keep playing.

As Joseph is highly unfamiliar with video games, Jotaro tells his grandfather to stay out of the challenge and comes forth to challenge D'Arby to another video game. Satisfied, D'Arby lifts his grab on Jotaro's soul as he expects needing both of Atum's arms to best him. Jotaro chooses a video game at random,, a baseball video game which happens to be the one D'Arby is the best at. After both players choose their teams, the game begins. Jotaro's team is the first to bat. Jotaro is revealed to be completely new at video games himself and loses his two first batters to get familiar with the mechanics. However, at the third strike of the third batter, Jotaro announces that he's mastered the game now. To D'Arby's surprise, Jotaro's batter performs a successful home run. However, D'Arby is only all the more stimulated at the challenge. Jotaro completes home runs after home runs and eventually gets a comfortable 4 point lead, to the point Joseph feels comfortable enough to taunt D'Arby. However, D'Arby then reaffirms his superior talent, comparing himself favorably to his brother whom he's always beaten despite being 10 years younger. D'Arby changes his pitcher and openly announces that his next pitch is a forkball straight down the middle. The throw ends up being a slightly different one, causing the ball to be caught directly by D'Arby's players and Jotaro to lose his batter. At first, it seems D'Arby is playing mind games but Jotaro points out that something else is amiss, just like when D'Arby guessed Star Platinum's next attack. It is now D'Arby's turn to bat and Joseph confirms again that the game is not rigged. When Jotaro tries to hit the batter itself yet he bends backward and hits a home run, Jotaro is now sure that Atum is helping D'Arby cheat by reading minds. As D'Arby declares another home run, the butler asks Jotaro what kind of throw it will be; as he keeps predicting Jotaro's next move, it seems impossible to beat him. But Jotaro then puts down his hat, making D'Arby sigh in disappoint at such a cheap attempt to hide his moves. Joseph points out that nothing Jotaro can do will help hide his next move from D'Arby, but the student simply explains that he's sweating. In turn, Jotaro decides to declare his next pitch: straight, high to the outside.

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