Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable vol. 2

The Stephen King vibes are still strong with this second volume as more Stand users show up around the small town of Morioh — all of them with (initially) malicious plans in mind for our protagonists.  Take small-time crook Tamami who tries to wrangle Koichi into giving him 500,000 yen after the little squirt runs over his cat. If Koichi won’t hand it over willingly, Tamami’s got his own guilt-based Stand to make it  happen himself. Later on, Josuke and Koichi get word that a certain kid in their school is a Stand user. When Josuke breaks into his locker to find out for sure, the only thing that’s really out of place is a giant wooden puppet… which immediately starts to turn into him.  Then the longest story in this volume turns the focus back to Koichi as he’s apparently found his first girlfriend! She’s cute, caring, knows how to cook, and is determined not to let anyone else come between her and her new boyfriend. Unfortunately for Koichi, the power of her Stand may be just enough to make that happen.

If there’s any problem with this volume, it’s that there’s a large amount of wheel-spinning with regards to the main plot.  The bow that turns people into Stand users is still out there, but we only get a couple of nods towards dealing with the person who has it.  At least the stories here are entertaining enough to distract from that issue. Though the majority of this volume focuses on Koichi, that turns out to not be a bad thing as we see that he’s more than the diminutive sidekick he came off as in the first volume.  Not only is he resourceful enough to be a proper co-lead in a “Jojo’s” series, his Stand winds up being one of the more unique ones we’ve seen in the series to date. Even if the main story doesn’t really go anywhere here, Koichi’s star turn combined with the expected cleverness our protagonists display in dealing with the threats against them make this volume another thoroughly enjoyable read.