9/14/18, Stardust Crusaders Volume 1 Book Talk

	This week I read Hirohiko Araki’s first volume of Stardust Crusaders. Jotaro and his grandfather Joseph are destined to travel to Egypt from Japan, because their vampiric ancestor Dio is putting their family’s life in danger. The characters fight using “Stands” A stand is a entity generated by the "stand user", which represents their fighting spirit and usually hovers next to them, and possesses abilities beyond a normal human which can be used by good or evil. Only other stand users can see stands, named after Tarot Cards. Stardust Crusaders focuses around stand fights between characters. The part of the story I liked the most was the stand fight between the main character, Jotaro Kujo, and the first enemy he meets in his school, Noriaki Kakoyin. Kakoyin, who is aimed on killing Jotaro, fights him at his school, since Kakoyin is a follower of Dio. During the fight, between Jotaro and Kakoyin, they show each of their beliefs on what makes someone evil. After surviving Kakoyin’s attempted murder inside the school’s nurses office, where he takes a nurse hostage, Jotaro exclaims “Evil means to use the weak for your own gain… and then stomp on them when it’s over! And that’s what you’ve done! To a woman, a doctor even! And your stand gets to hide from the victim.. The law.. The consequences!” Kakoyin responds with “Such a quaint notation, but dead wrong. The side which survives is good- and how they do it is beyond the point. The loser is the evil one.” These two seperate beliefs also reflect in their Stands, with Jotaro’s stand “Star Platinum”, being represented as a tall well-built man of similar proportions to Jotaro, who has incredible strength and punching speed with extreme precision. This represents Jotaro’s belief in finding true justice, and judging those who are evil through violent ways. Kakoyin’s stand, “Hierophant Green”, is represented by a snake-like elastic stand, that possesses and takes people hostage, while also attacking while hiding away. This also mirrors Kakoyin’s belief that he will do anything to win, no matter what each side’s morals are, because only the ends justify what is right and wrong. At the end of the fight, Jotaro defeats Kakoyin by catching him off-guard and pulling his stand out into the open, and then defeats it. This end of the fight also shows Jotaro’s belief in judging people with justice, and punishment Kakoyin for believing in evil and acting from those thoughts.