Trivia / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

• Adaptation First: The OVA adaptation of the part was actually released first in America, its 13 episodes being sold as early as 2003 but the manga proper wouldn't be translated until 2005.
• All-Star Cast: The English dub for the 2014 anime has a veritable who's who of well-known voiceover names. The cast includes Matthew Mercer, Richard Epcar, Patrick Seitz, Kyle Hebert, Doug Erholtz, Derek Stephen Prince, Julie Ann Taylor, Barbara Goodson, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Wendee Lee, Ray Chase, David Vincent, Grant George, Tara Sands, Karen Strassman, Greg Chun, Lauren Landa, Erica Mendez, Carrie Keranen, Cam Clarke, Jessica Gee-George, and Xander Mobus.
• Approval of God: French musician Michel Polnareff is pretty amiable about being the namesake to Jean-Pierre, to the point where he's even tweeted about it with nothing short of incredible pride at the fact.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • Apart from in a fan-made Flash video (and M.U.G.E.N), DIO does not yell "WRYYYYY!" right after dropping the steamroller on Jotaro, not even in the arcade game the video was based on. While he does yell "WRYYYYY!" during the final battle, it's not at this part. It's right afterwards.
  • Via Memetic Mutation, everybody "knows" DIO's phrase is "Toki wo tomare" (Time stands still). Only via reading the original manga (or setting your system's language to Japanese for the PSN/X360 version) or even studying basic Japanese grammar do you find out it's actually supposed to be, "Toki yo tomare"; an imperative (giving a command) phrase — more like, "Time! Stand still!" — rather than an indicative (speaking in reference to something through an objective statement) one.
  • Inverted example: During the famous "Oh, you're approaching me?" scene, most people will just skip over the part where DIO says "Even though your grandfather, Joseph, told the secret of The World, like an exam student scrambling to finish the last problems on an exam until the last moments before the chime?" and go straight to Jotaro's dialogue. Ditto for the dub, where most people will skip the part where DIO says "You're blatantly ignoring your grandfather's wishes, even after he gave his life to tell you about the power of The World. Surely his pathetic pleas warranted a bit of consideration?"
    DIO: Oh, so you still want to fight? It would appear pigheadedness runs in the family.
    Jotaro: I have to move closer if I want to beat your sorry ass to a pulp!
    DIO: Really? Okay then. By all means, come closer.
• Breakthrough Hit: It was Stardust Crusaders that launched both Hirohiko Araki's career and the franchise into the stratosphere.
• Career Resurrection: Alongside Free!, Kakyoin helped Daisuke Hirakawa become more popular with anime fans after he got a lot of heat for voicing the infamous Makoto Itou.
• Colbert Bump:
  • Heritage for the Future was the earliest example of this for the series in the West. It wasn't as widespread as later examples but seeing as how many people outside of Japan hadn't heard of JJBA before the game's international release it did increase interest to say the least.
  • Viz Media attempted this in the mid 2000's by releasing the manga in the United States. Their initial plan was to release the other parts afterwards (though out of order as they were going to release Stone Ocean next) but low sales numbers prevented them from doing so. It wasn't until 2015 when Viz Media would try again but instead chose to start from Phantom Blood but with the JoJonium re-releases.
  • Crunchyroll licensing the anime is what ultimately led to JJBA gaining a large following outside of Japan. There was already a small boost in interest after the 2012 anime and the digital release of Heritage for the Future but this is what ultimately made more people go and check out the 2012 anime and even gain interest in the later parts which would inspire better translations for the manga.
• Creator Backlash: In JOJOVELLER, Araki stated that he really likes Kenny G's musical works, and regrets naming a disposable mook of DIO after him.
• Creator Couple:
  • Terri D'Ambrosio was the audio post-production supervisor for the OVA's English dub and her husband Marco D'Ambrosio wrote the OVA's music.
  • In the actual series' dub, Dorothy Elias-Fahn voices Nena, deaged Jotaro, and the Dealer Boy while her husband Tom voices J. Geil (or Centerfold).
  • Grant George voices Steely Dan (or Dan of Steel) while his wife Jessica Gee-George voices Boingo (or Mondatta).
• Creator's Pest: According to Araki in an interview with Kappa Magazine, Vanilla Ice is his least favorite character, because he grew to regret his character design and found drawing him to be a hassle.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • In Japanese: Misato Fukuen as Iggy, Ikue Otani as Mannish Boy, and Motoko Kumai as Boingo.
  • In English: Tara Sands as Mannish Boy, Jessica Gee-George as Boingo, Erica Mendez as young Polnareff, and Dorothy Elias-Fahn as young Jotaro.
• Directed by Cast Member: Besides directing the OVA's English dub, Elaine Clark voiced some one-shot roles.
• Fake Nationality: The anime's English dub averts this by not giving any of the characters accents. They weren't included in the test dub and a clip from the official dub confirmed that neither Joseph nor DIO would be retaining their accents from the Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency dubs. According to Richard Epcar, Bang Zoom had decided to drop the accents to put more ease on the actors.
• Fan Translation: One exists for the SNES RPG, which was never officially released in the West.
• God Never Said That:
  • It's a common misconception that Avdol's death was at one point meant to be permanent, and that Araki changed his mind because of his popularity at the time. However, according to an interview with Araki from the Jojonium release, Avdol was always intended to return (and was never very popular in any polls).
  • It's also a popular urban legend that The World was meant to have the powers of every Tarot-based Stand, but was scrapped because it was too overpowered to feasibly beat. While it provides an explanation for Jotaro learning how to stop time^Spoilers The World's seemingly unique time-stopping powers would have originated from Jotaro himself, and The World's would-be status as an All Your Powers Combined Stand provides the perfect way for Jotaro to discover that he can stop time—after all, that power would have to had come from someone, as well as DIO using a Hermit Purple-like Stand early in the Part,^note later retconned to be Jonathan Joestar's unnamed, posthumous Stand that DIO is using for himself Araki has not yet confirmed or denied this in any known sources.
• International Coproduction: The Stardust Crusaders OVA was produced at A.P.P.P. and The Klockworx in Japan, while the music was recorded at MarcoCo. Studios in San Francisco and the sound design was done at Skywalker Sound in Nicasio.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: In both the United States and Japan, the original OVA is no longer available on home video. After Egyptian Islamic fundamentalists complained about a scene of DIO reading the Qur'an in the OVA, the original home video release went out of print, leaving the OVA unlicensed in Japan. In the United States, the OVA's original licensor (Super Techno Arts) is no longer in business and seeing as how the OVA is without a distributor in Japan, it is unlikely that an American company like Crunchyroll or Viz Media can ever license rescue the OVAs.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Stardust Crusaders (as well as the Jojo franchise as a whole) actually made its debut first in America via the Capcom fighting game for the Dreamcast and Playstation back in 1999. At the time, only a minority really knew that the series was based on a manga as manga wasn't a main commodity in America by then. The OVA release in 2003 did help a little but was such a limited release that the series wouldn't gain much notoriety despite Viz releasing Part 3 in paperback format back in 2006. It wasn't until the release of the proper anime adaptation in 2012 and Part 3's adaption in 2014 that it would finally be more well known.
• No Export for You: The SNES RPG was never given an international release.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Jotaro Kujo was voiced by Jurota Kosugi in the OVA, Kiyoyuki Yanada in the Capcom game, Tetsu Inada in the Vento Aureo game, and Daisuke Ono in All-Star Battle & the anime. In the English versions he was voiced by Abie Hadjikarthani in the OVA and Matthew Mercer in the anime.
  • Old Joseph Joestar was voiced by the late Chikao Ohtsuka in the OVA, Tōru Ōkawa ^note who also plays the narrator in the anime adaptation in the Capcom game, Tomokazu Sugita in the preview at the end of Battle Tendency and in All-Star Battle, and Unshō Ishizuka in the anime. In the English versions he was voiced by Michael Bennett in the OVA and Richard Epcar in both the 2012 anime^note  in the epilogue of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency and Stardust Crusaders anime itself.
  • Mohammed Avdol was voiced by Kiyoshi Kobayashi in the OVA, Hisao Egawa in the Capcom game, Masashi Ebara in All-Star Battle, and Kenta Miyake in the anime. In the English versions he was voiced by J.S. Gilbert in the OVA and Chris Tergliafera in the anime.
  • Noriaki Kakyoin was voiced by Hirotaka Suzuoki in the OVA, Mitsuaki Madono in the Capcom game, Koji Yusa in All-Star Battle, and Daisuke Hirakawa in the anime. In the English versions he was voiced by Doug Boyd in the OVA and Kyle Hebert in the anime.
  • Jean Pierre Polnareff was voiced by Katsuji Mori in the OVA, Tsutomu Tareki in the Capcom game, Akira Nageshi in the Vento Aureo game, Hiroaki Hirata in All-Star Battle, and Fuminori Komatsu in the anime.
  • Iggy was voiced by Shigeru Chiba in All-Star Battle, and Misato Fukuen in the anime. In the English version of the anime he was voiced by Derek Stephen Prince.
  • DIO was voiced by Nobuo Tanaka in the OVA, Isshin Chiba in the Capcom game, and Takehito Koyasu in the anime as far as his Stardust Crusaders counterparts go. In the English versions he was voiced by Andrew Chaikin in the OVA and Patrick Seitz in the anime.
  • Hol Horse was voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the OVA, Yoshito Yasuhara in the Capcom game, Hōchū Ōtsuka in All-Star Battle, and Hidenobu Kiuchi in the anime. In the English versions he was voiced by Roger L. Jackson in the OVA and Imari Williams in the anime.
  • Vanilla Ice was voiced by Takeshi Aono in the OVA, Hiroyuki Yoshino in All-Star Battle, Yuji Kishi in JoJo's Venture, and Sho Hayami in the Heritage for the Future update (replacing Kishi) and anime^note making Hayami the only actor to reprise his role from the Capcom game in future JoJo media.
• The Other Marty: Patrick Seitz originally provided Star Platinum's "ORA ORA ORA" in a test dub of the anime before Matt Mercer took over for the official dub.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Misato Fukuen is well-known for playing little girls of varying personalities, with her roles as male characters being a little less known. As such, her casting as Iggy of all characters may be surprising to many, especially since Fukuen uses a rougher, deeper voice of what one would expect from her.
  • Doug Erholtz is usually versatile, but he has a reputation of voicing underhanded characters with hidden agenda that will spell doom to the protagonists, more pronounced when he once became the voice of Hazama. Polnareff is one of the straightest, non-underhanded characters (and without any overly complicated hidden agenda) Erholtz has voiced.
• Promoted Fanboy: Both of Jotaro's voice actors in the TV anime were long time fans of the franchise, now voicing one of the titular characters in the series.
• Real-Life Relative: In addition to being married to Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Tom Fahn’s real life brother Jonathan voices Wilson Philips.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • The reason why Stardust Crusaders begins in Japan is due to the fact that Araki's initial vision for Stardust Crusaders was rejected by Shonen Jump for being too removed from Japanese culture. In fact, the Running Gag of Joseph complaining about Japan may be a reference to Araki having to change the nature of his story.
  • In regards as to why DIO's base is located in Egypt, a little before Stardust Crusaders began syndication, Araki had gone on vacation to Egypt, and he felt as though a number of the locals gave off intimidating auras. This, plus his keen observations of the country's architecture and culture, allowed him to put his newfound knowledge into script, with the inclusion of Avdol being his first act of honoring the country.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The first half of the anime adaptation for this part uses "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles for its ending theme. The second half instead uses Pat Metheny Group's "Last Train Home".
• Role Reprise:
  • Sho Hayami returning as Vanilla Ice in the anime is the only time a voice actor who voiced a character in a past installment of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure returned to voice a character in the David Production anime, having previously voiced the character in the Capcom fighting game.
  • For the TV anime only Daisuke Ono and Jun'ichi Suwabe returned to voice their roles as Jotaro and Terrence D'Arby respectively from All-Star Battle.
  • Hiroaki Tominaga and CODA, the vocalists of the two OPs before it, return as back up singers for "End of the World".
• Saved from Development Hell: The road to the release of the English dub was a rather long one to say the least. While the first three episodes were available dubbed on Crunchyroll shortly in the summer of 2014, it was only a test with no follow-up announced afterward. There was also the matter of the 2012 anime covering Parts 1 & 2 which hadn't been dubbed at that point. Initially it was thought that a full English dub would be released by Warner Brothers after the DVD release of the 2012 anime in 2015 with Tweets by Richard Epcar in early 2016 as well as a dub clip shown at Anime EXPO 2016 suggesting this. Then came the announcement that Viz Media would now be handling the home video releases for the franchise followed by the announcement of a Toonami airing for the 2012 anime that would run from October 2016 through April 2017. Supposedly this pushed the dub's release date even further as at Anime Boston 2017, Viz Media announced that the Stardust Crusaders dub was in production but was still in the early stages. Made worse was that while many were expecting the dub to air on Toonami after the 2012 anime wrapped up that wasn't the case as instead Toonami would air the second season of Attack on Titan in its place. Has finally come to an end however as at Anime EXPO 2017 it was announced that the dub for Stardust Crusaders would begin airing on Toonami on July 29, 2017.
• Star-Making Role: Kenta Miyake despite having been in the voice acting industry for many years mostly voiced supporting or minor roles in anime. However many new anime fans have come to associate him with Avdol and after voicing him Miyake would get more important anime roles.
• Trolling Creator: Araki jokingly attempted this with the Sun arc. His intention was to make Arabia Fats and his Stand come off as so powerful that readers would be mislead into thinking it would last for several weeks. In reality Arabia Fats and his Stand are outsmarted fairly easily and have one of the shortest arcs in this part. Averted with the anime where the episode previews outright reveal the fact that it's a one-parter.
• Voiced Differently in the Dub: In the Latin Spanish dub, some of the Crusaders' voices are rather different. Jotaro (Irwin Daayán) sounds closer to his age, no longer having a deep voice. Avdol sounds younger as well, being voiced by Alan Bravo. Kakyoin (Héctor Emmanuel Gómez), who could've sounded closer to Daisuke Hirakawa's voice, instead was given a more gravelly one like that of Humberto Solórzano (likely intended to mimic Kyle Hebert's). And DIO (Marc Winslow) also received the same treatment as Avdol.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Araki had initially wanted Stardust Crusaders to be a modern day retelling of Dracula. However his editors at Shonen Jump felt the series had become too far removed from Japanese culture, with only one of them thinking it was a good idea.
  • Interviews with Araki suggest that the original vision for Part 3 would have not had Stands as a concept, but because of Shonen Jump's interference with Lisa Lisa, he came to a conclusion that relying less on raw physical fights would allow him to get away with more creative designs and roles, leading him to creating Stands.
  • Hol Horse was originally going to join the protagonists after Avdol's death. However, Araki came to feel that he was too similar to Polnareff in appearance and personality, and Kakyoin in ability. For these reasons, among others, Hol Horse remained an antagonist.
  • Araki had initially intended for the franchise to only be a trilogy with Stardust Crusaders being the finale. However due to this part being more popular than he expected Araki chose to continue onward.
  • N'Doul was planned to be included as a playable character in the Capcom game but never made it into the final product. Several years later, however, he would be included as a playable character in Eyes of Heaven.
  • After the English dub clip was shown at Anime EXPO 2016, one thing fans noticed was that Joseph lacked his accent from the Part 2 dub. Richard Epcar confirmed that the studio thought of using accents but dropped the idea to make things easier for the voice actors.
  • Originally Araki planned for the Runaway Girl to join the heroes as a long-term ally and proper combatant, but was forced to write her out due to sexist Executive Meddling being opposed to letting a girl fight, similar to the situation with Lisa Lisa in Battle Tendency.
    Araki: Shonen Jump readers stopped caring if we used female characters [in Stone Ocean]. Before, they would have outright rejected them and if a character got rejected, the series was basically over. That type of thing was still prevalent in 1980s Japan, but now Shonen manga is starting to reflect the current social climate and how we view gender. In Part 3, I really wanted to include a girl. And I did for a bit... [...] At the time, I really liked the idea of having a girl around, but it simply wasn't meant to be. With the long and difficult journey ahead of them, I had to change it back to being all men. [...] I could have let her develop [a Stand]. That's not really a problem at this point. Even the smallest person can have a powerful Stand.

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