UJ December Annoucement on Stardust Crusaders

Lots of rumors going around about the new Stardust Crusaders anime. There was supposed to be a massive overhaul of the story, a cast change, probably a few other things. UJ December comes and brings us the new news which has been translated by kecchi Tumblr and kewl of the JoJo forums. Directly quoted:

In a CD bundled with the magazine, the staff also indicated that the anime will differ in some aspects from the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle PlayStation 3 video game. The cast for the anime will be announced at the Jump Festa 2014 event on December 21 and 22. The staff of the anime also revealed in the magazine that since the art style changed from Part 1 to Part 2, they want to do the same thing with the change from Part 2 to Part 3. In addition, a compilation of the anime adaptation of Part 1 and Part 2 will air on Japanese television on New Year’s Day.

Director Naokatsu Tsuda and series director Kenichi Suzuki are once again overseeing the anime at David Production. Yasuko Kobayashi is in charge of the series scripts, and Masahiko Komino is designing the characters.

-A focus on action (Stand fights)
-Since Speedwagon won’t be there, who will have the commentator role?
-The main cast for part 3 will be announced at Jump Festa 2014.
-There was a big change in the art style from parts 1-2, so we’d like to do the same this time.
-We’d like to incorporate new elements. (Without damaging the Jojo world-view)
-The fundamental principals are the same
-We’d like to do things in the anime that Araki-sensei couldn’t do in the manga.

The bolding is mine as those are the things I figure are likely to cause the biggest stink. The art style shift, both from the first anime and from ASB, shouldn’t really cause too much surprise. There is precedent for the difference between pre and post Stand days, and you can already see the differences between the anime and ASB cropping up by comparing Jotaro from ASB and Jotaro from the anime site. The voice actors shouldn’t cause too much worry. It doesn’t follow to me to abandon the ASB cast entirely when they’re right there, so I imagine a lot of the new cast announcements are for non-ASB characters like Holly or almost all the enemy stand users.

No, I’m more interested in the “new elements” and ‘things Araki couldn’t do.” Those are fine ideas at face value. JoJo’s has changed a lot over the years, so there’s nothing wrong with bringing some of that influence where it could be used to embellish Part 3. Most conversations I’ve seen comparing the anime to the old OVAs was that a new anime would properly juice the FAB unlike the OVAs, and the fashion element only became stronger as the series progressed. But we don’t want that to eclipse the Part 3 we’re all fond of. And “things Araki couldn’t do” are only really valuable if they were things Araki would have done or would do now if he could. You don’t have to follow what he did to the letter, but you have to stay in the same spirit.

But we should trust davidpro. They really came through for us in the first two Parts, and those had their share of changes too. Plus, Yasuko Kobayashi’s in charge of the scripts, and she’s all right.

Episode 25 “Birth of the Ultimate Lifeform” Teaser Images

There’s my boy. Or can you say that Cars is a boy at this point. I’m still disappointed that the SEX USELESS doesn’t shoot out of his crotch as a sound effect, but seeing it down there in all caps as part of this scene pulled directly from the manga makes me pretty happy.

I’m not doing tons of preview images here because we’re busy with the con, but you can always check out all of them at Yaraon.

Ahem, if I may. FUCKING PIRANHAS! FUCKING PIRANHAS! FUCKING PIRANHAS!

For the honor of all JoJo and also GeJo!

So yeah. That’s all right? Yeah, I’m wondering about the special announcement too. I haven’t seen anything on Yaraon, forums, JoJo Twitter, or the anime official site other than that the Vol. 4 Blu-rays are now up on Amazon and a wild comment on Yaraon mentioning wondering about Part 3. We may have to wait until the subs come out because it’s inline or something that wouldn’t show up in screenshots. Don’t worry. It’ll come.

Episode 25 “Birth of the Ultimate Lifeform” Preview Images and Synopsis

And Cars, who fell to Earth as a nearly invincible superman, has become a truly invincible living god to whom certain human or even pillar men things may now be useless. Joseph employs the Commandeered Nazi Airplane variant on Joestar Ultimate Secret Technique to buy enough time to figure out how to beat the unbeatable. Cars is in hot pursuit. What is Joseph going to do?!

I think the animation is important in this episode. One Director and Storyboarder, Kenichi Suzuki, and one screenwriter, tokusatsu lady Yasuko Kobayashi. The normal amounts for those jobs, but not one, not two, but a whopping five animation directors! Tatsuya Shirashi, Manabu Akita, Shinichi Machida, Kyoko Kotani, and Ryo Kobayashi. Every single one is a previous staff on the show working with animation direction. I guess when it’s Piranha o’Clock, you have to bring in the cavalry.