The moment Jotaro's Star Platinum stat sheet appeared on screen, viewers both at home and overseas reacted the exact same way: hands on their heads, eyes wide, expressions frozen somewhere between disbelief and outrage.
It wasn't hard to understand why.
The numbers for Magician's Red, Hermit Purple, and Hierophant Green had already been shown before. With those as a reference, the sheer absurdity of Star Platinum's panel became impossible to ignore. Out of six categories, five were ranked A. Five. It was so excessive that it practically crossed the line from "strong" into "this has to be a joke."
For a second, everyone could only stare.
Then the complaints exploded.
Back when Joseph's Hermit Purple had been introduced, that pitiful little panel with only a single A had already looked a bit tragic. Now, placed beside Jotaro's monstrous spread, it looked downright miserable. Mark, who had once played the younger Joseph and was currently following the series with a few fellow actors, nearly felt tears rise to his eyes.
The treatment gap was just too ridiculous.
"This bastard really does love buffing the characters he plays," one actress muttered under her breath, unable to stop herself.
A lot of people online liked to say that the roles Alex chose were always the kind women fell for on sight. But that wasn't really the core of it. There had been exceptions before - characters who pined, characters who chased, characters who were anything but invincible in romance. If there was one trait all of Alex's roles truly shared, it was something else entirely.
Style.
No, more than style - presence.
Every one of them carried the kind of overwhelming aura that made them impossible to ignore. The kind of men who could stand still and still seem like they were posing. The kind who turned even silence into performance. That had been true of his older roles, and it was just as true now with Sosuke Aizen and Jotaro. Different personalities, different worlds, same terrifying level of cinematic swagger.
As the second half of Episode Two began, DIO made his move from the shadows. Mid-flight, he sent one of his Stand users - Tower of Gray - to ambush Jotaro's group. It became Kakyoin's first real battle after joining the team, and in the middle of the chaos, the flight that had originally been headed for Egypt was forced into an emergency landing in Hong Kong.
While controlling the aircraft through the descent, Joseph scratched the side of his face and muttered with weary self-awareness, "Still... this makes three now. How many ordinary people can say they've survived three plane crashes?"
The line landed beautifully.
Older JOJO fans immediately laughed, because they remembered. Back in Battle Tendency, Joseph had already survived more airborne disasters than any sane man should. But for the newer viewers, the joke had not yet fully evolved into the inevitable running gag. Not yet. The title of "vehicle killer" still lingered just beyond the edge of public consciousness, waiting for the right moment to truly attach itself to him.
In the end, the plane came down in Hong Kong, the group survived, and the second episode of Stardust Crusaders came to a close on exactly the right note - danger, momentum, and the promise of a much wider journey just beginning.
At Penguin's headquarters, the reaction came even faster than the internal team had expected.
"Director Ma! We've broken eight million views!"
The report was delivered with barely restrained excitement, but the man receiving it only lifted an eyebrow, not particularly impressed at first. In his memory, the opening-day numbers for Bleach: Arrancar Arc had been far more terrifying. Compared to that kind of monster, eight million didn't sound worth celebrating.
Then the staff member added one more sentence.
"The first two parts only did 1.4 million on opening day."
That changed everything.
Director Ma's eyes widened instantly.
A show he had never truly believed in... might actually become a hit after all.
When the new week began, students returned to school with backpacks over their shoulders and bicycles rattling through the streets. Yet the atmosphere on campus had shifted in a way that was difficult to miss. All it took now was for one student to ask, "Did you watch it?" and the other would immediately know what he meant. No explanation needed. No title required.
The response often came in the form of recitation.
"I, Kujo Jotaro, have always been seen as a delinquent by others. When I fight, I hit so hard that some people still haven't come out of the hospital..."
And just like that, a full dramatic monologue would begin without warning, delivered with half-serious intensity and half-contained laughter. The person listening would answer with another JOJO line, then another pose, then another reference, until the conversation dissolved into mutual delight. What made it even funnier was that some of the jokes came from the first two parts, leaving the brand-new fans who had only joined with Part Three completely lost.
The veterans enjoyed that even more.
They began recommending the earlier parts with missionary zeal, almost harassing their friends into going back and watching the beginning. Their enthusiasm had the same stubborn rhythm everywhere: just try one episode, just one, and if you still don't get it, fine. But if you watch JOJO, then from now on, we're brothers forever.
Unfortunately, even though Stardust Crusaders had taken off far more sharply than the previous two parts - so sharply that "soaring into the sky" barely felt like an exaggeration - it was still mostly exploding within circles of male viewers. Compared to Bleach, which had become nearly universal currency in youth social spaces, JOJO still lagged behind by a very visible margin.
There was a reason for that.
Bleach was built on style. It thrived on coolness. Sharp coats, sharper gazes, swords with names, and men who looked like walking magazine covers. Between Alex as Sosuke Aizen, Mark as Ichigo, Jasper Quin, and the newer additions to the cast, it had become the kind of show plenty of women watched with complete honesty: they did not care about the lore, the power system, or the philosophy of swords. They were there for the men.
Stardust Crusaders, on the other hand, hit a little differently.
The physiques on display were so exaggerated that they crossed into something almost intimidating. Alex, Bell, Henry, and the rest had bulked up even harder than the casts of Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency. Earlier, the previous leads had only just reached the threshold of looking impressively athletic. Now these men looked like they had charged straight past that line and kept going until they nearly touched bodybuilding territory.
For some viewers, that made the appeal stronger.
For others, especially younger girls, it was the exact opposite. The muscles were too much, too aggressive, too close to absurdity. There was an old saying that excessive bodybuilding only attracted other men, and right now, JOJO was proving that statement with startling efficiency.
Even so, the evangelism never stopped.
Its fans kept pushing it on everyone they knew, tireless and sincere, as though converting one more person mattered on a spiritual level.
Then came another evening, another week, another primetime recording at the Mushroom House. This time, the new temporary guest was a former child actress, a girl from the younger generation who had already tasted the usual bitterness of the industry. A role that had once nearly been hers had ended up going elsewhere, snatched away at the last moment by Alex's casting choices. Still, she had found another path into recognition after appearing in a youth drama that, whatever its artistic value, had at least made her famous.
One of the hosts looked at her with open envy. "I heard you got a role in Alex's new series. Is that true?"
By now he had already become a full-blown fanatic for Stardust Crusaders. He copied the poses, quoted the lines, and had reached the stage where embarrassment no longer functioned as a restraint. He was, in every meaningful sense, suffering from JOJO side effects.
The young actress smiled and pinched her fingers together, leaving just the tiniest gap between thumb and index finger. "Sort of. My part's a little bigger than Emily's cameo, at least."
Not much. Just a little.
Still enough to make her pleased with herself.
Nearby, another girl stormed into the room in a mood so visible it might as well have been written across her face. She sat down alone, clearly stewing.
"What happened to you?" Teacher Heleno asked, amused.
Teacher Hugo lowered his voice and revealed the reason. "Apparently, Alex had considered her for that role at first. Later he changed his mind and cast this one instead."
That got a reaction.
Teacher Heleno looked honestly surprised. In his view, the upset girl was the stronger actress of the two. If Alex had chosen someone else, then surely it had to be for a very specific reason. He even guessed, at first, that it might have been because the role was more ornamental than substantial - one of those parts where presence mattered more than skill.
"We'll watch tonight and see what kind of role it is," he said, curiosity already taking hold.
When the new episode finally aired, the last member of the team revealed in the original character photos made his proper entrance. Henry stepped into the story at last, and when he struck that signature JOJO pose upon joining the group, countless viewers had the exact same thought at the same time: was his lower back going to survive the shoot?
It was ridiculous. Stylized. Completely unnecessary.
Which, of course, made it perfect.
And once Polnareff had joined the party, the young guest actress's scene finally arrived.
On the ship traveling from Hong Kong to Singapore, she appeared disguised as a boy, dressed in scruffy clothes, a cap pulled low, her face deliberately dirtied to blur her features. At a glance, it really was hard to tell what she was. The disguise worked just well enough to pass in motion.
Then, without warning, a Stand surged up from the sea and dragged the girl overboard.
Jotaro moved instantly.
Alex's version of him leapt into the water without hesitation, caught her, and began hauling her back toward the ship.
"Good grief... you little brat..."
He gripped her by the collar and started swimming.
Then, mid-motion, Jotaro's eyes narrowed.
His hand shifted. For a brief second, he paused, his palm pressing across her chest with enough force to confirm what the disguise had hidden. The moment landed like a lightning strike. In front of the television, countless viewers froze in absolute disbelief.
Back in the Mushroom House living room, the four people watching together had the exact same expression. On the other side, the actress herself lowered her head, cheeks flushing red as she watched her own scene unfold. But deep inside those lowered lashes, there was unmistakable excitement too. It was embarrassing, yes - but it was also the kind of memorable scene that people talked about.
Then Jotaro flicked the cap off her head.
A cascade of glossy black hair spilled free, falling down her back in an instant. The supposed boy was revealed to be a strikingly pretty young girl after all.
"So you're a girl," Jotaro said, one brow lifting. "And just a little one at that."
"You... you grabbed my chest that hard!"
She swung at him in furious humiliation, but Jotaro blocked the blow effortlessly, caught hold of the back of her clothes again, and kept towing her toward the ship as if none of it mattered.
The audience erupted.
Some howled with laughter. Some accused Jotaro of being blind. Others mocked the idea that a Stand famous for top-tier precision apparently couldn't identify a girl at first glance. Still others, far less pure of heart, openly accused Alex of deliberately writing scenes that let the characters he played collect all the best benefits in the series.
First the kiss with Emily.
Now this.
What a shameless man.
Behind every joke was the same unmistakable undercurrent: jealousy.
Not everyone could say it out loud, but plenty of viewers were thinking it anyway.
Back in the living room, Teacher Hugo finally understood.
He was old enough that even reaching the conclusion made him feel mildly awkward, but once it clicked, it clicked all at once. Teacher Heleno nodded in immediate agreement.
So that was why Alex hadn't gone with the other girl.
It had nothing to do with acting.
It was age.
Because while the actress he chose was still young, she was at least already an adult.
If he had cast a high school girl instead, this single scene alone might have been enough to get the whole episode banned.
What Alex never said aloud - mostly because even he felt a little embarrassed about it - was that he had initially considered inviting another young actress for a cameo. But the moment he thought seriously about the scene, he killed the idea. The age issue was impossible to ignore.
There was another reason too.
That same actress was still one of the candidates in his mind for the role of Jolyne Kujo in a future adaptation of Stone Ocean. If he brought her in too early, gave her a memorable cameo here, and tied her face too closely to Part Three, it would affect the audience's perception when Part Six eventually came around.
Assuming Part Six ever got made at all.
That was the part Alex still couldn't settle in his own heart.
Because compared to what came later, the cruelty of Part Three was almost gentle.