by Allyson McClainDisclaimer: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
We start off “Sex Pistols Appears, Part 2” with a clear next move as we follow up the story of “Sex Pistols Appears, Part 1” with Mista jumping on the side of a truck to chase and fully kill Sale, who he shot through the leg in the previous episode. The last episode sent Giorno and Mista to kill/capture someone at the docks who knew about Polpo’s fortune and about Bucciarati and his gang coming to get the money. They tried to set up a trap for the mysterious enemy, but it went wrong. Now, Giorno is left at the dock while Mista has hitched a ride on a truck to engage the enemy.
Image from Crunchyroll
“Sex Pistols Appears, Part 2” has several good things going for it, which has brought more interest to the series. One thing it has done is solidified the answer to the question of whether or not they were going to continue to do introductions before a character’s first battle, and, so far, they seem to have created a pattern that most likely will continue. Another good part of this episode is the fact that Mista has shown himself to be a better character than Abbacchio, which instantly makes this episode more interesting to watch since Mista is such an odd character that needs explanation. Before “Six Bullets Appears, Part 2,” they have shown things about Mista to generate interest in him, such as his tetraphobia and showing off his stand Sex Pistols, all before revealing his back story. This generated more appeal in a possible backstory which we receive, and unlike how Abbacchio's backstory which had such a gap in explaining the current Abbacchio, Mista's backstory is simple and sufficient enough to explain him as a character and how he acts now.
Abbacchio and Mista’s fight scenes had many differences between them. Abbacchio’s opponent was a mystery who did not reveal himself and his stand’s power was unclear. In this episode, Mista’s enemy appears rather quickly and shows off his stand immediately. Kraft Work, known as Arts & Crafts in the translation, is able to affix things by touching them. He affixes the driver of the truck’s hands to the steering wheel and the pedal as well as glueing one of Mista’s hands to the bar on the side of the truck. The enemy stand user shows an extreme amount of uses for his abilities that are believably true, like he is able to throw rocks into the air and affix them, using the rocks like a ladder to climb to Mista.
Surely Mista’s awesome Sex Pistol stand can help him, and it can, except that even though he shoots the man in the forehead, the bullet itself pauses before it fully enters his brain as part of his stand’s power. One of the main items that made this episode really amazing was the straightforward hardness of this fight. How do you fight someone who can do so much with their stand, to the point where they are practically invincible? The sheer amount of uses for Kraft Work reminds many viewers that despite how many stands we have seen in the past, the wide variety and creativity put into how to use them to their full potential can still wow viewers.
Image from Crunchyroll
“Sex Pistols Appears, Part 2” shows the quality of the stands in this series will be just as good as every other season and also have the variety of stand battles we enjoy, at least that is what we hope. This battle between Sex Pistols and Kraft Work can be seen as a versatile stand versus a very simple stand. Kraft Work is able to be used to attack, defend, and ambush, as well as keep his user alive even from near death, while Sex Pistols is a simple and straightforward stand like his user. The matchup was exciting since it almost seemed too unfair to Mista, but then again that is how life works. The fact that Mista’s stand is like him and really symbolizes his way of life makes him easy to understand and more likable.
Something that must be praised in this episode is that this fight is basically a fight on a car and, at a point, a car chase, and what movie with gangsters would be complete without the most stereotypical gangster scene, a car chase? Not any normal car chase either— it’s a car chase against an enemy able to climb in the air and the car is a semitrailer! Something fun about the whole thing was Giorno’s minor appearance in the episode, but that helped us focus on the fight more than usual since Giorno wasn’t getting anywhere quickly. It was funny to watch Giorno not be the highlight of the episode even when he was still in parts of it. The ending of the episode makes me wonder what will happen now that Mista is back at the docks with the body of his enemy, and Giorno is trying to go up the road to find Mista, who is already back at their meeting place, essentially switching places from the start of this episode.
