A Decades Old Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Mystery is Finally Solved

Warning: contains spoilers for Crazy Diamond‘s Demonic Heartbreak

Since manga like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure are on-going series, sometimes a concept may be introduced casually as part of the worldbuilding, only to be completely changed by the time the idea is actually implemented in the story. It might introduce a minor plot hole or continuity error, but these kinds of things are often fixed for the final volume releases. One such change, however, left a bit of mystery for Jojo fans, and the new spinoff Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak has seized the chance to solve it at last.

Crazy Diamond‘s Demonic Heartbreak is set just before part 4 (Diamond is Unbreakable) and follows Hol Horse, a character from part 3 (StardustCrusaders). Hol Horse worked for the saga’s big villain DIO in his first appearances, but he began to have second thoughts and managed to survive the series as a result. Working for DIO was a pretty traumatic experience, apparently, and the spinoff has revealed how Hol Horse and other minor villains dealt with that in the years since. A request to search for a possible Stand-wielding parrot that once belonged to DIO dredges up a lot of these memories and kickstarts the series’ plot.

The parrot was said to have been trained with DIO’s famed falcon, Pet Shop, which also used a Stand to defend DIO’s palace. At first glance, it seems a bit silly–why would a parrot and a falcon be trained together? Since Pet Shop was defeated by Iggy, a savvy manga reader might assume this bird is simply a direct replacement, but that’s not quite the end of the story. In chapter 14 of Stardust Crusaders, Polnareff reveals his meeting with DIO, and in these panels, DIO is depicted with a species of parrot on his shoulder, very distinct from Pet Shop’s eventual design. This parrot doesn’t appear again, and in the anime version of this flashback, it’s replaced by Pet Shop, suggesting that this was a continuity error caused by changing the nature of his pet as the story continued.

Instead of ignoring it, Crazy Diamond embraces this apparent goof by establishing that the parrot was an entirely different bird that DIO also had, similarly well-trained and deadly. It works surprisingly well, as it means a new creature doesn’t have to be established from scratch and retconned in, but rather suggests that this parrot was actually around in DIO’s palace to witness the entirety of the final battle in Stardust Crusaders. Why this bird (named Pet Sounds) didn’t fight remains a mystery, but it’s one that Crazy Diamond could explain away as it goes on. Since Pet Sounds’ Stand involves forcing people to relive events it witnessed, DIO may have felt it advantageous to have it watch him destroy the Joestars.

The obscure parrot appearance is just one of many deep-cut references that Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak has made in its brief run thus far, making the series a must-read for dedicated fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, especially towards its most popular era of part 3 and 4. It’s a good case to show what a spinoff can be when written by someone knowledgeable about the franchise, and there are sure to be more fascinating reveals to come.

About The Author

Carlyle Edmundson
(233 Articles Published)

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Carlyle Edmundson is a news and features writer with an affinity for science fiction and fantasy. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a BS in Film Studies and is glad that it’s relevant to his work. A lifelong fan of anime and manga, he has attended dozens of conventions over the years and may or may not have cosplayed at them. He is also the author of the Dystopian Detective series, available from most places ebooks are sold.

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