Episode 38 deals with one of the stupidest stands in all of Stardust Crusaders. The empress is here to look really stupid, act really stupid and be a minor inconvenience for Joseph. Even being a huge fan of the series I know when something is bad.
The Rundown for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Episode 38
The story opens up with the villain Enyaba realizing that her son has just died. She reveals the first vestiges of her power and goes off to attack the Joestar group.
Polnareff spends a bit of time hitting on the girl they picked up until Joseph notices that the growth on his arm is expanding and looks for treatment.
Joseph has a surgeon look at the growth and he attempts to cut it off. Unfortunately the growth is the Empress stand. It kills the surgeon and frames Joseph for the murder.
The only good part of this arc is when Joseph freaks out and starts yelling “Ohhhhhh Noooooo!”
The stand slowly grows on his arm and begins beating him down. It also apparently knows Hokuto no Ken since it acts like Kenshiro.
Joseph secretly draws a map of the city with his stand and uses it to find a vat of coal tar. With it he can trap the Empress stand and use his own Hermit Purple on it. He dunks the parasite in the vat then uses his tendrils to tear it to shreds. At the same time the stand user dies from this as well, much to the distress of Polnareff who wants to get with her.
The episode ends with them being chased by a mysterious car. Well, maybe not so mysterious for those of us who read the manga.
Thoughts on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Episode 38
Even the most brilliant writer can have a flop here and there. Empress was a stupid stand for Araki, as was Wheel of Fortunate later on. Not only did it seem to break the rules of whether people could see it or not but it had an incredibly underwhelming power. No one but perhaps Polnareff would have had any trouble with it.
No anime can be totally perfect but it is good that part 3 was only bad for a brief time. Too bad the next episode is about the #1 worst stand in part 3.
