Ahoy, mateys! Welcome back to the hardest part of every blog post: finding something half decent to put in the header! Today we’re going to take a look at Stardust Crusaders #42, “The Miasma of the Void, Vanilla Ice - Part 1”! It’s the beginning of one of the most brutal fights in this whole part, and to celebrate it we’ll have a sizable chunk of differences to go through on this fine day. So strap in, sit comfortably and let’s get started!

• Today’s comparison begins with a rather minor difference: one single (rather abstract) frame in this animation of Jotaro and his YES YES YES is now brighter. Check it out:

• This transition is now brighter and sharper…:

• This good ol’ punching bonanza has received several small changes! But, before looking at the individual bits, let’s see it all in motion, shall we:

• Let’s see if you noticed all the differences! In no particular order… The camera moves around more dynamically, the punches have a new motion blur and are accompanied by slightly more prominent wind effects, and the hits also leave some sort of after-image, almost like the opposite of our “brighter and sharper” images! Check it all out:

• To conclude this good punchdown, in the scene right after the previous one there is, once again, some new motion blur on D’Arby the Younger, he’s drawn with thicker lines, there is a new cloud in the sky and the edges have less of a vignette than in the TV version…:

• …the shading on him, in the latter part of the scene is also a little bit darker…:

• …there is much more debris once he hits the wall…:

• …and the camera is ever-so-slightly moved at the end:

• Let’s watch it all together, shall we:

• Here, both Joseph and Jotaro have been (mercifully) redrawn from scratch - slim-faced Jotaro cracks me up for some reason - the two dividing lines are thinner and less neon-like, the lighting in the sky is different, and Star Platinum moves slightly more slowly:

• Moving on to the interesting part… Here, Vanilla Ice has been redrawn too! Check it:

• He’s received the same treatment here, and his left hand is now significantly more shaded:

• This grizzly display of loyalty is now uncensored:

• The same applies here, and on top of that there are also a couple of extra blood droplets:

• Have another couple of uncensored shots (the second of which also has some different shading on Dio himself):

• Vanilla Ice’s eye looks a little more glazed over, here:

• He’s been completely redrawn once again, here:

• Back to our brothers! The background is blurrier here…:

• And everything has been redrawn! Looking fresh, Polnareff…:

• The zoom out transition is also blurrier along the edges, and has a significantly blurrier background:

• Looking inside the mansion, the smoke wafting from its depths is now sharper…:

• …and, when the camera pans down, the shading on our trio is brighter and their cast shadows have also been slightly retouched:

• Here, the fire effect is looking much better, the general lighting has been tweaked, Magician Red’s visible eye is looking a little more alive and his hands a little redder:

• Just… I mean… Yeah:

• Here, once again, the fire effect is much more prominent and the general lighting is more interesting…:

• …and, once this weird contraption actually picks up someone’s presence, the fire sprouts are much bigger and there are also some sparks shooting all over:

• The sparks have been added in this subsequent shot as well, and the whole fire cross is slightly brighter as well:

• Here we have some better-looking fire effect again…:

• And here, poor Avdol’s fate is now uncensored (and the couple of blood droplets that were on top of his right hand have been removed in the BD version too):

• Rest in peace, friend:

• Here, on top of the usual uncensored cuts, the smoke effect is different, the camera has been moved slightly and there is the usual dust effect that commonly accompanies character deaths in Jojo:

• And the dust is present here too, on top of the usual uncensored bits:

• Have one last “pure” uncensored difference, here:

• And here we have a bunch of uncensored frames in which Cream’s void effect is also looking different:

• Here, the smoke effect is more transparent…:

• …Cream’s void effect is different and, once again, Avdol’s chopped arms are uncensored…:

• …the smoke itself has been moved behind the ball or changed altogether, in some frames…:

• …and, in the TV version, something weird happened to the shape of the void ball behind Cream - I suspect they simply forgot to delete the previous sphere from the previous shot, but in other frames, the shape was much more angular, not to mention how strange the void effect looked too. Check it out:

• Check it out in motion, friends:

• Moving on to the credits… In a plot twist, the section 3Dモデリング (“3D Modeling”) which was added in the past couple of episodes was instead removed here:

• Here, the kanji 佐 was removed from the heading 作画監督補佐 - as far as I know, both titles (with and without 佐) indicate an assistant animation director, but I’m afraid I’m not privvy to the technical difference between the terms. Either way, here you are:

And that concludes this small first trip into the void! That was a fun one - especially all the total redraws, which are always a high point for me. As always, I hope you had a good time, and I’ll see you all next time for Stardust Crusaders #43, “The Miasma of the Void, Vanilla Ice - Part 2”!

Bye!