YMMV / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak

• Awesome Art: The art, courtesy of Tasuku Karasuma, gives Araki's characters really good face lifts, as well as making the Original Generation look really appealing. Mariah is more stripperiffic than she already was, Ryoko's design is downright Moe, and Hol Horse bears even more of a resemblance to the Man With No Name, down to his Perma-Stubble making him look much more handsome than he was in Part 3.
• Broken Base: Opinions seem to be split on the overall quality of the story itself. While many agree Hol Horse's characterization and the Adaptation Expansion on DIO's other surviving henchmen were welcome additions that further them as characters, some fans have felt that the story's direction took a nosedive late into the story. These range from certain characters like Boingo having missed opportunities to shine (or even sidelined in the case of Josuke or Hol Horse depending on who you ask), questionable creative liberties such as Josuke learning about DIO from Hol Horse (which some think is an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole that clashes with canon), and some people finding Kazuki Karaiya boring as a villain. Overall, people seem to agree the story and its premise had potential, though how much of it was utilized well is up to debate.
• Complete Monster: Kazuki Karaiya is a Morioh cop who holds contempt for all of humanity, believing himself destined to reign as a god with the likes of DIO and Kars. Taking on Pet Sounds as a makeshift Stand, Karaiya tests the bird's illusory abilities by causing mass mayhem and murder. He tricks a man into driving on a sidewalk to run over dozens of civilians; forces multiple women to attack others and slash their own throats; and puts dozens of civilians through a terrible illusion of them being shot dead in a war, while having an actual killer murder several of them—including a child. When Josuke and Hol Horse close in on him, Karaiya tries to force their ally, teenager Ryoko, to kill the duo and herself.
• Crack Pairing: This was many fans' reaction to Mariah settling down with Kenny G., whose only claim to fame was being quickly defeated in a one-off gag before the fight with Vanilla Ice. It's possibly a reference to their real life namesakes having worked together on a song with Babyface.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: The Crazy Heartbreakers novel seems to imply that Josuke's savior doesn't actually exist, with Josuke seeming to think about a backstory for his hair on the fly, and a later scene having Tomoko recalling while talking with Hol Horse of the car getting stuck was on the way back (though she can't exactly remember). Because of this, the real reason why Josuke's pompadour is a thing is because he used to have long hair, and after getting beat up for it one day, he styled his hair into the current pomp the following morning after Ryohei pointed out his long hair messed with his peripheral vision to where he couldn't see attacks from the side. This was near-instantly criticized for how it heavily cheapens Josuke's reason to get so upset whenever his hairstyle is insulted, making it look more petty compared to what was established in Diamond is Unbreakable. As a result, fans quickly took to treating this as Fanon Discontinuity.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • For the story itself, it's rather zig-zagged. While many fans like what the story explores with the lives of DIO's henchmen after the events of Stardust Crusaders, a brief glimpse into Oingo and Boingo's past, how DIO recruited Daniel J. D'Arby, and of course, Hol Horse's characterization, other fans like to pretend some of the more questionable cases of Adaptation Expansion (such as Josuke knowing about DIO by name from Hol Horse and Thoth being implied to not actually be Boingo's Stand) never occurred.
  • As mentioned above, the Fan-Disliked Explanation for the "real" reason behind Josuke's pomp from the Crazy Heartbreakers novel was one of the most rapid examples of this, even from those who liked the main manga itself.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Jotaro's presence in Part 4 turns out to be this as it takes place in the town of Kakyoin's birth.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The reveal that DIO tried to, if only briefly, make Ryoko a servant of his. Remember that she was just a child of around 8 at the time, and we only need to see the unfortunate baby from Phantom Blood to see his callous disregard for children's lives. No wonder she's disturbed by it over 10 years later.
  • The climax of the first issue has Hol Horse walking on a sidewalk in Morioh, only to see a car suddenly driving on the sidewalk and hitting pedestrians. He immediately has flashbacks to Wilson Phillips, but realizes that this is indeed real. Even creepier, the driver has dead eyes that look like buttons.
    • A later chapter reveals they're actually punch cards emitted from the parrot's Stand, and by the end of Chapter 3, they've gotten a hold of Hol Horse, and the normally goofy cowboy looks horrified as they begin to take control.
  • While Hol Horse having visible PTSD is disturbing enough, the fact that characters such as Mariah, Boingo, and even Kenny G. suffer the same mental trauma puts into perspective just how much of a ruthless, manipulative dictator DIO actually was, especially when we get a look into how DIO haunts Mariah's dreams even 10 years after his defeat.
  • The Reveal in Chapter 10 that after DIO took in Pet Shop and Pet Sounds for his own army, he ordered for Pet Shop to murder his original owner by using Horus. Doubly horrifying when Josuke is placed in the role of the two birds' owner due to the effects of Pet Sounds' Stand.
  • In Chapter 12, Pet Sounds and Karaiya subject Josuke to a memory of how DIO bent Daniel J. D'Arby to his will. First offsetting D'Arby with his childhood nickname of "Danny" (and letting in his own contempt of Jonathan's dog of the same name for good measure) that he certainly got from Telence, he proceeds to use The World's time mastery to completely wreck D'Arby's sense of control over the poker game, even cutting through his fingernails to draw blood that first appears on DIO's cards. By the time DIO "cedes" the game by taking the mere ace-high hand D'Arby had dealt him anyway, rather than the five aces D'Arby had for himself, D'Arby's already a nervous wreck. DIO then smashes said wreck further by threatening him with death if he ever "tarnishes" DIO's reputation by losing a game, even if nothing's actually on the line in a given game. Poor D'Arby is left panicking on the ground, unable to think of anything besides deeming every non-submissive response to DIO imaginable as "useless"...
    D'Arby: If I don't do as this man says, he'll kill me! Any other move I make would be utterly useless! Charging is useless, retreat is useless, violence is useless, resistance is useless, rebellion is useless, anger is useless, sadness is useless, regret is useless, IT'S ALL USELESS!
• Salvaged Story:
  • Hol Horse was widely considered a character with wasted potential, given his character arc of going from a servant of DIO's to hating him, managing to confront him one-on-one, and surviving. This spin-off finally goes more into his character, showing the PTSD he has from that time and his struggling to overcome it.
  • Considering that a major criticism of Stardust Crusaders was that a majority of DIO's minions lacked any nuance for how many there were, Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak rectifies this by characterizing the surviving ones as Shell-Shocked Veterans who were Unwitting Pawns to DIO, forced to regard him as a god among men via severe Mind Rape.
• Tear Jerker: Sure, people like Hol Horse and Mariah were Jerkasses even without any sort of flesh bud control from DIO like some of his earlier minions, but it's hard to not feel bad for them knowing they're all suffering from varying degrees of PTSD from having worked under DIO.
  • It also doesn't help that even after ten years, Boingo is still a shy, introverted person, especially when at the end of the Hol Horse and Boingo arc, we saw him find newfound confidence, even if it was quelled by Iggy suddenly attacking Boingo as revenge for getting hit by his box.
  • The reveal that Kakyoin came from Morioh and the sight of his cousin Ryoko weeping over his grave, meaning that somewhere down the line Kakyoin's family realized that he was never coming home. It also pretty much confirms the Fridge Horror people had for years that since Kakyoin never told his parents that he was going to Egypt in the first place; from their perspective, their son just disappeared one day and then later turned up murdered on the other side of the planet with no answers as to what happened to him.
  • The reveal that Daniel J. D'Arby did not join DIO of his own free will like Telence as initially assumed, but rather forced into serving him when he didn't want to in the first place by DIO both getting away with cheating and then threatening him should he lose — not just if it risks anything about DIO, but even something as simple as a game without risks — DIO will have him killed, makes Daniel a nervous wreck that is forced to submit, and retroactively makes him all the more pitiable than he was before, making DIO all the pettier and worse.
• Unexpected Character:
  • While Boingo was visible on material leading up to the first issue's release, few were expecting other former servants of DIO like Mariah and Kenny G. to show up again. There's also the reveal that they're trying to live normal lives, but are also struggling with PTSD as shown with Mariah. She even mentions that the Speedwagon Foundation reached out to her about DIO's actions.
  • Very few were expecting one of the Arc Villains, Kazuki Karaiya, to be following in the footsteps of Kars and seeing him as a god.

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