[Introduction]
Echoes was JoJo’s first instance of Stand evolution and it would always beg the question,
well what if this took a step further. Some of you know a series I had similar to
this, and well… I just apply this over to this because you
know how much I like changing stuff. Echoes has been one of the stands I get questioned
for a lot, and I say it’s around the potential of the Stand but regardless the video was
going to be done sooner or later. So, to show my interpretation of Echoes Act
4 I’m going to show all the steps I went through to get here. [Ability Explanation]
You have Echoes Act 1, with the ability of Sound Generation, or well how Koichi explains
it to be, “pasting sounds onto others.” There many factors into how Araki created
this ability. Koichi mentions Cicada voice by Basho Matsuo,
and Araki in his Author’s note for Echoes, the volume, was about how he’d get music
stuck in his head and be unable to focus on anything. Then there’s Act 2 to where the sounds became
real. You could say these are Sound Effects in its
full sense because these sounds come with their effect with Act 2. There weren’t any notes on Act 2, but how
it came to be with the situation with Yukako, you can make some assumptions off that. My take is using the saying “words won’t
reach everyone”, with Yukako, that was exactly the case, and it took the actions of Act 2
happening to knock sense into her, sort of. So, it’s a combination of “words won’t
reach everyone” and “actions speak louder than words”. Or at least that’s what I got from the narrative
here. With Act 3, I’m not exactly sure what we
have going here. We could say that 3 Freeze in specific is
the weight of words, but it’s just a rhyming scheme. The deepest thing we got directly is that
it’s just rhyming three and freeze. There’s a disconnect going on here. But from that I knew what direction I wanted
to take this into. So, I’ll set the scenario to where I got
the idea all done for. [Scenario]
The best area where we would see Act 4 would be when Okuyasu had got hit by the explosive
air bubble. Okuyasu just got hit and Josuke screams in
reaction to what just happened. Koichi, Jotaro, and Rohan can hear this, but
instead Koichi runs in the direction of the sound instead of staying with Jotaro and Rohan. While he’s on his way Josuke is fighting
the air bubbles as he did before. By the time he gets there he sees Josuke being
blown up from the bubble that had seeped through the wall. Koichi screams in reaction to seeing this,
but then he also sees Okuyasu on the gate looking dead. Kira sees Koichi and remembers what Koichi
had said to him in their last interaction. He gets a bit tensed up, but he’s still
fairly confident. Josuke yells out to Koichi telling him how
this newly faced man is Yoshikage Kira, but Koichi could already see Killer Queen so he
has just been standing there frozen in reaction to all of this. Then he remembers all that had happened and
what’s led up to this. Shigechi, Reimi, and all of those that have
died by the hands of Kira. Koichi getting gutted and Jotaro after Sheer
Heart Attack. And now from what he sees, Okuyasu had died,
and Josuke, a person he sees as one of the strongest people he knows is on the ground
bleeding. Koichi has thought about all the times everyone
had spoke about catching Kira and all of the times they’ve done research. All of this planning and speaking for us to
end up on the losing side, and he’s overwhelmed by all of these feelings. That’s when he’s tired of all of it and
he finally adapts over. He wants all his words to follow through with
their actions, to finally stop Yoshikage Kira. The push from this all takes Koichi into his
next stage, Echoes Act 4. [New Act: Reasoning]
Now this the area with his new ability. I couldn’t find the direct words to piece
what this ability is like, but I guess Voice Activation in a sense? The new ability is to turn whatever Echoes
says into an action against the enemy. But not as literal as that, and I also had
a variation given to me by my friend. The phrase itself or possibly the poetry itself
is what gives the action. My friend was the one to tell me that Echoes
adapting into this new form that gives out haiku’s on what it does would be cool. [Examples]
So, let me give you an example. It doesn’t work in the way that Echoes just
says, Kill Kira and Kira dies, nor does it work like, Stop Time, and time stops. Let’s say that Koichi wanted an adaptation
of three freeze. Against Kira, Echoes says something along
the lines of “Act 4, you will hold my burden.” Then this massive weight heavier than Three
Freeze is applied to Kira. I also didn’t mention that I want to make
the ability have more strength when there’s a lot of emotion backing it. Another example is if Echoes wanted Kira to
burn, but not die from it or have any actual signs of burning. He only feels it, but there’s no actual
signs of fire. It says something like, “Act 4, burn with
the flames of my hatred”, and Kira would feel the most intense burning pain but there
would be nothing noticeable. On the phrases, I wanted one-liners, but I
believe if Araki was to write it, he’d be able to come up with full on haiku’s on
what Koichi wants to do against whoever he’s facing. But on the actions of the ability, I only
wanted Act 4 to work a manipulation of perception or feeling. With the burning example, Act 4 would be able
to burn Kira because that’s an Act 2 accessible thing and it would be easy to incorporate
it into 4. But with that, you have a chance of Kira dying
from the damages alone, that’s why I wanted it to mess with his feelings more than anything. If he feels the pain of burning or the weight
without actual damage being done, it won’t matter because it feels all the same. He could adapt this into a wide array of other
things because at that point it’s just up to what Koichi could think of in that moment. So, going back into the scenario. Act 4 is out and Koichi is pissed. Kira’s amazed, but he doesn’t care about
a new form, he tries his hand at another Air Bubble, but in that instance of creating another
one, Echoes Act 4 blitzes Kira and shows up underneath him and Killer Queen. Koichi says a cool one liner about how Kira
should feel what it’s like to be one of his victims and with a strike to the chest
Kira begins to feel this breaking sensation. It feels like rapid burning and beating torn
apart, but what Act 4 put onto Kira is the feeling of being blown up multiple times over. Kira is flailing on the ground here and with
this, Josuke goes on with Hayato to repair Okuyasu while Koichi is walking up to Kira
on the ground. He sees Josuke crying in reaction to Okuyasu
not waking up and Koichi burns with more anger than he ever has here. He’s done with Kira so he finishes it off
in the only JoJo way possible, by Ora Oraing him beyond belief. Okuyasu comes to life later on and this all
wraps up pretty easily. [Stand Stats]
So, with this, obviously I’m going to have to prepare some stand stats because that’s
something people love seeing for some reason. Act 4 comes here with an A in destructive
power. The A here is the strongest Echoes has ever
been and I’d honestly put it’s strength on part with Crazy Diamond for it. I was thinking about comparing to Prime Star
Platinum, but I have no reason to since that’s not where it’s power lays. It has an A in speed because there was a constant
escalation in Speed for Echoes, but for some reason it was always still slower than scarier
stands we had. With Act 4 I’d put it ahead of all that
stands we had ever seen except for those that made it their ability to focus on Speed, so
basically around Star Platinum levels of fast. It’s range I’m giving it back to B, but
range in the ability is inescapable. So, if you were to ever escape Act 4, if you
already have a feeling or something set onto you, it can’t be removed, only Koichi can
willingly remove it. It has an A in Durability because since stands
represent our personality, I want to say that Act 4 is the strongest that Koichi’s mental
fortitude has ever been. Which is why I gave it an A.
I gave the precision a C because it had never grown, and I see no reason as to why I would
need to make it a focus when Act 4’s fists and power is enough. And to finish it all off, I gave potential
an E since this is where Koichi had capped out on what Echoes is capable of, and along
with that, I see that as Koichi’s final step in growth. This in no way effects my interpretation of
the Koichi we had already been with in DiU, you could just see this as an alternate universe
Koichi where his narrative doesn’t affect anyone else’s besides him. With that, I’m finished. [Outro]
Thank you all for watching. Thank you Kuma so much for the art and everything. And thanks Ishraq for the Haiku idea, didn’t
really fully incorporate it but it’s the thought that counts. I’m so happy to get back into this type
of thing because creating these character concepts was always a cool thing to me and
I can’t wait to do more. If any of you have an idea on what you want
to see conceptualized, feel free to comment. It doesn’t even have to be purely JoJo,
or JoJo-related. I was thinking about some Hunter stuff the
other day and I might just adapt that over sooner or later. Thank you all again, make sure to comment,
like and subscribe if you enjoyed and want to see more and I’ll see you all in the
next one. Hopefully. Until then, peace out, and God Speed.
