Review
by Caitlin Moore,Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean
Episodes 25-38
Synopsis: | |||
Although Jotaro Kujo defeated DIO in Egypt 25 years ago, the priest Pucci has carried on the vampire's legacy and brought the fight to Jotaro's daughter Jolyne at Green Dolphin Street prison. Now, Jolyne and her allies have broken free of their imprisonment to stop Pucci from reaching the Kennedy Space Center by the new moon, when his shadowy plan to “help humanity reach heaven” will come to fruition. As if it weren't difficult enough to chase him down as escaped convicts, Pucci has sought out other inheritors of Dio's legacy: his sons. |
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Review: |
Forgive me if I start to edge into the sentimental at some point during this review. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean is Hirohiko Araki's magnum opus, the culmination of a journey spanning over 100 years and six generations for its characters and a decade for anime viewers. It was a series I never expected to get into until I started watching it at the behest of a man who was, at the time, a fairly new boyfriend; I've been married to that man for three and a half years, and there are pictures of me posing like Jolyne in my wedding dress. I'm also more than a little mad that it came in the form of Netflix batch drops, robbing fans of the communal experience that marked previous installments. If I can't holler on Twitter with my friends, what's even the point? Okay, that's an exaggeration because there's a lot of point, not the least of which is experiencing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure at the perfect intersection of buck-wild and coherent. There are precious few moments where Jolyne and her companions aren't facing down an enemy Stand in some capacity as Pucci throws everything he has at them. As Stand powers became more broad and esoteric over the years, many started to feel like Araki was making them up as he went along, with little concern about logical flow or consistency. The early parts of Stone Ocean had some of that issue's worst offenders – Lang Rangler and Jumpin' Jack Spark come to mind. It robbed many fight scenes of their thrill. Instead of wondering how the characters would be able to wield the powers as we understood them, it felt like sooner or later someone would come up with some bullshit that made little, if no, sense. Here, the Stands are still wild and creative conceptually, but their users wield them in a consistent and logical way. (Except for, perhaps, Diver Down, but that's a legacy Stand from a main character, so I'm willing to forgive that much.) Bohemian Ecstatic is unmatchable in its threatening whimsy and chaos while giving close viewers a lot to chew on regarding how characters view each other and their place in the narrative. Heavy Forecast stretches credibility most this round, but in a “throwing my hands up and accepting it” way rather than making the fights difficult to follow. As a bonus, you will probably never see snails or rainbows the same way again. Netherworld carries a delightful homage to Louis Sachar's children's novel Holes. There are a few moments where I get the sense there were some elements from the manga left on the cutting room floor; these are truly some of the best battles in a decade's worth of action anime, cementing Stone Ocean's position as one of the series' best story arcs. The relatively uncluttered nature of the Stands leaves room for plenty of character development, even in the heat of battle. Without trying to puzzle out just how Stand ability x makes move y possible, I can focus on just how much Jolyne and her cohorts have grown, both as fighters and as humans. Jolyne, at the start of the series, was a silly young woman, barely more than a child, and carrying incredible anger at her father for what she perceived as abandoning her. She was confused by why her body was suddenly able to turn into strings and unable to use her ability to its full potential for fear of unraveling. In better circumstances, she might have been able to stay silly and soft like her grandmother Holly, but facing a constant onslaught of enemies in prison has hardened her and turned her into a tough, confident fighter with Ermes, Anastasia, Weather Forecast, and Emporio by her side. She is the true inheritor of the Joestar line, uncompromised by being a daughter instead of a son. The narrative never forgets its intergenerational nature, either. Too often, action-driven series end with big slugfests that pay little mind to the themes they had established throughout their runs. Not so here – throughout its run, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has explored the tension between each generation's desire to carry on what came before it and protect the next, and Stone Ocean prioritizes the themes that have resonated within it since the very first pages and carries them to their logical conclusion. That means that not every problem can be solved by punching the hardest or best, and physical strength is no substitute for ingenuity and resilience. This works partly because the animation is as stiff as usual, albeit with a touch more motion than before. The best-animated episode of the installment is by far one with almost no action at all: the reveal and exploration of Pucci's backstory, from the loss of his twin brother shortly after they were born, to growing up as a mixed-race child in the bayous of Louisiana in the '70s and '80s, to his fateful encounter with DIO. While most of the series is all bombast, posing, and grand declarations, Pucci's episode is animated with care for its character acting and close attention to detail and fluidity in small gestures. It's a smart choice that not every production would make; the team behind Stone Ocean is aware that sometimes, the flick of a finger on a lingering handhold says much more than a flurry of punches. Yūgo Kanno has been writing the series' musical scores since Stardust Crusaders, and the climax here, too, feels like a culmination of his work and that of Hayato Mitsuo and Taku Iwasaki, who scored Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, respectively. The series' use of leitmotifs for each Jojo comes in for powerful effect, further contributing to the feeling of Jolyne as the inheritor of the Joestar line. The new theme song, "Heaven's falling down" by sana from sajou no hana, is more downbeat than “Stone Ocean,” but its melancholy works perfectly for a story where it feels like this may be the end of everything. The English and Japanese voice casts continue to be excellent. I feel compelled to give Casey Mongillo a special shout-out for their performance as Emporio, bringing home an emotionally meaty climax. In my review of the first two-thirds, I stated that I couldn't understand why Stone Ocean was one of the least popular parts. My confusion has only intensified as the final third pulled everything together for a powerful climax, not just for Jolyne's story but for the story of the Joestars as a whole. I can't imagine watching this without shedding at least a tear or two. Jolyne is the heroine I wanted, that the audience deserved, and that the Joestars needed. |
Grade: | |||
Overall : A-
Overall (dub) : A-
Overall (sub) : A-
Story : A
Animation : B
Music : A-
+ A worthy conclusion to one of the most influential shonen manga of all time and the biggest anime event for the last decade; powerful use of music and voice acting; some of the best Stands of the series; action drives the story, but never overshadows it |
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