Synopsis
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 6 start conspiring forces frame Jolyne Kuujou for a reckless crime, landing her in the infamous Green Dolphin Street Jail. Much like her father Joutarou, Jolyne is brash, brave, and just; she rails against her unfair sentence and quickly discovers the sinister circumstances that led to her incarceration.
A gift from her absent father grants Jolyne the power of Stone Free, a supernatural ability known as a Stand that allows her to unravel her body into string. Jolyne uses Stone Free to battle her way through the prison, recruiting new allies—Hermes Costello and Foo Fighters—to assist in her investigation. Together, the fearless women fight to uncover the menace behind White Snake, an enemy Stand responsible for the increasingly dangerous prisoners who are after Jolyne’s life.
Through Jolyne, the Joestar lineage confronts the legacy of its one true enemy. Jolyne and her friends race to stop a disastrous plot and put an end to a culminating evil.
Watch JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 6: Stone Ocean Online
Review
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 6: Stone Ocean Recap
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean — The fifth season of JJBA anime and the 6th installment of the franchise follows Jolyne Kuujou, the daughter of Jotaro Kuujou — the prequels main character (Part 3/4).
She finds herself a victim of crime after her boyfriend fatally wounds a pedestrian while driving one rainy evening, trying to cover up the scene Jolyne helps her boyfriend hide the body in the trunk of her car. Unbeknownst to Jolyne, she was framed and convicted as the person behind the murder and is sentenced to 15 years in Green Dolphin Street Jail in conjunction with her other petty crimes.
When in prison, Jolyne gets a mysterious package from her Father Jotaro and ends up being pierced spilling blood; Moments later she awakens her powers as a stand user just like her Father. The first 12 episodes of Stone Ocean follow the manga pretty religiously, with 50 chapters being condensed into the currently aired episodes so far.
Story
I have a feeling that Stone Ocean will be that dark horse JoJo adaptation; It serves as the finale of the original JoJo storyline and the build up of the prior Joestar/Dio feud. The story begins immediately from the first scene, we aren’t exactly spoon-fed the information until later into the episode, so the series forces us to stay engaged. Although the setting is a prison which can be quite limiting for action.
I feel the anime does well to diversify its scenes and keep the plot dynamic, so we don’t lose focus. Every episode so far has been filled with many unpredictable characters, plot twists and chaos which constantly kept me on edge which is very rare especially within the JoJo’s anime franchise. Overall, I really enjoyed the storyline and progression, the story pacing was fast, but it did well to tie up loose ends.
Art & Sound
The art and animation is very similar to the previous season Golden Wind with It’s less saturated, lower detailed art style. I really enjoyed watching this series because of how easily adaptable the art style was, in comparison to the colored manga panels I think the art in the anime is much cleaner and visually interpretable.
I really do miss the consistent use of bright, vivid colored backgrounds, but it also overpowers the actions in the panel itself. Furthermore, I gained a lot of clarification from watching the anime like the Piano scene or the first zero gravity moment where I would have usually misunderstood or couldn’t follow the panels.
Oddly enough I did notice that Stone Ocean used the wide variety of sound effects (including whips, deep bass rumbling) to connect scenes or even during conflict scenes. The suspenseful music was well orchestrated and fit with many of Jolyne’s fight scenes; It was definitely good, but I didn’t exactly find them revolutionary or different from other series. I enjoyed them nonetheless, as well as the moody voice acting behind the characters.
Character
Jolyne is the type of character to evolve after every predicament, in the beginning we see her aware of these special stand powers, and she becomes obsessed with them because she doesn’t understand why and how her powers came to exist. Eventually, as she fights White snake’s lackeys she begins to leverage her resourcefulness and the flexibility of stone free to stay one step ahead of her opponent. We see this time and time again where she is pitted against Johngalli, Miraschon, Foo Fighters, Jumping Jack, White Snake and many more non-stand prisoners and guards.
This is an aspect that part 3 and 4 lacked since Kujo Jotaro and Higashikata Josuke already developed their stand powers and that initial connection. Unlike the aforementioned, Jolyne had little time to manifest her powers as she would soon find herself in dire straits constantly after getting convicted. The series also makes a point to not dwell on unnecessary dialogue and instead opts to use a lot of internal monologues even with White Snake’s lackeys. I enjoyed this execution since it gives us time to adjust to the situation faster, but also the restriction of vocal dialogue can create a mysterious atmosphere with quiet characters like Emporio or Weather report.
Of course, this can be rarely seen if Jolyne is on the scene; Her unrefined delinquent-demeanor overpowers her comrades many times in the show, and she doesn’t hesitate to attack her opponents in unpredictable, awkward positions — These traits are basically the opposite of her father, Jotaro Kuujou who is a Stoic and reserved person that usually takes a stationary stance against his opponents. Overall, the characters this season are very unorthodox and drastically different from characters we’ve seen before in the JoJo franchise, yet they still are enjoyable and dynamic.
Overall
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is just one of those creations that bless the eye, Stone Ocean is no exception. You can watch the series built in science lessons and not understand the power behind enemy stands yet still enjoy watching for the characters, the setting or even the memes. I really enjoyed the change of characters and setting; Instead of being ambitious and scenic, Stone Ocean is deprived of many settings and typical jojo characters which makes it that much more intense and refreshing. 4/5 is a pretty lenient rating for this series, I’m looking forward to more episodes.
