Where Did JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Go Wrong With Stone Ocean?

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure capped off its recent anime season by bringing the story of Jolyne Cujoh to a close. In Stone Ocean, anime fans were given the first female protagonist of Hirohiko Araki’s franchise, but many viewers weren’t thrilled with a number of decisions made in regard to the new season. So when all is said and done as the Stone Ocean is no longer creating waves, what was it that made Jolyne’s adventure unable to land with many Joestar fans?

To start, the delay in between episodes for the sixth arc of the series was quite lengthy. The opening salvo of episodes that introduced fans to Jolyne Cujoh were only followed by new episodes for well over a year past the installments’ arrival. It’s understandable that David Production would need time to adapt the story of Jolyne and her adventure in Green Dolphin Street Penitentiary, but the gap between the Stand battles caused many viewers to either lose interest and/or forget what had been transpiring. In previous seasons of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the episodes were released on a weekly schedule and thus, “JoJo Fridays” were born to unite Joestar fans. Speaking of the weekly schedule…

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Binge Model

Stone Ocean released its episodes in thirteen installment chunks, meaning that there were so many events taking place in the anime that it was difficult to foster conversation. When it came to the former weekly schedule, anime fans could percolate on what had happened in a given episode and await the continuation of the arc the following week. This also proved to tell an entire story in succession, as series like Golden Wind and Diamond Is Unbreakable would go from start to finish without any major delays.

Finally, in looking at Stone Ocean itself, the ending is perhaps one of the most controversial endings in the history of anime. The last episodes of Jolyne’s story sees all the heroes die, the villain winning, and a new universe being born as a result. While Pucci is ultimately killed, it’s understandable that some viewers might have been off-put by the ultimate decision to erase the original timeline. Hopefully, the potential arrival of Steel Ball Run as the next anime’s season might warrant the choice to spawn a new reality.

What did you think of Stone Ocean when all is said and done? What changes would you have made? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Joestars.