JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the ‘it’ series in anime, but its global rise to stardom did not happen overnight. After years of steady growth, the series went mainstream in the early 2010s before coming into its stride by the next decade. Between Diamond Is Unbreakable and Golden Wind, the anime series amassed millions of fans, and JoJo became a trending topic in spaces that had never met a Joestar before. Of course, many expected Stone Ocean to experience the same success, but the fandom has been quieter than expected thanks to one upsetting truth.
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And what might that be? Well, there is only one major thing that has changed with JoJo since the turn. The hit series is streaming exclusively on Netflix now. And to be blunt, well – the anime deserves far better than Netflix at this point.
Imagine the surprise many fans felt recently when they realized JoJo’s latest series was returning this week with new episodes. The anime fandom is very well connected, and even the most uninvolved fan tends to know when big franchises are about to drop. Years ago, the release for Golden Wind was hyped at least a month before launch, but Stone Ocean missed the boat. Its series comeback has garnered little mainstream attention as of late, and this pattern was set back in December 2021 when Netflix first released the new series.
READ MORE: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: When Can You Watch Stone Ocean’s New Episodes
One of the anime’s biggest issues at Netflix comes down to marketing, and honestly? Things would be different for JoJo if the problem was addressed. The only social pages advertising JoJo’s comeback this fall are Netflix Anime pages, and those plugs are few and far between. Little publicity has been done elsewhere on social media, especially when compared to how Crunchyroll dedicated promotional campaigns to Golden Wind back in 2018. And given Netflix’s obtuse binge method, the platform can only promote JoJo effectively before episodes drop because they all go at once.
The streaming service has earned plenty of critics because of its release method to date, and the anime fandom has added to the pool. The industry built itself into a mainstream giant thanks to fans hyping their favorite series online week after week. For JoJo, its previous series trended globally each Friday when new episodes went live, and that attention turned the IP into the global hit we know today. However, Netflix’s binge method releases chunks of episodes at once. This neuters the anime fandom’s ability to create social capital because they’re not given the time to do so. And at the end of the day, this all-at-once method has only excluded fans from the JoJo community rather than including new members.
Of course, there is also the issue of the anime’s delay to consider. Stone Ocean was released in December 2021, but only 12 episodes were released. It has taken nearly a year for another 12 to be released, and there is no telling when its next batch will go live. The reasoning behind this hiatusisn’t clear, so the decision could easily fall to David Production. After all, the studio has other projects such as Undead Unluck to consider these days. But given its lack of promotion, Stone Ocean and this new comeback have been left to die. At this point, the anime’s handling has jaded the JoJo fandom so much so that many have given up on bolstering Stone Ocean in Netflix’s stead. And without consistent care moving forward, JoJo’s backslide will only continue until the Joestar family throws in the towel.
Do you think Netflix needs to reevaluate its handling of JoJo? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
