‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’ Season 5 (Part 2) Review: The Search for Heaven Continues from Prison

For more than three decades, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been one of the most fascinating mangas very created. Especially when it comes to the Shōnen genre. A genre that often ends up being trapped in the same story structures and using the same tropes to keep the stories going and going endlessly. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure goes against all that by reinventing itself with every new part of the manga. This is a review of the second part of the anime adapted from Part 6 of the manga, titled Stone Ocean.

Stone Ocean is certainly one unique part of the manga. We not only get our first female JoJo in Jolyne, but we also spend a big part of the story inside a prison. The big hero from the previous parts is totally out of action, and the villain’s main objective is to create a perfect world, or Heaven as he calls it. It is all very strange, or would you say, very bizarre, but we wouldn’t want it in any other way. This second part of Season 5 of the anime basically adapts the manga until the middle point of Stone Ocean.

This means that there are still at least two more batches of episodes until we reach the end of Stone Ocean, and we can jump into the best part of the manga so far, Steel Ball Run. An epic cross-country race in search of Jesus’ body parts. Yes, it is that bizarre. We are not going to lie, seeing that this batch of episodes only reaches the middle point of the story is quite frustrating, especially because we will need to wait a long time for the next batch to come.

We would really love to be able to see all these episodes one after the other weekly if it means we don’t have to wait huge amounts of time for another batch. This little issue with delivering the episodes is something that the Netflix model has given to the series as a whole. Will Steel Ball Run fall to the same fate? We still don’t know, but it would be a shame to end up having to wait these extreme periods of time for episodes we will all see in an afternoon.

Besides that little issue with delivering the episodes, Part 2 of Season 5 is full of action and tons of twists. Part 2 really puts into perspective just how dangerous Enrico Pucci is. As a villain, Pucci is one of the most powerful and dangerous on the show. His Stand, Whitesnake, is one of the most powerful and bizarre entities in the show as well. After watching this part, and seeing more of the big picture of Pucci’s plan, it is clear that he needs to be stopped.

The main characters, our heroes, also have some truly great developments. Some of them find new confidence in themselves, others are able to finally get the revenge they always wanted, and some others even fall in love in the midst of battle. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has never really been known for being cohesive, or coherent, but the many elements that are always thrown into the story always find a way to feel organic next to each other.

Very much in line with the previous part in the manga/anime, Golden Wing, Stone Ocean falls into the structure of new stand users appearing to make the lives of our protagonist hell. Each new Stand user brings a new Stand ability to the table. It is really fantastic to see how the story is always surprising us and making each new ability, no matter how bizarre it may be, feel like a real danger. You definitely would not want to be trapped in a prison or anywhere, for that matter, with these people.

If there is something that, sadly, still feels lackluster, it’s the animation. The anime is being produced by David Production, and while the intro to the show keeps being fantastic each time when the intro is the only highlight in terms of animation in your show, you know that something is wrong. Animation keeps being mostly static, and the inconsistency between drawings is truly alarming. One moment, Jolyne looks great, and in the next scene, she looks like she was drawn by a six-year-old kid with no experience in drawing.

This lack of quality in the animation could be accredited to a lack of time, money, or both. We are sure David Production can do a much better job than this, but we are not seeing it. Thankfully, the animation will not break the show because it stands on a solid foundation of good characters, a good story, and bizarre happenings that always maintain our attention on the screen.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Season 5 Part 2 is a good dose of JoJo’s. This batch of episodes will keep us alert until we can finally experience the finale of Stone Ocean, which is still one of the most epic endings in manga history. Sadly, the lack of animation quality really hurts the show from being the massive masterpiece that it was always meant to be. At this point, it would be naive to expect an improvement in this department for future seasons… but we can only wait and see.

SCORE: 8/10

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