9 Best Things To Look Out For In The Upcoming Stone Ocean Anime

After going over six hundred days without any news of its existence, fans of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure can finally rejoice with the news that the sixth installment in the franchise, Stone Ocean, has been officially confirmed. Stone Ocean adapts the sixth installment of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga of the same name that was originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2000 to 2003, and in all the years that have passed, whether it’s through video games, unofficial translations, and whatever falls in-between, people all around the world have grown to love Stone Ocean.

The upcoming anime means that fans old and new will have a brand new way of experiencing the story in what will undoubtedly be the highest quality of means, and there are a lot of iconic characters and moments that you won’t want to miss out on.

Here are the 9 best things to look out for in the Stone Ocean Anime.

1. The First Female JoJo

Right off the bat, the thing that will probably catch people’s attention the most about Stone Ocean is how the titular “JoJo” of the part is a woman by the name of Jolyne Cujoh.

In a series that has become famous for its wide assortment of muscular and flamboyant men with vaguely homoerotic subtext, Jolyne stands out as the first female protagonist, and part six, as a whole, stands out for having its supporting cast consist of far more female characters than the ones that came before it.

Part of this decision came about from Araki feeling that, at the time, we had entered an era where a female lead can create a strong narrative, something he hadn’t felt in his years of writing before then, so he decided to test himself with a field that hadn’t been his forte up until then, even when his editor insisted that a male lead would have been more popular. The experiment worked, and we ended up with a protagonist who’s just as tough and entertaining as the boys who come before and after her, and the story she stars inaptly follows suit.

2. The World’s Fingers For “Fuck Off”

All of the JoJos in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure have moments that stick with fans for years on end, and one of Jolyne’s most iconic moments comes from when she shows off all the different ways that people around the world flip the bird.

Most people don’t think about any means of giving someone the finger beyond the American variant, so imagine the hilarity of Jolyne deciding to give the audience a quick rundown of how other countries decide to do it. It’s a great scene that perfectly encapsulates Jolyne’s character, and above all else, it’s simply hilarious.

3. Foo Fighters

Speaking of hilarious, part six wouldn’t be nearly as well-regarded as it is without the inclusion of one of its main sources of levity: the hyper-intelligent mass of plankton piloting a corpse—it makes sense in the context of the story—named Foo Fighters, or “F.F.” for short. F.F., like many characters in JoJo, starts out as an antagonistic figure who later joins the heroes because of a moment of kindness exhibited by the lead, and after that, she becomes a major source of comedic relief through her inhuman behavior and general clownish behavior.

Beyond that, she also has a well-written arc of proving that her existence as a mass of microscopic organisms has as much value as human life, so all in all, we end up with a well-rounded character who adds a lot to the story.

4. The Return of Jotaro In a Dramatic Fashion

Stone Ocean sees the return of longtime recurring protagonist Jotaro Kujo into a major role, and even though their names are spelled slightly differently, Jotaro is, in fact, the father of Jolyne. The return of one of the series’ most popular characters is a welcome treat in and of itself, but what makes it even better is how Jotaro is given depth beyond his incredible ability to punch people hard and fast, over and over again.

Jotaro and Jolyne’s relationship is very estranged due to Jotaro being absent from most of Jolyne’s life, and while Jolyne initially wants nothing to do with Jotaro, the story ends up devoting a great amount of time to the love they share in spite of it all and what they’ll do to try and protect each other. It’s a very touching and human story that stands out within the various other subplots of JoJo, and Stone Ocean would truly be lost without it.

5. Whitesnake Pointing A Gun At a Bird

The bizarre and almost surreal nature of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure makes the series one that’s filled to the brim with scenes that are utterly ridiculous without proper context, and Stone Ocean is no different.

One such instance involves the Stand—the supernatural entity most characters in the series use to fight one another—of the main antagonist Enrico Pucci, Whitesnake where at the climax of a major story arc, Whitesnake picks up a gun to try and shoot a bird that’s flying away with a vital MacGuffin of the story. It makes enough sense in-universe but taken out of context, it’s an utterly ridiculous sight to behold, and seeing it animated will make it even funnier out of context.

6. The Insanity That Is Heavy Weather

One of the supporting characters of Stone Ocean is an amnesiac man named Weather Report who possesses a Stand of the same name that, very appropriately, lets him control the weather in various ways.

Late into the series, he takes it a step further with Heavy Weather, an ability that creates rainbows that use subliminal messages to transform anyone who looks at them into snails. It is, without a doubt, one of the most insane things to ever happen in the series; if anything truly encapsulates the “bizarre” part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, it’s Heavy Weather, and seeing it in animation will truly be a sight to behold.

7. Bohemian Rhapsody

Speaking of crazy story arcs and Stand abilities, another one that stands out in Stone Ocean is the Bohemian Rhapsody arc. The titular Stand has the power to bring fictional characters and pictures to life, and the arc sees the heroes and various background characters having to deal with lots of fictional characters ingrained into pop culture, some being in fair use like Pinocchio and the Seven Dwarves, and others not being completely copyright-friendly like Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse; the arc even opens with one of the characters repeatedly talking about Disney World.

It’s certainly a bizarre story arc, but the reason it’s stuck with people for so long, especially after the series started getting animated, was because of how much of a legal nightmare it would be to animate for obvious reasons, so seeing how the anime handles the legal issues of Bohemian Rhapsody could be enough reason to be excited for it, in and of itself.

8. More Classic JoJo Homosexual Subtext

As previously stated, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is famous for its cast of muscular and flamboyant men and the vaguely homoerotic subtext that often exists between them, and Stone Ocean is hardly an outlier in that regard. The major difference here is that the homoerotic subtext is found between the female characters as opposed to the male characters, with Jolyne even being heavily implied to not be completely straight, herself, and there’s also the rather famous way that Pucci’s relationship with recurring antagonist DIO is depicted in various flashbacks.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has attracted an LGBT fanbase since before it even became animated, and with Stone Ocean, there’s finally a chance for female representation in that regard; a solid win for everyone.

9. The Conclusion to the Struggles of the Joestar Family

While Stone Ocean isn’t the end of the franchise, the manga still running for eighteen years and counting after Stone Ocean’s ending, part six does end with the conclusion of the Joestar family’s constant battle against the forces of evil.

The exact nature of the conclusion has been a noteworthy topic of discussion within the fandom for years, even reaching into other anime fandoms for its notoriety, but regardless of how one feels about it, it’s undeniable that it perfectly captures the bittersweet taste of victory and triumph of the human spirit that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has always been about. It’s hard to imagine the hundred-year struggle of the Joestar family coming to a better sort of conclusion, and now that Stone Ocean is being animated, there’ll be the perfect way to experience it all.

All in all, there’s a lot to be excited for with Stone Ocean getting its own anime soon. Between the characters, the drama, and the all-around bizarre events that surround them, the series definitely earns its place within the wider JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise. Once the anime finally comes out, there’ll hopefully be a lot more people who come to that same conclusion.