JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E22 Review: HALLELUJAH DIO!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 22: Time for Heaven! New Moon! New Priest!

We start off with a flashback of Dio and Pucci in bed, reading books, and this is perhaps the most introspective we've ever seen Dio Brando in any of the three parts that he has a major role in. Dio talks about the pieces of artwork on the Louvre, immortal pieces like Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo, and notes that the impressive thing isn't the number of people that come to view those pieces of art, but rather that these artists could 'shape their souls' into something visible, and Dio likens it to a power like a Stand which can transcend time. Unlike his more manic, world-ruling mentality in Part III, Dio here is pretty vulnerable and very introspective. Obviously the real world reason is that Part VI was written way after Part III, but it is rather possible that Dio just regressed into bad habits since all these flashbacks in Part VI all could be surmised to have happened prior to all the events that we see in Part III... and maybe seeing Joseph and Jotaro ended up awakening the bloodlust and the single-minded obsession with the Joestar bloodline. Because in all these flashbacks of Dio and Pucci, Dio's pretty obsessed with reaching heaven and seeing what transcends humanity. 

In a neat sequence that really shows Enrico Pucci's personality, Dio actually confronts Pucci, asking him if he would betray him. Considering the kind of people Dio surrounded himself with in Part III, it's a fair enough assumption... though presumably Dio didn't use one of those brain-control tumour things on Pucci. Dio even grabs Pucci's hand close enough to his forehead that The World's Disc has manifested... but Pucci remains absolutely loyal, reaffirming his fanaticism to Dio. Dio apologies, but is satisfied -- he is looking for someone who puts him truly at ease, who he can be sure will be loyal to Dio's ambitions and not be distracted by any other thing. 

We then get the revelation of where Pucci got the mysterious bone of Dio when he disintegrated at the end of Part III -- Dio actually tore out a small bone from his body, leaving it to Pucci and entrusting it to him as a token of apology and promises of power. ...I guess we can chalk up Dio's vampiric physiology for that particular grossness. 

We then cut to the present day, to see the apparent end of Pucci and Whitesnake's fight against Foo Fighters, and it really is pretty epic as Foo Fighters disintegrates, leaving behind her Disc... but it turns out that Foo Fighters did one last thing, which is to pick up a walkie-talkie and contact Weather Report. It does feel like something that would happen at a climax of fighting the villain, especially when comparing Foo Fighter's death to one of the fallen secondary characters from Parts III or V. It's a death that still acts as a defiant final stand (heh) against the main villain. 

...Except Weather Report summons the rain all throughout the area, allowing Foo Fighters to regenerate (what happened to the boiling water Stand, though?) and slither away, creates a giant fog cloud (this ends up being important later!) and also use morse code to communicate Father Pucci's identity to Weather Report. A pretty cool sequence, and for a brief bit, it looks like Foo Fighters might have made good her escape. 

Jolyne and Anasui, meanwhile, arrive from their little encounter with the Green Baby, and we get a brief moment where Anasui kind of confesses that he wants to be with Jolyne because she gives him hope and whatnot. Again, JoJo has never been a manga big on romance, but Jolyne and Anasui always felt one-sided and forced to me. Thankfully, Green Baby interrupts the whole sequence, eating Anasui's hair. And then Foo Fighters and someone who appears to be Weather Report. Foo Fighters heals the damage done to Jolyne's eye by Yo-Yo Ma and reveals Pucci's identity as Whitesnake's user. 

It all seems like it's going to be the wrap-up of the fight, with the heroes catching up and Anasui going into his typical 'jealous clingy quasi-boyfriend-wannabe' routine, getting pissed off at Jolyne talking to Weather Report and telling Foo Fighters to separate the two of them. 

Then Anasui talks about killing the Green Baby before it attacks them again, and we get a really good back and forth as Anasui rants about how the Green Baby is a non-human abomination born out of weird zombie/plant/Stand/bone shenanigans, but then it's not really clear how much of it is just Anasui being mean to Foo Fighters for the slight of not wanting to separate Jolyne and Weather. Foo Fighters, a colony of plankton given life by a Stand, protests at Anasui's very rigid definition of life, and as the two bring Weather into the argument...

And then suddenly hand through Anasui's chest! 

And then Foo Fighters' head gets crushed, and her Disc gets stolen!

And then Jolyne's gut and arm gets ripped apart!

We get the revelation that what is actually "Weather" is actually Whitesnake in disguise, having made use of the fog to impersonate Weather and fool poor Foo Fighters. Presumably, Whitesnake disguises himself as another human with one of the Discs under its power, but there's another reason that makes this disguise so effective. Father Pucci also finally steps into the battlefield himself, revealing that the need for secrecy is over, and he starts to walk towards the Green Baby, noting that it's the way to 'heaven'. HALLELUJAH DIO!

But Jolyne resists. Of course she does. She summons Stone Free to reattach her arm and create a handcuff that locks her in place with Pucci. After spending the last couple of arcs alternating between being a commentator and someone to be protected, it's cool to finally see our protagonist do something cool. Jolyne counts down three things that she will take from Pucci -- her father's memory Disc, Foo Fighters' Disc, and Pucci's life. 

The fight isn't as over-the-top as some confrontations between the main character and the main villain, but the close-quarters fight between Jolyne and Pucci, summoning their Stands in-between clashes, is definitely pretty well-choreographed.

There's a pretty cool exchange of blows, before Pucci tries to abuse Whitesnake's ability to rip out someone's Stand powers by swiping their disc, but Jolyne just adamantly pushes forwards, wanting to deliver a single blow. Pucci rants about some species of bird that sometimes fly into sheer cliffs because they are never taught their limits, which provokes Jolyne into a punch barrage. However, Pucci manages to use a small cross he keeps under his fingernail to knock Jolyne's Disc out. Pucci thinks he's won, but then Stone Free just ORA ORA ORA ORA barrages him and Pucci realizes it's instinct. 

At the brink of defeat, Pucci tosses Jotaro's memory Disc and chucks it into the dying Anasui. Pucci then gives Jolyne a bit of a sadistic choice. Retrieve Jotaro's memory disc before Anasui dies (and the memory along with it), or finish him off. Despite a brief barrage of punches, Jolyne ultimately runs towards Anasui... leaving Pucci to walk and approach the Green Baby.

Fourteen words are recited, and Pucci remarks how other conditions have been satisfied. Whitesnake punches through Pucci's hand to extract a small bone... and the baby grows fangs and cause the flesh in Pucci's arm to explode. Pucci and the Green Baby disappear behind a bush as Pucci is ecstatic, declaring that he's "entering Dio's world". It really did feel like the Green Baby is going to completely tear apart Pucci and kill him, and I think I remembered reading this and thinking exactly that -- that Pucci is going to be replaced by the adult form of the Green Baby as the final villain of the Part... but it's rather the other way around. We don't get to see what exactly happens to Pucci in this episode, though. 

The rest of the episode is Foo Fighters' death. And credit where credit is due, while Jolyne is trying to stitch and rescue Anasui in desperation, Anasui ends up summoning Diver Down towards the puddle where the final planktons of Foo Fighters remain alive, even telling Foo Fighters to take over his body. Jolyne even sees a soul coming out of Anasui's body (something that's a bit more consistent with Parts IV-V thanks to the anime) and panics... but it turns out to be Foo Fighters' soul, who has merged with Anasui but relinquishes control of Anasui's body to him. F.F. notes that she's too damaged in death, and even if Jolyne recovers the Foo Fighters Disc, it wouldn't "be the same Foo Fighters". F.F.'s spirit has a brief conversation with Jolyne and she ascends, while Jolyne screams in despair. 

...a bit of a cop-out? I guess. Anasui does grow on me a bit more in the rest of the series, I would admit, but I did feel like the rather long conversation between the dying Anasui and F.F., as well as F.F.'s ghost/spirit talking to Jolyne, played out for a bit too long. I felt that logically, F.F. piloting Anasui's body would fit more with the established powers of F.F., whereas this 'I choose his soul to live' instead of the two of them surviving feeling somewhat forced. I do like the conversation on what counts as a human or not, though, and the chaotic fight leading to Jolyne and Pucci having a one-on-one fight to be pretty cool. 

Regardless, while we do have the Jail House Lock two-parter to close out the second cour of Stone Ocean, it's a pretty epic and cinematic showdown that's pretty well executed. 

Random Notes: 

• Spiral staircase. Rhinoceros beetle. Desolation Row. Fig tart. Rhinoceros beetle. Via Dolorosa. Rhinoceros beetle. Singularity point. Giotto. Angel. Hydrangea. Rhinoceros beetle. Singularity point. Secret emperor.
  
• I love that out of everything in the ominous, religious sounding stuff that Dio engraved into his bone/Stand/soul, rhinoceros beetle, the kabutomushi, is the one repeated not once, not twice, but a total of four times.
• We never get explained what the significance of these words beyond it being the password to get around the Green Baby's Stand, which means that Dio, I guess, knew to some point what was going to happen with the Green Baby? A bit of a far stretch, honestly, and just how much of the events surrounding the Green Baby and its 'evolutions' is something that Pucci and/or Dio have guessed or planned out is easily something that stretches the suspension of disbelief and probably my least favourite part of Stone Ocean. 
• While we get to see Dio and Pucci in bed, with Dio being half-naked, and they are pretty touchy-feely, Dio did emphasize that he wanted a man who has no desires, including sexual ones. Pucci would totally bang Dio if not for his status as a priest... though I guess Pucci views Dio more as a substitute for God rather than a lover or a leader. 
• They cut out the reference about Dio watching a Michael Jackson concert... which might just be regular copyright stuff, but I keep forgetting that Stone Ocean takes place in 2011 (thanks to a lot of the anachronisms and technology that's still stuck in the 90's) and by in real life, Michael Jackson passed away in 2009.  
• Very fortunate, by the way, that Foo Fighters lasted long enough to heal Jolyne's eyeball that was turned into liquified goop by Yo-Yo Ma. It is rather stretching the suspension of disbelief of 'plankton can replace tissue and hold them together' when it's an eyeball, but at this point are you really going to argue with the logic of this series? 
• They also cut out the scene where Pucci talks about putting a cross under his fingernail, and explaining that it increases his range.