JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E38 Review: End of The World

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 38: It's A Wonderful World

And so we begin the final episode of Stone Ocean covering the results of the cliffhanger. 

It's very convenient that Made in Heaven also makes brand-new clothes for all the people there, huh? Emporio dresses himself after witnessing some guards and prisoners do the same, before peeking into the visitation room. He hears Jolyne and Jotaro's voices... only to see people that are not exactly them. These doppelgangers dress differently and have a lumpy face in the case of Jotaro's. 

Father Pucci then arrives, explaining that they are back in November 30, 2011, which would be the time that the Manhattan Transfer fight happens. Pucci gives Emporio the explanation to what happened with Made in Heaven -- time did not rewind, but accelerated so fast that the universe ended, was reborn, and accelerated again to 2011. All the people from the 'pervious universe' were brought into this new one by Made in Heaven's power... but all the ones that died did not exist. However, Emporio still managed to escape Pucci's effect, and he summons Made in Heaven to attack.

Emporio flees to the ghost room, which he can still access with his Stand, and Emporio notices that some things happened the way they did before, despite this being with doppelgangers. The fake Jotaro and fake Jolyne still escape the room, and Emporio sees two guards tripping as they did before. Pucci gives a speech about how this is fate, this is pre-destination, and that is the destiny of everyone that was 'made in heaven'. I don't think the anime states exactly how it works, but basically Pucci's the only one that can 'alter' destiny thanks to being the owner of Made in Heaven. 

It's a concept that I think the climax of JoJolion honestly does a bit better, but basically fate is 'forcing' certain things to happen in that way. Emporio tries to avoid his destiny of running into the ghost room, but a series of comical incidents that involves a mop, a trip and a stair causes him to fall into the ghost room either. 

Pucci, meanwhile, briefly contemplates sparing Emporio, before deciding to finish him off. We do get a bit of a motive rant here, where Pucci talks about how humanity will now be aware of their future mistakes, and can have 'happiness' knowing that fate is inescapable... or, well, if Pucci can change fate to suit his own whims, anyway. 

Admittedly, if you do sit and break down the themes of this climax, there are some neat callbacks to stuff like how the Joestar family is always destined to fight Dio's evil. How Pucci technically represents the successor of Dio, and Emporio represents the successor of the Joestars, without either of them being blood-related to either party. The fact that this 'inherited will' (to borrow a term from One Piece) is fighting each other to overcome fate itself. 

But it's just that the way it's presented here, with Emporio trying to run away from Pucci while Pucci gives exposition about his grand plan for the world... it's just not the most exciting. Unable to do actions that change the predestined fate, Emporio tricks Pucci into punching him in the face, inserting the Weather Report Stand Disc from several episodes ago into his head. And now, Emporio also exists outside of the 'fate' of the original universe. 

There is a nice bit of talk from Pucci about how Emporio doesn't know how to use Weather Report's Stand, which is not the easiest to use, but then Pucci begins to see that his veins are bulging, while Emporio bleeds through his eyes. Emporio gives a speech about oxygen -- one final JoJo fun fact speech before we close this chapter -- and how oxygen, in its purest form, is toxic to living organisms. At this point, Pucci panics, talking about how in this universe, Made in Heaven is still incomplete since they haven't reached Cape Canaveral, and with his accomplishments reversed, no one will be able to read the future and prepare for it. 

However, Emporio uses Weather Report to bash Pucci's face into the floor in a rather satisfying sequence, and we get a punch barrage... and then Pucci gets killed and everyone is sucked into the singularity again. Emporio talks about how his allies had all used their resolve to lead Emporio into where he is into the new universe, and how justice is fate and all that, telling Pucci that he was the unprepared one after all. 

Unable to complete the loop and go to Cape Canaveral again, Pucci dies screaming while the iconic Jotaro theme plays in the background... 

And Emporio appears in a gas station. It's a bit hard to follow what's going on, and I've only honestly understood this part of the story after seeing someone else explain it to me, but essentially, Pucci's Made in Heaven universe disappears, and Emporio gets returned to an altered version of the original universe. Again, despite what I thought for years, this universe reset isn't the Part VII Steel Ball Run universe... though it's honestly not too hard to guess that considering context clues.

Anyway, Emporio gets to see some familiar-but-altered people, who look similar to Jolyne, Anasui and Ermes. "Irene" and "Anakiss" are driving across the country to ask Irene's father for his blessing in their marriage, and Emporio basically realizes that this is a version of the world where his friends didn't have to suffer through the bloody battles. Emporio, crying, joins into the car and hops in for a ride, somehow reunited with his comrades and friends despite the new universe. As they drive off, they pick a Weather lookalike, and as they drive off silhouettes of the original Stone Ocean characters are shown in the distance. 

And... yeah. Honestly, not the most exciting conclusion to the original continuity of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I mean, it sure is a weird story, it sure is a weird ending, and... again, it's not that the Part is 'incoherent', like some people complained. The better translations have really gone a long way into me finally understanding Stone Ocean's climax, but as an action manga's conclusion, I do really think that the ending here feels lacking, really. And I really do feel bad -- the anime has done a great job at making me like Part IV and V of JoJo, which I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of, but while I've gained a fair amount of appreciation for Stone Ocean... I still don't think I'm the biggest fan of its ending. Honestly, it's different from the obvious ending of Jolyne fixes everything by punching Pucci really hard. Sure. But I dunno. It sure is a bizarre ending for sure, and honestly there's enough room to even say that Emporio simply stumbled onto a different universe with doppelgangers. I dunno. The idea of a cosmic retcon isn't the most appealing story explanation to me, and the fact that Part VII doesn't elaborate on this and is actually just a straight-up hard reboot kind of makes me feel like this climax is a fair bit... contrived. 

It doesn't help, either, that Stone Ocean's anime adaptation wasn't handled quite as well as the previous two Parts, and especially since Vento Aureo was so well-received all over the world. The staggered Netflix release really did kill all hype for the anime season. Oh well. At least next up we get Steel Ball Run, which is a lot of fun!

Random Notes:

• The episode ends with a version of "Roundabout", the original JoJo ending (which is the tune in those 'To Be Continued' JoJo memes), but with new visuals showing silhouettes of the main casts of of Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable and Vento Aureo, before a shot of the new-universe Stone Ocean characters.
• I guess the idea is to show that in this recreated universe (which is not the Steel Ball Run universe, as Araki stated in interviews) the events of Parts I-V still happened, but Jolyne and her friends are spared from the curse of the Joestar conflict.
• The title of this episode and the arc in the manga it adapts, "What a Wonderful World", takes its name from the Louis Armstrong song of the same name.
  
• Irene's name is actually a reference to one of Araki's older works, Gorgeous Irene. 
• While global happiness for all of mankind in the acceptance of their fate does sound like something that Enrico Pucci would wish for... this is Dio's original 'heaven plan', and I do wonder just how much of this was within Dio's calculations?
• "You've turned your screams into the trumpets of hell!" has to be one of the most metal bad guy fighting boast I've heard.
• So I assume the random civilians that get killed by Made in Heaven's cosmic effect -- like the guy that gets frozen in the meat locker room, or the lady walking the dog -- also doesn't get carried over? Or is Pucci just referencing the people he killed personally?
• While Irene and Anakiss are named in the manga, the new universe's Ermes never gets named. The anime adaptation finally gives her the name of Eldis.
• The ugly Jotaro we see in the Made in Heaven universe is nicknamed "Qtaro" by fans, apparently, after the fake name Jotaro uses in Stardust Crusaders.
• In the manga's version of the ending, Foo Fighters is absent from the montage of characters, and... she's 100% just wiped out from reality, isn't she? That's very, very depressing.