JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 ストーンオーシャン) is the fifth season of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime television series by David Production, adapting Stone Ocean, the sixth part of Hirohiko Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga. The first twelve episodes of Stone Ocean were initially released worldwide as part of an original net animation season on Netflix on December 1, 2021, before its scheduled airing on Japanese television in January 2022; the next twelve episodes released worldwide on September 1, 2022, and the final fourteen episodes were released on December 1 of the same year. Viz Media licensed the home video rights in North America.

Plot
Set in 2011 in the United States, Jolyne Cujoh is sentenced to 15 years in prison after being involved in a car accident and framed for the vehicular manslaughter of a pedestrian. She is imprisoned at Green Dolphin Street Prison near Port St. Lucie, Florida, nicknamed the "Aquarium". Her father, Jotaro Kujo, gives her a pendant that causes her to awaken a Stand. Following a series of inexplicable events, Jotaro informs his daughter that a disciple of Dio framed her in order to kill her in prison. Jotaro attempts to break her out, but the frame-up is revealed to be a trap for Jotaro; following a confrontation against a Stand named Whitesnake, Jotaro's memories and Stand are stolen, putting him in a medically unresponsive state.

With Jolyne's new resolve of wanting to save her father, she swears to find the culprit hiding within the prison. Jolyne assembles a gang of fellow inmates, including Narciso Anasui, a convicted murderer; Ermes Costello, who wants to locate her sister's killer at Green Dolphin Street; and Weather Report, an amnesiac inmate. The gang also includes Emporio Alnino, a boy born within the prison whose mother was killed, and Foo Fighters, a sentient colony of plankton possessing a dead inmate. Jolyne recovers Jotaro's Stand and memories, and discovers that Whitesnake's user is the prison chaplain, Enrico Pucci; she manages to escape in pursuit of him.

At Cape Canaveral, Pucci follows the instructions in Dio's diary to achieve Heaven, evolving his Stand Whitesnake into C-Moon, with the ability to control gravity, and ultimately Made in Heaven, which gives him superhuman speed and accelerates time with the exception of living beings. Pucci intends to bring humanity into the next cycle of time by accelerating time beyond the end of the universe, which will cause humanity to subconsciously know their fates. Using Made in Heaven, he kills off Jolyne's group one-by-one. However, their sacrifices allow Emporio to survive long enough for Pucci to accidentally grant him Weather Report's eponymous Stand. He is then killed by Emporio, using Weather Report to immobilize Pucci through oxygen poisoning before finishing him off. After the universe reaches its end and begins anew, Emporio meets reincarnations of the rest of the cast, now living different but happier lives.

Production and release
The series was announced during a live-streamed event in April 2021. Like all previous parts, Stone Ocean is produced by Warner Bros. Japan and animated by David Production. The season ran for 38 episodes.

In August 2021, the first trailer was released during a Stone Ocean YouTube event, with a worldwide release on Netflix on December 1, 2021, with the first 12 episodes. In Japan, the series is also televised on Tokyo MX, BS11 and MBS starting a month later on January 8, 2022, with Animax following on January 22. Composer Yugo Kanno returned from previous seasons. Episodes 13–24 began streaming on Netflix worldwide on September 1, 2022; episodes 25–38 premiered on December 1 of the same year. The opening theme from episodes 1–24 is "Stone Ocean" by Ichigo from Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets, while the opening theme for episodes 25–38 is "Heaven’s falling down" by Sana from Sajou no Hana. With the exception of episode 38, the ending theme for the entire anime is "Distant Dreamer" by Duffy. Episode 38's ending theme is "Roundabout" by Yes, which was originally the ending theme for season 1.

Reception
Stone Ocean's first twelve episodes premiered as the most watched title on Netflix among Japanese viewers, and the sixth most among American viewers.