English Dub Season Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part One

Based on the ongoing manga series by Hirohiko Araki, Season 5 which is technically the 6th part of this story takes place in Florida, 2011, Where Jolyne Cujo sits in a jail cell that symbolically mirrors her estranged father Jotaro from the Beginning of Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, yet this situation is not of her own choice. Framed for a crime she didn’t commit and manipulated into serving a longer sentence, Jolyne is ready to resign to a dire fate as a prisoner of Green Dolphin Street Jail. Though all hope seems lost, a gift from Jotaro ends up awakening her latent abilities, manifesting into her Stand she calls “Stone Ocean”. Now armed with the power to change her fate, Jolyne sets out to find an escape from the cruel fate that holds her.

However, Jolyne soon discovers that her incarceration is merely a small part of a grand plot: one that not only takes aim at her family but has additional far-reaching consequences. What’s more, the mastermind is lurking within the very same prison and is under the protection of a lineup of menacing Stand users. Finding unlikely allies to help her cause, Jolyne sets a course to stop their plot, clear her name, and take back her life…

On the technical side, David Production properly replicates Araki’s art style and manic energy while keeping things consistently wacky, colorful, and occasionally horrifying but doesn’t forget to raise the stakes on a narrative scale when necessary. The English Dub voice acting is also superb with Kira Buckland voicing Joylene who has gone on record wanting to voice the character for 8 years since the Jojo Franchise started its Anime adaptation, while another standout is Tiana Camacho as Ermes Costello, Of course, we can’t forget Matthew Mercer who famously voiced Jotaro in previous seasons and stays consistently good with what he’s given.

The music composer Yugo Kanno returns from previous seasons. However the opening theme “Stone Ocean” was done by Ichigo from Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets of “Highschool of the Dead” fame, while the ending theme is “Distant Dreamer” by Duffy that both serve as the music for the first half of this storyline.

In terms of character designs, they also remain as colorful as ever with unique designs all around which is a bit weird for a prison setting in Florida of all places. Joylene’s design is also a bit influential as it may have Inspired the design of Juri-Han in Super Street Fighter 4, along with Billie Eilish’s look a couple of years back during a live performance on SNL.

Overall, this was a great introduction to the new characters while firmly establishing itself within the lore of past seasons. The only ones who might be lost are people who haven’t followed the previous seasons to Connect the narrative dots as it rewards those who have followed the series since the beginning. It’s also the first time David Production has Teamed up with Netflix to make this particular adaptation possible. Sadly as a manga reader, this is incomplete given that the first 12 episodes only cover 50 chapters of this particular arc while the rest of this storyline spans 158 chapters meaning there will be lots of ground to cover in a couple of years if David Production finishes the rest of this particular storyline with part two as I’m left wanting more…