Jojo's Bizarre Threadventure

[TomPen94]

Explain Echoes then.

I've heard "Echo" plenty, but I never heard the plural in a regular sentence. Only as a title, be it as the song's title, or the title for a show or episode.
Which even then should allow it to be used, so meh...

You'd think so, but there are also examples to the contrary which muddy the waters.

One such infamous case

True. Who can really tell the difference. Maybe some of these were changed even though they wouldn't have caused problems and the localization team was just too prissy to test the waters.

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean ep 17: Well now we've reached the point again where powers require several paragraphs worth of exposition to explain and still take some concentration to fully comprehend. I get the Feng Shui part of Dragon's Dream's ability but don't understand how the weird warping limbs thing connects to it. And I guess the "drowning on dry land" trick Kenzo pulled was purely a martial-arts technique and not part of his Stand?

[Mattias]

The way I understand it, the compass points to the lucky direction that basically makes you invincible. But if you come into contact with the stand it will rip off the limb and use it to trigger some Rube Goldberg style deathtrap that will be your worst possible luck. And yeah the drowning thing was just martial arts, since he explained when he first hit FF with it that he can drown someone with just a single drop of sweat, he just needs to time it right.

[RoydGolden]

The way I understand it, the compass points to the lucky direction that basically makes you invincible. But if you come into contact with the stand it will rip off the limb and use it to trigger some Rube Goldberg style deathtrap that will be your worst possible luck. And yeah the drowning thing was just martial arts, since he explained when he first hit FF with it that he can drown someone with just a single drop of sweat, he just needs to time it right.

One thing I don't get is that given the explanation he's actually drowning the opponent in adrenaline from their kidneys, why does he need even a drop of water in that case? It kind of undercuts the whole "drowning on a drop of water" idea if the fluid comes from elsewhere. Also not sure how you'd bloat up even if you did choke on such a small amount of water but that's just Araki!science for you...

[TomPen94]

The idea is that he makes your body react to a single drop of H2O the same way it would react if you were submersed in it. I can't attest how accurlate that is to reality though.

[ResidentSeagull]

I mean let's be real here Araki probably read it in some random pseudoscience magazine and thought it was a cool concept so he put it in without fully understanding it himself.

Not complaining about it, mind you. Stuff like this is why we all love the man.

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 18: Okay, this fight lost me at the end. Kenzo was a pretty repulsive villain already but his bones turning into springs was just something I didn't need to see. That was one of the few things in the series I'd call outright gratuitous. Honestly from the first batch I was ready to call Stone Ocean my favorite part and the Punishment Ward arc started strong, but it's getting to be a slog at this point. This batch in general feels like more straight fighting and less of the goofiness and bizarre character moments that make JoJo so much fun. Combined with the monotonous prison scenery and with two assassins left I'm starting to wonder how long this arc is going to drag on for...

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 19: Feels like the art took a step up for this episode. The shots of people turning into trees were great (I know this might come off as hypocritical given my reaction to the bone-springs above but this was more fantastical than purely grotesque IMO). Anasui is a creeper but his antics provide some much-needed levity given how intense the last few episodes have been. I've heard Yo-Yo Ma is another one of the most loathed Stone Ocean fights so I'll have to see how I find it, but so far having an enemy that acts obnoxiously helpful as a means to lower your guard is an interesting concept that's heightened by Jolyne&co having to actually escort it with them.

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 20: Another great episode. Yo-Yo Ma was such a freaky Stand, constantly "helping" while you slowly melt away. Pucci using Guccio's corpse as a boombox to belt out Handel's Messiah was an epically ridiculous moment that the show really did justice to. Cliffhanger for this ep is Pucci confronting F.F over D&G's body. Given she's the only one he showed himself to, it bodes ominously that he's confident he can eliminate her before anyone else comes...

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 21: Poor F.F, unfortunately having your backstory shown (unless it's your introductory fight) is a death-knell in this series. It was sweet how much she admired Jolyne, considering her the paragon of how a human should act in how her bonds with others form bright memories and thinking of her whenever she needs courage. I don't quite understand the mechanics of Pucci giving her a second disc though, since it's established that an individual can only possess one Stand and discs have to be compatible with the user to be acquired (making it awfully convenient F.F was compatible with the weird boiling water Stand).

Moving onto the latter half of the episode, Green Baby's "fight" is peak JoJo's conceptual weirdness IMO. Little in the way of even violence, just the heroes racing to figure out how to outmaneuver the opponent's bizarre ability. I loved how something as ordinary as the prison fields became like an alien world when even minute crevasses in the ground turned into precipitous valleys.

[Mattias]

Maybe it's because FF isn't that bodies stand, it's an independent stand animating that body through the bloodstream? So FF's in the body, but the body also has it's own stand? Or maybe it's just BS that's in there for tension that will be forgotten after this fight?

[RoydGolden]

Maybe it's because FF isn't that bodies stand, it's an independent stand animating that body through the bloodstream? So FF's in the body, but the body also has it's own stand? Or maybe it's just BS that's in there for tension that will be forgotten after this fight?

That would make some sense, but she'd already left that body after shooting herself in the head. She was using her original Stand form (with a more humanized face to reflect her new mentality, but still definitely not Atroe) by then.

[Mattias]

Had to double check, but you're right. I thought she was still using Atroe's body, but that's probably because she shifted her look to be more like her once the body was gone.

[Skull]

Worth keeping in mind is that “a person can only have one Stand” is not an ironclad rule as one of the first Stand users we see is DIO who through circumstances has a minimum of two Stands. There are other examples (even within Stone Ocean) of a person wielding multiple Stands simultaneously.

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 22: So F.F came back only to die for real, but at least she got a better send-off this time. Can't help but feel her dying for Anasui is trading down, though she was mainly trying to protect Jotaro's memory disc. And credit is due to Anasui for willingly entrusting his life to F.F despite hating her because he recognizes she's important to Jolyne. Guy may be self-absorbed and a yandere, but he was undeniably noble in what he fully believed were his last moments. Not a fan of Whitesnake conveniently having illusion abilities to disguise itself as Weather Report. While it technically has precedent given the illusory goo room it created in its introduction, that in general feels incongruous with its more defined powerset.

The handcuff death-match between Jolyne and Pucci was cool, and another one of Stone Ocean's more kinetic fights. Although I don't understand what Pucci meant when he said Jolyne was sensing his attacks while blinded "through intimidation". Either that's a line which is oddly translated or I'm guessing it was better explained in the manga.

- - - Updated - - -

Worth keeping in mind is that “a person can only have one Stand” is not an ironclad rule as one of the first Stand users we see is DIO who through circumstances has a minimum of two Stands. There are other examples (even within Stone Ocean) of a person wielding multiple Stands simultaneously.

It's also worth noting that when Jolyne tested Jotaro's Stand disc by slotting it into herself, it seemed Star Platinum briefly appeared to throw punches before the disc was ejected (albeit I'm not sure if that was just a visualization of the Stand rebelling against her). So it's possible you can equip multiple and incompatible discs and they'll just last for a very brief time, which fits given F.F only had it for a few moments while accidentally boiling herself in the water.

[RoydGolden]

Stone Ocean 23: Jail House Lock has got to be one of the most terrifying Stands, more than the obviously visceral ones. Its power is basically weaponized dementia, and Jolyne lost two days endlessly repeating her actions before she managed to break out. At this point it looks like the climax to this batch of episodes will be Jolyne escaping prison and the last part of Stone Ocean will be a race across Florida to stop Pucci from obtaining "Heaven".

[RoydGolden]

Finished the second batch of Stone Ocean. This was a satisfying wrap-up to the prison arc. Jolyne using her strings as a 3D-printer to transcribe a photo of Miu Miu from binary so she knew to beat the shit out of her has to be one of the most JoJo's ways of winning a fight ever. Surprised she didn't spring Anasui and Weather out of prison too but I guess the former is still recovering in the medical ward and the latter... isolating in his cell for some reason. Sure we're going to be seeing more of them in the final batch anyways. My only disappointment is they cut the minor manga moment of Jolyne spoiling The Sixth Sense and pissing off the other inmates. That was funny, although I can see DP may've left it out for copyright reasons. All in all looking forward to the last batch!

[Mattias]

Isn't that also the scene where she talks about how hot Brad Pitt is?

[RoydGolden]

Isn't that also the scene where she talks about how hot Brad Pitt is?

I don't recall that. Just that the first movie she watched in the manga was From Hell starring Johnny Depp, who she also called by name. There was also the guard she said looked like Tom Cruise way back on first coming to prison. Otherwise I can't think of any references to Brad Pitt in this story...

[Skull]

New PV complete with ENG subs.