Series Title– Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part 1

MPAA Rating– TV-MA

Our Rating: A+

Set in the sunny state of Florida, Netflix has once again adapted part of Hirohiko Araki’s manga series “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” with the sixth story arc titled “Stone Ocean.” The story follows the titular Jojo of the arc, Jolyne Cujoh, who must survive Green Dolphin State Prison after being framed for murder. However, Cujoh soon finds herself immersed in the plot of Enrico Pucci, the story’s main antagonist, as he attempts to reach heaven.

In recent times, Netflix has been seen as unreliable when it comes to producing anime with the disappointing adaptations of shows such as “Seven Deadly Sins,” “Record of Ragnarok” and “The Promised Neverland”. However, Netflix has demonstrated its reliability by adapting Araki’s series as “Stone Ocean” adds to the success of the previous Jojo installments, which all garnered worldwide recognition.

“I have been a fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure since I watched it nearly two years ago. I was excited to hear that Stone Ocean was going to be animated and am extremely happy with the work that Netflix has done in continuing one of my favorite shows,” senior Austin Schulte said.

The quality of Stone Ocean’s animation and artwork is evident from the very first scene. With it’s bright and vivid colors, “Stone Ocean” captures the attention of the viewer while cultivating the essence of what makes Araki’s artwork so enjoyable. The animation of “Stone Ocean” is undoubtedly the best among all the Jojo’s installments and perfectly brings to life the static scenes of the “Stone Ocean” manga.

Another stellar technical component of the “Stone Ocean” anime is their choice in voice acting. It is almost as if the characters have voices of their own as the voice actors perfectly capture the attitudes of the characters written by Araki.

It can safely be said that Netflix made all the right choices when bridging the gap between Araki’s written manga and the anime adaptation.

“I started reading the Stone Ocean manga before the adaptation was released and feel that Netflix did a good job in its adaptation. Netflix remained faithful to the source material and their focus on bringing Araki’s vision to screens definitely succeeded,” senior Angel Cardona said.

Besides the technical components of Netflix’s adaptation, the narrative of “Stone Ocean” is also worthy of praise. The story immediately draws the viewer in with an immediate conflict as the protagonist Jolyne must combat a sentence of 15 years in prison. The story then follows Jolyne as she traverses through the unknown environment of Green Dolphin state prison, interacts with the unique characters that cause constant conflict and becomes immersed in the Prison priest Enrico Pucci’s plot to reach Heaven on Earth, spelling doom for the protagonists of the story.

Netflix deserves all the praise they are receiving for their work on “Stone Ocean”. They have remained consistent in adapting Araki’s works into masterful shows and cemented themselves as the frontrunner studio for adapting Araki’s remaining Jojo’s story arcs yet to be animated.