As of December 1st 2022, the final batch of episodes for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean have been released. With this batch, the 6th part of the Jojo story has finally been fully animated, bringing with it one of the more confusing and controversial endings in the series.
Stone Ocean acts as a sort of ending for Jojo as it has been up until this point. As such, its ending simultaneously calls back to the past, while doing its own unique thing. Series creator Hirohiko Araki is also on record saying that he wanted Stone Ocean to end in a definitive way, that could not allow for any continuations of its story. So what actually happened in the last few episodes, and what does it mean for the series going forward?
How Things Transpired
The final batch of episodes starts off with Jolyne and friends finally breaking out of Green Dolphin Street prison to pursue Pucci in his newly upgraded form. Unfortunately for them, he manages to ally with 3 new stand users, who all turn out to be sons of Dio Brando. Even after they get through these obstacles however, another hurdle is created when Weather Report regains his memories, thus reactivating his stand’s strongest ability, 'heavy weather' which begins turning everyone who looks at his rainbows into snails. Even this is unable to stop Pucci however, who kills Weather Report and escapes. However, Weather does manage to leave behind his stand disk, which will be important later.
Pucci then makes his way to the Kennedy Space Center, a location with low enough gravity that during the next new moon, his stand will be able to reach its final form. Once there, his stand ‘White Snake’ transforms into ‘C-Moon’, giving it the ability to alter gravity itself. This results in gravity around the Space Center shifting so that all cars approaching it start falling away from it, as though they were driving up a wall. Jolyne and Anasui, though, are still able to climb to the Space Center using their stands.
Once there though, a fight with Pucci ensues, in which Jolyne, Anasui and Emporio are nearly killed. Just before Pucci can finish off Jolyne though, Jotaro and Hermes appear to offer backup. Pushed to the brink of defeat, Pucci realizes he doesn’t need to wait for the new moon, and can simply find a point in the sky where the gravitational force is comparable to the new moon’s. Upon reaching this spot, his stand undergoes another evolution, turning into ‘Made in Heaven’.
Using this new stand’s ability to speed up the flow of time, Pucci is able to defeat everyone, save Emporio, who is rescued by Jolyne. Emporio is forced to witness the universe itself collapse, before waking up back in the prison, where Pucci comes to finish him off. Luckily though, he manages to get Pucci to insert Weather Report’s stand into him, and with the lingering will of its master, the stand kills Pucci, sending Emporio into yet another new universe. In this universe, he meets his deceased allies, now with different names and different lives than they had when he met them.
Pucci's Plan
As opposed to someone like Yoshikage Kira, Pucci’s goals are quite complicated. He is working off theories and ideologies about “heaven” created by Dio, who was unable to make use of them before his death. Ultimately, though, Pucci’s desires are somewhat different from Dio’s, even though he doesn’t fully understand it. Informed by the tragic death of his sister, Pucci believes that one of humanity’s biggest issues is the inability to know what happens in the future. He believes that a perfect world (heaven) is one where everyone knows their fates and can prepare for them accordingly.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to see Dio’s final strategy for reaching heaven. The only person who did was Jotaro. Hence why Pucci orchestrated Jolyne’s incarceration to begin with. After stealing and reading Jotaro’s memories, Pucci was able to discover the path to reaching heaven. Using ‘Made in Heaven’, he planned to fast forward time itself till the end of the universe and the birth of a new one. Since every living thing that was alive at the point of this reset was carried over to the new universe, they would then have some knowledge of their fates. However, Pucci would need to cycle back to the point where he first got Made in Heaven to complete the loop and achieve his dream.
The New Universes
The most confusing parts of the ending are likely the new universes. As stated earlier, Pucci had to complete an entire loop to finish his plan. However, he was unsure what Emporio would do once they reached the Space Center again. So, he stopped the acceleration of time at a point where Emporio was in the prison and would be more restricted in his options. This is why the final confrontation takes place in the prison.
Once he was defeated however, the loop was still incomplete, and so Pucci’s heaven could not be achieved. Instead, everything was placed into a new universe, without the influence of Pucci. It is this new universe where Emporio meets Irene, and other alternate versions of the Stone Ocean cast. It is unknown what the history of this universe is, but it seems like unlike Jolyne, Irene isn’t a Joestar, and thus has gotten to live a more peaceful life.
Despite being very different people and meeting under different circumstances though, it turns out that the Stone Ocean crew are destined to meet each other, even if it’s at the side of the road.
This ending basically erases the original Jojo continuity from existence, meaning that no further parts can follow it. As such, there will be no future children of Jolyne, Josuke, or Giorno to take over the protagonist's role. Instead, Jojo part 7 begins a new continuity, remixing familiar elements for the series, while adding plenty of new aspects of its own. However, the universe of part 7 and beyond are not the same universe that part 6 ends in. While this is somewhat bittersweet, part 7, Steel Ball Run is one of the most acclaimed Jojo parts, and is poised to be even more loved when it’s finally animated.