I'm leaving the Story part to the end.
Art (9/10)
What can I say? It's just good. Araki improved his drawing skills a lot through the years and this part proves it. Also, the character design is crazy as ever, you can see it specially in Jotaro, Jolyne and Pucci.
Character (5/10)
If you read my other reviews, something I always criticize is a bad protagonist. Being the main lead of the story, him/her being hateful and useless harms it a lot of ways, and that's what takes me away from anime like Evangelion. This doesn't happen in Stone Ocean. The protagonist is one of the best and she is the first in the series to have a real development as you see her growing from a moody teen to a badass woman. Her stand is weaker than previous ones, but she's smart enough to use it well, and I like it's a realistic smartness, she's not an edgy 15-year-old humanized wikipedia or something. Being that good, it's hard to believe she belongs to this part. Unfortunately.
With a female lead in a female prison, it's hard to believe this part only has three girls on the main group (remember Vento Aureo when they had literally one female character in the entire part?), but both Hermes and FF are good. However, Hermes' disappearence after she defeats Maxx feels longer than Kakyoin's, was it like 2/3 of the part? Because of that, she unfortunately ends being the second most forgettable JoBro. We have female villains and that's great, yet female representation continues to be an issue in this series, like the fact that Jolyne's mother doesn't even have a name.
Annasui has a few plotholes in his story but I like him, he has a fun personality and is a good character. But one of the reasons I'm giving this section a 5 is because of the homophobic retcon made by Shounen Jump to change his gender to male so Jolyne wouldn't have a female love interest. It's good that Araki left the magazine after this part ended. As for the others, Weather is good, Jotaro might be his best self in this part, and I'll get to Emporio in the end.
The main villain of this part, Pucci, might be the worst character, probably in all of the series. In part 5 I criticized Diavolo for being a bad version of Dio, and now I could say Pucci is just another Vanilla Ice, a villain we know only for being devoted to Dio, and Pucci is basically that. We have his backstory, but in the end everything revolves around Dio. His reason for defeating the Joestars? Dio. His main goal of retrieving Jonathan's last bone? To bring Dio back. His reason for resetting the world? Also Dio. Didn't we have enough villains like this in part 3?
Talking about Dio, I really liked his sons. Ungalo, Rykiel and specially Donatello had amazing stands and reasonable personalities. Being linked to Pucci, they really feel connected to Dio and a part of JoJo's in general.
Another character mistreated in this part was Jonathan Joestar. Being dead since part 1, a part of his body, who Dio stole, appears here as "Dio's bone". Also his sons.
Enjoyment (4/10)
This part is good, mostly. Most villains may be forgettable, but the fights are great. But yeah, if you care about the series as a whole, you will probably hate it.
Story (1/10)
Stone Ocean had potential to be great. Most of the story is good, but things get worse and worse after the Underworld arc. In the end, Pucci just kills everyone and resets the universe, then Emporio kills him and resets the universe again, we see Irene and it ends there.
There are various reasons why I think this ending is the worst possible one. And remember, it's just my opinion. Here they are:
a) Pucci
As I said, Pucci is just an edgy version of a generic part 3 villain who was granted an absurd amount of power. What he has in power and number of stands he lacks in personality. A villain finally defeats the protagonist for the first time since part 1, and it's fucking Pucci. He doesn't even try to be reasonable like part 7's villain or part 5's antihero Risotto Nero, nor he is likeable like Kira, he is just trash.
b) Giorno
Why did Pucci encountered Donatello, Rykiel and Ungalo at the same place at the same time? Because they were Dio's sons, and it was bonded by "fate". So, if Giorno is also a son of Dio, shouldn't he be with them? Well, he isn't. He is nowhere to be seen in this whole part.
c) Requiem stuff
Others say Giorno wasn't in this part because Gold Experience Requiem would've defeated Made in Heaven, but are you sure about that? I mean, the requiem ability fulfills the user's last wish, and Giorno gained the power to defeat Diavolo. And may I state, Made in Heaven is THOUSANDS stronger than King Crimson. So he wasn't there just because Araki gave up on him rushing part 5's ending and don't know how requiem works.
Talking about requiem, it's not mentioned ever again. Polnareff knew about it in part 5, so why wouldn't Jotaro?
d) This is the end of the original universe
As you probably know, part 7 and 8 are in a different universe because the previous one ends in this part. Yet, this ending doesn't end the world where we spent almost 2/3 of the series properly. Joseph Joestar was confirmed by the author of still being alive in part 6, yet we don't see him again. Nor Josuke and every character who was still alive. The universe ends and they just die "off-camera", not even being mentioned, treated like they don't exist. Why wouldn't Josuke be called by Jotaro to help in the final fight, for instance?
e) Emporio
Emporio was an ok character but his story took a stupid turn in the end. Everything of it feels forced. It's so random that he got to be the only creature in the universe who survived, and also the one who confronted Pucci in the end. It's weird, because he was never a protagonist nor a focus-character in this part. He was just there.
What makes it even worse is that Pucci actually lost to him, after having defeated the power of Stone Free, Star Platinum, Kiss and Diver Down combined. You could say Emporio won because he had Weather Report's disc, but remember that Pucci and Weather had a fight before, and Pucci won with Whitesnake? And now, with Made in Heaven, he should have easily won, not dying instantly.
If it was Jolyne in Emporio's place, it would've been better. I'm not saying this because I like Jolyne but because it would make SENSE. Imagine if in part 4 it ended with Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi, Rohan and Jotaro all dying to Kira and Hayato being the one alive to beat him at the end? It's basically the same, besides, of course, Hayato being a smart and very useful character with personality, the opposite of Emporio.
f) Dio, the philosopher
Dio was presented here as a guide, a mentor to Pucci. They work together to achieve heaven, an ultimate goal that Dio "always" had in mind since they met.
This fails because we know Dio from parts 1 and 3. He is not a philosopher nor a genius, being a stupid and arrogant villain who sees himself as smart was always the base of his character. He never had any complex plan and his only goal was world domination by using his powers. Dio being shallow doesn't make him a bad character, but the fact that he is overused in JoJo's, here playing a role that make no sense for him.
Overall (3/10)
This part had some good stuff, and generally I would say it's better than part 5 and 8. I loved Jolyne and Jotaro, I liked some other characters and Bohemian Rhapsody arc was amazing. But, as for all I have said, this part is terrible. You may like it like a lot of people do, yet I feel like it's the worst ending in JoJo's.
