F.F. – The Witness
In the latest installment of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part II, Jolyne, Anastasia, and Yo-Yo Ma flee from the prisoner ward and head into the marshlands. F.F. stays behind and plans to murder D an’ G to get rid of Yo-Yo Ma.
Anastasia stops the boat and gets out. She hears other boats full of guards coming their way. They arrive, and the guards are armed with heavy weapons. The guards heard the commotion and decided to head to the marshlands to investigate. Yo-Yo Ma gets entangled on the throttle lever and causes a stir.
Anastasia rips Yo-Yo Ma out of the lever, but it managed to make ripples in the water. The guards notice the ripples and head toward Jolyne and the crew. Yo-Yo Ma helps the heroes by covering their boats and themselves in leaves to disguise them.
As the guards are about to leave, one of the airboat fans blows their disguises away. Yo-Yo Ma releases a load of mosquitoes from his mouth and plans to sting Jolyne. However, the guards find them and start shooting. The bullets end up damaging their boat’s engine and surface. ..
Anastasia decides to punch Yo-Yo Ma into their boat’s fan. He rebounds from the fan and into one of the guards. This ends up destroying one of the guard’s boats. Anastasia advances toward the other guard’s boat and uses Diver Down to beat up the guards on there. The heroes end up hijacking this boat and escaping.
The trio heads further into the marshlands to escape detection and finally find the time to rest. Anastasia asks Jolyne to stop whistling, but she’s not doing it purposefully. Jolyne tries to speak but can’t. She realizes Yo-Yo Ma somehow attacked her and made holes in her tongue. Jolyne attempts to want Anastasia, but he mistakes her behavior to be flirtatious. She uppercuts him in frustration.
Anastasia is unsure about how Yo-Yo Ma attacks people, but she tries to let him know that it is a threat. She exposes herself to make him see through his tricks. Yo-Yo Ma maintains his humble front to fool her. ..
Jolyne is having a difficult time with her new boss, Anastasia. She notices something wrong with him and starts to question his motives. However, Anastasia manages to prove her accusations to be false.
Jolyne falls to the floor and tells Anastasia through words (made by her thread) to act as her eyes and never look away. Anastasia realizes they’re under attack and advances toward Yo-Yo Ma. Yo-Yo Ma proposes the two engage in a one-on-one fight. Anastasia punches Yo-Yo Ma and kills his next wave of mosquitoes. Jolyne knows that another method is at play but can’t warn Anastasia. ..
Anastasia’s face starts to fill with holes, but he continues to interrogate her and beat her down. He orders Yo-Yo Ma to move closer to the end of the boat as more holes appear on Anastasia’s body. Anastasia stamps on Yo-Yo Ma’s head and tells him to empty his pockets.
He obeys and reveals all his items and critter minions. Yo-Yo Ma confirms Anastasia’s suspicion that he will kill her too, leading Anastasia to chop Yo-Yo Ma’s head with Diver Down.
Jolyne finds out that Yo-Yo Ma has poured some of his acid-centric saliva into the water. The boat rocks, the ocean’s waves spray our protagonists with acidic water. Anastasia orders Yo-Yo Ma to speed up the boat, but he feels unwell. He starts mimicking the persona of a frog and has a craving for insects.
Anastasia has sabotaged Yo-Yo Ma by inserting a frog into his brain, thus tampering with his tracking sensors. He’ll be too overwhelmed with his new frog instincts. Yo-Yo Ma begins to lose focus on his mission and is possibly neutralized, according to Anastasia. She tells Jolyne they shouldn’t need to worry about him and will wait patiently for F.F. to take down D an’ G, Yo-Yo Ma’s Stand user.
Multiple guards are patrolling the Ultra Security House Unit. They take note of the giant dead tree in the middle of the unit and wonder what had occurred here. They recover D an’ G’s body as F.F. sneakily approaches them from above. She’s hiding and awaiting a chance to murder D an’ G.
Enrico Pucci watches as Jolyne wonders why he’s here. The guards’ escort D an’ G to one of their medical vehicles and this alert F.F. to follow them. Meanwhile, Pucci tries to assess the situation. Due to D an’ G’s injuries, he proposes that Jolyne is still alive. He also speculates that the plant debris in the unit is a sign that his plan is going accordingly. This signals to him that it’s time to make his next move.
Pucci plans to interrogate D and G about what occurred in this unit. He throws a music disc inside Guccio’s (Survivor’s Stand user) corpse and sings Handel’s Messiah to celebrate. ..
Pucci noticed one of the medical staff was in disguise and planned to murder them both. Whitesnake came to their rescue and subdued her. ..
Fortunately, a brainwashed guard grabs onto F.F.’s arm and makes her miss her shot. She knocks out the guard. F.F. finds out that Whitesnake brainwashed him and turned him into a Stand user after a disc popped out of his head.
In a dark alley, Whitesnake steps out from behind a dumpster to face F.F. He reveals himself as Stand user Pucci and demands that F.F. choose between killing him or facing him first.
The Episode Review
I wasn’t completely satisfied with Yo-Yo Ma’s performance in D and G, but he did his job in the story and managed to immobilize our protagonist. Surprisingly, he came across as Dragon’s Dream’s opposite to some extent.
He uses his dim-witted personality and actions to pull a fast one on our heroes, especially Anastasia. There were times when he could’ve sabotaged them sooner, but then we’d lose the hilarious antics that ensue between Anastasia, Jolyne, and Yo-Yo Ma himself. ..
I’m not sure if I should deem Anastasia less of a threat or not. He manages to shift Yo-Yo Ma’s train of thought, but he’s still with them on the boat. Yo-Yo Ma could easily hop and rock it in his frog-like state. He could also drop bits of his saliva into the water and splash it on Jolyne and Anastasia. This paints Anastasia as a foolish and overconfident individual, which I don’t like.
The episode starts out with a lot of potential problems that could’ve been solved much faster. For example, when Jolyne makes a fuss about Anastasia not understanding they’re in danger, she could’ve easily communicated with him and let him know what’s going on. Additionally, Yo-Yo Ma could’ve helped Anastasia to understand their situation much more quickly.
The whole scenario led to a hilarious gag, but I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t think to utilize her thread sooner in the episode. By making words from her thread sooner than she does in the episode, Jolyne could have warned Anastasia.
I found the scene with Pucci playing the music track from Guccio’s head to be over-the-top. He’s not the type who’d take part in something foolish like that.
Since the music was being played loudly and continuously, it’s likely that the guards heard it. It would have been realistic for them to be alarmed, and the event wouldn’t have felt genuine or appropriate given the series’ reputation. ..
This episode was a lot of fun. It had some great moments, but also some weird ones. I found myself laughing and cheering at the buffoonery and scenes with more action. The animation and soundtrack have been on a winning streak for me lately, so everything looks smooth and beautiful.
There’s a cliffhanger here to end on, and I’m curious to see what F.F. will do to escape or complete her mission. While she can choose to stay and fight Pucci, we all know how that will turn out. Hopefully, F.F. leans toward a more logical solution!
