AWAKEN
Episode 21 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part II starts by recapping the conclusion events of episode 20. This involves F.F. finding out that Enrico Pucci is Whitesnake’s Stand user. He presents her the option to deal with D and G or fight him instead before the opening theme hits. ..
In the opening, we are given a brief narration highlighting F.F.’s greatest fear of losing her mindset. Since entering the prison, F.F. has attained memories of her life in prison with her friends. She fears Whitesnake will take away those fond memories. She notes her time with Jolyne as one of her fondest memories.
In the present, F.F. hesitates to shoot D an’ G and Pucci. She ultimately chooses D an’ G. Before she shoots, Pucci sends Whitesnake after her, and he blocks her shots. Whitesnake chops F.F.’s head while D an’ G only receives a slight impact from the exchange.
Whitesnake tries to extract F.F.’s disc, but she reacts by shooting herself in the head. His disc pops out, but some of her plankton enter D an’ G’s body and tear him apart from the inside. He dies by decapitation, triggering Yo-Yo Ma’s disappearance. He leaves behind the empty cocoon.
Jolyne and Anastasia watch as the baby is hidden under the cocoon. Jolyne’s speechless as the plant mutation from her body fades away. She wonders if it’s because the baby had been born.
F.F. sneaks into the ambulance’s driver area and finds a faucet. She opens the door and Whitesnake, a snake, comes out. Whitesnake grabs F.F., but she punches him and escapes. ..
He cuts F.F.’s arm and plunges his hand inside her head and attempts to tear her disc out. However, F.F. shoots plankton bullets at Whitesnake, forcing him to let her go.
F.F. falls out of the ambulance and is cut in half. Pucci asks her questions about what happened inside the prison ward. F.F. tells him that something was born from the plants but says her companion murdered it. Whitesnake calls her bluff. He says Jotaro’s memory disc can help him control the creature.
F.F. notices that her partner, F.J., was stalling for time as he sees the other half of her body running toward the faucet with her stand disc intact. F.J. reaches the faucet and turns it on. He plans to travel through the water, find Jolyne, and tell her about Whitesnake’s identity.
Unfortunately, F.F. didn’t account for Whitesnake having extra Stand discs in his possession. He inserts a disc into her other half (the one that was stalling). This Stand allows Whitesnake to boil the water inside their enemy remains. The main F.F. disintegrates due to her new boiling Stand power.
Jolyne stitches her tongue to allow herself to talk. She chases after the baby, but Anastasia tells her to stop.
Jolyne discovers that she has shrunk after comparing herself to the rock the baby threw her way. The baby throws another rock at Jolyne, and she tries running away. Anastasia grabs onto her shoulder to pull her, and they switch places. Now Anastasia is small instead of Jolyne.
He assesses the situation and comes up with a hypothesis about the Green Baby. He says that the Green Baby’s size remains the same no matter how close they get to him. However, if you get too close, you will shrink in size by getting closer to him. He moves away from the toddler, and he returns to normal size.
He concludes that the baby’s Stand allows him to shrink things proportionally to their relative distance to it. This means the baby would be unreachable because his powers will hinder their size the closer they get to him. Jolyne’s taken aback by the whole thing. Nonetheless, she’s determined to reach the Green Baby. She advances toward him and doesn’t mind the shrinking. ..
Jolyne and Anastasia rush toward the baby but are shrinking the closer they get.
The Green Baby pulls Jolyne in closer. It’s a Thread, and it’s growing smaller and smaller. Jolyne begins to feel the pull, but she’s not sure how she’ll make it to the baby before it’s too late.
Jolyne turns around and sees a Stand crawling on her string. It’s growing more and more as it gets near her. The Stand bites on Jolyne’s string and hurts her. Furthermore, she’s finding herself stuck in a midair loop and fears she’ll never hit the ground. This Stand grows in power and size and towers over Jolyne.
Jolyne summons Stone Ocean to deploy a string net to tie it up. However, the enemy Stand snaps the net due to its size. Stone Ocean tries to punch it, but the Stand evades her attack and grabs Jolyne’s leg. The Stand tries to drag Jolyne toward the Green Baby. She’s afraid she’ll be erased if she gets too close to it. Lucky for Jolyne, Anastasia intervenes, grabs the enemy Stand, and pulls Jolyne out. ..
Jolyne and Anastasia find themselves on a strange rocky landscape as they observe the Green Baby and the Stand from atop the cliff. Jolyne remains adamant about capturing that child, despite Anastasia’s suggestion to retreat.
The Stand throws a pebble at Jolyne, which turns into a large rock and nearly crushes her and Anastasia. The Stand heads their way as the two struggle to free themselves.
The Stand manages to escape and makes a run for it. The Stand pursues them. They all end up inside the bottle Anastasia threw earlier. Anastasia inserted Diver Down inside the bottle’s walls. He orders his Stand to grab the bottle’s neck and bring it closer to them.
Anastasia and Jolyne escape the Stand’s grasp, leaving it trapped inside the bottle. Unknowingly, the Green Baby kicks the bottle and makes it roll on top of our heroes. This crushes Anastasia’s leg, causing him to yell in pain. Jolyne uses Stone Ocean to punch the bottle, but Anastasia tells her to stop since he doesn’t want the enemy’s Stand to escape.
Jolyne and Anastasia were both affected by the Green Baby’s Stand. Jolyne ended up returning to her normal size, while Anastasia ended up crawling on the floor. Jolyne asked Anastasia if she knew what was going on, and Anastasia argued that the child had taken an interest in her. This confirmed that the Stand that was after them was the Green Baby’s. ..
Jolyne’s Joestar Birthmark on her shoulder attracts the Green Baby. The episode ends with the baby and Jolyne sharing a wholesome moment together as Anastasia stares at the toddler. He believes it’s not safe for the child to be around and will likely be an enemy they will need to defeat.
The Episode Review
While I’m glad F.F. made the right choice and tried her best to escape, it hurts to see such a great character go.
Whitesnake took out F.F. in a skirmish, but it was still a fun battle to watch. We’ll assume that Whitesnake won since she didn’t get any “tagline” following her death. For the time being, we’ll just assume that Whitesnake was victorious in taking her out. The whole skirmish between Whitesnake and F.F. was fun to see, and I loved that the anime spent some time highlighting F.F.’s development into a better being.
Despite not being human, she has managed to develop some good human qualities since she switched to the “heroic side.” I found it impressive that she pulled a few fast ones over Pucci, the supposed main villain of this arc, too. It’s amusing considering he is the one who bestowed her with her Stand power. ..
However, I can’t knock the guy considering he acts as the overseer of multiple users. He can also pull out multiple Stand discs from his pocket. It feels too convenient for Pucci to have a Stand in his possession that can neutralize F.F.’s Stand though. ..
He was shocked by her appearance, so it feels illogical for Pucci to have a Stand ready to subdue her powers. I argue the scene would’ve been better if Pucci and Whitesnake defeated F.F. in a more logical manner. I can let his music disc from episode 20 slide, but this was way too convenient.
The Green Baby shenanigans could have been shorter too. I didn’t mind the explanation of its Stand ability, but the back-and-forth chase sequence dragged on for far too long. It would have been better if Jolyne and Anastasia were to stop the toddler’s curious rampage a bit quicker. I had trouble following along with the episode’s content as soon as Anastasia stopped explaining the toddler’s powers to Jolyne. ..
This episode had some good CGI elements, but also some bad ones. While I appreciate the effort put into the rocks and landscapes, I found the computer-generated model to be a bit bland and unimpressive. This compared to past episodes where they manage to capture computer-generated objects more fluidly.
This episode was heartbreaking and intriguing. I’m unsure if F.F. is down for the count. It will hurt to see Jolyne’s reaction to losing her. This will only fuel her hatred toward Whitesnake further as we’re nearing the conclusion of this second batch of episodes.
