
Having stolen the corpse of Jonathan’s body and attaching his own head to it, DIO manifested a Stand known as “The World” that had the power to halt the passage of time around him. Under the wing of his grandfather Joseph Joestar, Jotaro learns that the awakening of both his and Joseph’s own Stand is in response to DIO, who swore a lifelong vendetta against the family since becoming the adversary of Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro’s great grandfather and the protagonist of the first season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Phantom Blood (hang in there - I know this is a lot, but it’s important). Stardust Crusaders follows the story of Jotaro Kujo, a high school delinquent who inadvertently manifests a powerful Stand known as Star Platinum. In each arc, a different member of the Joestar family is forced to confront a nefarious supernatural adversary, oftentimes either in the form of (or tangentially related to) the family’s vampiric nemesis DIO. Stands have been a major recurring concept across all subsequent arcs of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, including the new Stone Ocean.

Some people, like the members of the extended Joestar family, are born with the innate ability to summon a Stand of their own, while others must resort to more potentially life-threatening means in order to manifest a guardian spirit in the form of a Stand. It’s also the first arc to introduce the concept of “Stands” think of it as a “guardian spirit” that functions as an extension of the life-force of a particular person (called a “Stand User”) that amplifies their fighting abilities in a way that is unique to them and them alone.
ALL THE JOJOS RANKED SERIES
But if the question is which season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure should you watch to either prepare for Stone Ocean or see if you like the show at all, you can’t go wrong with Stardust Crusaders, the adaptation’s second season.īased on the third story arc of Araki’s original manga, Stardust Crusaders is commonly regarded as the most popular arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for the fact it being the only arc to be adapted into an anime with the 13-episode OVA (original video animation) series directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Hideki Futamura prior to David Production’s own adaptation of the arc in 2014.

That means you could conceivably jump into the series during any season - even technically Stone Ocean - at the risk of only missing only a handful of details here and there. Luckily you don’t need to worry with JoJo: Each season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure tells a relatively self-contained story, with only a handful of characters reappearing through one-off cameos or as supporting characters to each season’s main cast of heroes.

With the first 12 episodes of the fifth season - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean - set to premiere on Netflix tomorrow, viewers new to the series understandably might feel a bit lost when it comes to wading into the wacky, hyper-violent, and occasionally spooky misadventures of the Joestar family. Based on Hirohiko Araki’s supernatural fantasy adventure series of the same name, David Production’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime adaptation has run for several seasons since it first premiered back in 2012, each with their own unique premise and cast of characters.

To the layperson, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure may come across as impenetrably, well, bizarre. With over 153 episodes spanning across four seasons, the most intimidating part of approaching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for the first time is knowing where to start.
