Netflix revealed that the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean anime will debut worldwide on December 1st. The announcement was made at the Road to STONE OCEAN panel during Netflix Festival Japan 2021.
Netflix had initially announced that the upcoming anime project would be streaming “monthly” but that has since been dropped. Instead, Netflix is set to release the first 12 episodes simultaneously. The anime will then air on Japanese television networks Tokyo MX, MBS, and BS11 in January.
David Production once again returns to produce the anime, as are a number of staff who’ve worked on past entries in the JoJo series. Kenichi Suzuki, who directed Parts 1-3, returns as Chief Director, as will Diamond Is Unbreakable and Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan director Toshiyuki Kato.
Other familiar faces include Yasuko Kobayashi, who will handle the series composition, character designer Masanori Shino, and sound director Yoshikazu Iwanami.
Shun'ichi Ishimoto, who was chief animation director for 2018s Golden Wind, will serve as the Stand designer while Yugo Kanno will once again return as the series composer. Kanno previously served as the composer for Parts 3-5 and has also scored the Psycho-Pass series.
Stone Ocean will adapt the sixth part of Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga series. The manga was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2003, with a total of 17 collected volumes.
The story follows Jotaro Kujo’s daughter Jolyne, who is jailed for a crime she did not commit. The series is set ten years after Golden Wind, and features an entirely new cast of characters, with the exception of Jotaro, who will once again be voiced by Daisuke Ono.
David Production adapted the series first two arcs, Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, in 2012. The anime ran for 26 episodes and was followed by 2014s Stardust Crusaders, and the 2015 series Stardust Crusaders: Battle in Egypt, totaling 48 episodes. Diamond Is Unbreakable aired in 2016 and ran for 39 episodes, with the fifth arc, Golden Wind, following two years later.
Diamond is Unbreakable also received a live-action adaptation directed by Takashi Miike in 2017, which was licensed for home video by Viz Media. An adaptation of the spin-off manga, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, aired from 2017 to 2020 and was streamed by Netflix.
Parts 1-5 are available to stream on Crunchyroll, and fans can access the series on Funimation, Netflix, and Hulu as well. Viz Media releases the manga in English and is currently working through Golden Wind.
Source: Netflix Festival Japan 2021 live stream via Crunchyroll